OHO! There may be life in the old dog yet!

So, my desktop PC died a few months back, when the primary hard disk - the boot drive - catastrophically failed. Well, it was, I'll admit, only a matter of time, and I'd been half expecting something like that to happen, so had (wisely) been doing what I tell others to do: I'd quietly been backing most of the data on it to one of my external USB hard drives, so (queue the bugler in the background, sounding the last Post) RIP (Rust in Pieces) desktop XP machine, you served your user well over the last five years *sniff*.

For the rest of the stuff on the three remaining EIDE drives inside the old XP machine, I'll just need to lay my mitts on a drive reader, a small piece of hardware that you physically put an old hard drive into, which allows you to plug it into a USB port - such as the ones on my Acer One D255 netbook (that's running Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit), so no real problems there: The devices are available from Amazon easily enough, and are on my wish list for Christmas *hint to relatives looking for a pressie for me, lol*.

However, this still left me with an excellent and practically bomb-proof laser printer that was still turning out crisply printed pages from the old PC like there was no tomorrow: An HP LaserJet 6P. The problem with it is that I cannot directly plug it into my netbook, as the damn thing only uses the old Centronics 64-pin plug, not the more modern USB system.

So, there I was, idly surfing the net at oh-my-God-o'clock this morning (I couldn't sleep. Seems I'm a part-time insomniac. *shrug* It happens from time to time), and found myself meandering down the HTC Sensation Forums, and noticed a thread that mentioned that converters from MiniUSB to MicroUSB plugs were available. Interesting. Like many people, I've got a shedload of old miniUSB plugs for my old phone, and as my new HTC Sensation uses the new, smaller MicroUSB socket, they're somewhat useless for it - so the converted plugs will breath new life into the old kit.

And that's when the two-watt Toc-H lamp illuminated above my head, as my eyes wandered across to the LaserJet 6P on my desk, now gathering dust following the demise of the XP desktop machine... if they can make converter plugs and sockets for USB connectors, what about Centronics to USB converters?

Well, it seems that they do. The problem, however, is not purely a hardware issue - there's a firmware, or driver, issue as well. There are conflicting reports (Google search link) as to whether you can make a centronics printer like the LJ6P series actually work with a PC running Windows 7. Seems that HP have previously said that while some of the LJ6 series may be made to work, the LJ6P series may not, and as a result, they apparently haven't updated their drivers for them. Then, on one of their other links, apparently they *have* got updated drivers for the LJ6P series. Confusing isn't the word. Frustrating is rather more accurate.

And then I blundered across this: http://pete.akeo.ie/2011/05/installing-drivers-for-hp-laserjet-6p.html. So, here's hoping. I'm ordering a converter cable later, and then I'll download the driver. I'll let you know how I get on

Malware. The modern way to mug people.

OK, so a fair few people recently got hit by malware that they loaded onto their phones. Android phones, to be precise. It would appear that the software packages (Applications, or as lazy people call them, "Apps") they installed to their phones were slightly modified popular games. The uploader of these games cracked them open like a Piñata,and inserted some of his own lines of computer code, before closing them up again, and uploading them to the Android marketplace. The changes caused any phone loading this package to send text messages using premium-rate numbers.

I recently got an Android phone too... and I'm careful...

Now, if you've been reading this Blant for any length of time, you'll have noticed that I recently took delivery of a shiny new HTC Sensation, one of their flagship Android phones. It's a very nice phone, too. But I'm very selective about what I download to the phone - especially in the way of software packages. And I ALWAYS check the permissions that these packages want to access.

For example, is there any valid reason for a game to access any type of messaging, browser history, contacts, or, in fact, anything other than the sleep function of the screen (to stop the thing shutting down after twenty seconds of inactivity), and maybe internet access to show you advertisements as you play a 'free' game? No? Then don't install the damn thing. "Simples" (insert Merekat-like tongue sucking sound now).

If it's asking for the keys to the safe...

Simply put, if a software package is asking for the electronic version of an all areas pass to rummage around your phone, willy-nilly, then you can bet the last fiver in your wallet (the one you were going to buy a pint of beer with) that something is Not Exactly Kosher with that package, and that you ought to drop it like a hot coal, like right that blasted second.

I would have thought that this would be common sense to people these days, what with the phrase InfoSec (and variations thereof) having been tattooed onto their foreheads by the popular media over the last couple of years, but apparently this is not the case. As evidenced by this latest electronic mugging.

And, just to add insult to injury, apparently Microsoft are getting in on the act, and asking people who got enraged by their own stupidity to defect to a Microsoft Windows mobile phone. There's a Twitter trend on it already, would you believe. Look up #droidrage over there. You'll see it yourself.

Pardon me? They did what?!

You heard - I mean read - what I said. Microsoft, the paragon of insecurity (evidence the sheer mountain of viruses, malware, etc., that have hit their products over the years, causing them to have to 'patch' them repeatedly to close these security holes more times than I've had hot dinners, it seems), are spinning this to read like the Android Apocalypse, saying that Android is full of security holes. Wellllll, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't, but HA! Microsoft're FINE ones to talk, really! Can you say "Sheer hypocrisy"?!

But who's really responsible for this?

And yet... it's the phone owners, the users who got hit, who are to blame. Yes, really. They rolled snake-eyes, and failed to make two basic security checks.

First, they FAILED to ensure that they were getting the genuine games, from the genuine producer. Here's a hint: Angry Birds is made, and distributed through the Android Market, by a company called "Rovio". you can check this with a simple Google search. Try it. If the supplier blurb in the description of the package on the Android marketplace says it was uploaded by, say, Fred Bloggs, for example, then maybe, just maybe, you should avoid it like the bloody plague. There's your first blasted clue.

Then, they FAILED to check what permissions the packages were asking for. See above for why this is necessary.

And now, like children caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they're blaming everyone but themselves for screwing up.

Good practice is always good sense.

Google, who run the marketplace, give us solid advice when we use the place. Check the permissions. I go one step further, and check the supplier too. It's a belt and braces approach to a world that'll steal the trousers right off your legs, given half a chance.

The point is, you cannot, ever, be too damned careful. These electronic thieves and muggers are getting more clever by the minute, and you can't give them a chance, as they'll take your wallet, identity, and possibly the whole of your life history too, in an instant: They have no scruples, or even morals.

Don't cry foul when there isn't one, and don't crow.

So, don't blame others for your cock-up. Blame yourself.

And tell Microsoft to stop being so hypocritical. It's not pretty, and it's certainly not clever.

Good lord, I need more patience...

There I was, on the tram to work, earlier today, when, at the stop before I got off, two young women - barely out of school by the look of them - got on the tram, and loudly continued the conversation that they'd obviously started some time before.

Nothing new in that, really, we all continue conversations on public transport, although most of us have the decency to moderate - that is, lower the volume - of such converations, so as not to broadcast, television soap drama-like, the innermost details of our... shall we say messy? ... lives. So, there we were, with, for want of better and more accurate names, Sharon & Tracey, blathering on about whose boyfreind was doing what, where, and to whom, when it occured to me that practically one word in five out of these two sorry examples of humanity was "Like?" or "d'yaknowwoteyemeen?"

I'm very glad I was getting off at the next stop, or I would have either been giving them an English lesson they'd have never forgotten, or throttled them both to save the population from their propogating!

As it was, I was muttering words akin to "God give me strength...!" As I got off the tram...!

Americanisms in the English Language...

I suppose that I'm probably as guilty as most of you when, from time to time, I use American English, slang, and idioms. However, I'm slowly coming to the boil over some so-called words creeping into the language over here, when they should have firmly stayed over there instead.

One, at the time of writing, really stands head and shoulders above the rest for sheer stupidity. It's the use of the word "prepackaged".

When one packages something, one is either wrapping something, or putting something in a box or other form of container. The way the Americanism was used in this case, was by a wholesale trade food supply company. "Prepackaged foods to the food industry", was the slogan on the side of the van, its refrigeration unit, perched on to of the cab, was almost big enough for the diminutive driver to have walked into, I suspect.

The image that emerged, unbidden, from my mind as I read the slogan, was of a cow, walking into the slaughter shed and, as it died, falling apart to land on the ground as a couple of dozen cardboard boxes. It would certainly put a fair few qualified butchers out of work, were this to happen, but that's not the point.

What does "prepackaged" actually *mean*? Anyone?

I do appreciate that English is a constantly evolving language. I also feel that for a word to be used in everyday language, surely it should actually have some meaning, rather than be some kind of buzz-word that someone the other side of the Atlantic thinks sounds 'cool'?

I'd appreciate a few comments on this, if you have the time.

Thanks in advance!

New masthead...

You might have noticed that I've updated the masthead image.

I reckoned that since not everything in this Blant was bus-related, a better idea would be for a photo of london. So, there it is.

Anyway, I hunted for a spot in London that would give me a good vew of the centre of the city, while including a few iconic buildings, and in a place that I could take the photo without having to ask permission, or pay good money for the privilage of standing in one place long enough to compose and take the darn thing. This is the end result. Taken on a nice sunny day a few months ago (when the smog was still rising!) from Westow Hill in Crystal Palace, I then had a heck of a lot of work in digitally removing all the telephone wires from the photo (The Gimp - a photographic software package much like Adobe Photoshop, but open-source and thus free - can be very handy at times, even if the learning curve is a pain!), but the end result has been worth it, I think :)

On the downside, it's not as colourful or bright as I'd have liked; it's amazing how we all seem to remember it as a colourful place, when in reality, all the modern structures tend to fall into one shade of blue-grey or another, when viewed from a distance. I'll be working on and off over the next few months to see if i can introduce a colour difference into the background image, but don't hold your breath ;-)

In the meantime, if you've got comments or suggestions, I'm all ears :-)

Grammar! AAAAAARGH!

Grammar drives me nuts at times; I'm generally good at it (you may have noticed this, reading the many entries in this blog), but even I get things wrong from time to time (most especially with the use of the apostrophe). However, one thing that drives me completely round the twist, when I read other peoples' work, is the ever-lasting battle between "Your" and "You're".

So, in a hopeful spirit of assistance, here's a handy guide...

"You're" is a contraction (a shortening, in other words) for "you are". It is easy enough to decipher, again just insert "you are" into your sentence instead of "you're" or "your" and you will know the correct usage.

Examples of "Your"

• It is time for your English Language lesson.
  (It is time for you are English Language lesson doesn't make sense.)
• We will go to your re-enactment display after we eat.
  (We will go to you are re-enactment display does not make sense.)

Examples of "You're"

• You're going to be the first in line.
  (You are going to be the first in line.)
• You're going to be driving the first car in this parade.
  (You are going to be driving the first car in this parade.)

And in case you're rather lost on the use of the apostrophe - as I can be from time to time - here's a helpful guide... enjoy!

I hope that helps everone.

Nice old-fashioned pub...

Well, I'm on the way to our head office today, as some twit in the EU decided, a few years back, that it'd be a jolly good laugh to make LGV & PSV drivers take some after-market training in how to do our jobs - after, that is, we actually get through all the hoops to get our vocational licences. Another way to either bleed more cash from self-employed drivers, or rake it in from our employers. Either way, another damn fine reason to get out of the EU.

Anyhow, while on the way to the main depot, I saw this nice old pub - it's at Catford Bridge, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't get its name, but wow, you don't see many buildings like this - especially inside the M25 belt - these days - and wonder of wonder, it's still being used as a pub! In these hardened times, where pubs are closing down at a truly horrifying rate, it's gratifying to see a pub, built ages ago, still trading!