Older Logitech Webcams Useless on Modern Windows OS

I dug out an old (not that old actually, only a few years) Logitech webcam the other day. I was hoping to use it with my laptop. Problem is, because it’s a few years old and uses proprietary drivers, it won’t work with Windows 7.

It won’t work, not because the hardware is incompatible or anything like that, but because Logitech took the decision that the advent of a new operating system was a great opportunity to force its users to buy new webcams. They simply refuse to create drivers to allow their older products to work with  newer operating systems.

Hewlett Packard have the same philosophy with their scanners. Scanners that worked perfectly well in XP no longer work in Windows 7 purely because HP decided to force people to buy new hardware rather than create new drivers.

We wouldn’t put up with having to buy a new car every time the speed limit changed so why do we have to put up with this cynical manipulation of the market by manufacturers.

A few years ago we’d have been able to get around this by reverse engineering the products and creating our own drivers. Sadly, our politicians, who seem to sign any bit of paper passed in front of them if it’s accompanied by suitable recompense, made that illegal.

The only course of action open to us now then seems to be to simply throw perfectly serviceable hardware away and replace it with brand new more expensive devices. The politicians then cry foul over the amount of electrical waste that’s produced, not having the sense to realise they’ve caused half the problems themselves.

Miliband attacks Cameron over chocolate oranges

Ed Miliband has attacked David Cameron for failing to stop the sale of cut-price Chocolate Oranges.

You have to say, this guy has his finger on the pulse. He knows what’s important to the British people. Never mind about mundane things like the economy or the fact that America and Israel seem intent on dragging us into yet another war we neither need nor want.

Rewarding laziness and mediocrity

There’s a lovely little welfare state in the UK. Armies of people turn up regularly to get their handouts all feeling hard done by and downtrodden. They all have one thing in common, they are there purely through bad luck and through no fault of their own. None of them had any choices in their miserable lives, they were all lions led by donkeys down the road to ruin.

What a pathetic load of old rubbish. Everyone has a choice. Most, however, choose to wallow in their own self pity, blaming everybody and everything but themselves for their problems. A very small number actually get up and do something about those problems then get lambasted by the majority for daring to be successful at what they do. We (almost all of the west) live in a society that rewards laziness and mediocrity while penalising hard work.

The UK government, trying to do something about the appalling welfare state the UK has become, was recently defeated in the House of Lords; that unelected bunch of misfits that every government would love to disband but every opposition fights tooth and nail to retain.

Lets be honest here, the proposed cap of £26000 is about the (official) national average wage. That figure is vastly inflated by the huge wages of people like directors and football players. The real wage of normal people is far below that. At a time when we’re all being asked to tighten our belts, take wage and pension cuts and work longer hours, benefit payments of that magnitude are unforgivable.

Nobody needs to be given (not earned, but handed on a plate) that amount of tax payers money for doing absolutely sod all. It’s a charter for laziness that I can’t, with any honesty, blame people for taking advantage of. Apart from shame, there’s little reason to turn down a greater sum in benefits than you could reasonably expect to earn.

It’s something that has to be sorted out at national level by the government but it needs a little more honesty from opposition MP’s who fight every move the government makes despite acknowledging that they’d have to do pretty much the same themselves if they were managing the asylum.

The current game being played by the politicians, gleefully and blindly followed by their puppet voters, is ‘blame-the-banker’. While there’s a lot that has gone wrong that the bankers can be blamed for, they can with some justification, feel aggrieved at the way the politicians have passed the buck onto them. Who made the rules the financial institutions were following? The politicians make all the rules, they create the playing field that the rest of us have to use and when it all goes wrong, they tell their supporters to blame someone else…and they fall for it every time.

The politicians now, because the public have fallen right into the trap laid for them, are looking for ways to curb private sector wages at higher levels. Their target is, of course, the directors of large corporations. While the wages of some of these people do look ridiculously high they pale into insignificance when compared to the obscene wages the competitors in many sports are paid…football in the UK for instance. What use is sports for pity’s sake? At least the corporations are doing something useful, even if it is just supplying vegetables at inflated prices…that’s still far more use than your average footballer who gets paid exorbitant amounts of money to fall flat on his face every few minutes.

As for me, I’m actually pretty disillusioned with the whole political scene at the moment. I’m ashamed to say I was one of the fools who voted dear Tony in over a decade ago. What a disaster that turned out to be. His replacement was a mess, in more ways than one and the current lot – a coalition of left wing Tory’s kissing Obama’s boots and…what do you call them? Oh yes, Liberal Democrats – something that  is neither liberal nor democratic and wears yellow…or blue…or red…depending on which way the wind is blowing… Well, lets just say I currently treat all political parties with equal contempt.

Time for a Middle East conspiracy theory…

Well, we haven’t had a conspiracy theory for a while so I thought I’d start one…

Many years ago, the ruling elite decided that in order to compete better with other countries, they should allow their serfs some modicum of education. That would allow them to work smarter as well as harder and the result would be greater efficiency and greater production. Other countries, of course, did the same with their people.

Unfortunately for the few at the top, they lost control of the system and something happened that they did not foresee. Almost the entire population of the world developed a level of education that permitted them to see through the lies and spin offered by those rulers to keep them in check.

Even worse, those annoying newly educated people built themselves the means to instantly communicate via an uncontrolled medium they decided to call ‘the internet’. This medium allowed those newly educated people to see what was happening in other parts of the world and even talk to people in other countries without needing to rely on state controlled media for their information. A very awkward situation.

So, what to do? Looking back a bit, history shows that the easiest way to drop entire populations back into the ‘state-knows-best’ mindset has always been to drop them into a nice little war in which they expect themselves and all their friends and family to die. At such times, they inevitably turn to the state to protect them. Thoughts turn against foreigners, all of whom are regarded as a threat. All those awkward human rights laws are dispensed with and nobody minds because they’re all scared of the person down the street who looks or sounds a little different to them.

Since the ruling elite are terrified of the internet and will go to any lengths to destroy it, I think we can look there for the reason for all the aggravation currently in the Middle east. For all the posturing and pontificating going on amongst governments, it looks quite obvious to me that they’ve all got together and decided that the best and quickest way to get the internet shut down for good is to start a global war. All governments can then use the national security excuse and zap, bye-bye internet.

Ok, so now we know what we need to do – how to start one? Can’t start one in Europe or the America’s – we’d all die instantly in a hotbed of radiation with the plants crust burnt away. We need to be able to control the spread of the conflict – that should be possible, after all we’ve had plenty of practice. Australasia is obviously out. The hottest part of the world, politically, is obviously the Middle East. The Jews hate the Arabs, the Arabs hate the Jews. Create a ruckus there and one side will crack. Pile the pressure on one side by openly supporting the other and it’ll help speed things along a bit. Ensure each ‘side’ has enough support to make any resulting conflict global and the job’s done.

Once a few million unimportant people have died and the rest have been scared enough, the ruling elite can call the whole thing off and start right back where we were a couple of hundred years ago. The great unwashed in serfdom to the faceless few at the top.

Logitech G19 Keyboard Not Starting Correctly

Some time ago I decided to give up my trusty G15 keyboard for a new G19 with a fancy colour LED screen. The G19 has fewer macro keys but I hardly use those anyway so it wasn’t a great loss.

A far bigger problem though, is the kG19’s poor reliability. At least 25% of the time it fails to start up correctly. Symptoms are no backlighting (or backlighting reverting to blue or even purple!) and control/macro keys not working at all. The solution is to cycle the power to the keyboard. This usually results in it rebooting properly. Not a disaster by any means but certainly is a bit of a pain in the neck. In the end, to get around this problem, I had to plug the keyboards PSU into a separate (from the PC) socket and fit a remote switch so I can cycle the power to the keyboard easily without disturbing anything else.

Personally I wish I’d kept my old G15, it was totally reliable in the years I had it, felt more solid as well. The G19, in spite of the fancy colour LCD screen, is a backward step as far as I’m concerned.

Roomba Battery Exploded

I was curious about the Roomba battery. It was a surprisingly expensive piece of equipment. I supposed it must have had some cutting edge technology inside that little casing because they protected it with security bolts.

So, when my Roomba packed up, I decided to take it apart (for spares – motors are always handy) and I thought I’d take a look at that battery as well.

The only way to undo those ridiculous little security screws was to cut slots in them with a Dremel then use an ordinary screwdriver to remove the things. Having done that, I was a little surprised to see what was actually in that case. 12 perfectly ordinary and rather cheap looking ni-cads strapped together and shrink wrapped in a brittle plastic cover.

Not so cutting edge then and difficult to see how they could justify the ludicrous price tag.

My Award for the Worse X10 Support Website of the Year…

…goes to Marmiteks EU site.

Whatever link you decide to click on looking for support/software updates/anything else, you are asked to type in a search string. That would be fine if that search actually returned anything. Try the entire name of the product (sold by them via that site!) – nothing, try part of the name – nothing, try wildcards – nothing. There’s no other way to get any support via that site. After a lot of searching around I actually found an old link to a download for the software I wanted – great I thought, wrong! It just took me straight to another page advertising the same product in Dutch.

Why not just have a simple drop down list of supported products like EVERY other half decent site out there?

My biggest mistake was buying a copy of their Activehome Pro software together with a CM15 interface for my parents. Apparently it now works with Windows 7, many months after that OS was released, but getting hold of the software is a major exercise in frustration. Deal with Marmitek again, not likely,

Actually, there is ONE site worse than Marmiteks – x10.com – that is awash with advertising. You don’t actually get to see anything worthwhile on the site  because you get popup after popup after popup. You get these even if you’ve disabled popup’s on your browser, they’re programmed around the browsers blocks.

I certainly won’t be going back to either of those disastrous sites until they learn something about customer service. That means not pissing off your customers as soon as they visit your site!

Looking Back – Hong Kong 1975 to 77

I was lucky enough to be able to visit Hong Kong in 1975 and lived there in Alexander Block in Victoria Barracks with my parents for two years. Victoria Barracks was located on Hong Kong Island itself but no longer exists, having been handed back to the local government in 1979. They’ve kept a lot of the old British street names and retained some of the old colonial buildings for historical reasons. The ones they retained are still in use today serving the local community. Some of those can be found around Hong Kong Park which has been built over part of the land which used to be occupied by Victoria Barracks.

In the 70′s the island was linked to the mainland by single tunnel, the Cross Harbour Tunnel. It opened in 1972, just a few years before I arrived. I remember the tunnel well, having had to travel through it every day to get to the school in Kowloon. Two memorable years in St. Georges School were the highlight of my stay there.

An interesting day out involves a trip up the side of the mountain. Back in the 70′s, a track led up the side of the mountain at an alarming angle and a single car tram attached to a hefty cable was hauled up to the top while another ran down again. The Peak Tram was rebuilt in the late 80′s and now has a new track, two car trams and is controlled by computer. There’s a fantastic view of the Island and the harbour from Victoria Peak.

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St. Georges School, on the mainland (Kowloon)

While looking back through the years, I soon realised that my most enjoyable (by far) school years were the two I spent in the forces school in Kong Kong back in 1975-77. Quite why this is so, I’m not sure. Maybe children of forces personnel have a particular mindset and get on better with others in a similar situation, or maybe it was the far less stressful atmosphere in St. Georges compared to UK schools – whatever it was, the day I had to leave was a very sad day.

St. Georges School closed in 1996 but I discovered a website acting as a meeting place for the ex students and staff. If you went to that school, take a look at the St. Georges School Hong Kong site. You never know, you just might come across an old friend…

Friends Reunited also have forces (and ex forces) schools available on their lists so you can use that to track down old friends too.

The Classes I was in – 1OW in 1976 and 2OW in 1977

The school, which opened in 1955 to serve the educational needs of the large garrison of British forces in the area, operated a ‘house’ system consisting of Balmoral, Osbourne, Sandringham and Windsor. I’m told there was a Buckingham House as well but that no longer existed when I attended the school. I was in Osbourne House, as indicated by the green stripes on the tie

What a happy bunch we were in 1977. The photographs below are the only two taken of me at that school. Note the ratio of girls to boys…pity I was only 13 years old in 77. Also note the big hair – typical style for the times – I have considerably less hair now unfortunately. That’s me with the orange arrow pointing at my head. I remember all the faces in those photographs but to my eternal shame I can only put names to a small number of those faces – my excuse is, it was 30 years ago…

1OW 1976, St. Georges School, Hong Kong	2OW 1977, St. Georges School, Hong Kong

If you recognise yourself in these picture’s please get in touch. You can find me (and many other ex-SGS people) at the St. Georges School Hong Kong site. There are some more pictures from Hong Kong in that period on my Flikr page, sadly I wasn’t able to take very many photo’s back then. What I’d give for a time machine…

It’s the Little Things That Make the Difference

Travelling to the school was an experience. I lived on Hong Kong Island, the school was on the mainland in Kowloon. Luckily, a tunnel had opened just a few years before I got there. The Cross Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972 and made the trip to the mainland far quicker and more interesting. In spite of having to do the journey (there and back) every weekday for two years, I never tired of the run through the tunnel. The coach picked students up and dropped them off again from all over the Island and parts of Kowloon. It was like having a sightseeing trip in the morning, being dropped off to spend the entire day with friends then picked up again at the end of the day for another sightseeing trip – a holiday every day…and there was still time to learn

The school had its own swimming pool. They achieved what I thought was impossible, they taught me to swim. It wasn’t till I got to Hong Kong that I discovered I could float! After just a few months I received a silver ASA award, quite an achievement for someone who wouldn’t go near water more than a few inches deep before. Was actually quite relieved to be able to swim, it’s something that could prove really important one day and I’m thankful to the people who worked so hard to get me in that pool – and more importantly, keep me there.

Back in those days, corporal punishment was a reality. It was rare but not unknown to get your backside tanned. It didn’t hurt but it sure was embarrassing, especially if there happened to be girls around. I got the ‘slipper’ once, I ‘forgot’ my PE kit twice in a row without a valid excuse. It didn’t make me enjoy sports any more but I didn’t ‘forget’ to bring my kit to school with me again

Hong Kong has periods when it is subject to monsoons and the occasional typhoon. Accordingly, there were drainage channels all over the place. There was a sort of channel, a large drain I think, between the buildings and the main field. It was a rectangular concrete lined trench almost tall enough to stand in (tall enough for the average 13 year old anyway). It ran all the way from the centre of the school to one end. Made a handy little rat run if you wanted to avoid being spotted for any reason. Didn’t last long as a rat run though, I found a little tube of bright red paint and dotted it all along that channel, looked as if someone had seriously injured themselves once it had dried. Don’t ask me why I did that – it’s just a boy thing. Anyway, soon after that we were banned from using the channel. Not saying it was my fault but…

There were vendors of fizzy (and very sugary) drinks dotted around the school. They used what were little more than boxes half full of water with a small refrigeration unit attached. In return for a few cents, you’d get a sparkling and very cold bottle of your favourite drink – mine was 7-Up. Don’t see it in bottles like that these days sadly. Crates were supplied for the bottles to be returned and we all did so. Give people some freedom and treat them with respect and they usually respond well. The school was always clean and tidy, no problems with people dropping rubbish all over the place or causing damage – sign of the times or the quality of the people there?

The Quadrangle was a rectangular patch of grass between the admin area of the school and the science block. We were allowed onto that patch of grass only on very special occasions. Anyone caught on that grass without permission ended up having to write the entire set of school rules out by hand. If not satisfactory, you had to write it all out again backwards. Did I have to do that? Nope, after the sports kit debacle, I was a goody-two-shoes for the rest of my time there…more or less…

 

Champions Online – updates now via Twitter!

The developers of Champions Online, Cryptic’s new MMO, are now sending updates via twitter -> champsnews!

The beta seems to be going well and I’m waiting, with bated breath, for the full release.

Champions Online Heroically Delayed [Delay Of Game] (kotaku.com)

oops – Courts moved out – water (or vandals) moved in!

I had a lucky escape when I was looking for new furniture about five years ago, looked through the window of the Courts showroom, didn’t like what they had so went elsewhere. A couple of months later, they went bust. The fact that they were taking peoples money while knowing that this was going to happen is disgraceful and a lot of people got caught by the company’s greed.

Anyway, they vacated their warehouse in Milton Keynes, nobody else wanted it and this is the result…spotted it while walking into town last month. Either an electrical fire caused by water getting in or, more likely, vandals…or maybe even disgruntled ex-customers who were left out of pocket taking their revenge on an empty building…stranger things have happened!

Courts had been in business since 1850 and went into receivership late November 2004 taking its employees pensions with it.

The BBC covered this one, including some posts from angry customers.