Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Feb 8, 9:59*am, David Hansen
wrote:

Yep. A lot of incompetent organisations insist that Edinburgh is in
Midlothian. It isn't.

Is it for postal purposes, though? (I know the postal county is not
required any more, which begs the question why anyone bothers asking
for it). Milton Keynes, like Edinburgh, is a unitary authority, but
is still considered to be in Buckinghamshire for addressing purposes.

Neil

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Feb 8, 11:54*am, wrote:

It would require at least new software in the boxes and then everyone phones
their mates and tells them the code or posts the code online anyway.

It wouldn't. The boxes can already do it (except the few really cheap
ones with no text capability).

Neil

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Feb 8, 11:00*am, Neil Williams wrote:

On Feb 7, 12:51*am, Mizter T wrote:
Why does it need to know whether you live in a house or flat/
maisonette, and for that matter what would it matter if it thought you
did live in a flat?

I live in a flat that is numbered in the sequence for the street (no
A, B etc) - so in this kind of software I usually have to call it a
house...

My point was, why do 'they' even need to know, unless they're selling
you insurance or something where it's relevant? I suppose if you're
ordering something large, then knowing whether or not it's going to be
delivered to a flat might well be helpful and thus flagging it up in
the online order system is useful, but as your example makes clear,
relying on all flats to have a letter suffix as the sole way of
identifying this is daft.

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

In message
Neil Williams wrote:

On Feb 8, 9:12*am, Graeme wrote:

Not strictly true as you need a licence to watch BBC material streamed
live on the net.

Any TV if it is being streamed at the time it is being broadcast, I
understand, not just BBC.


Probably true, it's just I know you need one for watching BBC. Don't know
about the others.

--
Graeme Wall

This address not read, substitute trains for rail
Transport Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail
Photo galleries at http://graeme-wall.fotopic.net/

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Thu, Feb 04, 2010 at 05:05:22PM +0000, David Hansen wrote:

The stories I have heard about this have contained an account from
the council that they start off with notes in bins.

That seems rather unhelpful. If there's a random piece of paper on its
own in the bin, I just assume that it was damp and stuck to the bin
intead of falling out when the bin men upended it.

--
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

I apologize if I offended you personally,
I intended to do it professionally.
-- Steve Champeon, on the nanog list

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Feb 8, 11:07*am, Neil Williams wrote:

On Feb 8, 2:06*am, Mizter T wrote:

My point is that the convergence of technology makes this all rather
less clear cut - and there's a good number of people who don't have
conventional televisions but who nonetheless watch television nowadays
- if it's all 'watch again' stuff on iPlayer, 4oD and the like, no
problem, but if it's a live ('as broadcast') TV stream then a TV
Licence is required.

True. *And in Germany it was going to be the case (don't know if it
happened or not) that a PC with Internet connection would require a
licence. *And it's per "TV" in Germany as well, I believe, not just
per household.

No, my understanding is that it's not per TV / device, it's per
household. Wikipedia puts it thus:

---quote---
Starting in 2007, the German government will establish a licence fee
for the first working Internet link (e.g. mobile phone or PC) in a
household or a company if it is the only source for radio and
television. These devices will be charged the radio fee. The licence
fee has to be paid even if the device is not attached or has no
immediate capabilities to connect to internet.
---quote---

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#Germany

I don't know how the detail pans out - e.g. whether mobile phone
account that has internet access enabled means the address where that
account is registered is liable to pay the licence fee, and whether
one can opt out by specifically choosing not to have mobile internet
access. Actually I've a feeling that the mobile connection might have
to be above a certain speed or (potential) bandwidth or something,
e.g. 3G, but I really dunno (I'm wondering whether someone looking at
a basic WAP page on a basic handset would really count). And then
there's the question of PAYG mobile 'accounts' - but perhaps in
Germany these have to be registered to a named holder at a specified
address (unlike here where they can be 'anonymous').


To avoid this silliness, it would make more sense that, within the UK,
such "TV archive" websites required the entry of a valid licence
number before they could be used, if they were to be brought into the
requirement.

One can easily see a multitude of problems with that, such as a
licence fee's number being shared over far and wide. If you then look
at some sort of formal login in requirement, then there's a multitude
of issues with that - how many logins allowed per licence, how many
concurrently connected devices allowed on the same login, enforcement
that those multiple logins are not being used by family and/or friends
at multiple different locations, some of which may be unlicensed, the
burden of actually setting up and managing such a system etc etc.

I'm tempted to think that if a licence fee funding model is to
continue to be viable, then perhaps the German model might be worth
looking at, i.e. one where telco links - fixed or mobile - mean that a
licence is required (though there are all the possible complications
as noted above). Or else the French model, where the licence fee is
collected through the local taxation system - the latter would provide
a bit more distance from central government than if the BBC were
merely funded by a block grant from central funds (i.e. central
taxation).

I am a supporter of the Beeb, incidentally (not perfect by any means
of course), but I've long wondered how sustainable the current TV
licensing model is. Not remotely keen on any strict pay wall
subscription model ala Sky though.

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 09:43:54PM -0000, Yokel wrote:

Is that the same software that refuses to accept any house number ending in
"A" (and there are quite a few) because it thinks you are living in a flat
or maisonette? Even the Post Office uses this rubbish software ...

The post office don't believe that my address exists either, despite
managing to deliver plenty of junk mail. And then there are the idiot
companies that use the PAF and actually assume it's correct.

The PAF *documentation* tells them that it's not correct - that it
always lags behind reality for new buildings, for example. And yet
Tesco refused to deliver to me, because my address wasn't in their
database. It never stopped them registering me for a loyalty card,
selling the address to yet more junk mail companies, or indeed writing
to their employee in the flat below me (whose mail I always got because
the postman couldn't read).

--
David Cantrell | Bourgeois reactionary pig

What profiteth a man, if he win a flame war, yet lose his cool?

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Feb 8, 11:38*am, Graeme wrote:

Neil *Williams wrote:

On Feb 8, 9:12*am, Graeme wrote:
Not strictly true as you need a licence to watch BBC material streamed
live on the net.

Any TV if it is being streamed at the time it is being broadcast, I
understand, not just BBC.

Probably true, it's just I know you need one for watching BBC. *Don't know
about the others.

"TVCatchup" might exist in something of a legal grey spot, but they
seem to be clear in stating that users must have a UK TV licence.
Channel 4 also did simulcast streaming for a while (discontinued now),
and they made clear that a TV licence was required.

Got some idea that when the BBC does events like Wimbledon and
multiple 'virtual channels' are offered via "the red button"
multiscreen service, if those same 'channels' are offered via
streaming online then a licence is again required. (Wait for TV
Licensing to remind businesses that they need TV Licences if people
are watching World Cup games online at their workplaces this summer!)

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Mon, 8 Feb 2010 03:11:12 -0800 (PST)
Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 8, 11:54=A0am, wrote:

It would require at least new software in the boxes and then everyone pho=
nes
their mates and tells them the code or posts the code online anyway.

It wouldn't. The boxes can already do it (except the few really cheap
ones with no text capability).

And how do you propose giving each box a unique code for the program then?

Or do you think giving out a single code for a program is secure and no one
would ever tell anyone else?

B2003

Conflict of Oyster Cards
 

On Mon, 8 Feb 2010 03:09:28 -0800 (PST) someone who may be Neil
Williams wrote this:-

Yep. A lot of incompetent organisations insist that Edinburgh is in
Midlothian. It isn't.

Is it for postal purposes, though? (I know the postal county is not
required any more, which begs the question why anyone bothers asking
for it).

I think you have answered your own question.

Even then Edinburgh has not been in Midlothian for a considerable
time. Edinburgh has been in Edinburgh since the Tories tried to
gerrymander things, before then it was in Lothian (Region) [1]. Only
before then was it in Midlothian, the 1970s as I understand it.


[1] Edinburgh District and Midlothian District were two parts of
Lothian Region.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000...#pt3-pb3-l1g54