* Posts by Cris Page

61 publicly visible posts • joined 11 May 2007

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Ofcom freezes pay

Cris Page
Paris Hilton

correction

"......ofcom's remit seems to amount to bending us over for big business and government alike!!"

Dont you mean "ofcom's remit seems to amount to bending *US* over for big business and government alike!!"?

Paris - because she knows how to give it up for the man

Google extends controversial trade mark purchasing policy

Cris Page
Thumb Down

Borked.

One reason I dont use Google is that when I search for a particular product *name* I expect that name to be top of the listing as the "most" relevant.

This is especially important when searching for software, a friend recently installed some pretty useless antispyware software as this was the top of the listing when they searched for a program they had heard me mention - the top listed one WASNT the one they wanted, but the similar name (obviously to confuse) led them astray.

The fact that Google is happy to party to deceptions like this means they are not trustworthy, and I am happy to avoid anything with thier name on it. Web Ferret manages to find whatever I want, without me having to worry about being sold out to line Googles coffers.

Farmers furious at EU's sheep-chip scheme

Cris Page
Coat

Trial Run

Tis but a trial run... today the sheep tomorrow the sheeple who voted these cretins into poistions of power. Yet another cost to be passed on to the consumer, just for another "industry" created by people without first hand knowledge about that which they seek to regulate.

Coat - Mine is the one with the euro politburo stealing yet more of my hard earned to fund one of the job creation schemes for their IT buddies..

Spam regains pre-McColo reach

Cris Page

Gmail is the spammers preferred service!

As a forum Admin, I can honestly say that at least 70% of our attempted registrations by spammers come from Gmail addresses. Maybe Google should look at who is using their mail services... and for what?

Lies, damned lies and inflation statistics

Cris Page
Flame

Corrupted numbers!

Most of the statistics are garbage, the lists manipulated by the Government by the inclusion of items that are of limted appeal or may be a "one off" purchase like Blu ray DVD players (and /or their associated discs.)

REAL inflation - the stuff that matters - is the cost of essentials, Food, Heat, Light, Water, Clothing, Travel and communications. The things that no household can avoid. forget the frivolities, lack of a Blu ray device never killed anyone did it? The current method is responsible for ensuring that vulnerable groups like pensioners are defrauded of a real cost of living increase by the fanciful benchamrk that those in well paid governmental jobs come up with.

Bread seems to have gone up again this month, 0%? Only in your dreams - or the corrupted Government statistics, shouldnt expect anything different from politicians, who are so far out of touch with the real world that I dont believe they are actually fit to govern us any more.

Home Office details early ID vendors

Cris Page

Oink.......

More snouts in the trough then..... All for a system that isnt wanted by those being bled dry to pay for the database state.

BT names first 29 exchanges for fibre rollout

Cris Page
Unhappy

current maintainance would be nice....

... My exchange has been Red for contention since January, the latest move of the goal posts predicts end of March for a fix - at which time BT will calmly move the date further back yet again. Its not like this is a rapidly expanding area either, so either the equipment is failing at a fantastic rate, or (IMHO more likely) BT just cant be arsed to spend the money to service the clients of their wholesale "Partners"

This news doesnt excite - with no LLU here BT have a monopoly here that they are happy to abuse. I doubt if we will see FTTC here in my lifetime - especially as they cant keep on top of current maintainance now!

BT accused of 'sharp practice' on rolling contracts

Cris Page
Stop

Quality is the best retainer

My Isp - 30 days notice - no lock in - has been like that from day 1. The best way for companies to keep customers is to provide a good quality service and be open about throttling FUP etc. 12 and 18 month contracts are an abuse as long as the law makes it easy for ISPs to supply a degraded service while custmers have minimal recourse.

Once again the regulator is slow to act, and does little to protect the consumer from these abusive companies.

BT wins pricing control over faster broadband

Cris Page
Paris Hilton

Twice damned rural user

... So as well as being disadvantaged by having no prospect of LLU in my 7000 line exchange, I am to be further screwed over by BT's Predatory pricing while OfcoN meekly stand by and allow BT further abuses of exchange monopoly. What a farce regulation is in the UK.

Paris cos even she isnt as thoroughly screwed as those of us on a market 1 exchange!

Big labels or Google - who is the songwriters' worst enemy?

Cris Page
Flame

*yawn* This old chestnut again.

Another whine about piracy from a business that stubbornly refuses to recognise that the size and shape of the market has changed beyond recognition since the 70's, and would have done so even without the bogeyman of downloading.

There have been a number of news items recently about schools closing due to faling rolls. this isnt a new situation. The market has shrunk, so the market for "current" music is smaller than that of 20 years ago - there are simply not as many teens out there now to buy the dross that many companies churn out of their mills, hence the yawnfest of someone going straight to number one rather than fighting its way up the charts. At one time a straight in at the top entry was noteworthy, but now it is an expectation, and the achievement is devalued because it is a routine event on the back of lower sales levels.

The older music buying public has largely built their collections, I no longer feel drawn to buy some new music every week, simply put there isnt that much out there I want, add to that the loss of Woolies - in many areas all that is left is the very restricted range stocked by Tesco - nothing there for me - we have no independants left and my nearest HMV et al is 65 miles away.

Im sick of reading the whining about downloading - its not the biggest problem, a shrinking market is, along with a steep decline in the quality of the content. Heres a clue, I am unlikely to buy - say - a ballad from 25 years ago thats been covered at a frantic pace with a bonkers beat,

20/30 years ago... we had 45s and albums... and 3 channels on tv. Now we have consoles, multi channel tv piping MTV etc at us 24/7, mobile phones, all of this takes a toll, consoles and phones eat into disposable income, MTV and the like play to the disposable nautre of much music, why bother buying it when some channels will ram it down your throat 10 times a day until the next hot track comes along?

Its a shame that so far down the road - this "industry" still has not woken up to the new world which has a smaller market and more competeing with it for attention and share of the disposable income - especially now when all around are tuning to liquidators.

BT price rises go down well

Cris Page
Stop

Another rip off

Nice to see BTs buddies at OFCOM are happy to grant them another above inflation increase on the back of the 24% rip off rise in IPStream bandwidth charges impose recently. Can there be any doubt now that - as a regulator - OFCOM has no interest in the interests of the consumer and should be broken up?

There can be no technical reason for us not to be able to take a broadband only line, and as OFCOM lack the will to regulate and control the greed of this company that has a monopoly in so many areas, then they should act to free us of the need to take full telephony facilities if we only want a broadband access line

Id happily drop any call access and only use my mobile for calls.

Brit porn filter censors 13 years of net history

Cris Page

Enta users Blocked or Borked?

Enta (for all their recent "communications issues") have had a problem overnight wich seems to have reduced many customers to being able to access only a few domains, I wonder if those on Enta have been to some extent caught up in that.? archive.org works fine for me from Enta (UKFSN)

There is a fair sized thread about the problem in the Enta forum on Thinkbroadband.

More execs quit Phorm

Cris Page
Flame

Malphormed market

The only reason that Bt still have anyhting to do with my comms traffic is there is no alternative where I live, We have to have BTw provided broadband, although I am with a Phrom free ISP.

But let me assure you Mr BT.. if I could remove my traffic from all of your equipment, I would. I have no confidence in a group of companies that willingly associates with spyware providers, nor one that is keen to sacrifice my privacy to fatten the pockets of its shareholders.

In an ideal world, the network would be in the hands of a central body uninvolved in ANY way with the "end users", that way we might see a leve playing field for ALL the citizens of this country without huge areas that are BT only supplied.

As for the BT drone that trteed out thje tired "nothing to hide" mantra. Its MY data, Not BT's, and after the secret trials... can they REALLY be trusted with our privacy? I think not, especially when those supposed guardians of our privacy collude with them.

Seagate slashes bare drive warranties

Cris Page
Paris Hilton

No nose involved

@ Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 12th December 2008 13:29 GMT

If Seagate drives command a premium price it is at least in part due to the protection of a superior warranty. If that is degraded then the reason to pay a premium price for what increasingly appears to be an "average" product is gone - no cutting of nose involved, its just an unwillingness to pay "over the odds" for an item that no longer offers the purchaser advantages in terms of quality or warranty.

Its more foolish to keep taking whatever is dished out to you by a company that is penny pinching just out of brand loyalty and to be paying a premium price for less and less in terms or product quality or warranty protection. If the move to Chinese manufacturing is responsible for the recent dip in quality, then it is a big mistake to try to recover that via lower warranty periods which can only serve to alienate a customer base suffering poorer quality gear failing in shorter periods and a lower warranty protection on those components.

Typical big business, they cant see the scrap pile for the cheap labour that created it with shoddy workmanship. Seagate will have to drop thier prices to match others in the market place before they get any more business from me in this area, but I wonder if this is the top of the slippery slope to obscurity? They wont be the first "Big Boy" to fall from view.

Paris cos she understands all about being screwed

Man threatens lawsuit after negative eBay feedback

Cris Page
Flame

negative vibes

The buyer had a pretty negative experience, so that should be marked by negative feedback. When I look at an item on Ebay I expect to see an accurate description so that I can make an informed decision about it, not only IF I am going to bid on the particular item because it is the item I want, but also what I consider the item to be worth to me in the condition warrented by the seller. To mislead in this area just wastes the buyers time and/or postal costs, and IMHO the seller deserves a neg listing to warn others that his listings may not be wholly accurate.

Given the neg.neutral listinge he has already attracted, the best thing he can do is go sit in a quiet room and figure out why so many of his buyers feel that he has been less than great to trade with. I too hope the case gets slung and costs are awarded to the defendant, small claims courts are not stupid, and the law is very clear. If this guy thinks he can "pretty up" descriptions of well worn goods, he faces a lot more negativitity around his username.

Ofcom denies lifeboat spectrum squeeze

Cris Page
Flame

Another nice earner for ofCON

"One has to establish the value of a saved life. Whether that's in terms of ambulances, boats or radio spectrum we have to decide, as a society, how much we're prepared to spend."

What the hell is all that about? This isnt about the Govt: providing something at zero cost and thus making a loss on the provision, its about how much the Governement TAXES a service that is supported by chariitable donations. Radio spectrum costs The Government nothing. the licence fees are just another revenue stream for it to squander. Money donated to such services should not be pouring into Government coffers for licences to use radio equipment to perform a function that benefits all people who go on the water - we are after all an island nation, and still rely on the water to some extent for both tourism and commerce. This is just another oppertunistic raid on the income of charities by a government happy to abdicate responsibility for the nuts and bolts of coastal (and mountain) rescue to voluntary groups to save itself some money, but at the same time greedy Govt cant resist the chance to grab some more income.

Its the same as public bodies having to pay govt for spectrum, its a paper way of inflating the cost of the service to US, the already over taxed and under-represented public.

UK puts £55m into disabled parking reform

Cris Page

*sigh*

The Blue badge -mandated by Europe - was a step backwards. the old Orange badge in use when I worked in parking enforcement at least had the holders name visible which allowed some policing of its use, for example one guy whom I noted repeatedly abusing the badge issued to his mother, he was reported to the issuing authority who investigated him and pressured his mother to deny him use of her badge by threatening total removal of the privilege - which this is.

Most badge holders are genuine and would rather have their health/mobility than fairly unrestricted parking, so why penalise them by heaping extra costs on them for policing a system aggravated by a poor permit design? the costs should be carried by those guilty of using stolen/borrowed badges.

A stolen badge database is all that is needed - just recored those that are missing! Many parking enforcement staff have datalinks available in their Hand Held Computers Observations should still be taken of Blue badge holders on yellow lines (Limit 3 hours) and the badge serial could be taken as part of the observation, the software could then "call in" the number any time it was entered to check, prompting an alert if a match was made - the rest becomes a criminal matter of either theft and/or fraud.

Mosley asks Europe to change UK privacy laws

Cris Page
Paris Hilton

in Privates or Pubic?

Oh yes Maxochist, the guy who as president of an international sports federation which claims to work with governments on matters of road safety and vehicle development claims he ISNT a public figure. Max you are about as public as you can get without being in politics, you have courted controversy with the way you have (mis)managed major F1 issues, there is no way on this earth you can honestly claim to be "non-public" with any credibility!

If they give into him on this then the law is as twisted as maxochists own personal appetites!

(Paris cos she too has experienced (public) backlash)

Spy chiefs plot £12bn IT spree for comms überdatabase

Cris Page
Flame

Speechless... or we soon will be

We cant equip or house our troops properly, we want to bully disabled people back to work, Fuel is taxed at a level that can only be discribed as outright robbery and yet we can find acres of cash for the multitude of databases they want to set up. Govt must be really scared of the populace, if only we were not so spineless as a nation we might have already ousted Gormless Brown and his Feu Liebore rabble.

Whatever happened to the right to privacy as mentione in the HRA? Oh I forgot as with most things - this Givt only accepts the bits it wants... and ignores that which goes against its control freak nature.

California train smash driver sent text seconds before disaster

Cris Page
Boffin

Rail safety Uk style

@ Matt Sidall. Strange union reasoning there, I assume it was the 'merkins union as the London Tube network has been equipped with a safety device for many many years. A "Tripcock" is fitted to all rolingstock and a "Trainstop" to signals, they work in tandem and will apply the brakes in the event of a train passing a red (Of hitting ther stick as it was called when I worked there) - unlike the old BR AWS - which I believe could be cancelled by the driver hitting a button to acknowlege the AWS alert - you have to reset these outside of the cab - once the "trip" is operated the train WILL stop, it works pretty damn well. If you are ever in London on the tube network, have a look at the right hand side of the track at the head of the platform (where the "station starter" signal is close enough to see), you should see an oblong box with pipes running to it and a "T" shaped arm attached to the outside which will be raised when the signal is red

As for the trains being one minute apart or less, in some areas of London signalling sections can be quite short which allows for the capacity neccessary to service a city like London with numerous trains running fairly close together. I know that in some parts of the tube network signals are arranged to allow a train to approch within a quite short distance of one stationary ahead of it. Again its all perfectly safe. (ex tube worker)

Ofcom: No premium numbers for previous offenders

Cris Page
Flame

More OFCOM hot air.

There should be no consideration of "how long" they need to be on the barred list, bar them for good! It is time OFCOM sorted this out once and for all. Operators should have to lodge a bond against possible fines for abuse before being allocated numbers - NO 07xx numbers should be issued and those already in use should be withdrawn - this prefix should be mobiles only, that would stop one of the scams - I had a "missed call" only yesterday - on checking it was an 07033 personal number.

Stop pussy-footing around OFCOM and regulate NOW - it is long overdue and you have been "watching" us get ripped off for way too long. The industry has had enough chances to put its house in order, now it is time to make them behave.

Woman sues EA over 'secret' Spore DRM

Cris Page
Flame

This is why......

.......they will never selll a game of CD with DRM to me. Not because I have cracked/downloaded copies, but because I refuse to allow any DRM infested crud on MY machine. (Please note Mr software exec this machine is MINE... not yours) How many other sales have they lost for the same reason? Maybe one day they will realize that they are themselves responsible for depressing sales. In this case, who could blame anyone for installing a cracked copy to avoid the secret Malware installation? I choose what installs on my machine... not some overpaid parasite in a suit sitting in an office somewhere. I know several people who having seen this scenario unfold have said they will be dubious about buying EA releases in the futrure... no matter how "good" they seem.

Heres a novel idea.... why not release some compelling content without the DRM malware at a reasonable price? Everytime I see these cretins whining about the over priced crud staying on the shelves I wonder if they ever heard of market forces? People wont buy at a price point that they think is above and beyond what the product is worth. I think a lot of consumers are canny and realise that when they buy DRM'd crippleware, they are actually paying for the control that is inflicted on them.

Its high time companies like EA realised they have no automatic right to exist, but rely on the goodwill of a customer base for their continuation... so... and this is just a crazy idea... how about you stop reaming your life-blood? No doubt if EA folded tomorrow they would blame piracy rather than considering that they have probably lost a huge amount of customer goodwill and sales because of this latest DRM idiocy.

Ofcom considers termination charges

Cris Page
Stop

OFCOM really do need to get a life.

"... all they have to do is make it illegal for business customers to withhold Caller ID (punishable with blanket ban from the operator, very hefty fines and preferably jail time), implement free unlimited call blocking by number at the network operator, and give free (i.e. 0800) unlimited voicemail to all contract subscribers, and it'd work."

And this would deter foreign call centres HOW? especially those that are now spoofing UK 01xxx/02xxx codes in caller ID... If OFCOM want something to occupy their obviously empty days.. this is one issue they should be looking at, rather than looking for a way to milk us out of more of our hard earned.

If someone wants to call me, that is THEIR choice... not mine, why should I pay for it? This is clearly another example of a body with too much time on its hands looking to "fix" things that are not broken. Business needs to realise markets are finite, they cannot grow perpetually. I thought OFCOM was supposed to improve telecoms not drag things back to the dark ages.

If this comes in I will no longer be using a mobile phone.

K Desktop Environment 4.1 lands

Cris Page
Thumb Down

KDE = Kant Do Enything?

It may be a coincidence, but after updating today KDE refuses to load in my Suse11 machine. A full reinstall later and KDE was fine till I again updated.

Not Impressed!

Blears pitches prize draws and online polls at young votes

Cris Page
Flame

Childish!

Have you noticed how the immaturity of politicians (they are getting younger compared to 30 years ago) matches the immaturity of their ideas?

Whichever way you try to spin it, it IS paying for votes if you offer incentives. it is WRONG. if the politicians want to give the public a reason to vote how about they actually start listening to us instead of preaching at us, ignoring our views and riding roughshod over our freedoms and personal liberty?

That way the public might actually believe there was a point to voting rather than feeling that whoever we vote for will just give us more of the same with no real consideration of what Joe Public actually thinks. We dont respect our politicians, and that is a major reason fewer people vote now.

Europe drafts law to disconnect suspected filesharers

Cris Page

Democracy in action huh?

Innocent until PROVEN guilty? Not in this world... not any more.

eBay Terror Ambulances of DEATH menace UK - top cops

Cris Page
Stop

Windfall

I guess that they are just looking for ways of spending the treasury windfall that arrived on the back of the rising price of oil via fuel taxes that are really extortion. After all, those nice custom ambulance bodies dont come cheap.

As for Police vehicles, umm... remove lights and livery and t-cut... suddenly you have a saleable civilian car... thus protecting the public purse from governmental waste like this.

UK's first caller ID-spoofing service shuttered after five days

Cris Page
Stop

just the start?

Ok as a first step, now we need to see a more pro-active approach by both the Telcos and the regulators to overseas companies employing this tactic. there has to be some technical measure that can be implimented to prevent this - I have had several spoofed number calls over the last 12 months.

It is also time the regulators made UK companies responsible for the actions of thier outsourced cold calling operations. Im on do not call lists for a reason, and my wishes should be complied with.

MEPs deny sports 'intellectual property' landgrab

Cris Page

Forgotten fans

One day sports will learn that the strangulation employed by "rights holders" drives fans away. Where is the fans right to unbiased as it happens reporting? Its time the corporate suits realised that without a following the rights to any sport are worth Squat! Maybe if more fans had the backbone to "walk away" then the suits would have to think again.

ASA raps Paddy Power over gambling dwarf ad

Cris Page
Flame

ASA? more like A**E*O*ES !

...And yet they allows ISP's to advertise *limited* "unlimited" connections, and to headline in large font a low monthly (introductory) fee that is only charged in the short term before reverting to a higher level for the bulk of a contract which is only shown in small font.

As a regulator they really are pathetic!

O2 PR calls Reg readers 'techie nerds'

Cris Page

PRatts!

Just another illustration of how utterly worthless the whole PR industry is. We KNOW they view us with contempt. We KNOW they pigeon hole us all in one category or another, personally I think they would do all of humanity a favour if they went and got a PROPER job, along with the advertising morons who seem to think my whole life is an "advertising oppertunity".

I am Not a target market.........

BBC vs ISPs: Bandwidth row escalates as Tiscali wades in

Cris Page
Stop

This is a joke ... right?

Tiscali! I cant believe they have the brass neck to start whining about this when they run probably one of the most crippled + throttled networks in the UK. They took an ailing Pipex - already dragged down by GX and drove a stake though it.

Any company that thinks it can sell "unlimited" broadband for the rediculously low sum they charge is asking for trouble - and a new dictionary.

Anyone who thinks they can but a quality "unlimited" broadband connection for less than a tenner a month needs lobotomising.

Tiscali, and the other "happy cappers" have ruined the UK broadband market with unrealistic pricing, and advertising double speak that brings no credit on them, their name is a joke in knowledgeable circles, sadly thier service is very Un-funny for the customers trapped on it. For them to be lecturing ANYONE on the provision of network capacity is an insult to our intelligence.

Phorm admits 'over zealous' editing of Wikipedia article

Cris Page
Unhappy

Discredited

BT are starting to smell as bad as their parasitical buddies. First they lie to thier customers, now they seems to defend the blatant attempt to sanitise the facts about this invasion of our privacy - the fact that Phorms PR droids (or whoever) were unaware of wiki policy just shows the arrogance with which they operate, not only do they assume they have some god given right to our data, they assume they can distort data on websites to suit their own ends

Of course BT wouldnt see a conflict of interest would they? They cant see past that cheque from Phrom for selling out their customers privacy (aka data that isnt theirs to sell).

There is an interesting precedent here though.

Clearly, they didnt read the WIKI AUP and T&C before they got the scissors out... right?

So how can this now be opt in by default, on the assumption that people will have read and understood any T&C change published in some remote corner of an ISP web page?

Surely now theres an unbreakable case that this must be placed infront of each and every affceted ISP customer by email and a POSITIVE OPT IN required before inclusion? Phrom have clearly demonstarted that people DONT routinely check T&C so to obtain informed consent to data interception they have to ptretty much wave the thing in everyones faces before they go ahead

Welsh couple cop Mosquito flak

Cris Page
Unhappy

Quiet Enjoyment.

Across the road from me there is a family which has 4 boys aged 9 to 16, they have thier friends round to play in their own garden, much to the anger of a recent pensioner arrival in our street , she has been talking about getting "one of those devices that scare kids off", well honey let me tell you something. The minute that affects a young visitor to MY home, or seems to interfere with one of my pets I will be proceeding against her for interfering with MY "right to quiet enjoyment" of my home - yep that is actually a legal "expectation", by affecting visitors to my home or my pets hereshe will give me cause for legal action - it may even be possible to cite this as "anti social behaviour"

We have reached a stage in some areas where an anal and vocal minority have decided that no noise is permissible and children should be seen and not heard 24/7, which is ludicrous. If this device affects the lads across the road in thier own garden I will be pointing the parents in the direction of a solicitor. IMHO one person expecting the whole world to live by "do as I tell you" is easily as anti social as a kid smashing up call boxes. Quite a lot of this demonisation of kids/teens is down to press hysteria mixed with the usual assortment of busybodies who really should be concentrating on washing those twitching net curtains to keep them whiter than white!

The whole Anti social behaviour thing seems to be being used as a club to beat anyone who doesnt conform to age 35 white middle class standards of behaviour... an unreasonable expectation for 15 year olds doing exactly what my generation did at age 15... hanging round on on the streets with our mates. They have a right to free association and movement in this country, although you wouldnt believe it in what seems to be becoming a police state.

BT and Phorm secretly tracked 18,000 customers in 2006

Cris Page

Phorm Free ISP's

There is already a list growing at http://www.badphorm.co.uk/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewforum.php?11

32nd Carry On film is go

Cris Page
Stop

Frankie says........

Im reminded that Frankie Howerd Guested in one once... In memory of that I say

Nay nay ... and thrice Nay!

Should Europeans pay to receive phone calls?

Cris Page

TPS isnt a BT service!

@Graham T - The TPS scheme is not and never has been a BT service, - BT link to it but it is in fact run by the Direct Marketing Assocation. BT do little or nothing to help its hapless customers avoid intrusive calls from various sales operations EVEN WHEN TPS registered, unless of course you count the premium charged anonynous call rejection service which really should be available as part of the select services package. In fact even when companies abroad try to circumvent the system by spoofing UK geographic numbers, BT claim to be powerless to intervene. Apparently it is beyond the wit of thier network software people to create an routine that queries incoming calls to ensure they are coming from an authentic UK area code/ number

As for how wonderful the US cell phone charging system is, this is the same system that robs pay as you go customers of any credit remaining whe it is time to "top up" while blocking their phone even to incoming calls as happens on a friends PAYG cell in Iowa? As a UK PAYG customer, I prefer our system, I accept that I should pay the full cost of making a call that I decide to make, and would probably use my phone less if I knew my friends had to pay some of the cost of my calling them. and of course any credit remaining on my top up date remains mine to use.

HMRC blows £1.4m on two-word slogan

Cris Page
Stop

Rebate please!

FFS! This is the problem with the ego trippy ideals that exist in the UK today. Its a revenue agency - its function is laid out in law, its NOT a business, it doesnt need this corporate B/S. It has a statute function, it is NOT in a competitive market - if the Gov't want to improve the "image" of HMRC, how about cutting out waste like this so they can lower our taxes - or put the funds saved to better use?

This is as pathetic as calling the public it deals with "customers" - we are not... Customers have a choice - we dont get to choose if we want to deal with this entity. Of course this ego stroking was funded out of taxes extorted from the British public.

This is another waste, and those responsible should be sacked, and barred from further work in the public sector.

EU investigates Microsoft's OOXML campaign

Cris Page
Jobs Horns

Microsoft can stuffeth it

@ Anonymous Coward. Sheep.. I mean speak for yourself, as a consumer I reserve the right to CHOOSE what apps I use to browse...view photos... listen to music etc, and I object to being forced to install stuff that I have no wish to use simply because it is bundled by the architect of windoze. I dont want it on my drive, hell its bad enough that I am forced to pay for that which I am not going to use. Media player-less windows isnt enough, I want it without IE... Media player... "Lookout Distress" etc.... I dont use any of them! So why not add them as a free download on installation for those who really want them? - even though there are better applications out there.

Anyhow this is about office software and Micro$oft trying to subvert the due process of spec ratification for its own overpriced unstable interests. There are equally good and far cheaper alternatives - Clearly Redmond realise this and thats why they were trying to sway the standard their way in the hope that it would damage the competition. At least now thereis the chance that we will see a level playing field rather than one that slopes steeply towards micro$ofts bank account.

Premium rate watchdog launches 'Am I being ripped off?' text line

Cris Page
Stop

Much ado about nothing.

Its a shame Phonepay Plus cant apply the same energy to sorting out the scams.(still think that stupid name makes them sound like a scamming outfit)

It is time we were able to opt out of premium rate texts receipt, that would kill the scam dead in its tracks.

I guess the loss of revenue scares the networks and government who by their lack of action are complicit in this fraud.

I know enough to recognise a non mobile 07 number - but its time these were moved into their own range - removing any confusion and the need to pay to check how much of a rip off it is

Nothing to see here people... move along.

STOP because the stop command often doesnt work!

Sir Edmund Hillary dies at 88

Cris Page

IMHO

The world has lost an inspirational figure who knew the value of courage - todays "celebs" could learn a lot from this one man about the virtue of humility.

The Sherpa people have lost a good and loyal friend.

His like will not pass this way again.

Beeb censors Fairytale of New York

Cris Page
Unhappy

Wrong song

Umm no.. its not "Walk of Life" that has the "faggot" lines - they come from "Money for nothing", if you have been listening for them in "life" that would explain why you say they have been cut from the song.

The BBC never learn do they? This really does make them look stupid.

Ofcom puts digital dividend on the auction block

Cris Page
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Dividend? Wheres mine?

I keep hearing about this "digital dividend" but as far as I can see its a very one sided affair.

We get to junk our existing (and perfectly serviceable) equipment and replace it with nice shiney new stuff with vat @17.5% OR

We have to buy huge numbers of STBs to keep mutiple rooms "tuned in" again more lovely VAT for Alastair plus of course additional power required which is itself taxed.... OR

We are delivered into the loving embrace of Sky/Virgin.

Looks like "Lose Lose" for the ordinary folks here. All I can see is a lot of extra costs with little or no gain in financial terms, while the Grabby Gordys Government are coining in even more of our hard earned.

Couple this with OFCOMs gleeful auction of airwaves and the picture is complete, a nice earner from selling off the spectrum that they are stealing from us to bolster the tax dividend from the electrical stores./

Its a rip off.. please stop pretending it is anything else.

Ofcom will probe UK mobile market - again

Cris Page
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Chocolate Fireguard

... about as much use as one.... Disbanding OFTEL was a big mistake for consumers - OFTEL had its problems but..... OFCOM has its fingers in too many pies, and as a result fails on a daily basis to be relevant to most UK mobile customers. This "regulator" apparently spends much of its time "recording data" about problems to see if it needs to act. Fact is at consumer level the UK lacks an efficient and effective watchdog for all domestic telecoms services, hence we get scammed and ripped off while the government are content to stand by and watch happily raking in their cut of the scams in VAT etc. And dont get me started on *whatever they are calling the lash up formerly known as ICSTIS this week*

As for o2, they need to stop charging for sms messages to networks that they donyt have a "roaming agreement" with. now I thought roaming referred to the ability to "piggy back" onto another network when abroad, but in my case, o2 claim that because they dont have a roaming agreement with Verizon, Texts they charged me for that I sent to a US based friend on Verizon were not delivered because they have no "roaming agreement", but strangely the Verizon user was able to text me.

The whole industry is a (cartel operating) joke, and the government is knee deep in the same swill. WE need effective regulation of "domestic comms" landline/mobile/broadband and that means a dedicated regulator, but their business paymasters will resist any moves by the government to put that in place - the current ineffectual joke suits them very nicely thank you.

Queues start a day ahead of UK iPhone arrival

Cris Page
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ixpensive

My macbook pro owning - ipod using partner summed it up for me....

"nice piece of kit... but not at that price... not on that tarrif.... not on an 18 month contract"

Not all Apple customers are sheep blindly following the Apple brand wherever it wanders... thank god!

eBay fingered for QXL bid

Cris Page

Sale conditions?

Payment by paypal preferred, cheques must clear before goods are collected, Local pick up only, or buyer to arrange own courier.

Confused BBC tech chief: Only 600 Linux users visit our website

Cris Page
Stop

Core business.

Simple answer. Kill the iplayer project and put the money into decent programming for those of us who are forced to pay the tv tax. With sky + dvd r and vhs available for recording I really cant see why they are wasting so much of our extorted money on this while cutting back on the production of broadcast content that is the core business.

If this streaming service is so important let them develop a seperate business funded by subscription so people can vote with thier own wallets.

Cris Page
Stop

Core business.

Simple answer. Kill the iplayer project and put the money into decent programming for those of us who are forced to pay the tv tax. With sky + dvd r and vhs available for recording I really cant see why they are wasting so much of our extorted money on this while cutting back on the production of broadcast content that is the core business.

If this streaming service is so important let them develop a seperate business funded by subscription so people can vote with thier own wallets.

After months of denial, Microsoft cops to IE vulnerability

Cris Page
Gates Horns

Broken sites

Broken site? No sale then! Instead they get an email from a template I have informing them that their broken and badly coded site cost them a sale, and that under no circumstances will i consider using IE for web transactions. There are plenty of other vendors out there who maintain properly coded sites that work in all browsers, they are the ones who get my money.

If It wont work in Opera (default) or Firefox (back up) I dont go there, its that simple.

Late, fast and pricey: O2 broadband is go

Cris Page

Much ado about nothing

Shame they didnt focus on sorting out thier Phone business first, so I wouldnt need a second handset on a different network just to be able to text a friend on verizon in the U.S. (who incidentally CAN text me on o2 - consistent huh?)

Trust them with my broadband connection? I think Not, Enta are up front about what I can do and how much of it I can do, Thats something the "unlimited liars" have yet to grasp, you breed better customer relations by being clear and honest. o2 broadband? Nothing to see here people... move along

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