ChrisIB

Jolt 7/10
Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) stars as a woman afflicted with intermittent explosive disorder.
Action comedy that has some very funny moments as deeply unpleasant characters cross her irritation line.

Kind of but for me the difference was Edge loops each time he dies, Groundhog is focused on the humour of a day repeated.

Boss level 9/10

An unexpected gem, Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson in a scifi cross between Groundhog day and Edge of tomorrow

You can check if your PC has a TPM module using the Microsoft builtin tool:

Open a powershell as Admin and use: tpm.msc

Astrobiology, Andrew May
So much seems to depend on how life is defined. NASA, in the 1990s, used
Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.
(which excludes artificial life which may have consciousness)
And SETI uses the word intelligence in a different way to most scientists. If you look for biosignatures, Earth has had life for billions of years but technosignatures for only about 100.

.............

Deleted, apologies for the 'fake news'.

It was a link to a Scientific American article featured on the April 15th Firefox New tab  news page  provided by getpocket.com

The Old Guard

Reminiscent of Highlander, with less story, Charlize Theron's star power amps it from a 5 to an 8.

6 hours ago, Ghozer said:

I'm not sure the reason why MS would remove the 2010 version of Publisher from their own safe list though...

Thanks, yes I guess a few extra security scans would be prudent.

That is one aspect I find a little unsettling about recent MS updates, are such issues the update or are they say malware.

That said some nice improvements, Task manager has had a makeover.

The notification was MSPUB.EXE had been 'Protected folder access blocked' for %userprofiles%\Pictures by Windows security. 
It was straightforward to allow with a toggle from a link on the notification.
The document was just in the Documents folder.
Agree, I am using an old version of Publisher (2010) but it had been Windows updated a couple of weeks ago and as I only use it for a couple of documents not really viable to go with an Office subscription.

One feature I do like (but which is also apparently not working properly) is a Windows 'Fresh start' that keeps you stuff but gets rid of any manufacturer's bloatware.
 

There seem to be some issues with it

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/05/28/microsoft-windows-10-2004-may-2020-update-free-windows-10-update/#52ee6dcd3596

It took ages on my box and broke my Microsoft Publisher (a few years old)  by not letting it save to a protected folder.

On 31/05/2020 at 23:46, tinfoilhat said:

In other news, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on C4 from the beginning. If you haven't watched it, watch it.

E4 have it on weekday evenings at 11pm (the Beeb originally showed it at 6 in the evening)

Used to be very popular, seems a bit odd to put it on so late, perhaps they consider the target audience are now in their 30's?

Many thanks for the suggestions. Smart sees it as healthy, tried diskpart with clean, clean all and convert mbr but no luck.

Currently trying Aomei partition tool but if that fails Kingston give a 3yr wty so guess it will have to go back.

Recently tried to format a Kingston SSD (64GB V series) in both Windows and using Linux gparted on two different computers.
The drive had previously been used in a fresh Windows 10 install for about a month.

Both formats show as having deleted the partitions and then reformatted, but then revert back to showing the original two partitions.

Tried the Kingston SSD manager but both my computers are fairly old and do not support the BIOS switch it needs.
Google says something about SSD's can switch into read only mode when nearing end of life but it's only about a year old with moderate use.
Anyone any ideas?

The Gentlemen 8/10
Great cast anchored by McConaughey as the drug kingpin and Hugh Grant as a sleazy reporter

Thanks for the suggestions. Yep, have checked the toilet, gutters were done couple of months ago and have a dehumidifier (which helps but just in single room).

Will try the header tank cut off, and if that is ok the damp meter.

Thanks for the replies. Yep, it is lived in with heating but there is little in the way of carpets and so on that might be a cause  (replaced with laminate flooring).

I am after some advice on what is probably a hidden water leak in my house.

There has been a damp musty smell for months (the house has little in it)
It has a water meter ( shows litres) so I checked it before going away for a few days, it hadn't moved when I got back, so no apparent leak on the inbound side.
 
Next, as I have an electric shower and can do basic plumbing, I put in a lever valve from the hot water tank, to take the hot water pipes out of it.

There was a 20% decrease in the smell.

I also took up a couple of the floorboards to check if the was any damp in the void but it seems fine.

So I reckon it must be in the waste piping or the central heating pipes. Any recommends or tips? Is my option now to get a plumber to troubleshoot it?

Bombshell

Not what I was expecting, it has zing 8/10

The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey

The dedication:
'For Abi Reynolds, who reprogrammed my life'

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood
Like Brad Pitt but here both he and DiCaprio portray fairly unlikable characters and Tarantino overdoes the retro thing. Surprised it's an oscar contender. 6/10

My aerial points to Emley Moor and have recently retuned.  There are two options for region offered, South Yorkshire or Yorkshire.

My Sony TV defaulted to Yorkshire but the Youview box to South Yorkshire.

The South Yorkshire gives fewer channels (the HD ones in the 100's mainly missing).

The signal strength is showing at 80% with signal quality 100%

Is there a correct region or is it just use Yorkshire if all the channels are received ok?

Ended up selling it I'm afraid. The Xiaomi global firmware has a lot of features but in hindsight I  should have gone with one of their their Android One's

The emphasis these days with many Chinese brands seems to be on battery economy.  Huawei made the notification LED  a setting in the Battery section and Alcatel have taken off the LED repeat entirely, just two flashes.

The OLED screen also made the phone unusually heavy (and as you say are more prone than other types to burn in).

And as there was also no notch on the screen for the front camera, the earpiece was reduced to just a slit at the top. Stylish but it meant it was necessary to hold it in exactly the right position against your ear.

Quote

this is just a rambling world salad of half thought through  propositions.

The subjective experience of time does appear to vary, generally in proportion to metabolic rate:

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/166694-small-animals-see-the-world-in-slow-motion-or-why-your-puppy-is-so-hyperactive

Quote

The problem these days is that when people use the term ‘elites’ you have a sense of what sort of person they are, but you can no longer tell if they are far right or far left nutjobs. 

That’s called an ad hominem attack, which is another logical fallacy.

No, not a political statement. Previous industrial change radically altered society and I am just interested in how the powerful will embrace roboticisiation.
Power I believe will become concentrated and perhaps democracy may not adapt.

On an individual level, I agree it will give freedoms and opportunities not seen before.
I work in IT, with some AI (though perhaps artificial stupidity is currently a better term) and breakthroughs will give whichever countries huge advantage.

A scenario (bear with me):

If talking about time you need to make a distinction between physical time and a creature's sense of time.
Most creatures have self awareness, it seems to be a biological brain construct, but the self awareness of a bird may let it experience time more quickly and be able to evade those 'slower' than it (even though both have the same neuronal speed).
Once the mechanism of self awareness is understood, any  culture would also be able to scientifically adjust the rate that time is experienced.

And the self awareness of an AI? time for them must seem to be almost stopped.

As artificial intelligence and robotics replace humans in the work force, the elites won't need our labour as much as they used to.

As resources dwindle and the population rises might we be surplus to requirements?

A stretch, but perhaps in the not too distant future there will be a manipulated war or pandemic to thin the herd.