I was in Portugal at the time of the aforementioned power failure and had no problems using cash while those with cards only had to wait until the power came back on or got cash. (Not easy as all the ATM's were down) .
Posts by Bertieboy
53 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Sep 2019
Europe preps Digital Euro to enter circulation in 2029
I use cash by default for all local transactions, I see zero benefit in feeding the monsters that are Visa and Mastercard. Most of the local small business's prefer this and this is doubly true in Portugal where many if not the majority of small business's don't/won't use electronic trading owing to the costs.
Vodafone keels over, cutting off millions of mobile and broadband customers
Virgin Media O2 patches hole that let callers snoop on your coordinates
Automatic UK-to-US English converter produced amazing mistakes by the vanload
Re: Don't budge on standards of English
Fortnight or better still a sennight if you really wish to confuse. But I still think I have met the worst (best) misuse of English in Charleston - A girl sidled up to me in a bar/nightclub and asked me if I wanted to shag - it appears that's a dance in those parts!
Signalgate lessons learned: If creating a culture of security is the goal, America is screwed
Museum digs up Digital Equipment Corporation's dusty digital equipment
Under Trump 2.0, Europe's dependence on US clouds back under the spotlight
Don't feed the monster - Much of US power comes from the vast revenues which are being fed by European countries.
Don't expose all of your transactions or secrets ( political or economic) to the monster by using their software.
Don't position yourselves where your critical data can be withheld at a whim.
Do invest in an EU/UK investment in local software /hardware- A few billion is peanuts compared to the revenue loss outside the bloc.
Don't allow politicians enslave the continent by listening to naysayers.
All of the above has been obvious for a couple of decades, the longer it's left, the harder it becomes - grow a pair!!
Google confirms Gulf of Mexico renamed to appease Trump – but only in the US
Why does the UK keep getting beaten up by IT suppliers?
Re: It's a lack of understanding
And here's a problem I fought for many years - F****** spreadsheets used to store data! Every department/office had some whizz kid who thought they'd design a wonderful spreadsheet for all to use - result: no coherency across the various disparate departments; no easy way of effectively collating/analysing data.
The latest language in the GNU Compiler Collection: Algol-68
Telemetry data from 800K VW Group EVs exposed online
Re: Mobile chipsets in "modern" cars allows location spying as accurate as ±10cm, what a surprise.
I've been superficially looking into into the "legal" basis for all these shenanigans (EU/UK based so inhabitants of the great Satan can look away now). Most seem to be on the basis that you're required to divulge huge quantities of PII when buying a new car and on the basis of that "contract" the companies say they have some rights and that without this data no sale! Now my question is : If I bought a new car, and of course I would not be so deceptive concerning all the info they desire, and then promptly sell the car on to a new owner (say my wife), then the contract I had with the car company is now dissolved as presumably are their assumed rights with regards to the car they sold me, Now as I understand it, GDPR would then require them to seek consent from the new owner who of course could refuse. Anyone here with a better understanding of the matter than me (probably most of you!) care to comment on how such a scheme might be used to limit data collection?
Ryanair faces GDPR turbulence over customer ID checks
Cybercriminals raid BBC pension database, steal records of over 25,000 people
Ofcom proposes ban on UK telcos making 'inflation-linked' price hikes mid-contract
From Joaquin Phoenix to Rowan Atkinson, we enjoyed your Musk movie casting calls
Musk in hot water with SEC for failure to comply with subpoena
Palantir lobbied UK pensions department for its software to tackle fraud
Brit broadband subscribers caught between crappy connections and price hikes
Re: 4G or ADSL backup
A&A all the way, no problems (except when a BT engineer was ham-fisted inside a cabinet) excellent tech backup ; you can talk directly with their tech team without having to navigate a call centre; low contention lines; fixed ip addresses and as for prices, they have not changed my monthly rate since 2014 although they did offer a reduction to £37 a month if I wished to upgrade to FTTP.
Service desk tech saved consultancy Capita from VPN meltdown, got a smack for it
Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move
Rust is eating into our systems, and it's a good thing
SCOTUS judges 'doxxed' after overturning Roe v Wade
When management went nuclear on an innocent software engineer
Seriously, you do not want to make that cable your earth
Climate model code is so outdated, MIT starts from scratch
Deere & Co won't give out software and data needed for repairs, watchdog told
A time when cabling was not so much 'structured' than 'survival of the fittest'
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!
Don't touch that dial – the new guy just closed the application that no one is meant to close
I've got a broken combine harvester – but the manufacturer won't give me the software key
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.
Remember the bloke who was told by Zen Internet to contact his MP about crap service? Yeah, it's still not fixed
One good deed leads to a storm in an Exchange Server
Apple settles with student after authorized repair workers leaked her naked pics to her Facebook page
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.
Conflicting messaging overshadows NHS Digital's attempts to inform public about patient data slurp
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.
Belgian police seize 28 tons of cocaine after 'cracking' Sky ECC's chat app encryption
'No' does not mean 'yes'... unless you are a scriptwriter for software user interfaces
A word to the Wyse: Smoking cigars in the office is very bad for you... and your monitor
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.
What a time for a TITSUP*: Santander down and out on pre-Bank Holiday payday
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.
Apple's at it again: Things go pear-shaped for meal planner app after iGiant opposes logo
Bricks and mortar chemists take down Indian contact-tracing website
Whose side you on, Nominet? Registry floods .co.uk owners with begging emails to renew unwanted .uk domains
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.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes: UK man gets 3 years for torching 4G phone mast over 5G fears
French pensioner ejected from fighter jet after accidentally grabbing bang seat* handle
Announcing the official Reg-approved measure of social distancing: The Osman
Dixons fined £500,000 by ICO for crap security that exposed 5.6 million customers' payment cards
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.
UK Info Commish quietly urged court to swat away 100k Morrisons data breach sueball
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.