Posts by Dan Watson

Why UK Online Safety Act may not be safe for bloggers

Re: Run and hide

Playing devil's advocate here (and hoping I don't get sued by Satanists for taking their God's name in vain - or Christians for blasphemy):

Do we actually need a world where every article, theory, blog etc is open to fierce debate publicly among anonymous individuals that have no idea what they're talking about?

Are there too many back-bedroom experts ready to comment on subjects with knee-jerk reactions based purely on opinion and the opinions of others formed through consuming content delivered to them by algorithm?

Would it lead to a drop in mainstream media reporting that 'last night', 'sources' criticised a scientific thesis that goes against out 'racist/religious/political/ability to sell headlines' [delete as required] beliefs - with [sources] being Twitter users and comments? Is it no different to writing an article about that people were talking about in the pub?

Of course, there is a big difference between Freedom of Speech in discussion or opinions and the Freedom of Speech that Trump and his Musky warriors are advocating - being able to say what you want without consequence. Obviously that's not freedom of speech, it's freedom from consequence. Big difference.

But even so it's nice to take an article at its face value with the need to have social media integrated into it - in my opinion of course.

School gets an F for using facial recognition on kids in canteen

Wrong chips

I get why schools would resort to biometrics. Kids lose cards, keys, PIN numbers etc. keep the queue running by pressing a fingerprint or facial recognition. Bullies can’t steal the cards blah blah.

But in the real world I know just how bad schools are at cyber security (I recently send a basic simulated phishing attack across my school and over half of staff clicked on the link, 25% of staff entered their details; compared to only two students. And this is a special needs school!); in the real world you can buy a house without needing biometrics to be passed over, spend money freely in shops without so much as a PIN code.

This is why schools need to take a step back and really analyse whether it’s needed to protect a plate of chips.

So many schools also subcontract out their services so it’s impossible sometimes to get a handle on where this data is going. I’m the only person who knows what a DPO form is in my school, let alone fills one in.

Tiny Brit tech firms win spots on £1.84B public sector contract. Kidding, it's the usual suspects

Re: at least our solutions are functional

That’s a slanderous comment suggesting you need to be related to a politician to get a contract.

You can be their pub landlord…

That’ll be because their total and complete negligence has made them completely unfit to be selected for a government contract.

And of course by negligence I mean they didn’t donate enough money to the Tory party.

I haven't bought new pants for years, why do I have to keep buying new PCs?

Re: So many tales

And most of the time you won’t need to shake hands with anyone, either.

It was only ten years ago I stood in a primary schools IT Room with the schools Chair of Governors. In response to my pleads for him to find some money in the budget to upgrade their provision, he was leaning on his stick telling me that these 2002 Pre HT Pentium 4s with 256mb of RAM were ‘state of the art when we put these in’ (and so was the server that was still running server 2000 and the backup tapes were the originals so hadn’t actually backed anything up for years).

I asked him how often he changed his car, even though they’re state of the art each time he buys them.

“Good point.” He said, before asking me if I could help him install his state of the art HP Inkjet onto his home Windows 95 PC.

It was a further three years before that network would be upgraded.

Guess who the Co-op Bank chose for £141m outsourcing deal? Can't be. Yes, it's Capita

Capita will also be working alongside a third party over inflating the price of and fucking up a new IT platform for the bank, it said in a statement.

There, fixed it for you.

Capita strikes again: Bug in UK-wide school info management system risks huge data breach

Re: That explains...

He would have been marked as on study leave. Which counts as ‘in attendance’, as he is where he is supposed to be.

Otherwise you’d get fined for him being off!

The app obviously doesn’t recognise the different codes.

Apple is making life terrible in its factories – labor rights warriors

This isn't an Apple problem. Is a West problem. Any Western product with 'Made in China' stamped on it's arse has been made by an exploited Chinese worker. Whether that worker was well paid (by Chinese standards) or not they've still been exploited for their cheaper wage. Smaller companies need to exploit the Chinese manufacturing market to compete with the big boys, the big boys have no excuse - they don't do it to make a profit, they do it to maximise their profit.

The sooner US companies make their products in the US, the UK companies make their products in the UK etc then the sooner this exploitation will stop. Unless those countries scrap or lower their minimum wages to compete with the Chinese...

Apple's Watch charging pad proves Cupertino still screwing buyers

Re: Powering up reality distortion field now...

You're attempting to justify Apple ripping off its customers by saying they ripoff their customers by giving crap cables anyway?

I think it's more that Apple feel that if you can afford to pay £350 for a... well, Watch that displays the time and text messages - like £30 Bluetooth ones do then you'll probably go for a plate to put it on.

Like the £100 car mats dealers provide. But at least you can eBay for cheap car mats if you want to without you car dying on you half way through the day because they're deemed 'incompatible'

How long does it take an NHS doctor to turn on a computer?

Re: I still can't get my head round this one

Our school's homepage has been set to the Sharepoint login screen for staff so they have instant access to the Learning Platform.

I've lost count of the amount of times that teachers or support staff have told me they can't get on to the Internet because it's asking for a password.

Even those who engage brain and read the screen in front of them still put their network user account details in rather than their Sharepoint ones.

And even those who do log in correctly still ask me how they get to the Internet from the Sharepoint homepage.

Layoff-happy Capita charges staff to use cutlery in canteens

Not at all surprising. If that's how they treat their staff, imagine what they're screwing the tax payer for? This is the company who tried to make a profit out of Free School Meals, after all.

Spotify springs bloody leak as losses grow to $197m – report

Re: Something is seriously screwed

I wouldn't call 0.01p (in the UK) per stream making money.

When you consider you only need to sell 15k copies to get to no.1 in the charts the chances of getting enough streams to make a living, let alone a packet, are tiny.

The only thing I can think of is the artists are paid that little but a lot more is paid to the labels, cutting out the artists but also cutting into Spotify's profits.

YouTube flushes Flash for future flicks

Re: Tomorrow and the future

v13 is still supported by Adobe for Enterprise use.

Analysts claim itty bitty iPhone Mini to land next year

Rumours intensified after iPhone 6 release?

So they're going to release a smaller phone than the 6?

That'll be the 4S then.

UK digi exclusion: Poor families without internet access could 'miss out' on child tax credit

No transition?

Would it not make more sense to first introduce the ability to claim online before forcing everyone to use it?

Currently you can't even download the form, you have to phone up.

I'd also be interested to see how many eligible people even understand the bloody tax credit system. Everytime I use their calculator I get a different amount out of it. So my application is very much an 'apply and see' application.

‘Anonymous’ hacks Oz Uni’s email to protest bulk iPad buy

Irony

Anyone else see the irony in someone hacking into a Microsoft product to complain that Apple products aren't very good?

Council to chuck £28m wad at schools' ICT supplier

Re: One other thing....

We have 20 iPads and they are all in perfect condition.

Re: Er, iPads?

Being a special needs kid doesn't mean you have behavioural problems. And having behavioural problems doesn't mean you're going to chuck an iPad across the room.

Most bad behaviour is chosen. The 'problem' is their actions can be amplified or overblown. Most children wouldn't throw anything they know they'd be banned from using.

As far as rugged - just get a strong case or surround. They will do the job just fine.

Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft

Special Needs

Interesting you asked about disabled people. I work in a Special High School, dealing with children with Special Educational Needs from physical disabilities to Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia among others.

We are using Office 2003, until October where we will be upgrading to 2010. While teaching 2003 I've noticed that SEN children struggle to get around the menus, those who have trouble reading and those who have trouble with shapes or numbers can't find their way around, whilst those with Autism and ADHD don't have the patience. Those with low IQ or who have poorly developed mental ability find the process of getting to the margin settings, for example, too long or forget what they are doing half way through.

The ribbon is a massively helpful tool that reduces the time it takes to teach simple Word skills because the icons are right there in front of them. Trials with 2010 have found the perfectly abled teachers are the ones who have the most difficulty - because it's different, whereas the children have adapted really well.

So there is a good use for the ribbon, and I can see the merit for having an option, but given the choice most teachers would choose to stay with 2003 menus - through nothing more than bone-idleness, than take the time to learn the ribbon, despite it's obvious benefits to education.

Kid spanks a grand on Xbox using Mum's bank card

Not Credit cards

It's law that you get a Credit Card bill every month if there is a balance on it.

She would have received one.

She's supposed to remember this because...

...She's supposed to be a responsible parent.

Anyone who gives their children any product that they don't know how to use themselves is irresponsible. She allowed her son to set up a social networking account - paying for it - without checking first what she was paying for.

If she had have done she would have noticed the differences between a normal account and a child account. She would also have realised you can buy MS Points and that there was no need to keep her card details saved.

I bet she would have happily let her son on the internet without supervision, then complained when he downloaded porn or got groomed.

Microsoft releases Windows Live apps suite

Or...

...you could install Windows 7 and not download the add-ons in the first place. Which was what I thought was the point of Live Essentials in the first place.

Music labels take (more) Irish ISPs to court

@Coward

First up, Alpha Tony was referring to law. You are referring to the morality of stealing/downloading etc.

Secondly if you are going to flame someone, have the decency not to hide behind anonymous posts.

Sky plays the victim over Ofcom pay TV rights probe

Splitting content between providers will harm, not help, consumers.

Last season, I paid £35 p/m for Sports plus £50 for full year's access to Sky's Prem Plus.

this year, its £35.00 for Sky Sports and £10.00 per month extra, plus £15.00 connection fee for Setanta's Premiership games.

That's an INCREASE of £85.00 per year for Premiership football in the UK on last year.

The only people who benefit are the Chiefs at the FA!

The consumer pays extra regardless. Now if EVERY channel was allow FULL access to Premiership games, rather than some getting exclusive access and the consumer can CHOOSE which channel they watch their matches (I would choose Sky over Setanta anyday) then that might benefit the consumer.

Sky and Setanta have DIFFERENT games therefore there is still no competition.