Posts by Roland6

Re: "the charge into a passwordless future"

>However they they do have drawbacks, such as their price and availability, being small enough to lose easily unless you've attached them to a fob of some sort, and requiring the device you use them with to have a USB socket .

It is these drawbacks that effectively mean there will never be a total replacement for memorable passwords.

Yes, I use password safes etc. but really critical stuff (like the key to the password safe) is in human readable and memorable form.

Re: 2FA problem

>are the man+dog outfits that insist on one login per account

Its not just man+dog outfits, there are some major cloud-based security vendors who only provide a single account with no means of creating further 'user' accounts...

Re: What is 'Fibre'?

> VDSL costs more to deliver because you need to install a powered ONT in each cabinet - and it consumes a lot of power. If you enable vectoring to deliver better speeds offsetting crosstalk, it consumes even more power. GPON is a passive technology that is far better than VDSL - far larger coverage with less power.

Perhaps there might be some silver lining to the current massive price increases in UK gas and electricity...

Re: Why I'm spoiling the statistics

>3. You know it will be a bad experience switching over.

What catches many out is the need for a double power outlet at the NTU so that the modem and router can be directly attached.

Personally, I would prefer the NTU to be like the ones fitted by Glide, which are unpowered and have a socket for an LC fibre tail.

I've hesitated on this as where the BT enters my house there is no power and no simple way of getting power to that location, so OpenReach will have to bring the fibre in somewhere else....

Re: " I just switched from bt to ee and halved my monthly bill."

I just assume EE is, like PlusNet, still operated as a separate business. One thing I have found notable is how they seem to be able to get good OpenReach engineers out to customers.

Re: What is 'Fibre'?

The orginal comment wasn't wrong, just a customer of commercial businesses that see they can make money by dicing up a 60cm pipe for a premium. Once we get to a point where its say: 1Gbps up and 1Gbps down, unlimited data, for say £20 pcm and so dicing it up starts to cost more than is worth to the supplier, only then will we see them offering the 60cm pipe as standard.

Re: HS2 or FTTP?

>Worth noting that the environmental “impact” is not actually well studied.

Maybe, however, in the first release of the HS2 route it was clearly stated that the proposed route failed to satisfy any of the government's mandatory environmental requirements.

>There’s also a legitimate question about whether saying “the business case is marginal” is a valid statement when made in reference to national strategic infrastructure projects

Trouble is HS2 was a vanity project (remember as originally conceived it didn't actually go into London or Birmingham, yet would cut journey times between the two...) relabelled as a NSIP to make up for the lack of economic and business cases. I suggest the economic and business cases are even more important if only to make it crystal clear what the expectations are. By having done this with a client, I was able to push back against their sudden attack of penny-pinching to remind them that fundamental to their board-approved strategic business plan was massively improved communications infrastructure which naturally came at a much higher cost (x5 increase in opex); cut back on the infrastructure and their plan becomes undeliverable...

Re: Opinions from ...

>It is quite clear that he is talking about the move Putin played as genius, he is not saying it is the right thing.

neither is he saying it was a dumb move, so given this is Trump, that can be taken he approves.

Re: @martinusher - Sanctions and Resources

>This won't be any bloody war, at least not from Russian side.

Famous last words...

Russian went to war with Ukraine in the small hours today. Just because Putin isn't calling it a war doesn't mean it isn't a war!

Suppose we have 50 years of gas under the UK, by importing gas now we are likely to have n years of imported gas plus 50 years of UK gas.

By using our own reserves we get 50 years and hope there are still some foreign gas reserves available to us....

Re: A quiet word in China's ear is needed

Taiwan?

According to the UK media our fearless world-class Royal Navy recently sailed through the South China Seas, perhaps given all the Hong Kong residents now holding GB passports, we should be looking to use Putin's rationale to protect British Hong Kong citizens...

Re: An illusoary stranglehold?

>Its quite likely that any semiconductors they need can be bought from China.

It also occurred to me that an unintentional consequence of this will be to give China a market for the output from the fab's they are busy building.

I think with Financial crash, Brexit, CoViD et al. we (in the UK) are starting to appreciate just how interconnected and dependent on each other our world has become, in just a few decades.

What surprised me was the intelligence that suggested that Putin has deployed circa 100,000 troops - 90% of his armed forces around Ukraine, perhaps the door is open to China deciding to resolve issues it has over historic Chinese lands that were ceased by the USSR...

>So why has the Cuadrilla boss just published an open letter to UK Gov pointing out that if even 10% of the fracking output were available, we would be self-sufficient in gas for years?

He has spent a lot of investors money with no real return.

He also knows that it doesn't really matter that his reserve and output claims are fake, what's more important is getting the media soundbite and dim witted people recite the fake news as if it were fact.

He just needs the two wells he has just closed to go into production and they will generate sufficient revenues to repay investors and make him a very rich man, nothing else really matters.

Re: re. more blankets

>UK should do well out of this, given we're not really reliant on Russian gas. We'd be even less reliant, if we developed our own natural resources.

The UK would be marginally less reliant, my back-of-of-the-envelope calculations (done a couple of years back when fracking was a thing) indicated the total UK frack'able gas reserves were only sufficient to 100% supply the UK for circa 18 months.

So regardless of what we do develop, most of the UK energy is going to be from foreign resources.

Re: Real innovation here

>"with a computer inside"

Probably covers the logic chips found on all PC keyboards since before the IBM PC...

That will be a Palm Pilot paired with the Targus Stowaway (folding) keyboard.

Obviously, the CPU is in the Palm and not the keyboard, but as others have pointed out, putting the CPU in the keyboard is obvious as evidenced by long standing prior art.

Likewise wireless connection between CPU and display. So on the evidence which ever way Apple tries to cut it, this 'invention' is obvious.

Re: Intel creates software that sells hardware

> I wonder what hardware they have in mind for the new work on real-time?

Well I suspect as a possible replacement for Minix...

My accountant assures me that everything they do is in accordance with UK law as they understand it, hence the tax I pay does reflect my actual income; however, HMRC might choose to have a different interpretation and so ultimately it would be up to the courts to decide who's reading of the rules was correct.

I accept the tax I pay may be different to an employee, but it isn't my fault employees don't have the same accounting and tax freedoms.

Sorry to disabuse you, there is no legal way for a UK resident contractor working through a UK registered company to not pay the tax that reflects their actual income.

"Camouflaged employment" is under IR35 just a way for HMRC to deem certain business-to-business arrangements are actually employer-to-employee arrangements. Remember HMRC have not satisfactory explained how camouflaged employment by HMRC of personnel from their big SI partners is okay, yet exactly the same arrangement with an independent contractor isn't.

>HMRC is trying to get contractors to pay tax that reflects their actual income.

Delusional thinking.

With or without IR35, a UK registered company will pay all UK taxes HMRC demands for its level of income and expenditure. It in turn will pay its (UK-resident) employees in accordance with UK tax law.

So UK resident contractors working through a UK register company will already be paying the tax that reflects their actual income.

HMRC through IR35 effectively determines, for specific contracts, that all monies paid to a company are (for tax purposes) direct payments to the individual employee of that company. Note this determination take no account of the tax arrangements the company has with its employees.

Re: Does the UK have "pass thru"?

This is the part of IR35 that I've not really got. If the work is deemed to be inside IR35 then HMRC should be going after the agency.

Re: Dumb question...

I assume he had the payslips to show that he had received income net of PAYE and thus not liable.

As for nonpayment of NI, well, also not liable for these payments, however it will probably be in his interests to pay the minimum contribution (out of his net income) to have the year count towards his state pension.

This sort of nonpayment happens a lot when companies shutdown.

>One of the data centres that I used to work in used passive cooling. It had a large chimney/stack at one end of the building.

Reminds me of the design of the OVH Strasbourg data centre; as demonstrated the design is great for passive cooling and for spreading fires...

>When you're cooling 20,000 servers though, a big filtration unit suddenly becomes cost-effective

So you're no longer actually using grey water as coolant in the cooling system.

Okay it's a little pedantic but it does clarify there is some sophisticated filtration and conditioning between the 'grey'/mains water going in and the water cooling system.

I suspect given the choice many will opt for mains water as their reliable "grey" water supply as I suspect it will be cheaper than using an uncertain local source of 'grey' water.

> uses grey water for cooling.

Yes, another seemingly good idea that doesn't really work in practice.

We've had similar with RAID - remember the concept was to use large-scale redundancy to improve the reliability of cheap disks, the reality is we buy high spec disks for our disk arrays.

We're seeing the same with the idea of using used car batteries in home batteries, where it is increasingly becoming obvious it is more cost effective (for manufacturers) to use new cells in home batteries and simply scrap EoL car batteries.

In theory a gaming rig can use normal tap water for cooling, however reality means you are best advised to use special preparations using demineralised water etc. to prevent the build-up of sludge and scale. Similar with steam irons. Mine has an inbuilt scale filter, yet still needs regular descaling...

Re: Patenting is wot appens, innit

>Most innovation is done by individuals and universities.

And it can be argued because (for profit) companies have become overly focused on patents and their enforcement, individual researchers and universities have become much more protective (ie. less open) about their discoveries; until they get the patent...

Re: Ban software patents.

>Could you reasonably say that you can register a pending patent with blueprints, but an actual patent needs a working prototype?

In my youth I remember seeing many things carrying the warning "patents pending", which would seem to indicate there was a time when it was normal to apply for a patent - to set a date in time, and go into production etc.

Re: Ban software patents.

From the article it would seem both JPEG XL and CRAM are prior art and therefore the relevant committees need to simply go public to make such claim (and inform non-US patent offices of the obviousness of the MS US patent...), if they want to be kind, they can give MS 30 days in which to respond.

MS are going to have fun defending their patent as I suspect whatever MS claims to be "their invention" is obvious to someone skilled in the relevant fields.

Re: Privacy. We've heard of it.

> is it reasonable of us to continue to expect there to be some attempt to protect that privacy

I think this is the trap the proposer (Joe Fay) and many of those voting for the motion are falling into: expectations and reality.

I fully expect some attempt to be made to protect privacy, however, I know the reality and thus there is a risk that my communications may be eavesdropped on, typically by state players but increasingly by commercial interests and bad actors.

I think Jay in their close is being naive:

"Accepting the current reality doesn't mean you can't still hanker after a world where your privacy would indeed be respected. But here and now, vote for reality, and acknowledge that we should never expect our communications to be private."

Following this through, merely endorses government lobbying to outlaw encrypted communications, because only bad actors use encrypted communications; law abiding citizens have nothing to hide and thus fear.

It also means commercial interests will be emboldened to eavesdrop on conversations and potentially interrupt (man-in-the-middle): "excuse me couldn't help hearing you have a death in the family, XYZ funeral directors offer a sensitive service...press one to talk to one of our arrangers". Given this effectively happens today with our web searches, its only a matter of time before those 'free' to end user services such as FB, moving into other communication spaces.

So yes it is reasonable to expect our communications to be private to the same extent as they were over the fixed line telephone network, if only to make life difficult for bad actors and exploitative commercial actors.