Yearly Archive: 2012

Introducing: Mitul Patel

As I promised when I launched this site, I would get guest writers to help me out. Today I would like to introduce the self-proclaimed professional trouble-maker Mitul Patel. Mitul is a few weeks away from completing his masters in Computer Science at Loughborough University where he is completing his thesis project titled “Simulating mobile nodes in ad-hoc systems.” Outside of university Mitul is studying for his CCNA and is looking to become a full time network engineer. Mitul also enjoys lock picking, white-hat security and interesting TV. Mitul’s computer setup includes an overclocked Sandy Bridge i7, five monitors, a…
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An advert for a great web host – EvoHosting.co.uk

When I signed up with my web hosting company nearly five years ago, they offered the best service for the price. By the time the last renewal come round though they were useless, so I changed to my current hosts – EvoHosting.co.uk. Why am I giving them free advertising, well last night I couldn’t get my browser to save the password to my control panel, so I opened a ticket with them. They fixed it within 4 hours on a Saturday night. That’s good service! if you want good service from your web host check EvoHosting.co.uk out here!

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On the search for better internet. Part 1

Let me answer a couple of questions about the internet. Is the internet a human right? No. Should it be? Not really. Would I become a raving lunatic if the internet was taken away from me? Probably! The reason I say this is that I have had enough of ADSL, it’s crap and that is putting it mildly. We have two ADSL lines coming into the house. Measurements taken at 1240 on a Sunday afternoon reveal that the main BT Business broadband connection manages a pathetic 3.15Mbps down and 0.38Mbps up with a 19ms ping through a Cisco 1841 router….
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Want a high-performance workstation? Step away from the Mac Pro

The other day I was engaging in a spot of Apple bashing with some fellow IT professionals and our thoughts turned to the subject of full sized performance workstations, namely the Mac Pro. We agreed that they are generally stupid, they use old technology and overcharge massively for the privilege. I decided to prove this by doing a rather unscientific but simple exercise. As part of this exercise I have built two Mac Pro systems, a mid-range model and a high end model. I am then going to build a PC equivalent of the Mac model on specification in order…
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Why Linux and LibreOffice suck!

Having written articles on small issues such as politics and religion, I now feel ready to once again stick my boot into a much larger topic. Why Linux is a steaming pile of Cow Turd! First, I will explain, the article you should have been reading at this very moment is about those who aim to disrupt the Olympics, but thanks to Linux and the LibreOffice suite, you get this instead. It started with me writing an article on my fully updated Ubuntu 11.04 powered netbook, having written most of the article the previous evening I decided to finish it…
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Back to school: The start of 6.002x

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I signed up for a free online self-study course in Circuits and Electronics, run by MIT under the MITx programme. Today the course started and I wish to say one thing should my Electronics teachers ever see this (David Brooker or Paul Abbot) half of what the course covers I have never seen before. When it comes to pure maths, my skills are pretty week, fortunately Google has been able to help me answer some of the questions, which so far concern looking at discrete abstractions based on the V-I relationship. From…
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Your Search Queries 20/02/2012 – 26/02/2012

One of the great things about Google Analytics is the vast wealth of information it makes available to me. I can see for instance what search queries I am getting listed for, and some of them I can give a simple answer for, so here goes! Last week you searched for: 2nd Week: 01234 765093 / Computer virus phone scams See my article here 2nd Week: Raspberry Pi <something> Finally, some news, they have released the model B which is available to pre-order from RS and Farnell depending on where you live with deliveries starting soon. Also, the model A…
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Your Search Queries 13/02/2012 – 19/02/2012

One of the great things about Google Analytics is the vast wealth of information it makes available to me. I can see for instance what search queries I am getting listed for, and some of them I can give a simple answer for, so here goes! Last week you searched for: 01234 765093 / Computer virus phone scams STOP! It’s a scammers phone number. They will call you up claiming to be from Microsoft or someone, they’ll con you into installing a back door for them to get onto your system before compromising it and holding it to ransom –…
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Updated: MIT to launch free online study courses

According to the BBC, next month, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) will begin offering a free online course in 6.002x: Circuits and Electronics through its fully automated MITx programme. From the looks of it, it’ll be free to join from anywhere in the world, and those that complete it successfully will receive a certificate, while MIT students can complete the course as part of their degree. Apparently there are plans to offer more courses in a wide range of subjects once this initial trial has completed. They say that there are no formal entry requirements for the course other than…
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