* Posts by old_nic

11 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Mar 2017

Typical. Crap weather halts work on subsea fibre-optic cable between UK and France

old_nic

Already we have moved that far from Europe?

520 km?

So it appears some of you really don't want us to use the word 'hacker' when we really mean 'criminal'

old_nic

Hacking is the present perfect of the verb Hack. I think it is connected with the action of using a Hatchet, or axe, to chop down trees. So lets stop using it to talk about other things? Or lets be sensible and admit that languages change dynamically as they are simply noises or noises represented with symbols to enable animals to share information to the advantage of their species.

Seagate UK customer stung by VAT on replacement drive shipped via the Netherlands

old_nic

Blue Passports and VAT

As the Blue passports are made in France, I assume the UK government will remember to claim back the French VAT when they are exported from France in bulk so they exceed £135. I don't know what the French rate of VAT will be on blank passports? Perhaps it is zero as it would be in the UK books?

You'd have told them they should have used Apple/Google app model, right? NHSX seeks willing humans to fill health tech and data roles

old_nic

Perhaps the same person should be put in charge of the contract to Track and Trace, based in their headquarters in the Cayman Islands. Then they can be paid out of that part of the budget, and it will still leave £21,999,907,000 in the petty cash.

Boss behind 'reset' of delayed, overbudget Emergency Services Network shifts to new 'digital' Cabinet Office role

old_nic

Perhaps Dido should head up a public inquiry as to why these projects all fail

GSM gateways: Parliament obviously cocked up, so let minister issue 'ignore the law' decree, UK.gov barrister urges court

old_nic

Laws

The UK is a monarchy, and as such all laws ultimately derive from the monarch. Any pretence of running a democratic system of citizens as opposed to subjects is bound to fail as there is no constitution, or the only constitution is that the monarch determines the law, and that anyone acting on the monarchs behalf with the monarchs agreement can do anything. Despite the pretence, parliament can be ignored and all existing laws overturned at the will of the monarch. If parliament does not agree the next step is civil war. This basic flaw leads to a mentality that the law can be broken by civil servants and ministers of the Crown because they have not been told not to break the law by the monarch.

Fed-up air safety bods ban A350 pilots from enjoying cockpit coffees

old_nic

Bit of clingfilm solved the problem for my remote controls and keyboard

While US fires criminal charges at Huawei, UK tells legislators not to worry, everything's fine

old_nic

The amazing thing about the UK secrecy situation is that everyone knows about everything but theoretically cannot say anything without breaking the law. I have never signed the Official Secrets Act, so I am allowed to say how many spoonfuls of sugar the Chief Secretary puts in his tea, except that I am not allowed to do so by the Official Secrets Act even though I haven't signed it, but I can't tell you that either without breaking the Official Secrets Act. It is recursive, and effectively the whole world is theoretically breaching it! So what happens when you have a silly law like that? Bit like Part P of the Electrical Regulations, which is a scam, so is the OSA. Mysterious people arrive at BT exchanges, and have done for all my life and do mysterious things which I don't know anything about. Woops, I am off to jail! Brave New World.

Elon Musk invents bus stop, waits for applause, internet LOLs

old_nic

Shouldn't this be a "storey" (poor joke) about lifts rather than buses? Could someone explain why it is better to take a whole bus that goes up and down rather than a lift

EE unveils shoebox-sized router to boost Brit bumpkin broadband

old_nic

Better late and expensive

Living in the mountains in the south of Tuscany I am getting only 50 MBPS. And it is costing me Eur 30 per month, including all my phone calls and a UK landline number....

Brit ISP TalkTalk blocks control tool TeamViewer

old_nic

I think one can understand TT wanted to be secure, but to fail to understand that Teamviewer is an essential tool for many customers is a sign of management that are incompetent from an IT point of view. And to make that sort of change without warning is not just upsetting but could be potentially dangerous, exactly the opposite of their intention. In my case it left exposed at least one machine which was not able to be updated any other way than remotely.

The moral for TT is to understand their customers. Why has no other ISP banned TeamViewer - there have been similar attacks. Most of these attacks rely upon computer illiteracy, similar perhaps to the TT management. The solution is easy. Make the Teamviewer IP addresses/application only available by opting in and with an appropriate warning. It will of course not completely solve the problem, but at least TT would be able to feel they had done something.