Posts by davenewman

Re: He made one mistake

When the other plant gets close, does thread descend from the skies?

Was the trip set up by people who will inherit when he dies?

I checked twitter.com/settings/account/personalization on my UK account. They have changed the wording to additional information. But my choice of turning off all personalisation and data sharing still stands.

Since the universe is finite, could it be we are nearer one edge?

How can you do a 150 metre test flight of such a big rocket?

We did it in 2 weeks

What did we do? Find services to run the Green Party conference online, quickly eliminate unsuitable ones, get a demonstration from two of them, picked one to go with and then set up a completely online conference in one week.

Unlike the consultants quoted in the article, it was not a case of creating new software or installing existing software on our machines. We just chose which software as a service offer to use. Nor did we try to integrate it with our existing software. We didn't try to set up single sign on. Instead we sent emails to members with a link to where they could register on hopin.to.

There were inevitable user experience problems as there had been no time to train anyone except the speakers and the digital support volunteers. But still 350 people took part on Saturday. We can an online video conferenced help desk all day, sorting out user problems as they occurred.

The big company mindset and rules prevents rapid adaptation to changes in the environment. Expect both the biggest and smallest to collapse over the next year.

Millimetre waves to come

According to past Register reports, there won't be any use of millimetre wavebands in 5G for a couple of years. So any measurements at the moment are of 5G masts working at frequencies close to 4G.

We don't yet know the possible biological effects of millimetre wave exposure. But as their range is so short, that won't be a factor except in conference centres and some malls where the 5G transmitters have been set up for high bandwidth communication.

Shown on Click

There was a segment on BBC Click a year or more ago about the Code For America programme and interviews of people affected.

Re: He made one mistake

I was hoping there really was a gift shop next to a server farm I could visit.

GDPR breach

Did they report it to the Austrian data protection commissioner? As it affects EU citizens, even international organisations are subject to GDPR.

The end of KDE?

When you are in a meeting, you can see a list of everyone connected. So you can kick out the interlopers.

Bonzo

I liked adding the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band to the end. Vivian Stanshall once spent a weekend on our houseboat in Cambridge (obviously some time before he killed himself).

The appropriate penalty is a forced sex change operation.

Why isn't this on the McMansions web site?

I see they didn't inspect the 2nd biggest police force. Thames Valley.

I came across two conmen who infiltrated a charity

They pretended to be economists. They volunteered to help the stand of a small institute at a Climate Change summit in Bonn. They gave passable speeches at a conference. One had taken the name of the CEO of a bank - but didn't look at all like his picture. Rather like in a spy novel, they had taken some pains to appear to be serious campaigning economists who had worked in the financial sector. They were so convincing I recorded videos of them for use in publicity.

They walked off at the end of the conference with the takings from the stall and the contact list.

Onlye later did the MD of the instituted find out that they weren't who they said they were. She tracked them down, spoke to one of them and got the money back. But they hadn't taken enough money to be worth charging with fraud.

They live very well as conmen targeting small organisations who aren't able to spend time doing extensive checks on people's background.

That's why I get them to send me paper bills

I never trusted their IT systems.

Video links

Years ago the research showed that the quality of the video image made a difference. Specifically the quality of the image of the listener. The speaker could react to the body language of the listener, changing what he or she said.

Give up when you stop learning

Richard Stallman came to give a talk to a free and open software day in Belfast in the 1990s. Even then, his messianic lecturing manner put off many of the people from companies who were thinking of opening up their software. Luckily his effect was diluted by practical Irish speakers, so things went forward.

He is stuck in the attitudes developed when he first started campaigning for free software, decades ago. Since then we have learned a lot more about sexuality, mental health and society. Anyone who is still learning changes their attitudes and assumptions in the face of change. RMS has not changed with the times. So it is time to retire and hand over the leadership.

CUPS

is all you need for printing.

But I do have a choice of printer drivers for my Epson Ecotank, one completely independent from TurboPrint.

Oxford has it right

In two town centre streets, you have to walk bicycles between 1000 and 1800. Outside those hours you can ride down those streets.

Everywhere else there are cycle lanes and 20 mph limits to reduce injuries from motor vehicles.

Has Hemel Hempsted done that?

Oxford tried to ban busking and begging in a PSPO. So Mark Thomas came to town and built a beggar trap.

Isn't it time the courts named Elon Musk and his companies a vexatious litigant?

On another site discussing this, they explain that do don't get the full text of what is being said. From time to time you get an automatic transcription of the speech that you can use as a place marker when navigating. It is not continuous.