March 2020 - luv-main

Advice on broadband options
by stripes theotoky 14 Apr '20

14 Apr '20

Hi to all, Now my university is closed for the duration of the health crisis, I have to give at least 16 hours of tutorials / lectures a week via zoom. The audience varies between 20 and 80 students. As my only internet connections are: 1. is a dongle (with Vodafone) that has 3GB , and 2. my mobile phone with 60GB (also with Vodafone) I am urgently in need of a much better connection. Any advice on what and with whom? I am in rented accommodation in Macleod, pretty much a mobile blackspot, and the landlord doesn't like the idea of cable being brought to the premises. Thanks Joanna -- Stripes Theotoky

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Re: Advice on broadband options
by Andrew Mather 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

> > Hi to all, > > Now my university is closed for the duration of the health crisis, I have > to give at least 16 hours of tutorials / lectures a week via zoom. The > audience varies between 20 and 80 students. As my only internet > connections are: > 1. is a dongle (with Vodafone) that has 3GB , and > 2. my mobile phone with 60GB (also with Vodafone) > I am urgently in need of a much better connection. > > Any advice on what and with whom? I am in rented accommodation in > Macleod, pretty much a mobile blackspot, and the landlord doesn't like > the idea of cable being brought to the premises. > As others have said, the landlord may not be able to restrict you from connecting cable and I'm not sure why they would care anyway, provided the installation was done neatly and by professional licensed contractors, which it has to be. Even if the landlord is able to prevent you connecting cable, are you certain that the only option for fixed-line internet in your area is via HFC/cable ? Is there an existing, even if unused copper landline connection into your premises ? Most houses older than a couple of years would have had landline services. If so, NBN or even ADSL connection may be possible if you reactivate that. These days you don't have to have an active landline telephone service over the copper in order to have a data connection. If you're in a unit or block of flats, there may be an MDF (central connection point for multiple telecom/data services into a single building) in a central area that you can connect into. Fixed line will give you much better performance using video conferencing on a regular basis if it's possible. > -- - https://picasaweb.google.com/107747436224613508618 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." *-Ralph Waldo Emerson, * "Unless you're a train....that's not good advice for trains" *-Andrew Mather*

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Telstra 4GX Hotspot vs 4GX Wi-Fi Pro
by stripes theotoky 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

Hi guys, hope you are all doing well and keeping safe. I have the following question: I need to get a mobile broadband hotspot. Currently the telstra website shows the 4GX hotspot at $149 and the 4GX Wi-Fi Pro at $119. However, when clicking on buy online for the 4GX hotspot, the telstra website cannot find the page! Are there any significant differences between the two, other than the number of devices that can connect? Thank you, Joanna -- Stripes Theotoky -37 .713869 145.050562

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Re: Telstra 4GX Hotspot vs 4GX Wi-Fi Pro
by stripes theotoky 29 Mar '20

29 Mar '20

On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 at 05:18, stripes theotoky < stripes.theotoky(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 04:09, Russell Coker <russell(a)coker.com.au> wrote: > >> On Friday, 27 March 2020 11:14:41 AM AEDT stripes theotoky via luv-main >> wrote: >> > I have the following question: I need to get a mobile broadband hotspot. >> > Currently the telstra website shows the 4GX hotspot at $149 and the 4GX >> > Wi-Fi Pro at $119. However, when clicking on buy online for the 4GX >> >> The cheapest new Android phone that Kogan offers is $159. Second hand >> phones >> are cheaper. Why do you want a dedicated Wifi device when you could get >> a >> phone that does it as well as other things? >> > > I have a phone (Blackberry KeyOne) and use it as a hotspot, with > Vodafone. It works OK but there are often congestion issues, dropouts > etc. I have no home broadband. The reason I need an additional wifi > device is that I am now working from home and have to deliver lectures and > tutorials of various sizes via Zoom over the coming weeks. The problem is > exacerbated by having to deal with computer illiterate and obstinate > people. For example: I am asked to run a Zoom session with 100 students > and at the same time stream a recording to all of them, and also take > questions, etc. > > > >> -- >> My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ >> My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ >> >> > > -- > Stripes Theotoky > > -37 .713869 > 145.050562 > > > -- Stripes Theotoky -37 .713869 145.050562

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Re: luv-main Digest, Vol 103, Issue 11
by Andrew Mather 29 Mar '20

29 Mar '20

> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 15:09:26 +1100 > From: Russell Coker <russell(a)coker.com.au> > To: luv-main(a)luv.asn.au, stripes theotoky > <stripes.theotoky(a)googlemail.com> > Subject: Re: Telstra 4GX Hotspot vs 4GX Wi-Fi Pro > Message-ID: <29805413.i3JmRAMY3h@xev> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > On Friday, 27 March 2020 11:14:41 AM AEDT stripes theotoky via luv-main > wrote: > > I have the following question: I need to get a mobile broadband hotspot. > > Currently the telstra website shows the 4GX hotspot at $149 and the 4GX > > Wi-Fi Pro at $119. However, when clicking on buy online for the 4GX > > The cheapest new Android phone that Kogan offers is $159. Second hand > phones > are cheaper. Why do you want a dedicated Wifi device when you could get a > phone that does it as well as other things? > I have an ancient Telstra 3G/4G Hotspot device and have found it performs way better than my iPhone as a data hotspot. By performance, I mean the hotspot has better reception in marginal areas and data transfer speeds are higher. It also has much better battery life and is quicker to recharge. Obviously this may be affected somewhat by the number of other applications running on the phone, but that doesn't account for the whole difference. I suspect that being a dedicated device, it's optimised for data transfer in ways that the phone isn't. It also sounds like the people in question already have phones, so the extra features aren't required. I'm not familiar with the models being looked at and it may not be relevant, but my device also has the capability to connect an external antenna, which I've used occasionally an makes things even better. The main downside is it's locked to the Telstra network, but given a lot of the time, I'm using it in remote 4WD touring situtaions, is not an issue because there's often no other network out there. -- - https://picasaweb.google.com/107747436224613508618 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." *-Ralph Waldo Emerson, * "Unless you're a train....that's not good advice for trains" *-Andrew Mather*

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Any TVHeadend users?
by Robert Brown 28 Mar '20

28 Mar '20

Hi all Do we have any user of TVHeadend on the list? I need some expertise re permissions when trying to record to a USB drive. TIA Rob B

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Diomidis Spinellis: Shell scripting for personal productivity
by Rodney Brown 26 Mar '20

26 Mar '20

https://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20200323/ ie csvawk, that I should use csvawk Run awk with the specified program argument on a CSV (comma separated values file); e.g. |csvawk '{print $2 - $3}' list.csv|. |#!/bin/sh prog="$1" shift awk 'BEGIN {FPAT = "([^,]+)|(\"[^\"]+\")"}'"$prog" "$@" |

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Are you interested in helping?
by Andrew Pam 24 Mar '20

24 Mar '20

The FAIRshare Distribution System The proposal: A number of years ago around the time of the Queensland floods, I suggested the need for software that could be used to fairly apportion resources during a disaster. Now we are seeing what happens when people and companies are left to themselves under extreme conditions. Right now I am again suggesting that we need a software project that can ensure fair distribution of goods and services, thereby curbing people’s panic and ensuring we are all safe. Stan Cox wrote a fascinating book called "Anyway You Slice It". One important point he makes is that currently our society is rationing by price point. If there aren’t enough bananas to go around, for instance, the price of bananas goes up so that only those who can afford them get to eat bananas. Price point rationing is not sustainable during an emergency. We live in a complex interconnected society and losing segments of that society to starvation endangers us all. Simply having people too poor to seek medical help guarantees a society will not be resilient enough to properly handle a pandemic, as we are already beginning to experience. What I have in mind: the open source community has done an amazing job in the past of creating and supporting important pieces of software. If we pulled together a team of bright and concerned programmers, I’m sure we could develop something that could at least help local communities to manage their resources. We would need to think about recording resources, calculating how much is available over what period of time. We would also need to think about: how to fairly distribute things; how to take into consideration children, elderly, and people with illnesses, disorders, allergies, disabilities, and more; how to let people redirect resources they may not need, and perhaps be the recipients of resources others don’t need; how a community can choose to allocate a certain amount of their resources to a bigger project from which everyone will benefit; how people can vote on resource allocation in a completely fair manner (rather than simply first past the post); and finally, how to make all of this reliable and transparent. Giving people money when they are no longer allowed to work is helpful. However when critical supplies and services run low for various reasons, we need a system people feel they can trust in order to access what they need. K Phelps, BA (Hons), MFA, PhD 0411 359 598 admin(a)friends-institute.org

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Reminder: Spinellis edX course March 17: Unix Tools: Data, Software and Production Engineering
by Rodney Brown 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

The edX course "Unix Tools: Data, Software and Production Engineering" linked starts on 17 March https://www.edx.org/course/unix-tools-data-software-and-production-engineer…

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meetings
by Russell Coker 14 Mar '20

14 Mar '20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019 Coronavirus is spreading exponentially as diseases do. People can be infected for as long as 14 days without showing symptoms, according to Wikipedia 5 days is the average time for symptoms to develop. This means that we won't know when it gets really bad until at least 6 days after it has got really bad. The only responsible course of action is to significantly scale back public meetings now to reduce the risk. I have raised this matter for discussion on the committee list but with no reply. So I now publicly propose that all LUV in-person meetings be cancelled from now until the stage where we know the disease is under control. I can't imagine that being before July. As fun as LUV meetings are, it's not something that's worth risking lives over. I have some plans for online education which could be run at the times we usually have LUV meetings, follow up here if you want to discuss that. Please use luv-talk if you want to discuss details of the disease. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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