Posts by mark phoenix

VMware axes Fusion and Workstation US devs

Looks like I am stuck on Parallels 10 as I don't like the new subscription model. VMWare was an obvious replacement but no more.

I don't want to invest in a product, supported by a team with zero experience of how it works :(

You CAN'T jail online pirates for 10 years, legal eagles tell UK govt

Another attempt to pour your money down the drain

Does anybody else think that the Government is not representing their voters

Criminalising people for frivolous crimes is a horrendous waste of money and an affront to a civilised society

eg

o Publishing material which surely is a civil matter

o Not paying their TV license - again this should be a civil matter

The real issue is price.

Make the BBC free and funny enough you have no criminals

Lower the price of music/videos and people will be happy to buy high quality legit copies

Put road tax on fuel and its not possible to avoid it and you pay for what you use

There is always a smarter way of doing things.

All Governments waste money and should be given as little as possible. Politicians certainly treat their own money differently to Taxpayers money ;)

Virgin Media site goes titsup in Pirate Bay payback attack

Stand up for your rights

This is an unwarranted move to interfere with peoples access to the the Internet.. It is driven by companies, who are unwilling to adapt to the market. If prices were low and quality high then the levels of copyright infringement (Note not piracy) would be greatly reduced. It is a dangerous road to embark on, and should be challenged. The PB wasn't actually hosting ANY copyrighted material. Does this mean that google should be blocked?

o Move from one of the five targeted ISPs. Loss of business is a good incentive to make them support your cause

o Downgrade your package

o Write to your MP http://www.- http://writetothem.com. Make supporting you easier than opposing you A written letter is even more effective. Phone their office if you don't get a response.

o Use a different DNS provider such as opendns - http://www.opendns.com

o Use a VPN so they can't see what your are doing. Also useful when using open wifi's

Capita poises axe over 1,000 staff - jobs headed to India

Madness

Assuming an conservative average salary of £30K

The Government has just taken £30 million pounds out of the UK economy. Unemployment benefits could easily add an additional £10 million

I doubt these costs were taken into account when looking at the contracts.

Gov IT contractors hire staff in India to work on benefits system

Government work MUST be done by UK citizens only

As one person pointed out earlier we should be like the US. Government work can ONLY be done by UK citizens.

The Income stays in the UK.

The employment rate goes up

Taxes come down

People being trained goes up.

This rule should be non negotiable.

End in sight for IT jobs outsourcing massacre

Good for companies but bad for the country

Easy - make outsourcing difficult

o The Government should make off-shored work non tax deductible.

o Visas should be limited to a week to make it more difficult to offshore.

o All government work should be done in the UK.

This benefits the country as opposed to the company for the following reasons.

o Income stays in the UK.

o Market forces will take effect and companies will be forced to train staff

o Increased employment reduces unemployment spending costs (lower taxes)

o Increased employment increases spending on the local economy (more employment)

o Political stability.- high unemployment and poor prospects leads to radical governments

UK Home Secretary approves TVShack's O'Dwyer extradition

The priime minister should hang his head in shame

No British citizen should be bound by foreign laws that do not carry the same level of punishment in the UK.. The action(Civil - not criminal) were committed while residing in the UK. He should be charged and punished in the UK by UK law if applicable.

What next - British citizens shipped to Thailand and given 20 years for saying something rude about the Thai monarchy while in the UK

Madness

Windows 8 secure boot would 'exclude' Linux

Whatver they've been smoking I don't want any of it

Currently I run Mac with a Windows botocamp and 2 Linux VMs.

Why would any power user buy hardware that locked to a single OS?

Gov removes 'general appeal' rights for accused freetards

Its a crap bill and should be scrapped

In times of austerity I propose that this bill should be scrapped for the following reasons

o Freetards will use an anonymous vpn such as hidemyass

o Children downloading CANNOT be prevented. Trust me on this one

o The downloading is happening because the Content business has not understiood the Internet and lowered their prices and reduced their costs

o Do we really want children prosecuted in their bedrooms (Who don't understand digital rights)?

o Its killing free WIFI from cafes and bars which is genuinely useful

o IP addresses are not reliable evidence

o There is no legall requirement to secure your networks

o The existing laws are perfectly functional

o Do we want unscrupulous lawyers spamming innocent customers demanding money with legal threats

Germany’s rights-holders hit freetards hard

Time for a new organization to represent its customers

Demands for money for illegal downloads are close to extortion. An IP address is not proof of guilt, but this is what the evidence is based on. Shared internet connections, poorly encrypted wifi networks are all cases of where the owner should not be held accountable. Most of the public are not computer experts and are incapable of securing their networks. Most downloads are by teenagers who are cash poor but time rich. Even if you stop them downloading, they will copy music from usb sticks or bluetooth from friends phones.

Prosecution of the music industries own customers are the last gasp of an Industry that has failed to adapt. This is an Industry that still wants to stop you copying your music from CDs to MP3 players and stated that taping music was killing the business. Hail to the new breed of record labels that will emerge with a new model that welcomes consumers and good riddance to the dinosours.

BBC engineers see PLT knocking out DAB

Intenet radio has replaced Dab in the home

PLT is far more useful than Dab. The version of Dab the BBC is using is crap but who cares anyway as Dab has been replaced by Internet radio in the house.

e-Borders snares 2,800 possible crims, 5 tons of baccy

Cheap at only £4 million pounds a criminal

The projected cost of E-Borders was £1.2 billion

Only governments know how to really waste money

Palin email hacker asks judge for leniency

The proposed sentence is completely inappropriate

Jail time should only be for criminals. This was not in my opinion a criminal act but a civil one. There was no financial gain. The only damage was to a reputation. An appropriate sentence would be a very public apology and some form of probation.

Apple threatens Java with death on the Mac

Talk about Apple shooting itself in the foot

Lets piss off Developers who like OSX and make them switch to buying vanilla hardware and running Linux.

Using VM's / bootcamp are a pain. I use bootcamp for windows for gaming, because I have to.

If I have to add Linux for Java development, then my next Laptop will probably be a vanilla laptop setup for dual boot, running Windows and Linux.

Dotcom socialite says: Vote Tory

Give us a change

Big business represents it's own interests.

The sad fact is that most of the electorate is ignored due to the current voting system. Only voting for the Lib Dems will bring about change as PR will allow most peoples views to have a forum.

Many of the owners of big business supporting the Conservatives have offshore tax havens and pay little to no tax. I find the latest Tory campaign tactic cynical and misleading like many of their policies. (The Conservatives backed the Labour party on the digital bill in the face of massive public opposition).

Most of us will end up paying more tax. It is more a question of do we want to give rich individuals better tax breaks.

Tories may scrap IR35 tax rules for contractors

IR35 is unfair, unworkable and increasing the cost for IT contractors

I am currently a permie as I found IR35 increased my risks, paperwork and costs. I now pay the government less in tax than I did as a contractor.

A contractor has to pay for liability insurance and training:

They also get none of the following benefits:

holiday, pension, sick pay, paternity leave, redundancy pay or medical cover and are on as little as one days notice.

Trying to treat them as permanent employees is not reasonable. Most are hard working professional individuals trying to make a living as entrepreneurs who accept the risks but expect some benefits.

Apple to stick padlocks on books for iPad

Fantastic - another lost opportunity

DRM - I won't be buying any E-Books then, or an IPad

I did'nt buy any music with DRM and I certainly won't be buying books which are only viewable on one one device. DRM is complete madness. I would advise everyone to wait until the DRM is removed. Then you can read your books on whatever device you want. ITouch, PC, IPad, ...

Mandy not swayed by ents mogul on illegal file sharing

Unforceable - vote for any party except Labour

Parents cannot technically enforce what their children download. Children require access access to computers and the Internet for homework. Withdrawing access to computers is not an option.

My own attempt to enforce policies failed when my children spoofed both IP and mac addresses. and attempted brute force attacks on the router.

Any attempt to punish families must be punished at the elections.

US record industry wins $1.92m from file sharer

Time to repeal this bad law

Firstly It is not illegal to share files for use by yourself.

Secondly the punishment must fit the crime.

Now I know the American legal system is insane.

France says 'Oui!' to three strikes for music pirates

mr

Internet access is a basic human right and it's removal for innocent third parties is an infringement of those rights.

Prosecuting children in their bedrooms is never going to work as they have no concept of what is right and wrong with regard to copyright and nor should they be obliged at this age to understand it.

Controlling what their children do on the home networks is difficult. I have experienced IP and Mac address spoofing as well as brute force attacks on my router, let alone scanning encrypted p2p traffic.

This is a bad law and promoted by interests who have not embraced the modern age. I highly recommend to the opposition parties to commit to removing this law and appeal to voters to vote for any other party that will agree to scrap it.