Posts by JimboSmith

Re: Cost of doing business

Percentage of turnover globally rather than profits. Profits don’t need to amount to much and can be made so by accountants tricks. Turnover, that’s a different matter and much harder to shift to a tax haven.

Re: You get what you pay for

I had a call at my US house from a political party. They ignored my pleas that I can’t vote in any election over there. Then when I hung up they rather infuriatingly called back. So I asked if as a local taxpayer (property etc.) they were going to allow me to vote if they got in? That had the desired effect.

In the UK if somebody comes to the door canvassing for a political party I ask difficult questions they won’t know the answer to.. The last one I asked was what is your candidate’s position on tartrazine in foodstuffs? The look on their face was an amazing picture of bemusement and terror.

I’d never give my email address to a political party of any description. I use my own domain name for email. I give companies a unique address and if I get an unsolicited email to that address I know who it’s come from .

Re: I'm surprised this hasn't happened more often

Alcohol gel is another killer and works instantly.

They should have realised that you don't know what you get until you open the box.

Schrödinger's loot box?

Re: Ha.....Cisco......Fort Meade.......

A mate was installing a Mesh network in his house earlier in the year. He asked for my help in placing the various bits of kit around the place to get the best results. He’d bought Linksys Velop and whilst we were having a chat before doing anything I asked why he’d chosen the Linksys. He said he’d found an not vey old copy of Which who said they were good.

I said that’s great but don’t use their app for setup, there’s a way of doing it locally instead. He protested that he’d used it at a holiday home during their staycation without any issues and it was easy to use.

I pointed out that he was giving Linksys his wifi password, which was stored in the cloud and this was dangerous. He couldn’t see any problems so I showed him this https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/15/linksys_wifi_password_reset_malware_app/

And this

https://www.linksys.com/support-article?articleNum=317063

He was not happy about that and had a fit when he realised what the app did and where his data was stored. I said it was perfect for miscreants or a TLA to harvest lots of wifi passwords.

Re: The advantage of fake news

In Czechoslovakia you don’t need to hack the EAS to cause panic. This was I believe broadcast on the breakfast show where they show Earthcam type footage as part of the programme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzaN2x8qXcM

It was an art group that hacked into the camera used for the panoramas. They recorded the footage added the “special effect” and then added it back to the camera so that played out rather than the live feed.

Re: Everybody loves outsourcing

I did overhear on a train two people discussing outsourcing at their firm not long ago. The company had apparently looked at outsourcing customer service to an overseas call centre. That was until Risk Management at the firm were passed the idea for their comments and (hopefully) approval. They balked at the idea and said no, fat chance. They were concerned that they’d be giving a foreign firm access to their customer data which was an unacceptable risk. Never mentioned which firm it was but were speculating about how long the head of risk management would be in the job.

I liked the Lloyds Bank advert that they put out when they closed their Indian call centres in 2007.

All of our call centre staff are in the UK….except Julie who’s on holiday in Spain.

Wasn’t there an incident where there were gambling terminals that allowed you to bet on a foreign country’s weekend soccer games. The local community included many expats/migrant workers from this country hence why that country was chosen. These machines were uploaded with the games each week and then hopeful punters could bet on the outcome of these games for fixed odds. These games were normally played on a Sunday and these machines were popular with their target market.

However one week and it may well have been the final weekend of the season, the games were all played on the Saturday instead. The gambling company stupidly hadn’t updated the closing time and day for the bets to be placed. Therefore people found they could place bets after the games on Saturday had finished and the result known. You couldn’t lose unless you were particularly thick or fat fingered. The punters didn’t receive their winnings though because surprise surprise the betting firm refused to pay up. Their argument was something like; you can’t bet on an event that’s already happened.

Can’t remember the full details of the thing and whether they eventually got paid out. My Google Fu is also failing me.

Re: Asked whether customers would lose access to their data

A very small company I temped at used an invoicing software for (surprise) creating invoices for clients. I enquired as to how this software worked and was shown the intricacies of creating an invoice. The system just produced individual invoices There was no linking of these together or anything sophisticated like that. Don’t get too into it comes the next response we’re doing away with it. The software company had just thought that monthly licensing was a jolly wheeze. Previously you bought a license and it covered that version with updates/fixes being available for a small fee.

They were moving to Excel instead where they had a built a template that did everything the existing software did and more. They told the software firm they were ditching the product and they said quite pointedly it was the switch to a monthly licence that did it.

Re: A giant

I watched the original Star Trek in the 80’s and always thought she was a good actress. I never realised then that she’d been such a trailblazer back when originally broadcast. I only found out later how pivotal she had been in advancing the role of both women and black women. The world of Star Trek was as it should be everywhere and I didn’t notice she was black. She was just doing her job as a lieutenant and doing it damn well. RIP a great icon, I will miss you greatly.

Re: get your Selectric free....from the KGB

Yep great book and I’d highly recommend it. When I let my mum borrow it she was messaging me constantly with questions about technical things she didn’t understand in it.

Re: About what I expected

I once tried explaining to a corporate tour that the clock in the studio we were in was accurate. This is a slave clock running off a master clock in the server room and we know that the second pulse is highly accurate. The group are C-suite types with no technical understanding so this is confusing. One of them tells me that his bedside clock has a radio in it, that makes it super accurate. His clock isn’t just accurate with the seconds but the hours and minutes too.

I asked if he’d ever needed to change the time on his clock and he said “No” Well we might need to if for example we are recording something for future broadcast. It’s no good if the presenter looks up at the clock and reads out the current time as 2pm when the show will be going out at 9pm. Another one asked about how we play out a show so accurately that the time on the clock during recording matches the time at broadcast. So I then explained about playout systems which a few of them found utterly incomprehensible.

Trying to explain the same thing to my mum involved the “it’s all done by science” line when she said it was baffling her.

Re: Quite apart from online...

I often get canvassed on my doorstep by representatives of local politicians before elections. Usually they have no idea what I’m like and are in for a bit of a shock. I ask what the politician’s position on a random and unlikely subject. You should see the look of terror on their faces when they realise they have no idea what the position could possibly be. The last one to bother me was asked about what their candidate’s position was on tartrazine in foods.

" It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program."

Yeah I actually had one of those once. It was a DAB radio which the reception on was so bad, moving about the room would kill the sound. As would the wrong type of weather, lorries going past the house etc.

Certainly not a typo.

Re: Reciva Radios

One simple explanation for DAB - to sell off the radio spectrum that the discontinuation of the "traditional radio" allowed to be "freed up" in a bidding war.

££££££

That’s not what’s currently planned, where the major stations are supposed to go digital only. Community and smaller stations would remain on FM. This will allow for those areas where the former local stations are now broadcast from London just with local adverts and news. Who are they going to sell the FM spectrum to exactly and what is this bidder going to do with it that isn’t radio broadcasting?

The problem is that take up of DAB has been slower than anticipated. The original switch date was set for 2015 and Ofcom believed by then 50% of listening would be digital. They were the only ones in the industry who believed that as most people I knew were sceptical. This was going to be switched during the term of the national Independent radio analogue licenses. Therefore the licence term would be shorter and as a result the national licenses were rolled over and not put up for auction. This was because it was believed by Ofcom that no one would bid for a short term license. That despite there being media reports containing interviews with interested bidders. Global radio also did a massive amount of lobbying against these licenses going up for auction to protect their station Classic FM.

The current date for switchover is mooted for 2030 https://radiotoday.co.uk/2021/10/no-fm-switch-off-in-the-uk-until-at-least-2030-says-dcms/ and makes a mockery of the original date. It’s also cost the treasury the money that would have been bid to have those licences and the associated spectrum. For comparison Norway switched in 2017.

The only way they got DAB sales to the level they have is by not selling decent analogue radios in this country. Try buying an analogue radio with digital tuning and you’ll have a hard time outside of specialist retailers. No point in taking a DAB radio to the USA because it won’t work there. No point in explaining that to the bloke at Currys or indeed John Lewis as they at first told me it would work. When I proved they used a different system called IBOC (in band on channel) aka HD radio they were fazed. Then they both pointed to FM on the radios. I pointed out that this didn’t help with AM reception for sports broadcasts which were often not available elsewhere. The replies were jointly sorry can’t help in that case.

Yeah sorry I meant before the verdict.

My dad had to be switched from one jury to another before the trial started. This is because when they asked if any juror knew of any reason they were unsuitable he said “Yes” to much surprise.

When asked why he thought he was unsuitable, he looked over at the judge, waved and said “Hi Bob*” he was switched shortly afterwards.

*name changed

Re: UBER revolutionised Taxis

Yep In all the black cabs I caught since 'lockdown one' and the end of all restrictions there had been a seal on the cash payment hole. All the cabbies were wearing masks and quite a few had hand sanitser in the back for customers to use. One told me that she cleaned all the touch points and the seats in between jobs. I also had a window open to reduce chances further and was always wearing a mask. One of my colleagues stopped using Uber during the pandemic because she felt she was just sharing a car with a stranger. Albeit a car driven by a masked stranger which also didn't help with her fears.

A friend ordered an Uber from a drinks evening we'd been at in South Kensington despite there being a plethora of Licensed London Black Cabs. Up pulled a car a few minutes later we both got in and noticed that this wasn't going to be the most luxurious ride we'd ever had. The car made a Black cab look like a Rolls Royce. Then we headed off and the driver was totally relying on sat nav for his directions which always worries me. My friend says she needs to give instructions on getting to her place as it's surrounded by a relatively new one way system and difficult to reach.

The driver didn't speak amazing English but just pointed at the sat nav when she asked him to turn left or right. After he missed the crucial turning for the second time she said "Just drop us here please" and we got out. She also said there are quicker routes of getting to her place than the route he took and he clearly either didn't know them, or his sat nav didn't.

I won't use Uber because I don't like the fact that they wanted to track the movement of every user even if they weren't using the app. Greyball (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyball) etc. Also anyone who can pass The Knowledge is better than me at remembering stuff and has earned some respect for that. They also know the best routes and problems on the roads. My Black Cab driver this evening for example took a round about route to get me to my destination. When I enquired about the route he said it was because of roadworks on one road, another closed and a third blocked by a lorry. Walking back I checked this and he was spot on.

Re: So ....

The hardware is bog standard. It's the Apple logo made of pure Unobtanium that costs the big bucks.

Not sure why you needed the joke icon there.

Re: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

Have an upvote for the Sir pTerry mention.

A man's not dead while his name is still spoken

Re: With carbon copy mentioned right at the start...

I visited a firm years ago in the US where the colour of the paper was very important. For stock control Clients were sent white copies of orders, pink was for office retention and blue was for stock moves. The latter meant it wasn’t an external sale just a transfer between sites, departments etc. This was apparently a hangover from the days of 3 ply order forms and no one had wanted to change it. So there were three large printers each filled with a particular colour paper. It worked for them then but I hope they’ve moved on a bit since. Seeing the large number of A4 ring binders stuffed with pink and blue paper was quite a sight.

Their IT systems were built in house and impressive given they were able to tell me where my order was and when it would arrive at their location for me to pick up.

I wrote a set of instructions for an important procedure which would only need to be done once in a blue moon. However it would need to be done flawlessly and quickly when that time came. Not a huge company and it might happen at any time, so everyone was going to be sent a copy of these instructions just in case they were the only person there. So as you might expect, clear precise instructions were vital. I documented every step very thoroughly to make it foolproof. This included telling the user to go to security, requesting and getting the correct pass to let you into the server room if your pass didn’t normally allow you access.

So they were written in draft form and I selected a few non tech people to follow them through. I had a duplicate system set up that they could use for the training and off we went. One of them ignored the pass section and then wondered why he couldn’t get in to the server room. Another didn’t check the status of one service before shutting it down and rebooting it. The first woman I tested followed everything precisely and every step was done correctly.

She was a secretary/PA and always followed instructions carefully. She suggested that I write on the top in big red letters

“Failure to follow these instructions to the letter may have an impact on your employment status.”

That did the trick for future tests and everyone followed every step correctly.

Re: Manager and Cashier

It was a business client but I can’t be much more specific because I’ll identify someone.

Re: I'm getting too old for this shit...

Another reason I don’t have and won’t ger voicemail.

Re: Talking of the DR plan in the safe ...

My small safe requires a key to open it and that key is in a keysafe elsewhere. That has a combination on it which both my brother and sister will know and only they will know. Location of these safes isn’t obvious as they’re hidden. As I explained to them the sealed copies of my will, contain the location of the safes.

Re: Options are always good

I have no idea what the actual issue was I heard this from my mum. However I do know she is sent very long documents that have specific formatting requirements. If you can’t add bits and save so it’s exactly the same for the next person to open it she can’t use the program.

Re: Freedom of choice

Just go back a page and then forward into the YouTube video and the ads vanish. Or at least they do for me.

Re: The WWDC presentation was no great shakes, but this article is worse

Well I learned a lot from it, and not just that Apple didn’t manage to keep El Reg out of the thing. Given the liquid nitrogen (if not absolute zero) levels of frostiness from Apple towards this particular red top…..

Re: Faster than light, not

Quantum makes my brain hurt!

Re: A lot of this was known tbh

I was about to recommend this book as it’s a really excellent read.