Posts by StuartF

Whatever happened to ... Nest?

Re: Software will eat everything... sometimes

Newer boilers seem to support a 12V control line. Mine that is now 6 years old does.

Sending 240V to a controller is kind of crazy but convenient and I learned the painful way the first time I upgraded the thermostat in my current house with the old boiler

The Nest thermostat supports completely wireless with USB power or repurposing the disconnected 240V cable to provide 12V and power to the thermostat in which case you do not need the USB power supply. The boiler control/switching unit supplies the 12V from dedicated terminals

I have had a Nest thermostat for a few years now and it does seem to have reduced my gas usage. If only the cost had gone down too!

The Steve Jobs of supercomputers: We remember Seymour Cray

Re: Memories...

Glen. Same here I was at AEE Winfrith and submitted code overnight that usually failed. I did manage to visit it. It was a great thrill to sit on the seat as a 22/23 year old

Also probably cannot mention where it was but t began with H and ended with L

Now I have written that you may have to kill me !

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

Rather than use the familiar tick-tock cycle. Intel introduces the ding-dong cycle for it's digital bra

WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg

I present you the "iLog". Simples

Fanbois: We paid $2000 for full satisfaction but now we have SPREADING STAINS

Re: Eventually...

Apple have been selling more than 3 million Macs a quarter for many years now and a lot of these are laptops. To date we have a few hundred people some who have owned their laptops for some time who may or may not have legitimate reasons to complain. That is a tiny tiny percentage of owners.

I have very confidence that Apple will do the right thing and they seem to have already replaced some laptop screens for some users from reports I have read.

It's pretty easy to bash Apple but they have a good track record for service and regularly top the customer satisfaction ratings. I have no affiliation to Apple, just my view

Source:

http://fortune.com/2014/04/19/how-many-macs-did-apple-sell-last-quarter-7/

I am sure that somewhere Apple is tracking the reports to see if this is just noise or a real issue. If it is a real issue Apple have a reasonable track record of eventually getting around to fixing things and also reimbursing people who have already paid for a repair

What always amazes me is how badly some people treat expensive bits of tech and conversely some people treat stuff with kid gloves and don't understand why other people have problems.

A friend of mine called me up last year to say that her laptop screen (Lenovo) had broken in one corner. She had "just been cleaning it" to get rid of the "sneeze" marks. When pressed she confessed she had been cleaning it with her sleeve using her elbow. Not obviously the most delicate of cleaning techniques.

I was given a computer screen cleaning spray as a stocking filler last christmas. Made in China. Absolutely no indication of what it contained except warnings not to get it on the skin. It went straight to the back of the cupboard. Just had a quick smell of it and it smells like toilet cleaner and I reckon I could get pretty high after a few sniffs

So I guess what I am saying in a long winded way is that no company can predict what kind of stuff people will use to clean their screens and a bunch of people will be in total denial that it could be their own fault for treating their stuff like carp.

BBC: We'll give FREE subpar-Raspberry-Pis to a million Brit schoolkids

Re: Why?

Read the BBC article as it makes reasonable attempt to explain this.

This is about building future skills that allow the UK to remain competitive. The stuff that is needed to make sure a future work force is able to pay for our pensions, healthcare etc.

The hardware will support BBC TV programming and the costs will be shared with partners not exclusively by the license fee. It probably ends up being pretty cheap TV compared with some of the high budget stuff that is currently shown.

For me this is exactly why we have a license fee. A public broadcaster supporting a forward looking public program to help educate.

Re: Time for Sir Clive to Ride Again?

Add on 16K RAM pack possibly? Plus a blob on blutack to stop it wobbling

Re: Copyrights?

The information on the BBC Media centre site says:

"*The project is still in development and the final name, appearance and specification is likely to change"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/makeitdigital/micro-bit

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

Sucks Christmas Donkey Balls

Wez hads a grate christmas paarrty and came up with this new duzign which woz inspirited by a pool of sick.

Whattdaya fink peoples!

Weez luvs it....

Hic

Merry Christmas

Give nerds their own PRIVATE TRAIN CARRIAGES, say boffins

The boffins at the Fletcher Academy for Regional Transition Strategy (FARTS) have recommended merging National Rail and the NHS into a single body

Fast efficient operations while you travel to work and for the lucky few a flat bed all the way. Mobile doctors surgery with appointments in that wasted travel time. Get on the train at Ashford wake up without a pancreas at St Pancreas.

Delicate operations would need to be performed on lines without points. Or a vasectomy in Vauxhall could be a sex change by Basingstoke

No more expensive building of hospitals use that spare capacity outside of rush hour to take the hospital to the people.

Apple CEO Tim Cook: My well-known gayness is 'a gift from God'

Best comment I have seen from around the interweb...

Next week in Korea Times, "I'm gay too" - Samsung