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Comment My £10 PAYG solution (Score 1) 173

by manicalic (#39537013) Attached to: Smartphones Invade the Prepaid Market
Since my work phone is rather limited (and the company soft is Windows Mobile 6.5 only), I've been using an Android smartphone for a while for operating a web portal which we also use. It was Wildfire first (rather slow, even scrolling longer contacts list is jittery) and recently I upgraded to Galaxy S2.
Since I don't make many calls (people call me ;-) ), don't text that much, don't watch porn over mobile networks (okay, I tried it once, just because the Galaxy S2 _could_ actually do it), my needs are rather basic.

The best deal I could find is with O2:
For topping up £10 on Text+Web PAYG tariff you get 100 texts and 500MB data.
This still leaves you with £10 worth for calls, of which I use £8 (or so) to get the "Calls 50" bolt-on,  50 minutes to all networks.
The remaining £2 is used for calls abroad/to 087x / MMS.

Comment Ben doing it with SystemRescueCD, both HDD and DVD (Score 1) 133

by manicalic (#37684146) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Create Custom Recovery Partitions With FOSS?
* prepare image (partimage - my choice, fsarchiver, ntfsclone, dd or whatever works for you), put on disk with the rest of the iles (sample: /image/diskc.000).
* put file named "autorun" in root dir
* if partition: the "rename NTLDR/BOOTMGR, put GRLDR in it's place" installation of GRUB4DOS is the simplest and survives various "repair boot sector" procedures
* if partition: hide the recovery partition, make GRUB4DOS only show additional menu if Esc key pressed (hiddenmenu command)

< sample autorun file >
#!/bin/sh
echo "**   Are you really sure that you want to restore the system drive C:,**"
echo "**   all installed programs and all data to freshly installed state?**"
echo ""
echo "**    This will delete ALL user data (documents, pictures etc.)**"
echo "**    so you should try to save the most important stuff on a pendrive**"
echo "**    or portable hard disk first. If Windows does not boot, try this:**"
echo "**    - press Alt+Ctrl+Del here**"
echo "**    - as your computer is rebooting, keep tapping F8 (once a second)**"
echo "**     until you see a menu with "Safe Mode" option on top. Activate it.**"
echo ""
echo "**    If you want to continue, write: YES (has to be capitals)**"
echo "**        then hit the Enter key**"
echo ""
echo "**    If you write anything else, the computer will start in a rescue**"
echo "**    mode (ie. System Rescue CD).**"
echo ""
echo ""
echo "**    THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING BEFORE OVERWRITING THE DRIVE C:**"
echo ""

read wpisal
if [ "$wpisal" = "YES" ];
    then
     echo "Here we go"
     partimage -f2 -b restore /dev/sda1 /mnt/cdrom/image/diskc.000
     sync
     shutdown -r now
    else
     echo "You typed: $wpisal, not YES; starting Linux"
     echo "press any key to continue or Alt+Ctrl+Del to reboot"
     read -n 1 -s
fi
-- < sample autorun file > --

* if DVD: make image of recovery partition (with image of system partition) rather than system partition,
* if DVD: adjust default kernel loading timeout in isolinux,
* if DVD: an option to re-write mbr makes sense in case the HDD was replaced

System Rescue CD always mounts it's media on /mnt/cdrom (unless you choose to load to RAM)

The disclaimer is going to be different in case of DVD recovery, obviously.
Power

A New Way To Produce Hydrogen 204

Posted by kdawson from the doctor-clark-i-presume dept.
Iddo Genuth writes "Scientists at Pennsylvania State University and Virginia Commonwealth University are producing hydrogen by exposing clusters of aluminum atoms to water. Rather than relying on the electronic properties of the aluminum, this new process depends on the geometric distribution of atoms within the clusters. It requires the presence of 'Lewis acids' and 'Lewis bases' in those atoms (water can act as either). Unlike most hydrogen production processes, this method can be used at room temperature and doesn't require the application of heat or electricity to work. The researchers experimented with a variety of different aluminum cluster patterns, discovering three that result in hydrogen production."
Software

Industry Open-Sources Model For Infamous CDS 161

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the further-down-the-transparency-highway dept.
GlobalEcho writes "Credit default swaps (CDS) are infamous for bringing down AIG and requiring a bailout of hundreds of billions of dollars. Because the market for these was so murky, the US government has insisted that Wall Street create a clearinghouse for these contracts. In a fresh twist, part of the deal is that the models used to price CDS have been standardized, and that the pricing code was made open source, under a somewhat BSD-like license. The source code (originally written by JPMorgan) provides the basic pricing routines, plus an Excel interface. To my knowledge this is the first significant migration of an investment bank product platform from its usual super-secret proprietary home to the rest of the world."
The Courts

Wife of Harried Pirate Bay Witness Gets Buried in Internet Love 470

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the thanks-for-lending-us-your-hubby dept.
treqie writes "During the trial of pirate bay yesterday, a professor (Roger Wallis) took the witness stand. He told the court things that the prosecutors did not want to hear. The prosecutors then tried to discredit both him and his team's work in the area, as well as his title, it was a real spectacle. In the end, the judge asked if he wanted compensation for being there — he replied that he did not want anything, but they could send flowers to his wife. Many listening online heard, and began sending her flowers, from all over the world. As of this submission, the sum is over 40,000 SEK worth of flowers. There's even a Facebook group for it."
Games

The Most Influential Games In History? 254

Posted by Soulskill from the aside-from-duke-nuken-forever dept.
Kotaku reports on a list published recently by Guinness World Records which credits Super Mario Kart as the most influential console game in history. "Tetris ranks in at number two, according to the list, and the original Grand Theft Auto is in the number three spot. Where does Super Mario Bros. turn up? Way down at number 17, beneath Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." Several other franchises have multiple entries on the list, such as Final Fantasy and Resident Evil. What console games have influenced you the most?

Comment Re:Second on the drive thing (Score 1) 835

by manicalic (#26597297) Attached to: How To Diagnose a Suddenly Slow Windows Computer?

If you have a drive in PIO mode, you get very high CPU usage by DPC process in ProcessExplorer. My unlucky desktop had something else that occasionally triggered DPC choke, but it disappeared after reboot. I don't know what that is except that it has something to do with my MB. Just be sure you are running with admin rights.

It may very well be something with your hardware, like chipset/CPU problem. Oh, just remembered - some cases of "slow computer" were caused by broken cooling/dust and CPU engaging thermal throttling. I know Everest can check that (Tools -> System Stability Test graphs).
[OT]Can anyone point me to other (small/easily portable) open/free program that can do that? [/OT]

And have in mind, that if you download updates for Windows Defender, it silently scans your hard drive every month.
Or have you lately installed some new indexig software?
The Almighty Buck

Oklahoma Senator Proposes Tax Incentive For Family-Friendly Games 53

Posted by Soulskill from the wii-devs-rejoice dept.
GamePolitics reports on legislation proposed by Senator Anthony Sykes (R-OK) which would make video games eligible for the same tax breaks that apply to TV and film. The catch is that games with a mature rating would not be eligible for those breaks. Quoting: "While games are restricted to projects appropriate for those under 17, the only eligibility requirement placed on film content is that it be neither child pornography nor obscene. By that standard, R-rated films and MA-17 television programs would easily qualify for the tax break. ... '[Sen. Sykes]... would rather not include the ratings restriction. Unfortunately, as he went around to his fellow senators asking for their support, the first question out of their mouths was whether there would be ratings restrictions.'"

Comment Being wireless has it's own problems (Score 1) 246

by manicalic (#26290869) Attached to: The Best Computer Mice In Every Category

I had a wireless keyboard (2xAA!!!) (and used a mouse on a few ocasions).

Wireless means you suddenly stop moving while you see a rocket going your way. Or get behaviour like "thisttttttttttttttttt" typing in commands in terminal. And battery indicator still shows 30% power.

Wireless means you find yourself wondering "where the hell is my keyboard" after watching a movie from your bed last night and moving the bed around to find it behind in dirt. The mouse gets around even more (as it's smaller).

My keyboard was Logitech something, batteries lasted for about a year.

Wireless is not Nirvana, you know?

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I'd rather just believe that it's done by little elves running around.

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