Posts by ITMA 1220 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2019
Aluminium phone cables have far more problems than that.
Ask any BT Openreach engineer. BT tried this out a number of years ago and current BT engineers see them as "a bloody nightmare".
Like that utterly shite CCA network cabling (allegedly Cat5e/Cat6) - CCA, Copper Clad Aluminum. Look at it the wrong way and it breaks.
I have had cabling companies try to install that - because it is cheaper - and didn't like being told to rip it all out and replace it with pure copper.
That latter part "If, however, the subscription is an ongoing payment by you for the service then it's a somewhat better chance..." depends on the manufacturer (or whoever they may have subscontrated the subscription bit out to if they've done that) playing ball.
Do you know of any who have "played ball" or have the just said "Tough. It is proprietary - sod off".
"I said I’d try elsewhere and got a Foscam on Amazon."
They (Foscam) are going the same way.
Instead of updating the firmware in their NVRs and cameras to support other browsers than IE, they pushed their own subsctiption service or "Foscam VMS" - God that is utterly, utterly SHITE!!!!
Foscam VMS is one of the most dreadfully shite bits of software ever. Plus Foscam keep using dodgy ssl certificates for their cameras and NVR with no option to install your own - when they aren't being "revoked".
Well, what a surprise... NOT.
Simple solution - NEVER buy so called "home automation" or "security" products which rely on a subscription/or account on the manufacturer's (or anyone else's) systems just to bloody work.
They WILL dump you in the shit and not give a damn about the now useless hardware you are left with.
"Trackpad that if works..."
If wish they would just STOP turning tapping on by default. I absolutely hate that!
Yes it is fine for those that get on with it. For the rest like me, it is bloody dangerous. Randomly selecting, dragging and dropping God knows what to God knows where because their shitty "gestures" crap can't tell the difference between me lifting my finger and placing it back down to continue moving the mouse, and tapping.
STOP IT!!!!
The fundamental issue with patents is, and has always been, the strength of them depends on your ability to defend them.
This comes down to one simple fact, especially when the USA is involved - how deep are your pockets.
The deeper your pockets (or someone else's pockets who is willing to help), the better the lawyers you can afford to keep the other side in court and/or buried in legal stuff until they run out of money.
Quite common in installations with BTW (back to wall) toilets and the (concealed) cistern hidden behind the rear wall of the cubicle.
You either need to have "maintenance" hatches in every cubicle, which can potentially be opened by unauthorised people to give access to nice hideaways for illicit materia/itemsl, bombs etc.
Or you have a maintenance "gang way" running behind all of the cubicles giving access to all the otherwise inaccessible cisterns, water and sewage services. And electrical control gear for those "no contact" proximity flush things.
The problem here seems to be that someone forgot about the security of the maintenance areas.
I have that in the flats where I live.
The delay between the holding magnets de-energising (fail safe rather than fail secure) when the door release is pressed and the magnets re-energising can be a little too long at times.
Result - the door can "bounce" off the door jam and the closer then doesn't close it back to within "grab" range of the magnets when they re-energise. Thus the door remains "unlocked".
Precisely.
This "call", if enacted, would have as much effect on the use the Chinese state puts such technology to as an empty 500ml plastic bottle on a road has at stopping a 40 tonne truck. Absolutelty bugger all.
These politicians are doing it "to be seen be doing something" even though in practical terms it is utterly useless - pure political image.
And what have they done about the use of facial recognition and biometrics in this county? Strangely quiet on that one.. Especially when it comes to doing something in the one country they CAN do something. And they have done bugger all.
Strange that.
The harsh reality is that it is THEIR country, not ours.
Things here in the UK are sufficiently falling apart that UK MPs should be concentrating on the issues here in the UK.
If UK MPs have the time to do this, then their are NOT doing their job here which, BTW, happens to be the one they are being paid to do.
What ever one thinks of Hikvision's products, compared to a lot of crap that comes from China but still gets sold/imported to the UK, at least they are not downright electrically dangerous (as lot of said crap is).
So why are they targetting Hikvision but doing bugger all about all this other stuff? Quite a lot of which are fire hazards or potentially lethal.
"Eh? It's not gov.uk though is it, it's opposition parties & back benchers"
Doesn't matter which side of "The House" they sit on. They are there to run the UK for the good of the UK people, Not to look out for the interests or rights of citizens of some other country.
(Red) Ken Livingstone was (in)famous for that BITD.
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.
"Also I admit to being about 5 years out of date, but at that time I regarded most PLCs I came across as merely the best of a bad bunch".
Like most things, there are The Good, The Bad and The Bloody Atrocious. There is equipment I'm still having to keep going with PLCs 30+ years old in them (Specher + Schuh SESTEP 290).
And when first encountering them - especially if from more typical computing/microprocessor background - they are one of hell of culture shock. Their roots in mechanical relays make the way they work seem alien.
The "program scan cycle" takes some getting used to.
"Interesting factoid. The ATmega328 has a built-in watchdog that can be set to perform a reboot if the code locks up."
I think a lot of microcontrollers designed from the ground up as embedded controllers have had for donkeys years.
"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.
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