Posts by Mad Jack 32 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2008
No outage, huh. I would say in common with several others that the service is mostly OK, but they seem to have taken to regularly describing planned work as "faults", presumably so they don't have to post any warning about outages!
Also if you call a CS agent or (quicker) get someone on chat it's pure pot luck what mileage you get. Some of them make stuff up to tell you IME.
Lib Dems in government? I thought they justdemanded useless policy changes no-one gives a shit about and threw toys out of the pram with tit for tat playground politics when they didn't get them. No wonder UKIP are increasingly strong.
Shame he spoilt it really though, one of the few times a politician has actually come anything like close to realising the volumes of data they are talking about trying to monitor, and the (im)practicalities of monitoring it.
"I think it isn't workable or proportionate," well yes, it's certainly not, nor is it economically or practically feasible, let alone desirable.
Anyway, his "not while we're in charge" comment implies he thinks they're going to be around for a while yet. Bless him!
"Real" work? I've used OOO since 2005, then LibreOffice since the fork by choice on my own machines. As a consultant working on customers sites using customers kit, I have found myself so massively impeded by the wretched ribbon thing that I have installed LibreOffice instead of wasting time hunting for basic things in Excel or Word. I have never had a problem reading or writing documents exchanged with colleagues. Before any fanboys start, yes I do use advanced features and create large documents too.
Keep on drinking that kool aid!
This bill does nothing to counter terrorism - if the security services want to monitor individuals, does *anyone* except the morons who drafted this bill think they cannot already? Does anyone with half a brain think bad guys exchange emails in plain text, from known email addresses, with traceable IP addresses, or make and receive calls from phones with traceable names and addresses, etc?
All this does is put the foolish and naive in harms way, and in the meantime the cost will be enormous to the public in more ways than one; firstly - the ISPs who will pass on the costs to their customers, secondly - the government who will spend unthinkable amounts on "policing" it. The data storage costs alone are potentially phenomenal. Then there is the risk of the government "losing" the data, as has happened in a number of previous scandals.
The bad guys are already using technology which won't be subverted by these measures, multiplied manifold by the time anything approaching these proposals gets implemented.
Will it stop spam? No.
Will it stop phishing? No.
Will it stop the propagation of Malware and Viruses? No.
Will it inconvenience millions of innocents? Yes.
Will it do anything to stop bad guys? Well, probably the opposite as it will divert key resources who could be tracking real bad guys away from real threats while instead they chase down BARRISTER PRINCE ABDUL H MSINA and his mates from Nigeria who wants to share his fortune.
This is (yet) another classic example of an attempt at legislation by people whose understanding of technologies involved, practical limitations, and implementation considerations are so far removed from reality as to be laughable - were it not so serious a matter. In fact their sclerotic and pathetic excuse for what passes for thinking demonstrates clearly that they don't even begin to comprehend the problem, let alone being in a position to propose, and legislate for a solution.
We stand on the brink of wasting sums of money which would dwarf the previous NHS NpfIT fiascos many times over, and will achieve nothing. Ministers supporting this should be held personally accountable for professional negligence, criminal waste and misspending taxpayer funds.
Grrr. What a bag'o'shite.
Mr Angry from Pyr-ford.
Any Linux in fact, but they've now made it worse as you have to get reminded every 8 days. I contacted them previously asking why they insisted on prompting me to download and install a product which doesn't run on my machine and they replied with some garbage about it being in the public interest. Are they telling me they can't set an opt-out cookie or detect my OS is one of those they provide the software for (assuming I don't refuse cookies and obscure my OS)?
... how putting liquids into a resealable plastic bag renders them safe?
Also I have had the following items confiscated from hand luggage:
* A miniature jewellers screwdriver in a watch repair kit
* Nail clippers (not pliers)
I suppose the logic is that I could take cabin crew hostage and threaten to dismantle their wristwatches or ruin their manicures unless they comply with my evil demands?
What's more, I got marched off into an interview room and strip searched because a tiny metal manufacturer name tag on a belt loop of my trousers (1/4 the size of a zip tag) made a handheld scanner beep.
If we have to implement rules like these, the bad guys have already won.
I have a (paid for) photo driving license and machine readable passport also with photo. Why on earth do I now need another (paid for) form of ID?
Apart from which, it took the government long enough to sort out the passports fiasco - I have zero confidence that they:
a) won't screw up planning, rollout and ongoing support like they do with most Gov. IT projects
b) won't accidentally release everyones confidential data to the world like they did with the CDs
c) won't run massively over budget by making unrealistic assumptions like they do with most Gov. IT projects
d) won't subsequently claim it as an achievement when it's quite clear (and everyone knows) it was a dismal failure like most Gov. IT projects.
Has anyone run the numbers - i.e. is £60 per person for everyone in the UK enough to settle the Brownian debt mountain? There has to be a real reason for this madness.
Please bring on the general election.
I was with them once, and I would never use them again nor wish them on anyone else. They are truly a showcase for incompetence which makes even the current government look good.
First, over a 2 year period they managed to bill me twice for the same supply, based on their "estimates" and they ended up owing me over £2000. It took 18 months to get them to admit their error and refund me.
A year later (why oh why did I not dump them then?) they send me a bill for £1,400 despite the fact I paid them by direct debit. This took 8 months to sort out, as I insisted on seeing a detailed breakdown of charges. It took a plethora of phone calls and 3 letters, (2 recorded delivery) before they saw fit to respond at all. However, their response was to instruct a firm of debt collectors. I contacted them again, meanwhile raising an official complaint to Energywatch, saying I had no objection to paying any sum owed as long as they could prove it was not yet another error, given the past history on the account. Their response was a letter stating flatly "the account is correct" and a letter from the debt collector saying they would sue me if I didn't pay. Again I wrote to them saying that them claiming that the account was correct didn't prove anything, and repeated for the umpteenth time my request for a detailed breakdown of charges. By now Energywatch had contacted them, and I received a letter from NP offering to knock £500 off the total bill. This seemed to me a pretty hefty amount for an account that "was correct".
Things however still dragged on, so eventually I said I'd see them in court, and they again upped their offer to wipe out most of the alleged debt, but still no breakdown. I didn't have time to mess about with these fools, so accepted the offer of settlement on the proviso that they close the account and never contact me again. They've already failed the latter, needless to say. I've had their telesales people on several times despite being ex-directory and registered with TPS.
AVOID NPower at all costs - life is too short. Atlantic energy get my vote however, they actually seem to understand something about customer service!
So "Zanu" Labour have nobbled Hansard (again)? This is becoming a habit.
So what? It's hardly a first, Ed B*ll*s did it only the other week.
I suppose they'll soon introduce a bill to ensure Hansard records are stored on a "secure, hack proof database, not connected to the Internet" - but then again it's only a matter of time before they go and lose some unencrypted CD's in transit to the NAO ;^)
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