Micks' Musings

I enabled two factor authentication for my google account and thunderbird stopped working with a "Retry","Enter new pasword","Cancel" dialog. To get gmail working again login to your google account and go to the security settings in "My Account" and create an App password for Thunderbird. Go back to Thunderbird and paste the new password in using "Enter new password". You will also need to use the same password if you use gmail to send email as well. I leave it up to you to use google search to find the instructions for creating an app password if the following link has expired or changed App Passwords

I wrote about tablets a while ago. At the moment I have a Surface pro 3, an iPad Air, a Nexus 7 and a Zenphone 2. The Zenphone isn't a tablet but it does have a 1080p 5.5 inch screen and, not so long ago, they were selling 5 inch tablets (anything portable without a screen was called a tablet!). I use it to check email, hangouts, normal phone activities like texts and phone calls as well as to play ingress. It does all that very well. It also has a second SIM slot so I can use it with an overseas SIM while travelling and still have my normal number. It is the best phone I have owned (so far)! The surface pro is a very recent acquisition and so far I am using it as an ultra portable with the keyboard attachment. The 12 inch screen is very nice, the keyboard is very usable although the touchpad would be a problem if the screen wasn't touchable! The biggest annoyance so far is that the  touchpad doesn't seem to have any way to do a middle mouse button click.  The ipad is...

Just checking. I was folding some washing and when I had finished there were no socks left over. That can only happen if I have slipped into an alternate universe or some other cosmic event has occured. The world still appears to be the same. Maybe the spare sock monster took a day off?

Acronym Slang is an alternative to Rhyming Slang. What is a Washington? A Diet Coke. i.e. Washington D.C. Another example is Wigwam, Toilet paper = TP, Teepee is another word for WigWam. Rhyming Slang can be very obscure and hard to understand. Acronym Slang has the potential to be even more complex! Any more examples?

Yesterday the weather in Google Now was 35 degrees C and Light Snow was predicted. A few days before it said it was 30 degrees C and predicted Freezing Fog! It was back to reality today - 40 degrees C and Partly Cloudy however it now says 29 C and Light snow again! For the Celcius impared 35 C is 98.5 F. There is not  much chance of snow when the outside temperature is nearly 100! I have no idea if this was a widespread problem or if it was just on my phone! It may be an unusual combination of the Google app (formerly Google Now) and Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean).

I was trying to get the display resolution for a Linux Virtual Machine to a reasonable value - the host has an old PCI video card and can only do 1024 by 768 so the VM has been restricted to less than that even when using VNC (ie Remote Desktop for non-Windows machines). I was experimenting with the various modes that Virtual Box allows when I realised that after setting the Virtual Machine to Scaled Mode I was able to choose a resolution that was higher than the resoltuion of the host. It did look pretty odd on the Host but when using VNC it is fine! I can now control the Virtual Machine and see much more in the window! 24 May: After updating the network router I found my Linux Virtual machine would now lock up. So I created a new one using Fedora Core 20. However I was not able to get anything greater then 1012 by 664 (the host is stuck at 1024 x 768!). So after some digging I found the following in the Virtual Box help. VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/MaxGuestResolutio...

The Australian opposition launched its Broadband policy today. Inferior in every way to the current National Broadband Network and no cheaper in the long run due to the cost of maintaining the old copper network.  Is the cost of electing the LNP having inferior infrastructure, more expensive health care and poorer education? Do the opposition plan to charge all the people who are already connected to the NBN the $5000 they will make me pay to get FTTP once they get elected? My house is over 3.5KM from the exchange and I get 3M over ADSL2. You have got to question the motives of the opposition - are they protecting their biggest donors? They will be winning the next election regardless of what they say or do between now and September so there is no reason not to allow the NBN to proceed except for vested self-interest. One thing is for sure - if they ruin the NBN I will be cancelling my Foxtel subscription and will never buy anything associated with the backers of the LNP. I...