* Posts by Chad H.

2434 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jan 2007

UK's competition watchdog gives £31bn Virgin Media and O2 merger the seal of approval

Chad H.

This is well overdue. My experience of Telefonica/O2's management during the time they decided to get rid of customer service (and broadband) was that the management team wanted to do anything but run a telco. Now, they finally get their chance not to.

Chad H.

Re: Yeah Virgin customer service!

As opposed to O2 Customer service.

They don't have any. They got rid of it all to Capita, as Customer Service isn't a thing mobile companies do apparently.

Ask anyone on Disability benefits what they think about Capita's service.

O2 be a fly on the wall during BT and Vodafone's video calls: Telefónica's UK biz, Virgin Media officially merge

Chad H.

Oh gawd, I hope not. When I worked there senior O2 management struck me as being like ADHD children. Desperate not to be running a telco they’d hatch all sorts of crazy schemes they’d show hyperactive levels of interest in, only for the attention deficit to swiftly kick in and the once darling idea that shaped the future of the business forgotten after mere weeks.

The O2 Board is very much the Peter principle in action. They’re fortunate to be on top of a business that basically runs itself, because if they had to do it, it would simply fail.

FBI boss: We went to the Moon, so why can't we have crypto backdoors? – and more this week

Chad H.

>>>"When I hear 'if we can put a man on the moon, we can do this' I'm hearing an analogy almost saying 'if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can put a man on the sun,'" he said.

I am lead to believe the trick is to go at night.

PETA calls for fish friendly Swedish street signage

Chad H.

Perhaps PETA should go first and tell us exactly how many animals they killed in their "shelters" in the last 12 months.

Hint - that number aint close to 0.

Schadenfreude for UK mobile networks over the tumult at Carphone

Chad H.

"Get as much commission out of the customer as you can"

Chad H.

>>>> For a perfect market to work the consumer needs information, the ability to evaluate such deals, and Carphone provided just that.

From my experience working in the mobile industry (admittedly a good few years ago) is that while Carphone certainly provided "Information", it was rarely, if ever correct. The number of Blackberries they sold without the required extra paid for service was... shocking. Back then Blackberries were just an overpriced basic phone without that extra service - couldnt get any data service at all.

Beardy Branson: Wacky hyperloop tube maglev cheaper than railways

Chad H.

Re: Maybe.

Well, that was actually Brian Souter in charge, and a lot of failures were due to Network Rail delays in upgrades.

Are you able to read this headline? Then you're not Julian Assange. His broadband is unplugged

Chad H.

Re: It would take a heart of stone not to laugh...

>>>>I agree. But why does the UK have to put with this?

Do you really want to send a message to all criminals in the country "We'll let you off scott free if you just make it awkward for us to arrest you"?

You want wires with that? Burger King backs, er, net neutrality

Chad H.

Re: And a key ingredient is missing

>>>People just need to see a big line inside BK and decide to go to a COMPETITOR and get a burger there!

Except in the US, a lot of people *don't* have that choice. If they have a choice at all, its one or two scumbag companies doing the exact same thing.

Chad H.

Re: Well, Thank The Heavens

>>>Exactly. The same simpletons who bought this BS pretends the internet was only invented a few years ago. What ever did we do before net neutrality?

Well, O2 Broadband did try to charge you more to access streaming. If you bought their 8Mbps package no netflix for you.

Magic Leap blows our mind with its incredible technology... that still doesn't f**king exist

Chad H.

Despite all of that, you still think they're going to deliver a product? Interesting.

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

Chad H.

Oh to be a member of the right.... "I reserve the right not to serve you because you're gay/muslim/a hippie, but don't you dare refuse to serve me because I'm an asshole".

Merger-hungry AT&T sued for price gouging by Texas ISP

Chad H.

Just going to get more and more of this with Net Neutrality. Content providers and carriers will seek each other out, to prevent others from shafting them - Mutually Assured Destruction for the internet age.

BT plots to slash pension benefits for 32,000 staff

Chad H.

Re: bollocks

Why should it be the staff's problem? BT made them a deal when they signed up, BT should keep the deal. End of.

Chad H.

If only the rest of us could turn around to BT and say "Sorry, I spent too much money on other rubbish, like football... so you know that deal we made? I'm just going to pay you a fraction of what I agreed. Sorry about that.

Itching to stuff iOS 11 on your iPhone? You may want to hold off for a bit

Chad H.

>>> It is very, very likely that lots of developers either don't know this is coming or need their users to make a fuss in order to shift management into allocating funds for an update.

Its not exactly been a secret, especially given new 32 bit apps haven't been accepted for some time....

Snopes.com asks for bailout amid dispute over who runs the site and collects ad dollars

Chad H.

You sure you want me to count the right wing body count?

Capita flogs Asset Services division for £888m

Chad H.

So...

How bad do things have to get to be outsourced from crapita?

Canada's privacy watchdog probes US border phone seizures

Chad H.

Re: Politicians know what to do

KAYAK say it already dropped...

Apple's macOS is the safer choice – but not for the reason you think

Chad H.

Yeah, just what I need on my Mac, a piece of bloatware that creates new attack vectors and upsets the inbuilt secruity browser makers are putting into their work.

Why Apple's adaptive Touch Bar will flop

Chad H.

The Touchscreen was more or less a flop before the iPhone (anyone remember those criminal windows mobile devices that HTC used to make on a white-label basis for networks?), and the tablet form factor was dead before the iPad (Anyone else remember the Windows XP devices?).

Just because someone else tried and failed doesn't mean Apple will, they have a record of taking ideas that the market wasn't ready for yet, or that others couldn't polish enough to make succeed, and creating a new category out of it.

Squeaky bum time for Apple: It hasn’t made enough iPhone 7 Pluses

Chad H.

Of all the problems you can have, not being able to make enough devices is a very good one to have.

Portsmouth bomb about to be detonated

Chad H.

>>>>Bomb disposal officers actually detonated the bomb at 7am this morning. The event was such a damp squib that they assumed it hadn’t worked and returned for another go at 11am. They then discovered the earlier attempt had actually worked.®

The Officer in charge of the incident Marvin T Martian was quoted as saying "Where's the Kaboom? Where is the Earth shattering kaboom?"

Edward Snowden's 40 days in a Russian airport – by the woman who helped him escape

Chad H.

>>>>Given the broad nature of the 1917 Act, a public interest or whistleblower defence would not be permissible; the judge would only have to prove that the information had been stolen and shared.

The judge doesn't prove anything. It's for the Prosecution to prove their case, and no one else.

Blighty's 24-hr Universal Credit outage caused by upgrade glitch

Chad H.

But universal credit IS a technical glitch...

Three posts lacklustre results, angrily mutters over O2 merger rejection

Chad H.

Re: Pedantry

Its more than pendantry, the article is misleading.

The effects of the referendum are purely political, not legal.

We do not know if the UK will choose to keep that rule, or whether the post brexit settlement will require it to be kept, or whether brexit will really happen at all.

NRA guns down 38,000 Surge.sh sites in anti-parody spray-and-pray

Chad H.

Re: Misleading

Given El Reg has built its business and reputation on mixing bias, name calling, and news, you're clearly "not from around here"

The amount of logos and even a parody copyright statement don't stop a parody being a parody.

I don't normally call people who disagree with me a paid astroturfer, but given your unfamiliarity with the registers style, your defence of the NRA's action and your highly suspect claim not to normally agree with them, I just have one question:

Where can I get a job like yours?

EU commish: We smacked down O2/Three but we didn't take it 'lightly'

Chad H.

Re: What about T-Mobile and Orange?

The biggest difference then, to now, is that there is now one less operator.

French maverick sniffs around O2

Chad H.

Ronan has always been very good at insisting up is down and black is white. Remember how the best thing for his customer service staff was for them to be no longer O2 Employees?

Leak – UN says Assange detention 'unlawful'

Chad H.

The only person detaining Julian Assange is Julian Assange.

BOFH: Why, I LOVE work courses. Please tell me more, o wise one!

Chad H.

Re: Been there, done that

Che did not succeed in convincing him however, suggesting his leadership skills were sub par.

'Nokia store? I dunno no Nokia store. This here's a Microsoft Reseller'

Chad H.

The "Nokia Care" store in Glasgow repbraanded to be a Samsung Service Centre some months back. They still do have a (small) Nokia sign up though.

Chill, luvvies. The ‘unsustainable’ BBC Telly Tax stays – for now

Chad H.

Re: Am I the only person...

In the short term, I agree. Compare the BBC to the ABC, and you'll beg for a license fee.

However, it is correct that in the long term it is not sustainable as a TV tax as people turn away from OTA Broadcast. BBC iplayer live is currently operating on the honour system, but if you're willing to wait 60 mins or so you can legally watch any BBC content free by waiting for it to appear on iPlayer.

Assange™ lawyers demand Swedish prosecution files or no London interview

Chad H.

Re: Given his track record

I think his point is that Jullian short changed a lot of people when he skipped bail.

A gold MacBook with just ONE USB port? Apple, you're DRUNK

Chad H.

We power users winged about things like removal of floppy drives, CD/DVD Drives, obscure ports, etc, etc... but how often does the average Macbook user really use any more than the power port?

I suspect its less than we all think.

The only time I've ever used more than one at a time, was to install windows on the macbook... (1 port for the CD Drive, one for the USB stick to install drivers).

Don't pay for the BBC? Then no Doctor Who for you, I'm afraid

Chad H.

Re: Telly Tax exit stage right!!

>>>>Do you watch any CBS, Disney, MGM content (etc.), and if so do you send money to those organisations every month, or are you also a freeloader?

I don't go onto their website and watch it for free. I either pay for their content, or watch it on a commercial operated service that pays for it.... Unlike Cord Cutters who run to iPlayer.

>>>>Come to that, how much do you send to "The Register" in return for reading its content?

The Register is a commercial service with advertisements, and unlike many on here, I dont freeload by using adblock.

Chad H.

Re: Telly Tax exit stage right!!

There are no commercials on the BBC.

Chad H.

Re: Telly Tax exit stage right!!

Which, if you'd read the article, is exactly what they're targeting now.

Do you watch any BBC programming, and if so, have you always been a freeloader, or is this a recent development?

O2 notifies data cops 'for courtesy' ... AFTER El Reg intervenes in email phish dustup

Chad H.

" Companies are required by law in most places to maximise profits."

I believe the correct phrase is "maximise shareholder value", not maximise profits.

This is a very different thing, as the turn is user definable - Network Rail for instance is non-profit, it maximises shareholder value by putting earnings back into the railway network (its Shareholders being the Train Operating Companies).

Another company might "maximise value" by turning away some business to build an aura of exclusivity - trading tangiable value (revenue) for an intangiable result (Branding).

Some might play the short game (sell poor quality as quick as possible then skip town) where as others might play the long game (earn a little less now, but build long term loyalty).

If the law was maximise profits, then companies would never be able to give to charity, and rarely be able to sponsor sports teams. You might consider the latter to be preferable though :p

Dixons Carphone clings to EE, Three in Phones 4U bullet dodge

Chad H.

>>>> To do this it has launched an MVNO, as yet unbranded, which will launch in the spring

How could it launch it in the spring if it was already launched?

Telefónica to offload O2 to Three daddy Hutchison for £10.25bn

Chad H.

Re: Last of the thoroughbreeds

>>>>Vodafone will be the UK's last thoroughbred mobile network, operating as GSM was intended.

When is it going to start then?

Chad H.

Re: Don't forget Tesco Mobile

Given Tesco's retreat from the Landline business, maybe it goes away completely?

Chad H.

Re: So the UK once had the most competitive mobile markets..

>>>>Ideally, we'd get Three technology with O2 customer service, but what's the betting it'll be the other way round?

This is the O2 that declared customer service to be non core to its role as a network operator and shoved everyone over to Capita?

Doctor Who's tangerine dream and Clara's death wish in Last Christmas

Chad H.

>>>>No one likes tangerines and no real Who fans like the Christmas special.

I am a real who fan.

I like the Christmas special.

I think there's a Scotsman here who'd like to talk to you Jenifer. He says his name is McFalacy.

Reg man confesses: I took my wife out to choose a laptop for Xmas. NOOOO

Chad H.

>>>>Don’t get me wrong: Chromebooks have their place in terms of functionality

Yes, and so do Doorstops.

Which one is which again?

Blind justice: Google lawsuit silences elected state prosecutor

Chad H.

>>>>In the US, citizens vote for their state prosecutors – they're elected representatives, not nominees. They answer to the people

That is the myth of American Democracy. Now lets look at that statement through the EyeOfTruth(tm)

>>>>In the US, citizens vote for their state prosecutors through choices the established powers have pre-decided – they're "elected" representatives, not nominees and not independent. They answer to the people who fund their election campaign.

Movie industry's evil plan to destroy the internet is going precisely nowhere

Chad H.

Re: Control your media better.

>>>>>If I went to the police and complained that people kept walking into my house through the front door that had no locks on it or through the windows that had no glass in them and stealing things then I don't think they'd be too impressed. It is the duty of property owners to take all reasonable steps to secure their own property

But this does not change the fact that it still is theft, and still is a crime.

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

Chad H.

Re: Made me giggle, all this (pretend?) outrage

>>>>>You want the snark? Stay here. You want the glitzy super duper agile-developed responsive-designed website? Go to Ars Technica or somewhere else.

I want the snark, but I dont want the super duper designed website. Where do I go? not here it seems

Chad H.

*Shrugs* I needed a reason to visit less anyway. Seems I have it now.