Posts by pacmantoo

Will MS go down the Apple road?

..of only allowing reinstallation of the OS from the cloud? That way they can make a 'clean' <ahem> image available to all who have an activated legit OS installed. Big draw back: they pay for the hosting infrastructure and if your line in the boondocks is too slow you'll never get the image (Oh yeah, trying reinstalling OS X over the web on less than 2Mbps and see you connection disappear into a black hole somewhere in the US)

Why stop there? When your data is on One Drive and your use Office online (or whatever it is called this week) all you need is a browser. Oh yes, that's the Surface / Windease phone isn't it?

Phone Coop LLU - pros and cons

1TB / month limit (yup that is NOT a typo)

Manchester based tech support that you can get through to in < 5 mins and a REAL person (and no script)

Downside - office hours only

Time for a new term?

cloudburst - when that reliable off site backup isn't

Smart meters help balance the generation load

Smart meters would only help a dumb person think about how much leccy they use (as if the continual rise in bills wouldn't do that) I hate to admit it, but renewables can make the grid less reliable - because their output fluctautes randomly with the sun / wind / rain. For every 1 MW of electricity generated by renewables, they need 1 MW on standby - just in case. They need to balance constantly varying levels of supply AND demand - to know how much brown power to use (hydro like Dinorwic that comes online at a flick of a switch aside). Smart metering helps measure demand side. Now if we had massive amounts of renewables scattered across the whole country this might balance itself out - ie when cloudy in the south, windy in the West, raining in the North and tidal regular as clock work.

the simple solution

my simple solution: sorry if already discussed: unless you know the caller (needs caller display on the line & a handset with a display) just leave it to the answer phone. The diallers recognise it's an answerphone &just call off. TPS helps but doesn't stop the cheats working their way through the phone book or international calls. Our other trick: the BT phone book entry is in the wife's name - different my surname - so when they ask for Mr X I honestly say 'No one here with that name' That shuts them up!

no trouble throwing out...

Vista in a Nutshell (actually it burnt well on the log burner - is that green?)

Have you paid the bill...?

My first, very humble job as a grunt working part time doing everything for a small charity. After a couple of weeks got a call from one office that the 'internet wasn't working'. Toddled over - checked the obvious - power on, network switch on, can I ping the router (cheapy BT thing), have any cables fallen out the back of your PC, can I ping something on the net...er, no...Looked at said cheapy ADSL plastic box - local LAN activity but no ADSL light. Ho -hum. Spend an hour getting the work experience girl to find the account details. Phone them up. "Yes sir, you've been disconnected as you haven't paid the bill..."