Re: Well, you say that but ...
Most likely they dug down to bedrock and built the building on that, then backfilled the celler with soil to get a level surface. That's how my 1890 terrace is built, with stone flags on the levelled soil.
3718 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Mar 2009
I run RTR's Ceefax Simulator and it's getting harder and harder to parse the BBC's data stream there's so much crud in it. Kudos to Richard for continuing to weed it.
I know people with screen readers who are similar trouble. THEE DIV PRESIDENT OF DIV THE UNITED DIV DIV STATES DIV....
Errors in banking transactions can be reversed with little impact. There is a one-to-one match between the end points. Any interference in the transaction can be noticed and rectified, and only impacts that one transaction. It is difficult to scale it up to effect loads of transactions, you can get at Fred's account, but getting at Fred's account doesn't get you into the thousands of other accounts at Fred's bank.
"The insane Electoral College system then of course needs scrapping"
What you mean is: that insane system of being a federal country made of individual components needs to be scrapped.
The US president is the president of the federation. The states are the members of the federation. The states elect the president of the federation. To change that you need to change the US to be a single unitary state, which overturns the entire foundamental foundation ethos of the entire country.
"Then the neighbour tries to vote and is rejected. What happens then? Does the neighbour go home and forget it?"
In the UK system, the elector is given a "pink ballot" which they use to vote, and it is stored seperately. At the count, if there are any pink ballots that would effect the vote, the ballots are sorted to find the matched serial number of the personated ballot (a *HUGE* task at even a council election), and it is replaced with the pink ballot.
"Last time, as it usually does, the Republican party lost the popular vote and won the presidency"
That's a feature not a bug, because - as you mentioned - the US is a federation not a unitary state. The president of the federation is the, well, president of the federation, and is elected by the members of that federation - the states - specifically *not* by the people. Just as the chief executive of the UK is chosen by the people elected to Parliament, not by the people electing the people elected to Parliament.
"Follow Estonia's lead"
So, change the US into a small, almost entirely urban country.
My airport experiences as so much more prosaic.
I visited Japan a couple of years ago. I'd had surgery a few months before and was still taking post-op drugs. On arriving at Haneda Airport the boarding card had that ominous little tickbox: Are you carrying any drugs.
So, I approach the immigration clerk and they sat me in the room with no windows while they sent for somebody who could work out what my best-remembered university Japanese attempts were at 'blood pressure', 'pain relief', and, ahem.. 'stool softener'.
HinH: I've just discovered exactly a similar issue.
A bit ago my kitchen fluorescent light stopped coming on. It would occasionally flash, but fail to start. Changed the starter, changed the tube, still doesn't work. Ok, need to change the fitting.
Yesterday, got the step ladder out. Decided it would be a good idea to test the wiring before the full fiddly of taking the fitting out, so disconnected the wires and put into a chockblock with a lamp connected. Turn on wall switch. Lamp flashes and goes out. Odd.... Wires lead and plug to existing fitting and plug into wall socket. Light fitting works perfectly. Odd...
Remove wall switch. One of the wires sprongs out. Ah ha!
The important information is that the test lamp is a fluorescent bulb. With the loose connection the switch was able to arc over for the high current to kick start the lamp, but the low current to keep it running wouldn't arc over. Which also explains the tube's symptoms.
So, today's job is to turn the power to the lights off while it's daylight and replace the wall switch.
Still happens with PCs. I solved that particular problem in one office by gaffa'ing two telephone directories together and plonking the PC on them, raising it up the crucial one inch. (Yep, even then they didn't make phone books like they used to do, had to use two of 'em.)
# Hello, IT
* My laptop can't get onto the internet, it's plugged into a network socket.
# Ok, can I have your machine ID.
* blah blah blah etc
# Hmmm. That's not in the network database. Can I have your user logon ID or your payroll number so I can check your user details.
* Oh, I don't work here.
Yep. Random stranger wandered into office, expected to be able to plug into corporate network and use it.
I've had similar to that. Computer not working, blah blah, site visit. I pop the lid of the computer, check all the innards, power up, works fine, "play" for ten minutes, still working fine, put everything together, still working, pass back to user.
User calls back, still an issue. Back and forth. Eventually I spend the afternoon there, and at some point the user adjusted the monitor - which was stood on the computer case. A couple of minutes later the computer failed.
It turned out a hardware expansion inside was juuuust tall enough to almost touch the top of the case. Of course, whenever I went there I moved the monitor and opened the case. When the user was using it he subconciously fiddled with the monitor and eventually the weight would be in just the right place to hit the top of the expansion and knock it just enough out of its sockets to make it fall over.
A good point, but with almost all my ailments I know what they are, and just need to see any GP to get gatekeeper'd on to a specialist. Last time I went with my polyps the GP was a newly qualified chap who'd never seen real live ones before and I had to explain to him what they were and how they behaved in the wild.
One "advantage" of Covid-19 is that my post-op followup reviews with my consultant are on indefinite hold, so with any future flare-ups I don't have to go back to first base and get past the GP again.
I've noticed that happening more and more, my suspicion is that it's a way to force people to stay on a website, on first loading the page it redirects to itself multiple times, so filling the 'Back' list with the same page. I end up menuing on Back and finding the real previous page from the list.
The problem is that it is often funded as capital instead of as revenue.
Ok, we've paid for a new roof, a classroom of typewriters and a fume extractor. Come back in 30 years when it's worn out and we'll spend to replace them.
Ok, we've paid for 100 new PCs, come back in 30 years when they're worn out and we'll spend to replace them.
All computer kit needs to be acknowledged that they are consumables, yes, even the damn computers themselves, and be paid for from revenue, just as though they were toilet paper.
Yes, I hate hate hate the thought of electronic kit being skipped just 'cos it's last year's stuff, but that is today's reality. In 1981/2 schools were given a chunk of money to kit out with BBC computers on the "that's ten years' capital infrastructure, come back in 1992" model, and people are still doing it.