Posts by FlossyThePig 270 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Apr 2012
I remember reading "Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple" by John Scully when, after moving to Apple he discovered a non-corporate world way of working. One detail, was white boards on the wall next to coffee machines. People from different areas could discuss, and potentially solve, technical issues, making notes on the boards.
Both Office 2019 and Office 365 can be loaded locally.
Wearing my hat as family IT specialist I have my grand-daughters laptop which requires the latest version of Office 365 installed. It's a free download for students and teachers at schools and colleges, providing the establishment has signed up for the deal.
What is this obsession people seem to have with root canal treatment?
Over the years I've had some and only one hurt, and I mean HURT.
It was about 50 years ago and I had an abscess in upper right 2. The dentist could not get the local anesthetic to work, so dental nurse and receptionist held me down while he drilled away. No more details required here.
Subsequent dentists have had no problem getting the local anesthetic to work for any treatment (hint: If your dentist needs to inject into the roof of your mouth get an anesthetic gel applied first).
Many years ago I was part of a team testing software that used some very complex mathematics to produce the results. A number of PHd mathematicians were involved in the development. Everything was going well until an undocumented error message was displayed which was something like:
"The data is not monotonically increasing"
100% accurate but also 100% useless in the real world (unless you are PHd mathematician).
P.S. All I need now is to find that "monotonically increasing" has been included in the latest GCSE Maths syllabus.
Do the people who fly more traditional RC aircraft (plane and helicopter models) now call them drones or is it a term only used by media types when referring to quadcopters and similar flying devices.
Of course military "drones" are in a different league and can do serious physical damage.
Apple pencil was £89 now £119
Apple Pencil (2nd generation) for iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (3rd generation) and iPad Pro 11‑inch - £119
Apple Pencil for iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (1st and 2nd generations), iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 9.7‑inch and iPad (6th generation) - still £89
Logitech Crayon for iPad (6th Gen.) - £59.95 (from Apple)
...remotely disconnect your supply...
What a load of FUD.
The regulations, in the UK, regarding disconnection that apply to dumb meters applies to "smart" meters as well. There are a number of hoops to jump through before disconnection. Finally, somebody has to physically disconnect at the property to ensure, for example, there is no life saving medical equipment is installed.
Our cat flap only uses the RFID tag to allow entry. On the rare occasions when kitty has to stay in (e.g. trip to the vet) there is a physical latch to disable free exit.
I believe you can get a cat flap that is app enabled, so you can control it by your phone, WTF. Are we getting a generation who can only do things via their phone?
Icon because it's nearest to kitty.
I've not pushing up daisies yet but I did amass a large collection (1000+) of kit car magazines over the years. Without going into detail they had to go. After investigating various methods of disposal I emailed the editor of a kit car magazine that was relatively new to the market. he took the lot and gave me a 5 year subscription to his mag.
P.S. Around my way there is a charity TWAM (Tools With A Mission) which collects old tools, refurbishes them and then ships them to third world African countries. They even take old computer hardware now.
In the late '70s a department in the office I worked had a "prick of the week" award. The trophy was usually displayed on the recipent's desk for the week. Anybody could win the award regardless of gender and seniority.
The trophy was cylindrical and stood vertically. Could we have an award like that today?
I remember hearing on the radio an interview with an English/Russian interpreter. During a meeting between an American president and his Russian counterpart, he used the expression “not buying pig in a poke”. This was translated into the Russian equivalent “not buying cat in a bag”. The Russian president replied by talking about cats.
I can’t remember how the interpreter solved the problem but it would be interesting to get AI to solve it, assuming it had an understanding of idiomatic phrases.
I used to Use the built in Skype app on a Panasonic TV with attached Panasonic USB camera to chat with our yougest in New Zealand, who had a similar Panasonic setup. Once, for some reason (which I can't remember) he used Facetime to talk to SWMBO on her iPad.
I was looking for a new PC at the time, so I blew my budget and bought an iMac and I haven't used Skype since.
...it's thruppence...
Isn't that a term from pre-decimal currency, when thruppence was a quarter of a bob.
I can remember just before "D" (decimal) day a pint in the local cost 1/9. That should have become 9p after "D" day but it became 9.5p.
(Where's the Boring Old Fart icon)
There used to be large whisky bottles attached to optics in pubs. I don't know what size they were but Jeroboam seems like a good starting point.
Wine can come in much larger bottles but if you can't pour it easily it's probably too big (Methuselah - 6 litres, and that's not the largest).
It's not confined to government health IT projects. My second Rule of Computing states:
Any large scale public sector development will exceed the initial budget by a factor of x* times and will be late.
* - choose any number but you may underestimate the value.
To save you asking, there are currently only 2 rules, the first is
If the project is High Profile, has "challenging" timescales and uses something new (hardware or software) it will fail.
@not.known@this.address
how about teaching children how to do this properly at school, rather than filling their heads with trendy nonsense like phonetics to teach spelling.
In the '50s I learned to read using phonics. Since then trendy methods have come and gone and we are back to using phonics that was used to teach my grandchildren how to read. You do learn the differences in spelling words like "F"arming and "PH"onetics (how do you spell "ff").
I had a colleague a few years ago who was (mis)taught to read using the Initial Teaching Alphabet. He admitted that even in his forties he had difficulty reading.
OK, how many here have had training on any part of the MS Office suite.
How many mouse clicks does it take to add BCC to an email?
In my experience most companies seem to expect staff to know how to use the main MS Office tools so don't provide training. It doesn't surprise me when someone (at any level) makes a blunder which can have serious repercussions.
@ Doctor Syntax
...dig up every drive and garden...
In a previous property we had extensive building work carried out, including a laying new drive. British Gas (as it was then) could only connect us after all the work was completed. They used some form of burrowing tool to get the new gas pipe from the main one in the road to the side of the house where the meter was to be installed. There was no damage to my nice new drive.
Another old kid here and GG suits me as I rarely make calls on my phone. Occasional text message and receive calls. Wifi used for all things data. My balance is automatically topped up by £10 when balance drops below £3 (top up restricted to 3 times a month so not a major problem if phone nicked). No need for Goody Bags from GG but I remember buying real ones when I was a nipper.
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