April « 2009 « Ians Ramblings

26Apr/090

Vista Woes Finally Resolved – HP m9265.uk

Everyone at work will be aware that I whine on about Vista being a horrendous resource hog and disk thrasher, I finally found out it was a firmware issue with my own hard disk which actually lead to it's severe thrashing by Vista.

A while back HP released a firmware update for my home machine, the Pavilion Elite m9265.uk which said it only effected a small number of seagate drives and that it fixed a message that appeared on boot.

Now as my machine was not seemingly effected and displayed no such message on boot I didn't install the firmware update, in my experience, if it aint broke don't fix it.

If the firmware update is not installed what it does to the drive is slowely cripple it until instead of rating 5.9 in Vista it rates 2.1 and it takes about 45 minutes to get into the operating system.

Unfortunately HP do not provide a link to the firmware update on their site under the model of PC and there is no indication anywhere that it is so vital to keeping your machine actually usable.

I have created an ISO of the bootable disc you need to update your seagte drive and am sharing it here for other users of the HP Pavilion Elite m9265.uk. Basically if you have one of the Seagate drives, you really have to install the update, who know's what the deal is for people who have the machine and no internet connection, but still that's modern PC companies for you..

Well after the firmware update the machine sprang back into life and re-rated appeared 5.8 which was much nicer..

Anyway just incase people were interested in creating ISOs from CDs or DVDs I found a nice little freeware tool that I am also putting up here for download.

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19Apr/090

Honda NC30 – Service Time

First service for my Honda VFR400R today, I don't believe the last owner had given the bike a proper service in the last 5 years or so, so I really wanted to be sure everything was in good working order internally.

I checked around a few places and luckily the place that was the best value also had the kind of atmosphere I was looking for in a garage that I could use for all further work, Full Throttle over in Stapleford in Nottinghamshire.

I was able to observe, learn and assist with the service which taught me alot. I have included a few pics of the bike during the service to show how in depth it all was, and if any other VFR400R owners wanted to see how stripped down the bike needs to be during a proper service.

fairings

The first parts of the fairings coming off, the bottom fairing is fairly fragile and needed a little tightening underneath.

All fairings and the petrol tank removed

fairings

Engine cover off when checking the valve clearances

Nice clean red new air filter in place

Air filter box back on ready to have the fairings all put back on.

I also had an oil change, oil filter replacement, breaks checked over and cleaned up, tyre pressures and the usual safety checks.

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17Apr/090

Pirate Bay

Feel the need to add a blog comment as millions will be about Pirate Bay today being convicted of the bizarre crime of assisting others to break copyright laws.

One question I wondered,, if,, Henry Ford could have been prosecuted for assisting others to commit death by dangerous driving? Oh yeh of course not, he made alot of money, they wouldn't ever go after someone like that.

For a bit of a nostalgic moment thought I would post a link to how Pirate Bay looked back in 2004 when it was just one year old.

In my opinion I think the penalties handed out, were extremely over the top, I wish I could see these sentances handed out to all the teenagers stabbing people down dark alleys instead, unfortunately they just get told not to do it again,, I guess that shows where the law's priorities lie, where the money is..

This is only the start of what could be a six year appeals process however, and it annoys me that once again the news sites have got their magic balls out and have already predicted the future once more. The BBC getting over excited and claiming the defendants have been jailed already.

While I agree that all artists deserve to be paid for their work, I think it may be time that the artists, producers and distributors realised that there is an unjust balance of wealth, and that they have effectively had it too good for too long.

I agree people should be paid a fair price for the work they do, but that just because it has become the norm that a film star or one hit wonder musician gets millions of pounds in royalties doesn't make it right, maybe it's right that the prices should nose dive and the money perhaps will be re-directed more fairly throughout society, and perhaps,, god forbid it arriving in the hands of people that need it or who contribute something truely useful to society.

Ah well that's my rant, I do feel it is certainly political, the music and film industry claiming Pirate Bay did it for the money, well have seen the homes of the guys who run the site and they're hardly palatial, far from it.

communist

I think they fear it more as an almost online communism, a sharing an equalling for apparently no reward of gain and they can't understand that.

Next posting will be another privacy related rambling, but will show how to create a nice little Tor proxy for your network so you can use it to anonymise your browsing, if you don't always feel like being one of the drones.

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4Apr/090

Birthday 2009

Well it was my birthday this weekend, and I had a great time. I decided after working hard lately on our next project at work and it being my birthday and all I would have three days off which were wisely spent chilling out in the sun and riding my motorbikes.

Had a great time out at the pub with all from work, so thanks again for popping along all. On my actual birthday I decided to get out my Honda NC30 and take a ride down one of my favourite roads the A6 between Buxton and Matlock. I think it was a three or four hour round trip as I went via all the smaller roads through all the twisty bends the NC30 was supurb, I noticed GSXRs gingerly disapearing in the bends only to hear them hammering away on the straights and breaking the speed limit to get by.

Perfect weather for it and I enjoyed chilling out at a cafe with my bike parked opposite catching some sun.

Analie also visited over the three days and today so we went out and about to the city centre and over to Wollaton always a great place to take a long lense and photograph some of the deer that inhabit the grounds.

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