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Video on extracting a stuck toner cartidge from a #Brother HL-2270 #printer. (The problem was a snapped clip on a lever, but you can move it by hand).
I'm glad to get this back in service. I can't remember when we got it (~2010?), but it's as least so old that the URL on the sticker inside starts with "http://".
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I've been setting up an #OpenWrt router as a WiFi access point (via powerline LAN).
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/wifiextenders/bridgedap
It needed 3 changes beyond the tutorial to make it stable:
+ Disable the firewall on the AP (tutorial said this wasn't necessary)
+ Use WPA2 encryption only (my laptop kept dropping with mixed mode)
+ Choose 5GHz channel outside 100-144 range (which is affected by radar detection checks in UK)The #WiFi speed at the far side of the house has doubled. Hooray for reusing my old router!
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@johncarlosbaez I went to the Eastgate Centre in Harare, #Zimbabwe, in October. It's great.
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> "An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport."
I thought about this quote a lot in Harare. The cars are in charge here and many roads don't even have pavements. 4x4s abound because roads outside town are unpaved.
Public transport are brightly-decorated but bashed up combi-vans (like Kenyan matatus). Work policy was that we shouldn't use them, which meant I felt stranded in our suburban lodge.
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The Finisher is a documentary about ultra-runner Jasmin Paris completing the Barkley Marathons last year. It's inspirational and mind-blowing that someone can push themselves so hard.
Resharing now as was discussing Sarah Cox's Children in Need challenge with a neighbour on the school run and looked up the link for them. Jasmin Paris lives nearby, in #Midlothian.
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Here are some views of downtown #Harare. There are tall, often glass-clad, buildings and wide roads laid out in a US-style grid. It's not a place to walk between cafes.
The centre is Africa Unity Square, but there are no pictures as we were told you can be arrested for taking photos there. It has been a site of anti-government protest.
The tallest, glassiest building is the Reserve Bank.
The National Art Gallery has many sculptures in the style of the local Shona people.
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Kuimba Shiri was also a good spot to watch the sunset. The day we visited, a wedding party of 50+ were there. They took a boat ride out onto the lake and as the sun dipped over the horizon, the sound of their singing carried across the water.
I was tempted to remove the plastic bag for the photo, but then this is reality. There are problems with pollution in Lake Chivero, which is a reservoir dammed in the 1950s and an important source of drinking water for #Harare.
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After the lions, we went to Kuimba Shiri Bird Park. This is also just outside #Harare, on the north shore of Lake Chivero. There is an open air restaurant where ostriches and ponies roam around the tables, as well as an aviary with many bird species.
The falconry display is great. The highlight was a secretary bird that repeatedly stamped on the head of a rubber snake. This is how they hunt. They have long bony legs to minimise harm from bites.
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@Kurt I've done that now. Deleted/disabled all the Samsung and Google (I didn't know about adb uninstall). Installed #trackercontrol to block what I couldn't remove (h/t @mdione). Added F-Droid (Aurora store is also new to me) for VLC, GCompris, OSMAnd. I got APKs for Scratch, Scratch Jr and Audible (with Internet blocked except for when adding books).
Performance seems fine. I'd have liked the purity of LineageOS but this will do.
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The Mukuvisi Woodlands are practically within #Harare. It's a large park with free-roaming game, including zebras, giraffes and elands. You can hike or bike along trails through the woods, and although you are nominally in with the animals, we only so the ones at the watering hole.
The crocodiles are enclosed - not roaming free.
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We had time for some tourism, too. One day we hiked up the hill Ngomokurira, which is about an hour's drive north of #Harare. Unlike the granite that I'm used to, this was untouched by glaciation and was almost free of cracks.
The surrounding countryside was dotted with houses and we could hear distant music and animals and drums. We met 20+ runners from Harare out on an 18 km run.
There are paintings in a cave near the summit. They are likely to be over 2,000 years old. #Zimbabwe
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Smartphones are ubiquitous, just as at home.
Some cellphone towers in #Harare are disguised as trees!
#WhatsApp is used everywhere: parking, taxis, restaurants, hotels. It's very convenient, although a shame that #Meta are harvesting everyone's metadata and could start pumping ads in at anytime. It would be better of it was on #signal.
I got a pay-as-go SIM with a neat interface for topping up based on dialing numbers with special codes. It was efficient I've not seen this at home.
#Zimbabwe -
We saw these guys, Gabez, outside St Giles cathedral (just off the Royal Mile) in #Edinburgh today.
They were brilliant; who knew that mime could be so hilarious?
They have a stage show called Live Manga.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Qazhd3pH9YQ?si=fBcxLoj0xif-gXCB