Posts by Alan Brown

Re: @Electron Shepherd I don't get it at all.

"If only they could calculate demand at the supply end"

They already do - and even if meters instantly updated that someone's switched a kettle on, the message will get to the supply side at least 5 seconds AFTER the generators already noticed it and cranked up supply (or let the mains frequency dip a little)

Short of being telepathic, "smartmeters" will have no effect on predicting demand and the enercos really aren't that keen on them.

If smartmeters were worthwhile then the powercos would be installing them for free

The _only_ way to maintain energy supplies and reduce CO2 is to go "more nuclear" - and once you have nuke technology which can cope with load peaks (LFTRs), the extra costs of running Solar PV/Wind, etc etc will simply serve to drive costs up.

Current "renewable" energy supplies are heavily subsided - both directly and via "must connect" laws which force grid operators to hook them up whilst not allowing them to charge for the operation of "backing generation" (mostly being inefficient open cycle gas plants)

Don't forget that in order to reduce carbon output, we have to go "more electric" - gas heating ends up deprecated and electric cars will increase demand too. Wind/Solar will _never_ produce enough to come close to satisfying current demands, let alone the spectre of requirements 4-8 times higher than they are now.

"Interesting that JL is 1st and Plusnet is 4th, when JL is just Plusnet with JL written on it."

Not overly interesting or suprprising.

At home, I'm with http://thephone.coop - who resell TalkTalk business. That extra 2 quid/month gives access to a helpdesk which actually has a clue and can solve problems - including making Openreach show up _immediately_ when they breach appointment times instead of forcing me to wait another week for a rebooking.

That kind of focus on customer service is what makes the difference between "Good when it works and 7 circles of hell when it doesn't" and "Good when it works and they get it working immediately when it doesn't"

JL and the smaller outfits understand customer service. The Telcos still work on the model of "We tell you what you want and we tell you when you'll get it"

Re: John Lewis? An ISP?

"All three BT divisions mentioned here operate independently. Ofcom insist that all CPs (Communication Providers) get equal treatment so BT Retail operates under the same rules as all the others."

In theory perhaps.

In practice, BT head office gets to see over the "Chinese Wall" and direct what BTOR does and doesn't do, as well as deliberately making it harder for external organisations to interact with BTOR than it is for other BT divisions.

New Zealand's regulators looked long and hard at how the BT/Openreach split works (Telecom New Zealand pulled the same stunt and was pushing for the same regulatory solution) before opting to force the lines company to be completely divested from the incumbent telco in exchange for broadband funding.

After 25+ years of monopoly abuse, the regulators were justifiably concerned at what they saw as continued market abuse by BT. It's easily arguable that in the UK, the single biggest impediment to free and fair market competition is BT (they engage in provable margin squeeze but Ofcom won't do anything about it)

The transformation of the New Zealand Telecommunications market in the last couple of years has been nothing short of astonishing, particularly for those who recall TNZ's anticompetitive activities during the 1990s (some of which are now starting to get to court, but they don't resurrect the companies which went out of business as a result). New Zealand has gone from a poster child of how NOT to privatise your telco to a good example of an operational competitive market with truly neutral LLU.

Re: Money

> "Has anyone *not* skipped the ads when watching a video on YouTube?"

> Well, there are the unskippable ones.

There are also browser plugins which skip them.

Re: ROFLMAO

" even if you are still waiting to be paid 2 years later (and by Madrid city council just to add insult to injury)."

Small claims court, bailiff with instructions to target and seize of the most critical piece of IT equipment in the building? (It works wonders against banks when the bailiff pulls out a branch data links...)

Re: They just don't get it

"Why on earth does HMRC* think "

This isn't HMRC thinking. This is the brainchild of a committee of some career-civil servants in an ivory tower somewhere, promoted on seniority, not on abilities and who don't have the abilility to think things through.

Google can, has and _will_ walk out of countries if pushed hard enough.

Examples: China (entirely), Germany, Spain (media linking).

It's UK companies who would suffer economically as a result and politicians who'd be chopped in the long term.

Re: It is only a draft law

"Not sure even the most spiteful of firms would actually close their doors to a lucrative market just so they could cock a snoot at the tax authorities."

Wouldn't they? Google pulled out of China with far more at stake.

If Google was to close its doors in the UK and refuse to take on UK advertisers, you can rest assured that the German/Spanish Newspaper fiascos would seem like mere trifles in comparison.

Seriously: The loss of income to the companies which advertise (nobody advertises unless there's profit in doing so) would be sufficient that the govt of the day would probably find itself the loser of a confidence vote in Parliament. MPs on all sides would be facing brickbats in their constituency offices, no matter what their political affiliation.

Re: It is only a draft law

"In Google's case the issue is that their sales to UK firms are being dressed up as IE sales and taxed in IE at the lower rate."

VAT is now paid in the customer's country at the customer's VAT rate.

Taxing gross/net income is another kettle of fish and there are ways of dealing with them without killing the Golden Goose.

Re: It is only a draft law

if the UK eliminated the umpteen volumes of exceptions in tax law, they'd probably be able to get more in with a 12.5% tax rate than they do now - and probably net more because they could lay off 2/3 of HMRC staff.

This isn't pie in the sky handwaving. It's been done before. The important thing is to stamp out the plethora of exemptions and loopholes which can be exploited (including the varying rates of VAT, which are a fraudster's wet dream)

"Oh and that your new shiny servers actually fit in your new standard rack size and dont need ones the length of mars "

ALWAYS specify 1.2m deep racks - that way there's plenty of room behind for cable trays and suchlike without having to fart around dodging mounting kits.

900mm ones are for comms kit, not servers.

Re: eh?

"I'd also a cage nut insertion tool to the list of necessaries"

Seconded, but not the clamp ones - the simple "economy" stainless-steel loop works far better as they are attacked from the front (I find them 5-10 times faster than the clamps)

http://www.pgcomputercomponents.co.uk/economy-cage-nut-insertion-and-removal-tool-635-p.asp

The biggest problem with these ones is idiots who don't know what they're for and throw them out.

Re: eh?

"Any issues I've seen with cable ties comes with idiots using knives "

MOST issues I've seen with cable ties come down to twats pulling them far too tight and screwing up the geometry of the network cable, thus wrecking its impedance. This is hypercritical at 10Gb/s

Velcro has the significant advantage that it's virtually impossible to overtighten. (not to mention no sharp edges when you've got your hands in the back of a cabinet).

Re: Dont forget your Dentist's mirror

Also: A magnet on a gooseneck, plus a claw on a goosneck. Theyr'e seriously useful bits of garage mechanic kit that save a lot of faffing around when you drop a screw into inaccessable spots.

As far heavy kit such as goes: USE A LIFTER. The cost of one in a data centre vs the cost of claims if someone gets hurt make this a no-brainer (usually this is only thought about AFTER someone gets hurt and lodges an expensive claim) and the stability of the things makes installations a trivial one-person job.

Tawi and Serverlift are 2 vendors. A decent colo centre should have such devices on the floor.

Re: I want mine on a large sheet of paper

"Seriously, projection screens are being sold as "HD ready", "HD compatible" and similar nonsense."

Projection screens are textured and these monikers indicate the fineness of the texture.

A lot of older screens are only suitable for VGA 640*480 and look like shit at 800*600 or higher res - and the HD ones look bad when low-res projectors are used because you can clearly see every pixel.

Re: I wonder if they've spent any money on the UI

"Since these buggers all have ethernet or wi-fi"

Some tablets/phablets also have Infrared (ahem, Note4) :)

Re: Is LG a good brand?

"Oh and guess what - they are trying to charge you as much for one of these quantum dot / SUHD TVs as you can buy a 4K OLED for."

That's because a backlight high density array of blue leds plus the quantum dots costs about the same as oled and is brighter.

Quantum dots won't colour-shift over time though. OLEDs might do (the longevity debate is still running)

Re: Is LG a good brand?

"A 4K TV without a HEVC decoder? No thanks, LG."

If it has an appropriate display connector I'd be happy to use it as a VDU :)

Re: Is LG a good brand?

When it comes to screens, that's LG-Philips.

As others have pointed out their panels are often used in other-brand kit.

What's _really_ been holding back OLED sales is price. As the article says "to see one is to want one"

Re: HDR?

On displays it's an attempt to say that the output is getting close to what you might see with your eyes.

(Ie, brighter brights and darker darks at the same time)

Typically the dynamic range of displays has been ~40dB lower than your eyes can see.

Re: @Ivan Not sure what it is

"Actually, you only have to watch someone strap a toddler into a baby seat to see why some people prefer higher vehicles."

There are better(*) ways of achieving that than using a SUV/4WD to do so.

(*) Safer, more fuel efficient, less likely to end up on its side/roof in a crash

Re: Not a CVT

"It is not variable in any way."

The gearing inside the box may not be, however the way it's all hooked up allows the petrol engine speed to be completely independent of the road speed so in that sense it does qualify as a CVT - and remember with an Atkinson(*) cycle engine some form of CVT is an absolute essential(**)

The point about calling something a CVT is not _how_ it does it, but what the end result is. (There are around a half dozen types of CVT and some of the scarier ones will run as fast in reverse as forward.)

(*) Actually it's Miller cycle and that offers some interesting possibilities if you get rid of the camshaft and use other forms of valve timing.

(**) The interesting part about Toyota's CVT is that its the only practical result of the gas turbine project cars they worked on for decades.

38mpg on a 2 ton car is nothing to sneeze at, but why the heck is it 2 tons?!?

Re: >implying

"NSA would love to have backdoors baked in at the factory so they didn't have to do this extra leg work..."

They probably would if the factory wasn't in China.

Re: @Trevor Don't buy US kit

"This sort of story will put pressure on large American companies who will see their export markets melt away as IT technology become more and more vital and valuable."

The NSA revelations were a significant factor in breaking Cisco's stranglehold on equipment supply at my employer. The fact that they charge 3-5 times as much as the competition wasn't nearly as strong a factor.

Re: @Trevor Don't buy US kit

"Didn't you learn anything about the world history during the 20th Century when you were in school?"

I did - and the USA invaded far more countries than China ever did (it just stuck to skirmishes with its neighbours)

Of course the Canucks could just burn the White House down again if they feel justified.

Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

"The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems."

That - and statutory damages per call plus a right of private action in small claims court, making the advertiser and the company which hired them jointly and severally liable.

It was THAT which killed the junk fax industry in the USA overnight and has been extended to breaches of do not call lists (US State prosecutors don't pussyfoot around on DNC breaches either).

Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

"1) Did nobody from their phone operating company *notice* this?"

Of course they did, and rubbed their hands together gleefully,

Most of these were coming with CLI of 0843 724 - which traces back to a provider specialising in making it impossible to call back.

Of course Ofcom haven't whapped the company providing the numbers and the scam will continue.

In the meantime, evidence tying Tetrus Telecommunications into the Yahoo mail breach of a few years back remains studiously ignored by the ICO.