Posts by PeterM42

Axe falls on Directgov as GOV.UK launches

How will they save money........?

.......By bringing it in-house, so avoiding paying the outsource company's profit margin upfront.

The REAL cost will come later when all these new civil servants come to collect their protected, inflated pensions.

Northgate IS issues suppliers with Ts&Cs change ultimatum

IT Giant?

Northgate can hardly be described as a giant, they just happen to have a big foot in local government IT where their customers are usually too stupid to know when they are being screwed. I remember when (in a previous incarnation as MDIS) they paid one of their suppliers in MDIS shares. Very useful for papering the wall.

Sky support dubs Germany 'Hitler's country'

The BEST reason for leaving Sky...

...is that they have started charging Phone & Broadband customers extra for NOT USING their (shite) TV service.

Woz labels Apple 'arrogant' over iPhone size inadequacy

Woz - Don't forget to add....

- An industry standard Micro-USB connector (which doesn't break easily)

- Allow user memory upgrades (MicroSD card)

- Replaceable battery

- Non-lock-in software (ie: NOT iTunes, etc)

And you MIGHT just get near a Samsung Galaxy.

Oh, I nearly forgot - make it a reasonable price as well.

Government Digital Service to live in 'multi-tenanted' cloud from SCC

1 pence per use

Er..... pence is PLURAL. How about "...1 PENNY per use"?

Are hacks not taught English grammar these days?

Siemens expected to announce job cuts, closures

Good riddance?

Let's hope they stop trying to do outsourcing which they are useless at and also stop making CRAP desktops and laptops.

Office for Android and iOS to ship by March 2013?

Don't need it......

Polaris Office works well enough on my Android smartphone. Why keep paying into Bill Gates pension fund?

Microsoft fast-tracks Windows 8 Service Pack updates

It's not THAT new...

"Windows 8" is actually NT 6.2

"Windows 7" was NT 6.1

"Vista" was NT 6.0 - which was radically different which is why it was so problematic and needed "Windows 7"(NT 6.1) as a major (and very successful) bug-fix.

NEVER buy version anything-dot-zero from Microsoft - we learn't that one years ago.

Add Start8 to get your Start button back and "Windows 8" could be useable with keyboard and mouse on a PC. The touch interface on a tablet or smartphone hopefully will develop over time.

'Small' upheaval at McAfee, not many fired

Re: Pain

Which is why it is known as McCRAPAfee.

Intel paid how much?...........

..........$7.7bn for McCRAPAfee!!!! - I could have saved them the money in my role as IT Business Consultant and advised them not to pay more than a Fiver (and I am not talking Billions or Millions!).

And, yes agreed fellow commentards, AVG anti-virus IS the dog's b*****ks.

IT shops boycott Bangalore strike

Re: Wipro stole my job.

Took mine too.

It is nice to know that companies vital infrastructure support is being looked after so well. (Cough!)

Mind you, they were better than Siemens or IBM (not difficult, that). If they had spent the same amount of money on in-house staff, they would have had an amazing system, but when the management didn't know what they were doing, there is no hope!

Paul Allen: Windows 8 'promising' yet 'puzzling'

Come back Gates and Allen

Paul Allen, like Bill Gates is clearly a perceptive man. Shame Ballmer is such a W*nker.

The Bimodal / Bipolar / schizophrenic modes of NT 6.2 (Sorry Windows 8) would easily be sorted out if only Bill or Paul were in charge.

However, what an opportunity for 3rd parties to write new shells. The START8 utility is, well, (cough!) a very good start.

Xbox Live gamers blown offline by 'Virgin Media routing balls-up'

Virgin Media SuperDUD

We were quite happy with VM cable until, following the broadband going a bit iffy, their engineer installed a SuperDUD, then it all went to Rat-Shit.

The SuperDUD is basically USELESS as a wireless router, but seems reasonably stable when switched to Modem-only mode. (Fortunately, I still had my old wireless Netgear router). VM have been struggling for WEEKS now to resolve, but have still not fixed it.

More details from numerous pissed-off customers at:

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Wireless-Networking/Connecting-wireless-devices-needs-a-reboot-on-R36/m-p/1476822

That one thread already runs to TWENTY-SIX pages (and is page is MUCH more than a screenful).

VM have got it VERY BADLY WRONG and should be compensating customers like O2 did for their outage.

I got £20 off my next bill after complaining, but that is not the point, VM should GET IT RIGHT!!

LONDON iPHONE 5 MADNESS: 'You must be CRAZY to buy Apple'

It's all VERY SAD.....

....that there can be so MANY stupid people in the world.

Just so they know:-

The SIM is incompatible.

The USB connector is incompatible with industry standards (and even the old iPhone).

You cannot replace the battery.

You cannot plug in a memory card.

It is VERY expensive.

You are being ripped off.

A Samsung Galaxy II or III will do the same (or more)

Capita ITS ditches UK job cuts, offshoring dream

Stop jobs going overseas.....

Well done UNITE!

Apple's iCloud goes titsup, email evaporates for unlucky 1%

An Apple a day......

...Keeps the DATA away.

Yet ANOTHER warning about the dangers of cloud computing.

'£100m For Sale' sign plonked outside Northgate MS - sources

Oh Dear...

CMC --> Microdata --> MDIS --> Northgate - -> ????? Hopefully not down the plughole.

It was a great place to work in the CMC/Microdata days and even the McDonnell Douglas era, but then it all started to go wrong.........

Shame!

Laugh all you want at 'the cloud' - it'll be worth '$100bn by 2016'

Every CLOUD has a silver lining......

....ie: someone will make money out of other's foolishness.

Iomega: SOHO punters will pay hard cash for our cheap boxes

SOHO punters will pay hard cash for our cheap boxes..........?????

.......not if they have used Iomega devices in the past.

IOMEGA is near the top of my "DON'T BUY" list, along with Lexmark, IBM, Siemens, Belkin and the recently added Dell (because of their dreadful support). Over 45 years experience in the computer industry teaches you quite a lot.

Top of the "DO BUY" list - Samsung (recently added straight on the top).

Lexmark dumps inkjet arm, sacks 1,700

GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........

Lexmark printers, including the ones badged and sold by Dell, are COMPLETE CRAP, so it is good to see the manufacturing going where it belongs - on the shit heap. Hope their designers look for jobs where they can cause fewer problems (start with road sweeping in Outer Mongolia.).

Former Gov.UK sweetheart Logica evaporates after CGI swills it down

Goodbye.....

..............and good riddance!

From someone who was TUPE'd to Logica and thought their management style was CRAP. (As was the way they treated their employees.)

McAfee splats bug that knocked punters offline

If McCrapAfee actually TESTED their software......

...... these problems would not arise.

But then, I no longer have these problems because after years of suffering McCrapAfee, I now use AVG.

END OF PROBLEMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Everything Everywhere to be Nothing Nowhere in rebrand

PSATT?

Poor Service All The Time.

Oooh-la-la! 'iPhone 5' bares all, strokes tiny nano-SIM in pics

Re: okay...

File management and amendment between phone and PC - I do that on my Android Samsung Galaxy SII

Who needs an expensive bit of FANBOIS's rubbish?

Apple NON-STANDARD yet again

So yet another new incompatible SIM card and incompatible USB connector.

2 EXTREMELY GOOD reasons for NOT getting an iPhone (apart from the expense, non-replaceable batteries and fixed memory sizes). Everyone else can do it, but OH NO - not Apple.

I will stick with my Samsung Galaxy SII which can probably do MORE (certainly MUCH CHEAPER!) than some useless and expensive bit of FANBOIS' kit.

Microsoft and many others made their fortunes out of standardisation. Apple will remain niche market (albeit a VERY LARGE niche) until they adopt industry standards.

Virgin Media punters stung in mobile data bill cock-up

Re: Data & Charges

O2 have a webpage which tells me my monthly usage "...to 23:59:59 on 16th" of each month even though my new monthly allowance STARTS at 00:00:00 on the 16th, but several MONTHS on from first reporting this problem they are unable to fix it. It took them AGES to even understand the problem, so at least Virgin are capable of recognising the problem and fixing it!

Amount of CO2 being sucked away by Earth 'has doubled in 50 years'

"scientists do not yet understand"

"scientists do not yet understand" - Says it all, so:

1) How do they actually PROVE what happens to CO2?

2) Does it make ANY difference WHATSOEVER?

3) Will it REALLY affect ANYONE or ANYTHING?

4) In reality, does anyone actually worry about it - if you do - GET A LIFE!!!!!

Microsoft RTMs final Windows 8 and Server 2012 code

Re: Enthusiasm evades everyones expectations

So true - I am trialling Windows 8 preview and felt that it does not do enough for existing desktop and laptops users (yes, there are still some of us around - several BILLION I believe), but has been designed for tablet and smartphone.

Tried installing Beta of the "NEW" Office 365 on Windows 8 only for the intsaller to tell me I need the FULL version of Windows 8 - Er,..... but that is not available yet - D'oH!

CO₂ warms Earth FASTER than previously thought

Oh Dear.....

...I though all these "GLOBAL DISASTER" doomsayers might have given up.

IT'S NOT A PROBLEM - REALLY!

UK.gov's IT catalogue Cloud Store knackered by login gremlin

More clouds turn to rain

When will they ever learn?

We proved clouds were not the way to go in the 1980's. That's why PCs and LOCAL servers were (AND STILL ARE) SOOOOO successful.

Google Talk goes dumb in massive global outage

This counts ........

.....as YET ANOTHER "cloud" failure.

Get used to it.

Microsoft Azure goes titsup across Western Europe

Are we surprised at cloud failures?

Emphatically NO!

It goes to prove the gullibility of IT Directors and other senior IT people who do not understand the basics of computers.

The cloud will NEVER provide a reliable business infrastructure. We proved that in the 1980's.

"Who sold you THAT?"

SanDisk: Yargh, nobody does SD-cards bundled with phones anymore

Watch out for......

....FAKE "high capacity" MicroSD cards.

I recently bought an alledged 32Gb card from a company in Luton and it turned out to be a fake.

The scammers program them to appear to be 32GB, but as soon as you load them up, they mysteriously corrupt the data.

Fortunately after threatening them with Trading Standards, they refunded my purchase price.

I reported them anyway and it turns out TS have a "list" of their customers!! so they are obviously into scamming big time.

Recommendation is to only buy from reputable sellers like Amazon, MRMemory, eBuyer, etc. You may pay a bit more,but you get what you ordered.

UK.gov: Real time PAYE and new benefits systems WILL work

My money is on ............

........problems, problems, more problems.

Then some twat standing up in parliament trying to explain why it is costing more than it was supposed to and WILL do what it was supposed to do (someday, maybe).

GM to slash vast outsourced IT empire

Outsourcing - a very old way to waste money

The Oozalum bird when attacked

Flies round in ever-decreasing circles

Until it finally diappears up it's own rectal passage

From which place of safety it hurls abuse at it's assailants.

Chorus:

Oh! we're off to see the Wild West Show

The Elephant and the Kangarooooooo

Never mind the weather

As long as we're together

We're off to see the Wild West Show

etc......

'Backing out of a failed update really ought to be a trivial matter...'

Ah outsourcing - that management cure-all

The management of this particular bank deserve everything thrown at them.

I am sick of companies outsourcing to save money, then moaning that the Uk does not have the expertise to run their IT.

OF COURSE THE IT EXPERTISE IS DISAPPEARING - there is just so much IT staff can put up with before they go abroad or and start stacking shelves or bricklaying for a living.

Make outsourcing illegal and see UK IT expertise increasing again.

Now TalkTalk cuts Brits' access to The Pirate Bay

Shouldn't the sub-headline be...........

Downloaders WalkWalk the plankplank

Milky Way DOOMED to high-speed smash with Andromeda galaxy

Re: We need to name this future galaxy

Simple - it must be a COALITION galaxy - wandering about in the universe, not doing very much and bumping into others whereupon they cause chaos.

Re: Vogons

The squatters HAVE already moved in. - Have you been to the UK recently?

CGI Group beds Logica in £1.7bn cash deal

Hear! Hear!

As someone who got TUPE'd OUT of Logica when they lost (yet another) contract on price, I have to agree that it will be good news if CGI dump all the useless management and keep the good guys (if there are any left!).

Logica has been circling the drain for a lot more than a couple of years and it's time they finally "disappeared down the plughole".

Good luck to any WORKERS who survive - maybe they might actually get a pay rise one day under the new management.

Not sure of CGI's logic in buying the company - perhaps they want to get their mitts on the offshore operation?

Phoenix burns engineering and Northampton call centre jobs

Shame

When I worked in Britannia Airways IT, we had some great Phoenix guys who really knew their stuff. Hope they are not at risk.

Study: The more science you know, the less worried you are about climate

Just shows that politicians are stupid

.....those "with higher levels of scientific and mathematical knowledge are more sceptical regarding the dangers of climate change than their more poorly educated fellow citizens."

But if you are a stupid politician, you will believe anything - including "global warming" which has long since been disproved to be caused (if it exists at all) by human beings.

RIM-Moto sketch THIRD nanoSIM design as peace offering

Compatibility

Apple want to ensure their products are incompatible and difficult to access so they can lock users in to their products.

A micro-SIM + a tray must take up the same space as a 2FF standard SIM, so SIZE was not relevant to Apple with the iPhone 4

The 2FF form factor is quite small enough. - What about BATTERY size? - they need to work on that.

Easily removable click/stop SIM cards - GOOD idea.

Easily exchangeable memory cards - GOOD idea.

Easily exchangeable battery - GOOD idea.

Micro-SIM, Non-removable battery & non-exchangeable memory cards (a la iPhone 4) - BAD ideas.

NASA found filming August's Mars landing in California desert

Re: Delays

I thing Airbus is a bit like that: "Pull Up, pull up" - "Nope, I am landing in the trees" - Paris

Telefonica touts new free VoIP app to cut off rival Skype

Based on Jajah?

Hope Telefonica are not going to destroy the excellent service that Jajah currently provide.

Cloud data fiasco forces bosses to break out the whiteboards

The Clue is in the name

A cloud is vapour - water vapour. Not really a good place to store your vital data and have it blown away by some money-grabbing outsourcer who is only interested in HIS profits.

TOLD YER SO!

Yahoo! director! bows! out! after! CEO! CV! blunder!

It all sounds like.......

.......jobs for the boys (and girls).

Who is scratching YOUR back?

Sack the lot of them, I reckon.

McAfee founder raided in Belize by gang-busting police

Re: serves him right

Serves HIM right for making and sellin McCrap in the first place, but the dog is INNOCENT.

UK's big-spender councils shovel IT workers into a skip

More Jobs Going Overseas...

.....no doubt.

All so this country can add to it's benefits bill by having to pay dole money to redundant workers and boost the Indian economy.

VERY CLEVER - NOT!