Posts by albertfandango 10 publicly visible posts • joined 17 May 2019
It was a Dell laptop, wasn't it? Possibly the same Dell Latitude as I had many moons ago, with a sliding switch on the side for wireless on/off, which was helpfully in exactly the right place to get caught on the laptop bag when pulling it out to make sure the wireless was guaranteed to be "off" every time you booted up...
Sadly most people don't know, don't care or both, and the inhabitants of this comments page are not good examples of wider humanity. Yes, I have an in-home DNS server blackholing FB, WhatApp & Instagram requests for almost all devices and browser adblockers on top of that but that's *really* not normal.
Until small organisations stop using it a the primary method of comms it's just going to be there. Just for my kids' school there are three separate "official" FB groups as a primary method of communication with parents, and god knows how many WhatsApp groups on top of that.
We'll see what, if anything, falls out of the US anti-trust suit.
Working in the line-of-approval for internal domain names for more than a few years brought a number of "you really didn't read that properly before submitting the application, did you?" requests. Two stick in the memory (domain suffix removed to protect the innocent)
historyofart.thing
campusexchange.thing
The manufacturers of the SMETS2 meters seem unclear on how they work.
"The manufacturers test the top layer of meters before they leave the factory. Typical good practice to make sure a batch works. But under the SMETS2 security protocol, it seems that a meter which has been tested will no longer work – possibly never again."
via https://octopus.energy/blog/unblocking-second-generation-smart-meters/
As above: data transmission is achieved by modulating the light levels very quickly (rather than simple on/off). It can therefore operate in very low light levels (invisible to the human eye) - albeit with a bandwidth penalty - which would allow the system would operate in a “dark” building.
On the LiFi kit data can still be transmitted at light levels invisible to the human eye, so presumably if/when you flicked a wall switch the relevant bulbs would switch to an invisible light/low bandwidth mode as required.
Although I suspect mere mortals wouldn't be allowed anywhere near lightswitches in this kind of building-of-the-future.
> But if we all have to buy new LiFi light fittings (ant bets?) not so good.
True, but for new buildings or major refurbishments this is less of an issue.
> Does than mean my laptop (phone!) has to have a light bright enough to be seen by a detector 100m away?
This was explained to me a while back: Data transmission is achieved by modulating the light levels very quickly (rather than simple on/off). It can therefore operate in very low light levels (invisible to the human eye) albeit with a bandwidth penalty. Still, this would allow the system would operate in a “dark” building.
> What happens when the phone's in my pocket?
Nothing :) Seriously though, I don't think personal mobile devices are likely to be viable for this kind of technology, but I could be wrong...
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