Google Error

18th May 2009

It seems to be happening a lot lately.



Are they losing control of their own servers?

......

MP's give thousands back while PM gives millions away.

13th May 2009

It really is a strange time we are living in. For a while now we have heard about little else other than the recession and banks getting hand outs from the tax payer.

Now we have the Daily Telegraph wiping the floor with the MP's with their massive expenses claims. Caught red handed with their hands in the cookie jar, MP's are handing the money back, but unfortunately the Prime Minister Brown is handing out Millions every other time he opens his big mouth.

It is hard to believe any Prime Minister could claim to be helping get the UK out of the hole it is in while giving millions away every day. I just heard he is giving œ12 million to Pakistan. To think this Prime Minister was once the Chancellor yet seems to have no idea how to save money.

.....

A visit from God.

12th May 2009

I saw on the news that the Pope on his visit to Jerusalem placed a message for God into a crack in the wall, So I suggest we keep a camera on that wall and get the first picture of God ever taken when he comes to collect it.
....

A Virtual Parliament.

9th May 2009.

All this cheating we are being told about in the news by the people we voted into their seats in the houses of parliament has given me an idea that if implemented would do away with the requirement to travel between their homes and London.

Set up a virtual internet link in each of the constituent’s local government offices so they could sit, make their speeches and vote for or against bill in a virtual House of Commons without leaving their home towns. This would do away with the need to actually travel to London, eliminating travel costs and time, and any requirement for a second home.

This could also be done with the EU Parliament. Making use of the internet this way throughout the world could reduce the time, money and carbon emissions to a fraction of what it is today.
…….


 

The UK ISP ripoff

8th May 2009

ADSL Unlimited broadband offers are most confusing. (Unlimited is usually qualified with a fair usage clause in the terms and condition which makes a nonsense of term 'Unlimited broadband')

In most cases the way these offers are shown on their web sites and comparison sites are designed to trick you into thinking it costs less than it does. 

A lot of companies only advertise a low price which is usually only for the first 3 months. The full price is hidden in the small print, or even on a separate web page.

I have put what I see as the actual monthly cost at the beginning of each offer. To give a fair comparison I have in one case I deleted œ11.50 for line rental as they insist your telephone transferred to them. I ignore extras such as free calls as these are come-ons that usually exclude most of the business numbers.

I don't count extras like free protection as this usually means a free subscription to an antivirus application and there are plenty of free ones on offer on line anyway.

œ12.92 a month. Post Office œ24.42 a month. (Includes line rental Line rental with BT is œ11.50 a month. )

œ18.00 a month. Virgin œ15.00 a month (A one-off œ30 connection & set-up charge applies to all new National Broadband activations.) After running a test I got (Your price œ18.00 per month. Your broadband speed After testing your phone line it looks like the broadband speed we'll be able to deliver to your home will be between 0.5Mbps and 1.0Mbps*.)

œ29.41 a month. BT œ4.95 a month for 3 months. œ29.41 thereafter plus œ11.25 line rental.

œ24.46 a month. BT œ18.59 a month for 3 months. Then from œ24.46

œ22.02 a month. O2 œ17.13 (First month free, œ22.02 for non-O2 customers)

œ19.99 a month. Plusnet Unlimited Broadband starts at œ11.99 a month for the first 3 months. If you live in one of our low 
cost areas you'll then pay œ15.99 a month. If you live outside of one of these areas you'll then pay œ19.99 a month.

œ24.47 a month. Orange from œ4.18 a month with any Orange pay monthly mobile plan (plus œ10.50 Orange line rental)
speed up to 8 Meg Otherwise from œ13.97 (plus œ10.50 Orange line rental) a month.

The above is what I found at the time of my research and may have changed by the time you read this so check for yourself 
before choosing a provider.

On the whole I conclude with What a load of ripoff merchants.
.......


 Murdoch to charge for online news.


08th May 2009


I heard on the TV news that Rupert Murdoch is considering charging for access to his on line news papers because there is not enough advertising to cover the running costs and sales of newspapers are dropping. I don’t believe he would actually do that. After all he may own a number of newspapers, but there are plenty of really good online papers he doesn’t control out there, so all he will be doing is transferring his readers and what advertising he is getting to the opposition. I am amazed he could think that would work. Maybe he has been stinking rich for too long, but the average person pays a monthly fee for their internet access, and considers that quite enough. If a majority of the pop music fans would rather get their music from illegal sources than pay for it, then what chance is there that his readers will pay to read his rags when they can legally read the news on many other papers for free.
.......


To Boldly Con like no one has Conned before.

07 May 2009

I am a fan of Star Trek and when a company came up with this I would have been tempted if it were any good.



 It looks like fun until you realize it has a USB cable hanging out of it. Now if it was connected by WiFi to your router it would be worth a second glance, but it is just a USB hand set to couple to your computer to use with Skype etc. You can buy one that isn't styled like a Star trek communicator for about a third of the price of this thing. All you get extra for paying 3 times the price is a few buttons that make the communicator sound effects. What a load of rubbish!

.......

Go back 11 years. It’s great!!

06 May 2009

Having been frustrated with Vista and found a beta version Windows 7 to be little different, I dug out an old machine, that most would throw away It’s CPU runs at 400Mhz and it has 256meg of RAM,  running Windows 98

I connected it to my router and WOW it is much easier to use and is not the least bit sluggish. I downloaded the latest version of the Avast antivirus program and it installed perfectly. I was not so lucky with the firewall application called ZoneAlarm. When I ran the install it bluntly told me to Upgrade Windows. My response was verbal and uncomplimentary. It’s a pity they couldn’t hear me. Fortunately I had an old version in my download archives and it installed fine.

Windows update doesn’t work of course as MS stopped supporting 98 in 2002., but there is no need to worry as long as you have a firewall and antivirus in place.

My laptop was upgraded from Vista to Windows XP. I could have saved my money and used this old windows 98 disk instead.

.....
 

The thieving DVLA.

( Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency)

06 May 2009

I noticed my driving licence is looking a bit tatty so I went onto the DVLA web site to find out what I needed to do to get a replacement. My old licence was issued before a photo was required so I figured I would have to provide a photo, but that was just the start. All of the links are irritatingly pdf documents which take longer to bring in than a HTML pages, but after reading through a few I eventually discovered that I needed form D1 to apply for a replacement licence. Nowhere could I find any mention of how much this would cost me. Having discovered which form I needed to fill in, I found it wasn't one of those offered for download, so while in town I popped into the local Post Office and they provided me with the form. When I got home I read through the form and discovered they wanted œ20.00 as well as the photograph. All the phone numbers mention are premium rate numbers. What a thieving lot. I am certainly not paying œ20.00 so the tatty licence in my wallet will have to continue to deteriorate. Hopefully it will still be readable should I be asked to produce it.

......

  Windows 7 is as bad as Vista.

04 May 2009

If you have read that Windows 7 is better than Vista, then don't believe it. I have just had a play with a Beta version and it is just like vista. It is has a lot taken away and a lot of waffle added. I just spent an hour trying to allow a folder I made of the desktop shared so my XP machine could see it and totally failed.

Microsoft have really lost the plot.

Up to XP each version of Windows was a big improvement on previous versions, but that is no longer the case. If one of the Linux developers could just make installs and viewing of other drives and networks work instead of it reporting that the drive is not mounted I would switch to it in a hot second.

...........

64

04th May 2009

Will you still need me?

Will you still feed me?

Now I'm 64

.......

Larry King on CNN.

2nd of May 2009

I was flipping through the TV channels and came across The L arry king show on the CNN news channel where a guy by the name of Stephen Baldwin made a really stupid statement. Having quoted a line from the bible he said "God wrote the bible" What? Even if you believe in a god you can't buy that one. The bible is full of books named after those that wrote them. They were arguing about gay marriage , but it wasn't long before I changed channel, because two women were talking at once and instead of asking them to take turns to talk, they split the screen and let them both try to shout down each other, so one couldn't hear what either were saying. I tuned away. I understand the Larry King show is popular over in the USA.

I can't imagine why.

......

Shattered Shatner.



26th April 2009

I just heard on the BBC news that the aging actor William Shatner, who played Captain James T Kirk of the starship Enterprise in the original series of Star Trek has complained to the media about not been given a spot in the new Star Trek movie while Leonard Nimoy was. I guess some actors never grow up. In the past I have heard about him making fun of Star Trek fans at Star Trek conventions. What a stupid thing to do. After all, it was those fans that made him famous in the first place. Yes William, we know it is just a fiction. You on the other hand are just a Joke!

.....



19th April 2009

Warner Bros Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI clubbed together to prosecute the owners of the Pirate Bay web site. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated on Saturday in Sweden against a court verdict that found the operators guilty. I wonder when these companies will realise that the future of entertainment is the internet, so if they want to make money from their music and films they will have to put them on line for free and use advertising space on the site where they are offering the free playing to make money. In the mean time before I go to a cinema or buy a DVD or music CD I will make sure it wasn't produced by Warner Bros Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal or EMI, and if it is then I will do without it.

I Just checked and the pirate bay web site is still operating.

.....

œ5k offer on electric cars .

16th April 2009.

The news that the government are going to subsidies the the purchase of an electric car seems to be pleasing the media, but this is really another gift to the better off from taxes that are already going to reach enormous heights to cover the gifts of millions to the banks. This gift to someone rich enough to afford a new car will further increase the tax burden on those that are not well off enough to buy a new car. Those that have always had to settle for second hand cars will have their taxes increased to cover the subsidy. What happened to the Labour government that was suppose to be on the side of the worse off?

........

Money grabbing Microsoft.

13th April 2009.

I added an old raid PCI card to my computer the other day so I could use it to add an extra drive to give me more disc space.  When I restarted Windows informed me that major changes had been made to my hardware and I must reactivate it within 3 days.

AAARRRRHHHH!!!!

I am really beginning to hate Microsoft.

It is a legal copy. What the Hell do they want? BLOOD ?

I started messing with computers in the days before even DOS. My first PC was a Commodore PET. I went from there to a BBC B and from there to an Amstrad PC running DOS. There were 2 systems Attracting my attention at the time. One was Window 3 and the other was DESQview. The installs came on floppies in those days. The DESQview discs would not copy, but Windows 3 would, so employees in companies that had purchased a copy of both took copies of Windows home, but because DESQview was protected they couldn't make copies, so the result is people got into Windows. I bought a copy of both and found that I could run a terminal programme in DESQview and then start another application and the terminal application still monitored the port while I was using another application. Windows 3 would open multi applications but only the one in focus actually ran, so DESQview was well ahead at that time.

So because Microsoft didn't protect their software people copied and ran free copies at home. This made them familiar with Windows so that is what they wanted to use at work so that is what companies went for even though it was by no means the best software at the time.

Now they have cornered the market they put in protection in the form of activation. Software that looks at the computer it is running on and requires activation on line or by phone. If you make any changes to the computer it spots the changes and requires activating again within 3 days or it stops working.

I wish the guys developing Linux would come up with Auto application install and easy to understand help files so the average guy could switch to Linux without struggling for a month before giving up and going back to Windows.

............

An Atheist on Easter Sunday.

12th April 2009.

As an Atheist I found it interesting walking around a small English town on Easter Sunday. Everything is closed except for the betting shops and the public houses. I guess the Christians are suppose to gamble and get drunk to mourn the death of their Gods son.  Even the Tesco supermarket was closed. Well lit still mind you. So much for their attempts at been green. I didn't go up to the church door but it wasn't lit and there were no cars around the church so I guess there were no religous activities either.

Yes! Very strange being an Atheist walking around an English town on Easter Sunday.

........

Student Visa for Pakistan .

10th April 2009.

In response to our Prime Minister request that Pakistan make more effort to stop terrorists getting student visas the ambassador for Pakistan said it is up to the British not them to filter out terrorist coming in from Pakistan on Student Visa's. My response to that would be "OK we will stop them coming in. No more students visas will be issued to Pakistan nationals until we are sure the terrorist threat is over."  Let them set up their own universities and educate their own.

As for those pirates,

Put machine gun installations on the ships and men trained in their use. The objection I heard to that on was that some fishing boats aggressively protect there nets by heading towards ships as if to ram them and this could get them fired upon. All I can say to that is find a better way to protect your nets because we cannot allow pirates to prosper. If attacking pirates find they are being killed when they try to take a ship they will either stop through fear or become a very rare species.

Easter.

If there was anything else of interest on the BBC news then I missed it because they said it is good Friday and started playing religious music, so I hit the off switch rather than be listen to the religious crap.

........

This is Intelligence speaking.

9th April 2009.

Back in the 60's I used to listen to a radio show called the Navy Lark where in a few episodes the secretary of Captain Povey would answer the phone and this really stupid thick sounding voice would say " Hello .. This is Intelligence speaking ". Who would have thought real life could come up with a better version of the joke. Well today it did.

Bob Quick, Britain's most senior anti-terrorist policeman, has resigned after making a major security blunder that caused an operation against a suspected al-Qaeda to be rushed.

What did he do?

He only got out of his car on his way to a meeting with the Prime Minister with his arms full of papers. The top sheet was easily readable on photographs taken by the press which gave away a massive undercover operation.  Such stupidity from the head of the London police is unbelievable. Had I seen it in a fiction on the TV I would have said the writers were being silly and it would never happen.

...... .



It's enough to make ones blood boil .

8th April 2009


It has just been drawn to my attention in a news item that the NHS spend 60 million pounds a year providing religious services. Not so long ago they were saying that some people could not have certain life extending drugs because they were too costly!! That really is SICK!!

There is a saying "Its an ill wind that blows nobody any good" and it looks like this financial crisis is doing some good. People are looking into, and reporting on money being wasted. It turns out that most MP's grab expenses they shouldn't claim and defend themselves by saying they are within the rules. Company directors give themselves massive salaries and pensions a small towns population could live on. We haven't had any reports about local government fiddles so far, so I wonder how much of the council tax we have to pay goes into council members back pockets.

With all this money grabbing going on, what was in the headlines before the crisis?

 Recording companies complaining about illegal file sharing. I guess the pop stars weren't getting stinking rich quickly enough.

What a corrupt society we live in.

.......


Upgrading from Vista to XP.


7 th April 2009


I purchased a laptop just after companies had switch to supplying Vista rather than XP with new machines, but the shop I bought it from said they could supply it with XP. It worked OK and it wasn’t until later I realised the cost I had been charged covered the Vista that was on it as well as the installation of XP! which was irritating to say the least. It is now well over a year since Vista came on the market and I realised I should have given it a try, so as the Vista product key was still on the bottom of the laptop I borrowed a Vista DVD, installed and activated it without too much trouble. That was the beginning of March. It is now the beginning of April and I have finally given up and returned my machine to XP.

A machine that was supplied by the makers with Vista, runs much slower with Vista. I would have thought after a month of use it would have become a little easier to use, but despite switching off as many of the interruptions it makes as possible and changing the layout to classic mode it is still a slow irritating operating system. I had made an image of the XP install and decided today to recover that image.

Right away the machine is responsive and does as it is told again. I thought people moaning about Vista were probably exaggerating, but they certainly are not. I have heard that Microsoft are bring out another version of Windows called Windows 7. I only hope it works more like XP than Vista.

Why did they ever bring out Vista? On the same machine it is slower than XP It has been dummed down so it doesn’t give you the information about its own condition. A good example is the Disk Defragmenter application. On Vista it doesn’t even give the simple to understand graphical display. The the commands in the control panel (Amazingly still called the control panel) functions have not only been renamed, but dummed down too. It continually asks your permission to carry out an operation you have just told it to do.
When the day comes I have to replace my machine, I will take it with what ever operating system it has on it, but will keep my XP disc in case and hope I can find XP drivers for the new machine should that day come.
..... .

 
Today marks the end of privacy in the UK .


6th April 2009


As from today all UK Internet providers are obliged to keep a record all communication you make for 1 year and make it available on request to the police. Yes the author George Orwell in 1949 wrote a book called '1984' where every detail of a citizens life was recorded by the government. Well it didn't happen back in 1984 because the technology wasn't up to the task, but it is happening now, so when you send an email don't forget just about anyone in the government (including local government) and the police can read it.
If you want to make it difficult as possible for them then don't use the email address's supplied by your provider. Instead subscribe to a different one, and pick one based outside of the UK. There are plenty available on line. You can encrypt messages but that won't hide who you are communicating with, and if that person turns out to belong to some enemy organisation then the fact you were communicating with them will make you an enemy in the eyes of the police, and if they cannot read the contents then that will only add to the suspicion. I liked the coming of the internet the digital age brought to us, but I hate the way it is being used to spy on us. If you make a phone call then it is legal for the local council to listen in on your call. If you walk down the street through your town you will be recorded on dozens of surveillance cameras. Get in you car and your number plate will be read by computer through cameras on the roads keeping a record of where you are at any time.
......
Weapons of mass destruction AGAIN .

5th April 2009.

North Korea launches missile in 'satellite test'

Yes everyone is condemning the launch saying it is precursor to a weapons launching. From what I understand they put a satellite into space. Nothing aggressive about that, but everyone is assuming it is for an evil purpose. Even Obama who usually says lets talk condemned the launch without a second thought. I understand the satellite is transmitting  revolutionary songs. Come on president. Don't do a George W Bush on us. Offer to talk instead!
......

President Obama, Not so green.

03rd April 2009.


Air force one and it's sister plane carried him away with his massive staff and security team of over 500 heading for its next stop in Europe. He seems to be a very popular President, but how he has the nerve to say he supports action against global warming while flying around the world with not one but two large aircraft beats the hell out of me. Over 500 people!!! I wouldn't like to find 500 people jobs on such a trip. Even his chauffer must have a secretary.
Our Prime Minister Gordon Brown did everything but bend down and lick his boots clean of course, and the UK will be the only country in Europe stupid enough to promise thousands more troops for his pet Afghanistan project.
500 people in 2 aircraft!!!  A disgusting waste.
.......

Imagination gone wild .

25th March 2009.


I just read on the Telegraph web site about a picture from the Google street view That is said to look like ET. To me it looks more like a person standing in a window in a stone wall with the room light above. The beam of light looks like a drain pipe lit from the right. You can even make out the the wall bracket.

 

Sorry to spoil it for you, but even if it was an alien, what are the chances it would resemble the fictional character ET?
........
 

The Moron who is to be King.

8th March 2009.

It was just reported on the BBC news that the Prince of Wales has again warned us about global warming while he continually roams around the world burning fuel in an aircraft for him, and his massive team. What a moron he is. To think when his mother dies we will have him as a King. YUCK!!!  I was born and brought up in England and have no wish to live elsewhere. I am quite happy and contented with my lot, but I buy a lottery ticket each week to give me a small chance of becoming rich enough for other countries to accept me as a resident should he become King.

.......

UK ISPs Fleece Broadband Customers With High Support Line Rates.

5th March 2009.

If you are responding to the above headline with "Tell us something we don't know" then you had the same response as me when I read it. The ISP's and telephone companies have been increasingly doing it for years. Does your Telephone company offer you free land line to land line calls as part of the package? Note that they only include regional telephone numbers. Most companies of any size now use numbers starting 084, 087, or the really high cost 09 so you still have to pay for most of your calls. Telephone companies sell these numbers to companies by giving a part of the charge the paid by the caller to the recipient. It is one big confidence trick.

Printing money.

I just heard the UK government are going to print 180 billion pounds. This stupid move further punishes those who were frugal and saved some money. Now not only is inflation and low interest rates devaluing savings. The printing of money further devalues it.

I realize now that I should have borrowed millions of pounds to start a company. Registered it as a limited company. Transferred a lot of the money to  myself in the form of a fat salary. Then declared the company bankrupt. The limited registration protects me from the company debt so that bankers investors and suppliers of the company lose while I retire in luxury.

........

Romantic wallpaper?

2nd March 2009



What would you say the above image comes from? Wallpaper for the newly weds bedroom perhaps? No this is a scan of a piece of white toilet paper!! What possessed the makers to emboss loo roll with hearts and flowers?

........

On the BBC’s ‘Farming Today’ programme today I heard a discussion about the way sheep are killed.

Halal Meat.

26th February 2009

On the BBC’s ‘Farming Today’ programme today I heard a discussion about the way sheep are killed.  To make the meat suitable for Muslims the sheep has to be hung alive by its back legs and its throat is cut. Any respectable British farmer will insist on stunning the sheep first to stop the animal suffering. I understand that some Muslims are saying the sheep should not be stunned first.

I am surprised that the British Government would even consider allowing an animal to be treated this way, but it appears to be within the law.

So if you object to this practice then avoid buying any meat from a butcher or supermarket offering halal meat or displaying the following halal logo.


...........

eircom.ie to block file sharing sites

24th February 2009

I just read that eircom the largest internet provider in Ireland are going to block file sharing sites like piratebay so it's subscribers can no longer get to such web sites. I notice it isn't so much Governments that are trying to sensor the internet. It is large companies that feel they are losing out.

If eircom block sites then the obvious result will be a large proportion of their subscribers will change their provider, making a different Irish provider the largest. If my provider announced they were going to block me from viewing web sites because the music industry desired it I would change my provider.

I can understand the blocking of nasties like child porn, but to block file sharing sites that are used for file sharing because they can be used to break copyright is going too far. When I was a young pop music enthusiast there was no internet but we recorded the tracks we liked from the radio onto a tape recorder, but we still purchased music. If they had managed to block the taping of the music, I would not have bought any more records. A lot of music can be played on utube. Are they going to block all those sites too?

Anti-Islamist

12th February 2009.

Politician Geert Wilders has been refused entry to the UK because of his anti-Islamic views . What is this government going to do next. I am against Islam invading this country, because they are not happy just being a religion. They want to be a government, and this government seem to want it too. I am making a fuss here on my web site, so will the police be knocking on my door and arresting me for having these views?

If you cannot find the movie on line then click here.

.........

The Banking Crisis

10th February 2009

Various people being interviewed on the radio and TV have suggested different reasons for the current problems, but none have said the truth. There is only two reasons for the problems and they are dishonesty and greed. In future if you want to run a business then do it with money you have rather than with money you can borrow. The system would have worked if the human race were all honest, but most people are not honest. A government make rules to stop people cheating and those involved find ways around them. They cheat, so when this mess is over don't spend what you don't have to spend and don't borrow or lend, and you just might survive.

........

 Why is Tesco is failing us?

4th February 2009.

I have been purchasing a little Danish blue cheese from Tesco for many years, so I was surprised to find they had none when I called in to the local branch the other day. I popped in again today and was informed that they had discontinued this Cheese.  The branch I am referring to is in Whitchurch, Shropshire. It is a small British town, so there is not much competition. Fortunately there is a branch of  'Williams of Wem' in town so I called in and purchased my Danish Blue Cheese there, and it was no more expensive than it would have been had Tesco still stocked it. I heard Tesco sales had dropped by 1%, where as many other supermarkets showed an increase in sales. I can't say I am surprised. I think they have lost the plot.

..........

Will they have a 60 year warrantee?

31st January 2009

Yes I just read it in the Telegraph Scientists invent œ2 energy saving light bulb that last for 60 years That is quite a claim as the only way they can show they will definitely last 60 years is to put some of them into daily use for 60 years.

.....

BBC 7 to BBC Radio 7

It is Saturday the 31st of January 2009

 I just caught the last 10 minutes of an episode of "Round the Horne" on Radio 7. I would loved to have heard the whole thing but it is not in the programme listings. Instead it is bungled together with other shows I don't want to hear under the title "Comedy Controller"

Do you have a in house competition at the BBC called "Who can find the most ways of hiding programmes"?

It is strange the way the BBC works. When I think back the BBC never dissplay any logical thought. I first heard Round the Horne when I was a of school age on the Light programme which then had it's name changed to Radio 2. The Home Service became Radio 4. The Third Programme became Radio 3, and the then new station for pop music Radio 1 was started in competition with the Pirate ship Radio Caroline. 

Numbering the stations Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4 seemed logical at first as the TV stations became know as BBC 1 and BBC2 when the second TV channel was started.

The above suggested to a logical person that any new station in the digital age would follow this logical progression. Radio 5 came along, then the digital channels arrived BBC6 BBC 7 etc. Logic suggested they were TV stations but no they were radio stations. They have finally corrected this stupid mistake, but in the process made it difficult to listen again with the introduction of the Iplayer and removal of the well designed listen again listings from the web site. So because using listen again has become such a pain to use, I rely on the radio channels my freeview box to hear such programmes, so what does the BBC do? It hides programmes under different titles so the programme name does not appear in the listing.

Johnathan Ross is grossly overpaid paid about œ6,000,000 for his pathetic contribution, so based on BBC logic those running Radio 7 must be on at least œ12,000,000.

.........

BBC and the Gaza appeal

27th January 2009.

My trust in the BBC's independence has been confirmed over the last few days. People have been telling me you could not believe the BBC news because they are in the pocket of the Government. I didn't think so, and this fuss shows that the BBC cannot be pushed. As for those objecting to the BBC's decision. Think of it this way. The appeal has had far more publicity from the fuss their decision caused  than they would have got from a few minutes advertising on the BBC. It was good to see that Sky TV backed them up and refused to show it too.

As for those traveling to the BBC headquarters to object. Maybe the money you spent traveling could be better spent by giving it to the appeal. 
Maybe they should try and get the appeal shown on Israeli TV.
.....

 

You couldn't make it up.

22nd January 2009

It's all over the UK news that adverts on the side of buses saying "There's probably no God" have caused a stir. It seems that a lot of the religious organizations don't object to religions other than there own being advertised, but don't like atheists having their say.



As an atheist myself, I find that so funny. Over the years I have noticed that religious people on discovering I don't believe in a God are drawn to me in an attempt to convert me. I on the other hand make no attempt to change the beliefs of others. You can believe in a God and an after life if it makes you happy, but please don't try and persuade me to believe. I respond with "Prove there is a god" They say they cannot prove it and that I must have faith. Look up faith in a dictionary. I will save you the trouble

Faith (fe€‹) n. 

1. strong or unshakeable belief in something, esp. without proof or evidence.

4. a conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion, esp. when this is not based on reason.

5. complete confidence or trust in a person, remedy, etc.

6. any set of firmly held principles or beliefs.

I stopped believing in a God about the same time as I stopped believing in Father Christmas.

............

Now I know why banks lose money.

20th January 2009

How about this for stupid. I ordered an item from Eclipse Computers who took the money but finally responded to my email asking where the product was, telling me they could not supply the product, so we contacted the credit card company and asked them to block the payment and they said "No" and "The company have 30 days to refund the money to the credit card company, and in the mean time we have to pay it. Because of this I emailed Eclipse Computers to tell them off for not refunding the money and the email bounced. I tried again using another of my email addresses and it bounced again. I rang them and no one is on the phones, so I conclude they may well have gone bust. If they have and the credit card company transfer the money to them, they will probably lose it, but will still have to refund us. Had they done what we asked they would have saved themselves some money. With thinking like that it is not surprising that banks lose money.

Thank you Misco.

16th January 2009.

I ordered a 1TB USB drive from them at 4PM Thursday and it arrived at dinner time the next day! Excellent service, which was even more important having been let down by Eclipse Computers who after nearly 2 weeks finally emailed me to say they were out of stock.

......

Russian Gas

Can we afford to have to rely on Russia for energy supplies?

13 January 2009

I see Russia's state-run gas company, Gazprom has resumed pumping gas supplies through Ukraine to Europe today after leaving a lot of European homes without heating during a very cold time. I hope Europe take this as a warning. To rely on Russia of all places for energy is total madness. I have never been keen on nuclear power, but I think it is preferable to ending up under the thumb of Russia, so get building them and don't waist any time. We in the UK were fortunate this time as most of our gas still comes from our North Sea setup, but that won't last a lot longer and it takes quite a while to build a nuclear power station. Realistically, wind, wave, and solar power cannot be expected to supply the majority of our energy needs, so it is time to make that tough decision and go for a new generation of nuclear power stations. The good news is building power stations will create jobs.

.....

Before you sell your computer, smash the hard drive, says Which?

9th January 2009

What a stupid thing to say. Just because the operating system writers do not include a delete doesn't mean you cannot permanently delete data from a hard drive. Smashing the hard drive is such a waste of resources. We are suppose to be trying to be green. My hobby is rescuing old PC's and passing them on to second users for free. Some people just don't have funds to spare for a new computer, so when I am handed old company computers I refurbish them and pass them on. There is plenty of software about that will overwrite the drive with random characters making it impossible to recover anything that was on the drive. Anyway. Who is going to pay anything for a computer if the drive has been removed?

.....

George Orwell wrote a book called 1984.

7th January 2009

George Orwell was ahead of his time but it looks like it is all coming true. The government are arranging that all our emails, chats, and text etc. are to be stored on a massive database. We may not like it but they are doing it anyway, and to add insult to injury we will have to foot the bill in our taxes.
1984 was suppose to be a warning, not an instruction manual.

......

Is this a good time to buy electrical goods?

1st January 2009.

 After all the retailer is obliged by British law to give at least a years full guarantee, but with retailers going into administration at quite a high rate, one wonders if they will be there to cover the guarantee. I decided to do a little online research and picked on a TV add from a company called 'PC World'. In the advert they offer a printer for half price. I have heard nothing in the news about them being in trouble so I could assume they are OK, but are they? My research told me they are part of a company called DSG International along with Curry's and Dixon's, and that the share price has dropped from over œ55 to œ17 in 2008 . That is quite a drop, so they could be due to follow Woolworth's. Is there is any coverage of the guarantee should the shop you bought it from go broke?

I have forgotten something Oh yes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

BBC licence fee.

24th December 2008.

I recently bought a set top box to replace a faulty one and have just received a letter from the licensing department saying they have no record of a TV licence for my name and address. (The licence is in my wife's name.) It gives an 084 number and asks me to call them to let them know. All they have to do is search their data base for the address without the name and they would find the licence, but no, they expect me to ring a premium rate number. No chance!! I object to the way the BBC waste the licence fee on massive salaries, so I am certainly not adding a penny to my phone bill. They have a web site so they could easily make it possible to respond via the web site or supply an email address, or even a free phone number. Now I found this set top box to be unsatisfactory and took it back for a refund, then purchased another one from a different shop. It will be interesting to see if I get another letter naming that purchase.
......

Priest says Father Christmas doesn't exist.

24th December 2008.


Father Dino Bottino, the parish priest of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Novara told children that father
Christmas doesn't exist. Well I have news for that moron. The God you pray to doesn't exist either. The deception
that Father Christmas brings presents for youngsters is harmless, and as they get older they realise the truth.
Unfortunately the deception that there is a God that will provide another life after we die seems to persist throughout believers lives. Unlike the father Christmas myth, this deception has done, and continues to do a lot of harm. It has caused wars between different religions over thousands of years, and is still causing trouble today.

......

Doctor What!!

23 December 2008

I guess the Doctor who writers have completely run out of ideas. Going by the clip they are using to advertise the Christmas edition, they are bringing back the cybermen yet again. You would think that with all the new technology they have now that they could invent a new invader, but it appears not. They have to re-use the idea's from the 60s. To top it all they are misusing time on the BBC News to advertise the programme by pretending the replacement doctor is a mystery. Who other than the actors up for the part gives a dam. Most of the actors playing the doctor leave after one or two series, so it must be a rotten job.

.....
Digital mania.

19th December 2008.

Various newspapers have reported the FM radio will be switched off in 2017 and we are expected to replace our radios with DAB radios. DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcast. They are power hungry and expensive and they don't work very well. If FM Radio 4 goes off I will tune to the long wave band and see if they have turned the AM off too. If they have, I will say goodbye to radio and just use the TV.
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