Dear silicon.com... wi-fi CCTV, BBC iPlayer, skills shortage, robots...

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...

Skills crisis? What skills crisis?
Techie shortage costing us billions, says Europe

I would suggest that there is no Skills shortage, I have been trying to find a position but I'm allways "Binned" due to my age (52), if companies employed people for thier skills rather than dismiss then due to age we would not have a shortage!
-- Les Blunden, Winchester

*sigh* here we go again, more arguements for offshoring on the way

1 - stop looking for exact matches and be prepared to train your staff

2 - be prepared to hire university leavers and teach them the interpersonal skills you think they are missing

3 - start hiring back the older people who have the skills you want but you think are set in their ways, you will be surprised

4 - start treating staff as valuable resources to be invested in and nurtured rather than throwaway cost centres to be disposed of as soon as you've lurched out of your current crisis, you will lurch into another one eventually and you'll need them again

5 - put people who know IT in charge of them

6 - pay them a decent salary and if they work overtime have a system in place to reward the effort, not everyone wants to give up weekends and evenings to meet a deadline imposed by some numpty in sales and a reward shows such effort is appreciated
-- Karen Challinor, UK

Well a good start would be to stop callng them techies (or geeks) and start sshowing respect for technical knowledge
-- Paul Dixon, York

Not surprised at all. What student, in their right mind, would plan for a career in IT, when all they've heard of is IT jobs being off-shored?!
-- Annon, Scotland

BBC controversy? Never...
BBC iPlayer row: The government speaks

The BBC should close the iPlayer Service with immediate effect until it can provide the service for the other platforms. No more waffle or excuses
-- Anonymous, Sussex

This is one argument the BBC will never win. 100% platform agnostic? I doubt it is possible within a reasonable budget. So maybe 90% platform agnostic will be good enough?

It makes perfect sense to target the most popular operating systems first, then play catch-up with the other 'major' OSs. As far as I can see that's what the Beeb have done, but obviously they will need to target Apple and Linux as well.

Open source advocates tend to be more audible than anyone else, so the BBC need to be careful not to be overly attentive to open source at the expense of various flavours of Windows and AppleOS.
-- Anonymous, London

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Tony Hallett flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Video: The greening of the data centre
♦ Photos: Cambridge innovation day abuzz with fresh tech
♦ Wanless calls for NHS IT review

NHMS
Microsoft and NHS team up on software design

Adds a whole new meaning to the term "Blue Screen Of Death".
-- Anonymous, UK

Full Disclosure - full support
Steve Ranger's Notebook: Don't let sleeping data dogs lie

Could not agree more, it seems completely unbelievable that serious breaches of personal data go unreported. How many more laptops need to be 'discovered' on the back seats of 'cabs' before this government finally acts.
-- Mike McNamara, Reading

Not so shiny shiny...
Women ignored by gadget makers and sellers - still

It is no wonder many women find it difficult to ask for assistance while shopping for technology when the sales advisers (a large percentage of whom are male) either have condescending attitude or lack the knowledge themselves.

But the thing that I find the most patronizing is when I ask a question about a piece of equipment and the response is directed to my male companion.
-- Sarah, Sussex

Loving the robot?
Tomorrow's robots - our invisible friends

It's true what he's saying, but there's a kind of anti-reference to what he thinks will happen with AI.

"...rather than Terminator-style robots" and then "...and provide opponents in computer games."

So the artificial intelligence which seeks us out and destroys us in computer games is NOT(???) likely to try the same thing when it's "assisting" driving my car!??! funny.

Of course the two systems could never cross over. Ever. It's unthinkable.
-- Simon Jon Catt, Scotland

Wi-fi jammin'
Wi-fi CCTV in parking tickets drive

When radar speed traps first came out there were a rush of radar signal distortion devices and detection units for your car. I wonder how long it will take for WiFi signal jammers to be out on the 'grey' market.
-- harvey gordon, London

Please note, comments may be edited for clarity - but are not corrected for grammar, spelling, punctuation or style. The views expressed are not necessarily the views of silicon.com. You can write to silicon.com by posting a Reader Comment below, or emailing editorial@silicon.com.