Hippies - Vandalism is vandalism!

Aviation is vandalism?



No, I think you'll find spray-painting walls is vandalism.

Fucking hippies.

Devolution - a shower of shite.

The Hootsman reports that devolution is a shower of shite.

I have to admit, the article was utterly crap, but then so is the wee pretendy parliament. And to think we pay for this...

Oops

We pay for this...

Sack the fucking lot of 'em.

Pols, and un-civil servants.

Naval battery aimed at Des "Two Jobs" Browne

The Times and BBC report that Des "Two Jobs" Browne is having to defend himself against 5 former Chiefs of Defence Staff.

To quote Admiral Lord Boyce -

"When you have got people who have been killed and maimed in the service of their government, and you put at the head of the shop someone who is part-time, that sends a very bad message."

Of course, as Scots people, we should be outraged that the Scottish Secretary is only looking after our interests part time too! Then again, since things aren't going swimmingly in the forces, or here in Scotland - what the hell is Browne doing with himself, since it's clearly neither of his two jobs!


An Englishman passes comment on this too.

Audiophools

I have been saving this rant up for a rainy day. People know I like to listen to music. People know I like my small collection of Hi-Fi things in the corner of the room. People also know I like shiny toys.

People should also know that some shiny toys are all fur coat and no knickers.

50 quid for a mains lead... Here's one for £170 That's not the worst of it... £1924.00 for a mains cable? What the fuck is the world coming to? Who buys this shit?

We even have some guy on his website telling us to remove the fuse from the plug! Well, hell mend him when his house burns down due to faulty wiring. But that's probably because he hasn't seen this wonderful product - a bargain at £47.50

They're less than a fiver from normal outlets... Sure, not gold plated, but when you consider the electrical noise in the average home ring main, what good is gold plating going to do you? Also consider the whopping great big transformers or switched mode power supply that's in your Hi-Fi... Do you seriously think that these devices which are designed to cope with fluctuations in mains voltage - since you never really get 240 V AC at 50 Hz out of that little socket on the wall.

I'm not the only person in the world who thinks this sort of thing is madness...
This chap has a collection of interesting links - I particularly like the Shakti stone that chases away electromagnetic interference... Bwahahahahahaha!

How about this for snake oil? CD Flux, A spray that makes your CDs sound "more dynamic" whatever that means... Flux off! How about picking up some Isopropyl Alcohol instead, that will cost a lot cheaper than £75 and do just as good a job at cleaning the disk, which is all that other stuff is going to do anyway - it's not like it can make 0s and 1s magically appear where there aren't any - only remove the fingerprints and other dirt on the disk.

I am still looking for links to the solid wood volume knob which enhances sound quality by being wooden, or something. It made me laugh.

It's not just the airports...

The Hootsman reports that Scottish airport security is terrible... Well damn me, common sense told me that years ago.

Current hysteria about terrrirrrr is actually making things worse for travellers through our airports... Not only can you not take sensible quantities of liquid onto an aircraft, but you are made to queue up in stupid places where any self respecting terrrrrrist will be able to wander past and explode in the vicinity, whilst taking some air...

I know, I know, I am stating the blindingly obvious...

Trouble is, this sort of nonsense is spreading from airports, where you expect to be inconvenienced, and felt up by security apes, to the railways, where one was once accustomed to jumping on to a train seconds before it departed (don't be silly, it was never on time) and sped you merrily on your way to your destination...

However, these days, you can get your arse felt by the Peelers at the local train station... Two or three of my friends have been inconvenienced in this manner...

"Do you have a moment to be searched?" They ask...

"Well, my train leaves in 1 minute" My friend replies...

"We were not really asking" says the Peeler...

Several minutes of pointless inconveniencing and rummaging goes by, in the meantime the train (for once on time, the bastards) comes and goes.

Perhaps they should fuck right off and let us get about our business without hindrance.

Does any of this actually make us more secure? Does it fuck.

I expect they asked the same people who think ID cards are a great idea, and will sort all of this out whether they would mind having their mornings ruined by the plods at the train station... "Oh no, anything for security" they answer...

Fuck off.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Bacterial CO2 emissions

There's a spoof climate paper in circulation at the moment, courtesy of some Welshman with too much time on his hands... Ohoho what a jolly jape.

"The death of global warming" - spoof puts the fun back into lying about science

Well, I suppose they should be used to lying about science by now.

Silicon Glen? Silicon When?

The Hootsman reports that Silicon Glen is disappearing... I think they're a little late with this observation.

Those companies that are still around are pursuing death of a thousand cuts policies on their manufacturing and R&D operations in Scotland. Good men and women are losing their jobs because, on a spreadsheet, it's cheaper to farm work out to the far east.

From over 2500 people in 2002 to 700 in 2007, and that number is still falling...

"Silicon Glen came and swept us up. But when it disappeared, we did not crash to earth. Those job losses were absorbed. And that may be the more enduring mystery of the Glen that Disappeared."

Try telling that to the hundreds of skilled electronics manufacturing workers who no longer have jobs - yes, they're intelligent folk, but where are they now?

I expect that in a few years, the lower yields, and higher costs from more factory returns, and the higher costs from more engineers required to output the same number of units will eventually force the company to rethink.

In the meantime, we're all fucked. Scotland is losing some truly outstanding engineers - how likely are they to come back to this when it eventually comes full cycles, and we're once again a high tech R&D and manufacturing centre?

Net addresses to run out?

Apparently Vint Cerf is claiming that the sky is falling - saying that Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out IPv6 to allow us to use more than the 2^32 (4 billion-ish) addresses that IPv4 (what we're using just now) allows...

The BBC tells us that IPv4 is projected to run out in 2010 or so.

Whilst *eventually* IPv4 addresses will run out, I think we're a lot further off having to use IPv6 than the Beeb suggests. Remember, we're talking about upgrades and reconfiguring almost every router on the planet here!

There are millions of IP addresses wasted out there - from the days of a few big companies having class A and B networks, they allowed real live IP addresses to be assigned to desktop computers. (The computer I am at right now has a publically routeable IP address, of course, the corporate firewall prevents it from being of any use to me!) If these address ranges were reclaimed, we'd have millions of addresses to spare! Who needs a routeable IP address for their toaster anyway?

On yer bike

I have recently acquired a new flat for myself. Thanks very much, it's lovely, I know. (Pictures are online, those who know me, know where they are).

A month or two after I got the keys, I started collecting bicycles outside the flat (it's a maindoor flat, so has a garden, and a fence around the aforementioned garden).

Student fuckers have been affixing their bicycles to my fence, two in front of my living room window, two in front of my study window, and one adjacent to the door to the common stair.

I, thinking I might be a tad unreasonable, becoming angry about such things, sought advice from my ground floor neighbour about this. My neighbours, who have lived there for a good while (decades) told me that I was being quite reasonable...

I then applied a notice to the board in the stair, asking for the removal of bicycles from my fence, and then a couple of days afterwards, applied noted to the few remaining bicycles... After only a couple of days, all bicycles had been removed.

Tonight, I returned home from a night of fine booze at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and I found a bicycle chained to my fence.

I have utilised a chain of my own, to ensure that the bicycle is secure. I fully expect someone to knock on my door at an inconvenient time of the night, however, my bedroom is at the rear of the property, and as such, I am unlikely to hear a knock on the door.

Oh well...

-- Update on Sunday afternoon --

Very sneakily, in between having my lunch and watching the telly, the owner of the bicycle has removed the bike, and my padlock and chain in the process. How they managed it without me (or my friend who is round for coffee) hearing, I am not too sure. However, next time, I'll invest in a D lock of my own to properly inconvenience the bastards.

Heavenly Pizzas - Devilishly poor business sense...

Updated post here...
Heavenly Pizzas - Uncommonly good customer care...

---

Heavenly Pizzas make delicious pizzas, but clearly know fuck all about running a business. For the second time, Heavenly Pizzas have attempted to overcharge me for an order I have placed online with them. (My previous order was placed on the 19th of October, so it's not like I am taking the piss here).

I ordered this on their webshite:



And when the delivery chap arrived, he attempted to charge me this:



Now, there is clearly a discrepancy here.

The delivery chap, quite correctly, called his gaffer, who after a minute or two, told him the price he was trying to charge me was correct... The delivery driver thought this was wrong since I showed him the website printout above, and since it is wrong, but was told that was the price.

I then called the shop, and talked to the chap in the shop, who explained that the website was wrong, that the offer was only available in Aberdeen, was not available in Edinburgh on a Friday night, and that I should pay the full price.

I pointed out to him that I selected my order online, told their system my postcode, so it knew I was in Edinburgh, and entered a contract with their shop when I agreed to the price on their website, at £22.50 for the 2 pizzas, and associated starters I suggested that he should honour that price. Suffice to say, he was not convinced, and suggested I should visit the shop to see what was on offer on a Friday. Of course, I pointed out that I had ordered online, and as such, the online order I submitted in my browser was the word of God, and should be honoured. (I didn't mention Trading Standards, although I should have). After much grumbling about "other customers" having "been told" about this, he eventually relented (which was his only option) and accepted the £22.50 due. I did tell him his argument was really with the folk who run their website, since the online public cannot be expected to absorb information about which offers are valid by a process of telepathy. The bemused delivery chap disappeared off with that and a tip for having to suffer this nonsense, and my friend and I sat down to pizza and assorted shenanigans.

Let this be a warning to you out there - I know there are other Edinburgers who read this, and who probably eat pizza too. Everyone should order the two for a tenner deal from Heavenly Pizzas on a Friday, and when they try to weasel out on the deal, point out to them that that was the price THEY ADVERTISED!!!