Posts by Jean Le PHARMACIEN

Mate, it's the '90s. You don't need to be reachable every minute of every hour. Your operating system can't cope

emails...

I used to work in a large (1000 bed) NHS Teaching Hospital. My (Clinical) manager used email to alert all (professional clinical) staff to the new 'targets' - usually a couple of times a day. As I was ward based and CBA logging in to ward Windows P C's (worked for the hospital for nearly 20yrs and logging in synced 20 years of email to your now local profile - thanks IT dept) I appeared to 'not read my emails' and was harried/persecuted for it by said manager

Actually I did; just used the OWA (web access for those too young) which required no local login on the 12+ wards I would visit per day. Of course, this didn't send 'read' receipts/requests that my manager attached to *every* email he sent - including the "cakes are in the staffroom" sort.

It's now safe to turn off your computer shop: Microsoft to shutter its bricks-and-mortar retail locations worldwide

Re: Track record

The reason they fail is that many of the "products" were spoilers of other products.

- WinCE to compete against Psion/EPOC

- The drive compression fiasco

- The Sendo issue where MS (who engaged Sendo) gave the designs to a Chinese company

- what happened to the FoxPro database after MS bought the company? (hint: killed as competed with Access)

- What happened to the Autoroute software after MS bought NextBase?

Let's not even get started on the whole Anti-Linux war

Faxing hell: The cops say they would very much like us to stop calling them all the time

Re: Fax will never die!

I think you'll find pharmacies haveen ordering your medicines from wholesalers via electronic transfer (not fax!) For over 35yrs. It's the GP to pharmacy bit that's been missing...(think private business NHS contractor=GP Practice communicating with private business NHS contractor=pharmacy) which was The bit the NHS had to sort.

Paging technology providers: £3m is on the table to replace archaic NHS comms network

Re: The NHS - uniquely the same

"Fixed people out the front"

Clearly you haven't worked in the NHS long enough"

That should say "slightly less broken out the front"

The vast majority of NHS in-patients I've met have chronic long term problems with multiple admissions per year. As they get older and their conditions progress (adding complications and new unrelated problems on the Way) the stays get longer.

We even know them as "such and such is back"

"But they only left 3 wks ago..."

Electronic health records firm Epic Bristol bags £454m in UK deals as creaking care sector chases digital transformation

Re: Hmm

Really?

Remote patient data? Pffft

I spent the last 10yrs of my NHS secondary care trying to call up remote data on patients admitted to our ITU

Try asking patient with an ET tube in situ...

Try asking the traumatised next of kin

..

Try asking their GP..("closed until Thursday 10am; send us a secure fax: "you're from where?"

We DO need a proper, joined up NHS patient system like yesterday.

Sadly no one seems to ask users or care; apart from pocketing the cash

Smart fridges are cool, but after a few short years you could be stuck with a big frosty brick in the kitchen

Re: Never understood this

Indeed.

Over past 8+yes have found that second hand (ex corporate) Dell ultrasharp monitor + Thin client + Kodi sorts most obselence problems (and runs to c 100GBP on first and only purchase)

Some Brits reckon broadband got worse after lockdown – but that's just what happens when you're online 12 hours straight

SamKnows...

I'm on EE - copper from cabinet to the house (c100m). 3/4 mile from exchange.

Only on 50Mb (which is fast enough for me). No chance of faster as no VM here and exchange is on opposite of Victorian town centre

Speed and latency haven't moved - unlike friends on VM cable and Sky connections

Laughing UK health secretary launches COVID-19 Test and Trace programme with glitchy website and no phone app

Re: I want to punch Matt Hancock

Careful, I have met the 'original' Rimmer whom the character was based on. Yes, he is a complete A@se an w@n#er

Know his brother too, ( of the original 'Rimmer'), quite opinionated but admits his older brother is a complete A@se..

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

I remember...

Stumbling into this on Radio 4 when I was in my A-level years. Couldn't believe it- incredible mental picture of the universe. Recorded them all to compact cassette. As we were in our final A-level year and post exams, I took some into class to play in our "free" periods - and then found out from the puzzled expressions of my form mates that they really didnt get it.

At all.

Their loss.

Recently downloaded them all again and they still sound great and they're still fresh. (Didn't like the TV series as the visuals didn't match my imagined universe). Also loved Steven Moore as Marvin. Just perfect

Happy times.

Apple drops a bomb on long-life HTTPS certificates: Safari to snub new security certs valid for more than 13 months

Thanks Apple for that

My home camera system requires a browser which will ignore local unsafe connections (i.e. my home network) to use control panel. Alternative is build/use my own private certs (to avoid all the red "Danger" flags/pop-ups). Clearly LE is a bit ott for local network and it's a PITA doing own certs but worth it if you can create long lived private ones

This just kills value of self signing for local network use. All I need now is for Chrome based browsers to withdraw the local_unsafe_sites flag (or whatever correct name is).

Fed-up air safety bods ban A350 pilots from enjoying cockpit coffees

If this was a car

I cannot believe how many times journos have criticised cars for lack of cupholders. Personally, any chance of usually hot liquid in a car on road could spell serious injury to occupants/loss of control. I.e. no cupholders for front seat car occupants in my view

Aircraft: ditto plus 100-300 people at risk. If you need a drink (and let's not forget how predictable turbulence is) not at the controls. Cockpit seats are not wetrooms

Sounds harsh, but car and truck drivers should not be drinking at the controls and there's lots of sensitive electronics in modern cars/trucks

Privacy activists beg Google to ban un-removable bloatware from Android

How about removing Google Assistant for a start?

Impossible to disable; seems very adept a re-assigning itself revoked permissions.

Then move on to Google Now launcher with the always-present search bar on screen. Also not possible to disable / remove the search bar,...

Hey kids! Ditch that LCD and get ready for the retro CRT world of Windows Terminal

Re: "/" in paths?

Yup, noticed that too. Methinks Midnight Commander on a Linux box or Linux looking at an MS box

Hyphens of mass destruction: When a clumsy finger meant the end for hundreds of jobs

Re: SCO Unix

Wow, just realised I read that as "suppose that a bit of Poettering about in the future will change it sooner or later" as it still made sense....

Socket to the energy bill: 5-bed home with stupid number of power outlets leaves us asking... why?

Re: Forget the risk of fire spreading through the holes in the wall

Yup. French farmhouses just the same. You get expert at doing perfect mitred plastic conduit by eye

Re: Forget the risk of fire spreading through the holes in the wall

Agreed. Just wire Cat5e throughout when the house is rewired. We did. Best thing I ever did (in 2004). Most unrewired Vicorian props in UK have wiring dating from 1948 complete with round pin sockets in the skirting boards. No fire risk at all. Ever..

What is this, 1989? Laplink is still a thing and wants to help with Windows 7 migrations

Re: Roaming profiles?!?

Ha! Stuff 'roaming profiles'. After over 25 yrs in one post my email archive was....huge. Unfortunately our IT decided that your email would be synced to your local machine. Even worse, I could work at any of 12 PCs over 14 floors. Logging in with your username took nearly 15mins as sync er...progressed

Cue next issue, corrupted roaming profile. "We'll delete your profile and migrate everything over. Which machines have you used as we need to clear them and the corrupted version?"

IT couldn't believe I used so many PCs as the whole system was geared to people who only worked one floor and 8 to 12 PCs

HATE MS roaming profiles with a vengance.

OTOH have to move my uncle's Win7 profile to new machine on Win10. Just the data and .pst files mind

IT protip: Never try to be too helpful lest someone puts your contact details next to unruly boxen

Ha TOIL indeed

Try working for NHS and TOIL.

As Band 8 staff and 'clinical' I worked overtime at Band 7 rates which due to tax / NI meant I worked for less than the staff I managed

Why? Band 8 is 'management' thus no overtime. So when I worked overtime ( to 'manage ' ) junior clinical staff - I could not be paid at my 'clinical' rate - even though managing required clinical expertise!

Why the cr*p.? Because doctors exempted themselves from Agenda for Change so all the equivalent clinicians / Band 8's were/are absent.

Oh and TOIL, cannot take as you are essential to maintain service. Pay? See above...

Everything must go as school IT supplier Gaia Technologies' £5.7m debt burden revealed

wait til they are 20+...

I spend 6mo+ per year & 750miles from the family home in which our son lives - er rent free.

My Gcal sends him emails and notifications the day before to put correct bins out. I also send texts

As confirmed by my Sec cam, and full bins when we DO arrive in UK - NOTHING HAPPENS

I would save the stress and effort and forget the whole 'teenage sons' idea. Of course the earth may stop spinning if there is a hitch before a lacrosse match..( played here in NW UK since late 1870s)

A History of (Computer) Violence: Wait. Before you whack it again, try caressing the mouse

Does punching 'reset' count?

It was 2003 and I was 3hrs into a Win98 install on a 486 (and my 8th reboot* after driver install) when I installed the motherboard chipset driver (from board mnfr}. Reboot

You all know what happens next. Windows takes 8-10 mins to respond to each and every button press or mouse click.

Safe mode reboot failed to improve matters (or my mood as experience said reinstall would be 3hrs + another couple of hrs for Office.

I punched the case hard (it hurt). Then I punched Reset and shouted "f**king Windows. F**k you. Take that"

Shoved a Mandriva install disk in drive (never tried before).

45 minutes later in bed. ONE reboot, all system and Appli(???) Office installed AND dialup configured; all emails collected

Never put Win on a home PC since.

*Had to create an msdos boot disk to load cdrom drivers so that the Win95 install disk would be readable and I could manually call setup.exe...

Welcome to the World Of Tomorrow, where fridges suffer certificate errors. Just like everything else

Re: Yeah but no but

Shit, a fridge service! WTF?

Dont know where you are but last time I saw a Fisher & Paykel device it was a ventilator in ITU (OK - has one in an AirBnB in NY and wished it was a Miéle)

We're running 20yr old Liebherr and no screens here.

Re: monster refrigerator as a centre for "non-stop music, video & TV entertainment"

I am Jona Louie and claim my £5000

Linky revisited: How the evil French smart meter escaped Hell to taunt me

I have one, Linky me

Ours was fitted whilst we were on a 3 month stint in UK (bad move). Unfortunately for us, letter forming us of visit was sent 30 day before install (still in UK). Came back to find everything..,.was...OK. UPS's had coped with outage (they're obligatory in rural France when your neighbour:s trees connect to powerlines in a storm).

Good for monthly usage monitoring as they report back that frequently. Also 'off' if ErDF cut your supply on a Monday morning for post weekend repairs (hint: power off at 09:03)

Not bothered about radiation as it is powerline (dodgy Edge mobile broadband here) and my own home wifi is detectable 100ft down the lane. It's also just o/s my front door but think the 2.5ft granite/schist wall will be fine....(but my in house wifi works down the lane?.....)

BTW the French are revolting and it is great. My 'French' neighbour is unimpressed - his ancesters came from E Germany in the 1840's; (as did mine to Salt Mill in Yorkshire...)

Switch about to get real: Openreach bod on the challenge of shuttering UK's copper phone lines

OK I'm biting..

I'm in central France at the mo. T'internet via an Orange Livebox(play). All my 'phone' is VOIP and works fine. Phone on line is old style POTS hung off the 'adapter' port on the box. Downside here are thunderstorms in Oct/Nov which cut leccy and also the mobile network. I have found Orange wired network functions *as long as you have a UPS for your Orange box*.

Such is leccy in rural France in stormy times, a UPS is de rigeur( try 5 -6 fails in 30 secs at a time)

Actually, does anyone else keep their home switches and similar on a UPS like me?

I look to everyone in UK having a UPS for their "landline phone" interface...

Wall Street analyst slashes HP Inc's share rating amid mounting worries over printer supplies declines

HP better than Epson for me..

As an additional obs. I have found my HP printers to be generally better for not clogging and easier to un-clog than my Epsons.

And don't get me started on Epson MFD+Linux, despite 23yrs as a Linux user I still shiver at getting them to play together. HP MFD was a holiday by comparison

Sometimes printing IS essential

Whilst I agree withe whole 'printing less', sometimes it has to be done....

Original docs (birth and mariage certificates; tax foncier+ residential tax; bank statements and.,) and three copies of each for your Carte de Séjour appllication.

The bureaucrats are not impressed with phone/tablet being waves at them. Cannot staple to the application..

Electric cars can't cut UK carbon emissions while only the wealthy can afford to own one

Where is my charge point and range?

I live on a (UK) terraced street with only 4 lamp posts for 20 odd houses each side

Where/ how can I charge? (Hint: MY house is down a ginnell 150ft from road; I'm doubly screwed)

Yesterday I drove 760km in 7hrs.(on a holiday in Europe).....can I do that in an electric car?

Answers?

Anyone?

I could throttle you right about now: US Navy to ditch touchscreens after kit blamed for collision

Re: Based on my (Citroen) in car touch screen

Bit puzzled about touchscreen speedlimiter. My wife's newish (2yrs old) Citroen speed control is all physical switches.

Does have a touchscreen for radio/heating/satnav but not noticed it being particularly laggy...

Bit nippy, is it? Hive smart home users find themselves tweaking thermostat BY HAND

Honeywell Hahaha

I have a Honeywell thermostat. I can vouch for the fact that it works fine if internet-disconnected. Honeywell test this as their servers/systems go down regularly 'please check your internet connection'.

Sorry, my homenet and links to ourside world are fine - your servers are cr***ed.

would prefer if it had option for ethernet link rather than 2.4Ghz wifi....

Seemed least connection-dependant smart thermostat I could find without learning & buying Rpi system+software....

Brace yourself, Britain: Health minister shares 'vision' for NHS 'tech revolution'

NHS Pharmacy It

I think you mean the 'accounting and cost allocation (to consultant teams) system' which has an ordering and stock system bolted on. Latterly a labelling (for your tablets/ medicines) has been added.

Laat week a prescribing and administration module was taped on.

OK timescales are sarky but after 30+ years in NHS Secondary care Pharmacy (remember Aposyst anyone) I think I know something on this subject...

NHS smacks down hundreds of staffers for dodgy use of social media, messaging apps

Having worked in the NHS for 35+ years I have met:

1. A not inconsiderable number of stupid doctors

2. More than a few arrogant staffers who were not doctors ( my own staff group included as well as IT..)

Also, there are more than doctors, nurses and 'management' in the NHS.

The NHS needs *good professional* managers so clinicians stop being poor managers - I know, I worked for many years in a Trust proud of its "clinician management" and bullying wasn't in it.

Rant over

Windows is coming to Chromebooks… with Google’s blessing

H/W specific ChromeOS

I have had good results with CloudReady version of ChromeOS on my Thinkpad and HP thin clients (although I nearly choked at Win install to a USB key - eventually got the Mac download and use of dd to work).

Also ChromeOS from builds on arnoldthebat.co.uk work on my Wyse thin client laptop.

Perhaps not the "full" ChromeOS e.g. run android apps but they both run fine....(personally I prefer Debian+LXDE on the same hardware but have to think of other family members...)

Nah, it won't install: The return of the ad-blocker-blocker

Re: The Indy can't be as bad as the Liverpool Echo

As a past employee of a Large Secondary Healthcare Establishment in central Liverpool, I found the best solution was not to read that rag at all.

(It always has a good line in dodgy 'real' stories about the trust)

IBM memo to staff: Our CEO Ginni is visiting so please 'act normally!'

And so it goes

Change 'IBM' and insert CQC visit to xxxx NHS Trust

Been there and done it.

Interestingly for me on a my late visit to my usual clinical area (standing in for full time of absent colleague) I happened upon one bedspace with visitors and after I apologised/made excuses to nurse present for being late; said visitors introduced themselves as CQC inspectors. After short question and frank answer exchange I left to finish my day (I normally had daily workload that NHS regs said were 2.7 wte per day)

CQC visited my directorate head and clinical manager and within 6 weeks trust had advertised;interviewed and selected person for 2nd post (normally a 6mo process)

Perhaps CEO visits should always without entourage to get a true picture

Boss sent overpaid IT know-nothings home – until an ON switch proved elusive

Re: Way Back...

I have one of these sockets in my house in France...no 'New York code' involved though (Statue of Liberty excluded)

Unfortunately said socket is under the stairs furthest away from where any sane person would put ..say a lamp (nearest socket for that is ..er.. not 'room switch controlled) . It is, however, very conveniently close to my UPS / Comms cabinet. Needless to say there is a long cable top a lamp standard and an equally long cable in the opposite direction feeding the the UPS ('onduleur') ...

"Vive La France!"

A smartphone recession is coming and animated poo emojis can't stop it

What I really really want...

Updated version of my Nokia 9500 Communicator with 2 - 3 day battery...( I LOATHE touchscreen keyboards on phones..)

Or perhaps I should just go and buy a Gemini :)

UK mobile customers face inflation-busting price hike

After Brexit cliff edge....

Watch your EU-enforced 'don't gouge while abroad within EU' tariffs disappear and telcos hike the price of calls/data once outside the UK....

Electric cars to create new peak hour when they all need a charge

Street of terraced houses in UK...

Where are all the charging points?

1. In the streetlamps? - Only four down one side of our road - and the cables to the cars (see later)

2. buried in the road? - good luck with that after VM's mess of cable installs. What happens if some b???end parks slightly off one wireless point? Everyone else is off as well and no-one charges..

3. cables from houses to your car - excellent -look forward to everyone tripping over those at night - I did as some idiot ran his cable along the pavement to his BMW i3, not to mention those with poor eyesight/mobility

4. what happens if you simply cannot park near your house to charge - either due to parking density or road unsuitable? My house faces onto dual carriageway by-pass for town centre+railway line. I already walk 200ft to the *nearest* parking area.

The whole charging scenario for EVs is poorly thought out for UK and seems to be based entirely on suburbs with everyone having a drive for two cars/personal parking space outside your house

And don't get me started on range. How about 30mile commute to then from Liverpool in winter with obligatory 2 hour wait in accident induced traffic jam on the M6 thrown in on occasion...

Birds are pecking apart Australia's national broadband network

foul paste

Pfffft now I need a new phone....

Read this line and that was it..

" into a foul paste.."

Visions of mashed birds being fed to parrot ...or did it describe the parrot?

Very clever..

The award for worst ISP goes to... it starts with Talk and ends with Talk

Only complainers make a noise

See title.

I was with UKLinux.net (Entanet reseller -> BT Openreach) via FTTC and then copper to my (overhead cable) house - about 150m copper (and it is ALL copper apparently from BT guy in the hole).

Only got 38Mb but have to say it was very reliable (from my SamKnows box info)

Went to EE (I know they are part of BT now) and got a bundled reduction in home BB (already had mobile with them)

Big cock-up on changeover as BT Wholesale hadn't done paperwork properly years before and said I was still with Entanet. Took 2 months to sort (EE very helpful and informative - gave me 12 gb/mnth to use my 4G phone as internet connection whilst sorted)

End result: now get 48mb+ (still good and reliable) - only downside is the old cable /connections to exchange (less than 1.5 miles).

OK not greatest. But it works *reliably* month on month speedwise and connection. Reliability is all for me. Don't do streaming of TV/Video/Facetwat YMMV

If you are happy with service level; you don't post and nobody knows..

[FFS why have 8 million concurrent downloads of Eastenders clogging interwebs when they could record on their Mythbox over FTA Freeview and watch later. Sheesh]

Melbourne motorway to lose its $1k-per-call emergency phones

Re: stay inside your vehicle?

on a quick view and assessment of visibility of all those outside the vehicle on UK motorways - they would still be dead. Standing *next to the vehicle* and not in high vis jacket is no improvement - you are even less protected and more likely to die.

Perhaps we ought to push ' out and upstream of vehicle WITH high vis jackets on EVERYONE'.

(I suggest upstream of vehicle because if your car is hit...bits of it and the colliding vehicle will be heading for you...)

Brit cuffed for Kyrgyz 'horse penis' sausage quip

Re: Andouillette, anyone?

Actually it DOES taste considerably better than it looks but you are right about the resemblance....actually I'm fairly sure it wasn't....no definitely not.

Best advice is to eat AAAAA certified (i.e. best quality) andouillete. Otherwise it smells of bleach..

Galileo, Galileo, Galileo good two go

Galileo, Galileo, Galileo magnifico..

+1 for Queen reference...

Remember Windows 1.0? It's been 30 years (and you're officially old)

I preferred...

DR GEM 3 Desktop to Windows 1

Just saying

DS5: Vive la différence ... oh, and throw away the Citroën badge

Vive la....

I have the lower spec VTR+ C5 tourer with conventional suspension. Was somewhat disappointed with that, (loved my Xantias) but I have to say Citroen have tuned it to feel almost exactly like the hydropneumatic Xantias. Very good long distance cruiser. Over 4 years and 60K miles been very reliable - nothing dropped off so far. Have had the punctured AC condenser though. Paid very little for it second hand and wouldn't change it for an Audi. Most people on the road seem to take it for an Audi/BMW - worryingly, that could be the way I drive......

Very underrated car. Citroen certainly seem to have improved over the past 10 years

Wheels come off parents' plan to dub sprog 'Mini Cooper'

Mini Cooper - er NOT

You beat me to it.

A quite scruffy French Mini at that, (probably from Paris which would explain everything).

Bootnote: just checked department of registration and IT IS PARIS! I claim my free Friday beer for being a saddo (as my son would have it)

Phone-fondling docs, nurses sling patient info around willy-nilly

Disciplinary action awaits....

I work in an NHS hospital; on wards with patient contact. I have a smartphone (actually had one since my Nokia 9500 Communicator for same purposes) on which I keep reference materials/clinical guidlines/specialist references. Stuff that means I don't have to run about looking for the nearest terminal that's not broken/partly functional/working but in use to look up the latest info on cotrimoxazole via a CVC.

I have read and taken the NHS courses on data protection - as have all these doctors and nurses - it's part of your required mandatory training. Not following the requirements is a disciplinary offence.

As a result I have never:

1. used SMS/Text for conveying/communicating any patient information [don't get me started on why text is a rubbish protocol for anything important - just let me say IT IS NOT INSTANT MESSAGING and no audit trail]

2 used email for conveying/communicating any patient information [even standard Trust intranet/Exchange is apparently not secure enough]

3 ever used Facetwit or whatever it is, ever, at all

Does this make me :

A. Smug self righteous b*****d

B. Boring so'n'so with no snese of up and coming use of technology

C. so scared of disciplinary process in the NHS and it's 'no blame culture' which is no blame as long as I can stick the blame on someone else (been there and seen that)

D. all of the above

E. I wouldn't like my personal information bandied about insecurely so stick to what's in the NHS regs

Terror in the Chernobyl dead zone: Life - of a wild kind - burgeons

This week on Tomorrow's World

I believe Lewis Page is really James Burke reincarnated after remnant cells from a 1970s Tomorrows World script coalesced and became substance. I salute all that nuclear can do for us!

MACAQUE ATTACK: Monkey plunders Florida resident's box, gobbles contents

Love the alliteration....

"Jacques' macaque's attacks lacked malice"

Superb

Introducing the Asus VivoMini UN42 – a pint-sized PC, literally

Mythtv frontend or Openelec

32 Gb SSD more than large enough. In fact only 5Gb would do for a frontend unless you wanted local storage (which defeats point of Mythtv front/backend split) Openelec would suite - almost entire ssd for your local library and still link to networked resources.

At 125gbp works out cheaper than buying Zotac ionitx boards + case + other bit'n'bobs