[Dave Rice]

Licence stickers are no more. My guess it it came with W8 as that’s when it started.

On a new machine the licence key is stored in the UEFI (BIOS). On a machine that’s been upgraded the MS activation servers hold a “fingerprint” of the system. You install W10 with no key and when it activates it will realise it’s been on this machine before and sort itself out. I’ve done many and never known it fail.

So, even with a new HDD, W10 will go back on with no problems and no keys.

[Dave Rice]

As Lewis Hamilton’s engineer says, hammer time!

[Dave Rice]

When you get a piece about the internet you see a rack of switches and patch leads as they actually have flashing lights.

Anything to do with cyber security is a scrolling script.

[Dave Rice]

Getting the hard drive out looks fiddly but doable (especially the putting back together) https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Acer+Aspire+E5-571+Hard+Drive+Replacement/51951

[Dave Rice]

Ubuntu will load into ram only when using a Live CD, it doesn’t touch the HDD.

If, as seems likely, Windows 10 didn’t shut cleanly the partition will be marked as “dirty” and Ubuntu will not mount it (the same applies if it’s been hibernated or on fast startup).

A better explanation and a work around can be found here

[Dave Rice]

Start getting worried ?

Italy just get better every year. That first try was a cracker.

[Dave Rice]

It was only Scotland!

Ireland deserved the win after blatant French cheating. Head injury my arse. But a warning to all, that was a helluva drop goal.

[Dave Rice]

Why does anyone want to clean it in the first place?

[Dave Rice]

Sometimes a router reboot solves the issue.

[Dave Rice]

I remember having massive arguments with Slipstreem over this sort of stuff.

Pure snake oil.

[Dave Rice]

John, I wouldn’t worry too much. You have no property or multi million pound bank account for anyone to argue over.

I would just write a note to your daughter saying this is what you would like to happen to your possessions. Make a couple of copies, one for her and one for you to keep with your other documents. Let a third person have one too if you think that is appropriate. That way if any friends / family have any argument she can waive it under their noses. No it won’t have any legal worth, but no-one from the establishment is going to be involved with it anyway.

Probate is just legal speak for the divvying up of a persons estate according to their will, or the default formula if there isn’t one. “Grant of Probate” allows the executor to do this. As you can imagine banks just don’t let anyone access your bank account!

The state is only interested in  estates over a certain amount. Banks can have their own limits but neither will apply to you – unless you win the lottery or hitch up with a rich widow ? Worry about that when it happens ?

[Dave Rice]

My Aunt made a will properly then added an amendment later, quite a small amount was involved. This was signed by the neighbours. Probate said it wasn’t worth a fig and I was to execute the original will. It turned out the value of the estate was under their limit and they didn’t get involved so I followed her wishes.

My advice is to make a will. 25 years ago when we got our first property we used a local will writing service and sorted Power of Attorney at the same time. Now the final child has flown the nest it’s time for us to revisit it all. Mother in law kept up her membership of Unite after retiring and recently, after much nagging, took advantage of their free service.

[Dave Rice]

They aren’t going to be snappy. The Celeron is a dual core SOC and runs at 1.1Ghz bursting to 2.4Ghz.

Intel have been bumping brand names downwards. These are Apollo Lake family which are derived from the old Atoms. The quad core ones are the new Pentiums, but in true Intel fashion there is a quad core Celeron too. None of this is to be confused with desktop Celeron and Pentium CPUs, although if course you do see these SOCs being put in desktop chassis.

This is firmly the entry level of the entry level family. I don’t think there is a CPU of a lesser spec.

[Dave Rice]

Marvellous. We don’t normally bother with Valentines Day but this might change our minds.

[Dave Rice]

I should be immune from brain rot then.

[Dave Rice]

There can be quite a premium for 17″ screens.

However, £350 HP 17-ak014na

AMD A6-9220 Dual Core Processor
17.3″ HD+ Screen
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
4GB RAM
1000GB HDD
DVD RW
Integrated AMD R4 Graphics
USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth

Replacing the HDD is not for the fainthearted, it’s not designed to be taken apart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sXpKViBw44&vl=en-GB

The AMD will be a bit of a slug. I would be more inclined to the i3 version £479 HP 17-x065na White

Intel Core i3-6006U Dual Core Processor
17.3″ HD+ Screen
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
8GB DDR4 RAM
2000GB HDD
DVD Rewriter
Integrated Graphics
USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth

 

[Dave Rice]

Just before Christmas I got another load of polo shirts at a fiver a piece.

I got caught in a heavy shower today, the Industry300 Winter Jacket proved it’s totally waterproof. Trousers looked (and felt) like I’d jumped in a swimming pool by the time I got home though.

[Dave Rice]

I usually find that Three have the best deals for data.

[Dave Rice]

I HATE BT Home hubs more than any other ISP router. It does it’s own thing in it’s own way and is terribly inconsistent when it comes to viewing / configuring most things.

The best thing I’ve done is say sod the lot of them and bought a Draytek Vigor 2760. No wireless as I have my own Ubiquiti solution for that, but the 2760N I come across in SME support work are very capable in that respect too.

OK it cost me £95 but it’ll stay with me through ISP changes, except I can’t go back to Sky which I won’t be anyway.

[Dave Rice]

If I read that correctly it seems Intel will be patching the problem in the microcode but not implementing it by default due to the performance hit?

So vendors will need to decide between security and ultimate performance in their products i.e. Intel’s doing just enough to avoid a class action.

If that is the case it could be AMD bonanza time. I wonder what ARM are doing?

[Author]

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