Posts by YetAnotherLocksmith

Re: the ability to remotely disconnect

I hope you had them fit a stop tap alongside the meter!

Re: the ability to remotely disconnect

Might I suggest adding an inline water valve with every repair in future, so you can isolate that thing the next time, with a screwdriver.

"And while you're here to arrest me for the 'mmicro sooft tax evasion' officer, could you take away this burglar?"

Re: I don't know why you think that

Is this where I am legally bound to point out that you don't own your electric meter anyway, the supplier does?

If EDF has to change 17 million electric meters, that is their problem, not yours.

This has already been demonstrated in the UK market when "we" installed hundreds of thousands of smart meters, and then... took them all out again and put in old refurbished spinning dial ones!

No cost to the customer, except possibly a little extra wear on the locks of those who, weirdly, were never home, never replied, and turned out to be using huge amounts of electric to warm the attic with lights...

Re: Le Diable

Eh? These meters don't "cut" unless you don't pay your bill, or, if you previously haven't paid your bill long enough, you haven't fed it enough electronic money in advance.

The only other thing could be if you frequently pull over the rated main fuse capacity. But that's 60A minimum, up to 100A, on a single phase, and the alternative is a burning meter, wiring and house, so probably better to get that checked out!

Shocking!

Shocking! CPC are ripping you right off, with their next day delivery for free, and a whopping 45p "profit". Why, how dare they pay their staff! Only *you* should get paid, right? That 45p is half a Mars bar off your £400 bill!

No? It never touched the ground. If it had, the thing would've landed. The inertia of spinning up the wheels would've slowed it dramatically, as designed, and the aircraft, suddenly on grass, likely couldn't have powered away without serious effort, instead completing the landing.

It got *really close* to landing. Close enough to fool the "pilots".

Re: Thales Kill Whales

You should've gone with 2 rape alarms instead of dozens then? You could've taken it inside the building to release it up to the ceiling, with a trio of strings to activate the audio and leave the whale untethered and way out of reach.

Re: Right response

Not really.

The drone came close to landing, but decided it was too far off the centre of the runaway to land, due to the crosswind. It therefore powered up again to go around and try again.

Alas, the "crew" saw the runway turn to grass on the camera display, panicked, and cut the power. They thought it was on the ground, because they were looking at the grass on the video stream, instead of the altitude. Without power, the drone flew a short distance more and hit a tree.

Re: From a different article, same subject, similar failure:

WHAT!? They're Army, not some sort of fly boy!!1!!eleven!

It's the worst of both worlds, and will be the cause of many a death with the soon to arrive "nearly self driving cars".

Imagine travelling for 7 hours from Edinburgh to Birmingham, maintaining awareness of everyone on the road, but without actually changing speed (you're locked at 70, or, mostly, 50 or even 30!), changing lanes, keeping a safe distance - all that's done by the car now. But you've got to be ready, in a heartbeat, to "take over" and save the day off the computer cocks it up, and, say, swerves into contraflow traffic at 50mph. No chance!

Same with this aircraft. It's boring, and you're a "passenger".

It didn't "decide to take off again", it didn't touch down because it was off the runway. The idiot operators assumed it was driving off the runaway after landing, and cut the power.

Re: LibreOffice Version 6.2.5.2 Is Current

Check again. As of right now, 6.2.5.2 is on the website as the latest version.

Or, disable the logo module.

Re: Well... I was expecting something more

Maybe he signed them up to a mailing list? A busy one?

Re: Recovering after loss of power - paper bootstrap.

You should've programmed RealLife 1.0 in something that checks for circular dependancy at compile, rather than in real time.

Fortunately, that safe can be opened.

Don't worry, they're pretty tough! Just defrost whatever you're shredding, and it'll be fine.

Re: re: ...an asbestos exposure legal case.

Got that the second time I read it. :-D

Re: Informal poll on whether you've ever had to do something like this

Yeah, pretty certain you could've just taken the CD out the caddy and put it in a regular disc drive!

Copy the data off, fire up a VM of something old enough to run it, and there you go, it'll happily transfer via "network" to the host OS.

It's about 15 minutes work, but only because that's a 1x CD read speed you'll be wanting to force, just in case the ancient disc explodes.

Re: Nah.

Yes, it is logically impossible. If I know your password, key and face, then you're stuffed. There has to be a secret part.

But, there shouldn't be a way to determine or bypass the secret part from the public info, either. That's what "security" really is!

The question there, of course, is "What's your budget?"

I've had medium to large companies tell me they want space age 2 factor security on every door, to secure the millions of R&D, etc, yet the budget isn't even high enough to put a door closer on every door!

Re: Schengen sucks and everyone is looking the other way

Fairly certain that isn't correct.

The UK is one of the only countries in the world where being born here gets you nothing at all, unless one of your parents was born here too!

Re: A pretty simple concept really:

You mean you can both write *and* know your own name? No wonder you're a contractor!

Re: A pretty simple concept really:

Much of the world's modern woes can be traced back to now very large companies going "just let them join with a click, for fastest growth".

Re: Simple

Exactly. It's a fixed code chip I can clone in a few seconds. Sadly, though, that's rarely of use if you are locked out and have called me.

If you were a target, though? It could be very useful for your attackers to have a catflap sized hole to insert things through, that was thought "rfid secured".

Re: Those who do not learn history...

The Africans who live there, is probably the answer!

Because it was a 50 year agreement?

Re: so easy to get in

Not any more.

The #neonnazis (fascist UK knockoffs of the French "yellow vests") have made everyone very much more "motivated" to find out what the people in the hi viz are actually doing.

Re: sometimes its too secure

You lot are all so... Not exactly nieve, but...

You want to steal computers? Find somewhere that can afford new computers and has crap security. Break in and steal the computers, they are near worthless, but while you're there, figure out a second way in.

Come back two weeks later after the new shiny computers are fitted, and before the fancy locks & window bars arrive, and use that other route.

Never go there again, having already profited.

Sadly, this is how it tends to go. Like burglars stealing Christmas presents, they want the new stuff.

Always get a proper locksmith /security professional to advise you!

Re: First step, tell them to fire security

So the enemy nation state simply subverted the head guy, and got full access.

Seems a bit pointless then.

Re: Area 51

It was the Huawei comms centre for USA "Above Top Secret" stuff. You know, all the stuff trump gave to Russia, but his own people aren't allowed to talk about.

Re: Wouldn't Happen Here

Fairly certain I'm not the only one who recalls "sticky back plastic" on the BBC kids craft shows? Took me literally years to figure out they meant sellotape! (I wasn't a crafty child. That's developed since.)

Re: Recalcitrant doors

Exactly how big of an ac unit do you think they had for a flood of water?!