Posts by Gordon861

Re: It's all about government surveillance

If it was about surveillance then the government would also have rolled out a single verification system that they ran so that all your visits all over the web could be tracked.

I made up a few using a Pi Pico board during Covid for colleagues, they are still in use as far as I know.

Re: PiHole!

I've never had an issue with it blocking something I needed. I have pretty much just left mine alone doing its thing for ages now, probably should log in and update it really. There are also options on the admin page to pause operations for a set time or just turn it off.

For the cost, it is worth setting one up and just moving a few devices over at a time, rather than pointing your existing router at it. For mobile devices this probably means deleting the current wifi connection and then when you reconnect it you click advanced so that you can put the PiHole as the Gateway IP.

Linus Tech Tips (LTT) did a decent intro/setup video a few years back which should still be relevant.

If you must buy Chinese crap, just go straight to the source, AliExpress. They are cheaper than Amazon, and some suppliers offer fairly quick delivery.

I recently put Jellyfin on my server PC (it's still running Plex to but rarely used).

My main use for it is audio streaming to my car via Android Auto and a VPN to home, it works well but the system needs some better playlist/playback options for audio files.

At home for video I just use a OMSC Vero V Kodi box.

AliEpress - Maxtang Intel Elkhart Lake J6412, free delivery to UK

- (4GB RAM, 128GB SSD - ￡260.20)

- (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - ￡305.07)

- (16GB RAM 512GB SSD - ￡349.94)

They don't have the barebones price on the page but do refer to it being available.

Re: It appears we are just behind Australia

From that page "The ban on credit and debit card surcharges is effective across the EU from Saturday 13th January 2018, and will apply to all purchases made where the banks of the consumer and retailer are within the EEA."

So this could be the next Brexit sunny upland we've all been promised ...

Yes, but that response came from someone signing off as BS.

If/when they solve the power requirements and noise they could be used as a pack animal, but I always thought the idea of fitting one with a mortar for support fire would work well. Operator indicates position of the target from themselves and the unit calculates the trajectory and drops a shell on the target.

Probably better off with the compute module rather than the basic Pi4.

Re: "wearing masks outdoors when moving"

Masks in taxis and mini cabs ... but no mask required if you can afford a chauffeur.

Re: "Apple would face incalculable harm"

The problem with "But the review process also makes lots of abuses impossible" is that the review process blatantly failed to spot what Epic were doing until they'd already done it, so less secure than previously thought.

As an aside, do Apple users that downloaded the recent "don't pay Apple" version still have access to it and are they still able to avoid the ApplePay system?

I also expect that part of the problem was that Uber didn't pay for what amounted to a Test Pilot and instead just paid someone with the same qualifications as their regular drivers.

The people responsible for driving these things on the road should be highly qualified.

Re: Just why

I always wonder why people are still putting crap resolution LCDs in kit when higher res cheap screens are out there.

Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/nhs-will-keep-personal-data-of-people-with-coronavirus-for-20-years--uk-test-and-trace-programme

Telegraph (paywall so can't read it)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/05/28/nhs-fire-plans-store-track-trace-data-20-years/

New Statesman

https://tech.newstatesman.com/coronavirus/nhs-test-and-trace-privacy-doc-throws-doubt-on-apps-anonymity-claims

Expect to see The Register take on it soon.

Re: I don't think this does as much as people think

That might have just been a reported incident. I often get a pop-up asking if the vehicle/mobil camera are still there.

Re: Suggestions please...

How about an old mobile phone, running something like Plex, with a 3.5mm jack plugged into a pair of speakers?

Use a tablet and you can have video too.

Re: Currys

Richer Sounds for TVs

Re: But How ?

PiHole is very simple to setup and can stop a lot.

LTT did a video and tutorial on it last year, link for convenience below:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1094810-pi-hole-setup-tutorial/

This is what's holding up my next upgrade right now, looking for a new Android One phone to replace my Xioami MiA1, the A2 is 18 months old now and for the recent A3 they have switched to a lower res screen for some reason.

I always make a point of talking to any engineers or digging teams that I see in my street just to get an idea of what they may be about to break or turn off.

Not normally a problem but if you do need to call customer services later it helps if you can let them know that their teams were in the area recently and what they said they were doing.

Re: Would someone explain

I got the impression, maybe wrongly, that in the US the whole junction is covered by the lights. Meaning that if you are still in the junction when the lights have changed then you get a ticket. As opposed to in the UK where the only bit covered by the red light is the stop line so if you have passed the stop line and are still within the junction when they change you are still legal.

The argument is that if you have already slowed to make another manoeuvre then the time that the yellow light is lit is not sufficient to clear the junction.

Re: Context is everything

I think I saw video of the incident on C4 News last week, it was how you described it. When I saw the footage I thought that the cop was within his rights to fire.

Not that this in any way condones the other punishment beatings that appear to being handed out by the police elsewhere.

My parents keep offering to pass on their old, really old, laptops to family members and I keep persuading them that they will not be doing them any favours and that I will not be responsible for providing any help if they do so.

I'm having a hard enough time just trying to get them to move on from an eight year old Win7 machine that is really starting to show its age. I expect a lot of panic and stress over christmas when they finally come around to the idea of upgrading.

I've had a lot of problems syncing with my phone for a while (Xiaomi M1A1), now just sync with my tablet and the phone gets the info from there.

But not at all impressed with the new layout of the software.

Re: In-House Displays

I have an in-house display from my old OWL meter reader amongst all the other junk near my computer, very good for telling when the oven is up to temp as the power draw will drop suddenly. They can be useful once you establish a baseline, just don't get too obsessive about trying to get too low.