I'm back. And my pub has WiFi - you didn't mention that. But I actually go to the pub to read some dead trees - it makes a soothing, people-centred, non-technical, end of the day.

Ah, the ancient art of reading burnt dead trees deposited on partially digested and dessicated dead trees :-)

LOL Cheeky chappy rides horse around London filling station, singing: 'I don't need petrol 'cos he runs on carrots'

It would have been even funnier if he turned up pulling a cart with a couple of barrels of fuel on board. :-)

In case you don't want to buy the new Far Cry 6, but do want to know what it's all about, here's the 10.5 hour walkthrough on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBfn7DNUPLY

Warning: Not for kids. Violence, blood, gore, sex.

These fora have been totally silent for 4 days.

These fora have been totally silent for 4 days.

Precursor to the great Halloween experiment later this month?

Just spent the better part of an hour and a half to get my system to boot in secure mode.
In BIOS, disable CSM in Boot option -> Save and exit -> Reboot.
In BIOS, enable Secure Boot in Security, set Secure Boot Mode to Custom -> Save and exit -> Reboot.

But doing so on my Asrock B550 Steel Legend would constantly put me back in the BIOS. Enabling Secure Boot would also make my drives disappear.
So I could only boot with CSM enabled and secure boot disabled.

Found that my boot drive's partition table was MBR, not GPT. Now, normally this meant you'd have to use a convertor that deleted everything on your drive as it rewrote the partition table from MBR to GPT, but no longer. I used the Windows built-in mbr2gpt.exe (in system32) to convert my drive:

In Windows, start command prompt as administrator.
Run mbr2gpt /allowFullOS /disk:# /validate
Wait for it to end.
Run mbr2gpt /allowFullOS /disk:# /convert (with sweaty palms)
Wait for it to end. It may end with two errors about certificates not being loaded, don't worry, that's fine.

Then reboot the system.
Go into BIOS.
Disable CSM as above.
Enable Secure Boot as above.
Check that the boot drive is "Windows Management System"
Save & Exit
Reboot.

And from here on in you'll boot into Windows 10. Without having lost any data.
You use the /allowFullOS switch on mbr2gpt to tell it to run from within Windows, else you'll have to reboot into the Advanced Options->Command Line Windows Preinstallation Environment and run the commands from there. The disk:# is the disk number as it shows in Windows Disk Management.

Now my main PC tells me on the Update page that "This PC doesn't currently meet all the system requirements for Windows 11" and to run the PC Health app, which then proceeds to tell me there are no problems. Bugs like that don't get my hopes up. Even if it's probably because I have restrictions to Windows Update in place, as the other PC where these restrictions are not in place already has the chance to update. Not going to. It took me well over 3 years to get to Windows 10, I am not in a hurry to beta test the next Windows version.

And in the meantime xubuntu21.10 has been released. Not risking the testing site tasks I have running though so update in about three weeks time.

upgrade from 21.04 to 21.10 (xUbuntu) taking a bit longer on host machine than the minimal installation in VM did.

Xiaomi has developed a mini heat pipe so your smartphone doesn't get too hot to handle

The company said the system is thin and flexible enough to be stacked in future designs and that it's aiming for mass production of the technology in H2 2022.

Anyone interested in the story of how British Telecom's unilateral conversion of landline telephones to VOIP landed me in hospital for 24 hours?

(and no, although a punchdown tool does feature in the story, that wasn't the cause of the hospital visit).

Sounds like a good storyline... do tell us more.

OK, let's start the hare running. I'm doing some Beta testing at the same time, so it may come in stages.

It starts with an email on 19 October:

Your home phone is going digital.

Ready for the next generation of calling?
We’re upgrading your home phone to our Digital Voice service. It’s all part of improving our phone network to handle the technology of tomorrow.

Introducing Digital Voice
Digital Voice is our new home phone service. It’s replacing our old copper network. That means your phone service will soon be delivered through your broadband connection, rather than your standard phone line.

What is changing
As far as your service goes, nothing. With no change to your call plan and contract, you won’t pay a penny more and your phone number will remain the same. Plus, if you have features like Call Protect and Voicemail, you’ll still be able to make the most of these.

When do I switch over?
Not just yet. We’ll be in touch soon to let you know your Switch Over Day.
But remember, you’ll need to switch to your new connection by hand.

If you have a burglar or medical pendant connected to your landline, you'll need to contact your providers to let them know that you are moving onto Digital Voice to ensure the service will continue working as normal. If you still need to contact us after you've spoken to your provider, call us on 0800 800 150.

Don’t worry, switching to Digital Voice is quick and easy and remember you can continue to use your current home phone. Just keep in mind these three simple steps:


When you’ve finished these steps, you can make and receive calls as normal. Remember, once we’ve activated your Digital Voice service, your existing phone connection will stop working. It's worth noting that your broadband connection won't be affected – it will still be up and running during the switch over.

If your phone currently plugs into a different location to your Smart Hub 2, you can remotely connect a Digital Voice home phone or use an adapter. You can order either one adapter or a Digital Voice home phone free of charge from bt.com/DVequipment or TEXT the word ADAPTER or HANDSET to 61998.

Want to know more?
We’re working to make switching as easy as possible. But if you still have questions, we’ve got the answers.

Step 1 - I texted for an adapter. Got a reply to say I'd already requested a handset (??? - false), and couldn't have both. Rang them - even the Digital Voice team couldn't see any sign of an order. Confirmed I wanted an adapter, sorted out the delivery details, job done. On arrival, it turned out to be an electric plug-in wall wart, with an IP WPS 'pair' button, and a phone socket. Not what I wanted, but it's a start.

Plugged in, pressed the two WPS pairing buttons in the right order and for the right length of time, but indicator did not change to solid green for successful pairing. Stayed flashing, suggesting not paired. Checked router management screen - VOIP not configured. Shrugged shoulders, unplugged device, gave up for now.

Step 2 - a second email, timed at 02:23 on 5 November.

Your phone service is changing to Digital Voice

Hello,

We're moving you on to our Digital Voice service. It should start within 48 hours of 12 Nov 2021.

Even though your phone service is changing to Digital Voice, your phone number and contract will stay the same.

What sort of an appointment is the bit I've picked out in red? That could be anything from 00:01 Friday to 23:59 Sunday - and I have to make the final change by hand. Grumble.

But, time to get down to work. British telephone sockets have a two-part design:


The lower part is user-accessible. You are permitted to remove it, connect extension telephone sockets via your own wiring and a punchdown connection block. I've got half-a-dozen sockets spread over three floors in my house.

The connection to the outside world is made via an integral plug/socket when you replace the faceplate on the rest of the master socket (which you are not allowed to modify). With VOIP, the house wiring has to be isolated from the external line. A couple of minutes with a hacksaw sorted that (check you haven't shorted any conductors together by doing that).

(in the middle of all this, I had a minor medical episode, which I mentioned in passing to a regular caller)

What I find funny in all this is that it doesn't even begin to breathe an option on what you have to do if step 3 doesn't work as it should do, "If you hear..."
Especially if this is the only telephone you use.