Στο πρόσφατο τραγελαφικο-θλιβερό περιστατικό απόπειρας δωροδοκίας του Π. Χαϊκάλη, από τον Αποστολόπουλο, ο εισαγγελέας λέει ότι δεν μπορεί εκείνος που ετοιμαζόταν να τελέσει κακούργημα (ο αποστολόπουλος) να κατέγραφε τον Χαϊκάλη.
Είτε ο εισαγγελέας είναι αφελής, είτε μικρόνους, διότι ο Αποστολόπουλος, θα μπορούσε κάλλιστα να δωροδοκίσει τον Χαϊκάλη, και να τον καταγράφει, έτσι ώστε να μπορεί να τον κρατάει από τα αρχίδια και να τον εκβιάζει, σε αποφάσεις που θα ήθελε ο Αποστολόπουλος να πάρει ο Χαϊκάλης στο μέλλον χωρίς να του δώσει φράγκο ποτέ ξανά...

Annoying problem with Samsung printer Xpress M2675FN

We have a Samsung Xpress M2675FN at work, which is a nifty little all in one laser printer.
We have been using it for about 9 months now and it has been a work horse.
Lately its red light started blinking asking to get ready for a new imaging unit. I got the new unit early on, since I didn't want to run out of printer, but I thought I wouldn't install it until the counting chip of the old imaging unit (indicating there were about 1000 prints left) run out of counts.

Last few days now the printer has been making a highly annoying, low volume, high pitch tone in par with the blinking light, when the printer enters sleep mode.
The sound isn't produced when the printer is expecting to print something.
My workstation is next to the printer and the sound is driving me mad.
If only Samsung designed better electronics....

Life working overtime and having a family means that I find myself with a limited budget. Hence when I want to make a project, I often turn to Ebay and other online marketplaces to source parts and equipment on the cheap.
The problem with that approach is that the tiniest part may take up to 30 days to arrive and multiple parts for a project that the need arises in series rather than parallel mean, multiple months of waiting. Couple that with the limited spare time I have and I have a bunch of projects in mind, but have cooled off and I do not think I will ever realise them. Crap!

Disappointment on android HDMI sticks / dognles UPDATED (Intel HDMI stick)

I have owned 3 different android hdmi sticks.
If you are not familiar with them, its a small form computer that connects on monitors and can turn the monitor to a PC. Great for work on the go, or for transforming an dumb TV into a smart one.

So initially I got one to watch films on my TV with subtitles, and perhaps do other stuff as well, internet browsing, and android games.
It worked great for the first 5-6 months, until it didn't. At some point it refused to boot. It was eternally frozen to the boot logo screen. I send it back and requested a replacement. The replacement worked also like a charm for a few months, until it also froze on the boot logo.

I never tried to hack any of these two. Did not install 3d party roms, or bootloaders. Only a few applications.

I considered it for a bit and the bit the bullet again and bought a 3d stick. this one was problematic from the first moment, horizontal lines would randomly appear on the screen, and the screen would turn on and off as if the video signal from the stick was interrupted and the screen was "forced" to find the signal again as if it was unplugged from the hdmi port. Thus making it unusable.

Two more I persuaded the guys at work to buy to use with some older TVs, one works ok as far as I know and the other one makes the video stutter and don't show it smoothly.

Over all I have been using them for about a year, and was really nice to have. However I cannot recommend them to anyone after my above experiences.

Also the fact that their userbase is rather small, few people deal with their problems, and mod them which is a real shame.


UPDATE 27/4/15:

Well, I recently figured out how to reinstall the firmware on my non working android stick. I also figured out that the new sticks that didn't work on my TV, oh well, it was most probably a TV problem, rather than an Android stick problem. I am in the works or repairing my TV, (changing some bad capacitors) and will test it again.

So well, after reinstalling a firmware I found floating online, the android stick came back to life. Its quite sad that these sticks, suffer so often getting stuck in the boot screen. I don't know what may contribute to that, but they should come with directions to revive them, and some online address with the original firmware.

Also, I recently read an article on gismodo, I think, about the Intel HDMI stick. The guy there was really disappointed.
Some thoughts.
1. 150$ for that is extremely expensive.
2. Of course it doesnt have a keyboard and a USB hub. what do you think it is? Aladdin's magic lamp? Get a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse and a usb hub from dealextreme or elsewhere and be done with it.
3. Of course it isn't powerful. Personally I don't have Netflix, but I can watch my movies nicely on my android sticks. Even 1080p depending on the TV.
4. You shouldn't expect to replace your laptop or desktop with this stick.
5. It is nice that it can run windows.
6. Atom processors are crap if you ask me.

UPDATE 2:

To upgrade the firmware, I used information that I found on android warehouse.
I downloaded a rom for my own particular CPU model, in my case, a RK3188 for the Ditter V16, followed the instructions with the RockChip Batch tools and managed to restore functionality.

Rockchip devices

To put the firmware via PC on your device is the Rockchip Batch Tool needed. To use this tool, you first need the necessary drivers. When you install any drivers, your PC will not recognize the device. Below are the download links for the drivers and the tool.

Download the file with the drivers.
Put the file in a recognizable folder and unpack it, so you can easily find. It back later
If you follow the steps to flash your android stick / androidbox follows, give your PC that a device is trying to connect.  Go to Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Devices and Printers.
Between the devices, refer to "Unknown" unknown device or Rockusb Device mode, click it.
In the menu you can 'install drivers'
Now find the appropriate driver in the folder where you have installed the drivers.
When you have selected the correct driver the Rockchip
Batch tool will the next time you open it to recognize the device, and you can follow the steps appropriate for your device.

Rockchip Batch Tool.
This tool is used to in

stall (flash) on your Android Stick / Box containing a Rockchip SoC as the RK3188 RK3066 SoC and SoC firmware.

1. Install Rockchip Batch Tool
2. Open it and locate the firmware in the folder where you stored it.
3. Connect your device, in this case the Minix Neo X7 connected, when successful, a green light button, now click on the Restore button
4. When the update is successful, it will say, restore done succesful.
5. Allow your device now about 5 minutes connected, so that the update can be. Performed correctly Now you are ready


Connect of MK908 (II):

The MK908 (II) has a reset (recovery) button, hold it (with a paperclip) button before closing the drive to your PC. Hold down the button.
Connect the MK908 (II) to your PC using a USB to Micro USB cable. The Micro USB OTG port is in the drive
Release the button only when the number 1 to Connected Devices green.
After the number one green has become, you can have the reset button.
The reset button on the MK908 is at the back. There are two small holes to see which one is the LED hole. If you turn the key to see which hole the LED is and what the reset. Use a paper clip to press the reset button.

Βγήκα από το σπίτι βιαστικά πριν μερικές μέρες, 7 το πρωί, την ώρα που φεύγω κάθε πρωί για τη δουλειά. Στην ανατολή, βαριά σύννεφα, κρύβαν τον φθηνοπωρινό ήλιο και η μέρα προβλέπονταν μουντή. Καθώς οδηγούσα όμως, συνηδειτοποίησα ότι ο φωτισμός μου φαινότανε περίεργος, σαν να ήταν ξαφνικά απόγευμα αντί για χαράματα. Και σε μια στροφή του δρόμου το αντίκρυσα, προς τη δύση ορθώνονταν ένα απίστευτα ψηλό σύννεφο, σαν τα πυρηνικά μανιτάρια από τις δοκιμές του '50. Ακριβώς πάνω μου, μια μεγάλη ανέφελη περιοχή με το χαρακτηριστικό ουράνιο γαλάζιο. Και ο ήλιος, κρυμένος σχεδόν εντελώς από τα νέφη της ανατολής, αντανακλούσε τη λαμπρότητα του στα νέφη της δύσης δίνοντας την εντύπωση ότι η μέρα προσωρούσε κιόλας προς το τέλος της....

Νόμιμα ναρκωτικά = έσοδα για το κράτος

Το 2009 ανέβασα ένα κειμενάκι το οποίο είχε μερικές σκέψεις για τα ναρκωτικά.
Σήμερα 5 χρόνια μετά, στις ΗΠΑ η νομιμοποίηση της κάναβης είναι γεγονός, και τα έσοδα από τις πωλήσεις πολύ πολύ πραγματικά...

Ήμουν στη δουλειά σήμερα όπως και κάθε μέρα τα τελευταία δυο περίπου χρόνια. 

Απέναντι μου έξω από την τζαμαρία ορθώνεται ένας τοίχος ψηλός 8-10 μέτρα κρύβοντας μου κάθε θέα. Μόνη συντροφιά, αν μπορείς να την πεις έτσι, είναι οι δυο γάτες, και τα σπουργίτια που βρίσκουν καταφύγιο στις σωλήνες εξόδου του βρόχινου νερού πάνω στον τοίχο. Τα τιτιβίσματα τους, είναι το ευχάριστο διάλλειμα στην καθημερινή ρουτίνα. 

Το ένα από τα δύο γατιά είναι ιδιαιτέρως κυνηγετικό. Κάθε τρείς και λίγο κάποια κατσαρίδα, , κάποια ακρίδα, σκαθάρι ή κάποιο ποντίκι θα γίνει παιχνίδι στα νύχια του. Λιγότερο συχνά και κάποιο σπουργίτι. Το κακό είναι ότι δεν τα τρώει. Απλά τα σκοτώνει, παίζει μαζί τους, τα κάνει μπαλάκι και τα καταχωνιάζει σε κάποια μεριά του μαγαζιού να σιτέψουν.

Σήμερα, ανακάλυψα το γατί χωμένο σε μια άκρη της αποθήκης να βασανίζει ένα, ζωντανό ακόμα, σπουργίτι.Το γατί πήρε δρόμο με συνοπτικές διαδικασίες και κρατώντας ένα σακουλάκι πήρα το σπουργίτι στην παλάμη μου. Μην ξέροντας τι να το κάνω το κράτησα για λίγο εκεί σκεπτόμενος. Το πουλάκι ήταν ξαπλωμένο και ακίνητο. Ανοιγόκλεινε μερικές φορές τα μάτια και στα 5 -10 λεπτά που το κρατούσα, κουνησε το κεφάλι του 1-2 φορές. 

Το πόδι του είχε αίματα και τα φτερά εκεί ήταν στραπατσαρισμένα. Καθώς το κρατούσα είχα την αίσθηση ότι με παρατηρούσε με ένταση αλλά χωρίς φόβο. Λογικά η γάτα πρέπει να ήταν ο χειρότερος εφιάλτης του και εγώ κάποιος απομηχανής θεός. Καθώς το κρατούσα η ζεστασιά του κορμιού του διαπέρασε το ψυχρό πλαστικό και ζέσταινε την παλάμη μου. Εκπληκτικό συναίσθημα. Μετά σκαρφάλωσα σε κάτι ξύλα και μαλακά το έσπρωξα μέσα σε μια απο τις τρύπες υπερχείλησης που έχουν κάνει φωλιές και κουτσένοντας μπήκε μέσα.

Ελπίζω το γατί να μην το φτάνει.

the tactics used by lobbies and money wielding companies to shift public opinion out of focus...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1349204/berman-at-western-energy-alliance-june-2014-doc.pdf

Ebay irrelevance

I was introduced in ecommerce and ebay sometime around 2003. Was awesome. So much selection and bargain prices at the grasp of my arm. I also enjoyed the auction style. I woke up in the middle of the night multiple times to bid and snipe on an item. And could easily find replacement parts for almost anything electronic.
At some point as my pockets became slightly deeper, the auction style wore off in me. Now I was about buying now the item I wanted with the lowest price.
I could easily source items all over the world in the various ebay websites. I could log on the German ebay to buy things from germany, to the US ebay site to buy things from the US.
And then shit changed. Ebay started demanding extra fees for customs and clearance, and the last blow has been the fact that I can no longer view items from the US ebay in US prices when logging into ebay.com. I can only see prices in euro currency missing all the 0.99$ bargains from asian stores aimed to the US market, but also available to Europe.

I have a few grievances about Ebay and some sad "horror" stories, but Ebay has becoming less and less relevant over the years and its latest implementations doesn't help at all IMHO. Now that Alibaba went public, I might as well give it a chance.

First impressions on Google Cardboard

If you don't know what Google Cardboard is, its the poor man's Virtual Reality set. Of course how poor is the man who has enough $$ to spend on a 5'' android phone is questionable, but lately at least there are a lot 5'' Chinese phones that cost quite cheaply. Anyway,

I got mine for 10$ from DX.com
I don't know if all cardboards are made equal, I would assume all use the Google template, but in my case:

1. Not all noses were created equal. More nose clearance required!
2. Google cardboard app has a bug. I cant constantly spin around myself to steady the environment I am watching. I need to sit down occasionally! Actually it seems to be my phone's bug. The gyroscope shows a small negative reading, which fluctuates a few decimals constantly, no matter what. I do not know how to reset it so far, or fix it in anyway. There are tools to check it, but haven't found anything to zero it.
3. Control of VR environments needs improvement. I can use a wired or wireless mouse but I get the feeling I would look like a dork.
4. The world is really immersive. You can loose track of your surroundings and hit on furniture and stuff. 
5. You need to have VERY clean lenses and screen. The smallest smudge looks like fog.
6. You need to have very high resolution screen as well. It works on low resolutions sure, but you see the bits the image is made of. The actual fabric of your universe.
7. A major flaw is that you can't use it while lying in bed unless you enjoy blue skyes and ceilings. What kind of personal experience is this that cannot enjoy from my own bed?

Some thoughts on the recent killing of James Foley

I was reading an article on slate about the recent execution of James Foley. Although the reporter makes some valid points, when I reached the following part, couldn't stop but smiling at the irony. 

"The most powerful weapon bad people use to control good people isn’t knives, guns, or bombs. It’s fear. They train you to think about your options within a frameworkthey control: You make the decisions; they impose the consequences." 

US media outlets, US government and a variety of US companies use fear in their everyday transactions to reap profits, selling guns, selling medicine, selling advertisements, selling fear. I cannot believe that the reporter doesn't know that. He is just choosing to ignore it.

Also before reaching Foleys death, there have been at least ~20 years of fighting in Iraq were the US was actively involved and the nearby region for even longer. Foley died in the hands of the machine that was placed there by the US government action and inaction over the last 20 or so years.

Lets not forget that the US government doesn't care about american citizens. Unless perhaps they are billionaire, or within the US government. Don't ask for proof, have a look at the healthcare of veterans, and the fact that the US sends its troops (and then naive people ask for supporting them) everywhere and gets them killed.

"The only way to extinguish the market in kidnapping is to make it worthless. That means refusing to pay."

That is such a narrow minded position. 

1. You don't have to have kidnappings. Do not allow your citizens to go in these areas. Send affiliates who might not be in the same danger.

2. Change your motherfucking external policy. Instead of sending fucking soldiers and bombs send in teachers and books. But then those are not your core customers.

3. Use other means of diplomacy rather than weapons. Make motherfucking friends rather than enemies. You do reap what you saw.

"But people like us—people who, in Obama’s words, build rather than destroy—will prevail, as long as we refuse to accept the enemy’s rules."

Dude please don't be or play stupid. For half the world US is the enemy! Imagine the rest of the world working in the same lines. 

Connecting Ferguson with ISIS!

I read the sad news about the beheading of an american photo journalist by ISIS. And then I had an epiphany. the US should outsource police work to ISIS forces and deploy them in Ferguson for example or any other similarly uprising city and they kill two birds with one stone!
Isis loves to kill americans, and US will a very quiet place. Just the way they like it!

Internet has freed me from the chains of TV. from its schedules, its wants, its sales, its demands, its messages. Fuck you TV.

το ποιοτικό Ελληνικό τουριστικό προϊόν

Ο τουρισμός λέει έιναι μεταξύ άλλων η ατμομηχανή της ελληνικής οικονομίας. Και πουλάμε ήλιο και θάλασσα (δηλαδή τουριστικό προϊόν).
Και παρόλα αυτά σε οποια παραλια και να πας βλέπεις εικόνες σαν τις παρακάτω:

Φυσικά φταίνε οι υπάνθρωποι, ημεδαποί και αλλοδαποί, που πετάνε τα σκουπίδια τους όπου βρούν. Αλλά ρε φίλε για στάσου, που στο διάολο είναι οι υποδομές για την απόρριψη των απορριμάτων; Που στο διάολο είναι οι υποδομές για την αποκομοιδή των απορριμάτων; Που στο διάολο είναι η ορθή διαχείρηση των απορριμάτων; Η ανακύκλωση που στο πέος είναι; Πως περιμένεις να έχεις ποιοτικό τουριστικό προϊόν όταν το σπίτι σου βρωμάει και τα σκουπίδια φτάνουν στο ταβάνι; Και να σου πω κάτι φίλε; Δική μου δουλειά είναι να μαζεύω τα απορρίματα μου και να τα πετάω στους σωστούς κάδους όπου υπάρχουν, αλλά δεν είναι δική μου δουλειά να μαζεύω τα σκουπίδια των άλλων. Και με τόσο ψηλή ανεργία, καραμήτρο μου, μπορείς να προσλάβεις κόσμο να μαζεύει τα απορρίματα, μπορείς να δώσεις στην ΕΛΒΟ κανένα κοψίδι να φτιάξει κανένα απορριματοφόρο, μπορείς να φτιάξεις εργοστάσια ανακύκλωσης, εργοστάσια διαχωρισμού, εργοστάσια κομποστοποίησης, εργοστάσια αποτέφρωσης, εργοστάσιο αεριοποίησης πλάσματος.
Αντί για αυτό, προτιμάς να δίνεις φοροαπαλαγές, στον κάθε μεγαβιομήχανο, να πουλάς το νερό και το ρεύμα και να βγάζεις δήμαρχο Πειραια επιχειρηματία...
Ξεφτίλα ρε μάστορα, ξεφτίλα χύμα στο κύμα.

Can butterflies die from fear?

I witnessed a strange butterfly behaviour the other day. Strange to me anyway. I was in the store I work in and a butterfly was trapped inside while I was opening the doors and windows. Trying to avoid getting it hit or crushed, I used my hands to make some air to blow it away from a tight spot. I did not touch it and yet the butterfly instead of flapping its wings it started trembling as if it was scared! after less than a minute it was on the floor still shaking a bit but getting stiller. After about two minutes it was totally still.
The whole experience made me thought that it died out of fear.
quite sad really

η σχιζοφρενεια της ελληνικής καθημερινοτητας

έτυχε ν'ανοιξω σήμερα το διαδυκτυακο φύλλο της Ελευθεροτυπιας enet.gr στο οποίο φαρδιά πλατιά έπαιζε ο τίτλος της φωτογραφίας:

να πω αρχικά πως είμαι θετικά διακειμενος στις ανανεωσημες μορφές ενεργείας. Να πω επίσης οτι ο Μυτηλιναιος με το δήθεν ανανεωσημο εργοστάσιο παραγωγής ενέργειας απο φυσικό αερίο είναι γτπκ και δείχνει το μέγεθος της ελληνικής διαπλοκης. Ούτε τον Κοπελουζο με το τέρας της Κηφισιας έχω σε καμιά εκτίμηση (σκέψου πόσους αλλοδαπους θα χρειάζεται να έχει στη δούλεψή του εκεί). Κανένας με τέτοιο σπίτι δεν χρειάζεται κρατική επιχορήγηση, παρα μόνο για να χτίζει τέτοια σπίτια. 

Ομως νομίζω οτι ενα βασικό επιχείρημα που παραβλεπεται είναι οτι τίτλος παρακάτω στήν ιδια εικόνα δείχνει οτι το να εξαρτιωμαστε απο το ρώσικον φυσικό αεριο όπως κάνουμε σήμερα, είναι τουλάχιστον κοντοφθαλμο αν οχι εντελώς ηλίθιο. Οι ρώσοι κρατάνε όλη την Ευρώπη απο τα @@. μπορούν να αυξομοιωνουν τις τιμές και την ποσότητα Φ.Α. κατά το δοκούν για πετυχαινουν ο,τι θέλουν. Μόνο ένας βλάκας ή ένας συμφεροντολογος δεν θα  μπορουσε να το αναγνωρίσει αυτό. τα υπολοιπα είναι φυκια.

Cylinder missfire

My car started acting bizarrely lately and the engine lamp would light up. Terrified I remembered I hadn't changed sparkplugs for ages and went to the mechanic for that.
There he informed me that the car showed cylinder misfire error and that he changed the spark plugs. He also told me that the spark plug cables were worn (!!!) and would need replacement sooner or later. The "problem" was that the ignition coil should change as well since it was one part with the cables.

A week later, the average consumption had increased and then the dreaded engine light turned on again. This time, I plugged in an OBD2 adapter I had gotten cheaply some time ago, and it showed cylinder misfire.

Reading a bit around I understood that a cylinder misfire might be a hard problem to diagnose. In any case I went in ebay, found the relevant part 80euros cheaper than the mechanic told me it would cost, and left the car in the parking lot for 2 weeks, waiting for the part to arrive :(

The part eventually arrived and the mechanic did the exchange it for 15 euros. I asked him to keep the old one for me to see and he promptly gave it to me.

The cables were in BAD shape. the insulation had worn off in a few places (strange for non moving parts, so I assume the mechanic or someone else, had misused them) and one spark plug connector had insulating tape around it for some reason. The thought that someone had changed it deliberately crossed my mind. But there is no way to prove it of course. The car is like a black box. Unless you open it up and look closely inside, there is no way to know what exactly is in there.

Next time I should have a closer look in there, though the model of the car doesn't help me much with so little space under the hood

Από τα όσα βλέπω στα ΜΜΕ για τη χρυσαβγή, μου φαίνεται ότι θα μπορούσαν χαλαρά να είναι κατάσκοποι και πληρωμένοι πχ από τις τουρκικές μυστικές υπηρεσίες για να σπέρνουν θύελλες στα Ελληνικά πράγματα.
Άλλωστε ποιος άλλος εκτός από έναν εχθρό, θα μπορούσε να εφαρμόζει την πρακτική "διαίρει και βασίλευε";

Σκέψεις για τις εκλογές στο δήμο Πειραιά 2014...

Πήρε το μάτι μου κάτι για υποψηφιότητα του Γιάννη Μώραλη για δήμαρχος Πειραιά, με ψηφοδέλτιο που περιλαμβάνει "τα ονόματα του εφοπλιστή και προέδρου της ΠΑΕ Ολυμπιακός, Βαγγέλη Μαρινάκη, του επιχειρηματία Πέτρου Κόκκαλη, της Ειρήνης Νταϊφά, κόρης του προσφάτως εκλιπόντος πρώην προέδρου του Ολυμπιακού, Σταύρου Νταϊφά και του παλαίμαχου τερματοφύλακα του Ολυμπιακού και της Εθνικής Αντώνη Νικοπολίδη." ( Ο Νικοπολίδης έπαιζε και στον Παναθηναϊκό αλλά δεν αφορά το παρόν προφανώς).

"Αλλά γνωστά ονόματα είναι εκείνα του τέως δημάρχου Πειραιά Χρήστου Αγραπίδη, της πρωταθλήτριας του πόλο Σταυρούλας Αντωνάκου, της πρωταθλήτριας ξιφασκίας Βάσως Βουγιούκα, του ομοσπονδιακού προπονητή κολύμβησης Νίκου Γέμελου, του μάνατζερ της ομάδας βόλεϊ του Ολυμπιακού Νίκου Μαντούβαλου και της τραγουδίστριας Πόπης Αστεριάδη."

Επιπλέον τους διαφημίζει ο πολύς Σπύρος Παπαδόπουλος και σίγουρα δεν λυπήθηκαν τα χρήματα όταν έφτιαξαν τα σποτ.

Εγώ το βλέπω ως εξής: Ο Μαρινάκης και ο Κόκκαλης και η Νταϊφά, δεν έχουν άλλες δουλειές και είπαν να το ρίξουν στην πολιτική. Προφανώς το να είναι κανείς επιχειρηματίας με πολισχιδείς δραστηριότητες και λεφτά, του αφήνει πολύ χαλαρό χρόνο τον οποίο οι συγκεκριμένοι επέλεξαν να αξιοποιήσουν προς όφελος του δήμου Πειραιά ως δημοτικοί σύμβουλοι. Του δήμου δηλαδή που τυχαίνει να έχει έδρα η ομάδα ποδοσφαίρου του Ολυμπιακού, που επίσης τυχαίως, τους ανήκει και τη διαχειρίζονται. Παρακάτω σκάει μύτη και άλλο όνομα που σχετίζεται με τον Ολυμπιακό, προφανώς επίσης γιατί το μανατζάρισμα της ομάδας βόλεϊ είναι part time εργασία.

Τα αποτελέσματα της πρώτης κυριακής, φέρνει στο 33% τον Μώραλη και στο 31% τον Μιχαλολιάκο. Που σημαίνει ότι η γηπεδική λογική με την οποία κατέβηκαν στις εκλογές λειτούργησε μια χαρά.

Η απορία η δική μου είναι η εξής: Στην Ιταλία Ο Μπερλοσκόνι τα μάμησε όλα, έκανε ό,τι γούσταρε, έβγαζε ό,τι νόμους γούσταρε, κλπ. Α τύχαινε να είναι και ιδιοκτήτης μεγάλου ραδιοτηλεοπτικού δικτύου της ιταλίας (MEDIASET)

Στις ΗΠΑ υπάρχει κίνημα κατά της χρηματοδότησης των πολιτικών από επιχειρήσεις και επιχειρηματίες.

Πριν από μερικά χρόνια πίσω στα δικά μας, ο Βγενόπουλος (Mr MIG) χαιρετίζονταν ίσως ως ο άνθρωπος που μετά την Ολυμπιακή θα μπορούσε να σώσει και τη χώρα αν έβαζε υποψηφιότητα. Αυτός, όχι μόνο την Ολυμπιακή δεν έσωσε, που την έδωσε πεσκέσι στον Βασιλάκη της Aegean (ευχαριστώ τον Θεό που έφερε την Ryanair στην Ελλάδα) δημιουργώντας ένα κλασικό μονοπώλειο στους Ελληνικούς αιθέρες, αλλά και η τράπεζα του, η Μαρφίν πήγε κατά διαβόλου βγαίνοντας από το ταμπλώ διαπραγμάτευσης του χρηματιστηρίου και στερώντας χρήματα από όσους είχαν πιστέψει στο παραμύθι του και είχαν αγοράσει μετοχές της εταιρίας.

Ο κόσμος είτε ξεχνά, είτε δεν τον ενδιαφέρει και τα γράφει όλα στα @@. Πάλι τα ίδια και τα ίδια.

Θα το πω ξερά για όσους δεν έχουν καταλάβει ή κάνουν πως δεν καταλαβαίνουν. Οι επιχειρηματίες που μπλέκονται στην πολιτική το κάνουν για το δικό τους το προσωπικό συμφέρον και των εταιριών τους. ΚΑΝΕΝΑΣ επιχειρηματίας δεν ξύπνησε μια μέρα και είπε, κάτσε να βοηθήσω τον κοσμάκη που είναι άνεργος, κακοπληρωμένος και δεν τα βγάζει πέρα. Ειδικά όσοι από εκείνους βγάζουν εκατοντάδες εκατομμύρια κάθε χρόνο. Αν συνέβαινε αυτό, θα έδιναν απλά χρήματα/εργασία στο χέρι και στις οικογένειες όσων τα έχουν ανάγκη. Τα υπόλοιπα είναι παραμύθια της Χαλιμάς και στάχτη στα μάτια των βλακών που έχει πολλούς αυτός ο τόπος.

Ίσως αν η πλοιοψηφία ή έστω όσοι προβάλονται από τα ΜΜΕ ήταν σαν τον Βασίλειο Θερμό, ίσως να το είχα σκεφτεί δύο και τρεις φορές πριν γυρίσω την πλάτη μου στην εκκλησία.

Impeller design

I got my hands on a new pair of impellers for a pump that had the old ones replaced. A couple of things got my attention in terms of impeller design.
The pump is a two stage pump which means it has 2 impellers to move the water in and out of the pump.
These two impellers have different sizes but have essentially the same design.

The first thing that got my attention was the dimples on the back side of the impeller. Wondering why those might have been there, the golf ball came to mind and how the dimples on the golf ball help it achieve less drag when flying through the air and reach further distances. It seems that the designer of this particular impeller used dimples to reduce drag while the impeller is spinning.

The second characteristic that caught my attention where the symmetrical lines on both the faces of the impeller. Closer inspection revealed that the impeller is actually made of 3 parts. The top one that resembles a funnel, the middle section that includes the channels that guide the water in and out of the impeller and the back side with the dimples.
These 3 parts are welded together. The welds are not continuous where the 3 parts touch but intermittent. Each series of welds cross almost perpendicularly the channels of the middle section. The welds could have been from a laser welding machine.

Closer inspection through the inlet of the impeller bellow shows how the middle section touches but is not welded at those points. The funnel section seems to have been made in a press as the circle around the funnel and the inside elongated markings show.

A photo of the radial view of the impeller shows how the welds touch the middle  section.

The impeller is manufactured by stainless steel 316, while it bears the marks of the manufacturer.

Also the sides of the circumference show that a cutting tool was used to define the impellers diameter. There was also some metal residue that I removed at the edge of the impeller. Quite interestingly the inside of the flat plane of the impeller also has dimples. This could be either for drag reduction as mentioned or for avoiding placing the sheet metal in the wrong side up by the workers.

The axle of the impeller seems to have been welded in place.

Πως τα ΜΜΕ διαστερυλώνουν την πραγματικότητα

Το μάρκετινγκ http://www.iefimerida.gr/: 

Η πραγματικότητα:

Για το ALFA Nero Μπορεί, που είναι το εικονιζόμενο σκάφος στο φόντο του Καμένου, κανείς να διαβάσει εδώ.

Από ότι βλέπω την αλλάξαν την εικόνα...LOL

Toughbook CF H1: How to access the bios without a keyboard

I recently got a used Toughbook CF H1 Field unit for play and job purposes.

It did not came with a cradle and I had thought it would be a pain to get into the BIOS and change anything if needed.
However when I gave it to my toddler to play with it, as it was turning on she pressed "KEY" button and entered the BIOS! :0
In there the A1, A2 buttons where working as left-right and the camera-RFID buttons as up-down.
The barcode button was the enter!

So there  you have it in case you where wondering like me.
How I have to open the thing up remove the WWAN module and add a USB port that I have seen floating cheaply on ebay.

update 22/6/15:
the WWANto USB card exchange didnt worked as planned. The internal USB port worked, but failed to recognise any USB storage that I plugged in. It did however recognise and was able to use, a wireless keyboard that I used with my android dongle. Perhaps it was just a (bad) cable issue but didn't test it further.

If NSA is spying, why not block all US related traffic?

Reading all the blanket surveillance that the NSA performs for the US, perhaps it is time to consider a blackout of all US internet traffic. If all the other countries could unite to block all the traffic originating from US or going to the US, could pass the message that we the rest of the world do not like or want this kind of intrusion.
Personally I would miss some websites like Blogger, or google, or Wired, but I don't really care. All or almost all of the truly international US internet companies, have servers abroad as well as services based abroad. So all in all we might loose less that we think we would. I do not know, I am no expert, just thinking aloud...

ο θάνατος του βαρυποινιτη

πρίν απο μερικές μέρες ένας ισοβιτης αν θυμάμαι καλά σκότωσε  στο άσχετο κατά τα λεγόμενα των καναλιων έναν φρουρό. 3 μέρες μετά πεθαίνει, στη φυλακή που μεταφέρθηκε της Νιγριτας, απο χτυπηματα στο σώμα του. απο ο,τι λένε έφτασε στις φύλακες με τα σημασία αυτά.
εγώ αναρρωτιεμαι, οι φύλακες στις φυλακές Μαλανδρινου, την είδαν sons of anarchy? και καλά είχε μωλωπες απο τη συμπλοκη με τους συγκρατουμενους που προσπάθησαν να αποτρεψουν τη δολοφονια του φύλακα.
θα μου πεις, απο την άλλη πως μπορείς να τιμωρησεις έναν ισοβιτη που δεν θελει να σωφρωνιστει; αλλά και ο οφθαλμός αντί οφθαλμού μας μετατρεπει σε μια κοινωνία του κωλου.

το μοίρασμα του πλεονασματος

άκουσα οτι θα πετάξουν κόκκαλα στα σκυλιά τούς η κυβερνηση. συγνώμη ενστολους εννοούσα

Thoughts on malaysian airlines

In regard to the lost aircraft of Malaysia arilines. There is some speculation that the aircraft has landed somewhere in the middle Asia cause the engines kept transmiting data to Boeing for maintenance.
Now say the aircraft did land, not even one of the passagers used his/her mobile phone to call some relatives/friends ? 200+ people equals at least 200+ mobile phones.

Now if the aircraft was highjacked the hijackers could have collected all mobile phones. Some people however have more than one phone. Of course hijackers could have collected all phones, or the alternative is that they killed all passengers inflight so that nobody could make a phonecall after landing. The third scenario is that the place they landed at has no mobile coverage. And after so many days most modern phone battaries are depleted.

Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It

I was reading the: "Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It" from KEVIN KELLY
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/03/going-tracked-heres-way-embrace-surveillance/
and I get to this part:

"Every person has a human right to access, and benefit from, the data about themselves. The commercial giants running the networks have to spread the economic benefits of tracing people’s behavior to the people themselves, simply to keep going. "

He can't really believe that. I can't possible understand it. In this age and day, to think that a mega corporation with billions of $ revenue has the same right as the next Joe. (and Human Rights no less, since as it is known corporations are people).

As if we do not see human rights getting violated every other day even within the US. As if we do not see opressive govermnents use the data to track and elliminate oponents. As if the same data mining can be performed by a billion $ corporation and the average Joe...

I cannot understand how easily is to express such nonsence (believing it or not) to the general public. Naivity perhaps or something more sinister?

I stopped reading right then and there.

I checked the comments section

"Comments for this thread are now closed."
On a 24hr old article comments are closed... Last comment published 7 hours ago.

So survailance can be good, but commenting on it not so good.

Τι παίζει στα Ελληνικά Ταχυδρομεία;

Παρέλαβα σήμερα ένα πακέτο από το Amazon.
Το πακέτο ήρθε σε κακό χάλι και εμφανώς μισάνοιχτο.
Το γιατί, το ανακάλυψα μόλις άνοιξα το πακέτο το οποίο Ω ΤΟΥ ΘΑΥΜΑΤΟΣ περιείχε και ένα ελληνικό θρησκευτικό ημερολόγιο που δεν είχα παραγγείλει από αγγλία.
Το πακέτο περιείχε βιβλία στα αγγλικά και γενικά ήταν φίσκα.
Ο τύπος ή η τύπισσα που το άνοιξε για να βάλει μέσα το ημερολόγιο, δεν το περίμενε και για αυτό το άνοιξε σε δύο μεριές τουλάχιστον μέχρι να βρει λίγο χώρο να το χώσει μέσα.

Γενικά δεν έχω τίποτα με τους Χριστιανούς, τους Μουσουλμάνους, τους Βουδιστές και τους αιρετικούς εν γένει. Τα προβλήματα μου ξεκινούν όταν ο φανατισμός που υπάρχει σε αρκετούς εξωτερικεύεται με προσηλυτισμό, βόμβες, κηρύγματα μίσους.
Γουστάρεις το Μωάμεθ και τον Αλλάχ μεγάλε; Με γεια σου και χαρά σου. Θες να μου βάλεις το μαχαίρι στο λαιμό για να γουστάρω και γω; Θα σε σκίσω για λόγους αρχής.
Θέλω να πιστεύω ότι οι φανατικοί που υπάρχουν σε κάθε θρησκεία είναι μειοψηφία. Αλλά φοβάμαι ότι όσο πιο στενές σχέσεις έχει κανείς με μια θρησκεία τόσο περισσότερο νιώθει την ανάγκη να καλέσει και άλλους μαζί του. Όσο αυτό γίνεται εθελοντικά και ήπια I don't care. Όμως όταν αρχίζει η βία ψυχολογική ή σωματική, τότε τα παίρνω.

Παρακαλώ λοιπόν τα ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΕΙΑ να μην επιτρέπου τέτοιες συμπεριφορές. Τουλάχιστον αν τις επιτρέπουν ας βάζουν ένα ημερολόγιο τύπου βιβλίου Α5 που είναι και πιο χρήσιμο.

Η δημαρχεία της Αθήνας

Δεν ξέρω αν ο Καμίνης είναι καλός δήμαρχος, δεν ξέρω αν έχει κάνει έργο ή "έργο" στην Αθήνα. Αυτό που ξέρω είναι ότι ο Σπηλιωτόπουλος είναι μέρος εκείνου του κομματιού της πολιτικής, που ήταν αναμεμειγμένο με μίζες, με ρεμούλα, με κακοδιοίκηση που έφτασε την Ελλάδα εδώ που είναι σήμερα.
Αν ψήφιζα στην Αθήνα, δεν θα ψήφιζα Σπηλιωτόπουλο

NSA is the new STASI

the recent snow down (pun intented) with the revelations that secret agences all over the globe have proceeded to spy on their citizens and everything said and done online, bears an awful similarity to what the Stasi did in east Germany after the WWII and up to 1989.
Strangely I haven't heard such a comparison up to this date. Perhaps I haven't searched deep enough. Or perhaps people areafraid to admit it.
Knowing everything there is to know about everyone is every oppresive regieme's wet dream. They start pretending that they serve for the benefit of the citizens and proceed making said citizens guilty untill proved innocent. If the government allows it of course.
Stasi was spending millions of manhours doing manually what the NSA does within minutes automatically, more efficiently and effectively. They have reached a point that they don't even need to try. People provide voluntarily the information for free to secretive agencies like the NSA who would go to great lenghts to get it. All the NSA has to do nowdays is literally lift their fingers on a keyboard.

ειδα σημερα τον κουγια στο mega να κλαιει με μαυρο δακρυ για την παναχαικη. Μπραβο ρε μεγκα. τετοιεςσειρες θελουμε να βλεπουμε. με σασπενσ και πλοκη!

Είδα χτες τις διαδηλώσεις στην Κύπρο κατά της ιδιωτικοποίησης της Αρχής Ηλεκτρισμού και τα μνημόνια και με ένα φίλο κύπριο που μίλησα μου είπε ότι είναι προδότες πολιτικοί κλπ.
Δυσκολεύομαι να φανταστώ ότι ξαφνικά όλοι οι πολιτικοί σε Ελλάδα και Κύπρο έγιναν προδότες. Ή ήταν πάντοτε και απλά τώρα άρχισε να φαίνεται που πάνε τα πράγματα κατά διαβόλου, ή τους εκβιάζουν με κάτι και τους έχουν κάνει πιόνια, ή είναι όλοι τόσο ανίκανοι που πιστεύουν με κλειστά μάτια τρόϊκα και ΕΕ και δεν μπορούν ούτε να διαπραγματευτούν ούτε να σηκώσουν κεφάλι.
Δεν ξέρω ποιο από όλα αυτά τα σενάρια είναι το πιο πιθανό και όλα είναι εξίσου φοβερά.

Ender's game

I watched Ender's Game a couple of nights ago. Having read the book half a lifetime ago, the movie felt empty. It felt as if they gutted the book to fit in the movie which might be understandable in some way, there were some unnecessary altered plot points.
It also felt that they could easily have made a series out of it, rather than just a single film.

Apart from that it was well executed, though I would prefer more space "simulation" fights, as well as the command school being on the asteroid Eros, rather than "near the aliens home planet". That was an necessary plot twist which I am not sure what exactly it succeed in the overall movie, apart from adding a cryochamber of sorts, again I do not understand why. Also Bonzo's death should have been permanent. No robotic surgery and no freeview of that was really relevant.
Also while the transparent battle school was interesting I also found it quite distracting. How could one fight in such low light conditions with all that amazing views outside! Not me for sure. I always imagined it as a hollow sphere non transparent and with a relative luminosity coming from the walls and the stars. The transparency seems distracting to me.



having said that I recently found out about Orson's Scot Cards antigay opinions which honestly left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I am not gay, and I cant see why gays should be persecuted.

I look at the uprising in the Ukraine and I think, I actually hope that such actions against oppressive regimes coupled with the internet and social media, could lead to a government-less type of democracy. One that does not need a central government body to function. Closer to the immediate democracy used by ancient Athens. Where every citizen had a voice and could speak up for and against nation affecting decisions. The mobile phone, could prove crucial since almost everyone has a phone. And the interconnection of people and civilizations could improve our position in a global society.
Of course to do that, one would need to feel some empathy for others, not just his own.

Does anyone remember why USA invaded Iraq?
Why they invaded Afghanistan?

Its bizarre they choose to invade those countries, but not North Korea.

Titanfall

I got wind today of the Titanfall beta. I was excited cause you know TITAN is Saturn's biggest moon, has an atmosphere, liquids on its surface and its a potential stellar body for colonisation. And you know Falling on Titan could have been an interesting game. Hah! I wish. Tital fall is about Robotic titans fighting each other. Now I don't mind some good action, nor mind some nice looking Mechas. From the original Mechwarrior and the Anime like Evangelion as well as Seaquest DSV and others, giant robots drew my attention. But the moon Titan vs Titan mech warriors in my book the moon wins. 

I propose that all advanced civilisations with enough knowledge to become space faring races, operating in a capitalistic style of society, wont be able to reach such interstellar space faring status before declining and getting extinct due to poisoning themselves with whatever means eg pollution, bioengineering, or planetary biosphere collapse and turning a blind eye to the fact due to financial short term gains.

Toughbook H1 Stylus "Hack"

UPDATED!!
I recently got a toughbook H1 to use. I got it cheaply via ebay but without stylus pen.
Having a Toughbook CF18 pen I tried it and it worked fine!
So instead of giving 40 quid to get a replacement, I gave 3.50 and I will be able to do my job just as easy :)

Update, After I received the stylus I realised that this one, would not work with the digitizer screen. Only with the touchscreen models. It was rather disappointing, but I should have read the description better.

The truth about the luxury of Qatar Airways

The following article was published on
http://www.expressen.se/
It may not be right to copy paste a whole article from a newspaper but after reading the following I felt the need to spread the word.
The exact link of the article is the following:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/the-truth-about-the-luxury-of-qatar-airways/
Please visit it if you think it is interesting enough.

And to add my own comment, why is anyone afraid to loose such a job? Cause it pays well or perhaps cause EU is fucking its own children?

DOHA, QATAR. Qatar Airways is regarded as one of the most luxurious airlines in the world, and has received numerous awards for their onboard service.Flight attendants Saga and Gina testify about the other side of the glamour. How employees are forced to sign contracts that prevent them from governing their own life choices.Swedish newspaper Expressen's reporter Johanna Karlsson commutes between Doha and small Swedish towns in her depiction of a five-star airline.
Gina knows she is not allowed to speak to the guard. Not while he's been stationed at his post for twelve hours and is starting to get sleepy. Not while he's longing for his Nepalese family and she is just coming off a flight to Kathmandu. Not while he mentioned that he earns 500 riyal (SEK 1,200 ) a month.
The cubicle where the guard sits, at the entrance to Qatar Airways' staff housing, is strictly guarded. There are cameras everywhere. At least that's what the management says - that they should expect everything that happens at the entrance to be reported to the managers, to be registered and be incorporated into each flight attendant's personal track record.
Under surveillance
Any action on Gina's part can be construed as an attempt at bribery. After all, the guard is there to monitor her. To ensure that Gina never sleeps anywhere but the staff housing. Never gets home later than mandated by the company. Never allows an unregistered guest into her room, never leaves during her leisure times or has anyone sleep over.
At the same time, he is below her in rank - at least Gina can apply to leave the country if she wants to visit her Swedish family. The guards change buildings every third month, to really make any friendly relations impossible between them and the flight attendants. But Gina has noticed that this guard is sick. And that he is getting worse. She defies the rules and starts talking to him every day. Convinces the guard to go to the doctor.
"What did the doctor say?" she asks the following morning.
"I have diabetes," replies the guard at the staff entrance.
Gina is silent. She tries to solve the equation of insulin injections and the salary of a Nepalese migrant worker in Doha.
"He says I shouldn't eat rice," continues the guard.
"But youíre poor! All you eat is rice. What are you going to eat now?"
"I don't know."
Gina and the guard don't talk again. He'll soon be relocated to a new building anyway. But before he changes his posting, Gina figures out that there is a tiny blind spot in the entrance where the cameras don't reach. One morning, on her way to a flight, she ducks into this corner.
On the ground, she leaves a blood sugar meter and a Qatari five hundred note. 500 riyal.
When Saga drives down from northern Sweden for the tryouts at the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm, she has just come off a night shift. It is March 2010.
Has always dreamed of being a flight attendant
She changes her outfit in the public toilets at Stockholm Central Station. Saga from northern Sweden has always dreamed of being a flight attendant. The tryouts for the five-star and highly esteemed Qatar Airways are held via open recruitment days. The candidate's personality and looks are judged here - in detail. The candidate's body should not have any scarring or tattoos, not even very discreet ones.
The airline holds recruitment events every weekend. There are often about six recruitment days a week globally. At the tryouts, information is shared about what the employees are signing up for. A pledge to stay single for five years, that permission from CEO Akbar Al Baker is required to marry as a flight attendant, and if you become pregnant, you must inform the company immediately. Also, Qatar Airways reserves the right to fire an employee without having to give a reason.
The same principle applies at the tryouts. They explain early on that no candidate has the right to question why they have not been selected.
Attendance is enormous in some countries, whereas it is only moderate in cities like Stockholm.
The girls are screened in bunches at the Sheraton this Saturday. Things move fast. Finally, only Saga and three other girls remain. They are called back for a personal interview the following morning. Saga arrives at the hotel thirty minutes early. But the recruiters are angry.
"We said 11.30, not 12.30. This is a very poor start!"
Saga tries to explain that she really didn't get the time wrong, there must have been a mistake. But eventually she gives up and apologizes to the recruiters. They nod grimly. Qatar Airways has forced her to correct herself for the first time.
When the next girl shows up for a planned interview at 12.30, it is clear that Saga was in fact punctual. This is waved aside. The most important thing was that Saga took the blame. I am very sorry.
Gives up
She gets the job as a flight attendant and is instructed to pack for immediate departure to her new living quarters in Qatar. Saga packs. And resigns from her old job. Shares the news with her friends and acquaintances in her hometown. But all of a sudden, Qatar Airways stops responding to questions. There is no information about what has happened. She is left waiting.
As June arrives, she gives up and begins to plan for a Midsummer trip. Four months have now passed since the promise of immediate departure and Saga's packed bag at home. The standard policy applies: Qatar Airways is not required to explain itself to the employees.
Suddenly the tickets and visa arrive. Midsummer is cancelled. Saga is put on a flight to Doha.
Javier had never considered working abroad. As a pilot, he has excellent opportunities in his European home country. But a certain little European crisis got in the way of everything.
When he relocates to Qatar, he immediately understands that the pilots' relationship with their colleagues the flight attendants is a very sensitive matter. He feels that the company CEO Akbar Al Baker focuses too much time on them and that the regulations governing the flight attendants' lives are extreme.
"I am allowed to visit their staff building before 10 pm and if I register my name and passport number with the guard. But they keep and review the visitor register. It looks bad if I'm there too often," he explains via Skype.
Javier reacts to the way Akbar Al Baker addresses the flight attendants directly. He holds aggressive inaugural speeches to groups of new workers where they are encouraged to steer clear of their male colleagues.
The pilots are my chauffeurs, they only come to you to fuck you," Javier once heard CEO Akbar Al Baker declare during a welcome speech.
The rules differ substantially between the various professions. The entire country of Qatar adheres to a sponsorship system where the employer dictates the right of the employees to enter and exit the country, housing and they have a certain level of control of the employee's bank account. As a pilot, Javier can pay to apply for a monthly exit visa and thereby leave Doha on his days off without needing permission from his manager.
Flight attendants, on the other hand, must request an exit visa for every trip. The chance to leave Qatar is used as leverage in a game of punishment, where six months of rejected exit visas is common punishment for a flight attendant who has done something wrong and issued a warning.
Risky
Javier, who wants to keep his job until employment opportunities in Europe improve, decides to stay away from the confined flight attendants with whom he shares a workplace. They ride the same staff buses, sleep in the same airport hotels and share the same cabin - but visiting them at home is too risky.
Gina boils some eggs. She has only just arrived home from a flight. She is tired and removes her makeup slowly. The saucepan overheats when the water evaporates and suddenly the fire alarm goes off. Gina switches it off quickly and tells the security guards that it was a false alarm. Too late.
Three different managers from Qatar Airways arrive at the guarded staff building. Question her in detail about what happened and ask her to prove her story.
"You were boiling an egg? Show us the egg."
Gina rummages through the garbage and finds the egg. The managers arenít satisfied. They decide that she should be removed from flights for the next few days and she is summoned to the office the following morning. As there is a twelve hour resting rule before any work event, whether it is a meeting or a long haul flight, Gina is grounded until the time of the meeting.
At the office at Qatar Airways Tower, she is once more asked to give an account of the event. The fact that she was boiling an egg, how could she be so careless, how can they be certain that she will never do anything like that again? Gina is given a severe warning.
Then she is given a pen and paper. Qatar Airways now wants Gina to explain the egg incident in writing and to conclude by saying how sorry she is and that it will not happen again. They dictate and she writes. "I am very sorry, it will never happen again."
This is the first time that Gina from Sweden is given a warning in Doha, Qatar.
Saga doesn't get any warnings. Her behaviour is exemplary. She is promoted to first class faster than anyone else in her group. . Receives letter of compliment upon letter of compliment. Is selected to accompany CEO Akbar Al Bakar on PR trips to market the company at trade fairs.
"Are you on a diet?"
Later this makes her somewhat nervous, as Al Baker has been known to summon selected girls up to his hotel room and shower them with gifts, such as an iPad. From more distant rumours, Saga has heard of girls being fired for not replying to Al Bakar's private text messages to their mobile phones. Nothing like that happens on Saga's PR trip to Oslo Instead, the group eats dinner in silence. The cabin crew and Al Baker.
During dessert, one of the girls declines. She doesn't fancy a dessert. "Are you on a diet?" asks Akbar Al Baker roughly - and the mood becomes unsettled. Perhaps declining a dessert somehow reflects poorly on the company? The girl quickly changes her mind. She orders a dessert.
One day in Doha, a friend drives Saga home after a night out at a nightclub. The curfew for days off is 3.30 am. The friend's car gets stuck in traffic. The clock is nearing the half past mark.
Saga's heart is pounding. All the wonderful compliments she has earned, have they all been in vain? Is everything over now? A few blocks from the house, her friend says, "Listen, if I drop you off now, they will fire you immediately. Better to sleep elsewhere and try to sneak past in the morning and hope that the guard doesn't see what you did."
The plan works! Saga develops more and more methods. Sleeping away, but picking up the washing on the way back to make it look as though she just got back from a short errand. Sleeping away, but taking a work outfit with her so that the guard will think she's returning from a flight.
The flight attendants devise new ways to live in a work dictatorship. They become experts at avoiding the employer's cameras.
A new airport is being built at Doha. A 20 ton sculpture of a teddy bear, created by Swiss artist Urs Fischer, is already in place and waiting.
A large, new terminal building was opened only three years ago at the old airport, but it is already time to build a new one. The airport is owned by Akbar Al Baker. The airport is owned by Akbar Al Baker. With his airport, he is pushing his vision of Doha as a great hub for international air traffic. He pushed his vision of Qatar Airways just as forcefully, where all annual reports are classified and board members are anonymous, but the brand name is well known, just the way Al Bakar wants it.
Gina meets Akbar Al Bakar on a couple of occasions. He can storm into a lecture room for new flight attendants, and without another word come in and control the situation. He takes flights just to measure staff service capabilities. And he shows up at briefings in which Qatar Airways flight attendants stand with their fingers at chest height so that nails, complexion and hair can all be inspected.
When he shows up at Gina's briefing, she greets him directly. He does not reply.
"You need to lose weight," says Al Baker instead. And he leaves.
Every day, the flight attendants log onto the intranet, where the schedules are kept. One day, when Saga logs on, all her flights have been deleted. No one has warned her. Her schedule is empty. Everyone knows what that means.
She quickly goes to an ATM. Here, she withdraws 10,000 riyal. She has been working for two years. No complaints have been filed against her. On the contrary, she has been promoted and been given special assignments. But she knows that if she doesn't withdraw her entire salary right now, Qatar Airways can freeze her local bank account. She has been detected.
Three nights in custody
Javier's best friend among the pilots is in a good mood. During his flights, he has made the acquaintance of a flight attendant who he is getting to know more and more. The others warn him, but one night it happens anyway. She sleeps over.
The reaction is immediate.
The girl spends three nights in Qatari custody. Javier's friend is stripped of his flights. The flight attendant is shipped back to her home country with the status "deported", which means she can be denied any new entry into Qatar. The pilot's milder punishment is a final warning. Any sidestep from him within the next six months and he will have to leave Qatar Airways.
The deported flight attendant's former pilot friend loses touch with her. Qatar's rules are such, when it comes to relationships between colleagues.
Soon after the incident, Javier resigns. Today he works for a different airline.
Gina and I meet at one of Doha's restaurants, run by Philippine staff. Southeast Asian guest workers cook our food, drive us there in cars, stand in a corner of the restaurant and sing for us as entertainment while we eat.
During my stay in Doha, Amnesty is on location. They have requested a crisis meeting about working conditions in Qatar. But Qatari media cheerfully report the meeting with positive headings like "Amnesty Says Qatar Working on Working Rights."
Every conversation about the flight attendants' lives in Doha strays onto the much more visible group that assists them and all the other workplaces in the country. How Southeast Asian slaves are made to guard flight attendants who are confined in luxury with a passable salary creates a complex balance of power. Can a slavery system include a middle class?
“We often have coffins onboard our Kathmandu flights,” says Gina.
Nepalese men simply work themselves to death. Gina tells us that the coffins are loaded and unloaded at the same time as the passengers. Qatar Airways has around four daily flights between Doha and Kathmandu.
"But what is most painful is seeing how see how expectant they are on the flight there. On the way to Qatar. That they don't know."
It is November 2013. Gina is one of the few Swedes still working for the company. It has taken several months to get someone like her to agree to meet me. Over the three years that I've being following Qatar Airways, I have met Swedish girls my own age who are terrified to talk about their work, even anonymously. Swedish girls who have grown up with freedom of the press, employment laws and freedom of speech but who wouldn't even dare reply to an email from a journalist to say "no, thank you".
Stewardesses and pilots working for Qatar Airways have all signed a detailed Non Disclosure Agreement about not discussing the company, sharing their views on Facebook or showing pictures of their uniforms. "Getting fired is easy," says Gina who claims that luck is the reason she still has her job.
"There was a period about eight months ago when four staff housing buildings were more or less emptied. Every time you were hanging out with another stewardess, mobile phones kept ringing: she's off, now she's off. I was talking to a friend one day when six of the girls in her building had been fired in the same week."
The company's sudden redundancies are as constant as the international recruitment days every weekend. Stewardesses are fired for wanting to change room mate, for posting an inappropriate Facebook status, for getting a tattoo that colleagues then sneak a photo of and show the company as proof, for returning to the housing five minutes after curfew, for letting a man that they know who is neither their husband or father give them a lift to work, for smoking a cigarette during their time off.
The man the stewardesses are called to see when it is time to be fired is Saliya Karunanayake. He now takes out two printed images in A4 format and silently puts them on his desk in front of Saga. They are photographs from the surveillance camera. The first image shows Saga leaving the house, the second her return.
"You are not wearing the same clothes in the two images. You have slept somewhere else," Saliya Karunanayake points out in a sharp tone.
Saga has tried to prepare herself ever since she saw the empty schedule on the intranet. There are various theories about how a stewardess can avoid immediate termination. Someone advises her to weep, another to be strong and act dignified. Now she doesn't know which method is best. She admits to what the camera captured.
"It got late, I didn't want to come home after curfew and get fired for it, so I stayed with a female friend.
Saliya Karunanayake asks for a more detailed description of the night in question. First verbally. Then in writing. Saga is asked to leave the name, phone number, place of work and job title of the female friend in question. This terrifies Saga. She gets it into her head that the girl she names could get in trouble and tries to say that she doesn't remember her number.
So infected are Sagas thought patterns that she worries on behalf of a normal woman outside of Qatar Airways who has had a friend over to stay. The meeting is not at all what you would expect during a discussion between an employer and employee. When she apologises, it is for something bigger than breaking a rule during a night off.
Empty schedule
A few days after I leave Doha, Gina gets in touch. She has just logged onto the intranet.
Her schedule is empty. All her lights are removed.
An early morning call lets her know that she has thirty minutes to present herself at the office. Gina makes sure she stops at an ATM on the way. She takes out all the money, except 100 riyal.
The following day her account is frozen. There is no way of getting to the rest of her money.
Now sacked, Saga is not given much time to leave the country. In a confused state, she returns to her hometown in northern Sweden, trying to reintegrate into her normal life, but is not well.
On her way back from a holiday in Australia she decides to celebrate Christmas with some old friends in Qatar. When Saga lands at Doha airport, it has been several months since her sudden departure from the country and her job of two years. But something's not right at passport control.
"You're not welcome here," says the customs officer after swiping Saga's passport.
He has no more information to give her. Why is she blacklisted? For how long? Who can she contact for answers?
She isn't allowed to retrieve her checked baggage. It's going round and round on the baggage carousel in Doha. Instead she is sent, in her summer clothes from her Australian holiday, straight to a snowy Sweden. A man at Doha airport is tasked with physically escorting her all the way to the gate. But that man is also a migrant worker and when Saga cries he smiles encouragingly and asks with dark humour: "Why are you sad? You're leaving Qatar!"
Wearing only flip flops and a summer dress, a luggageless Saga makes her way from Arlanda to the train station. Asks for a ticket to her hometown. A man on the train laughs at her clothes and says, "you know you're heading north, don't you?" She borrows his mobile. Calls her mum, and asks her to "bring something warm".
Saga's mum meets her at the station. She's holding large duvet.
It is in Sweden that I meet Gina again. In the café at a supermarket in a smallish rural district. The last thing Gina asked Qatar Airways was if she would be allowed to return to the country as a visitor.
"The hardest thing is that I never know what is the country and what is the company. I kept asking who I should get in touch with to find out if I would be allowed in or not. And if not, how many years will it last? Is it an immigration agency or is it Qatar Airways? Who's in charge?
Gina's last few hours in the place that has been her home since 2011 passed by quickly. And followed a familiar pattern: A phone call saying, "you have thirty minutes to present yourself at the office". Passport confiscated. Visa erased. A flight booked. There is no time for Gina to pack up her things, her possessions are left in the country.
"A local man met me outside the airport. I was never told who he was. He had my passport and escorted me through passport control and all the way to the gate, where he gave my passport to the staff at the gate. I really felt like, "what have I done?"
We look out over the drab supermarket café.
"On the plane I sat there thinking that now I've got to start building up my self-confidence again. When everything is so controlled by fear, even a small service mistake has to be explained and apologised for to a senior cabin crew member. And then it feels like, my god, I'm so stupid, so stupid I can't even do this job without getting into trouble."
New job
Today Saga works for another airline and loves her job, even though she has to rely on temporary contracts being renewed. She gives a quiet and reflective impression when we meet in a town in Sweden.
"At the beginning, when I came home it was very tough. I wasn't used to being allowed to go out. I said to my mum, "If I sit on that rock, that's okay isn't it, I'm allowed to be there?" Other stewardesses often find it difficult to understand why she doesn't miss Qatar Airways, an airline that is often lauded as one of the best in the world.
Gina books a trip to Doha. The city where she became an adult. Where she saw friend after friend get fired and sent away. Where she learnt how to parry the most intrusive rules for living. But she doesn't know what will happen at the immigration desk. Nobody can tell her in advance if she will be sent back after landing.
She must play it by ear. Hope for the best.
~
Expressen has been in contact with a number of people at Qatar Airways' head office in Doha for a number of days, in order to give them an opportunity to respond to the criticism.
Senior Media Relations Officer Gayathri Pradeep and Social Media Manager Michael Stellwag refer us to email addresses from which we receive no replies.
For the Nordic market, Qatar Airways has employed Swedish PR agency Comma, whose consultant Lotta Berglin finally puts us in contact with the head office in Doha. However, we do not get to speak to any representatives of the company, but are asked to email our questions.
After about a day we finally get a brief reply, conveyed in an email from PR consultant Lotta Berglin.
"Because we do not know which individuals and which particular cases the article is based on, Qatar Airways is unable to comment on your specific questions. To do this, we must be able to find out more facts, which is impossible if we do not know which employees or former employees are making these statements," writes Qatar Airways.
Footnote: Gina, Saga and Javier are not the real names of the people in the article.
GOT NEWS?
Let us know about stories regarding Sweden. Give the Expressen news desk a call at +46 8 738 30 30 or email us at 71717@expressen.se. We protect our sources!

Johanna Karlsson

CANON IPF605 IS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST PLOTTER EVER. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. BETTER STICK WITH PEN AND PAPER

As I am writing these lines I am on the razorblade thin edge that separates batshit crazy stuff from normal people. I am trying very hard to maintain a straigt face and not start screaming like a lunatic and start breaking everything in sight.

I just spend 2 good hours of my life trying to trouble shoot and make it work the Canon IPF605 plotter in order to print a damn drawing. I could have gone to someone and pay to have it printed, but then again what the fuck is the point of buying a plotter if you end up plotting the drawings on someone elses machine?

Welcome to the world of the Canon IPF 605 plotter. I don't know about other Canon consumer items might be good, or mediocre or like in my case absolutely fucking horrible. 

So the plotter itself is a couple of years old. At least the last year that I have been on this office, the plotter has been missbehaving. By design if you ask me. 

It has been chewing up the motherfucking paper like gum... LIKE MOTHERFUCKING GUM. and of course, just like gum it is next to impossible to remove that jammed paper. I do not know how high the designers at Canon where when designing this plotter. Or what kind of corners did they deside to cut during said design. But this product should have never been put into production, let alone sold. With my current experience I would say that If I was paid 100000$ monthly to use this plotter I wouldn't. Assuming I was meant to do some productive work. If the goal was a sisyphian task they have absolutely excelled at it. I cannot in my simple mind conceive a more cruel method to torture an engineer fighting with deadlines, with stupid customers, jugling with infinite tasks, fighting with life in general.

HEY BROTHER ENGINEERS AT CANON! IF THERE WAS EVER A SADIST SCALE YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY BROKEN EVERY MOTHERFUCKING RECORD. 

Have you seen those guys standing in line for the newest gadget - iphone only to break it with a sledge hammer? I will formally propose this solution to my manager and if he accepts I will videotape it so that to remain in eternity as a reminder to how not make products that try to burst their users veins.

So to sum up STAY AWAY from ANY IPF 605 CANON plotter. Unles you are a masochist that is.

could bubble wrap spread infectuous disease?

could bubble wrap spread infectuous disease?

ZOPO 980+ OCTACORE HANDS ON REVIEW (rather disappointed by it)

About a month ago, my b92m digitizer broke when a TV remote control landed on it. The problem was not without a solution, so I searched Ebay to find a digitizer replacement. I did and it arrived last week. Being a little impatient I decided to have a go and change it on the spot. Wrong decision since I had a really hard time separating the LCD from the Digitizer and eventually broke the LCD. Being without phone I had to buy and receive one soon and while I normally don't mind waiting 30 days to receive goods from China, I needed this sooner.
Hence after a little of searching I ended up choosing ZOPO 980+ from http://www.zopomobileshop.com/  from the European warehouse.

The mobile arrived roughly 5 days later with weekend in between.

First impressions:

I bought the 1GB Ram - 16GB version as advertised on their website. However in the android settings it says:
Internal storage 3.94GB
Phone storage 24.11GB
So I am not sure but perhaps they send an 1Gb ram - 32Gb version.

The phone is big. Its bigger than the B92M I had. And although the specs said its only 3mm longer the phone seems bigger than that. Mostly because the Zopo 980+ has less rounded edges, similar to the iphone 4+, while B92M has a more roundish shape.

The screen sadly is not OLED. Had I searched a little longer I would have seen this obvious flaw and wouldn't have bought it, but in the fast search I did, I didn't notice this omission. The B92M, although its screen wasn't great, it had really nice, deep blacks. That said, the resolution of 980+ is pretty good and the colours vibrant.

The charger: The phone seems to charge fine from 3 different branded chargers 0.55 and 0.85A and is usable at the same time. A fourth branded 0.55A charger I used, resulted in bizarre digitizer performance ( I was pressing on one point of the screen and all sorts of things would open, except the one I wanted), but that was probably the charger's fault rather than the phone's. A similar behaviour had with my B92M and a cheap chinese charger.

The speaker is LOUD. I have only a couple of other phones to compare it too, but it is loud! The earpiece is also of adequate loudness. No more trying to hear someone. I hear them clear with no problem!

The wifi seems to work fine and fast.

I was told that the 980 could be bent a little, and it seems that the 980+ has the same issue.

Antutu gives it a 27500 mark. It came prerooted or so the Antutu says. Update: a root checker app from play store says the phone isn't rooted after all.

The camera: I took a few photos with the camera today and quite sadly it was not performing smoothly. It was lagging quite a bit and on top of that crashed a few times returning me to the homepage.

The music: I listened to some songs on the loudspeaker. Every time the screen goes black there is momentary interference at the song. One would think that with 8 efing cores, the music would be able to play with no problem.

The keyboard disappeared when trying to search and download applications on the google play and internet browsing. How the hell is someone going to use the phone without a keyboard? When using Handcent sms, or Whatsapp and Viber, the keyboard works normally.

The battery gets me a 12 hours working day with small to moderate use with 50% when I get back home.

The flip case: Feels sturdy, but makes the phone really big, approximately 15-16mm thick. Personally I wouldn't recommend it buying because after roughly one week of use it has already started tearing up at the corners. I will add photos as soon as I can.

Skype has problems working. It works sometimes, but most of the time it starts, logs in and then terminates. Then you have to restart it and if you are lucky it works. If you are not lucky, you may spent your time starting and restarting skype. I do not know if that is some sort of phone related problem or some skype bug.

Chrome browser works, but has issues. Lots of lag, the phone hangs the keyboard disappears.

Opera works better, but with lots of tabs 5-8 open, started lagging, and even crashed once.

Angry birds works fine.

Carmageddon works, although it hang once and had to take out the battery.

Fruit ninja works and seems that the phone has a 10 point touchscreen. At least I think so, because it is difficult to watch what the screen does with 10 fingers on it.

Gallery work. Interestingly  the thumbnails of videos are showing a video preview of the video. That could prove dangerous if there are any NSFW videos...

Nova 3 doesn't work. I think it doesn't work with any of the MTK chips.

Shazam works fine.

Play store works, although the keyboard vanishes often.

Yahoo and Outlook works fine, as does Youtube.

Video playback works nicely with the built in player.

Update: Zopo released an OTA upgrade for 980+. The first day it seemed as if the keyboard issues were fixed. Alas no. From the second day on, the keyboard issue came back to bit me. The ghost touches never went away. :((( 

UPDATE: I have the phone for 4 months now, and I am quite surprised by the fact that the phone has seen equal rom updates!

The keyboard problem was solved (?) by installing the Multiling keyboard from the play store.

The ghost touch issue I think has largely been resolved, and the Skype works more or less ok.

Update 10/9/15

firmware update

So I tried to update the ZOPO 980+ to the latest and greatest Android rom, which for this particular model, according to www.Needrom.com is Android 4.4 KitKat and failed spectacularly at first.

First I downloaded and installed the drivers from http://www.zopomobileshop.com/ the way to do it for me on Windows 7 was to run first the install_driver.exe once and installed the win7 drivers (at first it didnt work because there was some chinese characters on the folder name and worked ok after I deleted them) and then I run the driver again as administrator and installed the win xp drivers.

Afterwards using the proper Flash tool (there is wrong and right version, so be careful) I uploaded the scatter file, and uncheck the preloader and download the rest of the files on the phone.

If you forget the preloader checked your phone may not boot afterwards. Don't be scared, all you need to do is to redownload only the preloader and you should be fine.

The protocol I used was to take of the battery unplug the phone from USB press the download button and then plug the USB and put the battery in. It didnt work all the times I tried it, frustrating me very much, but worked eventually.

And now I am a proud owner of an updated ZOPO 980+ with android KitKat 4.4.2

Πριν από κανά μήνα, το digitizer του b92m, μου έσπασε όταν το τηλεχειριστήριο της τηλεόρασης προσγειώθηκε πάνω σε αυτό. Το πρόβλημα δεν ήταν χωρίς λύση, έτσι έψαξα στο Ebay και βρήκα ανταλλακτικό digitizer. Όντας λίγο ανυπόμονος αποφάσισα να το αλλάξω επί τόπου. Λάθος απόφαση, δεδομένου ότι είναι γερά κολλημένο πάνω στην οθόνη LCD η οποία τελικά έσπασε. Όντας χωρίς τηλέφωνο με μια πρόχειρη αναζήτηση κατέληξα να επιλέξω το ZOPO 980+ από το http://www.zopomobileshop.com/ από την Ευρωπαϊκή αποθήκη .

Το κινητό έφτασε περίπου 5 ημέρες αργότερα μετρώντας και το Σαββατοκύριακο.

Οι πρώτες εντυπώσεις:

Αγόρασα το μοντέλο με 1GB Ram - 16GB μνήμη όπως διαφημίζεται στην ιστοσελίδα τους . Ωστόσο, οι android ρυθμίσεις λένε:

Εσωτερική μνήμη αποθήκευσης 3.94GB 

Αποθηκευτικός χώρος τηλεφώνου 24.11GB

Έτσι, δεν είμαι σίγουρος, αλλά ίσως στείλαν την έκδοση 1Gb - 32Gb.

Το τηλέφωνο είναι μεγάλο. Μεγαλύτερο από το B92M είχα. Και παρόλο που τα specs λέγαν μόνο 3 χιλιοστά επιπλέον, φαίνεται μεγαλύτερο. Κυρίως επειδή το Zopo 980+ έχει λιγότερο στρογγυλεμένες άκρες , παρόμοιο με το iphone 4 +, ενώ το B92M έχει ένα πιο σφαιροειδές σχήμα .

Η οθόνη δυστυχώς δεν είναι OLED. Αν είχα ψάξει λίγο περισσότερο θα είχα δει αυτό το προφανές ελάττωμα και δεν θα το αγοράσει, αλλά στην γρήγορη έρευνα που έκανα, δεν το πρόσεξα. Το B92M αν και η οθόνη του δεν ήταν η καλύτερη είχε πολύ ωραίο, βαθύ μαύρο . Τούτου λεχθέντος , το 980 + έχει πολύ καλή ανάλυση και τα χρώματα είναι πολύ ζωντανά.

Ο φορτιστής: δοκίμασα το τηλέφωνο με 3 διαφορετικούς επώνυμους φορτιστές 0,55Α και 0,85 A και μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί καθώς φορτίζει. Ένα τέταρτος επώνυμος φορτιστής 0.55A που χρησιμοποίησα, οδήγησε σε περίεργη απόδοση της οθόνης αφής (πατούσα σε ένα σημείο της οθόνης και ανοίγαν διάφορα, εκτός από εκείνο που ήθελα ) , αλλά αυτό ήταν μάλλον πρόβλημα του φορτιστή και όχι του τηλεφώνου. Μια παρόμοια συμπεριφορά είχε το B92M μου με ένα φτηνό κινέζικο φορτιστή.

Το ηχείο είναι ΔΥΝΑΤΟ. Έχω μόνο μια-δυο άλλα τηλέφωνα για να το συγκρίνω, αλλά είναι δυνατό! Το ακουστικό επίσης έχει κατάλληλη ένταση. Ακούω τους συνομηλιτές χωρίς κανένα πρόβλημα !

Το wifi φαίνεται να δουλεύει μια χαρά και γρήγορα.

Μου είπαν ότι το 980 θα μπορούσε να καμφθεί λίγο και φαίνεται ότι το 980 + έχει το ίδιο θέμα .

Antutu δίνει 27500. Σύμφωνα με το Antutu ήρθε prerooted. Ένα app από το google play λέει ότι το τηλέφωνο δεν είναι rooted τελικά.

Η κάμερα: Πήρα μερικές φωτογραφίες με την κάμερα σήμερα και δυστυχώς δεν λειτουργεί ομαλά . Κολλάει αρκετά και επιπλέον κράσαρε μερικές φορές επιστρέφοντας με στην αρχική σελίδα.

Μουσική: Άκουσα μερικά τραγούδια στο μεγάφωνο. Κάθε φορά που η οθόνη μαυρίζει υπάρχει στιγμιαία παρεμβολή στο τραγούδι. Θα πίστευε κανείς ότι με 8 ρημαδο-πυρήνες, η μουσική θα είναι σε θέση να παίξει χωρίς κανένα πρόβλημα :(

Το πληκτρολόγιο εξαφανίζεται μερικές φορές όταν προσπαθώ να αναζητήσω και να κατεβάσω εφαρμογές από το Google play. Πώς στο διάολο να χρησιμοποιήσει κανείς το τηλέφωνο χωρίς πληκτρολόγιο;

Η μπαταρία μου κρατάει ένα 12 ώρες εργασίας την ημέρα με μικρή έως μέτρια χρήση και με 50 %  υπόλοιπο, όταν γυρίζω σπίτι .

Η θήκη: Δίναι αίσθηση ανθεκτικότητας, αλλά κάνει το τηλέφωνο πραγματικά μεγάλο, περίπου 15 -16mm πάχος. Προσωπικά εγώ δεν θα συνιστούσα την αγορά της, διότι μετά από περίπου μία εβδομάδα χρήσης που έχει ήδη αρχίσει να κόβεται στις γωνίες.

Το Skype έχει προβλήματα. Λειτουργεί μερικές φορές , αλλά τις περισσότερες από τη στιγμή που ξεκινά, συνδέεται και στη συνέχεια κρασάρει. Στη συνέχεια θα πρέπει να ξεκινήσετε πάλι και αν είστε τυχεροί λειτουργεί . Αν δεν είστε τυχεροί , μπορεί να περάσετε το χρόνο σας, ξεκινώντας και επανεκκινώντας το skype . Δεν ξέρω αν αυτό είναι πρόβλημα του τηλεφώνου ή κάποιο bug στο skype.

Το Chrome λειτουργεί, αλλά έχει προβλήματα . Πολλά lag, το τηλέφωνο κολλάει το πληκτρολόγιο εξαφανίζεται.
Το Opera λειτουργεί καλύτερα , αλλά με πολλά tabs ανοιχτά 5-8 , άρχισε να καθυστερεί, και μια φορά μάλιστα κράσαρε.
Τα Angry birds δουλεύουν μια χαρά .
Το Carmageddon λειτουργεί , παρόλο που κόλλησε μια φορά και έπρεπε να βγάλω την μπαταρία.
Το Ninja fruit λειτουργεί και φαίνεται ότι το τηλέφωνο διαθέτει οθόνη αφής 10 σημείων . Τουλάχιστον έτσι νομίζω , γιατί είναι δύσκολο να παρακολουθήσεις τι κάνει η οθόνη με 10 δάχτυλα πάνω της.
Το Gallery λειτουργεί. Είναι ενδιαφέρον ότι οι μικρογραφίες των βίντεο δείχνουν μια προεπισκόπηση βίντεο. Αυτό θα μπορούσε να αποδειχθεί επικίνδυνο αν υπάρχουν ακατάλληλα βίντεο ...
Το Nova 3 δεν λειτουργεί . Νομίζω ότι δεν λειτουργεί με κανένα από τα τσιπ της MTK .
Το Shazam λειτουργεί οκ.
Το Google Play λειτουργεί , παρόλο που το πληκτρολόγιο εξαφανίζεται συχνά πυκνά.
Τα Yahoo και το Outlook δουλεύουν μια χαρά , όπως και το Youtube .
Η αναπαραγωγή βίντεο λειτουργεί πολύ καλά με το ενσωματωμένο player.

Update: Η Zopo έβγαλε ένα OTA upgrade, το οποίο δεν έφτιαξε ούτε το εξαφανιζόμενο πληκτρολόγιο, ούτε και τα ghost touches. :(((((
Update: Μετά από 4 μήνες χρήσης, το τηλέφωνο έχει δεί ισάριθμες αναβαθμίσεις από την Ζοπο.
Το πρόβλημα με το πληκτρολόγιο λύθηκε με την εγκατάσταση του MULTILING Keyboard από το Play store.
Νομίζω σε μεγάλο βαθμό λύθηκε και το Ghost Touch, ενώ και το skype λειτουργεί ικανοποιητικά.

UPDATE 10/9/15

Firmware update to KitKat 4.4.2