@djsmiley2k makes cat hissing noises

Smart metersssssss

what's your problem with em?

they still don't know that our gas meter is inside a kitchen cupboard xD

I get the feeling they may look at that and just go 'nope'

I can't help feeling the whole thing is a huge and utter waste of time, but hey ho.

@DavidPostill I mean, if you want to ignore the sources I posted a few messages down...

And 2014 was a looooooooong time ago

@Bob I'm catching up. Was AFK :)

can someone lend me some energy

I need to get the slide and rocker horse outta the car and into the garden

i need to sort out barry squirtle

and i likely need to sort fishes too

@djsmiley2k That yeah- big expense footed by us, ultimately. Security, privacy etc.

@DavidPostill somewhere around chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/42538009#42538009

I know, just caught up.

@bertieb as long as large corporations are allowed to not pay taxes.... everything is footed by us

lol

Well yeah, trudat

Less to go wrong with a regular meter too

@djsmiley2k It's not free. Well a large UK energy supplier installs them for free but claws the cost back through higher standing charge and unit rates. And today's models don't work cross supplier. The V2 software update to fix this has already been postponed twice with a rollout looking unlikely this year ...

lololols

so if we get the upgrade

change next month

the new supplier are screwed?

@djsmiley2k Yes. They can't pull the readings and your IHD will likely become useless as it requires your tariff details to be uploaded so it can work out the cost :)

I'm hoping we might be able to pull readings via SDR, in which case the in house display is pffft anyway ;D

And despite rumours to the contrary they haven't caused any fires in the UK. The incoming electric feed cables caught fire not the smart meters.

@djsmiley2k SDR?

Software-defined radio, I'd guess

Yus

Intercept the readings, you say

Hmm. Well it does use a wireless signal to talk to the IHD so it might be possible.

Very James Bond

And the mobile network to send data back to the supplier.

So they don't work so well in mobile blackspots ...

Ya

Interesting reading: The smart security behind the GB Smart Metering System - NCSC Site

^^^ NCSC is part of GCHQ :)

Ah, interesting

Could use a Bruce Schneier tldr-and-analogy blog post to summarise but [the article is] surprisingly accessible

And some useful news for me:

> The SMETS1 end-date will now be Friday 5th October 2018. It is expected that all SMETS1 capable meters will be made compliant by this date.

We might get SMETS2 this year :)

> On reflection of evidence from energy suppliers, significant progress has been made in testing and trialling the SMETS2 system. However, despite efforts by most to progress with their plans, no Large Energy Supplier will be able to complete the transition by 13th July 2018 without significant risk. If SMETS2 systems were deployed before the remaining issues were identified and resolved, consumers and the reputation of smart metering would bear the consequences of these risks materialising.

my original thought was.... why are they offering £50 to upgrade?

@djsmiley2k Which supplier is that?

first utility

@djsmiley2k their choice was to pay £££ (recurring) for people to check the meters or pay £ (one off) as an incentive to install auto reporting meters

as an incentive

@djsmiley2k It reduces support costs. Fewer customers calling to complain about estimated bills because they couldn't be arsed to phone reads in/fill them in online.

£50 amazon voucher

@DavidPostill lol

£50 tho

@djsmiley2k That's several calls/day for me alone ...

they chose the latter

yeah but first utility.... they so bad they don't even bill like 1/3rd of their customers

8 UKP/hour * several thousand call center agents ...

I'm gonna go read the meter now anyway because lul

Don't forget to do both (gas and electric) otherwise you will still get an estimated bill ;)

hehe

yus done

@DavidPostill they have about 200 agents (I used to work there)

and litterally the customer records for like 1/3rd of the customers are so broken, they don't get billed most of the time

Anyone wanna move to em? XD I'll get £50 amazon voucher if you do ;D

@djsmiley2k Yeah well First Utility is not one of the BIG SIX

hahaha and yes, they hate that fact

it's because they don't generate anything

they resell SHELL electricity and gas

We have 300 in 1 of 5 offices (and I've no idea how big the other offices are)

@djsmiley2k There are like 100s of new utility companies who are just brokers/resellers trying to get market share.

nod

first utility are old tho

tho they started as a phone company o_O

/me forgetrs the rest of the history as it was boring

First Utility is apparently #7

yup

whn i was there, was ~1million customers

Still way behind the Big 6 though.

OMG

:O

@rahuldottech You have a GF?

no

I just realized

if I get a hul.tld domain

my email can be r@hul.tld

XD

.tech?

r@hul.tech

D:

I though 3 letter TLDs were impossible to get these days?

I'd imagine so too, but you never know

@DavidPostill @Ave got one

sooo

domainnamesoup.com/3letterdomainnames.php

oh god

dad sent an email

o_O

I'm presuming he's still a utter and total cockwomble ?

@djsmiley2k That is an understatement

aghhh

Namecheap caches their log in system or something?

@rahuldottech hi yes what

@Ave ave.zone

Oh

Well

3etters Re hard in com net org

@FleetCommand I took it up as a hobby, but got nowhere with it, really

And that was a couple of years ago

You're wayyyy better off asking on latin.se or corresponding SE chat

^^^^

Mfw too drunk to find my house lol

@Ave You can't be that drunk. You can still type :) Use Google Maps on your phone for directions? ;)

that's actually not Ave. Some person who took her phone.

lol

@DavidPostill i'm in now yeah found it

mfw I need to go home tomorrow

at 1pm

and didn't finish packing up

but made the mistake of "hey cousin lol let's drink"

@Ave I would pack tomorrow. If you do it now you might barf all over your luggage ...

@DavidPostill I wouldn't barf I ate a lot

I mean

maybe

@FleetCommand If I was a prisoner my goal would be to get out of goal :)

I'd say "I sholdn't be allowed to drink" but then again I'm not :blobhyperthinkfast:

arugh

what's the new thing called that's coming in instead of childcare vouchers

A tax allowance in-lieu?

Not sure

wife hasn't sorted it out, i presumed she had -_-

nwo she's like 'i don't know what to do'

thanks love.

> Employers and Employees have until April 2018 to join the Employer Assisted Childcare Scheme. The Government's Tax Free Childcare Scheme has been launched and is initially available to children who are either aged under 4 or are registered disabled.

This thing, discussed on MSE?

that's it, found it

tax free childcare, hmmm

@djsmiley2k What this new thing called that answers questions for you? GOOGLE

@DavidPostill yes, couldn't find it at first.

and.... my god why is it so complicated XD

> government

> tax

:D

yeah damn right

'you can't apply online, you need to call'

wtf.?!

> trying to incentivise people while trying to avoid loopholes while trying to please as many voters as possible while trying not to give too much money way while trying to save money by subtly deterring people

I'll give governments of any colour flack when they deserve it (and often it is so!)

But damn, it must be like juggling spinning plates while people pelt you with rotten fruit

oh yeah sure

^^^ that. Note that $corporation is exactly the same as $government in that respect.

but.... they KNOW how much I earn, how much my wife earns, etc

why is there no system to me just to login and go 'what can i claim kthx?'

@DavidPostill Even moreso! Now you have the added pressure of 'commercial interests' and some $LARGER_CORP can eat you and gut you if they decide they don't like you

I'm not sure humans scale beyond tens-hundreds (maybe) :-P

@djsmiley2k Conflicts exist! trying to save money by subtly deterring people conflicts with reusing existing information in a convenient manner . Unable to continue. Exit now? (yn)

;)

@djsmiley2k Does What you’ll need - Childcare calculator help?

kinda, I just done all that and applied for the form

need to see how much we'd get from the tax-free childcare, if it's £216/4 weeks

Is this supposed to pay for a child minder while you are both at work?

oh jeeez

@DavidPostill yes lol

well no, it's to 'help'

make it worthwhile going to work, etc

cept it really doesn't make it worthwhile at all, it'd be far easier for wife to just stay at home

There could be a se setup for this crap

Dammit. Missed the sale on the PXC 550 Wireless.

lol

You have these?

@FleetCommand amusingly Yahoo were doing this years ago

even more amusingly, if you can hack the service, you can steal the code...

steal the code.... and you can have some fun

Also, system crashed twice in a row today, due to the wretched Qualcomm wireless network adapter. Reverted the driver to the stock version supplied by Windows - I suspect Lenovo's updated version is faulty.

amazon.com/Sennheiser-PXC-550-Wireless-Cancelling/dp/B01E3XLNA0

(30 hours wired with NoiseGard active, 20 hours over Bluetooth)

#1 Annoyance today: Why do folks never read the tags they include on their questions?

@FleetCommand Not sure I'd agree. I've used Yahoo Mail for at least a decade. Despite the security issues (and yes, I've changed passwords), I have never had a spam issue.

omfg that's all done

I still haven't gotten to migrating to Outlook.

however both the playgroup, and the childminder we use aren't on there yet.

re: tag, new user?

dear lord

no wonder you can't get a job in IT D:

I think the fact that you can read tags is a UI surprise, I'd say that other tags are something you add yourself, not something where you read text written by other people

@bertieb Of course. But experienced users also have that fault.

Ah, then you have the opposite problem (assuming they know about tags); "I've been here a while so I pretty much know what's going on"

@bertieb They get the rolled up newspaper treatment :)

@DavidPostill Well, making that decision is your call (clearly!)

But I'm sure I had a few surprises when I last came back after hiatus

@FleetCommand MeFi?

Not excusing folks, just things can change

People aren't perfect I guess

(he said, controversially)

tho i wnated to talk to you about the 'will power' thing @bwDraco

nothing we do is pointless, we just might not see the point at the time, and it may not align with our goals either.

yet all things we do have a reason behind them.

otherwise we simply wouldn't do them.

I should really check tyre pressure (et al) before every journey (is that an 'every journey thing or 'weekly' per highway code? Knew once, can't recall now)

every journey

same for lights

which is lul.

Clearly it's something we and every driver does, yes

coughs

same way everyone who's told their insurance they have an alarm definately turns it on every time they leave the house.

Quite so!

@DavidPostill Oh they exist, but they are dead ;D

@djsmiley2k Heh.

@FleetCommand perfect people are dead.

I like this one better:

> perfect people are dead.

The way you emphasis that... kinda makes me wonder if if was you that killed them :P

They were perfect ;D

@djsmiley2k They were pluperfect ;)

en-ca.sennheiser.com/global-downloads/file/6983/…

On page 48, it says that these are Bluetooth class 1.

aptX, but not Low Latency.

@allq, will this do?

@DavidPostill I dunngettidtit

@djsmiley2k It's a bad attempt at a pun :)

punny!

that's a word :O

@djsmiley2k Was listening to Money Box on the wireless there and they had a wee segment on Child Tax Benefit

@bertieb Where are the tax benefits for those of us who don't have children? That's what I want to know.

tl;dr if claiming and either parent has taxable income >£50k, a self assessment needs to be done so some of it can be repaid to IR

@Mokubai Much more disposable income? :P

Don't want to assume about your income etc, but if you or Mrs Smiley are above that threshold it's worth doing the assessment

In the sense of "avoiding a £700 fine"

They had someone on who had been stung by a bill for £000s (if I heard right) and a fine of £700

It's the last segment of the latest programme if yu want to listen for yourself on iPlayer

Hmmm. The power button on my kindle is dead :/

I can only turn it on by plugging it into a computer first...

Don't panic!

aka

!!/xkcd 548

morn

o/

Did you get much sleep in the heat?

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 10.0.17061.1000 AMD64
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [D:\MEMORY.DMP]
Kernel Bitmap Dump File: Kernel address space is available, User address space may not be available.

Symbol search path is: srv*
Executable search path is:
Windows 10 Kernel Version 16299 MP (2 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal
Built by: 16299.15.amd64fre.rs3_release.170928-1534
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0xfffff800`d9485000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff800`d97ebfd0

!!s/cat/pussy/

@FMLCat Did you get much cat in the heat? (source)

@FMLCat Recently, a lot of services are adopting the authenticity string scheme. They ask you to give them an arbitrary string of text that they send you with all their communipussyions. Since scammers don't know this, you can tell the mail is a scam. (source)

Oops. Fail.

Ha! Kindle Paperwhite has a magnetic power switch. I don't have to dismantle it to repair the power button!

> 16777216 TiB free

o.o

Pretty sure I don't have that much free space.

@MichaelFrank Are you BHG?

Heh... Totally.

But for reals... I'm not sure why this app thinks I have that much free space.

Maybe it can't read the drive info...

Oh, it updated now. 156GiB free. That's better!