Nick

@nick@shore.me.uk

Mostly Retired. Consultant. Ex Managing Director. Ex CTO.

Mikrotik, DNS, Routing, IPv6
Live Sound Engineer. Cornet Player

Based in Debenham, Suffolk UK
Website https://shore.me.uk

179 following, 253 followers

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[?]Nick » 🌐
@nick@shore.me.uk

bang, bang, bang, fzzzz, bang, bang

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David-T boosted

[?]Nick » 🌐
@nick@shore.me.uk

@nick@shore.me.uk fond memories of Terry Wogan doing a silent firework display on the radio

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    [?]Nick » 🌐
    @nick@shore.me.uk

    @nick@shore.me.uk meanwhile Ziggy our black Labrador is not at all bothered

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      Mike Cox boosted

      [?]Nick » 🌐
      @nick@shore.me.uk

      The word for a specific building at a location is premises, that is my premise.

      Nick boosted

      [?]MikroTik Trainer » 🌐
      @MikrotikTrainer@mastodon.social

      Many have already taken advantage of our early bird pricing for the Professionals Conference but it may be prudent to buy your tickets before the price goes up at the weekend! 😉 We are also very interested in hearing from anyone who wishes to present a MikroTik related topic. mtpc.world/

        [?]Quixoticgeek » 🌐
        @quixoticgeek@social.v.st

        MS is having DNS issues. So the Dutch railways are having issues. Critical national infrastructure should not be on cloud systems owned by foreign companies. This is resiliency 101.

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        Quixoticgeek boosted

        [?]Ray McCarthy » 🌐
        @raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie

        @quixoticgeek
        actually shouldn't be on Cloud at all.
        A National railway can afford its own servers.

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          Quixoticgeek boosted

          [?]Franchesca » 🌐
          @Frantasaur@mastodon.ie

          @quixoticgeek in finance we have DORA legislation for digital resilience (you need to have a backup plan to stay running during such an event), but where are the same requirements for other infrastructure?!

            Quixoticgeek boosted

            [?]Raymond Russell » 🌐
            @raymierussell@mastodon.scot

            @quixoticgeek
            The Scottish Parliament has had to suspend business.
            Literal democratic process is being affected.

              [?]Jules she/her » 🌐
              @afewbugs@social.coop

              @quixoticgeek my train is also delayed, wondered if it was the same issue for a second but it turned out to be a much more Devon reason of livestock on the line

                [?]slash » 🌐
                @agreeable_landfall@mastodon.social

                @quixoticgeek I predict it will selectively list, authoritatively, all members of a disapproved class as "not citizens", who then get deported without due process.

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                  [?]Nick » 🌐
                  @nick@shore.me.uk

                  @h3artbl33d@exquisite.social nice typo 'compromised of hosts' apart from that its a good write up, ssh can do so much that people don't realise.

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                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                    @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk @dans@mastodon.me.uk but even unlimited is only £15 at most, when I often hear of people paying £40 + , also I bet most people have no idea of how much they actually use

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                      [?]Nick » 🌐
                      @nick@shore.me.uk

                      @nick@shore.me.uk @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk @dans@mastodon.me.uk also the people I'm talking about do have broadband at home as well

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                        [?]Nick » 🌐
                        @nick@shore.me.uk

                        @dans@mastodon.me.uk I'm always surprised that people pay so much for phone contracts, I just pay £5 for 5GB

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                          [?]Nick » 🌐
                          @nick@shore.me.uk

                          @stefano@bsd.cafe @ChuckMcManis@chaos.social they also seem to never understand the cost of failure, and don't have the right plans in place

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                            Nick boosted

                            [?]MikroTik releases » 🤖 🌐
                            @version@mikrotik.social

                            New version! RouterOS 7.20.2 is available in the Stable channel mikrotik.com/download

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                              [?]Nick » 🌐
                              @nick@shore.me.uk

                              @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk not just me then, this was a quality installation in Tossa de Mar

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                                Nick boosted

                                [?]The Real Grunfink » 🌐
                                @grunfink@comam.es

                                I've just published version 2.84 of , the simple, minimalistic instance server written in C. This time, it includes mostly work by great, brilliant fellow developers while I was just sitting on the porch with the cats on my lap and a beer in my hand:

                                Implemented more scopes to match other ActivityPub implementations (public, unlisted, followers-only and direct message) (contributed by byte).

                                New icons showing instance and actor failures.

                                Mastodon API: Added remote accounts follow metrics and statuses when viewing profiles (contributed by Stefano Marinelli), fixed post deletion.

                                Fixed outbox collection (contributed by byte).

                                New file FEDERATION.md (contributed by andypiper).

                                Updated Czech, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese translations (contributed by pmjv and daltux).

                                Fixed manpage typos (contributed by r-ricci).

                                https://comam.es/what-is-snac

                                If you find useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.


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                                  [?]Santiago, né ? :amiga: 👾 » 🌐
                                  @santi@gone.lema.org

                                  @grunfink Oh great! Having followers-only support was something I really wanted (to use in apps) !

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                                  [?]Nick » 🌐
                                  @nick@shore.me.uk

                                  @jamesderrick@mastodon.social a blast from the past, funny how social media circles overlap.

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                                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                                    @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk egress rules on your firewall so it can only go where it is supposed to go. Also consider which machines on the inside of your network can get to management of things on your lan or DMZ, often people just trust the whole lan, and ignore this attack vector.

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                                      [?]Mitex Leo » 🌐
                                      @ml@social.mitexleo.one

                                      I just discovered how good MikroTik routers (all devices in general) are.

                                      RouterOS 7 looks amazing and the web UI is clean, powerful, and fast. Can’t believe I wasted money on cheap TP-Link and Cudy routers that broke when I tried to install OpenWRT. MikroTik gives you real control, pro-level features, and solid firmware right out of the box.

                                      Wish I knew about them earlier. 🥹

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                                        [?]Nick » 🌐
                                        @nick@shore.me.uk

                                        @ml@social.mitexleo.one don't forget winbox, much preferred to the web gui.

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                                          [?]Mitex Leo » 🌐
                                          @ml@social.mitexleo.one

                                          @nick Already using it. They also have a mobile app called Mikrotik Pro. It has the same features as the winbox app!

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                                            [?]Nick » 🌐
                                            @nick@shore.me.uk

                                            @onepict@chaos.social @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk now I've 'retired' might consider NeD roles for the right orgs, but not aware how I might find them!

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                                              [?]Nick » 🌐
                                              @nick@shore.me.uk

                                              @nick@shore.me.uk @onepict@chaos.social @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk in the meantime I'm looking at spending some time getting back in to writing code, maybe contributing to some open source projects

                                                Nick boosted

                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                “People are the most annoying people.”

                                                -Kemi @shitkemisays

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                                                  [?]Ben C » 🌐
                                                  @bencc@morehammer.uk

                                                  @bloor @shitkemisays people are the worst. I’m glad I’m not one of them.

                                                    Nick boosted

                                                    [?]Octopus Saving Sessions » 🌐
                                                    @OctopusSaving@ibe.social

                                                    The grid is bursting with green power this weekend, and you know what that means…

                                                    Free Electricity Session
                                                    Friday 24th October, 9pm - 10pm UK
                                                    AND
                                                    Saturday 25th October, 12 (noon) - 3pm UK

                                                    Move any heavy power activity into that hour; be it laundry, tumbledryer, extra electric-heat.

                                                    The power you'd typically use costs the same. Any extra you use will be free!

                                                    If you’re an Intelligent Go or Intelligent Flux customer, you can get your extra household power free as well as an hour's free charging credit.

                                                    Read the FAQs

                                                      Nick boosted

                                                      [?]hrbrmstr 🇺🇦 🇬🇱 🇨🇦 » 🌐
                                                      @hrbrmstr@mastodon.social

                                                      The hastily crafted (without checking with the product team first 😇) GreyNoise IP checker tool — check.labs.greynoise.io/ — was received pretty well at work today, so I spiffied the CSS up a bit and gave it proper opengraph tags and dark mode support.

                                                      Shld be a friendly way for anyone, including non-cyber folks, to see if their home IP or work NAT IP was found in GreyNoise.

                                                      Might be a good idea to visit it when you're doing on-site family/friend IT support during the upcoming holiday season.

                                                      [?]Totts [I and I] » 🌐
                                                      @Geri@mastodon.online

                                                      The high water mark of Poochin winning Runcorn migh have passed for .....

                                                      The media may have been directed to not have on their programs so much

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                                                        [?]Esther Payne :bisexual_flag: » 🔓
                                                        @onepict@chaos.social

                                                        Thinking about it, I do quite like the terminal.

                                                        Not quite ready to abandon the gui entirely, but for git, using ssh to access remote systems or plain distraction free writing in base Vim there's nothing like it.

                                                        I prefer simplicity because I want the spare brain cycles for other stuff.

                                                        My computer should be under my control, not another source of anxiety or pain.

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                                                        [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                        @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                        @onepict@chaos.social I tend to stick with xterm -sb nice and compact

                                                          [?]lachlan slowly taming rust » 🔓
                                                          @lachlan@mastodon.social

                                                          @onepict I've got a great little setup going to do fiction/picture book authoring in neovim (with pandoc templates for the manuscripts)

                                                          I figured that if I use this tool all day for work - why not use it? I've got my custom word count scripts, can use version control properly, can comment, can hide formatting away from my brain that loves to play with it - what's not to love?

                                                            [?]inpc » 🔓
                                                            @inpc@go.mxtthxw.art

                                                            @onepict totally get you but terminal still such an alien environment for my brain. Maybe a computer solely running some music software would be the way to go.

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                                                            [?]Esther Payne :bisexual_flag: » 🔓
                                                            @onepict@chaos.social

                                                            @inpc I think it does depend on what you're using it for.

                                                            Like I started on the command line, then windows 3.1 and personally I think after excel 5 the computing revolution went downhill.

                                                            But then I used to use WordPerfect as a secretarial temp. So even word was a huge annoyance.

                                                            But then I am a grumpy old crone yelling at the cloud. 🤣

                                                              [?]серафими многоꙮчитїи [he/him 🏳️‍🌈] » 🔓
                                                              @djm62@beige.party

                                                              @onepict I always think the terminal gets the power relationship between person and computer right: you tell it what to do, it does it or tells you why it can't. You may need to formulate what you want, but there isn't that game of hide-and-seek, where did they put that setting, does it still exist, can you change it that you get with GUI.

                                                              I dunno, I feel like "Computer says no" is more of a GUI thing.

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                                                                [?]Coding Cait » 🔓
                                                                @cait@anarres.family

                                                                @onepict for git, definitely - when I'm training junior people, I always advise them to learn git on the command line.

                                                                Even though git has a fairly poor CLI experience due to inconsistency between verbs, all of the UIs for it have to abstract away *something*, and if you don't understand where that abstraction is, you can run into trouble easily

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                                                                  [?]Esther Payne :bisexual_flag: » 🔓
                                                                  @onepict@chaos.social

                                                                  @cait I got taught the joy of git send email the other day and patching.

                                                                  So much less hassle. Especially if you're on the same LAN.

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                                                                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                    @Wifiwits@infosec.exchange only needed if the link is full

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                                                                      [?]myrmepropagandist [she/her/lady/ma'am/That One/Mrs.] » 🌐
                                                                      @futurebird@sauropods.win

                                                                      Struggling with vibe coding? You just need to get better at prompting. Here is a six video series "course" to teach you how to write the most effective AI prompts and get the most out of vibe coding!

                                                                      (Do you ever wonder what it would be like if there were some special language for giving commands to computers... a kind of prompting language so they would do *exactly* what you wanted? Maybe someone should invent that.)

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                                                                      [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                      @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                      How big of a fuck-up is going to need to take place for people to realise that putting lots of things all in one place and nebulously labelling it as "the cloud" isn't the best way to architect an "inherently reliable" Internet, from an end-user's perspective.

                                                                      I don't even begin to see the tide turning.

                                                                      It didn't turn at any of the fuckups that happened at fastly, cloudflare, etc had.

                                                                      It hasn't turned with any of the amazon ones.

                                                                      There have been others.

                                                                      1/3

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                                                                      [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                      @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                      2/3

                                                                      At no point do I see any movement towards "is this such a good idea? Should we, I don't know, mad idea, host our own shit?"

                                                                      Because every time, the forgetfulness happens rapidly thereafter.

                                                                      "Oh it's working again!"
                                                                      "Well, let's not forget the outage!"
                                                                      "What outage? It's working again!"

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                                                                      [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                      @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                      3/3

                                                                      What I have seen is a possibly increasing number of home users no longer wishing to rely on the cloud; people bringing back in house their NAS, or their home automation. But this is niche/hobbyist folks mainly. I really don't feel the same is true of businesses, generally.

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                                                                      [?]Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE » 🌐
                                                                      @TimWardCam@c.im

                                                                      @bloor Leaving quite a few people around the world unable to do any work so far today. bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5y8k7k6v1

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                                                                        [?]Dragon » 🌐
                                                                        @Dragon@toast.dragon2611.net

                                                                        @TimWardCam @bloor my opinion cloud is good for bursting or short lived workloads.

                                                                        It still doesn't make sense for stuff running 24/7 at least not at hyper scaler pricing

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                                                                          [?]Dragon » 🌐
                                                                          @Dragon@toast.dragon2611.net

                                                                          @TimWardCam @bloor I can see the appeal of stuff like managed databases through if you don't have th expertise in house.

                                                                          You will pay for the privilege of db as a service though

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                                                                            [?]Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE » 🌐
                                                                            @TimWardCam@c.im

                                                                            @Dragon @bloor Which I do to the co-lo ISP I've been using since last century. (On an extremely small scale for my personal web site.)

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                                                                              [?]Dragon » 🌐
                                                                              @Dragon@toast.dragon2611.net

                                                                              @TimWardCam @bloor most of my web facing stuff Is on machines I was able to Colo with a friend.

                                                                                [?]Richard Bairwell » 🌐
                                                                                @rbairwell@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                @bloor Then there are the "local systems" which won't allow you to do anything until after they have successfully checked for updates..Oh, the update server is AWOL? Good luck turning your lights on!

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                                                                                  [?]Mike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 » 🌐
                                                                                  @MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social

                                                                                  @bloor This is certainly something I'm seriously considering.
                                                                                  I'm not quite on the geek/hobbyist scale, but it doesn't scare me either

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                                                                                    [?]Andrew Hodgson » 🌐
                                                                                    @andrew@social.hodgson.io

                                                                                    @bloor I think a lot of the businesses are happy to deploy the someone else's problem field to the issue. Blaming Amazon for the outage and accepting this. I've seen this type of outage be a vehicle to get discounts on hosting costs going forward as well through sales channels.

                                                                                      🆎 boosted

                                                                                      [?]Yvan [he/him they/them whatever, don't mind] » 🌐
                                                                                      @yvan@toot.ale.gd

                                                                                      @bloor my experience is if you tell modern software developers things like that they look at you strangely and shoo you into the corner... "OK, grandad, go play with your vintage computing or something whist we Run Fast And Break Things like proper software engineers".

                                                                                      Also: "But then we would have to pay someone to do that! That's so dumb."

                                                                                      looks at cloud computing bill that is higher than an OK salary for infrastructure I could manage with probably under 20% of my time (Not that I actually want to do that with my time TBF, but you could hire a whole competent full time person for less!)

                                                                                      Of course the killer argument is then: "but what if we need to scale to Facebook size overnight!?" 🤷

                                                                                      Cannot win.

                                                                                        [?]mini [he/him, they/them] » 🔓
                                                                                        @mini@perfect.moe

                                                                                        @bloor 1/x

                                                                                        There's an element of 'no one gets fired for buying IBM' in this - AWS is a 'safe' default that most customers don't need you to justify using.

                                                                                        The managed services (the CDN, DNS, database, queues etc) are honestly quite solid and need a lot less in-house expertise than running your own.

                                                                                        Cost *is* more than some racks in a DC + hardware, but to do that you need someone to spec it, someone to install it, someone to look after it if drives die in the middle of the night, etc...

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                                                                                          [?]mini [he/him, they/them] » 🔓
                                                                                          @mini@perfect.moe

                                                                                          @bloor 2/2

                                                                                          It also means you don't need to plan capacity in advance or be trapped trying to run a service on limited resources until you can get hardware - and getting hardware isn't as predictable as we'd like these days either.

                                                                                          There *are* advantages to cloud, but I do agree that companies running their own hosting is overlooked these days.

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                                                                                            [?]Interpipes 💙 [he/him] » 🌐
                                                                                            @interpipes@thx.gg

                                                                                            @bloor I think more of a focus lately is how the Americans have proven conclusively - at great speed, no less - that they can no longer be relied upon, and so there is more interest - particularly among government bodies - to repatriate data away from US interests.

                                                                                            Part of that will hopefully include a reckoning about whether or not 'cheapest' is a wise purchasing decision, but I doubt it.

                                                                                              [?]The Penguin of Evil » 🌐
                                                                                              @etchedpixels@mastodon.social

                                                                                              @bloor for a lot of companies their uptime on managed clouds is vastly higher than they could achieve locally. It also appeals to managers because if it breaks it's someone else's fault

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                                                                                                [?]Mans R [he/han/er/él] » 🔓
                                                                                                @mansr@society.oftrolls.com

                                                                                                @etchedpixels @bloor > for a lot of companies their uptime on managed clouds is vastly higher than they could achieve locally

                                                                                                That's a good point that I think is often missed in the criticism that follows incidents like this. Everything goes down for an hour or two at some point. If all the services affected today had gone down for twice as long but one at a time on different days, nobody would be talking about it.

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                                                                                                  [?]Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK » 🔓
                                                                                                  @vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de

                                                                                                  @mansr @etchedpixels @bloor

                                                                                                  A lot of skills for IT management/system administration in small to medium size companies in the UK have been lost, and very few of these companies are prepared to hire staff just to "look after computers" (many even baulk at getting maintenance contracts for the equipment they do have, just using commodity PCs and cloud services such as MS365 or similar)

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                                                                                                    [?]The Penguin of Evil » 🔓
                                                                                                    @etchedpixels@mastodon.social

                                                                                                    @vfrmedia @mansr @bloor lost ? In many cases they never had them. Cobbled together IT held together by random people in the company who did computery stuff at home, and now and then bodged up by a consultant or two.

                                                                                                    For a lot of businesses customer facing IT was always a non critical afterthought and always remotely hosted. It just moved from small co website/email hosting to big cloud aggregation.

                                                                                                    And on a cost and returns basis totally rational not an underinvestment IMHO

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                                                                                                      [?]Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK » 🔓
                                                                                                      @vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de

                                                                                                      @etchedpixels @mansr @bloor

                                                                                                      For many its only recently become more critical due to the use of online banking and/or various types of cloud-based EPOS terminals as well as accounting software and staff scheduling services (which previously more often used to be run on local machines) - and its often not even that the business /couldn't/ go back to older methods, but they required more "slack" time away from the core business which smaller businesses no longer want to spare (especially as entry level jobs like office juniors have increasingly disappeared)

                                                                                                        [?]penguin42 » 🌐
                                                                                                        @penguin42@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                                        @bloor To be fair, I think 80% of UK geekery depends on @beasts instead; it's a different basket but in the end most of us haven't actually hosted stuff ourselves.
                                                                                                        I find the weird thing with AWS why so many of the big companies depend on a single AWS zone.

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                                                                                                          [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                          @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                          @penguin42 @beasts I would hazard a guess that the customers of @beasts are sufficiently clueful to not make them a single point of failure. The implicit rejection of big cloud and use of @beasts I think is a barometer of this.

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                                                                                                            [?]penguin42 » 🌐
                                                                                                            @penguin42@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                                            @bloor @beasts tbh I don't think most are - making applications robust across multiple data centres is hard! I've worked in huge companies with internal infrastructure where the only thing that's robust when they lose a data centre is IRC (which was someones side project)

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                                                                                                              [?]Mythic Beasts » 🌐
                                                                                                              @beasts@social.mythic-beasts.com

                                                                                                              @penguin42 @bloor most modern stuff seems to be engineered for MPOF (multiple points of failure). We once came across a static webpage that depended on five different CDNs for dynamically loaded resources.

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                                                                                                                [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                Refreshments

                                                                                                                A pint glass of Greene King Level Head partly drunk

                                                                                                                Alt...A pint glass of Greene King Level Head partly drunk

                                                                                                                [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                I've just received this text message. The names are correct and the sender's number matches the name, but the sender isn't somebody who would use this language/tone or even contact anybody this way at all - I don't believe this is anything other than a scam for a moment, but I'm struggling to see what the angle is here. What are the odds on me receiving another "please send money to..." or similar text shortly? Or does this scam work a different way?

                                                                                                                Hi all, my son and his Girlfriend had a really bad accident last week in their holiday in Portugal, [redacted] is bruised and battered and [redacted] is on life support after [redacted] pulled her from a burning car.  Any help would be gratefully received as they have lost 90% of their belongings.  I am with them in Portugal.  If you could share this as wide as possible I would so appreciate it - thank you.

                                                                                                                Alt...Hi all, my son and his Girlfriend had a really bad accident last week in their holiday in Portugal, [redacted] is bruised and battered and [redacted] is on life support after [redacted] pulled her from a burning car. Any help would be gratefully received as they have lost 90% of their belongings. I am with them in Portugal. If you could share this as wide as possible I would so appreciate it - thank you.

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                                                                                                                [?]Prof. Catherine Flick » 🌐
                                                                                                                @CatherineFlick@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                @NAB I suspect they're waiting for you to respond in some way

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                                                                                                                  [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                  @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                  @CatherineFlick @Floppy You're both probably right, but if that's the case, it does mean that the scammers must have stolen my contact's phone - which would also explain how they knew the name of their son and his girlfriend. I've sent a message to their partner to make them aware... we'll see what happens.

                                                                                                                    [?]Mike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 » 🔓
                                                                                                                    @MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social

                                                                                                                    @NAB
                                                                                                                    My guess (no more) is that you're right - a request for cash will quickly follow. And they've got your number.

                                                                                                                    Curious about the details though.

                                                                                                                      [?]James Smith 💾 » 🌐
                                                                                                                      @Floppy@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                      @NAB I reckon you'll only get the link if you reply... otherwise they'd have sent it straight away. There's probably some people who would fall for this and reply that *would* be alerted by the inclusion of the link.

                                                                                                                        [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                        @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                        Confirmed as a scam **SEE BELOW** (as if we didn't already know). Interestingly, it seems that my contact still has their phone, so I wonder if it's a dodgy app or something else...

                                                                                                                        **EDIT** Not confirmed as a scam. Not confirmed as anything yet.

                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                        [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                        @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                        Oh great. Texted my contact's partner, letting them know what was happening. They told me they'd let them know. Just received another message from my contact saying "It was from me". Clearly their partner has just texted them with my message. 🙄

                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                        [?]Paul Fisher » 🌐
                                                                                                                        @psfshr@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                        @NAB Maybe I’m being paranoid, but would their partner not know and be able to confirm what had happened?

                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                          [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                          @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                          @psfshr Indeed. My fault for not copying the text of the message to them in full.

                                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                                            [?]Paul Fisher » 🌐
                                                                                                                            @psfshr@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                            @NAB Starting to wonder if I need to issue friends and family with physical one time passcodes

                                                                                                                            “Please find and open envelope 14 and tell me the word within to prove who you are”

                                                                                                                              [?]Missiongiraffe (Old Account) » 🌐
                                                                                                                              @missiongiraffe@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                              @NAB This whole thing is so very weird.

                                                                                                                                [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                Now this is just getting weirder and weirder.
                                                                                                                                Probably don't need to redact as much info as I did before, so...
                                                                                                                                Just had a reply from my contact's husband (who is also the father of the son in the original message):

                                                                                                                                "Hi Nicholas, have just spoken with XXXX and she did send this message to her contacts on her phone, she has also put a post on FB"

                                                                                                                                So, he's the father of the man in the car crash, his wife has flown out to Portugal and he never thought to mention any of this before.

                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                Plus I sent him the text of the original message and he's not commented on that either.
                                                                                                                                I'm still thinking scam, but this has become very very weird. Maybe his phone was stolen/compromised too.

                                                                                                                                ...
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                                                                                                                                [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                @NAB@mastodon.me.uk got a different way to contact them?

                                                                                                                                  ...

                                                                                                                                  [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                  @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                  @nick None that couldn't be controlled by their phones (WhatsApp, FB etc.)

                                                                                                                                    ...
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                                                                                                                                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                    @NAB@mastodon.me.uk I bet if you suggest that they call you they will make an excuse as to why they can't

                                                                                                                                      [?]Mike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 » 🔓
                                                                                                                                      @MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social

                                                                                                                                      @NAB @nick Voice is as good as you'll get in that case.
                                                                                                                                      (AI voice spoofing is possible, but I seriously doubt they'd go that far!)

                                                                                                                                        [?]Missiongiraffe (Old Account) » 🌐
                                                                                                                                        @missiongiraffe@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                        @NAB If this was me (in the position of the initial message sender) I don't know why I would be messaging my contact list asking them to spread this sort of news far and wide?

                                                                                                                                        Is it actual SMS text messages, or from some kind of messaging app? I don't recognise the UI (but also I haven't had an Android phone in a long time).

                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                          [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                          @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                          @missiongiraffe I agree. Text message. I thought the same, but the number for both her and her husband match what I've contacted them on before.

                                                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                                                            [?]Missiongiraffe (Old Account) » 🌐
                                                                                                                                            @missiongiraffe@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                            @NAB I'm really invested in this now. I hope it is a scam because the real situation sounds awful, but I don't understand what they are gaining from this, unless it's going to lead to some kind of 'gofundme' type link at some point?

                                                                                                                                            I wouldn't be worrying about anyone's lost belongings though when someone is on life support in a foreign country!?

                                                                                                                                              ...

                                                                                                                                              [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                              @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                              @missiongiraffe And guess what.... There's a GoFundMe link.

                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                [?]Missiongiraffe (Old Account) » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                @missiongiraffe@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                @NAB Ding Ding Ding!

                                                                                                                                                Doesn’t explain how it’s all happening though 🤔

                                                                                                                                                  [?]NAB 🇬🇧🇪🇺🔶:marmite: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                  @NAB@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                  Tried calling him. Slight pause before it rings and after a few rings, AI "Sorry can't take your call" message. Suspect calls diverted elsewhere.

                                                                                                                                                  ...

                                                                                                                                                  [?]Missiongiraffe (Old Account) » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                  @missiongiraffe@mastodon.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                  @NAB It’s a lot of effort to go to this isn’t it, crikey.

                                                                                                                                                  A friend of mind had something similar, someone took over her phone number, they think by going into the relevant phone shop and passing off ID, who didn’t follow checks properly.

                                                                                                                                                    0 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                    @NAB@mastodon.me.uk often this starts with a message saying they changed their number and please save the new number, then later another message seems to be from them....

                                                                                                                                                      [?]Quixoticgeek » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                      @quixoticgeek@social.v.st

                                                                                                                                                      I wonder how many members of the house of commons would be able to pass an A level in English...

                                                                                                                                                      bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8679q

                                                                                                                                                      ...
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                                                                                                                                                      Quixoticgeek boosted

                                                                                                                                                      [?]Sara Joy :happy_pepper: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                      @sarajw@front-end.social

                                                                                                                                                      @quixoticgeek just read the article and it says B2. Um.

                                                                                                                                                      Yeah no. It's not A Level. If B1 is considered GCSE... I mean yes B2 is a step up but not that big! And there's a chasm of a difference between English subject A level and English as a foreign language A Level (not even sure that exists?).

                                                                                                                                                      I mean, I don't think the Spanish language A level is equivalent to an English A Level.

                                                                                                                                                      I took a B1 German test to get citizenship. I could have done B2, but I really didn't fancy risking not passing.

                                                                                                                                                        Quixoticgeek boosted

                                                                                                                                                        [?]Russ Garrett [he/they] » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                        @russss@chaos.social

                                                                                                                                                        @quixoticgeek they mean equivalent fluency to an A-level in Spanish or German, not the English A-levels that native speakers take. None of the news articles mention this, though.

                                                                                                                                                        You can't even get an A-level in English as a second language, it's just based on CEFR equivalence.

                                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                                          [?]Totts [I and I] » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                          @Geri@mastodon.online

                                                                                                                                                          1-0. 💋

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                                                                                                                                                          [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                          @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                          @Geri@mastodon.online leave him alone !! 😋

                                                                                                                                                            1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                            [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                            @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                            We don't usually buy packaged food like this, but these lamb shanks from Aldi are amazing.

                                                                                                                                                            1 ★ 1 ↺

                                                                                                                                                            [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                            @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                            Local BBC TV news running a story on Temu sellers ripping off a local business by copying their product images and supplying inferior copies of their products. I always thought Temu was dodgy, seems I was right. Avoid.

                                                                                                                                                            in reply to »

                                                                                                                                                            [?]Interpipes 💙 [he/him] » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                            @interpipes@thx.gg

                                                                                                                                                            @neil tata consulting will no doubt claim that they already are, and that what they built for jlr coop m&s etc already was and yet…. ????????

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                                                                                                                                                              [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                              @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                              @interpipes@thx.gg @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk somehow there is a missing bit of security architecture missing, a lack of controls between systems, breaking into one should not allow unfettered access to others, and backups should be stored in a highly controlled place. I suspect they just throw it all in the cloud, and don't consider the data flows between cloud hosted components.

                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                [?]Interpipes 💙 [he/him] » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                @interpipes@thx.gg

                                                                                                                                                                @nick @neil it’s usually much more stupid than this

                                                                                                                                                                Put things on the internet

                                                                                                                                                                Sack (sorry… “rightsize”) any in house expertise

                                                                                                                                                                Award ongoing management to cheapest bidder, who either don’t get told to do a full audit or get told it’s too expensive and that the documentation is “definitely up to date”

                                                                                                                                                                Don’t update things facing the Internet fast enough (or at all)

                                                                                                                                                                Get pwned

                                                                                                                                                                Make shocked pikachu face and ask for government help, I guess

                                                                                                                                                                  ...
                                                                                                                                                                  1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                                  [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                  @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                  @interpipes@thx.gg @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk agree but fundamentally they don't separate stuff facing the internet from other things. They also forget that PCs on the 'inside' are the attack vector, so trust everything on the LAN. Also how many firewalls ever have egress rules. So many things, and you are right it comes down to the cost of knowing the right thing.

                                                                                                                                                                    ...
                                                                                                                                                                    0 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                                    [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                    @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                    @nick@shore.me.uk @interpipes@thx.gg @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk I would love to do consultancy on this stuff but typically they wouldn't be prepared to spend any money!

                                                                                                                                                                      2 ★ 1 ↺

                                                                                                                                                                      [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                      @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                      Popped up to Diss earlier for some shopping, if anyone needs any flags there are many available on lampposts, take a ladder !

                                                                                                                                                                      [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                      @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                      Heat Pump Saga update.

                                                                                                                                                                      Octopus are coming to cap off the gas and remove the gas meter today. This will save us approx £9 per month in standing charges.

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                                                                                                                                                                      Older...

                                                                                                                                                                      [?]piofthings » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                      @piofthings@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                      @bloor you already had induction in Kitchen? Nice! Can’t convince btter half to go induction 😫

                                                                                                                                                                        [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                        @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                        Meanwhile recognising that this isn’t a particularly scientific comparison it is nonetheless interesting to note that we have averaged about 12kWh electricity per day for heating and hot water combined this prior week. Meanwhile if we look at gas usage for the same week last year we averaged nearer 100kWh per day.

                                                                                                                                                                        As rough gross error checks go, I think that’s enough for me to say it’s somewhat working. Now of course financially a kWh of gas is 6p whereas a kWh of electricity is 22p. But still

                                                                                                                                                                        Heat pump energy usage graph

                                                                                                                                                                        Alt...Heat pump energy usage graph

                                                                                                                                                                        Octopus energy gas usage graph for week of 6th oct 2024

                                                                                                                                                                        Alt...Octopus energy gas usage graph for week of 6th oct 2024

                                                                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                                                                        [?]Richard Bairwell » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                        @rbairwell@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                                                                                                        @bloor 637Kwh per week? We use less than 300Kwh combined per month for our 3 bed/3 storey semi occupied 24/7... What eats up so much power?

                                                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                                                          [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                          @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                          @rbairwell I suspect some of these factors probably play into it :

                                                                                                                                                                          * big house
                                                                                                                                                                          * detatched house
                                                                                                                                                                          * windy/hilltop location
                                                                                                                                                                          * boiler that was condemned and (water) leaking
                                                                                                                                                                          * 15+ year old (guess) rather inefficient boiler

                                                                                                                                                                            [?]Shaun McDonald » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                            @smsm1@mastodon.green

                                                                                                                                                                            @bloor I'm quite impressed with the savings compared to the same month the previous year. (My heat pump was installed in June this year).

                                                                                                                                                                              RevK :verified_r: boosted

                                                                                                                                                                              [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                              @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                              This property no longer burns stuff.

                                                                                                                                                                              Gas meter gone. Gas disconnected.

                                                                                                                                                                              Alt...Gas meter gone. Gas disconnected.

                                                                                                                                                                              ...

                                                                                                                                                                              [?]penguin42 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                              @penguin42@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                                                                                                              @bloor Oh the earth link between your un-gas internal piping and the external gas pipe is interesting.

                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                I realised I didn't put actual numbers around the two weekly values.

                                                                                                                                                                                So on the new system, heating and hot water are using 12.44kWh electricity per day average.

                                                                                                                                                                                On the old system, this time last year, we were using 91.08kWh gas per day average.

                                                                                                                                                                                Saying again weather could be different for sure, that is still 13.7% of the energy used.

                                                                                                                                                                                Electricity 21.89p/kWh
                                                                                                                                                                                Gas 5.97p/kWh

                                                                                                                                                                                12.44*0.2189 = £2.72 a day elec
                                                                                                                                                                                91.08*0.0579 = £5.44 a day gas

                                                                                                                                                                                BUT on a cost basis... weirdly, exactly half.

                                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                It feels mad and slightly indefensible that you can use 13% of the energy, and still pay 50% of the money. But the good news is that at some date in the not too distant future, I'll be able to either buy overnight, charge batteries and use during the day. Or, ultimately, a good chunk of the year, generate my own entirely.

                                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                I see Octopus's electricity rates are going up in the unit cost, but down in the standing charge. I am currently on a "fixed anytime rate" because we have EVs but don't do heaps of miles, and we have a heatpump which potters along all the time. And a hot tub of sorts.

                                                                                                                                                                                Current kWh = 21.98p
                                                                                                                                                                                Current standing = 62.22p

                                                                                                                                                                                New kWh = 25.27p
                                                                                                                                                                                New standing = 43.66p

                                                                                                                                                                                Insanely irritatingly, i looked at the new gas pricing... 5.71p/kWh so gas is actually falling whilst electricity is getting more expensive.

                                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                HAHA and - I now can't see via the Octopus app what my gas tariff WAS because at midnight Octopus now longer shows gas (because it got disconnected today!).

                                                                                                                                                                                Ofc I could look at old invoices from them, so there is that.

                                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                                [?]Theolodian » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                @theolodian@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor this is why I need my own data system. We changed suppliers and lost ALL of our historical usage data. 😳🤬

                                                                                                                                                                                  [?]Steve Hill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                  @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org

                                                                                                                                                                                  @bloor same moving house - I lost access to my historical consumption data for the old house. Thankfully Home Assistant remembers.

                                                                                                                                                                                    [?]Ed Davies [He/him/they/them] » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                    @edavies@functional.cafe

                                                                                                                                                                                    @bloor Octopus's historical prices for all electricity tariffs are available via their API to anybody, whether a customer or not. Haven't checked but I think gas prices are, too.

                                                                                                                                                                                      [?]David Penfold :verified: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                      @davep@infosec.exchange

                                                                                                                                                                                      @bloor If you can sort your LiFePO4 batteries out you could use their ultra cheap rate (not sure what it is, but a mate of mine has PV and storage plus a heat pump and EV and he's rather chuffed).

                                                                                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                                                                                        [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                        @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                        @davep Yep!

                                                                                                                                                                                        Planning to do just that with Fogstar 32kWh and a VIctron Quattro 15K.

                                                                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                                                                          [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                          @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                          @davep The current 4 hours nighttime rate is just 8.5p a kWh.

                                                                                                                                                                                          So I could fill up my battery for a maximum of £2.55 a day at that rate. And ofc charge cars at the same time etc.

                                                                                                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                                                                                                            [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                            @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                            @davep I think the Quattro 15K and pull 41A peak off the 240v mains and shove it into the 48v battery side, meaning around 200A on the DC side. So in theory it should easily be able to fully charge a 32kWh battery pack from dead in under 4 hours.

                                                                                                                                                                                              ...

                                                                                                                                                                                              [?]David Penfold :verified: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                              @davep@infosec.exchange

                                                                                                                                                                                              @bloor Should be pretty easy, but you'd only want that in winter really if you risk losing extra daytime insolation (unless you can sell it for more).

                                                                                                                                                                                                ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                @davep My notional plan is to do without solar, initially. So just have a battery storage type system, with grid and V2L inputs, and an output into my house/garage.

                                                                                                                                                                                                Then once that is working nicely and reliably, then find a solar installer who'll just do the roofwork/rails/panels to isolators in my loft, and let me hook it all up myself.

                                                                                                                                                                                                My theory is, if they see a well installed and reliable setup already, they may be more willing to add solar to it, piecemeal.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                  [?]David Penfold :verified: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                  @davep@infosec.exchange

                                                                                                                                                                                                  @bloor That's similar to my approach. Get the battery backup and grid ATS sorted out first.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    [?]The Penguin of Evil » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                    @etchedpixels@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                    @bloor @davep can be a pain finding someone who will do that if the original install is not MCS.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      [?]The Penguin of Evil » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                      @etchedpixels@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                      @bloor @davep Octopus Go is 5 hours. Eon Next drive is I think 6 or 7. When I did our maths both cosy and next drive beat the standard tariff without batteries for our use. Back then Eon was 7 at 7p or so, which with heating tending to be night biased and water tank and some load shifting was an easy win, though we went battery anyway.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        1 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                                                                        [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                        @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                        @bloor@bloor.tw @davep@infosec.exchange Intelligent Go does 6 hours from 23:30 to 05:30 at 7p, plus if you plug the car in to charge during the day you get random slots at the low rate.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                          [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                          @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                          @nick need a compatible car or charger though, which I won’t have

                                                                                                                                                                                                            ...
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                                                                                                                                                                                                            [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                            @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                            @bloor@bloor.tw ah yes our cars aren't, but we have a zappi which is.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                              [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                              @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                              @nick my intention at present is to have Victron

                                                                                                                                                                                                                [?]The Penguin of Evil » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                @etchedpixels@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                                @davep @bloor yep - if you ignore the opportunity cost and depreciation side your heatpump on those tariffs costs about 2.5p/kWh of heat. On current pricing the solar part is then a total no brainer but battery except as a needed enabler is more marginal but prices are down 25% in a year so far

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  @etchedpixels @davep my strategy is going to be to call roofers who can do solar rather than solar companies

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    [?]Steve Hill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    @bloor I am on Tracker for gas, and the rates are usually pretty low - I think it would be hard to make a heat pump work for me financially. Which is a big problem - IMHO the charges that aren't directly related to electricity production/distribution should be moved onto just the gas supply to make electric heating a more clear cut choice. Some of this might improve as gas is removed from the generation mix I suppose, but that feels like an unnecessary delay.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [?]Fish in the Percolator » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      @imrehg@fosstodon.org

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      @bloor over the years @Edent done a lot of good stuff with solar panel electricity generation, home energy storage, and posted a bunch of interesting things about it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        [?]penguin42 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        @penguin42@mastodon.org.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        @bloor I think it's fair; you're paying for a lot more infrastructure with the electric; for the gas it's just being pumped to you; for elec if it's gas burning it's being burnt somewhere and running through the turbine (loses a big chunk, so more gas goes in to get you that elec energy out), then also their is payment for the wind/solar infrastructure, and cablling and pylons and the supply of blue smoke.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          [?]🆎 » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          @penguin42 hmmmmmm I guess so … intuitively though it just feels like gas infra is so much more of an ongoing infra liability. But you are right, it probably isn’t.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [?]Theolodian » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            @theolodian@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            @bloor @penguin42 they’re putting new gas mains in on the street next to ours, right now.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Very defensible for people to stay on gas for the foreseeable future. More houses going onto gas than coming off, still in 2025 in the UK. Meanwhile, our gas heating was double the carbon of our beef consumption last year, which itself was 2.5x the carbon of our total ICEV miles. Our leccy was 1/10th the carbon of our gas heating, or zero with our Ripple.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [?]Advanced Persistent Teapot [he/him, but fuck gender roles] » 🔓
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              @http_error_418@hachyderm.io

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              @bloor bloody hell, you've gotten someone quick for that. I'm still waiting after 6 weeks.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                [?]🆎 » 🔓
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                @bloor@bloor.tw

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                @http_error_418 yes I was surprised

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  [?]Greem (Graeme. Not Graham!) » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  @greem@cyberplace.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  @bloor Our only remaining gas usage is for cooking. At £9 a month it'll take 15 years or so for the cumulative standing charge to exceed the cost of a new cooker (it's an 1100mm double oven range).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Or is it the other way round, that it'll take 15 years or so for the cost of a new cooker to be amortised against the removed standing charge?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  There's probably a sunk cost fallacy and some false economy in there somewhere.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Anyway, I'll probably be dead before then either way!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Nick boosted

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    [?]MikroTik Trainer » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    @MikrotikTrainer@mastodon.social

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ticket prices for next year’s Professionals Conference are reduced until October 31st. Early birds really do catch the worm as space is also limited for the VIP Dinner so please make sure you book your tickets early rather than at the last minute and find we’re sold out. See mtpc.world for more info. Also we’re now calling for presenters for MikroTik related tech talks. Got a great solution using their gear? Tell us about it and you could be presenting it in March! 😀

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Nick boosted

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [?]internetsdairy » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      @internetsdairy@mastodon.art

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Was served a YouTube ad for some kind of small plug-in room heater – i.e. the heater is kind of built right onto the plug, like a wifi booster – that will apparently be in every home in the UK by next year and thought, hm, that seems unlikely, and a ten second research revealed that yes, they’re illegal and will probably burn your house down! If you don’t have a suspicious nature online, how the fuck do you survive?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      [?]RevK :verified_r: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      @revk@toot.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      This is a tad special of @jlcpcb - they altered placement for one of my parts.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What did they change? Well, they do not say, but there is a clue here - if you look closely this is not "straight", it is a few degrees off. I can assure you my placement was at 0 degrees rotation, dead straight. Looking the other side you can see the alignment pegs are not centre of holes - what I uploaded was, exactly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So WTF did they change it to be "off" like this? I'm assuming it will end up straight.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The image features a close-up of a circuit board with a prominent blue rectangular component overlay. Various labeled pins and markings, such as "DAT0," "DAT1," "CMD," and "CLK," are visible near the edges of the component.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Alt...The image features a close-up of a circuit board with a prominent blue rectangular component overlay. Various labeled pins and markings, such as "DAT0," "DAT1," "CMD," and "CLK," are visible near the edges of the component.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The image displays a circuit board labeled "Audio Recorder." It features various electronic components, including capacitors and connectors, with visible traces in blue and pink colors. The design emphasizes the layout for audio recording functionality.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Alt...The image displays a circuit board labeled "Audio Recorder." It features various electronic components, including capacitors and connectors, with visible traces in blue and pink colors. The design emphasizes the layout for audio recording functionality.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        [?]RevK :verified_r: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        @revk@toot.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        @jlcpcb Ooh, and another clue.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        They moved the component bottom right in first picture slightly (they don't say how much or why and it is tiny). They normally do that if too close to another component. Well it was not.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        But having turned the SD card holder slightly, it may now be too close. That is mental!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          0 ★ 0 ↺

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          [?]Nick » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          @nick@shore.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          @revk@toot.me.uk @jlcpcb@bird.makeup some kind of rounding error in file conversion?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [?]RevK :verified_r: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            @revk@toot.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            @nick @jlcpcb No, normally the file is accepted with no change. They manually changed by a few degrees, and I have no clue why.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Rounding errors on a literal 0 are not normal.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [?]RevK :verified_r: » 🌐
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              @revk@toot.me.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              @jlcpcb I am pretty much having to use crayons now to explain.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Image of a circuit board labeled "Recorder" with annotations indicating specific components: "U1," "Exactly centre," and "As I ordered." Various connection points and design elements are visible in the background.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Alt...Image of a circuit board labeled "Recorder" with annotations indicating specific components: "U1," "Exactly centre," and "As I ordered." Various connection points and design elements are visible in the background.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              An image of a printed circuit board (PCB) featuring a microcontroller. Annotations highlight that the component is rotated, no longer centered, and indicate reference points labeled as "on centre" and "image from DFM".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Alt...An image of a printed circuit board (PCB) featuring a microcontroller. Annotations highlight that the component is rotated, no longer centered, and indicate reference points labeled as "on centre" and "image from DFM".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              A close-up of a circuit board showcasing labeled components. Key text highlights include "Recorder" and "No longer in centre," with additional annotations indicating "DFM image." The image includes various electronic elements and connections.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Alt...A close-up of a circuit board showcasing labeled components. Key text highlights include "Recorder" and "No longer in centre," with additional annotations indicating "DFM image." The image includes various electronic elements and connections.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              An electronic circuit board featuring a white connector labeled "J4." There are pink dots indicating connection points, along with text stating, "The file I uploaded as shown on your order page."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Alt...An electronic circuit board featuring a white connector labeled "J4." There are pink dots indicating connection points, along with text stating, "The file I uploaded as shown on your order page."

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