£100 a day schooling

[Adrian Caspersz]

According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
broadband keeping their kids schooled.

According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.

* - today's PM briefing to the nation. I wish he was given 24hrs to come
up with proper answers to questions rather than bul***** and the shock
jockey type idiots kindly sent to /dev/null....

--
Adrian C

[Chris]

Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
> broadband keeping their kids schooled.
>
> According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.

If all you have/are able to get is PAYG then that could be possible. This
is where the attainment gap is most acutely obvious.

[Martin Brown]

It doesn't quite make sense to me unless they have a lot of kids and no
fixed line broadband. You can buy a 24GB Three or EE data SIM on Amazon
for about £44 - by my reckoning at SD video streaming rates that ought
to last about 4 days at 6GB SD streaming (~7h) a day.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-Pay-Broadband-Data-Black/dp/B01M3VJ2B2/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/EE-PAYG-Triple-Card-Preloaded/dp/B013EBUPDI

At this instant Three is marginally better value. When they have offers
on they are worth buying as a backup for running out of contract data. I
used to use them regularly when I was away from home and mobile phone
data allowances were much more restrictive than they are now.

£11/day per child is still pretty steep though.

1p/MB would be more of a hit 6GB = £60/day.

Are there any mobile tariffs so bad that it costs more than that?

I expect the are GiffGaff SIMs and goody bags that would also be a lot
more price competitive too (not looked).

Clearly you need a tariff that permits a data allowance of ~180GB/month
or you will really pay through the nose for any excess data.

Is that actually what is happening?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Trolleybus]

On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 08:20:27 -0000 (UTC), Chris <ithi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Haven't checked Tesco but Giffgaff charges £20/month for 80GB. Isn't
that enough for home schooling?

[Chris Green]

Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
> broadband keeping their kids schooled.
>
> According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.
>

I think, to some extent, that the powers that be are really scared
that people will realise after a few months that missing some school
not only *doesn't* destroy childrens' future, it actually enhances it by
broadening their horizons somewhat.

--
Chris Green
·

[Martin Brown]

About half what is needed assuming SD video and 7 hours in a school day.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Woody]

GG unlimited data is £35/m

[Malcolm Loades]

Without Covid the school year is only around 26 weeks meaning that for 6
months of year they can broaden their horizons in the outside world.
Surely that's enough?

Malcolm

[Theo]

Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
> broadband keeping their kids schooled.
>
> According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.

This is one of those things that makes plain how wide disparity of tariffs
is.

If you knew in advance you were going to home school and knew
something about mobile tariffs and how many GB you might need, then you can
get a suitable deal.

But of course the changes were announced with hours notice, so people
couldn't plan. And mobile data tariffs are probably the last
thing on people's mind in a crisis.

Additionally, I imagine some are on PAYG deals and cheap contracts with
small amounts of bundled data. Looking around, the out of bundle cost is
about £15-25 per GB. It's not implausible to burn through 4GB of data and run
up a £100 bill.

It's all very well to say 'they should have done better' but that sounds
rather like 'let them eat cake'.

Theo

[Chris Green]

I only said missing *some* school. I'm just against the educational
paranoia that suggests missing some days of school[ing] will somehow
totally destroy your child's future.

--
Chris Green
·

[Roger Mills]

On 06/01/2021 10:42, Woody wrote:

>>
> GG unlimited data is £35/m

Smarty unlimited is only £20/m *and* you can tether - so you could
support additional devices via WiFi.

If you can't work out that you don't need to spend £100 a day, I'm not
sure that home schooling would benefit you very much.
--
Cheers,
Roger

[Allan]

Perhaps the government should give away a giffgaff SIM with one goodybag
loaded, then they pay the rest/thereafter. Much better value for the
taxpayer, and might encourage good spending patterns, rather than lining
a supplier'ss pockets at extortionate PAYG per GB rates.

[Chris]

You're missing the point that many, many people don't know and can't arsed
to find out about better options. Especially disadvantaged families which
don't have the time/desire to do the research. They use what they have
which usually isn't the best option.

[Chris]

I take it you don't have kids that are experiencing this reality right now.
There's nothing enhancing about the current situation for the vast
majority.

I posit that the only ones who are benefiting are those who are already in
privileged environments.

[Chris]

It's nice to be in a position to sneer, isn't it? I'm sure these families
would rather not have to home school nor make last minute provisions for
their kids because of incompetence elsewhere.

[Chris]

That would require levels of care and consideration that are impossible to
imagine by this government. Probably far cheaper than dishing out laptops
and ipads.

[notya...@gmail.com]

Yes I heard that with incredulity when 3 will let you have an unlimited everything contract for £16 per MONTH, with enough bandwidth (tested) to serve three or four devices simultaneously. As the are no additional call, text or data charges, the credit check would be for a very modest amount, or 3 could skip it and simply disable chargeable (e.g. premium) calls and roaming.

[Theo]

Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You're missing the point that many, many people don't know and can't arsed
> to find out about better options. Especially disadvantaged families which
> don't have the time/desire to do the research. They use what they have
> which usually isn't the best option.

Also, people already have a phone and SIM. It's all very well to say 'they
could take out a deal with XYZ', but what device are they going to put that
new SIM in? They might be under contract to their existing provider and
unable to just switch to a different network, and if they swap out their SIM
(assuming the handset is unlocked, which is might not be) then nobody can
call their existing number.

This is why the solution for this problem is for the networks to lift the
metering on their tariffs. Mobile capacity isn't like water in that you
can't save it for later. The network has a certain bandwidth at any moment
in time and if you don't use it, you lose it. So a policy where data is
unlimited but subject to congestion management is more equitable than one
based on metered data.

Theo

[Woody]

On Wed 06/01/2021 14:05, Theo wrote:
> Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> You're missing the point that many, many people don't know and can't arsed
>> to find out about better options. Especially disadvantaged families which
>> don't have the time/desire to do the research. They use what they have
>> which usually isn't the best option.
>
> Also, people already have a phone and SIM. It's all very well to say 'they
> could take out a deal with XYZ', but what device are they going to put that
> new SIM in? They might be under contract to their existing provider and
> unable to just switch to a different network, and if they swap out their SIM
> (assuming the handset is unlocked, which is might not be) then nobody can
> call their existing number.
>

[SNIP]
Have you never heard of transferring your number or 'porting' Theo?
Just text PAC to 65075 and you will get a reply of your PAC code. Phone
your new SP, give them the PAC, and agree a changeover date. On that
date have phone on but don't use it until either they ring you or send
you a text. Switch off and back on and its done.
Simples?

[Andy Burns]

Woody wrote:

> Theo wrote:
>
>> hey might be under contract to their existing provider
>

> Have you never heard of transferring your number or 'porting'

Porting doesn't escape an existing contract though.

[Chris Green]

Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Chris Green <c...@isbd.net> wrote:
> > Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> >> According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
> >> broadband keeping their kids schooled.
> >>
> >> According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.
> >>
> > I think, to some extent, that the powers that be are really scared
> > that people will realise after a few months that missing some school
> > not only *doesn't* destroy childrens' future, it actually enhances it by
> > broadening their horizons somewhat.
>
> I take it you don't have kids that are experiencing this reality right now.
> There's nothing enhancing about the current situation for the vast
> majority.
>

Because the system tells them that the existing way of virtually
learning by rote to pass exams is the only way to 'get on'.

--
Chris Green
·

[Theo]

Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Woody wrote:
>
> > Theo wrote:
> >
> >> hey might be under contract to their existing provider
> >
> > Have you never heard of transferring your number or 'porting'

Funnily enough I have.

> Porting doesn't escape an existing contract though.

Exactly, and to escape that contract would mean paying hundreds of pounds
upfront and forfeiting N months of service (since you have to pay for them
but can't use them if terminating early). Even worse if that contract
included a phone as you have to pay the balance of that off upfront too.

It's not really a solution for people who are locked in and whose
circumstances change.

Theo

[Chris]

For people in this ng it's obviously easy. For the general public the fear
of losing their number which they've had for many years or even their
contacts "stored on the SIM" are very real. During the last lockdown I gave
a family friend an old smartphone so they could get access to their emails,
but they preferred to keep their old SIM in their old feature phone rather
than risk transferring it to the smartphone despite my assurances.

Also the last time I did a PAC transfer it took two or three days to
complete. In that time no-one could ring or text the number being
transferred, which could be a real problem for some.

[Chris]

Empty words that do nothing to help. Meanwhile children and families are
suffering real distress.

[Chris Green]

But it's unnecessary distress because they believe what the government
has told them - that days missed will damage their education.

--
Chris Green
·

[MB]

On 06/01/2021 13:47, Chris wrote:
> It's nice to be in a position to sneer, isn't it? I'm sure these families
> would rather not have to home school nor make last minute provisions for
> their kids because of incompetence elsewhere.

Why is it that politicians are so obsessed with calling every opponent
"incompetent", Sir Keir Starmer KCMG has to use the word at least a
couple of times in every sentence but I suppose it is difficult to
compete with the level of competence of most of the Shadow Cabinet!

[Java Jive]

On 06/01/2021 23:54, MB wrote:
>
> Why is it that politicians are so obsessed with calling every opponent
> "incompetent", Sir Keir Starmer KCMG has to use the word at least a
> couple of times in every sentence but I suppose it is difficult to
> compete with the level of competence of most of the Shadow Cabinet!

Because the most obvious feature of this government is its incompetence
- it's government incompetence that has led to the UK having the 6th
worst national covid-19 death count and the 9th worst death rate in the
world, while others that have similar age demographics to ours have a
sixth or less of ours.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

[Graham J]

Java Jive wrote:
> On 06/01/2021 23:54, MB wrote:
>>
>> Why is it that politicians are so obsessed with calling every opponent
>> "incompetent", Sir Keir Starmer KCMG has to use the word at least a
>> couple of times in every sentence but I suppose it is difficult to
>> compete with the level of competence of most of the Shadow Cabinet!
>
> Because the most obvious feature of this government is its incompetence
> -  it's government incompetence that has led to the UK having the 6th
> worst national covid-19 death count and the 9th worst death rate in the
> world, while others that have similar age demographics to ours have a
> sixth or less of ours.
>

+1

The most significant factor was not closing the UK's borders in early
February. I wrote here at the time (and was criticised by some for
being foolish) that this was the obvious precautionary measure - which
would have avoided the large number of infectious cases that came into
the country during late February and March, see:

<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52993734>

Since then Lockdown has been far more damaging than closing the borders
would have been.

By contrast New Zealand and to a lesser extent Australia have been very
much less affected because they did close their borders early.

Then:

+ Failure to commission sufficient PPE thereby allowing infections to
spread through care homes.

+ Failure to blanket test the whole population which would at least have
allowed those not infectious to go about their business as normal.

+ Failure to commission materials (such as glassware) to facilitate
injection of a vaccine. I accept that in the early days it was not
clear that a vaccine would be developed, but production planning would
have been prudent.

+ General failures to react promptly to worsening situations giving rise
to a "headless chicken" style of government.

In all, the attitude throughout has been: "We're British, it can't
happen here".

--
Graham J

[Woody]

Here's a thought: what might have been the outcome had Corbyn been in power?

[Trolleybus]

Are they really watching video 35 hours a week? Schools tend to have
at most five lessons of one hour. According to Microsoft, Teams uses
up to 1Mbps for SD group calling. That would account for a lot of
data, it's true, but would easily be accommodated within 80GB. And I
very much doubt (hope may be the better word) that any school expects
their students to be actually on Teams/Zoom all day every day.

I am not disputing the points others have made, about the fact that
virtually any form of decent home schooling is impossible for many and
so on, just challenging your figures.

[Trolleybus]

It would help if you'd tell us how you reached that conclusion.

[Chris]

It's not the days lost that's the issue. It's the continual disruption and
constant uncertainties they face. They have no idea what's going to happen
next week. Being persuaded that they must go to school on Monday only to be
then told on Tuesday that all schools will be shut. That's wilful chaos.

Plus the education system is ill equipped - due to historical
under-funding - to move quickly to effective, consistent online provisions.
Schools are equally naïve to technology as the parents that this thread is
mocking. They think ipads and laptops are the solution when actually
internet provision or teacher training in effective online education are
the bigger issues.

[Chris]

Trolleybus <unk...@birchanger.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 10:31:11 +0000, Martin Brown
> <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 06/01/2021 09:52, Trolleybus wrote:
>>> On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 08:20:27 -0000 (UTC), Chris <ithi...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> According to the Metro*, some parents are spending £100 a day on mobile
>>>>> broadband keeping their kids schooled.
>>>>>
>>>>> According to common sense, some other education has obviously failed.
>>>>
>>>> If all you have/are able to get is PAYG then that could be possible. This
>>>> is where the attainment gap is most acutely obvious.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Haven't checked Tesco but Giffgaff charges £20/month for 80GB. Isn't
>>> that enough for home schooling?
>>
>> About half what is needed assuming SD video and 7 hours in a school day.
>
> Are they really watching video 35 hours a week? Schools tend to have
> at most five lessons of one hour. According to Microsoft, Teams uses
> up to 1Mbps for SD group calling. That would account for a lot of
> data, it's true, but would easily be accommodated within 80GB. And I
> very much doubt (hope may be the better word) that any school expects
> their students to be actually on Teams/Zoom all day every day.

My child's school has done NO online Teams teaching. I doubt very much that
any (state) school is doing anywhere near 35 hours of online teaching.

[Chris]

Simply calling what it is. How many times have they insisted they won't do
a thing (lockdown, cancel christmas, close schools, etc etc) when it was
obviously the right thing to do and then a short while later announce they
ARE doing it? By which time it's too late!! Incompetent is the nicest way
to put it.

[NY]

"Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:rt6pjf$1km$1...@dont-email.me...

They are caught between two stools and can't do right for doing wrong. Do
they instigate a severe lockdown (eg no leaving the house for any reason,
all shopping must be delivered - by people who are exempt from this rule) at
the expense of people's livelihoods and of public services? Or do they try
to keep the economy going at the expense of more people being infected. Or
somewhere in between. How to you juggle two conflicting requirements?

Politicians are having to rely on advice from scientists - eg
epidemiologists - and their best intentions of not curtailing Christmas
plans may be derailed if the scientists advise that the infection is getting
worse because a new factor (a new strain) is suddenly detected. There will
always be a lag while the politicians process and debate the advice, and ask
"is this the *only* way, is there any other less intrusive way?".

What governments throughout the world should have done much much earlier is
impose a complete ban on overseas travel to try to minimise "importing" the
virus from other countries and also to minimise exporting it to other
countries. And maybe when some parts of the country were put under high tier
restrictions, one of the heavily-policed restrictions should be on people
travelling from high tier to low tier - or indeed to travel *anywhere*
outside a given radius. When I live (Yorkshire coast) we had infection
levels which were well below average until loads of people travelled from
high-risk urban areas to the seaside for day trips or holidays.

The other problem was when the areas that were subject to a given tier were
too large and too varied in rate: we were unable to get a supermarket
delivery of Christmas shopping because all the slots very quickly went to
more deserving people, so we intended to do a click-and-collect order
instead. Fine: but we chose the nearest city with a large branch of the
supermarket - and then our area was put into Tier 3 whereas York was in Tier
2 - so we couldn't go collect it. In the circumstances, we did remarkably
well: we could cancel the click-and-collect order at no cost to us, and
spent a few hours in a supermarket in an area with much higher infection
rate getting all the things that we'd intended to get either by delivery or
pre-order click and collect. But we couldn't predict in advance that our
low-rate rural part of the county would be lumped together with Hull.
(Incidentally, only my wife went into the shop, to minimise the risk of
spreading/catching the virus: I went along for the journey).

[notya...@gmail.com]

That won't work, you have to put the new SIM in the phone...

[Tweed]

There really is a case for the operators to either stop metering entirely,
or to stop for known educational portals. Vodafone has offered unmetered
access since the first lockdown to NHS staff, my doctor son is using it.
The networks must have a lot of spare capacity as many of us are stuck at
home using fixed broadband. My own mobile data usage has collapsed.

[Graham J]

Tweed wrote:
[snip]

> There really is a case for the operators to either stop metering entirely,
> or to stop for known educational portals. Vodafone has offered unmetered
> access since the first lockdown to NHS staff, my doctor son is using it.
> The networks must have a lot of spare capacity as many of us are stuck at
> home using fixed broadband. My own mobile data usage has collapsed.

And in many cases mobile broadband doesn't work inside buildings. To
get anything on my phone (with Vodafone) I have to hang out of the
bedroom window - this is in gently rural Norfolk spitting distance from
Thetford, not proper rural like on a Scottish mountain.


--
Graham J

[tim...]

"Theo" <theom...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message
news:5ul*T8...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...

you don't need to terminate your current contact to temporarily stick a data
SIM in from some other provider


> Theo

[Roderick Stewart]

On Thu, 7 Jan 2021 11:47:53 -0000, "NY" <m...@privacy.invalid> wrote:

>They are caught between two stools and can't do right for doing wrong. Do
>they instigate a severe lockdown (eg no leaving the house for any reason,
>all shopping must be delivered - by people who are exempt from this rule) at
>the expense of people's livelihoods and of public services? Or do they try
>to keep the economy going at the expense of more people being infected. Or
>somewhere in between. How to you juggle two conflicting requirements?

You operate them both at once, restricting some people and exempting
others, and hope that the virus knows the rules.

You don't base the distinction on anything logical such as the
relative vulnerabilities of the people concerned, but on their level
of importance to the maintainance of economic activity, as if the
virus cared about this.

The naivety of this notion is staggering. You can't stop everything
for a year, because people can't stop eating for a year. Do they
imagine that we could have food manufactured and delivered by robots?
Who do they think keeps the internet going, or the electricity to
power it? Or any of the other essential utilities? What do they think
would happen to anyone who doesn't know how to use a computer to order
stuff, or hasn't got one?

These indescriminate all-encompassing "lockdowns" unavoidably leave so
much unlocked (and destroy so much in the process) that it's difficult
to see how they will ever work.

Rod.

[Martin Brown]

On 06/01/2021 17:00, Woody wrote:
> On Wed 06/01/2021 14:05, Theo wrote:
>> Chris <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> You're missing the point that many, many people don't know and can't
>>> arsed
>>> to find out about better options. Especially disadvantaged families
>>> which
>>> don't have the time/desire to do the research. They use what they have
>>> which usually isn't the best option.
>>
>> Also, people already have a phone and SIM.  It's all very well to say
>> 'they
>> could take out a deal with XYZ', but what device are they going to put
>> that
>> new SIM in?  They might be under contract to their existing provider and
>> unable to just switch to a different network, and if they swap out
>> their SIM
>> (assuming the handset is unlocked, which is might not be) then nobody can
>> call their existing number.

A more likely reason is that they are tied in on a handset contract and
so are locked to their network by the term of that contract. They might
be able to upgrade their contract to more monthly data though. Most
deals allow an increase in the amount you pay to get more data without
penalty (or rather they did when I had a handset linked contract).

I have long since moved to SIM only contracts. My Moto G4 phone is on
its last legs with chips and scrapes and a battery that only lasts about
as long as the current production phones new. When new it lasted a week.

> [SNIP]
> Have you never heard of transferring your number or 'porting' Theo?
> Just text PAC to 65075 and you will get a reply of your PAC code. Phone
> your new SP, give them the PAC, and agree a changeover date. On that
> date have phone on but don't use it until either they ring you or send
> you a text. Switch off and back on and its done.
> Simples?

That is the theory. But I have had at least one number transfer where
the phone and parts of their system were routing calls from my original
number to my phone but my phone internally believed that it had its
original SIM number and could be called on that too. More confusingly
when asked to display its number it showed the as bought SIM number.

It took a long call to the customer hell desk to get it sorted out.
Number porting works in the sense that you get calls to the old number
forwarded to the new one but sometimes the process latches up partly
complete. It only happened once in about half dozen SIM shifts.

I wouldn't recommend doing it when expecting an important phone call!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Chris]

Christmas was clearly and objectively the biggest mistake. At best it
guaranteed a large increase in infections in January even without the new
variant situation. Boris should never have promised that only to rein it
back.

> is getting
> worse because a new factor (a new strain) is suddenly detected. There will
> always be a lag while the politicians process and debate the advice, and ask
> "is this the *only* way, is there any other less intrusive way?".

Epidemics are very easy to predict and the tools to manage them are well
known. The real problem is politics: Boris never wanting to be the bearer
of bad news and having to placate his rabid backbenchers.

That's why he's constantly yoyoing between party and country.

Contrasting that with Nicola Sturgeon shows the difference of someone who's
in control of their party and able to make clear, timely decisions.

>
> What governments throughout the world should have done much much earlier is
> impose a complete ban on overseas travel to try to minimise "importing" the
> virus from other countries and also to minimise exporting it to other
> countries. And maybe when some parts of the country were put under high tier
> restrictions, one of the heavily-policed restrictions should be on people
> travelling from high tier to low tier - or indeed to travel *anywhere*
> outside a given radius. When I live (Yorkshire coast) we had infection
> levels which were well below average until loads of people travelled from
> high-risk urban areas to the seaside for day trips or holidays.
>
> The other problem was when the areas that were subject to a given tier were
> too large and too varied in rate: we were unable to get a supermarket
> delivery of Christmas shopping because all the slots very quickly went to
> more deserving people, so we intended to do a click-and-collect order
> instead. Fine: but we chose the nearest city with a large branch of the
> supermarket - and then our area was put into Tier 3 whereas York was in Tier
> 2 - so we couldn't go collect it. In the circumstances, we did remarkably
> well: we could cancel the click-and-collect order at no cost to us, and
> spent a few hours in a supermarket in an area with much higher infection
> rate getting all the things that we'd intended to get either by delivery or
> pre-order click and collect. But we couldn't predict in advance that our
> low-rate rural part of the county would be lumped together with Hull.
> (Incidentally, only my wife went into the shop, to minimise the risk of
> spreading/catching the virus: I went along for the journey).

Tier system completely failed in England. Too small regions were specified
and not timely enough. Meaning that it just encouraged people to travel
out of their region to neighbouring lower tiers to get access to services
they wanted.

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 07/01/2021 09:10, Woody wrote:

> Here's a thought: what might have been the outcome had Corbyn been in
> power?

Diane Abbot mathematics.

--
Adrian C

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 07/01/2021 10:13, Trolleybus wrote:

>>>
>> Because the system tells them that the existing way of virtually
>> learning by rote to pass exams is the only way to 'get on'.
>
> It would help if you'd tell us how you reached that conclusion.
>

It's true.

Most school (and business) qualifications are gained by remembering what
has to be answered in a certain format on an exam paper. Students cram
the facts, teachers are repeating previously worked out recipes.

I don't have a good short term memory so sometimes in a large bowl,
whisk the yolks, cornflour, sugar and vanilla. Gradually pour the hot
milk mixture onto the sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Wipe out the
saucepan and pour the mixture back into it.
...

Oh sorry, where was I?

College is a place where a professor's lecture notes go straight to the
students' lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either.

It's only when the intuitive creative spark is properly ignited in the
student then the proper education actually begins. It can be hard
finding the matches, kindling the fire.

--
Adrian C

[Roderick Stewart]

Is that why some call her Diane Abacus?

Rod.

[Theo]

tim... <timsn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> you don't need to terminate your current contact to temporarily stick a data
> SIM in from some other provider

You do if you want people to be able to call/text you at the same time.
Like all those authentication texts for banks, purchases, for example.

(and if your handset is locked you can't stick in a SIM from another
provider)

Theo

[Roger Mills]

In that case, buy another - unlocked - handset. If you're spending £100
a day on data, it won't cost much more than one day's worth. You'll
still be able to receive calls and texts on the existing phone.
--
Cheers,
Roger

[Woody]

For the record almost all contract phones and many non-contract are now
supplied unlocked except Apples which often lock to the first SIM installed.

[Roger Mills]

Fair enough, but I take the point that people may wish to maintain their
existing contract, so they wouldn't want to port the number to a
different SIM. And they would need the contract SIM to remain active for
calls and texts. In that case, getting another handset is probably the
answer.

This all hinges, of course, on the veracity of the assertion that people
are spending £100 a day on data. If they're *not* the economics will be
different.
--
Cheers,
Roger

[tim...]

"Chris" <ithi...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:rt9nef$3fi$1...@dont-email.me...

But at the time that he promised it, infections were not an dangerous levels
and the expectation was that people would disobey a set of draconian rules

It was only when infections unexpectedly spiked, that they changed their
minds

Politicians can't make theses rules up in isolation of the facts on the
ground. If people don't also see the need to obey, then they wont

[tim...]

"Theo" <theom...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message

news:6ul*Cv...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...

> tim... <timsn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> you don't need to terminate your current contact to temporarily stick a
>> data
>> SIM in from some other provider
>
> You do if you want people to be able to call/text you at the same time.
> Like all those authentication texts for banks, purchases, for example.

This is school kids using *their* phone to access educational services

> (and if your handset is locked you can't stick in a SIM from another
> provider)

so use that provider than

they all have data "offers"

[tim...]

"Roger Mills" <watt....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:i5ujsg...@mid.individual.net...

I suspect that the journalists did manage to find a few who were

and simply extrapolated this to the norm

when the reality is it was just some dumbos not considering more sensible
options

[Chris]

For Apple that's also old news.

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 10/01/2021 08:46, tim... wrote:
>
> I suspect that the journalists did manage to find a few who were
>
> and simply extrapolated this to the norm
>
> when the reality is it was just some dumbos not considering more
> sensible options

The reality is those journalists work for an organisation (DGMT) that
sells advertising. If they actually educated their readers, their income
would fall.

--
Adrian C

[Chris]

I don't think anyone's claiming this is the norm. But it is the reality for
many which makes life extremely difficult for them. Quality education needs
to be available to all, arguably especially the underprivileged, online
learning makes this unlikely.

[Chris]

It was imprudent as England had just come out of their mini lockdown so
numbers had been suppressed. Numbers were only going to go up. Also the
winter season was only starting so we knew that the infection rates were
only going to go up. It would be better to say nothing until nearer the
time, by announcing it and then reining back guaranteed ppl wouldn't comply
as they'd also made plans.

No scientist would have said that it was a good idea to encourage people to
travel across the country en masse and mix socially in homes. This was pure
Boris and guaranteed the horrible numbers we're seeing now.

[notya...@gmail.com]

Worse than that John McDonkey arithmetic.

[notya...@gmail.com]

So no need to acquire basic skills like literacy and numeracy, no need for exams to objectively measure a student's ability. Sure learning exams skills [like reading the rubric] might get you an extra grade...

Perhaps the most naive point is that searching out new knowledge is doctorate level research and that the frontier between already known and unknown advances all the time. Einstein theorised special relativity in 1905 aged 27 and got a Nobel prize for it, yet I was already apprised of it when studying for my O' Levels fifty years ago!

[Trolleybus]

This reminds me of the quote from The Comic Strip's Bad News on Tour.

"I could play Stairway To Heaven when I was 12. Jimmy Page didn't
actually write it until he was 22. I think that says quite a lot."

[Adrian Caspersz]

Sure useful to get some basic things by rote, but light the fire so that
students know how to research and discover things for themselves rather
then committing it all to write-only memory.

I come across (sorry) elderly folks expecting to be taught to use a
computer by rote. Move the mouse 1 inch to the left, 2 inches up. Click.
Absolutely no idea why they this is different to the gear stick in their
car, and that actions depend on context.

I was thought to memorise the "Is this a dagger I see before me"
soliloquy from Macbeth.

Why?

I'd much rather have memorised the following ....


SOMETIME IN JANUARY 1996 "This, what it is, I do not yet know. A
collection of accumulated knowledge, ideas, memories, fact, surmise...
who knows. Anyway, what I once considered private, seems to be public.
Late the next night and I've just woken up to this most unsatisfying
thought... One has to be a bastard to exist in this world full of them,
but then I've always had the suspicion I took myself too seriously until
I found myself too serious to take. Tonight is a horrible day. I have
discovered the true meaning of two words: power and greed; power is in
sex, also in drugs. Power is the feeling when something immense happens
in return for little efforts, i.e. an assassin firing a gun or a junky
shooting up, etc. The participant gets off on the execution just as much
as the end result. Greed comes dressed in a velvet glove, greed is not
the want to possess everything, greed is simply wanting more than the
person next to you".

LATER "Cruelty occurs when people lose touch with the real world. In the
nineties this is partly due to the fact that we are distanced from
reality by a life we do not lead, therefore we are also distanced from
one another. We experience the world through television and use drugs to
enjoy social communication. We use machines instead of our bodies and
when our bodies fail us, machines keep us alive. When we do not feel
life, we do not feel what it is to be alive. We do not feel compassion,
our neighbor is invisible. When he suffers, we turn the television off
or simply register a blank. Existence is a bubble we feel will never
burst. We can't decide how to vote because we need a new party. We've
abandoned our world in favor of ourselves. We cover the ground in broken
glass, then take off our shoes; we need to look again. Unemployment is
the final insult to the individual, mass production was the first. Our
education system is wrong, it takes no note of the subtleties of human
nature, it places more importance on the memory of an individual than
how memorable an individual is. It does not nurture talent, but rewards
those who obey and allows them entrance to an exclusive club. This is
wrong. The best are wasted. This is why society is disintegrating. Can't
you see the spelling doesn't matter, because we are not saying anything
anymore. It's called the power of silence, the right to which we lost in
1995."

Š Bernard Sumner, Raise the Pressure.




--
Adrian C