Posts by Terry 6

Irfanview isn't very good for everyday resize and print. It doesn't much like real world measurements (inches or cm). And no one outside of the IT world has the faintest idea what a pixel is.

Simplicity. Paint/Notepad are a basic tool. The sort of thing that is justifiably part of an OS rather than one of the programmes that run under an OS. They are the computing equivalent of the tools that come with flat pack furniture. Sometimes they're enough.

One of the reasons why that Paint 3D was so f*ing stupid- it defeated the object.

never use it as its boring,

Boring is good

It's a tool. For use not entertainment. I don't want a flashy hammer, screwdriver or image manipulation programme. I want a hammer that's good for hammering......

Re: Continuing the trend

Yes, in fact the longer phrase was " we think it looks better than before, but usability is a little worse, which is disappointing". The focus for Microsoft is usually, indeed, being on what looks fashionable ( for whatever value of fashionable chosen) rather than functional.

Microsoft not knowing the difference between a bandwagon and a band.

This is in part because a perverse incentive means that short term company value gives promotions and bonuses. A long term secure future, rational expansion and healthy profits do not. On the contrary they lead to carpet baggers buying up the company and stripping the assets. Particularly true when a brand's name carries more value than its products. As with high street retailers.

Re: 3D printing is in this boat

That's one of those "yes" and "no" comments. Yes patents prevent new technologies spreading out to the world, but no, they protect and enable the investment that can create big new technologies.

I think, maybe, the answer is that patent laws need to discriminate more between inventions, technologies and concepts.

An invention needs full protection. A technology needs limited protection to make sure that it gets developed. A concept must never be withheld. Where the line gets drawn is for the legislators, Lord help us.

Re: 3 words

Wrong. I just tried the app on my Android phone.Entered a 3 word address. Up came a map with that precise location. Then as a second test I searched for a location in the what3words website. Used the words it gave me on the phone and they matched location, as I expected. In Hendon.

I also tried variations on the words. And two very close variations came up, both in Australia, so on the other side of the world. And both in very different parts of Oz. Northern Territory and NSW respectively.(I admit I have no idea how far apart those are.)

Hmmm. Long after the new M1 M6 junction s/b had been opened (years in the building) my Honda's built in Satnav (Garmin I think) which had been updated, still tried to send me down the old route, and didn't seem to realise it wasn't on the M6. That being said the Honda satnav is pretty much crap generally. We use Waze now.

Re: Uber Eats/Deliveroo/dominos/pizza hut absolutely hopeless I've given up on food delivery

WHAT3WORDS will work. But only if you take extra care with the word variations. They're meant to be sorted out so that similar combinations (cock.ball.kick and cock.ball.kicks) are impossible distances apart, as in countries or continents. But unfortunately there are reports of some being just too close to be sure you're at the right one, even nearby towns.

When I was visiting a new school, either in my career as a peripatetic specialist or after I'd retired and was working for a while as a supply teacher I'd often arrive at the post-code of a school to find that the entrance was nowhere near, or even completely invisible.Frequently I'd be somewhere round the back of the school. Sometimes there would only be a footpath to get to the road that the actual school entrance was on. And yet that was the official address. Once I drove up and down a road that had nothing that even resembled a school on it. I eventually found that there was a narrow alley between two houses, unlabelled of course, that ran down a steep hill and into s grove of trees. And there nestled the school. Another one was on the opposite side of a small council carpark, that had no direct access to the school and you had to walk to the end of a long road, left and left and back again to find the actual entrance.

Oh & those house designers\developers that use a black & metal house number plaque as signage, with lighting that brilliantly washes out the number in the dark or is not illuminated at all.

Or just people who want to put up a cutesy sign but haven't worked out that the bloody thing needs to be actually, well seen

This makes sense. From the perspective of being a dad of teenage kids, just a few years back, there are a lot of houses with numbers that are invisible, missing altogether, tiny, in a dark place or obscured. OTOH I've recounted here the story of the delivery driver determinedly placing a package for me (x3 delivery attempts) in an old recycling bin next door- despite me having seen her and asked if the parcel she was holding was for my number!!!

Re: Schools Marketing

Absolutely.

<rant> I used to support kids with literacy difficulties, employed by a local authority. And we divided our service as fairly as we could between schools We were, when it was the Inner London Education Authority, funded in a way that spread the costs over rich and poor boroughs and after, worked equally across the rich and poor schools in our boroughs. We'd been provided training by the best trainers that could be found. Real experts that willingly gave their time because we weren't doing this for shareholders' profits. We developed and honed our work by keeping up to date with all the research coming out of universities, not just the commercially developed or ideologically approved ones.

We sourced books from school library services that would engage and encourage the kids.

Schools also received advice and support from a range of locally employed specialists across the curriculum, employed by the authorities. When the LEAs tried to retain some funding for this they were berated and called "greedy" (notably by the BBC by the way) as if the money was being used for big lunches and parties, rather than to employ a bloody primary science advisor or curate a collection of teaching materials to share across their schools.

</rant> Rant ended only because I need to go and calm down.

Re: Schools Marketing

But they are. marketing to schools has been increasingly about big business for decades. And very much supported by government policies.

Where once services for and in schools were local authority or non-profit (e.g. exam boards) they are now almost all commercial. Teaching reading is off-the-shelf phonics, easy to sell and easy to measure ( even if it's not a great way to teach reading) of commercially produced packages authorised by government . Exams are run by publishing companies, who also sell the curriculum materials. Advisory and support teachers have been privatised or abolished by local authorities for schools to buy in services from any company that's persuasive enough. Services that were once provided on an "as needed" basis with no need to provide corporate profits, sales, marketing or management costs by locally employed experts who were committed to their roles

And yes I was one such..

Which is what is happening - now. The idiot I spoke to in my insurance company previously said I needed to call the other one. I don't have very great regard for any insurance company tbh.

Re: The guy's here...

In fact we all know that this is what Post-it notes were invented for.

Common experience in schools too. Both IT and other stuff. Usually stuff obtained by the kind of Senior Managers who like to go with the herd and do what the other school up the road is doing.

"This is the new scheme/product that we've spent all our budget on for the next three years. So you have to use it".

Without consulting the specialist/informed staff in their own school- who know it's a pile of crap, which is why they didn't already recommended it. And who probably already know that the school up the road obtained it the same way- and have already proved that it's utter crap and expensive waste of money.

Sadly we don't do bumper stickers that much here. It's a very USA sort of thing.

Addendum. I'd typed the above as I embarked on a telephonic journey to ask Allianz when they're going to resolve sorting out the damage to my car, hit by their insured while parked outside my own front door . And I had the above nonsense, plus being cut off while on hold, plus being passed around three different departments and somehow my call being forwarded/redirected to my own insurer - (which started with a message "we do not recognise that phone number."..etc)so that I thought I was still talking to Allianz, and was rather surprised to be asked the claim reference for a fourth time - only to be told "That's not one of ours" when I'd used it three times previously on this same call!!!!

I'm sure there are plenty of others as bad(?) but I won't be using Allianz for insurance any time soon.

Re: Is he really the right person to promote this?

Dan 55....Though probably not for very long.....

Re: wiring oddities

You just reminded me of my student accommodation one year (late 70s). Owner had done his own wiring. I noticed a faint tingle touching the fridge in my room. Others were getting actual shocks from various metal switches etc. I decided to investigate ( my dad had taught me well about such stuff). And this arsehole had reversed live and neutral in some parts of the house.

Re: Power socket on the lighting circuit?

Very like when I replaced the switches in my flat 30 or so years back. Previous owner had his mother in the flat above and had wired the hall switch in the downstairs ( become my) to the circuit upstairs. Luckily, being paranoid about stuff that I can't see, but can be killed by, I always test everything before I touch it.

Hotel lighting switches.....

We don't have to use hotels for business, just leisure trips from time to time. And working out how to switch the right lights off, from the right part of the room is always a f***ing stupid rigmarole.

Re: Wish you luck

And you really think state schools don't do that? Haven't (mostly) always done that? Or that there haven't been "innovative" (and bloody expensive) private schools that haven't, because being private they don't have to?

Re: Wish you luck

That's practice rather than theory. And I truly don't believe that your daughter is learning A level Maths that you were taught in Juniors. Since I've seen enough 'A' level maths exam papers to know that they're far harder than anything I learnt when I was doing 'O' level decades ago, or taught when I was a year 7/8 Maths teacher a few years later on for that matter. And my daughters' Maths GCSEs were no easier than the ones I'd done almost 50 years ago.

But maybe you've seen her doing an introductory module to something.

Re: Wish you luck

On the contrary - you've just demonstrated an appalling set of prejudices and incomprehension about education past or present. Your comments do not suggest that you are currently, or have ever been, in an educational role, let alone at senior level.

NO. Extracted old machine by removing plug and pulling wire through.

New hole big enough for new wire, with plug, to fit through.

Quote

"...after cutting off the plug from the old machine's lead and pulling it through.."