David's Blog

There's a speed camera on the M6 that's raking in money from fines - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256738/Speed-camera-trap-M6-racing-record-3m-haul-fines.html

Here's the reaction from campaign groups:

Nigel Humphries, of the Association of British Drivers, said: 'This has to be the worst case we have heard of."

Claire Armstrong, of Safespeed, said: 'This is absolutely disgusting.."

But amazingly (not) they're not complaining about the drivers who are breaking the law, or putting road safety at risk, no - they're complaining that they're getting caught!

Humphries said:

"this is appalling and the speed cameras must be sited wrongly to have clocked so many speeding drivers"

Um - or maybe they've been sited correctly, where so many drivers are speeding?

Perhaps we should re-phrase? "This is appalling, and the drivers need to stop speeding at this site".

OK - I've not been caught speeding, so I haven't experienced that "fury" on getting a "nasty little surprise in the post", but there is a law, there are signs, so: live with it! (and slow down).

OpenOffice's latest incarnation, 3.20, spellchecks "Heath-Whyte" as "Death-Wishes".

Gee, Thanks.

Yes - Health and Safety would have had a fit: I had a trailing cable from my Dell Vostro 1400 laptop... I tripped over it... SMASH! The screen broke. Well, it didn't actually smash, but it certainly didn't work any more.

So - I rang up Dell: A new screen for my Dell Wostro (yes, they seem to have changed the name from Vostro to Wostro, at least in the call centre...) would cost £210 + VAT. Eeek.

Ebay came to my rescue - £80.

Then this kind chap did : http://www.insidemylaptop.com/replace-damaged-lcd-screen-dell-vostro-1500-laptop/

But that's for a 1500 which is slightly different, so here are some photos to show the differences:

Step 3 is different: you cannot see the side screws, nor remove them yet. Instead you have to remove the screen on its bracket.

First remove the screws from behind where the Camera would be if you had one (I don't)

Then:

1. ease the bottom of the screen out slightly and

2. carefully use a screwdriver to pop the two pins out of their holes on the top edge of the mounting,

   

    

3. whilst easing the bracket off the pins on the top left/right sides.

   
   

Yes - you need at least three hands.

Now the screen should be out, and you're back at stage 7 of the Vostro 1500 instructions

The LCD connector latches aren't obvious: I've altered one of other other guy's photos to show where to push:

Now - and I'm sorry, I didn't take photos of this (I only thought of this post once I'd put the screen back in) - you need to take the two brackets off the screen - one on the left, one on the right. It's pretty obvious, each one has three screws holding it on.

In this photo, with the screen still in place in the case, you can see the bracket (surrounded in red) and where one of the screws is (in green). Don't try to remove the screws when it's in place like this!

Once the brackets are off, you can reverse all of this with your new screen.

Easy eh?

Happy Christmas, folks!
Under a week to go now, and I'm still only just remembering some of things I'm supposed to be sorting out... Oh well. It'll happen.
Hope you have a great one!

...is going well so far with me.

Some issues: (maybe solved, I'll keep updating this)

EMU PatchMix DSP conflict - no system sound! SOLVED

Having installed the 64bit PatchMix DSP drivers and application, I could get a test tone to be heard, but no system sound, no media player etc.
Solution:
Control Panel
> Sound
> select Speakers E-MU E-DSP
> Properties
> Advanced
> select 16bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality)

It seems the default of 48000Hz conflicted with the PatchMix 44.1kHz

"Unknown Contact" is owner of old folders - visible in folder sharing. SOLVED

I've done a fresh install of Win7 64bit, but have many 'old' folders with data in, including my "My Documents" folder on a separate drive. These old folders all had an "Unknown Contact" as owner.
Solution:
Explorer
> Right-Click the Hard Drive the files are on
> Properties
> Security
> Advanced
> Owner
> Edit
> select "Replace Owner on subcontainers and objects"
warning: when you click OK, every file on the drive will have to be modified, and this might take a while - might be worth deleting any TileProxy caches... (not that you'll have one, but just in case)
> Click OK