Re: The UK has that

"Also, why is it that when buying a tax disc they need to check that the car is insured?"

It became a legal requirement a couple of years ago for any car that is registered as 'on the road' (i.e a SORN has not been filed) to have its own valid insurance policy in place. If your insuyrance lapses, you get an automatic fine through the post.

@AC Re: Appeals process a sham, sherlock

"No real legal prescident to force you to pay their fines, you never entered a contract with them"

I've done a fair bit of research on this, and technically you do enter into a contract with a land owner when you park on private land (such as supermarkets), as long as various conditions are met (ample, unambiguous signage etc). It differs from a real parking fine as the contract is effectively a verbal one between the driver of the vehicle and the land ownner. If you 'contravene' the contract, they can send you an 'invoice' (which they very dishonestly attempt to make look as much like a real parking ticket as possible), with a supposedly pre agreed amount of money for breaking their rules.

A few years ago, I was issued with several of these 'invoice' for parking on a patch of land near my flat in the city centre, by the bastard company that is UKPC. This land had no signage whatsoever telling me I couldn't park there, so I tried many different methods to tell them to get stuffed; funny letters, factual letters with proof of no wrongdoing (photographs etc) and just ignoring them. The latter was the most effective. They send letter after letter before fobbing you off to a debt recovery company, who in turn pass you to another and another on being ignored. After a few months they get bored and the letters stop.

Re: Unbelievable

When you consider the fact that you get between 4 and 5 years for manslaughter in Blighty (and I'm not talking death by dangerous driving; this is violent crime that goes bad.), these sentences are grossly disproportionate. They should all have received community service, or less than 6 month stints inside at best.

Re: Agreed

"I fail to see how "high end" smartphones can justify the £££ price tags"

The top end smart phones can do WAY more than a Pi. The ability and spec of the boards, cameras and chips aside though, you have other considerations. Not all of the components will be off the shelf like the Pi. There's prototyping, the slimming down of components to keep the phone thin (which costs a shitload), the design, development and purchase of the latest touchscreens - one of the most expensive components, hordes of designers and testers for the ergonomics, the phone design, design and coding of the ROM (Samsung are very far removed from stock droid these days), power considerations including slimmed down batteries and low consumption where possible. Then there's serious marketing once you actually have your finished product.

In short, it costs tens of millions to develop the latest phone. Obviously they add a decent markup on the phones; they aren't a charity like the pi foundation. But a few hundred pounds can be justified when you seriously consider the R&D that goes into a product like this.

Re: reformat & reinstall

They don't even need reinstallation media. Create ghost images, plug into the network and you can format and rebuild as many PC's as you can plug in at once.

Where the fuck do they pluck these figures from? One guy could do this task in a couple of days. The mind boggles, it really does.

Re: Eh?

@g e

Whilst I (and others, it seems) agree with your sentiment, please do refrain from random hashtagging.

This isn't FaceTwat.

Re: Dozen eggs for a euro?

Yes you can. The giant Walmart/ Asda near me does 6 free range eggs for £1. Then again, I do live up North.

Re: I'm confused...

"Google files court order for Ebay to give them the seller's name and address"

Give the thing to your mate to sell through his account. Google will have no idea where the glass came from, as the address won't match any records. They also won't know which device to disable remotely.

Re: Pirate Bay is one hydra of many

@TechnicalBen "Make "piracy" work for the media creators"

The little guys cottoned onto this some time ago. Most indie bands and little known bands on small labels nowadays release their stuff for free, to drum up interest and make money from live shows. Even some of the big guns have dabbled in it; Radiohead being one. When they released InRainbows for free, liberated from a major label, they reportedly made a couple of million from 'donations', and of course the ensuing live tour.

It's high time the big labels in the industry learn to catch up and embrace the change. They've certainly had enough time and enough evidence to see it's the only way to go.

Re: Bah!

"They are banning a potentially useful device without much consideration of how people will use it. Automatically, it's videos ("cat videos" as the example) because that's what the small minded twats associate with Google."

Ok, so exactly what uses would there be for an Android-powered computing device, whilst you are in charge of a speeding vehicle?

Re: 75 miles? hahahahahahahaha

"another thing you dn't need to worry about!"

As Tesla refuse to replace dead batteries free of charge (see previous Reg articles on Tesla batteries that were unusable after being left to go completely flat) and the cost of a new one is several thousand, I'd say the battery in the Model S is the MAIN thing to worry about.

Re: Running costs.

I was thinking the same thing. I do 6 miles each day to and from work, with some weekend visiting/ shopping etc. My 6 year old Mondeo diesel gets 45-55mpg, and my monthly spend on fuel is around £70. So with the cost per charge added (£2, £3 per charge perhaps?), buying a smaller, more 'frugal' e car would incur higher monthly fuel costs than my dirty 2.0 TDCI. Where's the incentive? And when the government gets bored of the EV grant and £5k gets added to the purchase price, there will be even less.

But having said all that, this is a big improvement on the Leaf and a step in the right direction. Inevitably, we WILL run out of oil. I just think that 2 years before we know if EV's will be a success story or not is far too soon.

Re: NZ Has No TV Tax

"without full F1 coverage"

Agreed, I pay £10 a month on top of my Sky subscription (which I only got ion the first place for the braodband/ phone package) just for the F1. That's less than the cost of the BBC licence. But not everyone will feel the need for this.

The BBC does still put out some quality stuff; wildlife (Africa), Top Gear (not to everyone's taste, admittedly), some good documentaries. But it also pumps out some utter shite. To that end, it's not much different to the other channels, and in my view has nothing that I'd pay £130 a year for. The best stuff can either be purchased in a box set, or is repeated by freeview channels. It's time the antequated BBC kept up with the times and the licence fee was scrapped in place of giving people a choice.

Re: Tbh i cant see why people are moaning so much about always online DRM.

"you are reliant on their servers"

True that. They retire games all the time, when the usage drops below a certain level. I'm not a fan of the DRM by any stretch, but I really wanted the game. It is a bit stripped down, but I've still enjoyed playing it thus far.

And to be honest, if they do turn the servers off after 3 years, I'll have had an enjoyable game for less than £12 per year, with online multiplayer and updates etc. And I'm sure someone will have sussed how to crack it to play it offline and save by then anyway, so that'll be the option for when it is retired.

Re: Pix or it didn't happen.

" Pix or it didn't happen. "

Look a few posts up for a non-naked image. Then, retract your request at full speed. Pix definitely NOT needed on this occasion.

Re: Only the toffs should go to University

"75%+ of the IT sector is in the same boat"

That figure seems a bit high to me. You're right in that you can get by in IT without a degree, and can do very well. Also, with the pace of tachnnology advancement, a degree is useless in a practical sense in a very short time, and also doesn't mean you'll be better at your job than someone without one. But what it does do for you is open doors. Several companies (especially the larger ones) will chuck your CV in the bin at first glance if there's no degree on there. Rightly or wrongly, that's the way it is.

I dropped out of uni and worked in IT, before realising I needed the degree to increase my prospects. After I went back and graduated, the difference in the market was substantial. I look on it as a £20k investment, which will hopefully have paid off in a few years' time.

"justify a conclusion that was already decided"

It would appear that way. If they'd wanted a fairer and more useful consoultation, they could have just asked 2 questions:

- Would you be interested in registering a second level .uk domain?

- Would you like increased security as an option for new domains registrations?

Job done.

Re: Really?

"Or people already have the old stuff and won't even pirate the new stuff..."

MUCH more likely. I can count the number of decent albums from the last decade on my fingers and toes.

Re: Saints Row 2 vs GTA 4

Ah yes, the good old Ballad of Gay Tony. I'd forgotten about that, that was fun to play through.

Re: Ooh...

*Colombian. Obviously haven't had enough of the Java today.

Ooh...

A serious bone of contention for British IT staff, this. The 'IT' half suggests coffee, but the Britishness obviously is tea. In most places I've worked, there have been some 'ambidextrous' (seriously confused, I call them) types who like both in equal measure. For me, it's coffee all the way. Strong, with a splash of milk and no sugar. At home it's Columbian roast from the coffee maker with the bacon sarnie, but at work it's the standard industrial-sized tubs of Nescafe, as it's free.

Re: Saints Row 2 vs GTA 4

Saints Row is (or was) just a poor man's GTA in my view. Each to their own, though. I enjoyed the fully immersive and sometimes intense experience of GTA. It was like being in a movie that lasted for several weeks, and changed depending on what I did. But you're right about it being a grind; definitely not a game to bring out if you want a quick blast and don't have a few hours spare to develop the story.

"They are changing the controller"

They said that last time. They even went as far as producing prototypes and press images featuring controllers with those elongated handle things on them. The end result was almost exactly the same as the previous 2, though.

Re: Novelty

"this isn't just about you"

Shit, thanks for pointing that out Mr. AC. I may not have realised otherwise.

Anyway, my point was that Ninty got the market wrong, not that there's no room for them. The movement controllers are a novelty, and the Wii's lack of decent, playable non-movement games (and a half decent console) has banished millions of Wii consoles to dusty cupbaords/ corners/ attics. In short; the casual gamers got bored, the serious gamers had no interest to begin with.

Re: The gods help us

"Apple will always be around"

Ha ha ha, that was the funniest part for me.

Re: @Sir Wiggun

"Actually yes I do and no I don't which is why I drive a Skoda. I've never seen the point in wasting money on something which takes you, and from time to time various other bits and pieces, from one place to another and for most of the time just sits around doing nothing."

If you're a 'gets you from A to B' kind of guy and not arsed about what you drive then why bother reading (and commenting on) a car review...?

Re: Please

"It's not McDonalds that microwave their burgers. Burger King do however."

I don't know why you got downvoted for that. I have been to a service station Burger King, and the staff literally did microwave my already-cooked burger. They then proceeded to charge me the best part of £8 for it (along with some cold chips and watered down Fanta). Soggy isn't an adequate word for the mush I got in that box. Needless to say, sandwiches have been packed on every long journey since then.

Re: "Apple invents the Personal Computer. Again."

Indeed. And it seems attempting to flog hugely overpriced, underwhelming kit and long, expensive lawsuits are also ancient traditions kept very much alive today.

Re: "a quarter that of The Sun"

Fry, Bender and Flexo in the robot strip club

Fry: "Woah, check out her exhaust pipe"

Bender and Flexo in unison: "Ugh! Pervert."

Re: All that money so little profit

That's what I was thinking. They typically charge 10% Final Value Fee, plus listing fees, and monthly fees for shops. This is their revenue.

They haven't been in the news much for buying up companies this year, so where's the rest of the cash...? Must be a tax thing.

Re: Windows 8 on Phones is so Sucky....

Whether I agree with your sentiment or not, the fact that you actually typed the word 'sucky' to describe something, and then submitted said statement, deserves a downvote.

Re: Fact check?

"but y'know, pendants abound"

What does neck jewellery have to do with anything?

</pedant>

Re: even on modern tellys, @MrXavia

"NO adverts"

The BBC DO advertise. All of their radio and TV channels advertise the other BBC radio and TV channels, all day long. Radio 1 and 2 (I can only stomach the latter) have as many 'ad' breaks as the commercial stations, so I actually don't think there to be any improvement in the quality over commercial stations, which is why I usually stick on a CD.

The BBC do generate some great quality TV, but I can't remember the last time I watched it as it was being broadcast. It's all either catch-up or Blu Ray for me, which begs the question; why can't I opt for Sky to turn off the live BBC channels on my subscription and stop paying for the bloody licence?