Posts by Steve Barnett

Apple TV and Apple Store

I bit the bullet a couple of years ago and bought 2 apple TVs and they were dire I sold them on and replaced them with a new Samsung TV and a Chromecast both of which work well enough to deliver HD down our super thin pipes; we are on a pretty mediocre bandwidth 3.7Mb/s. I tried to use the Apple Store a few times each time the Movies I'd selected either failed to play or broke during play, no resolution from Apple sadly. So why bother there are loads of better/cheaper options even my Playstation is more reliable.

Aluminium Cables

Well out here in Cambridge I was told by Engineer coming to fix my line yet again so I could finally achieve 1.9mb, yes - we'll have FTTC here by Christmas but you have Aluminium cables and that means you'll still struggle to get a decent connection - oh happy day....

What else can we learn

I was interested to understand how the prison had saved £800k

Inexcusable failure

HMG Security Policy Framework only requires that government employees comply with the Data Protection Act, which for some unknown reason does not require encryption of sensitive data unless departmental guidelines require it.

But for heaven's sake disc level encryption has been transparent to the user for about 10 years, there must be a dozen companies out there offering tried and tested solutions CESG go through a hell of a lot of work to ensure that products are available and tested to a level that will work at all levels of government.

With the number of High profile instances of this sort of data loss hitting the press time after time after time surely the only thing this shows is the complete lack of competence of the people at the top in both the IT and governance roles.

there's no excuse for it, it's just plain incompetence and I agree with the poster who suggest which is fire the people at the top.

Grow up

It's an 11 year old reference to a dead weirdo that no modern 4 year old would understand; but it gives the Telegraph and the like another opportunity to be outraged by the Beeb. Beeb management should grow some nuts,tell them to get knotted and the Telegraph should go back to being a newspaper.

Oh and I should probably get back to finishing the report due this afternoon :0)

Good report, if a little over simplistic

Twitter is still working in Syria courtesy of some clever tech http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/03/syria_internet_blackout_speak2tweet_google_twitter/ and as someone pointed out 3g wireless into a neighbouring country is an option for many. Also it is less straightforward to close down commercial or non-government dependent service providers; hence the Syrian government seems to have resorted to high explosives actually 'blowing up' Internet exchanges

Government to boycott large IT Companies?!

As Danny Alexander appears on the tv/radio saying that he is boycotting Starbucks until they start to pay tax on earnings in the UK do you think he will do the same for the large US based computer services and hardware companies that now completely control UK government IT and perhaps buy identical products and services from British IT companies who pay their taxes here ? That will be a No then.

It's a Straw Dog campaign.

Their time is our time

I had to laugh the comment "the committee is complaining that the one day a fortnight it has scheduled for debate is chock-a-block with its own issues"

Curiously I thought they were supposed to debate stuff WE think is important. Whether you agree/disagree/don't give a rats...' with the proposal 100k people have taken the time to say to their MPs through this portal "Oi, we think this should be discussed" Yes that's 100k people, I bet that is more than all the letters written to MPs in a month - and they;re always imploring us to do that as and 'effective way of influencing government'

One could be cynical and say it's all just so much 'Eye-wash'. Oh, and to the person who said "It was a Labour idea and they set out the process" I say 'So, what!' If the current government don;t like it they should stand up and say "It was a failure, and we're canning it"

Someone show some spine!!!

Amazing Processors for Hyper-dense Virtualisation

There is more to system design than playing 'look at my Ghz..."

Especially in virtualisation a huge role is played by L2/L3 cache sizes, true core to workload ratios, Hyper-Threading and removing the contention between components both at board and system level. At the moment AMD are getting it right in this area - you only have to look at the RAM Speed 'step downs' that XEON forces in dense RAM deployments as much as halving the Speed of the RAM in some instances.

I work on Hyper-dense virtualisation platforms and and run a HPC project lab, we have standardised on the Opteron processors from AMD at the moment as in our experience they have the better performance characteristics. Check out http://tinyurl.com/bx5o73 and http://tinyurl.com/4y85uz9

Certainly not religious about it as have done plenty of Xeon based development for post-production and other intense graphics requirements, but for the moment especially for virtualisation multi-core AMD definitely the right choice. Looking forward to getting hands on in the next few weeks.

Get your crisis teams working around the clock this is the big one

This is the one we've been waiting for. A strategic hit on the keeper-of-the-keys to some of the worlds most valuable data.

With the perpetrators moving so fast after the initial hack to hit the most tactically valuable targets this is 'work' being done on an extremely professional basis.

If they haven;t dome it already my advice would be to anyone using RSA tokens to immediately get a crisis team together and identify your critical data assets - that's the stuff that ruins you if you lose it. and put up another defensive ring around it,

If data is critical to the survival of your business - don;t dick about, don;t rely on not being hit. Even if it means going back to passwords until you can either get the new RSA tokens up and running or you can get something else in.

Also shame on RSA - "Guys, you';re in the business!"

FANBOIs

Yes it got us as well and phones and ipad - I went off and had some lunch.

It's still not working so I've switched over to AIM and iChat.

As has been said it's a value for money service :0)

It was tosh from the start

It's nice to have a bit of good news on a Friday.

This stupid bit of Blair/Bush/911/David Blunkett and Alan Johnson are idiots legislation was doomed from the start!

Waste of money. Good riddance. Only sorry to hear that we are still going to have to pay a load of American waste of space consultancy companies to go away!

Anyway, I should be having a happy weekend knowing that ID cards are dead and buried (for the moment).

It is Mandatory

The UK Government issued internal directives several years ago that require all electronic data held on hard disks or any storage device to be encrypted using high strength disk level encryption.

It's a directive that is widely ignored, they also spent hundreds of millions on the GSI - Government Secured Intranet so that data could be passed around securely yet they still shove un-encrypted untracked CDs around in the internal post (by internal I mean external postal contractors using uncleared casual labour).

Electronic Data is on the whole not treated like a real 'secured' document despite the fact a DVD can hold hundreds of thousands of restricted documents.

It comes down to holding individuals in departments ro account for failures in applying policies, procedures and in giving adequate training.

Is it that big an issue no - but Java and Skype are

Not really, It's a phone! Even for iPad it's not that big an issue - iPad is aimed at my mum who hates computers but likes to sit on the sofa look at pictures of her GrandChildren on Flickr

The only real irritation is that I would like to listen to 'my' music while I'm playing online poker.

The real irritation is that I want to be able to watch java based content on my iPhone and I would want to be able to use a microphone on iPod/iPod so I can use skype properly.

I use skype on my iPhone all the time and it has been a real lifesaver. Anyone who works around St Pauls/Paternoster Sq in London knows what it's like when you can;t get Cells but can get free Wireless...

Ubiquitous 1Gbps - Don't make me laugh

I leave 3 miles from a fibre exchange BT can only get me 468Kbps - which they claim is acceptable for a Business BroadBand connection...

I'm going to move to Google City, Kansas :0)

They are what they are

Big, profitable, incumbent almost everywhere and when this all plays out they will still be the biggest player, they will have the strongest balance sheet.

Only long term threat will be the Chinese and they still have a way to go in figuring out how to deal with Western based customers but they will.

Supporting Tech Haha!!

Here's a quiz - name 4 globally successful UK hi-tech companies founded since 1997...

It's just words, as someone who spent years on multiple UK tech projects the UK Gov has no 'plan' to support any sort of ICT R&D and manufacturing, don't believe me?! try attending a few of the start-up funding forums; last one I went to broke down in chaos as the development agency folks went through the sector bias' and requirements - the audience worked out that no one in the room could benefit unless they were a large multinational and then we were informed that the budget was being cut that year anyway because "it had been too successful". Speaking to one of the agency guys in the break he said he was leaving because it was a shambles.

What's needed is positive action/ positive bias;

Try these -

1) In the US each gov' department has 1 or 2% of it's annual budget set aside with targets set to support start ups and micro businesses, not just in IT but across the board.

2) Here's another tax breaks for start ups, 3-5 years no corporation tax.

3) Oh and tax credits for companies buying from UK startups

4) Stop non-UK companies from offshoring income - i.e. setting up a UK marketing agency and then invoicing from overseas. Use the massive leap in corp tax to fund immediate skills training

Enough hot air to float a Zeppelin.

Fring

Big deal Skype on my iPhone. I also use Fring to speak to people on Skype; true it only works over wifi, but then that's all I need it to do.

I wonder who owns the publishing rights?

Ahh, the Cowell money making machine continues to roll. Cowells company Sony BMG owns the publishing and sheet music rights to Hallelujah, (dreadful old durge), and he has just been granted label rights to the work of all the X-Factor winners for another 5 years. www.femalefirst.co.uk/business/Simon+Cowell-225.html.

Bring back the Generation Game, Blankity Blank, or Stars in their Eyes (No, only joking, really no!)

Should see him nicely through the recession though.

Blind Faith

Maybe they just don't like the band. Prefering some early Clapton. The 1969 Blind Faith Album cover was pretty controversial and would certainly be banned today. Having heard it they would be better off banning the contents :0)

Paris: for obvious reasons...

CW deal nothing to do with Demon & @ George

George, of course you are right; I agree with you completely on the Free broadband front, it was extremely significant and has changed the whole dynamic of the consumer market; broadband access becomes part of an data/telephony & entertainment's package.

However, In the long-term Broadband customers just aren;t profitable unless you offer triple play or better. So, Consumer Broadband is a side-show in this deal, in fact I'd go so far as to say it's a cake stall :0)

The proposed acquisition is about CW acquiring a UK wide NextGen network and being able to provide lots of high value connectivity/services to the business community local and international. CW have thousands of customers running on ageing ATM and Frame relay networks that they will need to migrate to IP based NextGen over time, but more importantly they will gain a steal on BT whose 21CN programme is already running a couple of years behind schedule.

Post acquisition CW should sell off the Broadband customer base, just like when they sold the Bulldog customers to PIPEX who sold them to Tiscali (who having realised the error of their ways, tried to sell them to Vodafone).

Like everyone else, I hate being moved from provider to provider for my Broadband while they consolidate, which is why I am with BT I don;t like their service much either (promised 3mb got 1.5mb max') but at least I know where my bill is coming from every month...

Back from Steve Barnett

Yes I admit I am an idiot, and I apologies unreservedly for mentioning Frank Herbert and L Ron in the same sentence. Frank, may you ride the deep desert always.

As for you my touchy brother, unlike many others I see no problem with Freemasonary, a "society with secrets" not a cult, and while the Pope isn't so keen, I see you as benign.

But please don;t make out you're all saints. Free masonry has been self-serving the business community for over 500 years. I'm a capitalist, I'm good with that...

Q' Are you jealous that the guys with the power and the money are joining the opposition.

Oh, and at least I have the balls to put my name to something you anonymous ar$e.

Useless ar&e just looking for easy wins

As a lifelong labour voter I am now at the point I was in 1995 with the tories, I know they're lying because their mouths are moving. Sadly the tory leader is less charismatic, or believable than Blair - so god help us. Bring back Charlie Kennedy you foolish Liberals, we all liked him.

Rant over; Anyway...

Brown thinks he can win back a lot of votes on the re-re-classification of dope issue. He's wrong! The obscene tax on fuel/ cars/ beer/ fags/ pensions, the cock-up on the 10p tax band and on and on.

And, then there are the revelations that our then 'Iron chancellor' was in fact just sitting back and letting the markets and Greenspan run the economy, & don't get me started on the sale of our gold reserves for $245/oz.

He's just a waste of a leather arm chair, I don't se "him" getting a job at E&Y do you.

Ranting again.

I do agree that the illegal supply chain of Cannabis is a problem; solution legalise it. Allow people to grow it in their gardens, raise some taxes and boost my BAT shares by getting them to sell it in a controlled way alongside the fags. Except you cannot smoke anymore because "it's fun" and that's bad.

Gordon Brown - go away - go away now! You muppet!

Paris, because she and Nicole Richie would do a better job of running the country.

Top wheeze, but not as good as the Spaghetti harvest failure of 1973.

I was there for a moment, as no lunacy surprises me these days.

Paris, because she's kind to animals.

The boot will eventually be on the other foot

The Consumer Internet (the Web) is all about content. People are screaming about bandwidth because they cannot get down as much content as they want because the ISPs throttle it.

So it's content that people want; but the ISPs have a problem. They're rather like your local gym, they massively oversubscribe knowing(hoping) that only a few % will turn up. It costs ISPs to deliver piped in content and no one expected the networks to fill up as fast as they have; 5 years ago I was happy with 64k ISDN, now i have 3Mb'ish.

The smaller you are and the less infrastructure you own the worse it gets. (Broadband ISPs who don;t own a lot of network will eventually all go bust, or be consolidated if they're lucky, why do you think PIPEX got out)

I also think that eventually you will find the boot on the other foot and as digital delivery becomes more popular you will find the ISPs being charged by the media for the content they deliver. It is something that the media folk have been talking about for years, to the horror of AT&T et al.

You will see this value chain appear: Content provider to content distributor to content delivery network to Broadband provider; Just as we see it today in the normal production distribution chain. Easy for Sky and Virgin Media as they already do it and they own their own network. Less Easy for the likes of PlusNet or Talk Talk.

The answer would be for the BBC to do a deal with a bunch of other channels and then to sell a CDN to BT Broadband who own their own infrastructure and most of everyone elses. QUestion is whether their public servie remit will allow this, personally I don;t see why not as long as their "content" is still free.

BT Talk a lot about being a media company, here's there chance.

Dead bird - represents small Broadband providers P&L

Poor Old MK - Just not future proofed

I grew up in Bletchley & MK from the early 60s till the mid 80s. It had cable TV in 1977, we had Sky and MusicBox with Sooni and GazTop!

Sadly we never got the monorail we were promised, and my folks say the whole place is turning to poo!

Shame really for the UKs 21st century city, the spineless development corporation fell into the pockets of the developers and the rest of it went up in the cheap.

As for Wimax; I hope it works. Not 'cause i care about the technology, I'm fed up of paying for a telephone line I don;t use just so I can get my email.

Biometrics work fine, but that isn;t the point!

Biometrics work, they have their place. They;re convenient and work extremely well 'in the right environment' like logging into the computer system at work or opening the door to the secure area. My kids use it for buying donuts at their school.

For those who don;t like the idea of centralised databases (like me) you can use 'match on card' where the encrypted template/s are stored on the card.

A well specified installed and managed system is at least as secure as chip and pin. Print & Pin is my personal favourites.

But, 'everything' can be spoofed/cracked or cloned if the incentives are big enough.

My credentials for these comments are that I worked in IT security for over 16yrs, specifically in the biometrics business for 2 of those and I use bio-authentication every day without a hitch.

Conceptually this bit is important: Verification can only ever be "the person carrying this card, is the person to whom it was issued" Just try and stop determined people from posing as someone else when they apply for a biometric ID card. Biometrics DO NOT stop ID theft. The theft takes place first.

Also, biometrics DO NOT stop terrorism at our borders, everyone of the July bombers was a legit UK resident. All the 9/11 bombers had legit reasons for being in the USA, it wouldn't have stopped them getting on the planes.

It;s a rubbish idea let's not do it. Let's give the money saved to MI5 and local community projects to stop home grown terrorism before it starts.

The Government (this one & the last lot) is very good at wasting our money. They have a terrible record on implementing large scale IT projects, NHS Programme for IT(£20bn, rubbish and late), London Ambulance Service (over budget, late and collapsed), and the pitiful Child Support Agency project (£500m over budget, never finished,caused the agency folded with no one accountable).

The wrong systems, badly spec'd, installed by the inept and run by the poorly trained and apathetic. As I said before bad idea, of limited benefit, will be expensive, and is already late.

Late what do I mean late!? Guess what the project started several years ago, DVLA, Passport Office, Immigration, HMRC and NHS already linked and Biometrics are mandated for Passports (oh yeah that's running late as well).

It'll be like bonfire night and 911 all rolled into one

Bus bombs, train bombs, truck bombs, bombs in hotel lobbies

All set off by mobile phones.

Need I say more?!

I think I will walk !