Posts by Len

We are absolutely, definitively, completely and utterly out of IPv4 addresses, warns RIPE

Re: Nope, never saw this coming

The problem is that it’s very easy to get it wrong and if you do you mistake an entire area or perhaps even all of an ISP’s subscribers for one person. That wreaks havoc on your targetting.

Re: "We have now run out of IPv4 addresses"

That’s my whole point. IPv4 is not forward compatible (it was never meant to be used long term) so any minute change to it requires to overhaul the entire installed base.

If you’re overhauling the entire installed base anyway you might as well tackle much more than just a lack of address space.

Re: "We have now run out of IPv4 addresses"

If you are a new ISP then that is often the only option. In practice that means DS-Lite where people get a public IPv6 plus an IPv4 behind CGNAT. It can give you some annoying compatibility issues. I know a German ISP had a lot issues with people with Playstations behind DS-Lite.

For online services it might be more difficult. Would you put a range of externally facing servers behind CGNAT?

Re: Nope, never saw this coming

All of them are fairly dubious players but I very much doubt IPv6 will benefit them much in their surveillance capitalism endeavours.

First of all, they have much better ways to track people than with IP addresses. IP addresses tend to change quite a lot, are tied to physical locations while people move around and people tend to switch from desktop to mobile and back all the time. IP addresses are simply not reliable enough for what the Googles of this world want.

Secondly, there is this thing called Privacy Extensions (RFC 4941) that is the default on most OS-es. That means that the IPv6 address that is visible from the outside (devices connected using IPv6 usually have multiple addresses, one for loop-local, one for the LAN, one for outside communication) changes at quite regular intervals.

This typically means that your laptop or phone behind your home router gets a different IP every day, the first part of the address stays the same, the second part varies. How big the size of the static part is compared to the variable part varies per ISP. If they give you a measly /64 a different section will change than if they give you a /56 or a /48.

Even if you were to maintain a regularly updated list of allocation sizes for every ISP in the world it would still mean that the closest you come to identifying someone is by their house, not by their machine. Just like with IPv4.

Ergo, at worst your privacy is the same under IPv6 as it was under IPv4, usually it’s considerably better.

If Sky gives his modem/router an IPv6 address and he visits an IPv6 resource like YouTube.com he should be connecting over IPv6. If he doesn't then the issue can hardly be with YouTube or Sky.

I run SixOrNot and you'd be surprised how common IPv6 is for websites. I have made IPv6 support a minimum requirement for all my sites and services years ago.

Re: "We have now run out of IPv4 addresses"

Even if they had added only one byte to the IPv4 address it would still have required a complete redesign of every network stack in the world, an upgrade or replacement of every hardware network device in the world and a complete reconfiguration of allocations.

If you are going to do something as costly, time consuming and disruptive as that you might as well fix a whole bunch of other issues with IPv4 in the process. Hence IPv6 was created to tackle much more than just address space constraints.

For instance, multi-cast never really worked in IPv4 but does in IPv6. Quite useful now the internet has become a broadcast medium of choice.

Re: Nope, never saw this coming

Facebook, Google, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube are some of the biggest stores of content in the world and all of it lives on IPv6.

Facebook has even dropped IPv4 entirely and only uses IPv6 internally. They just have a bunch of edge servers that translate to IPv4 for visitors that don't have IPv4 yet.

We're getting there. BT and Sky already provide IPv6 as standard, Vodafone has it turned on for 600,000 customers and expects to have completed the roll-out in late Spring, Plusnet starts the IPv6 roll-out in Spring.

The main hold outs are Virgin Media and Talk Talk.

Re: "We have now run out of IPv4 addresses"

Existing addresses are not going anywhere but try to set up a new ISP or online service that needs blocks of IPv4 addresses. You’ll have to go and pay increasingly high market prices to buy them off other companies.

Considering many of the biggest sites use IPv6 you should see IPv6 traffic when going to Facebook.com, Google.com, Youtube.com etc.

If you don’t see traffic when going to any of those there is a problem on your end.

Taxi for Uber: Ride-hailing app giant stripped of licence to operate in London

I switched from Uber to Bolt some time ago.

I had already switched from Uber to Bolt some time ago as I didn't feel comfortable with my money going to Uber. According to the drivers they get to take a bigger cut of the fare home and they feel less pressure/like a machine than with Uber.

Also, as they are in fierce competition they throw discounts and affiliate links around like there's no tomorrow. I switched to Bolt in July and haven't been without a discount since. 5% here, 10% there, affiliate links so getting someone else signed up gets you a free ride etc. etc.

Don't like Bolt? You can always try Kapten. I've never tried them myself but many drivers I speak ride for all three companies so just have all three apps open.

NASA told to get act together on commercial crew vendors as chance of US-free ISS rises

ESA?

Perhaps it's time ESA commissioned the development of a crew unit to be mounted on top of an Ariane 6. Then NASA could pay the Europeans instead of the Russians for their launch requirements.

Labour: Free British broadband for country if we win general election

Only nationalise OpenReach

At first I thought this was a barmy idea but after mulling it over a bit I have grown a bit more sympathetic to it. First of all, a couple of premisses:

1) It is a bit odd that a commercial and independent operator is also responsible for OpenReach where it needs to supply its competitors. There is a reason there have been accusations of market distortion for years.

2) Giving (nearly) every household a 10 mbit pipe is commercially unattractive. There will always be communities where it's just not economically viable if profit is the main motive. Some kind of public sector involvement is required.

3) Having an infrastructure provider as Network Rail in public hands where private operators compete on is a good thing. Whether you agree that Train Operating Companies should be private or public is another matter. I see very few people debate that Network Rail should be privatised too.

Why not replicate the set up for rail similar to that for broadband? Arguably it's even a lot easier than the setup for rail. Therefore:

a) Privatise OpenReach but not BT.

b) Run it with a mild profit aim (but not profit at all costs) for most of the country and then subsidise those areas that would otherwise never be connected.

c) Open the network for all ISPs to offer their services over it with a small profit margin (see b).

The most contentious element is probably this:

If you want free broadband for everyone but don't want to kill the market one could create a (public owned) broadband provider that operates over the OpenReach network at no cost. To keep the market alive it would need be very minimal (max 2Mbit down?). Enough to get access to vital services but not enough to run Netflix, gaming etc.. Anyone who wants a bit more would still need to go to the market and get a commercial subscription.

Thanks, Brexit. Tesla boss Elon Musk reveals Berlin as location for Euro Gigafactory

Re: No, the UK was never in the running

While I would agree that the UK is not one of the great manufacturing powerhouses of Europe an exception should be made for automotive. That happens to be an area where the UK does (or did?) pretty well so I can fully imagine that Tesla would have had the UK on a shortlist a couple of years ago, not just for R&D but even for production.

Bloodhound rocket car target of 550mph put on ice after engine overheat

Re: Dear AC

It's obviously arbitrary. If they had used a different measurement system (furlongs per fortnight?) they would have chosen a different speed target.

If you read it as "the team is attempting to push the car over the 1,609 km/h mark" it loses all sense. I do wonder why they chose to use English measures when this is obviously a global competition. Why not push for the 1500 km/h mark?

Actually, it makes most sense to first aim for the 1,235 km/h mark, the speed of sound. The added benefit is that you break the current record of 1,228 km/h which narrowly avoided breaking the speed of sound by only 7 km/h.

While Apple fanbois rage at Catalina, iGiant quietly drops iOS and macOS security patches

Re: Apple software quality seems to be definitely dropping...

To be honest, I'm not sure any of this is new.

I have been using every version macOS since 2005 and every time the pattern is similar.

1) Months before the release people beg Apple to "release the new version already, I'm sure it's ready!!!111"

2) People in the beta programme say it's all working fine for them and they love new thing X,Y and Z!

3) People complain that the download is slow on launch day and they only had it up and running two hours after it was released.

4) People report problem A, B and C and complain that the new version was clearly rushed out. "Why couldn't Apple wait a bit longer before releasing!!!!111"

5) After the second big update, three months later, nearly every issue is solved and everyone's stopped complaining.

6) People start calling this version "the best OS Apple has ever made!!!111"

7) People start looking forward to the next major release...

Want to avoid all this? Simple, always wait until .2 or .3 before upgrading (perhaps 10.15.3 just to be safe?). I have done so since 2005 and never had any major issues with OS X or macOS.

US govt watchdog barks at FAA over 737 Max inspectors' lack of qualifications

Re: Battle of the regulators?

To be honest, I'm not too worried. These sort of statements only make the case for independent tests stronger. Besides, I doubt anyone at EASA will care that much about what some American says, they have their own responsibilities.

Regulators are built on trust and trust is hard to gain but easy to lose. They will be very careful not to be tainted by the loss of trust in the FAA.

Re: Battle of the regulators?

It depends. If we leave morality completely out of it, some times it's easier to cut corners, some times it's easier to just copy someone else's homework.

There will be cases where, let's say the Cambodian air safety regulator, benefits from less strict rules. There will also be cases, for instance saving a lot of money on having to do your own airworthiness tests or crafting your own safety notices, where it's easier just to follow one of the major regulators.

As the FAA in the case of withdrawing certification for the 737 Max was literally a 'very late follower' instead of a 'leader' I can see their global influence waning for a bit.

Battle of the regulators?

It's interesting that the EASA has stopped accepting FAA safety assurances and insists on doing its own certifications to decide if and when the 737 Max can return to European skies.

In an intriguing way we are seeing that competent regulators are becoming a competitive advantage for certain regions, benefiting businesses that work in their jurisdiction. Now the reputation of the FAA is shot for a while (and will take years to recover) we may witness that under-resourced regulators (Asia? South America?) will be more likely to follow the EASA lead than the FAA lead.

UK Supreme Court unprorogues Parliament

There is no European legal route here. The Court of Justice of the European Union only deals with EU law, not with the law in member states. This case was all about English and Scottish law and the highest court for that is the UK Supreme Court.

Re: Regardless of which side of the fence you are on.

This was not a case against Parliament, it was a case against the Government. The court has just clarified two things, that frankly in a developed democracy would not have needed clarification, namely that:

1) Government gets it mandate from Parliament (and nobody else) and therefore has to do what Parliament instructs it to do.

2) Nobody, and that includes the Government and the Monarch, is above the law.

It should be obvious, Parliament is elected by the people, the Government is not elected by the people, and elected positions should always trump unelected positions. Democracy in Britain just became a tad more advanced today.

UK launches online VAT inquiry following fears of Brexit fraudster surge

Re: What the government currently says

My theory for pushing through Making Tax Digital (while HMRC already had plenty on its plate because of the Brexit fallout) is that it makes turning on a dime and preventing errors much easier.

Flicking a switch on an algorithm because the VAT rules suddenly change is a lot easier than having to spend six months on an awareness campaign for everyone to start filing their quarterly (some times paper!) submissions differently.

Your post also suddenly made me realise that the 31st of October (if that is still the Brexit date, I think an extensions is now most likely) cuts right through a VAT quarter for many businesses. That means that the first two months of a quarter might fall under a different VAT regime than the third month. Holy shit.

UK Home Office primes Brexit spam cannon for a million texts reminding folk to check passports

Look, I understand your anger but (unless you can secure another nationality) you're stuck with these people on this island. Even if you were to emigrate you'd still be tied to these people as they have a vote on the value of your passport.

We're going to have to find a way to get through this and get back on speaking terms with some people who we may disagree with on Brexit. Not all of them, I don't see why we'd need to get on speaking terms with anti-semites, racists, holocaust deniers etc. But, there is a whole host of people who have voted the other way with reasons that seemed reasonable to them at the time and who are people you can have a decent conversation with.

My accountant is a hard-core leaver, a typical life long Conservative voter from the Home Counties who has been radicalised with some quite flowery material he got off the internet. Whenever I speak to him we exchange some basic pleasantries about how this whole Brexit malarkey is such a mess but we don't argue about it, we agree to disagree. Whether it's No Deal or Revoke (or anything in between), we're going to be talking mainly about Brexit for the next ten years (even more so in the quite likely case of a No Deal). We better make it (re)constructive instead of mud-slinging.

Re: Passport Renewal

In that case you may want to renew it quickly before it turns blue.

The problem is that to "bury" it you'd essentially need to revoke the Article 50 notification. That's obviously possible, all it needs is the prime minister to sign a letter and someone to jump on the Eurostar to deliver it and Bob's your uncle. Thanks to a CJEU ruling (C-621/18 WIghtman and others) we even know that the other 27 can't refuse revocation. It would prevent potential humanitarian issues such as medicine and food shortages etc. It would solve most future economic damage and could be a starting to point towards repairing some of the damage.

The main problem is that technically "Brexit" may then have stopped, all the surrounding resentment between various groups in society, politicians (corrupt and otherwise) and family members will remain. The vault lines in society will remain. It will probably take a generation to heal so in some form "Brexit" will not go away.

Ideally there would be some political party that would stand on a platform of "Revoke and rebuild the UK" to sort out the real ills of British society, including the ones that led to disenfranchisement, feelings of neglect, unhappiness with the status quo etc. That would go a long way.

Unfortunately I haven't figured out what to do about the largest group of Leave voters, the middle aged Tory voters in the south (and I know quite a few of those). I can think of a couple of things to make life better for the "left-behind" but what on earth should we do for the Leavers at the golf clubs of Surrey to improve their lives and forget about their Leave vote? Raise the motorway speed limit? Reverse the smoking ban?

Cloud, internet biz will take a Yellowhammer to the head in 'worst case' no-deal Brexit

Re: What's in a name? How about 'Blackswan'?

Correct, operation Yellowhammer is the plan dealing with the foreseeable. Until a few weeks ago this was considered the 'Base Scenario' but some late night redacting by some poor junior sods has involved a find and replace 'Base' -> 'Worst'. We're still missing many pages though, last night's release is only a five page summary whereas a leak in February of an earlier version was already 37 pages. It looks as if the government only released those pages that were leaked a few weeks ago so they didn't have to release many new information.

Operation Blackswan (what's in a name) is the name for the project working out the worst case scenarios and, perhaps more importantly, trying to work out the interaction between some of the "never events". Not just what happens if we get food shortages but also how do fuel shortages interact with food shortages? What if the fuel blockades by protesting petrol workers in some scenarios (because an estimated 2000 people are laid off from UK refineries after No Deal) clash or coincide with consumer panic/pro-democracry protesters/looting/etc.? What if fuel protests block medicine transport? Power cuts combined with gas disruption?

The permutations are almost endless and some interactions are hard to predict. Hence 'Blackswan'.

Ah, this should totally reassure Euro workers: They'll get Brexit EU settled status app on iPhones from October

Re: Priceless ... @iron

A friend of mine couldn't leave the country for six years as the Home Office sat on his passport for six years. He had to go through the courts to get it back, eventually. The good thing is that the Home Office usually breaks the law so they typically lose legal cases, the bad thing is that most people can't afford the time or the money to sue the Home Office.

Specific NFC passport functionality

The use of RFC by third party iOS apps was initially not allowed but that has changed in iOS 11 (Core NFC documentation). Apparently NFC has a number of different types of access/fields/tags. The stuff required for reading passports is new for iOS 13.

Bloke who claimed he invented Bitcoin must hand over $5bn of e-dosh in court case. He can't. He's waiting for a time traveler to arrive

I don't think I understand. What benefit is the courier story to him? It just buys a few months so the judge could order him to pay the money before 1 February 2020 and he'd still be stuck.

Home Office told to stop telling EU visa porkies

Re: SOP from the HO/FO

A friend of mine had to send his passport to the Home Office for some formalities. They kept it for six years(!) and so for six years he was unable to leave the country. As a C-level executive of an international company. He had to sue the Home Office to get his passport back. Now he has got his passport he hardly spends any time in the UK any more, enjoying his freedom and making up for being locked up on a small island.

If I had to do any dealings with the Home Office I would never do it myself, always through a specialised law firm and with a clearly communicated intention to sue them if they made mistakes. I've seen too many Home Office 'cock ups'.

Re: ASA told the Home Office not to run the advert again

Based on the issues we have seen so far the Home Office hasn't been (or very poorly) working together with the other agencies to sort it out. If you look at all the issues with registering for Settled Status that made the press they are all cases where a basic check in other organisation's systems should have prevented the issue.

Some millionaire who has never had the need to apply for an NI and only paid council taxes in the UK (because they had no need to work in the UK) is in the grey area when it comes to exercising Treaty Rights (In first instance I would say they wouldn't qualify), would not show up in basic checks and so should expect to provide more proof of five year's continuous residence.

Someone who has been living in the UK for a decade without break and has paid NI from day one should not be denied Settled Status. There is no excuse for that, that's just a system failing.

It's generally advised to always travel all legs of a journey on the same passport to not mess up Exit Checks. The challenge is that UK is still struggling to introduce Exit Checks so the UK systems are not an accurate reflection of who is and who is not in the country.

If, at some point, the UK would get its border control in order (I am not counting on it happening any time soon, it took seven years of trying to implement e-Borders and give up on it again) you might have an issue when you travel to the UK on a German passport but leave on a UK passport as it may appear in UK systems that some German citizen has stayed in the country. For now that is not a real risk due to the UK systems not working well.

The other way around is a bigger issue. The Schengen Area has its systems pretty well set up and so if you enter Germany on a UK passport but leave on a German one you might get flagged for overstaying in the Schengen Area. The way it's looking now (unless there is some agreement on this at some stage) UK Citizens will only be allowed 90 days out of a 180 day period to stay in the Schengen Area without a visa. It will then depend on German immigration whether they go and look for this 'illegally immigrated Brit' or whether you get flak the next time you pass any Schengen border.

Re: ASA told the Home Office not to run the advert again

The deadline for the Settled Status application is 30 June 2021, or 31 December 2020 if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. There is still plenty of time for people to apply.

This is regardless of the uninformed nonsense Priti Patel and her cronies have been bleating about "ending Freedom of Movement per 1 November". They have no idea what they are talking about. Freedom of Movement is a function of EU law, not English, Scottish or NI law, and the day the UK leaves the EU is the day Free Movement of People ends by automatic operation of EU law. That will mainly apply to UK Citizens as they lose their EU Citizenship on Brexit day. For the remaining 450 million EU Citizens FoM remains unchanged, it just goes from 28 countries to 27 on Brexit day.

Priti Patel seems to be under the impression that she could block people from entering the country but that is nonsense. FoM is not related to border control, the Border Force don't check or apply Freedom of Movement rights. They check the rights to enter a country, not the right to work or live.

Unless the UK would suddenly introduce visa restrictions on Brexit day there is no method (or incentive) for a Border Force agent to check if Joe Bloggs showing up at their booth is coming to visit Harry Potter World and Madame Tussaud's or to take on a job as commodities trader.

If Joe Bloggs comes in with the intention to visit Madam Tussaud's and then decides to stay on to take on a job as commodities trader it's not the Border Force that is a hurdle, it's Joe's employers. His prospective employers will need a National Insurance Number from him and will likely ask for proof he is allowed to work in the UK. That proof is where Brexit will make a difference, not at the border.

Just a passport is not enough, the requirement is for people to have been resident in the UK for over five years (five years of exercising Treaty Rights). There is, however, no reason why a passport and a National Insurance Number should not be enough. If person paid NI contributions for >5 consecutive years Go To {Settled Status} Else Go To {Further analysis}.

Perhaps optionally ask for a Tax Reference Number or the Unique Taxpayer Reference to check against HMRC databases and the validation process should take seconds per applicant. Obviously that would make sense and would work so they opted for something else to make sure it would become a Very British Clusterfuck.

I know people who have been in the UK for decades, been employed for decades, have run businesses for decades, paid taxes for decades and still the Home Office 'can't find enough evidence' of them having been in the UK long enough. That would never happen in the developed world.

The use of RFC by third party iOS apps was initially not allowed but that has changed in iOS 11. Core NFC documentation

Edit: Ah, apparently the reading of passports is supported from iOS 13.

WTF is Boeing on? Not just customer databases lying around on the web. 787 jetliner code, too, security bugs and all

Underlying issues at Boeing?

There seem to be a number of issues at Boeing that can be traced back to irresponsible cost-cutting and sloppy corporate culture.

KLM is currently celebrating its 100 year anniversary and had planned to have their new 787-10 play a central role in the celebrations. Due to too many issues with manufacturing quality they couldn't sign off on the plane until it was too late and it arrived a day after the celebrations.

"For example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines called the factory’s quality control “way below acceptable standards” for a 787-10 delivered at North Charleston in June. The plane included a special livery to celebrate the carrier’s 100th anniversary.

KLM noted several issues, including a loose seat, missing or wrongly installed cotter pins, nuts not fully tightened, an unsecured fuel line clamp and several unspecified missing parts.

“Who looks at quality in this facility,” KLM asked, adding the airline “is worried for the next deliveries.”

The Post and Courier: Airline surveys point to ongoing production problems at Boeing’s SC plant

Sailfish OS given a Jolla good buffing as version 3.1 bobs gently into port

Good stuff

I am planning to buy a dual-SIM Xperia XA2 next month and put Sailfish on it. I'll mostly use it for my second and third number (don't ask) and as a phone to use when travelling to slightly dodgy countries like Saudi Arabia or US where I don't feel much for having my iPhone swiped at the border. I don't want an Android device and Jolla sound like just what I need.

It's Prime Minister Boris Johnson: Tech industry speaks its brains on Brexit-monger's victory

Re: TL; DR

I am actually quite happy with Johnson winning. At least he now gets to own the Brexit crisis and can go down in history as the shortest sitting prime minister and the last Conservative Party PM ever. We just need to lance the boil.

2025: HELLO? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I'M ON THE TUBE. FULL 4G NOW. NAH, IT'S CRAP

Bring it on!

I don't see any downsides to this at all.

1) Typical communication has already largely moved from voice based to text and image based anyway. It's not like buses are no-go areas because dozens of people are having a voice call, why would the Tube be any different?

2) Sixty percent of the Tube is above ground and even then the Tube is not anything resembling a call centre. Why would people suddenly want to call when they are at an underground section?

3) The ambient noise levels are too high for any conversation. If the Tube would be a new product it would not be allowed to operate due to the dangerously high noise levels, the only reason it's legal to travel on some lines without ear protectors is because of its legacy. You'll notice that some drivers do wear ear protection.

4) People worried about terrorists setting off devices remotely haven't noticed that in 2005 "7/7 bombings" they set off devices by hand and that explosive devices on timers have existed for easily a century.

5) It's great to be able to tell your boss, partner, date etc. that you've been stuck in some tunnel without movement for 45 minutes now and are going to be late.

As HMRC's quarterly deadline for online VAT filing looms, biz dogged by 'technical difficulties'

Re: Business cloud software sends a CSV File

I am not sure that was a correct assessment of the new system, to be honest. The previous system for filing VAT digitally from accounting software worked a bit like that. I once had to help my accounting package troubleshoot an issue I had and it seemed to be a fairly simple system, probably no more than sending a CSV.

In the new system my accounting package, among other things, can see that HMRC has opened a submission for a specific period for me, ready for me to file. That suggests that it is now a much more fully functional API with two-way communication.

Re: Digital VAT

I have to agree. I don't fully understand what the change is about. I have been filing VAT returns from my cloud based accounting package for seven years now. The only thing I believe is that it's now more advanced with a proper API instead of just sending a CSV file over http. For instance, I believe that it's now a two-way street. My accounting package can read statuses from HMRC whereas it previously could only report if my fling had been accepted.

Re: But apparently ...

I see where you are coming from and in an ideal world you wouldn't plan these major changes in the same period.

On the other hand, MTD will actually help a lot with tackling the oncoming Brexit challenges. The Bank of England has just started using VAT filings as a leading indicator (i.e. telling you where the issues are going to be instead of where they have been) for UK economic performance so it gets alerted much earlier to specific areas that are in trouble.

I can also image that MTD will help a lot with untangling the intra-EU trade that is now going to be changed to UK-EU trade. At the moment nobody in the UK trades WITH the EU, it's all trade WITHIN the EU. After Brexit the trading relationships that I have with customers and suppliers elsewhere in Europe will probably change dramatically (we'll probably see the end of Reverse-Charge VAT for instance). Flicking a switch on an HMRC algorithm on Brexit day will be much easier than having to change all your forms and educating all businesses about a change in process.

Re: But apparently ...

To be fair, it's not HMRC who has been saying that. Quite the reverse, they have been sounding the alarm bells around Brexit related issues for over a year.

UK.gov pledges probe into tourists' 'motivations'

The UK an international conference destination?

The UK is rapidly losing its attractiveness as a place for international conferences, in large part due to Theresa May's hatred of foreigners. She has had six years at the Home Office to make sure people consider the UK a ridiculous backwater.

You'll think twice about organising an international conference where (gasp) non-English people are expected to attend after you have had to change your conference programme because your keynote speaker couldn't get a visa. "Oh noes, Prof. Dr. such-and-such has a brown skin, we can't possibly give them a visa, they might wish to give up their academic career for a life in British squalor and overstay on their visa."

Dissed Bash boshed: Apple makes fancy zsh default in forthcoming macOS 'Catalina' 10.15

Re: Bashing GPL with benefits

Apple doesn't have a problem with Open Source, you can download the source of a large part of what they ship (including the kernel) from opensource.apple.com covered under a whole host of OS licenses, from Apache License, Apple Public Source License and MIT to Mozilla Public License, BSD and GPLv2.

It's specifically GPLv3 that they feel is not compatible with some of their licenses. It's a similar stance to what you can hear in the BSD community who feel that GPLv3 is too restrictive.

Julian Assange jailed for 50 weeks over Ecuador embassy bail-jumping

Re: After 50 weeks

Next step, after he has served his UK sentence, will most likely be an extradition to Sweden under the European Arrest Warrant. That would take precedent over any US extradition request, should one be filed.

If the Americans would then like him extradited to the US they would have to send a request to Sweden. If I recall correctly the UK would then still have the opportunity to protest the onward extradition but my knowledge of those details of EAW procedure are limited.

Sky customers moan: Our broadband hubs are bricking it

Re: It's been years since . . . .

I use a Draytek V130 on my BT line. It's set in bridge mode to a router running OpenWRT. This gives me a stable Dual Stack connection and the ability to control my own DNS (OpenWRT just forwards the requests to the DNS services I have given it, ignoring the DNS servers that BT hands down via DHCP). And it works a charm.

Who had 'one week in' for a Making Tax Digital c0ckup? Well done, you win... absolutely nothing

Re: Cheques

I know, I've done that after going through the hassle of having to cash a couple of cheques. I just don't understand:

a) why just paying it straight into your account is not the default

b) why they even still use cheques at all

(they may have stopped it in the mean time, it's been three years since I switched).

Cheques

What do you expect from an organisation that still sends out cheques. Like it's 1985.

Brexit text-it wrecks it: Vote Leave fined £40k for spamming 200k msgs ahead of EU referendum

Tsk...

What's 40K to Putin? It's time for custodial sentences. Unfortunately all serious investigation in the UK is currently done by the FBI as our agencies have been barred from investigating the people in power.