You may remember the problems I had with the HDD of my Yamada DVR 9000 TV
recorder . I did get that sorted by FAT32′ing on Win98 m/c.

I haven’t been able to write R disks since last summer and RW’s screwed up
with more than 3 hours of data. Since Christmas I haven’t been able to write
any disks at all - a bit of a drag as I recorded lots at Christmas and the
HD is pretty full.

A simple swap of the DVD drive seemed the answer BUT - it’s a unlabeled
lite-on unit and a non standard size. I assumed the device was probably
running Linux and would need drivers for whatever DVD was installed so it
would need to be a like for like replacement.

However I found http://www.howtomendit.com/answers.php?id=142563 where
someone said a Sony dru190A would work as a replacement. Having sourced one
(Amazon after a few tries elsewhere)  I gave it a go with the box open & the drive laid on top of the existing one. A bit of a problem there as the cat (mad) stalks shiney DVD’s and kept trying to nose at the inards - not sure how anti-static a cats nose is, or what 240V would do to him - couldn’t make him any dafter anyway.

I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t seem to work but that was with the Philips
DVD+RW’s I had carefully sourced as another forum recommended these with the
Yamada. Somewhat amazingly it did work with the standard Tesco DVD+R’s I had
given up using.

Getting it working was one thing - putting the box back together was
another. The weird fixings relied on screwing the DVD to the bottom of the
case (on some risers) and slotting into some large tags on the front of the
box. Not a hope with the standard PC style Sony. However it shouldn’t get
chucked around much so I put blue tack on the risers, bent the tags flat &
gaffa taped it all in place and it seemed OK. I snapped mirrored the drawer
cover of the old unit and glued it to a chipboard spacer which I blue tacked
to the DVD drawer itself. A it of black tape to cover the chipboard and it
even looks pretty good.

As the unit only cost about £110, the replacement drive at £30 still means
it was a bargain  - though I have wished I’d spent more on the many
occasions it has played up! Chalk up another victory to the web.

Over at http://msn.careerbuilder.co.uk/Article/MSN-218-Workplace-Issues-10-Things-Not-to-Share-with-Your-Co-workers/?sc_extcmp=int_ukmsn_a218hp&ocid=today&SiteId=int_ukmsn_a218hp&ArticleID=218>1=62500&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=49fc9a1790634a1ca9a4da1fc886799d-291203692-wk-6 they are telling you “things to never share or discuss with your co-workers ” even though “some of your colleagues you even count as real friends”.

What kind of sad half-people are these? You shouldn’t discuss “Personal problems / Politics or religion / Intimate details” with co-workers even though they are “real friends” as you might be “risking your professional image”.

I think I’ll take the talking to friends and stuff the “professional image” thanks all the same.  Friends, happiness, mental health should all rate above career.

Mind you, not boasting about your salary / binge drinking / drug taking on facebook is good advice - however if you need to be told that I doubt your “professional image” is going to be much good anyway…

The report here says we spend 16 billion on public sector it projects but only 30% succeed - that’s 9.6 billion spent on projects that don’t work. OK “succeed” is a bit of a vague term & my comment “wasted” is provocative but that is one hell of a lot of money that isn’t doing what it should do.

Hmmm, the trouble is if you leave the video playing it goes on to tell you about UFO’s & USO’s as sighted around the Burmuda Triangle, seen by Columbus and how New and Old Testament angels might be little green men. Should I be trusting ANYTHING with a Microsoft label? But it must all be true there are videos showing it happen. Clever really, I didn’t know Columbus, St Peter, Abraham were carrying camera phones.

Read the story at

http://www.itpro.co.uk/610182/should-the-bbc-botnet-have-hijacked-22-000-computers

those naughty beeb types hacked in to prove it could be done. Should they be charged? Of course not!

My neighbour left their front door open so I put my head round & shouted & then pushed it to (checking it wasn’t locking them out!).  Was I criminally interfering? Trespassing?

I’d rather have the beeb hack my PC just to tell me it was vulnerable rather than leave it to be hacked maliciously.

What next? If I break someones ribs doing CPR will I be charged with assault?

The media (and everyone else) chucks stats about like a TV evangelist quotes scripture - I guess they both rate them as THE TRUTH.

There is an interesting article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7937382.stm which includes a graph form I’ve not come across before.

The 13 clicks bit just does some basic maths - a 20% increase of a 5% risk only increases the real risk by 1% (if only people would do some basic maths they’d know 20/100 x 5/100 = 1/100).

However, people can’t or won’t do maths a lot of the time and presentation, is far too nearly, everything. Check out http://www.dilbert.com/strips/ 7-March & 9-March…

A while back I asked about the weirdest things ever seen advertised on freecycle (the excellent scheme for passing on unwanted items and avoiding landfill http://uk.freecycle.org). I think the funniest was from a moderator who stopped a post offering “ex-girlfriend’s rabbit” as the group didn’t accept pets and then realised it wasn’t a pet being offered…

 Anyway we had some good ones through today - in the same post we had

2 tins tennis balls (8 in total)
Wicker funeral Urn with thick cotton inner loose sleeve
Small stainless steel bowl and domed lid
Packet curtain glides for Solid Glide
Nose trimmer
:

I assume the nose trimmer trims nose hair not actual noses - but do I want something up my nose that has (potentially) been up someone else’s? And why is the funeral urn no longer needed? I guess there are reasons, I had originally pictured a cremation urn…