Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 296404 times)

The only obvious reason I can think of for connecting taps to the internet it to log their use patterns. 

How about running your bath so it's ready when you get in from your ride.  :)
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
The only obvious reason I can think of for connecting taps to the internet it to log their use patterns. 

How about running your bath so it's ready when you get in from your ride.  :)

I confess to doing that with the central heating, but as I generally prefer a shower, there's no need for advanced notice.

ian

My bath, because of contrary plumbing which sends the hot water on a tour of neighbourhood* via a willywonkerish variety of tiny bore pipes before reaching the bath itself, takes about 40 minutes to fill, so I wouldn't mind.

*this has always puzzled me, but I've established that the hot water goes down to the kitchen first, then along the house to the downstairs bathroom and then up into the actual bathroom itself. Which, of course, is next to the hot water cylinder. This means getting actual hot water out of the bathroom sink tap takes about five minutes.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Sounds like it wouldn't be an insurmountable effort to close the loop and circulate the water to provide instant hotness.

Phil W

My bath, because of contrary plumbing which sends the hot water on a tour of neighbourhood* via a willywonkerish variety of tiny bore pipes before reaching the bath itself, takes about 40 minutes to fill, so I wouldn't mind.

*this has always puzzled me, but I've established that the hot water goes down to the kitchen first, then along the house to the downstairs bathroom and then up into the actual bathroom itself. Which, of course, is next to the hot water cylinder. This means getting actual hot water out of the bathroom sink tap takes about five minutes.

Maybe you need to move the bath to the kitchen.

ian

Sounds like it wouldn't be an insurmountable effort to close the loop and circulate the water to provide instant hotness.

I've no idea how it all works, I just know it gets hot everywhere else before the bathroom, which is the last place that the trickle of hot water emerges. The danger of assumption, we never had works to the basic plumbing layout done when we had the place refurbished, other than put in a power shower and relocate the bath taps. It seems a bit bizarre, I presume they diverted stuff when they put in the downstairs bathroom, but who knows, this is a house where the central heating pipes to my remote command centre venture outside. It's a triumph of British workmanship. This is probably what happens when you buy a house from BBC set designers.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
The world did not end today though I was aware of Facebook being down.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47927714

So, I was getting spam texts from an old takeaway I used to frequent but no longer live in that town. I text STOP as per the instructions to the number given and I haven't received any more texts (although they were infrequent anyway).

I got my mobile bill today and found a 10p charge to a premium rate text number. Can they actually do that? I know it's 10p but there's a principle here!

I can't do much about it I deleted the texts afterwards.
Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped

I hadn't known before today that Google talks (and, will translate into) Bork-bork-bork

Also Elmer Fudd, 1337 5p34kArrr Pirate, Klingon and pig Latin

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
David requested I order another HP wired optical mouse from Sainsbury's as he has found these better in his observatory than cordless mice.

I thought I'd read the reviews.

 One stated the rollers started squeaking after a few months...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Just resuscitated the Inlaw Paw's old XP box and deleted his FB account, which was still sending out birthday reminders 2 years after his death. Am now awaiting large men in ill-fitting suits with bulges under the armpits to drop in for a chat.

It crossed my mind that the only reason that machine can't go on being useful is Windoze: it'd probably skip along with something like Ubuntu driving it.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Finally got around to phoning Netgear about a swonky Arlo camera – it's like filming the back garden in red, which makes it look like everything is in infrared even when it isn't. In my garden all cats are red. Plus if anyone burgles us the police will be looking for a man with suspiciously red skin. Possibly a demon. Well, that's what happens when you have a Hell portal in the hallway.

I tried the batteries and several levels of percussive maintenance. It's been swonky for a while but I remembered it was getting the point where a warranty becomes one of those interminable sale-of-goods arguments. Anyway, they'll send me a new one.

I suppose I should decide or not whether to gamble on a new charger for the ancient unchargeable Macbook. My life is a storybook of excitement. Or I may go water my vegetable patch.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Another clip with variant sub-titles.  It's been doing the rounds for a while now, but I only came across it yesterday.  One for all of us sw dev. grunts.  Familiar, no? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p8wTOr8AbU



Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
You lot are clever buggers so do any of you know of a hex editor that can do a find-and-replace with ASCII text from the Windows command line?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Reading YACF on Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.)’s FruitCo fondleslab using Safari, while mine refills with voles.  It is prone to mixing up people’s avatars, blending them together and turning them funny colours.  What’s that all about?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
My vintage Microsith trackball appears to have carked it.  Spinning the ball results in the cursor implacably not moving.  Bloody thing's not even 20 years old yet ???

Bah!
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Colleague sends out a grumbly/ranty email about dodgy version control. We all argee this is something we could be better at.
I'm sent off to check the versions of various databases.
I discover that one was updated on June 1st. The only person likely to have done that was said colleague. Has he updated the version control spreadsheet? What do you think?  ;D
Manager is going to have words.

ian

Version control spreadsheets? Yep, that'll work out.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
ROBOCOPY, when you say something along the lines of "Error changing attributes" on the target directory why do you subsequently work without complaint when I past the command into a command line window?  And from the sheer volume of stuff this is causing to be copied, it looks as though the automagical job hasn't worked for months.  sort it out u muppet!
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
I've just realised that the phantom undeletable[1] file that was on my desktop yesterday (an unexpected side-effect of some Garmin-wrnagling) has now vanished.


[1] Of course it was undeletable, it didn't exist.

Afasoas

To paraphrase the classic Ian Malcolm quote from Jurassic Park, the people behind the Internet of Things were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Partly that, partly because modelling people is more lucrative as a business model than selling good products.

FTFY

It's no longer just about collecting data, it's about being able to predict our behaviour.

anyone care to have a shufti at an odd code issue that seems to be affecting me, as in  https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=112328.0

ian

For those interested in alternatives to an Adobe Create Cloud subscription, Affinity have finally released their Publisher equivalent to InDesign. I'm a regular InDesign user, but I've played with the Affinity Publisher beta and bought a copy. It's rather nice and makes InDesign feel like the dinosaur it is. It's far more fluid and easier to use.

That said, InDesign is tied to many production workflows, but as a standalone DTP tool I'm very impressed so far (same for Designer and Photo, both very capable alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop). There may be missing features, that said, I'm not that sure what InDesign has added to the days when I used PageMaker 6.5. Unless you use exciting things like liquid layout, which seems more trouble than its worth.

Nope, they're not paying me for this.

ian

In other news, I learned myself how to code in Python. No really, I'm a scriptkiddie, I even made a little app that I type my password into and then which letters the infernal bank security engine wants me to input, and it gives me the output. Admittedly the wrong output, because I forgot it starts counting at zero.

Basically, I now have the scripting capabilities of the average four-year-old.

Tomorrow, I write SkyNet. Or call it day and go back to swearing at Excel.