Posts by jonathanb

Re: Good to see

It is worth mentioning that if they were a British company, they wouldn't have to worry about that because we don't charge corporation tax on dividend income.

Re: A non-merkin writes....

The second largest use of Bitcoins, after speculation, appears to be the sale of drugs on Silk Road. If you are buying Bitcoins, there is a good chance that you are buying them off drug dealers, as the speculators aren't selling, and thus indirectly and without realising it, helping them to cash out. That's why Homeland Security is involved. What I describe may not be true, but they think it is, which is what matters.

Re: they don't get it

You can't add attachments other than photos and videos from the mail app, but you from pages, numbers and presumably keynote, I don't have keynote, there is an option to send the file by email.

Re: Look before you leap

There's Plusnet, it is owned by BT, but run by a completely different customer service team and is actually pretty good.

Google Ireland sells advertising to UK customers, therefore it comes under Irish sales tax rules. Google Ireland pays Google UK a small amount of money to identify and refer potential customers to them so they can close the sale.

No. Companies don't pay tax on dividend income.

Re: Simple solution

If that anonymous SIM stays overnight at a particular place, spends its working hours at another place, visits particular shops and so on, it can be correlated with other information to figure out who you are.

Re: Not just Apple

Only if you buy €15,000 of stuff and pay cash for it. If you pay by card, cheque or bank transfer, it doesn't trigger the money laundering rules.

Re: Oh yes?

How many computers have pirated copies of Windows, with Windows Update disabled to stop Microsoft from deactivating them? That is where the inadequate law enforcement is.

Re: the trouble with auditors

Auditor's answer, it depends. Seriously, 2 + 2 doesn't always = 4. Usually it is a number between 0 and 4. Sometimes it can be more than 4. It depends what you are counting. There are many good reason why it could come to something different, but more importantly you should be looking at whether or not it is appropriate to add those two numbers together.

Re: Hotmail veteran

Use the stock email client. Set it up as an exchange account with the server m.hotmail.com.

Re: Mr Hawking, you should listen to “Palestinian academics”

If you want to include Jews, then you have to also include Arabs and other Muslims.

They have invented quite a large number of things, like our number system, lots of developments in mathematics, the first university, lots of stuff related to astronomy, windmills, and I could go on.

Re: SSDs, I believe, have now overtaken memory as the single most cost-effective upgrade

A 750GB Seagate Momentus isn't that much more expensive, and it makes a huge difference to performance.

Re: How do they manage to make a loss?

The eyebrow pluckers need to be paid at least minimum wage, and the rent and council tax needs to be paid on their premises. That sets a minimum price at which eyebrow plucking becomes viable as a business proposition. If Groupon vouchers cost the same or only slightly less than it costs to walk into a rival eyebrow plucking establishment, then people will just walk in and pay cash rather than go through the hassle of buying Groupon vouchers.

Re: Spam

But their products are all y2k compliant, which is good to know

http://www.groupon.com/pages/goods-faq

Re: The police are as bad

Would the ISP know the MAC addresses of devices connected to the LAN? You are not going to connect an xbox directly to the internet, you connect it via a router of some description. Phones might get connected directly to the internet, but they have an IMEI number that could be used to identify the owner.

Re: 0845

0845 used to be local call rate, about 30 years ago when it was first introduced (as 0345 in 1985). There is no such thing as local call rate now, you pay the same between any two parts of the UK. Call rates in general have gone down a lot over the last 30 years, 0845 rates have not and they are now a lowish cost premium rate number (officially "special services, basic rate"). When dial-up Internet first became popular in about 1998, the money ISPs got from modems calling their 0845 numbers was sufficient to fund the service.

In Windows 7, you click the start menu, right click on Computer and click Show on Desktop. That won't work on Windows 8 because there isn't a start menu, and I don't think the start screen has a computer option on it.

Re: Virtual vs fiat

You can pay tax in fiat currency, and fiat currency is legal tender meaning that you must accept it in settlement of a debt.

Re: Decisive action and commitment

ID cards would only ever be good for travelling around the EU. If you want to go further afield, you are always going to need a passport.

Re: Linux EveryWear?

Linux on TVs is the present, not the future, but they generally run Busybox rather than Android. Maybe Android has some advantages, I don't know, but I prefer to have a screen with lots of HDMI ports and possibly with built in speakers, and plug things into it.

Re: Steganography

You could compare it to thepiratebay copy of the film in question. If he was using thepiratebay to distribute the secret, then he wouldn't need to physically carry it home, but I guess he is physically carrying pirate bay material because the Chinese government are better at blocking it than the American government.

Re: Diversity

I believe my Galaxy Note II is booked as a tablet sale rather than a phone sale even though I use it as a giant phone rather than a tiny tablet. That may explain it.

Re: It's really not that urgent (I don't think)

I agree. If you compare the Mail apps for iOS and Android, I'd say they are about the same; and both do their job just fine. I've never had a problem with the Calendar App on iOS, I'd say it is slightly better than the Samsung one on my Android but it is a close call. I don't have the stock Android Calendar App so can't comment on that.

But the book case, actually there's three of them, for iBooks, iTunesU and Newspapers; they need to go. The Podcasts app needs to go. The Maps app is probably OK from a UI perspective, it is the underlying data that is the problem there, and that isn't Ive's department.

Re: Worldwide taxes anyone

Apple China makes stuff and sells it in China and to other Apple Group companies around the world. It isn't a US citizen as it is based in China. The American Apple might be.

If you turned up in Monaco to do your shopping, €1 will get you a bus ticket to Nice where everything is much cheaper.

Re: A pen anyone

Then you can record it on the Notes App on your iDevice. I usually do that as I don't have a pen with me.

Re: Simpsons Tapped Out comes to mind....

Satnav apps generally download maps separately from the app. I guess it is OK if it is data it is downloading rather than executable code.

Re: Beats are trash ....

I always test out the bass of any speaker or headphones with this track - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUsrMm7BaU4

If you listen to it on Beats headphones, as I have done in PC World, the bass is just completely missing. I guess the main difference between my test track and a lot of tracks is that the bass is a 32ft bombarde playing a tune rather than a percussion instrument.

The Beats headphones weren't the worst, but they weren't particuarlly brilliant. I found no correlation whatsoever between price and sound quality in their headphone range.

Re: The way to avoid the tax is to spend the money in the US

The way to avoid tax is probably to *buy* a large chunk of the remaining 55% stake that Verizon owns, then sell it; so they can claim substantial shareholding relief.

Re: Email account password probably "very important"

... it means that like everyone else, her entire online life is secured by a 4 digit PIN.

Re: Stop using postcodes

Co-ordinates would be fine for navigation, but post codes are for Royal Mail's benefit.

For example, if you wanted to send and old fashioned letter to Vulture Central, the first letters of the post code WC would tell them which distribution centre to deliver it to, the next bit 2H would tell them the local delivery office, and the final bit 7LT would tell them which postie's bag to put it in.

Re: "Freakishly Something". Dunno About Awesome Though...

Access doesn't run that we'll on Wine, and that is the only bit of MS Office that LibreOffice isn't an effective replacement for. I can't really think of any reason why you would run MS Office on Wine rather than LibreOffice.

Re: @Adair From what I've heard previously...

My understanding is that Microsoft make more money from royalties on iOS and Android than they do from Windows Phone.

Patents I'm aware of are Long filename support in vfat, iDevices might use it in the camera connection kit, but not otherwise. Androids that have SD card slots use it. The other one I know of is Activsync. iDevices, and a lot of Androids support it.