Dear silicon.com... HMRC search costs, Vista SP1 moans and fingerprints for visas…

Reader Comments of the Week

What's got silicon.com readers reaching for their keyboards this week? Reader Comments of the Week showcases how our users are responding to the latest tech news and views on the site...

Greedy or justified?
Police seek full costs of HMRC CD search

HMRC doesn't have any money, either way this will end up as a cost to the taxpayer.
-- Anonymous, Reading

Okay - maybe I'm just naive, but how can the police charge for doing an investigation?

Perhaps they could have a sliding scale - cursory investigation with almost guaranteed failure for one price and a premium "efficient" investigation with the job done properly for considerably more.
-- Jeremy Wickins, Sheffield

The only reason to get the police involved at all would be if it were suspected a crime had been committed.

The police are not HMRC's lackeys at their beck and call to come and look for lost filing on demand, so it's only right HMRC should pay for the time wasted.
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Peter Cochrane's Blog: Trying to explain
♦ From CIO to consultant: One year on
♦ Health warning to overweight IT managers
♦ Photos: Apple's Jobs slims down for Macworld 2008

Vista freshens up
Microsoft refreshes Vista SP1

Does anyone have Vista on 'mission critical systems'?

And multiple reboots, plus an hour's wait while cleanup takes place because you have to remove the previous version of SP1 is not acceptable.

It should just update the parts of the system that require updating and not require a previous update to be removed at all.
-- Karen Challinor, UK

In response to Karen:
The clue here is RC - Release Candidate. This is a beta of the service pack - while close to being the final version released to the world, it may yet change.

No one should be installing/testing/running beta releases on any critical system.

Microsoft may often get things wrong but if you're inclined to have a pop at them at least make it a legitimate gripe.
-- Mike Alexander, Scotland

In response to Karen's comment:
This is a beta release not a "refresh" of a launched service patch!

One of the things Microsoft will be aiming to do is emulate the install process of a user. To do this the service pack must be installed from a retail (or as close to) version of the OS.

Why would they spend time and effort on building a custom upgrade process for beta testers who know what they are getting in to when they installed the first release?
-- Roy Corneloues, East Anglia

In response to Mike:
It was a beta it's now on general release, anyone and their dog can get it and install it.

And if in your opinion people shouldn't install it because of the RC tag, it won't stop them.

The package is not suitable for general release in its present form so in my opinion Microsoft have made a bad move in releasing it.
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Karen:
1. It's a "Release Candidate" that has been made available. Not an official release. Still beta.
2. Those who are downloading it for the first time won't have to "uninstall a previous version" or "wait an hour to uninstall".
3. Any official release would be delivered via Windows update.

This is for power users, company IT bods who want to get a sneak preview. Most ordinary people won't even know it exists or bother downloading it!
-- Roy Corneloues, East Anglia

Sticky fingers
Biometric fingerprint checks for UK visas

The government allows unrestricted immigration, ensuring plenty of media coverage about the issue, then tries to introduce by stealth an ID card system firstly for immigrants in the hope that we won't see what they're up to - i.e. trying to make us fall for their usual divide and rule trick whereby we accept its introduction because it won't affect us...then we'll get it later.
-- Anonymous, Ewell, Surrey

"The public wants stronger borders. They want us to shut down the causes of illegal immigration and hold newcomers to account, deporting rule breakers where necessary." Hmmmm - who are these people who want stronger borders? I don't know anyone that demands that people who wish to visit the UK should have their lives made more difficult. For a country that relies on travellers a great deal (business and tourism), we seem to be being particularly stupid.
-- Jeremy Wickins, Sheffield

Vista in schools?
Don't put Vista in schools, says education agency

When a kid comes out of school and tries to get a job, 90 per cent of the companies will be using Windows and Office. Let's make sure we equip them for the real world and not some geeky utopian dream.
-- Gareth Evans, Bath, UK

I see Gareth Evans falls into the usual trap of thinking that teaching computing is about teaching children how to use a number of pieces of software.

Yes, using the software should be a part of that, but it's more important to teach them the fundamentals. If they understand the principals behind various technologies, then they should be able to adapt to whatever they are faced with in the future.
-- Simon, Cumbria

Kick computers out of the classroom. IT in education is almost as big a con as the billions being poured into the NHS. IT is dumbing our kids down and there is an observable trend between rising IT expenditure and the UK falling behind.
-- Anonymous, London

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