Posts by Velv 2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010
His party made the rules.
Bed. Made. Sleep with the enemy in it.
Tax avoidance is legal. Aggressive tax avoidance is legal. Until the law is changed, faceless corporations are going to use it to the full extent. And don't for one minute think Governments (all of them) don't - HMRC have little leeway.
From the wording given here and on the CWU release it would appear that neither the correct consultation period nor TUPE are being applied. I sense a legal challenge imminent ... (unless the CWU have chosen to miss out some information)
In either case, my condolences to those affected. It may seem like a bad thing right now, but outsourcing then redundancy was the best thing that happened to me - I wish you the same success.
"Without Mac anti-virus how does one know ones Mac is infected?"
Simple answer - you don't.
That's why all good security organisations recommend that you run up-to-date ant-virus and anti-malware software.
Now, perhaps you don't want to pay for it an you think Apple should supply it for free. What do you think Apple are? Microsoft?
There are free options out there - a quick google will give options
Makes me think of Minority Report, and the pre-crimes unit.
If it's illegal to trade shares then surely they should take legal action against the company to make it stop trading. You don't see the Police standing outside shops that handle stolen goods blocking access just in case someone wants to enter - they prosecute the owners and those trying to deal.
It is the act of trading that is illegal, not the viewing of the information, but you're charged and prosecuted before you conduct the crime?
I love the commentards who proclaim "you'll NEVER find xyz on my network. I am the God. I set the rules".
I love their naivety, the fact they think they're in control.
Unless you own the company, you don't control squat! If the owner says "I want an iPad", you'll raise your protestations and highlight the risk, but ultimately you'll capitulate and they'll get their iPad. Your other option is quit (at which point it won't be your network), but then are you really that stupid?
You might be able to keep the proletariat in their place, but never say never (downvotes in 3,2,1...)
Sorry, but you clearly missed the point that 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G are capabilities, and Standards (GDM, CDMA, EDGE, LTE) are the how.
There has been too much media misuse of the G term, giving the impression it is a standard. Apple has been a huge marketing leader of this misuse, but journalists have followed the bandwagon so much so that all the manufacturers are caught in the same loop.
3G telecommunication networks support services that provide an information transfer rate of at least 200 kbit/s. 4G service must have 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s) for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).
Nothing in 3G or 4G mandates the protocol, frequency, or any other parameter to deliver the capability.
So there WILL be a 5G (capability). Now, is Samsung's tech going to meet that? That cannot be said at this time, since clearly no standards exist.
Fits very nicely with Bring Your Own Device.
There are already apps out there for VMWare, Citrix and plain old RDP (and probably others). So all you end up providing in an office is a WIFi access point and some authentication and a big set of pipes out of the building.
It's the future man, the future!!! (OK, it's not there just yet. There remain substantial "gaps", and cost is still high. When it finally becomes cost effective it won't be in exactly the form it is now. But there was a time when nobody would EVER have put a computer on a desk - that's just ridiculous)
Further, was just browsing the link to the offerings
"Financially-backed 99.9% up-time guarantee:
Peace of mind that your services are available with an industry-leading, financially-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee."
FINANCIALLY BACKED. Now I haven't actually downloaded the full T&Cs, but that sounds like recourse to me. And there may also be tighter conditions on RTO for single incidents, with the aggregate being 8 hours (but as I say, I haven't looked, but then neither did you).
But is 99.99% an option? Could you afford to put a second PC on every desk just to meet the uptime requirements? I don't know of any Enterprise that runs a 99.9% uptime desktop environment (server side perhaps, and perhaps a few key users, but not the entire desktop).
Taking your 100 staff as an example, how many of them suffer a single day outage spread across the year? They don't all break at once, but in most large enterprises I've seen you wait several hours before the break-fix engineer gets to you to rebuild the failed PC, and another hour for the rebuild. (yes, there are a few slick admins out there, but as the article says, most aren't).
Balance the cost against the risk. What if the 8 hour outage happens in the middle of the night? You win.
iPad = ~£500
Car = >£5,000
Flat = >£50,000 (OK, a very tiny one, but you get the idea)
So yes, there are occasions where private companies do collect proof of identity. Pubs do it for a pint (<£5), and that's a legal thing (<18). You make your own choice if it's justified to release your personal details.
No subsidy, no loan.
The customer is buying on a Bank issued Credit Card, so as far as Apple is concerned the customer is buying it outright.
The Bank is taking the credit risk, not Apple, and the Bank has already completed the necessary identity verification to issue the card.
Office365, GoogleDocs, etc?
Forget "Bring Your Own Device". How long before businesses start expecting you to Bring Your Own Software...
You buy* your personal copy of your chosen productivity suite and use it at home, on your mobile, your tablet, the Internet cafe and in the office.
(*buy, as in pay an annual fee, or watch adverts, or surrender your personal data, or whatever new hairbrained approach is introduced next week. Remember, if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold (yes, I use this a lot))
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
Soon there will be a substantial breach of personal data from one of the big boys. Or one of the big boys will use masses of personal data for something that is widely regarded as a breach of privacy (immoral at least, if not technically illegal).
The media will go mental. The public will go mental.
The law will change.
Companies of all sizes will continue to write poor user agreements and will continue to slurp data without much thought - it is the culture we currently live in.
I work in IT for Financial Services - we (largely) consider security quite high on the list (2FA, encryption, tokenisation, RBAC, layers of security). I also work with Supermarkets. For them, security is more a one layer password type thing.
It's the culture. It will only change through experience. As a kid you learn not to touch hot things by burning yourself. Pray it's not your personal data that is the blister on the burns experienced by our current IT culture.
SEP. Works perfectly. In theory.
Further, it shows exactly why a certain portion of the population (sales drones and managers) ended up on the Golgafrinchan B Ark.
When that cloud bursts, whose arse is the boss going to kick?
Now ask yourself - if you were responsible for your Enterprise IT, would you go with the people on the B Ark?
Sounds good in theory, but how do you build true resilient networks if there's only one network. (OK, so I know Cisco, Brocade, Juniper etc won't go out of business any day soon).
But seriously, if these guys want to build enterprise or telco class switching then they need to have two completely separate Chinese Walled streams developing the same product. This greatly reduces the risk of faults and flaws being introduced - no point in having two network connections if they both have the same fault and both fail in the same conditions.
Think I'm being excessive? Look at the specifications for Linx
Money.
Running virtualisation software is not just about the cost of the virtualisation software, it's about Total Cost of Ownership. If you're runnning a proper Enterprise you'll need to add a support contract to your "free" hypervisor, which pretty much brings the playing field level (VMWare excluded).
Remember, if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer - you're the product being sold!!!
(here, have this free bag of cocaine)
Further to my note, following my complaint call to Three Customer Service on receiving the final bill (on which point they offered to "knock five pounds off" (rejected)) they have "reviewed the last bill" and have calculated the costs of the 30 days notice only and suddenly all the minutes and data fit within the allowances.
They know they are potentially committing fraud (along with several other payers in the industry), but are willing to sail close to the wind as not enough customers challenge them.
Be *very* wary of any exit from a mobile contract, breach of conditions or not.
PAC codes are allegedly valid for 30 days, and you typically need to give 30 days notice. However most of the operators consider using the PAC code as an "early termination" (i.e. you've given less than 30 days notice).
They operators then pro-rate your allowance, and charge you any excess (minutes, MB, texts) at the out of allowance rates. They then charge an early termination fee at the same rate as your service rate for each day until the end of the 30 days. You still pay the equivalent of the 30 days notice, but you don't get the minutes, data or text from your contract.
If you use the PAC code on day 10, you only get one third of your monthly allowance, but still pay an equivalent charge to line rental for the 30 days. I have no problem paying the 30 days, but if I'm paying for 30 days I should get 30 days allowance, not 10 days allowance.
"El Reg would be interested to know which retailers sell five grand's worth of kit without checking the CVC, the home address or even the signature."
play.com (I know a victim)
They have a policy of only delivering the first order to the card holders home address. The second order can be sent to any address. Sadly however there is no time delay enforced between placing the orders, so the victim receives a single DVD at their home address from the first order and the thief receives all subsequent orders placed the same day at their drop address.
I always remember a quote from Theo Paphitis about his eureka moment (I think it was in the Radio Times about Dragons Den).
Theo advocates "It might seem blindingly obvious but business is all about common sense", but the eureka part was that "common sense isn't that common".
Having recently spent two hours on four separate calls to Three, DO NOT move any roles to India. Even the simplest of queries was misunderstood.
OK, so some of it is down to the aggressive scripts Three give their staff to use, but it was a NIGHTMARE. The last call was simply to get the PAC code so I could leave, something I eventually had to demand from the Manager.
Anyone who rules out anything is putting the blinkers on.
Disclosure: I work in IT for Banks (not currently RBS).
From a purely customer perspective my group of friends recently used the RBS mobile app to pay for dinner. One guy paid the bill by debit card, two gave him cash, and three paid by App. Select recipients mobile number, add the amount, and confirm payment. Text messages received in 10 seconds by recipient for each amount through Faster Payments. Saves all this walking home with £100 in tenners (unless going home via a bar with ladies of negotiable affection).
So you can only pay RBS mobile app users at present (or send to a Visa card, but I haven't tried that). But once the banks agree a standard, why wouldn't you be able to agree the payment by NFC bonk of the phones, then let Faster Payments transact in the background. Integration of NFC, App and FPS
NOBODY is claiming its fair.
What is being pointed out is that it is the LAW. The law is currently written to allow world trade.
For any Scottish Independence supporters - this is a key principle on which the SNP hopes to make money for Scotland - by having a lower Corporation Tax rate than the rest of the UK. Encourage multinationals to be based in the UK so you can tax all their EU activity at a lower rate than anyone else and you make a LOT of tax.
Let's not forget that Google DOES pay tax on its £2.5Bn of UK sales - just not tax in the UK.
Historically dashboards have proliferated with buttons and dials because each had only one purpose. In reality most of the dials are only required when something goes wrong.
So the only readout that probably needs to be there all the time is speed (which could be placed as HUD on the windscreen instead). Others only give information and warnings when necessary (or on request). I know some people are going to scream "but I need to see my ..." - well you're in the minority. Most drivers wouldn't know what was good or bad until it goes red.
Yet further down in the article, Apple SPOKESWOMAN Trudy Muller states:
“Apple may keep anonymised Siri data for up to two years,” Muller said. “If a user turns Siri off, both identifiers are deleted immediately along with any associated data. Our customers’ privacy is very important to us.”
BOTH IDENTIFIERS
They have a second identifier that permits them to track +6 months data. It is NOT therefore anonymous, but can be tied to a user. In defence of all commentards, the article contains contradictory information from Apple. But that's just business as usual too.
Now, no more Fanbois/Fandroid bitching please, it's sunny outside, go put the BBQ on :)
"You can build your own for about £30"
You can buy the components for your own for about £30.
Then add on your own time to assemble, cut fingers, swear, download, format, fail to connect, google fix connect, get in trouble with other half for not turning up for dinner, get it working, sits on desk with lose wires for a month, finally box and mount on wall.
I like doing stuff like this - its fun and educational to play with this sort of stuff. Proper geek stuff. But some people just want to buy it and use it. And if you had to charge yourself for your time, how much would it really cost you.
But have a beer for being a fellow geek. :)
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