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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » It’s time for the Wednesday PB Nighthawks cafe

SystemSystem Posts: 11,002
edited April 2020 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » It’s time for the Wednesday PB Nighthawks cafe

One of the great things to come out of the lock down has been that many are becoming accomplished at using the excellent and easy to use video conferencing platform Zoom. It is so nice being able to have conversations with groups of friends who you can’t meet face to face at the moment.

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Comments

  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    First...have you got any flour?
  • Options
    Tim_BTim_B Posts: 7,669
    second!
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925
    edited April 2020
    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    /twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    Quick somebody tell the 99 year old doing laps of his property he needs to change who he is giving money to. Please somebody think of the hard up luxury travel writers of this world.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    eek said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
    Zoom has blown it. The security issues are turning everyone away
  • Options
    Lockdown ended yesterday as Johnson said 3 weeks on Monday 23rd

    I'm back to normal life
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    alex_ said:

    eek said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
    Zoom has blown it. The security issues are turning everyone away
    Oh and pornographic images turning up in the middle of important meetings...
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,894
    edited April 2020

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Discord and whatsapp are a bit different to Skype/Zoom. We're using Teams at my work.

    Skype has been thoroughly trounced, that's certain though.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    Pulpstar said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Discord and whatsapp are a bit different to Skype/Zoom. We're using Teams at my work.

    Skype has been thoroughly trounced, that's certain though.
    Skype is fine for 2-3 person conversations
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
    I've yet to see a single thing that works on Twitter.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,894
    alex_ said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Discord and whatsapp are a bit different to Skype/Zoom. We're using Teams at my work.

    Skype has been thoroughly trounced, that's certain though.
    Skype is fine for 2-3 person conversations
    I've never got on with it personally.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518

    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
    I've yet to see a single thing that works on Twitter.
    Making an arse of yourself?
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Video and sound quality are vastly better.

    Skype's quality is a joke, an artefact of their peer to peer origins that they have never been able to shake.

    What's app quality is also patchy.

    Zoom is just really, really consistent.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    alex_ said:

    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
    I've yet to see a single thing that works on Twitter.
    Making an arse of yourself?
    I thought that was a required part of their Terms of Service?
  • Options
    TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,946
    edited April 2020
    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    He didn't arrange some private gigs at the 5* eateries of Penarth? How shortsighted.
  • Options
    Skype is intended for 1-2-1 communications

    Teams in intended for conferenced, i.e. multiple people to communicate, like Zoom

    Different tools
  • Options
    JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,002

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
    No gluten, it won't work. You can make popadoms though
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/15/sharp-rise-in-ill-patients-dying-at-home-since-coronavirus-outbreak

    85 extra non-hospital heart attack deaths a day in London. Spookily similar to reports from NYC linked to here earlier this week.
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052
    edited April 2020
    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

  • Options
    JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,002

    Lockdown ended yesterday as Johnson said 3 weeks on Monday 23rd

    I'm back to normal life

    The Act was passed on the |Thursday, with a three week reviews built in
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    RE: lockdowns. I don't get why anyone thinks we or any other country is remotely close to returning to anything like normality. To even think that you've got to completely dismiss the suggestions that many hundreds of thousands could die without mitigating measures. No country currently is above 30-40,000 (assuming large numbers of 'community' deaths are going unreported). "Returning to normal" effectively means scrapping any gains that the lockdowns are presumed to have delivered. And in winter there will be no spare capacity in Health Services because 1) there will be few "routine"/"non-urgent" operations that can be cancelled and 2) many of the currently non-urgent operations will have become urgent (delayed cancer etc etc)
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,929
    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.
  • Options
    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/15/sharp-rise-in-ill-patients-dying-at-home-since-coronavirus-outbreak

    85 extra non-hospital heart attack deaths a day in London. Spookily similar to reports from NYC linked to here earlier this week.

    Lots of reports of empty beds (including ICU beds) in London. People just aren't going to hospital and huge capacity is going unused.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
    No gluten, it won't work. You can make popadoms though
    You can make some nice unleavened spiced bread/pancakes with gram flour though
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
    I wouldn't use gram flour for making bread. It's chickpea flour and has no gluten.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    Bigger concern is all that data going to Chinese servers.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925
    edited April 2020
    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook

    What you think is secure is to me (someone who deals with IT security and data leakage as part of my job) a place I would do everything I can to avoid (although if a client wants to use zoom they are lost cause anyway).
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,285

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems...
    I really would not recommend that...

  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,929
    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
    Other than it isnt

    Not only is Zoom's strong end-to-end encryption not actually end-to-end, its encryption isn't even that strong

    www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2020/04/03/dont_use_zoom_if_privacy/
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,929
    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
    Course that doesn't apply if you have something REALLY secretive.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Nope Skype (the none business version) was a bought in consumer product.

    Skype for business was previously called Lync and was ok but never that great (it could however do conference calls if managed well).

    Teams can do both 1 to 1 calls and larger conference calls - it uses different technology (azure video) for the conference functionality.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,285
    alex_ said:

    RE: lockdowns. I don't get why anyone thinks we or any other country is remotely close to returning to anything like normality. To even think that you've got to completely dismiss the suggestions that many hundreds of thousands could die without mitigating measures. No country currently is above 30-40,000 (assuming large numbers of 'community' deaths are going unreported). "Returning to normal" effectively means scrapping any gains that the lockdowns are presumed to have delivered. And in winter there will be no spare capacity in Health Services because 1) there will be few "routine"/"non-urgent" operations that can be cancelled and 2) many of the currently non-urgent operations will have become urgent (delayed cancer etc etc)

    There’s no return to normal without a vaccine (if then).
    But rebuilding some sort of economic activity in the meantime is essential.
  • Options
    glwglw Posts: 9,549

    Skype is intended for 1-2-1 communications

    Teams in intended for conferenced, i.e. multiple people to communicate, like Zoom

    Different tools

    Teams is more of a Slack competitor with video on the side, and Zoom's more like Webex.

    Of course there's a lot of overlap and feature creep with these sort of products until they inevitably become something like a Lotus Notes, and then a new more focused product comes along and steals their lunch.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925
    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
    Course that doesn't apply if you have something REALLY secretive.
    If only that was true and not marketing hype - I will leave it there as I can’t be bothered to do work this late at night
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,572

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Lotus 123 - Nokia
    Wordpro - Eriksson
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,317
    alex_ said:

    eek said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
    Zoom has blown it. The security issues are turning everyone away
    I know quite a few people who recently started using it - all of them probably folk who don't really care if someone's listening in, though. Had a reunion of 25 former MPs the other day where we chatted about what we were all getting up to now - the Chinese Government and the CIA could have been listening, who cares. But we don't use it at work for the reasons you say.
  • Options
    TGOHF666TGOHF666 Posts: 2,052
    eek said:

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Nope Skype (the none business version) was a bought in consumer product.

    Skype for business was previously called Lync and was ok but never that great (it could however do conference calls if managed well).

    Teams can do both 1 to 1 calls and larger conference calls - it uses different technology (azure video) for the conference functionality.
    Skype = Stella
    Teams = Cloudwater DIPA

  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    Waitrose in this part of NW London had a fair bit of flour, managed to get strong white, 00 and wholemeal. We're all set for a few weeks.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/15/sharp-rise-in-ill-patients-dying-at-home-since-coronavirus-outbreak

    85 extra non-hospital heart attack deaths a day in London. Spookily similar to reports from NYC linked to here earlier this week.

    Lots of reports of empty beds (including ICU beds) in London. People just aren't going to hospital and huge capacity is going unused.
    The natural consequence of (i) some patients being too afraid to set foot in healthcare settings, (ii) other patients not wanting to be a bother during the emergency, and (iii) the cancellations of vast numbers of outpatients' appointments, routine screenings and elective surgeries to clear the decks for the Covid tsunami.

    In truth, looking at it from outside it's very hard to appreciate how much or how little excess slack there is in the system (because, even though intensive care beds aren't full to capacity there are an awful lot more of them than there were pre-crisis, and manning them all is very labour intensive and must be taking up the time and energy of a lot of staff re-deployed from other areas.) However, one wouldn't be surprised to hear that NHS staff fortunate enough not to have been transferred to coronavirus duties may be less than rushed off their feet at the moment.

    In particular, if there are any GPs or practice nurses amongst the PB commentariat it would be fascinating to know if they are more or less busy than usual.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,572
    On flour, one of my colleagues bought a 25 kg sack of pizza flour.

    He then had to buy a big plastic barrel to keep it in.

    He'll need a lot of pineapples too, I imagine.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    On flour, one of my colleagues bought a 25 kg sack of pizza flour.

    He then had to buy a big plastic barrel to keep it in.

    He'll need a lot of pineapples too, I imagine.

    Very jealous. I had the opportunity to get 16kg if strong white, but I have no use for that much. Would have taken the 00 though, good for pizza and pasta.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,929
    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
    Course that doesn't apply if you have something REALLY secretive.
    If only that was true and not marketing hype - I will leave it there as I can’t be bothered to do work this late at night
    Think we are obviously talking at different levels of security. For keeping unwanted.people out it works just fine.But then no one is really interested much in my meetings, as they involve no great commercial value.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,935
    Nigelb said:

    alex_ said:

    RE: lockdowns. I don't get why anyone thinks we or any other country is remotely close to returning to anything like normality. To even think that you've got to completely dismiss the suggestions that many hundreds of thousands could die without mitigating measures. No country currently is above 30-40,000 (assuming large numbers of 'community' deaths are going unreported). "Returning to normal" effectively means scrapping any gains that the lockdowns are presumed to have delivered. And in winter there will be no spare capacity in Health Services because 1) there will be few "routine"/"non-urgent" operations that can be cancelled and 2) many of the currently non-urgent operations will have become urgent (delayed cancer etc etc)

    There’s no return to normal without a vaccine (if then).
    But rebuilding some sort of economic activity in the meantime is essential.
    Indeed mass testing should be the way forward with lockdown just left for the peak.

    SARs of course eventually died out anyway even without the vaccine
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
    I've yet to see a single thing that works on Twitter.
    Quite good for career destruction.
  • Options
    DensparkDenspark Posts: 68
    edited April 2020

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    Bigger concern is all that data going to Chinese servers.
    I got an email from our IT guys a few weeks ago ,when the WFH was kicking off ,forbidding zoom to be used on any of our company kit.

    If the clients want to use it on their kit ("thats their problem" was the phrase used) or we use it on our personal devices then ok but not on our company hardware.

  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    MaxPB said:

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
    I wouldn't use gram flour for making bread. It's chickpea flour and has no gluten.
    What about for cakes or cookies?
  • Options
    MikeSmithsonMikeSmithson Posts: 7,382
    Just heard that a former close colleague of mine has died. This really brings it home.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    alex_ said:

    RE: lockdowns. I don't get why anyone thinks we or any other country is remotely close to returning to anything like normality. To even think that you've got to completely dismiss the suggestions that many hundreds of thousands could die without mitigating measures. No country currently is above 30-40,000 (assuming large numbers of 'community' deaths are going unreported). "Returning to normal" effectively means scrapping any gains that the lockdowns are presumed to have delivered. And in winter there will be no spare capacity in Health Services because 1) there will be few "routine"/"non-urgent" operations that can be cancelled and 2) many of the currently non-urgent operations will have become urgent (delayed cancer etc etc)

    There’s no return to normal without a vaccine (if then).
    But rebuilding some sort of economic activity in the meantime is essential.
    Indeed mass testing should be the way forward with lockdown just left for the peak.

    SARs of course eventually died out anyway even without the vaccine
    I can't see how the 100k a day tests is going to be onstream in 2 weeks time.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    MaxPB said:

    First...have you got any flour?

    Flour has become the new toilet paper it seems, impossible to find.

    Could get my entire shopping list yesterday apart from flour and yeast. On the other hand the World Foods aisle had loads of "Gram Flour" (Chickpea Flour) which I've never used but bought it as closest substitute available and see whether that works or not.

    Surprised they had so much of that available given the total lack of flour, surprised more people hadn't thought to pick it up as a substitute (or I wasted £1 on a product I have no idea how to use but for £1 seemed worth getting).
    I wouldn't use gram flour for making bread. It's chickpea flour and has no gluten.
    What about for cakes or cookies?
    No and no, it's a good savoury flour for tempura batter or fish batter but not so much as a replacement for plain flour in general. You should look up some recipes for bhajis and pakoras, that's what I use it for.
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    dodradedodrade Posts: 595
    eek said:

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Nope Skype (the none business version) was a bought in consumer product.

    Skype for business was previously called Lync and was ok but never that great (it could however do conference calls if managed well).

    Teams can do both 1 to 1 calls and larger conference calls - it uses different technology (azure video) for the conference functionality.
    If Teams is superior why haven't Microsoft discontinued Skype yet?
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925
    edited April 2020
    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    dixiedean said:

    eek said:

    dixiedean said:

    're Zoom. Have used it for 5 years in a confidential therapeutic setting. The problem is other people haven't.
    You treat it like a secure interview room. Open a room. Lock the door. Set up a waiting room. When the person you want to see enters the waiting room, you let them in and lock the door behind them.
    Simple.
    People are doing the equivalent of posting their address on Facebook and advertising a Party. Then being surprised uninvited guests show up.

    And in every call the relationship between you and your client is sent to facebook
    It's end to end encrypted. Which is why therapists use it. You just have to lock the door. That's all.
    Course that doesn't apply if you have something REALLY secretive.
    If only that was true and not marketing hype - I will leave it there as I can’t be bothered to do work this late at night
    Think we are obviously talking at different levels of security. For keeping unwanted.people out it works just fine.But then no one is really interested much in my meetings, as they involve no great commercial value.
    Apart from telling Facebook about the fact you have a relationship with your clients.I suspect your clients would not be happy to discover their relationship with you sits within Facebook’s relationship matrix.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    MaxPB said:

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    Waitrose in this part of NW London had a fair bit of flour, managed to get strong white, 00 and wholemeal. We're all set for a few weeks.
    I managed to get hold of a bag of self-raising out of Morrisons in town during the height of panic buying a few weeks back. It was the premium sifted stuff and had been put on a higher up shelf than the rest of the flour, hidden in plain sight amongst an assortment of other cake-baking ingredients. The locusts had stripped everything else bare but completely missed this specific brand. Needless to say I felt very pleased with myself at the time.

    I haven't noticed whether or not the Tesco Extra where I normally do my big shop has any flour, since I've not needed to look for it recently, but if they don't then flour and paracetamol - which I know is still in short supply and has been moved behind the pharmacy counter - must be the very last empty shelves left in the store. Last time I was in there they were still a wee bit light on chopped tomatoes and baked beans, but pasta, bog roll and virtually everything else was pretty much back to normal.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,285
    HYUFD said:

    Nigelb said:

    alex_ said:

    RE: lockdowns. I don't get why anyone thinks we or any other country is remotely close to returning to anything like normality. To even think that you've got to completely dismiss the suggestions that many hundreds of thousands could die without mitigating measures. No country currently is above 30-40,000 (assuming large numbers of 'community' deaths are going unreported). "Returning to normal" effectively means scrapping any gains that the lockdowns are presumed to have delivered. And in winter there will be no spare capacity in Health Services because 1) there will be few "routine"/"non-urgent" operations that can be cancelled and 2) many of the currently non-urgent operations will have become urgent (delayed cancer etc etc)

    There’s no return to normal without a vaccine (if then).
    But rebuilding some sort of economic activity in the meantime is essential.
    Indeed mass testing should be the way forward with lockdown just left for the peak.

    SARs of course eventually died out anyway even without the vaccine
    This is not SARS, which was nowhere near as infectious, and invariably symptomatic before it was infectious.
  • Options

    Just heard that a former close colleague of mine has died. This really brings it home.

    So sorry to hear that. These are very difficult days for so many
  • Options
    IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    Just heard that a former close colleague of mine has died. This really brings it home.

    Same with me. Really sorry to hear.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,567
    Good to see the BBC tweeting regional newspapers whose journalism frequently puts national (pun intended) newspapers to shame:

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1250535760027095047?s=20
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    MaxPB said:

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    Waitrose in this part of NW London had a fair bit of flour, managed to get strong white, 00 and wholemeal. We're all set for a few weeks.
    I managed to get hold of a bag of self-raising out of Morrisons in town during the height of panic buying a few weeks back. It was the premium sifted stuff and had been put on a higher up shelf than the rest of the flour, hidden in plain sight amongst an assortment of other cake-baking ingredients. The locusts had stripped everything else bare but completely missed this specific brand. Needless to say I felt very pleased with myself at the time.

    I haven't noticed whether or not the Tesco Extra where I normally do my big shop has any flour, since I've not needed to look for it recently, but if they don't then flour and paracetamol - which I know is still in short supply and has been moved behind the pharmacy counter - must be the very last empty shelves left in the store. Last time I was in there they were still a wee bit light on chopped tomatoes and baked beans, but pasta, bog roll and virtually everything else was pretty much back to normal.
    I have a trip to M&S tomorrow. Be interested to see if parmesan has reappeared.....
  • Options

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925

    alex_ said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    eek said:

    Off topic but eadric / seant is suffering- withdrawal symptoms I think

    https://twitter.com/thomasknox/status/1250503386014920704

    I can see that going viral, and not in a good way.
    I think it might have been a joke. But jokes don't work on twitter of course!
    I've yet to see a single thing that works on Twitter.
    Quite good for career destruction.
    Yep, it’s clearly a joke and I actually find it funny but it’s not going to go down well with others. I doubt it will impact the travel gigs were they to return
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited April 2020

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    Just make sourdough starter. Give you some things to bake.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095
    Captain Tom is less than £49k off the £10m.

    Go on someone, get him over the line.....
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,543

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    Suggest you make your own sourdough starter - very easy to do.
  • Options
    YokesYokes Posts: 1,200
    Just as a note, Skype for Business is being replaced by Teams. Skype as a consumer brand product I think is being retained.

    The fundamental difference for the Business product is that I think Teams is entirely cloud based whilst with SfB you could as a business operate it as your own in house instance. The flaw for Teams is that you are at the mercy of Microsoft's server and bandwidth management, you get what you get with no control over server load or bandwidth allocation.

    There are a ton of corporate Unified Comms options out there for businesses whether in premise or hosted and there are pure video bridge services that are end device agnostic. The options for businesses are legion
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    Captain Tom is less than £49k off the £10m.

    Go on someone, get him over the line.....

    Some rich individuals must have pledged some serious dough today.
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,999
    This thread is an eye-opener. A lot of Americans want to make a constitutional issue of lockdowns.

    https://twitter.com/raleighpolice/status/1250111779574894594
  • Options

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    Just make sourdough starter. Give you some things to bake.
    We already do. Just that sometimes, I need that hit of toasted homemade white bread!
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    I just sent my friend a few sachets in the post, hopefully the postie doesn't realise what it is!
  • Options
    DensparkDenspark Posts: 68

    Good to see the BBC tweeting regional newspapers whose journalism frequently puts national (pun intended) newspapers to shame:

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1250535760027095047?s=20

    what a dreadful picture for the courier to put on their front page.......
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,572

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    Just make sourdough starter. Give you some things to bake.
    Or just buy bread?

    We get ours from Abel and Cole.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,567

    Captain Tom is less than £49k off the £10m.

    Go on someone, get him over the line.....

    Some rich individuals must have pledged some serious dough today.
    There's nearly half a million donors so with gift aid its under £20/donation.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    Captain Tom is less than £49k off the £10m.

    Go on someone, get him over the line.....

    Some rich individuals must have pledged some serious dough today.
    Not so sure. He's coming up on 500,000 donors. Average of £20 a pop....
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 24,925
    dodrade said:

    eek said:

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Nope Skype (the none business version) was a bought in consumer product.

    Skype for business was previously called Lync and was ok but never that great (it could however do conference calls if managed well).

    Teams can do both 1 to 1 calls and larger conference calls - it uses different technology (azure video) for the conference functionality.
    If Teams is superior why haven't Microsoft discontinued Skype yet?
    Checks NDAs, It’s coming and was supposed to be at the end of this month (it may have changed).

    It’s not enabled within Teams by default though, a global administrator will need to flick a switch
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 91,609
    alex_ said:

    alex_ said:

    eek said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
    Zoom has blown it. The security issues are turning everyone away
    Oh and pornographic images turning up in the middle of important meetings...
    Well it keeps everyone engaged at least.
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    We got 100g of dried yeast as well today.

    I’m unable to restrain myself from boasting about this.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095
    kle4 said:

    alex_ said:

    alex_ said:

    eek said:

    Re zoom... really interesting how Skype has managed to screw up their first mover advantage.

    Why is zoom better than skype, discord, whatsapp video calls, etc?

    Right product at the right time - it’s a security and privacy nightmare though so I won’t be using it
    Zoom has blown it. The security issues are turning everyone away
    Oh and pornographic images turning up in the middle of important meetings...
    Well it keeps everyone engaged at least.
    But only if you've paid for the premium service....
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    Just make sourdough starter. Give you some things to bake.
    Or just buy bread?

    We get ours from Abel and Cole.
    Homemade sourdough bread is awesome.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    Yokes said:

    Just as a note, Skype for Business is being replaced by Teams. Skype as a consumer brand product I think is being retained.

    The fundamental difference for the Business product is that I think Teams is entirely cloud based whilst with SfB you could as a business operate it as your own in house instance. The flaw for Teams is that you are at the mercy of Microsoft's server and bandwidth management, you get what you get with no control over server load or bandwidth allocation.

    There are a ton of corporate Unified Comms options out there for businesses whether in premise or hosted and there are pure video bridge services that are end device agnostic. The options for businesses are legion

    It seems to me from limited experience that Skype is fine (better?) for ad-hoc impromptu phone calls/meetings. Teams et al for more formal planned stuff.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,419
    If anyone wants proof that saving lives over the exercise of liberty is not always the priority of the government, consider this fact:

    They haven't banned smoking. Even though it kills about 78,000 people a year.

    https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/what-are-the-health-risks-of-smoking/
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    County lines for the middle classes.
    I've got a sack of flour (from an actual windmill). Can't buy yeast for love nor money.
    We got 100g of dried yeast as well today.

    I’m unable to restrain myself from boasting about this.
    I hope you've got a good private security firm....
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,914
    dodrade said:

    eek said:

    TGOHF666 said:

    Skype = android
    Teams = iphone

    Both Msft products intended for different purposes

    Word = Android
    Excel = iPhone
    Nope Skype (the none business version) was a bought in consumer product.

    Skype for business was previously called Lync and was ok but never that great (it could however do conference calls if managed well).

    Teams can do both 1 to 1 calls and larger conference calls - it uses different technology (azure video) for the conference functionality.
    If Teams is superior why haven't Microsoft discontinued Skype yet?
    Because Skype is a consumer product in one part of Microsoft, while Teams is a business product that's part of the Office suite and meant to compete with Slack.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited April 2020
    Andy_JS said:

    If anyone wants proof that saving lives over the exercise of liberty is not always the priority of the government, consider this fact:

    They haven't banned smoking. Even though it kills about 78,000 people a year.

    https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/lifestyle/what-are-the-health-risks-of-smoking/

    Actually there is an interesting story about the nudge teams input into the legislation of e-cigs, and it saved a lot of lives.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    MaxPB said:

    First...have you got any flour?

    I got self-raising flour for my mum today. She was delighted.
    Getting a bit concerned Mrs U might end up mugging somebody if she sees them with this rare white powder.
    Waitrose in this part of NW London had a fair bit of flour, managed to get strong white, 00 and wholemeal. We're all set for a few weeks.
    I managed to get hold of a bag of self-raising out of Morrisons in town during the height of panic buying a few weeks back. It was the premium sifted stuff and had been put on a higher up shelf than the rest of the flour, hidden in plain sight amongst an assortment of other cake-baking ingredients. The locusts had stripped everything else bare but completely missed this specific brand. Needless to say I felt very pleased with myself at the time.

    I haven't noticed whether or not the Tesco Extra where I normally do my big shop has any flour, since I've not needed to look for it recently, but if they don't then flour and paracetamol - which I know is still in short supply and has been moved behind the pharmacy counter - must be the very last empty shelves left in the store. Last time I was in there they were still a wee bit light on chopped tomatoes and baked beans, but pasta, bog roll and virtually everything else was pretty much back to normal.
    I have a trip to M&S tomorrow. Be interested to see if parmesan has reappeared.....
    Really?! My experience of the height of the panic buying episode was that cheese was one of the very few foodstuffs never to be in seriously short supply at any point.

    Going back about three weeks, anybody whose diet consisted entirely of cheese, yoghurt, chocolate biscuits and wine was doing very nicely thank you. It's just the whole of the rest of the population that was snatching and hoarding bags of penne and fusilli on sight.
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,572
    My team discovered the silly background feature in Teams today. Added some fun to the virtual coffee break.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    edited April 2020

    Good to see the BBC tweeting regional newspapers whose journalism frequently puts national (pun intended) newspapers to shame:

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1250535760027095047?s=20

    I'm still trying to work out how The Times running a story with corroborating evidence which was dismissed by the Scottish Government as a non story is actually an embarrassing SNP conspiracy theory blown apart by the Courier but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,567
    Guernsey cases flattening - success ascribed to border control - all arrivals have to self-quarantine for 14 days, early lock down and all cases are tracked. The States (parliament) have been meeting virtually and have delayed elections from June for a year.
This discussion has been closed.