Angry Citizen

Bank - Bandits Anonymously Nick Kitty

2012-07-16T17:01:00.005+01:00

There has been a lot of news coverage about the banks andbanking system and the people running the system, how they have brought us allto our knees and have lost amounts of money we cannot comprehend, we have seenpeople disgraced and forced out of their jobs for crimes or indiscretions whichwe have no hope of ever understanding. Let me ask you, what is a LIBOR? I havenever heard of this before recent news coverage and even after the explanationsI am still not able to tell you what it means or even what I think it means.Yet I have been told I should be angry and people should pay for this breach ofour trust. Grrrrrrr. That’s about as angry as I think I can get aboutsomething I have no comprehension.

Lets look back and see if we can figure out when the bankingsystem became so complicated, I believed that a banks primary functions was tokeep my savings safe, and to lend me money as and when I need it (status pending).Now that does not seem very complicated, so the bank pays me for leaving mymoney with them to keep safe and they charge me for lending me money, and thisis where the profit comes from. To quote a well known Meerkat “Simples”.

The following people are all fictitious and I have made themup to demonstrate my point. So Here is how I see the banking system starting,Liam the farmer needs some money to build an extension on the side of his barnbut he wont have the money to pay for this until the main harvest but if hedoes not build the extension he may loose half the harvest to the elements andnot make as much money as hoped and wont be able to afford the extension.

So Liam knows Emma who lives in the next village is well offand has surplus bundles of cash, Liam approaches Emma and asks to borrow £100and once the harvest has been sold he will pay Emma back £110 as compensationfor the use of the cash. So Emma agrees and lends Liam the cash, one night inthe village pub Liam mentions to Mason another local farmer about thearrangement he has with Emma, Mason needs £100 to buy some more seed as he didnot have enough money to plant in all his fields this year. Mason now goes tosee Emma and asks to borrow £100 and he too in return will give Emma £110 oncethe harvest has been sold. Again Emma agrees, this continues until Emma findsherself with very little cash.

To rectify Emma’s cash flow issue she approachesOlivia, whom she knows also has some spare cash and she offers to invest thecash in return for a yearly fee. Emma will give Olivia £5 pounds for every £100pound invested each year. Emma is now using the money she has from Olivia tolend to more farmers and is making £5 clear profit for every £100 pound that isbeing invested. Using this business model, as long as no more than 5% of Emma’sbusiness goes bad, she will always make a profit, and if all monies are paidback she makes 5% clear profit for managing the money, and we know banks etccharge a lot more than 10% per annum to lend us money.

Now the numbers have been kept simple to show that a simplebusiness model can work and profits can be made from simply holding peoplesmoney and giving them a fee for doing so. Also lending people in need money andcharging them for the privilege but always charging more than you pay out tohave the money in the first place. As long as you don’t lend more thanyou hold and don’t hold much more than you need to lend then you shouldalways make a good profit.

So how did we go from this simple model to the overcomplicated model we see in today’s banks, where money is virtual andthere is so much changing hands, it’s impossible to understand or as Ihave already said comprehend. By making it so complicated it stops us outsidersfrom seeing what is happening making fraud and corruption easy to cover up. Thislack of transparency also breeds mistrust and fear or apprehension when goingto the bank to ask for help.

The banking crisis, do we really know what caused this then,is it all fraud and corruption built or hidden in the overly complicated system.Or was it caused by a few greedy people exploiting the system, again difficultto see in such a complicated system. What checks should be in place to preventthis, can we build checks into such a complicated system, should we maybe goback to basics and let Emma lend her money to Liam again.

Personally I think all the banks should not be bailed outand allowed to crash, I know this seems harsh but I believe out of the ashes anew breed of bankers would emerge, with new simplified rules and procedures withan eye on making clear profits in a transparent environment easily scrutinisedby the simplest of folk (and I mean me), this would allow us to build on a newstable system giving back confidence to the wider economy to the envy of therest of the world, lets be world leaders once again by trying something newhonest and clear

Can’t Do That - Citing Ambiguous Needs To Decimate Other Tangible Honest Available Tasks

2012-07-10T20:47:00.005+01:00

In today’s society we blame so many things for the demise of economy, behaviours, social decency, general wellbeing, and the state of our country. Where to start, do we blame the government, the banks, teachers, parents, children, discipline, backgrounds, the system, our peers, technology, or just anything other than ourselves. Some people in society take responsibility for the things going on around them, they take notice and offer help to improve their lives and the lives of those who may need a little push now and again. Then there is the ever growing group, who take no responsibility and you will often hear them say “that’s not my issue” or “that has nothing to do with me” the same group who sit around accepting handouts as they believe they are entitled to sit around doing nothing as society owes them!

This is the group of people who will often miss quote something they have heard to use as an excuse, for their inability to try, you will hear phrases like “I can’t get a job because to get a job requires experience, and to get experience requires a job”, lets be honest here, this is complete bull, I am aware there are few jobs out there due to an economic down turn, but there is always work, even if it is volunteering in the local hospital, or cat and dog shelter, these experiences will not only change your life but also give you the experience you need, this also shows an employer you are willing and able.

The other big issue I see all the time is “its not my fault”, thing is nine times out of ten you are not being blamed, someone is asking for your help to make it work. This attitude is not helpful and usually just causes frustration and confusion as people go in search of other people to help and quite often end up back with you looking for the answers but then are afraid to ask. This is linked to its not my issue, well sorry but it is your issue, you can’t be made aware of something then just forget it because it suits you. Society relies on your moral standing and influence on others to hold it together, without this the whole system fails. Throughout life our personalities are forged from the people we meet, now if everyone we meet has this attitude then we also will have this attitude, and because the better attitudes are being pushed away they are being lost and forgotten just like the older trades, blacksmiths, carpenters are being replaced with bankers and lawyers, so honest hard working individuals are over shadowed by power hungry, greedy, manipulative monsters glamorising immoral behaviour.

What society requires to repair itself is more exposure to good behaviour, perhaps if the media would promote good behaviour more and hide the poorer side of our society the badly behaved majority, put them in a smaller print hidden in the middle of stories about good deeds or intentions, praising the well behaved, the brave relentless minority who serve and protect us, the charity workers giving up their lives to support those who cannot support themselves, these stories should be at the forefront of our lives, instead we are shown doom and gloom, desensitising us to death and misery, promoting greed and exuberant wealth, corruption and misleading information.

Finally how can we educate our children what is the correct way to behave if you put the news on after question time in the house of commons and we see these men and women acting like children fighting over sweets in a kinder garden playground, yet these are the people who are supposed to be running our country, these are the people making decisions which affect all our lives. I am sometimes speechless when I watch this behaviour and hold my head in shame that these are the people we put in power.

Technology – Time Eroding Choices Handled New Objectives Local Order Gullible Youngsters

2012-06-17T21:20:00.004+01:00

I am forty years old and throughout my life I have heard people from various places in different times decades situations say “this new technology will free up more of your time and make your life easier”…… well I am still waiting when is it going to get easier.

When I was a child growing up my parents were not really interested in technology, before I was ten year old our remote was whoever was closest to the telly switched one of the three channels, yes we only had the three channels on a TV you would class as tablet size and weigh the same as my dad. But even here we would watch tomorrow’s world and we would hear this will make your life easier etc. you see the pattern, now I have more technology in my mobile phone than what landed men on the moon, yet I have no time available to scratch my butt. My life is taken up with constant demands that although technology makes easier, 20-30 years ago I did not care or need them and still we managed fine, or did we.

Everything these days is so much faster, instant communications, worldwide, I can still remember making calls to Australia when you would say something and then pause for 10 seconds while you wait for the reply to start, and those 10 seconds felt like a minute and a half. Now we can Skype around the world and not only have minimal delay but see the person we are talking too like they were in the next room. So is this a good thing, we almost hear and see news stories as they happen live around the world, is this making us demand more, now with social networking we are getting more, news feeds not only come from the major media giants but from everyone, you could be making the news.

So is this a good thing? Markets in the UK crash because a banker in Germany inadvertently updates twitter with, I think I will sell a couple of euro’s today, and his 2 million followers in banks all round the world start moving euros, all of a sudden you have a major issue. So again I ask is this a good thing? Should we not be focusing our efforts on our local markets and then perhaps we would not be in such a volatile market where the butterfly effect really does work. Maybe this is why the world is in such a financial mess at the minute, I don’t know just a guess… but hey do you really know?

So back to the main point, technology is supposed to make my life easier but I find it is just adding more things to be done. We can prove this and a friend of mine has noticed this happening recently, if we get a new device to take over a task work out how much time this should save you, then do nothing during this time except enjoy the extra time from the technology, how long before the time is lost, I reckon a couple of weeks maximum, and then you will wonder what stole the time, I bet you it was demands from more technology.

So technology helps us achieve so much more, it makes us more creative, and it brings information to the masses with ease, but is it making us focus on too much and making us forget what is important, family, friends, face to face contact, simple one on one communication? Due to technology I am meeting more people who do not know how to communicate face to face, give them a keyboard or mobile phone and hey the can talk for hours, days or weeks, but put them in a room one on one with another human and they have nothing to say, or don’t know how to interact. Is this our future a generation of people providing more information quicker and cleverer yet impersonal cold and without any personal context?

So technology gives me knowledge at my fingertips, it allows me to work faster, more accurately and with more integrity, but in return it makes me do more, and absorbs more of my time, it also makes me work in places I never used to work, or would dream of working, I can now work in the loo if I want too, and yes I have sat on the pan and replied to a work e-mail, let’s be honest due to the technology they are none the wiser that’s where I was. So all the buzz around new technology being better for us is a lie, maybe we should stop worrying about what is happening on the other side of the planet and start making home a better place to be.

U Turns – Unwanted Twists Undermined Re-winding New Scenarios

2012-06-02T08:21:00.001+01:00

Well the government is at it again, another U turn from the hard hitting policies designed to help the economy and give us some stability in these uncertain times. Oh hang on not one but three U-turns this week and that is 43 U-turns so far since they took office or if you count the no U turn policy it takes it to 44. So we have elected another leader who talks the talk but when it comes to action his nether region clambers back inside to hide.

All these U-turns really annoy and frustrate me personally as when Cameron and the other one took control of running our country I thought this might be good, a lot of changes designed to allegedly take us though the next few years with a little pain but come out the other side smelling of roses, on top again. But what has really happened is a time line was mapped out and as each policy was due to take effect a group of do gooders affected by the changes, have lobbied the chancellor and the changes have been turned, or as the government would say tweaked.

So how can we trust a government who cannot make policies and follow them through, maybe we need not a change in power but a change in the way policies are created in the first place, maybe the fault is not with making policies but by not thinking them through properly in the first place and this results in what looks like cowardly management. Maybe if instead of a couple of politicians who lets be fair have no idea what real life is we ask the people whom the policy will effect, chances are they may have better more efficient ways for the government and the country to save money.

Perhaps if we stopped spending money on pointless projects that the majority of people don’t want or care about, for instance the high speed rail line, and use the money to create jobs, and if you think there is no work to be done then you also must be a rich person living in a nice area with no concept of real life. The money bring “invested in the high speed rail line would hire an army of people to work on local projects, cleaning up our streets and generally making life that little bit nicer, in turn they would pay tax rather than take hand-outs, and give some self-respect back into broken communities.

In conclusion a government making so many U-turns is portrayed as weak and untrustworthy, also shows they were elected under false pretences. Policies should not be made by rich politicians anymore, it’s time for a real change. And finally stop wasting my money on pointless expensive projects that help no-one.

Samsung Galaxy Note

2012-05-12T09:54:00.002+01:00

I thought for a change I would write about a good thing rather than rant, although I will have a little rant first, so my phone was the HTC Desire and I have had this phone for just under 2 years, and it’s been a good phone, there were a couple of minor issues towards the end of its life, the battery deteriorated but I still almost got a full day out of it, and the screen brightness started to dip randomly. So it was time for an upgrade, I had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks due to the screen fault as it was starting to annoy me. Now I had been keeping an eye on the ASUS Padfone which had been looming for quite some time and this was going to be the ultimate combination phone, tablet and laptop, but I was let down by the total lack of information on a release date and price. Then I saw an advert on the TV for the Samsung Galaxy Note, wow I thought this looks like a good piece of kit, so a couple of weeks after seeing the first ad I decided to contact Orange and enquire about upgrading, I had done a little research online first.

Call to Orange placed, “Hi I would like to upgrade”, “no problem sir, you can have the Galaxy Note for £36 per month and £100 quid up front”, “well I have looked online and can get it for £28.50 per month and the phone for free”, “sorry sir we cannot give you that deal”, “Ok bye”. So loyalty means nothing anymore, I have been an Orange pay monthly customer for about 12 years, I worked for them for 10 years, loyalty bah what’s that. Next I placed a call to phones 4 U, I spoke to one of the most helpful salesmen ever, I told him what I wanted, how much I wanted to pay, (based on what I saw on web site), he put me on hold for about 1 minute, when he came back to me he gave me what I wanted. To me that is a perfect transaction, I call with what I want and I get it, how much smoother could it have been. Just for the record Orange, yes I got this as an upgrade for free at £28.50 per month on the panther 36 plan.

Now the phone, let’s start with the negative, it has two flaws one of which is why I bought it the other needs sorting, flaw one, it’s just too big, but come on that is why I bought it, the second flaw is the same with all large phones the sound quality is not very good when making calls, even using the hands free the sound is a little tinny and I feel like I have been transported into a huge cavern, but I can live with this, it’s not like I can’t hear the other person just the sound makes it more uncomfortable than I would prefer.

The positives, there is so many, let’s start with the big one, the pen……. I have been looking for quite some time for a device around the size of this phone that I can free write notes on. I wish I could do this with my 10” tablet I would use it a lot more in everyday life, in work for taking notes in meetings etc. now here we have a phone with this technology, unfortunately I write a little too big to make this useful in meetings at work but for quick notes at home this is truly awesome. The lack of lag the smooth motion the high resolution all make this a pleasant and useable function, not just something that looks good on the ad, it actually works. Now Samsung transfer this technology up to the galaxy tab and I will go and buy one. I was so impressed with the Note I did consider getting a Tab but I went to PC World and played with one and after about 30 seconds I did not think it was as good as my ASUS Transformer.

What the pen gives is not just being able to free write notes, it can do so much more, I am using it to write text’s and emails instead of using the keyboard I am using the handwriting recognition and it works really well, again not just a pointless gimmick but a useful everyday tool. Then there is the arty creative side, now I am not a very creative person, but I almost feel like I have to be with this, I can play with pictures cutting pasting editing then sharing with so much ease I feel like a 5 year old with a new pack of crayons and a freshly painted wall to deface. There is so much more, you can annotate on PDF’s quickly open menus, select with so much more accuracy, so when you see the ad and think that looks good but I bet it takes months to master all the tricks, no, you can master the basics in a couple of hours and after a couple of days you are flying through things like they are second nature the whole concept is so intuitive it makes learning it fun.

The camera is the next thing I would like to pat Samsung on the back for, I have never taken photos and videos on a phone with so much depth of colour and clarity the video quality is also so clear if I was any good at recording video I reckon you could easily make ready for TV broadcast quality programs in the phone. And again so easy to use and intuitive, I only have one suggestion, give me an external button for taking pictures, I don’t personally like touching the screen.

Here is an example of the camera quality, let me add I am no photographer.

The screen is beautiful and very responsive just what I expect really but when you couple this screen with the camera it gives you a wow factor not seen in other devices, also using your finger on the screen is still good although one handed operation is a little more difficult due to the size of the phone but you get used to it and Samsung have recognised this and created a one hand keyboard to assist with texting etc. not that I am using it as I said I am using the handwriting recognition, but it’s there if you need it.

Syncing my contacts was a good experience, the phone asked me what to include, so I selected my e-mail accounts, Linked In and twitter and the phone went off and imported everything it could find, sorting the duplicates was a bit of a bore but I ended up with everything all sorted in one place, it even pulled in the profile photos from linked in, I am easily impressed, but really the whole process was so easy and just added to the already growing smile on my face.

Samsung have said they are going to upgrade this to ICS soon and I can’t wait, that will literally be the icing on the cake for me. The battery life is very good, as a new toy I have been using it more than I probably will in a couple of months’ time as I am still learning, I have been removing it from the charger around 5am in the morning and it goes back on charge around 10pm and I usually have just under 30% of the battery left.

So to sum up this is too big and the phone call quality is not great but as an everyday tool it is awesome and instrumental in assisting me throughout the day, the intuitive interface makes using this feel like second nature in no time at all, the camera makes images leap out of the phone without the gimmick of 3D, if I was to mark this out of 10 it would get 9 but if the call quality was better then it would easily be 10.

Last thing I want to say is thank you Samsung I now totally understand why you are number one, you deserve it.

Virgin Vs Sky

2012-05-05T09:49:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I changed TV Phone and Broadband suppliers from Virgin to Sky and I wanted to write a comparison so other people who make this choice know what is coming. Now granted this is just one installation and may not represent the experience that you may have, but from talking to other people I am discovering my experience pretty much hits the average mark.

Let’s start at the beginning, why the change, well I like F1 and this is really the only sport I watch and this has moved to Sky , so I called Virgin and asked if I could have the F1 channel and how much would this cost, they said £22.50 per month, as you can’t just buy one channel you need to take the whole sports package, so on average there is 2 races a month, including build up and qualifying etc. about 6 hours of TV per race, so 12 hours per month, that’s nearly £2 per hour to watch the F1. Feeling this may be a bit excessive I asked for best option, the reduced the package by £10 per month for being a good customer, so this works out at £1 per hour, could you imagine if we paid this for other TV channels. Anyway we threatened to move to Sky and see what they would give and we got "ok bye".

Next we called Sky and advised we wanted to switch from Virgin due to the price issue and asked for their best deal. So all the channels we already had and F1, plus many more channels, also about 5 times as many channels in HD for about £4 a month more. So this worked out at 33p per hour quite a big difference oh and we were going to get a second HD box thrown in too. Next we agreed to this and called Virgin to put in our disconnection notice, to which they did not seem at all bothered and we were allowed to go with no attempts to save a customer who had been with Virgin about 4 years on this account, but previously at other addresses I had been a customer since the old Telewest days on the first 512 Broadband connection.

Then about two days later a man calls from Virgin advising me he could make me a better offer to stay, he would give me 2 TIVO boxes and we all know how good these are so I was already tempted, then he tried to advise me that my current download volume would not be possible on Sky , and this really swung the decision for me as I do not like being lied to, he told me to download the volume of traffic I used the previous month would now take 5 months to reach on Sky , and here is the calculation, Virgin speed 10Mb, Sky speed 2Mb roughly based on other people in the area, therefore 10 divided by 2 equals 5, conclusion it will take you 5 months to download that volume of data. If I did not roughly understand the concept of downloading data via an internet connection I may well have believed this and I am sure this technique is morally wrong and should not be employed in a company which has some great selling points already.

Then he told me that the volume of channels I was getting from Sky was all lies and I should accept that the volume of channels he was reducing me down to was more than adequate, now to be honest I don’t watch much TV but I have a small and a medium sized child whom both watch TV a lot, and when I looked at the revised channel list from Virgin and compared this to the channel list from Sky all the important channels were missing, eg all the Nick and Cartoon channels which the children watch, well that was decision made bring on Sky .

Next comes the installation, oh Sky you can learn a lot from Virgin on this, when we had our Virgin service installed a man came round asked where we wanted things, run the wires to each point neatly, cleaned up, spoke English, was polite, and when he left everything worked. Now the guy from Sky was pretty much the opposite, first of all he drilled holes though the wall making a mess and just leaving it there, no attempt to clean, once the wires were in no attempt was made to secure them to the skirting board I wasn’t even asked if it was ok to leave wires trailing across the room, he unplugged things from the TV without asking, and finally his English was better than my Portuguese but it was not at a standard I would want if I was needing to communicate effectively. Now this was just one of three visits we would have to install our Sky package, next was BT to connect a telephone line, and oh sorry we don’t have one of those running to the house so they left, that someone else’s job, next BT came put up a new pole and connected a wire across the street, then we were told 4 weeks before someone could come and run this into the house. The wire was there it only needed a hole though the wall and fixing into a box. Anyway several weeks later a guy came and drilled a hole through the wall and his mess marked my brand new carpet, you may remember this a few posts back. Thing is we were so happy to have a phone line we never noticed at first. So phone line in any dialling tone, no, any internet no, why the man from BT was a contractor and was not authorised to connect the line, so another engineer came a couple of days later to do that bit. Virgin installation 2-4 hours, Sky installation 5 weeks.

So now we are fully switched over so let’s start with the TV, Sky wins this one, I think more choice and also better picture quality, now the important bit, the internet, well the router I have from Sky is rubbish, some devices will not even connect to it, the connection has dropped off more times in the last week than I have had with Virgin in 10 years, the download speed is nowhere near as good but I expected that and to be fair I schedule my downloads for when I am asleep so barely notice.

Now I have written this down I am struggling to find a winner, they both offer a fair service although I think both customer service departments could do with a little shake up especially the sales guy in Virgin really he should be sacked for lying to a customer, but I wish I could efficiently mix the broadband from Virgin, the TV from Sky and the phone from BT I know I can do this but without paying twice as much as I am now would be nice.

Recession – Recent Economic Changes Elude Stupid Spoilt Idiots Outlook Necessitous

2012-04-26T18:10:00.002+01:00

Well I have heard today on the news that we have dipped into another recession…….I am sorry when did we lift out of the recession I am confused, perhaps if the rich blind stupid idiots who run this country spent a week in my shoes skimping for money to pay for food wondering which bill I can push back this month then they may not be so quick to make these down right stupid statements. We have not left the recession since 2008 and all the upward blips are just that blips.

I think the main problem is food, fuel, and all other major things we need are going up in price, yet wages are going down… how people are supposed to afford all the things we did before. In the last year I have made some major changes in my life so that I can have enough money to feed myfamily, some of you may say these are probably for the best any way for health reasons, but I should not be forced into these decisions they should have been made in my own time. So to help cope I have quit smoking, almost stopped drinking, and I ride to work each day. This is saving me about 350 pounds per month, and when you do that it does highlight I should have done it earlier,perhaps the idiot politicians could do the same and give up the expensive things which are driving this country into the ground, like, pointless wars,subsidies for failing companies, wasted money on red tape and unwanted unneeded correspondence.

Also if the guy in charge stopped backing out of the changes he promised to help sort out the countries finances just because a couple of people whinge “oh that’s not fair on us” or instead of reducing the rich tax because they find ways of fiddling it, and find better ways of enforcing it. Perhaps then we would be in a better position and I would have a little more respect for the guy, where as now I think he is just a gutless rich boy, who is more interested in looking good and winning the next election rather than making the tough choices to make things right again.

Morality - Murder Organised Random Altogether Legally Insane Testimony Yes?

2012-04-21T20:44:00.002+01:00

I was having a discussion the other day about when is it ok to kill another human, at what point is the morality of killing another human measured, I ask this as it seems quite a grey area but so many people think it is black and white and don’t look from all the angles. I will try and make this objective but I want to point out from the outset I am not in favour of killing other humans in fact my moral standing is that all humans have a right to life unless they harm others or direct other people to harm others, and yes that includes all the politicians sending our boys to war to kill other humans.

So in the news over the last few weeks we have seen the Brevik trial and everyone is saying he is insane as he killed 77 innocent people, but he believes he did this to protect his nation, is this not the same for countries who send their soldiers to war, to fight for what they believe. I can hear you say but that is different as they are sent to fight other soldiers, but what about all the innocent people, the innocent children who get killed and are called collateral damage, is this not murder and should the people who sent the soldiers to this war not be held accountable, where is this line between killing for your country and beliefs of the nation and killing for your country and the beliefs of some of the nation, and we all know Brevik is not alone in his beliefs, he was just willing to take extreme action to highlight his beliefs.

So this line, where is it, who is immune from it and why, and as a planet should we allow politicians and country leaders to send our children into war to kill other humans and allow this under the banner of “fighting for our freedom”, no one asked me if I wanted my freedom fought for, nobody advised me of the cost of our freedom, surely there is another way. So back to the line, who decides which is moral and which is immoral, personally as I said earlier I think all killing is immoral but in the news it seems only the individual killers are classed as immoral and insane. But then you hear of the likes of Asaad and Mugabe and Hitler who killed or are killing under a flag of a nation, or an umbrella of belief or religion and these people are called mad men, insane, indiscriminate killers, so what about Bush, Churchill, Blair to name a few, they ordered other people to kill innocent people, but they escape the label of killers, also they escape the law and are quite often looked upon as heroes.

This whole issue has more questions than answers for me and I am able to find people with opinions but when I go head to head and point out the flaws they are unable to present me with suitable answers, so when is it morally okay to kill another human, answers on a postcard please.

Apple – Available Products Priced Lavishly Expensive

2012-03-20T20:07:00.001+00:00

I have figured out why Apple is so successful, it’s obvious really, they deliver. The i-phone, i-pad and all other “i” products may not be the best products on the market, they may not have the best specs, they may not be the best value for money, what they are, is available.

When apple are going to launch a product, they announce a couple of weeks before the press conference that the press conference is coming, then the rumour mill starts, and it would not surprise me if they start half of them, I would if it was me, then they have a presentation, launch a product, tell everyone the price, where it will be available, and when. Then its there on the day they say, really the thing they always seem to get wrong is they under estimate their own success and don’t have enough available for launch day and put a few noses out as some people may have to wait a few days or weeks to get their hands on their shiny new product.

So why the blog we all know Apple do this and have the routine down to a tee. Well some manufacturers (ASUS) could do with taking a look at this process to see if they can learn from it. About four months ago ASUS showed off the new Padfone, wow this is all the product I need, the specs are great, the concept is genius one product and I can get rid of my phone, tablet and laptop and just use one.

But this was just a concept we would need to wait for the official launch which happened last month at the mobile conference in Barcelona in which all Apples competitors showed off the next generation in technology, showing off quad core processors and massive shiny screens, more computer power than a shuttle mission in the palm of your hand, wow we all basked in the amazement of the show.

Now a month later I fancy buying one of these products, oh but hang on I can’t, as the company who makes them has not sorted a price for the product or a distribution network to get it to me, they can’t even give me an approximate date. And you wonder why Apple are number one, not because they produce the best at the best price, but purely because they put the products in our hands when we want them.

New Carpets

2012-03-11T09:50:00.000+00:00

So here it is, we have a 17 month old who over the last few months has trashed our living room carpet, well to be honest it was trashed before then but the baby is an easy win. So I suggested that the wife clean the carpet when my mother took our little bundle of fun out on Friday.

Now I feel I need to put this intro perspective, I asked the wife to clean the carpet using the new vax machine we bought for her to use. Again I need to put this into perspective, we had a perfectly good industrial sized vax machine and I was convinced to buy a smaller lighter one as the wife found the large one too much to handle. Finally some more perspective, I used to do the carpets and she suggested we get the smaller one so she could do this more regular.

So back to the story I suggested while the little one was out the house that perhaps the new lighter sleeker vax machine be put through its paces to clean the carpet.

This is what has actually happened and I am still spinning wondering where I went wrong, but I suggested we clean the carpet on Friday and on Saturday I found myself in a carpet shop purchasing a new carpet.

Street Lights – Let Illuminated Genius Help Teach Simplicity

2012-02-25T21:12:00.001+00:00

Again councils are in the news on how to save money on street lighting, yet I never see any options for a totally free or close to free option, am I the only person who thinks street lights could be lit for free using solar technology and rechargeable batteries.

When I look at a street light I see a big pole which is roughly the shape of a battery, well it’s cylindrical. So stick a solar panel on the top of the light and put a long battery in the post, there you have it a free light which should last for years for free. This has to be a better option than those currently being explored by councils at the minute, which include dimming them when no-one is about to switching them off all together.

When looking for solutions to problems usually the simplest are the best.

St James – Strive Together, Join A Massive Economic Strike

2012-02-22T20:10:00.000+00:00

I am hearing that people are not happy that Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has changed the name of the stadium from St James Park to Sports Direct Arena. Personally I think this abuse of power is just another example of the rich using their wealth and power to wash their muddy boots in the faces of the little people who donate their well-earned cash to help make these selfish vandals so self-absorbed and untouchable.

But here comes the solution, as a group we the fans, the people, have more power than this one man could ever dream of, unfortunately you all whinge to your friends and colleagues but don’t have the man parts to stand up and say no, there is only one way this man will listen, 12 MP’s saying they are unhappy means diddly to this man, he is hungry for power and is displaying this brutality the only way he knows, by waving his wallet. So if you want to beat him you need to reduce the size of his wallet.

If we all stand together and refuse not to go to the matches, how many do you think it will take before the little big man has to bow down to pressure to change the name back.

But if you’re not willing to put your man parts on the chopping block, please, please just shut up because to be honest I am sick of hearing you whinge.

Scandal – Squandering Cash And News Duration Ascertain Legitimacy

2012-02-13T19:32:00.000+00:00

I am confused, there is so much hype and coverage of journalists who have been using non legal methods to gather information about the rich and famous so they can expose scandals and deliver gossip into the hands of curious humans the next morning wrapped in adverts and half naked women.

So did we all believe this did not go on, or were we so engrossed in the stories being told we didn’t care how they gathered the information. Has the revelation that phones were hacked, emails were read, next they will be telling us they used bugs to listen in, or god forbid, paid informants or engaging parties to expose “The Truth”, who cares what is true, did we ever care, really?

So the police are investigating this “Crime” and spending a lot of our money doing so, why I ask? We all knew this was happening, or was I the only person in the country who knew, am I really alone in this, come on, own up, you knew too.

So lets stop wasting money, time, and good news coverage, on this subject let it go, we all knew they did it, and to be fair probably still are, they will just hide it better now.

Stress – Soft Traders Regularly Earning Superfluous Salaries

2012-02-07T19:20:00.001+00:00

I was reading today in the Metro newspaper that a banker, is suing his boss for wrongful dismissal as he was stressed at work having to do the work of three people which caused him to lose 17 million pounds in one days trading….. So you’re thinking well that’s nothing new people sue their employers everyday with similar complaints of being pushed to do too much work, so why the rant.

Well the rant is not that he is suing his boss, or that he may well have been over worked having to do three peoples work, my issue is this banker was getting paid 4.2 million pounds per year. Not that I will ever be in a position to pay someone that kind of money but if I ever was and I was his employer I would want him sacked, if you get paid 4.2 million pounds per year then you can handle the stress of doing 3 or even 4 to be fair I would do 10 peoples work. This banker has absolutely no idea what stress is, he earns more an hour than I earn in a month. How can you sight stress when you are paid so much, surely the reason you are paid so much in the first place is because you can handle stress.

Maybe employers of this type of employee need to stress test employees first before offering such exuberant pay deals. Perhaps put them up against a wall and shoot them, if they can handle that then maybe they can handle losing someone else’s money, cos lets be fair that is all they do, they take rich people’s money and gamble with it. And our soldiers are out in Afghanistan being shot at every day and not getting paid anywhere near 4.2 million a year, actually you can have 168 soldiers for 4.2 million a year.

In conclusion I personally think we should take this miserable sod outside and give him a good slap then drag him to see some real stress, maybe drop him off for a day in an emergency ward of a city centre hospital, lets see if he can cope on £26,000 with a mortgage and three kids, then he can let us know if it was stress he was feeling or perhaps just a minor irritation.

Debt – Devaluing Equity Befuddling Trust

2012-01-26T19:55:00.001+00:00

I have a question for you all, is debt the root of all evil?

I have a theory, if we abolish and outlaw debt the world would be a better place to live. I have several reasons for this some of them a bit thin but some I think make sense. I can hear you all now, who is this idiot, has he got more money than he can spend, well I can answer that, no, I have more debt than I earn, I struggle to survive each month as the repayments squeeze my finances, I basically pay out more than I earn, so I am getting deeper into debt. Well that’s not true now as I have made arrangements with some of my creditors to reduce the payments, but still I basically have no disposable cash due to debt. Yes this is entirely my fault, I am a weak person, and I want my children to have all the things I never had, but then thinking back I had things money could not buy.

Increased appreciation – A few years ago debt was so easy to come by, you didn’t even need to apply credit card companies would send you a card at the drop of a hat, I remember one day getting a call, “how would you like to move all your debt into one easy payment”, I thought at the time this was a great idea, so I did, and about ten years later and a few more consolidations and I am still paying for it. My point here is if it’s that easy you end up thinking “What the hell, if it breaks I will buy a new one”. Now consider you had to save up to buy the new mobile phone or TV or really anything you own, go on take a look around the room you are in, how much of it did you buy outright with cash, one payment. The only things in the room I am in are my baby’s toys, or the things I have been given, every other major purchase in here was bought using credit.

Moral integrity – have you considered that some of today’s moral and social issues could be directly linked back to debt, if you don’t have to earn something and it is given to you on a plate, if you lose or damage it you can get a replacement or upgrade with little or no effort then you have no concept of the value of the item, with never having to earn why bother even getting a job, why bother getting out of bed in the morning, you can have what you want anyway. This devaluing of the things we own creates a “what the hell” attitude, and this attitude spreads into other aspects of our lives, and before we know it we have a dysfunctional society who have no self-esteem and drive to achieve.

Profit from Misery – if we outlaw debt then people and companies would not be able to profit from the misery of easy targets such as me, in fact the banks would basically be no more, outrageous bonus payments would be a thing of the past, companies would not fold as often due to bad management of funds, if they did not have the money they could not buy more stock that they can’t sell. This would change the way businesses are formed, operate and eventually fail or succeed. Yes it would be tougher but perhaps natures “The strong survive” would make for more stable business models instead of the current risky models, and lets be fair they are not working so maybe we should try something new, no sorry old.

Government Funding – Taxes, when taxes were first collected they were not popular amongst the people it was being collected from, but we all understand this needs to be done to help run the country, however, governments should not say collect ten pounds then spend twenty based on the money they may collect the next time, this is crazy if you’re not collecting enough money either cut your spending or collect some more. Due to this is exactly why governments all over the world are in massive debt and we the people have to suffer some more.

Conclusion – so if we all have to save before buying our beloved possessions we would appreciate them more, it may mean that product life expectancy would need to be reviewed as consumers would not want to save for six months then buy something that will only last a year, this would also be good for our children making them wait for the things they want, maybe encouraging some appreciation for what they have, there would also be less waste, if you saved for something then bought it and it broke in six months, right now you may just go and get another, but if you had saved for it you would either return it or get it fixed. Also we could re-introduce some lost skills, manufacturing skills, repairing skills and probably many other skills we have lost over the years, we would also instil some self-respect and motivation back into our society.

By outlawing debt we would create a happier, motivated, proud nation.

One Trillion Pounds – Trust Real Idiots Let Leaches Indulge On Nothing

2012-01-25T20:48:00.001+00:00

It was announced today that the British governments debt had passed one trillion pounds.

Here is a list of things I could do with one trillion pounds.

I could buy 20% of all the land and buildings in the UK

I could buy 8000 Eurofighters

I could hire 3.8 million people at the UK average wage for the next 10 years

5,555 Boeing 747 planes

I could buy all the premiership football stadiums and have some change. Quite a bit of change.

I could buy the American election. I heard its for sale.

I could buy Microsoft, Apple and Google.

I could fill 75,757 olympic swimming pools filled with beer, and have one hell of a party.

According to WikiANswers I could buy Iceland (the country) and have a lot of money to spare.

I could buy 10 international space stations.

I could buy NASA oh and fund the moon and mars projects.

To be fair there is not much I could not buy.

I have one question for this and previous governments, how did this happen……

Back to Basics – Bypass another costly knockdown, try out, building another system initiating common sense.

2012-01-24T19:32:00.000+00:00

I am concerned, confused and outraged at the current state of our countries financial situation, I keep hearing on the news that we need to make cuts and save money, and the only solution seems to be to cut services and make more people unemployed, but we still have enough money to subsidise a failing railway and buy military jets at a cost of £125 million pounds each, we currently subsidise our so called privatised railway 5.2 billion per year, that money could be better spent, couldn’t it? I am not sure what gets me more annoyed, the fact that we buy fighter jets at such a high cost or that we pump money into a failing business, to be fair the cost of the jet also bemuses me, as we all know that someone somewhere is getting rich from this project, well they aint in it for the love are they.

Personally I think we should let the railway fail. Let it die, it’s obviously run by idiots who could not organise a Hornby train set never mind a multi-billion pound business. If we let it fail I am sure someone will step up and buy all or part of the network and run it to make a profit and a service people want to use, well they would have too wouldn’t they, or they too would fail, I think the people who are there at the minute don’t have enough motivation to make this work, well if it goes wrong we just throw more money at them.

As for the fighter jets, come on, if the government owned the company who make the planes, or here’s a wacky idea, if they created a company to do the job from scratch, surely it would be better, well there would be no big companies only in it for the money, I am sure before global markets and virtual money countries used to manage just fine, making electricity, supplying gas and all the other commodities we used to get from the government without any issues, well we know it did go wrong as before all the commodities were privatised they were losing money hand over fist, but hang on now these companies make massive profits? So perhaps this was not a good idea to sell these off for quick cash but we should have sacked all the idiots in charge and hired people who can make it work.

Maybe this government needs to look not at shrinking everything down but we need to stop helping failing businesses and buying over priced goods, and that includes the banks who created this issue in the first place, as I still see these people are still making more money out of our misery. We need to get the basics right put the right people in the right places and we could have a country which works even when all around us are falling over, this may be a naïve view but could things get much worse. Rant over.

Justice - Judges undertaking serious transgressions ignoring consistent experience

2012-01-20T20:56:00.004+00:00

Is it just me or is there something seriously wrong with our justice system, I saw three cases on the news on the 19^th January and I could not believe what I was hearing. I will explain the three cases briefly and then put the sentences applied in each case without saying which sentence applies to each case, lets see if you can guess which sentence goes with each case. I will add some empty lines to the blog and then put the correct answers below these. I think you will be surprised, no shocked at the results and this is no joke these are all real cases.

Case 1

A woman left her six year old child on her own for 5-6 days (two conflicting reports not sure of exact detail), she left her with a few bags of crisps and the television on, no heating was left on and no proper food was left. Now this child is six, I don’t know how many six year olds you know but all the ones I do I would not leave them alone for 10 minutes never mind 5 days, the only reason this crime was discovered was because the child was so scared and cold oh and hungry she went seeking help from a neighbour. Now there were further gruesome facts in this case which I don’t think I need to explore as the one fact should be enough to work out a sensible sentence.

Case 2

A police officer was found guilty of having sex with a prostitute whilst on duty. Now there are other factors here, one the report does not say if he paid! To be fair I am not sure I care, also the report did not say he raped the prostitute so I am gonna guess it was consensual as I am sure if there was more to make this guy look bad the media would have exploited it. They did however say he had used his position to manipulate venerable women.

Case 3

A couple were on their way home after a night out and three young men were vandalising bins, the man asked the men what they were doing, they then attacked the man kicking and punching him unconscious and pretty much leaving him for dead in the street, he had several broken bones a broken jaw and other injuries. He was in hospital for weeks after the attack.

Punishment 1 - Walked free

Punishment 2 – 18 Months in prison

Punishment 3 – 30 months in prison

Now I know what you are thinking, how could one of the punishments be walks free? Any way answers below.

Answers

Case 1 – punishment 2

Case 2 – Punishment 3

Case 3 – Punishment 1

Now is it just me or does this not seem fair, I think the justice system needs to seriously look at itself and sort out some consistency, I am aware that each case is different but I think we need a more consistent approach when handing out sentences.

Please let me know what you think.

BLAME – Bypass logic and misinterpret evidence.

2012-01-18T19:59:00.000+00:00

More and more these days I see and hear things on the news and around me which enforces the fact that we are moving more into a blame culture society. This attitude in all areas of our lives is making life not only harder day by day but creating a society in which no one learns from mistakes other than how to blame other people for them, also this creates a negative view of situations before all the evidence is collected and the term innocent until proven guilty has lost all meaning.

My example to show how this is destroying our society is the recent tragedy in which a cruise ship crashed off the coast of Italy. From the very beginning the media looked at the captain as the one person who should be blamed for this. Now as the days have gone by more and more evidence has been presented by the media showing how the captain of the ship made mistakes and cause a catastrophic accident.

My issue with this is not the fact that the captain may have been in the wrong but due to the coverage all the information presented to us has a negative feel aimed directly at one man. Now I am not going to dispute that the buck stops at the top and he was in charge of the boat, but I cannot help thinking that it takes 1000 crew to run the ship, surely included in these 1000 people are other people who help manage the route the ship takes, navigators etc. also a ship of this size surely has some kind of sonar or under water radar, I don’t know as I have never worked on the bridge of a ship but I am using common sense to make an assumption. So with this in mind surely the route taken was a team effort and not just one man’s crazy manoeuvre (or so the media would have you believe). Next thing I expect to hear from the press is they have nicknamed the captain “Crazy Ivan” after the manoeuvre from the film “Hunt for Red October”.

So in conclusion should we all not stop trying to find someone to blame, should we not wait for all the facts before assuming someone is in the wrong, it’s time we all stood up and took responsibility for our mistakes and spent the time saved in trying to put things right, also lets not be so quick to jump on the bandwagon pointing at the accused and let’s wait until they are either found guilty or innocent.

Tesco Shares

2012-01-14T14:58:00.003+00:00

I have been looking at the business news and the other day Tesco lost 5 billion pounds off their shares, just because they announced that the lead up to Christmas was not as good as they would have liked, now is it just me or is that a bit extreme, also this money is virtual, it does not exist except on some bankers screens, and to add to the misery a top executive sold £200,000 worth of his shares a week before, did he or did he not know about the profits warning, come on either he did know or they should sack him for not knowing what is going on in the company. So this guy controls every store in the UK, and he does not know what is going on, sounds like a typical executive actually, I have a theory the higher the corporate ladder one climbs the lower the IQ becomes.

I believe these people should be tested every month to check they know what is going on around them. Also to check their brain is still working generally. No wonder this country is going downhill, with the stupid decisions made by MPs and the idiots in charge of our largest companies, it’s time for a change, these people should either get on the ball or get out of the game there are plenty of people able and willing to run companies who would not make such blatant mistakes.

Definition of Idiot – Intelligence deficit inhibiting original thought

'Urination' US Marines

2012-01-12T20:53:00.001+00:00

The very people we trust to protect us, betray every human being, and common decency, these guys should be punnished not for the act itself, although this is very very bad, but for being so stupid to allow this to be filmed. What were they thinking, did they first believe this act was not only ok but worth putting on film for the whole world to view.

How can we trust these people to carry a gun. These men must be so stupid they need a laminated sign next to their bed so when they wake up it reminds them to breathe.

High Speed Rail

2012-01-10T20:09:00.001+00:00

Has the government lost the plot, they tell us that we need to cut back cos the previous administration over spent then they announce they are going to spend 33 billion on a high speed rail line between London and Birmingham. Lets put 33 billion into perspective thats about 200,000 extra police paid for the next 5 years, but hang on are we not making police redundant due to not being able to afford them, well i would rather have the police than a fancy train, its 250,000 jobs at the national average wage, for the next 5 years, and this would ultimately be pumped back into the economy and save money as they are not claiming state benifits. Also this wont even be started for 3 years and not ready to use till many more years later, 2026 if nothing goes wrong and we all know this will go wrong, and probably will go over budget, so we suffer now so in 14 years time a few rich people can get from Birmingham to London a couple of minutes sooner. This is going to cost 330 million per mile, that cannot be right, am I the only person who thinks this is a little expensive, i can come up with hundreds of better ideas for this money, also why are we paying for it, are you telling me the rail companies are not making money, if they are not mabye we should be looking at why not and sorting this out instead of throwing more of our money at it.

today

2012-01-05T21:57:00.000+00:00

what a day today has been, this morning the news was all about assisted dying and we had the moralists saying that this should not be allowed, how can people be so selfish, if i want to die why should i not have the choice. its not like i am saying you have to die too, people who are murdered don't get a choice, and the people who kill people barely get punished in case it* goes against their human rights, i personally think these people should also be given the choice, prison for the rest of your life or die, lets not force them we just give them the choice. choice is mine and every other persons right, so get off your high horse and let me live my life how i want.

then there was a row about a twitter comment from a politician, oh the very people who should be setting a good example to the people also these people are ambassadors for our great nation, yeh right, it has been said the comment was taken out of context, hang on i think you get paid enough to ensure your comments are not taken out of context, if your not sure just say nothing.

another story today a London couple are in court for drowning a young boy they believed to be a witch, have i fell into a time machine and popped out in the sixteen hundreds, has this world gone completely nuts, come on you doo gooders get back on your horse and sort this out, if you want to get involved in making the world better try stopping the idiots from hurting others

to finish this blog i learned something today courtesy of Google tweet, porky pig was the original hunter of daffy duck, not elmer fudd. thank you Google.

unemployment

2012-01-03T20:25:00.000+00:00

How to reduce unemployment in the uk. This idea may need refined but the basics are visible. What we need is legislation to force high earning companies to employ more people, this if done right could help the companies themselves also the economy as the people hired would not be earning a fortune so would need to spend the money to live. Also this would reduce the countries debt as less people would be relying on state handouts to get by. Really this is a win win situation. So the idea, each company who makes more than one million pounds clear profit, after tax, R&D etc but before shareholders take their dividend, this will stop companies hiding the profits. So for evey million pounds clear profit the company has to create five new jobs, and with this i mean five roles that don't already exist in the company. Now if a company declares one billion pounds in profit they would have too hire 5000 new staff, that's 5000 people helping the company make more money next year, 5000 people less in the dole queue, 5000 people pumping money back into the economy. Win win yes?

Email Etiquette

2011-12-29T06:20:00.000+00:00

One of things in life that really annoys me is people who send e-mails and put the content of the email in the subject, no hello, no please and no thank you in the main body of the e-mail.

How hard is it to put your request in the body of the e-mail, I consider this behaviour to be the height of bad manners in the digital world. I would consider this to be worse than putting the entire e-mail in capitals.