Posts by Why Not?

Facebook says it's LOSING money in the UK ... pays hardly any tax

good job they aren't an iT contractor HMRC would camp out in their front room to make sure they "pay the right amount of tax."

Seriously the world has changed its possible for companies to make money abroad and pay staff in the UK without their being an obvious link. Its time for the tax system to change. I would suggest where a country is serviced from abroad a profit is allocated and either tax is charged on that or its used for tax loss purposes.

e.g. total profit £10B UK customers provide £1B of profit, that is what you add to UK profit for tax deductible losses. UK international proft= 1B UK local profit=£200k expenses £350K = £095B total profit no loss can be declared so tough.

Man the floodgates! David Cameron takes to Twitter

Re: Benefits keep going up.

£29.59

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/inflation/calculator/flash/default.aspx

Re: Chancellor of the Exchequer - no experience required

agree completely

Still could be worse we could have an ex public school guy that dresses as a NAZI at Oxford.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198939/The-Oxbridge-student-clubs-make-David-Camerons-Bullingdon-chums-look-like-Girl-Guides.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DJames%2BDelingpole

Re: Benefits keep going up.

I'm for light consistent government that helps the sick, genuine needy and promotes caring capitalism.

Yes the last government stacked the disability system, this government are trying to sort it out, they get the stick for it.

Well people are taking them, why are the wages not rising to meet needs? maybe due to an oversupply of potential employees. Not telling you where they came from (I don't need to get into that argument) but you can guess and yes the government the two ED's worked for were responsible.

Cuts are cuts, if the money is spent elsewhere its not cuts, its moving it around off the balance sheets, maybe we should look at the PFI deals done by the last lot?

Borrowing more=PFI, bailout. both New Lie driven.

no I just don't want the New Lie back they stiffed everyone and left a note saying we spent all the money.

I would prefer a statesman but CMD is the best of a bad bunch.

You can imagine the two ED's in charge ?- keep taking the tablets. Next you will tell me you trusted Tony Bliar.

Ignore the Nick Leeson comment makes a lot less sense in reflection, however the fact remains the deregulation instigated by New Labour was the reason we sank so deep.

The tories had not removed the regulation or monitoring despite being in power for years because they knew how dangerous it would have been. Probably like New Lie telling us we had 24 hours to save the NHS then selling all the hospitals off under PFI :- Say one thing to keep the voters / interested parties happy then do another.

Re: Stick his tweets up his butt.

he growth this year is less than 1% thanks to measures put in.

Benefits keep going up.

have a look at this right wing rag and these dodgy figures from some suspect government mouthpiece :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/25/uk-public-spending-1963

You can see spending accelerating under the last government and dropping back to 1988 levels in 2012 (we have a way to go until the pre boom levels of 1997).

Disability benefits have risen from £26 Billion in 2007 to 32 Billion in 2012 which seems a little quick.

see tab 5.2

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pespub_natstats_july2012.htm

if you think Britain has got 20% sicker in 5 years then fine, if not then checking if people are swinging the lead or suppliers aren't ripping us seems a sensible move. Its probably being done badly , most government initiatives are.

Note tax credits nearly doubled over a similar period.

and all those vicious NHS cuts have resulted in a 20% rise in NHS costs,

Look at the other figures for expenditure, note everything peaked in 2010 despite the fact we knew the bubble was bursting.

Call Me Dave is not a great world leader but compared to the alternatives he is probably the only choice for the squeezed middle. Can you imagine the two Ed's in charge? Why not get Nick Leeson to run the economy, oh sorry their party did deregulate so he could break the bank.

Pilfering sysadmin gets four years and $2.3m fine for kit theft

No SOX controls? Cisco didn't notice

I thought most of my ex employers purchasing systems were archaic but I'm pretty sure most of them would have noticed if a few million quid worth of kit was ordered or not returned.

New I-hate-my-neighbour stickers to protect Brits' packages

Re: And the other sticker

Except of course the Electoral roll is unaddressed so it doesn't get delivered, along with planning notices and other such things.

RM used to make most of their money from junk mail. don't believe they do anymore.

the Pizza and estate agents stuff is normally delivered by other people who are paid directly by the advertisers or their agents.

Re: What to do?

that's fine she can start a new concept.

A small premises where the Royal mail and others can drop off packages for collection for a small fee.

perhaps she can sell stamps and accept items to be posted?

I think it would really catch on in rural areas. Surprised no one thought of it before it makes real sense for people to have to travel to some sorting office with poor parking and wait in line despite having paid for doorstep delivery.

Experts troll 'biggest security mag in the world' with DICKish submission

oh excellent, virtual beer on tap!

Surely they need to follow up with

Mapping Universal Ping Pathways Exercising Tangential Sources

Sourcing Periodical Articles Morally.

Utilising Spamming

Liberating Osi Structure Exponetially and Recursive Selection

The tips stop here: Starbucks to take Square Wallet payments

Re: Original uses for the accelerometer

so I'm supposed to jerk my iPhone rhythmically and swiftly back and forward in front of a starbucks assistant, pretty soon I'd be banned.

Let me see Starbucks, isn't that where they make you queue for 15 minutes then bombard you with a series on unintelligible options, then look down on you because you aren't sure what a mega, supa, grande expresso is? Yes you at the airport with the sneer, I'm talking about you!

You then get pushed onto another person who takes a good portion of your money, the coffee is dumped in front of you, you put your own sugar in and you have to carry it to a table if you are lucky enough to find one?

They expect tips???

If I get good service I pay the waiter tips in cash, that way the restaurant doesn't automatically use it as a revenue stream.

STILL TRUE: Facebook and co to handle taxpayers' ID

Re: I just dont get it..

there are more active NI numbers issued than people legally in UK.

They issue them like smarties.

Basing any database against them would be foolish, surprised it hasn't been mandated.

why not

OpenID?

http://openid.net/government/

http://openid.net/u-s-government-openid-pilot-program-participants/

If there are issues with it they can help fix them and if it needs developing / administering it then they can help fund it.

Beats funding a for profit organisation

From Dr No to Skyfall: The Reg's one month of Bond

In the novel Moonraker, it is noted in the card club Blades, Bond adds a single pinch of black pepper to his glass of vodka, much to M's consternation; he claims it sinks all the poisons to the bottom.

actually very good, improves ropey vodka.

Craig & Lazenby seem the most human Bonds, Dalton made a good stab at it but he always strikes me as smug not sure why.

But Connery & Roger Moore's eyebrow always stole the show.

Apple: Blue-shirts can fix iOS Maps in their spare time

just you wait

Apple will start suing towns for being in the wrong place.

Soon Bath will have to be renamed iBath to avoid seizure.

Unbelievable Apple have mucked this up. I'm sure all the sat nav manufacturers would have licensed their maps or been available for purchase.

ICO: Data blunders by your cloud provider still YOUR fault

would be funny but

This from a government that shipped all our data off to another country and all I get are the lousy sales calls.

The one that approved all our utilities data going off to hotter climes where apparently they can't cope with the idea that a bill which four times the average bill and my historical bill due to their data entry error is perfectly acceptable and should be paid in full immediately.

Scientists: 'Castration is the key to a longer life'

you missed the point

its invalid science but they got to spend a while in Korea researching.

just keep sending the grants.

Next bit of research - Caribbean diet and atmosphere prolongs life , should be good for a few years of funding.

Freeview kit to require retune tomorrow

'There was strong support for this aspect of DMOL‟s proposals, with almost all respondents,

including all the providers of shopping channels, agreeing that DMOL should not create a

dedicated shopping genre as a result of this review. A variety of reasons were cited for this

view.

The providers of shopping channels considered that the DMOL research suggests that there

is no consumer demand for the genre. They also cited the economic damage to their

businesses, from reduced viewing levels and reduced revenue, which would result from the

creation of a shopping genre. One shopping channel provider pointed out the importance of

scrolling behaviour and suggested that viewers tend not to scroll beyond LCNs 40 to 50, so

any move to a higher LCN would be very damaging to their business. QVC estimated that a

35% to 40% turnover loss would result from creation of a dedicated genre and said that they

would also incur marketing costs to publicise the new LCN numbers. A shopping channel

provider provided evidence of the revenue loss to one of their channels when it changed

LCN numbers and suggested that this revenue loss was not temporary but permanent. '

Well I thought the same but it appears they would see 40% loss of sales if we didn't trip over the shopping channels (their value is so transitory with their clients ) , though I suspect the QVC's of this world contribute a fair sum towards freeview costs.

Lets hope so...., kryters..... must ..... talk ..in.. sync!

gotta use the techie icon!

Work for beer, Neil Gaiman's wife tells musicians

Actually

Its just like most people see IT professionals,

'I can't pay you for doing the website, but it would be great for your portfolio!'

Coming from Bill Gates or Larry Ellison it would have some credibility, but the local kebab house?

It's personal choice of course but when a professional(ish) singer offers hugs & beer it would be better if it was for charity. Its not like amateur musicians are expensive.

If I could play, then given an opportunity of jamming with Springsteen or McCartney I like most would do it for free, this lady (what was her her name again?) seems to have over estimated her fame.

Thomas-Rasset faces $220,000 file-sharing bill after losing appeal

I think its perfectly reasonable

Perfectly fair the fine is a statutory amount (its to punish not compensate) designed to discourage behaviour and takes little account of ability to pay or intent. In the cold light of day it seems cruel to impose such a fine on someone who didn't profit from the sharing. but the law is of course an ass.

However I suggest that the american public demand similar level of fines as a proportion of earnings for businesses breaching similar laws.

I look forward to

Sony paying a few hundred Billion for issuing rootkits.

Google a few hundred billion for slurping data.

I assume all the backers of this organisation have never been caught pirating software? I think one licence over is now set at $10,000 but that is on the low side. I wonder if their employees are aware of infringements and want to share with the ladies defence attorneys?

'World's first' dog to sniff out pilfered cabling is Brit black lab

WEE regulations ?

Surely anything more than a drum of 2.5 mm cable is non domestic and therefore covered by WEE.

Take their scrap licence off them if they are receiving commercial waste without a licence & proper records.

Solar, wind, landfill to make cheapest power by 2030

Re: @Why Not? A small question

It needs to last for days? You mean like natural gas storage?

If you store each day's wind & solar generation and then use it with fast start up hydrogen power stations to cover peaks you avoid running stations on standby at 15% of natural gas usage. If you don't have any wind or solar expected for the next few days you can run up an old natural gas station once reserves are below 10%.

With automation you can pump create the hydrogen gas to storage stations local to usage and reduce transmission losses. That saves another 7% - oh look we have 22% natural gas savings to play with.

Hydrogen Gas, Coal, Oil all fuels that need to be stored. I doubt the amount of storage and handling areas areas going to be vastly different. You can only stack coal so high before it becomes unstable.

Liquid Hydrogen has 5 times the energy density of coal. So it only takes 1/5 of the volume. It has the 2 1/2 times the energy density of petrol/diesel. so it would take less room to store. Its just more technically difficult to store.

Re: A small question

why store it in a car? You use Green electricity during the day to stockpile hydrogen then burn it to heat the kettles when Eastenders ends.

Cars could use electric, charged overnight by hydrogen power stations.

no didn't miss it, see second paragraph.

Re: A small question

When the wind blows hard you pay the generator a subsidy to switch off the windmills, its the wrong type of wind.

Never understood the love affair with wind, its proved too unpredictable to harness.

Its sunny there lets use solar, cheap & safe.

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=741

in fact why not do it everywhere?

http://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

Plus of course with Solar thermal & voltaic on new builds plus hydrogen stockpiling they could close all the power stations shortly with little cost.

Anonymous hunts down Voldemort for hacking hungry kids' charity

Allegedly they offered him an out, give us the files to restore as it was before, he refused.

they dobbed him in which is their duty as citizens.

But yes they are scary, any secret organisation with power over you is.

They however so far have done some good, only history will tell if they only made the trains run on time.

SAP to bung Oracle at least $306m in software piracy row

Oracle's bill from the lawyers was indeed $120m

Its only a double 'management fee' (new Reg measurement?)

How one bad algorithm cost traders $440m

Re: Nick Leeson Software inc.

More complicated as I understand it.

I think its a bit like fixing the betting on a big fight, you systematically bet on the challenger until the odds lengthen on the Champion then you bet the farm on him.

Losing is part of business, how much you lose is the key thing.

Nick Leeson Software inc.

You would have thought part of the Algorithm would be to set boundaries of maximum trades?

I assumed that all stock exchanges had a test area where such things could be verified prior to going live?

Jobless yoofs! Get on your bike, er, mobe, and look for work

Re: there aren't enough jobs.

Well they didn't apply for it because if you do get the six weeks work then you likely lose your benefits for 3 months. They might pay you back eventually but by that time you are borrowing £50 at 2480% to buy own brand beans and pay your electric before they cut you off.

I imagine You would also be moved to the 'pester list' where you are seen as recently unemployed so extra hoops would be placed in your way before you qualify for benefits you have already received and depend on.

The jobs were paying near minimum wage, benefits pay what you need, there is a vast gap between if you have any dependants.

What I would have done was taken a look at good candidates on the dole who would like to move into security, give them special dispensation to do the 6 weeks work with the option to return to benefits immediately if needed.

They would be trained, obtain certification which is worth ~ £500 -£1000, given 6 weeks work and a reference I would imagine 50% would be back in work almost immediately afterwards. Group 4 and its subbies would probably hire the ones they liked. The rest are in a better position to find work.

It would pay for itself by the ones not available for work having their benefits stopped and not paying a management fee G4S would supply some of the training instead.

Better than subsidising big multinationals by supplying cheap shelf stackers.

Of course many may have applied but because G4S would have lost money putting them on a retainer or guaranteeing the work most good ones have got another job.

London CGI firm scores DON'T-HIT-the-PEDESTRIAN test contract

good job

the last official ones I saw were laughably bad.

Why one storage admin fears Justin Bieber

huh?

quota's, dedupe, copyight scans all available and best practice, no lets buy more storage from a company that doesn't want to sell it to you or install it. Way to go. My experience with EMC was much better, due to corporate restrictions they had to install, 2 days after it arrived, its worked fine since.

If its on their network, its their responsibility to pay RI Ass the fines, if you don't actually positively discourage it I imagine their lawyers will eat the college up, this guy has just written his resignation letter.

good luck.

Santander's banking website craps out

Re: Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland.

upvoted and soon to be plagiarised - excellent.

So Santandars website is slow? I'll get excited when they start double dipping and forgetting transactions like other banks. Not good but could have been far worse.

Bio-boffins create world's first digital STD

Wow

The program that might cure cancer's first experience was a dose of clap!

Really good news, long term this might solve the worlds health problems.

LG readies bonkers big telly for sale

it might be a challenge getting it through the door.

You never know they may have outsourced the packing to HP.

If they are true to form the TV in packing will be the size of a battleship.

Anyway a 7 foot diagonal tv will fit nicely on my wall. Bring it on, now if only I was a disguised employee sorry contractor paid by the civil service I could afford it. Or if I were an MP I could claim it on expenses, cheaper than draining the moat!

Boys it is 84" diagonally, the nice lady is normal size, stop drooling at the talent look at the screen!

Olympic Security cock-up was down to that DARN software

hmm recruit 2000 & manage 8000

it gets worse according to C4 they are only managing 2000 staff and 8000 volunteers.

so they are only paying a fifth of them, even more profit.

GM to slash vast outsourced IT empire

IF it works it will be great.

I never really understood why anyone thought core applications were best handled by a third party who had little or no investment in the business. Especially when sloppy contracts meant they were positively incentivised to provide a bad service.

lets hope its a start of a U-turn.

Microsoft tightens squeeze on TechNet parasites

dongle me

never understood why they didn't have a dongle / smart card/ pin arrangement. runs for 30 days without seeing dongle then stops until it gets a dongle / pin only obtainable via an existing subscription.

Allows techie to set up at customer if the customer likes after 30 days they can do in place upgrade direct. M$ sign them up for the upgrade and pay the Action pack owner a finders fee.

Shuttleworth: Why Windows 8 made us ditch GPL Linux loader

I give it a month

One month then M$'s keys will be in the public domain. I think the hackers of all flavours will find it just too tempting.

Have they thought of what will happen when their keys are broken and the hardware is rendered useless.

Bill's boys will need deep pockets.

Why not put a switch / jumper on the hardware that enables / disables.

Ten... alien invasions

Sub optimal

Day of the triffids, cocoon?

Oh and of course BATTLEFIELD EARTH.

I vote for V both versions, teenage dreams of Diana Mark 1 & mature appreciation of Mark 2 in her Birthday suit!

Capita publicity to show only UK staff - some of whom are being let go

Building an own goal?

I should imagine a few weeks after the redundancies once the pictures come out there will be photoshopped ones with departed staff depicted as silhouettes.

Accompanied with a parody song such as 'Capita took our Pics but now the jobs have gone to Bangalore, didn't we have a lovely job before it went to Bangalore' etc.

Have no affiliation with Capita and only sympathy for their staff in this case but its obvious this is pretty stupid, isn't it?

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros

It beats cleaning the toilets

You get normally a desk, aircon & a reasonable chair (you are after all admin staff so the H&S rules apply).

You are likely to be part of the bonus scheme unlike the production staff. You may even get HR support. You won't get overtime.

Its unlikely you will be infected, poisoned or crippled by your work. Whilst offshoring is a threat its not as likely as it is if you are in manufacturing.

It is likely no one will understand what you do and expect you to perform miracles (you normally do, so take it as a compliment). They expect to control it the same way they do the warehouse but without the same investment. If they put a new procedure in the warehouse they spend 1/4 million on external training, IT changes daily and when was the last time you had formal training.

But because they don't understand it they assume when a cheap supplier offers to do the same for 30% of the cost they assume it will be the same quality and go for it. Their experience with manufacturing suggests it will be better.

I see business managers grappling with comprehension of basic non technical ideas (the ones I build solutions on) making more money than me. If you want cash & chicks go into management. If you want a mentally stimulating career go into IT. I have more control over profits than most sales managers.

It is also one of the few businesses you can set up with almost no investment or stock and make millions its a lot less work than cleaning toilets.

Brits upscaling their TV buys

Size matters and you get what you pay for

First new living room TV I bought was

1986 - 26" , CRT, RRP £900 and filled the space of one armchair.

Second

1999 - 32" , CRT, RRP £1000 and filled the space of one armchair

Third

2008 - 50" RRP £1100 and hangs on the wall.

so you get a larger screen for same money.

1990 - Bedroom 14" CRT £150 took up a sideboard

2009 - Bedroom 22" TFT £130

all large ones Panasonic, Pioneer or Phillips.

no benefits here.

but yes certain types of buyers find the money for the tv first.

Teleconferencing 'shifts hundreds of NHS bed-blockers out the door'

hmm

£6000 a year for a daily UK only audio conference seems a lot?

From my experience in a different hospital they could save about half the bed days. I was stuck waiting for tests taking up a bed, I could have gone home after 24 hours not 72.

I wasn't the only one.

Unilever cutting tech bods, moving jobs to Bangalore: 800 face axe

Re: global economy

Nope the jobs go to the third world and they then start to ask for pay rises, then it goes to the next cheapest country. Soon China will be outsourcing to us. Just like everything went to Wales because of subsidies now its all closing because its cheaper overseas.

The only people that get richer are the top, how many poor Indian farmers are suddenly earning rock star salaries? NONE its the upper & richer classes in India that can afford to go to University a degree is a pre requisite for the outsourced jobs. I would imagine these are the children of the people that have been ripping off the poor with corruption so that many villages don't have clean water.

What does happen is the rich-poor divide grows.

There is nothing noble about globalisation, the sooner that myth is killed the better!

Wealthy Kensington & Chelsea residents reject BT fibre cabinets

Why so difficult?

Get the firms that make the fancy bollards & bins to make a 'vintage' BT box. Or run a contest to design a new one.

They are big enough, networked & powered you could sell advertising on them.

Split the costs.

Negotiate locations.

BT your boxes are UGLY, do something about it.

Don't worry about K&C they all have 3G in their range rovers.

Roman roads get the web maps treatment

Excellent

Should be a great teaching school, I never 'really' realised how long such journeys took. 90 days from Rome to London.

As you say it could do with a Denarii -> Dollar etc conversion for each stage. Again I never realised how expensive it was.

And maybe a maximum load carried.

Boy wrecks £22k worth of MacBooks by weeing on them

Re: Piss? Sounds like a load of shit!

Gin & tonic is worse, it eats away the wiring, fast.

Had to laugh when one user came in, the night before his wife handed him his 6 month old son while she went to get a Nappy excited by getting a cuddle from Daddy while he worked his Son showed his pleasure by washing the keyboard.

Being an engineer he got a new laptop keyboard to fit himself and an accelerated replacement was organised. Out there someone has a second hand laptop with a Wee problem (laptops are disposed under WEE directive to licensed contractor, we forgot to mention the accident).

two stacks of 11 very easy to wee over by an 11 year old boy, remember playing fire hose at the urinals?

They are a bio hazard they have to write them off.

Blackpool ICT boss: BYOD doesn't save money

BYOD - H&S, Security etc ignored

I'm assuming in a council they will have a workstation ergonomic audit or similar? what happens when they need something different but its BYOD?

PAT testing, will they pat test all the BYOD?

Security - PAH

Pushing costs onto users or moving them off someone else budget as suggested above is what all this is about .

Swiss researchers demo ‘Avatar-like’ robot control

Re: This is encouraging, but...

No reason why this shouldn't be implanted long term, put the electrodes under the skin and put an inductive pickup at the base of the skull / somewhere convenient.

However as its still in development I think the subject would prefer that a visit to the operating theatre isn't necessary to tweak an electrode.

If its truly reading the movement thoughts not reading 'Must concentrate - think about thinking about lifting your arm's mnemonic'