Hacker News: grumblepeet

New comment by grumblepeet in "Apple Just Lost Me"

grumblepeet — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:04:24 +0000

They have just done the same to me. I spent nearly two hours on the phone with Apple support before I find they will not accept a UK passport as valid ID. They will only accept the national ID card that I also don’t have. I don’t have or want a credit card. I’m 65 so me being now unable to verify my age is embarrassing and insulting. And the way Apple messed me about earlier has put me off them now. I won’t buy another product or service from them ever again.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Training Center for Maneuvering on Manned Model Ships"

grumblepeet — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 07:14:58 +0000

Tom Scott visited a similar facility in Poland, Port Iława, where he got to pilot one of the scale models there under the guidance of the instructor. https://youtu.be/jplrbxI5GN8

New comment by grumblepeet in "Bandit: A 32bit baremetal computer that runs Color Forth [video]"

grumblepeet — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:31:16 +0000

I would love a full sized keyboard made with those keys.

That aside, I will probably buy one of these. It is the ultimate nerd fiddle toy. Brilliantly done.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993"

grumblepeet — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:13:00 +0000

Two years before I moved across into IT. This was when I was a graphic designer making magazines and nursing journals using tools like Aldus PageMaker and QuarkXpress. Those were fantastic times. It felt like we could do anything with computers.

I was eyeing a career in IT and moved across soon after, and was dumped into Novell Netware 3.12 land which was an eye opener (Fire Phasers anyone?).

New comment by grumblepeet in "Find a pub that needs you"

grumblepeet — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:58:08 +0000

I live in south Bristol where the “Bristol stool scale” and the “pubs that need your help” overlap distressingly.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Show HN: HN Wrapped 2025 - an LLM reviews your year on HN"

grumblepeet — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 09:56:18 +0000

That was hilarious, the XKCD-esque comic was funny however it did me with a beard (im a woman) but I did belly laugh at the jokes.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"

grumblepeet — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 22:17:23 +0000

Building an app that scans file systems prior to being migrated into M365. Looks for common governance issues and file and folder trees that won’t play nice in SharePoint. Not a migration tool as such, just something to scratch a consultancy itch. Python and Tkinter for now until I hit something that requires more complexity. Also a command line version that I’ll use more often. This probably could have been a PowerShell script but this is more fun.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?"

grumblepeet — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:07:53 +0000

I did despite being quite resistant to the idea at first. Eventually I didn't have a choice, as many things I wanted to read were suddenly hidden. I am paranoid however and worry that the VPN maker is tracking me, but there is only so much I can be paranoid about in the day.

New comment by grumblepeet in "John Giannandrea to retire from Apple"

grumblepeet — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 06:03:37 +0000

‘Siri turn on torch’. Used to work, now all I get is “sorry, Torch isn’t available right now” this is at night when it is plugged in and I need to work as a nightlight to go open the bedroom door to let the dog in or out without blasting myself awake with the main phaser array next to my bed.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Lateralized sleeping positions in domestic cats"

grumblepeet — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:26:41 +0000

Ahh thanks. I see it in the article now. This why I’m not a scientist!

New comment by grumblepeet in "Lateralized sleeping positions in domestic cats"

grumblepeet — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:00:20 +0000

I came here to say the same thing. I’ve seen this multiple times today in several places and thought exactly that. Maybe they should have said clockwise (starting at the head) or counterclockwise?

New comment by grumblepeet in "Microsoft brings 365 suite on-prem as part of sovereign cloud push"

grumblepeet — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:29:04 +0000

I wonder what will break as a result of this?

Will it be possible I wonder to have a M365 that doesn’t have annoying CoPilot forced down our necks in every app and screen?

And interested to see how the licences and costs pan out.

New comment by grumblepeet in "The History and Legacy of Visual Basic"

grumblepeet — Sun, 11 May 2025 08:43:01 +0000

I totally agree with this. When I worked at a University (mumbles) years ago I wrote a build system for rebuilding the OS and apps on student lab PC's and I used VB6 as the front end. It seemed in those days we could do anything, and nobody told us we couldnt do it.

I also made a simple two button menu app for use on repurposed 386's that we were using as thin client pc's. Years later I went back to see they had been replaced with tiny HP thin client devices but my menu was still being used!

New comment by grumblepeet in "The second birth of JMW Turner"

grumblepeet — Sun, 11 May 2025 08:33:57 +0000

As an artist Turner has inspired me not just with his use of colour, which was masterful, but with his readiness to break normal painting rules. We would scratch at his paintings with a specially long fingernail, stab at them with brushes, use watercolour almost like oils, do anything to get the image that he needed. We get most of this from looking at the paintings and from anecdotal evidence because as the article says he painted in secrecy behind closed doors.

His later works are truly amazing, given the time in which they were made. Many of the later images we know him for were from sketchbooks and studies, and not necessarily for sale or to be seen by others (code snippets?) but are impressionist years before that became a thing.

You can go to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and go to the Print Room (you have to book) and ask to see some. I'm told by a friend I've not done that.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Playful Drawings That Charles Darwin's Children Left on His Manuscripts"

grumblepeet — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 20:50:24 +0000

Some of those drawings are copies of Edward Lear illustrations. I recognised the style. I didnt see that mentioned in the article although I might have missed it. I like the little drawings though very cute.

New comment by grumblepeet in "I ditched the algorithm for RSS"

grumblepeet — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:22:17 +0000

Ha! I had forgotten that message.Thank you for reminding me. I used to read comp.lang.lisp for the extensive and increasingly bizarre flame wars and for the wider philosophical discussions. Eventually I got to the point where I thought "OK I'm done now" and left and never went back.

New comment by grumblepeet in "How Britain got its first internet connection (2015)"

grumblepeet — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:30:48 +0000

Until relatively recently I worked with JANET (or Janet - lower case - as it is now) as part of Jisc, the UK's NREN. I also worked with the wider European org, GEANT, that runs the academic networks across Europe. We were (and still are ) very proud of Janet.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Merry Christmas Everyone"

grumblepeet — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:45:21 +0000

The few golden years when the kids were little, we’d all sit around the TV and play console games and when a hard bit came along, like a puzzle or a jump or a big boss with loads of guns, I’d be handed the controls to do the difficult bits. I got to be the family hero. We had great fun. A few years later, they all had way faster reaction times, and their own PC’s and games, and played them in their rooms. But for a few glorious Christmas’ we all came together and it was great. I miss those times, but on the other hand I helped them build their own PC systems, and set them off on the own paths. I helped them grow.

New comment by grumblepeet in "One way to fight loneliness: Germans call it a Stammtisch"

grumblepeet — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 06:11:55 +0000

I worked in Nuremberg for a while and was kindly invited along to the English Stammtisch which at the time was in different bars on a few nights throughout the month. Lots of English people but also lots of German folk who wanted to work on their English language skills. I made some good friends on those boozy nights and tons of fascinating conversations were had.

New comment by grumblepeet in "Early Bronze Age Butchered Human Remains from Charterhouse Warren, Somerset, UK"

grumblepeet — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:01:48 +0000

I used to walk my dog there occasionally and he hates it and was always edgy. I took my cue from him and we go elsewhere now.