Apple's App Store: ipod touch first generation not welcome any more...

This week i wanted to get a new app for my really old ipod touch (first generation). Yes, many apps do require iOS 4 or higher, but some run still on iOS 3. So i chose one and got:

This looks good. So let's tap on GRATIS:

Hmmm... Does not really look like expected. But let's try to choose this broken button:

This is really blue... - Nothings happens. No download starts.
No more new apps for this old device.
So Apple want me to buy a new one or should i upgrade to an iphone? Or just use my old ipod with my old apps? Or does anybody know how to get around this problem?

ndiswrapper broken after upgrading to ubuntu 12.04: FATAL module ndiswrapper not found

After upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04 via shell (# do-release-upgrade) everything went well, except the network access...
(Networking was not integrated on my old sony z600, so i had to use an USB WLAN stick via ndiswrapper).

So what is wrong?
First i tried

sudo ndiswrapper -l

and this look quite good. Driver and hardware present.
Next:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found

Ok, with version 12.04 a new kernel is shipped (3.?) and this does not recognize the ndiswrapper.ko kernel module.
After running

sudo depmod -a

still the same problem...
But then i did

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-dkms

Now everything went well:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper && sudo ndiswrapper -ma

and the network was up again and after a reboot it was still working....

Installing Ubuntu on a Sony Z600 (no internal CD-Rom and no USB boot available)

At weekend i tried to install Ubuntu on my 11 year old notebook. A Sony Z600? It was some kind of ultrabook 11 years ago:

• Pentium M (no wireless chipset onboard ;-)
  
• Display: 1024x768
• 384 MB RAM
• 40 GB HDD
• ATI Radeon Mobility (8MB)
  
• 1.7 kg
• max. power consumption 19.5V x 3.0A < 60W
• 2 x USB, 1 x Firewire
• Jogdial
  
• external CD-Rom over PCMCIA
• shipped with Windows 2000

There is no information from sony on the web available.

Some years ago i already installed Debian on this laptop. There are many guides out there (like this or this). But writing a floppy disk is not really option. So let's try using the CD...

But there was the first suprise:

Ubuntu 12.04 does not install on Pentium M (missing PAE feature -> link or link). So let's step back to 10.04 and the boot option ide2=0x180,0x386.

But this does not work... After booting the installation kernel from CD the kernel does not recognize the CD-Rom drive anymore. Booting via USB-CD-Rom-drive is not possible, because the notebook is far to old to boot via USB...

But then i found the magic boot option:

INSTALL_MEDIA_DEV=/dev/sda1

After adding this, the kernel boots from CD-Rom and after that it asks for the boot medium attached to one of the USB ports via USB-CD-Rom! Really nice option but installing Ubuntu 10.04 over USB version 1.1 is not really fast ;-)

German Internet Speed Check: "Der Breitband-Test"

Because of some regulations (look here) and because of too many broadband access providers selling bandwidths they cannot provide, there is a investigation started by the Bundesnetzagentur. Every customer can start a test and at the end of the year the result will be published.
So if you think your bandwidth is lower than it should (and you live in Germany), try this test and provide some data...