Posts by bobbear 46 posts • joined 24 Oct 2016
Quite right..
To paraphrase the old saying: "People might suspect that you are a lying, immoral, incompetent, immature, small-minded, vindicative, racist, dim-witted, misogynistic, self-serving, mentally ill moron with delusions of adequacy, but why keep opening your mouth and removing all doubt?"
"The biggest threat to US democracy lies in the Whitehouse not the Kremlin." - Not a lot of difference with the clear support for Trump by both the Russian Kleptocratic Dictatorship and the Chinese Hegemonic Dictatorship. Both China and Russia want whatever is in the worst interest of the West..
Backwards Telecom, listen? That'll be the day hell freezes over.. I've just received my 'new fibre connection' (and a Home Hub 2, now serving a useful function as a doorstop, although it does keep falling over..).
As you may have guessed - VDSL2 over a long piece of dodgy copper.
Identical (very slow..), throughput to the 'old' ADSL2, just re-arranged slightly to give a lower download speed and a faster upload speed. Oh, and my account charge, which "won't change" has gone up because they've contemporaneously scrapped my old unlimited landline calls for a 'new evening and weekends limited free call system'. which, you guessed it, will increase my overall costs. If only there was some practical competition in my rural backwater - can't even get a decent phone signal.
If India's third world, (possibly now promoted to first world in telecoms terms), I guess we are fourth world in telecoms terms, or am I being too generous?
Dear Deidre,
I'm very worried about my wood burning heating device. When I sit in front of it I notice that any exposed skin gets very hot as it is exposed to high levels of electromagnetic radiation at a far higher frequency than 5G. Should I be wearing a tinfoil balaclava, trousers and gloves?
Yours,
Paranoid of Pontefract
What Jurisdiction do the Americans and their British puppets hold over Russians and other foreign nationals ?
None, of course - as you well know.. They will be protected/sponsored by a state that has an international transparency.org corruption/fraud rating akin to Nigeria..
However, should they decide to take a holiday in sunnier climes in their lifetime..
Back in the days when I used to file abuse reports with registrars and ISPs it was amazing how many of them had anti-spam/AV protection on their abuse address which would stop me sending the evidence, without which they'd just reject the report.. I used to wonder if they were just dumb or didn't want to know. A mixture of both, I expect. I bet not much has changed..
I've always made my own desktops and in a moment of weakness I offered to make one for my neighbour, (stupid boy, I know...). Thankfully he wanted to go to PC World 'cos he liked the decor, I think, so I suggested a machine that looked the best compromise between excessive price and awful spec. that I could see & suggested that, (note, not 'recommended' - you have to be careful with words..). He came back next day to gleefuly tell me that he'd bought a machine that the salesperson said was "just as good" for £200 less "than the one you recommended", along with a bottom of the skip monitor without any leads and expected me to set it all up for him. That's why I no longer ever give advice on computers..
I hope there's intelligent life somewhere in the universe as there's bugger all on earth..
It might get to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, in a little over 4 years, and then another 4 years to receive a reply assuming there's a planet hosting intelligent life in the system, but I suspect 20,000 light years away may take a little longer, I'd guess about 20,000 + 20,000 years or so.. Trappist1 would be 39 +39 years give or take a second or three according to the published data...
"It would mean, that extraterrestrials over at Trappist-1, for example, would be constantly bombarded by the light." - No - a quick flash once a day, perhaps as the earth rotates and they'd only notice it if they had infra-red sensitive eyes of incredible sensitivity..
Is that the standard of MIT graduates/professors these days? We're doomed, (hence the icon)... I know this is to be taken with a pinch of salt but the old saying "people may think you are stupid, but why open your mouth and remove all doubt?" seems to apply here.. This has got to be clickbait, surely? It's the sort of bogus science that is seen every day in the media with their arts graduate 'science' correspondents..
Is it me or is the biological infestation on our little piece of rock getting dumber? Personally I blame leaded petrol/gas..
Ah, that brings back memories of the odd high voltage exploding electrolytic PSU capacitor which would bomb out of its case with a large explosion and leave a rail of aluminium and paper as it followed a random trajectory putting life and limb at risk. There's probably a definite potential for weapon development there...
Efficient contactless charging using magnetic resonance at a few hundred kilohertz is safe and feasible but only with close coupling. I envisage a round ceramic container, possibly with a handle for easy positioning, (rather like a coffee mug), with an embedded resonant circuit in which you drop your mobile... oh... hang on...
Ultrafast is 1Gbps symmetrical, today.
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Agreed
Pinch points should always be avoided in any network. Where your LAN standard is 1Gbps then it seems to me that a WAN standard should also be 1Gbps - or at least that should be the aim point. All these other continuously varying 'universal standard' figures plucked from the aether, (2Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 30Mbps etc etc), are frankly ALL irrational, ridiculous and short-sighted.
1Gbps definitively implies FTTP. It seems fairly obvious to me that FTTP is the ONLY sensible universal option for the future so it becomes a question of how we can get there in the fastest and most economical way and how great a percentage of the population can we extend it to? (In my opinion anyone who has a copper line).
BT/Openreach have continually avoided facing up the reality by installing FTTC in preference to FTTP and exploring evermore ways to try and extend the range and life of its frankly shoddy, unreliable and costly to maintain copper network.
I don't accept the arguments over need - you don't put a 1/2" water pipe or a 5KW maximum electricity supply into premises because "the pensioner who lives there doesn't need anything bigger" - premises change hands and requirements are continually changing - you plan ahead for all sensible eventualities, (such as multi-use, 'smart' TV's & IOT for example). FTTP should be part of the infrastructure of all new business and residential developments and the aim point for all such existing developments as FTTP is (relatively) future proof, copper is long past its use-by date. Having FTTP connected does not preclude the possibility of any individual being able to pay just for exactly what they use, i.e. a metered connection.
I accept there are problems to be solved over methods of providing 24/7 security services over FTTP, but FTTP is simply the transmission medium and the problems are solvable. There are also backup services such as 3G and 4G. There are also provisions for preferential electricity supply services for vulnerable people not to mention battery backup of security service equipment. All problems are solvable given the will to do it.
"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place." - Trump, 15th August."
Just another Trump 'Alt Truth' - the man turns lying into an art form without even realising it. I don't know why he still keeps banging on about the 'Fake News Media' when he keeps demonstrating his stupidity every time he tweets or opens his mouth in recorded public appearances..
People with a few brain cells stop digging when they've dug themselves into a hole. Hand Trump a shovel and he re-doubles his efforts..
I've had various Nationwide savings and current accounts for donkey's years - in fact I've migrated other accounts to them because they were the most reliable and helpful of all the bunch I've had over the years, Midland, First direct, Halifax, B&B etc etc. I've seen other banks come and go and watched numerous IT disasters with some amusement, but I've no complaint at all over my Nationwide service, (and no, I have no affiliation with them...).
I'm certainly talking about the ordinary 'uneducated user' - it is better that he/she is at least aware of the situation than blissfully ignorant of it, as it is better to know that you have cancer than to die of ignorance. In both instances if you are neither an IT expert or an oncologist, you can seek help.
However, in most cases the solutions are simple and require no expertise or button pushing. If you are using a modem to connect to your cable or ADSL/Fibre service then don't! Buy yourself a NAT enabled modem/router. If you cant afford a hardware firewall then at least use a reputable software firewall.
@John 104
Agreed. As a PC user since MSDOS days, I've had generally positive experiences with W95 XP W7 and now W10 on many machines. If you're careful what you do, (don't click on everything in sight...), disable all privacy related options, use a good NAT router, (check all ports closed with Shields Up), along with a good software firewall, AV and anti-malware & keep everything updated you'll be fine. (My Avira AV and Malware Bytes anti-malware never detect anything). I also have Linux mint on another box I use mainly for sandbox purposes, but generally W10 is the preferred choice for everyday use.
From providing IT support, the nut on the keyboard is the most unreliable component whatever OS is used.
There are a lot that apparently didn't take up the free W10 upgrade offer and I suspect that they are now feeling a tad foolish & bitter about it... It was pretty obvious from the outset that W10 was a bit raw, (in effect still in early development), but it should also have been clear that W10 was the right path to take after the W8 debacle and that the path was an evolutionary one and needed some patience. I've enjoyed the ride and now think that W10 has the potential to be the best Windows version to date.
"Agreed. One nice thing about Win 10 is you can run a machine with as little as 1 GB of ram on it fairly well. Machines that were worthless after about Vista can be given a new life."
I expect you've been 'auto-downvoted' by people who've never tried installing W10 on an old machine. I tried it on an old (& worthless!), Fujitsu Siemens Amilo with 1Gb of RAM which had had XP on it and was slow as a lame dog and I was pleasantly surprised that it made a usable machine out of it again, so have an upvote for accuracy.. I expect it's hardware dependent mind you, but it worked on mine.
Ought to stay home...
.... where Putin will give them a medal for service to the state, instead of traveling to the west where they are arrested.
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Have an upvote to compensate for the downvotes from the Putin Fake News and Propaganda Bureau, (forum cleansing branch). It may be a slight exaggeration he'd get a medal, but it's certainly true that Russian law enforcement takes no interest in this sort of thing.
In any event, it's nice to see these thieves getting collared when they stick their necks out from their St. Petersburg rat's nests and lose the protection of mother Russia.. I noticed that Seleznev, (the Russian member of parliament), was "outraged" by his son's recent conviction and didn't appear to think that he had done anything wrong, saying he was "innocent".. Says it all, really.
I imagine being a serious Russian 'activist' is a risky business at the best of times - the possible outcome being indefinite accommodation without trial in the Vladimir Central Prison and/or a polonium 210 cup of tea, depending on the perceived threat or if you skip the country. Should've stuck to safe occupations, (as long as you stay in Mother Russia..), such as money laundering fraud aimed at the Western economies..
Discrete transistors & a 'scope! Wow! I can't beat that either. I saw pong for the first time on a machine in a pub in about 1970 or thereabouts and went home to think about it and eventually made a version using 7400 series texas instruments ttl logic chips. It was in a nice wooden box and used slider pots for the bat controllers. It's probaby still up in the loft somewhere... I bet loads of people did exactly the same.. It was a great way to learn about logic functions.
Call me an old cynic, but It's funny how many of these Bogus Science (BS) hare-brained ideas come out in March just as funding negotiations for the next financial year get under way.. The BBC usually repeat the Cumbre Vieja mega tsunami hoax around this time of year, too...
Re: Why did people like the defender?
Well, it certainly wasn't the reliability. They break down all the time.
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Seconded - I spent a lot of my working life in the 70's and 80's in a team driving LWB Land Rovers and although you couldn't beat them for off-road use, you couldn't rely on getting back - they were pretty unreliable, not to mention crude, noisy and uncomfortable. The drive shafts and gearbox were both under-specced weak points, especially on the 3.5 litre model. We used to reckon on about 13,000 miles between half-shaft failures and about 30,000 miles for a gearbox. We moaned a lot about the reliability of them, and took a head office guy up to a site once to show him the problems were real and, as chance would have it, we were just going slowly up the track to a site and 'BANG' another rear half shaft gave up the ghost and we had to slowly drive 50 miles back on the front wheels only. It was such a common failure that the guys in the workshop could change them while you waited, if they could hook out the broken piece from the diff, that was.. The basic design concept was brilliant, but the engineering let them down and they never kept up with the times. The story of British industry, I guess, especially the car wreck that was the British motor industry in the 70's...
Re: "If this goes on...
Am I the only one who's been thinking for weeks "Nehemiah Scudder"?"
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Nehemiah Scudder, yes, a good fictional parallel, but I am getting much more disquieting thoughts about another factual rabble-rousing, cult of personality, insane lunatic that promised to make his country great again in Germany in the 1930's
It's started already. "The lawyers disagree with my bestest policies ever (fact) - sack the lawyers!"
Next it will be: "The press disagree with my bestest policies ever (fact) - close down the media apart from one government controlled organisation!" and so the drift towards disaster goes on...
Why are people dumb enough to follow hollow promise, visionless, pitiful examples of humankind such as this that are leading them on a path to disaster and for whom history is a closed book?
Suggested Presidential Qualities, (as defined by Forbes et al):
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Honesty
Decency
Wisdom
Integrity
Intelligence
Strength of Character
Strong moral fibre
Humility
Compassion
Humanity
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and, (Based on the above core qualities):
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A strong vision for the future
A deep knowledge of history and its lessons
Strong management skills
Effective communication skills
Team motivational skills
Awareness of one's own weaknesses
A willingness to listen and learn
Ability to control emotions
Ability to handle pressure & stress
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I see very little of Donald Trump in the above, lacking most of the desirable core presidential traits and most of the secondary qualities.
I quote from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural speech:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Different times, of course, but a little different from the Trump effort, I fear.
Heaven help us all...
I used to get a lot more scam and nuisance calls on my landline than I do now. I get far fewer since I put the following message on my answering machine:
"Hello, this number blocks all withheld and unrecognised numbers. To speak to us, please leave a message after the tone and we will either pick up or call you back. Thank you for calling."
If it's an obvious spoofed CLID, International, or if I don't recognise the number I just let it go to the message. Perhaps the scammers and spammers have a "remove number from database" option...
Any company that is dumb enough to still follow the practice of 'executive filtering' spam, (i.e. without forwarding it to a spam folder so it can be reviewed by the customer), deserves the flak that will inevitably follow as sure as night follows day... All they had to do was to copy the GMail model that preceded it...
ISPs could do a lot more to target bots. I've reported bots innumerable times with clear, comprehensive evidential data and had the reports totally ignored by big-name ISP's that were utterly clueless & didn't want to know so now I don't even bother... Time for large penalties for hosting bots, methinks.
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