This is being typed on one of my older laptops. This is my 2nd newest, and whilst it has a 1 GHz processor, and has something like 384 MBytes RAM it is not fast enough for a lot of the work I need to do these days. But it is too good to throw out, and so it is used for a number of uses, including having it as a serial terminal, run telnet and VNC on it, sometimes use it for programming, and surfing the web. Right now it has a telnet connection to my server running, as well as a C Compiler and some Web Pages, including this one for Blogger.

The other problem with this computer is that the ‘2’ key on the keyboard is not working very well. It needs to be pressed quite hard to get it to work. I have tried fixing it but nothing has helped. All I can do is that I would need to replace the keyboard, but I cannot see the point of spending the $100 or so for a new keyboard for the very minor problem. Besides which, this is not my main laptop.

The reason I am using this laptop to type this entry is that I am scanning on my other PC. I am ripping through old paperwork. Right now I am scanning (for my own use) an old magazine that was published before I was born, and for which the publisher has shut down. It is strange to look at what was seen as amazing at that time, and now seems to be so ancient.

One item was for the 25th anniversary of the transistor. Right now it is more than 25 years since the invention of a microprocessor. And things have moved so much that designing a microprocessor is an assignment for an undergraduate course in electrical engineering.

RFID

I have been playing with RFID cards over the last few days. These are commonly used for access control to vehicles. Sometimes they have ID photos added to them, or are placed onto a key ring. For the last couple of years I have had one on my key ring to show clients… When I tried that over the reader today two tags were identified. There was the normal one, and another tag on my key ring. Hmm. The other one must be my car key.

I have a 2002 Corolla Seca, and one of the security features of the engine management computer is that it must have the key present to start the car. I now know that the Key has a standard RFID unit in it, and I now have a serial number for it. If I wanted to I could now duplicate the RFID tag, now I could. Interesting.

Another Photo

Here is another photo of Italy. It is of St Peter’s Basillica. BTW, I am a member of the Uniting church, not the Catholic church… Having had CNN on most of the day I just have seen so many pictures of places I have been to.