I left VM recently as the customer service was diabolical and the service was more unreliable than anything I had had previously. it took a bit of time but I was firm as I had signed up to CityFibre gigabit service. I received an email thanking me for returning the router, which is still sat on my desk! Which sort of sums up the whole experience.
Posts by Graham Newton
79 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Apr 2007
Clingy Virgin Media won't let us leave, customers complain
Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time
Academics have 'no confidence' in Edinburgh University's response to its Oracle disaster
University orders investigation into Oracle finance disaster
This is almost identical to a incident at a large government laboratory I worked at. The admittedly aging accounts system was replaced by a shiny new Oracle system by switching off the old one and switching on the new one. Exactly the same issues -- suppliers were not paid who would then not sell us anything else until we paid up. The laboratory appeared on the front page of Computer Weekly and the management did get the privilege of appearing before the public accounts select committee. The minutes of which detail the full scale of what happened, which included a £100 million "anomaly".
Artemis I isn't just a test run – there's science to be done
Nexperia talks up its investment in UK wafer fab, says no plans to close
Not looking forward to a greyscale 2022? Then look back to the past in 64 colours
Wi-Fi not working? It's time to consult the lovely people on those fine Linux forums
Re: Similar problem with a moped
I had an Honda NSR125 which I had to sell last year after 20 years. One morning it wouldn't start, it was still under warranty so I got the AA out. Who also couldn't start it. I was only when the bike had been partially dismantled that the AA man noticed that I had accidentally pressed the emergency kill switch.
Robotaxis freed to charge across 60km2 of Beijing
Say what you see: Four-letter fun on a late-night support call
Re: What's The Password?
I had a colleague who was a great electronics engineer but liked to be guided through things like software installation programs which was fair enough in those days.
However I did wonder when we would get to:
"Your software has been successfully installed. Press OK to continue."
"What do I do now?"
One click, one goal, one mission: To get a one-touch flush solution
It could have been worse!
I had a plumber to connect a gas hob. I had to give him wire wool and a heat conducting mat. He then wen to test the gas pressure and announced that we had a gas leak as there was no pressure. He called the gas emergency service who turned up and found no leak. They did find something blocking the hose on the plumber's gas pressure meter though.
When everyone else is on vacation, it's time to whip out the tiny screwdrivers
SpaceX Starship struts its stack to show it has the right stuff
Today I shall explain how dual monitors work using the medium of interpretive dance
Re: Laptop + Monitor = two computers?
We had a new telegraph pole installed near us. My broadband was fine afterwards. Everyone else had problems which they blamed on the new telegraph pole despite most of them being WiFi related. Last week all the Sky customers blamed connection issues on the new telegraph pole ignoring the big article in the local paper saying Sky were having broadband connection issues throughout the county.
Running joke: That fitness gadget? It's, er, run out
Japanese eggheads strap AI-powered backpacks to seagulls
A relative who is an atmospheric scientist has used homing pigeons and drones to sample the atmosphere in various parts of the UK and the World. He said they did try gulls but having caught them and strapped the gear on them they were very reluctant to be caught again when trying to to get the gear back. A cross seagull is not to be taken lightly apparently!
The world's nonsense keeping you awake in middle of the night? Good news. Go outside and see this two-tail comet
Re: So many comet flops
I saw it from a playing field near my town centre. Once you knew where to look it was fairly obvious with the naked eye. I did find it at first by scanning with my binoculars checking each star for a bit a fuzziness when the tail appeared spread right across my field of view. A real WOAH moment.
Moore's Law is deader than corduroy bell bottoms. But with a bit of smart coding it's not the end of the road
Re: DEC Fortran
My final year project at Uni was a mathematical model of the human eye at low light intensity. Like the article it relied on loop within loops. The university computer was a DEC 10 and the program was written in Fortran.
I spent a lot of time ensuring that the program would run to completion without intervention. Unlike my fellow student who would babysit their programs overnight.
However my program consumed 12 hours of run time and was terminated. I got a "see me" email.
I was worried, this was my final year project.
They didn't bollock me but suggested that I sent my program to Manchester University . Not knowing about modems I thought I had to send my program by post but was put straight on this.
After a compile failure a CDC (Control Data)machine executed my program in less than a second.
This taught me that you had to program to the machine, not try to make it do things it wasn't built to do.
So for example I have:
Used the Transputers ability to do 2D memory manipulation and paralleled processing and CPU core linking to to do image processing for world class astronomical telescopes.
Produced a minimal memory and CPU cycle timesliceing OS to run experiments on the Cassini Huygens lander.
Programmed SHARC DSPs to operate on multiple audio streams concurrently using the SIMD mode.
Normal programming makes me weep, it's sledgehammer all the way, no artistry, no finesse.
I sit and wonder WTF when it takes several seconds for a word document to load.
Laughing UK health secretary launches COVID-19 Test and Trace programme with glitchy website and no phone app
A real loch mess: Navy larks sunk by a truculent torpedo
Being on the receiving end
When I worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory we used to send heavy equipment to our observatory on the Canary Islands by freighter. We were very surprised when we were informed that a Harrier jump jet had landed on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alraigo_incident
Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper
The delights of on-site working – sun, sea and... WordPad wrangling?
15 years on, Euroboffins finally work out what it took to send the Huygens Titan probe into such a spin
Today's budget for application improvements is brought to you by the letters "Y", "K" and the number "2"
More pointless form filling
I had the pointless form filling which had to be done for everything software related. One of the boxes was "Impact on organisation" i.e. would our organisation be splashed all over the papers if we cocked it up?
One of my "items" was a computer system on the Cassini Huygens spacecraft. Which would have been a BIG DEAL if it went wrong. Fortunately we just did seconds since mission T0, no dates involved.
As it turned out they need not have worried about Y2K as a disaster of a replacement accounting system made the front page of Computer Weekly and the NAO list of worst public IT failures.
Not a death spiral, I'm trapped in a closed loop of customer experience
Re: This requirement for paper bills/statements...
I got that here in the UK. My house is called The White House, 'cos it's white. However further proof of address was required from my bank because on the bill it said The Whitehouse which was different. The other three lines including the house number were identical.
Can you download it to me – in an envelope with a stamp?
I had a similar problem with wing mirrors.
Both wing mirrors were stolen off my ancient Vauxhall Cavalier. I ordered some from a scrap yard and they didn't turn up. I enquired as to where they were and was told they had got lost in the couriers system and they would be delivered next week.
Then the car was stolen, the next day I got two wing mirrors.
Visual Studio Code 1.35: Remote Development, TypeScript and (sigh) another new icon
Spooky! Solar System's Planet NINE could be discovered in the next NINE years (plus one to six), say astroboffins
Granddaddy of the DIY repair generation John Haynes has loosened his last nut
China on its way to becoming the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon
Re: eliptical orbit satellite...
I initially thought it would be a single satellite in lunar orbit. Receiving and recording when in contact with the lander and then re-transmitting when in contact with Earth, like Cassini Huygens.
However you are correct and there is quite a lot of interesting information in this link.
https://gbtimes.com/change-4-update-queqiao-relay-satellite-in-halo-orbit-longjiang-2-returns-amazing-images-from-moon
FYI NASA just lobbed its Parker probe around the Sun in closest flyby yet: A nerve-racking 15M miles from the surface
Re: 5.3 degrees of sun
I would have approached it differently. From Earth the Moon is the same angular size as the Sun.
The Earth is approximately 90 million miles from the Sun so at the current 15 million miles the probe is 6 time closer so the Sun would appear 6 times bigger. At closest approach at 3.9 million miles, say 4 to make the maths easy then it is 22.5 times closer. So maybe you have a factor of two missing somewhere.
In memoriam: See you in Valhalla, Skype Classic. Version 8 can never replace you
It works on Linux and it's better than Skype for Business
Well I find it works on Linux really well now. I don't even have to call "Skype" and listen the annoying upbeat message "if you can hear your message then your mic is working" (if you can't you are a hopeless loser). As for Skype for Business well that's pitiful. Like most things in office 365 the so called integration is abysmal. And I've discovered recently that Skype for Business does appear to have echo cancelling.
Tired sysadmin plugged cable into wrong port, unleashed a 'virus'
Galileo, here we go again. My my, the Brits are gonna miss EU
NASA's Curiosity puts cat among the climate pigeons: Lack of CO2 sinks water theory
Computerised stock management? Nah, let’s use walkie-talkies
Microsoft phone support contractors told to hang up after 15 minutes
Mercury to transit Sun: Viewer discretion advised
Telescope solar filters
DO NOT use the solar eyepieces that come with some cheap import telescopes. These are very dangerous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5xb3b-vRd4
As mentioned before use Baader Solar Film at the entrance to the main aperture so filtering the light before it enters the telescope optics.
Miguel de Icaza on his journey from open source to Microsoft: 'It's a different company'
Politics?
As primarily a Linux developer a Windows developer commented on C# and some useful RPC functionality. So I had a look and it seemed to sort of work.
There were obviously massive gaps in the functionality between .NET and Mono so I monitored the progress of Mono on Linux.
It soon became clear that with the creation of Xamarin then Mono on Linux wasn't really going anywhere. I am of the opinion that de Icanza is a politician. He'll tell you what you want to hear but if something better comes along he'll go for it. I don't blame him for furthering his career but it's not because he is a great coder or really committed to open source.
I don't believe the open source team were always talking to the .NET guys because why would Mono have so many deficiencies. de Icanza may have been talking to MS but I don't think it filtered down to open source but de Icanza used this to get to where he is now. Just like a politician.
I have found the views expressed here to be quite enlightening. I thought it was just me!
Which keys should I press to enable the CockUp feature?
BTC dev: 'Strangling' the blockchain will kill Bitcoin
Re: Bit bollocks more like
OK step 1
Open (or log into) wallet.
Right, don't have one of those.
Try
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
Mmmm -- most of them say they are vulnerable. That doesn't sound good.
Right try Bitcoin Wallet as it is not vulnerable.
Description:
"Have your Bitcoins always with you, in your pocket! You pay by quickly scanning a QR-code. As a merchant, you receive payments reliably and instantly. Bitcoin Wallet is the first mobile Bitcoin app, and arguably also the most secure!"
Not convinced.
Riddle of cash-for-malware offer in new Raspberry Pi computers
Re: exe file, on a Pi?
Yes it runs Windows. Full stop. The ARM version. You can load as many exes as you like, nothing will happen unless they have been compiled for ARM. Which they probably haven't.
I did try it and it was very painful. I have learnt the error of my ways and gone back to raspian, cos it just works.