Posts by ITMA 787 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2019
And besides, they have far more pressing issues to deal with here in the UK.
So they should get off their over paid backsides and deal with those instead of wasting time on what China is doing with cameras.
Could it be because they think it will help distract from the utterly shite job they are doing here in the UK?
Let's be clear.
This suggested ban has ZERO to do with any imagined or real security issues with the products. It has everythng to do with a political argument about the uses that some the products are put to by one, admittedly very big, customer - the Chinese state.
If you don't think that is the case, pleae provide links to anything where it mentions "security issues with the products".
Why aren't there any calls to ban American products associated with firearms because the USA seems very reluctant to do anything about the serious issues they have with gun ownership/abuse/mass slaughtering of children over there?
Odd that....
Why not ban cars as they can be used to kill people. Or hammers.
There is a reason Hikvision are used by a great many people, companies and local authorities - because their products are pretty damned good at what they do.
This smacks of protectionism. I wonder how many "vested interests" are involved in the calling for this ban because their own products are crap in comparison?
And what, exactly, does FedEx think "the cloud" is beyond other people's datacentres...
And they still manage to lose packages and have others delayed "awaiting information for customs" which you've already given them.... multiple times.
"One of the savings was flexible licensing with Office 365. Not using a license, remove it and you don't pay for it so you can just pay for ones being used."
Absolutely. The "month by month" may be slightly more expensive, but you can add and remove licences at will as staff join and leave. Very useful for interns and temporary staff.
I don't think you quite grasped the arugment I was making.
I also think that you miss the fact that, particularly with Pis, that they have (almost by definition) a whole raft of additional layers of software on Pi compared to (say) a Mitsubishi FX series. (such as the FX5). All of which can impact the overall reliability of it as a industrial controller.
As for "Big companies employ only the best and brightest? I think you're misguided".
Where did I state that?
I know small companies that (or think they do) employ the "best and brightest" who have a total lack of basic common sense. Don't even know the basics of using the correct rating fuse in a mains lead and think nothing of connecting a device, which has WiFi connectivity, to the internet (and controlled via an account on an external system) to turn the light inside it on and off using their personal phones. And then use that in an internal process.
Instead of just taking the bloody lamp out.
Have they?
I'd trust a proper dedicted PLC from a manufacturer who has been in the business decades than any of these abortions built around Rasperry Pis or Arduinos etc and programmed by people who THINK they know what they are doing.
The problem comes when connectivity gets involved and security is sacrificed for "convenience" aka LAZY buggers who want to do everything via their effing phones. And when IT/security says no they "squeem and squeem, stamp their feet and throw their toys out the pram" until they get their way.
It is more insidious than that.
IT seems to be one of those areas where everyone who has a 'puter at home or a smartphone suddenly thinks they are an expert when IT disagrees or objects with what they want.
Couple that with a senior management who hold similar views and the outcome is deep, sticky, brown and very very smelly.
Oh - and THEN they call IT to come clean it up and wipe their backsides for them.
A bit of an old thread but I thought worth adding this to it.
I encountered a problem with the RBS Mobile Banking App (Android). If I try to go to the "Manage my cards" section it DEMANDS I select one of the Google accounts on my phone. Something which you can't get past to get at the card management functions.
The brain dead morons who wrote the app bundled the Google Pay bits in with card management and ASSUMNED that anyone going into that part of the app MUST be wanting to setup/use Google Pay.
WRONG! VERY VERY WRONG!!!
I raised this as an official complaint with RBS and the official reply was "We've followed our complaints process and happen to disagree that this is a problem - fuck off".
So this is now a complaint against RBS directly with the FSA on the grounds that they demanding I supply them with data they do not need and have no right to before they will allow me access to the card management functions in the app despite them having nothing to do with Google Pay. Plus they have handled it in a really poxy way.
Oh I also complained about them ramming charity begging messages down my throat AFTER I had logged into the app WITHOUT my consent.
Yup and yup.
Plus plans in motion (at a speed which makes glacier watching seem like a fast moving spectator sport) on upgrading the PLCs to the current range of Mitsubishi units and the internal software translated.
It is the last XP machine we have - for this one purpose. Keeping our even more ancient (and increasingly decrpid) plant operational.
"Ditto for the moron below you using XP"
Clearly you have no old custom made plant controlled by PLCs for which the Windows software - for uploading/downloading/modifying etc the PLC programming - does NOT run on anything newer than XP.
For those of us that do, the "moron" choice is throwing out plant with a very high replacement cost (mostly custom built) and stopping multiple production processes JUST so we can move off XP for one machine.
So who is the moron?
I had that when working for Newcastle Education Authority.
Had several Advisory Teachers and Teacher Advisors (I never did find out what the difference is) try and tell a primary school head teacher how to do this over the phone.
They all FAILED.
Why? Because they assumed the head teacher knew what "Press SHIFT and BREAK" meant and repeatedly told her WHAT to do but competely FAILED to tell her HOW to do it.
When I calmly told her "With your left hand press and hold the left shift key. Now while keeping it held down use your right hand to press and release the BREAK key. Then release the SHIFT key".
Worked perfectly.
What was going wrong for everyone else?
They never anticipated that she was first of all pressing SHIFT THEN BREAK (one after the other) before being told to do them "together" at which time she was stabbing at both keys simultaneously and just happened to be releasing the SHIFT key a fraction of a second BEFORE the BREAK key. Which doesn't work.
The Russians tried something like that during WW2 - training dogs to run under tanks at the appropriate moment in return for food.
Then they turned them into four-legged bombs.
Only problem was... They'd trained them to run under Russian tanks and that is the sound they recognised. So when "deployed" on real battlefieds they ran under the tanks they recongnised the sight/smell of which were NOT the German tanks (smelt totally different to the Russian ones).
I doubt the dogs "volunteered" to be bombs.
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-soviet-anti-tank-dog-7f00425652eb
"2 cartridge slots for easier insertion of ROMs -- I think those never really caught on, as the socketed ROMs of the original Beeb were too well established."
Oh yes they did once "empty" catridges started to be sold by Watford Electronics, Technomatic etc (I have several). Much easier to swap your physical ROMs over that way. Especially if you have any of those "protected" ROMs which are much harder to produce an image off and load into sideways RAM.
You are correct, but your analogy is rubbish.
More like comparing two different models of radios from the same manufacturer - one with a digital frequency display and keypad (the Compact) and the other with an on/off switch and a single preset channel button (the FileStore E01S)
I always rememberd the Filestore E01S as being more like a Master Compact because it used the same awful EEPROM (IIRC) for storing the system settings, same as the Compact, compared to the Master proper which uses real CMOS RAM.
Never liked the E01S. Much preferred Level 3 Econet FilerStore to run on a Master 128 with internal 65C02 co-pro. Much easier to work with if the hard drive file structure got trashed (which happened a fair number of times in Newcastle schools).
Then there was the SJ Research Econet file "server".
The standard Master 128 was a 65C102, compared to the BBC B's 6502A.
It also had 64K of "sideways" RAM into which you could install sideways ROM "images" as well as plug ROMs into both the mainboard on the inside or via the two catridge slots.
It also had 20K of "shadow" RAM which alleviated a lot of the issues the BBC B had with the higher resolution modes leaving very little user RAM. The remaining 12K of "extra" RAM was used as private workspace for the MOS (Machine Operating System) and the sideways ROMS.
It had an internal TUBE slot for internal co-processors (mine here at home is the Master 512 which is a Master 128 with internal 80C186 co-processor running DOS+) as well as a (little used) modem connector.
Built in floppy disc interface (using the WD1770/1772) complete with DFS and ADFS. All of those were extras on the BBC B, which also ate up precious user RAM, and the "standard" disc interface used the Intel 8271 which couldn't do ADFS.
Finally it had a CMOS RAM for maintaining the various configuration settings. Oh it also had various bits of software built into the system ROM (as sideways ROMS) including the View word processor and ViewSheet speadsheet.
So all in all a VERY "suped up" Beeb.
You're not thinking of the Master Compact by any chance?
That's the only "pizza box" machine Acorn made before the Archies.
They did various ECONET servers in pizza box cases, but they were basically just Master Compacts badged and tweaked to act as ECONET file servers.
I worked in the IT Centre for Newcastle Education Authority at the time supporting school staff on BBC B's, Masters, Macs (we were one the early ARICs - Apple Regional Information Centres), and eventually Archies.
We even had the official Acorn maintenance training run by Acorn on the 305, 310, 410, 440 from the day they were launched.
God those early ones were so full of bugs - hardware and software.
"Especially as increasingly they can use the cloud to back things up, and also for re-downloading software via online app stores."
And as Swann security customers found - so can other people download your video camera footage from "the cloud" and even view your live camera feeds through "the cloud".
" you'll often find the camera itself is far harder to reach/destroy than the NVR is."
Only if the NVR has been installed by a total numpty...
I set up a 10 camera system for a friend on a remote site which has 80/20 FTTC. The NVR is very, very much harder to both find and get at than the cameras - which are after all visible - and where each camera is installed is usually in view of one of the other cameras.
As the cameras are a mix of two brands, over half (the much better brand) have microSDs in them anyway, but that is because that is necessary for VCA (video content analysis) for their gamut of smart video event detections tricks (allegedly utilising "deep learning"). So the also do a degree of "built in recording" but the main feeds are done via the NVR. Those we can download at will far quicker than someone can get at the NVR.
Fine for single camera systems like body cams.
Otherwise - put your video where it belongs, on a physically secure (ideally remote and ideally owned and physically controlled by you) NVR.
4 months of your precious security footage, possibly showing the perps casing the job, gone when they nick/destroy the camera.
They now have the bloody annoying grammar checker in Outlook for Androiod which, if you don't like or want its "suggestions", gives you an option to tap on "Ignore"..... Which it then... IGNORES!!!
And can you turn the f*****g off? NO, not without completely disabling the Microsoft Editor which also kills spell checking which is infinitely more useful.
Another spectacular own goal by Microsoft.
And the Android Remote Desktop client (just updated) STILL won't connect to AD joined machines (error 0x2407)...
On the subject of dogs, men and biting.....
Colin Tucker put it very well in the first paragraph of Chapter 1 of his book "How to drive a nuclear reactor":
"I've heard it said that a modern nuclear power station could be operated by one man and a dog. The man would be there to feed the dog, and the dog would be there to bite the man if he touched any of the controls".
I think Microsoft need such a dog in Microsoft's "new features" division.
LOL
I think this guy sums it up quite succinctly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3LqQLXdz9I
As for "dumping" electricty - yes you can. They are called "dummy loads".
https://utilityweek.co.uk/concerns-raised-over-deliberate-energy-waste-for-flexibility/
There you go!
"Concerns have been raised over the deliberate wasting of energy to provide flexibility after load banks – devices for creating dummy loads to test power supplies such as backup generators – were accepted into an ad hoc service to increase demand on the power grid. The load banks were entered into the Optional Downward Flexibility Management service introduced by National Grid Electricity System Operator as an emergency measure to deal with low demand on the power grid over the summer of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic."
I agree Lionel.
I don't give a monkey's if the desktop OS is Windows, Linux (of any flavour) or Pink Unicorn with tartan spots (Playshool Edition)!
As long as it runs the applications we need to run our business and isn't a pain to support or maintain, it really doesn't matter.
What works for you is fine. What works for us just happens to be Windows. It is not, and should be, a case of "My OS is better than yours 'cos I say it is"...
Horses for courses...
I generally find Office OK....
What I really loathe is the way MicroSoft just can't stop ****ing about with it. They just have to bloody fiddle. Keep introducing new useless functions (as they do with Windows) and INSIST and turning bloody things on!
Like the "focused" inbox debacle and the predictive typing which starts deleting everything you've typed if you don't like its crap suggestions.
And don't even get me started on that "News & Interests" s**te.
Windows 11 is Microsoft's "fiddlers wet dream".
I think it is called sheer bloody laziness, lack of self discipline and a discorganised, untidy mind.
If you can't even clean up your browser by closing tabs when finished with them, I dread to think what are like with other things left "hanging".
Reminds me of the classic "child that spots a new toy" analogy - just drops the one(s) they have where ever they happen to be. Behind them a trail of discarded toys until their parents MAKE them tidy their room and put their toys away.
"Of course, control over, and access to your data (unencrypted) are not the same thing."
Correct. But fat lot of use your encryption is if you can't access your own data when you need to because the person that has physical control over it won't or can't let you access it for a whole raft of reasons - unpaid bills (even it is a mistake and they have been), their data centre has had a serious fire (OVHCloud for instance), they screwed up their security, you've had a serious falling out with them and are in dispute, war affecting where your data is hosted.
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