Posts by Bertieboy

Price rises

I know they've never been the cheapest but I pretty sure I've never seen a price rise from A&A since 2014. In fact, last month the price dropped by £10 as I've migrated to FTTP.

Basil fawlty surely.

Does he not understand the word ? Even though my school Latin is over 60 years ago Sub Poena translates IIRC as Under Penalty. Fail, and the penalty should apply.

Is it me? The concept of allowing our private data into the hands of a foreign power smacks of treason!

Ah DEC

This brings back memories of the old rt11 systems I used to operate - I still drink my coffee from a DEC Rainbow mug replete with the Basinstoke support telephone number.

Opportunity?

Bearing in mind the problems of trying to bust in on this obscenely entrenched market, perhaps the business opportunity is in developing an aftermarket wiring/ sensor system to replace all the nasty locked down stuff on the existing mechanical beast. Let people own their own stuff!

Shocks

A little off topic but still remember an amusing incident regarding a cement factory. Scenario; the kiln is down but due to be re-lit later that night. The daywork Electrical crew were tasked with doing routine maintenance on the starter gear to a fully isolated 3kV induction fan, located several hundred feet away from the kiln floor at the back of the kiln. Cue keen young shift manager (yours truly) who did not want a repeat of the last attempted light-up of this particular kiln where the aforementioned fan motor arced over owing to excessive dust in the motor. Said shift manager dispatches shift electrician (normally lazy bugger) to blow the motor out and check all was well with motor - we all wanted a quiet night. In a completely out of character move, the shift electrician goes over and beyond required duty and decides to megger out the cables as well - the screams of terror from the sparks working on the starter were really quite impressive!

two separate comments

1) If you think the problem is bad with cars, consider that the powers that be, in their infinite wisdom has declared that all boat engines will be fitted with the necessary software to minimise pollution - a very laudable aim BUT having been stuck at sea with a small boat and engine failure (not fun in iffy weather), I wish they would understand that in extremis, all you need for an old diesel to run is fuel and compression. That will get you safely home as these things are normally fixable at sea. Engine sulking and refusing to operate owing to a software/sensor failure is another thing entirely.

2) Seems to me that the software "lock-in" market favoured by obscene businesses, is in fact a potential opportunity for (preferably open source) after-market kits which sling out the encrypted sensors and MCUs and replace with parts under the users control. In most cases, the actual sensors are pennies each.

Probably a bit silly but....

He should have remembered that no (intended) good deed goes unpunished!

How?

If you pass a switched off Apple device to a repairer (of any description) how does the repairer get access to your private data without the unlock code? I'm assuming they require the owner to supply it which in itself should be a very large flag as in most cases (new battery, screen etc. ) just switching on should be sufficient to validate the repair. Sorry if the question seems to be a silly one but I am genuinely interested whether these repairers routinely seek the unlock code.

GDPR

How does this square with GDPR which deals with personal data (and data does not get more personal than this)? In my naivety, I thought all data requests had to be opt-in not opt-out so surely this drives a coach and horses through GDPR! Perhaps this appalling data grab should be brought to the attention of the EU data commissioner - it may be that this egregious theft of user data influences their decision on UK data adequacy and whether the UK can still operate data transfers to and from the EU.

Cocaine

Hmmm... 27.64 tonnes - that's not to be sniffed at!

Grumpy old pedant says

And don't get me going about the misuse of "due to" and "owing to" - seems only the UK government website gets it right these days! (surprisingly)

Clogged Computers

Those concerned with the detrimental effect of environmental contaminants should try running a computer in a cement plant raw meal production unit ( basically a system for creating dust) I recall Philips ( yes they did make computers in the 70's) taking one mainboard away for their black museum which, although still working, was so coated in raw meal that there were no recognisable components on the board. In another instance, we operated a PDP11/23 in another laboratory that, despite it being in a cabinet with filtered air and being stripped down and completely "cleaned" prior to the arrival of the DEC engineer for it's routine service eventually lost Service support. Suprisingly, the only main issues we ever had were excessive wear on the surface of the floppies.

Fridays!

I recall a colleague of mind whose main task was to maintain and "continuously improve" a DEC based real time 24/7/365 control system. Above his desk was a large notice reading "NEVER NEVER NEVER update this system on a Friday" Over the years I have come to learn the wisdom of this advice.

Perhaps the time has come to bring in an "abuse your trademark and risk losing it" rule.

Obscene bullying on the part of Apple (or any other megacorp) should have real consequences.

Pedant note: Pharmacists not chemists please, us former members of the Royal Society for Chemists are keen to maintain the distinction.

Forsooth! I'm old and grumpy - old enough to remember the introduction of the Unsolicited goods and services act (1971) - if truth be known, I was quite old then! Is there no chance that Nominet have transgressed this act in any way and can be taken to task? - seems to me they're sales techniques are "iffy". Just asking.

Three years free board and lodging courtesy of HMG - bad but it could have been worse, I seem to remember that in previous times, sabotage of vital infrastructure in times of emergency could carry a suspended sentence (assuming the police/army failed to shoot him at the time).

Clouseau lives!

Reg converter

Could the powers in charge of the reg converter please explain why according to the converter a mile is not exactly 8 furlongs or 1760 yards etc. as historically defined?

Try never to use them now, I remember the fights I used to have with them when buying stuff when they insisted on me giving them a post code/house No. even with cash purchases. I always decline (similarly requests for email etc) and have walked out the shop on more than one occasion rather than submit to their rapacious data grabbing practices.

Perhaps it's just I'm a grumpy old fart but in a criminal case, going directly to the judge to try and influence the outcome could be construed as attempting to pervert the course of Justice. Personally, I feel the same rules should apply in these type of cases. If you have material evidence, then present it to the court and allow the judge to decide, otherwise just do the job we pay you for and apply the unbiased judgement.

Contrary to popular opinion the police are and as far as I'm aware always have been civilian.

Sometimes it works the other way - I once checked into my room in the Marriott North Charleston ( I think) only to find it already occupied by a young lady who I vaguely knew. She seemed to think it was obviously pre-ordained so I stayed.

Just bought a cheap HP - slapped it onto my linux desktop and let the OS deal with it - no problems. Haven't used a crappy driver disc for many many years!

Only a naive moron who does not understand how all the (mainly tax free) money generated by these obscenely intrusive habits is used to buy politicians and eventually adversely effect us all could consider no harm done!