Posts by Mike Dolan 38 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Feb 2008
Or Plusnet.
For £10 I get per month: 4GB data, 1500 minutes, unlimited texts, roaming, and crucially, tethering. 30 day contract so I can shift quickly if needed.
I suspect this thread is now going to turn into a "hey, I can beat that!". So long as everyone is happy with their deal and it represents value for money (to them), then all is good....
Never quite understood people who pay megabucks per month if they don't have a handset commitment to pay off.
When I was a lad I used to tinker with very basic electrical/electronic equipment including video recorders (when they used to cost more money in real terms). Friends mum had one that was being skipped as it had broken down, so I got my grubby paws on it.
Pulled out my trusty Voltmeter and tested power on the AC input side of the transformer. Then tested power on the output side. All ok.
And then my brain farted and I connected the Voltmeter *ACROSS* the transformer (1 pin on input, 1 pin on output). Despite previously seeing voltage on the output pins, my brain said something akin to "but is the power flowing correctly through the transformer". WTF?
Amazingly bright flash and a loud bang that left me temporarily deaf for around 5 mins. My glasses caught the main impact of the glass fuse - would have been much worse if I hadn't been wearing those.
That was the last time I ever worked on electronics. Gave me a very healthy respect for electricity.
"I really think it's about time someone stepped in and nationalised Openreach and the BT infrastructure to put things back on a level footing rather than faffing around trying to get a BT-owned middleman to work to anything other than BT's advantage."
Ah, the good old days. Where all equipment was restricted and had to have green labels before being allowed to be connected to the GPO owned infrastructure. Some of us remember the reality of having a GPO setup.
Ummm - no thanks.
Openreach are crap. But going backwards is really not the answer.
And by the way, very happy to quote my own source (which I believe is credible).
Citizens Advice:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-something-is-advertised-at-the-wrong-price/
"Shopping online
Your legal rights depend on something fairly tricky in the law: whether or not you have a ‘contract’.
Depending on the company’s terms and conditions, you’ll have legal rights (and a contract) either:
once you’ve paid for the item
once they’ve sent it to you
You’ll need to find the company’s terms and conditions to find out where you stand.
---
Argos T&Cs clearly state it is when they send it to you. Which seems to be completely legal and fits into the advice quoted above.
Morally - that's a different discussion ;-)
Got any links to a credible source backing that up? All the searches I find indicate that for online buying it can be cancelled and refunded at any point - only when you have it in your grubby mits is it "yours".
I've heard a number of people say varying statements - but so far no credible sources.
Enquiring minds would like to know :-)
^ This. A thousand times this. And a thousand times more.
Hell, I would generally even settle for just basic communication. But waaaaay too many companies just ignore customers.
Flight delayed? Let's hide the staff - sod talking to the people who actually have already paid for the service and letting them know what's going on.
To solve the 8 hr initial scan issue, apply the following first and reboot:
1) Windows Update Client
2) KB3138612 - An update to the windows update client
and critically
3) KB3145739 - although it updates the graphics component, hidden in that little gem is a kernel update which allows the OS to take advantage of the windows update client updates
Reduced 8+ hrs to ~30-45 mins for a scan.
Still stupidly long, but saves me a day so it's a good starting point.
"A corporate card linked to a personal bank account? what country are we dealing with, that sounds barbaric and idiotic.. Whatever country does that is surly a third world?"
Try not to make blanket statements. I'm in the UK and I have an Amex Corporate Card linked to my own bank account as that is what my employer insisted on. Suffice to say I avoid using it where practically possible.
"Here in the UK corporate cards are linked to the business accounts"
No. Some corporate cards are linked to business accounts, but they can be linked to personal accounts. See statement above.
Wasn't the animator Gary Timmons? If so then fairly sure he doesn't drink! Admittedly he does have long hair though (still). My claim to fame is that during one of the final demos in a Dundee computer store, I beat him on a 2 player level. So he promptly changed the level so I couldn't repeat the method I used to win ;-)
I remember being on an Easyjet flight years ago where the cabin crew had a great sense of humour. Some of the gems:
"While we are taxiing to the stand, please remain seated. Our pilots are great on the air, but their parking is questionable so may break hard and we dont want to have to clean up your blood".
"Our cabin crew are here for your safety. While some of you may have seen these announcements, just remember that your newspaper is unlikely to help you if we fall out of the sky"
"Anyone caught smoking will be asked to sit outside"
Sometimes common sense seem to desert researchers.
Would they also be happy if chip and PIN terminals put your numbers on display for all to see? Why not? After all, shielding your PIN is obviously a hassle and nobody would should-surf?
Have they ever heard of "public kiosks"? Schools? I assume they are also in favour of people writing down their passwords and sticking them to the monitor.
Beggars belief.
"Who on earth would use Vista without SP1? So your complaint is kind of redundant then ;-)"
Out here in the real world I'm regularly phoned to deal with friends/family/consumer PCs. Shed loads I have visited don't have SP1 due to MS breaking the servicing stack or MS blocking the update due to driver incompatibilities. Do a little searching and you will find many complaints of this type.
So how do they get SP2 if they cannot even get SP1?
For some people, they do not have the technical "know-how" and that is not their fault. But it places a much greater burden on techies who in previous OSes could just slap on the latest SP.
Ok.
Boss agrees to implement half-ass system without doing proper research. System fails spectacularly. Boss says "sorry" and thinks thats the end of it.
Just another banker.
Whatever happened to "the buck stops with me?". If I made that kind of mistake I would be fired without a thought. No doubt he'll continue to get a nice massive pay-packet.
Sigh.
1) It's an entertainment show. Deal with it.
2) For all the supposedly intelligent people who work in IT I'm surprised nobody has actually pointed out that they were showing the major difference between bringing fuel to the car as opposed to pushing the car to a fuel source.
i.e. If it's a petrol car, you can just grab a petrol can from the nearest garage and refill it. Off again in minutes.
With a leccy techy car you (currently) don't have much choice unless you can find a *really* long lead and wait a number of hours. So generally you end up pushing it to the fuel source and waiting a loooooong time.
Sheesh.
"We put the disk in the drive to see what it was, but it was encrypted."
"As soon as I saw it belonged to the Home Office I placed it in the company safe and called the police."
If he put in the company safe "as soon as I saw it belonged to the Home Office", how did he manage to put it in the disk drive...?
Or more likely "wow, I can be famous... aww crap. Suppose I better be seen to do the right thing"
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