Week of 4th January, 2010

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Monday, 4th January

This morning I ran into a little problem - well, actually two..

First, I needed to visit the local Renault dealership. Nicole has started emitting a squeal from under the bonnet (Merkin: hood) when it's cold, at night, with the headlights on. This, to me, is suggestive of a loose/worn alternator drive belt. So they looked, and tightened it. Plus I got a laundry list of "advisories" - damaged windscreen wiper blades, sundry minor oil leaks, worn front discs, low fluid levels and a few others. Fluids I can fix, wipers I can fix, but the rest can wait until the annual service and MOT (roadworthiness) test at the end of next month. That will be not cheap.

The other problem was the Acer. I switched him on this morning, and he started to boot, then went "Squeak" and shut down. Repeated prods at the power button did nothing, so I thought, "There was a glitch, and he's locked out." So I pulled the power and battery, replaced them, and he started up again with no problems, which is a relief. I don't want to have to bring a new machine into use.

While I was waiting for Renault to look at Nicole, I wandered into the local Staples, which is only a couple of hundred yards away. There I picked up a Lexar 8GB microSDHC card, which now resides in the Huawei E156G USB 3G modem - although why I did that, I'm not sure. little blue can't see it, I know the Huawei D100 router can't, and I'm not plugging the modem into a Wind0ws box - auto-install would put the 3 dashboard software onto the machine, which is a disaster waiting to happen. On the evidence, either the Huawei can't read microSDHC cards that big, or Ubuntu can't find the USB presentation of that SD card. It's no biggie.

I also picked up an 8GB Sandisk USB thumbdrive, to replace the one Katy has appropriated, and a Belkin 12 volt to 240 volt inverter, on clearance (half price)

<pause>

The Lexar microSDHC card, via it's adaptor, is recognised directly in little blue, so there's something odd about the microSD slot in the Huawei. Still no biggie.

Comes now Jenny. She wants to visit an Apple Shop, to try for a repair/replacement of her iPod, which only plays one channel. The nearest Apple Shops are at Westfield and Brent Cross. So we toddled off to Westfield. And the Genius Bar (how twee!) works by appointment only. Next appointments tomorrow afternoon. So that was a bust.

Later: I've ordered extra memory for little blue from Crucial. Which was a bit of a saga. I'd forgotten the account password at Crucial's website, so I had to request a resend. Which worked.

But why do I need an account, anyway? They don't remember my credit card number, which is the only reason that comes to mind.

Then off to Sparkfun for the USB Bluetooth adaptors (3 of them, for 3 different computers) Again I needed to create an account, but there's some point to it here, since there's a comment system. But I couldn't complete the order - USPS' website was overloaded, and returned no shipping costs. I refuse to spend $25 for FedEx on goods worth $32.85, so that order can't complete until USPS are less busy. That said, I don't think Royal Mail offer a similar facility, so USPS are ahead there.

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Tuesday, 5th January

The USPS link at Sparkfun is still b0rked, so that's another bust. I'll order from CPC (probably) but there's no rush.

Work today was quiet, as far as short-form material was concerned. So I filled in with some FCP work, two of which hadn't come through by quitting time.

I actually quit early, since the weather has clamped again. The Met. Office are predicting up to a foot of snow overnight, although I suspect that's outside London (the heat island effect means that London stays a degree or so warmer than, say, Middlesex) but there's also more to come tomorrow afternoon, if the animated weather graphics on TV are to be believed. And roads were clear enough - slushy, but not dangerously so. Tomorrow may be fun.

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Wednesday, 6th January

The rest of the UK is taking a white hammering - there are reports of trips from London to Portsmouth taking 18 hours or so due to heavy snow blocking roads. Current BBC report here. Here in the metropolis there are no problems - roads are clear.

And the "calculate shipping" USPS link at Sparkfun now works. So my order for the BlueTooth dongles is in - $9.32 shipping. Much more reasonable than $25, but I don't get a tracking number. Albeit, if USPS' tracking is like Royal Mail's, it's not much use for international dispatch.

When I bought Katy's new satnav, I commented that we'd find the old one. Sure enough, this evening the old satnav came to hand. Katy now has two - both of TomTom make. What she'll do with the old one I don't yet know - eBay comes to mind...

And her new netbook should arrive later this month - her own purchase. Sarah is of the opinion that her sister cannot see a sibling getting new kit without wanting the same thing herself. And this seems borne out by events.

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Thursday, 7th January

The extra memory for little blue has arrived. Thank you, Crucial and Royal Mail. So, of course, I had to fit it to test functioning. No problem - of course not, I've never had a problem with Crucial (made by Micron) memory. Next up, the BlueTooth dongles from SparkFun - probably 2 weeks for them...

Research on the non-recognition of microSD cards in the Huawei modem led me here, where the reviewer states that cards up to 4GB are recognised. Oops! I'll get a 4GB card and test further. Storage is always useful.

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Friday, 8th January

In e-mail this morning came the news that SparkFun have shipped the BlueTooth dongles. This despite reports that their website took a self-induced slashdotting due to their "Get $100 of goods free" promotion. Reports on a mailing list indicate that SparkFun's much-vaunted new server cluster just threw up it's hands and refused to play.

Such a thing is a good way to stress-test your new hardware, of course, but some respondents were threatening to not use SparkFun again. I suspect they are in a minority, though.

An outing this afternoon, to Staples for a 4GB microSD card, and then on to Maplin in Uxbridge for more AA rechargeable batteries. I got some for Christmas, enough to make up 2no 12 volt (10 cell) packs, now I need enough more to make up 2no 9.6 volt (8 cell) packs, respectively for the FT-817 and the NUE-PSK modem, although the two functions are interchangeable. And rather than pulling sets of 4 cells out of the battery holders, I'll invest in a fast charger that can charge strings of (up to) 10 cells - something like the Ansmann ACS-410P, available from here, and other places. Note, given my preferences, this is the desktop version, soap-on-a-rope style. There is a plug-in version, the ACS410.

And that 4GB microSD, by Lexar, still isn't visible when I plug the Huawei USB modem into little blue. I give up - it's not at all vital that I get this working - flash storage in the Huawei is a gong, not even a bell or whistle.

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Saturday, 9th January

It's still cold, there is still snow and ice on the pavements, but roads are clear. There is supposed to be more snow coming soon, but the last forecast snowfall didn't happen, at least not here in London.

I've ordered the battery pack charger. As described yesterday, it's an Ansmann ACS410P, from Cellpack Solutions, up in the North East of the UK.

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Sunday, 10th January

Finished the DVD archiving of the "Sarah Jane Adventures", and passed the results along to nephew Miles, for his enjoyment.

Miles' elder brother Luke goes up to University this summer, examiners willing, so Simon has decided to provide him with a computer - it's virtually impossible to do a degree course these days without some form of number-crunching/text-processing. So Simon is asking my advice. And that will likely be a full-fat Dell dual-core laptop. A netbook, all same Sarah would probably serve, but might become limiting in a year or so - maybe sooner. So Core 2 Duo it is likely to be, and Simon is leaning towards a biggish screen (16.6 inch has been mentioned) this for future-proofing. Best get the most powerful machine that can be afforded now, rather than have to replace an underpowered one later.

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