* Posts by Velv

2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010

I want to remotely disable Londoners' cars, says Met's top cop

Velv
Headmaster

"That's why hecalopter pursuit have two people on board, pilot and spotter."

Actually they usually have three on board. Pilot, front seat observer (Observer One), and rear seat observer, (Observer Two, or Tactical Commander).

http://content.met.police.uk/Site/adayinthelifeofasu

Three outsources staff to Capita

Velv
Childcatcher

Hindsight is a wonderful thing

Why do you think they got round to getting Customer Service right with their own internal team?

So they could unfairly measure the performance of the outsourced contract once it kicks in

HP Inc's rinky-dink ink stink: Unofficial cartridges, official refills spurned by printer DRM

Velv
Boffin

I'm in no way defending HP, and I have no connection to any manufacturer or vendor, but I'd like to relay one story for consideration.

For a large financial services company I was once involved in an experiment in the difference between buying original Lexmark laser toner and a cheaper third party cartridge. We ran two of each across two of the same model of printer until they ran out.

Much to our surprise the original Lexmark printed twice as many pages despite being only 50% more to buy. What was more surprising was that way more paper jams occurred when printing with the third party cartridge than with the Lexmark wasting paper and time. There was also a subjective quality opinion that the original cartridge produced "cleaner, sharper" prints.

So across the 500 printers in the business the Lexmark original was by far the lower TCO despite having a higher unit cost in front of the bean counters.

Clearly it isn't practical for home or small office users to undertake these experiments, but perhaps a trusted publication might? Which? Or El Reg?

EU ends anonymity and rules open Wi-Fi hotspots need passwords

Velv
Big Brother

Just because it's free, as in no charge, doesn't mean it's free, as in anonymous.

All your data is ours...

Velv
Big Brother

What we need is some form of National Identity card that can be used to centrally identify and authenticate us a citizens so we don't need to provide the same details over and over again.

Then a central store could be made of everything we do, you know, as a backup, just in case we make a mistake, or lose it and need to go back, or like investigate who's been doing bad things.

And we can sell the details to some exclusive partners so they can help us in the future.

</sarcasm>

Great British Great Bake Off gets new judge

Velv
Coat

I still remember the not-so-innuendo Julian Clary quip at the Britsh Comedy Awards about fisting Norman Lamont.

It wasn't the joke that was the funny bit, it was the kid who turned to his Mum and went "Mum, who's Norman Lamont?"

Delete Google Maps? Go ahead, says Google, we'll still track you

Velv
Big Brother

It's only a matter of time before the authorities in one country or another subpoena the records for a location from Google to determine who was at that location at a given time.

Sony wins case over pre-installed Windows software

Velv

Re: "without pre-installed software"

@ Just Enough

"But that's a invalid argument anyhow. If Apple want to sell their product in only one configuration/OS/colour/whatever then that's up to them. Other hardware is available from other suppliers."

EXACTLY. If Sony want to sell their product in one configuration then they are equally free to do so. So the argument is not invalid, it is the exception that proves the rule.

Apple killed OS X today and binned its $10,000 BlingWatch too

Velv

Re: UK Prices Are Up

When I saw the article say prices had dropped I immediately went to apple.com as I'd been considering an iPad Pro. Yes, the base prices had gone UP. Fortunately you aren't required to buy from Apple and I found Tesco and PCWorld still had them at the old price. Other retailers may be the same (I didn't check).

When you've paid the ransom but you don't get your data back

Velv
Headmaster

Schrödinger's Backup

The existence of a backup is not known until you've successfully restored.

GE runs off $1.4bn, hands it to two 3D printing firms

Velv

Re: Better than Plastic

We've been manipulating metals for 5,000 years (the Bronze Age), so given this technique really is still in its infancy I can easily see it replacing existing mainstream production methods. OK, maybe not in the next ten years, but sometime this century.

QANTAS' air safety spiel warns not to try finding lost phones

Velv
Headmaster

Re: The ultimate iPhone destruction video waiting to be made?

"BA even makes up your bed while you change into jimjams they provide."

Probably the most expensive jimjams you've ever bought.

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn wants high speed broadband for all. Wow, original idea there

Velv
Coat

"It is not fair the people living in London can enjoy 4G... where in many parts of Wales people can't even get a single bar."

Reciprocal arrangement? The people of London struggle to get a single Baa

EU verdict: Apple received €13bn in illegal tax benefits from Ireland

Velv

Re: What I don't get...

@ it wasnt me

"I really wish our government would have the balls to say that the tax rate is x% of sales, non-negotiable"

So what you're saying is "let's do away with corporation tax entirely and only charge a sales tax to the consumer. Because that's what a tax on sales is, a tax on the end purchaser only. You really hadn't thought through your statement, had you...

False Northern Lights alert issued to entire UK because of a lawnmower

Velv
Coat

Makes a change. Normally it's the cleaner getting the blame for removing a plug so she* could plug the Hoover¥ in

*she/he

¥ other brands of vacuum cleaner are available.

Facebook, Twitter and Google are to blame for terrorism, say MPs

Velv
Childcatcher

Re: Chilcot Report

It was even nicely presented as a show at this years Edinburgh Fringe:

https://iraqoutloud.com/

Took 245 hours and 45 minutes to read out.

Velv
Big Brother

Hidden Agenda

How many PMs, party activists and policies have been outed, thwarted or exposed as corrupt due to social media?

"The proletariat cannot be permitted to challenge the leading classes in government and we must find a reason to block these social media tools from being used to undermine what we as politicians say is good for the people."

As I say, hidden agenda...

NASA's free research trove may have broken arms trafficking rules

Velv
Headmaster

There are closed communities where items can be published amongst peers

Paper mountain, hidden Brexit: How'd you say immigration control would work?

Velv
Mushroom

" it would take 140 years to process everybody"

Which is fine. In 30 years we'll be having a referendum to join the Eurasian Power House at which point all those pending applications will become irrelevant.

Two G4S call centre staff sacked over 999 answering scam

Velv
Headmaster

Re: Evil staff, scheming so their bosses can hit their goals...

I was going to point out that the article says nothing about any personal target they had to hit to ensure any personal bonus was paid, however checking the linked Guardian article includes the missing "it is understood individual staff members were not on a financial bonus scheme linked to performance"

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook block of Adblock Plus block of Facebook ads

Velv
Gimp

When will people learn...

If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold.

Perhaps this is the first step to a subscription Facebook, pay a premium not to be served adverts.

Velv
Childcatcher

Brought to you through the provision of advertising.

D'oh!

Thieves can wirelessly unlock up to 100 million Volkswagens, each at the press of a button

Velv
Boffin

Layers of security

Once inside you can plug into the OBD and attack the poorly protected management unit

Plus you can steal the packet of polos in the glove box

Julian AssangeTM to meet investigators in London

Velv

Re: i know but...

From a quick google, the EAW is a framework and therefore only comes into force when each member state enacts it into domestic law.

So since it's already in domestic law, in or out of the EU makes no difference until domestic law is changed, we'll still play the same rules with the other counties covered by the domstic law (which may be labelled as "EU members" and not individually named, I haven't checked).

Facebook to forcefeed you web ads, whether you like it or not: Ad blocker? Get the Zuck out!

Velv
Childcatcher

Irrelevant ads? Never.

Not a day goes by where I don't wonder what type of jet engine I should buy so it's really useful Facebook keeps putting the Sonsored Links for Pratt & Whitney PT6 engine on my timeline.

Brit network O2 hands out free Windows virus with USB pens

Velv
Joke

Isn't there an old saying something along the lines of "beware of Geeks bearing gifts"...

If you use ‘smart’ Bluetooth locks, you're asking to be burgled

Velv
Headmaster

"Thatcham also appear to make them, again reputable brand moving into the new tech did they do it well or just buy a chinese brand ?"

I may be wrong, but a quick google appears to confirm Thatcham remains the organisation that tests and certifies security devices and they aren't a "brand" as such.

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Velv

The "licence" model made sense when a significant proportion of people didn't own a TV.

Now there are so many services provided by the BBC it can be argued everyone in the UK uses the BBC. Yes, there is a tiny proportion who don't, but there are other national services we all pay for and don't necessarily use. So why not collect the BBC "fee" through Council Tax and the commercial equivalent.

Mozilla 404s '404 Not Found' pages: Firefox fills in blanks with archive.org copies

Velv
Childcatcher

Appearing in a Court near you soon...

Given the "Right to be forgotten" rulings it isn't going to be long before someone gets upset at links being magically offered up after they've already been "removed".

HMRC's IR35 tweaks have 90% of UK's IT contractors up in arms

Velv

"employees without the benefits"

Let's clear up one thing.

Contractors are paid a gross sum from which the Limited Company is expected to provide ALL the benefits for the "employee" - salary, holiday pay, sick pay, pension, health care, critical illness, jury cover, car, gym membership, etc, etc, etc. If you as Director choose to only provide a small salary as a benefit that's your choice, but you have been paid by the engaging company to provide all the benefits, that's why it's usually at a higher rate.

Don't use a VPN in United Arab Emirates – unless you wanna risk jail and a $545,000 fine

Velv
Big Brother

So glad I live in the UK where we don't have leaders putting laws in place to make sure the state has access to everyone's communications...

</sarcasm>

Bot-herders fire fake GPS co-ords at Niantic to collect Pokémon

Velv

Ah, reminds me of the old Spectrum days where the challenge was a short romp through the loader programme to get all the goodies instead of playing the game.

Flight sim records show MH370 captain practiced 'flight' near search area

Velv
Black Helicopters

Proper conspiracy theory would have landing on a secret stealth aircraft carrier ...

PHP flaws allowed God mode access to top smut site

Velv
Paris Hilton

Re: What I want to know.

JoeW: "Not only that, but Facebook will actually block pornhub/xvideos/xhamster links if you try to send them via messenger"

We won't make any inferences from the fact you know this...

<snigger>

Tight-wad Apple repair techs swapped our damaged iGear with used kit – lawsuit

Velv

Merkins

Don't forget just how screwed up American Courts are. This is the country where a group of people sued Red Bull because it didn't literally "give you wings".

And what's really fucked up is that they won the case and were awarded $13million in damages.

http://www.energydrinksettlement.com/

HMRC research finds 'resistance' to proposals to shift contractor tax compliance burden

Velv
Boffin

HMRC should drop IR35 entirely.

If an individual is employed by their own limited company them they must already comply with all the same tax rules as every other limited company and employee. So the fault is not with the employment through an intermediary but the rules concerning operation of a limited company.

Don't like how some companies structure their operations to gain a business advantage? Then change the rules on how companies can be structured. Don't try and fudge even more complex and onerous "schemes" onto business because some people gain a business advantage by following the rules.

And this is about punishing people who follow the rules. These changes are not designed to address fraud and will make no difference to those who already commit tax fraud.

Schrödinger's cat explained with neutrinos

Velv

2012

Has anyone updated Dara O'Briain on his 2012 sketch?

(on a line in the movie 2012) " 'The neutrinos have mutated.' Now, for the non-nerds here: neutrinos are tiny, sub-atomic, really really almost massless particles, they're released in nuclear breakdowns, like in the sun, for example. Five hundred trillion of them pass through your bodies every second. They can't mutate. Their structure is fundamental to the structure of the universe. Right? They can't just change. He might as well have gone, 'The electrons are angry'."

Hackers steal millions from ATMs using 'just their smartphones'

Velv
Boffin

"ATM's with wifi?"

At what point in the article does it mention anything about ATMs with wifi?

The on site thief is probably a mule simply receiving instructions from a remote person telling them which ATM and what buttons to press. Someone remote is commanding the operation, because if you're smart enough to break into the bank you're probably smart enough not to get caught on the CCTV raiding each ATM.

At best the smartphone is being used over 3G to connect back through the thieves command and control centre into a hacked bank then over the bank network to the ATM, although this is less likely.

UK gov says new Home Sec will have powers to ban end-to-end encryption

Velv
Big Brother

Dear People who think we should get rid of the House of Lords

If we didn't have a bicameral system with two houses then this would already have been law in its unmoderated form over a year ago.

Now I'm no particular defender of the way the upper house isn't elected, but the fact we have the upper house puts a measure of control on the shite that is passed into law.

Be very wary of an proposal to remove the Upper House. Reform it, yes. But watch for attempts to remove it.

Velv
Terminator

Re: Wow

They watch TV and Moves.

Let's face it there wouldn't be a good story if the hero couldn't break the unbreakable code.

10 minutes into a real world movie...

Hero: "might as as well just go home now, it's end to end encrypted with a secure cypher. Yes, I can break it, but you'll need to give me a few hundred years and access to a supercomputer"

Fin

<role credits>

Velv
Pirate

They can write anything they like into the law, at a practical level they haven't got a whelks chance in a supernova of enforcing it.

Tupperware vehemently denies any link to storage containerisation

Velv
Coat

And you think referring to "lunch boxes" isn't going to draw other unwanted attention?

Trainline.com dumps Oracle and Microsoft, gulps AWS Kool-Aid

Velv
Pirate

Re: Rip Off

So good point, why use the trainline website when you could use the train company website, like Virgin.

Except Virgin use their site. Or rather, Virgin use their engine. As do many other train companies. So trainline's main business is as an engine provider to the train companies, not the public, and any users of the trainline website is just bonus fleecing.

Velv
Headmaster

Who's concerns over reliability?

Perhaps they've done the maths?

Perhaps the lost revenue if AWS is down for a set % of the time it is still cheaper than running their own in-house IT?

You'll have to ask Kohlberg Kravis Roberts what they actually expect.

Building continuous availability systems is expensive, and just because trainline had no downtime in the past 12 months doesn't mean they actually built an high availability system - they might have been lucky and had less failure than the system was designed to expect.

Use Brexit to save smokers' lives and plug vaping, say peers

Velv
Childcatcher

Hmmm, lets see.

You manufacture a product to meet European regulations so you can export it to 500million people. Then this piddling little market breaks away and sets its own different regulations.

Do you:

a) invest in modifying your product to serve two different markets; or

b) fuckem, they can have what we make for Europe.

There are probably niche players who only manufacture for the UK, but the majority aren't going to bother their arse when they're still selling to 440million+ Europeans.

Bloke 'lobbed molotov cocktails' at Street View car because Google was 'watching him'

Velv
Pirate

Re: Looks like...

"All of those are described in a good History (and Chemistry) books. The uncensored ones (rather difficult to find them in the UK due to thought crime restrictions)."

Didn't take me long to find them and I'm in the UK. Google is your friend

I say that, I didn't actually open them, just kind of remembered what to search for (see icon) and the results list looked promising.

Theft of twenty-somethings' IDs surges

Velv
Terminator

Re: Millennials

I once heard it described thus:

From age zero to 15ish everything new in the world is just the normal stuff in the world

From 15ish to 30ish everything new is hip groovy exciting new stuff

From 30s onwards everything new is voodoo magic

Global 'terror database' World-Check leaked

Velv
Coat

Re: uhh

I thought Who was on First

Florida man sues Apple for $10bn, claims iPod, iPhone was his idea

Velv
Boffin

"Here's the report you requested Captain Pickard"

1987

Chatbot lawyer shreds $2.5m in parking tickets

Velv
Unhappy

"Do you wish to register a complaint?"

"Yes" > /dev/NULL