Smart meters

[Chris French]

We have a plasma, 2 1/2 years old and very nice it is to, but they will be in the minority it's true.

The power consumption does vary - presumably in response to the image.

But the whole, they could tell what TV program you are watching, or whatever seems to be a rather silly argument. OK, maybe it's something that theoretically be done - but it isn't, and couldn't right now with the way they work. And what is the purpose for this? If there is a real concern about them being used in the future for some sort of spying on people then the response to that is to limit what they can do.

Anyway - what about DVD's , streaming, recorded programs, etc. etc.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 08:12:10 on Mon, 9 Mar

2015, john james remarked:

I can, but I'm unwilling, given your apparent ignorance regarding digital signal processing. Too steep a learning curve for Usenet.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 22:50:11 on Sun, 8 Mar 2015, Chris French remarked:

Many privacy invasive techniques appear to be a bit obscure to start with. 20 years ago who would have believed that your mobile phone was allowing you to be tracked in real time? Why would anyone want to do that..

Ah, yes. "Safeguards". Make a rule that the white hats will only read the meter once an hour, meanwhile the black hats...

The particular example of profiling a live TV programme is just an example of what could be done - clearly DVDs and recorded programmes present a much more difficult problem when it comes to sourcing the material to compare with.

On the other hand, these people do a good job matching small fragments of music to a vast library:

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 21:11:51 on Sun, 8 Mar 2015, Chris French remarked:

I only seem to find out about tariff changes after the event, when the next bill arrives.

[Chris French]

In message , Roland Perry writes

Then you need to pay more attention to your mail :-)

They are required to notify you in advance of tariff changes, though it easy to forget

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

22:33:49 on Sun, 8 Mar 2015, "Dennis@home" remarked:

There aren't that many of them about, because you need the dynamic contrast to be able to deliver the sort of contrast ratios they claim.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 09:34:00 on Mon, 9 Mar 2015, Chris French remarked:

I'm certain they've not sent me anything about the recent gas price reduction. But yes, they did send me a letter about the previous change in November 2013.

[john james]

No you can't.

Fools no one.

[Chris J Dixon]

Yes, I understand why it is being done, but it is dispiriting that one has to keep such a close eye on the market, in the same way that renewing insurance and managing savings accounts has to be active - loyalty costs you.

Yes, I have joined, but so far SP have been (as long as I keep changing tariffs) near enough to the best deal from a trusted (FSVO trusted) supplier. I have had no real problems with them, apart from one bill where the additional information simply didn't add up.

However, I can also see that one should be careful what one wishes for, and the tighter the regulations, the fewer chances to get a bargain.

Chris

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 21:21:57 on Mon, 9 Mar

2015, john james remarked:

If you understand how DSPs work, you'll know you are trolling, if you don't know how they work it'll take too long to bring you up to speed, especially given your staccato posting style.

[Mike Clarke]

"The government's hated smart meter programme ? which will slap consumers with a bill of £10.9bn ? is in danger of becoming a "costly failure", a government report has said."

So I suppose they're even more likely to go ahead with it.

And it gets worse - Capita runs the Data Communications Company (DCC) responsible for rolling out the programme.

[F]

And, in the spirit of Private Eye, I think you mean Crapita...

[ARW]

Maybe for the big farms. But considering how many unknown/old supplies I have seen I do not think that the electric co would have a clue in most cases.

[john james]

I do. And that has nothing to do with how you work out what the current backlight level is from the total house consumption when you have two TVs showing different programs anyway.

That just isn't possible, there is no way to calculate the backlight level in that situation.

you'll know you are trolling, if you

[dennis]

That was well known at the time.

To know where the 999 call originated from.

Do you know how the meter sends its data and what happens to the mobile network when its control channel is swamped by all the data being sent by smart meters?

Why stop there, given enough data and enough processing power you will be able to eavesdrop on the people using the tiny changes in power caused by the vibrations in the circuitry.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

19:17:15 >> In message , at 22:50:11 on Sun, 8

It wasn't even vaguely well known until about 2003.

You are conflating it with the USA's programme to fit mobiles with GSM.

I'm not suggesting every meter will be sending all the time.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 06:01:49 on Tue, 10 Mar 2015, john james remarked:

QED.

[john james]

You're still fooling no one.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 07:02:19 on Tue, 10 Mar 2015, john james remarked:

I think most people can spot a troll. And they probably think "why does Roland keep replying". But I won't for much longer. (Sighs of relief all round),

[john james]

Yes, particularly one that just hand waves instead of explaining how you can actually work out how to determine the backlight level from the entire house power consumption when there is more than one TV being watched at a time.