Posts by Sirius B

1) Message boards : Projects : Anything and Everything to do with (WCG) World Community Grid (Message 112694)
Posted 11 days ago by Sirius B
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Sometimes being too cost effective can be detrimental to a business.
2) Message boards : Projects : Anything and Everything to do with (WCG) World Community Grid (Message 112683)
Posted 12 days ago by Sirius B
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Nothing here & unable to access website.
3) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112649)
Posted 18 days ago by Sirius B
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Grumble.
I think the pandemic gave many companies the opportunity to continue to rip us off or insult our intelligence.
Still haven' got around to doing that new build as RLI kept getting in the way.

In one respect, it was a good thing. 1st the mouse used on this rig died following by the KB a couple of days later.
No problem, just pinch the new build ones.

Now for the "fun".
Ordered a replacement set & also another HD as I don't like M$ with their Win11 crappola.
Having 2 drives, 1 for Win 11 & 1 for Linux Mint 21.2.
Okay, KB & M arrived this afternoon, but no HD.
Hmm, checked order on A/c. Gives list of recent orders with the latest on top - this states - processing order.
Click on actual order - Waiting dispatch.
Sheesh. When placing the order (Ebuyer no longer do free deliveries for orders over £50).
So selected standard 5 day delivery @£4.99 - a saving of £2 over the next delivery option.
Order placed on 31/8 & stated that both will arrive on 8/9 (6 working days later).
Well KB&M arrived in 5 days but HD?
I'd be very surprised if it arrives tomorrow as this year have experienced issues with HD deliveries from both Ebuyer & Amazon.
4) Message boards : The Lounge : Don't know where it should go? Stick it here! (Message 112646)
Posted 19 days ago by Sirius B
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Based on last years usage, that will rise to about £80 in Dec/January. Unless there is a dramatic fall in prices, the new solar will have paid for itself in under 7 years.
Just note that the cap was lowered on 1st July & will be lowered again on 1st October.
Switching the cap from bi-annually to quarterly caught me on the hop.
I used to top up meter to maximum (£250)which gave me 6 months worth approx, the immediately topped up key with the same amount.
So got stung slightly in April.
Thankfully, I did not top up key & when about to do so, found that the next cap announcement was late August where it was lowered for 1st Oct.
The April top up will run out on 1st or 2nd Oct. -:)
Will top up then for 3 months & wait until the next cap due for 1st Jan, if it goes up, top up key fast for the next 3 months ( if it goes down again, top up on 1st Jan).
5) Message boards : The Lounge : Don't know where it should go? Stick it here! (Message 112609)
Posted 25 days ago by Sirius B
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I'm beginning to believe that the war in Ukraine has given politicians & their business cronies a feeble excuse to continue to rip us off.
Just took the final electric reading of the year (Sept to Aug).
That makes the fourth year of logging annual usage.
Just before starting the logging, was paying £40 a month (up to Aug 2019}.
4 years ago was paying £50 a month.
3 years ago that went up to £60.
2 years ago it went up to £70.
This year £80.

According to Ofgem's new cap, it should drop by £12 a month approx. We'll see.
6) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112491)
Posted 6 Aug 2023 by Sirius B
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LOL. I don't mind.
I don't have a Prime subscription.
The day they start taking an illegal payment for it...
7) Message boards : The Lounge : Massive questions about Einstein@home I was a member there for 12 years now I am a target (Message 112489)
Posted 6 Aug 2023 by Sirius B
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It takes time. I joined Boinc back in 2000 but did not commence posting until 2007.
It tool me about a year to learn enough to be able to post confidently (real life kept getting in the way).

Please do not take this in the wrong way. But a following post from yourself is controversial in itself.
You stated that you wish to communicate with a human about matters, yet posted AI training data.
Did you not realise that by doing that, you will hasten the day that talking to a human online will be nigh on impossible?

Edited for spelling.
8) Message boards : The Lounge : Massive questions about Einstein@home I was a member there for 12 years now I am a target (Message 112487)
Posted 6 Aug 2023 by Sirius B
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2 of the hottest topics to discuss on a science forum are politics & religion.
Unfortunately they are 2 topics that end up causing controversy & as such, rarely allowed.
Those forums that do allow them to be discussed are moderated much more than normal threads.

For such a lengthy post as your 1st, it would have been best to split it as Rob suggested.
9) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112486)
Posted 6 Aug 2023 by Sirius B
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That never works with me.
Any text received that asks for info or requests action to be taken, I call (if family or friends) for cnfirmation.
If company (if expecting delivery) go online & check orders.
Most of the the time, they are tracked.

Saying that though, the last 6 of the previous 12 orders from Amazon have turned up days earlier than stated/expected.
What I found surprising was that many of them turned up in an Amazon Prime vehicle even though Prime was not selected.
If Amazon are trying to subtly "persuade" me....
...well, that's a BIG fail. :-)
10) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112461)
Posted 6 Aug 2023 by Sirius B
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Grumble.
I suppose that's the price of modern living, but I do wonder about the intelligence of scammers.
Didn't hear the text message Sat night as I was wearing headphones.
Text message was an attempted delivery from Evri at 23:20.
Repeated again this morning at 03:01.

Messages from 2 different mobiles numbers with the same order number & re-booking info.
1: Have nothing on order with anyone.
2: No company do home deliveries that late or early.
11) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112288)
Posted 13 Jul 2023 by Sirius B
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Grumble.
The only + I can see at the moment is the fact that my favourite saying gets confirmed yet again: Not enough people these days know either what a Mk 1 computer is or know how to use 1.
A month ago has some issues with phones.
After spending some time attempting to get through to 02, did so & "thought" issue resolved.
Oh poor naive me. :-(

Checking e-mail yesterday for other reasons, saw that there was 1 from 02.
A reminder that the next payment will be taken on 14th. WTH?
Checked via bank online,next payment due on 11 Aug.
Scrolled through statement, a payment was taken from the "so called" deleted phone on 31/6/23.

To cut a long story short, contacted 02 C/S. Got told to access A/c & update details.
I couldn't stop laughing then told them, already tried that & hit a BIG flaw in your security.
Whatever happened to sending an e-mail to the registered A/c holder with a clickable verification link to confirm said action?
Got told much better to send OTAC to phone.
Told them that I went that route, but did not click on "send passcode"
Got asked why not.
My final comment after saying this...
The passcode would have been sent to a stolen phone.
...Details will be sent to trading standards to file charges for breach of the Sale of Goods Act for selling goods with a "fake" UKCA
.Got asked to explain, so did so. They got the message & while on call, accessed my 02 A/c, device removed from A/c.
Asked C/S after being told the very same 14/6, why wasn't it done?

All I got was, it's done now & it'll take up to 24 hrs to transfer any credit to new phone.
12) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112210)
Posted 30 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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Yep, as we are currently seeing with Thames Water - $17.7 billion in debt.
That's a big hole & feel sorry for 3 shareholders.
Yet again, it's the little people that suffer.
OMERS (23%)
USS (19.7%)
BTPS (13%)
The rest are investment companies.
13) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112208)
Posted 30 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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Mega grumble.
After 91 days, can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
1 of my most hated peeves to date has lasted 55 years.
I have no idea if any other male experienced this, but in all that time, have given sound sensible advice to females that was totally ignored...
...to their financial loss. I've given this advice to those in my personal, social & working lives.
However, there have been 4 occasions that stood out. All to personal family members.
The worst being close to 40 years ago.
A sister was being made redundant & stood to get a £16k payout. More than enough to keep her going for at least 20/22 months (mortgage included).

The advice given: Take the money, chill out for at least a month & use that time to secure a good job.
Just over a week later, the old woman told me that sister had left & got herself another job.
Problem was, it was not financially like her previous, in fact a fair amount less.
Just under a year later, she had to give up her home.

Now to the present.
Shortly after watching the news back in Feb where several well known firms were laying people off (I believe the total that week was in the region of 25k).
The missus comes home with a "consultation" package.
Results to be communicated all by 3rd week of March.
Not looking good.March 31st, she gets given her redundancy notice.
Sadly, just like most of my sisters, she tends to listen to advice & then goes & does what she thinks is best.
OMG.

TBH, I didn't think we'd actually get to today in one piece, but we have,
She intends to chill out for a while then look for another job.

With all the grief experienced by all with Covid, they end up cutting the cleaning staff & all because the have to save £750k a year.
Nothing ever changes.

Always cut the low hanging fruit 1st.
14) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112175)
Posted 27 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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On average, about once a week, we used to p off our upstairs neighbours.
Not done intentionally.
We don't know how or why, but whenever we do quarter pounders, about halfway through they set off the smoke alarm.
We could never see any smoke or whatever, but set the alarm off they do.
Any time we do them now, we have to remember to keep the kitchen door closed.

As for this morning's apt, thank god for experienced tradesmen.
That guy had his head screwed on right.
He just came in to verify that we had detectors fitted as his worksheet said fit CO detector in boiler area.
In & out in less than 20 minutes, job done.

He'd been here before on another job & said as he left - just another back office screw up. :-)
15) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112152)
Posted 26 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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Our CO detector is in the kitchen while our CO2 detector is in the hallway.
They are LOUD, so there is no way one can sleep through them.
Our water/heating system is outside the property in a separate meter cupboard.

As for the Apt tomorrow, I think they have misunderstood the engineer's report after the gas safety check.
I'm pretty certain he told me that there should be a detector in the cupboard not the property.
So checked the detector in the hallway, it is a smoke detector (in fact, it was upgraded a couple of years ago, which met the standard of being replaced every 10 years).

Shades of that loft installation apt. :-)
We'll find out tomorrow.
16) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112149)
Posted 26 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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LOL.
Got a text @ 15:36.
Just got off the phone.
Your outstanding repair apt is confirmed for 27/6/23 AM.
Really?
WTF?
Phoned in & asked What repair?
Oh your outstanding gas safety check.
That was done some weeks ago.
Hold, I'll check.
Minute later, she gets back to me.
It was contractor on the gas safety check. Reported that no smoke detector fitted.
WTF?
Have a fire detector fitted & also a monoxide detector fitted in the kitchen.
How many more frigging detectors do we need fitting?
17) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112138)
Posted 26 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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It comes back to what Jord & I stated.
Using a landline or mobile is all good & well for family & friends, but when it comes to organisations...
...trying to get through to an actual person is becoming njgh on impossible.

Too much reliance on technology is going to come back & bite on the ass.

Further proof of that reliance.
Mobile went off at 05:50 this morning (text message).
Your order has been dispatched.
Your delivery is due between 10:29:00 & 12:29:00 on 26-06-2023.

As a retired truck driver & a current customer, who gives a crap about micro seconds. :-(
Also, you bet it is 2023, I don't expect to get this delivery next year numbskulls!
Sheesh.

As a past Argos delivery driver, we never called customers before 07:30 & never texted (most of the time, as we only had landline numbers on the delivery notes).
18) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112131)
Posted 25 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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I thought the groundwork for that has already started with this AI crap.
19) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112129)
Posted 25 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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Thanks Richard, was aware of that.
Don't forget the maintenance downtime when they're updating their network.
Did in fact mention that to the technician but he shrugged his shoulders & said, eventually the landline system will be shutdown.

We have 2 power banks fully charged should our mobiles ever need them (gives us close to a week if needed)
20) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112121)
Posted 24 Jun 2023 by Sirius B
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Oops, must of missed those.
Did a search for 70mm & they do sell 10 pack of those. :-)
Sadly to get to their store entails, 2 buses & a fairly lengthy walk as it's in the industrial area & buses don't get that close to it.
Can with B&Q.
Anyway got them now.

Spent most of the day sorting out lounge as it had too much moved to get to the master socket.
Going to spend Sunday getting case out of storage, cleaning it up (if needed).
Then going to start on new build from Monday.
Bit annoyed with Asus/eBuyer as no support CD/DVD with M/B.
Had to download all needed from Asus.


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