Category: Ramblings
IHD3-PPMID
OK, so I was sold on the idea of a smart meter by my energy company. Truth be told, I was fed up with having to constantly submit meter readings and my inner geek liked the idea of n in home display (IHD) showing current and historical usage. So, the installer was booked, turned up, and installed the gas and electric meters while maintaining social distancing, showed me the IHD and apologised there wasn’t a manual (manual? ha! I SPIT at manuals…), and left. About 3 hours later I noticed the display wasn’t showing the electricity reading So I did […]
Read MorePwned?
The other week we had an ‘Information Security Awareness’ week at work – the Polish Cyber-security team were over and spent the week doing workshops and hosting sessions for the whole site – all very interesting stuff, and the live hacking demos were quote frightening with how easy it is to breach the security of a global corporation in minutes (literally). Then, the other day I got an email from a friend (hey Bu’er! 🙂 ) which in turn made me think “I’ve not blogged in a while…”, so imagine my surprise when I found my blog database had been […]
Read MoreA pox on the gambling revolution
Friday afternoon at work, 3 of us decided (I talked the others into it) to have a bet on the football: Hull to beat Arsenal Spurs to beat Liverpool Burnley to beat Chelsea We all put in £2 each, and with the treble, stood to get £1500 back if all results came in…sadly, none of them did. We laughed and put it down to experience – £2 each was no big deal, we could afford to take the loss. A key point here though, was I had to go into the bookies to place the bet – I refuse to […]
Read MoreHome media system
I previously mentioned how the household now relies on content streamed from the office (aka: Paul’s Pit) to WDTV Live SMP players around the house. Nowadays, we have a number of Android TV boxes running the Kodi media centre. This gives us more options when watching TV/Movies – we can stream from the NAS drives, or stream over the internet. The one thing I’ve so far failed to accomplish with Kodi is to have a centrally accessible library whereby I can start watching a show on one box, and continue from the point I left off on another – this bothers […]
Read MoreThe UK’s draconian internet law
As we approach the end of 2016, there are mixed views – so many celebrity deaths this year, but more importantly, the passing of the ‘Investigatory Powers Act 2016’ here in the UK means the death of freedom on the internet: Broadband ISPs and mobile operators will tonight offer a collective sigh after the Investigatory Powers Bill effectively achieved Royal Asset to become an Act. The new law will force providers into logging a big slice of your Internet activity, irrespective of whether or not you’re even suspected of a crime. At present ISPs need to see a warrant before […]
Read MoreHTC – the end of their fuckwittery
So, since my last post regarding HTC’s total lack of respect for their paying customers, there has been some movement. The HTC representative (and apparent resident expert) Ian had touched upon me getting my phone back unrepaired with no charges being made – my response was that I wanted this in writing from HTC before I said yes or no. Imagine my (total lack of) surprise on getting an email on 30th June at 16:55: Dear Paul Bennett Device HTC One M9, Serial No. ************, is now awaiting shipment in our warehouse and should be returned to you within a […]
Read MoreThe saga of the HTC One M9 phone…
Following me dropping my phone and the screen breaking 🙁 I decided to go with the manufacturer’s for the repair, so after calling them and initiating the repair, I sent the phone off never once thinking this would turn into the saga it has. Being totally disgruntled with the customer service I have(n’t) received from HTC, I typed up a letter for the HTC UK Executive Director (Lisa then took my letter and made it pretty): Dear Mr Blair May I start by saying that I have been a user of HTC phones since the HTC S710 back in 2008 […]
Read MoreWork – a four letter word
So, this week I has mainly been in Italy – Lake Como 🙂 for training on pressure transmitters. There were about 30 of us – ABB sales team, 2 of us office bods, and the alliance partners had sent over some representatives so ~I got to meet people I deal wioth on a day to day basis too. Hard life eh? in the office Monday, then picked up Tuesday at stupid o’clock and off to the airport, arriving at the ABB factory in Ossucio at about 13.30 in time for lunch and then a tour of the factory – very […]
Read More