LeMarchand

Why are trailers for musicals so shy about showing people singing?

We have <200 endpoints that need to be covered so it costs a a whole £0. Sorry, never got a quote.

I have heard that the first couple of episodes were intriguing.

The first movie was one of those ones that I went into with low expectations but found very enjoyable.

The problem is that most staff here would happily leave their machines on 24/7/365 and aren't prepared to save work to allow a reboot. 😠

Double/Rainbow over Winchester Cathedral on Saturday. Quick phone pics; you can't tell, but it was still raining. Shame about the setup for the Xmas Market in the first shot.

Tron: Ares (Cinema) Generally ignoring the second film apart from a few Easter Eggs this has Dillinger's grandson searching for the "Permanence Code" so that he can build an army of cyberwarriors that will be able to function for more than 29 minutes in the real world. Meanwhile the heirs to Flynn's work are looking for the same thing for more altruistic reasons but find themselves up against the ultimate cyberwarrior: Ares. I actually found this the most enjoyable of the three movies. Loved the red aesthetic of the Dillinger army and it kinda made sense. The NIN soundtrack was pretty good too. Shame it's likely to be the last for another decade or two. Also a shame that, despite having a couple of monologues about their music, there was only one Depeche Mode track. WAR 2 Original Telegu version (Netflix) After the events of WAR Kabir is working as an assassin but is, in fact, still working undercover for RAW (Research and Analysis Wing, here subtitled as R&AW) trying to trace the evil organisation, Kali. After he has to kill his old boss (at the latter's insistence) to maintain his cover the new boss of RAW (Anil "Who Want To Be Millonaire" Kapoor) assembles a team including the old boss's daughter/Kabir's ex- and new blood Vikram (N.T. Rama Rao Jr. - Bheem from RRR) to take down Kabir. Cue lots of OTT action sequences and plot twists. Although it's extremely OTT and this time not just women and men find Kabir irresistible but a wolf sucuumbs his charms, this is quite fun. That said, it's way too long and could have done without an extended post-interval flashback showing how and why Kabir and Vikram are such best buds and probably the later flashback trying to convince us that Kabir's one true love is his old boss's daughter because we already knew all we needed to know from... Unfortunately this was a surprise failure at the box office and while Alpha with Alia Bhaat is due out on Christmas Day the "YRF Spy Universe" is apparently "retooling". I had assumed this was to remove or make Katrina Kaif's character as she plays a Pakistani spy who is on the side of the angels which probably doesn't play very well in India at the moment, but maybe they have other problems.

So the takeaway is: If you see Idris on any sort of transport with you, get off.

I'm liking the idea of a leaner, lower budget, "Who" with a new set of writers. One thing that really annoyed me about the arc plots of Nu-Who was that they rarely made sense (if the ever really got resolved). Ditch that aspect, too.

It's mainly teacher laptops that are the problem. It seems to be the done thing that they leave everything they expect to use for the day (week? month? term?) open at all times. AFAIK any restart will close these, possibly destructively, if it doesn't hang at "Save your work?".

Been starting to use Action1 for patching and I'm very happy with it. Unfortunately the staff and SMT aren't because the "constant" requests to reboot are "too much". It's still early days and no doubt things need tweaking, but I get the same automation as the staff and I rarely see any reboot requests probably because I turn off my machine at the end of the day which gives the updates a chance to run. Anyone got a good schedule and/or the relevant parts of the patching guidelines that I can put in a CYA email?

Why support multiple users when you can get them to buy another machine?

Saiyaara aka सैयारा (Netflix) Trailer contains lots of gratuitous male chest. Heartbroken after being dumped at the altar, the slightly scatterbrained Vaani just wants to fulfil her dream of becoming a writer. Her first internship brings her into contact with Krish Kapoor, a singer/musician with a rock star ego, but not success. Can her lyrics and his music make a hit record and will they fall in love? The trailer makes this look like it's going to be a bit of an overblown romance set in the world of Indian pop music (it's supposed to be rock, but sounds like the sort of anodyne romance songs in most Indian movies) but it takes a turn into something a bit tragic. I have to admit I did find it quite moving, though it could have done with being an hour shorter.

Finished Hostage on Netflix. Had been looking forward to this for a while and it didn't disappoint. A bit far-fetched in parts but kept all 3 adults in the house gripped.

Have you tried WiinUSoft/Pro:

If you have a PlayStation controller would that work? I got one of these for £20 from eBay and have been pleased with it, but the Manba does seem rather nice. https://www.amazon.co.uk/EasySMX-Controller-Bluetooth-Replacable-Mechanical/dp/B0CQBZGQPF

Not the most scientific test, but I had 42% when I left work. After a 13 mile/30 minute drive using Android Auto/Spotify/Waze and wireless charging at a MAX of 15W (that's the max for my phone, who knows what the lighter charger/lead/basic mount provide) I had 58%. TBH I found Google Maps to be a worse drain on my old phone, particularly if used with a Life360.

Just got a car with an aftermarket JVC unit. The only problems I've been having are little drop-outs in the music via Spotify and that the start/stop will often cause the head unit to reboot, which is a PITA. I suspect the latter is due to a poor wiring job (they didn't even spring for the steering wheel connector) and I wonder if the former is related. I was initially using my old phone plugged directly into the unit and didn't notice any loss of power. At the weekend I added a wireless dongle to the unit and a newer phone >A11 and reinstated my wireless charger. Bit early to tell how it's going (it still has the above problems) but will be doing a longer journey on Saturday and will report back. So far, not as smooth as using my phone as the display with a simplified launcher and connecting to the basic head unit via Bluetooth. However, the bigger screen on the JVC is much appreciated. Might experiment with screen mirroring to see if that helps with the drop-outs and/or reboots.

Calling @ICTDirect_Dave.

If not too late (like it is for me) the 512GB version is £199 from EE. Not sure if it's carrier locked, but I'm telling myself it must be! https://ee.co.uk/products/motorola-edge-50-neo-sim-free

The Edge 60 Neo is imminent and they seem to be clearing out stock. The coloured versions went down to £149 and rapidly reappeared on eBay. That said, the 50 is still priced at well above £200 in a lot of places. It was released in August 2024 but said to be due security updates until 2029 and should go to Android 19. Apparently there is a bit of bloatware but it's reasonably close to stock. https://www.techradar.com/phones/motorola-phones/motorola-edge-50-neo-review Only downside for me, apart from I'd have preferred the blue one, is that I was hoping for a larger screen. That said, it's close to my current phone which was considered HUGE when I bought it.

Motorola Edge 50 Neo in Grisaille (grey) for £200 and you can get 10% EDU discount with a payslip bringing it to £180?

Same here .

Play Dirty Prime Video After a heist, Parker (Mark Wahlberg) vows revenge on the woman who betrayed him and killed his crew. However he puts that aside when she offers an even bigger heist. Fun Shane Black flick. Worth a look if you like his stuff.

I go old school and have logon and log off scripts that save to a csv. Not 100% accurate but pretty good.