Tom Cooper

Top mobile broadband tips

• Find somewhere it works and don’t move
• Download big files either before you go or where you have a good connection
• On Ubuntu Lucid Linux you might have to eject a broadband modem that thinks it’s a storage device
• If you can see a town, you’ll probably get a connection – but it might not last
• Laptops discourage people from sitting next to you on the train – think elbows!

I have to confess being a little bit of a Luddite when it comes to laptop computers. This Acer Aspire One is my first and the 2010 Hockey World Cup was the first event I covered using a computer. Anyway on to mobile computing. I picked up a PAYG dongle – A ZTE MF112 – from Three pretty cheap and thought I’d try broadband on the run. By the way this works fine with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. The only trick is the dongle mounts as a CD drive – just eject it using the file manager then set up your network connection using Network Manager ((icon at top right of screen).
So sitting at St Pancras on the north-bound train. Straight onto the internet download speed of about 1.5Mbs upload speed about half that with the added bonus that sitting with a laptop discourages anyone from sitting next to you – bonus.
Quick connect to fileserver at home (SSH connection for the geeks) works fine. Kick of download f a couple of audio files… train pulls out of station, mobile signal drops, transfers terminate in FileZilla and my SSH terminal sessions drop as well.
Resetting the modem doesn’t always work in Ubuntu but experience proves the plug-out, plug-in method beloved of the tech support boys, actually does the trick. Back on line, a couple of web pages, requeue the transfers … aargh, tunnel through the Chilterns… the dreaded red light comes on on the ZTE. Oh well I’ll wait for the open country. Green light on modem, reconnect, then two minutes later the thing disconnects with barely a byte transferred.
So my verdict: Mobile computing – great when you are sanding still. But certainly on the Three network, thundering through the countryside, it’s not yet too practical.
Just get on-line for long enough at Leicester to post this (but I created it off-line)

With PUSH issue 24 out the way have been spending a bit of time getting our Hockey World Cup site up and running. Also been making final arrangements for trave to Delhi – found out the official media hotels are about 10,000 rupiah a night, which pretty much rules them out for us!

Just had media accreditation through for the Hockey World Cup. The flights are booked and I’ve even had the needles. So we are all go.Just have to finish off the latest issue of PUSh then I can start thinking about it.

Just had a pair of CK sunglasses repaired by EyeWearRepairs.
The service was excellent – I dropped the glasses in the post on Friday with a cheque for twenty quid and they were back on my desk today (Wednesday).
One of the side arms had been broken and it appears to have been neatly welded together (with a plastic weld – these glasses have plastic arms).

Just been to the India Visa Application Centre in Victoria, London.
I’d seriously recommend you at least do the form online, print it off and make an appointment – this will really speed up your visit. You can also apply electronically and post your documents. My appointment was 10am, I had a fifteen minute wait and I was out the door by 10.20am.
If you want to fill the form in on-site – make sure you take a black pen and do it in BLOCK CAPITALS, otherwise it’s another wait in the queue for you.
As a journalist there are a few extra things you need. The officer asked if I had an invite from India – which I didn’t and as I am self-employed I didn’t have a letter from my employer saying what I was going to do.
Instead I drew up a letter stating my itinerary – which is basically a trip to Delhi for the Hockey World Cup. They said I should get my passport back in four working days, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update: Visa arrived in four days – so it’s all systems go.

Installed the 2.1 beta version of Skype today and it worked, straight out of the box. Audio issues with 2.0 made it almost unusable on my AMD64 Ubuntu system.

The new version integrates much better with pulseaudio and the sound quality is finally close to the Windows version. I haven’t tried any of the new features yet. I’m just glad it works!

Headed up to Birmingham for the England vs Scotland indoor internationals yesterday.
England got dealt a lesson in indoor hockey by both the Scottish men and women. England’s women actually managed to win (3-1) which was more down to better athleticism than anything else – the visitors clearly had a better grasp on the tactics. Chloe Strong did an exceptional job of using her speed and stick skills to be a constant atacking threat. Not far behind her was Kerry Williams.
In the men’s match Scotland were well worth their 7-3 win with their Niall Stott the outstanding player of the night and Stephen Dick not far behind.
Overall quite an entertaining evening, but two 40-minute games isn’t really enough to make a worthwhile evening out – a couple of support matches would have been a good addition.

Just finished issue 23 of PUSH magazine – my fourth as editor.

The most interesting part of the mag for me was researching and writing – Watch out! There’s a fake about. But there is some really great content this time including a piece about a Royal Marine, injured in Afghanistan, who recovered to play hockey. There is an interview with England and GB star Simon Mantell, and a piece on using psychology to improve your hitting power

See www.pushhockey.com

This is the new tcnews.co.uk homepage. The website has been removed from Fasthosts and is now running on a Linux server via a Virgin Media cable connection.
More content will follow!