modern life is rubbish

[Kim]

I've also been embracing Power-Over-Ethernet where appropriate^[2], to prevent excessive breeding of wall-warts.

Every day is a school day.
Do you need to install special cable to do that then? (I assume it's not just your bog std Cat5)

Bog standard cat5.  The device needs to be designed to accept PoE (802.3af), and you need either a switch that can supply PoE (which nearly always means a big one with evil noisy fans) or a mid-span power injector.  Ethernet ports are transformer-isolated, and PoE intercepts the cable before the transformers to supply power.

You can sometimes bodge it with non-compliant 'passive PoE', where you simply break out the two unused pairs in 10/100M Ethernet and stick DC power up them with readily available dongles or passive injectors.  There's no proper negotiation of current draw, no guarantees about voltage drop in the wiring^[1], and you can't esaily do it with gigabit, which uses all the pairs.  Often useful, but proceed with caution.

Most proper PoE kit tends to be things like IP phones, CCTV cameras and WiFi access points, where a separate wall-wart is either impractical (eg. because it's going on a roof) or an unwanted cost/point of failure (if you've got a couple of dozen phones in an office, better to just have a single power supply to worry about).

As with so many rubbish things in life, assorted non-802.3af-complaint 'standard' implementations proliferate (Cisco, Ubiquiti, etc.).

There's probably a parallel universe where WiFi wasn't invented, where this became the de-facto standard for charging laptops.


_{[1] 802.3af uses 48V to provide headroom and minimise I²R losses, while still qualifying as extra-low voltage for safety purposes.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

I reworded my House when I moved in, and like you I’ve run out of sockets in many rooms. The one room that has spare sockets is,the Lou Gehrig, but that is because we’ve moved the TV and it’s associated boxes to a different location and now need to run that all from a single extension lead. Pah!

Chortling at your autocorrects

I’m not doing much better than yesterday am I?

I like them!

So do I!

[ian]

Honestly, Tesla had all this wireless power sorted out with his Big Tower.

The most grabby source of pluggery in The Asbestos Palace seems to be lamps. They've proliferated like amorous rabbits in a viagra warehouse. It's like a bloody light showroom. Those and the cupboard of technological shame under the stairs. There is stuff plugged in under there of uncertain and possibly no known function. All I know is that I shouldn't ever unplug it. Bad things may happen. This is one of the problems in living in a structure situated at precisely the junction of this mortal plain and Hell, a structure previously maintained by BBC set designers.

[Kim]

The most grabby source of pluggery in The Asbestos Palace seems to be lamps. They've proliferated like amorous rabbits in a viagra warehouse. It's like a bloody light showroom.

Ever paid attention to the lamps in House MD's erm, house?  Once you start counting them, you can't stop noticing more.  Lazy set-dressing or useful places to conceal a Vicodin stash?  Who knows.  The floor must be a rats' nest of dodgy USAnian plug boards.

[ian]

I don't think I've seen House. I've checked my lamps collection, no Vicodin, which is a disappointment. US plugs fall out if you look at them but then again, the power itself goes out if you think about it too much.

A lot of the lights are on timers, so they come on and go off at random times, so the neighbours think we're in the throes of a really slow disco.

[ian]

In other matters of modern life being rubbish (I've turned this into a podcast, it's really good, but alas only currently available inside my head), I was reminded by Robert Webb the other day, but where is the 'metal' button?

[Kim]

A lot of the lights are on timers, so they come on and go off at random times, so the neighbours think we're in the throes of a really slow disco.

We've got that, on account of lights coming on automagically as you enter the room^[1].  This seemed wanky when I added the code, but barakta (who is low on hands and reckons computers are for swearing at, not talking to^[2]) finds it unexpectedly helpful.  It also means that I don't get to wander around muttering that "it's like the Blackpool illuminations in here"^[3], except when visiting the in-laws.

(As discussed in threads passim, the doorbell turns the slow disco into a full-on rave.)


_{[1] The way I see it, if you're going to the effort to design a migraine-proof dimmable LED lamp driver, it might as well have Features.
[2] "Fuck off, Siri."
[3] Or something less cliched and more generationally-appropriate about carbon footprints.}

[ElyDave]

[2] "Fuck off, Siri."

I tend to prefer "Siri, you're an absolute fuckwit"

[ian]

There's nothing sophisticated about my lighting arrangements, they're just attached to random timers that only get individually changed when they've become sufficiently annoying in their behaviour. The only ones I change with any fervour are the driveway lights because a failure to do so would encourage bears.

[TheLurker]

I took a CD* of Mozart Horn Concertos (von Karajan, Berlin Phil. 1969.  Deutsche Grammophon) off the shelf the other day and tried to play it.  It skipped like Muhammad Ali on speed.  Utterly useless.  So much for the, "indestructible"** and, "better than vinyl" marketing tosh they were heralded with.  I have LPs as old (and older) than me that still play well and give a good sound into the bargain.



*Now, it could be argued that CDs are no longer "modern" but I am sufficiently reactionary and contrary to consider them bang up to date and will brook no argument to the contrary.

**I know why they degrade with age, doesn't mean I can't grumble about it.

[ian]

Sitting in an internal meeting where the subject matter is 'that we have too many internal meetings.'

[Hot Flatus]

Kill yourselves

[ian]

I wouldn't mind if the action item from that meeting was to look at how we have fewer internal meetings. But I expect someone will figure out a way to create a 'working group' to explore the issue. They'll resolve to do this with, obviously, a series of regular meetings.

[mrcharly-YHT]

We had a similar such meeting. The conclusion was we would add two half-days week that would be 'meeting free'.

[hatler]

Remove chairs from meeting rooms. That speeds things up.

[Jakob W]

Remove chairs from meeting rooms. That speeds things up.

No seats, no loo breaks, and everyone has to down a litre of water on entering the room...

[ian]

Alas, it's all virtual now which, if anything, leads to more meetings.

Once upon a time, some debuted the concept of meeting-free-Fridays. That just made Friday's the perfect time to find an empty slot on someone's calendar. So that lasted about as long as you'd expect.

Now, some meetings are useful. The have a topic, an agenda, and an outcome that isn't merely to hold another meeting.

Most just seem to be waffle-fests with the same people talking. Americans are the worst. Anything at all, and they slap an entire fucking hour into my calendar.

[hatler]

The thing that most pisses me off is people who call a meeting (with a cast of thousands) because they don't understand something which will need a decision.

Read the fucking material first so that you understand the problem.

Sure, then call a meeting to brainstorm how we resolve the problem.

[ian]

Generally, if I've nothing to contribute to a meeting, I will go ahead and contribute precisely that. Nothing. I'd had enough the other day when I blurted out 'sorry, I don't know what this meeting is for?' and there was silence. Apparently they wanted to have 'a discussion.' I really didn't.

This meetings typically feature the same people who just waffle to be heard.

Another one is a project I'm part of. We had four hours of meetings which I may have assumed would lead somewhere, but at the end, they just sent me a link to some requirements and said 'have your developers do this.'

What the fuck were those meetings for? I want my four hours back. With interest.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I don't mind modern life.  I want more of it. 

[Greenbank]

Part of the reason I dislike my job less than I could[1] is that I've been here long enough that I just decline meetings with comments like:
* Don't think this needs me
* Don't think I can contribute usefully to this meeting
* Can't see why I've been invited to this meeting
* Sorry, too busy at the moment, if my attendance is required/important then rearrange for next week some time
* Can't attend, I only work part time and don't work on a Monday, rearrange if you require me to be there
* Can't attend, I only work part time and finish at 3pm on a Tuesday/Wednedsay, rearrange if you require me to be there

The vast majority of the time I never hear back and my calendar remains sparsely populated.

I have ~3 hours of meetings a week at most.

This is one of joys of being here a long time and being one of the few people who know how this stuff actually works.

1. I almost said "like my job". shudder

[ian]

I decline meetings that I don't think are relevant. I generally only schedule 30-minute meetings and try to get through them in 10. I mostly decline anything before 9am and after 6pm on account that even if I don't have a life, I'm going to pretend to have one (I actually do). Americans, despite having several, also don't seem to understand time zones and frequently try to book slots at 7 or 8pm in the evening. Anyway, if you need me please reschedule, if you don't, go ahead without me.

The worse meetings are the strategy calls. Those kill me.

Also, people who send me links to the meetings that they've helpfully recorded because, yeah, like I'm going to sit there for 63 minutes watching that. If you've a point, write it down. And good god, not dozens of pages of bullet points. He said, she said, he said. A couple of sentences to summarize what was discussed and what was resolved.

[Ham]

Better than decline, tentatively accept. That gives the impression that I would attend your poxy meeting, if I possibly could....

[ElyDave]

Working with people and clients from both east and west of the Greenwich Meridian means meetings both at stupid-o'early and stupid-o'late. I don't mind the stupid-o'early as much as the late as I'm an early riser and can then knock off early on the basis of I've already done my time - if you want me permanently available pay me more.

This morning was 0730 with malaysia, which in itself is OK, except that it's a client who thinks they can send me a response to an information request they've had for two weeks on Thursday for a Friday meeting, not include half of the items they say are there and expect me to read it, come up with more questions and respond for their working day, and then assume that they can cover what would normally take 2 days face to face in a 90 minute call.

They seemed genuinely surprised when we said we'd need to talk again, and even more surprised when I asked them to actually send the stuff they'd referred to which they'd not actually sent. It got even more confusing for 15 minutes as the conversation revealed that the information they'd said answered my question hadn't actually been sent to me yet, didn't actually answer my question, and wasn't actually completed yet in any case.  They seemed genuinely confused when I asked them whether they actually had the information I'd asked for initially.

I'm thinking of changing my name to Humphrey

[mrcharly-YHT]

I had a fantastic meeting this morning.

Major problem with a release.
Problem stated.
Likely cause stated.
Plan of action agreed.
Who is doing what agreed.

6 minutes