* Posts by AndrueC

5081 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Aug 2009

The years were worth the wait. JWST gives us an amazing view of Neptune's rings

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Re: A cloud in a kilt

Isaac Asimov wrote quite a good short story (later he made it into a novel) about a planet orbiting multiple suns which resulted in the inhabitants only experiencing a dark night once every two thousand years or so.

Nightfall.

Starlink broadband speeds slow as subscriber numbers grow

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Re: It kind of amazing to me

That's great if the servers you want to connect to are sited on an oil tanker but doesn't help much with connecting to the other 99.99% of the internet. It's not good enough to just get the packets down to sea level. They need to actually reach shore and the rest of the internet ;)

Tesla Megapack battery ignites at substation after less than 6 months

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Re: Look to Dinorwig

Actually having done a bit of research overnight the answer appears to be 'maybe' and would be reliant upon things like genetic crops and a major shift in the public diet such as going entirely vegetarian.

However before everyone starts demanding that golf courses close there are some other things to consider:

* Britain has been relying on food imports for a long time, it's nothing new. Even during WWII we needed to import food despite all the efforts made to conserve food and encourage home farming.

* A lot of our land is either deliberately fallow or else being used to grow non-food crops.

* We are losing a lot of arable land to housing at the moment.

* As a nation we still throw away 25% of the food we buy (and if it was feasible I'd make that a criminal offense).

And we should also consider the environmental impact of converting a golf course to a field (and certainly to building housing on it).

If the UK is ever genuinely suffering a food crisis then growing crops on golf courses makes absolute sense. But right now it isn't so there is simply no need to get rid of golf courses any faster than they are already.

The millions of people in the UK are enjoying golf at the moment and they come from all walks of life. It is not not just well off retirees.

AndrueC Silver badge
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Re: Look to Dinorwig

If the UK converted golf courses back to agricultural land then we have plenty of land to feed ourselves with native, seasonal fruit and veg.

That's a silly thing to suggest. 70% of the UK's land is available for agriculture and golf courses occupy less than 2%. Quite a lot of golf courses were built in areas that never were agricultural and others are now within what can be considered to be urban areas so would have houses built on them if they weren't there.

Golf is a very popular sport and any golf courses that can't find enough participants soon close so the ones we have left are all being used. Closing golf courses arbitrarily would hurt millions of people.

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Re: Look to Dinorwig

you lot even have enough square inches to feed yourselves anymore?

Yes, thanks. Quite a lot of arable land is being left fallow. We choose to import food because we have grown to like things out of season but we have plenty of space left to grow crops should we choose to.

You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis

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Re: Winter is coming, crank that $H!T UP!

But what about the noise?

Pardon?

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Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

Not much home heating savings at that point...

With today's pricing a twenty minute drive (about what I used to do before WFH) would cost me around £1.40. There are other costs associated with driving but most of them are more to do with car ownership so are fixed regardless of whether the car is parked up or mobile.

7.5 hours of electricity is probably about £1 if we include kettle use and lighting so clearly for me I'm ahead purely on fuel. But if I were foolish enough to put the heating on I reckon that would tip the scales the other way. My parents always said that heating the house during the week had a huge effect on their gas bills when they retired.

But my post was just to suggest that it's not as clear-cut as 'WFH is better than sharing an office'. Nonetheless I'd also like it be known that I love WFH and wouldn't go back to an office for anything. In fact just before Covid I was planning to approach my boss and say that he either let me WFH or I'd retire.

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Re: Email remains the most used communication method for work

If your home office is small enough you won't need to spend much on heating. My home office is the smallest bedroom and with the door shut the computer kit can keep it warm enough almost throughout winter. On those rare days when it needs heating I have an oil filled radiator that helps out (though it's rarely on for long).

I don't put the house heating on because there's only me and no point in heating up any other rooms. In the UK it's never going to get cold enough during the day to make going into the kitchen for a brew problematic without heating.

But if you're concerned about the environment or domestic bills it's worth running the sums. If you put the house heating on just because you're working from home(*) it may well be cheaper and more 'planet friendly' to drive twenty minutes to work and let your employer provide the heating and lighting.

(*)Obviously if it would have been on anyway because other people are home that doesn't matter.

White House to tech world: Promise you'll write secure code – or Feds won't use it

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Ad blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules

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Re: Autoscrolling poll

Yup, all fixed now.

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Facepalm

It'd be nice if something could block the survey that has appeared on El Reg. It's inoffensive in itself but it causes Chrome to scroll to the bottom of the page to render it when I first arrive at a page.

G7 countries beat UK in worldwide broadband speed test again

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Re: To dream....

Oh to live in London........ 5G, Gigabit, FTTP (even FTTC). I can dream....

Not universally true. There are places in London with poor connectivity. Of all the members of our software development team the only one with a poor connection (some stuttering on Teams) lives in London.

I think I'm second worst. I live in rural South Northants and have 67Mb/s. But Swift is currently installing fibre around the town so 1Gb/s symmetrical will soon be available. I can't be bothered to change ISP so will wait for Openreach who should be bringing there FTTP here pretty soon. Gigaclear have also thrown their hat into the ring.

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Meh

Re: What is "enough"?

If it's a viable business it can justify paying for a leased line. You can get one of them installed pretty much anywhere as has been the case for several decades now.

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Re: What is "enough"?

Yup. Several years ago I was part of a trans-Atlantic software development team. We wrote software to recover data from Exchange and SharePoint so often worked with large databases. Three software engineers managed just fine with a 3Mb/s connection. We did avoid downloading large DBs and used RDP to access them via machines across the pond but it all worked reasonably well.

The only problem we had with any frequency was connection drops. Speed just wasn't an issue.

Most home workers are reading email (occasionally), exchanging documents (occasionally), accessing corporate websites and using some form of VoiP/Video. None of those are particularly bandwidth intensive. Video works better with decent bandwidth but doesn't demand it.

100Mb/s is enough for dozens of people. Three or four typical home workers would barely register.

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Re: What is "enough"?

Maybe the UK has a fleet of Ford Mondeos while the rest of the world has Ferraris, but when most people just want to commute to/from work, pop down the shops or pootle up the motorway on a trip, what are they missing out on by not having a sports car?

Exactly. Also as I've pointed out previously the UK's network took the work from home pandemic in its stride. It shrugs off minor events like World Cups and Apple's latest update. Aside from the increasingly small minority of people who are stuck on ADSL exactly who is suffering?

And as I've mentioned before most people aren't taking the fastest service available to them anyway. If everyone went for the fastest package available to them our average would jump up hugely (Thinkbroadband ran the numbers several years ago and we'd be at the top of the league). Now fair enough pricing might have something to do with but as we're saying here - how much does it matter?

FTTP is good tech and we should be moving forward with it for sure but few people in the UK are actually short of speed and unable to do the things they want to do.

The crime against humanity that is the modern OS desktop, and how to kill it

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Meh

Re: Peak Usability

I'll have to play Devil's advocate here but if I want help I will open the browser and use my favourite search engine. There's a place for help files for specialist software but even then you can generate them from the same source as the PDF for the manual and a web site so that gives two other ways to access the information. So they are useful to users of specialist software and those who are often offline. Except that those users will likely receive training and therefore probably don't need much help.

An in-built help system was useful 'back in the day' but these days I'd say it's an anachronism. Certainly for something as publicly available and widely used as an operating system. I don't think I could even agree on 'it's nice to have'.

Xcel smart thermostat users lose their cool after power company locks them out

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Re: Control issues

They only want them installed so they can kill off meter readers,

Good (speaking figuratively of course). Fewer people for them to pay means lower (or at least less high) bills for the rest of us.

... cut you off remotely,

Why would they want to do that? Firstly no company that is in the business of supplying you with something wants to cut you off. If they aren't supplying you they aren't making money off you. Secondly cutting you off requires an extensive and expensive legal process so, again, it's not something they want to do. Thirdly if they do eventually decide to cut you off they will have to send someone round at some point before then to assess your situation because that's the law. They can't just press a button whenever they feel like it.

The only people they will ever cut off are those people who refuse to pay despite being able to(*). The only thing remote disconnect avoids is the cost of sending an engineer. That's good because it will slightly reduce the cost to the rest of us who are paying for these free loaders.

and piss about with tariffs - to their advantage obviously, not the customer

Yet to be proven. So far it appears they are going to offer discounts to customers who move their heavier loads out of peak periods and that's an advantage to the customer.

(*)Refuse being the important word here. Unable to pay is something different.

AndrueC Silver badge
Meh

Re: Control issues

I have a smart meter from octopus. It doesn't work. The previous supplier's did.

Why did you get a new smart meter when you switched suppliers? Even more odd that a newer meter didn't work where an old one did.

Or do you mean that your smart meter is now dumb after you switched suppliers? If so that's also a bit odd because nearly all meters have now been adopted by the new network. I don't think there's many left on the old networks. My SMETS1 meter was adopted a year ago. FYI I didn't get notified I only happened to notice when I was reviewing my billing.

Not that it's worth crowing about. The whole SMETS1 saga was unnecessary and took far too long to be resolved.

Voyager 1 data corrupted by onboard computer that 'stopped working years ago'

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Re: Good for another 110 years

Friends Come in Boxes.

Former Microsoft UX boss doesn't like the Windows 11 Start menu either

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Yah, that one annoys me. What also annoys me is that the updated Paint doesn't have accelerator keys on the resize dialog (maybe others as well, but that's the one I use often). Most egregiously it doesn't even have [Ok] set as an Accept button.

So you're forced to use the mouse instead of [Alt+H]<number>[Ok].

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WTF?

Re: Use the windows key not start button

Rather than use the Start button, ie by clicking on the button with a mouse, isn't it far easier to just hit the Windows Key on the keyboard, start typing the 1st few letters of whatever you are looking for

True. I use the keyboard for a lot of things in preference to the mouse (I hate applications that don't have accelerator keys and shortcuts). I would almost never click on an [Ok] button for instance..

, it usually comes along as 1st item on the list, then hit the enter key...

It's around 98% proficient and almost makes the Start menu invisible, which kind of makes Harris' point mute.

It wasn't very reliable when I first moved to Win 10 but it has settled down now. It's still a bit weird though.

[Windows][d][o][c][u] shows 'Documents' as the top choice which is good. But add an [m] and it mysteriously adds 'Documents Library Privacy Settings' ahead of it. As I continue typing it often takes away 'Documents' completely.

[Windows][v][i] shows 'Visual Studio Code' which I hardly ever use. Add [s] and it adds 'Visual Studio' as the top item - and I use that continuously.

Oh but wait.

I just verified that before posting and now when I type the [s] it just removes 'Visual Studio Code' and leaves 'Visual Studio'.

Mostly I just have what I want pinned to the Taskbar. Most of my interactions are the Taskbar or [Windows][R].

Software developer cracks Hyundai car security with Google search

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Joke

I'm getting sick of all these Doom and zoom stories :)

Redux

We were promised integrated packages. Instead we got disintegrated apps

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Meh

Re: We were promised integrated packages

Of course the web services people could have learnt from the COM nightmare on windowswhat other platforms did a decade before they discovered all the problems.

Fixed that for you. So much shite in the web world appears to be the result of bright young things throwing themselves into a new world without asking any of the old farts for advice.

Janet Jackson music video declared a cybersecurity exploit

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Re: Lay off Janet

That's fully twice as many people as listen to Aqua's Barbie Girl each month..

You probably shouldn't judge Aqua by that track. They've released three albums so far and all were pretty good for the most part. I'd particularly recommend their last album - although not as a birthday gift for young children.

Not safe for work.

Oh Deere: Farm hardware jailbroken to run Doom

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Joke

I'm getting sick of all these Doom and bloom stories.

AI could save future firefighters from deadly flashover explosions

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And all that without excessive cranial hair. Impressive.

Security needs to learn from the aviation biz to avoid crashing

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Re: Not aviation

It was a joke.

The idea being that it would encourage the doctor to keep you fit and healthy. Whereas the current system means they make money by keeping you alive but unhealthy.

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Re: How about parachutes?

Needs the joke icon :)

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Re: How about parachutes?

The problem is that there is too much stuff that doesn't work upon which others rely on.

Pretty much this plus a demand for yet more stuff (more complicated stuff in my experience, due in no small part to the need for security) and limited resources to create it. The world has been suffering from a shortage of software developers for decades and it's getting worse. We're not replacing the talent that is leaving(*). If we can't keep up with the current laissez fair software development attitude how are we going to implement tighter controls and increased oversight?

(*)On an unrelated note I'm now half a year from dropping to a four day week :)

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Re: Not aviation

particularly medicine for which your think it would be a great fit,

Another solution for medicine is to only pay your doctor while you are fit and healthy.

Enough with the notifications! Focus Assist will shut them u… 'But I'm too important!'

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FAIL

Re: I like that man - even if he did move to France

Yup - focus stealing. A worse scenario is if you're in the middle of entering your login credentials and a text box steals the focus. You can end up typing your password in full sight of anyone looking over your shoulder. Heck - you might even end up sending it out as an email or chat message.

"Microsoft Windows-based systems use pop-up dialogue boxes which can steal focus from the current application. On versions of Microsoft Windows prior to Windows 7, there is a user setting that will by default prevent a cooperative application from stealing focus when launching another program or popping up a new window or dialogue box. This same method does not work in Windows 7 or later."

The barstewards took it away. My guess is it was deemed to interfere with touch screen operation in some way.

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..and can we please for the love of God stop with the focus stealing Windows! Applications should only be able to steal the focus from the desktop. If I've launched an application then clicked over to another one the launched one should start in the background.

A particular shout out to the abomination that is Visual Studio because if you have the option 'Show Error List on completion if there are errors' it will continually focus the Error List during a build (possibly related to Nuget Package Manager messages). Despite me and several others reporting it the best they've offered so far is a suggestion to disable the option. That's the quality of software development you get from the VS UI team.

The many derivatives of the CP/M operating system

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I owned a CPC6128 and I dabbled with Turbo Pascal (eventually making a career out of the later versions) and BCPL. I even wrote a virus for CP/M in assembler. It wasn't a particularly subtle virus (you'd have to be daft not to wonder why the disk was so active when all you'd asked was for a directory listing) and it only worked on bootable floppies - and possibly only those targeting the CPC variant - but still it could propagate itself.

Bad news, older tech workers: Job advert language works against you

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Re: Other job ad wank that “works against” me

Dilbert.

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Bad news for the tech industry: This old fart is winding down to retirement at age 56.

Good news for me: There's such a dearth of talent that if I ever do decide to come back I will have no real difficulty in finding somewhere. Most probably if I do come back it'll be because someone has begged me to.

I paid for it, that makes it mine. Doesn’t it? No – and it never did

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Re: re: streaming services and content

I don't think there's ever been anything I particularly want to watch again. There are a few films that if I happen to see on the EPG I will record on the off chance I feel like watching again but not many. Curiously the ones I sometimes want to watch again are the more trashy ones(*). Probably I'm looking for something mind numbing rather than something engaging. One thing I don't like are long, drawn out sagas. I avoided Game of Thrones for that reason. I don't want to become engaged in a show - I just want to be able to watch it then forget it.

I do watch a lot of TV (several hours most evenings) but there's just so much new stuff on Sky that repeats of anything are often left unwatched and ultimately deleted.

(*)You'd be amazed how many times I've watched Deep Rising. I think it's a shame they never made a sequel..

AndrueC Silver badge
Meh

Re: re: streaming services and content

I can't think of anything I'd want to watch more than once anyway. I record everything on my Sky box but only to time shift. Once I've seen something I just delete it.

Businesses confess: We pass cyberattack costs onto customers

AndrueC Silver badge

Well..duh. Companies are not 'people' everything is just income or expenditure to them. They can offset any expense by increasing prices, reducing staff renumeration or (in extreme cases) cutting shareholder dividends. If a cost is experienced equally by their competitors they have no reason to do otherwise. Like corporation tax..

I've been fired, says engineer who claimed Google chatbot was sentient

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Joke

I think therefore I throw an InvalidArgumentException at line 30.

Smart thermostat swarms are straining the US grid

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Facepalm

Re: Smart vs 7-day thermostats

Good point. My thermostat is 20 years old but its time will always be accurate because I bought the RCT add-on for it. However it also has optimal start so will vary its times throughout the year as will/should smart thermostats. But most of the time the variation won't be that big and presumably is roughly the same throughout a region.

Unfortunately in the past while searching for information I've found that a lot of installers disable the feature because it supposedly confuses the user who can't understand why the heating doesn't come on at fixed times.

You can lead a horse to water...

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Facepalm

In hundreds of thousands of homes across the US that means a sudden jump in electricity use right before residents wake up – if people aren't changing default settings, which the paper suggests is the case.

But that's the whole point of smart thermostats. If people had the intelligence and inclination to configure their devices they wouldn't need to waste money on smart thermostats in the first place. They'd just buy a 7-day thermostat - many have been available for over a decade - and set it up.

Hive to pull the plug on smart home gadgets by 2025

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Re: constant problem

Would be nice if all "smart" TVs included a simple way for users to disable the additional features, so that those of us using the TV as a monitor wouldn't have to suffer the extended startup times and more convoluted UIs

I replaced my TV last year and the one I got - a Samsung 2020 49" Q80T QLED - has an option to disable the smart menu. Since I only ever watch TV through my Sky box over HDMI 1 that's perfect. All I see when switch on is a black screen then 'HMDI 1 Game' in the top left(*) for a couple of seconds before the Sky menu appears.

(*)Game mode disables some of the less desirable display processing.

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Joke

Re: Reciva Radios

Every Lidl helps

Meta asks line managers to identify poorly performing staff for firing

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Re: Translation needed

Dilbert again..

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3.

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Ooh! Bell curve ratings. Dilbert time.

Part 1

Part 2

Wash your mouth out with shape-shifting metal

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Re: I'd totally use something like this

Seeing how much brands like Braun charge for their toothbrush heads I wouldn't hold my breath (ah !)

There are cheaper suppliers but in my experience the bristles fall out. So I hesitate to suggest paying for quality but...

:)

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Alert

Re: While the prospect of toothpaste that DOESN'T taste like mint is appealing

Ouch. I misread that at first as 'boiron homeodent toothpaste anus'.

Chinese boffins suggest launching nuclear Neptune orbiter in 2030

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Joke

Typical of humans. Every time we get our hands on an environment we pollute it and risk making it unsuitable for life.

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Joke

The challenges involved are considerable. The outer solar system is cold, dark, and cruel.

I hear that there's no kind of atmosphere either.

Trouble hiring? Consider loosening your remote work policy

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Thirty plus years of programming experience here. The only reason I'm reducing my hours to a four day week instead of retiring next March is that I have an enlightened employer that allows their software developers to work from home as much as they want. In practice we all work from home all the time apart from an occasional meet-up day.

Managers need to get a clue. Working from home does not mean skiving from home. Me having my bum on a company chair in no way means that I am working. Pay me for the work I complete not for the fact you can see me (as if managers ever deign to visit the likes of us).