UK Linux User Groups

Dear National Car Parks,

As it seems the existence of your call centre is to goad people into a state of rage and you insist that everything has to be put in writing, I shall put my complaint to you in writing via my blog, before sending it to you in writing.

I am a season ticket holder for the station car park at Harold Wood.  My car is parked there on a daily basis.  On return to my vehicle on February 28th, I was surprised to find I had been ticketed.  Here’s the ticket:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the contravention: “Parked on double yellow lines”.  This was a surprise to me because there were and are no double yellow lines present.  For the non-drivers reading this, and confused NCP parking attendants, double yellow lines tend to look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is quite clear, right?  Two parallel yellow lines at specific distances from the side of the road with a crossing bar at each end.  Now, here’s a picture of where I was parked:

 

See the bay to the left of the red car? That’s where my car was, wholly within the confines of the white border.  You might want to check out the full size version of the photo but, looking at the example double yellow lines above, can you see where the double yellow lines I was ticketed for parking on are? I’ll sit here quietly while you check.

Done? Good.  You didn’t spot the double yellow lines, did you? Correct, that’s because there aren’t any to spot. I can read your mind.  “Ahhh, Martin, you silly boy.  You’ve parked on a restricted area, there are yellow hatchings. Tsk.”

That’s almost true, there are indeed yellow hatchings but that’s irrelevant.  Why so?  Just this:  When NCP took over the car park many years ago, they repainted all of the bays with fresh white markings.  Here’s a closeup of part of that bay:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that the white line is painted over the yellow one.  Had NCP not intended for people to use this as a parking bay, why on earth would they specifically paint bay markings there?  The answer is, they wouldn’t.  Those markings used to denoted an area where you weren’t supposed to park because it’s where a fast food place used to have its bins.  Rather than scraping the old lines up, they just painted new ones over the top.

Add to this the fact that I have been parked in that exact same spot dozens of times over the past couple of years, and this is the first time my car has been ticketed, I think what we’re dealing with here is an overzealous or brainless parking attendant.I currently can’t even talk to you about this over the phone because even after 4 days, the ticket hasn’t appeared on your system. I now have to waste some of my life sorting this out.

No love whatsoever, merely tired rage,

Martin A. Brooks

 

Having purchased my Novatech nFinity n1410, I thought that I would install Windows as a virtual machine. Nothing easier, I thought, and trotted off to my local Currys.

On entering Currys there was plenty of evidence of the new Windows 8, but I noticed that all the copies were upgrades from Windows 7 or Windows XP.  Currys explained that they do not stock full copies of Windows, only the upgrades, and stated that this was not a Curry’s issue, but that it was a Microsoft policy to only sell full versions of Windows via their website.

So I found myself searching online for “buy windows 8” and ended up on the Microsoft site, but, as with Currys, the only versions available were upgrades.

Starting to feel like I’d entered the Twilight Zone, I searched at BT Business Direct, this seemed to be much more successful and I found 4 choices available, but all the versions were OEM copies which I assumed that I was not legally permitted to install on a VM. It appeared that the only choices were OEM licences or Retail upgrade licences, on the face of it – leaving users like myself unable to legally buy Windows at all.

I thought perhaps that this was a short-term anomaly post-launch, but it seems not. Apparently the OEM version is all things to all people, being both a Retail copy for non-system builders, and an OEM copy for system builders (read more). If this is correct then this means that those 4 choices at BT Business Direct may be okay for me afterall.

And here is the word from Microsoft on the matter: “If you are building a computer for your personal use or installing an additional operating system in a virtual machine, you can now purchase OEM System Builder software using the Personal Use Licence.” After pouring over the text of EULAs, this is actually easy and unequivocal. Well done Microsoft.

Knowing my preference for all-things GNU/Linux and FLOSS, some of you may be wondering why I need Windows at all. The reasons are very few and I don’t use Windows from one month to the next, but I would find it difficult to eradicate completely:

1. Tax return: I know that it can be done under Linux, but I prefer to use TaxCalc.
2. Road Angel: I have found no way of updating my Dad’s Road Angel without Windows.
3. Inforad: Similarly I have found no way of updating my Inforad without Windows.
4. Leappad2: I have found no way of updating my childrens’ Leappad2′s without Windows.

So there we have it, we can now officially buy the OEM version for our VMs.

At least I think so.

Day 1

Me: "So as you can see the menu across the top already has six entries, I'm not sure there is room for a seventh one?
Customer: "It would be good if it was possible.
Me: "I'll try and see if it looks OK."

Day 2
Me: "OK the menu bar now has seven entries. We had to remove the language choice feature but it's done and amazingly does not look squashed.
Customer: "Brilliant."

Day 3
Customer: "Can you add three more entries please?

"Mummy, why is daddy smacking his face off the desk?"

This weekend I attempted the Be Broadband mandatory router firmware upgrade (which appears to be linked to Be’s sale to Sky ). I thought I’d relate my experience of that here so that folks have “all the information in one place”. The process was pretty much smooth but those of us geeky enough to have [...]

My previous entry, about templating, didn't make it into Planet Debian.

This entry is just a test to see if it is my fault.

The Southackton group had a pretty good meetup last thursday. Lots of fun things going on. There were walking robots, autonomous wheeled robots, RF hacking of LightWaveRF remote control systems, arduinos, raspberry pis and more. Also, there was cake!

Autonomous robots

Benjie RF hacking

Mark supplying cake

Hacking some android hardware

Our youngest attendee!

Wheeled robots

Arduino controlled robots

home-built portable server (raspberry pi)

The Southackton group had a pretty good meetup last thursday. Lots of fun things going on. There were walking robots, autonomous wheeled robots, RF hacking of LightWaveRF remote control systems, arduinos, raspberry pis and more. Also, there was cake!

Autonomous robots

Benjie RF hacking

Mark supplying cake

Hacking some android hardware

Our youngest attendee!

Wheeled robots

Arduino controlled robots

home-built portable server (raspberry pi)

I got a letter from HMRC this morning – to my company, not to me personally. It basically said “we’ve been looking at the PAYE you paid in 2010/11 and it looks like you’ve overpaid by [a surprisingly large number of pounds]“.

Now 2010/11 was the year that I was having some difficulties with my accountants. The difficulties eventually got so bad that I switched to my new accountants (who I’m still very happy with). So it doesn’t really surprise me that something went wrong that year, although the amount (it’s about 25% of the PAYE/NI I paid that year) is impressive.

What really surprises me is the tone of this letter. Having told me that I’ve overpaid (and, helpfully, pointed out the exact extra payment that I made) the letter goes on to say:

Before I can agree to either a refund or a credit, please let me the reason the overpayment has arisen

And:

Please complete the enclosed P35D giving a full explanation as to how the overpayment occurred.

Below are some example of reasons I cannot accept to justify an overpayment

• Duplicate payments with no evidence to explain why
• Statements such as ‘Payment(s) made in error’ with no further explanation
• The overpayment is due to monthly payments which do not match our records
• Any other explanation without evidence to support it

I’m finding it hard to read that in any way other than “we know we’ve got some of your money but you can’t have it back until you’ve explained in detail just how crap your record-keeping is”.

You’ve got my money. You know it’s my money. Either my accountants or I screwed up in some way. There’s no more detailed explanation than that. Just give it back to me, you bastards.

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For the past few days I've been making minor changes to my static-site generator, templer (source on github). The recent changes have all had one aim, which was to allow me to rebuild my main site.

Now I've finished http://www.steve.org.uk is up to date, and the source code to the website is stored in a mercurial repository.

No real functional changes have been made, but I've rationolized several ad-hoc bits of the site, marked areas are depreciated/unsupported where appropriate, and removed a few things that were completely broken.

I almost removed the software for Microsoft Windows, but didn't. By a strange coincidence I was recognized as the author of a windows utility back in 2004 - almost ten years ago now - on Hacker News. Guess I made the right choice.

I'm going to spend a while working on my slaughter documentation in the next week or two, although "the definitive guide" is a great starting point.

"Yes, this is dog" - Landscape in The Mist (1984).

Arbitrary tweets made by TheGingerDog (i.e. David Goodwin) up to 01 March 2013

• Why do all network file systems suck so much? (2013/02/26)
• To do list : 1) benchmark NFS clients to stop the minions moaning at work. 2) phpunit + spell check generated html. “Hygine” FTW! (2013/02/26)
• I suppose I’d better stare at the women doing water-robics or something. (2013/02/26)
• Check out the #zombiesrun profile for GingerDog https://t.co/JiRnHMqxv0 (2013/02/25)
• RT @phpclasses: PHP Job: Software Engineer (Mobile) (telecommute) t.co/B8b39UceNE (2013/02/22)
• Apparently generating SSH key pairs is too difficult for someone who claims to be a programmer. *sigh* (2013/02/20, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• At the dentists again. (2013/02/20, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• The boss of Iceland comes across as a tit in one clip on the BBC news website. #horse #fail (2013/02/19, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Scientific tests have shown it is possible to eat too much chocolate :-/ (2013/02/18, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Today I’m 22. Sort of. 0×22. (2013/02/17, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Coo. All clear. For now. #AtLeastMyBloodIsRed (2013/02/14, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Stupid nose. Stop bleeding! I know I ran for 30 mins after it started. But even so …. Soldering iron welcome #DIYMedicine (2013/02/14, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• For the purposes of science (content testing and to ensure they’re horse free) … (I blame @moreteadoctor ) t.co/0u6VFFtM (2013/02/14, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Going running has become fun after using @ZombiesRunGame … Not sure what my character is going to do with all the underwear he’s found (2013/02/13, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• RT @mikko: TV Emergency Alert System in Montana hacked to interrupt the broadcast, warning that the dead are rising from graves: http:// … (2013/02/12)
• RT @DrunkRogue68: Resignation refused I think as lightning strikes St Peter’s Basilica as Pope resigns t.co/hRnoDGFF (2013/02/12)
• 3/10 b60 #uksnow thin layer. Sticking. Falling reasonably well. (2013/02/11, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• The trees and things outside are covered in a thin layer of dandruff again. I must remember to buy some better shampoo…. (2013/02/11, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire)
• Perhaps I’ll stop listening to t.co/rSOONpOc soon … one day…. #Groovelectric (2013/02/11)
• It doesn’t seem ideal weather for kite flying. t.co/SsGCQurx (2013/02/09)
• So far this morning – “… You’re not a real [monster,] dad” and “you’re not a proper grown up!”. #children #noParentingBadgesForMe (2013/02/09)
• Weee… faster broadband (~18mbit) is appreciated @BeBroadband … but where’s your FTTC ? (2013/02/08)
• BeThere (ISP) are offering to renew my ADSL for £18/month (saving £4). Yet they have it half price (£11/month) on their front page. Hmm. (2013/02/07)
• It’s tempting to answer the PPI phone calls / texts – just to waste their time / money. (2013/02/06)
• RT @StackParenting: Should you let a toddler win? t.co/96WV3d9T #toddler (2013/02/05)
• I wish I hadn’t started making a work related to do list. It keeps growing. (2013/02/02)

Just a quick note to point something out.

Today the pope will have his ring broken. In fact by the time of writing it is probably already broken.

The ring in question is known as the Ring of the Fisherman. It is personal sign of office of the pope and is there to remind him of the fact that he occupies a job who's first holder was a fisherman.

It is solid gold.

A ring to remind the wearer of the humble origin of his church in the most valuable mental on earth.

Of course not all Popes have gone have been quite that humble. Pope Pius IX had a ring with a picture of himself on it. In diamonds. Proper bling that!



In case anyone thinks I'm getting at the Roman Catholic Church here, I should point out that my own church with it prelates who sit in the House of Lords and live in palaces suffers from exactly this problem.

We use the language of humility more often that we are humble after all one of the things that people are drawn to in  religion is its ceremonies and ancient powers. Jesus however was not a fan of religion and tried his best to beat it out of his followers. It did not take long to come back.

We need to notice this dichotomy at the heart of our contemporary faith  how the church founded on the powerlessness of the cross is now so tainted with the scandals of inappropriate exercise of power. We need to own this our greatest failure and where we cannot be all we should be, be honest about what we are not.




Also I really wanna see the College of Cardinals do the Harlem Shake.

Big shout out to the awesome community over at XDA Developers who have been getting involved in the Ubuntu Touch Port-o-thon to bring the Ubuntu Touch images to more and more devices. Daniel Holbach kicked off the port-o-thon the day after we released the code and images last week, and we are already seeing fantastic work going on.

When the initial announcement hit their forum it generated over a 100 posts within a day and there is currently 101 pages of posts on that thread. There is also an Ubuntu Touch Subforum which has seen over 4000 posts already. We are just blown away by the level of interest.

As you can see on the devices wiki page we are already seeing some fantastic work going on to port Ubuntu Touch to additional devices. Here are some great examples of this work (click each link to see the XDA Developers thread):

• Galaxy Nexus (toro)
• Galaxy Nexus (toroplus)
• Sony Xperia S
• Sony Xperia T
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
• Samsung Galaxy Note
• Asus Transformer Infinity
• Nexus One
• Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Wifi
• Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

Awesome work!

I asked David Planella and Daniel Holbach on my team to kick off a regular engagement with XDA Developers to help us grow an great relationship together. The first call was today and we are kicking some ideas around of how to work more closely together. Stay tuned for more!

Looking up French figures you can convert European Energy ratings to an annual kWh·m-2:

Rating French kWh·m-2 UK SAP A < 50 92 - 100 B 50 - 90 81 - 91 C 91 - 150 69 - 80 D 151 - 230 55 - 68 E 231 - 330 39 - 54 F 331 - 450 21 - 38 G > 451 1 - 20

Our house basted on last year at 85 kWh·m-2 for a 1936 house is doing very well in band B and not the band E that the idiot surveyers put it in.

Last week someone in the village was asking about installing PV panels on their south facing roof. From 01 April 2013 the government will only allow the full feed in tariff if you have already fully insulated your house - it is obviously pointless generating electricity if your house leaks heat like a sieve.

I checked the EPC chart for our house that came with the HIP when we bought the house. It's quite pathetic, it reports loft insulation of 250 mm when in fact there was only 100 mm when we moved in. It does however note the old boiler with primitive controller and lack of efficient light bulbs. It then gives some bland advice and ranks the house at grade "E" with a SAP score of 48. The best the house could be is apparently grade "D" with a SAP score of 55. That corresponds to an annual energy use of 314 kWh·m-2 falling to a minimum possible of 275 kWh·m-2. Annoyingly there is no explanation of how a SAP rating relates to a energy use per unit area.

This is all utter rubbish! We changed all the old bulbs to mostly CFL, plus some LED and some halogen the day we moved in. Last autumn we put in a modern boiler and controller and started to insulated under the floors. We added 200 mm of loft insulation taking it up to a minimum of 300 mm over the whole loft with the spare in the centre to >400 mm. We have yet to replace the windows and doors (A rated) and complete the under-floor insulation.

For the first full year we were in the house we used 115 kWh·m-2 (a cold year too and with the old central heating boiler & controller), which is better than half the potential minimum energy use and last year we used only 85 kWh·m-2 (mild year plus new boiler for the last 2 cold months).

I am in favour of improving things, but if the official schemes and assessments are so rubbish how are people who don't know ever going to figure out what to do...