Posts by Peter Scott

'Look, give us Snowden' - this Friday's top US-Russia talks revealed

Re: My contempt and hate of everything Obama is growing...

@NomNomNom, you mentioned the "L" word twice! Do you hear the black choppers heading your way?

Nice knowing you, wonder what Cuba is like today?

BBC-featured call centre slapped with hefty fine for unwanted calls

Re: Best way to get rid of them

The best way is to record their calls. On the first occasion they call, make sure you get their company name. Then tell the guy on the end of the phone that you want no further calls from them and if any more are forthcoming, you will bill them for your time at a rate of £10 per minute and the cost of this call will be invoiced. Make sure they understand what you said. Note the length of the call and make a record and save the recording.

On the next occasion they call once again make sure they state their company name. The remind them they agreed to be invoiced for your time if they called again. End the call, note down the duration and then prepare an invoice for the time you have spent on the phone to them at a rate of £10 per minute. Send it to their offices via recorded delivery. They will not respond, send a further letter recorded delivery with a copy of the invoice threatening legal action unless they pay within 14 days. Then sue them in the small claims court.

Not sure if this will work? It's been done already.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223794/Cold-callers-left-feeling-blue-Homeowner-wins-damages-time-wasted-answering-phone.html

PM Cameron calls for modern, programmable computers! (We think)

Re: What are schools for anyway?

I disagree. I have been fortunate enough to have worn a few hats in this arena. I work for a technology company, I am a part time lecturer at a University and I was the school governor chair of the technology college forum at a local school.

When we were discussing the 14-19 curriculum a couple of years ago, one of the topics under discussion was the 14-19 diploma. Much of the input into the discussions on this diploma centred on the needs of employers and the requirement for basic skills. Like it or not, the ability to use ICT in the office is today seen as a key core skill. Any pupil leaving school who is not ICT literate is in the same position in the jobs market as someone who is illiterate or innumerate; their options for financially secure employment are severely restricted. The employers saw this as a key skill and expected pupils to leave school literate, numerate and IT literate.

I take exception at the comment on "our education system". Have you actually spent any time in a class recently? Have you actually spoken to pupils about their expectations? If it were that poor, then we would have to start teaching new employees to read and write on their arrival at work. Can you honestly say that is the case in your place of work? I very much doubt it.

Anyone involved in teaching in any way is always looking for ways to improve the quality if teaching and the outcomes of that teaching. It is hard work and is subject to constant interference and criticism by people with little understanding of pedagogy. What surprises me is that more teachers don't leave the profession, more surprising is that the many experts who criticise are not throwing their hats in the ring in order to show everyone how to do it better.

It's very easy to sit back and criticise the teachers and examination bodies, but the curriculum depends on what the expected outcomes of the education system are. Much of this is driven by what employers ask for in prospective employees.

There are a couple of possible things to look at. Not every child leaving school is going to be a programmer or IT specialist, but many of them will enter a workplace where they have a computer on their desk and will be expected to be able to use it. They therefore should be able to use an office package of some form, produce word processed documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The existing ICT curriculum produced students with exactly those skills.

The other route is for those learners who do want to program, they need a different curriculum which does cover programming, software design, data modelling and so forth. This was a gap in the curriculum, but we need both routes not one or the other. Do you really want to have to start training new employees on basic skills like using a word processor as soon as they begin working for you?

We need to be careful in criticising the curriculum, politicians will jump on the band wagon; the education secretary is already planning to remove project work from the qualification assessment. Ask yourselves how many projects do you work in in your day to day life at work and how often does two years of your effort come down to writing out some answers in a couple of hours on a single day?

Power7+ chips debut in fat IBM midrange systems

Forget the speed!

Just look at the "stealth"door on the 780 cabinet. Those angles.

Bet if you look in the data hall with radar, that looks just like an iPad

The iPHONE 5 UNDERMINES western DEMOCRACY: 5 reasons why

And on and on

Got both Apple and HTC Android phones in the family. I can only speak from personal experience.

The HTC Android phone is a nightmare to use, the soft keyboard selects letters either side of the one you want, it's slow and often unresponsive.

The iPhone, wel it just works.

I spend enough time during the day dicking round with computers and don't want to have to root my phone to install some app or other, I want it to just work. I don't want to spend my time dicking round getting some app or other to run on my phone.

So where next, my daughter wants a new phone soon, it certainly won't be Android after my bad experience there, it won't be an iPhone because some prat at school might nick it. Perhaps her choice of a Blackberry is not so insane, or there's even an outside chance of a Win phone, not the first choice of anyone who likes me works with Unix and Linux.

For me, I will just stick with what works, make my calls, read my mail, listen to my music and podcasts and stick to my iPhone.

BOFH: Shove your project managementry up your mailbox!

Re: Business-ese

Low hanging fruit - the ones dogs have pissed on

Blue sky thinking - don't understand the issue in question

Think outside the box - you're clearly in the wrong box

Museum of Computing recognised as PROPER MUSEUM

TNMOC

Went to Bletchley and was feeling all nostalgic for the old home kit i used to play with as a kid. It was more of a shock to see the Sun E6500 and HP V and L class boxes and then realise I was installing these buggers less thatn 10 years ago!!!

Samsung's Android tablet: split and eviscerated

Cameras, why?

Why the argument about cameras, if you want a portable device you can put in your pocket and take photos with, try buying a compact digital camera. Don't bother trying to use a mobile, 8MP and a crap lens = crap photos.