tyketto: not sure myself.

Bear in mind that the maximum current that you should draw from a USB port is 500mA, so you might want to make sure that you use the external power supply and not connect the +5v line.

I have to confess that sloth usually overcomes me these days, and I just buy the appropriate lead. It's less exciting than DIY but more certain.

Amazon carry a few options at about 10-15 which isn't too outrageous.

Cheers, MM

Thanks MM.
There is a standalone lead available at a similar price,
but I thought that having the where-withall to hand,
I'd have ago myself.
Ta again.
mac

tyketto, an IDE interface is nothing like a USB one. To start with, the IDE interface is parallel, i.e. the data bits are presented as one or more bytes simultaneously on multiple pins. The USB interface is serial, the bits will come one by one. Also, USB devices identify themselves to the PC, IDE ones don't. The lead you saw must include a lot of electronics to convert one interface to the other, it is not a simple wiring job.

To be honest unless it is a stopgap solution (to get the data off the drive for instance), you are unlikely to get good results by doing this. Much better to buy a USB drive.

Thanks to Kayak for pointing out the obvious, so bleedin' obvious I completely ignored it.

Thinks.

MM, at least with punched cards you knew where you stood...

Strange but my Spybot has suddenly started to refuse to clear/fix any problems that it finds as 'I am not the administrator'.
I have changed nothing on my PC and as I am the only users, surely I am an administrator.
Any ideas, gratefully received.

Kayak, until you dropped the deck. Always preferred punched paper tape myself.

Now that I am working out here in UAE, I want to use my laptop to make cheap/free calls to my home phone.

What hardware / software am I likely to need.

Tks

jeff skype is pretty good for most things. I also use voipfone which can be configured with a software phone on PC although i dont use it like that.

jeffie: Skype is your best bet. You can even get a Skypein number which is a London number, complete with answering service, for Skypeless persons to call you. Get a decent headset (I recommend Sennheiser) and remember to put your clothes on before making video calls.

You could try one of these and there are many similar

www.voipcheap.com


www.internetcalls.com

If you are calling from abroad then calls to UK are FREE

just

plug in a headset and add some credit to your account and then the calls are free.

http://www.internetcalls.com/en/calling-rates.html

http://www.voipcheap.co.uk/en/rates.html

Thanks for those suggestions, I will look at them now.

Are you sending me to dodgy sites H. Access to both of those is blocked by the ABU Dhabi authorities. I will try Skype

Jeff,

Did you notice my and DelBoy's comments in the cafe the other day about proxy servers? Try going through NinjaCloak.com or HideMyAss.com.

If they're blocked by the authorities, do you have a VPS? You could open a browser on your VPS to access the sites in question. Otherwise, do you have a machine elsewhere that's running 24/7 as you could open an RDC to it.

Any help re my post of 21st.

Appreciate any answers, even if they say, 'Can't help' as then I will get rid of Spybot although I have been a fan of the site for many years.

Strange but my Spybot has suddenly started to refuse to clear/fix any problems that it finds as 'I am not the administrator'.
I have changed nothing on my PC and as I am the only users, surely I am an administrator.
Any ideas, gratefully received.

Hils
Dis some googling and in UAE until recently VOIP is banned. They have just licenced the 2 local telcos but they are not offering it as yet. There are a number of solutions on the internet using proxy and VPS so will take a look. Probably easier to do when back in UK in a couple of weeks.

greekman, presumably you are running Vista? My guess is that you have downloaded an update from Windows which has changed the settings. XP doesn't usually ask for administrator permissions. Regret Spybot is not one I use, but would be very surprised if it's Spybot asking & not Windows. If it is Windows then go to Control Panel > Administrator settings.

Greek
read your post with interest but didn't reply as am not able to contribute anything useful.
As mentioned above you don't say which system you're using. I've left spybot off win7 as it doesn't like more than one security device working at a time.
However like you I am baffled by the constant need for administrative authority to do the simplest tasks when I thought I'd set this up during installation for a sole user.

greekman.
Re-install it. I had a similar problem many many moons ago. Never got to the bottom of it. I just deleted the old (use Revo uninstaller in full clear out mode - I don't like the Windows un-installer) & then re-installed. Everything worked fine then.