rejs just ask about the origins of "and a pony", usually after a list of other desires which is starting to sound implausible. Anyone any idea where it comes from? I figured it's a reference to whiny teenage girls, but I can't find anything more concrete easily.

[noodles@pot ~]$ ssh -C ox.compsoc.net
Oxford University Computer Society network
------------------------------------------

This machine no longer accepts user logins.

Well, that's that then. It's nearly 8 years since I got my Compsoc account, back in the days when most people didn't have a Linux box sitting on their desk (in fact I think I had a Compaq Aero 4/33 running DOS at the time). Since then I've been a Compsoc Sysadmin, president of the society and more recently an aging hanger on. It's still sad to see it go however. The main problem seems to have been a lack of undergraduates who are interested in actually maintaining the network, probably coupled with the lack of demand from most current members for an account. I believe there are still a reasonable number of events, which is in contrast to Cambridge, where the SRCF seems to be still going strong, while the Cambridge University Computing Society seems somewhat dormant. Odd how these things work out.

Kathy has a Motorola C975 on 3 PAYG. She's used it a number of times to take pictures when she hasn't had a real camera handy and wanted to get a cable to get them off the phone. eBay of course provided and it arrived this morning. Aside from it being a bit dodgy (needs some wiggling to get detected, but the seller is sending me a replacement) there's the issue of software. It came with some Windows software, but my only Windows machine has slightly dodgy USB to say the least (it was dodgy under Linux and FreeBSD as well, so I can't blame Windows here).

Plugging it into a Linux machine caused the loading of the cdc-acm driver and lo and behold I had a /dev/ttyACM0 and could talk AT to the phone. Which would of course be more useful if 3 actually did real data instead of just walled garden stuff. Further looking around led to the discovery of moto4lin which supports the "P2K" mode of the phone, which lets you upload/download files and Java applets. Except of course it doesn't support the C975. It'll recognise the phone is there, get the model number and free space available but can't actually get a file list. I've filed a request for C975 support as there doesn't seem to be a mailing list or even web forum for discussion of the program. I possibly need to get USB working under Windows and do the usbsnoop thing. Unless anyone out there has got one of these working with Linux?

When I bought my current laptop (a Compaq Evo N200) I told myself that if it lasted 3 years and I made reasonable use of it then I could justify buying another one. 3 years have passed and while I'm still very fond of my N200 it's getting a bit long in the tooth. Aside from the fact the batteries are going (I used to be able to get 4-5 hours out of it, now it's very temperamental and can die without warning), the lack of memory expansion options (192MB is the max and that's how it came) is annoying and has been so for a while now. In addition it would be nice to have built in wireless/bluetooth.

So, I've been looking around for a replacement for the past few month in preparation for this. Originally I'd been quite keen on the look of the HP TC1100 Tablet but it was pointed out that they're actually quite bulky. Laptops Direct has a neat comparison feature where you can limit by things like weight, so I tried that. It seems that I can get a 12" screen these days (the N200 is 10.4") without that much larger a machine, which might be nice. Currently I'm leaning towards a Toshiba Portégé R200 which has built in wireless/bluetooth, 512MB RAM and seems generally quite funky. It'll probably be discontinued next week knowing my previous luck.

Anyway. Windows. When we moved in 2+ years ago one of the things the survey flagged up was that the windows on the back of the house needed replaced (very visibly so). The front had been double glazed, but the back was still timber frame single glazing. We've been putting it off and putting it off since then. So I decided that I needed a carrot/stick approach - until the windows are sorted, I can't have a new laptop. However we've now had 4 quotes, selected a company and signed up. Survey happened on Saturday, so hopefully within 6 weeks the house will be fully double glazed (and I can have a new laptop). Yay!

Why didn't I cotton on to the incredible usefulness of l (filter index list) in mutt before? I've been using it a lot recently, but for the first few years of using mutt I'm not even sure I knew it existed. Really useful when dealing with huge mail boxes and trying to find stuff.