asgaard

It takes shape (pond life #3)

Sat, 27 Jun 20 19:26:30 +0000

The pond is now taking shape and starting to look like a pond:

We've started to put a few plants in it. The one at the front in the terracotta coloured pot is a Drosera Filiformis I already had which I just put in because I think the grassy type plants look quite nice in ponds. If it works out, we'll repot it into a darker pot, but I don't know if it'll like being so wet.

The others are plants we've bought specifically for the pond. The three groups of three are plants we bought as single plants but have split, hoping they'll fill out and look a little bit more voluminous. You can't really see it in the photo but the one on the left sitting on the surface is probably the one I'm most interested by. This is a red stemmed parrots feather, which sits in deeper areas and seems to rise up to the surface. I think this type of plant will provide most interest for aquatic life.

In terms of the more unusual insect life we've attracted so far, we've seen a few things we think are diving beetles and have had a few dragonflies taking interest in the grassy plants. No sign of any frogs yet, but hopefully once there's a bit more greenery...

We are still undecided on exactly how to edge it, but the pebbles around the top shelf seem to be working so far (though we need more), and we're thinking of slate slabs to cover the edge of the liner.

Giffgaff SMS scam - SIM swap

Wed, 24 Jun 20 10:38:31 +0000

There is an SMS scam going around targeting Giffgaff customers, which sends an SMS reading:

The request to swap your number to your new giffgaff SIM is pending. If that wasn't you, log in immediately. [URL removed]

If you go to the site, it looks like a giffgaff site and asks you to log in. It actually accepts any username and password, and then presents you with a screen asking you to confirm your personal details, including your bank account number.

This is a scam and has nothing to do with giffgaff. You should ignore the text message.[...]

TeamViewer and WaitforConnectFailed

Mon, 22 Jun 20 17:52:07 +0000

Today I had an issue whereby Teamviewer disconnected my session, and, although the remote machine was showing as online in my list of known computers, subsequent attempts to connect threw an error saying:

No connection to partner, Partner did not connect to router. Error code waitforconnectfailed

I found that rebooting the remote machine fixed the issues, though TeamViewer's status is currently showing 'degraded performance' and a known connectivity issue.[...]

Pokémon GO is discontinuing support for 32 bit Android devices

Sat, 13 Jun 20 11:20:10 +0000

Update: Niantic has backed away from this and announced that they are deferring this decision after all.

Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, announced recently that Pokemon GO will no longer work on 32 bit Android devices from August. You'd be forgiven for having missed this, as although it's on the official blog, it doesn't show in the in-game news.

Whilst the announcement makes it sound like only older devices will be affected, this is not the case. Many newer Android phones ship with 64 bit hardware, but a 32 bit operating system, in which case they are, for all practical purposes, 32 bit devices and are restricted to running 32 bit apps.

Unless a device has more than 4GB of RAM, there's not any great advantage to using a 64 bit OS, so a lot of budget phones come with a 32 bit operating system. For example, a large number of devices in the Motorola G range and the Samsung A and J ranges have only a 32 bit OS, even some of those released in the last 12 months. The Silph Road community on Reddit has started to assemble a list of modern devices that will be affected by this change.

Unfortunately, it's not clear that Niantic has understood the distinction between the architecture of the CPU and the architecture of the operating system. The devices in their list of examples all have 32 bit CPUs. It is very possible that they have made this decision based on data collected on hardware, and have not looked at operating system architecture data. I suspect the fact they've given this quite a low-profile announcement means they have estimated that this will not affect many people, and I also suspect that it will actually affect a large number of people. This seems like the kind of announcement that should be made 12 months in advance, not 6 weeks.

For those who will be affected by this, I recommend waiting until closer to August before replacing your device. Niantic may have made a mistake and may yet back down.

It's also worth noting that it's actually quite difficult to determine if you're buying a 32 bit or 64 bit device, as a lot of manufacturers don't publish this information. If you do need to replace your device, choose carefully.

Pond life #2

Mon, 08 Jun 20 15:25:58 +0000

It's starting to look like a pond!

We (unintentionally) timed it pretty much exactly right. The weather in the weeks we were digging it was unprecedentedly hot and dry for British May-time, and shortly after we finished it, the rain seems to have started. We are not using tap water at all, because, although the water around here is relatively soft, it's better overall that there are as few dissolved solids as possible for the health of any wildlife that may live in the water.

We started filling it with stored rainwater, but now that we're getting frequent rain, it doesn't seem necessary to artificially fill it. Looking at the weather forecast at the moment, I think it'll fill up itself in the next week.[...]