Posts by Commswonk 1777 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2015
Given that the criminal fraternity don't seem to have any difficulties in obtaining number plates to which they are not entitled to enable the cloning of vehicles I suspect that there will be no more than about 24 hours elapse before ICE vehicles are running around with "green" plates to which they have no entitlement in an attempt to obtain the "benefits" of an EV plate.
I would hope (stupid of me I know) that misrepresenting a vehicle's source of motive power will become a specific offence.
Does anybody know a way to suck all the content out...
As Groups.io got a mention earlier (I would have mentioned it myself but didn't as I didn't want to "advertise") I'll mention it again.
Groups.io will download all your Yahoo material* and load it on to a new group once you have set that new group up. Note, however, that there is now a charge for this (and has been for perhaps 12 months) so 1 year of "Premium" Service has to be paid for up - front at (IIRC) $110.
If your total storage requirement exceeds 1 GB (which does not include the message archive) then you will need to pay for an enhanced service of one type or another in perpetuity, either the "Premium" rate as above (10 GB) or the "Enterprise" rate of $2200 per annum which will get you 1 TB of storage.
I've never seen it written down but I suspect that if you need > 10 GB at the outset then you will need to pay for an Enterprise Group from the very beginning.
* At the time of writing accessing Photos on Yahoo Groups is reported to be rather hit and miss.
And apologies if this looks like an advertisement, but someone did ask...
It's enough to make you pine for the days of Yahoo! Groups.
Oh no it isn't.
The final demise of Yahoo Groups has been foretold for quite some time, even if the foretelling wasn't actually on any Yahoo Group. I am a member of several groups that used to be hosted on Yahoo, but most migrated to a different host months or years ago while others effectively withered on the vine, and were doing anyway.
This bit of news has unsurprisingly generated a flurry (no; a storm) of activity by (Yahoo) group owners to find a new home which in turn has generated a lot of work for the "home owner". The group for "group managers" has shown a significant increase in membership, and more than a few posts from panic - stricken owners trying to maintain some continuity of service. Some of the questions they are posing suggest that they don't deserve any continuity of service, but that's another matter entirely.
In other news, having an online group for telcos is not actually a bad idea, but I can see why Ofcom itself would not wish to try to host it. At the time that group was set up on Yahoo it probably made sense; if they choose carefully they can find another host that will not bombard them with advertisements while at the same time keeping the group out of the public gaze.
Surely if it's an investment, then you have something to show for it?
You might think that, but I'm afraid I couldn't possibly comment.
IIRC Gordon Brown was always talking about "investment" when "spending" would have been more appropriate; alternatively he would always boast about "inward investment" when what he really meant was that another bit of British business had been bought by a new foreign owner.
Ah. This is obviously some strange usage of the word “investment” that I wasn’t previously aware of, as Arthur Dent didn't quite say.
the Single Point of Failure?
There was an item on You and Yours (R4, lunchtime) that included people for whom life appeared to have stopped completely; can'y pay for car parking, can't buy a coffee and so on.
To those who are totally reliant on their smartfones for "everything" I would point out that you have willingly and wilfully introduced a Single Point of Failure into your everyday lives and you might usefully consider a small change in methodology to circumvent this. Actually having some cash in your pockets might be a good start.
Single points of failure are a designers' and engineers' nightmare and they take the trouble to try to ensure that they don't build any in to whatever they are building. Is there any point if end users are going to ignore the possibilities of failure and engineer their lives so that a single failure that bring life to a halt?
Try a bit of "mode diversity".
Drilling a deep hole for each house is going to have undesirable side effects somewhere.
If a large number of houses in a locality are all using ground - source heat pumps then the answer to your point might be "permafrost".
I had a similar conversation with a one - time colleague over a convivial lunch and he reckoned the Japanese had tried something akin to this and the results had been less than satisfactory, but he couldn't remember any details. IIRC they had to stop it anyway.
It's the sort of idea that needs a proper pilot project (not a "Desk - top Study"; IMHO that methodology was thoroughly discredited a couple of years ago) to see exactly what effects might emerge.
But it does raise some doubts on where this magic boost to the economy is going to come from.
On top of that I have to ask what "change" brings about this benefit? Going from no BB at all to FTTP? Maybe. Going from ADSL to FTTP? Less so. Going from FTTC to FTTP? Much less so.
The projected benefit in £££ is a work of fiction. At best it is wishful thinking; in reality "magic thinking" is closer to the mark
Surely there would be far more economic benefit from mandating all-electric heat-engine central heating systems in new-build homes?
Well yes, but... and it's a big but...
Very few modern houses have a ground area (garden!) sufficient to be able to recover meaningful amounts of heat, i.e. "enough", and I cannot see a heat pump providing enough for a block of flats - ever.
In practice there is more than one "but"...
ISTR that the hardware needed for a heat recovery system is much bigger than a conventional boiler, meaning that house design will have to be changed to accommodate them, not that that is anywhere near impossible of course, but it makes using ground - source heat pumps rather impractical as replacements for existing boilers. On top of that IIRC obtaining 4 kW of heat requires 1 kW of energy input, so a not particularly large "boiler" (say 30 kW) is going to need 7.5 kW input, bringing us back to the question of whether or not there is enough electricity being generated to run it all; OK it's a lot less than using 30 kW of electricity to run a boiler "direct" but it has to come from somewhere.
It's a nice idea but I think that it simply won't work as a means of obtaining "economic" benefit, although there might well be an environmental one.
previous studies have also showed that younger people find making calls a little daunting, and prefer to use messaging services such as WhatsApp.
...because if it is the implications border on the terrifying.
OK; I have been retired for a few years but looking back I can remember just how productive a proper telephone conversation can be. Work / business 'phone calls obviously have a professional purpose, but that does not prevent the persons involved establishing a good working personal relationship at the same time. (No improper conclusions should be drawn from that.)
Are we raising children in such a way that they will be unable to communicate properly in a work environment?
<shakes head>
They put in planning applications shortly after B4RN connected the first few thousand for less than £750 each...
To be fair B4RN is heavily reliant on volunteer effort, often from farmers with tractors and the like. Nothing whatsoever the matter with that, of course. Peoples' willingness to "muck in" and help provide their own broadband is a good measure of how much they really do want and / or need it. I cannot see how BT could ever compete on overall cost / price with B4RN or any like company.
B4RN deserves to succeed if only because it readily provides easy to find telephone numbers and an easy to find email address for potential or actual customers to use; I had a look at its website yesterday and found it to be one of the most helpful and informative that I have ever seen. In fact it simply "deserves to succeed".
Disclosure: I am not a B4RN customer
The public are paying for an infrastructure upgrade for a private company who will then use this new infrastructure to sell services back to the public for profit
IIRC when local councils provided capital for BT to roll out FTTC in their areas part of the deal was that once the revenue stream got going BT was required to return at least some of the money to the councils that had originally supplied it.
Takes a bit of the edge off your point...
Is .eu for people, businesses and organisations who have an affiliation with the "European Union" and its operation, or is .eu a geographical representation like .uk, .fr, .de, etc?
Compare and contrast with .tv; is it for "people, businesses and organisations who have an affiliation with Tuvalu" or is it a nice little earner for Tuvalu from TV companies?
Which the EU would have ignored, as you well know.
A point that needs to be made until the message finally gets home, however long that might take. I'd like to say I am surprised that (at the time of my writing this) it has attracted a downvote, but I'm not; nothing upsets diehard Remainers more than an Inconvenient Truth.
Mind you there are also those who believe that remaining "in" and changing the EU from within would be the way to go - an idea that I would regard as laughably unlikely.
Let the downvotes commentce...
I can't think of many fast jet pilots who'd see playing with an antique 747 as a great pastime
Not sure about that. At some point he will leave the RAF and having experience of a multi - engined aircraft currently used in a civil role will stand him in good stead if he wants to become a commercial pilot.
I assume they won't be overly happy with the coverage from this Esteemed Organ
This coverage is entirely consistent with the concept of "Biting the hand that feeds IT" that is - for want of a better expression - El Reg's Mission Statement, even if the article isn't noticeably IT - related.
Maybe, but people choose what they want to believe and so often it's the snake oil salesmen... <snip>
We need to outsmart the liars.
An interesting and almost certainly an accurate comment, but at the risk of finding myself with a bulk delivery of downvotes do you apply this comment to both sides of the Brexit debate or perhaps just the "leave" side?
One of the most noticeable features of the debate (insofar as it is a debate) post referendum is that the arguments in favour of remain seem to consist mainly of ad hominem criticism of those who voted to leave rather than clear arguments in favour of staying in.
I would argue that self - delusion (or at the very least elements of self - delusion) exists on both sides of any division such as this.
I know lots of people with second or third skills they can fall back on if the IT thing finally goes up in smoke.
In the spirit of the article the above should read...
I know lots of people with second or third skills they can fall back on if/when the IT thing finally goes up in smoke.
OK; I'm not an IT expert, but...
Surely the problem described is not so much one of "creaking kit" but of incompatible Databases.
Reading a few snippets from the PAC Report it would seem (as a starter) that various departments record people's names (etc) differently so it matters not how old the "kit" is; if the same data was loaded on to a whole pile of new shiny stuff the problem would remain; that data on one system could not be integrated with the data on another. Just sorting that out across departments would be an eye-wateringly major task with all sort of opportunities for errors to creep it.
In addition, I'm not convinced that the government could maintain a list of "creaking kit". How much of "the kit" belongs to the government and how much actually belongs to an outsourcer?
On the face of it (from my not very well informed viewpoint, at least) the first requirement is to agree the specification for a suitable database followed closely by how existing data is to be correctly imported into it.
The adjective "suitable" in the description of the database must, of course, include some pretty impressive and reliable security features that not only prevents abuse but also prevents one gov department from seeing data relevant only to a different department.
That ought to keep the planners occupied for a year or two.
From the article: EE is also in the process of replacing the Airwave radio service with a £1.2bn 4G Emergency Services Network (ESN), turning off the previous network by 31 December 2019.
<snip>
The National Audit Office also recently warned that the project is likely to be three years late and £3bn over budget.
So what has become of the savings that were supposed to accrue as a result of migrating from Airwave to ESN? By my reckoning the figure is now very much in negative territory.
Ha! Serco won't be laughing when Spaffer Johnson builds a bridge to the Northern Isles.
I have always held the view that politicians + technology don't make for a happy outcome. Hitherto "technology" has always been of the IT variety, but it seems sensible to include civil engineering in the mix now. Even BJ's very small scale garden bridge across the Thames was "a bridge too far".
(With apologies for conflating it with the 75th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden at Arnhem.)
From the article: The committee also said that while it "welcomes the ambition of the new prime minister to deliver universal full-fibre broadband by 2025"
...of the old adage that Nothing is impossible to the man who doesn't have to do it,
Although this example singles out Johnson, B for criticism he is hardly the first politician to fall into this trap.
Smart Meter, anyone?
Given the material El Reg publishes it must have enough to prepare an annual list of Corporate Own Goals.
I would hope that HP wouldn't try to bork printers with third party cartridges again, but I wouldn't put any money on their not trying it once again.
A Grand List of Shame would make for good reading over the festive season.
@ Lee D: It's a stupid thing to pull a con trick on your own customers.
Unfortunately, if you look around you, you will find that it is a widespread if not near universal problem.
Think "mis-selling scandal" for a start; the banks thought they were on to a good thing with PPI sales, but it eventually blew up in their faces with enormous attendant costs. Think "penalty for loyalty" to your insurance company / ISP / telco / etc and it becomes impossible to escape the conclusion that finding a way to rip customers off is more or less a standard business model.
IIRC there was a problem (may still be one) where businesses found themselves being invoiced for inclusion in "business directories" that they didn't want. In the end businesses and customers have to be permanently looking out for the next session of whack a mole as other businesses try to find ways of depriving them of their money in payment for things they don't want or need.
Edit: thinking further about it, I don't buy much from Amazon but last time I tried I gave up because it wouldn't allow me to buy what I wanted without subscribing to Amazon Prime, which I didn't then and still don't want. I got caught by that once before and only spotted a month later; once bitten, twice shy and I won't let Amazon catch me that way again. To put it another way I simply don't trust them not to try to rip me off.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, as the French are wont to say.
We live near a primary school, and if we pick the wrong time to go out school children on "ordinary" scooters abound, with their riders paying no attention whatsoever to pedestrians. The children's parents aren't paying any attention either because they are either totally occupied on their 'phones or (less often) talking to other parents.
On one occasion a father was running along the pavement, although I have no idea why. Some yards behind was a below school age child on one of those wretched bikes with no pedals. Because there were pedestrians on the pavement (surprise!) the father ran into the roadway to continue his run, followed a few seconds later by small child on 2 wheels who simply shot out between two parked cars into the roadway; it is highly fortunate that no car was coming at the time because the child did not look where it was going (what < 5 year old does?) because an accident, likely fatal, would have been almost inevitable.
Just yesterday I was walking the dog in a local country park, and going up a fairly steep hill with a couple of bends in it. Coming down the hill was a family of 2 adults and 4 children; oldest child (perhaps 10) was on a proper bike while the other 3 (all < 5 in my estimation) were riding pedal - less versions. One child speeded up and failed to take a bend and crashed into a fence beside a tree and was very lucky not to smash its forehead into the tree trunk; I guess the gap was about an inch. Had it made contact then the injuries could have been extremely serious because it wasn't wearing a helmet; in fact none of them were. Another child negotiated the bend but fell off a bit further down the hill at some speed. Of the 3 pedal - less bikes only one - the one that didn't crash - had any sort of brakes, and even the brake it had was rear wheel only. As far as I am concerned that family only avoided 2 children being rushed to hospital by the Grace of God. (On this occasion I make no apology for using that expression, with capitals, on this forum.)
At the age they were I cannot really blame the children, but the whole thing convinced me (and at my age I didn't really need any convincing) that adult fuckwittery is endemic in a large proportion of the population; these parents were either not paying sufficient attention to what their children were doing or had no real perception of the risks that were being taken.
Drivers have to learn to drive and pass a test in the hope that while driving they will somehow manage to keep their fuckwittery under control; fortunately most succeed, most of the time. But who in their right mind uses an electric scooter wearing no protective gear whatsoever and then rides at some speed on either the pavement or on the road - both of which actions are illegal in the UK. In so doing they risk not only themselves but others.
A driver ought to be conducting a dynamic risk assessment all the time when driving, but anyone using one of these toys clearly has no idea about "risk" and what it means. As a driver (or pedestrian, come to think about it) I am getting fed up having to include in my risk assessment the fact that there are quite a few fuckwits who simply don't or can't carry out their own risk assessment and by implication rely on mine to keep them out of trouble.
As to parents, by not realising the risks and keeping their children under control because of them, they are actually teaching their children that risks don't really exist, which is unforgivable. A child that is allowed to misbehave on a pavement or road grows into an adult with exactly the same, now ingrained, habits.
And yes, I am grumpy and won't apologise for it.
Then go down and follow 'Meet the Team'
The link to the Management Team seems to work... unfortunately. I discovered that one Joseph J Hopkins is a thought leader, and as I had just had lunch seeing that nearly cost me a keyboard.
How simply ghastly. If for a moment I had an inkling I might be a "thought leader" then the last thing I would do would be to tell everyone about it.
The Headline: Wait a minute, we're supposed to haggle! ISPs secretly want folk to barter for broadband
On a point of order; if I haggle about the price it means that I attempt to reduce the cost to me, perhaps by suggesting that I go elsewhere for the service. If I try to barter it means that I try to pay in something other than money... eggs, coprolites, shiney pebbles or something.
Haggle and Barter are not synonymous.
PPS. Smoking whilst riding your converted zero-emission animal may result in an explosion - you've been warned.
Thank you for reminding me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNVcRK4F4g
Not an exact parallel I agree, but close enough.
And it brightens up a Friday afternoon...
...desperately wanting a trade deal with the US will greatly influence UK decision making
And not for the better IMHO.
From a logical perspective if an acceptable deal with the EU can only be had by leaving "no deal" on the table, desperately wanting a trade deal with the US is unlikely to result in a decent outcome for the UK, at least from the voters' viewpoint.
We're Doomed...
and the Hull Daily Mail's article with more pictures
You are clearly unaware of the fact that using the words "Daily Mail" on El Reg is a capital offence. Whether prefacing them with "Hull" will be allowed as a plea in mitigation remains to be seen...
From the article: EE has the most coverage, currently at 90 per cent, with plans to increase that to 95 per cent by 2020.
How do EE square that with having to provide coverage for the ESN? 95% simply isn't good enough.
Having said that with Airwave having been extended to 202X I suppose there might just be an outside chance that they will achieve 100% by that time.
Where's the Flying Pig Icon...
I would not rely on Boeing.
In the light of present circumstances who in their right mind would?
I would like to think at whenever it comes to pass (assuming it does, of course) that the US is trying to trample all over UK interests whilst in pursuit of its own in a trade deal that someone on the UK team will suddenly go <cough> we have a major problem with the certification of Boeing aircraft which in our view is going to delay any agreement, and mean it.
The noises coming from the US at the moment point towards a very lopsided deal (which of course means that it isn't really a deal at all) and the Boeing situation provides the UK (and everyone else if they are minded to dig their heels in) with an ideal opportunity to redress the balance a bit.
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