December 2014 - luv-talk

East West Link - contacting the government
by Peter Ross 15 Aug '15

15 Aug '15

Hi all, Labor opposing East West Link - good news, at least for me. There is no contract signed yet - so all uncertainty claims are quite strange. It is up to the government in power to create certainty - by waiting with the contracts until after the election. The process is before the courts because the link did not go through a proper planning, assessment and consultation process yet. The lack of process created the uncertainty. So the government can correct it by honouring process. This would make it a decision made by a government which asked for a mandate from the electorate. Below my letter to Terry Mulder (terence.mulder(a)parliament.vic.gov.au) Maybe you would like to contact him too? Thanks Peter Dear Terry, the Labor decision to dump the East West Link is a good one for us in Melbourne. Please cancel the project if you care for Victoria. It may save hundred of millions or billions of dollars of claims when the project finally ends in the bin, as it should. The East West Link is not a properly planned project. I contacted you before about my concerns. Some of the events and claims are truly bizarre if you are familiar with the area as I am. I work in Kensington. I frequently use the bike track along the Mooney Ponds Creek you want to overshadow with another bunch of lanes. I also spend a lot of time waiting for and in trains from and to Craigieburn and Upfield which never go on time. It is not a surprise that the whole case is before the courts. The rush to lock it in resulted in a shoddy process which defies logic and did never satisfy requirements of proper consulting with the public. Even now, the design is still work in progress, and some of the "corrections" over time looked as professional as me designing a model train with my son. How can this being assessed? How can the community have a sufficient input in this process? How can you sign contracts with this uncertainty? It will be a liability for any future government and all Victorians. A tender process where you continue with one bidder only is another detail not making sense. I never do that if I want a good deal. You were elected with the Liberals claiming support for the Metro Rail Link. You did not advance the project. Instead it became another train wreck of "planning on the run". Please bring that back into action instead of tinkering with the East West Link if you want to do something for Victoria. Thank you Peter [contact details]

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Firefox OS phone at JB Hifi
by dan062＠yahoo.com.au 03 Jan '15

03 Jan '15

>From ZTE au website, JB HiFi selling Firefox OS phones. (http://www.zte.com.au/devices/Firefox_OpenC.htm) Any one seen them and any experience? Daniel. -- dan062(a)yahoo.com.au <dan062(a)yahoo.com.au>

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OnePlus One -- invitations....
by Andrew McGlashan 01 Jan '15

01 Jan '15

Hi, I recently purchased a OnePlus One phone -- to do so, I had to get it delivered to a US address provided by Australia Post using their new ShopMate service. Warranty could be a hassle, hopefully I won't need to worry about that. Then I had to get it delivered to AU via ShopMate. My phone arrived a little slower than expected, but there were no troubles doing it this way. Purchased on the 21st November, 2014 -- delivered to US address on the 28th November and finally delivered to AU on the 15th December after seeing an expected time frame of 4th to 9th December. OnePlus people have now given me some limited time-frame invitations, they will expire in around 5 days. Product choice is specific to the exact same version that I purchased: "One - 64 GB Sandstone Black" At the time,of purchase, I paid around $AUD438 (after conversion) using PayPal and a prepaid credit card. The price is $US349 on their website plus a shipping and handling charge of $US14.34 for a total of $US363.34. Delivery by ShopMate was discounted (promo) and cost me $AUD40.23. I've got a US power adapter with the phone, but it charges with standard USB cables. Here are the phone details: http://www.gsmarena.com/oneplus_one-6327.php NB: A new model is "rumoured", but the specs aren't much improved and actual details at gsmarena may not be correct for the new device. The main differences seem to be the inclusion of an FM radio and newer CPU/GPU ... you can see the differences here: http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6327&idPhone2=6902 Okay, now of those still with me, please let me know if you want an invite -- I'm not sure how I'll give them out, most importantly, I don't want them to expire; so let me know your interest. Cheers AndrewM

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Fwd: Steven Cooper and the Internet of Things, 2015 Jan 22 Thurs
by spyder.king＠yahoo.com.au 30 Dec '14

30 Dec '14

(No it's not a musical group.) http://www.meetup.com/footscraymakerlab/events/219484395/?a=ea1_grp&rv=ea1&… If there's one thing similar to but worse than these gibberish URLs it's PDFs with gibberish, vague, or otherwise unhelpful filenames.

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Re: [luv-talk] Firefox OS phone at JB Hifi
by Peter Ross 18 Dec '14

18 Dec '14

Hi Daniel, From: "Daniel Jitnah" <djitnah(a)greenwareit.com.au> > camera aside, whats the build quality like? solid, flimsy or else?? For > the price I don't expect anything wonderful, but still. > > In general whats ZTE phone hardware build like? (compared to say Huawei) My wife has a Samsung Galaxy S Duo 3. It feels very similar: similar case, same screen, same CPU etc. http://www.gsmarena.com/zte_open_c-6155.php http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_duos_3-6662.php While the camera is useless (really), it may be mainly the software's fault. Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Firefox OS phone at JB Hifi
by Peter Ross 18 Dec '14

18 Dec '14

P.S. Forgot the camera: useless. But it is $99 and I was not interested in this function. Regards Peter From: "Peter Ross" <Petros.Listig(a)fdrive.com.au> > To: luv-talk(a)luv.asn.au > Sent: Thursday, 18 December, 2014 11:37:39 AM > Subject: Re: [luv-talk] Firefox OS phone at JB Hifi> > From: dan062(a)yahoo.com.au >> From ZTE au website, JB HiFi selling Firefox OS phones. >> (http://www.zte.com.au/devices/Firefox_OpenC.htm) >> >> Any one seen them and any experience? > > I bought one a few months ago. It is basic but functions (for me) - as a > classic phone, sending SMS, Nokia's maps and as a WiFi hotspot. A few > times I read webpages but I rarely do (I prefer bigger screens and am not > desperate to need web brosing all the time) > > It is a step forward from the original ZTE Open, with Firefox OS 1.3 > instead of 1.0. > > With data switched off it lasts close to a week. > > And I love the feeling that Apple and Google (and associated darker > forces) do not know everything about me. > > Which should be a non-negotiable requirement for any equipment but .. > well, we live in times where the indecent is considered standard. > > Recently I saw a jealous husband monitoring his (unfaithful, he suspects) > wife via "Find a friend" app on an iPhone. > > It's scary to see what's possible today. For everyone.. > > Regards > Peter > > _______________________________________________ > luv-talk mailing list > luv-talk(a)luv.asn.au > http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-talk >

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Re: [luv-talk] Firefox OS phone at JB Hifi
by Peter Ross 18 Dec '14

18 Dec '14

From: dan062(a)yahoo.com.au > From ZTE au website, JB HiFi selling Firefox OS phones. > (http://www.zte.com.au/devices/Firefox_OpenC.htm) > > Any one seen them and any experience? I bought one a few months ago. It is basic but functions (for me) - as a classic phone, sending SMS, Nokia's maps and as a WiFi hotspot. A few times I read webpages but I rarely do (I prefer bigger screens and am not desperate to need web brosing all the time) It is a step forward from the original ZTE Open, with Firefox OS 1.3 instead of 1.0. With data switched off it lasts close to a week. And I love the feeling that Apple and Google (and associated darker forces) do not know everything about me. Which should be a non-negotiable requirement for any equipment but .. well, we live in times where the indecent is considered standard. Recently I saw a jealous husband monitoring his (unfaithful, he suspects) wife via "Find a friend" app on an iPhone. It's scary to see what's possible today. For everyone.. Regards Peter

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Any audio of November- Raspberry Pi update + systemd?
by Douglas Ray 15 Dec '14

15 Dec '14

My car took me only half-way to the meeting before last: On 30/10/14 10:42 AM, Andrew Pam wrote: > LUV Main November 2014 Meeting: Raspberry Pi update + systemd > > Start: Nov 5 2014 19:00 > End: Nov 5 2014 21:00 and I dearly wanted to see these! Does anyone have any audio? TIA Douglas Ray

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flash-key self-zeroed syndrome?
by Douglas Ray 15 Dec '14

15 Dec '14

I've seen USB flash drives corrupted. I've seen them infected. I've seen them die. But how often do you find one that just zeros itself? Anyone else ever seen this? From boot-sector to the end. Somewhere between unplugging it at my end, and the Officeworks staff trying to read it on their machine. After repartition/newfs it claims to be a happy trooper, but I'm a natural worrier - now that we know flash-drive firmware can be zapped... My guess is that the probabilities are 1. something other than the USB wiped it; 2. The USB wiped itself; 3. something has reprogrammed the firmware, and wiped the flash incidentally; unless someone else has seen this happen elsewhere, in a more trusted environment. The unit is a Patriot Element 8GB, and has had infrequent use. cheers, Douglas Ray

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Re: [luv-talk] ssd on pcie
by Rohan McLeod 14 Dec '14

14 Dec '14

James Harper wrote: > It seems that I can get msata ssd card these days, and a dual or quad pcie msata card (msata card mounts on the pcie card), and save myself a bunch of existing sata ports and other server real estate. It seems that a "quad pcie msata card" is quite in-expensive and do able; see for example : http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/319167/HDD_ADAPTERS_DOCKS/Addonics/AD4MSPX2.asp; if you are happy with 6Gb/s ~ 600MB/s ie SATA III max-read; and whilst the 'PCIe direct' see for example http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/fastest-pcie-ssds,2-821.html , are faster (3300MB/s max read) ; couldn't see much sign of support for multiple-drives per card; and bang per buck aka $/GB is likely still woeful; .............judging by the NON prominance of prices ! regards Rohan McLeod

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