COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

My Logitech keyboard has dedicated keys but they only control the sound level inside the settings applied by the main control which is always on the top bar of the screen on Ubuntu..... Have a look at the menu on the desktop bar David. You might find sound in the drop-down menus.

[Pluggy]

Some of them have the volume keys on the direction arrows in combination with the Fn key. The one I'm using now has them on the left and right arrows. (I do occasionally slum it away from my real computer). The wifes old laptop (A Toshiba L300 sattelite) had a volume control, but you don't see many with them.

Many moons ago, people were wondering which way I'd go for a tablet. My dauughter bought my granddaughter a Tesco Hudl 2 for Christmas. If you purely consume information from the internet, its not bad, but its poor if you want to type something, when half the screen vapourises into a keyboad. But that of course is common to all tablets. The hudl is reasonable as a tablet. The Tesco branding is fairly low key which apperently ins't the case with anything Amazon Kindle. It performs at a reasonable speed, it doesn't seem to struggle doing stuff, which is more than can be said for my Android phone (cheap, low end Samsung Fame).

Andorid Apps are going the same way as Windows did decades ago, full of advertising crap, which varies in just how intrusive it is. Somewhat ironically perhaps, my daughter and grandaughter refer to the machine as the "iPad". The Apple fanbois probably wouldn't go great guns on that, but it is about the quarter the price of an Apple.

I don't think I'll bother getting one for myself, I'll stick to things I can install Ubuntu on......

[Tripps]

Thanks all for the advice. Pluggy gets the prize - Fn + left and right arrows controls the audio volume. Much more convenient, and right before my eyes, all the time. First time I've ever used a Fn key.

On Tablets. The first one I got (cheap Chinese), came with a case and separate detachable, keyboard, which was useful. I don't like the onscreen keyboard version. The screen display collapsed, and it took a couple of months, and heroic persistence, to get my money back. I don't know if such a thing is available for the Hudl.

Having listened to my son who has a Hudl 1, and reading what you write - I'm taking it as a recommendation. Don't think I'll invest though as common sense has struck, and I don't really need it.

[Stanley]

"I don't think I'll bother getting one for myself, I'll stick to things I can install Ubuntu on......"

That just about sums my attitude up....
By the way, I had my first Canonical download failure three days ago. A small one for an upgrade to the Flash Player (whatever that is....) It failed completely and left a small window on the desktop that I couldn't get rid of that session. It eventually vanished and yesterday we had another Flash upgrade that went normally. I remember all the times on Windows where a similar thing happened and the window stayed there annoying me until I eventually found a way of zapping it.

[Pluggy]

The flash thing happened to me as well Stanley, as your's it righted itself the next day. Its Adobe Flash player, first port of call for all things video on the inernet....

[Tizer]

Stanley we had the same problem with that update on both our PCs, with different Ubuntu versions, one 32-bit and the other 64-bit. In Ubuntu if ever you find something won't close, no matter what you try, click on the Dash (top left button), type in System Monitor, click on the System Monitor icon that comes up to open its window, click the Processes tab, look down the list for the name of the software or item that you want to close, highlight it with the mouse, then click the End Process button. It sounds long-winded but it's very simple in practice.

[PanBiker]

Running the risk of mentioning a dirty word, same as task manager in Windows.

I have installed Ubuntu as dual boot on my radio shack machine to have play around with. At the present it will not update Flash player. It's attached to the internet OK via the powerline adaptors but fails at every attempt, not taken note of the error message yet.

[Pluggy]

Mine has just updated Flash again, went through without issue, and wanted me to restart Firefox to use it,

Occasionally I've resorted to forcing updates the old school way in terminal, doesn't happen very often but will usually straighten things out if it gets its knickers in a twist. Make sure update is closed down first.

Code: Select all

sudo bash
{password}
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

[PanBiker]

I'll have look next time I boot it up.

[Stanley]

I got the Firefox upgrade this morning. In the interests of experiment I did the upgrade with Firefox running. (I know, dangerous stuff!) It did the upgrade and Firefox had a black bar at the top saying it wanted to restart. Pressed the button and it vanished and immediately reappeared exactly where I had left off, posting this reply. Impressive.....

[plaques]

I've just been dabbling with what appears to be some new coding ref; '@keyframes' . This coding seems to fit between 'HTML' and 'java Script' in ease of use. So far I can only see a limited range of functions to play with. Has anyone out there tried it or can point me at a comprehensive description, it would be much appreciated,

[Pluggy]

@keyframes is a CSS directive, So to understand the directive you need to look up CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

This is a pretty website that demonstrates what CSS can do http://www.csszengarden.com/ It needs a recent browser, so don't bother if you're using Internet Explorer on a Windows earlier than Windows 7. Recent Firefox and Chrome should work OK

[plaques]

Thanks Pluggy, Chrome opened it up no bother. I've had @keyframes changing panel colours and moving about the screen but that's has far as I've got. I'm a complete novice on these things so progress is very slow. I really need some working code to look at so that I can get a better idea of what's going on. I'll have a look through zengarden and see if it helps.

[Stanley]

I'm impressed P. The Kids once got me into C+++ (I think...) I decided my brain was full enough.....

[Tizer]

BBC, 2 February 2015
`Raspberry Pi 2 unveiled with faster processor and more memory'
"A new budget-priced Raspberry Pi computer has been unveiled, offering child coders and others a faster processor and more memory than before, but at about the same price. The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B is roughly six times more powerful than the prior version, the Model B+, according to the British charity behind it...."
More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31088908

[Pluggy]

Yes, it takes over the entire raspberry pi website. You can't get into the forum for the announcement.....

[Stanley]

Thanks to Canonical for 80mb of new Linux OS. As usual, fast seamless upgrade. Wonderful service.....

[Tizer]

The BBC has a story, `Ubuntu smartphone offers alternative to apps'. It sounds interesting but I suppose, like any other smartphone, it will still involve signing your life away to one of those nasty phone companies!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31148661

[Big Kev]

BBC News Story

Big Brother is listening to you.

[Stanley]

I saw that report on the news last night. Spooky!

[Tizer]

I've been saying for years that the banks are not telling us how much they are being compromised by fraudsters, malicious hackers and other criminals. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than they are admitting to the public and they're frightened of panicking customers into thinking their money is no longer safe in the big banks. Well now it's coming out into the open...

BBC, 16 February 2015
`Cyber bank robbers steal $1bn, says Kaspersky report'
Up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide have been attacked in an "unprecedented cyber robbery", claims a new report. Computer security firm Kaspersky Lab estimates $1bn (£648m) has been stolen in the attacks, which it says started in 2013 and are still ongoing. A cybercriminal gang with members from Russia, Ukraine and China is responsible, it said. Kaspersky said it worked with Interpol and Europol on the investigation. It said the attacks had taken place in 30 countries including financial firms in Russia, US, Germany, China, Ukraine and Canada. "These attacks again underline the fact that criminals will exploit any vulnerability in any system," said Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol's digital crime centre. Kaspersky said the gang's methods marked a new stage in cyber robbery where "malicious users steal money directly from banks and avoid targeting end users".

The gang, which Kaspersky dubbed Carbanak, used computer viruses to infect company networks with malware including video surveillance, enabling it to see and record everything that happened on staff's screens. In some cases it was then able to transfer money from the banks' accounts to their own, or even able to tell cash machines to dispense cash at a pre-determined time of day. Kaspersky said on average each bank robbery took between two and four months, with up to $10m stolen each time. "It was a very slick and professional cyber robbery," said Kaspersky Lab's principal security researcher, Sergey Golovanov.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31482985

[Stanley]

I saw that report as well. The biscuit tins under the bed are a safe option.....

[chinatyke]

The biscuit tins under the bed are a safe option.....

Not if you keep telling everybody when you will be going out walking with Jack. Thieves can read also. The treasures in your shed would keep a thief or druggy happy for a while.

[Stanley]

Ah, but I haven't disclosed the nature of the booby traps.....

[chinatyke]

A few years ago we were asked to watch a friend's house whilst he and his family went on holiday. He lived opposite us and we had the key and alarm details. The night after he left the alarm was activated and my wife dashed across to investigate, I was on night shift. A back window had been broken but the thief was scared off. The police were called and the house was made secure again. When the friend returned we discussed his alarm system which was poor in relation to the value of his home and contents. Like you he was an engineer, self employed with a garage full of tools and expensive equipment. His hobby was scuba diving and he had diving equipment worth a lot of money in his garage. The garage was an integral part of the house and only had a flimsy internal door between it and the main house but there was no alarm protection on the garage or for any intruder entering the house from the garage. The alarm system was poor but had been designed and installed by professionals. During installation they had failed to cut a link in the control panel which meant once the internal battery went flat it wouldn't be recharged from the mains. So cutting the electric power to the property would have rendered the alarm useless. It was a cheap and easy job to upgrade the system and this was done.

The point is that it's fairly obvious that someone who knew him and his movements had tried to break in the night after he went on holiday. It's OK being friendly on public forums but make sure you don't compromise security. Just friendly advice.