Date : Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:18:05 +0200
From : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: bbcdocs website problem
On 28/07/2010 02:30, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
> Several hundred a day and 99% of them come from Chinese IP space.
So much for the Great Firewall of China.
>> does all this crap count to your allocation?).
> Of course it does.
Thank goodness there's not much of a concept of fair-use policy over
here. It's a shame you can't set up some way to drop specific IPs at the
ISP end.
> I found they are /very/ susceptible to RFI noise; won't be buying any
> more.
!? What sort of RFI do you have? Not noticed anything odd here, except
the WiFi failing to connect (defaults to 192.254.x.x IIRC) which is
random and probably in part due to the Livebox (which I rebooted yet
again...).
>> Do I trust Microsoft never to get this wrong?
> 'Course not. One word: Linux.
Mom has just told me she heard on the radio (R4LW or WorldService; was
about 2.30am, when does R4LW switch over?) that...
there's a serious vuln in the handling of "ports" so that when
things like harddiscs are connected, the computer can be infected
within microseconds with no other user activity. It affects both
Windows and Linux and travels via WiFi and is prevalent in Internet
caf?s.
The mom filter is like chinese whispers, so if that doesn't make a lot
of sense, you're not alone. I guess I'll keep an eye on El Reg to see if
I can find some actual info on this. ;-)
I'm highly suspicious of the bit about affecting both Win AND the
penguin. Though if this were true... That, along with recent code
targeting industrial SCADA systems, could be starting to mark a
disturbing shift of focus in criminal intentions. Why waste time ripping
off people's bank details (esp. when more and more domestic accounts
have limits - I can't blow more than ?750 in a 7 day period without
giving authorisation first; so my max loss is, in theory, ?750) when you
can say "oi, it's winter, it's -8C, pony up the readies or everybody in
<insert capital city> sees dakness...".
>> What spec?
...sorry I asked. Blooooooooooodddeeeeee hhhhheee..... <gulp!>
>> My two XP machines claim to have been built for 98, but they run XP okay:
>> Aiko: 450MHz P2, 128M RAM, 80Gb HD + DVD-W + DVD-W
>> Ayleigh: 1.1GHz AMD, 1Gb RAM, 80+40+320Gb HD + DVD-W
> That must be painful. You should give XPSP3 1Gb.
Aiko is an SP2 box. While that may seem to contradict my previous
advice, Aiko is absolutely _not_ going on-line.
Ayleigh has SP3. Another to have never tasted the speed of ADSL; it
exists mostly as a big dumping ground for stuff recorded digitally off
the telly (videotape? that's so history...) before I get around to
burning a DVD of it. It is depressing how quickly you can fill a 320Gb
harddisc...
...especially now my Neuros works at 1200kbit [*] which is about 35-40%
more (and correspondingly larger) than my older PVR.
* - 256/768/1200/1500/2000/2500 kbps possible; 768 is a little too
blocky (don't ask about 256), and 1500 is a little 'large' but I'll
use it for important stuff.
As for 2500, mostly never used (HUGE files), but it's very nearly
DVD quality!
> 512Mb is enough to load the OS but not to run any apps.
OvationPro, VB5, OpenWatcom, Firefox... all of that was happy and not
terribly slow, on Aiko. SP2, 128Mb.
I did try taking one of the 512Mb memory modules from Ayleigh and
putting it into Aiko, but I ended up with... 128Mb. It must be something
annoying like it can only address 128Mb per slot? I tried the 512 and
the 128, but it saw only 128... Mmmm...
> A newer, faster disk also makes a surprisingly big difference
> (real world experience).
For older computers, the FSB is the most critical thing. That's the path
between the processor and the memory [not strictly true, the northbridge
is in the way...].
To give a real world example:
Acer laptop (Angelique) - 466MHz Celeron, W98SE, 64Mb RAM.
Generic (Aiko) - 450MHz P2, Win XP, 128Mb RAM.
While you are true in more memory and disc space does wonders to
Windows, there is a physical limit to how fast you can push the data around.
Aiko runs just a mite under TWICE as fast as Angelique, despite having a
SLOWER processor, and running a more heavyweight OS.
For a start, Aiko's FSB is 100MHz (vs 66MHz). Then there's the
difference in the processor with regards caching and such.
This test not only by benchmark, but also by the fps of identical XviD
conversions.
So, guys, if you're looking for a new PC, there's more to it than "how
fast does the processor go?". Kinda like why the Beeb was so much faster
than the Electron (interleaved video memory access vs sequential), and
why the Master was faster still...
Best wishes,
Rick.
--
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...