Posts by Russell Chapman Esq.

Re: Tell it to Microsoft and windows 11

MS does allow you to update older HW legitimately to Win 11, if you know how. My 2012 laptop, without TPM etc, started on Win 8 then progressed to Win 10. I thought I was stuffed regarding Win 11, but no. Full updates after the upgrade and the upgrade uses only legitimate MS options. Check out Chris Waite on YT and his Win 11 upgrade videos. No dodgy 3rd party SW. Purely an MS approved way of getting the job done, even if it is not widely advertised.

Re: Transbuds

Babelbuds

Re: It goes far beyond that ...

Heard about the dyslexic who choked on vimto?

Re: Emergency drill. Not a Tuba but a Trumpet

In very slow moving traffic, on M6 if I remember correctly, German driver, tell by the plates, playing the trumpet while steering with his knees. My 1st thought was if car ahead suddenly stopped he would be rammed through the neck by his trumpet. At least he would go on a high note I guess.

Re: Hope I'm not being a grammar pedant.

I did indeed click on the corrections link and have just had feedback that they are updating the article.

Re: Only once a month ..

If this were a real situation, kill the dog as quietly as possible. In a training situation, a blast of doping to subdue the animal before getting it down for long enough to complete the operation.

Copy and paste of the article.

A shortage of truck drivers has led to empty shelves in British supermarkets. There is even talk of the army being called in to help. For those who wanted the UK to remain in the EU, it feels like a moment to say: “We told you so, Brexit was a disaster.” But that misses the point. The empty shelves are a visible message from a workforce that’s usually invisible. They tell a story about what’s gone wrong in this corner of the 21st-century economy — and not just in the UK.

Earlier this year Dominic Harris, who had been a truck driver since 2012, started to feel dizzy and unwell. He went to hospital, where a nurse told him his problem was exhaustion. There are legal limits on driving hours: heavy goods vehicle drivers can usually only drive for nine hours a day (currently 10 because of the shortage).

But that doesn’t mean the shifts are nine hours long. It was typical for Harris, who is 39, to be out of the house for 12 to 15 hours a day. When he got home, he was so tired he would go straight to bed. “I’ve lost quite a few relationships with friends,” he says. “I’ve not been the same old Dom.”

Hours can also be unpredictable. A current job advert from XPO states: “You’ll be working a minimum of 45 hours per week on an ‘any five from seven-day’ shift pattern, so your working days may change each week and could include weekend working. You will also be starting early AM and must be prepared to work through the night.”

In spite of the tough hours and the fact they often pay for their own qualifications (Harris paid £1,500), drivers have been slipping down the wage ladder. In 2010, the median HGV driver in the UK earned 51 per cent more per hour than the median supermarket cashier. By 2020, the premium was only 27 per cent. They have faced a particular pay squeeze in the past five years: median hourly pay for truck drivers has risen 10 per cent since 2015 to £11.80, compared with 16 per cent for all UK employees. “Why would I want to be a truck driver, with all the responsibility, the long, unpredictable hours, if I can go to Aldi and earn £11.30 an hour stacking shelves?” says Tomasz Oryński, a truck driver and journalist based in Scotland, who is planning to move to Finland.

Kieran Smith, chief executive of Driver Require, a recruitment agency, says employers have pushed labour costs down to compete for powerful customers such as supermarkets. “Customers have enormous purchasing leverage [and] they have nailed down the haulage companies to the tiniest margins.” He says lots of drivers leave in their 30s because the hours make it almost impossible to participate in bringing up children, yet the wage isn’t high enough to support the other partner staying at home.

As a result, the workforce is ageing. In 2000, there was an even split between over-45s and under-45s. Now the over-45s account for 62 per cent. Between 20,000 and 40,000 people pass their tests to become truck drivers in a non-pandemic year, but many appear to leave the sector. Harris left this summer to start a business tending graves. It’s peaceful and he likes the connections he makes. He doesn’t want to go back.

Ageing workforces and labour shortages are problems in other countries too. In Europe, some eastern European companies are sending drivers to work in western countries on eastern rates of pay.

In the UK, the extent of the problem was masked before Brexit by a supply of EU drivers who helped to fill vacancies. In addition, a loophole in the UK’s badly-regulated labour market allowed drivers to set up as limited companies. This upped their take-home pay by cutting their tax (at the cost of their workers’ rights). This year the government closed the loophole, which prompted some drivers to leave. Meanwhile, Covid led to cancelled tests for new drivers and prompted many Europeans to go home.

Adrian Jones of the union Unite says the short supply means drivers now have a moment of leverage. He wants to see long-term reforms such as in the Netherlands, where a collective agreement is negotiated between employer and union groups which sets a floor on pay and conditions across the sector. “This collective agreement becomes law, so it gives transport suppliers the ability to say to their customers: this is law, so I can’t go cheaper than this,” says Edwin Atema from Dutch union FNV.

But some employers still seem intent on short-term fixes. Tesco is offering new drivers a £1,000 bonus and a “market supplement” over a six-month period. “All temporary incentives are at Tesco’s discretion and subject to review, variation and removal,” the job advert warns.

The story of Britain’s empty shelves, like that of its unpicked strawberries and unprocessed chickens, is the story of how migration combined with a weakly regulated labour market and hugely powerful retailers have allowed some goods and services to become unsustainably cheap. The system shaved money off our shopping bills but it wasn’t resilient. Remain voters are right to say Brexit helped to cause the current crisis, but wrong to say everything was fine without it. Brexit voters are right to say migration helped suppress driver pay, but as the Netherlands shows, Brexit wasn’t the only way to resolve it.

The labour shortages are a moment of reckoning. If we just use them to bicker about Brexit, we’ll drown out the real lessons in the noise.

Re: Exploring cemetries

That would be a really interesting walk/bike-ride if you ever decide to finish it. Because of Covid, my family in France/Spain have given up on coming to the UK this year. Brexit hasn't really changed things too much with regard to travel in Europe.

Re: Norton auto-renewed my contract in March

Shouldn't that be Coq? According to another El Reg article.

The point I wanted to make is that after getting rid of Norton Lifelock, things noticably perked up. Shaved a few seconds off boot time and programs load more quickly. But not only that, I've managed to keep a 9, nearly 10 year old laptop running quite nicely, no need to throw away when you can upgrade. I was nervous about relying on Windows Defender for security but read up on it and with the addition of the freebie Malwarebytes, I feel reasonably protected.

I only updated to Win 10 from Win 8.1 this year, had been using Windows Classic shell to get the start menu, I was put off by all the telemetry but found solutions to mitigate a lot of that so did the upgrade and Windows Classic Shell is great on Win 10.

I don't work in any IT related field but I like to be aware of what is happening in the tech world as it effects our lives so much.

Re: Hmm ...

Along the same lines but not a shredder, a powerful press molding machine at the Kia factory in Slovakia. One of the Korean workers found a way to bypass all the safety systems to save time while clearing an obstruction in the machine. While he was in there, another worker came along, saw the machine wasn't running and hit the 'Go' button. The result was one very squished, very dead person.

Re: April fool video

That is not the case. I lived in Lugano for several years. Spring flooding is not a thing. Maybe you are more in mind of Venice?

Re: £50 vs the 1000CHF note

You meant it as a joke but it is less of a joke than you realize

Re: @Martin an gof -- Maybe I have missed the point

Fizzog

That brings back memories. Never use it myself but my grandmother and mother often used it.

Re: Anti-mortar system?

Not going to say where, when or why. But watching some lads play football in a walled in school yard and mortars whistling overhead, being fired by both sides. If you are in that situation cowardice really doesn't work, you have to get on with it.