Posts by Simple Simon
11 posts • joined Monday 30th January 2012 20:43 GMT
Re: Strange
Just to re-iterate that point:
We have servers running Postfix (SMTP), Dovecote (IMAP), CalDAV and CardDAV - serving a mixture of iOS, OSX, and Android (all of multiple versions). They all talk, and they all sync.
Sure, the iOS devices are bound to an iTunes account, and the Android devices are bound to a Google ID, but we don't use any of the cloud services from anyone.
Hovering over China?
The only way to "hover" (ie. not move relative to the ground) is to be in geostationary orbit. And you can only be in geostationary orbit over the equator (or thereabouts, if you accept a wobble) - at an altitude of about 22,000 miles. I don't think there's any part of China on the equator.
It may well have been doing all sorts of slurping, but I guess it would have been on a different (probably lower) orbit, passing over points of interest, rather than hovering.
Re: ...hover over info bar
The trouble with UI elements that appear when you hover the mouse, is that there is no hover event in a touch UI.
I think designing UI elements that require onmouseover is a little short sighted. I'm certainly finding that I'm rethinking my approach to UI design, and noting the general move towards supporting touch interfaces, I wonder whether hover events (should) have had their day?
Responsive Design
It's not that the link on the home page is small, it's that some jolly clever responsive design always has it sitting under the fold. As you make your browser window larger, the image (currently of the iPad mini) grows. The footer is *always* off the bottom of the screen, and you always have to scroll down to see it - however big the page, and however high the resolution of the screen.
I may have got my court rulings mixed up, but didn't this one stipulate that the link had to be *above* the fold???
Posted in Why is solid-state storage so flimsy?
Best of all worlds?
I've swapped out the internal optical drive of my laptop for a caddy that holds a spinning disc. I have a (only 128GB!) SSD as the boot/applications/user folder/working files drive. The spinning disc is partitioned - with one partition being a target for a scheduled daily clone from the SSD, and the other being a place to store larger files (eg media).
I think I'm having my cake, and eating it - but I'll wait for the inevitable correction...
Whatever the impact on battery life, isn't it just a good thing that the RF output is (possibly) reduced, and (possibly) directed away from your head?
Who Cares...
about domain names?
Don't most people just use a search engine anyway? Even more so now that browsers seem to have done away with the separate field for search.
The point being, that you just type what you want in the URL field, and and your search-engine-of-choice takes you there with just one further click.
And, when was the last time you saw a domain name on a print or TV advert?
Re: 3% VAT
Nope.
Under EU VAT law, for "Business to Consumer" transactions, and where the deliverable is "not physical" (eg. services, software, or electronic books), the VAT is charged where the vendor is based. In the case of Amazon (and iTunes, and the rest) that's Luxembourg. The VAT on electronic books (and anything else a consumer in the UK downloads from Amazon, iTunes and the rest) goes to Luxembourg, not to the UK.
For "Business to Business" transactions, and where the deliverable is "not physical", the VAT is charged where the purchaser is based. So, as a business purchaser, if you can demonstrate to the vendor of "non physical" items that you are indeed a business and are VAT registered, they should not charge Luxembourg VAT (and you will instead have to account for the VAT on your UK VAT return). However, try telling that to iTunes, Amazon and the rest...
For all transactions where the deliverable is "physical" (eg. a piece of hardware you bought from Amazon), the VAT is charged where the purchaser is based. Which means that, if a consumer buys a physical DVD of a piece of software from Amazon, they pay UK VAT, and if they buy a download of the same piece of software, from the same vendor, they pay Luxembourg VAT.
Oh, and BTW, if you've paid Luxembourg VAT, you can't claim it back on your UK VAT return.
Great, aint it?
I genuinely don't understand. Help please.
But, unless I completely misunderstand it, I've been doing this myself for years.
I have a VOIP number (from Sipgate, but that's not important) - and that number rings on whatever device I use to log on to the VOIP service at that time. When travelling overseas, that's usually via a locally bought data-only SIM, and a VOIP app on my smart phone.
So, I am "subscribing to a number" (from my VOIP provider), and simply using the data service of the telco of wherever I happen to be.
What's new with this offering? The only thing I can think of is that there's some kind of QoS for the VOIP traffic?
Pedantic Point
Actually, it'd be 00.59 BST on the 30th.
However, I think it's irrelevant - and a waste of money for most. Actual domain names matter increasingly little I think (unless you are Pepsi, Nike, or the like). It's more about getting your brand high in the search results that counts.
DIY
It's fashionable to outsource to the cloud. But you pay the price.
We stubbornly refuse to do so, and run our own mail server. We enjoy all the benefits that the cloud providers offer, with push syncing to iToys, Androids and desktop apps, webmail, and infinite storage. And the cost really is minimal.
But crucially, we control the data. For us therefore, it's a no-brainer.
