Posts by Jay

LoTR fan film set for net premiere

Nice to see

Now if only Games Workshop would get their head out of their arse and allow the release of Damnatus we might see some original film making instead of the repeated Hollywood crap.

Mobile phones to get universal charger

But will it last ?

Lets hope Micro USB is sturdier than Mini USB as that is frankly crap going by the power sockets on GPS equipment which corrode too easily.

Sky hints at 3D TV launch

@JonB

Considering how often you get ripped into when you make comments here I have to wonder if you are the same JonB who is registered on a certain M/Cycle site, even though that JonB (Who may be you) doesn't own a bike and his comments get ripped into there as well. Are you the same JonB?

Apple wrongfoots iPhoneys

@James

Second one down is listed as a nano.

on sale on Ebay...

From Canada already.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/bmluxury

Facebook breastfeeding pic takedown gets backs up

Sems like the usual...

American response to Breast feeding. Never quite understood why breast feeding scares them so much, anyone know?

DVLA under scrutiny over penalty notice dating game

explaining the non compliance

To clear up any confusion.

The law states you must pay an £80 penalty BUT if you pay within 28 days of being notified (ie served with the penalty notice in accordance with the interpretations act) that a penalty is due the penalty is reduced to £40.

DVLA have mis-interpreted the law to mean you have 28 days to pay from the day they print the penalty, they then take a few days to process the letter through their post rooms and then send it by mailsort 2, a second class service so you receive it a week or so later and have less than 28 days to pay the reduced amount contrary to the law. This makes the DVLA notices non-compliant with the law and in theory worthless.

Hope that clears it up.

@ Sam Liddicott

The Laws around SORN aren't complicated they are remarkably easy to understand.

What seems to have happened is DVLA didn't bother to read them.

Net pedants dismantle Quantum of Solace

@Alex Wright

Isn't this why Art Departments buy cameras?

Employees sue for unpaid Windows Vista overtime

Happens in the UK as well

A few years ago I worked as 2nd controller for a courier company in Stratford east London. The boss didn't consider you at work until you had logged in. So that was turn your computer on, let it go through the boot cycle, then connect to the server at the head office and then log onto that, a good day it would take 3-4 minutes, a bad day it could take a lot more.

I can see there point.

Universities reject Stasi role

A good idea

just badly implemented.

As I tend to work in trades that are easy for illegals to enter i can understand what they are trying to do.

Ever noticed the chaps who deliver your documents or take aways don't speak english anymore?

There are a fair few thousand Brazilians working in the courier industry that come over on student visas and work full time never attending any educational classes so if anyone can think of a better way please suggest it.

Flame because I'm waiting for it.

Motorola legal tie to pull pricey Aura phone off eBay

Ebay

will just remove the listing using the VeRo program.

One of my bike part suppliers has just decided that no one except them can sell their products on ebay. They haven't refused to supply anyone or put anything in writing they just claim you are infringing their copyright and intellectual property if you sell their items.

I have no doubt Motorola will do exactly the same.

Bryan Adams pulls a Prince on fan sites

@Smallbrainfield

Yep that one didn't get publicised much in the press.

Moves into a place by Cheyne Walk SW3 and the pub next door upset him so much he bought the place. Last time I was there which was a few years ago it was still boarded up.

Navman S30

Postcode or to the door?

So does it route to postcodes only or to the street and door number?

PayPal top-up card is titsup

Confusion

The money finally appeared late yesterday afternoon over 24 hours late and it only seemed to affect the load dated for the 8th. Payments were never lost they just weren't applied, call centre staff could find your payments on the system they just hadn't gone anywhere.

There seems to be a lack of knowledge over what happened, the call room staff first knew about it on Thursday evening and many were surprised to come in on Friday to find it hadn't been sorted. I was told Friday morning there was a meeting of management but at that point no one knew what was actually going on or if later payments would go through.

Call staff were given a script over what to say if anyone asked for compensation. Usual stuff, equipment failure, power cut etc but when asked if any of these exclusions were the reason for the problem they admitted they didn't know.

Mosley asks Europe to change UK privacy laws

Contact or not?

Years ago back in the days of Sir Peter Harding and Bienvenida Buck I did a bit of courier work for one of the reporters involved in the above case. He told me they usually contacted the people involved in an article to offer them a chance to put their side across, that way they often found out even more dirt than they already had.

I have to wonder if Mr Mosley was contacted prior to print?

Get ready for the coming data centre crunch

Waste heat and cooling on the Isle of dogs.

Most of the dogs is surrounded by housing so waste heat could be used to heat them.

The dogs is also surrounded by water. Drop a heat exchanger into the water and that would lower the cost of cooling, the Thames and surrounding basins are pretty chilly most of the time. You would only need to run a big water pump rather than air conditioning units, maybe not a huge saving but a saving nonetheless.

Maybe Data centres should start using the environment around them to help lower costs.

Judge: Breath test firm must hand over source code

Heinz

secret sauce code?

Freelancers might be taxed as employees after High Court ruling

@JonB

It isn't always IT.

Tax office have been trying to do this to couriers for even longer not to mention contract builders. As soon as an industry appears to be avoiding tax they go for it regardless of the intent.

Without trying to protect the IR if they continue it might just stop abuses in various industries like stopping the pay cuts that are going through the IT job scene at the moment as contractors will have to be treated as staff.

Congestion charge means less traffic, more congestion

@ Gianni

YA RLY

Try reading these links.

BMF yes they are biased...

http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/lives-at-risk-in-bus-lane-trial-cover-up-say-bmf-$484828.htm

Evening standard a lot less biased...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23486544-details/Motorbikes+to+be+allowed+in+bus+lanes,+says+Boris/article.do

Both quote a 42% drop in collisions making things safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Its also suggested the report was thrown out due to Ken not liking the results, they conflicted with the views of his little interest groups.

@ Steve again

When the 7/7 London bombings happened it was Motorcycle Couriers delivering emergency drugs to front line medical personnel.

If another incident happens you can bet your life it will be Motorcycle couriers doing it all over again because the health trusts and Government are willing to bet your life on us being able to do things like this quicker and safer than anyone else can.

Still want to ban Motorcycles?

@ Gianni Straniero &@Steve

Gianni

Studios by TFL have shown accidents involving cyclists actually drop when Motorcycles use bus lanes as other drivers are forced to take more notice.

Bikes are allowed to use Bus lanes in Reading, Bristol and Newport among other places without adverse effect so why not here?

Steve

Considering this is an IT site you should realise you probably wouldn't have a job if bikes were banned from London.

Bike couriers are used by EVERY financial institution in London as well as every authority and a hell of a lot of IT companies. Apart from anything else we do we deliver all those emergency spare parts from warehouses all over the country to keep networks up and running. Not forgetting the back up tapes we carry, your network needs rebuilding after a failure and we deliver the tapes from the offsite storage quicker than any other method.

So basically great idea. Ban bikes from central London because you don't like them and watch the paperwork that has to back up all the electronic transactions that take place get delivered by the Royalmail. Should back up everything by 2-3 days in the first week and the effect will be cumulative. After about a month watch EVERY business in London that uses couriers move elsewhere. I think you'll whine a bit more when your pay starts turning up late or you have no job to go to.

Short of using a Bullion van we are the most secure method of delivery in the UK and I even did Bullion work on a bike when I was with Securicor. Dealing with Ignorant twats like you makes the job a hell of a lot harder and the sad thing is you don't even realise you profit from what we do.

Member of the LCC are you or just jealous that we don't get stuck in traffic?

Who do you think you are, knitting Mr Hitler?

An IT angle?

How about she buys a GPS and realises her shop is in Globe road and NOT Bethnal Green.

MS takes Windows 3.11 out of embed to put to bed

@ AC OS/2 warp

Alliance and Leicester machines still use it in the UK as well.

Woman finds Lithuanian living in shed

Hold on a sec...

The other half has asked if she can have a Lithuanian gardener who's pays to live in and maintain her garden as a Christmas present this year?

Sad that someone who means no harm and actually helps is treated this way, tells us something about the state of society today,

eBay Terror Ambulances of DEATH menace UK - top cops

ECE104

There is legislation for this already in ECE104 but I believe the Police have never attempted a prosecution.

ECE104 stops ANY vehicle from trying to look like a state emergency vehicle. This includes Private ambulances and private security firms but is never enforced.

Another case of failing to use a law that already exists and calling for another to appear in its place because it will magically cure all of lifes little problems.

PayPal meltdown wreaks havoc on some ecommerce websites

Been going on a bit longer than you think.

This has been going on for about two weeks now.

Started with payments going into my account but no email and ebay listed the item as unpaid so customers were asking why I was sending them invoices for items they had paid for.

Time to get a real online shop and payment system I think...

Lancashire plodcopters in laser dazzle outrage outbreak

Not just up north

http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/templates/news/detail.cfm?newsid=9168

Washington cops may be compelled to use gun-cams

And UK plod?

Would be interesting to see this applied to the UK police as well.

Living on the edge of the City of London all my life I've experience of officers interesting ideas about firearms safety.

Especially when the ring of steel went up and officers decided it was ok to stop vehicles at gun point assuming they were proxy bombers, got accused of that one on a motorcycle once.

My sister and the driver of the taxi she was in being stopped at gun point, the doors being opened and guns pointed in just to ask where she was going then let go.

And lets not forget Stockwell either.

eBay forces Aussies to use Paypal

Paypal

are also tying to stop people paying by credit card. Even if your primary payment method is a credit card once you are verified paypal automatically attempt to take any payment from your bank account thus removing the protection using a credit card gives you.

Also if you have funds in your paypal account it automatically uses these before any other form of payment and if the funds you have are more than the item costs it stops you from using any other payment method, debit or credit card again I can only assume to remove the protection a credit card gives you.

Phone insurance firm reveals Sharia rules policy

@ AC

Justified as defence not a business.

HSBC pops thousands of customer details in the post

I wonder..

how long it took HSBC to tell the FSA considering there offices are about 5 minutes walk apart?

Unusual.

Strange thing here is HSBC normally send all their business post by same-day courier just so it's always secure. Looks like someone has really screwed up.

Aussie laser-pointer dazzle attacks on airliners: Bad

NIghtclub.

Didn't something like this happen at a US airport and turn out to be the lights from a local nightclub?

Red Green Ken v Porsche in battle of the polls

Why we dont use electric vehicles.

<By the way, why haven't more couriers switched to electric vehicles, anybody know, I'd have thought Royal Mail would save a fortune, or do they count as residents.>

Because they are expensive and crap.

I work as a bike courier and drive anywhere between 50-500miles a day. Find me an electric vehicle with that range that can pull a steady 70mph, costs less than £1000 to buy and can carry the weight of myself kitted up (over 130kilos) and a full load of luggage, possibly another 80kilos and I might be interested.

UK gov scraps '£1bn' prisoner tracking system

Tenders?

I don't understand this bidding system where you are allowed to charge considerably more than your bid. Whats the point of putting things out to tender if you then ignore the tender?

London PR outfit in sex-on-desk email shocker

What Security?

"Our best guess is that they'd staggered in from a do in the West End and decided to use Sthree's reception sofa for their own private party."

As I said, what security?

Having all the fob entry doors in the world is useless when you leave them open.

Security?

Security is so bad at Windmill St that Red have a notice on the front door asking couriers to use the entrance down the street or at least did the last time I was there.

I've been there when there have been arguments between the receptionists and couriers who have entered through the open front door, walked straight past the so called security guard, taken the lift upstairs and been ordered back out the building to enter by the side door only to find themselves in the same office with the same snotty nosed receptionist but they used the goods lift so the receptionist was happier.

The security guard on the front desk props the front door open to let a breeze in so any one can walk in off of the street.

Sounds like a publicity raising wind up to me.

Never noticed a free bar and I've been in there a few times, will look harder next time.