* Posts by Velv

2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010

Brit cops can keep millions of mugshots of innocent folks on file

Velv
Facepalm

How hard can it be!!!

the Home Office stopped short of demanding the deletion of all images of innocent people no longer under investigation because, apparently, there are so many photos on file, it would be impractical to ask officers to go through all their databases and remove photographs of individuals who have never been convicted of an offence.

Select * from "suspects" where conviction = 0

Delete

Simples

Tech contractors begin mass UK.gov exodus in wake of HMRC's IR35 income tax clampdown

Velv
Boffin

Simple Answer

How to make it fair for everyone - get rid of employee National Insurance

I know some people believe contractors don't pay tax, however contractors pay tax on everything they earn, but can structure it to minimise their liability. Dividends can only be paid on Company profits so are already taxed as Corporation tax. Only NI is where savings can really be made.

So

  • Remove employee NI (which is 12%)
  • Increase basic rate tax to 30% and higher rate to 50%
  • Increase employer NI to 15% to cover the difference.

This means:

  • lower paid employees will pay less tax as NI kicks in before the basic rate, and when it does it kick in its at 30% not 32% (20%+12%)
  • middle paid employees will pay about the same
  • higher paid employees will pay more as employee NI currently reduces to 2% above £42k

And when the playing field is level for everyone there's no need for "schemes" like IR35.

Toxic Uber sued after driver allegedly tried to rape passenger in car

Velv
Boffin

Re: It's not clear whether taxis and limousines are any safer than Uber

Both City Cabs and Capital Cars in Edinburgh provide upfront information when you book online through their app, including requesting immediate pickup like Uber. A text message has the basic details and the car can be tracked in the app.

And since both appear to use an off the shelf app I suspect many other operators offer the same services.

Agreed if you hail a taxi at the roadside you don't get the details, but that's like comparing oranges and bananas as you can't hail an Uber.

Apple to Europe: It's our job to design Ireland's tax system, not yours

Velv
Coffee/keyboard

Apple Ireland “carried out only routine functions and were not involved in the development and commercialisation of Apple IP which drove profits,” says Plea 4.

So pay the tax where the profits were actually made and not in a low tax jurisdiction so as to avoid paying it you fucking blood sucking leeches

Google agrees to break pirates' domination over music searches

Velv
Big Brother

Re: Dangerous precedent

FAKE NEWS - this never happened and if it had happened it would entirely have been for your protection.

Judicial process is there to ensure fairness, the world increasingly seems to want to remove these safeguards and plough on regardless. Politicians and the people alike. "EXPERTS - what do experts know! We're not going to listen to them, I'm free to make my own decisions"

Be scared. Be very scared.

Apple: Don't panic, but your Mac can be pwned via GarageBand .bands

Velv
Trollface

"installed by default"

D'oh!

I thought all good OS's had got past those shenanigans

The Register's guide to protecting your data when visiting the US

Velv

Re: Don't accept it, act on it

but were I to suggest to my employer that the USA was a no-go, then I'd be on the first train out-of-town to P45 land. The sad reality that neither the USA nor my employers really have any regard for me (or anyone really).

Unless you were specifically employed with international travel as a requirement of the job then you'd stand a good chance of constructive dismissal. No employer can compel you to leave the country.

The USA will see a dip in foreign visitors. Will it be enough for some to take notice, not sure.

Want to come to the US? Be prepared to hand over your passwords if you're on Trump's hit list

Velv
Coat

Re: It could be worse.

Bonjour, mon nom est Donald, je suis un Canadien, pas des États-Unis d'Amérique et je suis une personne agréable, honnête

Laptop-light GoCardless says customers' personal data may have been lifted

Velv
Boffin

Disk Encryption

This is an example of why you apply disk encryption to not only your laptops but your desktops as well. Burglars will take both, and users do like to dump files locally.

Servers may also require disk encryption if they're stored in a cupboard like many small businesses.

Apologies for pointing out the blindingly obvious, but common sense really isn't that common.

A non-Standards Soviet approved measure of weight? Sod off, BBC!

Velv
Headmaster

432 gallons per mile

EU whacks first nail into mobile roaming charges' coffin

Velv
Facepalm

... will be able to use their phones as if they were actually in a single market.

D'Oh!

Wanna protect your data center? Take tips from the US Secret Service

Velv
Boffin

As mentioned, implementing on to an existing legacy network is a massive undertaking that will result in outages.

However it should be done for all new deployments. Start locked down and only open what must be opened.

One other caveat - make sure everyone involved fully understands the concepts, rationale and technical requirements otherwise you'll end up with a broken network that's a nightmare to maintain.

Ohio bloke accused of torching own home after his pacemaker rats him out to cops

Velv
Big Brother

Metadata captures the criminal

I'm just waiting for the next logical use of the data off our devices and records.

Police find body buried in the woods, pathologist sets a time of death and potential time of burial.

Police approach mobile phone networks for details of all devices in the area in said timeframe.

Knock, knock!!!

Parliamentary Trump-off? Pro-Donald petition passes 100k signatures

Velv
Boffin

So the two petitions have been signed at a ratio of roughly 10:1, a fairly significant clear expression of the public's opinion given Scottish Independence polled 55:45 and Brexit polled 52:48

President Donald Trump taken on by unlikely foe: Badass park rangers

Velv
Big Brother

Re: Trump is in for a wake up call.

"Whistleblowing and the protections surrounding it are exactly the type of regulations holding back business and will be next in line to be removed."

Just wait for it...

UK.gov tells freelance techies to slap 20 per cent on fees as IR35 tax hike looms

Velv

"the correct running of their companies in line with the legislation that affects all companies"

Ah, but the problem is that the legislation doesn't apply equally to all companies.

If a company is to supply a worker to another company or a government agency then the rules should be equal for all companies. IR35 means small companies are penalised for supplying workers where the big companies can supply the same worker without the "employee" tax implications while being in a better position to reduce their corporation tax liabilities.

And who is advising the government? - the big consulting companies!

Velv
Facepalm

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

"Yes, we're going to get an extra £400million in tax from the contractors we employ and it's only going to cost us, er, and extra £400million a year to do it."

Trump's FBI boss, Attorney General picks reckon your encryption's getting backdoored

Velv
Pirate

"We're going to remove regulation. Regulation is killing industry, killing business. Sad"

What he gives with one hand he takes away with another. You can make it law, but that doesn't mean companies will comply.

You can fine those that don't comply, but at some point the cost of doing business in the US outweighs the profits, and the tech giants will relocate to a less regulated jurisdiction.

Assange reverse-ferrets on promise to fly to US post-Manning clemency

Velv
Coffee/keyboard

If you mean pardon then say pardon

Pardon = 6 characters

Clemency = 8 characters

Asshole left it deliberately vague so he would never need to make good on the promise.

Velv
Flame

Even if it wasn't the clemency he meant, instead of going to the US, Asshole should at the very least exit the Equador embassy and face the charges laid against him in Sweden and the UK. He might be surprised and be cleared in both jurisdictions...

Phoney McPhoneface: The thrilling tale of ZTE's crowdsourced mobe

Velv
Headmaster

Hawkeye

The community (and ZTE) can dub it Hawkeye if they like but I suspect they're very quickly going to fall foul of several existing trademarks for technology.

Outage-hit Lloyds Bank in talks to outsource data centres to IBM

Velv

In, Out, In, Out, Shake it all about

Bank of Scotland outsourced everything to IBM Global Services in a 10 year deal a number of years ago. It was in sourced after 18 months either due to the Halifax "merger" or the Lloyds "merger".

And now Lloyds are putting it out again...

EE brings 1,000 call centre jobs to UK and Ireland

Velv

In other news, 3,000 Indian call center workers are brought over to Blighty.

In my experience any one of three members of the same family would turn up for the one persons job on any given day. We even had a brother turn up to cover his sisters shift.

FBI takes gag out of Cloudflare's mouth after three-year legal battle

Velv
Joke

Re: I'd say that the gag was unlawful

"...surely most of those are exempt from the US laws?"

Nothing is exempt from US Laws. Nothing!

Uber's Movement dumps data on city planners

Velv
Headmaster

Sample Bias

I'm quite sure the data has some value, however the type of travel (I.e. A paid for journey) is only one type of journey and therefore the result are likely to be skewed.

Corrupt NHS official jailed for £80k bribe over tech contract

Velv
Holmes

Re: Having seen the latest NHS IT Software in action

This being an IT rag, the first thing you learn when performing any diagnosis of a fault is never to trust what someone before you has written in the notes.

It's a well known failing even in humans with the best of intentions that they don't collect all the information, don't note it down clearly, and don't necessarily ask all the right questions in the first place.

The IT is just a means to an end being a note taking system. I'm quite comfortable that medical staff ask the same questions over and over to recheck the facts - better than them cutting your balls off when you said the balls of your feet were itchy.

Top cop: Strap Wi-Fi jammers to teen web crims as punishment

Velv
Facepalm

Clearly the only way to solve the crime problem is to make every crime a capital crime. You don't get repeat offenders.

(we need a proper sarcasm icon!)

Assange confirmed alive, tells Fox: Prez Obama 'acting like a lawyer'

Velv
Facepalm

Does ASSange really think the Russian government are going to act directly with WikiLeaks? Or is he so stupid he didn't they'd try to cover their tracks.

Unless he personally oversaw the hack then he like the rest of us has no clue as to who actually undertook it. It may have passed through many hands before it reached WikiLeaks, and like most megalomaniac hackers almost all of them probably tried to claim (in the dark world) that they were the source.

The US claims to have evidence pointing to involvement from various parties, however I'm experienced enough to know that the evidence is only a pointer, and not nailed on stand up in a free court incontrovertible proof. We will probably never know.

Apple sued by parents of girl killed by driver 'distracted by FaceTime'

Velv
Pint

I was looking for a good analogy but I think you've hit it perfectly.

"Sue a beer brand when a person has been drinking too much?"

Now, off to the pub I go, I'm fairly sure SABMiller has the funds to pay me for falling over. They should have fitted a breathalyser to the font to stop me being served too much beer.

Snapchat coding error nearly destroys all of time for the internet

Velv
Boffin

Re: So why

It's not that simply to test to the scale of 150million daily users.

Velv

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so

(Douglas Adams)

National Lottery whacked with £3m fine for suspect ticket win

Velv

Re: They miss-sold their product to me

How do you know it wasn't lucky?

Perhaps if you hadn't taken the time to buy it you'd have been knocked down by a bus.

Not all "luck" is measured through money...

Europe to launch legal action against countries over diesel emissions cheating

Velv
Boffin

Re: Why can't the EU...

"The problem is that VW cars met the laws/standards as laid down by the EU... "

Err, no, the point is they didn't meet the standards as laid down by the EU in the first place. They actively changed the output when being measured so as to appear to meet the standard. Cheat. Fraud.

All governments should have taken enforcement action. Now that could end up being a slap on the wrist, as the enforcement would be detrimental to the overall economy, but the governments should have APPEARED to do something. You have seen Yes, Minister, haven't you?.

Microsoft announces 16 years of support for Windows, SQL Servers

Velv
Trollface

Re: Sounds kind of like,

Why all this bitching about the UI? Don't you know real SysAdmins never use a GUI!

In fact you're not even a real Linux Fanbois if you don't script everything prior to running those shell commands.

$17k win for man falsely accused of a terrible crime: Downloading an Adam Sandler movie

Velv
Boffin

Re: False accusations

Since the judges also acknowledge the worrying trend with lawyers exploiting the system, perhaps it's time to introduce punitive rewards for vexatious prosecutions.

Plaintiffs should have a realistic prospect of winning their case on the evidence presented in court, not the defendant failing to turn up.

Privacy is theft! Dave Eggers' big-screen takedown of Google and Facebook emerges

Velv
Gimp

Tom Hanks

As featured in the trailer Tom Hanks reminds me more of Steve Jobs

'Toyota dealer stole my wife's saucy snaps from phone, emailed them to a swingers website'

Velv
Boffin

Companies are legal entities in themselves and since the employees are representing the company said company is legally responsible. The Directors are the named individuals who's duty it is to ensure the company operates within the law, and Directors can go to jail if a company commits a criminal act.

So both the individual and the employer can be prosecuted for the criminal acts. It's very important that this concept exists, otherwise unscrupulous business owners could encourage their business to break the law with impunity.

The level of punishment or compensation is a different issue

Plastic fiver: 28 years' work, saves acres of cotton... may have killed less than ONE cow*

Velv
Trollface

Principles are all very well, that's up to you. Every time someone mentions Vegans and animals we get the same line about them buying plastic shoes instead of leather because of the animals.

Plastic shoes... Bought with plastic fivers... Plastic...

Just sayin'

Google turns on free public NTP servers that SMEAR TIME

Velv
Boffin

Sub-second accuracy

I'd suggest if you've got something that critically relies on sub-second accuracy then you shouldn't be relying on the OS clock and NTP.

If you don't have your own counter, at the very least you need code to handle fluctuations in the length of a second because all sorts of things can affect the clock cycles of off the shelf hardware running off the shelf OS's.

Trump's FCC will soak net neutrality in gas and toss in a lit match

Velv
Boffin

Re: You deserve everything you vote for.

I'm going to down vote, and here's why

If the vote had been purely about Net Neutrality then yes, you get what you vote for, Simples.

But I don't recall any candidate in the entire race standing on that issue. So irrespective of the faults with American "democracy" resulting in the losing candidate winning the election, it's a package deal where votes were cast over other (many would argue more important) issues, not net neutrality.

Vegans furious as Bank of England admits ‘trace’ of animal fat in £5 notes

Velv
Boffin

Re: Tallow is for Steric Acids, as a lubricant.

Thank you, you got there before me.

So the next logical conclusion is that all packaging and non-food products need to contain an ingredients breakdown, as a quick google indicates a number of animal by-products are used in the production of many plastics. And many other things

Confirmation of who constitutes average whisky consumer helps resolve dispute

Velv
Headmaster

Re: Blended

Technically, unless it's the outturn of a single cask, even Single Malt is a blend. It just happens to be a blend of casks produced from the same distillery.

100k+ petition: MPs must consider debating Snoopers' Charter again

Velv
Black Helicopters

Re: Well...

You forget that the law only makes it legal for the security services to do what they've been doing for some time

Small ISPs 'probably' won't receive data retention order following IP Bill

Velv
Headmaster

Oh, well, that's all right then, nothing to fear. The new law is simply permitting the practise they're already doing.

And it's not like nobody has ever taken a law and put an new interpretation on it at a later date. Loophole I think is the term normally used. Doing something unexpected within the letter of the law if not the spirit.

Can we all now avoid paying tax using offshore companies because the letter of the law says we can even if HMRC says that's not the spirit of the law?

Didn't think so. Muppets!

USS Zumwalt gets Panama tug job after yet another breakdown

Velv
Boffin

Re: Scotty?

Los motores no pueden tomar el capitán!!!

Visa cries foul over Euro regulator's stronger authentication demands

Velv

Re: Does this give Apple Pay the finger then?

Apple Pay is only a front end to your existing card.

It may be that unlocking the phone is deemed sufficient authorisation in the chain.

Allow us to sum this up: UK ISP Plusnet minus net for nine-plus hours

Velv
Headmaster

"bungling Brit broadband ISP Plusnet"

Last time I looked El Reg wasn't owned by News International. Please stop with The Sun style journalism.

Irish eyes are crying: Tens of thousands of broadband modems wide open to hijacking

Velv
Childcatcher

Back doors are BAD!

Watching War Games should be mandatory for everyone working in IT. There needs to a Certification and you don't get to work unless you've passed the movie exam

Hackers electrocute selves in quest to turn secure doors inside out

Velv
Boffin

Push The Button To Exit

Which is one of the reasons good security doors require you to authenticate every time you open the door no matter which way you are transiting.

Even more securely some of them will have mechanisms to attempt to ensure only one person can transit at a time, although not being the svelte athlete I once was I have fallen foul of one suggesting there were two people inside :(

British politicians sign off on surveillance law, now it's over to the Queen

Velv
Big Brother

I am no security expert. What we need from one of you frighteningly clever chaps is an idiots guide to setting up this vpn

There's some really good security guides on the NSA and GCHQs websites. They even have some recommendations on good providers.