Heating Your Greenhouse in Europe This Winter

[Bern]

Here's a few.....

We only drink bottled water from BPA free containers.

Gee, we had to wear expensive suits and ties while we were making our fortunes.

Sam, Bill, and Tony explaining to a rapt audience the merits of diversifying your retirement nest egg with crypto.

The Three Amigos.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS.

What the heck is a blockchain algorithm?

Sam learned from the best!

[David Pilling]

Hi Bern

Tee hee

Guilt by association

SBF is the odd one out, he's never been to Blackpool.

[David Pilling]

If you're Elon Musk and Twitter is broken, who are you going to call, seemingly not me, but George Hotz, world's best programmer. Another example of people having Dickensian names that give a clue to their role in the world.

a "Pilling" is an area of treacherous marsh land from which there is no escape - nuff said.

[Bern]

Elon Musk also has both a Dickensian name and a Dickensian malefic personality on steroids. He makes Ebenezer Scrooge look amiable by comparison.  Musk recently told his Twitter employees they had to decide whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work "long hours at high intensity" or take a severance package of three months pay.  It is being reported that 5200 employees have left the company since Musk took control, leaving 2300 employees remaining.

I know someone who worked with Musk when he was starting SpaceX.  He told me he had to make a choice to stay with SpaceX and die because of the overwork and stress, or leave the company and live.  He chose to live.

George Hotz was wise to limit his commitment to 12 weeks.

[David Pilling]

"long hours at high intensity"

That's why I am doing the PBS computer stuff - it's good fun as a programmer, problem is that you can't keep it up for years on end.

George Hotz was wise to limit his commitment to 12 weeks.

Nothing like a made up deadline to generate stress.

[Bern]

it's good fun as a programmer, problem is that you can't keep it up for years on end

Musk is known for working people 70 hours a week and paying them for 40.  Most of the money goes up the chain, well, to him.  What a swell guy.  It's just not a sustainable way to live.

It seems that almost every account I have on my computer now is going to a 2 factor authentication.  It's getting to be a real pain.  I know it's better than being hacked, but it is slowing things down and making using the computer much less enjoyable.  I wonder how long the 2 factor authentication will withstand the cyber-criminals?  Will there be a 3 factor authentication?  Will we be forced into biometric authentication?  At some point in time, will people get fed up with it and stop using their computers as much?

[David Pilling]

For me two factor has only happened for financial transactions. I believe it is a legal requirement for them in the UK. For other things where it is rare anyway I have avoided it.

It almost always uses my phone - which is tedious for me, because I keep my phone turned off. But for most people who live on their phone, it will be easy enough.

Some of my logon experiences have been a real achievement - find all the passwords, pin numbers, get the code from the phone. Because the phone now has to be used as part of banking, it now has to be password protected too.

Not sure what 3 factor would be like - some banks provide little electronic devices that generate codes - maybe you'd enter one of them.

Maintaining the PBS server, I get to see the log files and it is under constant attack. So great are the number of attempts to guess passwords that it is immediately obvious that old style passwords of a few letters are not good enough.

Anyway here in Europe we have the Cookie laws to spoil our web browsing pleasure - every time you visit a web site that creates a cookie it is supposed to ask your permission, as many do, and it is really irritating.

I have to have software installed that intercepts these messages. Others presumably consider the requests and are grateful to the people who protect their privacy.

[CG100]

I do not use a mobile - authentication goes to my landline.
I have yet to have a problem away from home, but it wil happen at some stage.

i must be one of very many thousands in the same position in the UK.

[David Pilling]

I do not use a mobile - authentication goes to my landline.
I have yet to have a problem away from home, but it will happen at some stage.

I've wondered about that (because sometimes I get a landline call). So far for payments in shops there has been no need for a text or phone call.

As to people getting fed up... they've closed many physical banks.

[CG100]

As to people getting fed up... they've closed many physical banks.

Yes, mine closed a few months back - to be fair, I very seldom ued it, but it also took the only cashpoint with it in the small town shopping area (not that I use cash very often either).

There needs to be far more of these shop/post-office/building society/bank conglomerations - always a shop and PO but various financial institutions man a secure office on a rota.

[Bern]

Here's a photo of Ukraine at night from November 24th.  It must be quite cold as well as dark at night in Ukraine. I don't think anyone there is heating their greenhouses now.

[David Pilling]

Bern - striking photo. How bright do the prairie states look at night - they grow a lot of grain in Ukraine. Back in WW2 it was all about "black outs" in Europe, not displaying any light that bombers could use to guide them (it is a big part of many tales, yet they were using radio beams for guidance by the end). I wonder what the GPS signal is like in Ukraine these days - trustworthy(?).

Headline in one of today's national papers "British Fruit and Veg Could disappear as growers can't afford to heat greenhouses"

cucumbers, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes are the likely problem.

"Those in the cucumber capital, the Lea valley north east of London, face loses of up to 30p on each one sold for 69p"

Normally I'd rush out and buy anything being sold at a loss, but I don't like cucumber.

(1p = 1 pence = 1/100th of a pound, which today is $1.19)

[Bern]

Here's the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite image of the USA tonight at about 1AM on Nov. 29 in the UK. It is a true color image and the sun has set for the night on the USA. The prairie states have a surprising amount of light coming from their many cities and towns. So it appears that Ukraine is either dark because the electricity distribution system is down or because of mandatory black outs to prevent targeting. 

It might be a good idea to stock up now on frozen or canned veggies for the winter season if greenhouse grown produce will be either nonexistent or in short supply.

[David Pilling]

Bern - thanks for the photo of the USA by night - nice try on my part to evade the obvious explanation for the darkness in Ukraine.

At the moment in the UK we are contenting ourselves with panic buying eggs - because bird flu, energy prices, feed prices

Mostly in Winter veggies come from Spain and North Africa - Morocco, Egypt - down to Kenya and for the likes of apricots, South Africa.

I don't know if there will be shortages - supermarkets may have changed suppliers.

Plenty of UK grown strawberries available today.

[Martin Bohnet]

Actually I remember to see Ukrainian products only form of chanterells and blueberries, but opposed to my partner I'm not obsessed with the origin of products (i know I should)

As for the authentication game: I'm fine with the big players, they all have alternatives to SMS. Trouble now hit me in form of my energy supplier - as digital electricity meters are not standard here, they want me to enter the current value on an internet page - fine with that, but the only way to open a profile is a confirmation via SMS code. They don't reply contact form complaints and have sent the second letter that I should transmit them the data. I'll try to call them , maybe today. I hate half-baked digital solutions.