technology

£20 Broadband Tax

Submitted by JMB on Tue 17/Aug/2010

Via Computer Weekly:

Non-BT networks will have to pay a £20 tax for every home they connect to a fibre-based next-generation network, according to proposals from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

This proposal could earn the government some £205m a year. This would be in addition to what it presently earns from business taxes on BT, Virgin Media, Global Crossing and other network operators that specialise in business networks.

The proposal is buried in an appendix to a guide for industryregarding next-generation access networks.

VOA logo

And even more irritatingly, apparently I’ve already paid a £7.50 tax for my Virgin broadband.

Here’s an idea:

Every social media pillock guru with an iPhone who can spell “XML” best of three times has been going on about digital inclusion for years. How about – and this is really controversial - rather than spending money on grants for marginal activities involving social entrepreneurs, fake charities and other oxygen thieves, the VOA/HMRC just choose not to levy a confusing and rather arbitrary tax on broadband cables that will only end up being passed on to customers in higher prices; a tax furthermore that is so confusing that it requires an extensive guidance document for telecoms investors.

Oi, Pickles: have a word with the Treasury and see about giving this lot the Audit Commission treatment, would you?

Google Labs in Google Maps

Submitted by JMB on Sun 11/Jul/2010

“Google Labs” is an option in most of the major Google Applications, comprising an extra set of functions that can be enabled to enhance user experience. For example, Google Mail Labs includes lots of nifty stuff like inline images in mail, signature tweaks, a POP3 refresh button; all individually configurable in mail settings.

These bits of functionality/code are part of the larger Google Labs initiative, which contains a few things that are (frankly) barking mad, and a few really fantastic additions to current products. Google Labs Test Tube, the experimental version of You Tube, is particularly worth a look.

Recently I noticed a Google Labs option in Google Maps, and there are some really great ideas in there. Here are my favourites:

Distance Measurement Tool: measure the distance of a path on the Earth

Short URL: Shorten the Maps "Link" to be a more compact URL.

Drag 'n' Zoom: Zooming in on a specific part of the map is now fast and easy. Simply click the Drag 'n' Zoom button, draw a box on the map, and zoom! You're there!

Aerial Imagery: Add Aerial imagery to the map! Aerial imagery gives you rotatable, high-resolution overhead imagery presented in a new perspective. Currently imagery is only available in certain areas, but we're adding more all the time.

LatLng Tooltip: Displays a tooltip next to the mouse cursor showing the latlng directly underneath it.

LatLng Marker: Adds an option to the context menu that lets you drop a mini marker showing the latlng of the position that the cursor was pointing at when the context menu was evoked. (Marcelo C)

5 iPhone Apps that make my life easier and more fun

Submitted by JMB on Tue 06/Jul/2010

(Note – these all work on the iPad, I believe)

DropBox (Free)

Seriously: If you don’t already have this, stop whatever you are doing and download it now.

Install the PC, Mac or Linux software on any computer and you can have a single directory that automatically synchronises to any computer you wish. You get 2GB of free space, and can upgrade to 100Gb for a pretty reasonable fee

Then install the free iPhone App and you can access your drop box from your iPhone. Loads of supported file formats.

iStockphoto (Free)

Instant access to a database of millions of royalty-free images. And it’s faster than the website as well.

iSSH (£6)

A VT100, VT102, VT220, ANSI, and xterm client. It does SSH. It has a VNC client. You can do X server connection. All the usual RSA and DSA key options. It is so ridiculously clever, that if you are a system administration and find yourself thinking “blimey , six quid is a lot for an iphone app”, then slap yourself on the back of the head before you buy it.

ePrint (£2)

Print from your iPhone to any Postscript LPR/LPD device (mostly) by IP Address. . Then chortle, because it’s so clever. I don’t chortle very often, but printing off a contact from my iPhone to a nearby networked printer definitely brought on a chortling impulse.

JotNot Scanner Pro (£1)

Scan stuff with your iPhone, and send it to Google Docs as a PDF. There are more expensive alternatives with better Optical Character Recognition (OCR), but this one works for me.

Shredder Chess for iPhone (£6)

Pocket-based chess humiliation by one of the world’s strongest chess engines (2600 ELO). Can be dialed down to 850 ELO (Carbon Monoxide Poisoning) if you want to even the odds. Best chess app on the iPhone, with the edge over Fritz due to the inclusion of loads of chess puzzles.

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