SteveBentley

Yep WINS is in use, configured like every other machine (by DHCP)

Good call, but sadly it hasn't changed anything. @Jonathan Yeah definitely using the FQ name. I've also found that ping -a will return the host name.

I've got a strange one on a Win 7 Pro machine - it can't connect to any websites by name which obviously points to a DNS issue, and testing further it's all services, not just websites. I've done the usual checks that it's getting the right DNS entries from DHCP, tried an ipconfig /flushcache, disabled IPv6, all the usual things. But it comes down to this: ping fails to resolve tracert fails to resolve nslookup does resolve but doesn't cache it so that a future ping works. tracert resolve and gives the fully qualified hostname No firewall issues or any security software that's unusual to this machine. Does anyone have any ideas?

Because compared to the main Euromillions jackpot or even the main UK lottery draw, £1m isn't newsworthy?

Take that site with a pinch of salt - the guy who runs it has a habit of presenting guesswork and conjecture as fact and not dealing well with constructive criticism when people try to correct him. Always cross reference info with another source before you rely on it for anything!

I was once told by tech support for a wireless card that turning off encryption made the packets "lighter" so they could travel further. And Virgin Media told me that being able to access a website via its IP address proved my theory that their DNS service wasn't behaving was wrong.

A combination of social engineering (eg ringing up for a PIN reset impersonating the account holder) and logging in with default passwords, which isn't really hacking, cracking or phreaking.

I've seen (but can't find) a unit that straps to the back of the rear view mirror and works on the same basis as Sky+ live pause, where there is a buffer of a certain amount of video. After an incident you want to keep you hit a button and it stops recording and saves what's in the buffer.

I had a USB keyboard with a "designed for Windows 95/NT" label on it.

My main bank account is online, and no cash machine will take deposits to it, so the odd occasion when I receive a cheque I have to keep a separate account and then transfer it over.

or Asda

As much as I dislike what has allegedly happened, and am not exactly a Murdoch fan, I have to say that the timing of this news breaking is clearly a very unsubtle stitich-up job with the BSkyB takeover decision imminent. I think I'm right in saying that at the moment most of the recent revalations are still allegations and claims that may or may not prove to be correct?

If you were a bit closer to "up north", Bronte Boats at Hebden Bridge seem quite cheap.

How about Kindles?

Was it a Microsoft Vacuum Cleaner? The only product they ever sold that didn't suck.

We learned to program on 80s 8-bit machines because that was the way they worked and the only way to get them to do cool stuff. When you turned it on you got a command prompt and you'd experiment and type something random in and see what happened. Your mate at schools showed you the good old 10 PRINT "STEVE IS COOL" 20 GOTO 10 trick. You'd buy a magazine with the complete source listing of a game, spend hours typing it in and start to notice the patterns like FOR loops, IF statements, the brackets around functions. Hell the Spectrum even had those commands printed on the key tops. We learned to program 80s computers because that's how they worked, and that was how you scratched an itch back then. Nowadays the average user doesn't care what a for loop is, nor do they need to. The GUI hides all of the fun and interesting stuff from them. For all they've got a lot more advanced, computers are a lot more boring nowadays.

Can't recommend anybody, but if you have the negs rather than prints you should get better results from having them scanned.

Amplifiers are more use if you're on the edge of the transmitter service area. If the problem is that you can no longer see the transmitter it's probably going to make things worse. The only problem with the idea of getting the builders to do the aerial is that they're renowned for being cowboys when it comes to aerial installs!

Adobe offer Work at Home rights in some of their licenses, so you might not even need the discount - worth checking

Sky remotes have a little dimple on the 5 key like those on the F and J keys of keyboards so you can find your way around them in a tactile way.

It very much depends where you are. I've found the bus less hassle and cheaper than finding somewhere to park, but I work in a town centre and there's a bus stop almost outside my front door. And if you work for a big organisation which has done some paperwork, you can get a big discount of First bus tickets in some areas.

There is an FTA version of 5 on Astra, but you would need to manually tune it on a Sky box with no card. I understand that this version occasionally doesn't show what the main C5 is showing because of rights issues.

All that I've encountered record either a native format or uncompressed WAV - encoding MP3 on the fly isn't practical, especially on a portable device with limited horse power. The software that comes with the device will let you convert but there will be a bit of looking at a status bar involved. It depends what purpose the recordings are for, you can go for anything from a £30 Olympus dictaphone up to a professional HHB Flash Mic for £800 or more.

Worth checking whether the camera has a Portrait mode. That's usually optomised to get as much depth of field as possible. If you're buying new kit specifically for this kind of shot, I'd heartily recommend getting a 50mm prime lens, although the kit lens that comes with it will be vastly better than what you're using now.

I wouldn't like to attempt video editing in that kind of environment, it's painful enough on the LAN let alone on a WAN!