Archiv der Kategorie Web and bits

My new toy…

Finally took the plunge and switched to Apple…

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Did not go for the small stuff either..

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Finally…

I have a wireless network working at home… About time too. Quite a good week on the tech front. New Satellite, new wireless network and not forgetting the piece of furniture was delivered yesterday…

Shame I have to go away this weekend for work.

I guess it is almost past aperitif time. Hope not.

Tech fun

Basic PC Laws

Let’s start with Nerve Central–the computer.

Law 1: For every fix that a Windows Update patches, the update will break two more things on your PC. –Darren Gladstone, PC World

Law 2: The likelihood that Windows will automatically install time-sucking critical updates is directly proportional to your need to get your PC started. –Steve Fox, PC World

Law 3: The hard drive always fails just before you were going to back it up. –Denise Paolucci, Dreamwidth Studios 

Law 4: Your data will get corrupted just before you plug in your new backup external drive. –Darren Gladstone, PC World

Law 5: Your backup plan is only as good as your last successful restore. –Michael Fisher, ElephantDrive.com via HARO

Law 6: The number of USB ports on your Mac will always be one less than you need at any given time. –Blair Hanley Frank, Macworld

Law 7: Feeling time pressure to make a computer fix quickly will cause you to take longer. –David Marshak,

Law 8: If you close the PC case with screws before testing, it won’t work; If you test before closing, it will. –Harry Liebman via HARO

Tech Support Rules

Now that you’ve mastered the basics, you’re ready to move on to Tech Support.

Law 1: Fix a computer for a friend or family member, and you’ll be tech support for life. –Danny Allen, PC World

Law 2: Build a computer for someone, and he/she owns you! –Louis Farbstein, via PC World’s Facebook page

Law 3: Recommend a product that you’ve used with no problems, and the friend/family member who buys it will immediately descend into RMA [product return] hell. –Scott Keck, via PC World’s Facebook page

Law 4: Show any handy IT skills at work, and your company’s IT department will start referring difficult coworkers to you. –Lars Jacobsen, via PC World’s Facebook page

Law 5: If it’s broken and you call tech support, it will fix itself while you’re on hold. –Brenda Christensen, Public Relations, Servoy.com via HARO

Satelitte problems anyone?

Of course you have in the past few weeks… in Shanghai I mean.

What you have is a DreamBox ( not the Crystal Box or Homecast Decoders from Dream TV ) with an internet connection to access the pay card server this system is hooked up to. Basically you have your dish to get the signals. Your ADSL connection is supposed to hookup to a remote card sharing service that give your acces for viewing.

If the provider you uses has a server problem you get cut off. Same if your internet has a problem. Many agents are setup then they dont provide after sales customer service.

Dream TV channels went to a new encryption system to cut off access to these type of decoders. ICABLE HK satellite have advised they will soon follow suit but when?
Options… you can buy the legit Dream TV decoder with an encryption card thats costs currently from rmb2450 delivered to your home from many of the different satellite agents. A genuine ICABLE decoder with 12 months subscription will cost around rmb5000 - rmb 6000 from various agents so it pays to shop around.

If you can install a larger 2.4m dish for the DSTV Suersports or Thai satellite those systems with pay cards will cost around rmb10000 - 12000 with a 12 month subscription. Perhaps more depends on each agent. Large dishes are impossible for most.

There are a few companies offering IPTV services. Again you can ask around. Although pirate systems sound good and have a cheap price, yours is the type of system that gives everybody a headache as you end up spending money on a service that does not work more often than not.

So you can look for a better service provider to use your current DM on ( except it wont now run Dream TV ) and pay cheap prices or spend more money on receivers that have paid subscription cards at a higher cost than pirated systems.

Or you can give up on satellite TV altogether and look for bit torrent sites or free sports streaming sites that are mentioned on many of these threads.

That’s China…

China halts electric shock therapy for web-addiction

The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday issued a new regulation, banning all electric shock therapies for treating young people who are addicted to the Internet, and shut down a related clinic. The clinic, located in Linyi city of Shandong province, was taken charged by Yang Yongxin, a local psychiatrist who initiated the therapy in 2006. Yang’s treatments include electric shock of between one and five milliamperes and psychiatric medication. At first, he was highly praised by the Chinese media as he successfully treated over 3,000 patients who used to be addicted to online games, such as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. However, as more and more patients were talking about the feeling of pain and being tortured, experts started to question his therapy. “Electric shock therapies are suggested to be applied to those with severe depression and psychiatric disorders,” said Wang Xianglan, another psychiatrist from a hospital affiliated with Guangzhou-based Sun Yan-sen University. Many children said they had to experience huge pain like “millions of needles piecing through the brain.” “It’s inappropriate to treat these people like they are psychos as it’s not clear if web-addiction should be attributed to mental illness,” said Wang. A draft which intends to define people who hang out online over six hours per day as psychos was submitted to the MOH by The Military General Hospital of Beijing last December,but didn’t get approved yet.

A very good utility…

 I certainly recommend you try it. The best I have come across in a long time (thank you Jacques)

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Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online. Follow this link to install.

Home page

I really need to sit down and spend some time updating and re-organizing my home page. I have managed to link it with Facebook, so now I need to figure out a way to ensure they complement each other. Some serious thinking to be done I think…