[Dave Rice]

It’s much the same with Bristol and I guess any big city these days.

We really enjoy a city break in London, have a great time. But when I have to go up and attend anything at a specific time and place I remember why I hated working there (part time) in the 90s. The dash back to Paddington to see the train you have seats booked on leaving, the next one being chock full, etc.

I had to get to the other side of Bristol (11 miles as the crow flies) on public transport, 2 buses or 1 train 1 bus. Should be easier as we now have an express bus that takes 40 minutes off the time so as quick as the train. Left the house at 7, got there at 10:20 as the express bus was full and the next one got me there just too late for the connection. Went again this week, left at 9 got there at 10:20. The difference was no waiting at bus stops.

[Dave Rice]

It’s more like an airfix kit than Lego. Wish they’d had that 50 years ago though ?

[Dave Rice]

Yes I did but it was far too late, the damage was done. It was to allow repairs to be undertaken. What will be the next exploit?

It’s still not a good idea to have an XP machine going anywhere near the internet. Businesses that still need to run XP machines have them heavily protected, the same way you would treat a Secret Network in the defence world.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

It’s dead people, and those of you on 7 have 13 months before it goes the same way.

[Dave Rice]

Support has ended for it. There are no security updates, remember what happened earlier in the year with all that ransom ware in the NHS etc?

There are wide open security holes in it that AV will not plug.

[Dave Rice]

I must get down the Beaufort and see what Christmas Ales are now in. Ruby Ales sounds fine, I can’t be doing with the “winter warmer” beers that need a knife and fork to drink. My son brought me back a Borg Imperial Stout from Iceland – Jeez ? 14.2%

Wandering around Bath Market the other day I had a fantastic mulled cider made with Honey’s Midford Cider They also do a mixture of cider and Ginger Beer called Stonky Bonk aka Tractor Fuel.

All the Christmas booze is now in, trying not to touch it ?

[Dave Rice]

Confidence in your boss is one thing. Confidence in the organisation you work in, and could bring about it’s downfall, is quite another.

I see the hypocrite Mogg is extremely flexible when it comes to accepting when a vote goes against you. He’s a local MP and they had members of one of the Conservative clubs on the local news. They aren’t happy with him either, but that won’t change his view will it? To here him calling for TM to go to the Queen you’d think he was Corbyn.

TM can’t get this past Parliament and won’t get it revised unless she changes a red line. Her only weapon is to let the clock tick until it’s her way or no deal. She’s already had her Government held in contempt of Parliament. How’s that for the “responsible” party?

And people wonder why the EU want an insurance clause?

[Dave Rice]

Well done Bob.

[Dave Rice]

It coincided with my first official IT job and our spanking new Ethernet network and 486 PCs. Saturday morning was Doom time.

[Dave Rice]

There is always a solution, it’s just how deep are your pockets ?

That’s why I’ve invested in test gear for the business, site surveys are everything.

[Dave Rice]

?

XP really turned out to be a nightmare, such a shame as what came before it wasn’t half bad. The idea was to replace consumer orientated W95 / W98 and business orientated NT4 into one product. But they listened to the gaming lobby and kept XP open and allow anyone to be an administrator by default. Then they listened to the hardware manufacturers and lowered the hardware requirements and carried that stupid idea through to Vista).

[Dave Rice]

XP is dead. End of.

Perhaps you need to talk to someone at Microsoft as you wont believe us. Try here https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windowsforbusiness/end-of-xp-support

and here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsforbusiness/end-of-ie-support

If you don’t like the answers then ask the snake oil salesmen on EBay because XP is DEAD.

[Dave Rice]

Having worked in the public sector (Post Office) and then done the same job as an outsourcer (CSC) I can absolutely say out sourcing is downright dangerous unless you have the balls of someone like BAE. They squeeze the pips out of outsourcers by leveraging the prestige of being their customer and knowing what they’re doing with contract negotiations and their core retained IT Dept being in control.

A potential outsourcer will take on someone like BAE as a loss leader and hope to make it back with off contract projects. Fat chance, they’ll get put out to tender and used as a weapon. Competitor X want 15% less than you (they’ll be after the prestige), perhaps they’ll do your contract at 15% less too? The revenue goes down (that was probably in the contract too) but the board still take their pound ton of flesh. They put together consolidation deals with others where the “synergy” savings go to the board and shareholders, they are always redundancies of staff.

Now just look at the total balls ups of Govt IT projects. As Ed has said many times, the devil is in the detail and Govt just doesn’t do that or give the Civil Service the chance to as some political need will emerge, even if it’s just changing the head honcho. Look at Gove in Education, they can’t resist tinkering to make a name for themselves. They’ll be off before the damage works it’s way through.

Now put that lot in charge of doing the biggest negotiations for a generation or three and it’s no surprise we’re in the mess we’re in and still have a divided country, probably more divided than it was. And at the top you have the same members of the “establishment” out for their own gains and who gives feck about the people that do the work.

[Dave Rice]

It’s all been shut down. Any site worth it’s salt will deny any connection from IE6, security wise it’s swiss cheese.

Firefox stopped supporting XP in Sept 2017, Chrome in April 2016.

It’s dead.

[Dave Rice]

Back to the original thread ?

Night time shot.

[Dave Rice]

Commercial thermal cameras don’t have a fine resolution, that’s not the point of them. You’d pair them with an optical camera (maybe a PTZ with very long range IR) if you need detail. The cheapest HIKVision Thermal Network Bullet Camera, 10mm lens, 384 × 288 is £1,400 plus VAT but has 14 colour layers and behaviour analysis: Line crossing, Intrusion, Audio exception, Region Entrance & Exit.

For fire detection up to 100 metres the CIQURIX FCamSol0 1080p @ 25fps, 4mm lens, up to 55m flame detection, smoke detection, Detection time <15seconds is the same sort of price and is internal only. That’s the sort of duty I was thinking about for the Pi.

By long range I meant the detector may need to be much nearer the potential heat source (due to its poor resolution) with the optical to provide either / or high mpx and wider scene. As you say, with some thought the potential problem solving is very wide indeed.

[Dave Rice]

Thermal is an area I’m very interested in.

Ed, all that’s needed is to open or close a circuit attached to the alarm input of a camera or NVR to set a camera recording. For excessive heat or fire detection the low resolution may not matter. Or where there absolutely shouldn’t be anyone at night. Also the sensor could be a long way from the camera if range is an issue.

I have one of these cameras (it was destined for the now in administration care home) that has an alarm input. Let me know how your tinkering goes, I also have a Pi sat doing nothing.

[Dave Rice]

Well that’s not what anyone else is saying.

Court of Justice of the European Union
PRESS RELEASE No 191/18
Luxembourg, 10 December 2018

The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU.
Such a revocation, decided in accordance with its own national constitutional requirements, would have the effect that the United Kingdom remains in the EU under terms that are unchanged as regards its status as a Member State.

Enlighten me as to how that is ambiguous.

[Dave Rice]

Well the vote is off. What will they do now?

[Dave Rice]

They all get plum jobs on big banks / corporate boards and the speaking circuit regardless of how crap they’ve been. They have contacts, that’s their value.

[Dave Rice]

Another myth debunked. Should we decide not to leave we don’t have to go back cap in hand to the EU 27 who will squeeze us until the pips squeak, make us join the Euro, annex Gibraltar, nick all the fish, etc. We just say we’re not leaving and that’s that.

[Author]

Posts