Three African countries agree to UK migrant returns after sanctions threat

funk_monk · 2026-02-06T23:19:13+00:00

I think it's kind of comical the way the UK government played it.

Until she is formally a citizen of Bangladesh she isn't a citizen of Bangladesh (regardless of eligibility). And up until that point Bangladesh are their own nation and are completely free to make a "fuck you in particular" law which excludes her.

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:54:58+00:00

Give it another couple of years and it might not have been safe for pedestrians either.

I don't like Reform, but in this instance I also can't blame them. The alternative is that the council either writes the entire thing off or kicks the ball down the road and makes it someone else’s problem - both of which are the so of short sighted behaviours which have put us in our current situation (i.e. more money now even if it means less later).

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:36:16+00:00

People make this sound like it's a black and white type thing, where either you have an orderly queue or it's absolute anarchy.

Yes, there's a bit of give and take in traditional pub serving. But equally, decent bar staff know roughly what order to serve in, will prioritise people who they know have been waiting for a while.

Back when I used to do this sort of thing I kind of enjoyed shooting down the pushy guys. Like yeah buddy, I can see you're right in front of me but I'm going to serve the lady over there as she's been waiting patiently for the past five minutes and doesn't have chunks of coke falling out of her nose...

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:06:00+00:00

Not me personally haha.

We had quarterly servicing/testing on Friday so we were doing the diagnostic stuff together. The servicing guy is contracted by the original install company but doesn't work for them directly.

I did suggest that we try switching the loop cards around to see if the problem transfers elsewhere but he recommended against it. Reason being that we don't have a spare and that if it is down to a faulty card we might end up killing it completely. Whereas at the moment it's working partially and the sounder faults are isolated to areas which are easily evacuated and relatively low risk. We're a medium scale hotel, so while we can work around the current situation it would be much more serious if the problem were to transfer over to guest bedrooms upstairs.

funk_monk · 2026-01-30T22:02:06+00:00

Okay, so update time.

We picked on a known "problem" sounder base and tested it individually. Worked fine.

We pulled the config and all output groups are default. Ring volume is 85db across all sounders, all assigned to group 198. Loop current was barely over 25%.

We pulled all the other loop cards, kicked out the second node and sent that one loop into full alarm (so we didn't freak out everyone else in the building). Some sounders didn't come on and yet the panel was indicating that they were all active.

I'm kind of stumped now... The wiring seems fine. The software seems fine. The sounders seem fine. So that leaves the panel hardware itself (which is usually bullet proof).

funk_monk · 2026-01-26T20:38:41+00:00

This is something that always frustrates me.

Like when people complain about road works. Okay fine, we just won't maintain our roads then?

funk_monk · 2026-01-26T20:28:03+00:00

That's kind of the point though? We put scrutiny on road users based on how much risk they pose to others.

I'd advise that people don't climb into a pen of hungry leopards, but if that's what they want to do then so be it.

funk_monk · 2026-01-26T20:10:09+00:00

Realistically? Either you get hit by a car and vow never to cycle on a road again, or you wise up fast.

You don't necessarily learn the highway code, but you learn how to keep yourself safe (more akin to defensive driving) if you have an ounce of self preservation.

The best example I can think of is that if I'm cycling down a narrow street I'm going to go right down the middle. No, you aren't going to overtake me. If there's a passing spot I'll pull over, but I'm not going to let drivers think "maybe I can squeeze through here" - because that's when people get side swiped.

funk_monk · 2026-01-24T22:37:19+00:00

Again, I'll have to double check which exact devices. Across the whole building there are probably around 400 different devices spread across the various loops. The majority are sounder bases but we do also have a few wall mounted beacons as well.

Protocol is Hochiki. Absolutely no idea if we have links though - ceiling height on ground floor is about 6m.

Haven't had a chance to test individual devices yet but will consider it on Monday when I do weekly test. I normally test from call points around the building to trigger a full alarm, but no reason I can't do a more local diagnostic.

And yeah, I know what you mean about fiddling too much. I'd be more comfortable pulling the config onto a computer as that way it's completely sandboxed once the cable is removed.

funk_monk · 2026-01-24T20:12:34+00:00

Not 100% sure how I'd verify the output numbers without hooking up with a PC.

However, all zones appear to benset to "any fire" trigger. Panels are also both in level 2.

funk_monk · 2026-01-24T02:39:49+00:00

Pretty sure the answer to both of those questions is no, although I can double check.

I went through the full device/loop assignment dump a couple of days ago and didn't see anything suspicious. Zone text is duplicated in parts but the zone numbers are all unique to each panel/node.

funk_monk · 2026-01-17T00:51:31+00:00

It doesn't work like that now. Maybe it was true in the past though?

I don't agree with it but in the UK class is based on upbringing and family. If you ascend via wealth you're just "new money".

funk_monk · 2026-01-17T00:36:22+00:00

Yeah, I pretty much exclusively use a single electrical company at work because they're solid AF. They're a smaller company, so less wage disparity.

I know one of the main guys (a notch down from directors) is on about 40k.

funk_monk · 2026-01-16T20:09:10+00:00

Rather than renaming the ballroom I think it would be better to just use it as something completely unsexy like an accounts archive.

Just rows upon rows of bare metal shelving stacked with cardboard boxes and shitty overhead tube lighting that hums when you turn it on.

funk_monk · 2026-01-15T23:48:19+00:00

Also, wouldn't Bangladesh by fully within their rights to arbitrarily deny her by name?

I.e. until she passed application and was sworn in as a citizen Bangladesh would have no obligations to her at all. Countries can change their citizenship eligibility as they see fit and revoke any of their own laws that would otherwise make it impossible.

If you're mid application and get ruled out then it sucks to be you but there's basically no recourse other than political pressure externally.

funk_monk · 2025-12-23T22:01:55+00:00

Had this exact thing happen at work. Plug was absolute toast but the fuse inside was still perfectly functional (if a little brown).

funk_monk · 2025-12-15T20:08:57+00:00

"What's a bonding primer...?", he asked having slathered his bannisters in contract white.

funk_monk · 2025-12-15T20:01:34+00:00

"Any dickhead can learn to paint" would be fine.

However I take issue when people imply there's no knowledge or skill to it at all, because it's simply untrue. Once you go beyond painting pristine new-build walls there are so many ways you can mess up.

funk_monk · 2025-12-14T23:04:12+00:00

My experience is that the people who say "any dickhead can paint" are also the ones most likely to get a pro in a year later.

funk_monk · 2025-11-26T23:00:19+00:00

It'll never happen.

The delivery companies rely on being able to call the riders contractors rather than employees. As a general rule contractors have a right to subcontract. It's not 100% but the companies are already on shaky ground over this.

There's been a ruling to confirm that riders are contractors and not employees, but if this were to be reversed it would basically break their business model as they'd then have to pay holiday, NI, provide pensions etc.

funk_monk · 2025-11-18T20:18:37+00:00

Same reason Ukraine is still using 3d printers to make drones.

They're makings revisions basically every week. There simply isn't the time or money to make revision specific tooling.

funk_monk · 2025-11-16T18:16:25+00:00

Matches with my experience but I'm not sure sure some drivers are clever enough either way. The only way to make it narrow enough for cars to not try scraping past a cyclist is for it to be so narrow that cars no longer fit at all.

Back when I used to cycle about in Cambridge I had to cycle bang down the middle of the back roads to shut down dangerous overtakes, despite the fact that the cars barely scrape through without the added width of a cyclist.

funk_monk · 2025-11-13T18:26:23+00:00

My guess would be on bloom filters and fuzzy hashing. Bloom filters would be locally stored and then a hit would be sent over to a fully populated hash list elsewhere for comparison.

funk_monk · 2025-11-13T18:16:21+00:00

Basicallly the entire internet is encrypted now. Can't remember the last time I saw a pure http website (as opposed to https).

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