OT: NHS Fail

That is not the point though, You don't have to be disabled to do the preferred format bit. The fact is that some people simply find smart phones hard to use, and that is the point. All systems should have a fall back method of getting the job done, and its easy to do if the databases all ran the same software and staff knew how to use them. The required format should be generated and sent out automatically.Banks can do it, as can insurance companies, so why not the NHS. If somebody gave this law teeth to hit trusts in their pockets, it would automagically happen, but as it stands you need to go through the same hoops at every hospital, or even every clinic. Brian

You can get portable solar panels, you can get wind up hand generators, you can get car cigar socket style charging leads, you can also get Anker battery banks as well so a Mains power cut does not have the impact that you think it could have.

The mobile phone network will have battery backup and generators in strategically important locations.

The trouble with this idea is that trusts are funded by the taxpayer and fining them takes away money from patient care. Better to personally fine the individual responsible.

Yes, away from home. But it does many things, and like most multi-function devices, not many of them well. My mp3 player is in my server, connected by wires to a decent amplifier and speakers. I use my phone camera, but I have a need for macro work, which I do with a webcam with the lens screwed almost all the way out. I can't imagine being so desperate to see something on TV that I would use a screen that size. Most of my web pages contain a lot of formatted detail for which a phone doesn't work well. And so on...

Not all of them. Many use cell towers and wifi for location (remember the Google car collecting wifi locations 'accidentally'?). I have a refurb tablet, chosen because it definitely contains a GPS system and works anywhere.

Mine's PAYG, so I use the Net only on wifi. I do have a pocket 4G router, which I occasionally use.

I have a watch, which is normally easier to consult than my phone.

I have a few numbers in mine, mostly institutional. My contacts database lives on an SQL server, with the emails duplicated to an LDAP server.

Not for me. I only put money through software in which I have reasonable trust, which doesn't include any mobile phone OS or app.

Not for me. My wife has twice seen someone in trouble on a train when they had run out of battery...

The other point about small, portable multi-function devices is that they are relatively easy to lose/break/run out of power. If all your eggs are in one basket, you'll be eating a large omelette if you drop it.

Indeed, something that should also apply to all organisations, public and private. There would be insurance against such events, and the perennially incompetent/negligent would soon find the premiums prohibitive.

It has spawned a massive global industry based on fraud or theft or organised crime of all types

There are still plenty of places in the UK where it is impossible to get a mobile phone signal indoors (and even outdoors in remoter areas)

Even in my home. I use wifi calling. And, in a local power outage, my router & Network base were kept going with a UPS.

True but becoming less of a rare. With the various schemes to give everyone faster Internet access in the difficult areas of the country upgrading the mobile networks is the cheaper option.

Yep, that never used to happen in the days before mobile phones.

No-one understands Public Key Encryption. And people prefer to use Facebook/Instagram or any billionaire owned system rather than email or SMS.

Not where joe public was concerned though.

How many people 'moved their money to a safe account' before the internet and online banking was the norm ?.

How many people has their landline intercepted by crooks so that a banking fraud could be perpetrated ?

what keeps your nearby green cabinet 'alive' during an extended power cut though ?. The one that my FTTC comes from just has an electric meter. No batteries at all.

Well, to be fair, the scam of you being called by a perp, who then says we'll both hang up and you can dial the security number of <bank> was always possible. The perp says he'll hang up, but doesn't and just feeds you what sounds like dial tone so he can intercept your call out - it's nothing new.

Let’s not forget though that it would seem that the OP gave his mobile number to the NHS in the first place. I would agree entirely that institutions ought to record individual preferences and then stick to them!

Tim

Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

BT Openreach box ?  They are all fitted with UPS'es that last 4-6 hours. Why would any fixed, or predictable load device require a meter anyway ? Things like lamp posts, traffic lights, mobile phone masts etc don't ?

However FTTP has nothing active between your house and the exchange (and the exchange isn't necessarily you own exchange, it's one of far fewer sites in the UK, often 10s of miles away)

Dunno. But the end plate, which is a hinged door was left unlocked after some work by OR and the wind blew it open revealing an obvious electric meter. No sign of any batteries, unless they were at the other end of the box.

surely the amount of power being used depends on the number of cards fitted, which can vary, and could not be detected by the power company ?.

The way they get around it is that you get an email directing you to a place that you need to log into to get your secure document over https.

using a one time password texted to you usually. Total f****ng pain. Because email hasn't yet got a reliable easy to use public/private key encryption thingy.

Openreach will very likely will just have an agreement with their energy supplier, for a fixed fee for 'street plant'.

If there was a meter in there it'll be for Openreach's own internal auditing most likely.

I worked at a BBC site once, and that room had a meter for such purposes (though it had been wired back to front, and was running backwards !)