Posts by Mickey Porkpies 49 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Aug 2007
slack clone, sucks up processing, great Sharepoint interface (as mentioned) nice video conferencing for 4 people (don't try to collaborate with any more than 4) it's moving in the right direction so I guess once it is almost perfect they will drop it for something else.
Trust me I am not a fan of China... I agree my issue is where is all of the other kit that is swapped out made? China build pretty much anything that has a cable, led and chips. If China wants to backdoor its own kit it isn't a wild leap that it can do it to any kit Cisco, Ericsson etc. I agree there is a risk but unless you manufacture your own components and assemble there is always a risk. The argument that just because it is state controlled it can't be trusted is simplistic to the extreme.
ok how many more peeps are dumping their kit for "security" reason PUBLISH you evidence. Nobody denies their link to Government but given the evidence of other government backdoor shenanigans thanks to Mr Snowden which has been published if their is a genuine issue lets see the evidence and their response. This is becoming more farcical than Brexit.
Most users never take advantage of all the balls and Whistles of Full Blown Office so you are paying needlessly. there are robust Exchnage replacements such as Zarafa http://www.zarafa.com/ but as mentioned peeps are too scared to dare to think of a non M$ world. Come on IT Manglers think out of the box.
err lets not forget how we got into this mess ...it wasn't the public sector!! Also don't go on about slacking government workers I admit to have come over some of them in my 20 years working with Governments (local and central) but come across just as much if not more over paid and under skilled private sector consultants and had to clear up their messes.
The private sector is not better than public sector, there's good and bad in both wake up and smell the shit
and how is all this going to be paid for?? diverting money away from services to make it easier for all our uni friends to get a slice of the gravy train
get real... all this data is accessible via FOI (except all the central gov stuff) this is going to cost thousands to manage.
this comes from MP's who wouldn't publish their own expenses without blanking out.
and in my experience most ICT departments cannot be arsed to migrate away from the likes of windows or office even though usage does not warrant the constant upgrade path.
In one site we audited the use of office and found only 40% of users used word within 1 month and apart from some prolific excel users the remaining software was unused. One could also argue that those using the software rarely got close to the potential supplied by the package. I have no beef with Microsoft (other than they are greedy and unimaginative) but their software can be very functional. most users never use that function yet are happy to re-buy the product every few years,
I have used Open Office for over 6 years for tender documents, advanced budgeting, presentations etc and all have been without issue. How many companies have support contracts for MS Office and if they spent some time getting use to alternative they may be surprised. Lets face a lot of SANs and old VMWARE all use *nix platforms!
if it is illegal to tweet anything that will be seen as "grossly offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing, annoying, inconveniencing or causing needless anxiety" then pretty much anything an MP or other politician says falls foul of this!!
Makes a change then given all the freedoms signed away by the last government....
why would I buy a phone from a company that brought out Axim handhelds and dropped them. I suspect Dell will try this and if doesn't make them a packet quietly discontinue them leaving a bunch of users with unsupported outdated expensive MP3 player.
The iphone may be the 80's Red Sports Car signifies something of the decade but at least they invest in it (and backwardly for old generation users) This is one for the must avoids
With Windows 3 MS had a new product (let's not get into the fight as to where the ideas came from) and as with Windows 95 and XP real improvement in ease of use and access to a miriad of devices. Where do you go as Vista basically offered nothing more than pretty windows and slowing your investment requiring you to upgrade for little real prodcutivity return. What are they going to do in Windows 7 that will make those who didn't upgrade to Vista cough up?
MS has clung on to the idea that PC's will be around for a while but they won't and as previously mentioned the new markets are a struggle. They lack real innovation (other than buying in someone elses ideas) and this is showing. Cutting on R&D will further impeded on their ability to come up with new technologies. Bill G one said in 100 years MS will no longer exist, I am sure he is right. The current financial crisis has made people question the value of their investments in new PC's and Windows Vista. The increased sale in Netbooks running Linux and XP has shown how out of touch and behind they are given that XP should not be available.
They were late on the Internet, Late on Virtualisation they have become a catch up Corporation and now the moneys drying up this will get harder and harder. I am not an MS basher but I see less and less VFM (Value From Microsoft)
Someone stick a pin in the dilbert at Asus who is trying to make the eeepc less and less like a usable mini notebook! add a useless battery giving you 1½ hours, stick in a slow energy hungry crashable hard drive and you have just exactly what you didn't want to buy. They will be badging them up as sports cars and overcharging for poor laptops next! ...ooops
Yeah right here you go - I have identified a flaw in security access to a type of entry system based on RFID cards. I go to the supplier who slaps a court gagging order on me and sues me to death to keep it quiet, they fix it (eventually) and no-one is the wiser. That is what will happen, all that has happened here is the notice was so short they couldn't react without publicly displaying their panic.
If Companies release insecure products or don't test them (including ongoing) then the "public" in the guise of MIT, Hackers, whomever will. Don't get a girly toot when they then publish a flaw you can't be arsed to fix in advance!
Cake and eat it pops to mind. If you are in the security business then you must be secure!
Blame Microsoft they introduced the strategy of public beta testing of their products! you break it we fix it! ...every Wednesday (ish)
You ask for the impossible and they can't deliver it what is the surprise here? Most of the other players AQA et all won't touch it with a barge pole because they new it couldn't be done. The first thing the Govt needs to do for education is to get their meddling sticky fingers off and leave it to the people who know what they are talking about. Targets is not the way but reality doesn't win you votes!
Am I the only one wondering if the Country is sleeping through further erosion of our rights in the name of "Security" ???
Government Control in the name of the terrible acts of few have done more to reduce our democracy than any Facist Leader would have hoped. I despair at the ingnorance of our society and wonder when I shall get a call for daring to think for myself!
The very core of our justice system "innocent until proven guilty" fades with every hacker and book that has to prove they are not evil or terrorists. I shall get rid of all my cutlery as that scould be used to take over a plane much as it was in 911 oh and my shoes.
This whole farce has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I take some solace in the fact that I procure over £50k's worth of laptops each year and this year I will not buy any ASUS. The measure of a good company is how is manages failure. In this case Asus have treated paying customers with contempt and as such have lost my business.
The security of RFID and in particular commercial offerings (and warnings) have been around for some time. Some individuals have raised the issues and the companies concerned (you know who you are!) have gone out of their way to discredit and poo poo the evidence. It is now coming home to roost and full disclosure is the only way.
Security by obscurity has been shown to fail.
I love my 900 it's great ( with eeeXubuntu) but I too was shafted with a useless 4400 battery. I have complained to Asus who are reviewing the possibility of replacing them. Come on Register get behind this and make them do the right thing and give me a laptop that lasts longer than a Xmas episode of Eastenders!!!!!
As it is pretty impossible to get the Asus eepc without having to wait 6 months it is likely if you want one of these by the time you get it Acer will be on the market. Asus have been unable to keep up with the limited demand of the 700/701, they should stick to cheap motherboards.
As an organisation we have many broadband circuits with BT which we will be migrating away from them over the next few months directly as a result of this action and loss of trust.
The supplier we move to will provide a written undertaking not to do this type of interception without prior permission.
How are we going to pay for this? probably with Private partnerships sharing data for a fee... or will they just cross reference data from Facebook?
This is a massively expensive system which nobody (publically) will know the cost of. We are more at threat from a mugging than a terrorist bombing but who cares this gives us control.
When you are lying in the street, mugged and waiting for an ambulance to be sent from the centralised hospital 30 miles away sleep ( or die) knowing that they will positively identify you so they can tax you inheitance!
but damned if I can recognise my own mother. Most cameras are high res but scrimping on storage media means the recording is so poor even if you catch the crime the image quality is useless other than ruling out the Yeti.
Good quality CCTV well managed works, unfortunately most examples are are neither good or managed.
oh and DP Act does say if it is not usable it is not necessary and therefore in breach of the Act. !parp!
Bin your contract pay as you go and dump the chip if they mess you around. It may be a little more to run but I for one don't like to let companies use DD etc. I pay for the service as I use and they can't take my money unless I give it to them.
They don't give a monkey's ass about customers only sales and profit. It is a closed market and if you can't live without being able to say " I AM ON THE TRAIN" at every opportunity you pays yer money ...
just programme a random location on the M25 as home and that will keep them busy for days stuck in traffic behind caravans or trucks hogging the middle lane or numpty who never check their oil, water. petrol etc. If you are luck you can get the insurance lolly and be driving about in your new 4 x 4 does my knob look big in this before they find the services.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
