* Posts by Ojustaboo

73 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jul 2009

Page:

I've had it with these motherflipping eggs on this motherflipping train

Ojustaboo

Reminds me of about 39 years ago when I was a fishmonger.

Always managed to get a seat by myself on the bus home :)

Microsoft deletes deleterious file deletion bug from Windows 10 October 2018 Update

Ojustaboo

I tried the 1809 update last week.

All my user libraries except for Desktop had been moved to my D drive (by right clicking and selecting the location tab). These files were fine after the update.

I had also moved the public directories to another drive using

robocopy /MIR %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\Public H:\Public

then from safe mode

rmdir /s /q %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\Public

mklink /J %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Users\Public H:\Public

After the update, the H;\Public drives were completely empty, and it had created new C:\user\Public directories, also empty.

Of course I have numerous image backups and had done a backup before I updated so didn't loose anything.

On the third day of Windows Microsoft gave to me: A file-munching run of DELTREE

Ojustaboo

MS have now halted the rollout

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4464619/windows-10-update-history

We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.

If you have manually downloaded the Windows 10 October 2018 Update installation media, please don’t install it and wait until new media is available.

We will provide an update when we resume rolling out the Windows 10 October 2018 Update to customers

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sysadmin gets 5 years for slurping contractor payments to employer

Ojustaboo

Re: hmmm...

Got to be fair in justice :)

The guy that nearly killed me by kicking my eyesocket into my brain (needed 3 ops) in crown court, it turned out he was already on bail for a similar offence.

His sentence, 7 months

Brown kid with Arab name arrested for bringing home-made clock to school

Ojustaboo

Re: "The concern was, what was this thing built for?"

"If he brought it into the chemistry lab and started tinkering there, you might want to ask questions and take that device away from him."

Life was so much simpler when I was a kid, you could buy knives , glue, lighter fuel, methylated spirits without anyone batting an eyelid.

I even took my chemistry set into school on the last day of term (probably about 1973) at junior school, a set which had chemicals that are probably mostly banned today and those that aren't require you to be over 18 to buy.

Everyone even had to leave the class for over an hour due to me and friends mixing a load together and accidentally making the ultimate stink bomb :) Teacher just shouted at us for a bit, windows were opened, and life continued

Ojustaboo

First impressions go a long way.

Many years ago in Hastings at the height of Punk, I was with a group of friends chatting to a group of foreign students when one of the students fell off the cliff on a ledge below.

I and a friend (who had punk clothes on) ran to a nearby house and got them to phone for the emergency services. The police turned up within about a minute, we tried to tell them what had happened, my friend was trying to explain an easy way to get to her (having spent a lot of his youth climbing around the cliffs)

The policeman looked at us and said quote (something I will never forget)

"Piss off, we don't want your sort around here"

I was 15 at the time, had never had any dealings with the police before, have never had a very high opinion of them since

Ojustaboo

Re: Hysteria

Airport security always amazes me, I was at Stansted recently, there must have been about 2000 people queued close together waiting to get through the security scanners

If I was a terrorist wanting to kill the most people, why bother with a plane when I can simply blow the queue up?

Surely this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Windows 10 is due in one month: Will it be ready?

Ojustaboo

clean install

I see that we can do a clean install using the same download as the upgrade, but only if we upgrade first.

So its not as bad as it originally looked but is still a waste of time upgrading before clean installing.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-win_upgrade/reinstalling-windows-10-after-upgrade/578d0b7f-57e4-4893-b9d1-6cfac0d6290a?page=1&tab=question&status=AllReplies

"Q: After doing a free upgrade to Windows 10, how do I clean install Windows 10 subsequently?

A: Once your device upgrades to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer and activates online automatically, you will be able to clean install (i.e. boot from media and install Windows 10) the same edition of Windows 10 that you upgraded to on the same device during and after the free upgrade offer. You will not be required to purchase Windows 10 or go back to your prior down-level version of Windows.

Windows 10 FAQ covers which edition of Windows you'll get upgraded to depending on the edition of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 that you start from (Refer to the question "What edition of Windows will I get as part of this free upgrade?"). More information on Windows 10 editions was published last month.

To enable clean installation of Windows 10 on devices that upgraded and activated online using the free upgrade offer

You will be able to download and create installation media on a USB drive or DVD for the appropriate Windows 10 Edition

You will be able to skip entering the product key during Windows 10 Setup. Windows 10 will activate online automatically on such devices. The skip option is only available when booting from media and launching setup

The automatic online activation will occur seamlessly after clean installing Windows 10 if the device had previously upgraded and activated online the same Edition of Windows 10. No product keys are required.

Q: What happens if I change the hardware configuration of my Windows 10 device?

A: If the hardware configuration of your Windows 10 device changes significantly (e.g. motherboard change) Windows may require re-activation on the device. This is the same experience as prior versions of Windows (e.g. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). The free upgrade offer will not apply to activation of Windows 10 in such scenarios where hardware changes reset Activation."

Brit telcos warn Scots that voting Yes could lead to hefty bills

Ojustaboo

If Scotland vote no, they should then let the |English vote on whether we still want Scotland as part of the UK

Slough isn't fit for humans now, says Amazon. We're going to Shoreditch

Ojustaboo

Re: SLOUGH - if despond - easily the worst place in Buckinghamshire ... or anywhere?

Having worked in both Bracknell and Slough, Slough is 100 times worse and I can't stand Bracknell

You! Pirate! Stop pirating, or we shall admonish you politely. Repeatedly, if necessary

Ojustaboo

re: John Lilburne

The case you quote is in the US.

In the UK it is not theft to download copyrighted material, it is a civil offence.

It can become a criminal one if you upload though so don't use torrents, use newsgroups and your legal.

"The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions. Downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material."

PlayStation 4 a doddle to fix: Handy if it OVERHEATS, for instance

Ojustaboo

Re: Hard to find faults with PS4, isn't it?

Of course, there only needs to be say 20 odd users out of thousands to make a forum look like it's full of disgruntled users with faulty units. Not saying that is the case, but most happy users aren't going to be posting on the complaints threads.

But, I never understand the rush to get these things the day they come out, sure I want a PS4, I will get one some time next year when there's a good selection of games available, and more importantly, the initial bugs have been ironed out and we're on at least version 2. After the Xbox saga, never again..

Virgin Media keeps mum as punters fume at crippled web access

Ojustaboo

I was with Virgin for years ending up on their 100 line.

I got sick to death of buffering youtube clips, over the top traffic management etc.

I moved to Skys unlimited BB about 9 months ago, I only get 18Mbps instead of 100 but for the last 9 months I can watch HD youtube clips with zero buffering etc.

Its also completely unmanaged.

Sure if I download a big file it takes 5 - 6 times as long but I'd rather than and a service that works as it should than what I was paying Virgin a LOT more for.

PC World ordered to rip up promo for next-day repair promise

Ojustaboo

Trouble is, there's the large print and the small print.

Many companies sell because of the large print and the company is fully aware what they are implying to the customer.

For example, we a PS3 from a well known catalogue and took out an extended warranty. While I take the blurb they say with a pinch of salt, it said and still says at time of order

----------------------------

"Service Guarantee

We’ll fix it, normally within 2 days, or send you a replacement if we can’t

Terms and Conditions apply"

---------------------------

I think its fair to assume that when they advertise normally fixed within 2 days, most people taking out such a policy for a gaming console would thing that by doing so, they wouldn't be without their console for weeks.

The PS3 died.

I phoned them up the next morning. which was a Wednesday, the earliest they could arrange for it to be picked up was 2 days later on the Friday which meant it wouldn't be looked at until Monday at the earliest.

It was returned to us on the following Thursday with a node dated the day before saying a reflow had been done.

Just 10 mins of use and it died of exactly the same fault. Phoned them up, and the earliest they could pick it up was the following Tuesday.

So it took 8 days for the initial phone call for a repair that failed within 10 mins. And phoning them up to tell them this, it was another 5 days before they could pick up again..

End result is it took about 3 weeks before they supplied us with a brand new PS3.

I don't think 8 days turn around is at all bad (had the repair worked) . The small print may well say repairs can take up to 6 weeks, but the simple fact is, its sold on the understanding that repairs are usually only going to take a couple of day, most people taking out a warranty for a games console would not do so itf they thought they might be without their console for up to 6 weeks.

If you click on the "Service Guarantee Explained" link when they sell you the warranty, it says

---------------------------------------------

Certain things in the house you simply cannot be without. Look after your new items with our essential Service Guarantee and relax knowing that with just one call:

We’ll aim to repair it in 2 days.

And if we can’t fix it we’ll give you a new one.

In addition to this:

There are no call out fees with nothing extra to pay.

We’ll only use our trusted network of repairers so can guarantee a high level of service.

An easy claim service, one call-instant decision.

-------------------------------------------------------

personally I think 3 weeks is too long to have to wait when it's sold as they word it. 8 days turnaround for a repair is not a bad time (had it worked) but that doesn't get around the fact that their advert is misleading.

The way they fix consoles,it is impossible for them to ever do it within 2 days.

A best case scenario, I phone them at 9am Monday, they arrange for collection Tuesday. It's delivered to them Wednesday, fixed that same day and dispatched that same day, I get it back Thursday. Even if they managed to arrange for same day collection on the Monday, and they did manage to fix and dispatch it on the Tuesday, I still wouldn't get it back until the Wednesday, hence totally impossible.

Don't advertise what you cant normally, do simple.

Council IT bod in the dock for flogging scrap work PC parts

Ojustaboo

Re: Lurking at dump

The dump employees are wrong.

If you actually dump it, it becomes their property and only at that point can they claim its there's.

They do have notices saying exchanging of things between cars isn't allowed, but exchanging between cars certainly isn't illegal and if y9ou give something from your car to me, while they can moan all they want, can even kick us out the dump if they so choose, they simply cannot claim its theft.

I had a huge argument with my dump about this, I had a large roll of bubble wrap on the back-seat of my car, the guy in the car next to me asked if I was dumpling it and if so, could he have it, I said sure and took it out of my car and was about to place it in his boot

A dump employee then snatched it off of me and said it was theirs. I said it wasn't it was mine and I'm in the process of giving it to him. The council bod took it to his office, I followed him and a huge argument ensued where he tried to tell me it was his, I told him he has zero right to take peoples stuff and he was stealing and I'm taking it back.

He threatened to phone the police, I told him to go ahead as it would save me the bother. I then picked it up walked back to my car with it and he shouted after me "he could have offered me a few quid for it, then I would be happy"

I then told the other guy to meet me outside the gates and I gave it to him there.

Nintendo Wii U Review

Ojustaboo

Will be interesting to see how this does in todays climate.

Most people I know that bought the Wii that already owned other consoles, found it to be a 5 min wonder. Very few ended up buying more than one or two more games for it.

Most of those that liked the Wii were the more casual gamer but even then, many I know have only bought a handful of games or use just just for Wii Fit etc.

But that was then. Now most people have powerful phones or tablets. Since the day I first got my iphone (then android tablet, then ipad) my PSP and DS have never been turned on as there's simply no need for them.

Most of the people that found the Wii to be a 5 min wonder are hardly likely to buy the Wii U (which is the vast majority of Wii owners I know).

Many of the casual gamers that fell in love with the Wii now enjoy things like facebook type games just as much and I doubt that many will be in a rush to have the next gen Wii

I could be wrong (have been many times before).

What can save the Xmas PC market? Not Windows 8, say analysts

Ojustaboo

"She claimed that in the first couple of months of life some 60 million Windows 7 licences were sold.

It is, however, difficult to tell how many of these Win8 licences were sold and how many were merely free upgrades"

There are also a lot of people like me who bought win 8 pro from MS as we can get it dirt cheap before something like Jan 2013 who have zero desire to actually install it yet and will probably wait until SP1 before even considering it.

Why did Comet fail? Hint: It wasn't just the credit insurers

Ojustaboo

But I didn't buy the cheapest battery.

The place that delivered my Bosch battery today, had batteries for my Laguna starting at £49.14 including vat and free delivery

http://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l/c/Renault_Laguna_1.8_2003/p/car-parts/car-electrics-and-car-lighting/electrical/car-battery/?444770270&1&aa67f1c7188b4a36f7d349dc908afd3df48ac965&000020

Ojustaboo

When I found it, I expected it to cost a fortune to post.

But no.

Battery £71.94

Next day delivery £3.95

Total £75.89

Ojustaboo

I love the way you presume my 19 yr old son should play outside :)

When he gets home from uni at Christmas, I'll suggest it to him. I was going out anyway and said I'd see if I could get him one.

Your missing my point though, very very very poor limited range, and the same very poor limited range wherever I went, and most not having the products in stock.

I usually do all my shopping online except for food shopping, while I was trying to find his battery, I looked at other things in the stores and said to my wife "and they wonder why so many stores are closing"

A few of this, a few of that, higher prices and much lower choice.

Ojustaboo

I needed to buy a new car battery today.

From my local Halfords (not including fitting), Bosch HSB013 £119.99

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_734763_langId_-1_categoryId_165762

Just bought the exact same battery on line including next day delivery for £75.89

http://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l/c/Renault_Laguna_1.8_2003/p/car-parts/car-electrics-and-car-lighting/electrical/car-battery/?444770278&1&aa67f1c7188b4a36f7d349dc908afd3df48ac965&000020

That is why I buy nearly everything online

Ojustaboo

Most high street shops are doomed to failure, times change.

All the big ones (and many small ones) have become a jack of all trades and expert at none. A few weeks ago I needed a new rechargeable battery for my sons xbox.

Normally I would have bought on-line, but needed it urgently, so Saturday afternoon, I set out to buy one.

I simply wanted a rechargeable battery for around the £10 - £15 mark bearing in mind I could get a MS one online for £12 or a twin pack from a 3rd party for around £9.

I went everywhere, what stood out to me was they all were the same.

Didn't matter whether it was Tesco, Comet, Currys etc they had a tiny selection of lots of things and they all seemed to have a very similar tiny selection. Didn't matter whether it was a PC mouse, an Xbox or PS3 accessory or what, it was dismal.

I initially didn't find one shop that had a 3rd party rechargeable battery and the few that did have a MS one in stock were around double the price if not more than I could buy online

All of them had ones available online at a fairly reasonable price, but the actual stores were a joke.

I finally went to blockbusters only to get told by the sales assistant that they didn't sell them and I had to point out to her that they were infact hanging on the wall behind her.

So I spent about 2 hrs finding a store with one in stock, driving al over the place and paid £5 more for 1 than I could get two for online.

Tesco started selling things like tools etc and in all honestly became a sort of pound shop, selling really really crap quality stuff at inflated prices.

Comet, you'd walk in the shop staff would pounce on you, you would politely tell them to go away and they never ever had what I wanted to buy in their stores.

Argos, I use Argos as it's open until 8pm and if I need something urgently, I can quickly pick it up. But recently, almost everything I want is only available online. Its now getting to the point where I don't even bother looking any more.

Online, I can buy at a considerably cheaper price, I have far far far far more choice, I have the distance selling regs to protect me, I haven't got to drive, I know its in stock (usually) before I order.

Going to the shops, they have a very very limited range, staff often seem smarmy or pushy, rarely have what I want in stock, always more expensive and the one very rare time I used PCworld as I needed something urgently, I reserved online to pick up at the store (was told was in stock), drove 20 miles to the shop only to find they lied.

I can order at 10:55pm on Ebuyer, pay something like £10 and have it delivered next day and still be a LOT cheaper than I can buy it in a store

I use town centre and out of town shopping places less and less, as to most people I know. My wife has a lot of elderly clients in her job, the vast majority have no problems using a PC and much prefer ordering online to having to go out and get a bus etc.

So with places like Oxford Street aside, give it a few years, I see the average town centre as being completely dead, or having to change completely and become more entertainment and relaxation places than shopping places.

Sky squeezes even more money from customers, gets fewer new ones

Ojustaboo

Never pay full price

I always get a good deal, I swap between Virgin and Sky virtually every year.

This time Sky begged me back by giving me a new free Sky HD box, £50 cash bonus and 75% off all entertainment and movies (didn't want sports) for 12 months. I pay £20.50 a month for all entertainment, all movies and the HD package (which for some reason also includes F1).

Usually when the 12 months is up Virgin will be offering something similar and sometimes when Quidco are offering huge cash backs, I actually make a little bit over the year.

Meanwhile the loyal customers keep paying full price year in and year out.

Virgin Media wipes out websites with routing blackhole

Ojustaboo

Left Virgin a month ago

I've been with Virgin for years, every time upping to their top tier for the simple reason that has never had traffic management on it.

I've been on the 100 service for the last year. If I don't use a vpn or ssl with different port, the newsgroups are throttled down to dialup speed.

If I buy say Portal 2 from steam, I will hit my limit before I've downloaded half of it, hence my download speed is halved. If I'm playing an mmo and there's a huge new patch and my guilds all eager to get on, again I will hit the download limit before I'm half way. I do not pay for the 100 service to have those sorts of limitations.

That aside, during the year on the 100 service, I've had constant youtube buffering and many other problems when browsing etc.

I've been on Sky Unlimited for a month, sure I get much less upload, sure I only download from newsgroups at 18Mbps, but every person in my house has commented on how much faster general browsing is and I haven't experienced one single buffer while watching HD youtube vids yet.

Virgin Media's latest throttling rules

Ojustaboo

Found their details from last year

Here's a post from an official Virgin employee responding as a virgin representative when a thread goes on about traffic management

---------------------------------------

I can confirm what other posters have said . The 100Mbps service is not throttled, which is why there is no reference to it here. That links also explains the throttling of P2P (except games) and Newsgroup traffic.

There is an FAQ regarding the detrimental use policy here. Currently 100Mbps service users are not subject to the detrimental use policy. Although there are no plans to change this, I cannot guarantee that this won't happen at some time in the future.

Regards,

John Haggerty

Help & Support Forum Team

---------------------------------------------------

And here are two links showing the then 50 and 100 charts, note the lack of management on the 100 except for newsgroups/p2p

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/virginu.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/virgin2.jpg/

Ojustaboo

Re: VPNs

no matter how you look at this 4KB is not 50% of 100MB ...

Give them a call, demand a better service.

That is clearly not the intended functionality of this STM / other related stuff.

------------------------------------

I have contacted Virgin and posted numerous comments on their forums about this.

The 50% reduction has nothing to do with newsgroups, as I have said in nearly every post in this thread, the 50% reduction is for everything else that wasn't previously managed .

Their traffic management on their newsgroups is completely separate to any other traffic management and the speed I get is correct according to them. Which is why numerous people ended up paying for VPNs, all said they wouldn't mind a decent restriction on newsgroups, but not down to download speeds.

Virgin would not give the exact figures but people were complaining of the same speeds as me.

All Virgin would say was point us to

"At peak times we also slow down the speed of file sharing traffic – that's services like Limewire, Gnutella, BitTorrent and Newsgroup (Usenet) traffic. You will, of course, still be able to use these services, but downloads and uploads will take longer during these peak periods"

not once did they say our speeds were unexpectedly slow.

Ojustaboo

Re: Oh grow up you lot!

It's called time management not being a spoilt brat just because you want something and want it now. Don't give me that bullshit about unlimited, since when has any service quoted true unlimited and ever delivered? They are capping by half for a few hours if you bust your limit, not cutting your service pending a spanking from the VM controller FFS!! I

--------------------------------------

You may be happy if you sign up for something and are then changed to something else.

You may think its childish for people to complain when what they signed up for is suddenly changed.

You may well be right that companies that advertise as unlimited usually don't deliver (although some companies such as BE, Sky unlimited, to seem to be able to do as advertised)

That is of course your right.

But please don't tell me to grow up for not wanting to put up with false advertising, having new rules imposed on us etc. I didn't sign up for a 50 service at peak times which is what it will be if I buy virtually any on-line game or stream in HD from say netfiix for a few hours I signed up for a 100 service and I expect to get what I signed up for.

When I signed up, Virgins site said the following, quote:

----------------------------------------------

What can I do with 100Mb?

Download an entire music album in as little as 5 seconds; a TV show in around 30 seconds, a high quality movie in as little as 1½ minutes and a high definition movie in around 7 minutes.  100Mb really excels when the whole house is online at the same time – whether for streaming HD videos, downloading HD movies, gaming online or accessing everyday services. With 100Mb broadband there is plenty of connection for everyone!

What does unlimited broadband mean?

No download limits. Unlike some of our competitors, you get unlimited downloads as a basic right so you can load up on music, films...whatever you're into.

Ojustaboo

Re: This is an IMPROVEMENT

So the news is, their product is now much more attractive to the vast majority of users, leaving a small vocal minority of whiners who seem to think it's their right to monopolize an optical fibre so they can torrent media as fast as possible.

--------------------------------

I think you miss the point.

Those few times I do download from newsgroups (the last one being when my virgin TV box crashed and failed to record something I wanted to watch when I got in), I couldn't care less if they dropped the newsgroup speed to 10Mbps from 100.

Most people buy the 100 because they are high users.

Re-install windows, apply all the updates, maybe a service pack, re-install your software and apply the updates, chances are your already close to your limit.

Stream 15 mins of films in HD from Netflix (again one of the reasons many opt for the fastest speed) and you've already downloaded 800MB

Buy a new game such as Portal 2 from steam, it's 10/5GB download, again you hit your daily limit.

I paid for my 100 service so that the few times I need the speed it's there. Last week I had to rebuild my PC. I play Starwars online. That's a 20GB download by itself yet alone my CS4, Office, all my pro music software updates etc.

That's the first time this year I've downloaded anything large. Those few times that I do, I don't expect to be penalised for it, more that that , should I get home from work and hit the limit say at 8:30pm, I don't expect to be "fined" by having the limit applied for another 5 hrs, 4.5 of it after their management finishes for everyone else.

I am getting a bit sick and tired of people like yourself presuming that everyone who complains is torrenting 24/7. Last time I used torrent software was a few years ago because the makers of X-plane flight sim at the time, insisted on me doing so for my updates.

The internet has changed a lot on just the past year.

Streaming movies in HD is more and more becoming the norm.

Buying games and downloading is more and more becoming the norm.

Buying and downloading software is more and more becoming the norm.

I pay for my 100 service so that the times I buy a game that's 10 - 20GB ( not a weekly or even a monthly occurrence) , I can get it in a short period of time and be up and playing. Not being able to do that is a fair complaint in my opinion.

All that aside, if they couldn't provide their 50Mbps users with an unmanaged service, what makes you really thing that when everyone's upgraded to 100 they will suddenly magically now be able to give everyone a guaranteed 50.

Judging by all the slow speed complaints and youtube buffering complaints in both Virgins 50 and 100 forum sections (last week on the 100 service, I couldn't get more than 3Mbps for 2 days and they assure me my area is not over subscribed) , somehow I don't see them managing to provide what they now offer at all.

Just in case you don't know, the register report is wrong, P2P and newsgroups are managed in a completely different way and your lucky if you will get 5kbps, it's everything else that drops by 50% when you hit your limit.

Ojustaboo

Re: VPNs

They aren't excluded though. Too many people like me who didn't mind reasonable management on nntp, got sick of our 100Mbps lines dropping to 4kbps hence used VPN's to get our downloads at the normal speed.

I don't mind my few newsgroup downloads going at 1/4 speed. I don't expect a file that should take 2 mins to take 5.5 hrs

Ojustaboo

As I keep telling the Register, they have the report wrong. NNTP and P2P traffic management hasn't changed, when it kicks in it's still at dial up speeds, the new traffic management introduced yesterday cuts everything else down to 50% of your speed and has zero to do with newsgroups or p2p.

Well that's not quite true. anything you download now from newsgroups/P2P will count towards your daily limit for non P2P/newsgroup stuff, so when you hit your limit, your normal usage will be dropped by 50%. In addition as you have found out, whenever the P2P /newsgrouop management kicks in, it will drop to dial up type speeds. Which is what I keep telling others on this thread who have been mislead by the report on the Registers page to believe that when the limit is reached, newsgroups/P2P are dropped to 50%.

I've sent a note to the registers correction department,

The fact that this is implied, also makes the Registers poll null and void, I would have voted it a good deal if we hit a limit and just newsgroups were dropped 50%.

I've had estimates of 5.5 hrs to download a 750MB file over the past few weeks on Virgins 100 service, come midnight or if I used a VPN, I got the full speed and it took a couple of mins.

Of course their new system means all data is counted so a VPN will still kick in the 50% slowdown, but does that mean that with a VPN we still get to download at 50Mbps from newsgroups? I'm sure someone will test it soon.

Ojustaboo

Re: As long as they publish their limits...

True. Where some people are having a problem is that they are under a 12 month contract and Virgin are saying that because the way their T&C is worded, the fact that they have never (for the last 10 years anyway) had management on their top tier except for monitoring p2p/usenet, its tough if anyone wants to leave their contracts early.

People are saying that they signed up for a service with no limitations and Virgin has now introduced ones that make the service not worth the money.

Personally, I'm out of contract and have just switched to Sky.

Totally unlimited, in Skys words I can hammer it as much as I want, bearing in mind with VM at peak times nntp was going slower than dial up on my 100 line.

VM, No call line identification on my phone line and no plans to do it in my area.

VM No Sky Atlantic

VM traffic management that makes my paying for 100 service pointless.

VM bill for my bb, Top TV package (no movies or sport), phone = £70.65 per month inc phoneline rental

Yesterday evening Sky gave me the following deal

all installation costs and phone activation costs waved.

Free netgear router.

Totally unlimited BB.

Top package (no movies or sports) yay I get Sky Atlantic

HD package (far far more HD channels than Virgin)

Call line identification working and included in my package

no minimum contract for TV, 12 months min for phone and BB

First 6 months for the lot inc line rental just £38.25 per month rising to £55.00 after that.

So for 6 months I save £32.40, then I save £15.65 a month, more HD channels, better phone service and I can download a 20 min TV show in under 5 hours at peak time.

I warned Virgin numerous times that I'm not paying for a 100 service if I don't get to use it as and when I need it (such as the 20GB star wars game I recently had to download). Still around £90 with calls they've lost. If their top tier had no traffic management, I would have remained a customer.

Ojustaboo

Re: Missing the point

As I have just posted in another part of this thread, Virgin have just confirmed that usenet/p2p is still being throttled like it was two days ago, to quote

"The P2P and Newsgroup management hasn't been changed. It still works the same way as it did"

Ojustaboo

Re: The fastest UK broadband service...

I just posted the following on Virgins forum

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Can a virgin representative please confirm what I believe the Register has incorrectly said.

I thought this traffic management applies to everything, thats certainly whats been implied by people I've seen from Virgin on this forum

According to an article on The Register thats being discussed in their forums, a quote from a virgin rep states

"The traffic that will be slowed down by VM during weekday evenings and weekends will be peer-to-peer and newsgroups. The firm said it won't be targeting, among other things, video streaming, music downloads and VoIP."

Some people are now jumping on anyone that complains and are saying things like "its only usenet and nntp thats being managed"

I think what the rep meant to say was that while your speed is halved, it's only usenet and p2p thats slowed down further.

Can you confirm this and also how you will be applying your traffic management to usenet? Before the new traffic management, mine was almost at dialup speed during peak times. Again people are presuming that they can download as much as they want from usenet/p2p at 50% of their 100 speed, if this is the case, that part of it is a vast improvement on the near dialup speed I was getting from usenet at peak times.

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And the response from a Virgin employee that's been answering mist of the traffic management replies which confirms what I thought

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The P2P and Newsgroup management hasn't been changed. It still works the same way as it did

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Ojustaboo

Re: The fastest UK broadband service...

HMB You are wrong.

It WAS only usenet and p2p that was throttled, now it's everything and everything counts towards your daily limit.

usenet and p2p was throttled much much much more than 50%. They have not said this still wont be the case, the most I've got out of them is that whatever happens, nntp and usenet still counts towards your daily usage limit.

Ojustaboo

Re: Sounds fantastic.

Paul E:

Not the point. People pay for the 100 service so that they CAN download such things as wow when they want, they don't pay for 100 and expect to be told when they can and cant do things

Ojustaboo

Re: the traffic thats managed is everything

Yep I can see that. But as I just put in another reply, they had throttling on their 50 service and their forums were full of people not getting anywhere the advertised throttled speed.

Now they can miraculously provide 50 for everyone, no limits at all, including all the people they are in the process of upgrading to 100.

I personally don't see it.

I don't mind them advertising a 50 Mbit min service that when bandwidth allows can rise up to 100 but we're not guaranteed the 100. What I object to is signing up to 100, paying for the 100 and being offered 50 (which a heavy user will effectively end up getting a lot of the time).

I like many others only signed up to the 100 and paid the extra to do so as they introduced management on the 50.

Ojustaboo

Re: Just athought

No what they are saying is, we advertised a 100 service knowing that most people that choose to pay the extra for the 100 service do so due to them being high bandwidth users.

But now, at peak times, the times we are likely to be using it, we are only going to be given 1/2 what we are paying/signed up for should we choose to do something like download a game from steam.

Again as has been posted elsewhere, if Virgin want to say that their network can handle 50Mbps to everyone with no throttling, I think most would be happy (providing they are paying for 50 and not 100) .

But they had throttling on their 50 service, now they are upgrading people to 100, all of a sudden we can all still expect to always get 50. It simply wont happen for the vast majority of us

Ojustaboo

Re: Missing the point

It is anoying though ... when i go home to find my game provider has released a 2GB update and i then know i have to sit and wait a bit longer ...

But really ... 2GB at anything above 50MB/s is 5 mins ... go boil a kettle !!!!

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They used to (two days ago) throttle newsgroups and P2P far far more than that, I haven't managed to get firm info that they still wont be, all they have said is that p2p/nntp etc count towards your daily limit, they have not said as far as I can tell that they will now up the throttling of their p2p/nntp to the 50% throttling they have introduced to the the rest of their service.

Thing is, most users aren't experiencing what you are. I see your on 120, most aren't.

I was on the 50 service and received 49.9 24/7 whatever I was doing. They introduced traffic management and often it would go to a crawl, even without me hitting any limit.

I upgraded to 100. When they throttled nntp, it would often go down to download speed, giving me estimated times of 5.5 hrs for a 750MB file, then come 11:59 would spring back into life, I'd get the full speed and 60 secs later it was complete. I don't mind them managing p2p and nntp, but not down to the speeds I was getting.

Today on their super fast 100 service, here are a few speedtests I've just this second run.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872972597.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872977641.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1872979018.png

As you can see, under 4Mbps on my 100Mbps service. I haven't downloaded anything today either. This is exactly what happened when they put traffic shaping on my 50 service (and I did give them a few weeks to sort it out etc)

My area is not over subscribed etc.

Why should I pay for Virgins 100 service when for a LOT less I could have Skys unlimited service and still get where I live around 17Mbps totally unmanaged. Surely the whole point of paying for their top tier is so that the speed is there for those times I want it.

Ojustaboo

the traffic thats managed is everything

According to Virgin, unlike what they said in your article, the traffic management applies to everything not just p2p and nntp.

They haver made this very clear on their forums.

for example

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We will still be moderating the total volume of P2P and Newsgroup as a whole during peak times, but the amount of P2P and Newsgroup data you upload and download will still count towards your traffic management thresholds. For more detail on P2P and Newsgroup traffic management click here.

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The main complaint on their forum is that those doing non p2p/nntp things are likely to very easily hit their limit.

For example, if your on the 60 limit you can only download 5GB as a fair amount. If I brought the music software package I was looking at earlier for 150 euros, it's a 8GB download. Not only would I exceed my fair usage limit.

If someone says buys Starwars online, thats around a 20GB download, on the 100 service that's double your fair use.

Netflix streaming in HD is something like 800MB in 15 mins.

Most people pay for the top tier for one of 3 reasons.

1) So that when they need to download a biog file quickly, they can do so .

2) Lots of users in the house.

3) people upgraded from the 20 to the 50 as they introduced management on the 20, then when the 100 came out, people paid extra for the 100 as they introduced management for the 50.

Now management is on all tiers, 4 users in one household, one gaming, one watching netflic etc, we can soon hit limits.

In reality they are selling an ever faster service when a lot of their network cant handle it. Most people would rather a 20 unmanaged unthrottled service than a promise of 100 that's constantly throttled. Took me 42 mins last night to download a 351mb file that's more than a 50% cut.

If I am legally using the net (surely someone that pays for 100 does so due to heavyish use) and I hit my cap at 8:55, even though their management ends at 9pm, I have it for a further 5 hours as a penalty/fine?????????

Virgin state "As an example, a size: XL customer on our 60Mb service can download 5,000MB between 4pm and 9pm on a weekday before they are traffic managed. During this time that customer would have to download 7 standard definition movies or 1,250 songs before a 5 hour temporary speed reduction was applied,"

What about someone that plays something like WOW and there#s a large update, what about Skyrim I brought from steam a few weeks ago, that's 5.6GB or Portal; 2 from steam that was 10.5GB? A user pays for fast broadband, buys a game then ends up managed for 5 hrs.

Game chain sold

Ojustaboo

Re: physical sales won't go away

Teens can get preloaded credit cards.

Apart from that, both my kids (now adults) had Lloyds accounts with visa debits.

I've just checked Lloyds site, and their youth accounts for 11 to 19 year olds does give them a visa debit card..

I always thought that the older generation in particular might not like online ordering, but my wife is a mobile hairdresser with a lot of elderly clients. Turns out the vast majority of them much prefer ordering on line and waiting for their parcels to be delivered, very very few of them are scared of buying online.

I order from shopto today, it's on the floor (yes people the postman puts it through my letterbox) tomorrow (or the day after if it's gone 5:30pm when I order)

If I need something urgently, I can nip onto Tesco/Asda etc any time 24hrs and buy without having to wait for a Saturday when I'm available to actually visit a game store, and save myself around £10 (and save the parking charges) in the process..

Yes some people still don't like buying online, yes some people still like physical media but the numbers are getting less and less every day

Apple tightens grip on tablet market with iPad 2 and 3 pincer move

Ojustaboo

Re: Lack of real information from a UK view

True.

After 6 months of waiting for Orange to even acknowledge Gingerbread existed (as far as I know, they still haven't, haven't bothered checking recently), I ended up rooting and putting 3rd party Overcome ROM on my tablet.

Ojustaboo

Re: Something in what you say....

"There isn't much available for ipad that isn't for android."

that depends what you want to use your tablet for.

The Pro electronic music market seems to be focusing totally on the Ipad with nothing remotely close being available on the Android.

For example

http://moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog

http://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere-ipad.php

http://auriaapp.com/

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/imaschine

and when discussed on the various music forums, things get said along the lines of

"The Apple stuff uses CoreAudio which is a known and reliable low latency supporting protocol. The Android audio protocol is fine for multimedia, but is simply not designed to compete in the low latency department. I have a synth on my phone, the lowest achievable latency is 46ms.I think even regardless of the market perception (where most musicians have Apple stuff) from the developers POV, Google needs to seriously update its audio protocol if it is at all interested to compete in this part of the market"

I own a Galaxy Tablet that I use every single day, I am buying an ipad ONLY because the music apps I want aren't even being considered for the Android.

Apple New iPad Wi-Fi only

Ojustaboo

Re: Overpriced gadget from a corrupt company

Not the only reason

I have 7" Galaxy tablet and I am more than happy with it for everyday use, I watch films/browse the web etc on it almost every night before I go to sleep. The quality of the screen is perfect for a 7" device in my opinion.

However, I'm still contemplating getting an Ipad.

The reason? The software I want simply isn't being made and manufactures seem to have little interest in making it for the Android. I'm heavily into music, samplers, synthesizers and Android has been left in the dark compared to what's available in the Ipad.

A conversation about this recently on Korg's web site resulted in someone saying

"I also mainly miss music apps on my Android gear. Tuners and Realbook stuff is available, but not really many nice synths or DAW like things like on iPad/iPhone. But the reason, from the developers point of view, is quite clear I think. The Apple stuff uses CoreAudio which is a known and reliable low latency supporting protocol. The Android audio protocol is fine for multimedia, but is simply not designed to compete in the low latency department. I have a synth on my phone, the lowest achievable latency is 46ms.I think even regardless of the market perception (where most musicians have Apple stuff) from the developers POV, Google needs to seriously update its audio protocol if it is at all interested to compete in this part of the market."

I could list music app after music app that I would love on my android but will never have unless I go for the ipad. For example:

http://moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog

http://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere-ipad.php

http://auriaapp.com/

The professional pro music companies are releasing more and more stuff for ipad and simply forgetting Android even exists. Doesn't matter which is better, if I want my music apps on a tablet, I really do have zero choice.

Testicle-boiling new iPad ignites fanboi fury

Ojustaboo

who will be the first with the egg cooking app

Can see it now.

Just 59p to download, you get a nice pic of a frying pan on the screen and all you do is crack an egg and away you go

UK cops cuff suspect after RnBXclusive takedown

Ojustaboo

I did this Tuesday

A true incident from just 2 days ago. I had to take my son 180 miles to look at a UNI yesterday, wanted something to listen to in the car.

My daughter us in her 20's and away at Uni. I went in her room to get my CD set of Mitchell and Webb Sound, took one look at her room, one look at her wardrobes etc, didn't want to spend ages snooping around in her bedroom, couldn't get hold of her on her phone so as I have a very fast broadband, kicked off a torrent and downloaded the first 3 series in next to no time.

I suspect a few people will still try to argue that what I did was stealing. And someone somewhere will still think that that means someone lost a sale.

Ojustaboo

I await SOCA's reply

I emailed Soca with the following

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Subject: Soca take down message on Rnbxclusives site as reported on the BBC

Hi

Never been to the site neither do I have any desire to do so.

I had an in-depth discussion on music and TV piracy recently and it was brought to my attention what the law states.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions. Downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material.

By its wording, if someone was to use bittorrent (again never been to the site in question so don't know if it was a torrent site) then technically they are distributing as they have to upload at the same time as downloading.

But your site message stated:

If you have downloaded music from this website you may have committed a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine under UK law.

That is simply 100% untrue if what I said about the copyright act is true. You haven't committed a criminal offence as the law stands and you cant get a criminal record. I know you used the word "may" but either they did something illegal or they didn't. And if its not illegal to download, then "may have done something illegal" is plain and simply wrong?

Could you please confirm whether what I've said is right or not, and if not please explain why not?

Many thanks

Sky follows BT in blocking Newzbin2

Ojustaboo

Downloading is a civil offence and not a criminal one

As I've said many times before, under English law, I can download what copyrighter material I chose to and as long as I'm not uploading it, I have not committed a criminal offence and cannot get a criminal record.

The film company can if they want take civil action against me, just like I can try to take civil action against a neighbour for anything I choose to feel aggrieved about.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions. Downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material.

Personally I download a few TV shows, I have zero guilt, they are shown in the next few months on the Virgin TV service I'm paying for anyway, all it means is that I can watch them the same time as those in the US hence don't find the plot spoilers all over the net etc.

I also might discover a TV show that I've missed the previous series, one that's been aired on the cable package I've paid for, I may download those to simply catch up and carry on watching from the pint I'm at. Again zero guilt.

A screwed up recording is another example, as is say my Virgin box died and needs replacing yet I still have stuff to watch that I've recorded.

All of these are not costing anyone a single penny in lost revenue as I'm paying for my Virgin service anyway. I rarely watch TV live any-more and it takes a few presses of my remote to skip over adverts, so I never see the adverts either, hence that argument is also invalid for me.

Stupid DRM measures that inconvenience legitimate users (I'm sure the £250 worth of movies I brought from Samsung Movies with a voucher I got with my tablet says it will only work on my tablet and one PC, hence if I change tablets or upgrade my PC, had I paid cash for those movies, they would be useless).

film and game companies chose to restrict free trade, stopping me buying a film or game when I'm in the US and bringing it back to the UK unless I had a modded machine or region free dvd player. It's silly things like this that fuels piracy.

I disagree with the poster who gave the car park or not paying for a train example. Ini both of those, IU'm taking up a space that's stopping another prospective customer using, placing wear and tear on the car park, train etc, It's more like me being a good artist, going into a friends house, they've brought a £500 painting, I take a photo of it, go home and paint myself a copy. No one has lost out as I would never had forked out £500 in the first place.

Virgin Media, TalkTalk snub kind offer to block Newzbin2

Ojustaboo

Waste of time. People will get around this just like they get around everything else.

Virgins just started traffic shaping Newsgroup access so that even if your on their 100 service, between around 5pm and midnight instead of taking less than 30 secs to download a 700MB file, it takes 5+ hours.

So people have started using VPN's to get around this

And that's apart from the fact that under current English law, if I download say a TV show from a newsgroup, I haven't even committed a criminal offence, just a civil one uf they use newsgroups, unlike using torrents.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions. Downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material.

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