Posts by Tom 7

Talk of a second wave is nonsense?

The rolling 7 day average has risen by 70% in just over a month. That rise will be starting to show in an increase in deaths but the deaths figures have not been published, and now, apparently, the infection rate figures have not been received!

The disease is not endemic yet - 5% of the population has been effected in the UK, NZ will be clean in a month or two, we could if we took it seriously.

Re: Is that a hedgehog in your pocket?

Perhaps Covid-19 is indeed a small wifi router after all,

Re: Wifi generations

This time last year we upgraded from 1.2Mb bb to >30Mb 4G which seems to manage near 100Mb during the day occasionally. We have a couple of holiday cottages on it and everything is normally fine but every now and then one of the cottages complains its slow, if my youngest hasn't already done so. I noticed it happens when one cottage comes back from the beach and several gigabytes of pictures are sent to Apple and then back to the other families members iDevices in the cottage. Other clownsharing (sic) methods are available.

Alas the photos/videos increase in size far faster than the Wifi Committee can keep up with.

Re: Self help AI

I think AI can be blamed for the recent rise of right wing idiot leaders - they realised it was their last chance to take power before they were outmanoeuvred by their own fridge magnets.

Re: A nice cuppa

When I worked at Martlesham for BT all the bogs had Izal in apart from the ones in the Admin block for HR to polish their arses, There were a couple of thousand people working there and once I popped in to their loos from the bloody magnificent library they had there I spread my cheeks and then the word around and rather than downgrade to stop the queues that formed they upgraded the loo roll for the rest of us.

One of my more successful sit-ins.

Re: The thing with croissants

Croissants are just chefy versions of butteries from their auld alliance pal Scotland. If we had butteries protecting us instead we would be safe from pretty much anything so long as the hot ions didnt melt them - then we'd have to eat it all in one sitting.

Re: Reminds me of my mum

I tried to fix my dads computer once but for some reason he had bought one that came with a security case that I have been unable to get into. I still have it in the shed as I've not been able to get the hard drive out of it and there's a chance there is some sensitive information on it.

Often these people seem to share offices and try and belittle you in front of their colleagues. Over the years I have developed weapons grade put downs for those sort of arseholes. And its amazing how their colleagues appreciate it too!

Re: Ahh yes the

I have never fully understood how bikes seem to have an inflation rate that matches that of housing in the UK.

Re: Ahh yes the

Cor Blimey Mate!

Re: User Error

I still think its MS selling you a lie. 'Here is a tool that will make computing easy' has cost people far more than even MSes massive profits. If data was plastic the seas would be solid with the waste data they have created.

Re: On helpdesk calls

I remember the days of 10BASE5 and when I first got to play with MIDI I realised the error method provided by MIDI looping through a 400w Fender attached to some eclectic connection of early 'instruments' would have been really handy even in very large office setups.

Re: Which is why I always turn off email sigs...

Should you not have the sig cut off half way through with added 'OH FUCK N'

Re: you never have to print the emai? For rather loose values of 'never'.

I have mails in my inbox with 'Sent from my ZX81' which they were (well not mine) thought fortunately I never quite got into the idea of typing the stack in myself to try it.

I am surprised you can actually delete "Sent from my IPAD/IPhone" because no-on seems to do it.

Re: Hydrogen is not the answer

Why not use PV to make 2H2 and O2. Use the H2 in fuel cells. Use the O2 to raise the efficiency of any thermodynamic energy production - burning diesel in pure O2 results in NO NOx and over 90% efficiency so nearly halving the CO2 per bang. H2 can be stored easily - we used to have massive gasometers in every town in the UK and their storage capacity is quite large. Now if we did that in the US deserts - massive PV, Make H2 and O2 to store separately to make electricity when its dark or in other times of need. So only a limitied amount of water is required - no saline problems.

It always amuses me that nay-sayers come up with arguments that, if used when the first internal combustion engine had been invented we'd still be knee deep in horseshit.

I'm not sure we will get to a 'hydrogen economy' but I can certainly see it as a massive part of the solution. I read in the late 80s/early 90s that the electricity->H2->electricity energy cycle could achieve over 80% efficiency (this include usage of waste heat but not recycling the O2) and yet people scream it wont work as they heat their houses on gas at the same level of efficiency and with greater pollution.

Re: Workmen

By the 90's a lot of this stuff was contracted out - so completed paperwork was more important than reality.

Re: Tourist potential?

Testosterone ravaged teenagers dont normally have that sort of money!

Re: Tourist potential?

Alas people need air pressure and somewhere sparse to land. Having skipped across a lake on a golf course after a short flight in a head burning balloon I can see a few problems with going 'all the way to the edge'.

Yeh but nowhere near as spectacular! I'm in a dark skies area of the west country but I miss the odd Sunday in a field in Cambridgeshire sending my hard earned wages a few thousand feet on a tower of flame and noise.

Re: Stability?

You could say the same for space telescopes! Gyroscopes and hanging from above the centre of mass via a free swivel would do the job. Parallax is not likely to be a problem in the short term.

Re: Don't Feel Bad...

Is it really safe though - some turkeys migrate to bread, only 100 miles or so but its still migration.

Re: however on the good side

I never buy anything I see advertised on TV - does that mean I'm breaking the law watching that. If I use an add-blocker I am saving the advertiser the effort of sending me an advert that I will either ignore or pointedly not buy.

If you want people to pay for your content dont give it away like free samples all the time, because yes I will continue to eat your free samples if you are dumb enough to keep giving them away.

Pubs used to get it right - free snacks on the bar to make you thirsty. My old local used to do peanuts, crisps, roast potatoes and home made scratchings on the old time limited Sunday lunch and it was mobbed. Co-operative marketing is far better than the snipey shit you get now.

Re: Not Surprised

We've got a Samsung washing machine and its on its 4th motherboard but as its out of guarantee that will be its last. Not sure where the problem lies - it comes up with an error every now and then and if you turn it off and on again you can finish the halted wash. Got to know the engineer quite well as he is the only one in the area and he tried his best poor lad but the error number that came up didnt exist according to Samsung and after replacing all the parts he could think of he just tried new motherboards.

Re: Hubble revisited

I wonder if the mirror would survive re-entry. It would make an interesting flying red hot saucer!

Re: Mail Storm

We had a mail tsunami on EX2003 due to a virus. While the PHB and systems manager did the headless chicken thing on MSN and our well paid support* I wrote a VB app that could open each mail in the DB (bit of a posh name for it really) and scan the mail for signs of infection. I got the OK to unleash it on the DB where it deleted 99% of the emails in it and things settled down once a few other patches were in place. It was a useful bit of code I could use to build a new "DB' when it got corrupted as it occasionally did. And also looking at peoples emails while bored on a long weekend waiting for some upgrade to finish.

*We paid a company for support which then never seemed to manage before we fixed things ourselves - largely because when MS fucked up they fucked up all their customers at the same time. I used to enjoy getting phone calls in the early hours where they would tell me the steps to fix whatever upgrade had damaged and almost chant along with them and then give them further tips and trix. They were never grateful!