[Dave Rice]

Well it’s played havoc with my VM Server today.

The host machine itself was working fine but all the Virtual Box machines refused to start as they couldn’t find the PC’s Realtek GBe Family Controller. This was regardless of the guest o/s, it was VBox that couldn’t make the bridged connection to the host adaptor.

For each VM I had to change the network adaptor to anything else then change it back again . I didn’t have to start the VM itself, nor even OK the interim change. I’m busy upgrading the W10 host and guest VMs themselves as the May update seems to cure it.

[Dave Rice]

The likes of Aldi, Lidl and the Co-op are a bit friendlier John.

[Dave Rice]

I find Amazon useful for these types of things. If you want me to order anything just shout.

[Dave Rice]

If was at IFSEC last week where Manything launched their network adaptor for IP cameras that can’t natively run their cloud storage app (currently still only Hikvision but others inc Onvif coming soon).

It’s based on a Pi 3B+ which was suddenly obvious when I was told. I suspect it’s giving the CPU a good workout as they said they’d been through quite a few case types in testing. It looks like they may sell the hardened Raspian and app for those with their own hardware.

Meanwhile my own use for a Pi is now mainly for remote access to clients LANs using an OpenVPN server. I use the inbuilt VNC viewer server and Zenmap Security Scanner. As it’s nearly always on a CCTV site there will be a PoE switch there so I power it over a PoE splitter. Saves a lot of site visits! Everything else I used them for is now hosted in a Digital Ocean Ubuntu cloud server or a Linux VM on my own lan.

However USB 3 may be a game changer. When I get the summer holidays out of the way I’ll be getting one. I’ve got an old 60GB SSD in a USB 3 caddy. I see you can get one for M2 drives now, that will cut the size down.

[Dave Rice]

I just cannot understand why anyone is apologising for his behaviour. I cannot imagine any of you acting in the same way.

When you watch the full footage there is no excuse for it. He was not surprised, it was not a spur of the moment action, there was no threat of violence to himself or others. Plenty of other people were passed before he took action.

[Dave Rice]

It is not what he did it is the way he did it that causes the problem. Using a choke hold is a totally ineffective way of dealing with a supposedly armed female. Anyone who saw Arya deal with the Night King knows who true that is.

There was absolutely no need to use that level of force, none. It’s the look on his face too.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve argued that the CPU has been “good enough” for a long time, it’s the hard drive that’s been the bottleneck. We all know by now how much difference an SSD makes.

I’ve not had the chance to try an NVMe drive with something like a 200GE (still not sure how compatible they are) or more likely the 2200G. It’s been the latest gen i5, i7 and Ryzen 7 paired with NVMe and they really motor on. I suspect the magic sauce is the NVMe though.

[Dave Rice]

?

[Dave Rice]

It’s odd, it doesn’t affect every PC and doesn’t seem hardware specific.

Had a call last night, one of them did it again.

[Dave Rice]

They showed a wider angle view this morning, of them entering and her making her way, slowly, around the table.

No rush, no threats, no-one else seemed worried. He had plenty of time to see her coming, it was not a “spur of the moment” action had she suddenly burst through a door and rushed the top table.

She passed a lot of people and no-one else felt compelled to do what he did and it wasn’t because they were cowering in fear. Simply pushing his chair back or standing up would have done the job.

[Dave Rice]

Put Windows 10 back on it and get a cheap Office licence and try and sell it as a capable SOHO machine, which it is.

Tadka’s idea of splitting the components won’t work due to the proprietary nature of those components. Like Dell, Lenovo have knackered the interconnects on the mobo to make sure you have to jump through hoops to make it work with standard PSUs etc. That even goes down to re-using the case – it’s difficult getting a PSU in there!

[Dave Rice]

The “she could have been armed” is such a get out clause. Compare her actions to people who have been armed and going for victims, totally different and pretty obvious. Did the Borough Market knife-men behave as she did? She wasn’t even shouting Allahu Akbar, she was saying “This is a peaceful protest” never mind the lack of knife.

Anthrax attack? It’s never happened outside of TV dramas. The easily obtainable “weapon” that terrifies right wing politicians is a McMilkshake. Just buy one, get your mates to buy one too and then saunter up and down by a likely campaigner bus sucking proactively on the straw. If you want to be a real rebel, wink at the trapped politician now and then to remind him or her just how much their dry cleaning bill could be.

When was the last kamikazi attack by a ginger haired white woman handing out leaflets? Death by pamphlet? Had it really been a 6 foot 6 knife wielding manic he’d have been out of there or under the table. Typical macho approach, sees an easy target and goes for the big strong man meme. He had plenty of time, nano seconds, to realise what he actually had by the neck and modified his tactics, he didn’t.

He went for the hero of the hour because he thought it would play well to the audience. It didn’t.

[Dave Rice]

I use a spray – wipes are useless – that I’ve had for years so can’t find the original specs, but it was very much like this.

However I’ve found the old magic window cleaner formula of water + vinegar  works just fine on laptop / monitor screens and PC cases. Spray it on the cloth, not the surface to be cleaned as you’ll probably over do it and get run off.

[Dave Rice]

…ever run a naked mother board to test its working did you wonder how it was able to work?

That’s true, done that many times. usually on top of a phone book or similar.

If screwing a mobo direct to something I’d say you need some sort of “stand off” though  to avoid any potential damage to the underside. Expansion cards back plates overhang the bottom of the motherboard too.

That’s why I thought using a motherboard tray would get around all these issues – helping give correct spacing between the mobo, components and their surroundings.

[Dave Rice]

Just had another one. External TPL USB device (so different hardware again), not disabled but unable to connect to any networks.

Had to disable then re-enable it in Device Manager. No sign of Windows asking for a reboot which had been ignored or similar.

[Dave Rice]

There were 13 of them in the end

The fighting end

[Dave Rice]

Whats the symptoms Bob? I’m sure you’ve told us before but I’ve forgotten ?

[Dave Rice]

The same issues that plague the Somerset Levels. It took a catastrophic flood to stop the bad practices, but they seem to be creeping back as it costs money.

They had to bring huge pumps in from the Netherlands, amazing seeing how much water they shifted.

[Dave Rice]

It’s hard to blame W10 for a monitor fault affecting multiple PCs going through another piece of hardware.

I’ve been buying AOC e2270Swn 21.5″ Widescreen TN LED Black Monitor (1920×1080/5ms/VGA) for £55 from Amazon for office PCs. Absolutely marvellous.

[Dave Rice]

Inspired by the success of the PC the customer has asked me to look at a Satellite Pro i3-2120m that’s been in a cupboard for years.

The CPU comparison site reckons that’s only 20% behind the 200GE, we’ll see. It’s getting an SSD whatever. Probably got Win 7 on it, so W10 pro will be going on and if there’s any DDR3 sodimms in the spares box the 4GB ram will get a boost too.

[Author]

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