* Posts by PatientOne

412 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Nov 2010

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Revenge pornography ban tramples free speech, law tossed out – where else but Texas!

PatientOne

"Given that neither country has a constitution"

Sorry, got to be the pedant here: The UK doesn't have a codified constitution, but it does have a constitution. As much as I dislike Wiki, this is the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom

Real talk: Why are you hanging on to that non-performant disk?

PatientOne

Re: Really?

One scenario that came to mind is to replicate a busy storage area, so for testing, as well as general development, slow disk could be very useful.

Causes of software development woes

PatientOne

"I'm guessing architects get such requests all the time."

Indeed, it is common, and not just for Architects. The main difference, however, is the earlier the changes, the easier to impliment, and late changes can be very, very, very expensive.

With Civils projects, and with building in general, adding to the side isn't that bad, but adding another level means working from foundations upwards. In IT terms, it means changing the core code, then checking each and every associated module.

That's not to say Construction can't be agile: They can work to the specification and deliver those parts that are completed as they're ready. It's simply that you can't keep changing the design as you go without major cost consequences. Just ask the Scottish Parliament about that one :p

Heart of darkness: Inside the Osówka underground city

PatientOne

No Pipboy and Blue jumpsuit?

Shame...

and no ValtTec logo, either :(

Twitter's not dreaming of a white supremacist Xmas: Accounts nuked

PatientOne

Re: Not applied to Government, of course

"The idiots who read his trumps are worth no more he is."

You know that includes his opponents, reporters and others who are not supporters?

Millions of moaners vindicated: Man flu is 'a thing', says researcher, and big TVs are cure

PatientOne

This is somewhat behind the times

So this is new research? That ignored the old that established *why* this occured?

Here's a synopsys: It's down to testosterone. Testosterone suppresses the immune system while increasing libido. When a man gets ill, testosterone drops, libido drops, and the immune system gets a boost. Why? Because men are walking petri-dishes. Men get ill, fight off the infection, and if they survive, build antibodies and pass on to subsequent offspring the code to combat said illness. Over time the successful code builds and the species becomes more resilient to said infection.

It's part of evolution and this has been known about for some years now.

So what's new from this research?

Yes sir, no sir, 3 bags NoSQL sir: It's a whizz-bang benchmark ... but WTF does it signify?

PatientOne

Re: Relational databases just can’t keep up with scalable NoSQL systems…

NoSQL is blindingly fast compared to MySQL, both for writing and reading. Apparently this was the grounds for claiming NoSQL was a SQL killer. Not that MySQL is that much of a benchmark.

One thing I might have missed, though: Has NoSQL cracked transactional writes yet? Used to be it couldn't (and some were saying it never would) cope with transactions. Plus, if it's scalable, how well does it handle millions of records? As in how quickly can I find all records relating to X out of 12 millions records stored?

Chainmail tires re-invent the wheel to get future NASA rovers rolling

PatientOne
Joke

Hmmm... 'Chain Mail'... a bit like the 'River Avon'... *twitch*

Next: Rover foiled by Bodkin like shards...

Your shoe, chewing gum, or ciggies are now your extra password

PatientOne

Re: I lost track somewhere

"take a photo of it with your own phone while you're mugging them. You can then show the picture to their phone."

The article mentions picking which bit of the picture is used to authenticate: That suggests just having a picture, or the item, isn't enough.

It's still a stupid idea, of cause: What if someone has stolen your watch, or you've just lost it? Or you simply don't have it on you that day? Yes, other 2FA's can suffer from the same problem and potentially worse ones (battery's run out on the dongle, your phone's got locked, someone hacked your e-mail account and locked you out and so on), but you can get most of those things sorted without resorting to the failsafe option (one use password to bypass the 2FA, then a 2FA removal password to remove the option before creating a new one as an example).

That won't stop people from loving the idea, however - at least until they've lost the item they used.

BoJo, don't misuse stats then blurt disclaimers when you get rumbled

PatientOne

Re: EU must be joking

Dan, I think you need to read through what you wrote again - you appear to have gotten things muddled a little...

To correct your analogy, this equates to a deal with a restaurant where we pay £35 a week, for which we get a discount so it's actually £25, and we get £10 worth of food. The remainder goes towards others in the scheme who need more food than we do. Net spend is £15.

Or, in actual terms: We pay around £350M (last month it was £327M), get a rebate of 12% (which the BBC reported as £75M... a wonderful example of not sanity checking their calculations - Considering Thatcher got us a 20% discount initially, that's still a maximum on £70M), and we get around £106M back through subsidies (again, using the BBC figures). Net contribution (using the BBC figures, and this seems about right despite their £75 M rebate claim): £148M.

The EU has two net contributors (I believe): The UK and Germany. However, as the EU has to agree a 7 year spending plan (this puts a cap on spending, and is what dictates the maximum the EU can bill members (which is where the £350M a week comes from - that's the maximum we can be asked to hand over) - so they'll just tighten their belts a little, then go looking for ways to get the deficit (most likely through charging the UK £175M+ for access to the common market).

Does that sound more realistic?

Monkey selfie case settles for a quarter of future royalties

PatientOne

One thing of interest: PETA claim the monkey was Naruto (a female in the group), but the photographer claimed it was a (different) male monkey who took the picture.

Now, PETA wasn't there so how the hell would they know which monkey it was, where as the photographer was there so would have a much better idea.

Also, the photographer claimed (successfully) that he'd spent time gaining the trust of the group, resulting in one of them taking the picture. So yes, he does have a valid claim to rights over the image. His paying 25% of profits to an animal charity *of his choice* isn't a loss for him, either - it'll be tax deductable, and he's now got legal rights over the image so can start chasing people for fees for their, now illegal, use of that picture.

If he's really fussed about it, that is. Or he could give the rights away, just to snub PETA. His choice - not theirs.

Daily Stormer binned by yet another registrar, due to business risks

PatientOne

Re: This isn't censorship

"It is censorship.

It's censorship dictated by a populist movement. The majority disagree so the companies bow to their pressure."

I disagree: The DS made a claim that their provider supported their views: The provider was remaining neutral in interest of free speech. That put the provider into an awkward position and the CEO decided that to maintain their neutrality, they had to kick the DS out. The CEO went on record regarding this and was not exactly happy with being backed into a corner by TDS like that. Other providers are aware of this and don't want to be put into the same position, not because of opponents of the DS, but because of actions the DS have already taken.

So this is less about free speech and more about false claims.

China: Cute Hyperloop Elon, now watch how it's really done

PatientOne

Re: Something I think people have missed:

Your points are ones I had thought of - but there are problems.

1) You're talking about passing the whole train through an airlock. This will take time meaning you need to carry more air for the passengers. The alternative is to use a docking tube and keep the train in the depressurised tunnel, but here you'd want to seal off that section of tunnel as a precaution. This would be faster on turn around, but you'd still need airlocks to allow trains to be replaced for maintenance.

2) Yes, compressed air would have to be pumped into tanks, or they would need swappable tanks of air. Even a half hour journey will require a supply and to keep the train size down, you'd need to replenish that supply at each stop - or at designated points.

This is the point, though: it's the logistics of how to run the system if someone went ahead and built it. Added to this, as you say, is passenger comfort, and how to deal with the inevitable system failure, but it's all cost and that cost won't be decreasing any time soon.

PatientOne

Something I think people have missed:

The aim is to send a train through as near a vaccum as can be maintained.

So how do passengers embark? How do they exit? How do they breath?

Okay, embark and exit are basically the same: Probably something akin to how the space shuttle connects to the ISS. However, you have to supply air for the passengers to breath. All this will set limits on how many passangers can travel in each car, and what the turn around time is per train. Different options come with different risks and costs and I doubt the trains will be able to carry enough people to make the system viable economically. So to me this sounds like a white elephant: Something to brag about publically, but lament the expense of privately.

And all that is before we even consider the risks of vandalism/terrorism and the dread human error...

Stop all news – it's time for us plebs to be told about BBC paycheques!

PatientOne

Re: Scrutiny...

People paying attention would have noticed this is payment from the license fee only: This isn't how much they earn in total, or how much the BBC are paying them in total - they could be paid in part (or in the case of some missing names, fully) from the commercial arm of the BBC which isn't included in the list, in addition to earnings from other sources, such as (as is mentioned below) production companies, shares etc.

So more smoke and mirrors and outrage and a promise from the BBC to cut wages... or at least move payment away from the public eye.

No loose sphincters involved: Just some quiet shell-games as they shuffle the money around a bit.

.. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job

PatientOne

Re: "whether the Navy should be abandoning low-tech backup solutions"

Your radio ops should also know Morse, so you should have a few people around to help. It's pretty much a required skill for Radio ops in the military, don't you know?

After all, how else do they send out instructions on how to down those pesky Alien spaceships that hover over our major cities, with their invincible shields, unless you sneak on with a pesky computer virus? :p

PatientOne

I'd say you'd have more than that in the Comms room: They should all know Morse as part of their work. Morse isn't just for lamps, after all :)

(Sorry, can't be bothered translating all this into Morse, as funny as it might be :p )

Jodie Who-ttaker? The Doctor is in

PatientOne
Joke

Re: An attempt to be relevant

The episodes with Sophie Aldred were Ace!

Okay, coat, door: Got it!

Hot HoloLens models 'shafted by Microsoft'

PatientOne

@imanidiot

That was the one issue in this that causes me to question the allegations: That GI were hired by Coroware, not by Microsoft directly and that it's Coroware that has failed to pay up. It makes this muddle of allegations seem like distraction from the basic claim that MS are liable for the money Coroware owed GI.

Nearly three-quarters of convicted TV Licence non-payers are women

PatientOne

The BBC was supposed to provide public service announcements, hence why it was funded by public license and was to give unbiased reporting in the process.

Everythign else they do is supposed to be funded privately via sponsorship.

It's also why the elderly are supposed to get a free license.

The question is: Has the BBC maintained the standards and services for which it is funded. If it has not, then the license fee should be withdrawn.

Dear racist Airbnb host, we've enrolled you in an Asian American studies course

PatientOne

Re: Half the Story

You missed out that there was also a disagreement over how much would be paid to cover the extra costs: Apparently it ended at $50 extra - and then more changes were demanded.

Adding in the extra detail does change perception of the incident. Barker was still wrong for the abusive response, but now it might be evident as to how it got to that point and, perhaps, how such incidents might be avoided in future: Better guidelines and support for the hosts so they have someone to ask if things start going sour.

Trump tramples US Constitution by blocking Twitter critics – lawsuit

PatientOne

Something seems to have been missed...

Strangely, the BBC article reports they *mocked* and criticized Trump. Seems people are focused on the criticism, which is fair, but if they were mocking him - that could be why they got blocked.

Still, that's supposedly why there are courts: To act as arbitors and to interpret the law to say who was in the right and who was not. Be interesting to see what the court has to say (if it gets that far).

It's time for a long, hard mass debate over sex robots, experts conclude

PatientOne

Did you try turning it off and on again?

Reset it to factory standard?

As it's less than six months, you can insist it's 'unfit for purpose' and demand a refund - consumer rights and all that.

Otherwise just send it for recycling: You don't need to keep faulty goods you know.

European MPs push for right to repair rules

PatientOne
Joke

So I'm the only one who thought 'How do you repair a broken rule?' then wondered why they needed a right to do so...

The fun of reading headlines litterally...

Canadian sniper makes kill shot at distance of 3.5 KILOMETRES

PatientOne

@ Steve the Cynic

It's an odd one regarding bullets: High powered rounds can cause little damage to soft targets - they tend not to tumble on impact so the exit wounds tend to be smaller, even with a .50 cal. So the bullet would have to hit a vital point to kill, yet 7.62mm rounds were more likely to kill than 5.56mm (which are more likely to tumble on impact). The reason was put down to hydrostatic shock - that the bullet sets up a shock wave while passing through soft tissue / bodies, which causes death. 5.56mm didn't do this as it tumbled instead, causing lots of tissue damage and a larger exit wound, but this was less likely to kill the person shot.

So, yes, hydrostatic shock is a 'thing' which explains why higher powered rounds would kill and lower powered rounds would wound, despite the wound characteristics.

Or that's how it was explained to me back in the day. Along with 'inbound fire has right of way', 'there's no such thing as friendly fire' and 'always check for the exit wound before applying the wound dressing: That's the big messy one they're bleeding out from'. My favourite from that time was, of cause: 'The shooting stopping isn't evidence that it's safe to go check the wounded'.

Paxo trashes privacy, social media and fake news at Infosec 2017

PatientOne

Re: What is this?

Young people lack the experience to vote smartly. Old people have that experience.

Young people have better education, but does that mean they're smarter?

Old people do run the risks of dementia, but people diagnosed with such issues can be removed from the electoral roll.

The age of retirement is increasing meaning that people work longer, and there have been suggestings that people should work until 70, even later, and indeed there are some who continue working well past their 70th birthday. Perhaps you could argue that when you retire you lose the vote: That might seem reasonable save when people retire, they're at the mercy of those who can vote. Hate to be retired when someone decides to abandon the national pension payments and stop all payments - the young would probably agree as they've not paid in, but those who have...

So the argument is not so staight forwards. Perhaps adapting the old system of property owners being able to vote, but change it to tax paying workers... only that would exclude people who should have the vote (someone taking a career break to raise a family, for example).

Nope - not as simple as stating 'over 70's shouldn't vote'.

Naselus: You talk of old people voting 'stupid', but you do not qualify that with what you consider 'old', nor how you define their voting as 'stupid'. I do hope you didn't use the claims from the Brexit vote* as the claims that older people voted leave and younger voted stay is very misleading as it was at best a staw poll of a small number of people, most just around London, with a few stretching to a couple of other cities - there was no exit poll from which to draw meaningful statistics on the voting pattern.

As for the old being asset rich... are you surprised? They've been working for 50+ years and built said assets. Of cause they'll be asset rich. The state then seeks to strip those assets from them to pay for what those old people have already paid for while they were working (retirement, elderly care etc). The youth are lucky if they inherrit anything as a result, but they then get to build up their own assets. Or that's the theory.

*this is the only time I've heard claims that old people voted 'stupidly'. Mostly they're accused of voting as they've always voted, but by then they've learned that polticians lie, and if they bother to vote, they'll go with what they know, not what they're being told. Voting with self interest is the norm, and is not age dependent so that's a non-argument. Especially when you understand the importance of the women's vote over the years and how political parties courted that vote.

Obama's intel chief says Russia totally tried to swing it for Trump

PatientOne

Okay, America (via the CIA) have sort to influence voting in other countries. Russia (via the KGB of old) has done the same. This is politics in action.

Most countries do this: They try and encourage a favourable outcome in an election in another country. There are lots of reasons to do this, from destablinising or winning favour, to gaining an element of control by having a sympathetic person run said country.

This is normal, so claims that the Russia sort to get Trump elected could well be true - he might well have been the more favourable candidate in Russia's eyes. Equally, any previous POTUS could have had help from the USSR, be it asked for or not. The reciprical is less likely, of cause, but look to non-communist countries and you'll see both US and USSR influences in elections, amongst others.

So... situation normal, really.

Ex-MI5 boss: People ask, why didn't you follow all these people ... on your radar?

PatientOne

"At least with the IRA,... they were not anxious to kill a lot of people,"

Birmingham Pub Bombings, shootings and bombings in NI, targetted attacks against London and other cities... no, the IRA were not out to kill a lot of people. They were, however, unconcerned by how many they did kill: They wanted attention. If people died during those attacks: That was fine. So technically she might be correct, but that doesn't mean the IRA didn't kill a lot of people.

'My PC needs to lose weight' says user with FAT filesystem

PatientOne

Re: Windows 98

Really?

The original computers were people (circa 1800's).

That would make you... almost as old as me :p

No nudity please, we're killing ourselves: Advice to Facebook mods leaks

PatientOne

Re: So I can live stream my suicide

"Worse still, a woman can't show her own, even if nursing a baby."

Interstingly, there are claims that you can show breasts if you claim to be a man - pre or post op, or just identify as one. Of cause, first the images have to be taken down and you have to challenge why, but male breasts are, apparently, fine.

Faking incontinence and other ways to scare off tech support scammers

PatientOne

"One rang me back immediately to complain that I was being very rude - and that his god would curse me."

Option one: Sing " My god's better than your god" (the lyrics are out there, trust me - just can't remember them off the top of my head)

Option two: Inform them that "My god's a Fun god, my god's the Sun god, Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra"

Option three: Ask them what their god does to sinners like them.

Option four: Reply with "from hell's heart i stab at thee for hate's sake i spit my last breath at thee"

Or laugh

Or hang up.

Depends on how much time you feel like wasting, and remember - if they call back they might forget to hide their number so you can pass it on to the ICO/Oftel etc. After all, they've just threatenned you over the phone, and as they made the call - that's illegal :)

Julian Assange wins at hide-and-seek game against Sweden

PatientOne

"There's no evidence he did or did not "get away with it". He's avoided being questioned and any subsequent trial by his peers for an alleged crime."

The evidence would be the testimony of the women involved. That's the problem with cases like this: Unless reported immediately, it quickly devolves into one person's word against another's.

The Swedish haven't dropped the case, either: That runs out in 2020 and they've said if he turns up in Sweden before then, then they'll have that chat. It's only the EU arrest warrant they're dropping.

The bail jumping, of cause, is also a contempt of court, so I'd hope he does get a fine AND a year's stay in prison, just to add to his inverse tan.

FBI boss James Comey was probing Trump's team for Russia links. You're fired, says Donald

PatientOne

Re: Comey was caught lying under oath. So Trump fired him. -- opportunely.

"Where there is smoke ..."

there could also be mirrors and it's all obfuscation. Or a smoke machine. There isn't always a fire.

Trump fired Comey, but read the BBC article about why: It wasn't Trump deciding to do so as much as agreeing to do so.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39866170

Read down the article - it suggests Comey made repeated mistakes, including not accepting he made mistakes. Maybe Trump took advantage of this to get rid of Comey, maybe not. We don't know but there are going to be those who say he did, and those who say he didn't and those who will sit on the fence (I've got the cushions and some popcorn ready) and watching to see what comes from this.

Personally I wish I'd brought the marshmellows instead.

The rise of AI marks an end to CPU dominated computing

PatientOne
Joke

Re: Bloody AI's

With an AI here

and an AI there,

Here and AI

There and AI

Everywhere an AI...

There's a song in there, somewhere, I'm sure...

Stop asking people for their passwords, rights warriors yell at US Homeland Security

PatientOne
Alien

Re: We desperately need a Trump icon.

There is one ->

You thought a human could look like Trump? That's a wig and a mask.

All hail our alien overlord!

Who really gives a toss if it's agile or not?

PatientOne

Re: 'What's Real and What's for Sale'...

"Technically 'agile' just means you produce working versions frequently and iterate on that."

It's more to do with priorities: On time, on budget, to specification: Put these in the order of which you will surrender if the project hits problems.

Agile focuses on On time. What is delivered is hopefully to specification, and within budget, but one or both of those could be surrendered in order to get something out On time. It's just project management 101 with a catchy name, and in poorly managed 'agile' developments you find padding to fit the usual 60/30/10 rule. Then the management disgard the padding and insist the project can be completed in a reduced time as a result, thereby breaking the rules of 'agile' development (insisting it's on spec, under time and under budget, but it's still 'agile'...).

An echo chamber full of fake news? Blame Google and Facebook, says Murdoch chief

PatientOne

So when is Murdock going to come out and claim copy write on fake news?

Drone complaints to cops are up twelvefold in three years

PatientOne

Re: incidents dominate UK Airprox Board reports

Could be Madam Whiplash* has flexed her whip in that direction.

*AKA Lindi St Clair, head of the UK's Corrective Party, who stood for election to Parliament 11 times. She was a former prostitute and dominatrix who accused the Inland Revenue of living off illegal/immoral earnings as they taxed prostitutes income while prostitution was considered both illegal and immoral at the time.

PatientOne

Re: Shotguns?

"good luck storing a 24 pounder in the mandated gun cabinet"

Good luck to the police in removing said cannon when they are directed to where it's stored (chained to the garage rafters, the back wall, the side wall and locked inside a brick outhouse as the one I helped crew was kept). Funnily, the officers who attended that call saw the funny side and just nodded and called it in as 'secure'. The ones who went to check one musket, however, were somewhat confused and then baffled as to why bother: The cabinet was bolted to the back wall of an Air Force Armoury, behind locks, armed guard and past the rather modern firearms that were not licensed through the police...

"Tony Martin"

To clarify: He was charged with murder (reduced to manslaughter) for shooting and killing a burglar with an illegal shotgun (A pump action shotgun of a type not allowed in the UK, even with a license) when he'd already lost his shotgun license (he lost his license in 1994, killed the burglar in 1999). The police claimed he was lying in wait for the burglars, and the man he killed, he'd shot in the back while the man fled the property.

"Hells, our terrorists aren't generally armed with more than a carving knife."

With which they can be quite effective, although they also use cars, bombs and other impliments. Just not generally guns.

"Suffice to say that blowing away drones with a shotgun is not likely to happen over this side of the pond."

Well, not firearms at least. Not sure how effective a Nerf gun would be, but a paint ball gun might do some damage. Flip side, there are always arrows (if you're any good with a bow), fishing line (as has been suggested) or other impliments, although this being the UK, good old fashioned weather (rain, gusty winds etc) makes drone flight somewhat of a gamble.

Rain... wonder if a super-soaker would hit a drone? That could be an alternative if it could fry the electronics... how do drones fare when soaked?

Bloke whose drone was blasted out of sky by angry dad loses another court battle for compo

PatientOne

Re: What a colostomy bag...

"Sure, but I would also expect them to be arrested for assault and criminal damage and the court to order them to pay to fix said damage. They should have called to police to address the original issue..."

1) What assault? The previous comment was 'then OFFER to', which might be interpreted as a threat.

2) Original poster stated: 'come into someone's yard' to 'mount a camera on a pole': That's trespass, probably criminal trespass (damage to the property when mounting the camera, or erecting the pole) and so the land owner has the right to remove said item, and yes, that removal can include destruction of said items - they were abandonned on private property, and the person doing so may well be fined for the cost of removing said items.

As for the drone: It was over private property. American law does vary from state to state but I believe they do uphold the right of a landowner to protect their property against intrusion, so shooting the drone down would be within his right. The owner of said drone would have no right to compensation: Either the drone was under control and the trespass was deliberate or it was not and so the drone was a danger to people and property and needed bringing down for safety.

Calling the police is usually the best option, yes, but sometimes direct action is required. This is what the courts are for: To judge if the action taken was justified and they have twice now said 'yes'.

Coppers 'persistently' breach data protection laws with police tech

PatientOne

Re: More accurately...

"Somewhere right now there's an officer in London wondering if he's about to be charged with murder for shooting the bloke who killed one of his colleagues and four other people"

Pedantic, I know, but... the bloke killed three people: One police officer, two civilians (as of last news update I read). So, unless there's been another death post mid-day news, it's 'the bloke who killed one of his colleagues and two other people'.

However, I think the above is justified by the title of 'More accurately'

Airplane bomb fears spark America's laptop, tablet carry-on ban

PatientOne

Re: or stowed in the hold

"Why does a bomb disguised as a laptop be safer in the baggage hold than cabin?"

So it's not available to a terrorist as a threat. It's in the hold isn't anywhere near as threatening as it being in the terrorist's hands.

It also has to go through baggage handling... where it can be lost, dropped, kicked around, stolen, found, thrown around a bit more, put on plane to another country, left in some forgotten corner, and eventually, months later, returned to the owner in one or more pieces.

Well, that's what seems to happen to other forms of baggage at times...

BOFH: Don't back up in anger

PatientOne
Black Helicopters

Re: Great episode

You accidentally secure erase a file by right clicking and selecting 'erase' rather than 'delete' from the menu, then clicking 'yes' when prompted because you've been secure deleting files for a while and got into the habit. Yes, you need secure erasure software installed to do this, but who doesn't these days? o:)

PatientOne

ISO 9001: We've got policies and people might be following them.

ISO 9002: We actually check that people are using these policies.

ISO 9003: We do something if people aren't.

Okay, it's been a while, but that was how it was described back then. Somehow I doubt it's really changed much.

Two-thirds of TV Licensing prosecutions at one London court targeted women

PatientOne
Joke

Re: How..

42...

where have I heard that number before... something significant about that...

(Yes, just coincidence, but... live, the universe and all that...)

PatientOne

Re: TV

I would have expected it to be the primary resident that would be summoned, not the person who answers the door.

If this is the case then we need different data points to understand what is happening. Is this a case of women not thinking of getting a license when men do? Or that men are more likely to pay up if confronted over the lack of license? Or that more women are more likely to be the owner or primary tenant than men?

The 16yr old could be the primary tenant at that property, possibly bought for her by rich parents - we don't know. Equally, it could be a shared house and she has a TV in her lockable room - which requires a separate license (Some thing common amongst students sharing a house). All we've been told is a 16yr old living in a £400,000 house didn't have a TV license.

Yes, Crapita's approach is typical of their business model (maximise income v minimal effort and charge for everything, including all inbound phone calls, and I bet they'd try charging for any calls they make to you, too, if they could). Yes, they are bullies. No, this doesn't mean they're targetting one particular demographic. Doesn't mean they're not but we don't have the right information to support such a conclusion.

Mysterious Gmail account lockouts prompt hack fears

PatientOne

Re: Weird.

Latest version of Andriod here - but had just been notified that GoogleMail app had updated so, having checked it was legit, I logged back in and it was all fine, believing it was just down to the app updating.

It was a little worrying, though - but Google seem to take security seriously and I normally get separate notifications if there are any changes to the account (the message simply said that due to a change, I'd been logged out for security reasons and needed to log back in).

You're Donald Trump's sysadmin. You've got data leaks coming out the *ss. What to do

PatientOne
Joke

Re: @frank ly - Take the battery out?

Wait... Samsung phones... That's why they burst into flame: They were trying to go for the 'disconnected battery' option but it must have been an early prototype and sparked instead...

Apple must be doing the same thing considering their battery woes...

Wow: Mobile Phone manufacturers are secretly helping the People...

Oh... my pills. Well, yes, I had forgotten them. Freshly dried frogs, too, how nice.

Scottish court issues damages to couple over distress caused by neighbour's use of CCTV

PatientOne

Re: 5 days

'A purpose of "so we can see who it was that parked and blocked our car in", would not be regarded as a legitimate purpose under the DPA'

Are you sure about this? I've not checked what would be allowed by the DPA, but blocking someone's drive is an offence (civil rather than criminal) especially if it blocks a car's access to the highway. If it's a frequent problem then I would have thought this would be an effort to gather evidence of harassment if it's the same driver/car each time which would be permitted.

Obviously I'd hope anyone doing this would check with the police/lawyer first.

Openreach reshuffles top brass, brings in BT bods to make biz more independent of BT

PatientOne

BT and other infrastructure *was* national. However, thanks to @10 years of union strikes, successive weak governments and withdrawl of investment, the country was left almost bankrupt. In stepped Mrs Thatcher who had to turn all that around and she opted to sell what she could, such as rail, BT, gas and electricity. She did, however, retain a majority share in these companies that successive governments then sold until the companies are, essentially, private.

People can decide for themselves if the move was right or wrong.

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