- luv-talk - luv.asn.au

Kogan Mobile
by Russell Coker 16 Aug '17

16 Aug '17

https://www.koganmobile.com.au/plans/mobile/ I recently got a Kogan Mobile SIM for one of my phones. The performance for data is very similar to my phone that has Aldi mobile even though Kogan uses Vodafone which is generally regarded as having much worse performance than the Telstra network that Aldi uses. I have used the Kogan SIM for playing Ingress in urban and suburban areas around Melbourne without any problems. I wouldn't expect good performance from Kogan in regional and rural areas so I can't use it for my main phone (I need to have data access all the time for work even when I'm out of Melbourne). But I haven't tested this. If you are after a prepaid phone plan with cheap data and only spend time in urban areas then Kogan is worth considering. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Humble eBook Bundle: Brainiac 2 (Children's => Lego, Python, Scratch, ..) (7 days left)
by Rodney Brown 16 Aug '17

16 Aug '17

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/brainiac-2-book-bundle The Humble Book Bundle: Brainiac 2 presented by No Starch USD1 Medieval LEGO The Official ScratchJr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code The LEGO Neighborhood Book: Build Your Own Town! Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things Beautiful Minecraft >=USD8 Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming The Manga Guide to Electricity Tiny LEGO Wonders: Build 40 Surprisingly Realistic Mini-Models! Scratch Programming Playground: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games Junkyard Jam Band: DIY Musical Instruments and Noisemakers >=USD15 The LEGO Animation Book: Make Your Own LEGO Movies! Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python The Art of LEGO Scale Modeling Arduino Project Handbook: 25 Practical Projects to Get You The CS Detective: An Algorithmic Tale of Crime, Conspiracy, and Computation See also LEGO MINDSTORMS & Robotics presented by Apress https://www.humblebundle.com/books/lego-mindstorms-robotics-books

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My Go Fund Me Campaign
by Mark Clohesy 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

Hi everyone, I am posting this here to spread the word on my go fund me campaign. https://www.gofundme.com/aircon-for-fibromyalgia-sufferer I am a 45-year-old with a number of medical conditions. The one that causes me the most problems is the fibromyalgia. One of the things that happen's is that I have problems regulating my body temperature. I had been using a portable aircon in the window of the lounge room but it has broken down. Even when it did work it was not really large enough to keep the room cool. I am on a disability pension and my wife is on a carers pension so raising the money is difficult. I am trying to raise the money by the end of October so we can get it installed during the first 2 weeks of November. I will be adding my pension advance later in September towards getting the Aircon installed. ---- Here is some information on temperature regulation When you're exposed to heat, does it feel like you're burning up? Does it seem impossible for you to cool off? Or maybe it's cold that bothers you, chilling you to the bone, leaving you unable to warm up. Or are you one of those people with fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) who is cold all the time, or hot all the time, or alternately hot or cold while out of sync with the environment? https://www.verywell.com/temperature-sensitivity-in-fibromyalgia-and-mecfs-… ----- Thankyou -- Mark "Pockets" Clohesy PH: +61 4 06417877 hiddensoul(a)twistedsouls.com GNU/Linux.. Linux Counter #457297 "In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.." "Well, strangely enough, ma'am, I don't have that information in my database. My programmers, for some insane reason, decided that 'dinosaur bowel movement frequency' tables wouldn't be required. Imbeciles!"

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3d printers
by Brian May 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Hello, Just wondering what is considered a good 3D printer? Should work from Linux, and even better work with open source software. I seem to be bewildered by the large set of options, eg: https://3dprintersuperstore.com.au/collections/frontpage Regards -- Brian May <brian(a)linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/

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Re: [luv-talk] The threat of incompetence
by Russell Coker 03 Aug '17

03 Aug '17

On Tuesday, 1 August 2017 9:24:03 AM AEST Rick Moen via luv-talk wrote: > > This would all be very amusing if the US was a small country without a > > nuclear arsenal... > > FYI, ever since an occasion when Richard Nixon was drunk and erratic, > there's been a silent arrangement to ensure that the President cannot > _actually_ just to decide to nuke Paraguay because he or she is a > wack-a-doodle. Even if we could be certain that was the case (and it's not something I would choose to stake my life on), there's still the issue that tweets from the US president are taken a lot more seriously than anything a leader of a non- nuclear country might have to say. > > He's religious! That appeals to Republicans! > > You're _utterly_ missing my point. What sort of extreme psychological > weirdness does it take, such that the only thing you can say when you What psychological weirdness does it take to be a Republican? > > I expect his actions to result in some form of nuclear weapon deployed in > > the US (probably a dirty bomb). So far he has been in the job for 6 > > months without that happening, he is doing well. But a nuclear reaction > > to some action of Trumps may be delayed by some months or years. > > That seems more than a little melodramatic. The only people he's really > induced special hatred in is the 72.8% of the USA electorate who didn't > vote for him and Vice-President Torquemada. He hasn't even gotten his > act together to foment another war, yet. He's been historically > ineffective even at doing just about everything. So, actually, what I Tweeting about North Korea is one of the ways that he can trigger a nuclear reaction. Maybe Kim Jong-un won't be crazy enough to launch a ICBM at the US (but I wouldn't bet on that), maybe he would instead send spies to smuggle a dirty bomb into the US (which is technically a lot easier than launching an ICBM). Maybe Trump will mess things up in Kashmir, there are enough factions on all sides of that dispute that there's probably someone who wouldn't stop at using a dirty bomb. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons so it's plausible that someone in one of those governments could allow a paramilitary group to get some high level nuclear waste. China seems to have a stable government and wouldn't do anything serious and obvious against the US. But if Trump keeps messing with Taiwan the Chinese government might incite Kim Jong-un or some other crazy person to do something. Trump seems to have done something to provoke people in every one of the world's trouble spots apart from Northern Ireland. But maybe I missed some news about Northern Ireland. There are many millions of people all around the world who didn't like what the US was doing even when run by someone as competent as Obama. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Re: [luv-talk] The threat of incompetence
by Rick Moen 01 Aug '17

01 Aug '17

Oh, Russell, want to read something extra-twisty that sounds exactly correct to me, and accounts pretty well for the most recent rounds of craziness? Here's a piece by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, now Professor of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley: http://robertreich.org/post/163658444390

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The threat of incompetence
by Mark Trickett 31 Jul '17

31 Jul '17

Hello All, I came across this page, and it is very worrying. The sheer malicious ignorance and incompetence of Trump. he is acting as the CEO of America Inc, rather than as the President of the USA. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/department-of-energy-risks-michael-l… Regards, Mark Trickett

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Coderdojo / Raspberry Pie Merger
by David Zuccaro 22 Jul '17

22 Jul '17

Hi, Does anyone here have an opinion on this article? I disagree with it. I think that the closed, proprietary and exclusionary nature of mac and windows is counter-productive to teaching kids to program. http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/software/opinion-raspberry-pi-… Cheers, David

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android no gapps and micro-g
by Craig Sanders 07 Jun '17

07 Jun '17

an open source clone of Google Play Services. not 100% compatible, but good enough for many apps. Certainly good enough if, like me, you intend to use mostly apps from f-droid and other alternative app stores (I want the hardware, and the open-source side of the software. don't want the proprietary or spyware crap). https://shadow53.com/no-gapps/ craig ps: i've pretty much decided on a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus....going to look at one today ($439 from JB - i'm sure it'll be cheaper if i wait a bit longer, but that can go on forever...or at least until it disappears from the market entirely and i have to research a new generation of devices). specs are good, there are no clear warning signs saying "avoid, do not buy", and what i've googled about it looks good. it's well supported by at least Lineage OS, and there's a Lineage image with micro-g. If the hardware build quality seems solid (i.e. it doesnt seem like cheap crap that will break in 6 months) i'll get one. https://forum.xda-developers.com/thinkpad-tablet/development/unofficial-lin… -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>

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Re: [luv-talk] android tablet + phone recommendations?
by Craig Sanders 06 Jun '17

06 Jun '17

On Fri, Jun 02, 2017 at 03:08:14PM +1000, David Tulloh wrote: > As a few others have suggested your specs are rather ambitious. they don't seem ambitious to me. They seem to be fairly common specs for android tablets from several manufacturers. what i was after was recommendations or notes from people who actually have one of the more recent models. > As an example a high resolution 10" screen uses a fair bit of juice, > just reading a PDF for a few hours will drain some batteries. The > brute force solution, more batteries, hurts your portability and blows > out the cost. most of the 9.7"/10"/larger models on the market advertise at least 10-20 hours of video-watching time. even assuming that's marketing exaggeration (i.e. a lie), reading an epub or even a PDF with WIFI disabled should get at least that much. i'd prefer longer, but that's acceptable. > There are Kindle models which solve this with e-paper displays but > that is black/white only and significantly compromises refresh rate. i've tried e-ink e-readers before. too slow and way too fragile for my liking. From what i've read, current e-ink displays are a lot faster than when i last used them but they're still as fragile. I broke two kobos in less than six months before getting my nexus 7 which has lasted me 5+ years. My first kobo broke in my satchel when i tripped while running and also resulted in a broken wrist so that's forgivable. The second was from falling asleep reading in bed, which is totally unacceptable as that's SOP for me...so i got a nexus 7 - and i can't count the number of times i've fallen asleep reading with it (at a guess, probably over 50% of the last 5 years worth of nights, so over 900 times) and it ends up either under me or dropped onto the floor beside the bed....there's a few little dints in the plastic shell but the screen is still uncracked and works perfectly. > I looked into tablets a few months ago and landed on the Lenovo Yoga > which Yeah, i've looked into the Lenovo Yoga. My overall impression is that it has seriously underwhelming specs for the price. The screen is larger than my Nexus 7, but the resolution is the same (1280x800) so will look blocky and ugly, certainly won't improve readability. it has double the RAM and a 10" screen but otherwise is no better than what i've already got (and at 16GB it has half the storage but does have a micro-SD slot). for just under $300. i'll pass. hmmm...they have some better models, worth another look. Their '10" BusinessTablet' seems better. 4-core 1.3Ghz (only slightly better than my Nexus 7), 2GB RAM (double the nexus), 32GB storage, micro-SD slot, and 1920x1200 resolution. $284 at JB. worth considering but i want something a bit better. cheaper and better than the Tab3. Their 'Tab 3 Plus 10" Tablet' seems better again, 8-core 1.8Ghz snapdragon 652 CPU, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, micro SD slot, and 2560x1600 resolution (so should have beautifully crisp and clear readable text on the 10" screen - that resolution is better than my 27" desktop monitor). it's a bit pricey at $484 (JB again) but certainly matches the kind of specs i'm looking for. I'll put this one on my shortlist. > http://androidbiits.com/lenovo-yoga-tab-3-plus-yt-x703f-android-7-1-1-nouga… this seems to be for the Tab 3 Plus, not the earlier models....but that's fine, it's the model i'm most interested in. thanks craig -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>

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