Posts by Vitani

Industry reps told the UK taxman everything wrong with extending IR35. What happened next will astound you

Two things

Two major things jump out at me in this story;

1. "repeated concerns have been raised about the fact HMRC will be classifying people in employment law as employees, but not giving them any of the associated benefits" - This seems bizare. Who would want to do a contract where you can be removed with zero notice, pay 20% corporation tax, 40-50% income tax, no paid holidays, no sick leave, no safety net? It sounds very much like an "at will" state in the US, maybe that's the point?

2. "The measure is expected to bring in £3.1bn in additional revenues for the Exchequer between 2020 and 2024" - does this take in to account the drop in corporation tax which will happen when contractors leave the UK, or switch to perm roles? From what I've read there's about 1.5m contractors in the UK, so that works out as £516/year/contractor, which seems a little off to me ...

EU vetoes O2 and Three merger: Hutchison mulls legal challenge

Re: Double damn

Orange & T-Mobile were allowed to merge because it still left 4 mobile networks, O2 & Three merging would leave only 3. If It had happened the other way around we'd have "Ozone" (O3), and EE wouldn't be be allowed to happen. BT don't own a network (they sold O2 years ago), so them buying EE doesn't reduce consumer choice.

Samsung tightens smart home kit security after curious bods prod apps

As a SmartThings owner ...

SmartThings can barely be relied upon to turn your lights on when motion is detected, I wouldn't trust it to unlock my door (or *not* unlock it!) let alone as my fire/burger alarm.

Trying to sell your house? It'd better have KILLER mobile coverage

Re: BT won't tell you where they have 300mbps broadband

I wonder how hard it would be to get a list of every UK postcode and write a bot which would enter them into BT's page and record the results ... hmmmmm

If your telco or mobe provider hikes 'fixed' contract fees you can now ESCAPE - Ofcom

So does this mean that they can't up their monthly price by inflation anymore? (Or rather, if they do, I can get out of jail free?)

Amazon yoinks Dora and SpongeBob from Netflix for MEELLLIONS

I've always wondered this, perhaps someone can explain, but in what way do exclusivity deals benefit the consumer?

Google shreds Reader in new round of 'spring cleaning'

No­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o!

Google whips out pocket cannon, fires VoIP patent sueball at BT

It hasn't been called British Telecom since 1991

... just sayin'

Sony PS3 extends lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a cool million

How many Wiis have Nintendo sold?

Paid secur-o-ware is generally better than free, but not always by a lot

Hmm, time to install that free copy of Kaspersky which Barclays keep insisting I install...

The problem with wireless: all those effin' wires

help them*

If you like Mr Tesla, then help then save his laboratory and turn it into a museum!

http://www.indiegogo.com/teslamuseum

Telly is becoming moving wallpaper for constantly online Brits

I'm glad we have the BBC in the UK; they have a charter they have to stick to, and no shareholders to insist on making more shovelview that will rake in the ad revenue. While Sky/Virgin/ITV/etc. "make" more and more reality (i.e. cheap) shows, the BBC continue to make/fund/broadcast great, enjoyable, GRIPPING shows.

Not to mention their kids TV... along with Disney they are the only channels/programmes my kids will watch (and both happen to be ad-free = happy Daddy!)!

> Overall there's a reluctance to pay for subscription services. A third of the survey group subscribe to internet entertainment packages, and of that group, 19 per cent belong to free schemes. Just 45 per cent of this group pay over a tenner.

> Perhaps the compelling service just hasn't been invented yet

Or perhaps people have tried it and been stung?

I subscribed to Spotify for about a year, and then one day they removed 80% of the tracks from one of my favourite albums, I unsubscribed a month later. I know it's not "their" fault, it's the music business and their licencing terms, but I'm not going to pay Spotify, and indirectly the record industry, to keep doing this kind of crap.

Gmail goes titsup for 30 MILLION PUNTERS

Re: Related?

That's a feature of gmail, you can send emails to example@ and put any amount of dots in there and it'll still get to you - e.x.a.m.p.l.e@ = ex.am.pl.e@ = exam.ple@ = example@

UK lags US in online content spending

Maybe we don't buy our content on tablets?

Revealed: Apple's plea for fairness in mobile patent war

Sounds good to me, well, the first two do anyway. If the third one ("the threat of injunction removed from all FRAND patents") gets into law, then surely there's nothing to really stop people just infringing on all of the patents?

Hackers may be able to 'outwit' online banking security devices

@Joefish

"There is no personal password" - There is, it's your PIN.

"in-branch 'advisors' hand you a PINSentry in order to access your account" - this is rather than taking your signature, which is written on your card, and easy to copy with a little practice.

OK, you could say that if someone knows your PIN then they can do anything, but that's nothing new, anyone with your card & PIN could walk up to a cash machine and take money out without any problem!

Sony off the hook for killing Linux on PS3

Indeed, the people in Fact 2 lost an advertised feature one way other the other, I really don't see how this didn't win. And perhaps worse, it's now set a precedent that you can sell whatever you want, and pull features at will with no repercussions.

2011's Best... Games

If by "marketing" you mean "bribery", then yes, I think you're right!

Sorry, Zelda isn't HD so no-one cares

OnLive Game System cloud gaming console

Additional question

In this world of capped-broadband, it would be useful to know how much bandwidth this thing uses, and thus how often you could play it when your ISP limits you to 2Gb a month.

China gets 64 quid Android 4.0 tablet

Hmmm, what a tempting piece of in-car entertainment kit...

Lovefilm dumps Flash, BLINDS Linux fans with Silverlight

What is it with the film industry and jumping on sinking ships?

The music industry abandoned DRM years ago, and they seem to be doing OK ...

Kindle Fire gets root access

Nice

I see what you did there ...

Google will ignore your Wi-Fi router ... if you rename it

To all those who think this should be opt-in

How would you feel about having to opt-in to having your web page added to a search engine? Or does the current system work fine, and a nice little robots.txt works to exclude you from the bots? This is just the same (although I'd prefer something snappy like "_nm") and 99.999999% of people wont care, it's all public information anyway

Pay-by-wave: At least it's better than being mugged

I've used contactless many times, and have pretty much had the opposite experience to you - about a 25% failure rate, although that is excluding the times that the reader is known to be broken (I'm looking at you McDonalnd's Drive-Thru). Even so, I think that a 25% failure rate is still too high.

I have found though that the best way to "wave" is to just hold the card over the reader until it beeps, but then that's not really waving at all is it...

Apple trains store bosses to ignore deal with unions

"biannually"

Twice a year, or once every two years? Biannually/bimonthly/biweekly are such confusing terms ...

4chan founder bashes Facebook, Google+ on identity

I agree with him, I have three "identities": one my family and real-world friends know me as, one my gaming friends know me as, and one for the furry community. As you can tell from that short list I wouldn't want them getting mixed up, but I don't really want three separate Facebook accounts either!

iPad baby baffled by paper magazine

All babies do this with books & magazines (heck, even some grown men grope at magazines), it's just the tablet responds to those touches where as the paper does not. Interestingly enough, the magazines respond when she tries to turn the pages, but the tablet doesn't. That to me sounds like the death of tablets! Or not.

Nice bit of entertainment, poor bit of journalism. Should be filed under Bootnotes, not Hardware.

ISPs end PM's web smut block dream

"Think of the children!" -- the parents should be, that is, not the government.

Disney's animated back-catalog gets re-released in 3D

Can I just say ...

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... </sarcasm>

Toshiba outs 7in Android 3.2 tablet

I don't own a tablet, but I do wonder; does the thickness of these devices really make a difference?

I can see how it would make a difference on a phone because it has to slide nicely into your pocket (although my "thick" G1 managed fine), but I don't know anyone with pockets big enough to fit a tablet in. Surely weight would be a bigger concern?

Spotify tethers future to Facebook

Do what I'm doing

I've stopped paying for Spotify recently for different reasons to this article, but I'm using the money I'm saving to BUY the music I want, rather than renting it. I find the good old fashioned radio is great for finding new music, then just go to a shop and buy it.

Comet can't sell anything, including itself

One thing I'm still wary of buying on-line is large electrical goods; TV, fridge, washing machine, you know what I mean. Comet is a great place to buy such goods from, unfortunately I only need these things perhaps once every ten years, and that isn't often enough to keep them in business. While I do think that is a shame, I'm not going to increase the frequency of my freezer purchases just to keep them around.

Nintendo 3DS gets more stick

As an avid Nintendo fan, and life-time supporter in the "fan-wars" I'd just like to say, "aaah ha ha ha haa, this looks so dumb".

That is all.

Big Music trumpets ‘Cliff Richard’ term extension

Optional

I'm no expert but surely the rights for copying belong to the composer(s), and thus, it should last as long as they live, at which point they are owned by no-one (i.e. public domain).

I can understand that a percentage of the "fees" may go to the record label, but that'll be defined in the original recording contract - not the law.

Maybe if this was the case, it would be an incentive for the record labels to keep their artists on the "straight an narrow" as to prolong the life of their contractors and thus the record labels' income.

How Apple's Lion won't let you trash documents

Re: Version Control

I've used version control, Source Safe (ugh!) specifically, for years and you can delete files - permanently. It's not obvious, but the UI allows for it.

While I agree that there are lots of "un-delete" programs out there, in the last 13 years I've only ever needed to use them twice (once successfully, once partially), yet I think in the last 13 *hours* I have deleted more than two files absolutely positively 100% deliberately.

I don't want the OS holding on to files I don't need indefinitely against my will. If I want version control, I'll install it.

Nobody has any idea about new pension thing happening

Ha!

I *wish* I could afford to save for a pension! What with debts, kids, rent, and bills I can barely afford to save for Christmas (let alone a mortgage!).

Good thing I'm planning to win the lottery before I retire :o)

Sony drives DAB+ motoring

1980s

Who had CDs in the 1980s? They only became readily available late in that decade. Maybe you're thinking of the 1990s? Or was that not long enough ago to make your point?

:oP

Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft

Hmm

I notice that there's a few screen shots of their old file managers: DOS, Win3.1, XP & 7, but where is Win95/98? Missing because it's the best version they ever made perhaps? Don't want to compare the latest bloatware to something small and functional?

Hmm ...

Nintendo said to be readying replacement for 3DS

3DS

£130 is quite a lot when you could buy a tablet for that kind of money (with a bigger screen, more apps, etc. too), especially when if you want a "real" game, that'll set you back another £20. But the 3DS is nice, the games are fun and I get perhaps a bit too excited when I get a new StreetPass hit (Although at my recent trip to Alton Towers I got no hits, none!), it's all good, but only if you like the price.

Hmmm

Wouldn't it be cheaper, easier and make much more sense to just change their marketing strategy rather than change the console?

New Apple move against Galaxy Tab on Euro front

Question

Does "innocent until proven guilty" not apply to companies?

Also, is Apple's patent even a new non-obvious invention? If not, it's not patentable anyway ...

Ofcom maps state of UK broadband

Indeed

Most of North East Lincs has Diamond, erm, ntl, er Virgin Cable so that's probably why it's in the top-ten. I imagine if Lincoln city was taken as it's own "county" it would be up there too, but might be dragged down by the sheer amount of new houses in the city (including my own) which don't have access cable even though a house two doors down does (I'm not bitter or anything!!)

Having moved from Grimsby to Lincoln (I know, I'm one of the lucky few who escaped) I do miss the nice fast speeds of cable, but one of the perks of ADSL is picking an ISP which doesn't throttle your connection when you try to download a load of games on Steam :o)

4mb/s isn't _that_ bad ...

Woo

North East Lincs, 9.1Mb/s? Awesome. Go go Grimsby!

Virgin Media to integrate Spotify across multiple platforms

Cool

^

I

Sandi Toksvig puts the 'n' into cuts - on the Beeb

Cutns

Sounds like kittens!

3D fad fades for Yanks

Re: Gaz

Or it could be the simple fact that for something like Shrek/Dragon there are two ticket sales for every one person who wants to see the film as children can't go on their own. Plus children of about 7+ will insist on seeing the 3D version of any film, where as adults over 25 will hopefully see-through the gimmick and be happy to see the film in 2D, especially when it's cheaper.

Sony evolves card-less Augmented Reality tech

letters and/or digits.

"eliminating the need for markers in the real world"

"'object recognition technology' to spot real objects, such as photographs and posters"

AKA "markers"?

So, it's still needs markers, just not pre-defined ones?

A nice advance, but it's a poorly written article/press release.