Posts by Chris Evans 579 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jun 2008
We used to sell the Penman Plotter (It was designed and made in Worthing by part of Eurotherm where our shop was)
It was aTurtle Plotter relying on dead reckoning so any wheel slip ruined a plot, the one advantage was as it it had quite a long tether so could do quite large plots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt0qeGYjzxw
The question that immediately popped into my head was how long in time is the backlog of "4,277 Boeing 737s. Airbus' combined A220 and A320 backlog was reported at 6,772"
Boeing production rate is put at 31 a month so at that rate over 11 years!
Airbus production rate as far as I can make out about 85 a month combined for A220 and A320 so nearly 7 years!
What about software that is usable by others but the author doesn't need to update, doesn't have the inclination any more or is isn't able to (Some authors will be ill or have died). If no changes AND no downloads for say three years then it might be appropriate. If you see no updates or comments for say six months when downloading something may be we should make a comment of Thanks.
Shortly after colour photocopiers appeared I heard a story that a pair of dimwits found a particular Canadian bank note photocopied well, so they got their own copier and made a killing! They were only found out because they didn't pay the for the copier hire and it was repossessed. Sheets of bank notes printed only on one side were found in the copier!
I still use RISC OS most of the day and get really annoyed when I use Windows and the right mouse button doesn't reverse the direction of scroll buttons as RISC OS does. I wonder why Windows doesn't do this! Anyone has done a hack to implement that? n.b. Most of our four man business is selling and supporting new and second hand RISC OS systems and Acorn BBC's.
To afford $60Bn and not worry about the profit you'd need to be in trillonaire territory!
n.b. Google tells me there are only six people in the world worth more than $100Bn (None in the UK)
Nice Acorn reference. My business is still nearly all Acorn related after nearly 40 years!
If I log into my webmail after a few hours and there is nothing there, I do start to worry that emails aren't getting through, a couple of spam emails is actually reassuring!
My biggest problem is big companies sending me emails I want, that get through the filters but look to me very like spam or fishing. I've lost count of the number of companies that send emails from 'Sales' or 'Customer Support' with either no 'Subject' or one that looks highly suspicious.
"Just remember, folks, that round trip efficiency through electrolysis and fuel cell is at best 50% efficient, which is a spectacular waste of valuable electricity."
True but green hydrogen is very helpful if it's electricity that would otherwise be wasted (wind blowing in the night etc.). It also has the benefit of then being transportable. Yes transportation will further erode the efficiency.
If anyone can up with a more efficient reasonably economic way of storing electricity then the world wants to know.
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en
Has info on: Refine web searches & Common search techniques
Also various scattered info @
https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/23822192?hl=en
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ydVaJJeL1EYbWtlfj9TPfBTE5IBADkQfZrQaBZxqXGs/edit
https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/23733118?msgid=23733118
https://support.google.com/vault/answer/2474474?hl=en
I'd like a full, authoritative, up to date list.
The: "62% is Taiwanese, 17% is Korean, 7% each for China and the US, 1% Israel and 5% the RoW."
seems to relate to where the companies HQ is, so not the full picture. According to: https://www.tsmc.com/english/aboutTSMC/TSMC_Fabs
One of their four 12-inch GIGAFABs is in China
One of their six 8-inch Fabs is in China
One of their six 8-inch Fabs is in USA
Still mostly Taiwan.
"Some of these ex-Mozilla products are doing relatively well. Rust is doing great. Waterfox is thriving. Thunderbird enjoys regular releases and remains a best-of-breed tool. But another has more users than all of them put together."
What is the 'another' they are referring to in the last sentence? I can't make sense of it!
I have no problem with:
"The NHS cannot analyse all information on its own, so we safely and securely share some with researchers, analysts and organisations who are experts in making sense of complex information. We only share what’s needed for each piece of research, and wherever possible, information is removed so that you cannot be identified." From: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/sharing-your-health-records/
Why? Well:
I'm nearly finished treatment for Prostate Cancer (They say the treatment should 'cure' me). I had a friend (half my age) who died of cancer last week leaving a wife and two young children.
If my medical history could help others I'd be more than glad. They do need make sure the safeguards are strong and there will probably be breaches, but to help my fellow citizens it seems a no brainer to me.
Several months ago they decided (with no reasoning given) to double space menu's, tab list, etc. resulting in only about half the number of pages being visible when you have more than about 20 tabs in a list:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1346810
Apparently this is being reverted later this month.
I found it a real pain and suspect some disabled users will have found it extremely awkward. I'm not sure if it didn't break disability access legislation!
I must admit they are not top flight but I miss Royal Scot. They don't normally sell them any more but occasionally McVities included them in their Christmas box of mixed biscuits. They have a distinctive salty taste. For a moment google seemed to tell me I could buy a packet for £1.20 https://shepherdminiatures.com/product/royal-scot-biscuits/ only to find it's a 20mm long miniature for a dolls house:-(
"The client had failed to mention the fire door upgrades during the initial fault finding, meaning that the time spent dealing with the problem was therefore chargeable." If I was the client I'd dispute the invoice, as the equipment should have been more robust. The cause wasn't obvious to the university grad as well as the customer. Maybe spit the bill 50:50?
Twice now we've sent parcels that tracking showed had been delivered but the recipient said it wasn't to them. We were sent a snapshot of a map showing with a pin symbol (the van?) outside the flats and a photo showing a wall and a bit of floor which could be anyone's hallway. Why they didn't include the flat number in the photo is beyond me. Fortunately on both occasions the parcel did end up at with the customer, but with no help from the courier company who, when I asked them to send the driver to the address they actually delivered it to, said we can't do that. By the time they were delivered one of the buyers had left us very negative feedback, fortunately they did agree to remove the feedback. After 40 years of using couriers I have a few tales to tell, none of them good.
Couriers don't seem to realise that whilst their legal customer is the sender the real customer is normally the recipient.
Problems will happen, it is how courier companies deal with them that shows how good they are.
My last house was built in the 1950's and had a conduit from the loft to the lounge right next to the TV. It was for a radio ariel in the loft. The diameter was just too small for two standard sized satellite cables so I found some slightly smaller diameter cables and F type connectors. I pulled the two satellite cables, a CAT 5 and a telephone lead down all in one go. My son was feeding it in in the loft and I pulled at the bottom. Very effective until the house was knocked down three years ago.
In my current house the satellite cables are fed into the loft and then along with network cables they go down through the airing cupboard which abuts a wall above the integral garage, so cables go into the garage and then back into the lounge. As we did a lot of work before moving in (new ceilings, floor boards up for pipe work etc) I was able to run network cables to every room. I've not yet had time to run the power and network cables to the brick sheds.
Is it just me that gets annoyed by unexplained Acronyms?
Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The full text does appear towards the end of the arcticle but not with the acronym.
I'd only expect a small proportion of readers to know the above meaning and others may be confused knowing of: CSAM, Customer Support and Maintenance (electronic commerce)!
We sell into the retro market and have software in stock that we bought in the 1990's which we listed on ebay a year or so ago. The publisher went bust a few years ago. A new software company has now set up (Nothing to do with the old company, no transfer of assets or IP) they registered their name as a Trademark earlier this year. They then complained to ebay who deleted the listing for the "New but old stock" titles. ebay have no procedure for appeals for take down notices saying I have to get the new company to confirm I'm not breaching their Trademark. The new company doesn't seem to understand that registering a trademark doesn't stop the marketing & selling of goods that already exist with the 'mark' applied to them.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2022
