Posts by paulf

Before dipping a toe in the new ThinkPad high-end, make sure your desk is compatible

I subscribe to the Sir Terry P school of monitor provision. "The reason I have four monitors is I don't have space for six"

Happy new year, readers. Yes, we have threaded comments, an image-lite mode, and more...

Old desktop front page design

FTA: "For those clinging to the previous layout, we allowed you to opt in to continue receiving the old homepage. ... According to our stats, about 4,000 people a month were still opting in for the old homepage in December, so we figured it wasn't too popular."

IME, every time I selected the old desktop format it got reverted automagically within a week even though I allowed/kept the cookie that must have stored the preference. I'd wonder how that statistic was swayed by others who also preferred the old desktop site layout but got frustrated at having to keep selecting the optout they just admitted defeat. It was a bit Mrs Doyle in the end - You'll use the new format won't you? Oh you will, you will, you will, you will..." Looks like I'd better try the lite mode. For me it made much more sense to look at the front page 1-2 times a day and check the new stories added since I last looked than go hunting for them on the new design.

Thumbs up at least for the threaded comments - spotted over Christmas. Good work guys!

Um, I'm not that Gary, American man tells Ryanair after being sent other Gary's flight itinerary

Re: EE Shenanigans

Quite odd wazzocks at that, IME. Once I called them about an account problem, explained what it was to the agent that picked up (in the UK - it was about 2002) and got the response, "I've been a very naughty boy." I gave a perplexed response as I wasn't expecting that and got the same again and he hung up. To this day, what he did, and why, remains a mystery!

Scottish Power really are the most monstrous bunch of cockwombles (YMMV and I'm sure there are others just as bad).

I moved house about 6 years ago; we bought a house from the Smiths who moved to a house sold to them by the Jones. The Smiths were with SP so had to connect to them initially until I could sort out the move to a decent energy supplier. SP were completely unable to set up my account because they thought the new occupiers of my house were the Jones (exactly how this happened was never explained - a possible mess up by the Smiths? - but once notified of it they should have been able to rectify it quickly). It took multiple phone calls over several weeks to get this sorted (eventually my call was picked up by someone who knew what they were doing and was able to sort it) and once connected I was able to shift to another supplier.

Then out of the blue three years later I got two sets of new final bills. One set claimed they owed me £45. The other set claimed I owed them 2p. Both completely overlooked I had already settled all the final bills in full long ago. Not wanting to get involved with them again (even for £45 which I knew they likely didn't owe me and would likely want back if they realised) I opted to pay the 2p bill at the post office in cash thinking that would cost them the most in processing charges.

Thank ${DIETY} I never heard from them again. From @AC's post it sounds like not much has changed since.

Oz cops investigating screams of 'why don't you die?' find bloke in battle with spider

"in Australia, where the majority of fauna seem set on cleansing humans from the continent"

Just the Fauna?

Little shop of horrors: the Australian plants that can kill you

Also worth noting the Adder is a somewhat dangerous creature in GB - at least if you catch one by surprise by stepping on it in the long grass!

Dutch boyband hopes to reverse Brexit through the power of music

Re: Brussels is evil I tell you!

Slightly off topic (if only because Iceland is EEA/EFTA and not EU proper).

TOH and I went to Iceland on holiday in Jan 2018 (watching snow storms from the sofa by the wood stove in the hotel bar - perfect!). While in Reykjavik I turned my portable radio to the only FM music station I could find (IIRC it was Atan FM). It was a bit gangsta-rap like, which isn't my usual cup of tea, but enough to wake me up early enough for a good run at the AYCE breakfast bar. One morning the radio alarm came on and I was dozing in bed thinking about getting up when this song came on, dropped the N-word a few times then the Mother-F bomb (see icon). I was certainly unaccustomed to that kind of thing before the watershed but it certainly woke me up!

All the Icelandic people were friendly and welcoming, with excellent English, but I'm not sure they quite realise the subtleties of profanity. This is perhaps best demonstrated when we went to a wool shop out in the sticks (wool is perhaps the only thing that is *cheaper* in Iceland). We were chatting to the shop keeper and noted how impressed we were at the storm a few days earlier. She responded, noting "Yes, the Fucking weather, eh(?)". We were both taken aback - its not the normal language one is accustomed to in a wool shop but it did make us laugh also.

Scumbag hackers lift $1m from children's charity

Re: Who are the criminals here?

It's interesting you (OP) mention the RNLI. When my old man turned 60 (about 10 years ago so pre GDPR) he asked people to send donations to the RNLI (among some other charities) in lieu of presents. I sent off some cash to the RNLI and made sure I got the boxes right to not opt in and opt out (!) of future contact and mailings.

I was then helpfully added to their supporters email news letter list anyway, and started getting begging letters in the post too. I unsubscribed from the emails which then started up again a few months later, leading to a phone call asking them to make it all stop. It didn't and in the end the only way I got it to stop was calling their HO and tearing someone off a strip about it.

I now only support small local charities that I know well, know where they're spending the money, and that rely mostly on volunteers with few if any paid staff. If I support a big charity (I make one exception with a big animal charity) I take in food for the animals at the rescue centre as that should stop them using it to fund their CEO's six figure pay and benefits package (unless he likes eating Winalot!).

Dixons Carphone smarting from £440m loss as it writes down goodwill on mobile biz

@AC Sorry I disagree on this. I appreciate this is your job and not mine but my experience differs. I bought an iPhone from Apple direct; they offer AppleCare+ (clearly an insurance product) and I wasn't asked to complete/sign any form stating I'd been offered insurance nor that I'd declined that offer (I didn't buy AppleCare+). I also bought an iPhone from John Lewis*. They didn't get me signing forms for any reason (insurance or otherwise) they reserved it over the phone (with only my phone number, no account or payment required) and when I went to the store they took my money and gave me the sealed iPhone box like the OP expected CPW to do.

Frankly, this smacks of the overzealous implementation of a simple regulation into overly complicated store policy. If the FCA requires this a citation of the regulation would be useful. Really, this form screams data harvesting operation to me.

*I bought an iPhone SE shortly after Apple discontinued them back in September. I called my local Church of Jobs asking if they still had stock left. They did but the guy I spoke to told me to try JL first as they were selling off their stock for £100 cheaper which he couldn't match. Apple get a lot of criticism (plenty of it justified) but I can't fault that kind of service!

Amazon robot fingered for bear spray leak that hospitalised 24 staffers

Re: “accidentally”

Exactly. I'm also suspicious that this story was filed in "Business". Isn't it about time El Reg formalised RoTM as a separate category so us wetware are better placed to keep track of this stuff rather than hiding putting it in euphemistically titled categories like "Business" and "destroy meatbags" "Software".

UKFast mulls putting IPO on ice due to six little letters: BREXIT

Re: forthcoming meetings in the next few weeks "will shed more light on the situation"

I'll cautiously add to this as IANAL (and this is an active court case). The CJEU could choose to give more than a simple "yes/no" response to the question "Can the UK's TEU A50 notification be revoked unilaterally?". They could add conditions to avoid the very thing you mention - a country (e.g. the UK) making yoyo notifications to extend indefinitely the apparently fixed 2 year term specified in A50. I think the lawyers for the EC made this very point in the hearing on Tuesday (27 Nov). That said they did suggest the notification was revocable so it comes down to whether it could be done unilaterally, or whether it would require agreement from the EU27 (and whether that would need to be unanimous or whether QMV would be acceptable). I'd note that one of the lawyers suggested that what's happened to the UK in the time since the TEU A50 notification would be deterrent in itself against yoyo notifications.

The court could decide to say "Yes [it can be unilaterally revoked] but if you do revoke you don't get to make another TEU A50 declaration again".

Alternatively the court could troll HMG by stating the original A50 notification was invalid so revocation isn't necessary. (See icon).

It's also worth noting that to get a respojse from the CJEU in 5 working days (27 Nov to 4 Dec for the Advocate General's opinion, final judgement a week or so later), indeed from any higher court, is light speed in legal terms!

Not a price cut! Apple perks up soggy iPhone demand with rebate boost

Re: Who needs analysts?

@ djstardust You forgot two from relatively recently.

The wired USB keyboard (with numeric keypad) used to be about £39 (? I think that was the UK price). The mini Bluetooth keyboard was a bit more. The old style trackpad was £59 (again I think). All took normal AA batteries although you could opt for the fruity flavour rechargeables+charger if you wanted to.

Now you're looking at £129 for the new keyboard (£99 for the trackpad?) that are bluetooth only and have a fixed built in battery (yet charge via a USB to lightning cable). But it comes in Space grey and rose gold! Wow, hardly justifies a 2x/3x price increase.

Huawei MateBook Pro X: PC makers look out, the phone guys are here

Yet from the article sub-heading: "A compact, grown-up 4:3 machine"

The antisocial network: 'Facebook has a black people problem,' claims staffer in exit salvo

The irony

FTA: "In the Twitter thread, the irony of a Facebook exec lamenting his loss of privacy did not go unnoticed. ®"

Surely there's a double irony that he posted his note on Facebook, looking at the link in the article: "On Tuesday this week, Mark Luckie posted a copy of the note, distributed internally on November 8, shortly before he left his job."

Surely if you're going to try and trash your former employer by publicising an internal message, you don't do it using the service provided by said former employer?

Scumbags cram Make-A-Wish website with coin-mining malware

Check the annual reports

The 2017 accounts confirm DavCrav's figures on turnover. Note it's a scan so not searchable which makes fact finding a touch harder (so perhaps intentional?).

It's worth noting PDF p27 (p25 of the doc) shows 2 people (of 66 staff in 2017 - PDF p28, doc p26) earning £80k-£90k (presumably CEO and someone else), with three more earning £60k-£70k; plus £15k of pension payments for all 5. Not at the higher end as some of the biggest UK charities tend to pay their CEOs around £140k but not shabby by Charity standards so they can't really claim there wasn't enough in the pot to pay for a decent BOFH to keep the hackerz at bay.

Total salary expenditure is £1,916,767, so with 66 employees the average salary is ~£30k. Excluding the five execs (2*£85k + 3*£65k) gives an average salary for the workers of ~£25,500

UK rail lines blocked by unexpected Windows dialog box

Re: Sigh!

@AC, "the NUR (or whatever they are called this week)"

Coughs, it's been the RMT since 1990.

Perhaps the railways should stop talking about disruption and just give a coefficient of entropy for the day's service.

Lucky, lucky, Westminster residents: Who better to look after your housing benefits than Capita?

Re: Dont Worry Dilbert will fix all!!

I always think of this Dilbert when it comes to outsourcing.

Clunk, bang, rattle: Is that a ghost inside your machine?

Re: toner powder

Not as good a story as some of the other toner related ones but it's on topic.

I've been familiar with laser printers/copies since I was the only one who knew how to operate the office copier at my Saturday job. As a result I was unofficially appointed the main point of contact to resolve problems plus do light to moderate maintenance/unjamming. I was also the only one, other than the service technician, who knew how to get in to the maintenance screens but that's another story...

Fast forward to a few years ago in the current Paulf & co. The main A3 colour laser printer/copier device (serving a building with about 200 engineers) was reporting a full waste toner bottle so all printing was blocked. The usual trick of jiggling it about to try and lift it off the weight based trip switch didn't work. I turned to the receptionist/admin and asked if we had a new waste toner bottle. She asked what colour needed replacing? I then had a very painful five minutes trying to explain to her that there was one waste toner bottle for all four colours, with an extended remix of yes you do throw it away when it's full and put an empty one in.

Icon - don't inhale the waste toner.

Shift-work: Keyboards heaped in a field push North Yorks council's fly-tipping buttons

Re: ARRRG the Punnage!

I have a SUN keyboard on my Win box so I'm going to use "Stop" then "Help" to recover from all the Punnage.

5.1 update sends Apple's Watch 4 bling spinning into an Infinite Loop of reboot cycles

Re: Wait for it...

Not that big of a deal as its it's the usual "small number" that have had their watch bricked experience an issue: "Due to a small number of Apple Watch customers experiencing an issue..."

Perhaps we should call this intrepid band of release day downloaders the Kamikaze Beta testers?

iPhone XR guts reveal sizzle of the XS without the excessive price tag

I need the white one. I like the one with the Wifis and the bigger GBs. (Coughs NSFW)

It only took Oz govt transformation bods 6 months and $700k to report that blockchain ain't worth the effort

Lets get this right. A Government IT project was completed within 6 months, for less than seven figures and came up with a tangible result. I'll put that down as an unqualified success, especially when compared to the myriad multi-million multi-year failures.

Bonus points that it actually debunked the latest buzz-word fad, and consigned it to the circular file.

Powerful forces, bodily fluids – it's all in a day's work

Re: Just the Usual...

@ Nick Kew "Surely there should be a healthy market for scanners and printers incorporating a metal detector that'll complain *before* potentially self-harming if fed a stash containing staples and paperclips?"

I suspect the market for selling new printers/scanners to replace the ones that got mashed by staples/paper clips is much healthier!

LinkedIn has a Glint in its eye and cash burning a hole in its pocket

Re: Software that tells you why employees keep leaving

In my case the background questions were sufficiently granular to identify people (Business Unit, Group, age range IIRC). It's not clear if the ability to narrow down answers to individuals was baked in or just a consequence of having relatively small groups (I'd opt for the occam's razor explanation). I answered honestly regardless and I suspect the morale level meant I wasn't the only one who didn't care about the witch hunt potential. That said, as mentioned above, I don't see Paulf & Co changing a damned thing as a result of that survey.

There is a Dilbert to cover every situation - including this one.

Re: Software that tells you why employees keep leaving

I'm inclined to think that an employer that doesn't already know why it is losing employees hand over fist probably won't want to hear the cold hard truth of the matter. The more sadistic companies who know why people are leaving and don't care will only want to know so they can use it again in the future (coughs, IBM, coughs).

Even if someone does pipe up the courage to tell the HR droids and PHBs why people are scrambling for the exits, it'll be dressed up as if nothing is wrong and likely the employees are wrong/at fault. My place commissioned a survey of all employees to find out why morale was at Dilbert levels and people were leaving in droves. Unusually the results were published in all their gory details showing a happiness level in the 50s% (While I'm surprised it got that high - it should have set off major warning klaxons). This of course had nothing to do with historically poor pay, then three years of pain starting with a boardroom coup, deep cuts in everything, a long bitter restructuring, and masses of redundancies which all culminated in the break up and sale of the company. How did the company deal with this crisis it was facing? They introduced a reasonably generous bonus scheme which most people got fiddled out of making the problem worse. Then they went for the big guns: a series of emails offering the opportunity to get to know the executive team.

And then in the distance, in the direction of the board room, a shot rings out, followed by someone screaming they can't find their toes.

A story of M, a failed retailer: We'll give you a clue – it rhymes with Charlie Chaplin

Re: Surprising

As for, "this means the marketplace is not competitive enough, and the government should start intervening."

I'm reminded of the saying that there is no situation so dire that it cannot be made worse through Government intervention.

Re: Surprising

I think you misunderstand the difference between Gross Profit and Net Profit (my simplified understanding is below). Retailers will generally aim for a gross margin of 40% which is not far off the 50% gross demanded by Maplin's banking covenants.

Gross Profit is the difference between how much it cost to buy the thing you've just sold and the amount you charged for it.

Net Profit = Gross profit less all business expenses (CapEx and OpEx)*

* - staff costs (inc salary), corporate functions (e.g. HR, purchasing), payments for buildings/vehicles and the like, taxation (business rates, tax on profits), other operational expenses like utilities (power, water, telephone, rubbish disposal), banking facilities (cost of credit/debit card merchant account and transaction processing, cash handling, cost of corporate banking facilities), cost of breaking bulk (buying 10,000 of something then storing them and distributing to stores while you sell them one at a time to customers). Then you have CapEx things like store refurbishment, buying+equipping new sites etc, closing unprofitable sites. This list isn't exhaustive and probably only scratches the surface.

Only once all that is paid do you have Net profit which is a lot closer to your 2% figure. A lot of that will be a payment to the business owners as a return on their investment (e.g. dividends to share holders) and some will be retained for future business development or paying down debt as it becomes due. There may also be exceptional charges on the accounts to cover (e.g. acquisitions, write off of goodwill, etc).

A company will need to generate a net profit higher than 2% otherwise they will struggle to attract capital/investors simply because of the "Why should I invest in your business and get a 2% return when I can invest in that other company with similar prospects and get a 5% return?" problem.

Note retailers will generally work on a 40% Gross Margin. How much of that percolates through to the Net Margin is quite another matter if only because they start to redefine Profit and they'll do accounting shenanigans like loading up with debt as explained here with Maplin. As explained by the article Maplin would have been reasonably profitable had it not been for all interest it had to pay on the debt it was loaded up with by its Private Equity owners!

Re: Profitability

There is also something to be said about not trusting things to the average delivery company. I used to buy blank DVDs at Maplin - their prices weren't significantly more than the equivalent at Amazon (this was a few years ago!) but made much more sense as the one time I bought from Amazon they sent the caketin of blanks in a big box with very little padding. By the time YoDel (or whatever) had played football with it and it got to me several of the discs were unusable so the whole lot had to go back for a refund. While I wasn't out of pocket it was still a hassle which made the Maplin surcharge fairly reasonable in comparison.

Re: Further reading

@ARGO Agreed - yes my term for 1. is more accurately used to refer to your 3. funding early stage companies (e.g. Pied Piper). That's just my way of trying to separate "Good" Private Equity (the 1. type) from the "Bad" Private Equity (the 2. type) even if the terms aren't quite accurate.

You're spot on with your assessment of 2. I guess there is an ample supply of greedy mugs out there?

Re: Further reading

As an aside I think of two types of private involvement in companies.

1. Buying up a tired or unloved company/brand, investing in it to restore it to good financial and business health, then selling it on at a profit as a stable going concern; where the profit is recompense for the hard work involved in restoring the fortunes of said company. (Rightly or wrongly I refer to this as venture capital)

2. Buying up a healthy company, loading it with debt to fund a bumper payout to the new owners, mortgaging any assets they can lay their hands on to fund more payouts, cutting CapEx and OpEx to the absolute bone to artificially flatter the accounts in the short term, then selling it on to some mug as quickly as they can before the whole house of cards collapses under the weight of its own debt, spiraling investment needs and imminently tanking revenues. (I look at this as Private Equity - this is what Maplin suffered from since at least 2001, along with many other companies on the high street).

Further reading

For those who are interested in reading further about the story behind Maplin's demise this is a worthwhile article which includes the original mail order history. It is involved (like this story) but also a fascinating insight to what happened. (Spoiler alert: The die was likely cast back in about 2001 - "In fact it has been insolvent for a very long time. It is a zombie company.")

The sad story of Maplin Electronics

UKIP flogs latex love gloves: Because Brexit means Brexit

Re: Don't need a condom.....

Having a picture of a massive cock on a condom packet does make some sense I suppose?

What's Big and Blue – and makes its veteran staff sue? Yep, it's IBM

@Ledswinger, "Why would anybody commission such a dreadfully run company to tell them how to do anything?"

Oddly enough IBM seem pretty popular among dreadfully run companies, so there could be a link:

Lloyds finally inks mega 10-year cloudy outsourcing deal with IBM

Who will fix our Internal Banking Mess? TSB hires IBM amid online banking woes

Revealed: British Airways was in talks with IBM on outsourcing security just before hack

Salesforce supremo Benioff buys Time magazine for $190m

Salesforce supremo Benioff buys Time magazine for $190m

He was over charged - it was only £3.50 in my local Newsagents

(Sorry - obvious joke).

Amazon probes alleged bribery of staffers for data on e-tail platform

Re: "Reviews" on e commerce sites

The problem is the reviews you never get to see because they were deleted before you got there.

I've been mentioning this in El Reg comments for a few years now when Amazon's marketplace comes up in a story. I'm just an average Joe in the street and I get requests to remove negative reviews: both items and sellers. In one case a seller called me up one evening out of the blue and offered a 50% rebate on the item if I retracted a negative review which stated the item sent mismatched the listing photo (while the item sent still did the job and this was acknowledged in the review it didn't reflect the picture and as it was £7 it wasn't worth sending back). Amazon do obscure buyer's email addresses but phone numbers are provided as part of the invoice and delivery details (along with your invoice and delivery addresses).

I always decline such requests as deleting justified negative reviews undermines the whole review system but I'm sure there are others who are more easily tempted by refunds and the like.

One thing is certain - Amazon will not deal with this problem - they'll only do enough to make it look like they're dealing with the problem.

Probably for the best: Apple makes sure eSIMs won't nuke the operators

Re: @ Waseem Alkurdi

@ Inventor of the Marmite Laser, "I guess he means summat a bit like Crown House (and one other I cant recall) who run TV transmitters,". IIRC:

BBC Transmission > CTXI > Crown Castle > National Grid Wireless > Arqiva

IBA (Transmission bit in Winchester) > NTL > Arqiva.

So Arqiva (owned by infrastructure funds like Macquarie) now owns pretty much all the broadcast infrastructure in the UK.

Icon, Non-ionising radiation etc.

Apple in XS new sensation: Latest iPhone carries XS-sive price tag

Re: Head phone socket

Same here - I'll be sorting out a replacement battery for my 6S+ before the cheap offer ends in December. That should keep me going for a few more years yet. If it hadn't been for the removal of the headphone socket I'd probably have updated to the iPhone 7S 8 last year. It might be a small point for some but I found the early smart phones (HTC and iPhone that I know of, and I'm sure others) use of a standard headphone socket refreshing and genuinely useful compared to the Nokia practice of every handset using a different proprietary standard for the headset connector.

I'm just tired of the rehashed arguments against the headphone socket, "It's an obsolete standard", "use bluetooth headphones", "use the lightning to 3.5 jack adaptor", "It's brave innovation".

"It might be old but it's not obsolete - comparisons with floppy disks are misleading (floppy disk storage capacity was long eclipsed by user requirements but audio can still travel along copper wires that terminate in a jack plug which connects to near enough any audio device)", "I don't want to spend money on new headphones to replace my Sennheiser HD-25s that will be something else that needs regular charging, plus carrying another charger", "Why should I need an adaptor for the basic action of listening to music on a fucking £700+ phone?", "removing useful functionality is not innovation (unless you're Apple)".

Milton Keynes: Come for roundabouts, stay for near-gigabit broadband

The drive for market share

FTA: "In a research note today, RBC Capital explained that aggressive pricing is Vodafone's way of gaining share rapidly. "Vodafone’s market share in fixed is significantly below mobile across Europe."

That likely explains why I'm getting, with ever increasing desperation, postal flyers every other month plus marketing MMS messages about twice a month from them. They refuse to take the hint that I'm not interested because I already have a decent ISP that doesn't fuck about with my connection (either speed or content), gives me a fixed IP address, doesn't insist on using their own router etc etc.

Apple pushes new iOS 12 beta build to silence notification spam

@ Lord Elpuss, "So making it 'Off' as opposed to OFF might have been a motivator here - to reduce support calls from muppets."

I can understand that. I did see one suggestion that they could have used force touch here - tap for "Off", press hard tap for "OFF" but I did see something the other day suggesting Apple will not include force touch in coming handsets so perhaps they knew back then that method was a dead end...

Not entirely sure what the OP was referring to, but the comment about [iOS] 10 makes me suspect it's a reference to the frustrating bug/problem feature where turning Wifi or Bluetooth off from the Control Centre only turns it off temporarily until the next day. To turn it off properly requires a visit to Settings. Before iOS 11, Off meant off even in the Control Centre. Apple claimed this change was to improve the customer experience - ho hum.

What happens to your online accounts when you die?

Re: Get a Power of Attorney

@Dr Dan "I would strongly advise obtaining a dozen or so legal copies [of the death certificate]". A good post throughout but this is spot on advice. Everyone and his dog wants to see the original death certificate before lifting a finger so if you've only got one you'll be years sorting everything out. Get 10 or so copies and the paperwork become much easier to plough through.

Re: Get a Power of Attorney

Respectfully, I'm not convinced on this (IANAL). When someone dies the executors of their estate gain control of it via the process of Probate assuming they don't die intestate (i.e. without a Will) which complicates things. Once the executors have completed the process of probate they can (along with a death certificate) gain access to the affairs of the deceased (things like ownership/possessions/property/financial affairs) so they can close down their estate. This is all done in writing so I suspect the problem you faced is that you tried to do this over the phone (the solicitor should have known better). I can understand the call centre droid declining to talk to someone on the basis of "The account holder has died, honest" even if the scripted reply sounds a bit odd. On the other hand I would be quite surprised if Tesco Bank were routinely disregarding the legal process of Probate without censure, and organisations like this usually have specialist bereavement teams to deal with this process. AIUI once the executors have completed probate an organisation like Tesco Bank could only challenge their access to the accounts by challenging the probate itself (again IANAL).

Emma's Diary fined £140k for flogging data on over a million new mums to Labour Party

Re: He Just Wanted Love

Don't hold your breath.

In terms of ex-PM honours John Major was the last in 2005 (8 years after leaving No 10). Tony Blair is pending (left No 10 eleven years ago in 2007), as are Gordon Brown and David Cameron (left No 10 in 2010 and 2016 respectively). Until they figure out a way to make a PM gong for Blair palatable to all the people who didn't like him "Call me Dave" could be waiting a long time!

Re: If political parties want our personal information

That should include their proper home address, not the address of the small 1 bedroom flat they've rented (or bought on expenses) in the constituency to adhere to the letter of the rules.

Chip flinger TSMC warns 'WannaCry' outbreak will sting biz for $250m

Re: so installing critical security patches

@Stephanh, "Based on this, I would assume that the infected computers are Windows 7 "

FTA (Paragraph 2): "The malware struck on Friday, and affected a number of unpatched Windows 7 computer systems and fab tools over two days."

Dear alt-right morons and other miscreants: Disrupt DEF CON, and the goons will 'ave you

Please call them what they are

"members of the alt-reichright"

Frankly the strike through text in the article had it spot on in the first place. Perhaps I risk down votes for putting my head above the parapet on this, but the current fashion for calling the new generation of far right fascists "alt-right" (or even alt-reich), as if they're just another right of centre political grouping that deserves equal prominence in the interest of "balance" just masks their true cause + hateful aims, and risks legitimising them.

I hope the warning shot from the DEF CON Organisers works, and they can complete the conference successfully with plenty of constructive debate and no disruptive trolls.

UK comms revenues reach all-time low of £54.7bn, as internet kills the TV star

Re: Will the parasite kill the host?

No, the hosts (Telcos) will simply charge their customers more for service to make up for the revenue lost to the OTT "Parasites". I guess that's when people find out their "Free" OTT service has another hidden cost beyond data slurp.

Apple takes an axe to its App Affiliate Program

Re: not on my list of fine upstanding gentlemen

Arnold Kim is also the owner of Mac Fanboi news site Macrumors.

Porn parking, livid lockers and botched blenders: The nightmare IoT world come true

Re: Parking kiosk

They do it, not because it makes sense to anyone who sees the whole picture, but because it's considered an easy win and they assume putting up parking charges will not cause any change in behaviour.

Councils used to get about half of their income from central Gubmint as a grant. That's been reduced to nil over the last 8 years leaving them to either cut services or raise new revenues from somewhere other than Council Tax (they have to hold a referendum if the put up CTax by more than 5%). Some councils are so stuffed by the current situation they're struggling to provide the bare minimum (statutory) services. Faced with that I'm not surprised they're going after the "easy wins" even if it makes bugger all sense for the reasons you cite.

Re: Internet of Idiots

@ Halfmad

I think the point is that all of the desirable functionality you've mentioned (and I agree it makes a lot of sense in the case of your Father) can be provided without requiring an internet/Wifi connection, and the ability to phone home to a manufacturer or connect to a smartphone app.