Posts by aks

Brits pay £490m extra for mobes they already own – Citizens Advice

Re: Astonishing isn't it

I'm surprised that somebody hasn't taken the operator to court for charging for a service that's not being delivered.

There must be some clever weasel-words in the contract.

TV Licensing admits: We directed 25,000 people to send their bank details in the clear

Re: TVLD

Unless the government decides to fund the BBC directly, thereby making those of us who don't need a licence to pay into the fund.

The BBC is quite capable of funding itself through advertising. It happily does this for all of its overseas businesses. Channel 4 is owned by the government but doesn't receive a subsidy.

I received the letter, contacted them by phone and explained that I have various equipment such as a screen, laptop and smartphone, each of which is capable of being used to watch broadcast television.

As the current rule is that one must watch broadcast television or use iPlayer to view BBC output, being capable of watching is not the same as actually watching.

I don't watch television but do use a Sky box to listen to radio.

I now have a letter from them titled "Your No Licence Needed confirmation".

At no time did I give my name.

Microsoft: You don't want to use Edge? Are you sure? Really sure?

Re: More bloat in an already over bloated OS

Your computer, your choice of operating system.

Their operating system, what's wrong with offering a one-time suggestion?

AI beats astroboffins at sniffing out fast radio bursts amid the universe's clutter

Re: AI beat astroboffins at detecting fast radio bursts?

Surely we need to last for 6 billion years for our message to be sent and the answer received.

(Shades of The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut)

Boffins bash Google Translate for sexism

Re: The reverse problem exists, too

Even skilled translators have to make guesses when translating from gender neutral languages. Without significant context, it remains a guess.

Re: What's the problem here?

Since when has "they" become singular?

Pluto is more alive than Mars, huff physicists who are still not over dwarf planet's demotion

Re: Confused

Don't forget that Pluto was discovered by an American. Losing "planet" status meant loss of face.

Since it is about one sixth of the mass of the Moon and 0.2% of the earth, it's not a major planet. Labelling Pluto, Eris etc as minor or dwarf planets, or "plutoids" seems a fair compromise.

PPI pushers now need consent to cold-call you

Invoking "personal privacy" is complete nonsense. They're an organisation, not an individual. The reason they withhold the number is that they don't want you to be able to call them and reach the correct department. Much better to leave you to call the main number and fight your way through layers of menus and verbiage.

I've had legitimate calls from withheld numbers. I know they're legitimate because it's in response to an issue I'd raised and was expecting a call-back.

Even my bank tried that and asked me for security details. I explain that I never give security details to anyone who calls me, only to people I've called. In most cases they fully understand this. I can only think of one example, where I had terminated a mobile phone contract. Their number was not withheld but was unrecognised by my phone's address book. The guy got very annoyed when I refused to give any security details. On looking up the number later, it was their outsourced "retention team".

Canny Brits are nuking the phone bundle

Re: Telefonica own O2 and GiffGaff, so this is nothing new for them

Google "Is ID Mobile, part of the Carphone Warehouse group, an MVN?" and it tells you Three. Simples.

Re: Customers are (slightly) more savvy and the technology isn't moving as quickly

At end of contract, simply ask for the PAC to move your number to a different provider. They won't put you on to the porting team but to the retention team. Insist that you want to leave and eventually they'll offer you a much better deal. If they don't, you could always switch providers or even look what the best new deal is from your existing one.

Make sure you've done your research first (as always).

Mozilla changes Firefox policy from ‘do not track’ to ‘will not track’

Re: That's kinda the minimalist solution

How foreign is foreign? .com when browsing from the UK? Canada from the USA? Using a VPN to disguise your own location? Disguised server IP location?

Don't forget that .com does not mean USA but simply "commercial".

That's one of the reasons Bill Gates invested in Apple when it was on the slide (while Steve Jobs was elsewhere). Not the only reason, but simply one of them.

Bitcoin backer sues AT&T for $240m over stolen cryptocurrency

Where's the evidence

I'd be very interested in knowing how he can prove how much was in the wallet before the transfer and how much remains.

Why is this AT&T's issue rather than the coin repository? They are the ones with the 2FA security that's allegedly been broken.

Not in the stores I've used. Simply go in, get a pay-as-you-go SIM and pay the minimum. In fact, you don't even need to pay the minimum. Once you know the number, it will receive SMS without having any credit.

Re: Or maybe an insider job

Insider job where you'd tried it once, found out the weaknesses in the system then went for the big one.

Drama as boffins claim to reach the Holy Grail of superconductivity

Re: Extraordinary claims—

If there is any validity in these claims, even to the point where superconductivity was present at 77K (liquid nitrogen), the usefulness is still heavily constrained by the maximum current density achievable.

Bank on it: It's either legal to port-scan someone without consent or it's not, fumes researcher

Re: CMA is overzealous

The CPS should not add new rules to the law but suggest that the law be revised to include more sensible rules.

Re: Code

It's certainly only for their benefit. If it was for your benefit, they'd inform you that you were at risk.

Get drinking! Abstinence just as bad for you as getting bladdered

Re: Is correlation causation....?

Maybe if you read the study you'd find out how.

Shock Land Rover Discovery: Sellers could meddle with connected cars if not unbound

How is this different from selling a PC or mobile when you don't wipe the data and disconnect from the cloud/server?

On the other hand, if some data was always gathered and couldn't be disconnected, any stolen car could be tracked. Maybe accessible only by the police using superuser login.

Prof claims Lyft did a hit-and-run on his ride-sharing tech patent

If I were Uber, I'd support Lyft directly or covertly in this case.

Re: Also Known as ....

Wikipedia says the first with a map was in 1981. Look up "Automotive navigation system".

Re: Not Exactly...

Surely he didn't reduce it to practice.

Google offers to leave robocallers hanging on the telephone

Re: I have an algorithm for this

So does that make it a brownlist?

Apple emits iPhone cop-block update – plus iOS, macOS, Safari patches

That was never the issue. With a warrant, Apple would always comply. What the refused to do was to give the FBI the tools to do it themselves on any device, without waiting for a warrant.

Europe's scheme to build exascale capability on homegrown hardware is ludicrous fantasy

It's an EU, not European document.

Not only is Israel not in the list, neither is the UK in the timescale being discussed.

I assume it's the French who want to drive this forward using EU money.

What's all the C Plus Fuss? Bjarne Stroustrup warns of dangerous future plans for his C++

Re: C and C-style C++

"And high-quality code was produced by the truckload then."

As was low-quality code. I know. I wrote some of it. Just as often, it was the specification rather than the coding that was at fault. Anybody remember Y2K. Plenty of COBOL written in the 1970's was not expected to last that long. Most didn't but some did.

Apple hauled into US Supreme Court over, no, not ebooks, patents, staff wages, keyboards... but its App Store

I'm waiting for the EU and China to take Apple to court over this.

Citation needed: Europe claims Kaspersky wares 'confirmed as malicious'

They have offered to show the source code.

Aussie bloke wins right to sue Google over 'underworld' images

Re: Hold on

But the article says that Google has to pay the costs anyway, so he can presumably hire the most expensive lawers in Australia at no cost to himself. Nice one.

Russian battery ambitions see a 10x increase in power from smaller, denser nukes

Re: Specific Energy

Petrol is not a complete energy source.

Don't forget the oxygen.

Who had ICANN suing a German registrar over GDPR and Whois? Congrats, it's happening

Re: Should result in summary judgement...

Gathering data and making it available to others are two different issues.

Making it available to the interested party for them to challenge and correct is sensible. Making it public is not.

I wonder whether the UK government's policy of making the electoral register available is covered by GDPR. Until now, it has been made available to anybody who pays for it, after mandating its collection under threat of severe penalty to the individual if they refuse to supply it.

Re: probably be replaced by something else

USA arrogance now being replaced by EU arrogance and attempting to export their regulations world-wide.

Did you even sweat, tho? Plaintiffs told to amend claims in Apple headphones suit

Re: Now we have to worry about fakes names along with fake news

Using the name Judge Robot Cyborg might give the impression that the machines have already taken control. ;)

Re: Too salty

Ridiculous, or merely mercenary?

US Congress mulls expanding copyright yet again – to 144 years

They're working hard on it, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.

Re: As many have observed

Following the thought provoked by your avatar, why not have a half-life on copyright?

Re: Copyright extensions need to stop

In most cases, the copyright on music is not held by the musicians but by corporations.

There's also copyright on the tune, the lyrics, the arrangement as well as the original recording and any tweaked version of the recording. This whole thing is a lawyer's wet dream, especially since they're not mandating registration of copyright.

You'll also find that a lot of corporately-produced music no longer specifies the start-date of the copyright.

This is being initiated in the USA but will be enforced worldwide, as the Disney Law was.

Make masses carry their mobes, suggests wig in not-at-all-creepy speech

Re: Colour me surprised.

Since the double jeopardy rule has been abolished they could simply keep trying until they find an amenable jury.

Noise from blast of gas destroys Digiplex data depot disk drives

Re: Safe for personnel?

Monsieur Guillotin invented such a device.

"The machine was successful because it was considered a humane form of execution, contrasting with the methods used in pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine#Introduction_in_France

It's April 2018, and we've had to sit on this Windows 10 Spring Creators Update headline for days

Installed successfully yesterday on my Windows 10 Mobile.

My PC makes ‘negative energy waves’, said user, then demanded fix

Positive waves

Since, as we all agree that mobile phones are the source of negative energy waves, the 3 large antennae on the roof must be emitting lots of positive energy waves and should be encouraged.

Spring is all about new beginnings, but it could already be lights out for Windows' Fluent Design

Re: re: The Microsoft View of the world

I too prefer the Win7 UI but Win10 can be persuaded to look and feel pretty much like Win7.

As a pure developer, my preference is for a solid colour desktop with no icons except the handful I put there to perform different functions with the same basic program. The couple of hundred programs installed on my Win7 box are easiest reached from the Start button.

In Win10 all my tiles have been removed, starting with the animated Live Tiles.

Flat is good because I've always disliked the 'pretty' icons of WinXP compared to Win2K as I prefer plain and frugal. Same with transparency. Bah humbug!

Law's changed, now cough up: Uncle Sam serves Microsoft fresh warrant for Irish emails

I assume that the Irish government will still refuse to let the USA have direct access to servers in Ireland.

A search warrant against specific individual individuals or countries causes no problem for the Irish. It's the direct access they object to, allowing the USA to use 'big data' methods.

Any social media accounts to declare? US wants travelers to tell

Re: Sauce for the goose?.

I remember landing in Bangkok airport just after my daily connecting flight to Singapore had left.

Being there for 24 hours, I had to get a visa. $5 for neighbouring countries, $10 for Europeans and Canadians, $100 for USA citizens. Purely because the USA charged Thai people $100 for a visa.

This is 20 years ago but the concept remained in my head.

April 1st come early?

Just an idea.

UK Court of Appeal settles reseller's question: Is software a good?

Goods and Services

If software is not a good and not a service, I assume it must be treated as data (information) and can't be subject to tax. How can software and other copyright objects such as journalistic articles, music and video be legally defined as different to data? I can't see how pure data can be taxed. Then again, the UK doesn't tax books or newspapers but does tax the electronic versions of the same content. The original exemption of books and newspapers was to avoid a 'tax on knowledge' but that doesn't seem to have made it all the way into the 21st century.

We certainly encountered the question of downloadable software back in the 1980's when we uploaded our product to the customer using FTP. They told us that sending them a tape would make it taxable but electronic transfer would not. We did as the customer requested.