AcousticallyChallenged

Once upon a time, the IOM Post was amazing. With some vendors, you could order past 7pm from the UK, and via Parcelforce, it'd arrive the next day.

Now, even special delivery tends to be a day late. (3 days rather than 2).

20 hours ago, woolley said:

Nobody thinks they are the forum idiot.

I don't think I am..I know I am.

1 hour ago, Boohoo said:

 

Thank you, it was mainly the IoM law side that I was wanting confirmed. They shouldn't be allowed to threaten me into not leaving a gift for a person in the same house. This person has a grudge against me personally and think he is above the law. I appreciate your assitance.

Is this something addressed to them, that has been delivered to you instead?

In the circumstances, I would hand it back to the postie or courier, rather than risking making things worse by going round.

If it's a personal gift from you, I'd carefully consider how the person that doesn't like you may misunderstand it. It may have an unintentional poor reaction.

12 hours ago, A fool and his money..... said:

Yes it is more reliable, if installed correctly, big if.

It user more power at the house, less at the exchange - so it uses less of MT's power.

You could argue it's easier to get right, either you get the blinking light at the end of the fibre or you don't.

It uses less power overall though. By a fair margin. Most folks won't notice the extra 5 watts.

On 12/10/2023 at 9:00 AM, emesde said:

The reality is that it has taken 150 years of evolution to get from the first cars to our current position. Huge factories, enormous amounts of infrastructure in garages etc, whole industries built up to support this development . Five generations have loved the freedom of car ownership and aspired to owning the car of their choice. Racing, rallying freedom of movement and mobility for all. 

Suddenly a few "academics" have decided that what has taken a 150 years to develop is all wrong and must be changed within a miniscule time span. Suddenly 150 years of evolution is being binned. 

People like their cars and and the way it benefits their lives. It is no wonder that there is resistance to such dramatic changes to vehicles that are so much more expensive and inconvenient. That have range issues and long term may produce even greater environmental issues than currently exist. I don't think that the majority of people believe that these changes will be half as beneficial as a few "experts" tell us. 

No doubt these changes will be forced on everybody by a few. 

Personally I believe that electric vehicles for every situation will bring even bigger problems. Hybrid vehicles would seem to be a much more realistic and acceptable option. 

Didn't they say the same thing about the motorcar?

Some argued that they were noisy, dangerous and antisocial, and that they'd never replace the horse.

The Farmers Against Automobiles Association proposed that a driver at night send up rockets and Roman candles, and, if they come across horses, to cover the vehicle so it was camouflaged.

Electric cars existed too, but, the battery technology couldn't compare to a gallon of petrol. For some, petrol was seen as a downside.

On 12/10/2023 at 12:46 PM, doc.fixit said:

I agree except for the hybrid bit. why have two engines? one ICE and one electric motor.

the power losses when power is transferred are conveniently forgotten.

I've just finished a book called, 'The Dark Cloud'. Very scary, very well researched and very to the point, just how much the digital world is costing the environment.

The upside to hybrids is you're striking a balance.

The idea being that, when you run the engine, you're running it at peak efficiency, and siphoning off energy into the battery.

In an ICE car, you're constantly varying the engine load and thus, the efficiency. Hybrids split that process up, so the engine can be kept in the 'sweet spot'.

Even with charging losses, you can, and do, end up with a net positive in what you're saving. A small battery can be charged quickly, and isn't heavy.

Toyota invented their hybrid system as a way into the American market, as the Americans didn't want diesels, but having the better fuel economy of a diesel was still appealing.

On their own, their atkinson cycle engines would be a bit crap to drive. But, they're much more efficient. The electric motor is there to pick up the slack.

Now, you even get engines that can swap between the cycles for a similar effect in ICE cars.

On the other hand, the plug-in ones are a bit of a mixed bag, as you're always lugging around bigger batteries. So you get the worst of both worlds.

For better or worse, copper is going.

Fibre doesn't corrode, uses less power and isn't subject to interference in the same way. The last bit means you aren't stuck with slow internet based on your distance from the exchange.

You can also 'tap' it in the way the old party lines were. So, you're running one fibre optic cable where you had a number of phone lines.

At some point, every copper line will fail due to age or tractors. As it gets phased out, the gear to support copper will also become harder to get hold of and maintain.

Conspiracy theorists over the water claim it's so Government can control communication, not realising that it's all digital in the middle, and that they've been able to turn it off to stop people communicating for half a century or more. Plus, that exists for mobiles too.

Just now, ricardo said:

 

What changes with a digital ID is that all activity is able to be monitored and our access to services and products will be controlled. Ask any Chinese resident how that is working out.

That's already the case. Everything is monitored and correlated. Facebook were infamous years ago for working out where people without Facebook accounts fit in social circles, for example.

See RIPA 2016, as an example. See the Snowden leaks.

The only difference here is that private companies started it first, as it was a way to make more money.

Even back in the 80s, UK police forces had big computerised lists of subversives to keep an eye on, and in the run up to a war with the soviets, round up so they didn't interfere.

2 minutes ago, ricardo said:

Whether Kary Mullis was ‘cuckoo’ or not the PCR test was his creation and he knew it was not suitable for the detection of the supposed SARS virus. As did all governments.

He was long dead before the appearance of COVID. But, he designed a system that would take some DNA, and make lots of copies of it, to make it easier to look at.

What he didn't think, was that HIV had any bearing on AIDS. So the fact that his technique could detect HIV, in his eyes, was of no consequence in that matter. That's it.

I doubt the inventor of a magnifying glass had any concept of a circuit board, but you can use one to look at one of those.

I doubt the inventor of the wheel had any notion of it being attached to a Ferrari either, but, they do work pretty well together too.

The post hitting the island, whilst impacted by the boat, has been dreadful in terms of speed.

I had a special delivery leave the UK on a Friday, before the cut off, it arrived on the Island the following Wednesday.

With Christmas coming alongside the boat disruption, how will they get around the backlogs?

On 11/28/2023 at 11:58 AM, Banker said:

Why would someone order live fish via normal parcel service? You can arrange to send parcels for 24 hours delivery which goes on plane, it’s been publicized & I know one local business uses it to send vital deliveries & it works fine.

That's only going from the island, not coming to, which I think was the issue.

15 hours ago, ricardo said:

Neither am I theorizing about what Dr Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR test said either - his almost exact words are below, as more or less confirmed by the dubious ‘Full fact’ Organisation. Your suggestion that his painstakingly created, and Nobel prize-winning, PCR test being ‘re-configured’ to test for ‘covid’ is, I’m afraid, utter bollocks. Or ‘tosh’ even.

He's not the first Nobel prize winner to go a bit cuckoo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

Nobel disease has its own article.

15 hours ago, ricardo said:

I acknowledge UK passports now carry a digital chip. The chip is designed to carry the name of the holder and photo information. There is no requirement for UK citizens to hold a passport. It is politically unfeasible to force British citizens to carry one for ID purposes. The proposed digital ‘vaccine passport’ is a whole different kettle of fish. Which is why a raft of MP’s have objected to it. They know where that will end. As do you.

Do you have a smartphone? If so, you have a device covered in recording and monitoring ability, that, by its very existence and design, reports that back to a central location periodically. You can turn your data off, but it'll still happily chirp to let the tower know where to find it. Generally, they're filled with data harvesting tools, simply to be able to sell you things.

Never mind how much data your browser gives off when you visit a website. The Electronic Frontier Foundation have a handy little tool here to show you how many data points: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ Even TOR users can be found if they're interesting enough. One of the drivers behind this, again, is advertising.

The chip in the passports is very similar to the one in your bank card. It carries some data, including a copy of what's on the passport, and a digital signature, some of which you can read with the average smartphone. This isn't really some huge surprise.

Remember also that facial recognition tech already exists and can be used to great effect too. As technology improves, it gets ever cheaper and easier. The Met Police have been trialling it over the years, for example.

Also, remember what Snowden pointed out, the mass collection of citizens data on an enormous scale. RIPA, in the UK, allow a list of agencies from the Food Standards Agency to MI6 to request communications data.

What actually changes with a 'digital' ID card?

2 hours ago, The Phantom said:

Very true.  No matter how your car is supposed to handle, it's power, electro gimmicks etc, there is only one bit that actually touches the road. 

As the big 4x4s on summer tyres find in the snow, 4 lots of no grip is still no grip. 

2 hours ago, CrazyDave said:

I am aware of all that.

I was asking if they teach people these days to try and correct it themselves or how to best let the electronics try and deal with it?

Its pretty pointless teaching someone how to recover a slide on a skid pan with everything turned off when they will actually be driving a car that tries to intervene, because if you correct AND the car intervenes you can end up in a whole heap of trouble.

As I said at the end of that post, you’d likely want to demonstrate with and without the safety nets. 

Some cars will let you step out a bit more before they take over. Others will panic at the slightest whiff of instability.

I’d argue that it’s important for people to recognise what the electronics are doing for them as well. They can otherwise lead you into a sense of false security.

It’s my understanding that they’re also designed to handle the situation you’re describing, where the driver starts over correcting. They’re about both reducing the chance of losing control, and helping in regaining it. 

12 hours ago, CrazyDave said:

This is a serious question.

How does skid training work now cars all have ESC TSC blah blah and computers that kick in when you try and instinctively catch the slide?

I really believe you are right and there should be a skid pan here that everyone has to have a go on as part of a wider refresher training every few years.

They generally have an off switch. Some will also have adjustable levels, where the vehicle will have higher thresholds for engaging the systems. 

The “drifters” will often pull fuses too, for things like ABS, I’d guess that the proper skid cars may well have switches wired in for disabling the always on features. I believe the police cars that measure road surface traction do something similar. 

I’ve also seen some of the skid training cars where the rear wheels are steered by the instructor to force it into a skid. 

If you’re asking about whether the training is done with the systems on or off, I don’t know. But, I can see it being useful to make students try the same thing with and without the safety nets available. 

Boat is delayed again this morning. 

This time, apparently the gangway damaged or pulled out ropes for the Marine Evacuation System. So they can’t leave without sorting that.

As the captain pointed out though, there is a crane on the pier, which is apparently a very handy coincidence. 

Just now, CrazyDave said:

A two second google confirms that drinking water systems on ships fail all over the world.

People just fix them and crack on without moaning

I think people are more displeased about the fact that the Steam Packet don’t seem to be handling it particularly well.

A few crates of water bottles per sailing wouldn’t exactly cost them much in the scheme of things.

1 hour ago, CrazyDave said:

Fresh water in system that avoids airlocks on a ferry that has no continuous fresh water supply and which needs to pump it around a vessel that rocks and rolls is a basic?

In a restaurant I agree as it just comes from the mains, but I am not sure you understand the complexity of such a system on a bespoke vessel.

Well, every other ship manages it and has done for a long time. 

If you couldn’t manage pumping liquid from place to place without airlocks, then would the engines not end up stalling as it pitches and rolls too?

They don’t have a mains supply of diesel…

13 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

Indeed: she’s a professional contrarian.

No she isn’t!

13 hours ago, Jarndyce said:

One or two of those on the site, actually!

No there aren’t! 

Unfortunately, if you are closely related to a criminal, you are probably more likely to fall victim to their former associates. 

How many times have parents or family members tried to get someone out of criminal trouble?

Equally, the way it’s presented does make it sound quite unpleasant. But there’s a lot of the story that is unknown.

If the body cam footage is there, and they’ve clearly followed the procedure in the circumstances, then, is it the procedure that needs revisiting?

1 hour ago, 2112 said:

I haven’t and if a bulb goes it gets replaced, and fresh tyres where appropriate etc. My argument has been the amount of crowing. If they are trumpeting success, which can be perceived as good for maintaining standards, then perhaps there is an underlying issue regarding vehicle roadworthiness which needs addressing, rather than relying on winter and TT campaigns etc. 

The crowing makes people more aware of it happening though.

If it means people are giving their cars a once around, it's a positive.

7 minutes ago, Cueey Lewis And The News said:

Just to reiterate once more. I literally could not give one fuck what some sad embittered low level troll like you thinks or says about anything I might post on this forum. I care literally not one fuck in the slightest what some sad, inconsequential, bitter, online muppet thinks. So you’re wasting your time popping up with your sad snide comments. 

You don't care, so much so, that you feel the need to tell us about it?

And call people names in the process?

Because, you don't care.

Gotcha.

If you're shouting on all your platforms about being deplatformed, are you really deplatformed?

Or, are you just going "ta-da look at me"?

2 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Well I’ve watched every series of “ Call the Midwife “ win which there have been  plenty of births and yet to see a baby born with dual genitalia 

But you know best

A period drama, crikey, you are cultured.

I find it fascinating how much a majority of heterosexual men can debate this for hours.

When a woman chimes in, in the position against theirs, she's simply accused of having an unshakeable world view.

But, the men know what the women want, and how they feel, right?