LosOjos

Of course I feel compassion for countries worse off than we are, but that doesn't mean I consider our country a success. I don't want to live in "not the worst" country, I want to live in "one of the best".

What did you expect to happen? That as they opened more food banks, less people went? That would be an awful business model! EDIT: also, I think it is accepted by most non-Daily Mail readers that Benefits Street quite clearly picked out the very worst offenders of benefit fraud* from an area known to have an unusually high number of claimants in order to generate ratings and (intentionally or not) vilify those claiming benefits. * not much actual fraud went on as I remember, but a lot of morally questionable use of benefits

Democracy is a concept rather than a system. I do think there are big problems with our system, such as "first past the post" voting and powers being handed to unelected officials (by way of the EU), but as a concept democracy is awesome. Implementation needs work!

Assuming you meant doesn't [Hey, I am a member of Pedantic Geeks!], despite a lot happening that I'm not happy with, the fact is I do have some influence to create change. How much influence is another story, but I undoubtedly have some. That's much, much better than the alternative!

Funny you should say that:

Guys, it's fine, he says right there: No need to panic, just send him the school's bank details and await the deposit of your new fortune.

Just tested your PowerShell code against a SIMS report with the same fields here and it worked fine - double check you have spelt each XML element exactly right (though it looks fine in your example above) and that PowerShell actually has access to the file you're loading. XML can be handy, but it can also be a real pain to work with. I find the best editor to be one by a company I'd never heard of called firstobject, it's the only editor I found that doesn't crash when trying to load large XML files: Free XML editor download Also, you probably won't need this as I'm sure you can achieve the same results more quickly in Powershell, but back before I had used Powershell, I regularly ran large reports from SIMS overnight then used XPath queries to extract the parts I needed for various systems the next day, and I wrote a little CLI utility to help: XPathX - Geek Josh EDIT: I just noticed the geek reference, well played sir, well played

Tagging @SimpleSi in as he's the developer I believe, sure he'd be interested in this

Like I said, flagship model, generally run better for longer. I've had multiple Samsung and HTC devices, brother has had a number of HTCs, fianceé has had a few different Sonys, all of them slow down after 12 months. Wiping them makes them run better for a while, but the system apps take up so much memory (more after every update) that eventually, they're barely usable again. It's all anecdotal, but I honestly don't know anyone who isn't frustrated with an Android phone they've owned more than year. I dare say there are plenty of people who feel the same way about iPhones (widely reported how they get slower after a couple of OS updates) but as neither myself nor any of my family use them, I have no experience of that. Not sure why I'm arguing with you - you won't convince me my personal experiences didn't happen EDIT: that came off as more aggressive than I intended, what I meant was that I have no hard "proof", only personal perception, so no amount of evidence is going to convince me otherwise; my experience with Android has, overall, sucked.

Google's flagship models do seem to last longer, but I've had Samsung and HTC devices that have been absolute dogs after 12 months If you "regularly flash mods" then you regularly clean the device up - stands to reason it'll keep running great if you keep wiping it, but you shouldn't need to. It's nothing to do with "knowing what you're doing" and everything to do with Android being too open to crap developers writing apps that eat too much memory - Amazon's apps are a killer for instance.

Unfortunately, I'm losing my love for Android now. Google seem to be killing it with updates; their core apps get slower and slower every time they update them, leaving you to rely on third party apps for core functionality and all the flakiness that goes with that. I'm sure the apps look great on brand new hardware, but anything >12 months old is being killed off. They're essentially trapping you in to regular upgrades and associated costs, which is carp. I will never buy an Apple device on principal, but can see why they're so popular. Which leaves Windows Phone, with an almost complete lack of support from anyone. I'm really hoping Windows 10 gives Windows Phone the boost it so badly needs!

I can't see what Google can do about that though, Apple actively block apps mentioning competitors products, recently resulting in updates to apps for Pebble being blocked (which they have since claimed was merely a mistake) I think we're lucky Apple are still allowing Pebble apps to get published, I seriously doubt they'll ever allow Android Gear apps to be published on iOS

When SIMS opens a report in Excel, it runs through a set of macros to format the output. It is essential that these macros are included, which iswhy it's always best to base your own templates on one of the existing SIMS ones (the reports are actually output as CSV, then the default macros Capita have created paste the data in to Excel.) The reason you're not seeing your new sheets in the final report is that the template puts all ofthe data in to a new workbook, not it's own. Simple solution: copy any sheets you want from your template to the new one with a line of code something like this: ThisWorkbook.Sheets.Copy Before:=ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1) This takes all of the sheets in your template and copies them to the start of the workbook that the macros are populating

Yeah that is a let down, I'm hoping though that as Window Phone gets more popular (which I think it will with the unification W10), you'll see support added. I dare say there are ways you can get it working with WP, but there's no official app like you say.

Pebble Steel is waterproof to 50m https://getpebble.com/pebble_steel I used it like that on holiday, left my phone pool side and could read my texts/emails without getting out of the pool It also has a feature that will make your phone ring if you can't find it, though obviously you have to be in range - I've not once had it lose connection at home though. While WiFi connectivity would be cool so you don't need to rely on your phone for data, it would drain the battery must faster. Bluetooth 4 has a special low power mode* which is perfect for "always on" devices like a smartwatch. The range is also pretty good at ~200ft (this varies by device but this is the defined as the spec minimum at full power) Wi-Fi Direct vs. Bluetooth 4.0: A Battle for Supremacy | PCWorld Again, Pebble for the win - I get at least a week with normal use. Granted, I'd love for it to last longer, but it's the longest lasting battery of any smart device I've ever owned. Of course the trade off is the black and white screen and lack of power for fancy UI effects, but I really don't need that on a watch. Pebble Time promises comparable battery life, has a colour screen and I've been peeking at the SDK which has a load of new features to enable devs to add pretty effects if they want to (that said I can't see myself buying one, I think they're ugly - much prefer the style of the Pebble Steel) https://getpebble.com/pebble_time I agree with you but there is a good reason: the battery problem. Until much more efficient, smaller batteries are available at a reasonable price, manufacturers are massively limited in what they can do. The tech is there to add all the features you want, but the battery life would be abysmal, so they have to compromise. Pebble's aren't as pretty or powerful as Android/Apple watches, but the trade off is vastly improved battery life, which is more important to me than cool effects - that said, there are some very cool looking faces out there; working within the limitations of the watch has made devs get creative Anyway, not here to be an unofficial Pebble salesman, just to point out there is already a watch out there that does much of what you want and it's reasonably cheap too. * this requires both devices to have BT4 to work on either device, so older phones won't be capable of using this feature

How on Earth did you come to that figure? £1k x 52 = £52k pre tax - - - Updated - - - OK, I think we got him haha

Flamin' heck, no wonder you buy everything Apple, £1k a week?!

http://www.mememaker.net/static/images/memes/2838216.jpg

Well that explains the first one!

Don't worry, if they're using Apple Maps they won't find anything - at all

I find it quite amusing that for years folk have criticized Apple for being all form over function but now they're selling a device that, to be fair, is at least as much about the form as the function and they've produced that ugly* thing! * of course it's personal opinion, it's fashion

To be fair, I don't think they're supposed to replace your phone - texting/emailing/browsing the web/calling - all of these are horrible on a tiny screen! Can't speak for Apple/Android, but with my Pebble it acts as an augmentation of my phone - I can see at a glance who has text me, read the text if I want and send a canned reply if necessary. I can see who's calling me and reject/answer the call without getting my phone out. I can check when the next bus will be along, get my Google auth codes, or trigger "something" to happen on my phone (Tasker integration is great with Pebble) I certainly don't see it as a replacement to my phone; there's a hell of a lot I do with my phone I'd hate to do on a tiny screen on my wrist, but it's a convenience for sure. I've also got to say, as watches go, they really aren't expensive (Pebble/Android). Apple of course are charging their usual premium but they're still not astronomical for a "designer" watch - although a traditional watch in the same price bracket would last you a hell of a lot longer! Maybe it's because it was "only" £150, but to be honest I'd be quite happy just using my Pebble as a watch, I think it looks really nice!

I have a Pebble Steel, the battery lasts about a week and it annoys me that I have to charge it even then. So no, I won't buy an Apple/Android Watch until they have batteries that can at least match the Pebble*! * before anyone says it, I know the reason the Pebble lasts so much longer is because it's far less powerful and has an e-ink display, that's not my point EDIT: I'm not keen on the look of the Apple Watch either, quite similar to Pebble Time (though not as cheap looking) which is disappointing because I'd have loved a Pebble Time. The Pebble Steel is the nicest looking smartwatch IMO, followed by the Moto 360. Most others look like toys IMO...

I don't run any queires against the SIMS DB - that would get me a wrist slapping! The scripts above are a set, but you can see what's going on easiest from the first BAT script - I create a report as normal in SIMS.NET, then use CommandReporter to run this report and save it as a CSV. I then do some tidying up of the CSV with the second script (CleanCSV.vbs) because SIMS is incosistent with it's quotes aroundfields, and finally I run a SQL query against my own SQL server instance to import the data in to it where I'm free to do what I like without fear of borking SIMS. The reason I mentioned the aspect category is I found it a really easy way to mark the aspects I want to export to my own DB; the SIMS report can then just be filtered to only include aspects in that category

Gah, Vice City. I think I parked more cars in those canals than there are trolleys in ours.