DoubleGlazing

She barely takes home minimum wage and she is self-employed. Most of her peers are in a similar position. It is not a vocation you get in to for the money.

Edit: A common problem in her sector, and other therapy sectors, is that all the recognised diagnosis and treatment systems get bought by the likes of Pearson and other big technical publishers who will demand recurring payments to use the system. For example Owls, a common speech therapy system requires her to use their pre-printed forms to take notes. The basic diagnosis pack costs over $700, but she has to keep buying the forms at $60 for 25 - even thought he system rarely changes.

Good.

My wife is a speech therapist and uses a system that is designed to help people who have had strokes regain their voice.

It comprises a piece of software that comes with a "specially calibrated USB microphone". The microphone is actually a Samson laptop USB mic that had the voice improvement systems logo stuck on it.

The system came with lots of legal warnings about not copying, not telling unqualified people about how it worked and not to use an unapproved microphone. The DMCA was specifically mentioned.

One day the mic failed (the program requires patients to shout aggressively at the mic) so my wife went off looking for a replacement. We had a few USB mics that we tried and and the application refused to acknowledge their existence even though they showed up in Windows. It became obvious that the software was checking the USB device ID. My wife went to the company that ran the system to get a replacement, but they said she had to buy a new copy of the software as well - total cost $659. So we took a chance and ordered a new Samson USB mic from Amazon for €30.00, but when it arrived it didn't work. It was the same model, but was a few generations ahead and therefore had a different USB device ID. My wife has some colleagues with the same package so I tested their mics and they had different USB device IDs and it became obvious that when Samson released a revision of the mic the company offering the system simply recompiled the code with he new device ID baked in and then re-branded the mic.

So, not wanting to shell out $659 for a whole new package I took the old and new mics apart desoldered the cartridges from both mics and put the new one in the body of the failed mic. It worked! Now technically this would be a violation of 1201 in the sense that the individual copy of the software they sold you was tied to the specific mic they sold you at the same time - they said so in the EULA. But lets be honest that's just nonsense. They were simply trying to sell more stuff - a tactic that seems fairly common in various fields of professional therapy.

This is the sort of problem caused by 1201. If we lived in the US we would have been in breach of the DMCA even though we copied nothing.

Also, the software is as ugly as sin.

Cycling to work one day and while stopped at some lights at a major Dublin intersection I noticed a crow drop a half eaten apple just ahead of the stop line.

Looking back after the lights turned green I could see the apple had been crushed by a car and the crow was gobbling up the delicious juicy apple mush.

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego on the Amiga came with a pocket encyclopedia which was both part of the game and a copy protection mechanism.

Wasn't there one where you were given a plastic prism and you had to look at the screen through that prism to see a number which you typed in?

Without the prism it just looked like random dots.

I might be imagining this.

I worked for Kodak UK for a few months in 2002. I was a contractor working on their ERP systems, specifically reporting and BI tools. I wasn't privy to anything strategic but I could see some odd things.

The oddest thing was that they were still trying hard to push the APS format, despite the fact that is was a pretty poor format when it first came out it was now looking even worse when compared to early mass market digital cameras.

There was a certain arrogance amongst higher up managers. A sort of "We're Kodak, we're the best, we dictate the market!" There was a noticeable staff churn problem as a result. I was on a team of 20 of which 14 were contractors.

I can see some interesting parallels between Kodak and Nokia. Two giants who dominated their sectors and just didn't anticipate changes in consumer demand and then couldn't/wouldn't adapt.

I know a John Deere dealer in Northern Ireland who is considering moving to another brand because of this.

As he puts it the people he deals with "would burn him alive" if they couldn't fiddle around with their own equipment. Farmers with livelihoods on the line tend to get rather angry when their equipment plays up.

Growth non-existent? Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but this would suggest otherwise... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union#...

I have to agree with this. There is just so much unnecessary stuff going on in modern webpages. All too often I see relatively simple webpages with jQuery/Angular/React/Bootstrap/Telerik and numerous other libraries references in the header.

I started web development in the 90s where small size and high speed were key. I try to do the same now. I'll only use jQuery where possible, but if I do use a framework/library it will be to prototype something or to get something completed as I am under time constraints. If I get a chance I'll port it all over to plain JavaScript.

Modern webpages are just too big.

Angular and React are two different things. How could anyone make a meaningful comparison between them?

We have loads of ScanSnap N1800s all over the office. We are a FinTech company we always get loads of financial docs from clients so we scan and archive them securely and shred the originals.

They are expensive, but they just work.

I think Amazon is slowly transitioning in to a IT services company that also happens to sell stuff.

As opposed to what it used to be... a company that sold stuff and who also happened to provide some IT services.

Farage is smart, very smart and he knows exactly what he is doing.

He has spent the last 20-odd years screaming about how bad the EU is saying it is undemocratic, wasteful, an affront to national sovereignty, promotes uncontrolled immigration and so on. Yet none of his or UKIPs arguments really stand up to serious scrutiny. He has been very good at redirecting the anger of marginalised communities away from the real source of their woes and towards the EU.

He has made people think that the EU is to blame for their problems, when in fact those problems are the responsibility of the UK government.

He has portrayed himself as a man of the people with the pint and ciggie, despite the fact that he is anything but.

He has managed to get the support of traditional Labour supporters despite the fact that he is as hard-right as they come. That's quite an achievement.

Don't forget that UKIP was founded as a fairly Liberal euroscpetic party. The original leader Alan Sked was forced out by Farages mob for being too intellectual.

Farage is a master manipulator and he knows that winning the referendum was only the first stage in a long process that will go on for years. He's taking a back seat now to avoid being a part of the current political maelstrom, but you can be certain he'll reappear when he knows he can take advantage of the situation. I also wouldn't be surprised if he is also pulling a few political string behind the scenes.

> 3) Be very wary of telling your former employer of where you are going to work. There just is no real upside to it.

This!

I live in Ireland where non-competes are illegal under EU law, but that doesn't stop some employers trying their luck.

I was made redundant from a company that provided a SaaS retail reporting/analytics system. They had never added a mechanism or developed a business process to easily cut off customers who weren't paying their bills, so rather than fix it they made a few people redundant to make up for the shortfall.

A friend introduced me to a rival firm who liked me enough to hire me, this was during my 30 day notice period when I was still working for my old employer. I never told my old employer that I had been hired as I knew the MD would lose his shit. Unfortunately I told one person there whom I considered a friend. I swore him to secrecy, but he had a drinking problem - I think you can see where this is leading. The MD got wind that my friend knew where I was going and one day (after I had left, but before starting the new job) when he arrived in a bit hungover the MD said "Tell me where he's working or I'll fire you for being hungover". So he blabbed on me.

The next thing I know I'm having abusive texts and emails sent to me, a motorcycle courier delivered a letter ordering me to not start with the new company. He even went to the Garda and falsely claimed that I was stealing trade secrets - they told him to go see a solicitor.

Then he came banging on my door in a rage. I had to call the Guards on him.

Although the new employer initially supported me, after a while they said I had baggage and they had to withdraw the offer.

As for my old boss, I had to ask the Guards to get him to back off.

Yep, you old employer does not need to know where you are going.

The author fails to take in to account the short term issues associated with the Brexit.

For the next ten years, and probably more, Britain's economy is going to be all over the place. It will be hard to keep things stable whilst new treaties are negotiated and new trade links are established.

Britain is effectively rebooting its relationship with it's biggest trading partner. There is no way that such a move cannot have significant negative repercussions.

I've already seen such repercussions with UK friends who run small businesses being impacted the drop in the value of sterling. Another UK friend who runs a tourist coach business has been told by his EU based tour operator clients that once the Brexit happens they may have to drop him as a supplier - which now means a planned expansion has been put on hold. This is the sort of stuff happening even before article 50 is invoked, once that happens then all bets are off.

The leave camp didn't have a plan, but even if they did there would still be major negative effects on the UK. And so far people have only focused on issues surrounding trade the movement of people. There are dozens of other issues that will need to be dealt with as well such as standards compliance, product safety certifications, cross border consumer issues, science/R&D partnerships, the NI peace process, OpenSkies agreements and so on and so on.

Lets assume the author is correct in his thinking and that in 10-20 years the UK economy will be thriving, you can't deny it will have been a very, very painful journey to get there.

Aldi in Ireland (and I'm assuming the rest of Europe too) has a new system in place. If sensors above the checkouts detect the lines are too long an automated voice will announce "Checkout 2 will open soon, please start unloading your goods on to the belt". 30 seconds later another announcement will say "Operator to checkout 2 please" so the operator arrives to a checkout with a fully loaded belt.

And the reverse happens as well, when the line reduces another announcement will state that the checkout is closing and customers should not approach that checkout.

I'm always amazed at the little things Aldi does to make their process even more efficient.

It is possible all you references were good, but some were "form" or not expressive enough.

One of my old employers had a very strict policy of only issuing a standard reference which was basically to confirm I worked there, my job title and my start/finish dates. Staff and managers were expressly forbidden from giving references - they had to refer all requests to HR.

I had a job offer withdrawn as a result of this. The potential employer asked specific questions in their reference request and my old employer refused to answer then - instead giving them their standard form reference. Not my fault, and nothing I could do about it.

But what this company is doing is inherently dangerous for itself. The UK Data Protection Act is pretty darn strict about personal data and the Information Commissioner can and frequently does levy hefty fines for mistakes and breaches.

So lets just say I tell them that I have no social media presence and they dig up some accounts and tell the landlord I lied. Well, they have to justify their claim, they have to be able to conclusively prove it is mine. If they get anything wrong then all it takes is a complaint to the Information Commissioner stating this company is holding, processing and passing on inaccurate data about me to give them a little shock. A few too many complains would then probably trigger a severe audit by the commissioner.

Looking at it from a wider perspective. How are they processing and protecting information in general. How do they protect all the data they harvest from your social accounts? Are staff able to share the info for fun? is there access logging? How secure are their PCs? What do they do with your data after your tenancy ends? This is the sort of stuff a business like this cant afford to make mistakes with. If they do and people complain in big enough numbers it could negatively impact their business.

It's also worth noting that where religion, sexuality or health data is involved things get a little bit more serious as regards the DPA.

If I were dealing this company I would be quite happy to act in manner which would let them dig their own grave even if it impacted me.

For my current job (banking software development) I had to undergo a background check. In addition to the usual work and address history stuff I was also asked for all my social media account details, to which I answered "N/A". I don't want to lie and said I had none, instead I just went with N/A as I felt my social media presence was not applicable to the background check. I have a lot of personal info and pictures of my children on my facebook profile and that is no ones business but for me and my family.

The background check company got back to me with a list of social media account handles they had found, some were mind, some weren't. They told me that they would be submitting this list to my employer stating that I lied about my social media accounts. I responded by telling them that if they did they would be submitting incorrect information about me and I could take action using the Data Protection Act.

I expected to fail the check, but somehow I passed and got the job.

The takeaway from this is that so long as you refuse to discuss your social media accounts and don't use your real picture as a profile picture, don't have a really unusual name and keep everything locked down and private then how can they prove otherwise?