Re: $86bn
Of course, if their cost of sales is $85.9bn, then it doesn't really help. :)
(financials state they're making 8.7% profit, so there's some room to spend on R&D)
Posts by Steve Foster
835 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Oct 2007
Ow-wei, says Huawei as Chinese giant admits US sanctions smacked it right in the phone biz
UK taxman wins tribunal case against BBC presenters
Thursday 19th September 2019 15:34 GMT
The article suggests that they went down the route of setting up their own companies because the BBC wouldn't take them on otherwise.
If this is accurate, it seems highly probable that the BBC were doing so to reduce their own costs (ie by dodging the usual extra exmployer costs that employees generate - employer NI, pension contributions, sick pay, annual leave, and so on).
The fundamental problem is that such costs are not levied equally across all forms of employment and employers. IR35 would be rendered irrelevant if they removed those artificial differences (it would mean putting all the employment costs onto employees, and require the government to actually pay out for the benefits when due; a corollary would be better tax transparency from the govenment - which is anathema to them, of course).
Not so G.fast: Hybrid fibre 'under review' as Openreach remembers it's all about FTTP now
Thursday 12th September 2019 13:53 GMT
Re: Step 1
About 10 years ago, a friend of mine moved into a new house on a new estate. The whole estate had been laid with fibre to "futureproof" it. Of course, no-one on the estate was able to get a landline or broadband! It took about 6 months before any of the telecoms companies or ISPs were able to get themselves organised, and even then, they retrofitted copper lines at first.
A peeling solution to pothole has split the community... Yeah, they stuck a banana tree in it
Wednesday 11th September 2019 13:38 GMT
Re: Council..
"(aka, who the fuck complains about a broken speed camera?)."
If the installation of the camera reduced overall speeds on that stretch of road, then pretty much anyone who lives nearby might do so (unless they've been caught by said camera!).
However, funding for replacement of broken speed cameras appears to be quite difficult to obtain, so it can be years before repairs are made. The latest trend (in the south-east, at least) is to introduce stretches of "average speed" camera checks to replace the older Gatso (and similar) fixed location cameras, usually covering considerably more road network than the original camera deployment (and extending ANPR surveillance at the same time!).
What is it with hosting firms being stonewalled by Microsoft? Now it's Ionos on naughty step
Friday 23rd August 2019 13:44 GMT
Re: MS have been strict of late
Obviously, MS have their own SPF records for their domains. Corporates using Office365 with their own domain are recommended to include the MS SPF in theirs.
I just re-examined the SPF for outlook.com. It has 6 INCLUDEs, and 2 of those have INCLUDEs of their own. This is quite an improvement on the last time I checked, when the INCLUDE nesting was much worse (as I recall, they had SPF > SPFa > SPFb > SPFc > SPFd > SPFe!). Mind you, it also looks like they've dropped back to ~all instead of -all.
MXToolbox doesn't automatically follow all the includes now, but dmarcanalyzer.com has a checker that does.
TSO Host no closer to solving customers' email issues as Brit firm pops up on more blacklists
Tuesday 20th August 2019 17:52 GMT
Not necessarily.
I run a co-located mail server with a small number of users on it, but that means IP addresses that are part of the co-location service's block. Their entire range has been blacklisted by Microsoft, and consequently, I can't get my server delisted.
I've had to resort to routing emails for hotmail.com and outlook.com through the backup server that is connected to my business broadband.
The Eldritch Horror of Date Formatting is visited upon Tesco
Bear insistent on playing tonsil tennis with you? Just bite its tongue off
Firefox fires blockers at trackers, Exim tackles command exec flaw, and RDP pops up yet again
What's in store for Microsoft's US pop-up shops? Not much, they're being closed
Wednesday 5th June 2019 12:53 GMT
Re: What would you buy?
The Intellimouse Explorer 3 was just about the best damn mouse on the planet (for regular computer usage - gaming usage maybe not). I stockpiled a dozen or so when they stopped making them.
However, they've recently brought them back as the "Classic Intellimouse" (with some modest changes) - I keep meaning to order some online.
FYI: Get ready for face scans on leaving the US because 1.2% of visitors overstayed their visas
Tuesday 23rd April 2019 09:33 GMT
Re: Blame Canada
Yes, some friends and I once did a day trip to Vancouver from the US, in the midst of a short stay (couple of weeks) visit to the US. We hired a nice car in Seattle (with UK driving licences) for the trip, and had a lovely time. The border crossing from US to Canada and back again was no trouble at all.
Mind you, this was nearly 20 years ago now (though it was a year or two after 9/11), and it might be that our experience could not be repeated today (and I would not choose to travel to the US now anyway).
Take your pick: 0/1/* ... but beware – your click could tank an entire edition of a century-old newspaper
Firefox arrives for Snapdragon Windows and Slack sidles up to Office 365
Monday 15th April 2019 14:16 GMT
Re: stats
"What multiple choice questions do you mean? And what is 'right'?"
Factual questions to which there is a known correct answer.
For example:
* In which year did the UK join the EEC? [list 4 or 5 years from which to pick]
* Which of the following [short list, some members, some not] are member countries of the EU in 2019? ("country" as per Pointless)
That sort of thing. Not "how long is a piece of string?" type questions.
Don't have a heart attack but your implanted defibrillator can be hacked over the air (by someone who really wants you dead)
Why does that website take forever to load? Clues: Three syllables, starts with a J, rhymes with crock of sh...
Friday 15th February 2019 11:13 GMT 
"Responsive" web design
Once upon a time, web pages were built with simple HTML and CSS. Which is light on bandwidth, and easy for browsers to render.
But these days, web developers don't use simple HTML - everything (and I do mean everything) has been reinvented and implemented with JavaScript frameworks.
An example - I have to submit meter readings for an online energy company. The page used to use a straight-forward HTML form, and I could fill out all the fields and click Submit. A little while ago, the whole site was replaced with one of these damn "responsive" designs, and now that simple form is overloaded with JS that changes it from a single page fill-and-submit into a 3 page fill-one-field and click NEXT time sink. All just to make it look very pretty (probably to serve some ads too, but I don't see those!).
From Red Planet to deep into the red: Suicidal extrovert magnet Mars One finally implodes
Monday 11th February 2019 20:23 GMT
"Sounds a bit like the Brexit campaign"
I didn't realise that the Brexit campaign had promised to get people to Mars at all, let alone safely.
Hell, it's become very apparent that they[1] had no actual plan for exiting the EU either (mind you, Remainer May is doing her best to sabotage the whole thing too!).
[1] I meant the Brexit campaign here, but Mars One works too!
Happy new year, readers. Yes, we have threaded comments, an image-lite mode, and more...
Microsoft reveals terrible trio of bugs that knocked out Azure, Office 362.5 multi-factor auth logins for 14 hours
Technical foul: Amazon suffers data snafu days before Black Friday, emails world+dog
Slabs, huh, what are they are good for? Er, not quite absolutely nothing
Brit smart meter biz blamed Apple's iPhone 7 launch for its late taxes
Monday 22nd October 2018 17:03 GMT
@Spazturtle
Except that this is VAT, which is essentially calculated and collected on the basis of sales invoices less purchase invoices (at least in principle), and is not usually affected by the status of the goods/services or the company's cash flow. The standard position is that, yes, companies may have to pay the VAT due on income that they have not received yet (and the corollary is that they can receive a VAT refund for purchases booked if the corresponding sale has not been completed before the VAT period is over).
It appears that the primary reason they've been allowed to get away with the [essentially bogus] "typhoon Nida ate our homework" excuse is that HMRC failed to do its job properly, even though it looks like the company has "form" in not paying their VAT on time (according to the article).
Boffin: Dump hardware number generators for encryption and instead look within
Google's 'other' phone platform turns up in post-apocalyptic mobe
Microsoft gives Windows 10 a name, throws folks a bone
That went well – not! Broadcom’s value dives after CA biz gobble
Who fancies a six-core, 32GB RAM, 4TB NVME ... convertible tablet?
Seagate's Barracuda SSD bares its teeth at PC, laptop upgraders
Wednesday 4th July 2018 15:09 GMT
@Siberian Hamster
5 year warranty = 4 regular years + 1 leap year, much more often than not.
If you really want to be picky (an ElReg commentard? surely not!!), the calculation should be based on:
0.75 x ( (4 x 365) + (1 x 366) ) + 0.25 x ( (3 x 365) + (2 x 366) )
(no doubt someone will chime in about leap seconds next... :) )
Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion
Three storage hardware devices, a cash raise and Oracle gets blocked
ASA tells Poundland and its teabagging elf: Enough with the smutty social ninja sh*t
Samsung preps for Z-SSD smackdown on Intel Optane drives
US govt shutdown lobs spanner in SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch
Samsung topples Intel as semiconductor top dog, but lead 'literally built on sand'
Thursday 4th January 2018 15:58 GMT
Re: Who are the "others"?
But AMD got out of actually making chips for themselves, didn't they? (IIRC, they mostly get them from Global Foundries [who also don't make the top 10]).
Meanwhile, if 10th place has 2.1% share, and "others" are 40% of the overall market, that suggests there are a lot of bit players (at least 21!).
Dentist-turned bug-biter given a taste of freedom
Microsoft to rebuild Redmond campus, including cricket pitch
HPE straps AMD chip into 2P/2U server box with Epyc results
Tuesday 21st November 2017 19:15 GMT
Re: DL 385
Yes, HP have used the model number for a long time, as it's the mainstream 2U dual AMD x64 box in their ProLiant range.
The actual contents are refreshed every couple of years as AMD's 64-bit processor lineup changes.
Over time, it's moved from the original Opteron and 8x3.5" hotswap drive bays to (now) the latest Epyc with a shedload of 2.5" hotswap bays (with, as seven of five says, the option to stuff even more in the back if you're prepared to sacrifice the expansion slots).
Post-Brexit economy SAVED: Posh-nosh truffle thrives in Wales
Atto, boy! Eggheads fire laser for 43 attoseconds, fastest Man-made spurt
Dyson to build electric car that doesn't suck
Wednesday 27th September 2017 11:54 GMT
Re: I'd trust the build quality
I have a 1st generation (possibly 2nd) Dyson DC01 that is still working well. It does look a little battered these days, and one or two bits of the plastic have broken off or split, but as I tend to bash about with it (particularly against/under furniture and tight spots), I'm not really surprised about that.
Portland posts full report on Uber's dirty dealings with Greyball
Google to kill Chrome autoplay madness
Friday 15th September 2017 23:24 GMT
@AC
Disable JavaScript on the BBC news website. That gets rid of all the "millennial" shiny shiny crap and leaves the news stories (mostly). Yes, links to somemany "stories" will get you to an essentially empty page (because they're nothing but soundbites or blipverts), but after a while it's fairly straightforward to know which ones will be like that and avoid them.
Gov claws back £645m in BT broadband from subsidy
Nest cracks out cheaper spin of its thermostat
Thursday 31st August 2017 20:25 GMT
Re: It is worth it, you just have to try it...
The metal/glass Nest thermostat does not _need_ to be internet connected to work, though you do have to forego the remote management aspect in that scenario.
I had a Nest installed when my boiler was replaced just under 2 years ago, and it is not connected to the internet. All the clever stuff to do with "just turn the dial" and the pattern learning associated with that are working just fine.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
