pterjan's diary

  News from the last few months

First, I got Internet at home few weeks ago, 6 months after moving here. I expect my online presence to get back to a reasonable level :)

Over the last few months I helped Mageia sysadmin team and did some packaging (but really not much). I am currently working on deploying youri-check on check.mageia.org.

I played with NFC on my Nexus S but did not find anything interesting, my Navigo is not seen but people report their as seen, so maybe this is because mine is a three years old Integrale. My oyster card is seen but I cannot access any data: they upgraded to MIFARE DESFire since last year, and it offers real security. Andate Tour card from Porto is a simple MIFARE UltraLight so I can read everything but I would need to go back there to get useful info to decode it, the only surprising thing is that it does not seem write protected...

I also wrote last week a patch for android to set timezone and allowed wifi channels based on mobile country code for many more countries, if it is accepted it will allow people to see networks on channel 12 and 13 in many countries.

On other news, I will be in Paris for a week at the end of the month but will miss Solutions Linux this year. I will however attend Desktop Summit in Berlin in August.

Ah, and I also adopted a GNOME hacker in February, you should do the same

  TV Licensing

I received today a scary leaflet titled "It's a criminal offence to watch or record TV without a TV Licence" because I don't have a TV licence (I did not have a TV for about 10 years and don't watch TV on any other device). It says that my address was given to Enforcement Division for investigation. I can get £1,000 fine, they will present evidence if I end up in court, they catch 1000 evaders everyday (which really seem high...)

But then they give me a solution: "End this investigation by buying a TV licence. You can buy it immediately on our website."

Then in small characters they list discounts and say that I can inform them I do not watch live TV, and they may confirm it with a visit.

I felt like if I was facing a mafia trying to scare me enough to make me pay...

It seems to be nothing new, and to quote Wikipedia TV Licensing is managed as a sales operation and its officers are motivated by commission payments. In 2005, a TV Licensing officer was found guilty of false accounting and perverting the course of justice after he deliberately forged the confessions of four people to obtain commission payments.