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Post by MartinT on Jan 24, 2018 9:45:43 GMT
We've had no slowdowns in either our servers or client machines, all with the latest Windows 10 / Server 2016 patches.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 25, 2018 13:40:27 GMT
The BBC Text service reports that according to the newly released secondary school league tables, more than one in eight secondary schools is below the standard deemed acceptable by ministers. Yes, more than one in eight!
When I went to school I vaguely remember that an eighth cost about a fiver or "one in eight" was equal to 121/2 % so that 's more than 121/2%. Why, then, does the article go on to report that "some 365 schools or 12% were below the new tougher floor standard" I wonder? Perhaps whoever wrote it was one of those who failed the new, tougher, maths CGE.
n.b. - THe BBC News website only uses the 12% figure. |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 25, 2018 13:46:28 GMT
Boris Johnson 'is descendant' of mummified Basel woman.Scientists in the Swiss city of Basel have solved a decades-old mystery over the identity of a mummified woman. Their research revealed a new surprise: the woman is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother of UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. ![]()  Open mouthed, empty-headed, a blank stare, it can only be the lack of hair that had them puzzled for so long. SOURCE
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Post by Slinger on Jan 26, 2018 12:22:45 GMT
A discount on Nutella has led to violent scenes in a chain of French supermarkets, as shoppers jostled to grab a bargain on the sweet spread. Intermarché supermarkets offered a 70% discount on Nutella, bringing the price down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40. Police were called when people began fighting and pushing one another. " They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand," one customer told French media. A member of staff at one Intermarché shop in central France told the regional newspaper Le Progrès: " We were trying to get in between the customers but they were pushing us." All of its stock was snapped up within 15 minutes and one customer was given a black eye, the report adds. BBC NEWS |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 26, 2018 13:03:23 GMT
New York's Guggenheim Museum turned down a request from President Donald Trump [last September] to borrow Van Gogh's work for the White House - instead offering him a gold toilet, media reports say. The museum curator apologised for not being able to furnish the White House with Van Gogh's Landscape With Snow, the Washington Post says. " I am sorry... to inform you that we are unable to participate in this loan since the painting is part of the museum's Thannhauser Collection, which is prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions," she wrote in an email. But, the Guggenheim suggested, a " solid gold, 18-karat toilet" could be offered as an alternative. The fully functional exhibit - titled America - is seen as a pointed satire on excessive wealth in the US. The White House has, so far, made no comment. BBC NEWS |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 28, 2018 0:10:01 GMT
TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese exchange has lost 58 billion yen ($530 million) in cryptocurrency because of hacking, according to Japanese media reports. The Coincheck exchange said on its website Friday that it had halted sales and withdrawals of the currency, which is called NEM. It later added that it had restricted dealings in most other cryptocurrencies too. At a Friday night news conference, Coincheck President Koichiro Wada bowed and apologized. He said the company may seek financial assistance, according to Kyodo News service. Japanese TV footage showed a small group of customers standing outside the company's Tokyo head office Friday night. Coincheck, which calls itself the leading Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Asia, said it detected the unauthorized access to its system about 3 a.m. Friday. The reported loss tops the 48 billion yen that Mt. Gox, a Japan-based Bitcoin exchange, lost in 2014. Now, tell me again, how do I make a fortune on this 'Bitcoin' thing? SOURCE |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 31, 2018 13:50:46 GMT
Microsoft has halted some of its patches for the 'Meltdown' and 'Spectre' vulnerabilities as it was 'bricking' AMD-based machines. They've also admitted that the fix could slow your machine down by 2% to as much as 14%. They say that this should not be significant for "average computer users." Gaming platforms and cloud services, on the other hand, will feel the pinch. I rather thought that cloud services were pretty much 'average computer user' fare these days. FFS! Intel is now telling us NOT to apply the patches as they can severely slow down or even "brick" machines. They add that they now know what caused the problems and are developing fresh patches that will work better. Better late than never boys, but if these are the same patches that Windows 10 has already automatically installed...  Well, this one rumbles on and on. Microsoft has not only advised against installing the patches but they have actually now released an emergency (their word) update that disables the patch if you already have it installed. The main problems discovered with the original patch were that it either put machines into a reboot loop or simply shut them down but it's now been discovered that the mitigation techniques potentially lead to data loss or corruption. Full(ish) story here... |
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Post by Slinger on Jan 31, 2018 14:06:08 GMT
Recently Hawaii was sent into chaos with what turned out (thankfully) to be a false alarm that indicated that there was a missile inbound to the island. They were in full "nuclear attack" mode until a rather red-face standdown was issued. The guy who actually pushed the button has since been sacked. It was noted that he had "confused real-life events and drills in the past" and "his poor performance has been documented for years, and other members of the team say they were not comfortable working with him in any role." The report into the matter also related that "the false alert was not the result of a worker choosing the wrong alert by accident from a drop-down menu, but rather because the worker misunderstood a drill as a true emergency. The drill incorrectly included the language "This is not a drill." Hawaii residents received this text message...  The final part of this "Keystone Cops" episode came when Governor David Ige was told two minutes after the text message was issued by the Emergency Management Agency (EMA) that the threat warning was a false alarm. His office did not share the information via social media until about 17 minutes later though. On Monday, Mr Ige acknowledged he had failed to recall his social media ID. "I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that's one of the changes that I've made," he said after his State of the State address, according to local newspaper the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The governor added that he now stored the details on his smartphone to avoid a repeat blunder. Now that's not another catastrophe waiting to happen, is it? I mean, you couldn't imagine anyone trying to hack his smartphone after he's told the world that it's where he keeps his login details, could you? |
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Post by Slinger on Feb 2, 2018 13:54:36 GMT
Swansea Council is currently deciding whether to introduce parking charges at its schools...for teachers. The charges would vary according to the individual teacher's pay. The money would, it is reported, stay in the school's own budget. Swansea Council has said that they are aware of the "strength and depth of feeling about this proposal".
One word - Disgusting! If you want two words then the first one will begin with "F" whilst the second will still be "disgusting!".
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Post by julesd68 on Feb 2, 2018 14:21:19 GMT
That is possibly one of the stupidest ideas of all time.
They won't get away with it.
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Post by MartinT on Feb 3, 2018 11:08:48 GMT
When our teachers are moaning about things I often remind them of the benefits, like free parking. They don't seem to realise that for many workers it's an extra cost.
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Post by Slinger on Feb 12, 2018 12:01:31 GMT
Makers of the new "Peter Rabbit" film have apologised for their depiction of a character's allergy. A scene in the film shows a character who suffers a blackberry allergy being pelted with them by a gang of bunnies. In a joint statement, Sony Pictures and the filmmakers said they "should not have made light" of the issue. Campaigners condemned the scene and some Twatter users adopted the hashtag #boycottpeterrabbit. Australian group Global Anaphylaxis Awareness and Inclusivity (Globalaai) has created a petition asking distributor Sony Pictures to apologise, saying the film “mocks the seriousness of allergic disease and is heartbreakingly disrespectful to the families of those that have lost loved ones to anaphylaxis”. In the controversial scene, the much-loved Beatrix Potter character and his friends reportedly attack the nephew of Peter’s nemesis Mr McGregor with blackberries. The group know that Tom McGregor is allergic to the berries, and at one point even shoot one into his mouth. He quickly becomes seriously ill and has to stab himself in the leg with an Epipen. SOURCE |
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Post by MartinT on Feb 12, 2018 12:35:40 GMT
How much more precious can people get?
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Post by Slinger on Feb 15, 2018 13:38:40 GMT
The craze for Bitcoin and other 'crypto-currencies' is seriously hampering scientists in their efforts to listen out for extra-terrestrial broadcasts.
It seems that the radio astronomers at SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) want to expand operations at two observatories but can't get hold of the latest GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit chips) because crypto-currency miners are buying them all up
"We'd like to use the latest GPUs, and we can't get them," said Dan Werthimer, Chief Scientist at SETI.
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Post by Slinger on Feb 21, 2018 15:30:02 GMT
Two of the three companies currently bidding to produce the UK's post-brexit, blue, passports are French.
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Post by MartinT on Feb 21, 2018 18:06:28 GMT
Knowing our lot (and thinking of all the defence contracts given to overseas companies), the French will get it.
...and laugh, and laugh...
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Post by Slinger on Mar 8, 2018 15:07:58 GMT
It's a funny old game...
Referee Dean Hulme asked a Hemel Hempstead Town player for his name as he was about to be booked in a National League South game against East Thurrock United. The 27-year-old repeatedly gave his name when asked but ended up getting sent off, for dissent. The player's name? Watt. I'm sure you can imagine the conversation.
10 "Name"
20 "Watt"
30 GOTO 10
Hulme rescinded the card when it was explained Watt was not showing dissent.
"It was a human error," Hemel Hempstead chairman Dave Boggins told BBC Sport. "The referee was man enough to rectify it. I think everybody found it amusing afterwards - including the referee."
===================================
Margate's Jordan Chiedozie, formerly of Southend, was sent off in what was described as "amazing circumstances" by his manager. It seems that he wasn't the only one confused by the ref's reasoning, the opposition couldn't work it out either. It eventually turned out that Jordan Chiedozie was sent off for a sudden fit of the giggles. He was laughing at an opposition player who had tripped himself up. This was deemed to be "unsportsmanlike" by the referee.
Margate boss Steve Watt admitted to being "baffled" by the ref's performance. "Talking to our players, talking to their players, he laughed. The player running tripped himself up, he laughed. The referee blew his whistle and sent him off."
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Post by Mr Whippy on Mar 18, 2018 0:21:15 GMT
Graphene uses expanded to - HAIR DYE. Oh yes...
Apparently, one of it's more mundane properties, is it's consistent blackness when combined with certain molecules which is thought could be taken advantage of in the beauty industry. It doesn't require the top grade. The low grade version is good enough.
Here's hoping that anyone using it doesn't take a direct hit by lightening. With it's high conductivity, it will be a case of - Goodnight Vienna.
I'm sure that some bright spark would find a use for the hairs left on the pillow. Audiophile fuse, perhaps?
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Post by Mr Whippy on Mar 18, 2018 9:57:01 GMT
BBC abandons plans to switch off FM.
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Post by MartinT on Mar 18, 2018 13:25:25 GMT
BBC abandons plans to switch off FM. Good. Their plans were decades too soon and DAB coverage for cars is too patchy. |
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