Meanwhile the Guvmint pays organisations just £600 a pop to help a long-term unemployed person to start their own business. (New Enterprise Allowance - the £600 is paid only on results, too - at least six months of trading). This £4m would create 6666.66 jobs: instead it wibbles to 10,000 little middle-class Nathans. Mind the Gap.
Posts by Kaffy
10 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Sep 2012
Hey Brit taxpayers. You just spent £4m on Central London ‘innovation playground’
Farewell Felix Dennis, deal-maker supreme of tech publishing
Thursday 26th June 2014 11:33 GMT
Great guy, taught others lots too...
I remember being drafted in to do the launch ads for PCW, and being briefed by Felix. "You gotta understand that the only thing about this mag is that's it's weekly. It's exactly the same otherwise. Major on that, and be hard, very hard hitting!".
So we came up with a DPS for Campaign, the ad weekly, in gritty black and white, showing dumped piles of computer monthlies, being eaten by rats (well, big mice actually). "Yeh, that'll get the point across!". VNU publisher (who was that?) had a fit, but Felix insisted, and we got lots of PR coverage too. Tons more stories...
Apple files patent for camera lens controlled by 'artificial muscle'
Sunday 22nd June 2014 10:42 GMT 
Been there - 11 years ago...
I remember meeting Tony Hooley in Cambridge years ago, and he'd invented and developed a little low-power piezo device that did exactly this. Plus it could rotate the lens too, with a Mexican wave of muscles... Mass producable too. Another Brit first!!
See http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4096-origami-helps-cellphone-cameras-to-focus.html#.U6axwahCV_0
Gone
Apple pushes back release date for 'dustbin chic' Mac Pro
Crown Representative: SME biz is huge... but I don't have exact figures
Tuesday 10th December 2013 08:33 GMT
Big fish and small fry - yum!
Most of the SME turnover claimed anyway is via the big boys: they have to declare how much of their subcontracting is with SMEs, and this percentage is then passed through as a 'result'. Hence the delight of Crapita or similar when their subbies are less than 250 people or less than €50 meelion: they can show the Govt that SMEs are doing fine, and the Govt can go on to claim SME-friendly procurement figures.
Bradley Manning is no more. 'Call me Chelsea,' she says
Thursday 22nd August 2013 22:27 GMT
Lamo and Manning's chat log was released - by Lamo presumably - in mid - 2010...
(1:11:54 PM) bradass87: and... its important that it gets out... i feel, for some bizarre reason
(1:12:02 PM) bradass87: it might actually change something
(1:13:10 PM) bradass87: i just... dont wish to be a part of it... at least not now... im not ready... i wouldn't mind going to prison for the rest of my life, or being executed so much, if it wasn't for the possibility of having pictures of me... plastered all over the world press... as boy...
(1:14:11 PM) bradass87: i've totally lost my mind... i make no sense... the CPU is not made for this motherboard...
(1:14:42 PM) bradass87: s/as boy/as a boy
(1:30:32 PM) bradass87: >sigh<
(1:31:40 PM) bradass87: i just wanted enough time to figure myself out... to be myself... and be running around all the time, trying to meet someone else's expectations
(1:32:01 PM) bradass87: *and not be
(1:33:03 PM) bradass87: im just kind of drifting now...
(1:34:11 PM) bradass87: waiting to redeploy to the US, be discharged... and figure out how on earth im going to transition
(1:34:45 PM) bradass87: all while witnessing the world freak out as its most intimate secrets are revealed
(1:35:06 PM) bradass87: its such an awkward place to be in, emotionally and psychologically
UK superfast broadband crew: EC competition bods are holding us up
Monday 13th May 2013 15:32 GMT 
State Aid not a problem - it's all political
There are loads of other schemes that overcome State Aid easily. As long as every SME (they'll be the "beneficiaries")hooking up to superfastaccleratedinterwebnettubes signs a 'de minimis' confirming that they haven't received more than €200,000 over three years (that's a shed load of connectivity) then you can shovel State Aid as much as you like. Secondly, there's a State Aid test: "Could the measure affect trade between one or more Member States within the European Union?". Actually, it can't cos those fat pipes don't stretch outside of the UK. Do what you like inside your borders, as long as it doesn't get out. Lastly, you can push State Aid on individuals as much as you like: State Aid is only considered naughty if it goes to enterprises.
But supporting these arguments is beyond most of the Guvmint.
Brit firm PinPlus flogs another password 'n' PIN killer
Fujitsu lands on Ministry of Fun's grey list for broadband bids
Friday 14th September 2012 12:12 GMT 
More than just money for old tech...
BT not only gets the EU dosh for the fibre, but also lots of marketing money to do 'demand stimulation'. The Guvmint reckons no-one knows/wants this broadband stuff, so millions are going to be spent getting the punters to form a queue. In the South West alone, it's a £12 million budget, all being spent with BT's mates SERCO. Typical local demand stimulation spends per county are £1 million, all to turn that dark fibre on... cos otherwise it would just sit there, no?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
