AmberCat

The Solution to Entering a British Football Team at the Olympic Game

2008-08-04T15:24:00.003+01:00

Only people based in England appear to be in favour of a British Football Team competing at the Olympics.

The English have absolutely no concern that competing in the Olympics could cause Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to lose their status as independent football nations. That would mean Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would no longer be able to compete independently in the European Championships or the World Cup.

Of course, they appear completely oblivious to the fact that England would no longer be able to compete as England in these competitions either. There would be only one team representing the United Kingdom in all football competitions world wide. It would NOT be called England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Even club team representation in the European Champions League and EUFA Cup competitions could be affected.

The situation is highly political as many football nations are unhappy that the United Kingdom has four independent votes in FIFA and EUFA and would dearly love to have the UK reduced to a single football association and a single vote at these levels. Sepp Blatter appears to be no friend of British Football, just witness how helpful he was to Real Madrid in the Ronaldo situation. Michelle Platini was also quoted as suggesting that Ronaldo should be allowed to go to Real Madrid. So much for unbiased leadership.

Given the current political situation (in football) it would be extremely unwise to set a precedent by entering a combined British team in any Olympic games.

However, it does appear extremely presumptuous of the English FA to then assume that they should represent the United Kingdom.

The most reasonable solution would be for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete for the honour of representing the United Kingdom at the Olympic Games, just as any athlete has to compete to earn their place in the Olympic team.

Road Tax Fiasco – Is it Government Fraud, Financial Conspiracy or Simple Incompetence?

2008-07-10T15:46:00.003+01:00

The current debate on road tax, the environment, pollution is a massive government deception born out of the need to raise cash to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let everyone be quite clear that the road fund licence, or road tax, is meant to fund the building of roads in the UK.

Let us also be quite clear that the Government collects far more in road tax than it spends on roads, and that toll roads simply add insult to injury.

Raising road tax and raising fuel duty is all about raising taxes in general to fund the government’s excessive expenditure on unnecessary wars, second homes for MP’s, and millions on pounds in bonuses paid to incompetent government departments, which by the government’s own admission are not fit for purpose.

Let us also be quite clear that these extra taxes have absolutely nothing to do with reducing environmental pollution.

The Government needs money, so they mug the helpless motorist. It is Highway Robbery.
What the government don’t want is for the motorist to fight back and vote for representatives who would safeguard both their civil rights and their finances, but you do have that right and now is the time to use that right.

Write to your MP and tell him that unless fuel duty is reduced and road taxes kept in line with expenditure on roads that your vote will be going to someone else.

Bill Gates disappointed with Microsoft Windows Usability

2008-06-25T17:06:00.006+01:00

A Microsoft internal email from Bill Gates tells of his disappointment at his user experience and that he thinks that Windows Usability has been going backwards. This was five years ago, in January 2003.

Well the big news today. It has continued to go backwards for these last five years and Windows Usability is at an all time low.

If the chief geek can't use his own product then what hope do the rest of us have?

Here is a copy of the original email:

=============================================================================
---- Original Message ----
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)

Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Updale again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
=======================================================================

Dulux Paintpod Review - It really Sucks!!!

2008-06-15T15:11:00.006+01:00

Problem: When you squeeze the trigger, the motor turns the rachet at 'B', this will then turn the rachet at the top of the tube, point 'A'. This should generate sufficient suction to draw the paint into the tube at point 'C', and all the way up the tube into the clear plastic tube and all the way to the roller.

Well in practice the paint never made it as far as the clear plastic tube.

Sounds great when you see the ads on TV.

Bought one. Got it home. Set it up. Pressed the button to start painting....

Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can hear the motor running, but no paint is making its way up the tube to the roller.

Put Simply "IT DOES NOT WORK !!!". It is a 70 quid piece of crap.

The working part is the tube that you slip into the paint pod. Unfortunately, it is NOT powerful enough to suck the paint up the tube.

The paint pod really sucks. The colour choice is really pathetic and they charge you an arm and a leg for the specially formulated paint.

Save yourself time and money and stick with normal paint and a manual roller.

It is going back to B & Q tomorrow.

It has cost me my time, I did not get my room painted this weekend, and it will cost me a couple of gallons of petrol to take it back. Petrol is not cheap these days either. The extra money I am spending on the petrol would have paid for the normal paint that I would have used to paint the room in the first place.

That will be the last Dulux product I ever buy.

When is Microsoft going to stop ripping off the British People?

2008-06-14T20:32:00.002+01:00

Back in September 2007 , we wrote about How the British Consumer is being Screwed. Then we showed examples how we were being overcharged by up to 37%.

Today, I was researching prices for Microsoft Expression Studio Version 2 and found that the overcharging by Microsoft had now reached over 58%!

On the 14-Jun-2008 the US Price was $699, the UK Price was £669.27.

The UK£ / US$ exchange rate closed on 13-Jun-2008 at £1 = $1.945.

Therefore our Price comparison is as follows USPrice = £359.38, the UK Price = £669.27.

Now the UK Price of £669.27 includes VAT at 17.5% and the US price does not include any tax.

Removing the VAT from the UK price £669.27 – (17.5% VAT) = £569.36.

US Price = £359.38 excluding tax.
UK Price = £569.36 excluding tax.
UK more expensive by £209.98 (58.43%)

Now the British Government do not give a toss about the British People and will NOT do anything to change the current price gouging , but the EU has been going after Microsoft with a vengeance and one would hope that this information would be of significant interest to them.

Are British Publishers just Greedy Money Grabbing Parasites?

2008-04-22T14:58:00.011+01:00

Some of you may have heard about Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. After months of being sold out the device is now back in stock (22-Apr-2008).

Authors in the USA receive a 25% royalty for each digital book sale.

According to the Teleread web site:

“The gauntlet was thrown down in February by Random House c.e.o. Gail Rebuck, who in a meeting with agents proposed a royalty of 15% of net receipts on digital sales. That’s higher than the standard 10% royalty rate on hardbacks, but significantly lower than the 25% currently received by authors in the US for e-book sales.

“Little, Brown c.e.o. Ursula Mackenzie followed suit, writing to agents to say that the Hachette publisher would also be seeking to pay 15% royalties on digital editions. Both publishers emphasised that the rates would be short-term and subject to break clauses.”

Many readers here in the UK would love the chance to own a Kindle and would definitely not be amused if the UK launch was delayed by greedy publishers not rewarding the authors properly for their hard work.

Who could be more dangerous than George Bush?

2008-04-07T20:14:00.004+01:00

After 8 years of death and destruction, catastrophes, financial scandals, credit squeeze, big profits for GW’s friends in the Gas and Defence companies, who or what could be worse?

The Answer: John McCain.

Can the American people trust the Republican Party ever again? Probably not according to many.
Why does the GOP (Grand Ole Party) like septuagenarian and octogenarian presidents so much?

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

In case you are not on anyone’s mail list we will let you read the 10 things you should know about John McCain according to moveon.org:

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws. (Ref. 1)

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi. (Ref. 2)

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
(Ref. 3 )

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.(Ref. 4)

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.(Ref. 5 )

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.(Ref. 6)

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.(Ref. 7 )

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates. (Ref. 8)

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult. (Ref. 9 )
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year. (Ref. 10)

Sources:

Ref. 1) "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html

"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/

Ref. 2) "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us

"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/

Ref. 3) "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/

Ref. 4) "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/

Ref. 5) "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007

"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/

Ref. 6) "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80

"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home

Ref. 7) "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/

Ref. 8) "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/

"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251

Ref. 9) "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/
"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/

Ref. 10) "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

It is not necessarily unusual for us to take a stand either for or against a political party or candidate, but we do like to get behind the public face and try to present real people and what they really believe.

Fox News eat your hearts out.

Hat Napping Sweeps the USA

2008-02-07T17:45:00.000Z

Another audacious hat napping occurred yesterday in Freemont, California. Agent Fergus Fedora of the HIA (HatNapping Intelligence Agency) said that there may be several gangs involved.

Details of yesterday’s incident were reported as follows:

9:10 AM - The target arrives at work, wearing the victim.

9:15-10:25 AM - Hatnapper lying in wait to commit hatnapping.

10:30 AM - Target goes to make a phone call.

10:35 AM – HatNapper Strikes! Ransom note 1 is left on target's desk.

10:46 AM - Hatnapper delivers second ransom note with picture of hat and daily newspaper.

11:11 AM - Target returns to desk. Hat Gone! Finds picture of Hat and Ransom Note!

11:15 – 11:59 AM - Hatnapper delivers third ransom note to Water Cooler!

1:20 PM - Target sources rubber bands.

2:11 PM - Target sources paperclips.

2:30 PM – Ransom Delivered.

3:00 PM - Innocent party returns victim (Hat) to target.

Agent FF says that this was a well planned hat napping, but if you should find yourself a victim of a hat napping then you should call the HIA. Not all hat nappings have a happy ending.

Lolita bed shows Ghost of Incompetence still haunts Woolworths

2008-02-01T23:37:00.000Z

You would expect that anyone in their right mind would know that naming a range of beds for young girls as the ‘Lolita’ range would be considered bad taste.

Well, not if you worked for Woolworths apparently.

A Woolworth’s spokeswoman said: “Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale.”

Who was responsible for this farce?

Is there anyone in the Woolworth’s organization paying attention to what is happening in their stores?

Peter Hain Resigns Pending Police Enquiry

2008-01-25T13:42:00.000Z

The UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said it was the right and proper thing to do.

Who do these people think they are and just how many times do they think they should get away with their rule breaking.

The right time to go was when he found out about the lapses. If he went at that time, then we could be satisfied that the man had integrity. However when he hangs on as long as possible to see if he is going to get away with these breaches, then it begins to appear sleazy.

The British public deserves better and should demand better. It is right that the Electoral Commission have passed the matter to the police for a criminal investigation. It is an extremely serious offence as it directly affects the governing and democracy of our country.

If a burglar gets caught breaking and entering does he get let off simply because he was incompetent? “I am sorry your honour, but my friend who was in charge of disabling the burglar alarm did not notice that extra circuit”. Should you reasonably expect such an excuse to stand up in court? If you think not then you will probably agree that our politicians should not get away with similar excuses.

Labour MP Ronnie Campbell in a bind over National Fetish day

2008-01-21T14:56:00.000Z

Honestly, some of our MPs need to get out more. The former miner and Labour MP for Blyth Valley, was approached and asked to wear something purple to support national fetish day. He said he would wear a purple shirt.

Unfortunately for Ronnie, he did not really know what a fetish was.

Now I am sure that there must be a few honourable members who could enlighten him, maybe someone from the Tory benches could come to his aid.

MoD latest Government Department to commit “an incompetence”

2008-01-20T13:05:00.000Z

The department charged with providing the security for our country is the latest to commit (what the government euphemistically calls) an incompetence.

Des Brown’s wooden tops in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have lost a laptop containing the personal details of over 600,000 people. The data included National Insurance Numbers, Passport Details and banking information.

The information commissioner, Richard Thomas said “We will require satisfactory answers from the Mod about their data protection practices and a firm assurance that steps will be taken to improve these practices before deciding on the appropriate action to take.”

Good luck to you Richard. This is the same department who send our soldiers into battle without ammunition and without the necessary protection to save their lives. The same department who think our shores can be guarded by ancient flying death traps (Nimrods), and the same department who have never given a satisfactory answer to anyone in their entire history.

Gordon Brown says Peter Hain guilty of “an incompetence”

2008-01-19T16:03:00.001Z

The Prime Minister said that Mr Hain had made a mistake which he had readily admitted to.

There are several issues here which give rise to more than a little concern:

1. Mr. Hain, if admittedly incompetent, how can we trust him to competently run a Government department?

2. Why do we bother having these rules and these expensive enquiries when there appears to be no consequences when the rules are broken?

3. Spending over £100,000 on the deputy leadership campaign and coming in fifth does appear to be more than just a little incompetent.

The Prime Minister has said that he has full confidence in this “incompetent minister”, after all his department, the department of work and pension has not lost any data. Indeed their data records have been found …twice…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7197048.stm

Documents from the department of Work and Pensions (Yes, Peter Hain’s Department) containing sensitive personal data, including details of benefit claims, passport photocopies, and mortgage payments were found dumped on a roundabout in Devon. This is the second time in the last three months that this has occurred.

No one at Downing Street has admitted, what everyone is thinking. As well as having no more money to spend on new jails, the government has also run out of financing for storage space. Therefore a new policy of dumping unwanted data and storage materials has been initiated by the former chancellor.

NHS Patient Medical records lost in Stockport, England UK

2008-01-18T20:36:00.000Z

Again we are told of the events that happened in the past rather than immediate notification of more civil and public servant incompetence.

The Stockport Primary Care Trust (PCT) lost a memory stick containing patient medical details, which includes patient names, dates of birth, NHS Numbers, and GP details.

The data has been missing since December.

According to those responsible for the loss, the information cannot be used by identity fraudsters. Yea Right! We trust these morons to be the experts on what is possible and what is not. And you will like this, also according to those responsible for losing the data in question, “The loss was an accident rather than any systemic failing in management”. Yea Right Again!

Oh! And just in case you may be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe just a one off incident. No, sorry. The Stockport PCT also had to admit that they lost diaries containing patient’s names and addresses, apparently stolen from staff cars, in two separate incidents last June.

Government Incompetence, public servant incompetence, should we trust these people with anything? There is a danger that this site is becoming a Public Data Lost and Found blog. Unfortunately, we do not find too many stories about data being found. Gordon Brown, who is also head of the British Civil Service, must love this.

Woman, 84, discharged in nightie

2008-01-06T21:20:00.000Z

As you will no by now, we are completely unsympathetic to the excuses made by public servants when they do something dumb, thoughtless and uncaring. So when some unthinking moron discharges and elderly lady from hospital at 3am then we must speak out in the name of common sense and decency.

In fact, we think that the only way to remedy these situations is for the person making these descisions to take responsibility and suffer the consequences.

So whoever made this diabolical descision at Herfeford hospital should suffer the consequences. They are definitely not able to make descisions that affect people's lives.

Do you want this person to be making descisions affecting the care and health of your loved ones? Of course you don't.

The person or persons are not fit for the post and should be removed immediately before anyone dies.

Stomach bug sweeping the country (UK)

2008-01-03T15:48:00.000Z

Wash your hands!

I was lucky enough to be on the Ocean Villager 2 cruise ship this summer, and I was very impressed by their safeguards to prevent an outbreak of the NoroVirus.

At each entrance to any dining hall there was a member of staff who stood in your way with a hand wash gel for you to wash your hands before entering the dining hall.

The gel itself was a much better solution than I have seen in any of our hospitals. I think hospital managers could look at what the Ocean Villager did and use this to ensure that all hospital STAFF and VISITORS wahsed their hands BEFORE entering the hospital.

This should be supplemented by washing the hands of all patients and staff before each meal. Simply carry the gel around with the meal tray.

Making Money Online

2007-12-30T12:53:00.000Z

I have always wanted to find a nice easy way to make money.

Now, even if I put $10,000 in the bank or even a pretty good mutual fund, I would not really have too much to show after 10 or 15 years. At least that is what I thought until I discovered the investment system being used by stocksmonthly.com

Their investment method is fairly simple and obvious, and they do all the work for you.

If they can perform as well over the next 15 years as they did over the last 15 years then I am not going to worry too much about my blog traffic.

Anger as NHS patient records lost

2007-12-23T22:40:00.000Z

It has only been a few days since our last post about how incompetent our civil service really is.

However, the recent revelations regarding the loss of NHS data in England and Wales shows systemic failure is rife.

Senior civil servants and senior government ministers really do need to lose their jobs when the level of incompetence reaches such levels.

Remember the Prime Minister is in charge of the Civil Service. Either he needs to act, or he needs to go.

The depatment of administrative affairs, Jim Hacker, and Sir Humphrey whoever these real life mandarins are have truly lost the confidence of the public and Yes Prime Minister's Jim Hacker would appear to be more up for the job than the current incumbent.

W.H. Smith Generous to a fault - Offer Sucks!

2007-12-22T12:56:00.000Z

Whilst shopping for christmas presents this year, I received a £5 voucher to spend at their sale between 26-Dec-2007 and 6-jan-2008.

I thought, that will be nice, I maybe use it to get a discount on some computer games or DVDs.

That is, until I read the small print on the back of the voucher.

"Offer excludes all CDs DVDs and Games, ie. XBOX 360, PSP, PS2, PS3, NDS, PC, GameCube, Xbox, GBA and Wii, and stamps , tobacco, gift vouchers, phone cards, e-gift cards, book tokens, Day Out Vouchers, Carity Products, iTunes, eTop-UP & National Lottery products. Cannot be used with any other promotional voucher or with customer orders. Only one voucher per transaction."

For those of you who live in the UK and know W.H. Smith, you will also know that after you exclude the above named products that there is not much left.

I think I will just use the voucher to wipe my @rse, and return it to the person who thought up the idea in the first place.

How the British Consumer is being Screwed

2007-12-21T11:58:00.000Z

(If you are unable to see full image then click on the image.)

Today with the advent of the world wide enconomy and the internet, global companies manufacture and sell their wares all over the world. This christmas I had to shop for friends and relatives in both the United States and the UK. It is frighteneing how much more the British consumer has to pay in comparison to their American Cousins.

I have been careful to compare like for like. Normally UK prices include VAT but US prices exclude sales tax. For the sake of comparison I have deducted the horrendously high 17.5% VAT from the UK prices and compared them with the US (Excl Sales tax) Prices.

The worst offenders are large companies. Microsoft are charging, in some cases, 36% more for their software here in the UK than in the US. Of course, our governement cares nothing about the British comsumer, nor inflation apparently.

The UK £ / US $ exchange rate on 20-Dec-2007 was £1 = $2.032.

If you think that the current situation is fair then do nothing. Remember that we are paid on average aboput 10% less than our American cousins.

However, if you think this is unfair and unacceptable then write, call or email, television channels, newspapers, MP's and local councillors. Let's fight for fairness and let us stop subsidising the rest of the world.

Sources:

Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Cheap iPods
Microsoft
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Is the British Civil Service Totally Incompetent?

2007-12-18T15:03:00.000Z

John Reid, the former home secretary, has already told us that the Home Office is not fit for purpose.

Well the recent fiasco with HM Customs and Revenue losing vital data on nearly half the population of the country started us thinking.

Then we are told just a couple of weeks later that some moron in the Driver and Vehicle Driving Agency in Northern Ireland has lost data on 7,685 vehicles and 6,000 vehicle keepers.

Oh No! It’s not finished yet. Just as we are thinking that it cannot get any worse, we are told another disc containing details of 3 million learner drivers has gone missing. Even worse the data was stored in a foreign country. And to show what complete incompetents this government, their ministers and the civil service really are the latest episode we are told happened six months ago.

Now for sheer cheek and hypocrisy, the Government has fined Norwich Union £1.6M for losing the data of 74 people.

That works out at approximately £21,621 per person.So using the Government figures of 25Million from HM Revenue, and 3,013,685 from the DVLA, then the Data Protection registrar should be fining this Government £605,683,883,385.

No minister has lost his or her job, and apart from the HM Revenue guy who resigned, no civil servant has been fired. Everyone we speak to is running for cover, no one is taking responsibility, and it is fair to say that competence is not something we can have much expectation of from our public servants.

We, the public, pay the wages of these people. We pay good money and should reasonably expect workers who are honest and competent. Should we find that these two attributes are missing, then I’m afraid that there really is no place in public service for those lacking these attributes.

Does any member of the public really believe that no one has received a peerage or a Knighthood for donations to any of the major political parties?

No authority without responsibility should be the rule.

Every project, every policy would have a responsible person and if there is a screw-up then we will immediately know who to look to for the answers.

Lunatics running the asylum are bad enough but we really can’t have them running the country as well.

Free Online Wish List

2007-12-18T00:40:00.000Z

Christmas gift shopping has been so much easier this year. I got the kids, my nephews and nieces all to create a christmas wish list at http://www.youcouldgetme.com/. When it came time to do my christmas shopping I visited each gift list and bought something that they really wanted this time.

I even tested it out for myself. My birthday is only two weeks before christmas, and I am at that sort of age when nobody knows what to buy me. So this year, about three weeks before my birthday I went on a virtual shopping spree.

I added gifts that I really wanted. Some expensive. Some very modestly priced - makes it easier for my kids to buy me something too :)

Give it a try...

Big Brother is listening!

2007-10-19T19:52:00.000+01:00

Imagine if you are a political candidate (republican or democrat) and you are discussing your policies with a potential voter. In “managing their network” Comcast finds that it can cut its traffic in half if it only allows one party’s political traffic through.

Or, what if you are doing business on the web selling Coca Cola, but Comcast has done a deal with Pepsi and disrupts all internet traffic affecting Coca Cola Sales. Far Fetched yes, but what’s to stop this now that they have made a start.

Maybe a rival hosting company does a deal with Comcast. Suddenly CrystalTech Users find that their customers’ transactions are being disrupted.

Where does it stop?

You sign up with Comcast, but Comcast has the right to say who you can talk to and what you can talk about, is that what we really want?

Mobile Phone Fraud in the UK

2006-08-31T20:06:00.000+01:00

Mobile phone companies allow fraudsters direct access to your cash?

Do you own a mobile phone?

If yes, did you know that mobile phone companies allow fraudsters direct access to your cash?

How do they do this? Anyone with a premium rate ‘texting’ service can send you a text message. Even if you did not ask for the message to be sent, your account will be charged for the text messages you receive, or if you use ‘pay-as-you-go’ your balance will still be debited for each message received.

You could be charged around £1.50 for each message received. This is nothing more than straight theft.

This happened to me. I was receiving text messages, but when I went to read the message it said “message unable to be displayed”. At first I thought that they were just wrong numbers. However, I began to notice that after each message was received the balance on my ‘pay-as-you-go’ was being reduced.

I called O2, my mobile service provider; they told me that there was nothing that they could do. Neither did they have a system that would allow me to STOP all premium text messages to my mobile number. They told me to call ICSTIS, who are they regulator for mobile premium services.

I called ICSTIS, who gave me the name of the company who had been calling me and their phone number. Now remember, this is the company who had been stealing my money. ICSTIS want me to tell these (to my mind) criminals to stop stealing my money and to give me back what they have stolen. In order to do this I have to give these criminals more of my personal details. What lunatic thought up such a system?

This is the same as going to the police and telling them that you have been burgled and the police giving you the name and address of the burglar and telling you to go and talk to the burglar and ask him to give you your property back.

The system which allows mobile phone companies to charge you for receiving calls or text messages is fundamentally flawed and open to serious abuse.

The situation described above is one circumstance where you can be charged for receiving unwanted or fraudulent messages. It is like being told to open your wallet and let anyone who cares to text you to help themselves.

I have always thought that the system where the receiver of a call pays was unsatisfactory and open to abuse. I experienced a similar situation when I worked abroad as an IT consultant. Agents would call from the UK to determine my availability for new contracts or to find out if I knew someone who could do the contract. Well, because I was receiving this call whilst in another country, the phone company also charge me for receiving the call. Many times these calls were no more than nuisance calls or ‘spam’ to use a term that email users are all too familiar with.

The trouble with unwanted texts or mobile calls is that they cost you real money.

The only way to stop this absurd situation is to prevent mobile phone companies making any charges to the receivers account. In all situations the caller should pay for the call.

The people who have been ‘texting’ me without my permission should be charged with fraud or theft.

I have called both ICSTIS and OFCOM and neither organisation appears willing to do very much about the current situation.

Two things need to happen very quickly.

Mobile phone companies should be required to block all premium message text services upon a user’s request.
The charging system used by mobile phone companies MUST be changed so it is the caller that bears the full cost of the call. Callers must be made aware, in advance, of the call rate being charged.

Please write or email your member of parliament in the UK and contact the news media to ensure that this fraud (permitted by our government and watchdog bodies) can be stopped.

Who is running the asylum(EU)?

2005-06-03T20:39:00.000+01:00

Citizens of the European Union (EU) have been considering this very question, and it appears that they are not very happy.

The populations of both France and the Netherlands had their say, and gave a strong thumbs-down to the proposals being made by the Brussels bureaucracy. There are many who feel the European Commission and the European Parliament is just an exclusive club whose members are not up to the task of National Politics and are put out to graze on greener pastures. There they can push their less than brilliant ideas, collect an undeservedly large salary, and not have to account for themselves.

After the resounding NO votes, the Eurocrats are still saying that Europe should push ahead with their plans. But now, the citizens of Europe have gotten smart, and said NO. Let us hope that NO means NO. Let us hope that those formulating their ill conceived plans are forced to cease and desist. Let us hope that the way forward is a more democratic and accountable Europe.

It was disturbing for those in the UK to hear that if France votes ‘NO’ then that is a problem for Europe, but if Britain votes ‘NO’ then that is only a problem for Britain. This is the type of arrogance and ignorance displayed by those in Brussels that will prevent their ever being unanimous approval of the current constitution.

There are some politicians who have derided the policy of referendums and have said that Governments should make the decisions without consulting the people and without the backing of the people. One has to remain suspicious of such people, who may be willing to ride the gravy train until they die.

The policy of referendums is fair, sensible and democratic. However, the execution of these European referendums was incompetent and nonsensical. It did not make sense to have a number of referendums spread out over several years thus creating the possibility that the first 24 countries could have voted ‘yes’ only for the last country to vote ‘no’ and have to start the whole process again. Fortunately, we did not have to wait for that final country. Nor did we have to wait for the people of Britain to vote ‘NO’. Both France and the Netherlands brought the fresh air of reality to Brussels.

During this ratification process we have had politicians tell us that we did not understand the constitution and for that reason we should not be allowed to vote. Maybe the bureaucrats should devise a constitution that we all understand; otherwise it would be entirely ill advised to vote for it.

Once there are some sensible, fair minded, democratically competent representatives in Brussels, we may get a constitution that we can all understand, can fully support, and all have our say in a European wide referendum, in which all countries vote on the same day. Until then, in order to safeguard our rights and our freedoms, we must continue to say ‘NO’.