Posts by Oldfogey 309 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jan 2008
If mobile data is crucial to you, why do you not have a plan for maintaining it in the event of problems?
Have a spare mob on PAYG? or
Have a phone not locked to a service, and a spare SIM in your wallet?
A dual SIM phone? (Best option)
If it is REALLY essential, and you have not taken precautions, I find myself very short on sympathy.
FTTC reached my area a year ago. I looked at the cost, then looked at the performance I was actually getting on basic adsl.
With just a couple of people in the house, no gamers, no Netflix or suchlike, and ads blocked, we find the result quite adequate. It seems that that is a common attitude here (I can't speak for anywhere else), and the take up has been poor.
If the cost margin reduces I will reconsider, but FTTP has no chance.
Perhaps this is why it's uneconomic?
In order to tie together 2 databases, there has to be at least one item of data, unique to each entry, and common to both datasets.
This is not the case for TV Licence and iPlayer.
TV Licence is basically Name and address, iPlayer is an email login id, and a password; ip address is not relevant, as for most users it changes every time the router is re-booted. The email address I use is purely a figment of my imagination.
How on earth can they tie these datasets together?
If the photo is of an actual involved individual, it seems likely that they suffer from a problem that afflicts the same generation in the UK - they are far too polite! The only response to a cold call, for anything, is to hang up immediately.
Don't say "No thanks". Don't respond in any way. Just put the phone down immediately. They have techniques for trying to hook you in given the very slightest of openings.
I don't have a telly - not had one for 30 years, and don't get hassled. Just confirm every few years if they send me a prepaid envelope and not otherwise. There is no obligation to say anything, or to let the inspectors who never turn up in without a warrant.
But say I take my laptop round to a friends house who have got a licence, and legally download from iplayer? And then take the laptop home and watch it from the HDD? Does it matter whether the laptop is plugged in or running on battery?
Can't find an answer to this!
To catch these idiots, departments responsible for doing so only need to create a load of files with "suspicious" filenames (they will know from thier work what these should be), and make sure their machines are open to attack - perhaps by surfing some dodgy, but perhaps not illegal, sites. Then track the payment.
If you apply a Lorentz Fitzgerald contraction to one, but not the other, would that not break the entanglement?
On the other hand, because of relativety, how do you know which one is moving fastest?
Finally, no Nobel for you, as I will have invented Resublimated Thiotimalene last week - using it's Endochronic properties.
So take a quantitly of entagled photons, display them (or their state) at both ends of your desired link in a grid.
Considered an entangled pair to make their square on the grid white.
Now interfere with selected photons at one end so that entanglement is lost. Those squares are considered black.
Now read the message given by the black squares on the white background.
Then replace the disentangled pairs with new entangled pairs and start again.
Any attempt to interfere would initially make the message dificult to read, then impossible, as more bits were lost.
Strictly not allowed to store the security code - but I come across companies that do it all the time. If I realise in time (usually on a phone transaction) I ask if they are doing so, and then cancel the transaction in a very pointed way - including reporting them,
The SHOULD have their card-not-present permission removed, but I doubt it ever happens.
I reckon when Skynet goes live, it won't be the latest hot server boxes and such, but all the ancient tat festering in Reg readers attics, sheds, garages, and old office cupboards that will be struck by lightening a creak into life.
But they won't be trying to kill mankind off with flash military hardware, instead they will just bore us to death by going on about how nobody writes assembler any more, let alone proper machine code.
My coat is the one with the Psion II in the pocket.
Thanks for the headsup on KB3123862, whichdoes indeed look suspicious.
Personally, having several machines to update, I find it easiest to use Portable Update. This enables me to scan a PC for available updates, download only those I want onto a USB disk, and install from there to all my machines without having to check the numbers again.
That will have no effect on me - I make my own.
And no, they can't stop or tax it when the ingedients are available from most hedgerows and supermarkets in the country.
In Norway, home distillation is all the rage, and they are well equiped for simple freeze distillation.
Just across the room is a 770EX, running XP and still in daily use for Office 97, Calibre, and some old school games.
It's not connected to the internet, so no security risk, and it still does what it always did, perfectly well.
Couple more upstairs, and when I have time I am going to try putting Win7 on - supposed to be possible - and some flavour of Linux to play with for the future.
I stopped in Crickhowell recently for a spot of lunch, and it is a nice little town with some attractive local shops. Well recommended if you are passing that way.
So what we have here is basically a stunt. The town needs a bit of publicity, the Beeb needs a programme, and HMRC needs a mechanism to try and get the government to do something about tax dodging corporations.
Bingo! Everybody's happy (except Starbucks).
Oh, and there are a couple of nice coffee shops in Crickhowell.
I believe that this lot fire from a boat (or plan to), and also have a coastal location in Norway. Norway is not in the EU, so there is a fair chance it has its own rules.
Have a word with those guys - they sound as mad as El Reg anyway, and might be able and willing to help for a contribution to their funds.
As I think I have mentioned before on these forae, the Bond Bug was actually an amazing vehicle. The top model was capable of 115mph (for internal consumption only - never let insurance companies know!), and the factory test drive demonstrated to me that it could do handbrake turns, doughnuts, and 3-wheel slides on corners - all because the COG was barely above the wheel hubs.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
