Re: Fire, snow, plague, trade war and an earthquake
Apparently, in Oz, a joke did the rounds along the lines of "if you think you have covid and want a rapid test, call the English Cricket Team" :-)
25355 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010
"Not sure what all the fuss is about - just turn off windows updates"
Is that even possible? Surely the only option is to postpone updates, for a limited time. (Unless like another poster above, you don't connect it to the interwebs. At which point large portions of Windows will complain, not work, or warn you every time they launch that "your experience will be improved by connecting to the Internet", not least of which, if Windows can't phone home, it'll nag you about updates and probably eventually limit other features and tell you "Your copy of Windows may not be genuine".
While I agree with the sentiment, I suspect your numbers are a bit off in relation to hourly earnings. There's a call out fee included in that because farms tend to be out in the middle of nowhere. It takes time to get from one job to the next. And probably an hourly charge with a minimum of one hour.
On the other hand, as an IT field engineer, nice prices if you can get away with charging them! We certainly can't get anywhere near those prices without losing all our customers! Plumbers on the other hand...
Yes, we do. There is an unlimited 2 year warranty and then there is a thing called "reasonable lifetime" where you should be able to get a repair or refund based on a sliding scale. This based on defects which should have been apparent from the time of manufacture. It gets a bit complex when it's software/firmware which technically you don't own, only licence, and the supplier has provided updates in the meantime. The supplier also has a right to try to effect a repair in a reasonable time frame. Personally, I'd take/send it back to the retailer and specify my "reasonable time frame" and then demand a refund when it's not met.
This is why I prefer to buy from reputable bricks'n'morter shops when possible. They will much more likely just hand over a refund, ship it back to the supplier for their refund and let them worry about the cost of repair/scrapping it.
According to consumer protection law, the minimum warranty period is TWO years. Unless Centrica/Hive want a huge fine like wot Apple got in Italy for charging a fee for the second year, then I hope that was an error on the part of the author and not the supplier.
"the only entrance large enough for it to physically fit is the locked trap door in the floor, and I have the only key."
Yeah, but what was that standard poodle doing in the machine shop late one night, after rummaging through your pockets white you slept. Are you SURE it's the only key?
I used to do work for Accor and repaired a printer at a FormuleOne "hotel". They were in no way comparable to a Travelodge. FormuleOne was more like a Youth Hostel, except cleaner. Travelodge is The Ritz by comparison! Unless the name change to HotelF1 also included a major upgrade to the internals. As I remember it, they had tubular steel bunk beds and shared "self cleaning" showers/bathrooms (1 or 2 per floor)
..we still continue to see news stories about real people having accounts hijacked and other shenanigans being unable to get a satisfactory response from the various Meta estates because they "don't have a human available and the automated systems can find no breach of community standards".
Clearly, Metas response isn't to have more humans, it's to try to improve their automated system and around we go again while they keep earning $billions and reneging on their responsibility and telling the legal systems of the world that they are "working on solutions"
"Wot? A 40s era fighter -> 60s - 80s V bomber."
Depends on the personal preferences of the OP. Is he in love with fighters of the same era or iconic British aircraft in general? I was assuming the latter, you are assuming the former. We might both be wrong.
Yes. But it costs a lot more. Inspiration4 Mission
Yes. There may well be good reasons to shut down coal fired power stations and now start targetting gas fired ones too, and there may well have been some irrational fears over nuclear that shut down all the German nuclear plants, but no one seems to be too concerned about bringing suitable "clean" replacements on stream before doing so.
Admittedly, those shutdowns do seem to have visibly spurred wind and solar power development and deployment, but no where near quickly enough to match the rate of closures. It's almost as if politicians seem to think the power will magically be imported from adjoining countries. Except those adjoining countries have all done the same kneejerk reactions to the noisy, squeaky wheels without properly thinking it through.
It almost seems as if the entire EU is going to rely on the French fleet of nuclear power stations for their base load. I'm sure that'll work well.
"one of the most attractive, artistic even, interfaces."
I might not go quite that far, but the authoes comment that it's "quirky" struck me as a bit odd. There is no "common user interface" guidance any more. No one follows what used to be there. Even MS don't follow their own CUI any more. So anything not compliant with the CUI is just different. And that is so many apps these days that nothing is really "quirky". Just different.
"or the people that handle it are long gone."
I once had to deal with a "network issue" whereby some of the remote apps hosted at HQ worked and others didn't. It eventually transpired that the ones failing were the more "secure" ones that only allowed connections from certain IP addresses and the satellite office IP addresses had changed[*]. The ISP had sent notification emails to the company contact starting three months prior to the change and with increasing frequency as the great switch-over date approached. Unfortunately, the email address they were using was for a person who had left the company two years previouslly and no one was monitoring said address any more.
* Yes, it was a "fixed" IP address, but the business division of the cable company now known as Virgin Media thought that a "fixed" IP address was just one with a very long lease and they were in the process of (yet again!) re-segmenting their network.
Exactly. The very definition of cryptocurrency is converting energy to cash. Hence why in many parts of the world it's simply no longer economic to even try to "mine" it any more except on an industrial scale or by "stealing" electricity, either as per the article or b y actual criminal by-passing of metering systems.
As for the $5.80 per day, that sounds good to me. It's a more than the pay rise I've just been offered!!
Yeah, imagine a 6-way docking adaptor with a modified SpaceX Starship permanently attached at it's nose to four of the ports, leaving two for visitors/shuttles/lifeboats. Maybe modified Starships where the engine/fuel section is detachable so another one could dock in at the back. Two or more Starships lined up on those four permanent docking ports. Spin the whole thing slowly with a nice gravity gradient down the spokes.
Only from the point of view of "blue sky" science and exploration. In terms of getting people and industry up there and possible future viable colonies either in orbit, on the Moon or Mars, commercial is likely the only way it's going to happen. Just look at what the USA is spending *per launch* on SLS. No way is there going to be a Moon or Mars shuttle to service a permanent base at those prices. More likely it'll be a public/private partnership with the likes of NASA/ESA/JAXA/China etc funding science and astronomy at a Moonbase if commercial providers build it and factor the leasing/rental agreements into their profit sheets. But even that is a stretch with current capabilities. What can be made on the Moon better/cheaper than on Earth to justify the transport and living costs?
"And once you've been tagged, stamped, filed, indexed etc as a child, who thinks this will stop when you leave school? Reach 18? Leave college?"
They already have an NHS identifying number. And, later in life, an NI number. The system is already in place and has been for years. All it needs is a government IT project to link it all up :-)
I think you'll find Boris has legislated against that. We now use Great British Laws of Physics, not those puny ones previously imposed on us by the EU!!
I was, of course, referring to "fuel duty" specifically charged on fuel used for cars, buses etc. With EVs, yes, a heavier car will use more "fuel", but that can't be taxed at higher rates just for cars, it can only be taxed with the usual VAT and "green taxes" we all pay for all electricity usage.