[Dave Rice]

There was a program on last night about a small Iron Age settlement in the fens that burned down suddenly. The preservation was incredible and among the finds were glass beads from the Mediterranean – the Po valley IIRC. Wherever it was the area was dedicated to manufacturing all sorts of fancy goods and they found lumps of glass with the pincer marks still in them. The techniques were pretty much as they are now (but no glass blowing). Bronze items found in Germany were made of local copper and Cornish tin.

They found a load of bronze swords, most had clearly used in anger by the nicks – plus a palisade around the settlement with many iron spear points – which puts paid to the theory they were show off items. Often described as the sports cars of the day owned only by the rich it seems they were no such thing.

The architecture of the settlement was very similar to those found in European wet areas – Lake Constance and the Dutch rivers for example – leading to the theory they were migrants from Europe who knew how to live in these landscapes. Why did they live on the water and not the land? Control of trade as the rivers were the motorways of the day plus safety. Not that it helped this settlement, it seems the fire was not a domestic accident.

As the finds could clearly be associated with a dwelling they found that there was a lot more going on than previously thought. Each house had 3 to 4 bronze axes, scythes (still sharp) and all sorts of other tools, plus the swords (still gleaming and sharp). There was also a lot of textile manufacture happening at all stages, not just weaving, and the quality was very fine indeed.

Fascinating stuff.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve been looking at proper 4G modems, ones that really work transparently so I can still use existing Draytek routers (or any business class that can use an Ethernet WAN). There are of course other routers we’ve talked about here that can take SIMs but they lack the features I’m after.

Draytek (and many others) do support USB dongles but they provide a 192.168.8.x IP address to the router and not the ISP’s IP address; it’s an issue with the way these LTE USB device’s protocols work. These routers also look upon LTE as a failover backup rather than the main connection. It means lots of things don’t work as a dynamic IP address is the dongle’s WAN not the router’s. I also want something really reliable.

After much research I’ve found the Teltonika RUT240. It’s described as “for quick deployment in mission critical IoT applications where advanced Networking, VPN and security features are needed”.

It’s actually a pretty damn decent router in it’s own right, it even has a full fat OpenVPN and IPSec VPN servers, but only 2.4Ghz WiFi. It has an Ethernet WAN port if you want the 4G as failover, but importantly that can be switched off and it operates as a proper LTE device. It also has a proper bridge mode which makes it totally transparent to any Ethernet router is attached to (although you can still access it’s GUI if you use a different subnet for your LAN). As you would expect for a piece of kit described as for mission critical deployments the security and diagnostics are fantastic and it understands tag VLANs. It also takes external antennas for LAN and WAN.

Not cheap at £120 but I’ll pay that for the features and build quality (it could be all you need). Also being Ethernet it can be installed where the signal is best with the router sited where it’s most convenient for the cabling.

The plan is shaping up nicely.

 

 

[Dave Rice]

Older versions of Puppy are great on older stuff. It’s got it’s own quirks mind you.

[Dave Rice]

It wasn’t that long after sunset. I have a photo from 200 metres away taken 2 hours later that looks like it was 2 hours earlier, purely down to a different foreground.

The camera really struggles with high contrast at night, which was a bummer for the Amsterdam Light Festival. Being on a canal boat didn’t help, nor did the freezing wind. So we went back to our favourites and took them from the canal side. Even then this one needed 1/2 second as the “cracks” were a lot more subtle than your eye thinks they are.

I had purchased a table tripod by then but there was nowhere to put it!

 

 

[Dave Rice]

Tell me about it, this is the best I could do hand held at night.

DMC-TZ70 ƒ/3.9 1/2 sec 7.8 mm ISO1600

I’ve been looking at the panoramas we’ve taken this year with the TZ70 and most are really good. Lens flare is the only issue but not much I can do about that with a compact. The best photos though are all about composition. One of my favoutites is this one the Mrs took.

You don’t need to ask where it was taken and it sums the place up. Hard to fail, took itself, except it didn’t if you look at the ones around it where she was playing with the composition.

[Dave Rice]

Les, those are the prices for reasonable kit and Gigarefurbs are way lower for the G1 than usual, probably the condition.

Microdream have some sub £200 Lenovos but they’re all 12.5″.

 

[Dave Rice]

It does sound like a hardware issue.

Gigarefurb (where my T40 comes from) have some of the Hp EliteBook 840 G1, Intel Core I5-4300U 1.90GHz, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, 14″, Windows 10 Home for £180

Easy to work on, the whole base just slides off exposing everything you can upgrade. But all I’d do is swap the spinner for one of your SSDs.

Microdream have a ThinkPad T430 Core i5-3210M 8GB 120GB SSD DVDRW WiFi USB 3.0 Windows 10 Pro for £220

 

[Dave Rice]

I’m sure that’s good advice for people who want the ultimate photograph. I’m long past that these days and I’m looking for convenience as long as it isn’t obviously detrimental. Let’s face it most times we looking at a photo in a maximum of 1080P on a screen, often a very small one.

[Dave Rice]

It’s on its way.

[Dave Rice]

They’re nice. The beach shot you took is the lock screen wallpaper for my server.

[Dave Rice]

Not excusing Star Trek, but just how many unique plot lines are there?

Back in the early 8 bit days I was talking to a computer shop owner I was friendly with about games design and may be starting something between us. Basically it was a combination of I chase you, I drop things on you or I throw things at you. Apart from simulations I don’t think much has changed, just more nuanced.

But yes, it’s true that the same tale can be told in better ways. Or in the case of Star Wars, worse.

[Dave Rice]

Yes, watched the first two with my daughter, which I thought were OK, then promptly forgot to watch any more when she went back to Uni. I did quite like the Klingon reboot.

Star Trek has always been very PC and why do they think light jazz will be the music that survives and dominates all other forms? Why do they inevitably bring the Nazis in at some stage, either as the values of a hostile alien nation or the (again) inevitable time travelling back to earth episode?

I caught one of the original series episodes yesterday, the one with Joan Collins, and it was all there.

[Dave Rice]

Basically Bob, leave it alone – you’re not short of space.

[Dave Rice]

As a CPU it’s a fantastic bargain and very capable. But if you want to play the latest titles it’s not for you.

However, if you go into this with realistic expectations re resolution and frame rates and add something like a GTX 1060 when you can afford it, you won’t be throwing money down the drain.

Definitely get a B450 motherboard for many reasons, something like the Gigabyte B450M DS3H or ASUS TUF B450M-PLUS GAMING. They have 4 ram slots allowing more flexible memory upgrades later and can properly handle M2 drives. Don’t get anything other than an M2, preferably an NVMe ADATA XPG SX Pro for bang per buck.

Whatever happens the motherboard is the key to any system. Adding or changing anything plugged into it is relatively easy. Changing the motherboard isn’t. The A320 boards really are for office machines only.

If he decides on a 3000 series CPU get the motherboard from CCL Online as they will do the required BIOS update for free before shipping. I’ve not tried a 3000 series yet due to the price savings for 2000 and very little loss in performance, however for the Ryzen 3 3200G it’s only £2!

With a fast NNMe drive and 8GB of ram this will really fly as a PC. For games it’ll be meh to start with, but with the good motherboard as a base you will be creating a machine that can be scaled up as and when.

[Dave Rice]

Even if you go for the one with the rubber boots (looks good) I’d still wrap it with amalgam tape as well.

[Dave Rice]

+1

[Dave Rice]

Never saw them live, I was at Reading 80 when they did their comeback but was too cool to go 😉

I was going to see them just before Christmas but illness stopped that, and I was also going to see The Sweet in Frome but work stopped that.

[Dave Rice]

Wasn’t sure about the crosses and ticks to start with, but I think I’d miss them already.

[Dave Rice]

I’ll bet the pharmacist loves you 😃

[Dave Rice]

I agree with the 2nd gen iPad, it’s the one I bought. The WiFi is bloody awful though.

Whilst it’s out of the iOS update loop it’s still getting security patches which is a bonus. The battery still lasts a decent amount of time and the buttons seem like new. It’s my holiday go to device for dealing with photos and social media, email, etc. However the Android phone is the device of choice for getting around and running the business on the move.

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