Posts by Pat

Re: UK plc should share some of the blame...

When I was contracting I saw no point in trying to simultaneously do my already busy job and take on the frustrating task of trying to train my cheaper and much less capable replacement, knowing they would cock things up and place the blame on me as I would not be there to prove otherwise.

The line I used to take was that I would have to document the hand-over, as a chargeable consultancy item that was not already specifically identified in the contract, and that hand-over could only be to a suitably qualified person who could prove they had the same or better tech qualifications than me; otherwise it would be professional training, which I was not contracted to do. Also, I used to keep a day diary to show what problems had been tackled and would say "let's pick an example and see how well they they deal with real issues".

Documenting this would only sometimes make the contract last a bit longer, but it covered me and raised the blood pressure of those trying to take advantage by doing things on the cheap. Those employers wanting to do things properly could understand my rationale.

Basically I try to adopt the attitude of a contractor I met a long time ago when I was first a permie; he said "I don't suffer from stress, I'm just a carrier'.

Red Bren - Civil Servant or political nonce?

I'm not a contractor but have been before, both out of necessity and choice.

Quote = "Contractors already earn a fortune in comparison with permanent staff ".

Answer = Clearly you are incapable of setting up a simple spreadsheet to quantitatively evaluate what a contractor gets against a comparable permie, though the keyword in your statement may be 'earn' as opposed to simply 'be paid'.

Quote = "don't have to pay taxes through PAYE".

Answer = Yes, they do. Just how ignorant are you? Wait, that's an answer with no end.

Quote = "It's why people go contracting".

Answer = No, people go contracting for a variety of reasons. You appear to just be of limited intelligence, imagination, experience, or some combination thereof.

Quote = "I recall when IR35 came in, contractors were discussing how to avoid having to pay their fair share of tax".

Answer = If you are a permanent IT employee, name the IT technical courses and qualifications you put yourself through paying out of your own pocket. How many is that? None, and that is just one of the anomalies of your 'fair' IR35 regulation.

If you think contracting is so profitable then why aren't you contracting? Some risk involved if you're not up to the job, eh? I am not a contractor, but neither am I a bitter, envious, no-talented scared little twat. If contractors can't or don't deliver they can easily be canned, so just the fact of their continued existence proves their necessity to business.

Heck, I'd even vote for

Yuri Lyalin said: "We were drinking and what doesn't happen when you're drunk?"

I like his attitude, and if he was one of the candidates for London Mayor I'd probably vote for him.

<Title>

Paris because I can imagine her saying exactly the same as Yuri!

@Billy Goat Gruff

"Why are we always fighting our representatives to explain their bizarre decisions?"

If the word 'bizarre' was replaced with 'self-interested' would that make it any clearer?

Does anyone else find it deeply cynical that the Gov't are playing the 'honesty' card to remain unaccountable?

So although the UK is catching up...

From the comments above:

1 - the UK is incapable of implementing a cybercafe ID scheme as quickly as Syria;

2 - although our politicos try to tell us what to think and say (political correctness?) the UK still hasn't caught up with 1920s Germany.

I don't know about you lot, but this charming amateurism causes me to feel a tiny glow of patriotism for UK/Great_Britain/England/Airstrip_One/EU_UndecidedDesignation or whatever compartment our Great_Brown_One chooses to bang on about.

Paris...because we'll always have Paris.

We're gonna get EU

Really, he makes it all seem far too complicated.

All that's necessary is:

1 - All EU proles get a chip implanted;

2 - At random times a signal is sent to all the chips in a geographic area ordering "Lie down on the floor and remain calm";

3 - Within five seconds of the lie-down signal being sent automatic lasers in that area will zap-to-powder anyone who moves.

The effects of this scheme are to:

a - zap anyone without a chip, so it will cut down on tourists as well as illegal immigrants (surely not a bad thing?);

b - zap anyone with a faulty chip, and anyone who is physically or mentally slow at obeying the command (neo-Darwinism in action).

Of course the whole point of having everyone lie down en masse for a few minutes is it looks damn good on CCTV & will give our well-respected overlords immense boners.

A side effect of this chippy scheme is that prison places can be reduced as, being able to track people's movements, it will be possible to sentence them to six months in Swindon or something similar.

Joke Alert because our 'leaders' wouldn't want to do this to us, would they?

It's artificial respiration, it only looks like I'm punching him

"I genuinely think if anything holds us back it's failing to comprehend the possibilities of what we can do with data mashups. My job is to explain it across government."

"...in which content provided by users is the central feature of a website."

"One of the things for service delivery that we need to know is what customers are saying," he said. "We need a cultural change"

Yep, you need both, but will persist in ignoring us and doing exactly what you've done before. As exemplified by what has happened with the hunt for Civil Serf.

http://civilserf.blog.co.uk/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/threelinewhip/march2008/civil-serf-is-innocent.htm

Isn't Excel good!

So that's the social security numbers for the link file , and Save, no wait, dammit, I meant Save_As

...

It was the computer wot done it.

This time next year

we'll be millionaires! Time to sell your WW1&2 surplus gas masks.

(Marketing courtesy of the Home Office, consumer rights protected only while wearing the mask. no refunds if mask has been worn. Thank you for being done by us.)

Couple of general questions

As regards the National Identity Register, which of these two statements do you feel is more likely?

a) There is some essential benefit to this country and it's citizens, but the politicians haven't got around to telling us what it is;

Or

b) Politicians want as much power over us as they can get because, broadly speaking, most of our thinking and behaviour is of necessity more practical than politically-correct, and so professional politicians see us as a threat to their privileged lifestyles.

And while thinking of a threat to their privileges, would the budgets for Government projects be more realistic and better managed if any financial over-run first had to be made up from the pension-funds and savings/property of those responsible, though only to a degree that would let them learrn rather than ruin them financially such as:

5% of the funds of MPs who held any Ministerial post relevant to the project;

1% of the funds of all other MPs;

3% of the funds of all involved senior civil-servants?

(And if you think this would stop government from doing anything that wasn't absolutely essential, well, that might be a significant improvement.)

Paris because, like politicians, the budget is irrelevant to the spend..

Coat required?

[Quote] Kirk was charged with "prowling and resisting arrest with violence", and released on Sunday from Manatee County Jail after coughing $1,200 bail. [/Quote]

I like to think I'm law-abiding but I think if I was going to be 'arrested with violence' I'd be tempted to resist.

- I'll take the electrically-grounded coat please.

Typo error, surely...

they meant 'HMRC Abolition'?

Careful with that soldering iron..

And any black mobile 'phones, MP3 players, spectacles case etc you may have in your pockets; anything dark like these that fits in the hand and may be waved at or may be pointed at somone/something may now fall under the VCRB, and armed plod may be called!

Explanatory Notes to Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006:

242. Subsection (2) provides that an imitation firearm is not to be regarded as distinguishable from a real one if it could only be distinguished by an expert, on close examination or as a result of an attempt to load or fire it. Subsection (3) provides that in determining whether an imitation is distinguishable from a real one, its size, shape and principal colour must be taken into account. An imitation is to be regarded as distinguishable if its size, shape or principal colour is unrealistic for a real firearm. In this connection, subsections (4), (5) and (6) provide a power for the Secretary of State to make regulations (subject to the negative resolution procedure) specifying dimensions and colours which would be regarded as unrealistic.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2006/en/06en38-c.htm

@But WTF by Paul

Ah, but under this guidance laptops can leave the office if the laptops hdd is encrypted.

(Even if the encryption phrase is written down on the laptop or, more likely, written on a yellow sticky accompanying the laptop - that's what happens when the focus is on encryption and not on security.)

Bad drivers are responsible, not mobiles

This quote from the Telegraph indicates mobile phones are linked (not causative, please notice) in only a very small proportion of crashes:

"Ministers are keen to take an even stronger line after figures showed that mobile phones were linked to 13 fatal accidents in 2005 and 52 serious crashes."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/20/nmobile320.xml

Possibly the government want the spotlight taken off of the glut of cash-generating speed-cameras; strangely enough road accidents have increased despite these, though the politicos claim they are effective at improving the safety of the piece of road upon which they are focused (i.e the painted white lines).

EUAW & off you go

Lucky that Turkish prosecutor can't apply for an EU Arrest Warrant...yet!

"Fast-track extradition warrants are being issued for minor offences including a demand for the arrest of one suspect for the theft of a piglet, European Union officials have said...

Civil liberties campaigners are concerned that the EAW does not require a proportionality test or allow refusal if the offence does not exist under national laws."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/16/warrest116.xml

PKI & Biometrics

1. Through HMRC the UK government have clearly demonstrated their unsuitability to be a Trusted Third Party - incompetence, arrogance, lack of accountability, and bending the truth are some of the wrong qualifications for this role.

(I cannot see that any TTP can be that trusted to the level that they could invalidate someone's identity.)

2. For biometric data to be publically and widely used to generate a valid key will require an algorithm; just how secure will that algorithm be?

If that algorithm is to be used for acceptance of ID for international travel you can just kiss security goodbye. It's just a matter of what causes it to crack first for the 'bad guys' - bribery, incompetence or technical ingenuity.

If you can't see how useful it would be for 'bad guys' to be able to create cards which will pass the authentication algorithm <Computer says YES! Ka-ching!> then you probably don't get Dunstan Vavasour's point above.

Typo

Has El Reg made a typo?

Given the rapidly increasing prison population and the Government's readiness to criminalise 'wrong-thoughts', rather than 'cell and tissure therapies' it should have read 'cells and, 'tis sure, mental therapies'.

I'll get my coat...