Posts by Quotes

Brit school software biz unchains lawyers after crappy security exposed

Re: That blackboard is a disgrace.

The lowercase R is playing truant: ‘leaRning objective’

Checkmate, GoDaddy – Google starts flogging dot-word domain names

Cheaper elsewhere

You can transfer and renew for under £6 per domain

$8.99/yr at http://supersite.domaincentral.com/

They are not trying to lure you in at a cheap rate. It's been at this price for several years. Service includes free privacy protection, domain locking, centralised contacts (missing with GoDaddy), and bulk editing.

Pond, rocks or quicksand in your 1km garden? Get a rugged DECT phone

Illuminating

I have used the current version for the past 8 years. The built in torch is very handy for powercuts or if you need to find something in the shed. However on both of my handsets the LCD screen is now breaking up so you can't see numbers clearly anymore. Current range is approx 150m. Make sure you position your phone base station a couple of metres away from your wifi. Happy to hear there is a new model because when the time comes I'd want to replace with the same.

UK slaps 25 per cent 'Google Tax' on tech multinationals

Re: @Ledswinger

"The buyer pays ALL Costs"

We can safely assume that if a business such as Google has developed accounting practices to avoid paying tax, this assists in reducing the price of the product/service to the end-user. This means that the end-users are currently the beneficiaries of such accounting methods, thus the tax being missed is not being exported out of the country but is being enjoyed as a subsidy on the price being paid by the end-user. It's the corollary of saying that if a new tax is levied the costs will go up.

Musicians sue UK.gov over 'zero pay' copyright fix

Compensation has already been paid

The price of music, whether it is a download or a CD, already reflects the cost of lost revenue from piracy and format shifting. It's built into the legitimate purchase price. No musician has ever been compensated for format shifting before now, so this is not revenue they had any expectation of receiving. The UK government is right - there is no need to compensate, other methods of compensation are already in place (built into the original purchase costs) and this extra money is not going to be missed by anyone.

The cost of a PRS licence to play music in a workplace is another hideous abomination

Blackpool hotel 'fines' couple £100 for crap TripAdvisor review

Re: Free Speech has not been censored

Go look it up yourself.

https://www.google.com/search?q=chilling+effect

There was no chilling effect... the customers were at complete liberty to post negative reviews without the threat of legal sanction. The unfair trading term that mentions the financial penalty more likely infers tacit approval of negative reviews.

But how would they go about legal sanctions if they charged the customer for the privilege of speaking their mind? That would be a right pickle.

Free Speech has not been censored

Most of the reporting of this issue (Reg included) seems to suggest that this incident has impacted on Free Speech. Well firstly nothing has been censored, the comments they made have been published for all to see. Secondly, they were not prevented from posting a negative review, only charged for it.

The reporting should focus on Unfair Terms and Legal Small Print. Free Speech is not the issue.

Antares apocalypse: Orbital points finger at turbopump FAIL

Re: Some perspective on this

"You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?" ... Armageddon (1998)

Apple spent just ONE DOLLAR beefing up the latest iPad Air 2

An Embarrassment of Riches

The spin on this article was a Moment of Inertia

Sun's MASSIVE solar storm belch to light up Earth's skies

theregister.co.UK

Is Maryland north or south of Watford?

Sonos AXES support for Apple's iOS4 and 5

If not Sonos then what else?

I was considering getting a Sonos system for home. Would anyone now care to suggest an alternative? I previously looked at the Denon Cocoon but ruled that out when I heard it was being discontinued. Kit list includes iMac 2007, MacBook, Nexus 7, iPhone 5 and iPad 1. Just need half-decent speakers that will handle radio and streamed music collection.

The Sonos app has already dropped support for iOS 4 and 5 (not forthcoming as the article suggests). I have an iPad v1 and wanted to preview their app but it can't install the Sonos controller app.

Not sure why Sonos can't make the effort to manage a graceful failure on this, and have a universal app that supports new features on new kit, and basic features on old kit.

If not Sonos then what else?

By the way...

For anyone thinking of knocking users of the iPad v1, they probably won't appreciate that even 4 years after Apple instigated this new sector my iPad v1 still has a better battery life than a new Nexus.

And... a circa 1991 Mac SE with 4MB RAM and 20MB hard drive was capable of running excel, word, networking, scanning, printing, sending and receiving a fax, and going online with a BBS like Compuserve. Thirty years later and apart from video and encryption not a lot has actually changed in PC requirements. Just saying.

MacBook Air 13-inch: If you squint hard enough, you'll see a lesser-spotted Apple Price Cut

Productivity is our benchmark

"1) OSX is simple, but that's cos of Apple targeting the lowest common denominator."

I think we can safely assume the lowest common denominator doesn't use ssh to servers or run their own local server. However there are two key demographics - the home user and the business user. Neither of these groups are interested in the technical gubbins of any computer, pc, mac or otherwise because they'd rather spend their time on online shopping, emails, writing letters and managing their accounts.

Personal computers have been around for long enough now that we really ought to be moving beyond looking after the configuration of an operating system.

Some people assume those with IT skills are "into computers". It's like asking a carpenter if they are "into chisels" ... developing IT skills should be focussed on creating better workers, not for nerdy knowledge of what's under the bonnet.

Don't snap SELFIES at the polls – it may screw up voting, says official

http://content.met.police.uk/Site/photographyadvice

Officers do not have the power to delete digital images or destroy film at any point during a search. Deletion or destruction may only take place following seizure if there is a lawful power (such as a court order) that permits such deletion or destruction.

Opportunity selfie: Martian winds have given the spunky ol' rover a spring cleaning

Re: Are ALL THE MATHEMATICIANS DEAD?

It was at 60%, so the most likely scenario is a typo, so that "has been boosted by more than 70 percent" should have said "has been boosted to more than 70 percent"... a 10% improvement would tally with real life expectations, and is described with a similar level of accuracy as the previous level.

If it wasn't a typo, then we would have to assume the 70% refers to portion recovered from the 40% deficiency, i.e. a 28% improvement, bringing it up from 60% to 88% of capacity.

Amazon carefully stitches up Heartbleed OpenSSL hole

Perfect Forward Secrecy

Yahoo! users have the most to be concerned about because when they recently announced they were moving services over to HTTPS they also said they weren't going to use Perfect Forward Secrecy.

However the likes of Google and Twitter have already adopted the principle of PFS in their security policies. If perfect forward secrecy is used and an encryption key is revealed then that is as far as it goes. It doesn't expose all the previous encrypted traffic. However, without it - Yahoo! style - you only need to prise it open once and you get the key to the kingdom.

More info on the Google/Twitter announcements at www.forwardsecrecy.com

Apple vows to add racially diverse EMOJIS after MILEY CYRUS TWITTER outrage

"Personally, this reporter thinks using emojis is a crime in itself."

"We'll let you know how we get on. ®"

erm, what was the last character used in this article?

Google's Larry Page: DeepMind 'discovered CATS on its own'

We need more than a Magna Carta for the web, we need it in other sectors as well, such as finance, and equality. It's nearly 800 years since the original Magna Carta was approved and its surprising just how many issues haven't changed that much.

Extracts from http://www.globalmagnacarta.com/magna-carta/

40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.

And you can see, London still gets a special mention, distinct from the rest of the UK...

13. And the city of London shall have all it ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs.

Your 'funny' cat pics are weighing down the web, so here's a better JPEG encoder from Mozilla

Re: Why not just replace the last-end compression?

Glove and Boots...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ2SHSg5rIY

Loose vs Lose is explained by Johnny T at 2:15

Tick-tock, TalkTalk: Users face fourth day of titsup broadband

Unfortunately the front line support with TalkTalk is poor quality. If your broadband stops working at 10pm you have to wait until the following day to lodge the complaint. Then go through someone who wants to RTFM before escalating to someone else. 7 days later and after a 4th level of escalation you get to deal with someone that understands how to fix things and it's back up and running in a jiffy.

The really despicable side to TalkTalk is the veiled threats about it being your fault and the £125 charge if it is. However if your broadband is working fine and then at the stroke of midnight it goes awol then it's a fair bet it's their network doing something wrong.

I now deal with my (frequent) broadband outages by using a Mifi unit on PAYG. £2 a day is not a big deal if you want to keep working. Use it at least once every six months to keep the sim active. TalkTalk's service level encourage mes to use it more often than I'd like.

Sage sued for pulling out too soon

MYOB Data File Activation - The UK/AU connection

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the MYOB customers which were granted a perpetual licence to use their MYOB software are facing being locked out of their account data files in the new year.

The original documentation for UK MYOB software states that it is the Australian MYOB company that grants the licence to use the software and have data files activated, through it's UK agents.

Mamut purchased the customer list but not the software. They have been touting 'upgrades' for £29 with an annual contract of £108, as a way of continuing to use the MYOB software. They cite the Australian MYOB company as withdrawing the activation service for data files. The Australian MYOB company won't talk to UK customers because they 'sold' the customer territory to Mamut. This puts owners in limbo.

UK MYOB software owners face an annual bill for over £100 just to carry on using the same software they have already paid for.... if you have paid for software that didn't contain any time limitation on it's usage you would expect to be able to continue to use it, or at the very least be able to patch it to remove the activation requirement if the vendor wants to stop that service.

There is no technical obstacle to continuing the activation service, as they have done so for several years already, since selling the UK arm to Mamut.

If you are a UK MYOB software owner have a look at your documentation with your manual. It clearly states the Australian MYOB company, still trading at the same address, is the company granting you the licence.

Sage leads bidding for Mind Your Own Business

MYOB and Mamut

Let's hope that Sage can reverse Mamut's intentions to force the UK customer base into taking out unwanted support contracts with them.

MYOB users have a licence granted to them by the Australian MYOB company to have their data files validated by one of their local agents. This enables them to continue to use the software they have paid for... if the validation isn't carried out the data file (i.e. the company accounts) goes into read-only mode.

MYOB UK offered upgrades as recent as March 2008. The company was then sold to Mamut. Without consultation or notification Mamut recently announced the unilateral decision to end the file verification that the software is dependent upon, even though this is a system they took over and continued to operate. There's not technical reason why verification cannot continue.

The decision to stop this service without any recourse to alternatives, such as software patch, a small service fee to cover costs, or handing over to another provider is purely based on their desire to convert the UK customer base into hard cash. The annual fee is around £100. There are estimated to be 20,000 MYOB users in the UK. They stand to gain £2m.

However the software licence for the UK product clearly states that the Australian MYOB company is the one that is granting the licence to use the product together with the required activation of data files. This means that despite the confusion caused by Mamut in the UK market the Australian MYOB company is still involved in the debacle.

Murdoch muscles BBC out of Formula One driving seat

Booo

Can I downgrade my my TV licence to a cheaper package now please.

McAfee recovers from Sesame Street email filter mix-up

Spot the Difference

"This snafu is brought to you by the letter A and the number 533"

"Mail to the affected addresses was bounced with a 553"

Microsoft to Apple: 'Oh, yeah? Well, your font is too small'

Typeface and Kerning

11pt Univers Ultra-Condensed with heavy-handed negative kerning and reduced inter-word spacing should do the trick. Maybe a sub-editor could go through it to remove superfluous words, use alternative shorter words and make liberal use of abbreviations.

Google pulls trigger on 'Instant' search engine

I'm Feeling Not So Lucky

When I use the auto-suggest answers I usually type a few letters, scroll down the list and then use right-arrow to select the item off the menu, then click search. However this process now takes me directly to the first search result, meaning I don't see the results and I'm less likely to view any related ads. Apart from adversely affecting ad impressions I think this places greater emphasis on initial keyword advertising and organic 1st position ranking.

Barclays computers suffer Monday morning meltdown

It's still borken (1.30pm)

If you manage to get past the PINSentry login and dare to request your online statement you'll still see "5 - Sorry - Barclays Online Banking is currently unavailable".

Barclays online banking borked

Pause for web stats

Part of the slow page loading seems to be attributable to a lack of response from http://statse.webtrendslive.com/

Would it kill them to disable the web stats lookups when technical issues arise?

At least the BBC have a slimmed down version of their page for BBC News when traffic levels spike... Barclays ought to consider a slimmed down version for basic functionality in times like these.

Google mocks Bing and the stuff behind it

MetaCrawler

Hmmm, MetaCrawler... where the top search results are scraped adverts from Google and the 'submit your site' link (on tools and tips page) takes you to an advertising agency site with an invalid security certificate. Looks like they prefer to monetise their traffic than serve up something useful.

Clusty (http://clusty.com/) aggregates search engine results too but at least it differentiates their adverts. Unlike MetaCrawler it also allows you to refine your query by looking at clusters, so for example you can search for Concorde and it groups up the results into "hotel", "aircraft", "placename" and "car".

Where has all the bad storage gone?

CrashPlan

CrashPlan (www.crashplan.com) offers automatic online backup. It's free for personal use, and you can backup to a drive on another computer (Mac or PC) and that could either be on your local network or attached to a friend's computer over the Net. If you need to do a restore you can even take your friend's drive and plug it in to your computer to speed things up (saves waiting for Internet speed download of your entire drive). They also offer an inexpensive central storage subscription (cheaper than BT, with greater capacities). If you are paranoid you can back up to multiple destinations. The installation is a doddle and you can easily check/uncheck folders to backup, and control bandwidth/server usage.

Online crime maps go live

Direct Links to Crime Maps

Direct Links to Crime Maps where available:

http://www.crimemaps.org.uk/

Back the F:\ Up

Viz Comics Was 'Ere First

Adverts of Dantz Restrospect published in early editions of Viz Comics had the slogan "back up or fuck up". It was usurped by the slogan "To go forward you must back up".