This ought to be a warning that any data stored in "the cloud" is not secure and can be accessed at any time at the whim of authorities. Better encrypt the files before you store them in the cloud, or keep files locally so you can keep control of your data. I imagine other countries will be looking to this too, seeing how easily Apple caved into the British Government.

The EU wants to ban petrol and diesel cars and for people to switch to EVs. Whilst at the same time putting new taxes on EVs to make them more expensive and hence less attractive to consumers. Where is the logic in that?

I used to hire regularly with Hertz for travel in the Scottish Highlands. This is a very rural area where even "main" roads are single track with passing places, so I booked the smallest petrol car as usual. Unfortunately this time I was told that the only cars available was an EV or Pick up truck (too big for the rural roads I was using). When I said that wasn't what I requested I was basically told "take it because it's an upgraded car or leave it and we'll give you a refund". They continually insisted that the car they offered me (a Polestar) was a "significant upgrade" on what I had booked so would not back down. I was told there were plenty of charging points in the area I was going to and I'd have no problems because all the instructions were in the car. This was, of course, a lie. Since it was at an airport and I had a deadline to meet I reluctantly agreed. It turns out all the instructions in the car means "we stuck a QR code inside you can scan with your phone". The car came with a shell charging key fob. It turned out the nearest such charge point one to where I was staying was 100 metres from where I picked up the car - Glasgow Airport. Every other one required a different app to be download first. Why - why can't I pay by credit card? Or the local Council ones you have to fill in a form and they'll send you a keyfob by post before you can use them. Yeah right, completely hopeless when you are away from home. Most of the chargers didn't work at all. Those that did took many attempts with the app continually reporting "token errors" when I tried to charge or no longer showing the charging status. One of them even locked the charging cable to the charge point. The screen on the charger came up that "charging failed" and "disconnect cable", but it locked the cable in place so I couldn't and since the cable belong to Hertz I couldn't drive off and leave it without a very expensive penalty charge. Eventually, when I was able to get hold of someone on the telephone who was, after several attempts, finally able to get the charger to relinquish the cable. ALL the chargers I found only allowed you to charge for up to 2 hours after which you would be get a penalty charge and that was only enough to add around 40% charge as they were not fast chargers. The worse part was that Hertz insisted you had to return the car at least 80% charged to avoid penalty charges. I had a 150 mile journey back to the airport and a flight to catch. I don't have time to wait around for 90 minutes to recharge the car back to 80%. So I got a penalty even though I complained that I was happy to pay the costs for electricity to return it to charged state but not the penalty since I hadn't booked an EV and didn't want one and didn't have time to recharge it before return. A petrol car takes 2 minutes to refuel and that is what I had booked. On the survey I gave a low rating an request someone from Hertz contact me to discuss it. They never did. So never again to Hertz. The experience was awful, the company couldn't care less.

The iPod was (and still is) the only Apple device I have ever purchased. Most Apple products are overpriced and try to lock you in and require expensive cables and chargers. However the Ipod was so much better than any alternative at the time, with the tiny hard-drive allowing you to carry all or most of your music collection. It was easy to use the battery lasted well in comparison with the competition. The only real problem was the horrible iTunes, but at least you could upload mp3s using it, so you weren't forced to convert all your music to a proprietary format first, as other vendors required (I think Sony did). I still have it. It sort of works still, the problem is the headphone jack broke or wore out so sound only came out in one ear and it was expensive to repair, so I never did. Of course now phones have more capacity so it doesn't serve much purpose.

I should think you would tire with no air. Did you mean a car *tyre*?

Another has appeared on the Isle of Wight in the UK, at Compton Bay. See this report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-...

And if they had done that when the MAX was first grounded they'd soon be producing more planes that would actually be allowed to fly. As it is their not producing the MAX anymore either, so the suppliers have ramped down production there too.

Wasn't this game banned on the C64 too because it was deemed too similar to Super Mario. I guess Nintendo really don't like it. Yet where is the C64 port of Super Mario?

We've already had Windows RT (locked down, only apps from an app store). The public thought they were getting full Windows, not a deliberately crippled cut down one So return rates were high which meant shops didn't want them either. So it failed. Similar story for Windows 10S, locked down to only apps from the "Microsoft Store", only Edge and only Bing. Guess what, the public didn't want it and it failed. So if Microsoft want to try again they need to call it something other than Windows. Because as soon as you put Windows in the name the public thinks it will be the same version of Windows they have on their PC and when they find it is deliberately crippled or cut down they don't want it and return it.

I remember a colleague that always launched programs from desktop icons (never from the start menu). So we did a simple prank of taking a screenshot, setting it as the wallpaper and then deleting all the icons. Result, lots of frustrated double clicking and wondering why applications wouldn't launch.

Unfortunately, since Alex Cruz took over the helm, British Airways have become a budget airline in every respect apart from the price. Checked bags no longer included. No food or drink included. Pay extra to select seats. Coupled with (in my experience) very frequent shcedule changes after booking and poor customer service. Coupled to that frequent IT problems, and some industrial relation issues. I only use them when no other airlines fly the route. The only thing that isn't like a budget airline is the price.

Drop it in the bath?

Are they really planning to pass a law that applies only to 4 named companies? Why not all companies? I can see that ending up in the courts as anti-competitive if they do. That or Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple will set up a new company with a different name to avoid the law. And what about other companies doing similar. Starbucks springs to mind?

I do find that airlines seem to like to keep announcements about delays quiet until the last minute. Certainly in the UK they are rarely displayed before checkin (only after security, when you can't go back), which of course keeps you stuck in the airport where I suspect they hope you'll spend money in the shops during your delay. I find it can be useful to search for your flight on Flightradar or the like. They often have the registration of the aircraft booked to operate the flight (how they get this, I don't know), so it can be worth looking at the previous flight that aircraft is operating and see if that is late. If it is, it's likely you're flight will be too.

Good, it seems if you want to go to a concert these days you're forced to watch it through the screen of the phone belonging to whoever is standing in front of you. It's sad that so many people seem to want to spend most of their time at a concert showing off to their friends that they are there, rather than enjoying the experience. I sometimes wonder if they then watch the concert on their phone to see what it was actually like. It's certainly a policy I support.