OMG (if you'll excuse the textspeak) The government is talking about separating the investment banking from the high street retail bank bits. Where do these idiots come from. Businesses decide their own terms of reference, it just is not possible to legislate exactly what types of business a company does.
The government wants banks to increase their tier one ratios (the capital they keep as reserve) and want them to increase the amount they lend. These aims directly contradict - come on, get real. Are the banks supposed to be conservative in their dealings to keep themselves solvent or are they supposed to promote growth by lending in a rather reckless manner.
MPs can't have it both ways.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Friday, 9 September 2011
Box ticking
Job interview to be a casual ad hoc hours employee. The guy interviewing had the grace to look rather embarrassed as he asked the HR box ticking inspired question ' What do you see yourself doing to increase the excellence of our organisation'. Must say the rest of the interview was entirely sensible.
Sunday, 4 September 2011
I'm NOT free
Discussion on another forum about charities asking for things to auction. Basically the participants are saying their work isn't being properly valued and is regarded as a 'hobby' - after years of practise, apprenticeship and the direct costs of materials etc. We're talking the world of art here, and yes, some people do paint as a hobby, but many others try to make a living and are constantly undercut by the hobbyists. Art works have a value and even hobbyists should recognise this and ask for appropriate payment.
I'm an ex IT professional and get a similar effect. Anyone who knows me think it's fair game to ask for advice about their PC problems. I don't mind a quick query, but some individuals expect me to go away, research an answer, and if they can't fix it to actually do the work for them - all for free. I know I'm retired and no longer make a living from this activity, but I left this work because of the stress so don't want to get involved, and the work HAS A VALUE which they should be prepared to pay. My normal response is that, yes I can help, but my rate is £x, x being dependant on if I actually want to help. There's a similar thing with free software being made available on the web. Personally I think anyone using free anti virus software (or any other free software come to that) is taking a huge risk. If someone gives you for free something that takes many hours of hard work to develop, why do they want to give it away? You really need to question their motivation. I like to see how someone is making money from me on any trade, if I can't, I do get suspicious.
Another related subject is the army of social organisers and club committee members who give their time free. Here my views contradict the previous paragraph. These people are giving up their time and organisational skills to benefit themselves (without them no club or activity) and also all the others who enjoy the fruit of their labours. At this point I'm not suggesting they should demand payment from the other members but would plead with club members to be a bit grateful. It's ALWAYS the members who've never organized anything in their lives that moan and grumble if anything doesn't run perfectly. I have in the past organised social events at workplaces and been on the committee of clubs. What made me give up was the hassle from these ingrates and the experience of 'going pro' when I was made redundant. Paintball, kart racing etc. organisations will pay organisers to bring along full groups of participants as it saves them the advertising and admin loads. While people were happy to let me do the work for free, once I was doing it for money the attitude was that they wanted a discount (equal to what I would get paid) or they'd do it themselves - despite the fact they would then have to do the organisation and still get a worse deal from the companies.
The moaners and groaners just don't get the value that the organisers are adding. If you go to any club, do make a point of thanking any committee members you have dealings with - genuine thanks are one form of payment that won't cost you a bean.
And message to wife - stop volunteering me to help people. If I want to, I'll volunteer myself thank you.
I'm an ex IT professional and get a similar effect. Anyone who knows me think it's fair game to ask for advice about their PC problems. I don't mind a quick query, but some individuals expect me to go away, research an answer, and if they can't fix it to actually do the work for them - all for free. I know I'm retired and no longer make a living from this activity, but I left this work because of the stress so don't want to get involved, and the work HAS A VALUE which they should be prepared to pay. My normal response is that, yes I can help, but my rate is £x, x being dependant on if I actually want to help. There's a similar thing with free software being made available on the web. Personally I think anyone using free anti virus software (or any other free software come to that) is taking a huge risk. If someone gives you for free something that takes many hours of hard work to develop, why do they want to give it away? You really need to question their motivation. I like to see how someone is making money from me on any trade, if I can't, I do get suspicious.
Another related subject is the army of social organisers and club committee members who give their time free. Here my views contradict the previous paragraph. These people are giving up their time and organisational skills to benefit themselves (without them no club or activity) and also all the others who enjoy the fruit of their labours. At this point I'm not suggesting they should demand payment from the other members but would plead with club members to be a bit grateful. It's ALWAYS the members who've never organized anything in their lives that moan and grumble if anything doesn't run perfectly. I have in the past organised social events at workplaces and been on the committee of clubs. What made me give up was the hassle from these ingrates and the experience of 'going pro' when I was made redundant. Paintball, kart racing etc. organisations will pay organisers to bring along full groups of participants as it saves them the advertising and admin loads. While people were happy to let me do the work for free, once I was doing it for money the attitude was that they wanted a discount (equal to what I would get paid) or they'd do it themselves - despite the fact they would then have to do the organisation and still get a worse deal from the companies.
The moaners and groaners just don't get the value that the organisers are adding. If you go to any club, do make a point of thanking any committee members you have dealings with - genuine thanks are one form of payment that won't cost you a bean.
And message to wife - stop volunteering me to help people. If I want to, I'll volunteer myself thank you.
Monday, 29 August 2011
Be nice
And people will be nice to you. Simple. Been away for a few days to a wedding. The Bride was overwhelmed with how lovely everyone was being to her (and her new husband). It really was that she herself is a lovely helpful good natured person. You get back what you give out.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Part time
Ummmmm. Just got back from a one off job where the main requirement is to stay still for an hour. Has very interesting effects. Eastern mystics go off into a trance or meditative state - and use total physical stillness to induce this sort of mental state. I just think I've achieved something similar on the second hour of this job. Try sitting absolutely totally still for just ten minute and it might give you an idea what I'm going on about.
Shamanist: Ally animal fox: Reach your animal instinctive level: Die and be more alive:
Shamanist: Ally animal fox: Reach your animal instinctive level: Die and be more alive:
Monday, 15 August 2011
Moral society
Things are quietening down on the riot front, some interesting thoughts are emerging from the various commentators.
Chavs are adopting black culture. Odd that nobody seems worried about the derogatory term chav being used to describe the white skinned individuals involve. It does seem that the'benefits' of a multicultural society don't always work positively - here it seems the worst aspects of the various cultures present in London are predominating.
The state prevents me disciplining my children. I've seen interviews with parents who claim they have been charged with assault when trying physically to prevent their children going out with gangs. Kids rights overrule their responsibilities, and the ability of either parents or police to make them kids stick to responsible behaviour.
I'm not responsible for my childrens behaviour. Simultaneously with parents claiming they're being prevented from applying discipline, there are other parents (the ones under threat of eviction) who claim their older children are simply not their responsibility. At what point is a child a fully independent individual?
It's taken me by surprise the swell of opinion in approval that rioter and their immediate families should lose their 'rights' provided by the community they're destroying. I thought I was running against the flow thinking that anyone who criminally rebels against out social order should not benefit from it. It seems obvious to me (and many others apparently) that if you wilfully destroy the communities resources, or wilfully refuse to contribute, you shouldn't expect to be supported by that community.
The Police seem in disarray. The British system is policing by consent, i.e. the police are working with the community rather than as an authoritarian force compelling obedience to the law. I do think this model is now failing - not because of the riots but because too many of the public fail to obey traffic laws, litter laws. B****y cyclists. It's not the offences themselves but the attitude of the offenders that they have a 'right' to break the law without punishment that makes the policing by consent model unworkable.
Political will to protect the law abiding public has been pretty much absent for maybe twenty years prior to these riots. Suddenly the courts are in action 24 hours a day and heavy punishments are being handed out. Bet that has come as a surprise to many of the looters. It'll be interesting to see if the momentum keeps this going, or if the heavier punishments will be quietly watered down.
Cameron has used the phrase 'slow moral collapse'. The guidance of the various religions has certainly been lacking and declining over the last couple of generations, to the point where the CofE is seen by many (most?) people as an irrelevance. Our government is secular, moral guidance is supposed to come from the nations primary religion, but in my opinion the church leaders are spectacularly failing in this function.
You can't go back in time. The faiths and beliefs that held society together in the past are questioned by science and materialist society. It seems to me that is individuals don't perceive themselves as part of a larger whole, or under the control of some omniscient force, there is little to prevent them acting purely in their own selfish interest without regard to others (or their own long term good).
People content to live on benefits need the occasional reminder that they're not contributing to the pot they're drawing from.
The super earners content to demand ever higher amounts of money need to consider if they're really worth that amount. They may (or may not) be contributing large amounts to wealth creation, but they're certainly alienating the rest of us.
Politicians, and public servants (police included) need to remember they're there to SERVE us - us being every single member of the population; not dictate to us and/or treat us as idiots. Cuts are obviously needed to balance the books, but how about cutting out the politically motivated quangos, initiatives and minority interest grants and get back to basic needs.
Chavs are adopting black culture. Odd that nobody seems worried about the derogatory term chav being used to describe the white skinned individuals involve. It does seem that the'benefits' of a multicultural society don't always work positively - here it seems the worst aspects of the various cultures present in London are predominating.
The state prevents me disciplining my children. I've seen interviews with parents who claim they have been charged with assault when trying physically to prevent their children going out with gangs. Kids rights overrule their responsibilities, and the ability of either parents or police to make them kids stick to responsible behaviour.
I'm not responsible for my childrens behaviour. Simultaneously with parents claiming they're being prevented from applying discipline, there are other parents (the ones under threat of eviction) who claim their older children are simply not their responsibility. At what point is a child a fully independent individual?
It's taken me by surprise the swell of opinion in approval that rioter and their immediate families should lose their 'rights' provided by the community they're destroying. I thought I was running against the flow thinking that anyone who criminally rebels against out social order should not benefit from it. It seems obvious to me (and many others apparently) that if you wilfully destroy the communities resources, or wilfully refuse to contribute, you shouldn't expect to be supported by that community.
The Police seem in disarray. The British system is policing by consent, i.e. the police are working with the community rather than as an authoritarian force compelling obedience to the law. I do think this model is now failing - not because of the riots but because too many of the public fail to obey traffic laws, litter laws. B****y cyclists. It's not the offences themselves but the attitude of the offenders that they have a 'right' to break the law without punishment that makes the policing by consent model unworkable.
Political will to protect the law abiding public has been pretty much absent for maybe twenty years prior to these riots. Suddenly the courts are in action 24 hours a day and heavy punishments are being handed out. Bet that has come as a surprise to many of the looters. It'll be interesting to see if the momentum keeps this going, or if the heavier punishments will be quietly watered down.
Cameron has used the phrase 'slow moral collapse'. The guidance of the various religions has certainly been lacking and declining over the last couple of generations, to the point where the CofE is seen by many (most?) people as an irrelevance. Our government is secular, moral guidance is supposed to come from the nations primary religion, but in my opinion the church leaders are spectacularly failing in this function.
You can't go back in time. The faiths and beliefs that held society together in the past are questioned by science and materialist society. It seems to me that is individuals don't perceive themselves as part of a larger whole, or under the control of some omniscient force, there is little to prevent them acting purely in their own selfish interest without regard to others (or their own long term good).
People content to live on benefits need the occasional reminder that they're not contributing to the pot they're drawing from.
The super earners content to demand ever higher amounts of money need to consider if they're really worth that amount. They may (or may not) be contributing large amounts to wealth creation, but they're certainly alienating the rest of us.
Politicians, and public servants (police included) need to remember they're there to SERVE us - us being every single member of the population; not dictate to us and/or treat us as idiots. Cuts are obviously needed to balance the books, but how about cutting out the politically motivated quangos, initiatives and minority interest grants and get back to basic needs.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Local repair
Bought some new bits for my camera yesterday. Fiddling about changing lenses, there came a click and tinkle. A strange plastic bit had fallen out and a metal frame was hanging down. Look in the manual, it was the focusing screen had somehow been released and had fallen out. A lot of the basic information seems to be assumed in the manual, so getting it back without having noted where it came from wasn't too simple.
Looked up the web for a local repairer/expert. The only camera shops now are the chain stores - the little local shops where local expertise resided have all gone. Phoned the shop where I bought the bits. They were very helpful and phoned the manufacturer's distributor, but without a decent picture of what I needed to do I was still stick. Looked on the web - here there were several 'home brewed' instructional articles. The main difficulty here is knowing what to trust, and again the instructions assumed I was starting off replacing the screen, not dealing with one that had fallen out! Finally more by luck than judgement, I pressed it in the right direction and it clicked back into place. By this time dust had entered the viewfinder area and a fragment of the non lint cloth I was using had worked it's way into the sensor. Getting too het up is no way to deal with a DLSR camera so I put the lot away until today. A good search of multiple sites on the web provided the solutions I was after - properly researched the job looked none to difficult, so I had a go.
My point here is that with expensive equipment, I'd far prefer to whip it down to a local technicians and get them to sort the issue out, or at least discuss it with them. I couldn't find anyone local, so would have had to send the camera off, losing it for several days at least and letting myself in for an unknown bill once they'd assessed the problem. With PC equipment, there do now seem to be plenty of small shops providing this service, but this doesn't extend to cameras. There's an alternative source of knowledge on the web to replace this, but you do have to provide the fingers yourself, and sourcing spares may not be simple. Thinking about this, our dishwasher is missing a small spring - we've been unable to source a replacement and resent paying call out etc. for such a small (and optional) repair.
Incidentally, the sensor clean worked fine, also got the dust out of the viewfinder area. Only problem is the focusing screen got a small scratch when it fell out, which I've made much worse trying to clean it off! Screens not available at the shops, so I'll have to buy on the web or special order from a shop.
Looked up the web for a local repairer/expert. The only camera shops now are the chain stores - the little local shops where local expertise resided have all gone. Phoned the shop where I bought the bits. They were very helpful and phoned the manufacturer's distributor, but without a decent picture of what I needed to do I was still stick. Looked on the web - here there were several 'home brewed' instructional articles. The main difficulty here is knowing what to trust, and again the instructions assumed I was starting off replacing the screen, not dealing with one that had fallen out! Finally more by luck than judgement, I pressed it in the right direction and it clicked back into place. By this time dust had entered the viewfinder area and a fragment of the non lint cloth I was using had worked it's way into the sensor. Getting too het up is no way to deal with a DLSR camera so I put the lot away until today. A good search of multiple sites on the web provided the solutions I was after - properly researched the job looked none to difficult, so I had a go.
My point here is that with expensive equipment, I'd far prefer to whip it down to a local technicians and get them to sort the issue out, or at least discuss it with them. I couldn't find anyone local, so would have had to send the camera off, losing it for several days at least and letting myself in for an unknown bill once they'd assessed the problem. With PC equipment, there do now seem to be plenty of small shops providing this service, but this doesn't extend to cameras. There's an alternative source of knowledge on the web to replace this, but you do have to provide the fingers yourself, and sourcing spares may not be simple. Thinking about this, our dishwasher is missing a small spring - we've been unable to source a replacement and resent paying call out etc. for such a small (and optional) repair.
Incidentally, the sensor clean worked fine, also got the dust out of the viewfinder area. Only problem is the focusing screen got a small scratch when it fell out, which I've made much worse trying to clean it off! Screens not available at the shops, so I'll have to buy on the web or special order from a shop.
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