If your only use of the USB drive is to copy files to and from it, you're unlikely to remove it when it's still copying files, because there's usually some on-screen progress device.
If you are using an application that done random writes to a file on the filesystem, such as the older Microsoft Office file formats, then you'll have the file at risk all the time the document is open, even if you've recently hit 'Save', because Microsoft Office writes a lot in the background, even when it's not 'saving'.
The exact same problem happens when handling files on a network share when a VPN drops. If you forget to close the document before dropping the VPN, then the file's internal storage tables can become corrupt in a way that requires specialist recovery software to repair.
This could have been one of the reasons why Microsoft Office changed their file formats.
three-phase isn't actually 400V RMS between the phase and neutral, it's 400V RMS between phases.
Most UK domestic properties aren't hooked up to all three phases of the grid. Typically, each house along a street will take a different phase from the grid, so my house would have about 240V from phase 1, my neighbour to my left is on phase 2, my neighbour to my right is phase 3.
In the UK, the phase-to-neutral voltage is notionally 230V with a tolerance of -10% +6% but that only came in with international harmonisation, in reality, UK domestic properties tend to be about 240V, because that's what was designed into the grid before the international harmonisation. Having this harmonisation is good - it means that aside from a different connector, you can use an appliance bought in Ireland and use it in Russia.
I remember back in the days of working for a dial-up ISP, I developed an on-line-cancellation process, to complement the online registration systems. Go to customer accounts web site. Pass the usual authentication credentials Click on cancel service. Choose which service you want to cancel Confirm. If the user is currently connected via that service, disconnect the session immediately, flag the service account closed on the authentication server, remove DNS entries, deny incoming email, remove associated web hosting, get the billing system to record the service closure and associated billing product pro-rated refund calculated, and if it was the last billable service on that account, the refund to go through automatically to their usual payment source. End-to-end, it would take minutes. If user is not currently connected via that service, it would require a human to vet authentication, and call them back to confirm.
It was never deployed. DSL came along, and with it supplier contracts with a 12 month mininum contract term per customer line, which made the cancellation process tougher to automate.
The fact that it doesn't include Scotland, or Northern Ireland doesn't really make it a 'UK National' service.
Admittedly, Scotland does have its own legal system, which may have subtly different procedures to follow.
Also terms and conditions of the service mean that NextBase is entitled to use your clips in their adverts, or possibly sending them on to those car crash tv shows.
11. Rights you license
11.1 When you upload or post content to our site (including, but without limitation dashcam videos), you grant to us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free and transferable licence to use, exploit, copy, store, disclose, reproduce, publish, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform and otherwise use that content for any purpose across any media including, but not limited to, promoting the site and its content, promoting our business, and promoting our products and services.
However, earlier on in the terms, it states that "Whilst you retain legal ownership of your rights in your content, you are required to grant us the license described in paragraph 11 (Rights you license)."
Which is why I never install a mobile phone app when there's no good reason for collecting any further information from me. Often, there's a perfectly functioning website, and you have far more control over what data you provide, and tracking functions from a browser - private browsing modes, adblock etc, than you do with a bespoke mobile phone application. I recently encountered some online shop, whose web site refused to give out any useful information about the products on offer, insisting that customers download their mobile phone app, which probably gathered far too much information than needed to perform any sales transaction. Net result to them was lost sales.
but it's not documented. Try to send an Usenet-style Expires: header in the past to someone who uses Outlook / Microsoft Exchange, and see what happens.
The Nissan Leaf fits CV joints to traditional wheels, half shafts, a differential, a fixed 10:1 reduction gearbox, the motor itself (single AC induction motor), the inverter (drive electronics / motor controller), the on-board AC to DC charger , as well as the normal electric power steering, 12V accessory battery, and climate control systems, into what normal cars call the engine bay. There's still plenty of space there, but I wouldn't call it empty space. It's a front-wheel drive car.
A rear-wheel drive car like the BMW i3 has a similar arrangement, with the motor normally at the rear instead. The i3 also manages to shoehorn in space in the rear for a motorcycle-derived engine for the generator for the optional range extender, while having some cargo space in the front where traditional cars have an engine bay.
Many electric vehicles with all-wheel drive (new Teslas, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV) use two motors - one front and one rear, because that's simpler than having a transfer box and big heavy driveshafts, and gives more precise delivery of power without complicated drivetrain.
Having the battery under the floorpan makes the weight distribution of electric vehicles really quite good in snow, even if they don't have all-wheel-drive.
There are some four-wheel-drive, four-motor vehicles around, but none in mass production. The Audi Lunar Quattro is one.
1. Accurate and complete data. It is well acknowledged that in many areas, full street addresses are not yet there in Openstreetmap, but you can geocode at street-level. I've had many cases where Google's geolocation for addresses is way out, and doesn't even give a warning that it's only managed a partial match on the geographic centre of the district. 2. Context. Depending on your application, you may only be interested in the 'Station Road' nearest you. How's the geocoding server supposed to know if the client application doesn't give it a hint as to how the results should be ordered? Google's geocoder is likewise hopeless with giving relevant results if the client application doesn't give it a hint that you'd prefer a local result over a result from a different continent.
Another reason to buy standard, uncrippled, unlocked phones separately from any airtime contract. Buy them on credit if you must. My airtime provider doesn't care much as to what handset I have, so long as my SIM will fit, and it will work on the frequency ranges and technical standards that their network uses.
Insurance against a phone going missing in transit from the seller to the customer should not inconvenience the customer in any way, other than possibly acknowledging safe receipt of goods. If Verizon is worried about this, they should offer free unlocking immediately after their customer acknowledges safe receipt.
Brake lights cause traffic jams. If you're on a motorway (freeway), never use your brake pedal except in an emergency. That's what engine braking (or regenerative braking on modern cars) is for. Keeping a steady speed, and only accelerating and decelerating slowly helps other drivers to match speed when merging, it also does wonders for fuel economy.
Ditto for railway lines. Panels under a road is a silly idea, but there's more than enough wasted space at the edge of most major roads, which are often on embankments or in cuttings. Let the panels at least approximately face the sun, don't cover them with traffic, tyre dust, and other assorted grit, then it might make physical sense, or even commercial sense.
When a driver realises they are fake, they continue to drive at whatever speed they would have done previously.
The problem that actual speed bumps cause is that people slow down for them. They then accelerate afterwards. With fossil-burning vehicles, this leads to pollution. What actually works to prevent speeding (and stop-stop bunching, and some pollution) is average speed cameras, and stretches of roads that are clearly signed as such. Either that, or actual police visibly doing traffic enforcement, but it seems they don't have the resources for that these days, so they let the computers do it with cameras.
Another interesting method I've seen at controlling speed in an urban 20 mph zone is where the speed trap will immediately turn the next traffic lights to red if you speed. Stay under the speed limit, and you get smoother traffic flow. Drivers are more likely to stop for a red traffic lights to avoid a t-bone collision than drive below the speed limit.
So, Microsoft wants to prove that the Windows Store concept works, by eating their own dogfood by using it as a distribution channel for regular Win32/Win64 software.
Let's have a look for all the Microsoft Products that I use, to see if I can aquire them through Windows Store:
Microsoft Code for Visual Studio : No Microsoft Office : No (not yet) Microsoft Visio : No Microsoft Visual Studio Community Edition : No
Okay, so let's look at my favourite / most used third-party bits of software:
Google Chrome : No, but loads of apps that are called things like 'Google Chrome guide' Mozilla Firefox : No, but I can buy a copy of the clint eastwood film. Google Earth : No, but there seems to be lots of music called 'Google Earth' JDK : No JRE : No Apple iTunes : No Adobe Creative Cloud : No Autodesk Fusion 360 : No Autodesk Autocad : No Scratch : No
If Microsoft have a way of delivering correctly licensed Win32/Win64 packages to Windows users, with a single reliable, trusted update / patching mechanism, that they don't overcharge developers for then they may be onto a winner. Until then, Windows users are stuck with downloading from random sites on the internet, that may themselves be full of corrupt advertising links and malware. Until I see all the software I'd actually want to use on the Windows Store, the cut-down version of windows isn't going to cut it for me, and most Windows users.. Even in the education market.
Actually, you can already get from London to Paris very efficiently with electric power, and yes, there is a power cord running all the way.
It's called the Eurostar trains, and go from city centre to city centre quickly, with no silly faffing around with airports.
They could have fitted a receive-only radio that can receive (appropriately authenticated) broadcast / multicast updates when they are back at shore. That way, the library of books available can be kept reasonably fresh without throwaway hardware.
Some providers are splitting out the cost of the handset from the airtime.
You can buy the handset from them if you like - and they offer a hire-purchase agreement if it seems too much up-front (or just buy SIM-free, unlocked),
and then the airtime contract can be pay-as-you-go or pay-monthly, which may or may not involve some minimum term. They can be bought at the same time, and the small print makes it clear that it's two contracts.
The minimum term for airtime might get you some discount if you commit to staying with that service provider for a longer period.
Personally, I bought my own smartphone nearly two years ago (it wasn't cheap), and just popped in a pay-as-you-go sim, with automatic top-up. I could get a better tariff that way.
Today I saw an American in London trying to buy their lunch with their credit card. The cashier didn't know how to process swipe-and-sign cards, since they are exceedingly rare, they had to go and find a pen.
In the EU, any electric-bike that uses any form of throttle, rather than electric-assist (torque sensors) for speed control is deemed by law to by a motorbike, and therefore needs the usual number plates, registration, mandatory insurance, rider licencing and so on. I'd be interesting to see if they can meet EU approval.
There's also limits on wattage of the motor (250W), which this exceeds, and limits on the speed at which the motor assist tails off (25km/h) (which this exceeds)
I don't see why ANYONE who uploads stuff onto Youtube, whether they spend thousands on video production, or nothing, would ever want to restrict the ability for people to watch it on a particular class of device, yet I often come across "The content provider has not made this available on mobile devices". This is quite nonsense now that we have 'mobile devices' with better screen resolution than many desktop or laptop computers. If Google want to pull a misused feature from Youtube, then this option should be pulled. It only serves to annoy the end user.
not actually replaced flash-based editing, but adding another option.
You can edit openstreetmap in a number of editors, with a number of different technologies:
Some of them are:
iD : HTML5-based, in-browser editing
Potlatch : Flash-based, in-browser editing via flash player plugin
JOSM : Java-based application, run from local machine, or via JNLP
Vespucci : Android application, works nicely with touchscreens
Meerkartor : QT application
Openstreetmap is open, and as such there's loads of different ways of using it (or updating it).
I've been contributing to openstreetmap since the days of the java applet editor (which used the processing libraries), before the data structures had been fleshed out. It's come a long way from a few scrawls representing the paths around Regents Park in London.
Yes, entirely possible. Routing will be a challenge when dealing with millions of fiddly small route entries. At the moment, the Internet routes at a very high level using BGP. The ISPs then internally know how to route their own customer allocations. Even when the route advertisements are for large allocations the routeing tables get very large indeed. If you start announcing routes for a single/32 (IPv4) to multiple peers or a/64 (IPv6), the amount of memory needed on the routers becomes rather enormous. Your typical cheap home router wouldn't have the capability. They typically have barely enough memory for a state table let alone worry about dynamic routeing.
Of course, there's nothing to stop you (with permission) hooking into your neighbour's wifi as a client, and privately peering traffic with their public IP addresses. I have yet to see any router hardware or firmware that allows for that sort of thing out of the box with minimal configuration. Persuading your neighbours "upstream" links to offer routes to your network via their connection if yours went down is another matter entirely.
er, IPv6 is already out. It's been out for years, and you don't have any of that silly NAT nonsense, and conflicting private address space.
You just need to make sure that if you want to block incoming sessions, that you configure up a firewall that blocks incoming sessions by default, you'll get about the same half-baked security that NAT does for IPv4.
That depends on who your electricity provider is. If they are a not-for-profit company who uses all profits to invest in new renewable generation, which they operate themselves, and feed to the grid, then it's pretty good. It certainly saves you from having to run your own generation.
If you have cable, it'll probably be Virgin Media. That means that they'll hike your prices at least annually by at least 10%, without warning. (They like doing that). I personally wouldn't use them for anything more than a simple cable modem. Source your TV content elsewhere.
Really, running an antenna downlead to a useful place is easy, it will also mean you don't have to rely on internet working to watch telly that is being broadcast anyway.
Get yourself a PVR, set it to record what you like. You'll soon find that you have plenty of interesting TV to keep you amused and occupied without having to pay for any additional premium channels. When you run out of stuff to watch, go outside and take the dog for a walk. If you don't have a dog, borrow someone else's. If you don't like dogs, go for a walk yourself. If you don't like walking, go for a bike ride... get the idea?
Slashdot Mirror
If your only use of the USB drive is to copy files to and from it, you're unlikely to remove it when it's still copying files, because there's usually some on-screen progress device.
If you are using an application that done random writes to a file on the filesystem, such as the older Microsoft Office file formats, then you'll have the file at risk all the time the document is open, even if you've recently hit 'Save', because Microsoft Office writes a lot in the background, even when it's not 'saving'.
The exact same problem happens when handling files on a network share when a VPN drops. If you forget to close the document before dropping the VPN, then the file's internal storage tables can become corrupt in a way that requires specialist recovery software to repair.
This could have been one of the reasons why Microsoft Office changed their file formats.
three-phase isn't actually 400V RMS between the phase and neutral, it's 400V RMS between phases.
Most UK domestic properties aren't hooked up to all three phases of the grid. Typically, each house along a street will take a different phase from the grid, so my house would have about 240V from phase 1, my neighbour to my left is on phase 2, my neighbour to my right is phase 3.
In the UK, the phase-to-neutral voltage is notionally 230V with a tolerance of -10% +6% but that only came in with international harmonisation, in reality, UK domestic properties tend to be about 240V, because that's what was designed into the grid before the international harmonisation. Having this harmonisation is good - it means that aside from a different connector, you can use an appliance bought in Ireland and use it in Russia.
I remember back in the days of working for a dial-up ISP, I developed an on-line-cancellation process, to complement the online registration systems.
Go to customer accounts web site.
Pass the usual authentication credentials
Click on cancel service.
Choose which service you want to cancel
Confirm.
If the user is currently connected via that service, disconnect the session immediately, flag the service account closed on the authentication server, remove DNS entries, deny incoming email, remove associated web hosting, get the billing system to record the service closure and associated billing product pro-rated refund calculated, and if it was the last billable service on that account, the refund to go through automatically to their usual payment source.
End-to-end, it would take minutes.
If user is not currently connected via that service, it would require a human to vet authentication, and call them back to confirm.
It was never deployed. DSL came along, and with it supplier contracts with a 12 month mininum contract term per customer line, which made the cancellation process tougher to automate.
The fact that it doesn't include Scotland, or Northern Ireland doesn't really make it a 'UK National' service.
Admittedly, Scotland does have its own legal system, which may have subtly different procedures to follow.
Also terms and conditions of the service mean that NextBase is entitled to use your clips in their adverts, or possibly sending them on to those car crash tv shows.
11. Rights you license
11.1 When you upload or post content to our site (including, but without limitation dashcam videos), you grant to us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free and transferable licence to use, exploit, copy, store, disclose, reproduce, publish, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform and otherwise use that content for any purpose across any media including, but not limited to, promoting the site and its content, promoting our business, and promoting our products and services.
However, earlier on in the terms, it states that "Whilst you retain legal ownership of your rights in your content, you are required to grant us the license described in paragraph 11 (Rights you license)."
Which is why I never install a mobile phone app when there's no good reason for collecting any further information from me. Often, there's a perfectly functioning website, and you have far more control over what data you provide, and tracking functions from a browser - private browsing modes, adblock etc, than you do with a bespoke mobile phone application.
I recently encountered some online shop, whose web site refused to give out any useful information about the products on offer, insisting that customers download their mobile phone app, which probably gathered far too much information than needed to perform any sales transaction. Net result to them was lost sales.
but it's not documented. Try to send an Usenet-style Expires: header in the past to someone who uses Outlook / Microsoft Exchange, and see what happens.
The Nissan Leaf fits CV joints to traditional wheels, half shafts, a differential, a fixed 10:1 reduction gearbox, the motor itself (single AC induction motor), the inverter (drive electronics / motor controller), the on-board AC to DC charger , as well as the normal electric power steering, 12V accessory battery, and climate control systems, into what normal cars call the engine bay. There's still plenty of space there, but I wouldn't call it empty space.
It's a front-wheel drive car.
A rear-wheel drive car like the BMW i3 has a similar arrangement, with the motor normally at the rear instead. The i3 also manages to shoehorn in space in the rear for a motorcycle-derived engine for the generator for the optional range extender, while having some cargo space in the front where traditional cars have an engine bay.
Many electric vehicles with all-wheel drive (new Teslas, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV) use two motors - one front and one rear, because that's simpler than having a transfer box and big heavy driveshafts, and gives more precise delivery of power without complicated drivetrain.
Having the battery under the floorpan makes the weight distribution of electric vehicles really quite good in snow, even if they don't have all-wheel-drive.
There are some four-wheel-drive, four-motor vehicles around, but none in mass production. The Audi Lunar Quattro is one.
Geocoding requires two things:
1. Accurate and complete data. It is well acknowledged that in many areas, full street addresses are not yet there in Openstreetmap, but you can geocode at street-level. I've had many cases where Google's geolocation for addresses is way out, and doesn't even give a warning that it's only managed a partial match on the geographic centre of the district.
2. Context. Depending on your application, you may only be interested in the 'Station Road' nearest you. How's the geocoding server supposed to know if the client application doesn't give it a hint as to how the results should be ordered? Google's geocoder is likewise hopeless with giving relevant results if the client application doesn't give it a hint that you'd prefer a local result over a result from a different continent.
Another reason to buy standard, uncrippled, unlocked phones separately from any airtime contract.
Buy them on credit if you must. My airtime provider doesn't care much as to what handset I have, so long as my SIM will fit, and it will work on the frequency ranges and technical standards that their network uses.
Insurance against a phone going missing in transit from the seller to the customer should not inconvenience the customer in any way, other than possibly acknowledging safe receipt of goods. If Verizon is worried about this, they should offer free unlocking immediately after their customer acknowledges safe receipt.
So how much would a compuserve.com email address factor into the premiums for someone under the age of 25?
Brake lights cause traffic jams. If you're on a motorway (freeway), never use your brake pedal except in an emergency. That's what engine braking (or regenerative braking on modern cars) is for. Keeping a steady speed, and only accelerating and decelerating slowly helps other drivers to match speed when merging, it also does wonders for fuel economy.
Ditto for railway lines. Panels under a road is a silly idea, but there's more than enough wasted space at the edge of most major roads, which are often on embankments or in cuttings. Let the panels at least approximately face the sun, don't cover them with traffic, tyre dust, and other assorted grit, then it might make physical sense, or even commercial sense.
These speed calming measures work once.
When a driver realises they are fake, they continue to drive at whatever speed they would have done previously.
The problem that actual speed bumps cause is that people slow down for them. They then accelerate afterwards. With fossil-burning vehicles, this leads to pollution.
What actually works to prevent speeding (and stop-stop bunching, and some pollution) is average speed cameras, and stretches of roads that are clearly signed as such.
Either that, or actual police visibly doing traffic enforcement, but it seems they don't have the resources for that these days, so they let the computers do it with cameras.
Another interesting method I've seen at controlling speed in an urban 20 mph zone is where the speed trap will immediately turn the next traffic lights to red if you speed. Stay under the speed limit, and you get smoother traffic flow. Drivers are more likely to stop for a red traffic lights to avoid a t-bone collision than drive below the speed limit.
So, Microsoft wants to prove that the Windows Store concept works, by eating their own dogfood by using it as a distribution channel for regular Win32/Win64 software.
Let's have a look for all the Microsoft Products that I use, to see if I can aquire them through Windows Store:
Microsoft Code for Visual Studio : No
Microsoft Office : No (not yet)
Microsoft Visio : No
Microsoft Visual Studio Community Edition : No
Okay, so let's look at my favourite / most used third-party bits of software:
Google Chrome : No, but loads of apps that are called things like 'Google Chrome guide'
Mozilla Firefox : No, but I can buy a copy of the clint eastwood film.
Google Earth : No, but there seems to be lots of music called 'Google Earth'
JDK : No
JRE : No
Apple iTunes : No
Adobe Creative Cloud : No
Autodesk Fusion 360 : No
Autodesk Autocad : No
Scratch : No
If Microsoft have a way of delivering correctly licensed Win32/Win64 packages to Windows users, with a single reliable, trusted update / patching mechanism, that they don't overcharge developers for then they may be onto a winner. Until then, Windows users are stuck with downloading from random sites on the internet, that may themselves be full of corrupt advertising links and malware. Until I see all the software I'd actually want to use on the Windows Store, the cut-down version of windows isn't going to cut it for me, and most Windows users.. Even in the education market.
Actually, you can already get from London to Paris very efficiently with electric power, and yes, there is a power cord running all the way. It's called the Eurostar trains, and go from city centre to city centre quickly, with no silly faffing around with airports.
They could have fitted a receive-only radio that can receive (appropriately authenticated) broadcast / multicast updates when they are back at shore. That way, the library of books available can be kept reasonably fresh without throwaway hardware.
Some providers are splitting out the cost of the handset from the airtime. You can buy the handset from them if you like - and they offer a hire-purchase agreement if it seems too much up-front (or just buy SIM-free, unlocked), and then the airtime contract can be pay-as-you-go or pay-monthly, which may or may not involve some minimum term. They can be bought at the same time, and the small print makes it clear that it's two contracts. The minimum term for airtime might get you some discount if you commit to staying with that service provider for a longer period. Personally, I bought my own smartphone nearly two years ago (it wasn't cheap), and just popped in a pay-as-you-go sim, with automatic top-up. I could get a better tariff that way.
Today I saw an American in London trying to buy their lunch with their credit card. The cashier didn't know how to process swipe-and-sign cards, since they are exceedingly rare, they had to go and find a pen.
In the EU, any electric-bike that uses any form of throttle, rather than electric-assist (torque sensors) for speed control is deemed by law to by a motorbike, and therefore needs the usual number plates, registration, mandatory insurance, rider licencing and so on. I'd be interesting to see if they can meet EU approval. There's also limits on wattage of the motor (250W), which this exceeds, and limits on the speed at which the motor assist tails off (25km/h) (which this exceeds)
I don't see why ANYONE who uploads stuff onto Youtube, whether they spend thousands on video production, or nothing, would ever want to restrict the ability for people to watch it on a particular class of device, yet I often come across "The content provider has not made this available on mobile devices". This is quite nonsense now that we have 'mobile devices' with better screen resolution than many desktop or laptop computers. If Google want to pull a misused feature from Youtube, then this option should be pulled. It only serves to annoy the end user.
not actually replaced flash-based editing, but adding another option. You can edit openstreetmap in a number of editors, with a number of different technologies: Some of them are: iD : HTML5-based, in-browser editing Potlatch : Flash-based, in-browser editing via flash player plugin JOSM : Java-based application, run from local machine, or via JNLP Vespucci : Android application, works nicely with touchscreens Meerkartor : QT application Openstreetmap is open, and as such there's loads of different ways of using it (or updating it). I've been contributing to openstreetmap since the days of the java applet editor (which used the processing libraries), before the data structures had been fleshed out. It's come a long way from a few scrawls representing the paths around Regents Park in London.
Yes, entirely possible. Routing will be a challenge when dealing with millions of fiddly small route entries. At the moment, the Internet routes at a very high level using BGP. The ISPs then internally know how to route their own customer allocations. Even when the route advertisements are for large allocations the routeing tables get very large indeed. If you start announcing routes for a single /32 (IPv4) to multiple peers or a /64 (IPv6), the amount of memory needed on the routers becomes rather enormous. Your typical cheap home router wouldn't have the capability. They typically have barely enough memory for a state table let alone worry about dynamic routeing.
Of course, there's nothing to stop you (with permission) hooking into your neighbour's wifi as a client, and privately peering traffic with their public IP addresses. I have yet to see any router hardware or firmware that allows for that sort of thing out of the box with minimal configuration. Persuading your neighbours "upstream" links to offer routes to your network via their connection if yours went down is another matter entirely.
er, IPv6 is already out. It's been out for years, and you don't have any of that silly NAT nonsense, and conflicting private address space. You just need to make sure that if you want to block incoming sessions, that you configure up a firewall that blocks incoming sessions by default, you'll get about the same half-baked security that NAT does for IPv4.
That depends on who your electricity provider is. If they are a not-for-profit company who uses all profits to invest in new renewable generation, which they operate themselves, and feed to the grid, then it's pretty good. It certainly saves you from having to run your own generation.
If you have cable, it'll probably be Virgin Media. That means that they'll hike your prices at least annually by at least 10%, without warning. (They like doing that). I personally wouldn't use them for anything more than a simple cable modem. Source your TV content elsewhere. Really, running an antenna downlead to a useful place is easy, it will also mean you don't have to rely on internet working to watch telly that is being broadcast anyway. Get yourself a PVR, set it to record what you like. You'll soon find that you have plenty of interesting TV to keep you amused and occupied without having to pay for any additional premium channels. When you run out of stuff to watch, go outside and take the dog for a walk. If you don't have a dog, borrow someone else's. If you don't like dogs, go for a walk yourself. If you don't like walking, go for a bike ride... get the idea?