* Posts by MJI

6857 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Mar 2009

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

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Re: I just use SI most of the time

100 x 0.9 is 90m

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Re: Learn both?

First time I went there, I could not get to the speed limit due to traffic, but I managed to get to 80mph.

Then our customers told me.

Oooops.

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I just use SI most of the time

With a few others.

Miles, it is on road signs.

Pints in pubs, no where else, 0.5l will do.

Weight now 100% SI, My car is roughly 2250kg. No idea of my weight in pounds, only to nearest couple stone in stone.

BHP, not made full move to KW yet.

Motorway coutdown signs are in a weird length which is 0.9m roughly.

Feet on full sized railway things, multiply by 4 to get mm. BR Mark 1 doors are 8mm wide.

As to cups, what size cup, A cup, D cup, GG cup?

I have done an imperial conversion for our software, they moan that our data is in mm, tough, do all the conversion in display and edit, all maths in mm and m.

New IT boss decided to 'audit everything you guys are doing wrong'. Which went wrong

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Part time working

I am currently working part time, about 5 to 6 hours max a day.

I am getting as much done as a full 8 hours.

First day back 4 hours, managed 3/4 of my work.

I even have a snooze after dinner, before restarting work.

Oh the joys of recovery and what feels like permanent fatigue.

Microsoft is checking everyone's bags for unsupported Office installs

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I use Libre office

It works fine for me.

Got latest MS stuff at work and it keeps changing and they knobble simple things like file saving.

I was reasonable to ask to WFH in early days of COVID, says fired engineer

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Clean them out

Nasty disease.

I have had it, basically did not know as 4x jabbed.

But the changes to it got through and I am now suffering, not with covid, but the after effects.

No idea when I can return to work full time WFH.

Managed 3 hours today though!

Corporate execs: Get back, get back, to the office where you once belonged

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Re: If it's clear what I'm doing, and I have a task to do

If I dropped dead my boss would panic.

Hence it is OK to have bouts of physio during work hours as long as I don't take the pee.

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Re: We all traipse into the office for that critical meeting that HAS to be face-to-face..

HS2

Problem is we have to do SOMETHING.

WCML is at capacity and another line is needed.

As to route, speed and so on, no real idea except needs to be at least 125mph suitable.

Openreach offers more wholesale fiber discounts, rivals call foul

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Re: I don't think so.

I found the article was too annoying to read with nouns using the correct spelling and the writer using merkin.

I gave up.

I had FIBRE to the premises done this year with Openreach, was a choice, went with BT as already with BT on FIBRE to the cabinet.

BBC is still struggling with the digital switch, says watchdog

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Re: Slow moving

I haven't tried ITVs app as they do not support my device.

Therefore due to their erratic broadcasting I ignore their output.

Their loss, plenty to watch on the decent channels.

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Re: A few things of interest.

My Ondigital subscription was £3 per month.

IDTV one

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Re: Slow moving

Strictly is to be honest is a BBC type programme.

Imagine it on ITV with shouty presenters, or a choice of loud boomy music, or wasp in a tin can.

ITV have a rather naff skating show.

No definately a BBC one.

However I do like The Wheel.

I feel the licence is worth it just for the NHU output, and news coverage,

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Re: "not touching a Murdoch box"

Still too expensive though.

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Re: Slow moving

If the other providers are supposed to be entertaining, how come I find more entertainment on BBC?

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Re: Too many "heads in the sand" technophobes run the BBC

Are BBC paying Sky? They are already on Astra 2.

I do use Freesat to watch BBC HD, not touching a Murdoch box.

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Re: Too many "heads in the sand" technophobes run the BBC

No CAM in specification was deliberate.

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A few things of interest.

Original DTTV access.

BBC did tend to run loose with the specifications and exploiting the not realised loop holes. such as changing channels on each service forcing some receivers to continually retune until updated.

Press 1 for BBC1 get BBC Choice.

Picture though was superb then, like a DVD.

Pay was a bit pants though, CAM was required (on a shelf somewhere), I gave up on that about a week before the bankrupcy.

Freeview

Quite correctly the future of DTTV was handed to the major broadcasters. And a new specification was written up.

BBC pushed for no compulsary CAM (with ITV C4 C5 agreement) to protect their FTA access, and to prevent a paywall.

The first Freeview DTTV devices often had card slots but no hardware to support them.

DSO provided the first problem with moving from 2K to 8K, this knocked out quite a few tuners, some due to hardware limitations (first gen Sony IDTVs, Nokia dodgy boxes among many others), some due to lack of software support from the manufacturers (eg Pace).

I now use Freeview and Freesat, I have too much good TV to watch.

One PVR recommendation, make sure the word HUMAX is written on it.

To protect its cloud, Microsoft bans crypto mining from its online services

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Re: Mine for a few years

His leccy bill was more than my entire house gas and electric bill with then kids still at home, with their gaming PCs on the go

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Tulip bulbs would be popular.

Got a patio full of pots with spring bulbs.

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Replacing the cannabis farms.

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Re: Mine for a few years

We told him, waste of money, he still did it.

But the PC gamers think it is hilarious.

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Mine for a few years

£100/month minimum extra on your bill.

Exchange goes bump

Owed 2 dollars

Just not worth it.

IBM to help Japan’s government-funded chipmaker produce 2nm CPUs, GPUs

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That looks like a

giant chocolate digestive.

Look like Bane, spend like Batman with Dyson's $949 headphones

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Re: <Peers over glasses>

Found similar, first was good but eventually wore out, a newer one we were given was a pile of crap.

Shark are good, but a little heavy for a lightweight one, the roller dehairer is good though.

As above we went GTech.

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Not long lasting

They tended to wear out parts, clog and generally play up.

We have a nice lightweight GTech which is good enough for us.

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He was good at

Taking an existing idea and using it elsewhere.

Had some good ideas, but now makes overpriced tat.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

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Re: Physical Methods Trump Signs in Any Language

More worryingly they also moan about BS1363 being used, as a lot of British do like to fit proper sockets.

Microsoft: Whoops, Patch Tuesday might screw your database connections

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Re: sqlsrv32.dll

Phew there was me panicking over a link using MariaDB

SAP still struggling to convert ECC customers to S/4HANA, says Gartner

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Don't really trust SAP

They are not very good with their aquisition of Sybase.

Very poor support, in comparison.

Just 22% of techies in UK aged 50 or older, says Chartered Institute for IT

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Re: What do we expect?

Credit is a bastard, it gets worse. BTDT.

Only debts now are Mortgage and a loan to clear the BTDTs.

Mortage is also fixed at a lowish rate until finished.

Children - a huge expense, but two of them are now programmers.

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Re: Unsurprising

To the downvoter my bosses got shot of the car because the gear box was erratic, supplier said no issue, ended up with one boss refusing to drive it after it played up on a roundabout. Very laggy, changed up, when down was required, it was terrible.

This is why iI offered to kill the gearbox so they would have to fix it, but instead they got shot and got a car with a torque converter auto (and extra electric motor).

To kill a DSG steep hill, reverse, walking pace.

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THis is why I am where I am

Job changing is stressful.

Our customers know me, I know the industry, other companies have an idea who I am.

May as well stay here to retirement.

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Re: Unsurprising

I offered to kill the DSG gearbox on our last company car.

The new company car has a proper auto.

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Re: What do we expect?

Adviser in the 1980s "You will be able to retire at 60!"

Worker in the 2020s "I was promised, but now try 70!"

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Cloudy

Our new software is supposed to be cloud based but all the devs have said it MUST be able to work with local servers on local PCs, got that one through.

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Re: hmmmm

I'm in my 50s and can connect more to the younger ones.

Games, anime, that sorts of thing. I do have kids in their 20s.

But then a young one was going on about a great guitarist he had seen, so I mentioned Eddie Van Halen, my boss mentioned Jimi Hendrix.

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Re: Got 3 here

Very roughly - small business - guessing ages - missing a few

Under 30 - 2

30 - mid 40 - 5

mid 40 to mid 50 - 2

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Got 3 here

mid 70s, low 60s, high 50s.

High 50s is the main developer for our current software.

Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced 'fun' culture

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Re: Their "fun"..

About a year ago that would have been considered a good idea.

The company car was unreliable junk.

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Re: Yeah... seen this before

We did 4x4 driving, most of us wanted to.

Cost me a LOT of money as my car was pranged the previous day. Have you seen the prices of a good condition 4x4?

'What's the point of me being in my office, just because they want to see me in the office?'

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Re: Contract clauses

I am doing probably another 15 to 20 minutes a day due to WFH.

But I do have over 1 hour of my own time for me.

Rather than counting down and as soon as 17:00 appears bolting out of the door trying to beat the traffic, I will finish what I am doing and leave the PC OK.

Then the long slow rush to work to get there 1 minute late, aghhhhhh. Much easier to drop on at ten to and get settled.

ESA names first Parastronaut: paralympian and aspiring surgeon John McFall

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Re: The grand spectacle of Diversity

>> Maybe smaller people with lower calorific requirements with good social skills?

First family in space - the Davis's

Quest VR glasses back on sale in Germany – but watchdog has eye on Meta

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Re: Why VR goggles?

More like Why Occulus.

Plenty of alternatives out there.

Orion snaps 'selfie' with the Moon as it prepares for distant retrograde orbit

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And Wallace wanted Shaun to bring some cheese back

As he has ran out of it.

Jaguar Land Rover courts coders caught in big tech layoffs

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I have loads of pockets for maps, mainly 1:25,000 OS Maps.

The satnav is old, hardly use it, but I did laugh on the way home from welding a few years ago, while entering the radio code, it decided to navigate to of all places Solihull.

However I know where all the local RUPPs and BOATs are.

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Re: Need more than coders

I have a late D2, so body on chassis, live axles, low ratio and the like.

It does have the modern extras of self levelling, traction control and disconnectable anti roll bars, but everything is solid, but to be honest if I did go on a long trip I would pack a crank sensor and a spare airbag.

I have never managed to get it stuck, drove onto some tractor generated deep mud by a ford, was diff locked, not a murmur from the TC, it just got through.

Despite all this it is a very comfortable family car, also very practical, does not handle too badly either, can corner quite quick if you are smooth. Engine is very torquey and remapped.

Best of all every part is still available new as a spare part.

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Re: Need more than coders

Or the bits they buy in.

The only time my D2 needed road side assistance was due to the failure of a part made by Denso, part owned by ....... Toyota.

Needed a good jumping and a lot of bashing of starter motor.

But then I once drove it a few hundred miles with a failed (VDO) fuel pump.

The bits from Solihul have been OK.

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Re: Need more than coders

But you need the Land Rover to extract the Toyota when it gets stuck.

To be honest it is not really a reliability issue, but taking of abuse issue.

Toyotas do break and break expensively.

Land Rover do have some very reliable engines. Pre 2007.

But abuse the vehicle and they will eventually fail, just takes longer with Toyota.

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Go

Re: Need more than coders

Hmm i think I will stick with my D2.

No snapping cranks.

Pretty reliable provided you actually service it.

I do need to disable the Romulan cloaking device though.

An interesting comment.

I spent 4 days working on it this year, the usual question was what was wrong, why? Because no one does servicing any more.

Replacing brake discs and pads - servicing.

Brake fluid - servicing.

Changing all oils - servicing.

However it does need some serious metal repairs. Do I get it welded or replace the rusty component? A component on most cars would write it poff,but on older Land Rovers can be treated as a replacement part.

Job 1: Get the boss on the network. Job 2: Figure out why Job 1 broke the network for everyone else

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Re: Banyan Vins network

I managed to avoid that.

Had one customer wanting to use it, luckily our bought in database server only came as a NLM.