Posts by Neil Barnes

Re: We had a laser link between two nearby buildings

Heh. I had to teach reporters to use those high-speed (64k!) satellite data links - including, of course, how to use the fancy maps on the top to select the appropriate geostationary satellite, set up an approximate aim, and then use the signal strength meters to get the satellite right on line.

I used to take them on top of Bush House to teach them, and the North Atlantic satellite was the one of choice - nicely lined up over the Houses of Parliament so an easy target even without the maps. I managed to convince some of them that I could see the satellite in daylight, and that there was something wrong with their eyes...

Re: Much of the NHS problems, are a result of other issues

It's a funny thing, but any of the big hotel chains can provide rooms for fifty quid a night and still make a profit. While there are further costs ensuing from care requirements (as opposed to medical issues better to be treated in hospital) why on earth does it cost so much more to get sheltered accommodation than a hotel room?

Re: When they came for the rockclimbers...

@Mad Mike:

I do agree. However, if someone becoming fat is a personal choice and causes load on the NHS, then you paragliding is also a personal choice that could put load on the NHS.

But everything is a personal choice. I drive around twelve hours a week just commuting; I'm much more likely to have an incident driving to a flying site than I am when I get there. I've put a significantly lesser load on the NHS due to flying activities than for other issues in the same time.

And indeed I find my views on getting fat being a personal choice have modified over the years. Yes, it might be down to what you eat vs what energy you expend, but it's arguable that what you eat is very largely controlled - whether you like the idea or not - by people who want to sell you high-profit products, which get that way by being laden with nice cheap fats and sugars. And they are very very good at pushing your buttons and persuading you to purchase...

Permanantly disabled

Not disabled, removed. One thing that really irritates me about new phones is removing (or not) all the manufacturer's crap that comes with a new one - my current Sony has dozens of default applications I don't use, don't want to use, and don't want to fill up the memory with - but which I can't remove and which Sony spend one day a week updating.

Pointless.

All a phone *needs* is a basic dialler, text messager, and possibly a browser - and a way to access the application store. Let the user decide what he wants on it, rather than filling it with crap he'll never use. Yes, I'm quite aware that my needs are not the same as those of a fifteen year old, but that's rather the point, isn't it? Let *me* put on the phone those things I need, not sell me something, half the memory of which is full of unremovable cruft. (One of the things I really don't need or want is voice input - maybe I'm too old...)

Re: Then there are the company email addresses

Think you've got fun? I used to work in various hot-spots of the world building TV and radio studios - by definition almost always in the less salubrious areas of the world, usually just before the war started.

Even Miami and New York, come to think of it...

Re: 'duckduckgo is my search engine of choice'

My concern with duckduckgo is that I haven't been able to find out where the money comes from. Searches don't produce a lot of useful information - indeed your comment about Yahoo partnership is the first time I saw it.

Re: Alarms

Hah.

I discovered the hard way that the electronic locks on my car can be defeated by a kitchen knife: a cut through the bundle going into the door persuades the controller that the mechanical lock has been properly opened using a key. The controller then politely opens all the deadlocks.

At a guess, the maker used cheap logic on the controller input: either ground or pull-up (so the cut wire gives a pull-up) instead of using the elementary security input of two resistors and an analogue input that would pull to half rail in the case of an open circuit wire...

No names, since the flaw is almost certainly common across the entire range of vehicles from this manufacturer, with whom I am still in discussion.

Re: Sun Probe

Ye gods and little fishies - I remember watching that episode of Thunderbirds in, what early seventies?

Re: secure storage

As above; using a laptop on a plane is a good way to get the screen broken, but for sure it's not going in the hold as is.

But it seems not beyond the beyond the bounds of possibility to have some sort of locker system, perhaps mounted into a standard hold carrier; I give them the laptop, they scan it, stick it in a spare slot, and give me the key to that slot (and perhaps a voucher for a replacement laptop :)

The issue about hand luggage is annoying but obvious: if airlines want to charge for hold baggage, of *course* people will take things for free into the plane. The majority of 'hand baggage' isn't - it's there simply because it's cheaper and quicker to get out at the other end, if you don't have to wait for the carousel. Maybe there are options here to explore regarding what may be taken into the cabin.

Re: @ The Onymous Coward

Indeed.

There's something a bit ridiculous that we're working patterns that have survived basically unchanged from agricultural times; when you had to work all the hours of daylight every day (time off Sunday to go to church, so you could be lectured about your unimportance in the great scheme of things) just to make sure you had enough to eat in the cold dark days of winter.

Sometimes I wonder just how many (or how few) jobs are actually necessary - would we really, for example, be any worse off if some of the technical toys had never been invented?

Bollocks.

The police should know better than to ask the question - the police should know the law.

I am a photographer. I am not a professional photographer and neither am I a journalist, but nonetheless I have exactly the same rights as any other person in a public place. If the police are not trying to arrest me, or in hot pursuit, I don't even have to say hello to them - though politeness dictates I probably would.

But there is exactly *no* reason why I should *ever* be required not to be a dick to avoid a kicking. My avoidance of dickness is for my own self respect, not because the police would give me said kicking.

tl;dr: stand on your rights and make sure *your* public servants observe them

p.s. want to see my images, officer? Certainly, they're be ready when I develop them. And no, you may not withdraw the dark slide.

Re: Time for a turnover limit on IR35?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tWwHOXMhI

Re: @Buzzwords Symbiotic relationship

>> So what would happen if Uber suddenly lost 30-40% of its customers?

At a quick guess, I'd assume they'd just lose 30-40% less than they're currently losing.

Re: Good riddance, but..

Quite. Gnome 2 had it right; Unity and Gnome 3 didn't (for me; your mileage may vary and that's why we like Linux!) which is why I moved to Mint. With all the effects turned off.

Re: I'm getting tired of people constantly playing the victim role...

Other other people leave their voice dictation on and get upset when other other other people actually say something to which the system responds. Of course it's those other other other people who are to blame, right?

I'm not sure the victim *is* to blame here. He is sold something which, to those who are unaware of the technical details, appears to be the electronic equivalent of the perfect human secretary/PA - knows everything about your which is relevant to the job, but maintains a discreet silence about it outside the office. Knows when your partner's birthday is, and will arrange flowers when you forget. Knows which set of books to show the revenue... knows how to spell the words you don't; remembers all the things you ought not to forget, but do.

But as the man said, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. For most people, that's what it is. They're sold a spell which doesn't work quite as expected, made by some of the brightest and best magicians in the world, and I don't think it's unreasonable that they blame the wizard when it goes wrong. c.f. The Sorcerer's Apprentice...