Posts by d3vy

Re: > Just the first stage

"HMRC to be much more restrictive about self employment policy in the future"

Clarification. Most contractors are not self employed. They are employed by a company that they own. It's a subtle but important distinction.

Re: Both feet, and the ankles

"The problem is that Companies have to be on a preferred supplier list and meet various criteria before they get near to any sort of Government contract."

Yes, but if a small barrier like that is going to stop you contracting probably isn't for you anyway.

I am a suppler to 3 NHS CCGs and am part of the MoD supply chain too (though the MoD one is through a proxy)

There are barriers to doing it, but they are not impossible (or even particularly hard) to overcome.

Re: Both feet, and the ankles

After CSC put their markup on offshore work and add their "project management" costs undercutting them is fairly easy.

My next contract was meant to go to CSC but I'm 20k cheaper, based in the same time zone and can be available for face to face meetings. Genuine reasons long the cost benefit analysis that the client did to decide between me and csc.

Re: Same thing is gonna happen

"its more like a bunch of numpty labour backing civil servants horrified at the rates contractors earn will now be happy that the contractors pay the same or similar rates of tax as permies, whilst being blissfully unaware the contractors rates have shot up to cover the extra in taxes."

I always like to point out to people like that that my *PERSONAL* tax rate might be way lower than theirs, but I also have alot of other things to pay that they dont.

From my day rate I have to cover Professional Indemnity, Public Liability, Employees Insurance policies. I also have to provide my own hardware and software licences, I then have to pay an accountant (to make sure that HMRC get what they are owed).

Then my entire pension contribution comes out of it, no employer contribution or % matching, its all my money…

Then I pay the 20% Corp tax on whats left before I can take it out – Which incurs a national insurance payment on the salary component and an additional 7.5% on the dividend component

Yes, this STILL leaves me with more available to take home than when I was a permie… but when I was a permie I never worked 50+ hour weeks, I had paid holidays and had the security of being able to take 6 months sick leave at full pay. I also had a matched pension contribution. Contractors get none of that. *

* For reference I left that position because we were being TUPE’d to CSC and CSC wanted to send me out to different clients (Billed at 4-5x my salary) and wouldn’t give me a pay rise, all the fun of contracting with none of the benefits, Its been almost 3 years now and despite the current changes I don’t regret it one bit.

Re: Both feet, and the ankles

"And who has been lobbying for this? Crapita et al. It is a sicking corruption of the tax system that is supposed to serve the people. F**k it no-one cares anymore, think I'll go back to Ameri..oh wait."

There is a way around this, but it requires people you trust.

If a few contractors banded together and formed a company offering service X that company could bid for work in the same way that Capita, CSC, CGI, Cap all do. Lower overheads so they could probably undercut them by quite a bit.

The trust comes into it when you have 4-5 people all with an equal stake in the company on different rates you would realistically only be able to take as much as the lowest day rate and leave the rest in the company for "Expenses & Entertainment"

I wonder how many contractors they have building the tool to determine if you're caught by ir35 or not?

Re: Hyper-partisans

"As I recall, there were many hyper-partisan republicans who decided the same about Obama"

Indeed, Trump was one of them.. Constantly requesting access to Obamas birth certificate (Presumably in the hope of removing him from office on the grounds that he was not a US citizen).

If I remember rightly he also claimed it was fake when it was release (Though that might not have been him)

Re: Sing and you die

"Basically many of those behind this boycott are filled with unreasoning rage because their candidate lost. Well some are, and others are still hiding in their safe spaces from the Trump-monster..."

In just a few short hours it will be a monster armed with nuclear weapons.

I'd be looking for a safe space too...

"If he had invested that money in a managed fund he would have much more money than he does today."

My understanding was that if he just put it under his mattress and left t alone, he'd have more money than he does today.

"is there anything more patronizing than the assumption that you will change your vote because you're convinced by the political philosophy of Beyonce?

It's just another way of avoiding actually discussing issues."

For a lot of people that will be a massive influence on how they form their opinions, so it makes perfect sense to have "celebrity" endorsement.

What I find odd is your position on this (I may have mis-read but you seem to be pro-trump), if your position is that celebrities should not voice their opinion on political matters then WTF is trump doing? He certainly is not a politician... but seems happy to spout his opinions at anyone who is within earshot.

Also, You seem to be saying that celebrities should not be allowed to voice their opinions on political matters? While I agree that its ridiculous that some people give more credibility to something if a celebrity endorses it I wouldn't try to stop them saying it.

Re: The real culpability lies...

"Err, hang on, so it's their fault that Manning decided to steal sensitive documents - that demonstrated that the US policy in many areas violated not only International law but also US laws."

Not quite, I think the argument was that he should never have been in the position where he was able to steal them.. I mean, he had access to sensitive documents on a PC with a R/W DVD drive... You can't think that's a good idea? Someone approved those machines for use for that purpose.. That person bears some responsibility, not that they are at fault, but that their decisions allowed it to happen.

Same reason I have to carry professional indemnity insurance, I might make a decision for a client that down the line causes them financial harm.. It wouldn't be directly my fault but I might be liable for it.

Re: Julian's Hollow Promises

"Seriously, it'd be like attempting to enforce US bigamy laws against Saudi citizens who never left their country."

But as we know the US does like to *try* to impose its laws internationally...

Re: I fear that is more than NSFW.

Nahh, there's no penetration.

That's just a picture of a randy horse. Nothing illegal there.

Re: Re:charging for unused phone @d3vy

Quote from Vodafone for comparable speed was half my BT bill.

Re: What are customers moaning about?

"All they've done is roll it into the cost of the broadband and put the broadband charge up."

I'd dispute that, yes they roll up the LR but my BT infinity 2 costs

Broadband £26

Line rental £20

Call package £14

Charge for not using call package £1

£60 ish (I've rounded the charges up for simplicity)

Vodafone is cheaper for a comparable speed (or at least they claim a comparable speed - I'm not willing to risk losing what I get from BT and am ok paying a bit more for it - still grates that I get charged for something I don't use)

Re: What are customers moaning about?

@blotto,

I know, I'm happy to pay the LR.

My objection is £14 a month call package that is mandatory if you have a line.. so we can make cheap calls evenings and weekends using the phone that we don't have.

What's actually worse now that I'm thinking about it is they also charge us £1 a month for not using the phone.

Re: What are customers moaning about?

To be fair to them sometimes they *do* get things right.

They told me I could get *up to* 75mb/s come day of connection I did a speed test and to my delight and surprise actually got 75mb/s.

What I would like to see is a decoupling of the line rental/call package and broadband as standard. We only use the broadband so we need a phone line (virgin not an option) because of this we have to pay line rental (fair enough until it went up to £20 a month) and £14 a month for a "Call package" - we dont have a phone plugged in - at all.

Every year the same thing happens I phone up, threaten to leave, they discount our bill by the same value as the call package and we are happy - but its a pain in the arse, every 12 months - I suspect that our situation isn't unique, other people must have the line JUST for the broadband. BT need to get with the times and update their bundles to reflect this.

I know I could switch to one of the providers who have started doing this recently (like vodaphone) but as stated above I get a decent speed on infinity2 and dont want to risk that.

Re: Optional

""So a barrel of north sea oil will cost you £45.84 as compared to £38.16 had the pound not collapsed in"

seems odd. Who owns the barrel?""

Exxon, BP, Shell... its quite a long list really. One of the things that the debate on Scottish independence failed to take into account was that while the oil might be in Scottish waters the bulk of the profits go to the companies that do the drilling, only a % goes back to the country that 'owns' the oil, so the argument that we have £xxx gazillions worth of oil fell flat on its arse when you point out that the rights to that oil were signed away to some big oil company 20+ years ago.

Anyway, the article has nothing to do with Scottish independance, Brexit or who voted for what... lets get back on topic.

Re: Just wondering....

Im guessing thats a joke...

If not Ill just point out that you can buy a stylus for a capacitive touch screen for 99p (pack of three) on eBay.

Its not a technological measure... more of a "You cant use the internet, if we catch you doing so, youre fucked"

Same as alot of things like temporary bans from areas etc... "Leave the city centre and dont come back fro 24 hours".. if they spot you in the centre later that day you are going to spend the next 24 hours in a cell.

Re: Do try to look beyond the headline...

I am reminded of a mitchell and webb sketch.

Have you tried... killing the poor?

I'm not saying that we should do it.... but lets put it in the computer and see what the numbers look like.

Re: Stupid on so many levels

"Wet paper would last longer than those things against household scissors"

Shirley that tampering would be evident at the end of the punishment? In that case the conversation goes a little like :

Police : "This anklets strap has been cut off"

Judge: "You have shown that you cannot be trusted to accept the prescribed punishment, 3 months in prison for you."

Same as they do with the GPS ones that restrict what areas of towns and cities people can access.

The tampering would need to be reversible to be of any use.

Re: Shariah Law

Ive figured it out... you work for amazon and you're trying to increase sales of the echo...

"Enforced conscription as a punishment - might knock a bit of sense into some of them too."

Yeah.. Give them guns. Fucking brilliant idea.

Re: Driving with a phone

"For instance people convicted of using a mobile phone while driving should have to have a high powered mobile phone jammer attached to their car."

I'd be in favor of attaching the front bumper of the car to the rear bumper of the car via some sort of crushing device.

You can use your phone but every time we catch you, you'll need to buy a new car.

"How often do you check your email and how long is the grace period? I would have to make a special effort to check my personal email more than twice a week by which time the order would surely have been dispatched."

Email : During business hours I get a notification of an email pretty much instantly (Uses push notifications) Weekends and evenings, my phone checks once every 30 minutes, it vibrates if it gets an email.. so well within any grace period that they would have.

The other poster also pointed out that the amazon app sends push notifications of orders to the users phone... I can confirm that this happens with other purchases online as when I buy on amazon I get a notification from amazon that Ive bought something, then another from paypal to confirm that Ive paid for it... I then get an "Item dispatched" notification and normally an "Item Delivered" one when Im at work - the wife gets the same notifications from my account on her phone.

I cant imagine that they would have done so much work to keep users up to date on their orders and not integrate the same into alexa... thinking about it as alexa will be feeding into the same back end order processing system there is zero chance that they didnt get at least one notification sent to some device be it a puch to the amazon app or a simple email.

Re: Echo is perfectly designed and working as planned

"I'll bet there were 'high-fives' all round in Amazon when this went out."

Shortly followed by a realisation that they were about to be processing A LOT of returns of stock that they can no longer sell at full price/as new....

Yeah, but wasn't that actually bollocks in the end? Given that furbies use IR to communicate it seems unlikley that this really happened.

I accept that the newer ones use bluetooth - but that still doesnt explain why proximity to a radio would kill them.

" When they make more money off you without requesting confirmation and by enabling voice ordering by default, guess what happens?"

Utter bollocks, it will increase the number of returns that they will get which will cost more than the interest they will get from having the money in their account for the few days until they have to refund it - I suppose there might be people who cant be bothered returning the items - generally I would expect this to only be low value items delivered to people with quite a bit of disposable income for whom taking the time to return the item would be a waste of their time.

Maybe in countries with crap consumer laws... but in the UK at least they would be obliged to accept the return within 14 days.

It does seem like alexa should say "I am ordering XXX, please confirm?" It could possibly also pop up an alert on the account holders phone to alert them and give them the opportunity to cancel the order.

Re: @ Lee D

"But you're saying OK Google clear enough"

Does your buddy not remember setting up "OK Google" where he has to repeat the phrase several times so that it will learn his voice so that it only responds to him? Obviously he forgot that...

I dont doubt that it cant handle your accent, voice recognition struggles with mine too (An odd mix of Norfolk, Lancashire, Central Scotland and the highlands) but I generally find speaking slowly and loudly works (pretend you're on holiday in Spain).

@Lars

Why not both?

Re: It thinks I've run a half-marathon every time I brush my teeth.

I had a fit bit for a while, waterproof.... I once ran a mile in the shower.