Posts by Screwed 232 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Mar 2013
Was in M&S yesterday late afternoon - and almost no yellow-labelled reductions. Whilst often of little or no relevance, it is unusual not to see quite a number of items with yellow label reductions at that time.
I suspect that the computer systems identify which items need attention, based on stock levels and dates, then someone goes round printing the yellows, and sticking them on. But if systems not working properly, that process likely failed to work properly.
But the one contactless payment I made (debit card via Apple wallet) worked and has appeared on my account this morning.
If you absolutely need a printer, but only actually print the odd sheet, the original cartridges/ink might last effectively forever.
That is, HP's need to recoup their investment will fail on the basis of your minuscule printing volume.
Could they actually require you to print more in order to force you to buy their supplies? (Some test and cleaner processes appear designed to do this!) Would they stop working if you do not print at least 100 pages a month, or some such?
(I've no idea is current day HP practices check expiry dates on supplies. Which would be another approach.)
Any drugs streaming in are paid for by those in the USA. Otherwise no-one would be supplying the drugs.
That so many end up wanting and/or needing such drugs is very much the underlying problem. And addressing that is probably the most important part of any attempt to reduce drug traffic.
I have one remaining x86 app - last compiled in 2011 - that I want to use. Luckily, that runs in a VMWare Fusion/W11 VM on my Apple Silicon boxes. Though I haven't given much thought to exactly how it achieves that.
And your point re travelling is 100%. It's not a major issue for me. But it does mean that even when out and about, if I wish, I can use that one app easily and quickly.
I do realise the Parallels offering is not just ability to run some apps. The carry with you issue applies regardless.
All too often we had to get rid of the original memory in order to upgrade capacity. I have loads of ancient DIMMs upstairs...
If you have a spare slot (or slots) and can put your choice of module capacity in, yes, it's good. If you have to spend ages working out what options are available and try to understand whether certain combinations will (or won't) work, or might negatively affect performance, it was all rather less than wonderful.
288pin DDR5 module compliant
Well, I wouldn't say no to the government ensuring that no-one introduces a 287 or 289 pin DDR module solely to implement a barrier to use of 288 pin modules.
And what has been quite amusing is when one company has adopted their own standard for something - then a merger or acquisition has meant they actually now want to be fully compatible but have screwed up that possibility.
But the range of voltages they use, that at least one I've got somewhere is AC, that the outer barrel is not insulated, the ease with which some diameters can be confused - at least visually. A long list of negatives.
Also, even if the physical barrel fits, even if the right polarity, plugging a heavy load into a low capacity charger can blow it almost immediately. The negotiation part of USB does a lot to prevent that even being possible, let alone likely.
The house I lived in was rewired to the new standards in, I think, 1963. And our house ended up as being just about the only place I saw 13A sockets for years.
Meant we couldn't readily lend or borrow electrical devices. But also meant we used same plugs for everything, no worry about 2, 5 and 15 amp plugs and a complex array of adaptors. Nor concern that so many devices were not earthed.
Our next-door neighbour used a pendant light-socket to 2-pin plug adaptor to do her ironing. While we had more sockets than we could use.
Even the significant issue of being able to touch the pins of 13A plugs was eventually addressed. And the range of fuses that we should use reduced.
Currently, I cannot see my own records (beyond a few fragments - for example, no test results, no notes, no letters). While I can request them, sometimes it is hard to even identify who holds them in order to do so.
It feels totally incredible that a considerable portion could be accessible to Palantir but not to me.
Currently, even public information can take a long time to work its way through the systems. The NHS' dm+d database might hold information about medicines, but a new medicines can take at least weeks, quite possibly months, to appear on GP systems so that it can be prescribed. And, in reverse, medicines which have been discontinued and cannot in reality be prescribed/dispensed still appear for a months and years.
This is the sort of information which should be kept in the UK. What if we fall out with the USA? What if the USA law gets rid of any protection we might think we have for our data?
I have an ageing W10 machine that cannot run W11. But I now use an Apple Silicon Mac and only use the old box for a couple of things now - an app for which I've found no alternative and to get over some issues with Microsoft Word under macos.
Ironically, this has forced me to W11 - as a VM under Fusion. Amazingly, the now very old app installed and works fine - despite it having been created and compiled for Intel, probably W7.
Somewhat oddly, you get different options depending on whether you search for "color" or "colour".
Color finds:
Choose your desktop background
Text cursor indicator colour
Choose your accent colour
View advanced display info
Colour filters
Colour finds:
Choose your desktop background
Mouse pointer style
Apply colour to Start, taskbar and Action Centre
Choose your accent colour
Colour settings
And there are even more differences if you choose Show all results.
(Windows 11 for ARM installed with English (United Kingdom.)
But Google Groups as a way of accessing it is dead. Now read-only of the archive - as far as it goes.
I'm well aware that a proper news server is a far better approach anyway, but this hammers another nail. It has been convenient in certain circumstances.
And what had a devastating effect on Usenet was the vast quantity of spam, malware, total junk, that was posted, and cross-posted all over. Along with the impact of binaries on servers which really only had limited capacity. As a Berlin user, I saw only text - thankfully. But I let that lapse when some of the most important topics (to me, of course!) were more readily and better served by other approaches. It was always difficult to get those with web-only experience even to use mail (other than via web portals), let alone connect to Usenet servers.
Yes - there is still https://www.eternal-september.org/ - must sign up!
Maybe, just possibly, you might eventually realise that most roads (other than truly residential roads) in Wales do not have a 20mph limit. Despite what the clown Andrew RT Davies says, it is NOT a blanket 20mph limit across the nation.
Most days, I have one section between my front door and the nearest main road, all estate roads, which is 20. Often the entire rest of my journey is on roads with higher limits. I can drive right through town and out the other side only having been in 30 and 40 limits.
And there are still lots of roads which have a 60 limit which really could do with being dropped to 50, or even 40 in some places.
I like the adaptive cruise control on my car.
Yes - I can maintain a steady speed over long distances and have many, many miles under my belt. But, for example, on a long stretch of 50mph motorway, I can set it and be sure I won't be speeding. At the same time, a lot of my attention is on what is happening outside the car rather than on the speedo. All too many switch lanes frequently, without indicating, and having speeded up a tiny but, then have to slow down. And switch back. Awareness of them is critical.
The adaptive bit works well at slowing if the vehicle ahead is going slower. It also works extremely well on hills. And, contrary to what some have said, it will even free-wheel in the right conditions to minimise fuel consumption.
My PayPal history is confined to a subset of my purchases where I cannot use one of my other preferred ways of paying. These days, that is quite rare.
If PayPal analyse me for advertising, they will see a very odd and biased view. And if they sell that onwards it will mislead potential advertisers.
I am still hoping that my bank will offer an anonymised payment mechanism where the payee doesn't get to know anything about me and my account like card numbers, expiry, even bank name! Something like Apple Pay but better.
I live in an area with somewhat, or very, patchy coverage on all networks, on 3G, 4G and 5G. I am currently on Three while partner is on EE. (She had to move from Vodafone because their network is so awful here.)
This means that most of the time, at least one of us has a signal. Which is helpful.
At the end of this year, Three will have terminated all 3G coverage but still has virtually no 5G in the whole county and beyond. O2 and Vodafone have no 5G at all. While EE has at least got some coverage in the more populated areas - though still with many gaps.
Yet the websites of all these networks are pushing 5G phones. We are being told the network
Apparently we will enjoy a better network experience with greater coverage and reliability at no extra cost. I can't see why we will see any improvement at all.
Their claim:
"MergeCo will achieve this whilst also reducing energy consumption by accelerating the installation of energy efficient 5G equipment and replacing less power-efficient 2G and 3G systems."
is also junk as 3G will be turned off by the time the merger happens (by end of 2024) and Vodafone 2G will only exist for utility meters. (And Three does not have any 2G.)
Imagine that Regland Kingdom has a revolution and becomes the Republic of Regland, they will want nothing to do with the old assigned IPv4 address and will demand a new one. (Even if they keep using the old address.)
Then, when the Republic of Regland splits into South Regland and Reglandia, the same will happen again. With the added issue of neither of the new nations accepting the other controlling the old IPv4 address(es).
In time South Regland and Reglandia settle their differences and become United Regland. And again, to mark the occasion and avoid ending up using two addresses, or one address taking precedence over the other, they need another new address.
Even if I do as you suggest, and move my fingers left and right as far as I can without being painful, my ring fingers are longer than my index fingers. (I do mean the ring finger on each hand, not both the ring fingers on my third hand.)
Any relationship with athletic performance, however, has passed me by entirely.
As for being psychotic, I'm really not the one to judge.
My first ever program caused the IBM mainframe to snarl up. Early 1970s, at school, punched with a manual card punch and a simple Fortran program.
Seems I made a mistake with a punched card but not sure if it was mis-punched or left out. Should have been something like:
#IOCS NONCONTROL
Got a curt note back with my stack of cards.
While I never made that mistake again, one of the joys of computers is the seemingly infinite number of opportunities to screw things up.
There were some very information and helpful health-related usenet forums. And one I used a lot is still in existence with one chap valiantly still posting regularly.
Two things made it progressively less and less pleasant to use: spam and belligerent posting. But all the binary posting - requiring much greater server capacity and bandwidth - didn't help. And we saw several ISPs drop out.
I used to pay for access through "the Berlin server" - which was pretty damned good.
Occasionally I use Google groups to see what is happening (not much!).
Anyone know of a reasonable client for use on an M1 macOS machine? The one I liked best was xnews.
"Unlike the padlock, it has no obvious link to any real world object that hints at its function."
My eyes say it is two keys. But my house has an unusual key design throughout. (Not the usual Yale-type.) I'd not expect that interpretation to be at the top of the list for most people.
And it is horrible.
Though it rather depends on how tweets are counted. For example, a reply, a retweet and a quote tweet of the same thing can be done very quickly.
And the continuing lack of an edit function sees numerous replies to tweets just to minor correct typos. Often within seconds. Which can ramp up tweet numbers for those of us with fat fingers.
It has also been suggested that non-payers will be limited in likes they can apply.
Round my area, Royal Mail have largely switched to electric vehicles. And what a difference to noise and, most especially, diesel exhaust - which can be very bad when they restart the engine multiple times even in our short road.
From that point of view, I'd very much appreciate one of these delivering rather than the diesel vehicles Amazon (and most others) use. But how would Amazon handle the sixty miles from their nearest depot to where I live? A local depot which employs people to transfer packages from vans or lorries to Scouts seems the only possibility. Which would require considerable numbers of transfer depots to cover even the urban areas of a country. With staff. And lots of Scouts so they can still deliver in a sensible time even at busy periods. And particularly so when they have to wait, possibly for many hours, for the customer to unload them.
So this seems feasible to use only in specific areas which match how they operate. No wonder Amazon are not expanding the project.
And I very much agree with those who prefer a brief chat with a human.
Concentration on the size of the reactor tends to read as if an artic turns up, the reactor gets put on a prepared slab, and someone turns up to connect some cables.
We need the full scale of the plant to be clarified.
If each one can power a thousand homes, we'd need 3634 (2020 figures) for London alone - and that's just for houses. Add in the extras you identify, and fitting them in will be extremely challenging!
With both micro-USB and Lightning, I have had small pieces of paper find their way into phones' sockets. But no such problem with the one USB-C phone I temporarily had (a few months).
Is it possible for the USB-C socket to incorporate some sort of silicone cover, or dummy plug, without breaking USB-C standards?
And while the EU are at it, please force all carriers to support eSIMs at no extra charge. Not to force a change to eSIMs, just ensure that they cannot effectively be blocked by technology or cost/charge decisions made by the carriers.
I've found setting the default printer to a PDF virtual printer can help to avoid, rather to side-step, the issue with Word.
Inconvenient if you do actually print to a real printer. But if that is fairly rare, this approach can work acceptably for many.
And heaven help if you use label printers and other such devices. Bound to forget to switch back at least occasionally. Especially with the "make last printer used the default" option selected.
He tweets (ironic in itself) about the word applied to the process!
"Recall" might not now be the word anyone would choose. But it is familiar and, with the extra information about it being possible over the air, has pretty obvious meaning.
Would he really prefer some sort of "Ban from the highway until updated" notice?
I decided against facebook and their stable-mates many years ago. Never joined nor installed any of their software. Tried never to visit any page in their empire. Block traffic.
Despite all that, I suspect they know too much about me. And are far too dominant. Quite how they have been able to make the acquisitions they have without triggering antitrust / monopoly concerns is astonishing.
What's wrong with British Fava Beans? (Except they've run out at present.)
"Whole Fava Beans, Organic
Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains
Britain's original bean, the fava bean is delicious, nutritious and good for the soil. Our Organic Whole Fava Beans are perfect for spicy Egyptian ful medames, truly British baked beans, stews, curries, salads and more.
Our current crop of whole fava beans are the unusually small, round and wonderfully tender Maris Bead variety, bred over 50 years ago at the Plant Breeding Institute on Maris Lane near Cambridge. Whether they're cooked from dry or used canned, we think these are our best ever whole fava."
https://hodmedods.co.uk/products/whole-fava-beans
The only reason I'd like an Apple Watch 8 is to check out the health features - there are some features which might help to illuminate my own bodily issues.
But I'd probably end up barely using any of its facilities after an initial, and rather short, period of obsessive checking. Hopelessly not worth buying.
And the AW 7 hasn't dropped in price sufficiently to appeal even as an Apple refurb. (Even going back to the AW 3 is still remarkably expensive as an Apple refurb. And that is surely a dead-end.)
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