[13:56] <daftykins> volume warning: i'm at it again, this time i've made music from a PSU fan repair! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehoV-1MjpcA
[13:58] <zxmpi> nothing like a squeaky part to make computing a dysstopian nightmare :-)
[13:58] <daftykins> :D
[13:59] <zxmpi> i'll just turn on the dot matrix printer to drown it out :-D
[13:59] <daftykins> it was doing something truly horrid inside
[14:00] <zxmpi> i still think the worst noise i ever heard from a pc was when my soundblaster card thought the packets on the network card were sound instructions. like a dolphin a blender
[15:42] <daftykins> the lads working on my lane outside, digging it up etc, say the new electrical cable going in is worth £140/m
[15:42] <daftykins> oh i don't think i've shared the comedy in here, they're digging trenches the whole way so all week i've had to be funneled either to walk up or down to avoid them - check before i step out when i open the front door and so on
[15:44] <zxmpi> what time does the drilling start and end?
[15:45] <daftykins> 8am, best alarm clock ever... then it comes in bouts
[15:46] <daftykins> funniest bit is they don't have enough room to get into my meter cupboard which is internal... so a diamond drilling fella is booked in for Tuesday to come and put a hole through my 5+ feet thick 17th century granite front wall
[15:47] <zxmpi> when my father removed a back window to put in a new back door that also let more light into a room it was a 'half days job' that took 3 days to dig through the granite rubble that made up the wall
[15:48] <daftykins> :D
[20:24] <penguin42> are they moving the meter as well?
[20:25] <penguin42> (Our meter is in the garage)
[20:42] <daftykins> nah no choice here, right on a public lane in the centre of town... has to stay in my inside cupboard
[20:47] <penguin42> and what stops them taking the new cable the same route as the existing one?
[20:48] <daftykins> it winds around in a curve wrapping around the existing services like gas and water
[20:48] <daftykins> and right up against one of those ye olde worlde brick stacks for joining services
[20:48] <daftykins> sec let me pop some of my snaps on a public place
[20:49] <zxmpi> they replaced out meters a few years back with smart ones. they still call round to the building but don't need access to the meter to read it
[20:50] <daftykins> https://imgur.com/a/suumubl
[20:50] <zxmpi> the water meters they installed are smart as well but use 2g to send data in aiui. but will need to be replaced soon as the batteries are wearing out
[20:50] <daftykins> surely there will be no 2G before long!
[20:57] <zxmpi> it might have been 3g. was a few years back during the massive protests about charging people in ireland for water
[20:57] <zxmpi> but it was already a 'isn't this gonna be shut off soon as it's installed moment'
[20:58] <zxmpi> my nokia 3310 uses '2.5g' which may or may not be 3g dialled back to 2g speeds. was a lot of unsure geeks when that came out
[20:59] <daftykins> mmm
[20:59] <zxmpi> and that phone is 6 this year and still going strong. bought a case for it today but it doesn't fit as there's more than one 3310 model from 2017
[21:00] <daftykins> i think 3G is on the chopping block too
[21:00] <zxmpi> i think the phone companies want it dead but the regulator is more people still use it so no at the moment, at least here in ireland
[21:01] <zxmpi> we're only just shutting down longwave for radio as the parts are no longer available. and people in uk and further afield are complaining to our state broadcaster
[21:03] <daftykins> hrmm they want it?
[21:04] <zxmpi> https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0331/1367393-long-wave/
[21:05] <zxmpi> a lot of elderly irish folk in uk still listening on their wireless sets. was to shut down in 2014 but got delayed. leccy prices pushed it over the edge this year
[21:07] <daftykins> oh so the UK aren't trying to get Ireland to keep it, but can it sooner?
[21:08] <zxmpi> uk are not involved. irish folk in uk want long wave to keep going. irish state broadcaster wants to shut down some really old hardware that costs a bomb to run and maintain
[21:08] <zxmpi> bbc long wave had same issue iirc. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye
[21:09] <daftykins> oh gotcha, sorry misread there
[21:11] <zxmpi> of course all the cool iphones can't even receive fm radio so they have to waste bandwidth to listen to internet radio
[21:12] <zxmpi> my dumb nokia and android phones do fm radio ok if a little hungry on battery on android
[22:54] <penguin42> the high power transmitting valves must be tricky
[23:00] <penguin42> still, if they need RF converters or T's I can help; https://cdn.mastodon.org.uk/media_attachments/files/110/232/428/687/836/979/original/64259d080ce79c06.jpeg
[23:03] <daftykins> :D