Posts by Phil O'Sophical

Careful now, UK court ruling says email signature blocks can sign binding contracts

Re: Email?

The legal descriptions I've read on this sort of subject all seem to hinge on intent : they feel a bunch of ascii in an email is a valid indication that you meant the email to be taken as your intent and that it's therefore as good as a signature.

Isn't this somewhat analogous to an illiterate person making an "X" on a document beside the works "John Smith (his mark)", i.e. it doesn't need to be a cursive squiggle that actually says "John Smith". What matters is the perceived intent to sign.

EU court rules Right To Be Forgotten doesn't apply outside member states

Re: "I bought the law..."

the people's elected officials can't debate and make decisions

If only they would actually do that, instead of just being obstructive to make life as difficult as possible for the rest. Makes playtime in the nursery look sophisticated.

UK Supreme Court unprorogues Parliament

this never-ending shit show - Yup, that pretty much sums up Brexit...

All the more reason for Parliament to finish it, instead of constantly delaying it while offering no acceptable alternatives whatsoever

Re: Just when you think UK politics can't get any weirder or messier.

Not unless Corbyn gets elected.

How to fix the global slowdown in broadband rollout: Redefine what broadband means

Re: "thoughtful approaches towards meaningful universal connectivity"

My idea of "meaningful universal connectivity" is getting a few pals around a table for a pint and a chat.

After complaints over leaked Voice Assistant recordings, Google says: We hear you

Re: deleted as soon as they are "older than a few months".

neither Windows, iOS, Linux nor FreeBSD have "older than a few months" as a flag for an "rm" or "del" command.

Where is

$ PURGE /BEFORE=

when you need it?

Switch about to get real: Openreach bod on the challenge of shuttering UK's copper phone lines

Of course, 'coz everyone has a cheap wired phone handy at home in case of a power cut...

I do, permanently plugged in to an extension socket in a little-used room. More than once it's been the only one that rang.

Reliability issues

Anyone who needs reliable communications when things go TITSUP may like to read https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/living-without-electricity, particularly pages 8 onwards. Some of the worrying items were:

"Mobile phone systems did not hold up" and "Most domestic internet connections were also lost." etc.

Plain old copper POTS was all that kept working (as long as you didn't have only a DECT phone).

Re: Why?

In case of emergency you can always create a SIP connection whilst your main line is being reparted for example.

Unless you're with Orange in France, where they use a proprietary wrapper around SIP to stop you doing this.

SIP has functionality that ISDN, Analogue does not,

Indeed. For one, it's so much easier for telemarketers to spoof caller ID

SIP eliminates the need for dedicated copper lines. Everything can go down the same FibreOptic or IP connected line..

Provided that both ends, and all the intermediate cabinets, have backup power supplies. Otherwise things will go very quiet in a power cut.

Emergency button saves gamers from sudden death... of starvation

Re: "pissing into the empties in situ to avoid leaving their chairs for toilet breaks"

Yeah, up until those last two paragraphs I was thinking "what use is a burrito without a couple of bottles of Dos Equis?". Now, not so much.

You better get a wiggle on then: BT said to be mulling switching off UK's copper internets by 2027

If you've ever seen an FTTP ONT, you'll see that there's a small battery backup attached and they have standard BT telephone ports on the bottom of said ONT to supply a dial tone if local power has failed.

And what powers the cabinet at the other end of the fibre? These local solutions only help for very local power outages.

But in a power cut, pretty much everyone defaults to their mobile phone anyway.

Doesn't help if the power is also off for the mobile mast equipment, though.

Re: Don't forget...

induced skin currents?

In fibre?

Re: How many connections is that?

still be the question of what to do with premises that don't want/need broadband

And all the other services that use copper, like traffic lights, burglar alarms, etc.

France (Orange) has already stopped allowing people to order new POTS phone lines, and plans to end that service in stages, starting in 2023. Not necessarily by replacing the copper, though, just by moving everyone to VoIP over a broadband connection. It still might be copper-based ADSL.

'Ridiculous, rubbish, outrageous, complete bollocks': Just some reviews for Amazon's corporate contribution to Blighty's coffers

Not really Amazon's fault

They, like everyone, just take advantage of the tax rules created by the government(s). If those rules allow them to pay "unfairly" little tax, the solution lies squarely with those governments: change the rules. Preferably by making them simpler so that we can all understand what we have to pay.

Creating rules that allow this behaviour, and then whinging that it "isn't fair" that Amazon don't pay more than the laws require, is just an attempt to hide the real source of the problem.

Chef roasted for tech contract with family-separating US immigration, forks up attempt to quash protest

If it's open source, why not just include a licence term that says "not to be used for XXXXX"? It's what used to be done in the days when code was labelled as "shareware", and "open source" hadn't become the common term. The guy made it available under some FOSS licence, the company seems to have abided by that licence. Now he's effectively trying to change his licence terms. He may not like what they're using his code for, but perhaps he should have considered that before making it freely available?

UK launches online VAT inquiry following fears of Brexit fraudster surge

Re: You need to remember...

if the EU wasn't so annoyingly good at making me pay my taxes

In fact, it's so good at it that France, the UK, Germany etc. are all considering national laws so that Amazon, Google etc. pay the taxes that the EU lets them avoid.

only just now starting an inquiry into whether it will have any effect on tax collection?

Well, no. They know it will return to the pre-1992 model, but are now wondering how online sales (which didn't really exist then) will be abused when that happens.

I remember those days, order something from Maplin & not pay UK VAT. Then declare & pay the VAT locally, which we all did, I'm sure.

And how do we get rid of every single last one of them from BoJo to the tea ladies?

An election for some, but not the tea ladies. What do you have against tea ladies anyway (or tea boys for that matter)? Doesn't tea help us avoid dementia? Maybe there aren't any in Westminster, that could explain a lot.

UK Home Office primes Brexit spam cannon for a million texts reminding folk to check passports

Re: To get back to the issue

You can change them. And put any departement number/region logo you like. You just have to buy a new set of plat es.

You can chose any département number for your registration, and the plate will have that number with the official logo for that département. You cannot legally replace that logo with your own arbitrary choice of logo, like an OM badge on a "13" plate, it has to be the official logo for the département concerned. See https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F20319 "Vous n'avez pas le droit de modifier votre plaque ou d'y ajouter un élément, en particulier à la place de l'identifiant territorial."

Re: Visiting multiple Schengen countries

You can be dismissed at the border of an other Schengen country inside the Schengen area.

There are no borders inside the Schengen area, that's the whole idea. The other points you quote relate to moving from a non-Schengen EU country to a country within the Schengen areas. As the text you quotes says "of the country whose external borders you will cross first when entering the Schengen area".

You only need a single Schengen visa to enter the Schengen area. We see this a lot with US visitors, the ones who travel on US passports can use visa-waiver rules to go to any EU country, but those with, say, Indian passports have to apply for one visa for all Schengen countries, and separate visas for each non-Schengen country (like the UK or Ireland) which they also want to visit

Visa permit is going to be required for EU citizen to enter UK from 1st November 2019. I don't know what the visa policy of the UK is going to be for people from EU/EEA. If they have any visa policy. I am not sure they have a visa policy.

They have, see https://www.gov.uk/visit-europe-brexit "Visas: you should not need one for short trips. After Brexit, you will not need a visa for short trips, according to European Commission proposals", and if the EU doesn't impose a visa on UK citizens there's no reason for the UK to require one for EU citizens. Most countries work on that sort of reciprocal arrangement, UK passport holders can travel to 183 countries without a visa. I think the "best" passport for that is a German one which allows visa-free travel to 187 countries. When ETIAS comes into effect in 2021 it will probably affect UK citizens, who will need pre-approval (not quite the same as a visa).

Re: To get back to the issue

there isn't an overarching EU law telling us all what to do?

For this? No, not that I'm aware of. Why, does that surprise you?

There are international (beyond the EU) rules that require you to have a national ID sticker when driving outside your home country. In EU countries you can have it on the license plate, or separate. France also chooses to put regional IDs on the plates, and makes it an offence to change them.

Re: To get back to the issue

If you think that's bad, look at the situation in France where people sell stickers to cover up the official "département" logo on number plates, so that Basques, Bretons, Savoyards, etc. can have their independence flag symbols instead. That would land you with a 90 euro fine for "defacing" the official plate if the gendarmerie notice. At least no-one in the UK cares if you stick a flag of St George or St Andrew on the back.

Re: To get back to the issue

In a sane environment, we would have the usual 90-day visa waiver scheme that works with many other countries, perhaps with an ESTA-like validation process

Which is, of course, exactly what has been planned for over 3 years by the Schengen countries and is unrelated to Brexit. It's called ETIAS, see https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-4362_en.htm and https://www.etiaseurope.eu/, among many other sites. Post-Brexit the UK will likely become one of the countries for which an ETIAS authorization is needed.

Re: First problem, right here ...

They hold a British passport, and thus fall under the same rules as everyone else who holds that passport.

That is not correct. There are a number of different types of British nationality and British passports, relating to right of residence among other things. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are British, but not part of the UK (and hence not part of the EU) and islanders have "British Islands" passports.

Protocol 3 of the UK treaty of accession to the EEC says that the channel islands are treated as being within the EU for most of the purposes of the free movement of goods but outside the EU for other purposes, in particular for free movement of persons and services. A channel islander has no automatic right to live or work in other EU countries, but for convenience most of the EU seems to be happy to ignore that.

You don't have to live somewhere to be a citizen of that country.

True, but irrelevant. Channel Islanders are British citizens of the Channel Islands, they are not UK citizens, no matter where they live.

How long is a lifetime? If you’re Comcast, it’s until a rival quits a city: ISP 'broke' price promise

Re: Lifetime warranty

I needed to set up a rack of systems to help support some software, but had no official budget for an install in my local lab, so I rummaged about in our stores for some adequate but long-EOL boxes that weren't being used. Along with them I found some unused HP "ProCurve" GB switches that had been bought many years before (we've been acquired between times, so my current company wasn't even the one that bought them). I racked them all up and used them for a year, then we had a power cut, and the switches failed to restart afterwards.

I had no budget to replace my unofficial rack setup, but discovering that ProCurve had a "lifetime" warranty, I called HP support to see if they'd do anything. To my very pleasant surprise they said "sure, we'll replace them". They did exactly that (at their expense, shipping included), and the replacements have been humming away happily for years.

I know, it's unfashionable to say nice things about HP, but kudos to them, they do respect their lifetime warranty agreement.

700km on a single charge: Mercedes says it's in it for the long run

Re: 350kW!!!!

I'm guessing thats manufacturing cost reductions, ie fill a reservoir and heat it vs having a mixing system that can regulate incoming hot & cold water.

I think it's more related to efficient machines. An old front-loader would draw maybe 10 or more litres of water to fill a drum, plenty of time for the cold water in the pipes to be drawn and the hot to be flowing from the tank/boiler. New systems weigh their load, and draw the bare minimum required amount, could be only 5l or so. Even on a hot feed, they're still basically working with cold water.

Try turning on your kitchen tap and measuring how much water flows before it runs hot, you could be surprised.

Re: 350kW!!!!

if you're lucky, you may find washing machines that still have seperate hot/cold feeds, which can work out a lot cheaper than a cold-only machine having to heat water from mains temperatures.

Modern machines use so little water that even the "hot" supply is unlikely to actually be running hot by the time the fill valve shuts off.

Your ugly mug may be scanned yet again – but at least you'll be able to board faster at Gatwick

Re: Who are you?

My experience is the opposite. Never a problem with the UK gates, US ones work sometimes, French airports won't even let you use the gates if you haven't got a French passport (despite the signs saying "all biometric passports"). Maybe my face fits some UK norm?

US government sues ex-IT guy for breaking his NDA (Yes, we mean Edward Snowden)

Just for precedent?

I'd guess that the US doesn't really care one way or the other, and they must know that they risk the Streisand effect. This is just for form's sake, to make sure that no future cases can claim that they set a legal precedent by ignoring Snowden's breach of NDA. Whether they stop him getting the cash or not, they've made their (legal) point.

First they came for 'face' and I did not speak out because I... have no face? Then they came for 'book'

Trademarks are no longer restricted to words – they can be sounds, animations, a motion

I think we all know what sort of steaming motion we associate with Facebork. Unfortunately ElReg won't accept (U+1F4A9) in a post...

Au my bog: Bloke, 66, on bail after 'solid-gold' crapper called 'America' stolen from stately home

Re: But at last generations of schoolkids

Yes, even the Telegraph went for that one.

Right-click opens up terrifying vistas of reality and Windows 95 user's frightful position therein

Re: And how do you show a space

In our case you also had to know where the cards would be punched, some machines/operators read Ø on the coding sheet as zero and O for letter-O, others used the reverse.

The time a Commodore CDTV disc proved its worth as something other than a coaster

Mid-80s, a colleague was showing off his new Sony discman. We persuaded him to try a new-fangled CDROM from a microVAX to see what would happen. He pressed play, and we heard the screech from the headphones he was wearing. He almost fell off his chair, and dropped his new CD player. We'd have been in even deeper shit if it had broken!

Wait a minute, we're supposed to haggle! ISPs want folk to bargain over broadband

You mean the price on the price tag is not the actual price?

I think the legal term for the price in an advert or a shop is an "invitation to treat". They tell you what they want, you're free to make a counter-offer.

Electric vehicles won't help UK meet emissions targets: Time to get out and walk, warn MPs

Re: 50 miles???

we don't say that somebody has to work as a councillor for 15 years before they're allowed to be an engineer, do we?

Might be more useful if we made them work 15 years as an engineer before they were allowed to be a councillor. Or an MP.

Too difficult?, too expensive? too lazy to get off your bum?

Too hard to get re-elected.

Re: 50 miles???

then there is the issue of bladder range

Fit one of these, think of it as a range extender, in both senses...

Re: 50 miles???

Adding a socket at pavement edge isn't a huge problem.

You can solve the parking problems easily as well. Everyone's got a doormat, just move it and park your car there instead. See the practical problem?

Adding a socket is easy. If you just want to light a bulb. Adding enough sockets, cabling and power to provide 3kW - 7kW for every car parked along the street? That requires a bit more than hand-waving and unicorn farts.

Re: 50 miles???

Given orbital solar panels or a transplanet grid

Why not throw nuclear fusion in there as well? Almost anything's possible with enough money, but basing decisions for a 10-year transport plan on the idea that someone's bound to develop the required technology in time is just plain daft.

Re: 50 miles???

Ah, so you're conceding that the distribution network has the capacity.

Not at all. We can't even realistically generate the required energy, and so the question of whether it can be distributed to all the places that need it is somewhat moot.

Apparently you think that "viable" means that something can be done for free

No, it would require massive investment, of course. I question whether that investment is appropriate, there are alternative technologies such as biofuels, methanol, etc. which would integrate into the existing infrastructure with far less cost and disruption. Investent should be going to that research, not spent on an impractical dead-end niche market.

Re: 50 miles???

Even with many more electric cars it is unlikely to surpass the electricity requirement required at peak times during the day for a long time.

You are wrong. It will require all current grid capacity running flat out, 24 hours/day. To meet that need safely, with allowances for redundancy, maintenance periods, etc., it's been estimated that 10 new Sizewell Bs would be required. Don't guess about "unlikely", just do the maths.

Even at peak in the day it is far cheaper than fuel.

Only because road fuel is taxed at 60+%, and electric cars are subsidised.

Re: 50 miles???

but the government other taxpaying motorists paid a good chunk of the cost

FTFY

Re: 50 miles???

Based on what calculation

Take the annual consumption of petrol and diesel by cars, and calculate the amount of energy it represents (in Tonnes of Oil Equivalent, TOE). Be generous and halve it since electric motors are more efficient than ICE even allowing for transmission losses. To replace that by grid power you still get a figure that requires all generating capacity on the grid to run flat out 24/7/365, which isn't viable. Even that assumes that the load is averaged out over the week, which it isn't, it fluctuates a lot.

Re: 50 miles???

will be done late at night on cheap electricity ... is currently little demand for electricity.

Only because there aren't 32m cars trying to charge up! Once it stops being a niche market the overnight period will become peak, not cheap.

Re: Alternatively,

The DUP will vote for it...

Re: 50 miles???

Most EV drivers will always have a full tank waiting for them in the morning

The grid doesn't have the capacity to do that for a fleet of 32m cars, never mind commercial traffic as well. The distribution network (substations, street cabling) doesn't have the capacity to carry that much electricity to every home. Other posts have suggested solar power, which has obvious problems when it comes to overnight charging, and also requires 20 - 30m² of south-facing roof area to have enough to charge even a small car like a Nissan Leaf, you'd need twice that for a Tesla-sized vehicle. Even then, it only works for the people who have private garage or driveway where they can plug in.

Battery-electric works as a niche solution, the numbers just don't add up when it comes to complete replacement of ICE fleets.

Re: 50 miles???

unless they put a flat tax on a electric vehicles (increase road fund for instance).

More than half the pump price of petrol and diesel is tax & duty. There is absolutely no way any government is going to give up that income, so you can be quite sure they'll find a way to recover it from drivers of electric cars.

Re: 50 miles???

Exactly. It's as useful as saying that you could scatter a hundred jerrycans around the country, and 99% of drivers would be within 50 miles of a 20 litre refill.

Re: Hydrogen? Seriously?

The biggest problem withhydrogen is that it's not a raw material, it has to be made. That takes energy, and most hydrogen in use today is made from petrochemical stock such as methane, which really doesn't help solve the problem.

Don't panic! Don't panic! UK IT job ads plummet as Brexit uncertainty grabs UK tech sector by the short and curlies

as UK passport holders become unable to work across borders.

Nonsense. UK citizens were always able to work in Europe before the EU was created, and can work in many other countries without problems. There are as many UK citizens living and working in the US & Canada than in other EU countries (excluding Ireland). The main difference is going to be paperwork, and the need to arrange permission to work before arrival. More difficult, but certainly not impossible. Compared to all the other cultural adaptations needed it really shouldn't be a major additional sticking point (I speak as a UK expat living in another EU country)