Annoying Scams

Some annoying scams including the Web sign up with free trial (and then charge full price) or tick boxes that you must uncheck. Popup windows saying you owe money or emails pretending to be from your bank asking for financial details.

Also the student loan as a student tax because interest accumulates unless you earn over 25K (approx a year).

Annoying things in 2007

Why Great Britain is not so great anymore including the trade deficit, increasing food prices (biofuels) and our lack of identity compared to other countries.

State of the World

World collapse and the role of current economics.

Planting A Seed

Imagination and the action of thought into words and deeds. Using new forms of media and communication channels to get a point across. Looking for similar minded people and places where conversations and constructive arguments take place.

Boxing in schools

Problems with teenagers running wild and ideas that may help to solve the problem including boxing, conscription for those not in employment or further study, youth clubs and social integration.

Flat Batteries

DV camera battery going flat. Also the ink running out of my cartridge and the shaver that eats batteries.

Attention to detail

New job in admin, getting things done and explaining results (keys things like names and explaining in simple terms). Checking and double checking that I'm getting things correct. Avoiding simple errors like indicating differences on a table and test printing/printing to correct printers.

Also avoiding stress by taking an extra minute to think and check things through, not panicking when things go wrong and waiting for someone to be free before talking to them. Using the phone and Internet to find information before asking someone for help.

Big Brother Fiasco

Why do they try to stir things up in Big Brother by swapping housemates between the two houses through a silly stunt like the jack-in-a-box timer?
This could seriously damage the longevity of favourites like Liam.

Anyway what is the point of Big Brother unless it is a metaphor for how our society is run. This is by using the people to herd other people into conformity. Sheep herding sheep. Our society is becoming more and more like a cross between 1984 and Brave New World.

Big Bother

Big Brother gives an indication of who people interact in a closed situation. It is interesting to observe behaviour patterns that are like people I know in the real world. For example, Ziggy and Chanelle are acting a lot like a couple that I know (with the bickering and breaking up and getting together again). Also, I think that I am more like Gerry than anyone else. There are people, like Charley, who are grabbing attention and argue for no proper reason. I think some of the things that Big Brother does are childish and trashy but what do you expect from reality TV?

I would like to see a house full of intelligent people and people who can do a lot more than talk about wanting to be famous or arguing about some food going missing. It is boring. There should be people in the house who can tell jokes, imaginative stories, talk about culture and politics and come up with games to play in the house. Also, what is wrong with a series long plant to mess things around in the quiet weeks and a hidden task for boys and girls to get off with each other?

Anyway enough said for now. Bye.

Smoking ban in UK

A lot of people smoke in the UK. They often use pubs and some go gambling whilst others smoke at work. So the government should be glad they are getting their money worth. Now there are a lot of people struggling at the work place and who cannot drink and smoke at the same time. Yet alcohol and stress are bigger killers than smoking.

People who do not smoke need smoke free environments. They can have smoke free areas and smoke free restaurants, workplaces and bars. So why make all places of work and all public places that have food totally smoke free? This defies logic especially where some pubs only serve hot food for two hours each day and bingo halls have a clientele that are very unlikely to stop smoking even if the price of a pack of cigarettes doubles.

This is a strange one by the UK government and one of many things that Tony Blair put through before he handed the baton over. Remember it was his government that put marijuana down to class C and who decided to invade Iraq with the Bush baby.

On yes the companies that benefit are those that manufacture and sell those nasty (and probably addictive) nicotine replacement treatments. I suppose the government is getting a huge cut on those products from the taxes levied.

The best advice anyone ever said is to never start smoking and drink in moderation. So many of us binge drink and smoke pot!

Peroxide Blondes and Clones

I find it annoying when people buy or do things just because they see someone on TV with this item or looking that way. Examples include extreme slimming to look like emaciated supermodels, wearing designer clothes that cost a bomb, and buying the latest gadgets that depreciate to half their value after a couple of months.

What I am interested in knowing is the percentage of natural blondes who live in the UK and how many more people dye their hair to look like them. Whilst it is disgusting to see the roots of the natural colour peek through it is even more worrying to find so many people that naive and gullible to look like other people just to attract the opposite sex.

It is one of many instances of clone-washing that stretches from the use of mobile phones for idle chatter, overpowering make-up and perfumes and laptops taken everywhere so the owners can continue working when they leave their offices. It is called progress and its price can be seen all around us.

There are all the CCTV cameras, the smoking ban and the massive increase in depression, stress and mental illness. Fear is increasing as we enter the 19 Brave New World 84 zone.

The Current State of Great British TV

We are in the process of moving to digital TV in the UK. Whilst this gives the costumer (how I hate the word consumer) better quality and more choice it also helps big business make more money out of our debt ridden population. To upgrade requires extra hardware (a freeview box or cable subscription) and in many cases a new TV. Also some aerials need replacing. Then there are the expensive widescreen options and HDTV. All pricey but optional. Then there are the VCR recording problems meaning you cannot record another channel when watching a programme (and maybe multiple programmes on different channels when away). This makes VCRs all but obselete. More sales for expensive digital recording solutions.

Now lets jump on the environment bandwagon. How are we going to deal with millions upon millions of old TVs and VCRs hitting the landfill sites at the same time?

There is a great solution called TV on demand available via PC. Channel 4 and channel 5 are doing this. Then there is the TV license. Why continue this when the BBC can create a TV on demand service where people pay for premium TV they use and stop taxing everyone for TV they do not always use? TVOD could get the BBC a lot more money than the license ever did.

A great marketing ploy is to get people to buy new things as upgrades and then make these appear obselete within a few years. Computers, mobile phones and cars are particular victims of this. We should have less bits and pieces. An integrated and fully upgradable integrated PC/TV/Stereo solution would cater for most needs. Then when more powerful chips and modules come out all we should have to do is replace a small circuitboard or parts that have broken down.

Education and police systems

I do not understand the government and society letting children get harrassed by police. Apparently previous young offenders are getting stopped by police several times a day when they have done nothing wrong. There are too many arrests for very minor offences because of government targets (in a similar vain to dentists, doctors, teachers and most jobs). We do not want a police/nanny state. This causes children to rebel and relations to become frayed. Also serious offences are often overlooked because of bonuses to arrests (although this is changing due to severity of crimes).

So why are there so things that rip off people or restrict freedom in the benefit of bureaucracy and capitalism? No one cares that people are happy. You cannot get most jobs without waiting weeks for agencies and security checks. You cannot go to university and get an even education. I propose a system where universities give a level of education that is the same as other universities in the country. You do not learn important thigs about the real world in many courses and companies are biased towards some institutions over others. This bigotry has to stop. A link between careers and study has to be developed where a student can get a placement / experience regardless of course or institution.

Also we need to be aware of student debt and encourage more young adults to look at other options in shortage areas when they leave school. There are too many unregulated degrees and private training courses out there that generate money for the instituations by taking advantage of large numbers of individuals. More direction and empowerment is needed at all levels and less confusion and capitalist crap.

Chasing My Own Tail

An idea for an illustration of a comic man chasing his own tail around in circles. An animation (or series of stills) where a man is running around in a circle and a tail grows. His face turns into a TV set with an aerial and mouth changes to dollar signs/religious signs/sitcoms/politics etc. He catches up his own tail and its needle sharp point skewers him. Then a baby crawling in a circle...

Around all this is words and voices from popular media, capitalism and consumerism. Would this be a metaphor for the world or for how we waste our lives?

Commercial Space Race

I wonder how long it will be before we can go into space as tourists sponsored by commercial companies. So far only governments have had the desire and money to send men to space although many companies have paid to have satellites put into orbit.This is an issue many have thought would happen for many years.

It is becoming cheaper to make spacecraft and get them into orbit but fuel costs are increasing. Money can be recouped through paying passengers for a trip around the Earth, to the moon and beyond.

There is an impact upon the environment from fuel. Space elevators or nuclear powered rockets may bridge the gap between chemical propellents and advanced technologies such as matter-antimatter drives, zero point energy (antigravity) or macroscopic quantum teleportation.

If there is going to be a commercial space race I hope it is to build solar panels in orbit, provide research bases and for platforms to build interplanery craft. It be worthwhile to consider building in space and mining asteroids for raw materials. Maybe we could develop self replicating machines that can extract raw materials and convert them into useful building resources.

Please do not pollute space with huge advertisements or create artificial light pollution. This will not go down well with the public or with astronomers.

Anyone for launching a series of telescopes using the Earth's orbit as a baseline for spying on alien Earth's or determining the shape of the universe?

Universal Device

Technology is confusing because of choice - too much of it. There are so many gadgets that do so many different things. It would be nice to have one thing that is portable and link directly to the brain. It would be auto-upgradable (using software and memory), intelligent and have functions including telephony, gaming, computing, audio/video/holographic and use a touch-screen interface and virtual projection screens for communicating to others. With a link to the brain it could operate up to the speed of thought. Very likely this would have a combination of organic (neural), inorganic (holographic, cystalline) and virtual components that are all scalable in power and function according to user requirements and developments.

Then there would be little need for rooms and shops full of things that are going to be obselete soon, cost a lot of money and require time to operate.

When Will We Be Free?

I think that the media is the weapon of choice of governments and big business. There is so much information out there and much of it is disinformation. We are crushed by a combination of politics, religion and (lack of) money. News is full of stuff about terrorism and war (much of which is created deliberately to instill fear in the population), CO2 greenhouse gas (how many have looked up at the sun and back in time to temperature records?) and celebrities (to take our minds off things and make us consume).

Things need to change. Change can be done in many ways. I am only going to talk about peaceful methods because they are the ones that will ultimately work. These include the use of media and information to fight back. These techniques include awareness online, alternative TV, alternative press and independent scientific research presented to the public in a clear and concise way. Also, there are global peaceful protests and the idea synchronous thinking and meditation on peace. These would need to be done but a large percentage of the population and may affect our way of thinking if not the physical reality around us. Maybe we could use some of the environmental issues as test cases.

Here are some sites to check:

What the Bleep do we know?
Stop the war coalition
Out There TV
TerrorStorm (Alex Jones)

Question everything you see and hear and if something feels wrong then it is worth investigating further.

Cars and Bins

Pavements are for pedestrians and roads are for cars. Yet on the roads in my local area there are countless cars parked halfway across the pavement. This is due to the amount of people owning cars compared to the amount of alloted drive or garage space. One could argue that there are too many cars but this is only half the problem.

People need to put out their rubbish once a week. This is left on the pavement on the streets. After the dustmen take the rubbish away they leave the empty bins all over the pavement (and sometimes on the curb too). Often the bins are not taken back in for a day or two. Also in the summer the trees and bushes grow out over the paths. This situation has to occur across residential and suburban areas across the UK.

All of this combined creates a situation where the pavements are totally blocked to pedestrians who have to walk onto the road around the cars. This causes anger and frustration especially when carrying heavy shopping or pushing a pram. Often the view is blocked by the parked cars so it is hard to see an oncoming vehicle (including bicycles). There is, I believe, potential for accidents.

This is nonsense and may in fact be illegal (bins on roads, cars parked over the pavement at crooked angles). We need to remind binmen to put bins on the empty drives to force drivers to put them in the correct places when they come home. Also, to ensure that drivers are aware of correct parking procedures.

Letters to local MPs across the UK?

Where are the electric cars?

As we pollute the environment what has happened to all the research about electric cars? Have all the patents been gobbled up by corporations interested in making more money on polluting oil and gas as well as forcing higher costs and taxes on the consumer?

Also, why are there no solar panels on aircraft? These can be added to the fusilage without affecting areodynamics much and would provide extra energy to power the craft when in flight during the day and during take off / landing under clear skies.

Job Trials and Training

I cannot believe that most UK companies now expect people to have so many specific skills in order to do a job. Many of these can only be kept current by being in a similar job yet academic study does not always provide the level of knowledge and skills expected by companies. Also not everyone can secure a place on a graduate recruitment scheme and many, like myself, are unhappy with call centre or temporary jobs through agencies.

It would be a lot more useful to be able to go to work and have a 50:50 work training split where I could learn further skills on the job but also able to put what I know to good use. This is instead of having to do stop gap jobs and pay for training.

Of course this would mean that private companies, for example in IT, would need to be flexible regarding employment and allow new recruits to learn on the job rather than expecting them to know everything already. It may also mean a lower starting salary or extra training hours for the employee.

BA baggage problems

After the passenger tax increase now comes the horrendous baggage charges. Yet we can carry several pieces of hand luggage and carry sports equipment in bags at no extra cost!

Why not tax the airplanes for fuel consumption - NOT the passengers.

Also issues about police state (inequality) and nanny state (overprotective over children). Irony is most trouble is caused by white teenagers yet these are the most protected people. Second irony - you cannot do anything (except report to the police or if in danger of losing life) if you are hassled by gangs of kids on the streets or (in some cases) burglers and thieves.

This country - the "dis-united kingdom" makes me laugh!
Equality for all - discrimination for none.

Correct charges - wrong methods

So people are moaning about the doubling of the airport tax. Well if the UK government had decided to apply the increase for flights booked from a specified date rather than make pre-booked passengers pay again at the airports then there would have been less chaos. Also, would it not be better to have levied charges on the airlines instead? Get it right next time Mr Blair!

I can understand being charged for text messages that I have sent. However, these companies are charging for receiving messages. Yet it is so easy for someone to put a false number in for a club or marketing site and lo and behold I get charged for receiving messages. So I had to type STOP ALL to prevent this from happening.

I also think banks overcharge for overdraft and credit limit violations (why get charged every day for on a charge made for going over by 1p) and the government and the whole employment industry is driving people to pay for all training. Then I am told I cannot get work because of no recent work experience. Yet if I volunteer I cannot live in the accursed country. Yuk!

Chasing people up

I think everyone finds this most frustrating. Repeatedly calling someone up because they either do not return your calls or have not done something done that they promised or even owe you money. Contacting people who are unresponsive wastes time and money and indicates that they don't care even if they are just too busy. Of course in some cases they may have changed numbers or have suffered emotional stress. Wouldn't it be great if people texted, called or emailed back a holding message such as away on holiday rather than ignoring the call?

A worse scenario is when a company lets you down because of poor customer service. For example, a certain parcel delivery company left a mobile number to call back and no one is responding. Also, their Website is out of date and uninformative and yet one of the biggest shopping companies is still using them. So I'm still waiting for my parcel.

Another example is the lack of feedback on job applications. Even saying why an application has been rejected would be useful instead of sending nothing or a generic rejection letter.

I hate being let down and I do not like letting others down. If I let myself down then I call at least do something about it. With other people all you can do is remind them and hope they has a sense of compassion, duty and honesty (even if it is to tell you that they cannot help you).

Popup Annoyance

Websites that spawn windows containing adverts and pushing other information in your face are the scourge of the internet. Another is the pop-over windows that obsure articles with an advert. These can normally be closed by the 'x' in the top right hand corner.

Other things that annoy me online include bogus emails such as fake competition entries and phishing sites that go to a false banking site or rely on the gullible to believe that they have won something. Also, badly designed sites with flashing and glaring graphics. These include gambing sites and those where the designer is trying to show off all their skills and some of the content is missing, out of date or not working properly.

There are also too many programming and scripting languages. Many of these will become obselete in the next 5 to 10 years when convergence happens or when AI takes over the coding process.

The cost of Travel

With the strong winds, celebrity big brother fiasco and BBC move hitting the news it was surprising to find out on the news that the average houshold spends 62 pounds on travel (followed by 58 on leisure). There is a huge opportunity in saving time and money if everyone could reduce their travel by just 10% (not to mention the environmental improvement).

Things that could be done include:

(1) Increase in telecommuting and home working including the use of video conferencing and selective computer networks that link some home computers to the business network.
(2) Virtual reality technology to the point where reality and fantasy merge but where the user has control of his or her surroundings (instead of a matrix scenario). This may reduce the demand on flights as well as trains and car use for leisure purposes.
(3) Vehicle pooling and bussing to the extent that people are picked up and driven in groups by area to area thus reducing traffic and road time picking up.
(4) Active promotion of cycling and walking for shorter distances (increases fitness and reduces stress).
(5) Teleportation of body or/and mind via the process of scan/download/transfer/upload in a process analogous to direct writing but where we can download human consciousness and upload at the other end (possibly to a cloned body).

Anyway 3 of these ideas could be used here and now without affecting working efficiency. What happened to the paperless office now that we could benefit from car-less roads?

Job experience conundrum

Why is it such a problem in today's society to get work?

I have applied for many jobs but get no interviews.

A couple of agencies have told me it is because of a lack of experience in the last year or two. However, this was largely due to personal problems and depression. So how to fill the gaps - courses, helping others, explaining how I have searched for jobs.

IT industry so unwilling to train candidates for entry level jobs.

This culture in the last 5 years seems to rely on the individual to continuously train yet this is not enough. For example, it costs money to get IT certification, do a degree course and then go the extra mile either by volunteering or somehow getting the experience before getting the job that gets the experience. This is a big issue considering the amount of jobs and people job switching. Degrees are wasted because no one recognises the fact that I have transferable skills and can also pick up the more demanding aspects of the job quickly.

Unemployment.

It appears that unemployment ensures a much harder route back to work. Companies just do not like to invite people to interviews who have been out of work or have only done short term work in recent months. There appears to be a culture of poaching people from one job to another and job moving. This is good if you are in a career already and want to move ahead but leaves the stop gap jobbers and unemployed left to network and work for nothing to find better work and seek out those lucky opportunities.

Building a presence.

A CV only gets you so far. A good Website, demo or portfolio (if relevent) helps but since 90% of careers seek experience and often a lot of it in the same role things are not looking good for gaining broad career experience. Grabbing the bull by the horns helps as long as debt does not become an issue. After doing call centre jobs, some admin and some industrial work it is not nice to have to do even more of this whilst trying to get a proper job that I will enjoy rather than one that may just get some money in.

OVERALL I FEEL LET DOWN BY THIS MONEY GRABBING CAPITALIST SOCIETY AND THE WAY IT IS RUN.

iPod and iTunes

The battery keeps running flat on my iPod nano when not in use. Is this related to the lack of a switch off feature?

Also fiddly for quickly scanning through a track. Tends to keep altering the volume using the touch ring. can only reliably track slowly through a track. Annoying for those DJ mixes when I want to listen 30 minutes in.

iTunes does not properly categorise tracks and genres for music that is not commercial and not always in shop such as demos, DJ mixes and tracks converted from some CDs. It is also fiddly to manually organise music to directories/genres as it tends to sort some but not all tracks from artists to albums and some to an alphabetical list of singles. Changing track names individually can be annoying.

Also, I have heard that tracks downloaded from their store do not play on other mp3 players because of their proprietry mp3 format. Yet iPod will play most if not all other mp3 formats.

Otherwise great device and great innovation. Plug and play and automatic search by iTunes can save a lot of time. Shame Apple do not have above features and flexibility for more control for the user.

Bar in job salary adverts

Some job advertisements have a salary range and the word 'bar' is written at a value somewhere in the middle. Is this the highest value a new recruit can start at such that they start at a salary lower than or equal to this.

For example: $20000 - $35000 (bar $30000)
The most experienced new recruit could start at $30000 but will be able to earn $35000 after some service without promotion.

Or is it a salary not available to that particular post but available on that pay scale in general?

For example: $20000 - $35000 (bar $30000)
A new recruit could start at any amount in the range other than $30000