* Posts by The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

343 publicly visible posts • joined 22 May 2020

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UK minister tells telcos to share telegraph poles if they can't lay cable underground

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: I am not a NIMBY

Forgot to mention

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9w9g819g9no

One of the companies wreaking havoc in our area managed to hit a gas main earlier this week. One of the reasons they give for installing poles rather than digging ducts is reducing the risk of damaging other existing services...

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Carbon savings

In our case (see my musings above) Connexin have issued press releases trumpeting their green credentials about using posts rather than digging. What they don't mention is that they are putting posts in where ducts already exist or where poles already exist. So they are basically claiming that killing a tree, marinating it in creosote and then digging a hole and planting it again is greener than using the infrastructure that ALREADY EXISTS. Total and utter green wash.

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

I am not a NIMBY

It's not my Back Yard they want to put a pole in - it's in front of my house. It can't be put on the other side of the road because KCOM already have a telegraph pole there. That's right, we already have a telegraph pole with fibre to the premises and yet the only way we'll see competition for broadband is if we get a DUPLICATE infrastructure. Half the country has NO fibre and we'll get DOUBLE fibre, if the supply companies get their way.

The planning notice for our spare telegraph pole was put up during Christmas week. The flier put through our letter box at the same time refers to a "requirement to bring full fibre connectivity to the local properties". We've had full fibre (including landline telephone) for about six years already but only one choice of supplier - KCOM.

There are two companies (MS3 and Connexin) doubling up broadband capacity around the KCOM area regardless of actual need and without following the OFCOM code of practice (unless brought to book by protestors). They claim that KCOM won't let them share access - KCOM claim that they haven't been asked and we poor customers have to suffer the tantrums.

Ad agency boss owned two Ferraris but wouldn't buy a real server

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

"If buying consumer drives means you can buy an extra parity drive"

That would be the Inexpensive Drives in RAID then

Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Coat

Re: Ovine Park

Or, as the scousers call it, "shurrup ewes"

Job interview descended into sweary shouting match, candidate got the gig anyway

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Somebody I met on industrial placement...

Went on to try and get a graduate job with a large car manufacturer. They ran an intensive interview and testing day starting first thing, so accommodation was provided for the candidates for the night before. Being students, they all hit the bar and she spent some time relating tales of our party evenings whilst on placement to a couple of the other candidates.

First interview next morning and she sees that the youngest member of the panel had been in the bar the night before, posing as a candidate. One of her audience from the night before.

"Work hard, Play harder" must have worked because they did offer her a job. Unfortunately, it was the early 90s so they froze all graduate recruitment and she was out of the job before she'd started.

London's famous BT Tower will become a hotel after £275M sale

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Facepalm

The cloud

How will BT access The Cloud if they sell their tallest tower?

Trident missile test a damp squib after rocket goes 'plop,' fails to ignite

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

"Missile status report please Number One"

"It's fallen in the water"

RIP Spike

Hubble telescope spots tiniest water-rich world in orbit

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Trollface

"located in the constellation Pisces"

A Water sign.

Maybe the astrologists knew more than we give them credit for.

Standards-obsessed boss ignored one, and suffered all night for his sin

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: is to gradually push less

Somebody told me (quite a while ago) that lifting your toppled bike back up is/was part of the rider's licence test in Japan.

I don't know if I was being fed a line, and a quick web search hasn't confirmed it but it does make sense.

Junior techie had leverage, but didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

sounds like a dolphinarium ... of sorts

At last: The BBC Micro you always wanted, in Mastodon form

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Boffin

Re: BASIC

DEF PROC = define procedure, DEF FN = define function, as with proper grown-up languages. Meant that beeb basic only needed GOTO / GOSUB for compatibly, or for students to upset the lecturers.

You're correct in saying that dollar variables in the beeb are strings, but variables without are all float numbers. You need to add a % to force an integer variable. So silly$ = "sillystring", e = 2.718281828 and int% = 127. All defined variables are stored in the RAM space between the program and the screen memory space.

The beeb also had A% to Z% as integers stored below user RAM (page 04xx iirc). These didn't get cleared when a program was run, so could be used to pass integer values between programs.

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: BASIC

If I remember correctly, "SILLY".

Can't check until I recap the psu in my (much repaired) model B.

Data regulator fines HelloFresh £140K for sending 80M+ spams

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

What about Harrassment?

Those peeps who were still getting pestered after cancelling / opting out. And especially after sending "cease and desist" requests.

That's not spamming, that's got to be harassment. Low level, I admit - nothing like some people have to endure - but still unwanted. Do them for that too. With porridge for the directors, served in a handy mail-order box.

While we fire the boss, can you lock him out of the network?

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Likewise ...

I remember seeing a photocopier joke* back in the 80s of a lady-of-the-night leaning against a bus stop sign. The punchline was "the customer always comes first".

* A funny distributed by people photocopying your copy and adding it to their collection. We've got email for that sort of thing now.

UK PM promises faster justice for Post Office Horizon victims

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: No Justice

"Just been announced on the BBC Radio 4 News that she has handed back her CBE."

She will be getting another gong very soon - the Gerald Ratner "Protecting the Brand" award

Windows boss takes on taskbar turmoil, pledges to 'make Start menu great again'

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Typing in the start menu

"(we need a stouter beer icon)"

or Dark Theme icons

Fujitsu wins flood contract extension despite starring in TV drama about its failures

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Trollface

Take a look on the bright side

Every contract that gets given to Fujitsu is a contract that doesn't get given to Crapita.

This could still wing its way to you, if you have the dosh: One Concorde engine seeks new home

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Better than Repurposing into Ashtrays or Being Placed on Static Display

"aren't a lot of the turbines in modern warships derived from engines like these"

Depends on your definition of modern (I feel old typing this) - Falklands veteran HMS Invincible and her sister ships HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal were powered by four RR Olympus Gas Turbines (thus 'the same as Concorde' - except for the changes for different fuel, no reheat and operating in a marine environment). Other RN ships of the '80s used other GT power plants (Spey and Tyne, IIRC).

Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Probably '95 or '96

I left my PC downloading the newest Netscape while I went and watched the X files, safe in the knowledge that I wouldn't be disturbed by phone calls coz the line was in use.

Sooo many ways that can't happen today...

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: "Yes, I could buy an ad-free version, but why should I?"

"So you want support, and presumably updates, forever, for free?"

I expect it to work, just like I expect everything I buy to be FIT FOR PURPOSE when the vendor sends it to market. If it doesn't then I expect the vendor to fix it FOR FREE, just like the products that I'm involved in the manufacture of need to work when we sell them.

Updates are a different story. An update that improves the product is chargeable, changing the (working) interface to a grey-on-grey ribbon or adding a feature that nobody needs is another case altogether.

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

many many moons ago

In our office the death match server got started at lunch o'clock and got switched off an hour later. The bosses approved as it improved their "lunch over, work started again" metric.

Musk floats idea of boat mod for Cybertruck

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

flying car FFS

we wants us a flying car.

It's almost like he don't not never read el reg at all

NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Boffin

Re: A repeating pattern of ones and zeroes

E5 ftw

Solar wind gave Mars a breather and its magnetosphere inflated

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

To quote Douglas Adams

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Ofcom proposes ban on UK telcos making 'inflation-linked' price hikes mid-contract

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Here's a draft of future contracts

"Your future contract price will be subject to annual fluctuation as follows:

RPI is between 0% and 2.5% - your contract will increase by N pounds per month

RPI is between 2.5% and 5% - your contract will increase by 2N pounds per month

RPI is between 5% and 10% - your contract will increase by 4N pounds per month"

They've specified the rises exactly, as required, and will still advertise "fixed price contracts" until the advertising regulator finally gets round to noticing

Doom turns 30, so its creators celebrate seminal first-person shooter’s contribution to IT careers

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Pirate

Re: Ah Doom

There was another pirate version doing the rounds too. Spotable when the main character lost a life and said something other than "Frak"

Chinese boffins pitch quadcopter for Mars sample return mission

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Black Helicopters

How nice

We built a quadcopter and sent it to Mars and found...

Somebody had already dug up all these samples and left them waiting to be picked up...

It would be remiss of us not to tidy up

HP TV ads claim its printers are 'made to be less hated'

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: My Mum caught me on Tuesday night

"Perhaps I need to casually rest an axe against it, and see if it improves in future?"

I used to work in an office that had one of those network linked printer / scanner / photocopier jobbies in. We always had problems until one day a large, black boot print appeared on the front. All the problems went away and it did exactly what we wanted it to do.

Yes, the boot print was a similar size to my boots. Yes, the boot print matched the tread of my boots. No, I'm not going to comment how it got there. Nobody else asked either, because it printed, copied and scanned and that was all that mattered.

UK immigration rules hit science just as it rejoins €100B Horizon program

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

But what about the roads?

OK, that argument would've worked better if we'd bothered to do any maintenance to them in the intervening 2000 years

Bank boss hated IT, loved the beach, was clueless about ports and politeness

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Agreed. It will always fit first time. A USB-A plug needs three attempts to fit it into the socket, spinning it by 180 each time.

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Amanfrommars admits he took over Elmo's twitter feed several years ago

UK's cookie crumble: Data watchdog serves up tougher recipe for consent banners

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
FAIL

Oh, the irony

I've got a banner showing on my screen that says "Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law." It has a button to "Accept All Cookies" and another to "Customize Settings". The latter leads to a banner that has all but Necessary unchecked and an "Accept Selected" button. Opting out requires TWO CLICKS and two screens, opting in only requires one click. I know the cookie issue for the site in question has been commented on before on this site because I loved the irony then just as I love the irony now.

Anybody care to take a guess at the formerly British now American tech news website I'm referring to?

Lawyer guilty of arrogance after ignoring tech support

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Pint

Re: Are you sure, this isn't the plot of an IT Crowd epsiode?

I don't know where you read it but this is for you for saving me from looking it up ------>

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

One of the joys of working with many different 3D modelling packages is the many many many different combinations of mouse/shift/control combinations used for pan/zoom/spin operations.

One of the frustrations is trying all of them and then realising that I've been looking at a screen grab

Want a Cybertruck? You're stuck with it for a year, says Tesla

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Easy to see why they might want to try a stunt like this

Remember when the phrase "negative equity" first entered normal conversation?

One of the problems the XJ220 had (IIRC) was that the recession of the early 90s happened in the time between buyers stumping up a deposit and the production line getting started.

NTT and NEC use vibrating optic fibres to figure out if there's snow on the road

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Boffin

OK, I'll say it

They're watching to see if the cables start shivering?

Beijing reportedly asked Hikvision to identify fasting students in Muslim-majority province

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

That would be a lifestyle choice

Wanted: Driver for rocket-powered Bloodhound Land Speed Record car

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Trollface

Re: Elon Musk

Mr Musk wouldn't keep it in a straight line. He'd use the jet engine to go fast, then try to turn it round and use the rocket to slow it down.

Then he'd strap the whole car onto another rocket and blast it towards Mars.

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Throwing my hat into the ring

shut up and take my money

European Space Agency grits teeth, preps contracts for SpaceX Galileo launch

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Stupid idea

American 747s? What about European A380s?

Airbus commissions three wind-powered ships to sail the Atlantic

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Trollface

Re: Lift??

I know you didn't use the </sarc> coz it's sort of implied by being a commentard but...

I'd love to know what the reduction in life expectancy would be for exposing aero wings to a marine (salt) environment for the week plus of an Atlantic crossing would be

It is 20 years since the last commercial flight of Concorde

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: 3 experiences with Concorde

My three:

1) My aunt knew a pilot of Concorde, so she managed to acquire a set of flight charts and other documents for the day of my 16th birthday as a present. +20 geek points

2) Roll forwards a couple of decades to when I was brewing my own beer. I gave a couple of bottles of one of the better recipes to a friend who shared one with his father in law (a BA steward who flew Concorde). His verdict "we could serve that on board". + 50 geek points

3) mid 2003. My then boss and his wife flew Concorde to the States on their anniversary, then had a Caribbean cruise and returned 747. His verdict "done it once, don't need to again". Lost all my geek points just for knowing him

Apple finds another use for USB-C – a cheaper Pencil

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

"The gen-2 Apple Pencil charged wirelessly..."

One up on the pencil / stylus that microsof~1 sell for their Surface. Mrs C's pen stopped working. Found out that it uses an internal battery - AAAA size (yup, 4A). Didn't know that size even exists - and nor did any of the shops that sell batteries in our town.

Tesla goons will buy anything – including these $150 beers

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Pint

Re: Lager?

AutoCorrupt gave you a Gob hobblin'

NASA taking its time unboxing asteroid sample because it grabbed too much stuff

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
Trollface

Unboxing video

If they're making a video that's anything like most youtube offerings then they won't have got past the "thanks for tuning in, this is who I am, please subscribe to my channel, yada yada yada"

Human knocks down woman in hit-and-run. Then driverless Cruise car parks on top of her

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Interesting that the police

Although moving clear might have helped her, staying put meant that she was being protected from being hit a third, fourth, fifth time by other vehicles

Lost your luggage? That's nothing – we just lost your whole flight!

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Teachers had the Lounge, pupils had the Bar in the second closest pub to my school. Until the brewery decided to knock the two rooms into one

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Back when PCs had "turbo" and "reset" buttons and writing on paper happened quite a bit... I was unfortunate enough to have a machine where the reset button was just at the right height that pushing the keyboard across the desk (in order to use pen and paper) usually caused me to say "gosh, I must not do that again".

The commentard formerly known as Mister_C

Re: Day 2?

Given the rest of the article: "the backup server, one of the departing Senior DBA's responsibilities, hadn't been operational for weeks", I'd say that the senior DBA was trying to inflict maximum damage with "plausible deniability" of the junior's actions as a safety net.

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