Posts by wayfarer

BT 'UK's most powerful Wi-Fi'? Why, fie, for shame! – ads watchdog

Re: Depends on house structure...

I have to wonder at how often people depend unnecessarily on wi-fi. Though most ISPs (not all, happily) aren't any help, pushing wi-fi in the most unnecessary circumstances.

Like many people I have several devices, so I need wi-fi.

But I have not one but two elderly neighbours with single computers just feet away from a wi-fi router. Neither ever move their machines (one desktop, one laptop) nor desire any more devices in their houses, and very happy to have me plug in an ethernet cable, switch off the wifi, and remove at least one complication from their lives.

More to the internet than my WiFi is bigger than yours...

Wi-fi coverage is double-edged sword.

Especially given a combination of an ISP (BT isn't the only offender) who teaches customers wi-fi coverage is all that matters, and customers daft enough to believe them.

The result? Routers that can cover half a street, annoying neighbours. My own next-door neighbour recently installed BT broadband and in half my house and all of my garden his totally excessive wi-fi signal (of which he's intensely proud) blankets my own.

Change channels? Also difficult as BT now have half a dozen phon hotspots in a short rural road. Hotspots of no practical use (in sheer number at least) given the rural area and the fact they blanket half the 2.4 band. I spend half my life repositioning my otherwise perfectly adequate router, and changing channels to overlap as few others as possible.

More to responsible internet provision than seeing who can piss the highest.

Sneaky bin chipping still in the bag for UK.gov

I agree.

In my direct experience, most local government staff have only one priority. To be fair to them, are ALLOWED only one priority. To keep their over-salaried masters happy. Public service isn't even an issue. "Success" is an infinitely re-definable state, defined by by empire-building senior officials, and the measures of success tend to be generated well in advance of evidence which is often highly suspect in itself.

I've seen annual reports written by officials who have never seen the inside of the department concerned. 'Statistics' purporting to come from departments who have never set eyes on the figures, let alone generated them. Performance statistics altered and resubmitted time and again - or else - until they were deemed to be acceptable.

Local government? It's all a huge joke. A so-called 'democratic' system that allows the taxpayer little real influence beyond how high he's permitted to jump.

Time to kill the zombie health records

Many a true word.

What made "Yes Minister" so funny was that it was so frighteningly close to the truth.

BT workers to ballot for strike

You must have met my Dad... LOL

My late Dad was a union member and shop steward most of his working life. He never backed down from a conflict, but I lost count of the times I heard him caution workers, "Going on strike only works if people can tell the bloody difference!"

Oz customs search lappies and mobes for smut

UK TV series...

We had a similar TV series here a few years ago. Intended, we assume, to show what hardworking genuine people they were. It was dropped after a few weeks when it became clear the series was just confirming what everyone already thought about C&E - that they were just a bunch of failed traffic wardens.

Spanish priest spunked €17k on chat lines and whores

Papal BS.

The belief in Papal infallibility is one of the most pathetic aspects of Catholic dogma - it doesn't withstand a moment's serious examination. Half the world suffering unnecessarily because of the edicts of one sad old man. Though to be fair, as much from people's sad acceptance of preposterous dogmas.

If the Pope is infallible, then all Popes must have been infallible - don't Catholics ever read a history book?

Religion!!! Why don't people ever learn?

Twitter bomb threat joke man faces possible jail sentence

Absolutely.

Real terrorists wouldn't even mention the airport. It would be "Tea at Aunties at 4pm" or something. And 4pm might easily be a code for quite a different time. Almost impossible to deal with unless tapping the comms of known terrorists.

The 'security theatre' in operation here - in an area where the response to real crime is woeful - is the kind of joke that must have terrorists laughing their socks off.

UK inserts battery take-back scheme

Is it?....

Or is that just what they tell you? Many councils fulfill their responsibilities. Many most certainly do not. The kind of show they put on at waste depots tends to have very little bearing.

Judge blames RealNetworks for DVD-ripping ban

Another reason...

...that so many of us rip DVDs is to get shot of the rubbish at the beginning and end. With most current DVDs, I have time to make a coffee (and damn-near drink it) while the DVD intro drones on through the kind of rubbish none of its buyers actually give a tinker's damn about. Including warnings about everything from terrorism to paedophilia if we copy a disk - INSULTING both our intelligence and our pocket. If large-scale DVD copying involves criminals, it's because the media industry has made a bed it refuses to lie in.

A ripped DVD (copied from my own bought, legal disk - so what the HELL is the problem?!) starts straight into the movie I actually paid to see !!!

There's new technology around guys - and the monks with the quill pens can burn as many people at the stake as they like - it's not going to change anything in the long term, other than further alienate an already fed-up customer base.

Want to make a profit? Sell people want they want - NOT what you think you have a god-given right to impose on them.

Boys in blue caught breaking IT rules

How times change...

Over 30 years ago, I was a civilian worker with the police force. At that time I'd estimate that 80% of the force were reasonably straight. A few bad apples, but no more than in any other walk of life.

I don't work in that sector any more, but I still have friends there. Unfortunately, these days, I can't think of a single police officer in our local force I'd trust an inch. The force is quota-driven, and "zero-tolerance" has simply become an excuse for cheap pinches instead of genuine police work. Early retirement pensions on 'health' grounds have become so common it's a disgrace. Even the Chief Constable survived a whitewash enquiry into financial irregularities.

It's not coincidence - it's policy. There ARE good, honest, conscientious police officers. But the best are leaving, or gone already - often forced out for not toeing the line.