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* Posts by deadlift

28 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Feb 2011

Just because we're letting Zoom into Parliament doesn't mean you can have fun, House of Commons warns Brit MPs

deadlift

Double bubble

Given that Parliament manages to have two separate catering companies depending on which end of the building you're in, it's no surprise that they have competing, incompatible VC systems.

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Don't worry, IT contractors. New UK chancellor says HMRC will be gentle pushing IR35 rules

deadlift
WTF?

What's with the blanket assessments?

When I was a government employee I must have done over 100 assessments using CEST. Now I know CEST isn't always reliable, but every single assessment put the contractor out of scope (outcomes-based contracts, substitution allowed, use own equipment). If the civil service can do it, why can't the private sector?

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Tesco tosses loss-making Blinkbox into TalkTalk's basket

deadlift
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Re: Hello, I'm on the train - and very, very worried

Tesco Mobile is 50% owned by Telefónica, so add that to your worries.

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Groupon pops corks: Happy CEO, sales and shares up, profit... oh

deadlift
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FAIL

Re: Thought they'd gone to the wall

I used them a couple of times for restaurant deals where I didn't think what I got was worth what they claimed it was. Then I used them for some rugby tickets - got screwed over because they sent me a duff redemption code and their support was closed for a week over New Year. Never again.

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PORNAGEDDON: Sexy bloggrs stung by Tumblr smut smackdown

deadlift
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Re: "Adult"..?

To quote Calvin and Hobbes...

Calvin: It says this movie contains "Adult situations"... what does that mean?

Hobbes: Probably things like going to work, paying taxes.

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Marks & Sparks accused of silently bonking punters over the tills

deadlift

If this is so easy, I'd note that when I bonked my wallet against a Visa reader at the 'lympics, it was rejected because I had two NFC cards and an Oyster card therein. I reckon "Paula from London" fancied a free bra.

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deadlift
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Re: Thought this might happen...

What fiasco? The passport chip is designed to be open and read. All it contains is a copy of the data page and photograph. The passport office even has an app for that.

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Murdoch hate sparks mass bitchin', rapid evacuation from O2, BE

deadlift

I've gone - got my MAC two days after the announcement. Switched everything to PlusNet FTTC, decision purely based on price but I have to say the customer service has been good.

I did blame the sell-out, and immediately the person at O2 retentions offered me a year's free broadband plus £100, then £200 credit on my mobile bill. They were desperate even back then.

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New rules to end cries of 'WTF... a £10 online booking fee?'

deadlift
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Re: mmmmm....

A lot of banks are now stripping out Visa/MC's 2.75% fee into a separate line, rather than rolling it into a single conversion as they used to. You're being charged the same, but the effort for clarify has led to confusion. I hate it.

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O2 refuses to deny plans to offload home broadband product

deadlift
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Re: Damn

Funny I had the same phone call after being out of contract for over a year. But the call centre monkey, when pressed about FTTC, said that an announcement would be made to customers around the summer.

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Ulster Bank waves £100 at punters pummelled by RBS IT fiasco

deadlift
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Re: ...and you would lose.

English law doesn't apply. ULSTER Bank. The clue's in the name.

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Facebook phone app attempts to seize ALL YOUR MAIL

deadlift

Does anyone know *definitively* if the FB app is doing this as a matter of course, or only when you resync contacts in the app? For example, I've noticed that it only updates profile photos when you sync contacts and even then there's the option to not over-write.

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Tesco exec brands UltraViolet 'too complicated' for Brits

deadlift
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Re: Personally i'm happy

TV Licensing isn't run by the government - it's run by CRapita on behalf of the BBC. I'm a civil servant; we're not that eager.

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Menaced cartoonist raises $60,000 for copywrong

deadlift

Y'all need to re-read Inmans' own version of events properly. FunnyJunk removed hundreds of his comics and cartoons after he objected, and the whole thing more or less died down until this lawyer stuck his nose in.

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Give Osborne a shovel: UK economy stuck in deep hole

deadlift
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Well let's see... I pay my full share of tax, unlike so many "captains of industry" in the private sector, thereby contributing to my own salary. I'm also in the *third* year of frozen pay.

Next time you want to bash a public sector worker, I hope you're not on the operating table of an NHS hospital.

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End of UK local dialling in sight as numbers run out

deadlift
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Mushroom

No no no

The only area code for London is 020.

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deadlift
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Local can be far

I live in the arse end of south London but my sister lives in St Albans, quite some distance away. However, 020 and 01727 are adjacent area codes, so it's a local call.

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UK gov 'Spads' hefty salaries released/buried

deadlift

This is the title

SpAds are considered "temporary civil servants" and are bound by the Civil Service Code - apart from the sections on impartiality....

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Budget airlines warned over 'hidden' debit card charges

deadlift
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FAIL

Except...

Amazon offers free delivery on everything. Everything. And 3rd party merchants have to disclose the delivery charges on the product page. And whilst you do have to enter the card details before you find out how much delivery will cost, you then have to confirm the transaction...

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O2 struggles for breath in widespread outages

deadlift
FAIL

People's Republic of Tooting

Well I've had f*ck-all 3G signal since January ever since someone drove into the mast near my flat. Mast has been replaced, but still no 3G at home. And this morning, no data connection at all.

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Alpha.gov.uk – it's nearly a beta

deadlift
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FAIL

IE6

Is, ironically, the civil service standard for browsers...

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A fifth of Europeans can't work out how much a TV costs

deadlift
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FAIL

Maths, you say?

Actually the VAT on a TV costing £499 is just under £85...

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Online car-buying firm agrees to more transparent pricing

deadlift
Grenade

DAMN YOU TO HELL, EL REG!

Now I've got that damn jingle in my head.

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Stop sexing up IT and give Civil Servants Macs, says gov tech boss

deadlift

A Mac in the Civil Service...?

Given that I'm still waiting for a browser better than IE6, the day I get a Mac on my desk is the day I start listening to what the Cabinet Office tells us...

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RIPA changes in Freedoms Bill don't protect privacy enough

deadlift

Surprised, not much

Given that the entire Bill is government by Daily Mail, what did you really expect?

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Credit cards at the turnstile across London by 2013

deadlift
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Why do I need a title for a reply?

Erm, with paper tickets the gates don't open until the ticket is removed from the upper slot... But agree about people who don't read the messages. They should be "re-educated".

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AA rolls out pricey own-brand satnav app

deadlift
Go

Or...

... NavFree, which uses Open Street Map. And is free.

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MozyHome stiffs unlimited users

deadlift
Paris Hilton

Bye then

I found out about this via Lifehacker a full 36 hours before Mozy deigned to e-mail me. Ironically their e-mail came through after I'd cancelled my account. I realise that storage isn't free but this increase is extortion. I could buy a shiny new 3Tb HDD for the annual fee I'd have to pay to back up a couple of hundred Gb...

Paris, because she knows how to give a good shafting.

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