[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

I must admit that it does seem iniquitous that prominant IRA members have been effectively absolved from their terrorist acts, but British Servicemen have not receive a similar absolution for anything they may, or may not, have done in the heat of the moment.

In other words, once a terrorist, always forgiven; however try to be on the right side and do the right thing and ‘no good action goes unpunished‘. See how anyone defending inside their house from an intruder is first assumed to be a criminal, until pressure causes that stance to relax.

[Richard]

Phew, that is good news, I am very relieved as I missed his usually sage contributions. I look forward to a resumption of his contacts.

[Richard]

I agree that a measure of truth is required, however the precision of truth may be less desirable from the point of many users. The date I entered was close, based in part on a deceased close relative, but constructed to give an age that does reflect the truth. At one point it appeared that a date was a requirement, so I went for the fudge.

[Richard]

My concern is mounting, there is still no sighting of news from him.

[Richard]

The last few days have vividly illustrated why insurance for new drivers is a minefield. I know of two recently qualified young female drivers who were very pleased to get their full license. Both have ended up with their cars off the road, one in a ditch and though it would probably have been an insurance write off, since the oops happened on private land the car was privately recovered and repaired from its largely cosmetic damage. The other young lady was less well served, her car, a Toyota AYGO has been written off only about a month after she passed her test. Happily she appears fine but is now falling back on getting lifts to work. The change in the weather has left many of the roads damp and slippery all ready to catch out the unwary, the first young lady probably did the very wrong thing when her slide started as she reached for the brakes, as for the other one I have not wanted to ask her for details as I felt it would only have added to her upset.

[Richard]

Thank you chaps but, something has slipped a notch or two. I wondered if I had screwed up my DOB as it is not until the new year. On checking I can see that I did fudge the issue slightly to control the risks of data harvesting, but not that widely.

Today was a busy one, a few miles of dog walking a round trip wife wife to her hospital review, that went down so well we have a repeat performance tomorrow! Meanwhile we await developments over daughter’s sheltered accommodation application. So life is anything but slow and dull.

[Richard]

I have had a few go like that. Sometimes a good shake up such as you have given them and they would be right as rain for years. With others there just appeared to be something wrong with the start circuitry that i was never able to pin down, they would often start up fine after leaving the power off for a while and then re-powering them and starting up again. I guess they were a bit like I am now in the mornings.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

I think it was probably worse in the early 60s. Even sparrows had to walk in some of the thick yellow smogs of those days.

I believe that it was pretty bad earlier than that in the 1950s when bus conductresses used to walk the buses home to the depot as sometimes the drivers could not even see the ground from their cab. It was not always like that but when a bad one came in you knew about it and the funeral houses geared up for an upturn in trade. The problem was made worse by the burning of really crap ‘coal’, the slate filled stuff was not the worst, that barely burned at all and spat little stone bullets round the place if it encountered something that did burn. The rough stuff burned alright but it was closer to brown coal or had a very high tar content so burned with a very smokey flame and filled chimneys with the partially combusted and ‘cooked off’ residue. The result was destructive chimney fires and really choking fumes whenever there was a ‘stable weather inversion’. Apparently high pressure capped off the fug at ground level so nothing could escape. The combination of poor combustion understanding and fuels such as wet material and poor coal is credited with greatly promoting a range of health issues from the plague through bronchitis, lung cancer and various other points. No doubt there will be more hazards yet to be castigated.

Getting rid of horse transport cleared a great deal of ordure from the streets and saved countless lives from reduced road accidents.

I spent time in Salford in the early-mid 1960s and always favoured the title, Where Sparrows Cough as the title for a book set in the area.

[Richard]

Dave Rice wrote:

I’m in the situation that I have a spare 120GB following an upgrade for a customer to a 512GB. He didn’t even ask about having the 120 back and he is tech savvy. Must have known I’d say it’s only worth a fiver second hand Give it a couple of weeks just in case Richard and I’ll send it on. Now it’s cheap, my entry level is 240Gb as 99% of people can live with that and do no housekeeping whatsoever for the lifetime of their device. God knows why I upgraded to 512Gb myself, I must have succumbed to Contagious Butleritis

Hi Dave, and thank you for the consideration. My non PC issues, (that’s non PC in every sense of the symbol), include preparing for my wife to spend at least a week post operative in hospital after her planning surgery, (4 operations in one including a number of hours of plastics reconstruction) and preparing to move our daughter into supported care/living/training for life. This latter one is likely to be a challenging issue as the location is 20 miles away, some of her care agencies are north of where we live currently and other ‘training’ is currently being set up as I write. I see a lot of back and forth travel over the next few weeks. My goodness such support is not cheap, even more expensive than older person’s care, but if it helps her to move forward it will be money well spent and options are currently thin on the ground.

Don’t rob Peter to gift to Paul, but if my above little lot goes smoothly I may welcome a something to fill the possibly quiet hours while the dust settles. At the moment the challenges are just arriving thick and fast.

[Richard]

Your insight into the ways of the BBC world might just be why others are afraid to risk contact with an ex-associate?

I cannot remember why but I read the second part of your write up with a depressing acceptance of what you said and a total lack of surprise. I just cannot now think why it all felt so normal for them. I have never been with the BBC so no association there.

I am sorry for your son’s missed chance and trust there will be other openings.

[Richard]

Yes very true, fire stops and all the rest with pyro cable, oh the fun meetings I remember from a previous age. I recall one meeting with some pleasure as a discussion went on between two factions, both totally unaware that the non pyro not low smoke cable was used into a manhole outside the building and the activity for the meeting was on the floor above the ground floor. A little grenade I tossed in to break an emerging dead lock.

I have to say the German rules appeared to be remarkably free and easy at the time.

I am not sure about the rules here concerning external surface run , e.g. Ethernet cables, running between dwellings. Almost anything would certainly be easier than drilling 4 foot thick walls.

[Richard]

I had heard a while back that prices were set to fall but these falls are arriving thick and fast. I am currently tied up with a range of complex issues at the moment, but my clapped out hands are starting to wonder if I can find a way to take advantage somehow. I wonder if some of the unfamiliar names are really a cover for other, big names clearing their inventory?

[Richard]

Agreed, some modern technology really does deliver a choice of answers to flatten every problem.

[Richard]

Dave, from what Tippon said the connection between houses one and two and three is via a couple of external walls back to back so a very tricky drilling task. This would appear to make the external grade cable a prudent alternative.

[Richard]

Steve, your comments about Alibaba express were interesting. These days I tend not to have much call for ‘non urgent tat’ as you eloquently put the feeling. With a quarter of a century of such items squirrelled away, ‘because it should be useful one day’ I am under pressure to remove, not gain ‘stuff’.

Question, why is something that was cleared out yesterday always vital today, yet once more useless tomorrow?

Still perhaps I should make another effort to thin things out and accept that the five old computers along with various bits are unlikely ever to get rebuilt into something more suited to the modern age.

[Richard]

@grahamdearsley, my love affair with NatWest started to sour after 30 years when some alien entries appeared on the Mastercard account and a new set up was created. To be fair they did spot the errors/fraud and contact me so I should have been more tolerant, but for several weeks we had to use other cards while the mess was sorted out. A while later as Nitwit bank they decided to ignore a court order (hence earning the modified moniker) relating to an account I was managing at the time, not a good idea I thought. After an exchange of correspondence they grudgingly agreed they were not in good legal standing. They went slightly further than correcting the error, saying that new training would be introduced at the ‘dedicated’ specialist unit in question. They really blotted their copy book when I needed to change a deceased persons account to one for their executor. Nitwit wanted about 14 days notice, after they had held accounts for 50 plus years. Lloyds offered me same day service, though they had never handled the affairs of the deceased, showing what could and should be done.

I am glad that NatWest are working well for you with a package of services that do what they really should to support you, with what you need as your life continues to get back on track. That is what they should always strive to do and their software should achieve, every time. As ever life experiences do condition one’s attitude to things, events and services.

[Richard]

For me it is a question of where I started and trust. I do use eBay, though only for small purchases and yes it has been OK. I do not find the style of EBay any easier, it does feel a bit like a market trader’s hall, not bad but a notch down. I have put through perhaps 100 times (probably more it could be 1000 times) as much business through Amazon as through Ebay but that was not a forced choice just the way it fell for me. I do like the word choice, the high street offers me the choice of going without and all the pain of the car parking and getting there.  The last time I went to Halfords for an urgent purchase, the road to get there was blocked, not their fault but a pain, the staff did not have a clue and I ended up coming home and ordering what I needed for next day delivery, that was where Amazon scored every time.

Overseas purchases are no longer a great interest for me – though they are of vital importance to some, choice rules once more. I doubt I shall travel much in the future though my wife has fond wishes for events after her big set of operations in a month’s time. Anything is likely to cost more for insurance than for the trip and agreeing on where and what to do might be another question, we have never really been beach people since a long time back. That was before skin cancer and well before the latest round of big ‘C’ issues.

If I say the issues are ‘each to their own’, it is not a put down, it is a rejoicing that we, unlike in some locations have choices we can make and should do so wisely and while acting in our own interests.

I have just had a few glasses of wine tonight, the first for well over 5 months while chemo worked its taxing way through my wife’s life, every glass tasted better than the one before. Tomorrow might be a slight issue, but this morning was a hellish issue to get both of us started, now it is time to call it a night, choose wisely but remember no choice is likely to be final and flexibility within limits, is still an option.

[Richard]

I tend to look at everything much as being a tool for something. Blacklion has given a few good examples of where something is a useful tool for things he wants or finds useful. I tried to remember when I first got a credit card but it was a long time back, probably in the 1970s and in short order I had Access, Diners and Amex. Too many outlets would take one or the other so you needed several different ones and cash or travellers cheques as well to avoid sticky situations. I cannot remember when Barclaycard was added but probably in the 1980s with the M&S being a conversion of their old loyalty or some such card. Though a few cards have gone, I still like the spread risk of multiple options. I’m not knocking those other aspects useful to others, everyone has their own needs profile and choice is valuable.

High streets did not die, their traders murdered them or committed suicide by being crap, often arrogant crap, while on line traders were getting very good and Amazon pretty much bested them all with huge choice, next day service and all the trimmings. The high street became where old stock laid down a died while arrogant fools moaned about their lack of customers and nobody wanting their ‘next month service’. High parking charges did not help.

For too many people high streets are next to useless as they cannot get to them when because they are are working, hence on line agents allow pickup points to receive their orders – the village shops have all signed up to one or other such service. Price is useful, but it is not my main driver, utility and function are far more important. Without the likes of mail order and Amazon my world would just be a lot smaller.

[Richard]

Ed P wrote:

The US Digital Millennium Act (DMA), actually makes it illegal to remove encryption on software in order to see what makes it tick/work. I guess it still allows you to perform uninformed modifications on an item that you own. I am uncertain what parts of this idiocy have been adopted into UK law, but I’ll confess I just ignore such carp as being irrational, and irrelevant as I am not actually trying to break copyrights. In theory none of these restrictions apply to the IoT as all (?) are based on open software, and manufacturers would face some expensive legal issues if they tried to use the DMA. (almost certainly the Free Software Foundation would come into such a court case as an interested party). [edit] for balance it is not just Xiongmai that have insecure systems, but also ‘reputable’ companies such as Samsung ElReg article

Since the lunacy in question appears to have nothing in the way of protective actions including some files said to be in plain text, it is hardly a challenge requiring the removal of any sort of protections. The whole sorry mess of IDIOTIC (Internet Direct Integration of Threats Including Chaos) is so crammed full of dross dressed up as premium, usable and safety enhancing product one can only wonder art the stupidity of the money grubbers (OEMs) and the money wasters (their customers with no regard for their or their familey’s safety, health or welfare.

Your point about the basic software foundation being open source is well taken so really the bets as to why not are really replaced by go ahead, see if you can add some useful security to the rubbish software. Quite how good or bad the hardware might be could be explored at the same time by those with the time and interest. I am not sure about selling the results of such work, but frankly I cannot see a serious reason not to allow such activity, it is NOT like hacking games or hacked encoded bypass cards for which there are legal blocks.

[Richard]

Ed, you raised some interesting points there. Debugging a failed program to allow it to run once more might with normal mechanical or electrical things be termed maintaining the darned things.

I see that Xiongmai’s piles of crap IDIOTIC* so called IOT stuff gets another pasting for the maker’s careful thought to ignoring security. After careful and deep thought they ignore the whole issue and make their kit work effectively wide open. Since the whole software dung heap is so riddled with problems taking it apart and building something with a modicum of design sanity should be seen as providing the integrity that the OEM maker lacks.

Note, you will not see Xiongmai listed as the name on the goods, their rubbish is sold under many other foolish market names. The Register has a fuller account of their mess.

There should be no way that essentially dishonest producers should gain the shield of legal protection that the various millennium and before laws purport to grant to the crap pushers.

Anyone up for that challenge I wonder?

*Internet Direct Integration of Threats Including Chaos see the Mirai problems

[Author]

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