Posts by Simon 4 56 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Dec 2009
What’s the point in streaming CCTV unless you also backup all footage to an off-site server, ie “The Cloud”.
Crims are smart enough to yank out the DVR, eliminating video evidence of their efforts.
So the only thing that makes sense is to automatically duplicate all footage offsite.
How many CCTV packages even have that as an option?
Twitter plays politics. Take your head out of the sand.
The left can threaten violence and death without consequence.
Meanwhile, anyone on the other side gets suspended for breathing too loud.
My main point was that Twitter is a confidence trick. And the one-sided politics they play is a big part of that trick, because you probably still believe it's a "Free Speech Platform". It isn't.
A “bug” my arse!
Anyone else here read about the early days of Twitter? Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore would break it every time they tweeted each other. So Twitter had to have a dedicated laptop looping a script, just to keep up with those two accounts.
Then you see how Twitter allows any depravity if it’s from the left, while censoring conservatives.
Twitter is a confidence trick, just like Netflix.
I sent this to El Reg, but I guess they're not interested.
Please enjoy this absurd Dell Sales chat fail in all it's glory. Feel free to distribute far and wide.
Michael is the client.
Michael Initial Question/Comment: Why is it when I add a PC to my basket, there is nothing IN my basket? I cannot buy from the website!
14:14:28 System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
14:14:28 System Connected with christopher_j_oliver
14:14:34 christopher_j_oliver Welcome to Dell Business Sales & Finance, This is Christopher your Sales Advisor. Hope you are doing good!
14:14:36 Michael Hi Christopher
14:14:42 christopher_j_oliver Hi Michael
14:14:48 christopher_j_oliver sorry about that
14:14:52 Michael Frustrated by the Dell website that won't sell me a computer!
14:15:02 christopher_j_oliver can i please have the link of the model your looking to order?
14:15:12 Michael I've tried two browsers on two different PCs
14:15:25 Michael Optiplex 7050
14:15:31 Michael With Radeon card
14:15:34 Michael And SSD
14:15:56 christopher_j_oliver Would you like me to help you with the order ?
14:16:27 Michael N033O7050MT02
14:16:31 Michael I want to buy it myself.
14:16:42 Michael I'm not buying £1200 of computer via chat
14:17:00 christopher_j_oliver can i call and assist you ?
14:17:15 Michael Can you just fix your website?
14:17:19 Michael I can't be the only person
14:17:29 christopher_j_oliver please let me check
14:17:33 Michael How can Dell, of all companies, have a website that won't add a product to the basket?
14:17:41 Michael Your website is totally F'd up
14:19:24 christopher_j_oliver give me a minute please im checking on this
14:21:11 christopher_j_oliver Thank you for your patience.
14:21:23 christopher_j_oliver that one model is not in stock as of now
14:22:20 Michael Website says "Ships in 3-5 business days"
14:23:07 christopher_j_oliver it just got unavailable
14:23:22 christopher_j_oliver needs to be removed from the website
14:23:35 Michael So what is the new equivalent model then?
14:23:59 Michael Why am I the only person here with any common sense?
14:25:02 christopher_j_oliver http://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/desktop-and-all-in-one-pcs/optiplex-7050-small-form-factor/spd/optiplex-7050-desktop/n044o7050sff02
14:25:07 christopher_j_oliver please check this model
14:25:32 Michael I don't want small form factor
14:26:17 Michael I don't want Intel graphics
14:26:31 Michael Should I just go buy Lenovo?
14:26:40 Michael The Chinese will happily take my money
14:27:24 christopher_j_oliver i would need to check on this and email you back
14:27:45 christopher_j_oliver would need to check if we are having any new upgrades on the bundles
14:36:19 christopher_j_oliver would that be okay ?
14:42:00 Michael You just lost a sale to Lenovo. Congratulations. Please let your Sales director know that he is a numpty
14:44:46 christopher_j_oliver sorry about that
14:54:27 christopher_j_oliver are we still connected ?
14:54:36 Michael We are.
14:54:44 Michael And I don't mean to give you a hard time.
14:54:48 Michael I know it's not your fault.
14:54:53 Michael But I AM Serious.
14:54:57 Michael I just bought a Lenovo.
14:55:18 Michael That's a sale that Dell lost because the organization is ..... what can I say?
14:55:23 Michael Not the Dell I used to buy computers from.
14:55:28 Michael I always bought Dell.
14:55:30 Michael Not this time.
14:55:34 Michael You couldn't sell me what I wanted.
14:55:37 Michael BIG LESSON
14:55:47 christopher_j_oliver sorry about that
14:56:22 christopher_j_oliver they is the new upgraded model that is getting update that is the reason that model is not available
14:57:02 Michael it's pointless you telling me that
14:57:07 Michael It's not 1996 any more
14:57:24 Michael "we don't sell it any more but it's still on the website" - is a big fat FAIL
14:57:39 Michael "We have a new model, but it's not on the website." - Big fat FAIL
14:57:50 Michael It's not 1996
14:58:00 Michael Ecommerce is not some newfangled fad
14:58:10 Michael You're Dell, for crying out loud
14:59:42 christopher_j_oliver il put this across to our team
15:02:03 christopher_j_oliver would they be anything else i can assist you with ?
15:02:09 Michael No thanks
15:02:23 christopher_j_oliver you take care and have a good day
As others have said, OS != UI.
Linux demonstrates this point. And Raspberry Pi is a fantastic example of all the different possibilities with a common hardware platform. With Apple, the common platform could easily be the kernel and the processor family.
I have raised my doubts about ARM Macs in another thread. I’m not sure how Arm would replace my i7 video editing rig, using multi camera angles.
But the point I really want to make is that, just because Microsoft screwed this up multiple times, it doesn’t mean that Apple will make the same mistakes. In fact, it makes it MORE likely that Apple will learn from the mistakes of Microsoft.
Apple seems much more focused on the user experience, and that being the driving force behind the development of many of their key products, like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
How many years have we heard the rumours about Apple’s take on the TV? Only to be released when it serves a real need.
I think Andrew’s opinion is somewhat coloured by the many-year bad relationship that El Reg has with Cupertino.
So getting back to the original story....
Parents are idiots. They’re lazy. They’re gullible morons.
And, according to this news story, 1 in 7 will blame “t’internet” - or lack of speedy thereof - as the reason the psychopath they’re raising (badly) didn’t pass his geometry class.
Because that’s what it really says. 1 in 7 RESPONDENTS TO THIS SURVEY are thick enough to blame slow internet as the reason they’re breeding and raising under-achievers with a victim mentality.
It’s only 1 in 7, but then there’s Jeremy Corbyn. The fact that he even has a job tells you we’re all doomed. Common sense is not in fashion.
Yes. People are dumb. And they’re having children.
This is the same family where mum vowed son would have a Nokia dumb-phone. He’s 11.
But he’s smarter than his parents. He watched an iPhone 5c on eBay and the idiot dad bought it. My suggestion that it be IMMEDIATELY sold on eBay was well received, but not acted upon.
Like I said, they’re lazy. They don’t want confrontation with the kids - except for all the times they totally lose their shit and abuse their kids.
So the uncle is the only family member with any God damn common sense, and is constantly undermined by everyone else who don’t understand why the kids have no boundaries.
Today, parents are incredibly stupid.
11 year old may be smarter than his parents but still dumb as a box o rocks.
I refurbed an all-in-one ex-customer PC for him with a brand new HDD and Win7 install for his birthday. Thicko decided to install Windows 10 “because it was offered”. Never asked his uncle, with nearly 30 years of experience. He didn’t understand why his PC was “running slow”.
The day I ask my nephew for technical support is the day I kill myself. Sometimes he tries to offer his analysis or advice and assistance. I haven’t harmed him yet.
I know from my nephew’s school that the teachers are thicker than thick.
And I know from my sister that many parents (her included) are just f’ing lazy at parenting. My 9 year old niece doesn’t know her 4 times tables (or higher). It’s totally her parents’ fault, specifically my sister - her mum. Too lazy to go through them on the daily journeys to/from school. No, you don’t need a bloody app. Just learn your damn times tables.
And parents like to blame every other factor except themselves to explain why their little darling is underperforming.
Internet and iPad are the new babysitters. “Oh you’re doing homework? Ok then.” Stupid, lazy, gullible parents who don’t supervise their kids online.
So basically, this story is total bollocks, backed up by “statistics”.
The suggestion was made in a comment on a Maplin story a week or so ago.
Maplin is in deep doodoo because they no longer fill a need. You can buy, better, newer and cheaper from any number of outlets - whether it’s Amazon, Ebay or even Tesco.
But the suggestion which I think could have some success for Maplin would be to turn the stores into hacking/making spaces. You need an arduino controller? A stepper motor? No problem, we can sell one to you right now.
My nephew wants to learn how to code. I never learned, so I’m not a great teacher. There are no coding clubs near us, but there are several Maplin branches. We would happily pay for coding lessons or to make a robot in their space.
There is clearly a total lack of imagination with Maplin’s owners, management and administrators.
On a related subject - with all the fast casual restaurants closing down (like Prezzo) what nobody is saying is the reason for such poor performance: lousy management.
Recent trip to a nearby Prezzo, the heating was broken. When it was just above freezing outside. The heating has been playing up at that same branch for YEARS.
Guess what.... the area manager works out of a different branch. Because if he worked in the cold one, it would have been fixed by now. They treat customers badly, don’t know how to give out free ice for drinks and practice the most onerous portion control imaginable.
They may have too many branches, but there is nobody LEADING the business. They have no idea about looking after customers. The same lack of care is repeated in EVERY branch.
But this is what happens when the founder of a business leaves or dies and it’s sold to private equity. No vision. No leadership. Just asset stripping.
Actually, in the U.K., electrified NATIONAL railways run NOT with a third rail but with overhead cables and a pantograph to bridge the gap - like trolley buses.
We have rail lines running from London up to Scotland. It's 415 miles from London to Edinburgh. The US is big, but not that big to have more than 500 miles between stations.
As for your "best in the world" building code, that's total cobblers. Buildings may be earthquake proof in areas like San Andreas fault, but they're still poorly constructed.
Compare a partition wall in the U.K. with the US. We use insulation between the two layers of plasterboard (drywall) and then two skims of plaster. Solid walls.
You guys just hang the dry wall and say "job done".
You build matchstick houses in tornado zones (ever read Three Little Pigs?)
I've seen office towers under construction that were made of timber FFS!
And of course your electrical system is a joke compared to the UK. Just compare our plugs, the safest in the world, with your flimsy bits of tinfoil that are so good at electrocuting people.
Anyway, back to the driving.... many Americans know about the daily fender benders on their commute. They often happen at the exact same place. But they don't happen because of some weird road layout. They happen because a good portion of Americans drive like total asshats.
In the U.K. we learn about braking distances and the "two second rule", which you double when it's wet. But that doesn't work for Americans. If you follow the two second rule, you end up with some dickhead flashing, honking his horn and gesticulating wildly that you're in his way. He wants to drive at 90 mph in the pouring rain, no headlights, and use the driving technique you used on 80s driving arcade games.
All y'all drive too damn close to each other.
Out of more than 300 million people, the choice for President is between a giant douche or a turd sandwich?
Hillary is a crook and a liar. Stories from Wikileaks every day about how awful she is. The Clinton Foundation is the largest political slush fund in history that is wide out in the open and even celebrated by the establishment!
The Clintons stole billions from Haiti, took hundreds of millions, if not billions for access from all sorts of dodgy regimes. Anyone here ever received a $1 million birthday present? And with absolutely no expectation from the giver for anything in return?
And Trump can't even land these punches. He's a bully. He has regard for the constitution on some issues and complete disregard with others.
But at least Trump acknowledges the constitution. And he's the one candidate out of these two who HASN'T been secretly supporting ISIS in Syria.
The media across the pond devote 10 or 20 times as much airtime and newsprint to Trump gaffes and stupidity as they do to the criminal enterprise that is the Clinton family.
I would vote for Thomas Jefferson.
Proud to say that I was one of the first users of BitTorrent.
Used it in its earliest days to download and watch the first season of 24 before it was broadcast - even in the USA.
Do the TV companies still distribute shows to regional affiliates by satellite before broadcast? (That was how the pre-broadcast shows were sourced). Something tells me it's off-satellite digital distribution these days....
Had this once.
Builder was replacing flat roof while I was on holiday.
Came back home and found wifi wasn't giving any traffic.
Looked out the bathroom window to find the Ethernet cable from garage to loft had been blow-torched.
IP65 box and punch-down junction box solved the problem without having to re-run the cable.
The app on my iPad says that "Sorry, our mobile application is currently unavailable".
But it's working fine so far as I can tell - I just used it to check my balance. And I've been using it all day, while Internet banking has been unavailable.
So the web interface for Internet banking may be borked, but working fine with the iOS app.
I have been repeatedly offered Office 365 from two different providers I use for hosted Exchange.
I always refuse.
My exchange providers run their own servers, whereas MS run the 365 servers. All they are is resellers of the 365 service.
So for the same reason I won't use Google Mail or apps, I won't use Office 365. Who do I call and yell at when it's not working? Where will the accountability be?
And if I was selecting services for clients... when they call and yell at me, who am I supposed to yell at?
You'll never know where your email is hosted with 365. With hosted Exchange, it's much more transparant.
The problems I had with billing snafus on 365 just for gaining use of applications that we'd paid for - total nightmare. Would never want that dire level of communication when chasing a fix for downed email servers.
..... a 2m USB extension cord.
You can then connect any HDD as a slave to a working machine in order to run diagnostics.
The USB extension cord is also particularly useful for charging your iPhone/Android while having a conversation.
Lan tester and tone generator. And velcro cable ties.
Mircofiber cloths - both for general cleaning and a specific glass one for cleaning flat screens e.g. Macbook Pro.
I used my Psion Series 3 to take notes in class and write my GCSE coursework on the move.
No-one in my English class resented me being the tosser with the pocket computer because I flogged all of them copies of my notes on Great Expectations, Shakespeare etc.
I was able to work more efficiently on my Series 3 than I can on my iPad.
Several times I've wanted to play an old Nintendo game on my iPhone or iPad but, alas, none of these games are available in the App Store.
Surely Nintendo could figure out a strategy of not losing console sales while selling limited versions of its games in the App Store.
They've done this to themselves.
Amazon's search engine is terrible!
You select 'Only Prime' and it shows you a load of other stuff.
You type in a very specific search query and it shows you a load of other stuff.
You select 'price from low to high' and the prices are all over the place.
How is this supposed to improve Siri?
The camera work at the opening ceremony and the sound at the closing ceremony were both diabolical.
Not only did they not have any camera angles that actually showed you what was going on, the director was great at cutting to something rubbish just when they DID get a shot right.
I think the sound desk at the closing ceremony was being run by a student. I've had better at university.
Poor show from OBS.
I travel around the USA with a £15 TP-Link router. Including PSU it's around the same size as this Belkin jobbie.
What my TP-Link router also has is four ethernet sockets, so that I can plug in other devices, as well as using the wireless.
On a normal trip, I'll be traveling with my iPhone, Windows laptop, Apple Macbook and my Vonage, along with cordless phone.
The hassle of the extra luggage is more than outweighed by the savings and the ability to work from a hotel room as if it was my office.
The additional ethernet socket is required for my Vonage which enables me to call the UK or Canada from the USA without incurring a penny in call charges.
What I would like to see is a router that can both act as a wireless client and a router at the same time, for hotels where no wireless bridge is available and the only internet is via WiFi. A wireless bridge is one thing I need to add to my travel kit.
What you do is plug the router in and connect with your device via the router.
Then the auth gateway sees the MAC address for the router instead of the device.
Problems occur when authenticating forces a re-issue and change of IP from private to public. It all depends on the type of system they're running.
The Metropolitan Police Trading Service is not the Metropolitan Police.
From http://www.metibb.co.uk/mpts%20new.pdf
"The METROPOLITAN POLICE TRADING SERVICE is owned by members of the Metropolitan Police Service...The MPTS exists for the benefit of its members by supplying goods and services through a network of over 200 ‘authorised suppliers’ and extending credit facilities over five years if required."
This may well cause repercussions.
The police never got with the Data Protection program. There is no leadership on this issue from the top on down.
A quick check of the Data Protection Register indicates no registration for Met Police, London Police Commissioner, or Wembley Police.
There is a registration for the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. I don't know whether this covers all the activities of the entire W Yorks Police or just the Chief Constable. They still have more than the Met though.
Only some unfavorable press attention, or some questions in Parliament, will force the police to follow the same rules we do wrt Data Protection.
Incidentally, I didn't just complain to my local cop-shop. I offered to go in and train them how to use email so that they didn't breach my privacy. They never took me up on the offer. The only reason they changed their methodology was because they didn't want me calling up to complain again. They really don't understand what all the fuss was about.
I'm on the local community list with Wembley police and they've REPEATEDLY made the same mistake.
They've sent numerous emails with all email addresses shoved into the `to' field. The first time I complained to them, they couldn't give a crap. The next time they did it, I sternly told them I was going to complain to the ICO. This made them buck up their ideas, so that now they throw all the email addresses into the BCC field, with no recipient at all in the `to' field. Often they send without a subject line as well.
This is because of 3 things:
1. The Met have not insisted that email lists are run using a proper email list manager with confidentiality and unsubscribe built in.
2. There is no formal training or policy for how emails should be handled
3. Officers are left unsupervised with access to the email system and email addresses kept as clear text in text files, ready to be copied and pasted in.
The whole thing is a joke.
One email I received from Wembley Police, which shared my email address with around 100 other recipients, was trying to encourage me to sign up to a London-wide community email list. If they couldn't keep my email address private with 100 other people in my borough, how on earth could I trust them with a list that spanned the whole of London?
"Those emailed were not members of the WYGPA, and had provided their email addresses when attending a public event and indicated they wanted to be contacted with information and news, such as the contents of this email.
No confidential information was disclosed and no other details other than the email addresses of those individuals are held by us, and these email addresses are retained solely by the WYGPA."
This smacks of total arrogance by the police, same as here in Wembley. They believe that because you gave them your email address, you don't mind it being shared with others.
I hope they don't run an email list of snitches - could be very serious.
Unbelievable that the police, including the Met, think that the Data Protection Act doesn't apply to them.
This can help users getting less than 2MB.
I saw a client 2 days ago who lives in a London suburb and is getting only 770kbps downstream sync because he's at the very end of the exchange's reach.
However, he knows that the Infinity cabinet is only about 300m away. So he could get about 17MB down on current FTTC and more if BT were to roll out this limited upgrade more widely.
Client's biggest question is whether to go with BT Infinity or Virgin. Service sucks with both, so as an Entanet reseller, I've offered to provide FTTC with Enta - better backbone and service. All Entanet staff are in the UK.
"Ali Naqvi, owner and director of 123vouchercodes.co.uk"
If you look at the website, it's clearly not a cheap job from VistaPrint.
This guy is complaining that a substantial source of traffic has been taken away and he'd like it back.
Where was he not spending where he should have been? How could spending money somewhere have prevented this?
Not spending money has nothing to do with getting him into this problem.
Money is required to fix this.
The guy in the story should go to court and have an injunction served on Facebook to reinstate him.
He needs to put his hand on his pocket.
When Facebook start to regularly get slapped by lawyers, forcing them to return ownership of a Page to the legitimate party, just as domain registrars currently do, they will finally implement a systematic response.
As for those who criticize the use of Facebook to grow a business - it's where the customers are and where there is money.
Any serious businesss owner should invest in a website in addition to use of social media but they also need to understand that Facebook is a private playground and the rules keep changing.
The future of Facebook is a mystery - are people getting fed up or is it merely recalibrating its target market - but if it's not going away any time soon then a systematic solution needs to be found or business owners will always have concerns.
I wouldn't put any stock in the figures from Speedtest.net, nor from any other speed test that uses Flash to calculate the result.
Every time I have tried a Flash speed test, I get figures either wildly below or above what I know the line is giving.
The proof the figures are garbage: When I've run the test, Speedtest.net tells me that my 8Mbps line is giving me 20 or 30 Mbps. Physically impossible.
I use the Java based speed test at ThinkBroadband.com. Much more realistic figures.
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