* Posts by paulf

1250 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Aug 2009

Apple assumes you'll toss the Watch after three years

paulf
Happy

Re: Four years?!?!

A Mid-2010 17" MBP here (anti-glare not glossy screen). Still going strong after 6 years of use and recently given a new lease of life with a 1Tb SSD. Looking at the other comments I think I can expect many more years of reliable service.

That said - I can't help thinking the new "It's-all-soldered-to-the-MB" Macs that can't be upgraded or repaired, effectively disposable, would struggle to last four years.

As for the iPhone - I get two years out of it, then I get a replacement and hand down the old one to my parents who get another two years out of it.

Half of Facebook's Free Basics users ditch the freebie web-lite service for the paid-for real deal

paulf
Pirate

Android app permissions

I took a look at the Google Play App link in the article and stumbled on the required permissions. These stood out, among others:

SMS

read your text messages (SMS or MMS)

receive text messages (SMS)

Phone

reroute outgoing calls

directly call phone numbers

I'm not a Dev but I recall that in Android silly+reasonable things can trigger a permission request that sounds quite daunting (e.g. checking no phone call is active leads to a Phone call permission request). That said I can't see why an App that is really just a curated browser needs access to phone calls and SMS (although knowing Zuck I can probably guess).

EC cooking up rules change for aggressive tax avoiders

paulf
Holmes

Re: It is not companies which are the problem

Publishing tax returns is all well and good (it's about time certain politicians did so after various promises they would) but that just tells us how much tax they paid on assets+incomes they're prepared to disclose to HMRC. The whole point here is people and companies avoiding tax they should be paying by hiding the assets/incomes that would attract it. Since they've hidden it - it won't show on the tax return! Who's going to pop "Income from secret offshore investment trust, with board meetings held in Switzerland" in the "Other information" part of the HMRC SA form?

As long as their tax return shows something reasonable for their KNOWN income streams people aren't going to look for the hidden stuff, and it's that hidden stuff which is the problem. For example the Chancellor's tax return shows he was taxed correctly on his earnings as Chancellor (plus Corbyn paid the right tax on his salary as HM LotO, Boris was taxed on his salary as MOL etc.)

The future of Firefox is … Chrome

paulf
Alert

Re: Choice

@ Mage (Firefox and Thunderbird printing)

Firefox has always been bad at printing any page that is anything other than basic HTML that doesn't stray much further than the equivalent of "Hello World!". Anything more complicated than that it can render fine but printed copies tend to only show part of the page, if at all.

I'm sure some will say it's lame to be saving web pages on bits of dead tree ("Duh, it's all in the cloudz") but there's a bit more to Printing than that. I tend to save a copy of web orders placed online as a PDF - very useful if I have a problem with the order for example.

In contrast IE (yes, I know) can print almost any page I throw at it, as it's shown on the screen (albeit plus the ads normally blocked by Firefox). When Internet Explorer can wipe the floor with equivalent functionality in your browser you know something is very badly wrong....

Daily! Mail! eyes! up! Yahoo!'s news! arm!

paulf
Trollface

Profitable?

Is DMGT's current ample profitability anything to do with being based in Bermuda and being owned by someone who is a UK Non-Dom for tax purposes?

Virgin slams CMA

paulf
Holmes

Great ideas guys

Because the way to increase competition and combat the reduced number of operators resulting from BT+EE is to reduce the number of operators further with Three+O2.

IBM wins BBC finance gig

paulf
Alert

$DIETY help us

IBM must relish being one of a small number of operators that makes Crapita look good.

Cash-strapped Sprint to raise $2.2bn by flogging off its network hardware

paulf
Alert

Profitability

So the plan is:

Sell Network kit.

Lease back Network kit (we can't do much without it)

???

Profit!

It's one thing to securitise existing business assets to fund expansion or an important capital project but if the only way you can book a profit is by selling a vital asset and turning it into an ongoing liability; well, I think the phrase is, "You're fucked".

Three to chop off £3bn of its network in bid to woo EU over O2 merger

paulf
Boffin

Re: Double standards

In short (not agreeing/disagreeing - just as I see it):

BT + EE didn't reduce the number of mobile or fixed operators to any tangible extent (BT had minimal mobile presence, EE relatively insignificant in landlines) although there were concerns about BT having a dominant position in the provision of fixed links to MNO cell sites to EE's benefit EE under BT's ownership.

Three + O2: Tangibly reduces competition in the MNO market because it reduces the number of distinct MNOs from four to three. That doesn't take into account the network sharing deals MBNL and Cornerstone which have differing relationships with their constituent MNOs (Cornerstone is more site/Air Con/Power sharing; MBNL shares almost everything except spectrum).

BT could use its fixed line dominance to advance EE's market share/revenues &c but there remains three mobile operators (O2, Three, Vodafone) to compete with EE, the latter of which has substantial fixed/landline assets.

paulf
Boffin

Re: That pledge on prices...

This is the problem with all these commitments and undertakings they're offering - they're absolutely meaningless. There are plenty of ways to increase prices without increasing the nominal monthly charge:

reducing bundle allowances, cancelling plans with only more expensive alternatives, increasing out of bundle prices, increasing roaming charges, removing special offers (e.g. feel at home roaming), increasing handset prices/decreasing handset subsidy, increasing any connection charge, increasing international call charges, imposing/increasing minimum charge on out of bundle calls, ending the contracts of customers they feel are insufficiently profitable so they have to get a more expensive contract elsewhere. I bet Marketing and Legal are more creative than I am.

If they've offered undertaking X, they've already figured out how to get around it to their own benefit.

Also how much weight will Sky (20%, £2bn not £20bn I'm guessing) and Vermin Media (10%) have, even if they vote together, against the majority shareholder CKH? Even if Sky and VM vote together against CKH they would only be successful in votes requiring more than 70% of votes (they're stuffed in votes requiring 2/3 or a simple majority) and I bet CKH is busy changing Three UK's articles of association to ensure it's 70% retains 100% control in any significant decisions.

Bezos defends Amazon culture in letter to shareholders

paulf
Boffin

My concerns about Amazon just keep increasing

As with tax avoidance, their capability at box shifting is as effective as it is ruthlessly efficient; and their prices tend to reflect this.

For basic CS stuff like "My item arrived damaged" they're great IME but I've only experienced their box shifting, not stuff like AWS.

But the deeper concerns keep mounting, thus far unresolved, and not investigated in the media (that I've found).

1. Their change last year requiring everyone to provide full photo ID when selling through Marketplace. That's understandable for entities trading as a company but its somewhat disproportionate for a private individual selling unwanted items to be asked for utility bills and a copy of their passport.

2. They provide all the billing details on Marketplace orders to the seller when I thought the whole point of Marketplace was Amazon acted as the payment processor. The consequences of this leads me to 3.

3. Marketplace sellers offering bribes [partial] refunds in exchange for removing negative feedback - whether justified or not. Thus a dodgy Marketplace trader could simply target partial refunds to improve their feedback score, potentially misleading future customers about how good that trader is. I've had contacts via the Marketplace messaging system which is fine but in one case I was called by a trader offering a partial refund despite the negative feedback being justified. This means they were given my home address too - not desirable if they were inclined to turn nasty about my critique.

I've contacted Amazon about this twice and both times got an email back saying they couldn't find my Marketplace account (I no longer have one - see 1) and couldn't discuss the matter further.

I just hope they haven't put too many of their competitors out of business yet as I'm looking for alternatives.

We bet your firm doesn't stick to half of these 10 top IT admin tips

paulf
Alert

Re: tailgate - oh the joys

@ P. Lee "Who needs to tailgate? I just go to reception, tell them I've forgotten my pass and they give me a new one, access all areas, no manager checks, no identity verification, access all areas."

Have an up vote as I've had this experience also. I don't forget my badge that often but when I do I ask the receptionist politely for a temporary badge and it's issued with no checks, no confirmations, NQA. I'm on "Morning" terms with all the receptionists and admins so they all kinda know me, but not well. That means it's wide open for someone they may not recognise but has the smooth talking and well researched social engineering nailed before entering the building.

On a related note - It's depressing to find out how much more of the buildings I can access with a temporary badge (which are usually issued to the cleaning staff each evening) than I can with my own badge as part of the Engineering dept at Paulf & Co.

Mobe and Wi-Fi firms flog your location data to commercial firms, claim reports

paulf
Pirate

I think the responses from Three (refuse to comment) and EE (can't be bothered) are quite telling. Perhaps the researcher wasn't able to get through to someone at EE (join the very large club!).

At least Voda and O2 bothered to dig up a spokesdroid each to put forward the usual "Legalese Manglement babble"; designed to reassure while offering no actual reassurance.

Brits rattle tin for 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

paulf
Mushroom

Re: 8.5kW and 0-60 in 10 seconds?

If the fuel tank ruptures you're almost certain to experience 0-60 faster than the quoted 10 seconds.

See Icon for further details ->

French mobe repair shop chaps trash customer's phone

paulf
Unhappy

Re: Customer Service

@ Chris King "Back when they were part of Hutchison..."

The FT era was certainly the time when CS at Orange UK continually plumbed ever new depths of disservice. "We're not satisfied, until you're not satisfied" must have been written by/for them.

I got my first mobile in Feb 1997 on Orange and they were brilliant but as the newest entrant (until Three started 9 years later) they had to be, to differentiate themselves and minimise churn. Unfortunately I think the rot started to set in sometime around mid-late 1999 as I noticed CS standards tangibly dropped in early/mid-2000, 6 months before Snook left as CEO and before FT appeared on the scene.

FT purchased Orange group from Vodafone in Aug 2000. That was after a brief period as part of Vodafone's Mannesmann AG unit (bought Feb 2000) who had acquired Orange in Oct 99.

'Panama papers' came from email server hack at Mossack Fonseca

paulf
Meh

Re: Why is it...

@frank ly "I cashed in a long tern ISA..."

All these rules are intended to hammer the International Criminal Masterminds (tm) but just end up causing extended annoyance to us minions that have the temerity to deprive the super rich of a few thousand we've managed to keep hold of; while the aforementioned ICMs(tm) have a plethora of dodgy methods for avoiding the authorities. In a way it's the same as encryption - the serious Mr Big crims/terrorists aren't relying on iPhone encryption to hid their plans any more than they're popping into a high street bank to transfer £200m of drug money.

A story like yours. I've been able to make two over payments to my mortgage in the last year. Nothing devastating, a couple of thousand each time in a call to the mortgage provider once I've proved I'm the account holder with the usual questions. Payment is made using a debit card issued by a UK branch of a UK bank with a UK Banking license. The paper trail is as copious as it is comprehensive.

Despite all that I'm still asked where the money is coming from. "My current account", I reply earnestly. "No, Sir, where is the money coming from?". I simply give the same reply again since it's both true and accurate and the call centre droid usually doesn't push further. If I had walked into a branch with a suitcase of used fifties then I could understand a few questions just to be sure, but all too often these financial outfits are quite happy to be overzealous just to annoy.

When Steve Jobs was away, Apple's designers snuck out a penis-shaped remote control

paulf
Coat

Hard?

"...it was hard not to imagine what Apple's designers had on their minds."

Yep, I see what you did there, fnar fnar.

IT freely, a true tale: One night a project saved my life

paulf
Alert

These kind of comments may make sense to the poster but get me annoyed. There can be all sorts of reasons not to change job even if the superficial logic is to do so.

There may be no other suitable employer in the area - not everyone can just up sticks and move (with/without family in tow), nor can they always justify a significantly longer commute which would just swap workplace stress for travel stress.

Other nearby employers may not offer the same pay/benefits/conditions - that becomes a trade off: do you value the p/b/c more or the potential of reduced stress more.

Other companies will tell you anything in the interview to employ you then you find out the reality only once you start. As "Anonymous survivor" notes in the article, "Things started out fine; I was happy." so even a good start can go down hill.

You could find yourself in a worse outfit i.e. out of the frying pan and into the fire.

You may relinquish valuable benefits in your current contract e.g. a final salary pension or long service (important if you face redundancy, remember you get nothing in those first two years of service!)

Ultimately it shouldn't be the victim who has to make significant sacrifices because an employer has failed in their duty of care. Resolving the problem makes more sense than treating the symptom.

Likewise, thanks to "Anonymous survivor" for sharing their experience and hopefully things have now improved for them.

Legal right to 10Mbps broadband is 'not enough', thunders KCOM chief

paulf
Alert

Rebrand?

I've been an Eclipse customer for 12 years (most recently on FTTC for 3 years) and I knew nothing about the mentioned rebrand. That new logo, like the current KCom one, looks like the result of much whale song and chanting at the special forest retreat for Manglement+Marketing.

Eclipse lost interest in Home customers about 18 months ago which was sad as they were pretty good in my experience (YMMV) but for now they continue running their residential business for existing customers. I wonder how long it'll be until that is declared non-core (like the network sold to City Fibre) and sold to someone like BT, or the HorrorHorror that is ShitShit.

The sensible alternatives I've seen mentioned on here seem to be Zen and AA?

Firefox features will land out of cycle and Mozilla's cool with that

paulf
Childcatcher

Re: Ohh, Gee...

Upvote from me.

Since I updated to the current main rev number (currently 45.0.1 as I avoid x.0.0 versions) it goes from nothing to 3GB of memory occupancy in a day or two of light to medium browsing. I have about 20 tabs open but most of those don't get reloaded between Firefox restarts. I run only ABP, so it's not like some rogue plugin has gone wild. I can only conclude its a monstrous memory leak that has been introduced.

@Charlie Clark

My machine has 12GB of RAM on Win 7 x64 so yes it can handle it but FF is also the biggest memory hog by a long stretch. Even the five CPDN threads in BOINC don't get close to Firefox's memory demands. The thing is Firefox is the one that can't handle it - once its memory requirement passes 2 GB it slows down to a crawl with occasional spells of "(Not responding)" usually ending in a random crash. There was a time when I hardly saw the Crash reporter but now I see it once or twice a week...

The FCC, once seen as a telco-thrashing hero, is sadly losing the plot

paulf
Boffin

Murrican politics

The article notes the FCC Chairman has the ability to push through his (/her) agenda against any opposition from the commissioners. Surely the alternative is the deeply partisan divisions that exist elsewhere in Murrican politics where nothing gets done (for years or longer) because even the tiniest tip toe towards something viewed as a compromise with "The other side (tm)" is nuked from orbit on the basis of "We will not compromise, because compromise is surrender!".

I'm not saying our politics in Right-pondian territories is significantly better but it does seem to be somewhat less partisan - especially when you see examples of (in the UK) Government back benchers voting with the Opposition, and Opposition MPs voting with the Government.

Unfortunately Murrican politics seems to enjoy being extremely partisan, like some kind of tribal battle, and I doubt there is much ability for the electorate to change this, even if they wanted to.

BT: We're killing the dabs brand. Oh and can customers re-register to buy on our site?

paulf

Re: "Dabs was truely the worst customer service I ever got from any retailer ever."...

"Weird, I actually have had good customer service from EBuyer...."

Same experience with Ebuyer here over the last 10 years, but I think that's only because nothing has gone wrong yet. It remains to be seen how "good" they are when the merde hits the fan with a purchase.

paulf

Scan still going?

I'm always surprised when I see Scan are still in business. One product I bought from them (new) was an open box return with bits missing. On another occasion a call to their tech support was answered by one of the cleaning staff. A complete shambles.

I used to use DABS as I found them reliable and with reasonable customer service. That moved to a mix of DABS and Ebuyer as there were times DABS were cheaper than Ebuyer (even after BT borged them). Of late I've found the same as others here - DABS uncompetitive on price (and no free delivery option), limited range and usually no stock on hand so I've drifted away from even checking them for anything other than the largest purchases.

Adobe will track you across all your devices with new co-op project

paulf
Thumb Up

Re: Slurping and Subscription? ...Time to boot Adobe, M$_Win10, Autodesk etc...

@John Miles

Thanks for the pointer to Darktable. I have Adobe LR 4 on the Mac and have been wondering about alternatives (although LR4 remains quite capable for my needs). GIMP just wasn't up to it from my earlier investigations whereas Darktable looks like it could be just the job. Added to the trial list along with Linux Mint!

Look out, Windows Phone 8 users – yes, both of you – here's ... Windows 10 Mobile

paulf
WTF?

Re: Can people opt-out?

So the upshot of this is:

On Mobile (where MS is tiny and needs a reason like a major free upgrade to the latest and greatest to pull in punters)

People who want Win 10 have to beg for it and still may not get it.

On Desktop (where MS is massive and needs to avoid upsetting users en masse to maintain its position)

People are being forced to bend over and take Win 10 regardless of whether they want it. Those Win 7/8 users who reject it have to edit their registry, disable Win update and be vigilant with a wooden stake to keep the GWX zombie off their computers

T-Mobile US finally lets websites escape Binge On's web vid crusher

paulf
WTF?

Mixed messages from the Chocolate factory

"T‑Mobile US has signed on Google Play Movie [...] to Binge On"

But Youtube kicked up stink because they wanted out.

I'm confused. I know they're different services, addressing slightly different markets (Hollywood stuff Vs Cat vidz) but it did look like Youtube's objection was ideological which implied the objection was shared throughout Mountain View. I would have thought it makes sense for the (paid for) Hollywood stuff to be outside Binge On but the "free" Cat Vidz to be compressed?

Virgin bins Webspace, tells customers they can cry to GoDaddy

paulf
Happy

Re: Recommendations

I use Clara Net. I was with them back in the days of dial up but moved ISP when I wanted ADSL. They had loads of decent plans for dial up but never really kept up with the move to ADSL.

I stuck with them for my email/domain though. The email tools are pretty flexible - great for setting up throw away email aliases for each company. I've not made much use of the webspace but it seems to work well. Works out at £35/year with domain and that's not increased in many years now.

http://www.claranetsoho.co.uk/clarahost

No connection to them other than being a customer.

Staff 'fury' as penny pinching IBM offers legal minimum redundo payoffs

paulf
Pirate

Re: Interesting!

A previous place I worked at made my position redundant. They paid the Stat minimum to everyone leaving but thanks to a wave of generosity they offered an enhancement of £75 per complete year of service. Rather than being a genuine "enhancement" (in the generally accepted meaning of the word), it was more a case of Senior Manglement flicking a sizeable second bird at those being shown the door....

paulf
Boffin

Re: Statutary minimum redunancy pay?

I suspect the hack has confused the (in Eng+Wales) 45 day statutory consultation period (previously 90 days for more than 20 redundancies) with the contractual notice period that applies between notice being given and your final date. In the Eng shops I've worked at, a Senior Eng usually has a 3 month notice period which would only apply once the consultation period is complete, the company has identified those positions that will be made redundant and informed those involved that they will be losing their jobs.

I'd add to the various other musings about "If your position is redundant there isn't anything to hand over" that an employer is on shaky ground if they ask you to continue working through the consultation period or your notice period once you've been told your position is redundant.

Usual IANAL disclaimer applies.

Microsoft's done a terrible job with its Windows 10 nagware

paulf
Mushroom

Re: The Terrible...

@ bazza

I'm completely with you on this; but Microsoft have played this game of giving people what they don't want with the Ribbon interface, chucking away 20 years of UI investment/research in the process.

I've also bought Windows 7 retail licenses (2*Ultimate), one for my main desktop at home and one on the Parents' computer (yes it's overkill but it makes telephone support so much easier with us on exactly the same version). Both copies cost about £150 but Win 7 has been pretty reliable in the 5+ years I've been running it (touches wood).

This whole thing with stealth Win 10 updates is seriously frustrating. I've now got my parents looking up KB articles to check for Win 10 - a technical advance for them but it's something they shouldn't have to do as they're non-techies. Once people say "no, thanks" to Windows 10 that should be the end of the matter. The fact MS have gone to such lengths to force this "Optional" upgrade on all users (including the most technically able that can delve into the registry and remove Win 10 update stuff that keep reappearing Zombie like) shows a pathological obsession that isn't healthy.

I'm not sure what the alternative is. I have a MBP and I really like OSX but it's an old school machine (it can be fixed/upgraded) and I don't like the newer disposable "Its-all-soldered-to-the-MB" Macs Apple sell now. Linux is cute and all, but for me the hobby is the stuff I do on the computer, not the computer itself. I just hope Linux Mint is as good as other Commentards have said as I think that will be my first port of call for Win 10 alternatives. I certainly won't be paying for Windows 10, whether through money, telemetry data, or App store purchases &c.

Icon -> Fuck you Microsoft. Patch Tuesday is now hell.

Vendor rep 'Stinky Sam' told to wash and brush teeth or lose job

paulf
Boffin

Stinky and the rest

There's a guy in my office that, when he started, stank out the whole office with a smell that can be best described as "Diesel" (as in DERV not the fashion brand). At the time there was only four of us, but as the team expanded and we moved to a larger office of 8 he rose to the challenge and his BO kept up. The only thing more pungent than his BO was the "deodorant" he used to cover it up.

He's still here, the smell has, thankfully, faded but the eating with his mouth open continues throughout the day, among other things. I can only assume he's either completely oblivious to his impact on the surrounding office environment or a sociopath of the highest order who's clearly missed his calling into Manglement.

Icon -> Gas mask for use around stinky colleagues who don't realise others have to work in the same office...

Feel old? You will now: Blighty's mobile network Three is a teenager

paulf
Thumb Down

Merger approval still pending, please hold

"Here's hoping it stays feisty and consumer focussed after it becomes the biggest network. ®"

Who's said it's a done deal? Does AO know something we don't? I for one am hoping that four definitely doesn't become, ahem, Three. Even though I'm not with O2 or Three I still benefit from the competitive pressures their separate existences create.

paulf
Meh

Re: "Hutchison Whampoa’s Three network turns 13 today"

I can't imagine why they chose the Cayman islands....

With all this focus on Apple, Amazon, Google and (especially today) Facebook over their questionable tax behaviour; does anyone know how much tax Three UK pay? I suppose the same question is appropriate to other CKH tentacles in the UK, like Superdrug. Asking for a friend.

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

paulf
Pirate

Re: Missing option?

FTA: "There are four telemetry settings: "Security", "Basic", "Enhanced", and "Full"."

There are four telemetry settings: "On", "On", "On" and On".

FTFY

Yahoo! is! up! for! sale! – so! how! much! will! you! bid!?

paulf
Pirate

Re: Sell the email routing

I'd propose you lose a weekend and set about untangling yourself from the Yahoo monstrosity.

I was in the same position for the same reason (I came over to Y! from Rocketmail - remember them? and used the Y! email just for website logins rather than personal emails) but about 2-3 years ago I realised I was staking a rather big bet on Yahoo!'s continued existence and set about moving each login to individual addresses on my own domain.

Yes it was a major ballache and yes it took ages (and yes I had much better things to do) but Y!'s future is somewhat uncertain and it's easier to do a few logins at a time and check they work now than have to do the whole lot with a summary 28 days notice that Y! mail will be closing.

Y! Mail STILL cannot get the Reply-to option to work correctly - I doubt they would cover themselves in glory if they tried to do anything as complicated as what you're after.

The paperless office? Don’t talk sheet

paulf
Childcatcher

Re: paper paper paper

We need a pull queue like that in our office which is paperless insofar as the vast majority of our paper supply seems to sit as uncollected printouts around the printers. It's not just the waste of paper but also electric and toner.

It isn't completely wasted as I grab a pile every so often to use as my scrap paper supply, but that's not really the point.

Quotemehappy? No, I'm furious: Insurance site loses customer details

paulf
Facepalm

Re: Aviva Quote

"were able to see another customer’s contact details, such as name, address and telephone number,...no sensitive, personal or financial, information could be viewed"

So name, address and telephone number aren't sensitive now? These could be used to obtain other sensitive things like Date of Birth and more through all manner of routes e.g. insufficiently protected social media accounts (yes, I know!), social engineering contact and the like.

If you think some kinds of personal information aren't sensitive then it's no wonder these breaches happen. Hell, even anonymised data can be de-anonymised by a determined crim or $MEGACORP. *ALL* personal information is sensitive and should be protected as such.

An ICO spokesperson said: “We’re aware of an incident involving Aviva and are making enquiries.”

As I've said before, I bet the Chocolate fire guard department are positively melting at the thought of "making enquiries" and giving some company a light tap on the wrist. Since the ICO will simply tell Aviva not to use the data breach again in its current form (in about 2 years time) perhaps the ICO was merged with the ASA and we all missed the memo?

Bank fail: Ready or not, here's our new software

paulf
Pirate

Re: Neo

Completely with you on that.

Yahoo Mail has a bug in the reply-to field construction that isn't fixed 3 years after I reported it (twice). I moved to a paid for IMAP provider which is several orders of magnitude more reliable (with a stack more features).

As you say though with Yahoo Groups there isn't much in the way of alternatives (even paid for). I looked about 3 years ago and couldn't find anything suitable. In one of my use cases we migrated away to a custom website design. In the other case we're stuck with Y! Groups :(

OT slightly - this is Yahoo's big problem at the moment. Mayer can say/do what she likes - unless and until she gets on top of the design/usability/bug issues in the things like Yahoo Mail that will retain users, Yahoo is stuffed. They're not going to win new users and any existing ones will slowly drift away.

paulf
Alert

The fact that a user locked an application isn't too bad (not desirable either but could be a used as a rather blunt method of error trapping). Call up and CS unlock the application once they make sure the change was intentional or some such.

That NONE of the customer facing staff knew how to unlock this points to a monumental UI/System fail to the point that I encourage you to Name + Shame.

I can't help wondering how many locked and abandoned applications they have on their system - orphaned after users did quite reasonable things like changing the house valuation. Perhaps the number of applications contribute to someone's bonus (even if they get randomly locked like this).

The Mad Men's monster is losing the botnet fight: Fewer humans are seeing web ads

paulf
Meh

Telegraph

The Tory-graph is the latest to install "No entry if you're Adblocking" technology to their website. Tuesday evening I believe. I guess they felt they were on a roll after installing the Hack monitoring Occupeye devices last month. Messing about deleting cookies to get around their subscription "pay windbreak" was a pain but I'm not disabling ABP so they can fling their malware riddled ads+tracking at me.

I'm not sure how the adblocker detection works but I'm guessing it figures out whether a beacon is downloaded and if not determines an adblocker is in use. I'm surprised ABP doesn't offer a whitelist for the beacons to fool the website into thinking an adblocker isn't in use. And with that the arms race would iterate again with the adflingers still not getting the message....

Virgin gives blessing to O2/Three merger

paulf

Even if O2 went under (i.e. administration then liquidation) there would still be assets in the business that could be realised: physical network (stake in Cornerstone RAN plus backhaul), customers, stores, stock, spectrum etc. It's likely the business could be sold as a going concern to another entity if Telefonics walked away from O2 UK in that situation. For now there is no implication that O2 UK is even close to that situation, although things aren't too happy at Telefonica themselves - hence the sale to pay down their debt.

Don't forget the cable companies in the UK have been through multiple bankruptcies, and debt for equity swaps yet still exist even if the early share/debt holders have been wiped out many times over. Unfortunately they exist as a single company (Vermin Media) so not a good example who considers the merger a bad idea.

One thing I'm not convinced on is that if Three don't buy O2 UK the business is unviable so the merger is do or die for O2. The markets may not be that rosy at the moment (are they ever?) but the option is there to spin out O2 UK through an IPO. It may be risky but no less so than trying to get clearance for the acquisition by Three.

paulf
Unhappy

Competitors

@MrWibble - I agree it's utter tosh.

It's interesting to note all O2/Three's competitors like Virgin and Vodafone are quite happy with this merger - perhaps because they see the benefits to themselves of the oligopoly getting smaller, reducing the competitive pressures on their own businesses.

Plus there's the "we like it because we think it'll hurt our new bogey man enemy BT and their costly EE acquisition" warm approval from the Sky wing of Murdoch towers.

Still no word from Hutchison how they're going to deal with Three being part of MBNL and O2 being part of Cornerstone. Tear up Cornerstone agreement and face sueball from Voda? Tear up MBNL agreement and face sueball from BTEE? Try and make both separate networks work and lose major benefit of merger? Spend billions with lots of network headaches on the way which ever is selected?

Perhaps the simplest option would be allowing Three+O2 subs to roam onto the two still separate networks, as Orange/T-Mobile did when they started bringing their networks together, then work through a big de-dupe on the two networks; but I suspect the Cornerstone and MBNL agreements are pretty watertight to prevent one party neglecting their investment obligations so they wouldn't see any cost savings in network operation.

The only certainty is that prices will rise and service will deteriorate if it goes ahead.

What's it like to work for a genius and Olympic archer who's mates with Richard Branson?

paulf
Pint

Re: I had a boss that...

"As long as you are right and they are being an idiot they crumble every time. Bullies and bullshitters always do."

Amen to that. A beer for you, Sir!

Three: We won't hike prices if you say yes to £10.5bn O2 merger

paulf

Re: Meaningless promise

I'd like to agree with you but those MVNOs will face the same problem with respect to choice and competition for their business: three options rather than the current four. Also an MVNO only has real control over the retail part of the monthly payment, limiting their scope for competitive pricing, whereas the retail operation of an MNO has influence over the retail and wholesale/network sides.

Even then it isn't that clear cut:

O2 seem amenable to MVNOs but they like to have an equity stake in them (Giff Gaff 100%, Tesco Mobile 10%)

Vodafone don't seem that interested in the MVNO market; as Sainsbury's mobile customers have found out. I can't see that changing unless there was external pressure and it's not clear why Voda should face increased regulation because two of their competitors have merged.

EE seem quite amenable to MVNOs (Virgin Mobile, BT) but whether that continues under their new overlords is yet to be seen. BT's not been overly keen on things like LLU.

A quick look at this list shows Three hasn't got much MVNO business - whether this is because they're not amenable to them or their network isn't of interest to MVNOs isn't clear:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

TL;DR - more MVNO activity isn't likely to be a serious solution

paulf
Unhappy

Re: Consumers Vs Business

It isn't a given for Consumers either, really.

Three may promise "not to raise prices" but what happens if they do? What happens if they make a change like allowing RPI increases mid-contract? What happens if they reduce your contract allowance? Your monthly price hasn't risen and the price you pay for out of bundle minutes/texts/MBs hasn't increased per-se as these these aren't split out from the monthly bundle cost, but you get less for the same cost so it's a price rise in effect.

What sanctions will be available to TPTB if Three either blatantly or stealthily breach their wide ranging (and potentially vague) promises? Mass compensation to customers? An unwinding of the merger? Or a dicky fine, paid to OFCOM, and all agreed behind closed doors with back patting and doubles all round?

The problem with promises is they assume there's someone effective monitoring and policing* them with an arsenal of painful sanctions available** once they've got the big and mostly irreversible prize of closing the O2 acquisition.

Assumptions:

* they have the ability to get all the necessary and company confidential data to monitor them

** they're prepared to apply those sanctions

I can't help thinking that the only outcome from this merger is that everyone will get shafted more than they are at present. EE and Voda will face 2 competitors rather than 3 so they'll have less incentive to avoid raising their own prices, regardless of what O2+Three claim they're doing with not increasing prices.

T-Mobile US's BingeOn does break net neutrality, says law prof

paulf
Boffin

Who funded the report?

From what I know of binge-on and the details of the report in this article, I agree with her conclusion and that she offers alternatives for T-Mobile US that are more likely compliant with Net neutrality regs suggests she isn't out purely to criticise.

But to see it fully in context it would be useful to know who funded her work. I'm guessing she didn't throw the report together in an evening in front of the telly. Unfortunately Murrica tends to be a mesh of interconnected corporate vested interests. Did she do it in her spare time out of pure academic interest or was it funded by something like "The institute for the better understanding of cellular radio utilisation, a division of AT&T (Cayman islands) Inc".

paulf
Meh

Re: big fuss over nothing

The best argument for why Binge on is wrong (along with all other schemes that are at odds with net nutrality) I've seen so far is this comment by AdamWill

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/01/29/tmobile_bingeon_wins/#c_2763050

TL;DR Establish the principle that a two tier internet is acceptable (preferred tier, and everything else) through differentiated pricing that cuts the price of everything in the preferred tier. Once established, at some point in the future, start ramping up the charges for stuff inside the preferred tier and by much more for anything outside the preferred tier.

I don't live in Murrica so it's harder for me to see how T-Mo US's campaigns under Legere are affecting the market. That said the reports I've seen show T-Mo US are shaking up the market to a tangible extent which is chipping away at the bigger 3's oligopoly. Unfortunately things like Binge-on will only undermine what T-Mo have done so far as it shows that in time they could be just as pernicious as the bigger three.

How many Surface power cords are a fire risk? 2.25 million in the US alone

paulf
Flame

Intentional joke?

“it's whether the device department can plug into that infrastructure,”

If they do plug in they'd better be careful the cable doesn't catch fire.

Network builders: LTE costs will transform the cell tower biz in 2016

paulf
Meh

I can't help thinking "Densify" was the biggest abuse of the English language in that article. Up there with the regular manglings George W. Bush handed out. Does that mean "To Dense" is now a verb?