they have GOT to go!
5 days and counting...
I dunno - when your ISP can't get you onto Yahoo - one of the most popular ...what is yahoo exactly? A portal? web presence? anyway - whatever - when you can't get onto yahoo and more importantly for me - flickr - then that ISP isn't exactly fit for purpose is it?
Oh virgin.net - you are so about to be dumped.
this is supposed to be surprising news?
Jobs shortage 'will see 80,000 new graduates unemployed'
Yeah - there's thing called 'supply and demand' right - what it means is when a commodity is rare - they can command a high price, but when something is a lot more commonplace - they only command a lower price. So when the aim is get 50% of young people onto university courses (whether they're suited to that or not) mmmm - someone somewhere hasn't been thinking things through properly.
That's without going into the fact that the sheer numbers of young people going into universities now makes them more like conveyor-belt driven education factories.
Oh and apparently there's still a dire shortage of electricians and plumbers in the UK - but no one cares about those sort of things do they?
This is what you get when you have no-one but middle-class people* running the country - they're only able to see what they want for themselves and their children and just can't see the wider picture.
*this applies to ALL of the parties.
Yeah - there's thing called 'supply and demand' right - what it means is when a commodity is rare - they can command a high price, but when something is a lot more commonplace - they only command a lower price. So when the aim is get 50% of young people onto university courses (whether they're suited to that or not) mmmm - someone somewhere hasn't been thinking things through properly.
That's without going into the fact that the sheer numbers of young people going into universities now makes them more like conveyor-belt driven education factories.
Oh and apparently there's still a dire shortage of electricians and plumbers in the UK - but no one cares about those sort of things do they?
This is what you get when you have no-one but middle-class people* running the country - they're only able to see what they want for themselves and their children and just can't see the wider picture.
*this applies to ALL of the parties.
Bankers rhymes with... **** with good reason
I am slowly being driven insane by the banking system in this country.
Due to reasons too boring to go into here - I don't have a bank account. Up to know it's not bothered me too much – it's been an inconvenience certainly – but I've muddled through somehow without one for the past few years.
Now very recently I've come into a modest inheritance – so I have some actual money I need to put into a bank. Now you might think that in the current economic climate any bank would be desperate for any customer with a bit of money. Oh, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. Because I haven't had a bank account for so long - it turns out I haven't got a credit rating. Big surprise there. But without a credit rating – a bank won't give me an account. Yes, it turns out you pretty much need a bank account to be able to er, open a bank account.... go figure!
Let's let this sink in... I haven't got a credit rating – well, because I haven't had a bank account for a while. So they won't give me a bank account because I haven't got a credit rating... Now I could understand this if I was asking for a mortgage or a loan or even a credit card – but no, all I want is a current account.
OK. So after being given the run-a-round – it turns out there are these super basic bank accounts you can get – they're really there because our government in it's 'wisdom' (*chokes*) has decided to phase out the old Giro cheque you used to be able to cash at a Post Office - so if you're on benefits you get one of these basic accounts and the Government pays the benefits straight into that account. [An aside – it used to be the case that when you signed on – an actual real life physical cheque would be posted to you and reach you 3 days later. But in this fast modern electronic world – where you would think it could reach you – at least the very next day – but no, instead it takes a whole day extra! No, I have no idea why this should be.]
Anyhow – I apply in one of these high street places for their basic account. I take in my proof of ID and utility bills to prove my address – only to be told it takes up to a MONTH to set up the account! Jeez what do they find to do in a whole month? But regardless - I put the paper work in – and the next day knowing I couldn't possibly wait that long went over to another bank – where I was told it would only take 7 to 10 working days. I applied for their basic account. Thinking at the worst having two accounts can't hurt.
Turns out it was just as well I did because to add insult to injury I received a letter today from the first bank saying they were unable to process my application – because I hadn't indicated whether I was a bankrupt or subject to an IVA. (Whatever that is.) Er, but when I handed the form in – it was to a member of staff who checked it over before taking it from me – if there was anything missing on the form – she would have told me there and then. So I believe they are lying – and because they think they're dealing with a unemployed person they don't care if I have an account with them or not (they don't make a profit from these accounts). But they expect me to go in and reapply and wait ANOTHER MONTH for them to get their act together... Er, I don't think I'll be doing that somehow.
Sigh.
And this has been only a part of the hassles I've had trying to open an account – there was another story where a staff member was on holiday for a week – so couldn't see me... and blah blah blah. Oh it's just frustrating to relate - and is all doubt to ass-hat incompetence.
So at the end of the day I am not in the least bit surprised that the banking system is in such a deep,deep crisis – it's obviously run by a bunch of complete brain-dead chimpanzees who couldn't find their own arse with both hands and a map...
Once (maybe that should IF) I ever get access to my own money – I'm not sure I'll want it sitting in a bank account. I might be better off keeping it under the mattress!
Due to reasons too boring to go into here - I don't have a bank account. Up to know it's not bothered me too much – it's been an inconvenience certainly – but I've muddled through somehow without one for the past few years.
Now very recently I've come into a modest inheritance – so I have some actual money I need to put into a bank. Now you might think that in the current economic climate any bank would be desperate for any customer with a bit of money. Oh, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. Because I haven't had a bank account for so long - it turns out I haven't got a credit rating. Big surprise there. But without a credit rating – a bank won't give me an account. Yes, it turns out you pretty much need a bank account to be able to er, open a bank account.... go figure!
Let's let this sink in... I haven't got a credit rating – well, because I haven't had a bank account for a while. So they won't give me a bank account because I haven't got a credit rating... Now I could understand this if I was asking for a mortgage or a loan or even a credit card – but no, all I want is a current account.
OK. So after being given the run-a-round – it turns out there are these super basic bank accounts you can get – they're really there because our government in it's 'wisdom' (*chokes*) has decided to phase out the old Giro cheque you used to be able to cash at a Post Office - so if you're on benefits you get one of these basic accounts and the Government pays the benefits straight into that account. [An aside – it used to be the case that when you signed on – an actual real life physical cheque would be posted to you and reach you 3 days later. But in this fast modern electronic world – where you would think it could reach you – at least the very next day – but no, instead it takes a whole day extra! No, I have no idea why this should be.]
Anyhow – I apply in one of these high street places for their basic account. I take in my proof of ID and utility bills to prove my address – only to be told it takes up to a MONTH to set up the account! Jeez what do they find to do in a whole month? But regardless - I put the paper work in – and the next day knowing I couldn't possibly wait that long went over to another bank – where I was told it would only take 7 to 10 working days. I applied for their basic account. Thinking at the worst having two accounts can't hurt.
Turns out it was just as well I did because to add insult to injury I received a letter today from the first bank saying they were unable to process my application – because I hadn't indicated whether I was a bankrupt or subject to an IVA. (Whatever that is.) Er, but when I handed the form in – it was to a member of staff who checked it over before taking it from me – if there was anything missing on the form – she would have told me there and then. So I believe they are lying – and because they think they're dealing with a unemployed person they don't care if I have an account with them or not (they don't make a profit from these accounts). But they expect me to go in and reapply and wait ANOTHER MONTH for them to get their act together... Er, I don't think I'll be doing that somehow.
Sigh.
And this has been only a part of the hassles I've had trying to open an account – there was another story where a staff member was on holiday for a week – so couldn't see me... and blah blah blah. Oh it's just frustrating to relate - and is all doubt to ass-hat incompetence.
So at the end of the day I am not in the least bit surprised that the banking system is in such a deep,deep crisis – it's obviously run by a bunch of complete brain-dead chimpanzees who couldn't find their own arse with both hands and a map...
Once (maybe that should IF) I ever get access to my own money – I'm not sure I'll want it sitting in a bank account. I might be better off keeping it under the mattress!
digi-wrong wrong wrongs
Filesharing mum ordered to pay nearly $2m
Errrr. What? A $2 million fine? How is this is anywhere close to justice? Was Jammie a music pirate with her own website selling MPGs - or selling CDs earning herself millions and millions of dollars? Was she going around to music artists homes and stealing bags of money off them at gunpoint? Was any money at any time exchanged? So where did this figure come from? What would she have got as a fine if she's shoplifted a few CDs? I doubt it would have been in the millions. She wouldn't have got that for kidnap and murder.
So what message does this send out? 'OOOOoooh we shouldn't ever download music we haven't paid for because the music industry will get us"?
No. It sends the message that the RIAA is out of control (and don't think for a moment that a single artist is going to see a single cent of that money - ever since the RIAA have been suing people - a single penny hasn't gone to any artist. But a big chunk as been going to pay already plump lawyers and into their own pockets... [All of which is a good excuse to not buy CDs from the major labels - since it's obvious they funnel far too much money in order to hire their lawyers to attack music fans rather than -you know, pay artists.])
Nice to see this:
Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim "$100M+" RIAA "stole"
Because the RIAA seriously needs to be held to account.
Moby: The RIAA Needs to be Disbanded.
PC World: Has the RIAA's Fight Against File Sharing Gone Too Far?
Errrr. What? A $2 million fine? How is this is anywhere close to justice? Was Jammie a music pirate with her own website selling MPGs - or selling CDs earning herself millions and millions of dollars? Was she going around to music artists homes and stealing bags of money off them at gunpoint? Was any money at any time exchanged? So where did this figure come from? What would she have got as a fine if she's shoplifted a few CDs? I doubt it would have been in the millions. She wouldn't have got that for kidnap and murder.
So what message does this send out? 'OOOOoooh we shouldn't ever download music we haven't paid for because the music industry will get us"?
No. It sends the message that the RIAA is out of control (and don't think for a moment that a single artist is going to see a single cent of that money - ever since the RIAA have been suing people - a single penny hasn't gone to any artist. But a big chunk as been going to pay already plump lawyers and into their own pockets... [All of which is a good excuse to not buy CDs from the major labels - since it's obvious they funnel far too much money in order to hire their lawyers to attack music fans rather than -you know, pay artists.])
Nice to see this:
Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim "$100M+" RIAA "stole"
Because the RIAA seriously needs to be held to account.
Moby: The RIAA Needs to be Disbanded.
PC World: Has the RIAA's Fight Against File Sharing Gone Too Far?
one law for the poor - another for the MPs
Mmmmm.
So when some poor sod fiddles the benefit system and they get caught out... they usually get sent to court and are usually either fined and sent to jail. [Leaving aside for the moment other issues that the benefits paid out are often way, way below anything anyone could be expected to even subsist on - which in itself could be said to encourage people to cheat... they do so only to survive.]
But when MPs do it - they first claim they're doing nothing (technically) wrong. Then some quickly pay back what they claimed (surely that in itself is an admission of guilt -hummm?), then they censor what should be a matter of public record - another admission of guilt -surely.
Now the police are getting involved - but what are the chances of any MP being sent to court - and fined - and sent to prison? I'd say minimal - how many Labour party members got away with the cash for peerages thing that was going on not so long ago?
Where are the TV adverts for tax-payer-cheating MPs - like they have for 'targeting benefit thieves'...
So when some poor sod fiddles the benefit system and they get caught out... they usually get sent to court and are usually either fined and sent to jail. [Leaving aside for the moment other issues that the benefits paid out are often way, way below anything anyone could be expected to even subsist on - which in itself could be said to encourage people to cheat... they do so only to survive.]
But when MPs do it - they first claim they're doing nothing (technically) wrong. Then some quickly pay back what they claimed (surely that in itself is an admission of guilt -hummm?), then they censor what should be a matter of public record - another admission of guilt -surely.
Now the police are getting involved - but what are the chances of any MP being sent to court - and fined - and sent to prison? I'd say minimal - how many Labour party members got away with the cash for peerages thing that was going on not so long ago?
Where are the TV adverts for tax-payer-cheating MPs - like they have for 'targeting benefit thieves'...
nebulous coming to teevee?
ooooh ooooh oooooh
just read this on the news section of Graham Duff's own website:
Which is something to look forward to after what might be the last ever episode of Ideal.
just read this on the news section of Graham Duff's own website:
Graham is currently working on a TV adaptation of his popular Radio 4 sci-fi sit-com ‘Nebulous’.
Which is something to look forward to after what might be the last ever episode of Ideal.
speed bumps ahead in superhighway Britain
*shakes head*
Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals
Dying dinosaur Government - led around by the nose by a dying dinosaur entertainment industry...
Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals
Dying dinosaur Government - led around by the nose by a dying dinosaur entertainment industry...
The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
I've got something like four of these:
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Why politicans can't ever be trusted
It's late - I'm tired - I haven't read this whole article BUT I've come away with one overwhelming thought... THIS is exactly why the whole country is fucked. Seriously - are these are supposed to be the people we elect to look after 'very important things'? - IE 'how the country is run' and so on, but just look at them - 'secret' webmail accounts - PAYG mobile phones - Jesus, it's so pathetic. It's naughty school children misbehaving in the playground stuff. They've proven themselves time and time again not to be trustworthy in any shape or form - the public have no reason whatsoever to take any of these people seriously.
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
Digital wrongs management
So what's the deal with the entertainment biz? Why are they consistently roughly 10 years behind the times?
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
But what's the real effect of DRM? Last year, EMI began offering songs without it on iTunes. "The industry has finally been able to get some hard data about how removing DRM restrictions from legitimately purchased tracks affects piracy," says Bill Rosenplatt, DRM specialist and president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies. "The statistics show that there's no effect on piracy."
No effect. The assertion is remarkable. If DRM does not in fact discourage piracy, then it is merely a nuisance for the user.
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
digital photography from the 70s
I thought this was interesting - it's screen grab from an episode of 'The Tomorrow People' and this is the character Steve - and he's playing with a compact cassette - which to explain to you youngsters is something we had before mpg players. Which wouldn't be that interesting - except his cassette isn't an plain old ordinary audio cassette - it's a set of photographs... it isn't explained at all in the episode at all but rather than clutching a old fashioned photographic print he's got there what could only be a digital photograph stored on magnetic tape... because floppy discs hadn't even been invented yet... but compact cassettes had. I'm not sure, but this might have even been before they had home computers where software was loaded on from cassette players. How far ahead of it's time was this program?
I still wish I could talk to my computer (mmm, come to think of it - hasn't Vista got that built in? I haven't bothered to try it - because I know I'd only be setting myself up for a massive disappointment.)
sigh - local election time
So I'm watching the various local election results come in on the news... and i'm depressed. Not because Labour is being trounced - since I believe they are only getting everything they deserve. But because this means the Tories are gaining - and that it's looking more and more like a foregone collection that the Tories will get into power at the next general election. It depresses me profoundly that the general public have such short memories - they've now totally forgotten just how wretchedly bad the Tories were when they were last in power. What's worse, no one seems to realise that NuLabour haven't done anything differently from what the Tories would have done the past 12 years. The whole two party political system we have here in the UK is insane and no way to run a country... each party just gets a shot at coming in and wrecking everything in their own way and when they wind down - usually dissolving in disarray and miring themselves in sleaze - then the opposition (who are always great at knowing how to run things and can fix everything when they're not in power - but always suddenly manage to completely lose that ability when they do gain power... funny that) get their turn to fuck everything up in their own way.
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Rye
The why of the Rye
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
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