Posts by Mark Berry

What is the world cumming to?

Maybe we should use it to decide how many times to clout someone about the head?

YTS Scheme renamed and reanimated.....

I remember being told my apprenticeship with Rumbellows as a service engineer twenty odd years ago was the only apprenticeship in the region. Everything else was YTS. Of course Rumbellows went tits up shortly after, but hey ho. My cousin took a YTS as a mechanic about the same time. He earned less than a quarter what I did. He also worked for the garage for about 5 years on repeated YTS schemes, never became a qualified mechanic, just did lots of services on cars.

The YTS scheme was/is responsible for a whole generation of kids thinking "Why bother?" if all you are going to be is cheap labour without any real prospects after it.

And yes, some do run proper training schemes, mine was one, it was part funded by YTS, but then again, it was the only one in the region.

This is just more of the same. I'm disgusted.

Never underestimate......

A puritans desire to indulge (secretly of course) in the very things they condemn.

Paris, well, she has plenty of distractions.

If they don't obey the law.....

Why the hell should I?

Paris, 'cos at least she doesn't retain her many dna samples (I think!).

What am I missing?

So, the store manager went to visit them about missed payments, which the couple claim they had not missed. At some point they must have claimed they had not been using the computer, so the manager said "Ah ha, but you have, we have this picture of you using it on xyz date and time." or something along those lines I'm guessing?

If they had made the payments, why didn't they just show the bank statements proving it, in which case the manager, unless he was a complete idiot, would never have gotten to the point of showing them the picture.

There seems to be something missing, or I'm missing something. Or maybe the manager really was that stupid.

If you read the article.....

It does not say there was a deadline on him releasing the information.

I agree that setting a deadline on the release of the information, and offering to fix it for a fee could be considered extortion.

However, by the information presented herein, I would assume that there was no deadline. So the info would only have been released after they had patched it, whenever that was, if ever. So, no extortion, just a possible business deal to expedite their release of a patch.

More info would be nice though.

Ok, good, the law being observed....

Will Palin, who was using an email account outside of the official channel, now face action for that?

Or what about her obstruction regarding access under the freedom of info thing they have, where her office was attempting to charge extortionate amounts for said info?

Ah, never mind, I think I know the answer.......

Paris, well, I'm sure she is familiar with the sensation of being bent over......

Well, it's one way.....

to get someone else to pay for you to visit the 2012 Olympics.

I for one salute them

for their sterling efforts in ensuring king size jubbly fun for all.

Of course they could be trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Meh.....

Just another method of displaying ads. Of course it may push some to advertise with google, simply to stop competitors ads appearing over the image of their shop. That's probably the real story here.

WTF?

Is she really that dumb?

Paris, 'cos she may be a blond bimbo, but she could surely do better.

How can anyone be so stupid?

Oh wait, it's an American site.

Paris, even she wouldn't be so stupid, thus proving that blond bimbo's are smarter than your average politico.

Meh.....

All it would take is to fork the project, and you could continue as normal, just with a different label.

It does seem odd to let one person have so much control though.

What you pay for.....

So, let me get this straight, you have broadband, a 3g data plan and you then add a femtocell.

All so you can avoid having to switch a connection when you leave the house with a laptop/netbook/phonethingymajig.

Oh, and other people may be using your femtocell, and thereby your broadband.......

Not an issue for me when I move to Sweden and have 100mb full duplex broadband, but I get a max 512k up in the UK atm, so that's only a couple of calls being routed before I seriously have issues doing anything with my connection.

So, does having my own femtocell mean my 3g data plan becomes unlimited when using said femtocell or do I still get the pathetic 5gb limit before I have to start hocking my soul to cover the 'reasonable' data charges once I go over that?

Though I have to admit, taking it to Sweden with me is sounding fairly attractive, as I already have a vpn server...... Hope the neighbours wont mind.

Paris, 'cos I'm pretty sure she doesn't mind using someone else's phat pipe......

I may as well throw in my totally uninformed voip opinion too!

Does voip work? Yes, subject to you using the right kit, same as anything.

Does it need to cost a bundle? No, not if you think about it.

Will it go wrong? No, not if you have thought about it. Use reliable kit, have spare capacity etc and you should never have a problem.

It is invaluable in some situations, I run a helpdesk service, my people all work from home, so its fantastic for us. It (asterisk currently) sits on our vpn/IM server, and gives us the ability to put phones on our clients sites etc.

The right kit? Dedicated server, with a hot failover in a separate datacenter. Hardware phones, QoS on our broadband. Business grade voip->pots service (Gradwell).

Shame we will never get broadband in the Uk anything like our buddies in Norway or Sweden. Even Norway, where the beer is very far from free, dedicated 50mb duplex fiber, installed 500, and 50 a month. Japan, 100mb duplex for about 60-100 a month.

So its perfectly doable, workable etc, you just have to watch out for the cowboys. As usual.

As for call charges, I'm not 100% how much cheaper than BT it is, I can not for the life of me figure out their calling rates from their website, but I am pretty sure they bill by the minute. Gradwell offer lower call setup costs, then bill me by the second at what I'm pretty sure is substantially less also. End result, much cheaper, more functionality and flexibility.

Its a tool, and like any, will not work for every job. To select the tool you need, remove preconceptions, research the subject, plan your implementation etc.

Also, avoid reading the comments on sites like this. (Even mine :-) For example, the thought of everything in my business grinding to a halt because of a switch is hilarious. I have spares. So should you, or a service contract that is quick and efficient.

Paris, because I'll bet even she wouldn't swallow some of the reasons punted above.

I know a couple of ex SAS guys....

And it took a long time before I found out about it from them.

If they are quick to talk/brag about it, they are probably bullshitting.

Paris, 'cos she knows all about going undercover, commando, etc.....

Off the trax

I prefer the CodeIgniter framework, http://codeigniter.com

It does MVC, but is minimalistic and not as intrusive as some of the other php frameworks.

Works a treat.

Is this a rant or a report?

While I have long thought the big G is getting rather large, and as shown by the early Chrome EULA, getting the usual big business mentality, I don't see how this kind of rabid rant is on a news site.

I guess its now becoming fashionable to rip into Google the same way it used to be cool to fawn all over them (as most seem to continue to do so).

I'm guessing that most people who get a little android in their pocket will not give a damn if it has exchange support or not, and there will no doubt be at least one enterprising dev who can make the little toy sync with gmail along with a desktop component to complete the circle. Which does away with the need for a usb cable. And although I sync my Nokia via bluetooth, so no cables for me either, I'd like to be able to sync it remotely while I'm travelling, so even if some little scroat in the foreign fields of wherever nicks my precious phone and laptop, I'll still have access without worries to my contacts and email via a web browser.

So, less bashing without reason please, or I'll sic a penguin on you.

Consumer rights......

I was under the impression you had a right to make a backup of computer software in the UK.

By only allowing copy protected discs, surely this infringes our rights?