[14:23] there's no relenting on this ear fun i've had, i went to the doctors for micro suction this morning as the specsavers lass did not like what she saw one bit [14:24] debris was vacuumed out from the infection, which is evidently still ongoing, it bled a lot apparently... now i've got antibiotics and still need to spray in the mild acid (basically vinegar) [14:24] it stung like heck a moment ago xD [14:25] i've now been deaf in that side for weeks, but as of today i have a teeny tiny bit of hearing back [14:35] sounds horribly unpleasant :-/ [14:36] it's been a trip! [14:40] google assistant popup came back on my android phone. was most annoyed. had installed an alternative launcher to get rid of it before but it stopped working for some reason [14:41] finally found the setting to make google assistant NOT my voice assistant to eliminate it. [14:41] hmm, got the apps disabled deep in the settings to kill it? or is it that sort of shortcut button press calling it up? [14:41] ah [14:42] the lean launcher totally replaced it when i first got it a few years ago but in last month some update bypassed their bypass. was annoying the fuck out of me. wanted to smash the phone every time it popped up [14:43] press the home button a nano second too long and TURN ON GOOGLE ASSISTANT! [14:43] please, talk to us... [14:44] fair enough just give a mo to put my cattle prod on charge :-) [14:44] i'm surprised at you owning one anywho, what happened to the loyal army of Nokias!? [14:46] have to move with the times. you threaten to hit someone with a nokia 3310 these days and they don't know what it is [14:46] may have to retire it in a few weeks when vodafone turn off their 3g network [14:47] now you threaten with an android and people won't even feel slightly intimidated! [14:47] is it really that soon? i thought a UK 3G switchoff was coming, not that i live there, but when i looked it up it was 2035 or similar [14:49] 24-25 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/3g-switch-off [14:49] they wanna force everyone onto 4g preferably 5g as they spent a fortune on licences [14:49] weird i wonder what i read [14:50] might be island specific timetable? [14:50] oh yeah totally separate telcos and what not [14:50] black hole of telephony down here [14:50] they'll keep their kit till all the hamsters die [14:50] :D [14:51] yeah the gov asked them if they use any Huawei kit, they said they hadn't heard of that breed of hamster before [14:51] THEN buy in abandoned kit from mainland and use that till middle aged hamsters die :-) [14:51] \o/ [14:52] there was that story a bit ago that here and Jersey were selling access to some old school mobile system that foreign spies were using to track mobiles worldwide, as a kind of +44 backdoor [14:52] i think this is how islands operate. seems to be why ireland was pushing isdn for years after world abandoned it [14:52] good wrist slapping that earned them :D [14:53] ah yeah, figures - i remember seeing a local news piece about ISDN ceasing being sold [14:53] "The withdrawal of ISDN services in 2020" [14:53] not that they've stopped the service. just not signing up new people [14:53] ja [14:54] a client of mine has an ISDN circuit with a competing telco, providing a Mitel PBX with a few numbers [14:54] 64kbs weeeeeee. lets splash out and use the 2nd channel! [14:55] \o/ [14:56] i'm feeling quite smug because an old client has ruined my holidays with arranging his house move from Monday, he has no chance in heck of getting the telco to move his services before new year i reckon [14:57] should be easy, they'll have no other business on. - custards thinking [14:58] :D [14:59] he's had the whole year when he could have moved over, as he owns both old and new - for years now, but no had to make it a hassle on others [14:59] apart from the senior tech engineers taking on the pfy engineers at the christmas doom challange to celebrate it's 30th anniversary [15:00] ooh [15:01] a 48 hour extravaganza with prizes for most chainsaw kills etc. [15:04] ah i remember borrowing the AST laptop from my Dad's work and doing null modem multiplayer games with a pal at home from our desktop back then [15:04] both Pentium 1s [15:05] i abandoned my 386sx desktop for the dodgy 486dx desktop that crashed all the time. sorted out the different speed memory that was causing the crashes to have fasted pc in office [15:05] ast as well [15:05] ooh [15:05] no need to call 8bitguy for support? :) [15:06] i was so proud of that pc. it had network, sound, extra serial ports and a scanner all working. was an irq nightmare mind :-) [15:07] hahaha, "just don't transfer a large file at the same time as scan" [15:07] you could use sound and network, scanner and serial ports. but don't cross the streams! that would be bad. [15:08] any SCSI in the mix? i never touched it back in the day [15:09] not in that pc. i did a fair amount of scsi later. but even by then it was all adaptec cards which made it almost pleasant [15:11] a client has managed to lose the replacement NAS HDDs i left at theirs on beginning a 4 bay swapover to fresh [15:11] what numpties [15:12] they can think about that while paying for the replacements and waiting for them to be delivered over christmas time when there's not much happening in shipping industry [15:16] * zxmpi prepares to head to chemist for last time this year a week early so i don't have to go next week when every shop will be mad packed with last minute shoppers. [15:17] hope the ear gets better soon o/ [15:17] ty!