tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845230752780889952024-03-13T15:37:41.244+00:00DrivelArchive<strong>Drivel</strong> : worthless message, bunkum, codswallop - <strong>Archive</strong> : depository of historical documentsDrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-84841103621872122082021-03-17T15:04:00.006+00:002021-03-17T15:10:55.029+00:00Arduino RadioHead (not the group) RH_NRF24 Transceiver<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Nothing posted in 2020 - well it was that sort of year wasn't it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Boredom having <b><i>really </i></b>set in, 2021 sees me in my Arduino playground. In fact I've been unfaithful and have been using an ESP32 recently, which is quite fun because it has WiFi capabilities - maybe a post about that to follow.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And all that WiFi stuff made me think about my previous delve into the world of radio and so on, using the ubiquitous NRF24L01 Transceiver Module. I bought some of these ages ago, spent days trying to get them to work, eventually succeeded, and, exhausted, then threw them in a box and moved on to something easier.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So, I find them lying in said box... let's have another go. So... I did the classic old-person thing of making all the same mistakes on this attempt as I did on the previous one, what an idiot. Eventually it dawned on me what was going wrong... like last time i had tried to use the TMRh20 library, nRF24L01.h and RF24.h, as nearly everyone seems to do. Trouble is... for me at least, it doesn't work. I mean I suppose it must work for most folk, but not me. No... it was only when I tried the RadioHead offering, RH_NRF24.h, that things started to fall into place. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I am just not technically proficient enough to know why this is, but as soon as I changed to the RadioHead version, I got results. Here are pictures of my two Arduino/NRF24L01 combinations:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_OCdbfM4mKRqyyjCwlbdxa5OQ_blMPNJ1Z2w6KRRZ3EXNUgmsghIraH4Ib2ho3GN9bXmfvv_Qc13Rz8EtxZfYlmlyrfK5SaJgoFcQlMUhMATA6uQU40ZXGvtQSl-LRe-A4JDI5OL3E_Z/s640/Image1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="640" width=600 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_OCdbfM4mKRqyyjCwlbdxa5OQ_blMPNJ1Z2w6KRRZ3EXNUgmsghIraH4Ib2ho3GN9bXmfvv_Qc13Rz8EtxZfYlmlyrfK5SaJgoFcQlMUhMATA6uQU40ZXGvtQSl-LRe-A4JDI5OL3E_Z/s16000/Image1.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuTCzkTU7Kz3xm5w2OwhUbBUf-_QpxX-TGIfyp9WTBmU_UhFa_XWTjgHVmkbQgWWIP5BLB5ybgzOtLbxECQaSTl7JxAQO70G1BNK1LtmxFdgbKrGrLB6risIZ3NJtyu-adJUQ-gwOqyum/s640/Image2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="640" width=600 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuTCzkTU7Kz3xm5w2OwhUbBUf-_QpxX-TGIfyp9WTBmU_UhFa_XWTjgHVmkbQgWWIP5BLB5ybgzOtLbxECQaSTl7JxAQO70G1BNK1LtmxFdgbKrGrLB6risIZ3NJtyu-adJUQ-gwOqyum/w640-h316/Image2.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;">So, at the top we have a Nano, sitting in its IO Shield, which I heartily recommend for this type of job - because you simply plug the RF24 into it, no wires, wonderful. Attached is a little OLED display.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And the other picture shows an Arduino Mega with a handy but unnecessary shield on top, attached to an RF24 sitting in a little holder designed for it, again very recommended, because it's easier to wire up and can be powered by 5volts, avoiding the 3.3 volt limit on the RF24 module.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Now, here's the thing... this all seems very complicated and fraught. The wires you need to connect vary depending on your Arduino, and it all feels a bit of a black art. In the end I connected the right wires, but it took a bit of time. The Mega for example, uses pins 50, 51 and 52, the Nano completely different, whoever came up with all this wasn't making it easy!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Similarly, the code to get all this working really taxed my limited knowledge of C++ or whatever it is, my head was frequently in my hands, but in the end it all worked, see below.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">What does it do? Well... the same code runs on both Arduinos. Each one is sending a random number every few seconds and receiving a random number from the other one too. The OLED display on one of them is showing that it has received its 1744th random number from its mate, 6591. What use is this? None that I can think of, but it's nice to know it can be done.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The code is below, if you need any advice, well I <i><b>might</b></i> be able to help you. But probably not. And a proper programmer will probably wince at the code. What is it with C++ and strings... type conversion in general, it's bonkers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid gray; font-family: courier; padding: 10px;">
<pre>//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Written by Paul Crossley 16/03/2021
//
// www.magmamon.co.uk
//
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#include <SPI.h>
#include <RH_NRF24.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>
#define OLED_RESET -1
#define SCREEN_WIDTH 128 // OLED display width, in pixels
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 64 // OLED display height, in pixels
#define SCREEN_ADDRESS 0x3C
RH_NRF24 nrf24(9,10);
Adafruit_SSD1306 display(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, &Wire, OLED_RESET);
int count = 0;
int recvd = 0;
int int_value;
unsigned char char_list[4];
boolean oled = true;
int repeat = 20;
long rnd = 0;
union myRandU {long unsignedlongValue; uint8_t bytes[4];} myRand;
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
void setup() {
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("RF24...");
if (!nrf24.init()) {
Serial.println("init failed");
} else {
Serial.println("init good");
}
if (!nrf24.setChannel(1)) {
Serial.println("setChannel failed");
} else {
Serial.println("setChannel good");
}
if (!nrf24.setRF(RH_NRF24::DataRate2Mbps, RH_NRF24::TransmitPower0dBm)) {
Serial.println("setRF failed");
} else {
Serial.println("setRF good");
}
if (oled) {
Serial.println("OLED...");
if (!display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, SCREEN_ADDRESS)) {
Serial.println(F("SSD1306 allocation failed")); for(;;);
}
display.clearDisplay();
display.setTextSize(2);
display.setTextColor(WHITE);
display.setCursor(0,0);
display.println("Listening!");
display.display();
}
Serial.println("Ready!");
}
// --------------------------------------------------------------------
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
count++;
if (count==repeat) {
rnd = random(0,9999);
myRand.unsignedlongValue = rnd;
nrf24.send(myRand.bytes, 4);
nrf24.waitPacketSent();
Serial.print("Sent : ");
Serial.println(rnd);
count=0;
} else {
Serial.print(".");
uint8_t buf[RH_NRF24_MAX_MESSAGE_LEN];
uint8_t len = sizeof(buf);
while (nrf24.waitAvailableTimeout(200) && nrf24.recv(buf, &len)) {
Serial.print("Received : ");
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { char_list[i] = buf[i]; }
memcpy(&int_value, char_list, 4);
Serial.println(int_value);
if (oled) {
recvd++;
display.clearDisplay();
display.setCursor(0,0);
display.println("Listening!");
display.setCursor(0,32);
display.print(recvd);
display.print(": ");
// display.print((char*)buf);
display.print(int_value);
display.display();
}
}
}
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
delay(100);
}
</pre>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0Anglesey, United Kingdom53.265325 -4.429140299999999424.955091163821152 -39.5853903 81.575558836178843 30.7271097tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-52278545382981328082019-12-20T16:24:00.000+00:002019-12-20T20:36:07.260+00:00Arduino based Temperature/Humidity/Clock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCst0PQ_Mfa019pbAnzXAhvG6EWblS-GzKmeZrLbUqNFwUzGLj9RXKsO_1WBaR1cjNxKcgjbUQ61q5KAabl-XuJ7q09oAILGKO0SVhgUohwVdaftcMAyFK8owkIOo9xPX2I-WACiVbvOTy/s1600/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="993" data-original-width="1600" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCst0PQ_Mfa019pbAnzXAhvG6EWblS-GzKmeZrLbUqNFwUzGLj9RXKsO_1WBaR1cjNxKcgjbUQ61q5KAabl-XuJ7q09oAILGKO0SVhgUohwVdaftcMAyFK8owkIOo9xPX2I-WACiVbvOTy/s640/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_bb.jpg" width="600" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Above is a Fritzing generated schematic of a project I've recently been working on for the Arduino Nano. The project uses a Real Time Clock component, a temperature/humidity sensor and a liquid crystal display. It is powered by a portable power bank.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8FRNMUQoe-kjLhqaqQi2UgmIcvACQyiYPBuF9SSw0LnkaMAPCgVqY2FzNu1zjvkW4UNk9TXARhfEqzoW-OB-S3tjCBD8dS23wC7hP5Ybg4Lx05jS5PDNP8xfrl5MLYAwZd0Ztv9OIalU/s1600/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="800" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8FRNMUQoe-kjLhqaqQi2UgmIcvACQyiYPBuF9SSw0LnkaMAPCgVqY2FzNu1zjvkW4UNk9TXARhfEqzoW-OB-S3tjCBD8dS23wC7hP5Ybg4Lx05jS5PDNP8xfrl5MLYAwZd0Ztv9OIalU/s640/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_cc.jpg" width="600" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEw8-CmGs3NxQxTEsDYhtYxO_mv7in7RnI-5CgDRIqjArl_9k0ADpZqFpMsL5SaD0Xo2-OKYBR5nD_FJpDT6SfMxgoe_7TMya3OlY_FUmd_kVYafAuaN_94G5_rtv3_j9BivsW-2noedP0/s1600/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_dd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="800" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEw8-CmGs3NxQxTEsDYhtYxO_mv7in7RnI-5CgDRIqjArl_9k0ADpZqFpMsL5SaD0Xo2-OKYBR5nD_FJpDT6SfMxgoe_7TMya3OlY_FUmd_kVYafAuaN_94G5_rtv3_j9BivsW-2noedP0/s400/lcdnewdisplaytemperaturertc_dd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The code for the project is shown below.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid gray; font-family: courier; padding: 10px;">
<pre>//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Written by Paul Crossley 20/12/2019
//
// www.magmamon.co.uk
//
// Temperature/Humidity sensor on D8
// RTC and Display on A4 and A5
// my own personal temperature adjustment was -2C
// my display I2C address was 0x3F, use i2c-scanner
//
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#include <SimpleDHT.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>
#include <TimerOne.h>
#include <RTClib.h>
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
volatile unsigned int clockMilliSeconds = 0;
volatile byte clockSeconds = 0;
volatile byte clockMinutes = 0;
volatile byte clockHours = 12;
volatile byte clockEnabled = 1;
byte alarmMinutes = 30;
byte alarmHours = 6;
volatile byte alarmEnabled = false;
byte alarmTogglePressed = false;
enum displayModeValues
{
MODE_CLOCK_TIME,
MODE_CLOCK_TIME_SET_HOUR,
MODE_CLOCK_TIME_SET_MINUTE,
MODE_ALARM_TIME,
MODE_ALARM_TIME_SET_HOUR,
MODE_ALARM_TIME_SET_MINUTE
};
byte displayMode = MODE_CLOCK_TIME;
RTC_DS1307 RTC;
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void clockISR ()
{
if (clockEnabled)
{
clockMilliSeconds++;
if (clockMilliSeconds >= 1000)
{
clockMilliSeconds = 0;
clockSeconds++;
if (clockSeconds >= 60)
{
clockSeconds = 0;
clockMinutes++;
if (clockMinutes >= 60)
{
clockMinutes = 0;
clockHours++;
if (clockHours >= 24)
{
clockHours = 0;
}
}
}
}
}
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(0x3F, 2, 1, 0, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3, POSITIVE);
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN 13
int pinDHT11 = 8;
SimpleDHT11 dht11(pinDHT11);
int tempAdjust = -2;
byte degree[8] = {
B01100,
B10010,
B10010,
B01100,
B00000,
B00000,
B00000,
};
void setup() {
Serial.begin (9600);
lcd.begin(16, 2);
lcd.clear();
lcd.createChar(0, degree);
lcd.setBacklight(BACKLIGHT_ON);
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
RTC.begin();
// RTC.adjust(DateTime(__DATE__, __TIME__)); to set time
}
void loop() {
byte temperature = 0;
byte humidity = 0;
int err = SimpleDHTErrSuccess;
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
if ((err = dht11.read(pinDHT11, &temperature, &humidity, NULL)) != SimpleDHTErrSuccess)
{
Serial.print("No reading , err="); Serial.println(err); delay(1000);
return;
}
Serial.print("Temp: ");
Serial.print((int)temperature); Serial.print("C, ");
Serial.print("Humid: ");
Serial.print((int)humidity); Serial.println("%");
lcd.home();
lcd.print ("T: ");
if ((temperature + tempAdjust) < 10) { lcd.print (" "); }
lcd.print ((int)temperature + tempAdjust);
lcd.write (byte(0));
lcd.print ("C ");
lcd.print ("H: ");
if ((humidity) < 10) { lcd.print (" "); }
lcd.print ((int)humidity);
lcd.print ("%");
delay (1000);
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
DateTime now = RTC.now();
Serial.print(now.year(), DEC);
Serial.print('/');
Serial.print(now.month(), DEC);
Serial.print('/');
Serial.print(now.day(), DEC);
Serial.print(' ');
Serial.print(now.hour(), DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(now.minute(), DEC);
Serial.print(':');
Serial.print(now.second(), DEC);
Serial.println();
lcd.setCursor ( 0, 1 );
if (now.day() < 10) { lcd.print ("0"); }
lcd.print ((int)(now.day()));
lcd.print ("/");
if (now.month() < 10) { lcd.print ("0"); }
lcd.print ((int)(now.month()));
lcd.print ("/");
lcd.print ((int)(now.year()));
lcd.print (" ");
if (now.hour() < 10) { lcd.print ("0"); }
lcd.print ((int)(now.hour()));
lcd.print (":");
if (now.minute() < 10) { lcd.print ("0"); }
lcd.print ((int)(now.minute()));
delay (1000);
}
</pre>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-89622937912953000552018-10-10T10:30:00.002+01:002018-10-10T10:34:49.052+01:00Epiphone Pro-1 Plus Acoustic<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3aPEbyqyxqimSIynwOKg6lUdKj0y4Cey_MUD5-fVP5q9sdrETJmK0mSQ9TXJahmIcyfLusYfvq5N_M-s-lIcaR-w1Bjx6ssJp2TxdM9JSmUV33jsIM_zvbYn_hjxEkcmZTOjP6jy5JTo/s1600/Image2.jpg" /></div>My newest guitar (I must stop buying them now, I have too many - said nobody ever) is an Epiphone Pro-1 Plus, in 'Blueburst', or 'Trans Blue' - I'm not quite sure. It's blue anyway. You can get them in dark red, black, and two kinds of wood finish. I started off liking the red, then went to natural and ended up with blue, partly because it matched my Ibanez, see elsewhere. I expect they all sounds the same!<br />
<br />
There are three levels, the Pro which is around £100 has no white binding and not such a good spruce top. Then the Pro as here £150, then the Pro Ultra which has electrics and a cutaway body, £200.<br />
<br />
They all have a mahogany body, an okoume neck and a rosewood fingerboard. I guess I'll never know if the extra 50 quid was worth it for the better spruce top, but it looks a nice thing, and the binding sets off the blue nicely.<br />
<br />
The tuners are said to be high quality and have a good turn ratio (or whatever that is called) and work well, though possibly not as good as all that, just okay.<br />
<br />
It's supposed to be easy to play, with a good aspect neck and jumbo frets, and thin strings, though in truth I haven't really noticed it being that easy - maybe that's just me!<br />
<br />
I got it for a good price, and also by chance really there was an offer on that month to get a free accessory pack with the guitar, which duly arrived a month later from Epiphone. It comprised a strap, strings, tuner, polishes, plectrums and so on, worth £40 - so I am happy with what I paid.<br />
<br />
<br />
It is loud. I'm comparing it to my Ovation, and it is a lot louder than that. And the tone is good, not as harsh as the Ovation, sounds great.<br />
<br />
The blue finish was blemish free, but I have noticed it picks up dust really easily, and scratches too, despite my care with it. Ironically my major complaint about the guitar is to do with scratches... the scratch plate. This was billed as being impervious to scratching, which it appears to be, the only trouble is to achieve that they have made it of a plastic without a shiny finish, more matt - and that (for me) generates a scratchy noise when playing from the nail of my little finger. I am having to adopt a new technique to avoid this, which I'd rather not. If I could return to a 'shiny scratch-plate that gets scratched' some how I would...<br />
<br />
I'm also not convinced by the light gauge strings as supplied, they feel wrong somehow. I use them on my electrics, but here there's something a bit loose about them. I'll try heavier gauges next time.<br />
<br />
Truth be told - I bought this because I was bit bored with my Ovation... but though this Epiphone is nice, it isn't as good as the Ovation. The Ovation is class. So no disrespect to the Epi. I just haven't bonded with it yet I guess.<br />
<br />
Ignoring that, I'd give it thumbs up - I'm happy with it and build quality and sound is great.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-45087825445462884422018-01-31T14:31:00.000+00:002018-01-31T14:31:35.699+00:00Ibanez GIO GRG121DX<div style="clear: none; float: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4mlDJf5oxgzqjCsEon_egngK63JI6i47IeF-u-aDhYnG0qzurqV6IqwPemG72oqJyf02g5HrI-GsMqCBxOLtSVI4CmCcVUWv5yfxttaV3EriKEqipqMsG60sHRRUZ6fiRAWQX8pmGgsAG/s1600/IMG_3610-002.JPG" />
</div>
<div style="clear: none; float: right;">
<div style="margin-left: 20px; width: 280px;">
Here is my new Ibanez GIO GRG121DX, in Starlight Blue Sunburst.<br />
<br />
It's a lovely thing. I got it reasonably cheaply on eBay, advertised as being brand new, an unwanted gift - and it turned out that was true, immaculate condition and it came with a great gig bag too.<br />
<br />
As far as I know it has a mahogany body and a maple neck, 24 fret rosewood fingerboard and IBZ-6 Humbucking pickups.<br />
<br />
I'm not well versed with technicalities to be honest, all I know is that the action is great, and it sounds really good through my Fender Mustang 1 v2 amp.<br />
<br />
You can't get simpler controls... well actually I guess you can, but one volume, one tone and a selector work nicely, and the tuners are precise, if a little too stiff.<br />
<br />
Okay, I really wanted a red one, but the blue has grown on me, it's a lovely finish.<br />
<br />
It's nicely weighted too, unlike for example my Epiphone SG which is very neck heavy. <br />
<br />
All I need to do now is learn how to play it!</div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-814989194337241072018-01-31T12:37:00.000+00:002018-01-31T12:38:34.559+00:00Two Years On - KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi<style>
#sectionkia2 {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionkia2 #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionkia2 #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionkia2 #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:260px;}
#sectionkia2 #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionkia2 #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:350px;
width:250px;}
#sectionkia2 .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
span.first {
float:left;
font-size:150%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style>
<br />
<div id="sectionkia2">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">T</span>wo years on, how is my KIA pro ceed (pro_cee'd, pro ceed, Pro Ceed, whatever!) doing?<br />
(This is a follow up to an earlier article after one year, click <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/one-year-on-kia-proceed-se-16-crdi.html">HERE</a>)
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKo2Pat55WMEjepeRDi8oYfqFuCwmaENOsFIjuycHmOLT48aj-g-PlQ3PP73so-QYYGUVhCz9Jxzk7YtkP-gZ4za0PpRgMYXhvLBKVfbrcf_JL8-f7zd2EL7pXweiqd9XnJLRS_1KtlTi/s1600/kia-2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgKo2Pat55WMEjepeRDi8oYfqFuCwmaENOsFIjuycHmOLT48aj-g-PlQ3PP73so-QYYGUVhCz9Jxzk7YtkP-gZ4za0PpRgMYXhvLBKVfbrcf_JL8-f7zd2EL7pXweiqd9XnJLRS_1KtlTi/s1600/kia-2018.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">A</span> second year has passed, and the KIA is still going strong. Cut to the chase, I still like it, it's not been any bother (almost) and it still looks as good as new, inside and out.<br />
<br />
And we still haven't come with a name for it other then the KIA. It has now covered a modest 12,500 odd miles, pretty low I guess. It's done school runs (but not any more, now it's Uni runs) and toured around Dumfries and Galloway on holiday. Over all that distance it has returned 54mpg. </div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<br />
<span class="first">L</span>ooking back over my previous article, little has changed in truth. In a nutshell, the car itself is perfectly fine, the software in the car is a bit dubious. Looking back you will see I criticised the sat-nav, the air-con, the stop-start and key-less entry system. None of them work all that well, but you get used to it - I mean they all work, it's just not that easy to <b><i>get</i></b> them to work somehow.<br />
<br />
If I was to be even more picky, during a recent visit to Pentraeth Automotive I was given a Picanto as a courtesy car. Not in the same league as the cee'd but I have to say the dash instruments were way better. The cee'd has a red display which isn't the clearest, the Picanto was white on black, much easier to read.<br />
<br />
Ah, yes, why was I at the garage? Well, I pointed out when the car was being serviced a few weeks ago that the alloy wheels appeared to be suffering from corrosion, a bit early on a two year old car I thought. To everyone involved's credit, I was duly offered a complete new set! I was amazed. Thank you KIA.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately (in a way) while swapping the wheels the mechanics spotted a bulge on one of my tyres, which required replacing, damn these pot-holes in all our roads, don't get me started.<br />
<br />
Returning to the car then, the only other gripe I have is that the Traffic Announcement system on the radio has been a bit flaky. I asked them to sort it at the service and to be honest I've not been off Anglesey since, so I'm not sure if they've fixed it or not. A nuisance but not fatal.<br />
<br />
So, looking at all the twaddle above I've done nothing but moan. So I should put that right - I actually DO like the car rather a lot and its solid build, 100% reliability and its frugality are commendable, long may it continue. And just one more thing to praise, it managed to accommodate three adults and a serious amount of clothing, computer equipment, guitars and general junk while transporting my lad off to Uni, in other words, it's actually bigger than it looks inside!<br />
<br /></div>
<div id="footer">
Visit <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a> to (maybe) discover the history of your beloved cars
</div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-81427565823069137142017-07-06T15:36:00.002+01:002017-07-06T15:36:37.643+01:00Epiphone SG and Les Paul Special<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1uhso8zCh5y2IBMpPnqh34LlBidIWDRuwunlP6DJ8Kk_DMeBJrq2FtKc-ZGfH3TAQTtmWTt9_5xa-SkJ7G-YRVwgrgqyOr6ACUlzwUkuGgTiYDjcTwUTMueXMOBhXYvSAH4PvmFsJ54/s1600/sg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1uhso8zCh5y2IBMpPnqh34LlBidIWDRuwunlP6DJ8Kk_DMeBJrq2FtKc-ZGfH3TAQTtmWTt9_5xa-SkJ7G-YRVwgrgqyOr6ACUlzwUkuGgTiYDjcTwUTMueXMOBhXYvSAH4PvmFsJ54/s1600/sg.jpg" /></a></div>
<h2>
Epiphone SG Worn G-400</h2>
I started learning to play the guitar about 44 years ago, not that you'd know. Because I'm still not very good at it.<br />
<br />
My first guitar was an awful old acoustic thing bought from a school friend. My second was a Shaftesbury copy electric, also from a friend, and also a bit worn out. But to be fair it kept me going for many years as I half-heartedly plugged away at learning.<br />
<br />
Then, on a whim, I bought a cheap Fender Stratocaster copy for just over £100. It was okay.<br />
<br />
But I got the urge for a 'proper' guitar... but couldn't afford a real Gibson or Fender, so I bought this cherry red work of art.<br />
<br />
It is great, I like it so much, it's simple, it sounds great, it's well made - I don't really know how a 'real' SG could be any better...<br />
<br />
I paid under £200 for it, an absolute bargain, more details about the guitar are <a href="http://www.epiphone.com/Products/SG/Worn-G-400.aspx" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br />
<br />
Oddly, though, I started looking around recently for another guitar. Basically I'd like a room full of 'em. I spent a lot of time looking at Fender Squier Telecasters.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXaT-u4QZd1XHu3azsMFQ6pzA6bKQBkys4FN-Me8Ks0ie2Cgm6iwY6B3__f3UwvjzW7QHLIONaDlrYfYf9KEKydrxlVNwtLLYZ3IhcLDX5xo0JAnMX1yIwL1e0nGXkLq66OUtHre1m9g/s1600/lp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXaT-u4QZd1XHu3azsMFQ6pzA6bKQBkys4FN-Me8Ks0ie2Cgm6iwY6B3__f3UwvjzW7QHLIONaDlrYfYf9KEKydrxlVNwtLLYZ3IhcLDX5xo0JAnMX1yIwL1e0nGXkLq66OUtHre1m9g/s1600/lp.jpg" /></a></div>
<h3>
Epiphone Slash Les Paul Special-II</h3>
<br />
So - what happened! I was seduced by this beauty. I'm not quite sure how.<br />
<br />
Full title is Slash "AFD" Les Paul Special-II Guitar Outfit - AFD standing for "Appetite for Destruction" and outfit, because it comes with some bits and pieces - a really nice gig bag, some Slash plectrums and a Slash strap.<br />
<br />
The front of the guitar is 'Appetite Amber', the rear and neck are a lovely cherry red. It's simply gorgeous.<br />
<br />
It has simple controls, much like a Tele, and though the neck is bolt-on, unlike the SG, it's very similar in feel, action and quality.<br />
<br />
It cost £150 on special offer, delivered.<br />
<br />
An extra feature is that the lower pickup contains a tuner which is a joy to use and seems quite accurate, press a button and flashing LEDs show you how far off the string is from tune. Brilliant.<br />
<br />
More details are <a href="http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Les-Paul/Slash-AFD-Les-Paul-Special-II-Guitar-Outfit.aspx" target="_blank">HERE</a><br />
<br />
There's just one problem really - they are very, very similar when playing them... I don't know what I was expecting really... maybe I should have gone for the Tele after all.<br />
<br />Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-7869257664136418592017-01-09T09:41:00.000+00:002017-01-09T11:30:13.301+00:00One Year On - KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi<style>
#sectionkia {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionkia #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionkia #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionkia #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:260px;}
#sectionkia #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionkia #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:350px !important;
width:250px !important;}
#sectionkia .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style>
<br />
<div id="sectionkia">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">O</span>ne year on, how is my KIA pro ceed (pro_cee'd, pro ceed, Pro Ceed, whatever!) doing?
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVtuMupe-dHH_p3XdfVsNcBHW6xKZ7fH5iKUVH21j_z4s3IFJtFH6-tBgXQJJBrcaT0RrpV7WnoBN7Bvt5_qAFCmUjVNCrI3Sd4MxyV369F-vtjfVa-6eQs5UshDRRSRPl3WjoX7fGRp-/s320/Image1.jpg" width="320" />
</div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">I</span>'ve still not got used to that name, we never call it by its name, it's always just "the KIA". If we had two, I dunno what we'd do.
<br />
<br />
I'm sat here in my local KIA dealer, waiting for the car to finish its first year service. It'd freezing and the rain is drumming on the windows. I'm hoping their promise of a 90 minute wait turns out to be true!<br /><br />
(It was, under an hour and 15 mins actually, well done <b>Pentraeth Automotive</b>!) </div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">S</span>o, a verdict on the first year. I'd better 'fess up' right away, we've not exactly thrashed the car. It's only done about 6,000 miles. School runs in the main, and a couple of trips further afield, but nothing major. One day it will tour the Highlands, but not quite yet. Maybe 2017.<br />
<br />
One statistic I can reveal, the fuel consumption, which has been a predictably disappointing but not at all bad 54mpg. Comfortingly, this is what the car itself thinks it's doing too... I can verify this because sadly I have a fetish for recording such things.<br />
<br />
Reliability has been 100%, not even a glimmer of a fault. A very, very slightly leaky rear tyre, that's it. It is dripping with electrical gadgetry, all of it works perfectly, and the oily bits have performed without the slightest problem. Well... I say things work perfectly, they do but maybe there are some design 'issues'.<br />
<br />
For example, the keyless entry works, but you have to time your moves to perfection to achieve a smooth unlocking. You approach the car, the wing mirrors unfold, you press the door button JUST at the correct moment, you're in. But a second early or late, it takes umbrage and locks again. Now I just use the key fob. Oddly, the rear hatch works much better, approach the car with a shopping trolley in pouring rain and you'll find it's open, terrific.<br />
<br />
And the Stop/Start thingy. I just don't like it. I'll roll up to a T junction and be ready for a speedy turn onto the main road, to find the engine is off (I missed this cos I'm listening to Def Leppard). Okay, it starts quickly enough, but it's disconcerting. And the bad thing is, you can't just disable this feature, every trip you have to remember.<br />
<br />
Another niggle... probably connected with KIA's desire to keep your battery topped up so it can do the Stop/start... when you're sitting waiting in the car, engine off (which I often do) the radio/media player will go off after 5 minutes or so to save the battery. Bloomin' heck it's only a radio! This is annoying.<br />
<br />
And the sat-nav is a bit weird, sends you off on some odd routes, don't trust it. And the air-con, well, the climate control, can go a bit crazy sometimes if left to its own devices, maybe they all do, I'm sure it's trying and its heart is in the right place.<br />
<br />
(Actually, reading back over these whinges... it's not the car... it's the software that's to blame for any annoyances. As a programmer, I wish I could get in there and fix these things!)<br />
<br />
And the only other thing to moan about would be... road noise. It does seem to make quite a racket on some surfaces. The handling is terrific and the ride is okay, but the roar from the tyres can get a bit tiresome.<br />
<br />
These niggles aside, it has been a pleasure to drive this last year. It looks good, is comfortable, goes fast well, goes slow well, isn't too big or too small, MPG is acceptable and the in-car gadgets are pretty good. I like it.
<br /></div>
<div id="footer">
Hopefully, more details to follow in subsequent years, if I'm spared. I wish I had its 7 year warranty!
</div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-81575256426107470262016-03-01T20:05:00.003+00:002016-03-02T13:48:30.574+00:00Linx7 Windows tablet - bargain or bin-job?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0 20px 10px 0;">
<img border="0" src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/linx7.jpg" /></div>
<div>
I spotted a bargain on-line the other day, and rushed in to purchase without thinking things through properly.
<br />
<br />
So, yes, I got a good deal, but I'm somewhat regretting it now.<br />
<br />
Which is shame, because the actual physical thing I bought is perfectly fine. Well, ish.<br />
<br />
The problem is - the software - or more accurately, the operating system.<br />
<br />
So, the tablet itself, a Linx7. Not the best specified device in the world, but perfectly acceptable for the price. I paid forty quid for it, delivered.<br />
<br />
For that you get a 7" tablet with quad-core Intel Atom Bay processor (Z3735G, 1.33GHz). It has a 1280 x 800 screen, terrible front and rear cameras, and a micro-SD can add 64 gig to the 32 gig it comes with. And 1 gig of RAM.<br />
<br />
The cameras are both awful, both 2 megapixel, the front facing is just good enough for Skype, the rear is totally useless. The battery life is diabolical.<br />
<br />
It has Bluetooth. No GPS. But the phrase 'for the money' needs reiterating at every point. It IS cheap!<br />
<br />
BUT... it is 'blessed' with the Windows operating system. Now I've got a 7" tablet already, with Android OS. I'd got a bit tired of it, and fancied a change. And, hey, I know Windows - it would be refreshing to have a tablet with Windows on it. Turns out, no it isn't refreshing. It's a pain.<br />
<br />
The Linx7 comes with Windows 8.1 on it, which does it no favours, so once offered the chance I upgraded to Windows 10 at the first opportunity. The upgrade didn't go particularly smoothly, and once it was finished I discovered the cameras didn't work any more. A search of the internet resulted in a lot of other folk with the same problem, eventually I tracked down new drivers and managed to get it all working again.<br />
<br />
My previous experience with Windows 10 is not good. I upgraded my laptop and really didn't like W10 - the laptop isn't touch, so it all seems a bit forced somehow. So I decided to leave my desktop on Windows 7, but the bloomin' thing is really annoying me now, constantly trying to get me to upgrade. And it won't take NO for an answer. Apparently you can edit the registry to stop it. Seriously?!<br />
<br />
My HP Stream laptop/netbook is also asking to Upgrade, and so, as it is a touch device, I said, Yes, go ahead, upgrade. But it won't. Not enough 'disk' space to achieve it apparently. It refuses to use the SD-card memory to do it, so it's an absolute mare to get it done apparently, so much faff (according to t'internet) that I can't be doing with it. Of course it keeps badgering me to upgrade, how annoying is that?<br />
<br />
And so to this tablet. Here's the thing... W10 it isn't as good at being a tablet OS as Android. It just isn't. And the split personality when you flip back and forth between Apps and 'old' Windows is painful.<br />
<br />
Just to put the tin lid on it, the Windows App store is poor. For example there's an eBay app, but it doesn't work properly. There isn't a nice YouTube app. There's just a lot of iffy Apps which largely have bad reviews. Dear oh dear.<br />
<br />
So. Not a bad device, for the cash, but ruined by a dodgy OS. Microsoft I despair of you. Oh and the battery life, as I mentioned, deplorable. It goes flat even when it's off. Which makes me think the blame for that may be laid at the door of the OS too.<br />
<br />
I am therefore in a position to recommend that you do not fall for the bargain price. Keep your cash and save for something better, I wish I had.</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-27802399360374379212016-02-29T16:33:00.002+00:002016-03-02T13:52:36.251+00:00Farewell Ford FocusYes, it was time to say goodbye to our Ford Focus Mk2.5, traded in for the <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2016/02/kia-proceed-se-16-crdi-126bhp-6-speed.html">KIA cee'd</a> you will find detailed <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2008/12/ford-focus-vs-vauxhall-astra.html">elsewhere hereabouts</a>. I can't say I was sorry to see it go. Never bonded with it, somehow.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; float: right; margin: 5px 0 5px 10px;">
<img border="0" src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/focus-end.jpg" />
</div>
<br />
But as you can (almost) see here, it looks as good on the day of departure as it did in 2008 when it arrived all shiny and new.<br />
<br />
Well... if you could see closer, you'd spot a lot of parking dents, and most of the Ford badges have corroded, which was quite annoying.<br />
<br />
But generally speaking, looking good and the inside was unblemished, mostly. It had 89,369 when we handed it over, all done by us.<br />
<br />
So... why the lack of enthusiasm for this car, which it has to be said, never let us down and returned a healthy 54mpg average over its entire life?<br />
<br />
Well. Again, as detailed <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2014/01/130000-miles-in-diesel-vauxhall-astra.html">elsewhere here</a>, it had followed on from a very similarly spec'd Astra, and that's the problem, it wasn't as good as the Astra. That car served us to about 130k miles, and was less trouble. I've had a few Fords, and I have to say that they've not been particularly well screwed together, in my opinion. Around the 70k mile mark the Focus started to rattle a lot and feel a bit 'loose', and that had happened in my previous Escort too. But the Astra was as solid as new over a longer distance.<br />
<br />
And the Focus had suffered a couple of very costly 'mishaps' along the way, that have left a bad feeling, firstly about Ford, and secondly about my local Ford dealer. To the point that I would imagine it unlikely I'll ever by a Ford again. Sorry Ford.<br />
<br />
The first disaster was the <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2012/12/ford-focus-fusebox-fury.html">Fusebox saga</a>, again, a post about that here. Turns out this marque of Focus has a design flaw that allows condensation caused by the air-con to drip onto the fusebox, corroding the terminals and causing electrical failure. I am not by any means the only sufferer from this problem, but Ford remain in denial - and are happy to extract upwards of £650 to put it right from your hapless owner.<br />
<br />
And then there was my local dealer in Llangefni, who when I asked them to investigate a steering wheel wobble diagnosed the cause as drive-shafts, replaced them at huge cost, handed the car back to me - still with the wheel wobble. After much negotiation I got the massive bill down to £400. I then took the car to ATS and they balanced the wheels very carefully and the wobble was gone. As was my £400 and two perfectly good drive shafts. Epic fail, W R Davies, and I will never be back.<br />
<br />
On the up side though, it went well, it gave good economy, it's smart looking, it started first time every time, and never let us down. It is a very nice red colour. It was quiet for a diesel, and handled very well.<br />
<br />
It just never floated our boat, somehow. Good luck to the new owner, who I saw driving it on this very day. I expect it will serve you well. Just don't take it to Llangefni to get it serviced!
<br><br>
Visit <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a> to (maybe) discover the history of your beloved carsDrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-8921644603285162182016-02-27T15:29:00.000+00:002016-03-02T13:51:41.193+00:00KIA pro_cee'd SE 1.6 CRDi 126bhp 6-speed with ISG<style>
#sectionkia {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionkia #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionkia #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionkia #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:260px;}
#sectionkia #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionkia #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:320px;
width:280px;}
#section .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style>
<br />
<div id="sectionkia">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">T</span>echnically, the title of this piece is the title of my new car. Catchy, eh? When talking about it, I tend to call it "the KIA", or the Ceed, or the Pro Ceed maybe. Not, possibly the best car name I've ever come across, but it would be shallow to criticize the car itself for this shortfall.
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/pro_ceed.jpg" />
</div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">N</span>o, because it's a jolly nice car. The missus and I visited our local KIA dealer, for the first time, to view a second had motor spotted on t'internet. It turned out to be disappointing - but we made the fatal error of actually going in to the the new car showroom. That new car smell... ahhhh.<br />
<br />
We sat at a desk with the salesman and discussed options on new KIAs, specifically a Ceed. Sorry Cee'd. But my eye was drawn to the vision you see to the left here. Bit of paper in the windscreen read, "£4000 off". Hmmmm.
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">W</span>ell bless me if the next thing I knew, the darn thing was in my drive, with its keys in my pocket.
<br />
<br />
I'd been in the market for a new car for a while, as our Focus (about which I have posted) was showing signs of becoming unreliable. The Focus had been a disappointment over its lifetime with us, certainly not as good as its predecessor, an Astra. So, I had been looking at Astra GTCs, which are really nice looking cars. But a little out of our price range it transpired. But here was a looky-likey, the KIA equivalent of the GTC, the designation 'Pro' indicating the two door coupe version of the popular Ceed.<br />
<br />
It was 'cheap' because it's not quite the current model and they wanted rid of it. Fine by me. It's loaded with toys and of course comes with that most warm and fuzzy-feeling bonus of a 7 year warranty. I even got a 3 year servicing deal thrown in. Magic.<br />
<br />
It's a 126 bhp diesel (£30 road tax), with ISG - which is the Stop/Start system which frankly I could do without. It's got Climate Control, key-less entry, hill assist, electrically adjustable lumbar seats, and an awesome dashboard with fabulous Sat-nav, USB connection, Bluetooth, CD/Radio, and you can even talk to it. The steering wheel is covered in buttons for all that, plus cruise control and speed limit, and adjustable steering. Disk brakes all round, and stability control. Folding door mirrors. Headlights that see round corners. Auto dipping mirror. And a reversing camera with parking sensors. Phew.<br />
<br />
There may be other things... I forget. Anyway... it's excellent. How does it go? Well, still running it in, but the signs are good. It handles beautifully, and the 'Sport' setting on the steering really is welcome when pressing on. It has 6 gears, which to me is one too many, and the dash is almost always trying to get me to change up - not always correctly IMHO. It cruises effortlessly at motorway speeds hardly ticking over. You wouldn't know it was a diesel except when idling - and even then it is quite refined.<br />
<br />
After two fill ups, the fuel consumption is admittedly a tad disappointing, 50 MPG, but really the engine must be tight and I'm hoping for better things to come, because we've not exactly been caning it so far, so it should have done better I would have thought.<br />
<br />
Time will tell I guess. So far so good. And the promise is that it really shouldn't cost a lot to run it for the next few years. Fingers crossed then.<br />
<br />
As is obvious, it's early days with this car. I will write more as time goes by.
<br />
<br /></div>
<div id="footer">
Visit <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a> to (maybe) discover the history of your beloved cars
</div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-81193406448287025392015-07-04T14:33:00.001+01:002015-07-06T20:54:59.521+01:00Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 Kompressor - 2 Years On<style>
#sectionslkplus2 {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionslkplus2 #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionslkplus2 #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionslkplus2 #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:310px;}
#sectionslkplus2 #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionslkplus2 #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:330px;
width:240px;}
#sectionslkplus2 .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
#sectionslkplus2 p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
#sectionslkplus2 span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style> <br />
<div id="sectionslkplus2">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">T</span>wo years have passed since I took ownership of my SLK. Cutting to the chase, so far so good.<br />
(see my previous post about this car, click <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2013/11/mercedes-madness-benz-bonkers-slk-silly.html">here</a>) </div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/slkat2.jpg" /> </div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">I</span>t's been an interesting experience for me. In my youth I was always underneath my cars, always covered in oil, always taking wheels on and off, doing my own repairs and servicing. And then along came newer cars that didn't need such interventions and which needed stamps in the service book. And I got lazy, and cars got complex.<br />
<br />
So I fell out of the habit of lying on painful concrete in all weathers trying to loosen recalcitrant bolts. But needs must, and I have no budget for running the Merc, so it's down to me again. Question is... after all this time, do I really want to do it any more?</div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">T</span>here have been a few problems with the car, but nothing major to report. In the two years I've only done maybe 6,000 miles. But most of those miles have been with the top down, and the complicated and expensive to repair roof mechanism is working just fine. I have lubricated all the joints, and I'm keeping on top of hydraulic fluid levels, but it just works. When you think the car is 18 years old, it's quite remarkable.<br />
<br />
It's passed 2 MOTs in my tenure now, with no advisories. Both years I did prepare, I had all the wheels off and made sure the suspension was nice and clean and rust free. The exhaust needed a couple of replacement brackets having rusted away, but there's no blowing and it sounds very sporty on the road. The engine I keep very clean and tidy, you could eat your dinner off it.<br />
<br />
I recently cleaned the MAF, which is an easy job and has made the car run more smoothly - at least I think it hasm could be psychological! I've fitted a new alarm, buying what I understand to be the very last replacement unit in the country, sorry everyone else! I've had a go at stopping the corrosion on the alloys, whether my efforts succeed is debatable, we'll see. They really could do with refurbishing, but maybe another day.<br />
<br />
Interior trim is an issue, both door cards need removing and refitting, a common problem apparently, the clips breaking off too easily. All the electrics are working fine, the transmission is good, cruise control works, no problems at all. Discovered that checking your transmission fluid levels is a work of art, involving buying a special dipstick and only measuring the level when the engine is good and hot and all gears have been used, bizarre faff it is too.<br />
<br />
So, it all sounds good, doesn't it... I'll move on to the bad news. It leaks. I don't know how, but the roof drips water onto the front seats whatever steps I've taken to stop it. I now park up and leave two rags on the front seats (the one that gets it depends on the slope the car is on!) which stop the water getting under the seat. Little thing but annoying, and I've lubricated the seals and everything looks fine. Don't understand it.<br />
<br />
And then there's the big problem, the paintwork. The previous owner clearly had an issue with the top lacquer coat, so he had it removed... well that's what he told me when I was viewing the car - but I just filtered this info out of our chat, as I was falling busy in love at the time. Turns out he had the lacquer coat <b><i>partially</i></b> removed from some panels - but not all. Two years on and I've got a two tone car. I can actually make it look great if I buff up the unprotected panels and apply a top coat of wax, but it only last a few weeks before the bad panels go bad again. So - it needs a respray. Outside my budget. I'll have to live with it!<br />
<br />
I was quite lucky recently to notice an oil leak, which, it turned out, was coming from the crankshaft oil seal. It looked a little tricky removing all the drive belts and getting at the seal, so the car had its first trip to a garage, and it went well, cost £150 including new belts. I should really have done it myself, that is the idea with the car, keep costs low, but I chickened out.<br />
<br />
So... what's it like to drive? An interesting question. Having had the car for two years, I have to admit I've spent more time 'interacting' with it in my drive rather than on the road! When I do drive it, it's normally with the top down, and I'm never in a hurry under those circumstances. So, the 195bhp has as yet remained fairly unused. I have to admit I drive my boring Focus diesel far more quickly. I have put my foot down on occasion, and it responds well, the auto box is smooth and changes at the right time, and you can get a real lick on. And those wide tyres (wider at the back than the front actually) give masses of grip. Maybe I should book a track day with it.<br />
<br />
I've been on a few long journeys, and they've been great fun. The heater is fantastic, even in the depths of winter it's feasible to drive top down. Top up it's quite quiet, though I must admit the creaking and rattles from the roof when up are a bit annoying. I can't seem to find the source of the noise, I think it just is all of it, there's a lot of mechanism back there for the clever old roof.<br />
<br />
So, what have I learned in two years? Well, looking at the odometer - the main thing would be, that I should be using it more!</div>
<div id="footer">
Visit <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a> to (maybe) discover the history of your beloved cars. </div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0Isle of Anglesey, UK53.354610664976555 -4.255367231250033953.050811164976558 -4.9008142312500338 53.658410164976551 -3.609920231250034tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-87711967677030529702015-02-05T20:47:00.001+00:002015-02-11T14:22:15.302+00:00Windows Product Key Problem<br />
<img align="left" src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/motherboard.jpg" style="border: 1px solid gray; margin-right: 15px; padding: 3px;" />I hate to sound like a grumpy old man, but yet again I have a beef, and I need to get something off my chest. Oh yes, I am cross. Who with? Well, equally Microsoft (not an unusual situation) - but probably more with <b>Advent Computers</b>, who, if you don't already know, are really PC World, or Currys, or Dixons... whoever.<br />
<br />
So, just over two years ago I bought a nice Advent Desktop from PC World, which was bundled with a monitor and cost £700. My son used it as a games machine and I largely ignore it - which was a mistake. Anyway, he needed an upgrade (to a Chillblast as it turned out) and the plan was that I inherited the Advent, the spec of which was better than my own PC. But the very week before this swap, the Advent simply died. Not a peep out of it. Dead in the water.<br />
<br />
I had the side off it and the fans all worked, the hard drive was spinning, but nothing happened on powering up, it wasn't even getting to the booting stage. So I decided it must need a new motherboard. Turned out to be quite cheap to source one, £35 on eBay for a brand new replacement. I successfully installed it in the case, and the PC was back working again.<br />
<br />
The Advent was riddled with games and my son's stuff, so I decided to start again from ground zero, a complete re-install of Windows 8 from the disk image (my next mistake). Soon I was staring at a pristine fully working PC, and I was very happy.<br />
<br />
<i><b>BUT</b></i>,Windows wanted activating. Now I knew that a motherboard swap would upset Windows, but I had been assured that a phone call to Microsoft would get me going again. So I rang them. They said that I needed the <span style="color: red;"><b>Windows Product Key</b></span> for them to sort me out. I looked on the case, where down through the ages a sticker usually resides with the Key on. But no. Oh.<br />
<br />
A bit of investigation revealed that apparently these days, with the coming of Windows 8, there is no sticker - and that the product key is burned into the BIOS of the motherboard. Ah. You mean my knackered motherboard that I can't access any more? Yes that one. Microsoft said, ask the manufacturer, they will know your Product Key from the serial number of your PC.<br />
<br />
So I ring Advent. But <span style="color: red;"><b>NO</b></span>, they didn't know my Product Key. They buy a big bunch of licences, but do not record individual Keys. WTF!? It'll be okay, they said, just tell Microsoft it was a repair. I rang Microsoft and told them that. They said, great, but we still need the Product Key. I rang Advent, oh dear, well we can't help, because we simply don't know your Product Key.<br />
<br />
Their suggestion was that I took my (fixed) PC to PC World and pay them a minimum for £50 so they can, um, fix it. Or buy another copy of Windows 8. Terrific. (Particularly as Windows 8 is an abomination as we now know).<br />
<br />
So, can I make a couple of recommendations to you? Unlike me, maybe you should go and write down the Product Key of any Windows operating system you may have recently got with your shiny new Windows 8 computer. Just in case. If you can't find it I think there is software that will discover it.<br />
<br />
And (he said tetchily) maybe <b><span style="color: red;">don't buy Advent computers</span></b>, because (a) they don't seem to last very long before breaking, and (b) they don't seem to know what they're doing re licensing. I mean, surely it wouldn't be that hard for them to record the Key for each PC they sell. Here's an idea, they could use a computer to record the data.<br />
<br />
Talking and emailing Advent is an interesting game, because you either talk to a techie who understands the problem but is powerless to do anything to help, or you talk to a non-techie who has no idea what you're talking about and therefore can't help you either. Hopeless. <br />
<br />
Oh, and while we're at it, whoever thought up the idea of putting the Product Key into the motherboard...well - maybe a re-think is in order unless it is indeed a cunning plan to sell more licenses? If you're going to do that, why not stick a sticker on the motherboard? Come on.<br />
<br />
So, this won't happen with the <b>Chillblast</b> I bought my kid, which came with a proper Windows 8 installation with a printed key and even a CD! And a 5 year warranty. They delivered exactly the PC I specified within a week, and it seems the dog's. It was admittedly easier to buy from PC World, but I think in hindsight it was a major mistake. The Chillblast is built from choice components, I now think the Advent was thrown together from the cheapest bits they could find, and the cheapest licensing deal they could get out of Microsoft.<b> Which is only great if nothing goes wrong...</b>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-14282206913768162692014-01-26T13:58:00.000+00:002014-01-26T14:01:23.393+00:00Martin Simpson - Vagrant Stanzas<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Martin Simpson, Vagrant Stanzas" border="0" src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/simpson.jpg" title="Martin Simpson, Vagrant Stanzas" /></div>
I am really a rock music fan. If you browse my CD collection, it is mostly rock. Planet Rock is permanently tuned into my digital radio. However, I have a quieter side too, and that betrays an admiration for folk music. By no means all folk music, however. I find some of it excruciating. But when it's good, it's hard to beat.<br />
<br />
A few years ago I went to a gig called the Four Martins. It was a guitar playing evening, 4 guys called Martin each with a distinctive style, and it was very enjoyable. And the best of the four to my ears, was Martin Simpson.<br />
<br />
Subsequently, I did nothing about following up on this chap, but by chance recently I came across an advert for this album, his latest. I had a quick listen on Spotify and ordered it immediately, in fact the "Deluxe Limited Edition" version, with an extra CD included.<br />
<br />
It is Martin Simpson playing a guitar or banjo and singing... that's it. But it sounds fantastic, it's just bliss. To me anyway - my missus thinks it's a bit dreary. Well yes, I see her point, there are very few upbeat songs here, it is all a bit sad... typical of folk music generally I suppose. In fact one track, "Jackie And Murphy" - I defy you not to have a tear in your eye by the end, and an anger of the injustice the story of the song portrays - read the sumptuous sleeve notes to find out more... quite moving.<br />
<br />
So the songs are written by Simpson himself, or are arrangements of traditional British and American tunes. The production is unobtrusive but perfect for the music. The guitar playing is superb and the singing... well elsewhere in this blog I review a Kate Rusby album and repeat the cliché that she has the voice of an angel. There's no reason I couldn't use the same phrase to describe Simpson's voice, but it don't sound right, do it? Let's settle for the fact that his voice is just perfect for what he's singing, can't imagine how it could be bettered.<br />
<br />
Very highly recommended, 10/10, you could buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00CC68PTI/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">here</a>.DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-75131853830679748792014-01-21T19:37:00.000+00:002014-01-26T12:16:20.954+00:00130,000 miles in a diesel Vauxhall Astra H/Mk5<style>
#sectionbt {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionbt #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionbt #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionbt #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:240px;}
#sectionbt #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionbt #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:330px;
width:270px;}
#sectionbt .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style>
<br />
<div id="sectionbt">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">A</span>ll good things come to an end, and I've finally, after 9½ years, said goodbye to 'the best car I ever had' - my Astra CDTI. </div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/bt.jpg" />
</div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">O</span>kay, well I guess 'best car' is pushing it, as it's certainly not one of the most exciting, but 130,000 (almost) faultless miles, can't be bad. <br />
<br />
<span class="first">A</span>nd, though complete records aren't available, from what I can tell it returned 54mpg when it was new, and it was returning 54mpg to its final day.<br />
<br />
<span class="first">A</span>nd hey, look left, the old girl isn't looking too shabby either... from a distance...
</div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">I</span>t's been replaced with the Ford Focus that appears in other articles on this blog comparing Astra with Focus, see the first one <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/ford-focus-vs-vauxhall-astra.html">HERE</a> and the second one <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/ford-focus-vs-vauxhall-astra-revisited.html">HERE</a>. To save you reading them, I'll summarise by saying that though the Focus is okay, it's not as good as the Astra.<br />
<br />
<span class="first">B</span>ut what it is, is younger. 4 years and 60,000 miles younger. And there was a rather alarming list of 'issues' to address in the not too distant future. Time to bail. Good luck to the new owner, you're getting a cracking car.<br />
<br />
<span class="first">H</span>ere is a brief summary of how that 130,000 miles went: the car arrived late, having been found to have a faulty steering pump during its pre-delivery check, not a good start, but as it turns out <u>not</u> a sign of things to come. We immediately took it on holiday to Scotland, where its virtues emerged rapidly, low fuel consumption, powerful performance and comfort. It then spent a lot of time going from North to South Wales and back again, never giving the slightest trouble for around 80,000 miles over a four year period. I then took it over from the missus when she got a new company car (the Focus). I had to have new brake pads and disks fitted. It did school runs then for the rest of its time with us, plus the odd foray back to the Midlands. Eventually something did go wrong, the alternator failed and I just made it home on battery power. While fixing this it was discovered the water pump was on its way out, so another replacement. And a coil spring broke, and eventually I had new rear shocks, and some front suspension bushes replaced. Other than that it was the original car when I sold it, original clutch, exhaust, turbo, everything. The one thing that was a problem was the aircon. When it worked, it worked well, but during my tenure of the car, it hardly ever did work. I had it pumped up and checked several times, always failed after a month or two. Ah well, the weather has not been that good in recent years!<br />
<br />
So, now I'm in the Focus every day, and to be honest I miss the Astra. It went better, had a less harsh ride, and had none of the irritating niggles of the Focus. As the RAF would say "<span class="st"><em>Per ardua ad astra</em></span>" - if I work hard I'll get another Astra. Ahem. <br />
</div>
<div id="footer">
Visit <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a> to discover the history of this car, and maybe yours too...</div>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-27854423513695150362013-11-03T14:20:00.003+00:002015-07-06T20:48:07.602+01:00Mercedes-Benz SLK R170 (late-mid-life-crisis edition)<div style="clear: none; display: block; float: left; width: 340px;">
So, if you've read any of the other motoring related posts in this blog, you may know that I've had some pretty uninspiring cars in recent times.
<br />
<br />
It has not always been so, in fact for many years I had something 'interesting'... if not exactly good. But in recent times I have had a series of dull cars, and in fact the last two have been diesels. Ouch.
<br />
<br />
Last year I started to get very itchy feet about this, and started looking around for a nice ride.
</div>
<div style="clear: none; display: block; float: right;">
<img border="0" src="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/blog/slk.jpg" />
</div>
<div style="clear: both; display: block; float: left; margin: 20px 0 0 0;">
I started my quest by looking at the obvious choices, MG TFs and MX-5s. But neither inspired me, though especially the Mazda would be a sensible choice. Boxters were too much, and I was struggling. Then a local garage had a Chrysler Crossfire. I quite liked the look of it, but they got such bad reviews. Further reading on them revealed they were based on the Mercedes Benz SLK, which did not get bad reviews. Aha.<br />
<br />
I started looking at these cars, and discovered there were loads of them. They varied in price of course, but the cheap ones were pretty cheap. I'd never really noticed them before, but the more I looked, the more I liked. The obvious appeal of the electric roof. They are handsome beasts. They are German built. Hmmmm.<br />
<br />
Well, after much looking, I spotted a nice looking one locally, but before going to view it I rang a friend who I knew had had an SLK in the past, to ask what to look for. Turns out he still had his Merc, but it was SORNed. "Come and have a look at it..." I did. Next thing I knew it was in my drive. Love at first sight.<br />
<br />
Guilty as charged then, of not looking into the fine print of the car before purchase, not having it professionally checked out, not even looking at it particularly carefully, and certainly not of having thought it through. But what the heck, it was only £2k. I say only... that's quite a lot to me, but it's not a lot for all the stuff I got.<br />
<br />
It's a M-B SLK Kompressor 230, 1997 pre face lift R170 model, i.e. the original first 'pure' SLK before they started fiddling with them. Some say destined to be termed a 'classic' in a year or two. 195BHP, 0-60 in 7.5 seconds, top speed over 140mph. 5 speed auto with a supercharger. And a 'Vario' electric roof.<br />
<br />
So far, so good. Nothing much to report. Everything works. It's a blast to drive with the roof down, really lovely. I haven't dared fully exploit its performance yet, but you can tell it's all there, under your right foot.<br />
<br />
I will write more of my experiences with the car in time. One thing I have learned from hanging around the <a href="http://www.slkworld.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SLK World forums</a>, is that the car is a complex thing, and I'm pretty lucky that nothing has gone wrong. Yet!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Update - read what has happened over the first two years of ownership, click <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2015/07/mercedes-benz-slk-230-kompressor-2.html">here</a>.</span> </div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-60635307518397204092013-07-29T17:01:00.000+01:002013-07-30T08:24:55.150+01:00Acer Aspire One D255 - To Linux and Back Again<style>
#sectionacer {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#sectionacer #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#sectionacer #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#sectionacer #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:210px;}
#sectionacer #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#sectionacer #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:290px;
width:250px;}
#sectionacer .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
#sectionacer p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
#sectionacer span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style> <br />
<div id="sectionacer">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">H</span>aving done sterling work for a year or so, my faithful little Acer Netbook was slowing to a crawl. No blame on the hardware, it's Windows innit? Seven versions in and it STILL needs reinstalling every now and then. Why, for goodness sake? Anyway... </div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhccaVVqDsjCz0ZHgo8e2AJHkdcMh3qiFThohAKLZ72kRa5IqxvgiDbY1C4099kwOQmFnrARh3SRjEp8UhOyrD0NbyyJfovvKFvd_cpaSmfCczr3XzAVrR6pCcAbD4tskiH54LpvBip-Y7/s1600/acer2.jpg" /> </div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">B</span>ut I'd read a magazine article about how Linux can transform the performance of a netbook, so what the heck, I thought I'd give it a go. Fortunately I'm immortal, so losing a few days from my life won't matter, will it?<br />
<br />
<span class="first">O</span>h, if you want to you can read a post I did a while back about the lil' Acer, <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/acer-aspire-one-d255e.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">S</span>o I had a surf around and the wisdom seemed to be that <b>Linux</b><b> Mint </b>would be a good choice. I experimented by making a bootable Mint DVD and running the netbook off that, just to see what would happen. Well... it mostly worked, but you couldn't tell about speed in that configuration.<br />
<br />
The install of Mint went smoothly, and was quite quick, so far so good. But there were problems to come. The webcam wouldn't work with Skype. The microphone wouldn't work at all. Only one speaker worked. But above all, the battery life plummeted. It more or less halved, and the poor little Acer got very hot underneath. Some of these issues I may have been able to resolve given enough time, but to be honest I was put off when frequently the advice on forums was to open up a Terminal window and type stuff in that made no sense. Come on... Linux, are you serious? That's like going back in time to Windows 98... maybe even before. I gave it a day or too, but enough was enough. Admittedly it did indeed seem slightly more sprightly, but not fantastically so. So... back to Windows 7. This was where then 'fun' started.<br />
<br />
Now I could bore you with how tricky it was to get Windows 7 back onto this netbook, but instead I'll just say this. Despite being in the computing industry since 1975 I am still amazed at how unutterably crap some programmers are - there is little excuse for the litany of stupid problems I faced trying to do something that should have been easy. I had gone to the trouble and expense of buying a USB DVD drive, and making the restore DVDs as per Acer's instructions, so it should be easy, right?<br />
<br />
I'll give you an example - this was after I had spent a <i><b>lot</b></i> of time just getting the Acer to the point where I could run the restore. So, I was restoring Windows 7 using the Acer recovery disks. It got stuck on step 37 out of 40 something. There was no way around this, as the twerp who programmed this routine made sure as soon as you swapped out to Windows (which was there, working okay 'underneath'), you were flicked back to his full page recovery program... with just a glimpse of the underlying desktop before you got back. Well duh. Rebooting didn't help, as it just went back to where it was, stuck.<br />
<br />
The cure for this, which I thought of myself but dismissed as insane, but then I found another poor sap had achieved and recommended, was to get the task manager up using Ctrl-Alt-Del, and then try to click on that window in the millisecond you had before returning to being stuck. I had to get the mouse just in the right place to be ready to click, then swap and click really fast. It took me 20 minutes, but eventually I managed to kill the recovery process. Looking back I can't believe I sat there and did it, but there was no other way.<br />
<br />
In the end I got it back working under Windows 7, and its performance is once more acceptable. This time next year when it starts slowing up again, maybe I'll just bin it!</div>
<div id="footer">
To conclude then, Linux has failed to win me over, and Windows largely sucks, so one is a bit stuck, isn't one? One thing I might try... forget Linux and newish Windows, how about XP. Ah yes. An operating system I actually quite liked, and that worked. Have you tried Windows 8? Ugh. </div>
</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-12981788201136265162013-03-26T10:14:00.004+00:002013-03-26T11:21:43.319+00:00Four IT Gripes...<div style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin: 0;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Just to get things off my chest... four IT related gripes, knowing these things just might help you.<br />
<br />
<div style="clear: none; display: block; float: left; margin: 0 30px 10px 0;">
<a href="http://order.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=27171164" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="1&1" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtaZo8VojvT0DY3P-67ZDi_bqnusRHiJGuIZNGoPMM5T-EB5mgmK3bDC-h2HdZKytE9xCmFLV1_4WhPs1xkdtiHRKC0AwmKxuRPByGrDXvK53WyRULFnuo5AB5wrnYcdvTpUfk4q9nt0U/s1600/1&1.jpg" title="1&1" /></a></div>
Much as I like 1&1 hosting -
unlike Fasthosts I've never had ANY trouble with them at all - I do find
their documentation and Help service is a little lacking from time to
time.<br />
<br />
I was recently asked to set up a simple contact form on a web site, and looking throught the 1&1 help files, there was a lengthy explanation of how to use FormMail, a public domain bit of Perl code that would do the job with minimum effort.<br />
<br />
Except... having spent quite a lot of time messing about with it, I couldn't get it to work. Much head scratching and searching through help files later, I finally cracked the reason. It wasn't my stupidity or a software glitch, or finger trouble or anything like that - it was simply that the account I was trying to get this working on was the cheapest 'Starter' flavour... and it turns out that it didn't support Perl scripting. Arggghhh. This is made a somewhat obscure shortcoming, you have to delve deep into the hosting features to spot this, and at no point did the documentation about how to implement FormMail mention this. Another hour of my life I'll never get back. (I ended up writing myself a PHP script, the results of which are a lot better, IMHO.) <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPHoO9JxU4UupWaEbuWXUpVkBzuKJFC7dX6xp6oYE6Rz9nMB0JGGzJHqmn0b7L9opJzf8Ku9vTGIU-BSIibiVXi_boEhjQxpEhLrzwIIvv0y3bsXlgJ79Jnfkt_wphNyohgBtjqu5aOQ/s1600/seagate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilPHoO9JxU4UupWaEbuWXUpVkBzuKJFC7dX6xp6oYE6Rz9nMB0JGGzJHqmn0b7L9opJzf8Ku9vTGIU-BSIibiVXi_boEhjQxpEhLrzwIIvv0y3bsXlgJ79Jnfkt_wphNyohgBtjqu5aOQ/s1600/seagate.jpg" /></a></div>
A few months ago I purchased a Seagate Freeagent Goflex Desk 1TB USB drive, and it has worked well and I'm very happy with it. Part of its appeal at the time I purchased is was that it sits in a cradle that, as Seagate put it is "a unique adapter that lets you upgrade instantly or change the drive’s interface for faster transfer speeds". I.e. you can upgrade from the USB2 I have to the new USB3, with its promise of 10x faster transfer rate.<br />
<br />
So... I've recently purchased a new Lenovo laptop (see below) which sports 2 USB3 ports, whoopee. I therefore have a look on t'internet for the USB3 cradle for my drive. They are very hard to track down. I could find a cradle and PC card combo, but I don't want that. Eventually I found one on Amazon, though not sold by Amazon themselves, for 45 quid. Now... I can buy a complete USB3 external hard drive for that much... so I emailed Seagate asking where I could buy them from at a reasonable price (I speculated at about 20 quid). They replied promptly, thus:<br />
<br />
"<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">You will have to get it from Amazon or through the internet. The reason some or most retailer or distributors might not have it is because the drives that came after are all USB 3.0.</span>"<br />
<br />
So, polite though that was I think I've just been told to bugger off and not bother them. Not very helpful, and of course that's the last time I'll be buying from Seagate.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhjUDLuKqBb2CMTQFM3MJBH4l_wtJyVpONSeEzeCK1ITh2AE6xqJTbORwFWWte1hUcg2gtPBziYu3ljZb8FLyHuS7sbDyvwsHM79BULE11iQHZSckKOKlz54Y3yX9eXKu6R-Isu9voDY/s1600/lenovo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhjUDLuKqBb2CMTQFM3MJBH4l_wtJyVpONSeEzeCK1ITh2AE6xqJTbORwFWWte1hUcg2gtPBziYu3ljZb8FLyHuS7sbDyvwsHM79BULE11iQHZSckKOKlz54Y3yX9eXKu6R-Isu9voDY/s1600/lenovo.jpg" /></a></div>
As mentioned above, I have purchased a Lenovo laptop recently, which is jolly nice, and I will be writing a review of it once I've been using it for a little while. It's a G580, and cost a very reasonable £400 from PC World.<br />
<br />
However, there was, as could be expected, quite a bit of Crapware on it out of the box. (For those not in the know, crapware is software manufacturers stick on their products presumably sponsored by the authors to do so, and it's pretty much always complete... well... crap - or if not exactly crap it's certainly not Free software, it's trial versions mostly).<br />
<br />
So, expecting this the first thing I did was uninstall it all... I didn't even run most of it to find out what it was, life is too short.<br />
<br />
Having then loaded the machine up with lots of my stuff, I was asked to reboot, and I did, and Windows (8) started updating. Only it failed. It got to 15% and then said there was a problem and gave up, specifically it said "failed configuring windows updates reverting changes". Bit of a worry. And there I was, stuck, cos it just wouldn't do the updates.<br />
<br />
I finally tracked down the problem (more lifetime lost never to return) on a Lenovo forum. Turns out that the glitch was caused by one of the bits of crapware. The advice was to go to the crapware and change some settings, but of course I'd uninstalled it!<br />
<br />
I finally solved the problem by doing some messing about with the services manager in windows, and finally got through it. But I'm an IT professional who wasn't taking no for an answer.<br />
<br />
I wonder how many normal folk out there are sitting in front of Lenovo laptops that will not update vital malarkey in Windows because Lenovo installed crap crapware on their nice new machines?<br />
<br />
Bit of an outrage really, but as I said the laptop is (so far) very nice, so maybe I'll just need to move on from this initial setback. Watch this space.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDomLR2iphSnoOqp7sY-ZVfhzUgfxbjqf9zXYgbI5l7i7Rij-uRN0_TZmEJ-4S3UJpHjz96lJWFe9Zz__F5GGu7DemogTjc8OVWs9ulGELAqYXsWFk3-E8kxSsJHXZl82B72bQ8cpAjm8/s1600/gmail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDomLR2iphSnoOqp7sY-ZVfhzUgfxbjqf9zXYgbI5l7i7Rij-uRN0_TZmEJ-4S3UJpHjz96lJWFe9Zz__F5GGu7DemogTjc8OVWs9ulGELAqYXsWFk3-E8kxSsJHXZl82B72bQ8cpAjm8/s1600/gmail.jpg" /></a></div>
And finally, I've always been a little bemused by the spam checker incorporated into Gmail. It has frequently dumped perfectly good emails from Google themselves into my Spam folder, which seems extraordinary.<br />
<br />
As mentioned above I was writing a contact form for a web site, and in the time honoured way with programmers, I inserted the 'Ipsum lorem' text into my first test. (For those happy individuals who are not programmers, this is a bunch of Latin words that are used as fake input for testing porpoises.) So, I sent the email, and lo, it did not arrive. More head scratching, until I realised it had ended up in my Gmail spam folder. Why? Well it's hard to say, but on investigation there is a Gmail spam rule that states that if the email isn't in the language you are using, then it gets marked as spam. Hmmm. Maybe they ought to introduce a caveat to that rule to allow Latin? Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-77284862146532997802012-12-27T11:13:00.001+00:002012-12-27T11:33:50.022+00:00Bad Driver Hit ListIt's that brief period between Christmas and New Year when I feel it's acceptable to be a moaning old grouch (like normal) without being accused of either ruining Christmas or lacking optimism for the New Year. So here goes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<img 1em="1em" border="0" clear:="clear:" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTlOKB4-HTtLHd3zwWKJXlFVQiV_7H__KSw7RMZCugqnM_WZtXpTrnLhlwrf7-WftyYe7srMhLcFrdbzGDDzrBSk9Q6wYMrMfaaupP8Np-7gNTgRbYjDWwB1kt_PLe8OJ49BghllRer1Qp/s1600/laser.jpg" float:="float:" height="135" left="left" margin-bottom:="margin-bottom:" margin-right:="margin-right:" width="320" /></div>
When I am king, and I can decree that it is perfectly acceptable to have a bloomin' great laser gun fitted to the bonnet of your car with which to evaporate the bad drivers holding you up... then this is a list of people who had better not get in my way.<br />
<br />
Ahem.<br />
<br />
<div clear:both="clear:both">
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forty-mile-an-hour-ers</span></b>. Usually driving a small hatchback, these idiots maintain a steady 40 in all conditions and locations. You come up behind them on glorious 60mph a-roads pootling along at their fixed speed, and of course there's another one coming the other way that prevents an overtake. But then you get to a town - 30mph limit, and they rocket off into the distance, mowing down small children and mothers with prams as they speed through the busiest of traffic. You lose them in the distance. You clear the town, and quickly catch up with them again. Doing 40mph natch, but now with the odd dead pedestrian impaled over their bonnet, unnoticed by the driver. Repeat until frustration level reaches 11.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Blind</span></b>. Now I'm no spring chicken myself. And I won't be telling you anything you don't know when I say that there are a hell of a lot of elderly drivers out there who can't bloomin' well see where they're bloomin' well going. Oldies... step up to the plate, take one for the team... for God's sake stop driving when you can't see the road any more. Please. I know it'll be hard. But think of what you could potentially do to others by your actions. Use the Tesco home delivery service and buses. Come on.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can't-be-bothered-to-indicate-ers</span></b>. What is it about moving your arm about a foot to use the indicators that some folk find so onerous? There's a roundabout near where I live where 90% of people turn left... so about 90% of these 90% can't get themselves motivated enough to indicate their intentions, I mean they always turn left there, I guess everyone else will know that... The number of times I've sat waiting to get on this roundabout, just in case one of the 10% are actually going straight across it... my life is ebbing away, and all because these peeps can't be bothered. There's another category of roundabout abusers who do the opposite, they indicate left an exit <i><b>before</b></i> they're actually going to take... this is actually worse, as you assume that they really are awake enough to indicate... but no, they're just very bad at timing. Come on everyone, indicating is not hard. It's considerate. It's good manners. It's being nice. In my new world order, indicate or die!</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Motorhomes & Caravaners</span></b>. I don't need to go on, do I? You know that you're being totally selfish. You want a cheap holiday, the rest of us have to lose part of our lives so you can. I don't know how you sleep at night frankly.</li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Farmers</span></b>. Now... there seems to be two sets of rules for governing what you can and can't do on the roads. One set of rules applies to the majority of us, and the other set applies to farmers. Our set of rules is comprehensive, covers most eventualities and is vigorously enforced by the old bill. And the other set of rules for farmers appears to contain one rule, namely "Do whatever the hell you like". This allows them to drive untaxed, uninsured, clearly unroadworthy huge lumps of old tat at ridiculously slow speeds, spewing slippery excrement all over wet roads at any time of the day or night, but most probably during the rush hour. And if you ever see one pull over to allow traffic passed, you know that actually he's reached where he wanted to be. He'll open a gate into a field, drive around the field for a bit picking up as much mud on his tyres as he can, and then try to spread the majority of it over the nearby road, usually on a bend. Farmers live in a world where only what THEY are doing is of any importance, so all this makes sense to them. One day when all our food arrives on ships from China, the tables will turn. 'Fresh' is vastly overrated, give me 'Fast' instead. Vengeance will be ours as farmers slowly expire in the poo of their own making.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tail-gaters</span></b>. Oh that's me. Oh dear. Okay... well, fair enough, I will make a New Year's resolution here and now to stop being a pain and stop tail-gating people. I've got to admit that my erstwhile theory that driving really close behind slow people will (a) cause them to pull over and get out of my way or (b) speed up, or (c) make them feel so guilty for holding me up that they swerve off the road into the nearest wall and die a fiery death - doesn't seem to work. I'll try, I really will. I mean, I'm an older chap in a diesel... it's not like a I really rocket around these days. But I do want to get home before the battery in pace-maker expires, so hopefully all the above guilty folk will try too. Yeah? Happy New Year then! </li>
</ul>
</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-44261247758419207612012-12-16T11:32:00.001+00:002017-04-20T13:33:11.410+01:00Ford Focus Fusebox Fury!<style>
#section99 {
background:white;
border:2px gray solid;
padding:5px;
margin:-20px 0 0 0;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
line-height:140%;
font-size:90%;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;}
#section99 #header {
border:0px red dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
margin:0 0 5px 0;}
#section99 #footer {
border:0px green dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;
color:gray;
font-size:.9em;}
#section99 #content {
clear:both;
position:relative;
display:block;
border:0px green dotted;
height:330px;}
#section99 #content .figure {
border:0px blue dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;}
#section99 #content .aside {
border:0px black dotted;
display:block;
float:left;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:320px;
width:280px;}
#section99 .article {
border:0px orange dotted;
clear:both;
padding:5px;}
#section99 p {margin:5px 0 5px 0;
padding:0;}
#section99 span.first {
float:left;
font-size:250%;
line-height:0.85em;
margin-right:1px;
margin-bottom:-0.25em;
padding:0;}
</style> <br />
<div id="section99">
<div id="header">
<span class="first">C</span>an I be a little self indulgent here? Can I get something off my chest? I need to have a shout and scream about my Ford Focus. Won't do any good to my wallet, but it might do some good to my psyche...</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="figure">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGItR_pFZF7nz4SQ50Cas9ni9Bjlp6q3JEfy12Wi5XN6WAWdoopz75RE1GNwpRrcbZVShrM-T___rFPkmLcnYHDDIBPv3ogO0KYds87TUD0flyR6sITm8XyYocfyTXzAjD4jzjZgufIqo/s320/fusebox.jpg" /></div>
<div class="aside">
<span class="first">T</span>here have been a couple of posts on this blog about the long term ownership of a Vauxhall Astra and a Ford Focus, both diesels, very similar specs, used in a similar way. See <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/ford-focus-vs-vauxhall-astra.html">here</a> and <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/ford-focus-vs-vauxhall-astra-revisited.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
The Focus is four years younger than the Astra, and has done half the mileage. But recently it let itself down, it let me down, it let my local Ford dealer down, and it let down Ford UK.<br />
<br />
See this picture to the left? See the small amount of corrosion on the terminals?<br />
That cost me £639. Yes. <b>£639</b>!<br />
<span style="color: grey; font-size: .9em;"><br />
(Technically, it's a Ford 1712211 "Gem Module/Fuse Box", "Panel Assy - Fuse")<br />
</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">O</span>ne wet morning recently (are there any other sorts of morning recently?) I set off in the Focus on the school run only to find the wipers were not working.</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">M</span>y local Ford Dealer (understandably) took a day to track down the fault. In the passenger side foot-well, behind the glove box, resides a fusebox. It is a big lump of plastic with fuse holders and some sockets into which plugs the wiring loom. As you can see above, somehow the terminals for the wiper connection had corroded and failed. The dealer didn't give us the choice to just clean up this corrosion, but ploughed on and replaced the fuse box at a cost of £380 odd (or over 2 Xbox360's worth as I like to think of it). They found no evidence of a leak on the foot-well, so how it happened is a mystery.</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">I</span> have subsequently approached Ford about the resulting alarming bill of £639, but to no avail. The car is obviously out of warranty. They are unashamed of the ridiculous cost of this lump of plastic. The dealership sticks to it's idea that no repair could have been attempted. So I've got to take it on the chin.</div>
<div class="article">
<span class="first">N</span>o explanation has been put forward as to how this happened, so there's no reason think it won't happen again. I doubt it, as I think the fault must have originated in the manufacturing process. <b>I'd love to hear from anyone else who has experienced a similar problem.</b> I keep thinking that if this fault had manifested itself on the motorway at 70mph in the fast lane on a very wet day, then I would have had a much harder time of it. At least only my wallet got hurt this time. <br />
<br />
<b>"Epic fail", Ford... yet another round in the fight to my reliable Astra!</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Update 2015 - a few people have contacted me recently having suffered the same fate as myself on this topic. One unfortunate lady actually has had it happen twice! This has got to be a design fault, and Ford are profiting to the tune of £600-£700 each time they get to fix the fault for us. Outrage. Please get in touch with me if you've had this too.</i></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div id="footer">
Rant over. Do I feel better? A little maybe... thanks for your indulgence.</div>
<div style="background-color: #dddddd; border: 2px solid red; font-weight: bold; margin: 20px; padding: 20px;">
I wrote this article a few years ago now, and I must say it was a cathartic exercise to try and make myself feel a little better about this, um, misfortune. However, in recent times I have been contacted by several people in exactly the same position - I was not alone!<br />
<br />
It seems extremely probable that the fault is caused in fact by condensation produced by the car's air-con dripping from the glove box onto the unprotected fuse box. In other words a serious design fault. For this, Ford are regularly charging somewhere between £700 to £1000 to put it right - this does not seem fair, now does it?<br />
<br />
A recent victim has decided to set up a Facebook page on this subject, you'll find it here : <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ford-UK-REM-Module-Issues/1601686410068494" target="_blank">Facebook</a> <br />
<br />
Could I urge you if you are a fellow sufferer to visit the page, or to contact me. </div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="border: 1px solid blue; margin: 20px; padding: 20px;">
Time has passed, I've sold my Focus, but time is not healing the scars. I have heard from many people who have suffered from the same defect and all have been forced to spend large amounts of cash putting it right.<br />
<br />
I think Ford should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of its customers - they made a design error, their dealers get to make hundreds fixing it, complaining does no good.<br />
<br />
Plus, due to the random nature of which part of the fusebox corrodes, this is a safety issue too. It's a bloomin' outrage is what it is!<br />
<br />
Suffice to say that despite my favourite car of all time being a Ford, and the fact that I've owned more Fords than any other make - I will NEVER buy another. Never ever.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05253232043556398998noreply@blogger.com0A5025, Dulas, Isle of Anglesey LL70, UK53.35710874569601 -4.290161132812553.053231245696011 -4.9218751328125 53.660986245696009 -3.6584471328125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-25619121901856715552012-10-07T15:33:00.000+01:002012-10-09T21:49:52.719+01:00Alanis, Elbow, Darkness and Nickelback<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0BeF3wXzjs2TkK-tM_fO12_fjQj2LXkmgbSCiLBqeb8zK79S5mQOz3YbmDuXRy_QZoH16X8Na96jkayK2-l9ds3NCl9EnipQrPwGCAOFhhBaXHrZSkTXpxPi6XcHE1jcxfRD6UI3pP97/s1600/four.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0BeF3wXzjs2TkK-tM_fO12_fjQj2LXkmgbSCiLBqeb8zK79S5mQOz3YbmDuXRy_QZoH16X8Na96jkayK2-l9ds3NCl9EnipQrPwGCAOFhhBaXHrZSkTXpxPi6XcHE1jcxfRD6UI3pP97/s1600/four.jpg" /></a></div>
Here's a review of 4 CDs all in one go. This is because I bought these CDs just a few days apart, but using two different methods.<br />
<br />
The first two were impulse purchases, pure and simple. I'd gone down town with the firm intention of treating myself to a Samsung Galaxy SIII mobile phone, on contract. But suddenly it all fell apart when I did the maths of just exactly how much a £99 purchase price, plus £27 plus £6 insurance per month for two years actually added up to. So, no phone - I know... I'll buy some music, cheer myself up.<br />
<br />
I chose the latest by Nickelback - "Here and Now" and The Darkness -"Hot Cakes". This seemed like a good bet, as I absolutely love both bands. I've got all the albums by Nickelback since their breakthrough single and they're great, and ditto the Darkness, their first album is excellent, their second almost as good. So... safe choices then.<br />
<br />
Oh dear. I mean, they're not exactly rubbish, but they are both very disappointing. On both albums there is the odd good track, but really it's the same old same old... especially for Nickelback. I think when he was younger, Chad got get away with this salacious lyrical style, but now it just sounds a bit desperate somehow. I think he needs to mature a little, and get a grip of the music too, no killer rifs here. As for the Darkness, well the lyrics are amusing in some case, though again maybe deliberate bad language doesn't reflect so well now they're a bit older. I'd like to be able to share this music with my young son, it's just annoying to have unnecessarily explicit lyrics stop that. I like a good swear as much as the next chap, but this just seems juvenile. Oh I dunno, maybe I'm getting old... well I am getting old... but neither of these albums stir anything in me at all. Sad really.<br />
<br />
Okay, so the other albums. More consideration taken, no spontaneity. These were bought after having listened to both using the excellent <a href="http://www.spotify.com/" target="_blank">Spotify</a> first, so no element of surprise here. Therefore, happy as Larry. Lesson learned.<br />
<br />
The first is "Dead in the Boot" by Elbow. It took me a while to cotton on to Elbow. Specifically it took Peter Gabriel to cover one of their songs, a man for who I have infinite respect - the penny dropped, they are fantastic. This is a collection of 'B' sides and rarities, a concept due to die a death in this digital age I'm sure. I suppose to be fair you'd have to admit that they do maybe over-do the plonk plonk plonk single note thing a bit, but the lyrics are always interesting, singing great, playing excellent.<br />
<br />
And the second is "Havoc and Bright Lights" by Alanis Morissette, the 'deluxe' version that has a second CD of live performances. Now I would admit that you really do have to be an Alanis fan to find this stuff enjoyable, but I am - so I do. Well up to recent form, and in fact the live CD is if anything more enjoyable, containing as it does some old songs reinterpreted. Again, to be fair to Nickelback and the Darkness, it might be said that she's dragging out her younger shtick into middle age, there's talk of girlfriends and so on, but I forgive her. The tunes are good, the lyrics thoughtful, she is class.<br />
<br />
From Amazon : <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008AHPOPG/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">Alanis</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008LD4126/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">Elbow</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008CG1HZQ/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">Darkness</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005NF2UE6/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">Nickelback</a>DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-66322628866112367652012-08-08T12:35:00.004+01:002012-08-08T12:41:46.289+01:00The Dangers of SQL Injection<div style="clear: none; display: block; float: left;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPVY945u9Pvr8ZDpbhsXMLDdef1VSiC_k8UL1nSpevkpucmdZjjpOyKY87nLPD1r9K8geCDzwmi2X77JQ3cnCfWLWUx9XI3bJc3vU8Vtwb9j_UMmaT4jqf6UpgnjZQv2VWTaowoYqK0eg/s1600/sqlinjection.jpg" />
</div>
<div style="clear: none; display: block; float: right; width: 320px;">
If you're not participating in the world of web sites development then you will probably find this post of no interest - though if you own a web site that somebody else has made for you, you might want to ask them about this phenomenon.<br />
<br />
Somewhere in my memory there lay the briefest of mentions of 'SQL Injection', something that I had stored away into the category of 'it won't happen to me'. But then it did. This post is just to stir the memory of folk like me, and remind them that actually it could very easily happen to them, and when it does, you won't like it...
<br />
</div>
<div style="clear: both;">
My site, <a href="http://www.drivearchive.co.uk/" target="_blank">DriveArchive</a>, has been running quite happily for ten years now, which is half a lifetime when it comes to the Internet. I check it most days, just to see if it's actually still there. One day it was indeed there, but it was a mess. The site itself is based on a complicated SQL Server database, very nearly every page has content that exists not in HTML, the underlying code of web pages, but as records in the database which are used to generate the HTML as the page loads.<br />
<br />
The site was all over the place, and so I looked at my database. It had become corrupted, in a very odd way. Some of it was fine, some of it was not. The bits that were not had had text data replaced with the name of a web site which it turned out was a dangerous, malware-infested place to go to.<br />
<br />
How the heck had that happened? My research began. Well... first job was to fix it. I found to my horror that the last time I had backed up the database was months ago. What a plonker. Though in my defense I have to say that the only method provided by Fasthosts, my hosting company, was so lengthy, difficult and unsatisfactory that it does not encourage frequent backups, quite the opposite.<br />
<br />
And, just while I've mentioned them, and I have no reason to believe other hosting companies are better or worse at this, my pleas to them to restore my database fell on deaf ears. It was pointed out to me that they expressly do NOT ever restore your data for you. Nice. Maybe I really should have read the fine print. Thanks, Fasthosts. If I looked in my control panel the database was flagged as being backed up the day before. I'm not entirely sure why they bother if they won't restore it for you!<br />
<br />
It took me 10 solid hours of work to fix the database to something near its former glory. I looked into how it had happened, and the likely way was '<b>SQL Injection</b>'. If you Google that, you'll find out all about it, I won't duplicate all that on-line knowledge here. I sat and coded a defense to the attack, and went to bed.<br />
<br />
Next morning, what did I find : it had happened again! What a pain... This time I looked through the logs to my site, reams of relatively meaningless drivel, but there, in the middle of it all was the answer, I found the way in. I fixed it. The hacker is still trying the same trick, but to no avail now.<br />
<br />
So... I know all this is a massive IT cliche, but listen to one who now knows... firstly, no matter how awkward, DO YOUR BACKUPS. And secondly, if you have a web site that depends on an SQL based database, find out about <b>SQL Injection</b> and how to stop it - before it's too late.<br />
<br />
If you'd like to discuss anything more about this topic, feel free to contact me
</div>DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-45414269508973897682012-04-25T13:08:00.003+01:002012-04-25T13:12:31.931+01:00Sharp Compet 364P-III CalculatorI was rooting around in the loft the other day and came across this item:<br />
<table cellspacing="9"><tbody>
<tr><td valign="top" width="80"><img alt="Sharp Compet 364P-III Calculator" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgCEmp0aATdCp5Ha6RZSstCF64Lt8whaiJR7vjVR5hfzCWdHh0KoSOSEIWvKWS-ts8ALJldTON-rBA3n__jzDlB84m8rLj6MFs_fTzCX9kGqHlGuKVwIhuOKfyY4pppwEZUxVAF8bbDEG/s1600/mysharp.jpg" title="Sharp Compet 364P-III Calculator" /></td><td valign="top">I'm hoping someone out there is interested in this thing, having looked on t'internet for information about it, I think it might be quite a rarity.<br />
<br />
It's a Sharp Compet 364P-III programmable calculator. I'm not sure how old it is, but I think I acquired it in the mid 80's, and it had been unused for a few years prior to that, so I'm guessing mid to late 70's, maybe.<br />
<br />
When I got it, it worked, I think. Now, it looks like it might work, but just starts counting upwards from 0 whenever you press the keys. Somewhere I have the instruction booklet. I'm assuming it shouldn't do that, but who knows!?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is a very heavy bit of kit, solidly built, and in pretty good condition. The display is made up of 16 valves with the numbers arranged inside them, quite a piece of work on their own. And they all light up. I'm guessing these are the most important and hardest to replace components, so whatever it is that's wrong with it may be easily fixed by someone in the know.<br />
<br />
When I first got my hands on it I did program it a little bit, but at the same time I got my hands on my first ever PC (then known as a 'micro') so this thing didn't get much of a look-in after that. You compose the program, save it on a magnetic card fed into the machine through a slot on the left. Above the slot is a printer, not sure if that works or not, it appears to use a special roll of silvered paper, no sign of ink or a ribbon.<br />
<br />
If you do know anything about this old thing please let me know, and if anybody is interested in acquiring it from me, maybe drop me an email. I don't think it would be a good idea either physically or financially to think about posting it though!<br />
<br />
For more pictures of the machine, click <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xledev/sets/72157629532313460/" target="_blank">here to go to Flickr</a>.DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-44310418408467211792012-04-22T16:36:00.001+01:002012-04-25T13:13:12.670+01:00Porsches on the Prom, Llandudno<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5UhpnfCBS4_HcL6ykZfT9B1PnWR6n4utJGbaNkL8gBpNUGg8q_pbwvHeWNWFYsSfrSO054RjH_84mQDvpEIs4EEzxgeuqQF2snwoV9Mb91wOqLjiTNbiE2hibqRjv-G-PvaAYlEcm8z-k/s1600/porscheonprom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5UhpnfCBS4_HcL6ykZfT9B1PnWR6n4utJGbaNkL8gBpNUGg8q_pbwvHeWNWFYsSfrSO054RjH_84mQDvpEIs4EEzxgeuqQF2snwoV9Mb91wOqLjiTNbiE2hibqRjv-G-PvaAYlEcm8z-k/s1600/porscheonprom.jpg" /></a></div>
Well, it was a grand day out to Llandudno on Sunday the 22nd of April 2012, to see all the lovely Porsches gathered there.<br />
<br />
This annual event was blessed with fine weather, though rain threatened most of the day. The sun shone, giving excellent photographic opportunities, or just a nice environment in which to enjoy the cars on show.<br />
<br />
The majority of the car were 911s, however there were many Boxters, Caymans, 924s, 944s and some terrific 928s, even a 968 and an old 356.<br />
<br />
I had to leave early, but I believe they were all off for a tootle around the Marine Drive at the end of the day, which must have been a spectacular sight!<br />
<br />
Many thanks to whoever organised the event (I think the <a href="http://www.porscheclubgb.com/" target="_blank">Porsche Club of Great Britain</a>), not often you get so much enjoyment for absolutely nothing.<br />
<br />
To see some of my pictures of the event, click <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drivearchive/sets/72157629874078181/" target="_blank">here to go to Flickr.</a>DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-68638547480451644062012-03-01T21:15:00.000+00:002012-04-25T21:37:31.959+01:00Peter Gabriel - New BloodYou might have read my review of Peter's previous album, if not find it <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.com/2011/09/peter-gabriel-scratch-my-back.html">here</a>.<br />
<table cellspacing="5"><tbody>
<tr> <td valign="top" width="80"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvUWAXtiAnbH6t0oIJ4pa6r8zdYIh8pE_ZsMIODK3-IPsi4v6d_biyih64o-25Ukf0Qd4g1qMjEUevL7T-AObldf9DR2hNfYrQvpYHioIVKNC7dItDx2seawov_WGv3BpV8vHwH_2CvoT/s1600/newblood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvUWAXtiAnbH6t0oIJ4pa6r8zdYIh8pE_ZsMIODK3-IPsi4v6d_biyih64o-25Ukf0Qd4g1qMjEUevL7T-AObldf9DR2hNfYrQvpYHioIVKNC7dItDx2seawov_WGv3BpV8vHwH_2CvoT/s200/newblood.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</td> <td valign="top">This is much the same, but this time he's orchestra'd up his own work, not someone else's.<br />
<br />
I think the album Scratch My Back was a triumph. I was a little worried about this new effort. But then I saw Peter perform extracts on Jools and I was won around.<br />
<br />
As usual with Gabriel's work, repeated playing just makes the thing get better and better. There's a quality here that is rare these days.</td><td valign="top"><br /></td><td valign="top"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I guess in an ideal world I would prefer the guy to come up with something new, but this album is not a bad substitute as he significantly reworks some of his best tunes, transforming them into a whole new level.<br />
<br />
Aside from the lengthy atmospheric introduction to Solsbury Hill, which gets old pretty quickly, the whole album is spot on. How someone unfamiliar with his oeuvre would take to this is hard for me to say. But it just oozes quality from start to finish.<br />
<br />
Very highly recommended, 10/10, you could buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005F435UI/drivearchive-21" target="_blank">here</a>.DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784523075278088995.post-39856199049464928142011-10-29T13:52:00.001+01:002017-01-09T09:05:38.643+00:00Acer Aspire One D255EWhat's the opposite of an "impulse purchase"? Whatever the phrase is, that's what the buying process for this device was for me. Took me months! Earlier in the year there was an article in PC Pro comparing many Netbooks and this one won. That was just the start.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeFUCQcIskcRhND7CNxUok1jy8hGSP7HqkybDfS-0ikeRL3SpVJTKx6WdhE3rdkdGLMd0s9sxCTkUs1RJcU5adp17FBb4ar5orcKfH9D2QYmocIm4SdGuKGUu0uznyoutA9RzYnE4yzQs/s1600/acer1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeFUCQcIskcRhND7CNxUok1jy8hGSP7HqkybDfS-0ikeRL3SpVJTKx6WdhE3rdkdGLMd0s9sxCTkUs1RJcU5adp17FBb4ar5orcKfH9D2QYmocIm4SdGuKGUu0uznyoutA9RzYnE4yzQs/s1600/acer1.jpg" /></a></div>
I then set about looking for alternatives at a better price, but - cutting to the chase - nothing seemed as good. I stood for ages in PC World and Currys playing with netbooks various, and was somewhat underwhelmed. If you get the chance, walk up to a netbook and try running four or five applications at once. Chances are it will fall flat on its face.<br />
<br />
Most of them are single core processors, and nearly all have but 1gig of memory. A few years ago their specification would have been thought fabulous, but now they struggle to cope with just the operating system, let alone running a program. (There's an article elsewhere in the blog extolling the virtues of MS-DOS for those who can remember it.)<br />
<br />
So, the D255E has a dual core processor. I very nearly bought a single core example once, before the nuances of Acer's name scheme became apparent to me, a mistake I suspect many could have made. It has 1gig of memory and a 250gig hard disk. It has 3 USB ports, N class wifi and a 10.1 inch display. It nominally costs 250 quid, but I decided that 200 was my top limit. Much hard work went into tracking down such a thing, weeks passed but eventually I fluked it - Okobe had red ones for 200 pounds. I'm inclined to think they made a mistake on their web site, because if anything red ones are more than the usual black.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhccaVVqDsjCz0ZHgo8e2AJHkdcMh3qiFThohAKLZ72kRa5IqxvgiDbY1C4099kwOQmFnrARh3SRjEp8UhOyrD0NbyyJfovvKFvd_cpaSmfCczr3XzAVrR6pCcAbD4tskiH54LpvBip-Y7/s1600/acer2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhccaVVqDsjCz0ZHgo8e2AJHkdcMh3qiFThohAKLZ72kRa5IqxvgiDbY1C4099kwOQmFnrARh3SRjEp8UhOyrD0NbyyJfovvKFvd_cpaSmfCczr3XzAVrR6pCcAbD4tskiH54LpvBip-Y7/s1600/acer2.jpg" /></a></div>
There's no denying, it is a bit slow. It's a 1.5 ghz processor, and the dual core does allow it to multi-task quite happily, but it's no greyhound, Patience is required. Once things are running, they run well, but start up times seem slow.<br />
<br />
Having removed all the crapware from the machine, installed Chrome and Firefox and banished IE whence it came, surfing is a totally pleasant experience. And as that's pretty much all I wanted it for, that's fine. But having said that, I have no complaints about how it runs Office, or indeed any of the other apps I've subsequently installed. I can't see it doing video editing, but Picassa works fine for example, as does Google Earth.<br />
<br />
The display is very bright and clear as a bell, and it's glossy finish has not caused me problems at all. And once the battery was trained it is genuinely giving me hours of use on a charge. The claim is 8 hours plus, but that must be for doing not-a-lot, I'm getting over 6 hours of normal use, whatever that is...<br />
<br />
The wifi range is good, the keyboard is nice to use, the touchpad is responsive, it's light to carry, and looks cute as a button. It gets a little warm on the lap, but nothing to mention, and the fan is quiet. It's great for watching the BBC iPlayer in bed. Speakers aren't that great, well they sound okay but there's little volume, but that's easily fixed with headphones.<br />
<br />
If I was to find fault... there's just 1gig of ram, but to install more you have to get your screwdriver out and remove the base... I'm not sure my nerves would take this. Surely a little hatch isn't too much to ask? Or that it should come with 2gig? Because just running a browser the ram usage goes into the red sometimes.<br />
<br />
The machine is configured to boot into Android. This is easily bypassed, but I've left it doing this, as the start up time is phenomenal. It feels like just a few seconds from pressing "on" to being able to surf. Catch is, the version of Firefox used in the Android partition is well old, and I can't fathom how (or indeed if) you can update it. And oddly it seems to run very slowly, use it for gmail for example, and it keeps "sticking" as you type your message. There's something not quite right with it all. And there's a small app store to access, but so far I've failed to download anything from it, it just hangs when I try.<br />
<br />
But ignoring these minor gripes, I cannot but heartily recommend the D255. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it's performed faultlessly. I attended a long meeting recently, other participants had laptops that they kept having to 'sleep' all the time - me, I just left the Acer on - that battery rocks! As I said before, beware the identical looking single core version, which can be the same price too, confusingly. You may not be as a lucky as me to find one for 200 quid, 240 seems generally to be going rate, but as the opposition catches up with dual cores I expect its price will drop.<br />
<br />
<div style="border: 1px solid silver; color: blue; padding: 5px;">
<b>Update 2017</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Yes, after many years, the Acer is still going, admittedly with only infrequent use these days. It has soldiered on well, and still looks quite new. The battery still gives a reasonable life, and everything still works fine. Software wise, it did start to go slower and slower, until it really got unusable, at which point a complete re-install of Windows sorted it out. Along the way I did try running it using Linux, but this didn't really give me the tools I needed, but it did work okay-ish (see <a href="http://drivelarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/acer-aspire-one-d255-to-linux-and-back.html">here</a>). I did lose the Android alternative system that the machine came with, no great loss. And then came Windows 10. I took the chance of the free upgrade, which I was surprised I got given that the original system was 7 Starter. BUT, after the upgrade things were not great, it had become very slow, despite the hype that 10 did not need more power than 7.<br />
So... I gritted my teeth and did what I should have done from the very start, upgrade the memory. It came with just 1gig. I had read what was required to upgrade, and when the notebook was new I didn't fancy taking it apart to get the new RAM in, but of course now I wasn't so bothered. And it turned out to be a ten minute job, no problem at all. The worrying bit is prizing the keyboard off and then undoing several key screws, but there's a YouTube video that shows you how to do it. A doddle, and the memory was very cheap. A very worthwhile upgrade and means the machine will run Windows 10 happily. In fact I'm using it this very minute to write this.<br />
So, during it's life Notebooks were in and then out of fashion, but I notice that recently there's been a resurgence in interest in these smaller laptops, this time around as a sort of tablet/laptop hybrid. They are very useful to have around, the number of time I've needed the quick use of a portable device I don't really care about, it's perfect. I now use it mostly to plug in to my car diagnostics, it happily sits on the engine telling me where the latest problem is!</div>
DrivelArchivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12611081314553210794noreply@blogger.com0