Posts by Commswonk

Re: Restrictions on movement

Just off the top of my head, is it permissible to leave the place you are living to post an important letter, or to take your car to a garage to be repaired...

I'm glad you asked that question; the day the restrictions were annouced I received a letter from the manufacturer of my car informing me of a recall to fix a possible problem that could (according to the letter) result in a fuel fire if ignored. I made the necessary 'phone call and the car is booked in for remedial action next Thursday.

I am (almost) hoping that plod stops me and asks where I am going and why. Given that I will have the recall notice with me it would be interesting to see what reaction I got.

Oh and the saintly* Mrs Commswonk will pick me up in her car to come home while the work is done, taking me back to the garage later in the day.

* Actually I'm joking there...

Is it time then to rethink cities before something comes along with a much higher mortality rate?

Maybe, maybe not. Thinking population might not be a bad idea, though quite what could be done about it is less easy to determine, short of giving Covid-19 a free run.

Another relevant Dilbert:

https://dilbert.com/strip/1991-11-18

Took a bit of finding...

Re: "would help to kick-start the market"

What actually mean to say is that you want to kick-start growth in the market, or something like that.

Yes but which market?

I have no idea what the current percentages are but at one time a significant majority of new cars bought were for corporate fleet use, including those issued to various employees. (And no, I don't just mean the C - suite occupants) Personally - owned vehicles were those passed on when the original corporate owners bought new and released the previous vehicles on to the second hand market.

If the above is still true then I can see why EV sales might be sluggish; not only would businesses have to provide charging infrastructure at company premises but also at the private addresses of those to whom the cars had been issued. On top of that there might well be a risk that the travelling requirements of those with company vehicles might be such that with no certainty of finding charging points at premises visited or at convenient places en route (coupled with time spent waiting for a vehicle to charge) the business model would have to accommodate the unknowns resulting from the above; not necessarily easy and effectively a cost to the business.

Politicians being politicians they are unlikely to have spotted these possible risk areas, and very possibly don't want to spot them.

There is a great deal more to increasing the number of EVs on the road than just announcing a cut - off date for the sale of ICE vehicles. A very great deal more...

Re: Well

there are probably hundreds of un-diagnosed Americans wandering around.

Good heavens; think of all those people not realising they are American.

ESN is voice and data. Airwave is voice. What is there to integrate?

The voice bit, so that wide area speech communication is maintained when (say) one force area has migrated to ESN while adjacent areas remain on Airwave pending later migration.

The previous VHF/UHF systems did not provide that capability, and the change to TETRA (Airwave) enabled it. Taking it away again for anything more than an hour or two might have a serious impact on emergency service operations.

It is also worth noting that Airwave does provide data comms, it's just that it is rather slow. IIRC the police don't use it much, if at all, while the ambo services do. Not sure about the fire service; their most critical comms is on the fireground which (again IIRC) doesn't use a trunked system anyway.

Re: "I did not have clarity from my own team"

So, you were parachuted into an existing situation and you could not manage, despite your impressive title, to get a complete picture of the siuation.

Point of order: general manager of cloud application innovation consulting is not an impressive title.

It is actually bollocks masquerading as an impressive title.

Re: Future proofing the west.

Is the west doomed to become a consumer of others products?

Looking at the (UK) businesses allegedly running out of parts because of COVID-19 then I suggest the tense of your verb is incorrect; it's already happened.

I wonder if any of them are consider repatriating their production back to the UK?

Somehow I doubt it. :(

Re: Gwyneth would rather you had a whiff of this...

New keyboard please.

Like NOW.

Re: Dangerous levels of EMF

It's unbelievable.

Not least because unless there has been a change of which I (being retired) am unaware EMF stands for Electromotive Force, which is a voltage, not a Field Strength.

Re: Four sig fig?

a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

You missed out the "full of sound and fury" but have an upvote for the Shakespearian quote anyway.

Not enough of them on this forum...

Re: The risk is high

I ate a Chinese curry last night, and now I've been banned from entry into my government job. They say I need to do a sh!t before I am allowed back in.

That suggests a concern about some sort of chemical weapon attack via a backdoor (ahem, cough) rather than anything else.

In other news our dog has weapons - grade flatulence; not the sort of thing you would want drifting around any place of employment. And that's without a Chinese curry.

We all need to think twice and proofread before submitting, myself included.

It worries me that there might be / are people who don't.

Re: I guess

I'll hazard a guess you're not a Brit.

As chance would have it I am, and resident in Britain.

Re: The supplier..

Be interesting to see if there is any flow down to Fujitsu who wrote the code in the first place.

Unfortunately if that were to happen successfully, it would be the Post Office that would "benefit" rather than those who really suffered. However, I strongly expect that someone in Fujitsu has a piece of paper signed by someone at the Post Office saying that the PO accepted the system and that it was performing to specification.

This debacle seems to be based on the assumption that the computer system just couldn't be faulty. How the hell could anyone accused mount a proper defence when Advance Disclosure probably included the statement that the computer couldn't lie; I very much doubt if any defence legal team had access to enough detail about the IT system to be able to analyse it in detail, even assuming that they had the means to do so.

We just have to hope that in the fullness of time justice is not only done but is seen to be done, but it might be a long wait.

Re: VTEC walkie-talkies

...perhaps Which? could provide the name of a PMR446 manufacturer that does do encryption?

And where in the article does it state that the equipment in question is PMR446? This doesn't sound anything like PMR446:

...a spokesperson for VTech said consumers should be assured the VTech KidiGear Walkie Talkies, which uses the industry-standard AES encryption to communicate, are safe.

"Pairing... cannot be initiated by a single device. Both devices have to start pairing at the same time within a short 30-second window in order to connect. Additionally, if already linked to its paired handset, pairing with an additional, external handset is not possible,"...

Re: When

Since disinformation in all its forms <snip> is now part of the campaign tactics of all parties...

That may well be true but multiple wrongs do not make a right.

Perhaps politicians simply don't care that the electorate regards them as shysters. It may be an old - fashioned view but IMHO the electorate deserves better.

Re: Politicians' promises

Once again, I'm forced to invoke Groucho...

Full Marx for managing to get "the Brothers" into the thread. After my mention yesterday that's two references in two days; perhaps it's the start of a trend...

Or some sort of competition...

Re: I've checked my contract

There ain't no sanity clause.

Pity the Marx Brothers beat you to that joke in A Night at the Opera in 1935.

Re: How do you pronounce spadeadm?

is it spaddy adam, spade adam or spad eya dam?

Spade adam.

The rape allegations he fled by jumping bail are still before various courts for the matter of detention/extradition...

No longer true if I heard a news bulletin correctly earlier to day. I think the Swedes have thrown the towel in, for whatever reason.

If someone over 18 stole a kitchen knife from their store and stabbed someone with it, would the store be an accessory ?

Well... in that case the store could successfully argue that it had no knowledge of the 18 year old having stolen the knife. OTOH if the store had sold the knife to the 18 year old it could be argued that the store was complicit with his possession of it.

The argument can be carried to extremes; if I buy fuel from a garage and then run someone over can the garage be held in any way liable on the grounds that it provided part of the means by which I committed an offence?

In this case (in which I have no involvement and IANAL in any case) the offender had legitimate access to the information so I find it hard to hold Morrisons to blame in any significant way. The only way an employer - in this case Morrisons - could try to protect themselves would be to have person B looking permanently over person A's shoulder to try to stop A misusing data to which he or she has legitimate access.

Where's the can of worms icon when you need it?

the posters that request you buy expensive mattresses. Oh dear...

Did somebody say mattress to Mr Lambert?

Now I've got to get him to the fish tank and sing.

And did those feet, in ancient time...

(Cont Page 94, etc)

Re: "no requirement of 'registration' for deactivated firearms"

By that logic, the same ought to apply to replicas too. Does it?

Yes. You could make a fake firearm from icing sugar if you were so minded and if it is realistic enough for anyone to think that it is genuine when you brandish it in public then you can expect a vigorous response from the police. If you are lucky (or careful) enough to survive the experience then the law will not suddenly say "oops it's only icing sugar; sorry for bothering you".

One way or another an imitation firearm can cause just as much trouble as a real one.

I should add that in the UK Morrisons used to be called Safeways.

Er.. not really. Morrisons goes back > 100 years and bought Safeways several years ago. Some Morrisons supermarkets used to be called Safeways would be correct.

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