Posts by Emj

HP slaps dress code on R&D geeks: Bin that T-shirt, put on this tie

Earlier this week, I was in London, standing on the tube platform waiting for a train. On the opposite platform, were lots of people. TBH, most of the women appeared dressed more ready for the beach than work whereas the vast majority of the chaps were suited and booted. And it was hot.

Dress codes, even when they do exist, are so unfavourable to guys than it is surely discriminatory on some level. Knee length floaty skirt or a summer dress != trousers, shirt & tie. Or even just trousers & shirt, let alone trousers, shirt, tie & jacket.

<Going to become "gender-fluid" - apparently that is all the rage now and can therefore seemingly wear what I want>

'Why don't you buy from foreign sites?' asks Commish, snapping on the gloves

EU VAT for digital services for example used to be worked out on the country of the seller - now it is on the country of the buyer. It is rules like this which each add to make life that bit more difficult for cross-border selling especially when using bespoke or in-house ecommerce packages.

The EU want to promote trade but don't try to make it simple. For small sellers, it is tough anyway. The EU should help people sell by promoting simplicity.

Fasthosts goes titsup, blames DNS blunder

Second time in a week - they f@#ed it up last Thursday as well.

Self-driving Volvos cover 200km of busy Spanish motorway

Re: But does it fail safe?

Up vote just for the licking the tyres option!

Senator probes NASA airfield deal for Google's jets

Really, who cares? Ok, apart from the cheaper fuel allegations, then Google pays NASA money so what's the problem? Typicall politician with a bee in his hat. Probably some dodgy photo appears in Google of him that Google wouldn't remove.

Why GM slammed the brakes on its $10m Facebook ads

Re: Simplest explanation

The Vauxhall Corsa: Just shit

Fasthosts officially not the best in UK for virtual servers

I will stick up for Fasthosts a bit - I have been with them since the days of UKReg and VPS was just but a distant twinkle in the eye of a engineer somewhere in the world. To be clear, my domains have always been with them but hosting has been around a bit - GoDaddy, Heart, 1&1, Webfusion (before they got bought) , Rackspace and even co-location. I wouldn't say that they (FH) are really any worse than any other large host. All have their unique T&Cs, 1&1 even made you fax them to leave back in the day.

When it comes to down time (at least on the VPS platform), I haven't had any issues for the year (or near enough) that I have had some VPS servers with them. Rackspace though, I had several times of downtime and they are really supposed to be one of the best.

I guess in the end it is all down to personal experience - most are fine with their host but there is always a number who aren't - no difference to anything else really - cars, new houses, phones, etc.

No-one can really be the best - those that have the best spec will have the higher prices so in other peoples eyes, won't be the best.

Cameron's F-35 U-turn: BAE Systems still calls the shots at No 10

Buying foreign goods may be cheaper but less of the money spent stays in the UK economy. Spending larger amounts of money, even with a company like BAE considering the work share of the projects, means that more of the money spent stays in the UK economy and thus ultimately ends up back in the Government pockets in the way of taxes. Well... at least that sounds plausible!

Keep out of the Olympics' way, earn a haircut from TfL app

Complete bollocks.

[I did have a whole load of sarcastic crap to post, but really it can be summed up with the above]

Browsium rescues HMRC from IE6 – and multimillion-pound bill

Re: I'm not sure I understand

The Browsium approach is pretty sensible if you consider the option that Gov need to buy some time pending replacing desktop PCs with thin-clients, something that is happening in droves around both central & local gov.

£575m school IT bonanza showers Capita, RM, 16 others

Doomed

Crapita again? What is it with those guys? They always seem to get the contracts despite the overprice crap they always seem to come out with. Got to hand to their sales guys - they could sell poo to a toilet...

Gov IT contractors hire staff in India to work on benefits system

Rock and a hard place - keep it in the UK and the likes of Crapita and HP will screw it up, raise the cost, etc or offshore it for much cheaper and run the just as high risk of having it cocking up somewhere down the line when gov realises they didn't work out the specifications properly. Either way, most gov IT projects fail anyway so at least offshoring it doesn't cost as much in the long run.

PSN renamed Sony Entertainment Network

Actually, you can! Link below courtesy Mythbusters:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=mythbusters%20polish%20poop&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdsc.discovery.com%2Fvideos%2Fmythbusters-polishing-a-turd.html&ei=gdcvT56tCeO_0QWX5tmtCA&usg=AFQjCNEkpOazDBS8u01WPmCkg20X-Mt1jg&cad=rja

Cabinet Office moves step closer to killing Directgov

It's a bit crap really - visually, looks like any number of ripped off WordPress templates. Surely for 1.7m they could have come up with something, well, new? IMHO it just doesn't feel official or governmenty

<goes back to the "renew your task disk here, honest" website>

Councils tout £1.2bn for IT whizkid to grab their backend

Crapita bash

Ok, I know I am a grumpy old man but can't help by thinking "Noooooooooo, another looking IT.gov failure", especially if Crapita get the grubby mits on one of the contracts. Look at a certain southern IT outsource deal by a council very near Southampton & Portsmouth - 1x day consultancy for a server reboot.

@AC - 24/01/152 13:09

Yes, we love slagging stuff off. IT.gov procurement though is well deserved of a good bashing.

GiffGaff mobile network goes titsup for 3 weeks

Just because they're small...

GG may have website problems, but Vodafone certainly aren't without their problems. Their "My Account" is either down, slow or flaky often enough that it is expected to just be shit. Just shows that small companys are just as likely (although often it seems less so) to screw up as large companies.

Mars rover seeks perfect suntan spot to survive winter

@Bloody amazing

Damn right!

Just think about if Crapita had got their dirty little mitts on the contract! Over priced, delayed and would probably not even survive a few days let alone the spec'd 3 months

Coat please - the one with the insatiably large Crapita beating stick poking out of the pocket. Yes, it is the one with the large anti-Crapita logo on the back.

Now Post Office branches hit by computer glitches

"Capgemini" - there's your problem!

Just about enough said, but will add at least that Capgemini should be consigned to the same boat as Crapita and sunk somewhere over the laurentian abyss.

Microsoft seeks patent on employee spy system

[Quote]I bet Capita are already on the phone asking when they can buy the system.[/quote]

True, then they will do what only Crapita can do the best, fuck it up, charge the customer for said fuck up and finally it will all end up with the poor customer wanting to hang the project manager but can't because the little shit has buggered off to cock up another project... and the cycle starts again.

Oh, the MS patent idea sounds crap.

Google dumps + from Boolean search tool

Damn it - you owe me a keyboard!!

Steady as she goes at Capita

"Crapita" too strong?

No where near strong enough. It should be illegal for gov to use that sorry bag of sh1t unless for scooping up poo. Even that they would probably get wrong.

God help public finances if Crapita are doing better...

Badgers because even they could run an IT system.

Double-clicking patent takes on world

Another motherf*&*ing patent troll

The sooner the patent law is made even vaguely sensible, the better. Come Nokie et al, fight the gutter dwelling low life.

Serpent imprisons rattled Yorkshire family

Mongeese

Clearly the solution is to employ a herd/flock of mongooses/mongeese to root out the slipperly critter and put an end to the tirrany...

BOFH: Spontaneous Legal Combustion

What the....

does this mean? "The following concludes episodes 4b, 4c and 5b, which are available exclusively to Register Platinum Cookie readers (with access to the content opulent Register Website). For the benefit of general (Lead Cookie) readers, the following flashback snippets have been approved for distribution:"

For f's sake - surey the reg hasn't stooped to multi-levels of users? Pathetic if it has. Hopefully, this is just some kind of joke that I will get the punch line to some point in the future...

UK prisoners offered data cabling training

Nick the kit, get the training...

Bl@@dy ridiculus - so prisoners get rewarded for their crimes with courses that would cost me a grand plus. I am looking for a networking job, can't find sh!t - well done Cisco/HMP, lets flood the already troubled industry with yet more vacancy competitors.

Yes, bad day - just been made redundant... From a networking job.

BBC vs ISPs: Bandwidth row escalates as Tiscali wades in

Flaky business model

So, I pay for my 'unlimited' broadband connection flogged to me in some big marketing push by a large ISP. I then watch content on the BBC's iPlayer, which is just a fancy name for a website with a whole load of video. The BBC then get flack for causing this demand... Really doesn't make sense.

The iPlayer is nothing particulary special - there are many sites that have provided video content for a lot longer. The only difference is the iPlayer actually gets used. Bandwidth usage has always been continuing to increase so if the ISP's were short-sighted enough that they for some god-for-known reason thought that nothing else new would come along on the Internet, then that is their problem.

It would be like Ford producing a car (the Focus for example) and then the Government demanding Ford pay for the roads for the car to go on because people like that car...

Really the issue falls back to the ISP's dumbass marketing departments coming up with the dumb idea of selling a product as unlimited when clearly they can't back this up.

UK's Reaper wardroid imports slashed in budget pinch

What the article doesn't mention...

is that the US Air Force - which has a requirement for 25 of the "hunter-killer" aircraft - has booked up all production slots until 2012, placing further doubt on the export deal.

Shell IT staff disgusted at mega profits

@ darsyx

"That's an unusual way to describe a multinational corporation with it's headquarters in Holland."

Multi-national yes, hq no. Shell lists on FTSE and it's business HQ is in the UK.

Hacker defaces temples to OS X

Feel sorry for the CMS provider!!

Nuff said but quick way to floor a company... Poor old ExpressionEngine (CMS on Apple Matters) even had to release their own statement. A bit bollocks if you develop a system and then some deluded t~@t comes up with a stunt like this. He deserves humilation and a public flogging.

Beeb news website goes titsup

God Noooooooo.....

So much for one of the benchmark sites.... ! I suppose it happens to everyone at some point.