Last night a tiny piece of plastic, about the size of a small pea, broke off inside my desktop.
Unfortunately, it's one of the plastic tabs that the CPU fan attaches to, so my desktop's unusable.
The motherboard's under guarantee, but I have to go all the way into Paris 12 to sort it. I just hope they won't have to order a new little plastic fan frame, which would take time.
They may just give me a new motherboard. So often these days, they don't bother changing parts, they just change the whole board. That's very ecologically unsound, but hypocritically I'm actually hoping they'll do that rather than force me to work on my laptop for a week and buy a SATA HDD adapter so I can access all my files from the desktop.
Then I'd have to go back and get the part and have to dismantle the entire comp anyway because the mountings for the fan frame are on the underside of the motherboard...
I’ve got a IDE/SATA/2.5” USB adapter. I’ve had it for 3 or 4 years, and it’s brilliant. I’ve always taken the hard drives out of old PCs as I upgraded, and I use them as back-up storage/file archiving now. Wouldn’t be without it.
Cheers, Swift. I'll need a 3.5 for my desktop drives. I had one but I gave it to my republicdaughter with an old 200 gb IDE drive for storage.
It's stupid I know, but what makes the whole thing so enraging is that it's just a tiny piece of ordinary plastic! I can't even glue it back on because the fan clip would just tear it off again.
It’ll do 3.5 SATA/IDE/ATA for you, no worries. They call it the “Swiss Army knife” of drive adapters, and for good reason. In fact, the only drives it won’t connect to are those slimline optical drives you find in newer laptops.
Connecting to anything else is a piece of piss, frankly.
Thanks for the concern from everyone yesterday and today.
Eventually - after threats from Atomgirl - sought medical advice.
After humming, whistling through his teeth, spitting and shrugging, the "doctor" said: "Yeah, it's probably, er, thingy. You know, a spot of wotsits."
Anyway, he's given me some knock-out drops and I go back tomorrow for some more tests.
At the moment, I am less my usual skittish as a kitten self and more the drowsy old golden retriever flopped in the shade, panting slowly and occasionally softly wagging my slightly, er, dog-eared tail.
Hugs to Tim also - sounds like you have a hell of a lot on your plate too. x
Now, I have some work to do which is likely to take me about an hour and a half. So am I knuckling down and doing it? No. I am farting about on the intarwebz.
Assange seems to be tying himself in knots as he attempts to distance himself from his far right Holocaust denying anti semitic side kick Israel Shamir/Joran Jermas. It transpires that there is after all a 'Jewish conspiracy',and this includes 'A conspiracy of Jewish reporters out to get him'(Assange); apparently the conspiracy even includes the Guardian Editor Rushbridger,(even though Rushbridger is not Jewish), Assange reckons that doesn't really matter as Rushbridger is 'Sort of Jewish', because David leigh (who is Jewish) is his brother in law. When pushed over whether this 'Jewish conspiracy' thing would stand up against the facts,he's reported to have said 'OK forget the whole Jewish thing', oh and apparently the Guardian has also failed his masculinity test and are all big girls blouses 'behaving like school girls'.
In other news the only Christian Minister in the Pakastani Cabinet Shahbaz Bhatti has been shot dead, he urged reform of the blasphemy laws. In January, the Minister told the BBC 'If I continue the campaign against the blasphemy law I will be assinated,I will be beheaded,but forces of violance,forces of extremisim cannot harras me,cannot threaten me'.Shahbaz Bhatti's death follows Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's murder,Taseer also opposed the blasephmy law and was shot in January.
Stricken with Tuesday procrastination on a Wednesday is a worrying thing... :o)
PeterJ - interesting and depressing article. Same old same old. :(
smtx - I am firmly of the opinion that Assange has Aspergers. As a result he is crap at dealing with people, especially relationships, and can't cope with machiavellian nuances and machinations. He is also a bit of a pillock. But I agree wholeheartedly with what Wikileaks does as an organisation.
I also just came across this quote from a US political campaign:
"We demand the guarantee of collective bargaining for labor. We demand a just, efficient, impartial administration of the National Labor Relations Act. We demand the guarantee of a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours for all who labor, skilled and unskilled, organized and unorganized.
"Likewise, we demand the guarantee of unemployment insurance. We demand social security, old-age pensions, care of the aged, the blind, the sick and dependent children.
"We demand the guarantee of Federal work relief for all those not employed by private industry; but we want a rapid reconstruction of our system of free private enterprise to the end that every American shall have a full share of our good life through the secure tenure of a real American job".
You'll know, I'm sure, but it’s an odd and interesting story, the political evolution of the “GOP”, from its Whiggish, anti-slavery beginnings in the 1850s, through the “conservative coalition” which dominated Congress in the mid-20th century, to the party it is today.
Curious terms of guarantee on my motherboard. I called the shop and they said, "Oh, if it's broken, it isn't covered by the guarantee." I explained it had broken on its own under the stress of the fan clip and they said to take out the motherboard, bring it in and they'd send it to the manufacturer. "It'll be two weeks and they'll probably say no if it's broken."
So I told them I wouldn't bother, or buy anything else in their shop or any more Asrock material anywhere. I went to my local computer emporium and found a huge, very flashy €15 fan with a heatsink in copper and aluminium that attaches differently and was a bastard to assemble.
Anyway, it's all done now and I've added a GB of RAM so I can feel I've improved old HAL9000 rather than just repaired it.
I’m pondering an upgrade at the minute. Trouble is, my PC is running beautifully – it’s a couple of years old but I’ve tinkered and tweaked and over-clocked it into a decent machine.
It’s just that, you know, I like farting about with computers and, given I play quite a few PC games, I’ve got a hankering to replace my GFX card. However... I can’t do that until I replace the mobo because I’m constrained by the throughput on the FSB. No sense buying something big and powerful that ends up wasting 1/3 of its output because my CPU (a decent Intel Dual) can’t chuck the instructions out fast enough.
And then there’s the Minister for War and Finance. If she comes home and finds me on the floor looking anxious with screws and PC components spread around, she’ll have a bloody fit.
One thing – make sure your PSU is up to the job of the new fan. I’m sure you know that, but it’s a key message for all our UT comrades thinking of adding power-hungry components to their rigs.
Thanks Anne, although I've only just woken up half an hour ago :). I've consigend myself that I'm probably never going to enter the labour market, as you no doubt know, when there is surplus labour to demand and I have no shining skills which set me above the rest then there is simply no point carrying on. I'm like a fucking sack of potatoes.
Another issue is I absolutely detest is the CV/presentational culture so prevalent htese days. I just can't do it. I can't sell myself.
Many years ago, I had loads of seemingly unconnected problems and it took me a long time to work out that my PSU wasn't powerful enough. Since then, I've always erred on the side of excess.
I don't really play games so I don't need much in the way of graphics processing, but I download, record the radio and have a dozen different applications all running at the same time, so I make quite a lot of demands on the CPU. I'm still quite happy with my AMD 64x2 3800+, which I managed to get a new 939 motherboard for. Miraculously, the board has a soundchip with stereo mix fully enabled, making it very simple to record directly off the sound card.
I record loads of Radio 4 comedy and listen to it when I'm out and about, going round the supermarket giggling to myself with nervous mothers hurrying their children away from me.
Charles - Know what you mean about modern CV's. My generation were all brought up to believe boasting was wrong and this 'sell yourself' stuff is really difficult if you are like that.
An idea I am a great believer in finding something you really like doing and becoming as good as you possibly can be at it.This could be a hobby or an academic subject anything really.
At least you get some pleasure out of doing it and you never know it might actually bring an employment opportunity in the end.
Its understandable that b,eing unemployed makes you feel useless. The secret of making the above work for you is that you are not doing it for anyrhing other than your own enjoyment.
Its just an idea I shan't mind if you think its a crap one:))
Don’t look on it as “selling yourself” or “boasting” or any of that stuff, because employers (well, good ones) see straight through that sort of shite at interviews pretty quickly. Just know what you’re talking about, identify what they want for the job, and focus on that.
All of which presupposes that there are any jobs around worth having, though, as you say.
Out of interest, but did you go to university, or get any equivalent higher education qualifications?
PS Nap, Anne’s right. Put the time you’ve got on your hands now to good use. Whether it’s brushing up on your perfectives, tinkering with the poetry, stripping bicycles down and doing them up for mates, doing landscape photography... whatever, the worst possible thing is to sit around without something to keep your mind busy.
When I was responsible for short listing (a long long time ago) I was always willing to give OU students a chance at interview. By now there are quite a few OU graduates in influential jobs who may look favourably on the club badge.
I wasn't/ain't alone in thinking that the self discipline involved in OU study is something worthwhile...
”...I wasn't/ain't alone in thinking that the self discipline involved in OU study is something worthwhile...”
Seconded, and I’d go further – it’s worthy of admiration. It’s not easy by any yardstick to study for a degree in your spare time. People like our own Master Reilly deserve real credit for sticking at it.
Got the 2010 Crossroads festival DVD yesterday, superb stuff on it, including Robert Randolph playing with J Bonamassa, also got Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Buddy Guy still going strong, Susan Tedeschi, and Hubert Sumlin still just about getting by though with tubes in his nose - good interview clip with him. Dont know any names but got some superb drummers on it too. Highly commended.
Anyway, thanks for comments, all. Very helpful and informative. I've always hated the CV culture and the emphasis on presentation, essentially style over substance. I do try to do as much as possible to keep me occupied, apart from my OU and my volunteering.
@charles, maybe this clip will cheer you up 'baby laughing hysterically at ripping paper'(you tube) the babys out of work Dad is tearing up all his rejection letters. Im sure you'l find some work soon, in the meantime dont let the bastards grind you down.
Just to highlight for everyone concerned about Unum Provident, Atos and A4E and the government's policy of facilitating the enslavement of the poor and sick:
I don't think it is much of an article, to be honest, but JezzaBella probably thinks it is hard-hitting and likely to put the frighteners on the disability-denial industry.
RedMiner, as expected, doing a good job with provision of facts.
Feel free to leap in, those who still remain unbanned.
Paul - you are credited with prompting the article, so good for you.
You'll like it BW, got a nice Voodoo Chile rendition - Clapton and Winwood.
Not sure on hard disks, but was wondering how you turn DVD chapters (songs) into MP3s? Would love to be able to get these crossroads tracks onto iPod, must be able to do it somehow. If i can work out how, i'll upload them onto youtube to share.
Cheers Jay, look forward to that if it comes off ! (I don't have the know how...)
@AB, I read that article earlier, and yes fair play to Paul for getting that up. I didn't hang around to read the comments mind. Largely the usual shite I'd imagine ?
AB, I noticed that too; it even mentions the dread word 'Atos' twice. I suspect however, bearing in mind that there seems to be cross-party backing for the Atos mission, that it will be considered that we have now 'done that'. Back to the inequity of internships and article no. 94.
Notice as well that the article was farmed out to an occasional freelancer. It seems odd that for someone like Polly, whose stock-in-trade is 'Won't someone think of the poor/disabled/women/children/voles", it appears to be a matter of utter indifference what Atos are up to.
Surely, I say surely, it can't be that the Islington dinner party consensus is that there are massed legions of IB/ESA claimants who are working as trapeze artists, yoga teachers and breakdancers? But then the JSA fell in real terms under New Labour (and ain't gonna rise under the New Masters), so I guess it's commonly agreed that such people can live on thruppence and could work if they jolly well wanted to.
Sadly, I don't even think they want to put the frighteners on the disability-denial industry, they just want commenters like Paul and Red Miner to STFU about it.
Even the young guns - Lolpenz, Bidi etc - seem to have a total blind spot on the subject. It doesn't fall neatly into an identity politics niche and nobody's going to give you kudos for sticking up for some oik in a tracksuit suffering from depression. So, as far as our caring, righteous liberal establishment is concerned, they can fuck off and get a job like the rest of us. Get yourself an iPad, a squat and an inheritance and you're good to go.
And Ireland have just beaten England in the Cricket World Cup with 5 balls to spare. Unbelievable game, fantastic performance from Big Kev O’Brien with the fast century in World Cup history by a mile... England were poor but take nothing away from the Irish, that’s a magnificent victory.
The comments were mainly in the reasonable camp when I looked.
After Thatcher's downfall, it was said that nobody wanted to admit that they had ever supported her in case they were tainted by proxy with her toxicity.
It may be that people will soon be too embarrassed to say that they support this government, for fear of being seen as within the same category of stupidity and meretricious malevolence as the Three Daves.
Rapid Eddie
Something as squashy and inoffensively pastel-coloured and marshmallowesque as The Guardian is certainly unlikely to put the frighteners on an elderly and wheezy gerbil, let alone the slavering WorkFare industry.
As you say, it all bodes well for those who would like to have a gardener and general factotum to go with the funny little foreign woman "who does" and the equally foreign but somewhat more inscrutable nanny, but really don't want to have to pay the current going rate for the filthy servant-classes.
I looked for the quote about how you can judge a society by how it treats those at the bottom.
This one is succinct and good:
"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members ; the last, the least, the littlest."
- Cardinal Roger Mahony (1998)
This is the real McCoy:
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
No one person should be permitted to control nearly half our country's mass media, certainly not someone with such a clear record of abuse of media power for political influence and personal gain.
AB, well said. Unfortunately, the nature of modern identity politics is that no one has it bad unless (a) it happened to someone you know (b) they went to a good university and (c) there's a Topical News Hook about it.
Atos is missing a huge trick here. Get John Harris, lolpenz or Pol to organize a Million Chavs March. Then have all the Atos inspectors waiting to kettle them in Trafalgar Square. Anyone who can walk a couple of miles, or has a motorized wheelchair is fit and able to work. That's a million off the IB roll right there.
Ultimately, it all goes back to the consensus in the political and media class about how society is structured. Labour has long since abandoned class as a way of understanding society, the Tories and Lib Dems never subscribed to it, so we're back to our old friend, meritocracy. Those at the bottom are where they deserve to be. The simple, and inconvenient, fact that where you start in life - rather than gender, race etc - is the strongest determinant of where you well end up in life, is hived off into 'social mobility'.
It's tough love time from our friends in high places. If you're middle-aged, working class and haven't worked for 10 years, your chances of gainful employment aren't great at the best of times. But since youth employment is currently at an all-time high, what are your chances, as an old, half-crocked duffer, of getting a job right now?
Swifty - I am completely uninterested in cricket, but the words Ireland have just beaten England do warm the very cockles of my heart.
Atomboy - glad to hear you are on the mend. Or at least receiving treatment and drugs.
Charles - sorry to hear that your trip to Russia is not be, at least at this time. Good luck withe job search - I have been unemployed and I know how utterly soul-destroying it can be.
I think I read somewhere recently that changes are in the pipeline which will disqualify registered blind people who have a trained 'blind' dog ..on the grounds that the dog assists them avoid bumping into things....and thus they can be regarded as fit to work.
Evening all. I'd appreciate your opinion on something. Do you think it's possible to do work around an agenda like The Big Society, working with the charitable sector and with people 'on the ground', while maintaining an active critique, without being co-opted and ending up serving mainstream interests?
Jesus Christ - I have a mate who's partially sighted (he can see about 5 metres on a good day). He wants to work and does work, and has been lucky enough to find a couple of employers to accommodate his disability, although after he was laid off from his previous job it took a good long time until he was able to find another. But he kept at it until he found one.
I believe he draws some DLA - obviously he can't drive. His eyesight is deteriorating and he is likely lose all sight in at least one eye before too many months or years have passed.
Despite all this his attitude is sunny; rarely do you meet someone who moans less (although he does commit a lot of very bad puns).
What could possibly be the point of dragging him in to a WCA every year and making him recite a list of things he cannot do?
That's a tough one. On the one hand, people need help, but on the other, if you're doing work for free that was formerly paid and so enabling the Tories to soak the poor, working and middle classes even more and hand the money over to the rich...
I have wondered how it would pan out if people took politicians' words at face value and ran with them.
The very thing which, one imagines, they desperately hope nobody will ever do.
Notwithstanding thauma's comment above - but agreeing with the "details" bit - I would like to see someone pursue this practically, with applied cynicism and scepticism.
If it works, we will be able to temper any publicity that Dave "ClumsyMoron" Cleggameron has struck gold by saying that one thing has worked on one occasion.
However, think of the articles, the book deals and the film rights - as well as the dog poo through the letterbox and babies nappies hurled in the face of the ConDems - if it fails due to the fact that Dave's wizard wheeze is just a nasty little PR man's wet dream.
Thanks Deano - don't see him much these days as he has found the love of his life and moved away. Will try to get in touch and pass this info on - his dad still lives in the village so should be able to.
Meerkat - I think some who were seduced into joining various Government advisory committees (eg. on incapacity benefit reforms) are now appearing to regret their participation and are actively calling for a halt to intended changes until some substantial problems are resolved.
Having given credibility ...they now find their considered voiced concerns totally ignored.....
As ever, when supping with the devil, always use the longest of spoons and even then....
"Do you think it's possible to do work around an agenda like The Big Society, working with the charitable sector and with people 'on the ground', while maintaining an active critique, without being co-opted and ending up serving mainstream interests?"
So, we get to the point where all the poor people have been thrown overboard to drown or go on a rapidly knocked together shark-fighting course - [in sea if wet].
Some enterprising drownees decide to clamber aboard the lifeboat, where there is still champagne flowing and men in dinner-jackets braying and flapper women are dancing the Charleston and shrieking and giggling.
They are beaten back into the water by servants armed with oars.
Not wanting to give up, they do an idle and feckless backstroke and doggy-paddle round to the port side and try to enter the party spirit from the left hand side.
There, they are met by men wearing dinner-jackets and cloth caps, with pit-bulls on chains.
Few people today see Labour as a vehicle for socialism, but many do see it, and will see it in the coming months, as a vehicle for popular resistance to the cuts. Ralph Miliband's account of labourism, however, provides good reason to believe that the party will be, at best, a lukewarm ally of those seeking to mobilise in defence of public services and jobs. The leadership of the Labour party will seek to discourage extra-parliamentary mass struggle or, at least, to keep this struggle within manageable limits. It is far more interested in appearing respectable, credible and responsible in the eyes of the media, the CBI, the financial markets and Middle England than it is in providing assistance to a militant anti-cuts campaign. Indeed one of "Red Ed's" first announcements upon becoming leader was to proclaim that he would have "no truck" with "irresponsible strikes".
...............
As the media and the politicians go at it like the clappers, it looks like we are well and truly fucked.
"One problem that strikes me is that you might end up helping to prove that the BS 'works'."
This is my worry.
I've been asked to help out on a project looking at the detail of how this concept works or doesn't work in practice, looking at a few organisations as case studies. I'm really ambivalent about it. On the one hand a good opportunity for critique. But I'm pro-localism - just not *this* localism, and I guess I worry about how to maintain the focus on the one, without it translating into support of the other. The project isn't government funded, but nonetheless, i do have concerns.
Basically, as deano suggests, these ones:
"Having given credibility ...they now find their considered voiced concerns totally ignored....."
Also, the pressure for the Big Society and the social enterprise agendas to intersect worries me a bit too.
Ho hum. I shall think some more. Thanks for the thoughts. :-)
@ meerkat, id say no it's not workable,,, but hey.. what would I know.On another subject does anyone know anything about interviews at job centres for benefit fraud under caution and taped, a friend has been asked into one of these things, and the letter they sent was horrific,threatening crimianl actions. all sorts
Hi all, AB good to know that you are still around to keep us entertained ;-) , Spike, regarding failing heatsink fans I am the past expert having worked at the DELL repair centre in Milton Keynes. The vast majority of returns were due to exactly the defect you describe but even worse it used to take down both the CPU and the HDD as well. I even had one example where I changed everything including the case fan and bastard still refused to work! Crappy kit that stuff stay well clear. Cheapy plastic stuff all round.
What may be of interest regarding storage is a WD WorldBook. I bought a 1TB device from PissyWorld for 85 quid and it is fantastic. You can add feature packs and do some remote stuff without signing up to some corporate entity. Is all this making sense to anyone?
@IanG;"Is all this making sense to anyone?" Nope, well not me at any rate.
I've just got a new printer/scanner/photo-copier thingy.
Do I have to create a new folder or file to save scanned items or do they have to go on a word document or summat, or can they go anywhere? In which case which is the easiest option?
I know I should just read the instructions but hey when you have nerds on tap why bother!;-)
@Meerkatjie; I was wondering how long it would take for someone to cotton on to this quandary. I've been trying to follow the logic through my self.
The only conclusion I can get to is that it's a stitch up within a stitch up. In other words, as far as the government is concerned it's heads they win tails we lose.
If these various schemes or scams work they get to say "we told you so" and if they don't they get to say "well it's all your own fault"
Maybe these politicos aren't as stupid as I thought!
smtx - it's a long time since I worked with the information on interviews under caution, but I'd recommend that your friend goes to the CAB to get as much info as possible & options on the best way of dealing with it - they can be pretty scary. Best wishes for it.
When you install the software that comes with the scanner, it should handle where your scans go. When you first scan, check where it's storing them before you close the window or you may have trouble finding them.
If it's sensibly designed, it'll put them in My Documents/My Scans, but manufacturers don't always like to make it that easy.
@chekhov, Hi, long time since I used a scanner but I think you are probably right there should be a way to define where the files are stored and in what file format (maybe jpg for images). Then you can use a utility (provided by the scanner install disk) to convert scanned documents to text or Word etc.
@Meerkat, did you see The people's Supermarket on CH4? I half watched this and in the final edition Dave the man turned up as it was an example of The Big Society. The guy running the project asked upfront for more money as the bank had said no. Seemed like there was a back-room deal as this project is still going despite the fact that when last we heard the landlord was demanding rent and the organiser was deliberately stopping cheques as the bank account was broke. It would no do for a high profile project like that to fail after a visit from DC.
Sorry, that does not answer your question but just shows what is going on.
BTW; I'm very lucky in that I have several friends and acquaintances who are much more clued up about IT technology than I am help me out without seeking recompense for their efforts. Of course I reciprocate if my carpentry and joinery skills are needed in return. However, apart from a few ink cartridges and a new hard drive for this lap top I've never bought any computer equipment in my life. All the kit I use is second hand and has been donated for free including the "new" all singing and dancing printer/scanner/photo-copier thingy!
Have largely been out of the loop as far as today's news is concerned but i'm now hearing that Cameron is proposing a no fly zone over Libya policed by what's left of the RAF.I hope this isn't history repeating itself with Cameron following in the footsteps of Blair grandstanding on the international scene whilst neglecting the 'Home Front'.Why can't this country for once start behaving like the relatively small North West European nation it is ?And stop boxing above it's weight by trying to act like the world's policeman when we all now we're nothing more than the poodle of the USA.
Parking in case too busy tomorrow , this is warming up ...........
(extracted quote, one among many 'killers')
Economics professor James K. Galbraith testified as follows to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime:LINK
" I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory, as widely taught since the 1980s, failed miserably to understand the forces behind the financial crisis. ... Economists [argued that] widespread fraud therefore could not occur. Not all economists believed this – but most did.
Thus the study of financial fraud received little attention. Practically no research institutes exist; collaboration between economists and criminologists is rare; in the leading departments there are few specialists and very few students. Economists have soft-pedaled the role of fraud in every crisis they examined, including the Savings & Loan debacle, the Russian transition, the Asian meltdown and the dot.com bubble. They continue to do so now. At a conference sponsored by the Levy Economics Institute in New York on April 17, the closest a former Under Secretary of the Treasury, Peter Fisher, got to this question was to use the word “naughtiness.” This was on the day that the SEC charged Goldman Sachs with fraud. ..."
Have probably played this here before but Moondance by Van the Man always gives me a boost when i hear it.Hope it has the same effect on people here too.
@Paul; this is a bit of brave journalism from the Indie; http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-get-over-it-dave-were-not-a-world-power-any-more-2229452.html
"The second, needless to say, is relinquishing the independent nuclear deterrent that is neither independent nor any kind of deterrent. The arguments are too stale to be worth restating. We all know that whatever minimal relevance Trident once had collapsed along with the Berlin Wall, and that it is retained solely as a cheap short cut, for all the billions wasted, to the familiar affectation of Great Power status. It is no coincidence that the missiles are shaped after the phallus. The system is no more than a geopolitical codpiece, albeit one that cannot disguise the fact that, behind the nuclear merkin, the British penis is flaccid, the balls shrunken and wizened.
The third step is ridding ourselves of this vile arms industry, which contributes far more negligibly to employment and tax revenue than we are encouraged to believe. The true value of this trade to governments is – what else? – its makeshift use as a figleaf to hide the limpness of British power and permit the international willy-waving to continue."
Thanks for that link.Really interesting article and spot on as far as i'm concerned.And i wish the political classes in this country would wake up to the fact the Americans don't give a fuck about us and probably view their relations with France and Germany as being more important.
Saw your comment on disability thread. Agree we need a hard hitting article on ATOS - however- did you see Arec's comment about his article ?
He said he has promised Jess he will not name a particular org (which one ?) - so it seems CiF are being very cautios here. Many comments very critical of ATOS and Unum were still there last time I looked.
I've no doubt that legal leeches are waiting to jump all over the first sign of any untoward comments that Atos might be a bunch of incompetent, money-grubbing twats, but that's also true of any number of ishoos the Graun has covered. From banks to oil firms to Trudi Styler's Save The Rainforests Through Private Aviation Foundation.
The usual process is that any ATL commentary goes through the Graun's own legal beagles and, if it's particularly contentious, BTL comments themselves are all pre-modded.
But it's been done countless times and doesn't explain the screaming silence from many of the Graun's big hitters on the subject. In the interests of being fireproof, you can reference specific cases - amounting to many, many thousands at this stage - where people have been wrongly thrown of benefits. We can say in complete confidence that they have been definitively wrong in many cases, as 40% of all appeals against Atos are successful. It should also be a matter of public record (or a couple of Graun hack phone calls) to ascertain the level of medical expertise of assessors.
And it is breaching no civil or criminal laws to suggest changes in the assessment criteria themselves. Which are shite.
It boils down to two things. First, remember Polly's comment about how electorally toxic it is for Labour to be seen being 'soft on benefit cheats'. And then the other thing - the middle-class liberal left do actually believe that a thumping chunk of the chavs are on the take. In their own minds, they might even file it under 'necessary work' and 'in their own interests in the long-term'.
It is true that all 3 major parties are complicit in the great ATOS scam . Unum -Cardiff model of illness as a social construct developed under NLab along with 'fit for work test'
A4E , ATOS - all of it taken over by Condems and enthusiastically pursued.
There is no party able to criticise . ATOS, Unum and A4E all run hand in hand each creating dependent 'customers' for each other.
It looks as if Jeremy Cunt has been given his instructions to let the BSkyB deal go through.
This is looking to me increasingly like a government that has absolutely no expectations of winning a second term and so is hurrying through everything the very richest want done and not even pretending to care about the interests of the general public.
As I've said before, this is a declaration of war by the rich and powerful on everyone else.
Morning Montana!
ReplyDeleteCharles - just read your post from last night. Hope you are feeling a bit better this morning.
hang on in there.
Has anyone heard from Atomboy>
Morning - Fever Tree
ReplyDelete@Tim
ReplyDeleteAll the best.
@annetan
Yeah, news of Atom would be good and has anyone seen monkeyfish?
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
ReplyDeleteLast night a tiny piece of plastic, about the size of a small pea, broke off inside my desktop.
Unfortunately, it's one of the plastic tabs that the CPU fan attaches to, so my desktop's unusable.
The motherboard's under guarantee, but I have to go all the way into Paris 12 to sort it. I just hope they won't have to order a new little plastic fan frame, which would take time.
They may just give me a new motherboard. So often these days, they don't bother changing parts, they just change the whole board. That's very ecologically unsound, but hypocritically I'm actually hoping they'll do that rather than force me to work on my laptop for a week and buy a SATA HDD adapter so I can access all my files from the desktop.
Then I'd have to go back and get the part and have to dismantle the entire comp anyway because the mountings for the fan frame are on the underside of the motherboard...
O technology, O joy.
@Spike:
ReplyDeleteI’ve got a IDE/SATA/2.5” USB adapter. I’ve had it for 3 or 4 years, and it’s brilliant. I’ve always taken the hard drives out of old PCs as I upgraded, and I use them as back-up storage/file archiving now. Wouldn’t be without it.
It’s this one:
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php
Thoroughly recommend it, a fantastic piece of kit. And you can pick one up for about £20 or so.
Cheers, Swift. I'll need a 3.5 for my desktop drives. I had one but I gave it to my republicdaughter with an old 200 gb IDE drive for storage.
ReplyDeleteIt's stupid I know, but what makes the whole thing so enraging is that it's just a tiny piece of ordinary plastic! I can't even glue it back on because the fan clip would just tear it off again.
@Spike:
ReplyDeleteIt’ll do 3.5 SATA/IDE/ATA for you, no worries. They call it the “Swiss Army knife” of drive adapters, and for good reason. In fact, the only drives it won’t connect to are those slimline optical drives you find in newer laptops.
Connecting to anything else is a piece of piss, frankly.
@Swift
ReplyDeleteLooks great, I'll check it out. Thanks.
Now I'm just waiting for the shop in Paris to answer the phone. If they're going to order a frame, there's no point in me going until it arrives.
@Spike
ReplyDeleteNo worries mate, my "inner nerd" is always happy to help.
Thanks for the concern from everyone yesterday and today.
ReplyDeleteEventually - after threats from Atomgirl - sought medical advice.
After humming, whistling through his teeth, spitting and shrugging, the "doctor" said: "Yeah, it's probably, er, thingy. You know, a spot of wotsits."
Anyway, he's given me some knock-out drops and I go back tomorrow for some more tests.
At the moment, I am less my usual skittish as a kitten self and more the drowsy old golden retriever flopped in the shade, panting slowly and occasionally softly wagging my slightly, er, dog-eared tail.
I'll be back properly in a day or two.
In the meantime, be good.
There is a big eye in the sky watching you.
Morning all
ReplyDeleteAB - hope you are ok, mate. Hugs x
Hugs to Tim also - sounds like you have a hell of a lot on your plate too. x
Now, I have some work to do which is likely to take me about an hour and a half. So am I knuckling down and doing it? No. I am farting about on the intarwebz.
What is wrong with me?
Answers on a postcard, please...
Just came across this piece via Balloon Juice; it's about the US, but has some clear echoes here.
ReplyDeleteTake it easy AB - hope it's sorted quick.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read PeterJ - as you say ...."..some clear echoes here."
......Answers on a postcard, please...
ReplyDeleteYou is stricken with Tuesday procrastination BB 'tis not serious, I've had it for the last decade or so.
Assange seems to be tying himself in knots as he attempts to distance himself from his far right Holocaust denying anti semitic side kick Israel Shamir/Joran Jermas. It transpires that there is after all a 'Jewish conspiracy',and this includes 'A conspiracy of Jewish reporters out to get him'(Assange); apparently the conspiracy even includes the Guardian Editor Rushbridger,(even though Rushbridger is not Jewish), Assange reckons that doesn't really matter as Rushbridger is 'Sort of Jewish', because David leigh (who is Jewish) is his brother in law. When pushed over whether this 'Jewish conspiracy' thing would stand up against the facts,he's reported to have said 'OK forget the whole Jewish thing', oh and apparently the Guardian has also failed his masculinity test and are all big girls blouses 'behaving like school girls'.
ReplyDeleteIn other news the only Christian Minister in the Pakastani Cabinet Shahbaz Bhatti has been shot dead, he urged reform of the blasphemy laws. In January, the Minister told the BBC 'If I continue the campaign against the blasphemy law I will be assinated,I will be beheaded,but forces of violance,forces of extremisim cannot harras me,cannot threaten me'.Shahbaz Bhatti's death follows Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's murder,Taseer also opposed the blasephmy law and was shot in January.
Deano
ReplyDeleteStricken with Tuesday procrastination on a Wednesday is a worrying thing... :o)
PeterJ - interesting and depressing article. Same old same old. :(
smtx - I am firmly of the opinion that Assange has Aspergers. As a result he is crap at dealing with people, especially relationships, and can't cope with machiavellian nuances and machinations. He is also a bit of a pillock. But I agree wholeheartedly with what Wikileaks does as an organisation.
Peter, good article.
ReplyDeleteI also just came across this quote from a US political campaign:
"We demand the guarantee of collective bargaining for labor. We demand a just, efficient, impartial administration of the National Labor Relations Act. We demand the guarantee of a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours for all who labor, skilled and unskilled, organized and unorganized.
"Likewise, we demand the guarantee of unemployment insurance. We demand social security, old-age pensions, care of the aged, the blind, the sick and dependent children.
"We demand the guarantee of Federal work relief for all those not employed by private industry; but we want a rapid reconstruction of our system of free private enterprise to the end that every American shall have a full share of our good life through the secure tenure of a real American job".
Who's the godless communist that said this?
Wendell Wilkie, 1940 Republican Presidential Candidate.
@13thDuke:
ReplyDeleteYou'll know, I'm sure, but it’s an odd and interesting story, the political evolution of the “GOP”, from its Whiggish, anti-slavery beginnings in the 1850s, through the “conservative coalition” which dominated Congress in the mid-20th century, to the party it is today.
Whilst on the subject of of US politics - piece from yesterdays Guardian
ReplyDeleteBB - Wednesday you say? WTF happened to Monday?
ReplyDelete”...WTF happened to Monday?”
ReplyDeleteDone and gone, mate, never to be regained.
Time just gets away from us.
@Swift
ReplyDeleteI'm back in business!
Curious terms of guarantee on my motherboard. I called the shop and they said, "Oh, if it's broken, it isn't covered by the guarantee." I explained it had broken on its own under the stress of the fan clip and they said to take out the motherboard, bring it in and they'd send it to the manufacturer. "It'll be two weeks and they'll probably say no if it's broken."
So I told them I wouldn't bother, or buy anything else in their shop or any more Asrock material anywhere. I went to my local computer emporium and found a huge, very flashy €15 fan with a heatsink in copper and aluminium that attaches differently and was a bastard to assemble.
Anyway, it's all done now and I've added a GB of RAM so I can feel I've improved old HAL9000 rather than just repaired it.
@Spike:
ReplyDeleteGood work (inner nerd nods approvingly).
I’m pondering an upgrade at the minute. Trouble is, my PC is running beautifully – it’s a couple of years old but I’ve tinkered and tweaked and over-clocked it into a decent machine.
It’s just that, you know, I like farting about with computers and, given I play quite a few PC games, I’ve got a hankering to replace my GFX card. However... I can’t do that until I replace the mobo because I’m constrained by the throughput on the FSB. No sense buying something big and powerful that ends up wasting 1/3 of its output because my CPU (a decent Intel Dual) can’t chuck the instructions out fast enough.
And then there’s the Minister for War and Finance. If she comes home and finds me on the floor looking anxious with screws and PC components spread around, she’ll have a bloody fit.
One thing – make sure your PSU is up to the job of the new fan. I’m sure you know that, but it’s a key message for all our UT comrades thinking of adding power-hungry components to their rigs.
Shiloh - you got mail
ReplyDelete@BW:
ReplyDeleteFrom a few days’ ago mate, or more recent? I replied to the earlier stuff, did my reply not make it to your inbox?
"..Done and gone, mate, never to be regained..."
ReplyDeleteNot to fret Swifty - there'll be another one along next week.
Always a problem with Robin Hoods Bay weekends, something or other usually gets lost. Still it was a cracking weekend!
PJ thanks for the link - excellent article
ReplyDeleteThen they came for me and there was no-one left...
Precisely
Thanks Anne, although I've only just woken up half an hour ago :). I've consigend myself that I'm probably never going to enter the labour market, as you no doubt know, when there is surplus labour to demand and I have no shining skills which set me above the rest then there is simply no point carrying on. I'm like a fucking sack of potatoes.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue is I absolutely detest is the CV/presentational culture so prevalent htese days. I just can't do it. I can't sell myself.
@Swift
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I had loads of seemingly unconnected problems and it took me a long time to work out that my PSU wasn't powerful enough. Since then, I've always erred on the side of excess.
I don't really play games so I don't need much in the way of graphics processing, but I download, record the radio and have a dozen different applications all running at the same time, so I make quite a lot of demands on the CPU.
I'm still quite happy with my AMD 64x2 3800+, which I managed to get a new 939 motherboard for. Miraculously, the board has a soundchip with stereo mix fully enabled, making it very simple to record directly off the sound card.
I record loads of Radio 4 comedy and listen to it when I'm out and about, going round the supermarket giggling to myself with nervous mothers hurrying their children away from me.
Atom- Good to hear from you get well soon. BTW a dog's ears are nowhere near his tail :)
ReplyDelete@Atom
ReplyDeleteJust saw your post. Look after yourself and get some rest, mate.
Charles - Know what you mean about modern CV's. My generation were all brought up to believe boasting was wrong and this 'sell yourself' stuff is really difficult if you are like that.
ReplyDeleteAn idea I am a great believer in finding something you really like doing and becoming as good as you possibly can be at it.This could be a hobby or an academic subject anything really.
At least you get some pleasure out of doing it and you never know it might actually bring an employment opportunity in the end.
Its understandable that b,eing unemployed makes you feel useless. The secret of making the above work for you is that you are not doing it for anyrhing other than your own enjoyment.
Its just an idea I shan't mind if you think its a crap one:))
@Nap:
ReplyDeleteDon’t look on it as “selling yourself” or “boasting” or any of that stuff, because employers (well, good ones) see straight through that sort of shite at interviews pretty quickly. Just know what you’re talking about, identify what they want for the job, and focus on that.
All of which presupposes that there are any jobs around worth having, though, as you say.
Out of interest, but did you go to university, or get any equivalent higher education qualifications?
PS Nap, Anne’s right. Put the time you’ve got on your hands now to good use. Whether it’s brushing up on your perfectives, tinkering with the poetry, stripping bicycles down and doing them up for mates, doing landscape photography... whatever, the worst possible thing is to sit around without something to keep your mind busy.
ReplyDeleteNap - keep your OU studies going.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was responsible for short listing (a long long time ago) I was always willing to give OU students a chance at interview. By now there are quite a few OU graduates in influential jobs who may look favourably on the club badge.
I wasn't/ain't alone in thinking that the self discipline involved in OU study is something worthwhile...
best wishes.
meerkat hope your mum continues to improve.
@deano:
ReplyDelete”...I wasn't/ain't alone in thinking that the self discipline involved in OU study is something worthwhile...”
Seconded, and I’d go further – it’s worthy of admiration. It’s not easy by any yardstick to study for a degree in your spare time. People like our own Master Reilly deserve real credit for sticking at it.
Bitterweed/Paul/Swifty
ReplyDeleteGot the 2010 Crossroads festival DVD yesterday, superb stuff on it, including Robert Randolph playing with J Bonamassa, also got Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Buddy Guy still going strong, Susan Tedeschi, and Hubert Sumlin still just about getting by though with tubes in his nose - good interview clip with him. Dont know any names but got some superb drummers on it too. Highly commended.
Jay
ReplyDeleteI need to get that.
BTW - anyone got any comments on Seagate 1tb external hard-drive ? Good/bad/indifferent ??
http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-seagate-external-hard-drive-257315
Have just uploaded my blues collection (some 2000+ tracks) to Itunes, and want back up for that lot as well as other stuff.
Cheers
Anyway, thanks for comments, all. Very helpful and informative. I've always hated the CV culture and the emphasis on presentation, essentially style over substance. I do try to do as much as possible to keep me occupied, apart from my OU and my volunteering.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll go outside now. Need some fresh air.
@charles, maybe this clip will cheer you up 'baby laughing hysterically at ripping paper'(you tube) the babys out of work Dad is tearing up all his rejection letters.
ReplyDeleteIm sure you'l find some work soon, in the meantime dont let the bastards grind you down.
Just to highlight for everyone concerned about Unum Provident, Atos and A4E and the government's policy of facilitating the enslavement of the poor and sick:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/work-capability-assessment-anguish-disabled-people
I don't think it is much of an article, to be honest, but JezzaBella probably thinks it is hard-hitting and likely to put the frighteners on the disability-denial industry.
RedMiner, as expected, doing a good job with provision of facts.
Feel free to leap in, those who still remain unbanned.
Paul - you are credited with prompting the article, so good for you.
You'll like it BW, got a nice Voodoo Chile rendition - Clapton and Winwood.
ReplyDeleteNot sure on hard disks, but was wondering how you turn DVD chapters (songs) into MP3s? Would love to be able to get these crossroads tracks onto iPod, must be able to do it somehow. If i can work out how, i'll upload them onto youtube to share.
@Jay:
ReplyDeleteIf it’s a .vob file, just google “.vob mpeg converter”, there’s tons of them around.
Cheers Jay, look forward to that if it comes off ! (I don't have the know how...)
ReplyDelete@AB, I read that article earlier, and yes fair play to Paul for getting that up. I didn't hang around to read the comments mind. Largely the usual shite I'd imagine ?
Well there you go - .vob mpeg it is !
ReplyDeleteAB, I noticed that too; it even mentions the dread word 'Atos' twice. I suspect however, bearing in mind that there seems to be cross-party backing for the Atos mission, that it will be considered that we have now 'done that'. Back to the inequity of internships and article no. 94.
ReplyDeleteNotice as well that the article was farmed out to an occasional freelancer. It seems odd that for someone like Polly, whose stock-in-trade is 'Won't someone think of the poor/disabled/women/children/voles", it appears to be a matter of utter indifference what Atos are up to.
Surely, I say surely, it can't be that the Islington dinner party consensus is that there are massed legions of IB/ESA claimants who are working as trapeze artists, yoga teachers and breakdancers? But then the JSA fell in real terms under New Labour (and ain't gonna rise under the New Masters), so I guess it's commonly agreed that such people can live on thruppence and could work if they jolly well wanted to.
Sadly, I don't even think they want to put the frighteners on the disability-denial industry, they just want commenters like Paul and Red Miner to STFU about it.
Even the young guns - Lolpenz, Bidi etc - seem to have a total blind spot on the subject. It doesn't fall neatly into an identity politics niche and nobody's going to give you kudos for sticking up for some oik in a tracksuit suffering from depression. So, as far as our caring, righteous liberal establishment is concerned, they can fuck off and get a job like the rest of us. Get yourself an iPad, a squat and an inheritance and you're good to go.
And Ireland have just beaten England in the Cricket World Cup with 5 balls to spare. Unbelievable game, fantastic performance from Big Kev O’Brien with the fast century in World Cup history by a mile... England were poor but take nothing away from the Irish, that’s a magnificent victory.
ReplyDeleteI did tell you I’m half-Irish, didn’t I?
Bitterweed
ReplyDeleteThe comments were mainly in the reasonable camp when I looked.
After Thatcher's downfall, it was said that nobody wanted to admit that they had ever supported her in case they were tainted by proxy with her toxicity.
It may be that people will soon be too embarrassed to say that they support this government, for fear of being seen as within the same category of stupidity and meretricious malevolence as the Three Daves.
Rapid Eddie
Something as squashy and inoffensively pastel-coloured and marshmallowesque as The Guardian is certainly unlikely to put the frighteners on an elderly and wheezy gerbil, let alone the slavering WorkFare industry.
As you say, it all bodes well for those who would like to have a gardener and general factotum to go with the funny little foreign woman "who does" and the equally foreign but somewhat more inscrutable nanny, but really don't want to have to pay the current going rate for the filthy servant-classes.
I looked for the quote about how you can judge a society by how it treats those at the bottom.
This one is succinct and good:
"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members ; the last, the least, the littlest."
- Cardinal Roger Mahony (1998)
This is the real McCoy:
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
- Matthew 25: 41-46
Afternoon all
ReplyDeleteIf you don't fancy Murdoch having more media power and doing more than he already does to run the country you might consider signing the letter below:
Stop Murdoch
No one person should be permitted to control nearly half our country's mass media, certainly not someone with such a clear record of abuse of media power for political influence and personal gain.
Sheff
ReplyDeleteSigned and sent.
Sheff -- C'est fait ! WCA too.
ReplyDeleteAB, well said. Unfortunately, the nature of modern identity politics is that no one has it bad unless (a) it happened to someone you know (b) they went to a good university and (c) there's a Topical News Hook about it.
ReplyDeleteAtos is missing a huge trick here. Get John Harris, lolpenz or Pol to organize a Million Chavs March. Then have all the Atos inspectors waiting to kettle them in Trafalgar Square. Anyone who can walk a couple of miles, or has a motorized wheelchair is fit and able to work. That's a million off the IB roll right there.
Ultimately, it all goes back to the consensus in the political and media class about how society is structured. Labour has long since abandoned class as a way of understanding society, the Tories and Lib Dems never subscribed to it, so we're back to our old friend, meritocracy. Those at the bottom are where they deserve to be. The simple, and inconvenient, fact that where you start in life - rather than gender, race etc - is the strongest determinant of where you well end up in life, is hived off into 'social mobility'.
It's tough love time from our friends in high places. If you're middle-aged, working class and haven't worked for 10 years, your chances of gainful employment aren't great at the best of times. But since youth employment is currently at an all-time high, what are your chances, as an old, half-crocked duffer, of getting a job right now?
Swifty - I am completely uninterested in cricket, but the words Ireland have just beaten England do warm the very cockles of my heart.
ReplyDeleteAtomboy - glad to hear you are on the mend. Or at least receiving treatment and drugs.
Charles - sorry to hear that your trip to Russia is not be, at least at this time. Good luck withe job search - I have been unemployed and I know how utterly soul-destroying it can be.
@Sheff
ReplyDeleteAlready signed.
@Swift
What does a vob/mpeg converter actually do? When I want to play a vob without indexing, I just change the extension to mpg.
"...Anyone who can walk a couple of miles.."
ReplyDeleteMore like a couple of steps Rapid.
I think I read somewhere recently that changes are in the pipeline which will disqualify registered blind people who have a trained 'blind' dog ..on the grounds that the dog assists them avoid bumping into things....and thus they can be regarded as fit to work.
Evening all. I'd appreciate your opinion on something. Do you think it's possible to do work around an agenda like The Big Society, working with the charitable sector and with people 'on the ground', while maintaining an active critique, without being co-opted and ending up serving mainstream interests?
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ - I have a mate who's partially sighted (he can see about 5 metres on a good day). He wants to work and does work, and has been lucky enough to find a couple of employers to accommodate his disability, although after he was laid off from his previous job it took a good long time until he was able to find another. But he kept at it until he found one.
ReplyDeleteI believe he draws some DLA - obviously he can't drive. His eyesight is deteriorating and he is likely lose all sight in at least one eye before too many months or years have passed.
Despite all this his attitude is sunny; rarely do you meet someone who moans less (although he does commit a lot of very bad puns).
What could possibly be the point of dragging him in to a WCA every year and making him recite a list of things he cannot do?
Meerkatjie - that's hard to say without any details!
ReplyDeleteOne problem that strikes me is that you might end up helping to prove that the BS 'works'.
@Meerkatjie
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one. On the one hand, people need help, but on the other, if you're doing work for free that was formerly paid and so enabling the Tories to soak the poor, working and middle classes even more and hand the money over to the rich...
thaum - if you friend is unaware of the impending changes he may find the following useful:
ReplyDeleteRNIB campaign against ESA/Incapacity Benefit/DA Changes for the blind
Guardian Article describing changes
Meerkatjie
ReplyDeleteI have wondered how it would pan out if people took politicians' words at face value and ran with them.
The very thing which, one imagines, they desperately hope nobody will ever do.
Notwithstanding thauma's comment above - but agreeing with the "details" bit - I would like to see someone pursue this practically, with applied cynicism and scepticism.
If it works, we will be able to temper any publicity that Dave "ClumsyMoron" Cleggameron has struck gold by saying that one thing has worked on one occasion.
However, think of the articles, the book deals and the film rights - as well as the dog poo through the letterbox and babies nappies hurled in the face of the ConDems - if it fails due to the fact that Dave's wizard wheeze is just a nasty little PR man's wet dream.
Good luck - fingers crossed, eh?!
Thanks Deano - don't see him much these days as he has found the love of his life and moved away. Will try to get in touch and pass this info on - his dad still lives in the village so should be able to.
ReplyDeleteMeerkat - I think some who were seduced into joining various Government advisory committees (eg. on incapacity benefit reforms) are now appearing to regret their participation and are actively calling for a halt to intended changes until some substantial problems are resolved.
ReplyDeleteHaving given credibility ...they now find their considered voiced concerns totally ignored.....
As ever, when supping with the devil, always use the longest of spoons and even then....
"Do you think it's possible to do work around an agenda like The Big Society, working with the charitable sector and with people 'on the ground', while maintaining an active critique, without being co-opted and ending up serving mainstream interests?"
ReplyDeleteYes.
So, we get to the point where all the poor people have been thrown overboard to drown or go on a rapidly knocked together shark-fighting course - [in sea if wet].
ReplyDeleteSome enterprising drownees decide to clamber aboard the lifeboat, where there is still champagne flowing and men in dinner-jackets braying and flapper women are dancing the Charleston and shrieking and giggling.
They are beaten back into the water by servants armed with oars.
Not wanting to give up, they do an idle and feckless backstroke and doggy-paddle round to the port side and try to enter the party spirit from the left hand side.
There, they are met by men wearing dinner-jackets and cloth caps, with pit-bulls on chains.
There is no hope for the drownded, it seems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/protesters-red-ed-miliband-labour
Few people today see Labour as a vehicle for socialism, but many do see it, and will see it in the coming months, as a vehicle for popular resistance to the cuts. Ralph Miliband's account of labourism, however, provides good reason to believe that the party will be, at best, a lukewarm ally of those seeking to mobilise in defence of public services and jobs. The leadership of the Labour party will seek to discourage extra-parliamentary mass struggle or, at least, to keep this struggle within manageable limits. It is far more interested in appearing respectable, credible and responsible in the eyes of the media, the CBI, the financial markets and Middle England than it is in providing assistance to a militant anti-cuts campaign. Indeed one of "Red Ed's" first announcements upon becoming leader was to proclaim that he would have "no truck" with "irresponsible strikes".
...............
As the media and the politicians go at it like the clappers, it looks like we are well and truly fucked.
Meanwhile Grenwich council are planning to clobber allotment renters with a 200% hike in rates.
ReplyDeleteAtomboy - yes, I thought that was a good article. Written by poster "RedMutley", I think.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested, the Red Cross is taking donations for Libya and nearby areas for food, shelter and medical supplies.
redcross.org.uk/libyaappeal or 0845 054 7206.
"One problem that strikes me is that you might end up helping to prove that the BS 'works'."
ReplyDeleteThis is my worry.
I've been asked to help out on a project looking at the detail of how this concept works or doesn't work in practice, looking at a few organisations as case studies. I'm really ambivalent about it. On the one hand a good opportunity for critique. But I'm pro-localism - just not *this* localism, and I guess I worry about how to maintain the focus on the one, without it translating into support of the other. The project isn't government funded, but nonetheless, i do have concerns.
Basically, as deano suggests, these ones:
"Having given credibility ...they now find their considered voiced concerns totally ignored....."
Also, the pressure for the Big Society and the social enterprise agendas to intersect worries me a bit too.
Ho hum. I shall think some more. Thanks for the thoughts. :-)
Meerkatjie- it's a tough one.
ReplyDeleteYou say the project isn't funded by the government, but who *is* funding it? Follow the money....
@ meerkat, id say no it's not workable,,, but hey.. what would I know.On another subject does anyone know anything about interviews at job centres for benefit fraud under caution and taped, a friend has been asked into one of these things, and the letter they sent was horrific,threatening crimianl actions. all sorts
ReplyDeleteHi all, AB good to know that you are still around to keep us entertained ;-) , Spike, regarding failing heatsink fans I am the past expert having worked at the DELL repair centre in Milton Keynes. The vast majority of returns were due to exactly the defect you describe but even worse it used to take down both the CPU and the HDD as well. I even had one example where I changed everything including the case fan and bastard still refused to work! Crappy kit that stuff stay well clear. Cheapy plastic stuff all round.
ReplyDeleteWhat may be of interest regarding storage is a WD WorldBook. I bought a 1TB device from PissyWorld for 85 quid and it is fantastic. You can add feature packs and do some remote stuff without signing up to some corporate entity. Is all this making sense to anyone?
Anyway NN all.
@IanG;"Is all this making sense to anyone?"
ReplyDeleteNope, well not me at any rate.
I've just got a new printer/scanner/photo-copier thingy.
Do I have to create a new folder or file to save scanned items or do they have to go on a word document or summat, or can they go anywhere? In which case which is the easiest option?
I know I should just read the instructions but hey when you have nerds on tap why bother!;-)
@Ian
ReplyDeleteNo problem with the CPU - it's well protected and the computer just kept shutting down as the CPU reached the cutoff temperature.
On of my best buys was this. You plug it in the TV and plug any HDD into it and watch the videos, look at the photos or play the music on the TV.
@Meerkatjie; I was wondering how long it would take for someone to cotton on to this quandary.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to follow the logic through my self.
The only conclusion I can get to is that it's a stitch up within a stitch up. In other words, as far as the government is concerned it's heads they win tails we lose.
If these various schemes or scams work they get to say "we told you so" and if they don't they get to say "well it's all your own fault"
Maybe these politicos aren't as stupid as I thought!
smtx - it's a long time since I worked with the information on interviews under caution, but I'd recommend that your friend goes to the CAB to get as much info as possible & options on the best way of dealing with it - they can be pretty scary. Best wishes for it.
ReplyDelete@chekhov
ReplyDeleteWhen you install the software that comes with the scanner, it should handle where your scans go. When you first scan, check where it's storing them before you close the window or you may have trouble finding them.
If it's sensibly designed, it'll put them in My Documents/My Scans, but manufacturers don't always like to make it that easy.
There's some basic information here - but you've probably checked out stuff like that already?
ReplyDeleteThanks Spike; I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow.
ReplyDelete@chekhov, Hi, long time since I used a scanner but I think you are probably right there should be a way to define where the files are stored and in what file format (maybe jpg for images). Then you can use a utility (provided by the scanner install disk) to convert scanned documents to text or Word etc.
ReplyDelete@Meerkat, did you see The people's Supermarket on CH4? I half watched this and in the final edition Dave the man turned up as it was an example of The Big Society. The guy running the project asked upfront for more money as the bank had said no. Seemed like there was a back-room deal as this project is still going despite the fact that when last we heard the landlord was demanding rent and the organiser was deliberately stopping cheques as the bank account was broke. It would no do for a high profile project like that to fail after a visit from DC.
Sorry, that does not answer your question but just shows what is going on.
@shaz cheers for the reply, had looked at that info, but she cant get an appt at CAB for a month or so and appt is next week. anyway ta anyway
ReplyDeletesmtx - she cant get an appt at CAB for a month or so
ReplyDeleteShit. Free/fixed-fee interview @ local solicitors? Some of them still offer them.
Or sometimes law depts @ universities will take on cases pro bono as practice for their students...
ReplyDeleteOr if there's any danger of it becoming a housing benefit fraud investigation as well with a danger of homelessness, could try Shelter?
ReplyDeleteBTW; I'm very lucky in that I have several friends and acquaintances who are much more clued up about IT technology than I am help me out without seeking recompense for their efforts. Of course I reciprocate if my carpentry and joinery skills are needed in return.
ReplyDeleteHowever, apart from a few ink cartridges and a new hard drive for this lap top I've never bought any computer equipment in my life. All the kit I use is second hand and has been donated for free including the "new" all singing and dancing printer/scanner/photo-copier thingy!
Evening all
ReplyDeleteHave largely been out of the loop as far as today's news is concerned but i'm now hearing that Cameron is proposing a no fly zone over Libya policed by what's left of the RAF.I hope this isn't history repeating itself with Cameron following in the footsteps of Blair grandstanding on the international scene whilst neglecting the 'Home Front'.Why can't this country for once start behaving like the relatively small North West European nation it is ?And stop boxing above it's weight by trying to act like the world's policeman when we all now we're nothing more than the poodle of the USA.
Parking in case too busy tomorrow , this is warming up ...........
ReplyDelete(extracted quote, one among many 'killers')
Economics professor James K. Galbraith testified as follows to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime:LINK
" I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory, as widely taught since the 1980s, failed miserably to understand the forces behind the financial crisis. ... Economists [argued that] widespread fraud therefore could not occur. Not all economists believed this – but most did.
Thus the study of financial fraud received little attention. Practically no research institutes exist; collaboration between economists and criminologists is rare; in the leading departments there are few specialists and very few students. Economists have soft-pedaled the role of fraud in every crisis they examined, including the Savings & Loan debacle, the Russian transition, the Asian meltdown and the dot.com bubble. They continue to do so now. At a conference sponsored by the Levy Economics Institute in New York on April 17, the closest a former Under Secretary of the Treasury, Peter Fisher, got to this question was to use the word “naughtiness.” This was on the day that the SEC charged Goldman Sachs with fraud. ..."
NN all.XX
Have probably played this here before but Moondance by Van the Man always gives me a boost when i hear it.Hope it has the same effect on people here too.
ReplyDelete@Paul; this is a bit of brave journalism from the Indie; http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-get-over-it-dave-were-not-a-world-power-any-more-2229452.html
ReplyDeletechekhov -- some of the Matthew Norman phrasing reminded me of our own Atomboy ...
ReplyDelete"The second, needless to say, is relinquishing the independent nuclear deterrent that is neither independent nor any kind of deterrent. The arguments are too stale to be worth restating. We all know that whatever minimal relevance Trident once had collapsed along with the Berlin Wall, and that it is retained solely as a cheap short cut, for all the billions wasted, to the familiar affectation of Great Power status. It is no coincidence that the missiles are shaped after the phallus. The system is no more than a geopolitical codpiece, albeit one that cannot disguise the fact that, behind the nuclear merkin, the British penis is flaccid, the balls shrunken and wizened.
ReplyDeleteThe third step is ridding ourselves of this vile arms industry, which contributes far more negligibly to employment and tax revenue than we are encouraged to believe. The true value of this trade to governments is – what else? – its makeshift use as a figleaf to hide the limpness of British power and permit the international willy-waving to continue."
link
Really NN !
Hi chekhov
ReplyDeleteThanks for that link.Really interesting article and spot on as far as i'm concerned.And i wish the political classes in this country would wake up to the fact the Americans don't give a fuck about us and probably view their relations with France and Germany as being more important.
@paul: you are more than welcome. I don't know "jack shit" but I do know when I'm being taken for a ride!
ReplyDeleteNo night shift then?
ReplyDeletePaul
ReplyDeleteSaw your comment on disability thread. Agree we need a hard hitting article on ATOS - however- did you see Arec's comment about his article ?
He said he has promised Jess he will not name a particular org (which one ?) - so it seems CiF are being very cautios here. Many comments very critical of ATOS and Unum were still there last time I looked.
Evening chekhov.
Good luck with scanner thingy .
I've no doubt that legal leeches are waiting to jump all over the first sign of any untoward comments that Atos might be a bunch of incompetent, money-grubbing twats, but that's also true of any number of ishoos the Graun has covered. From banks to oil firms to Trudi Styler's Save The Rainforests Through Private Aviation Foundation.
ReplyDeleteThe usual process is that any ATL commentary goes through the Graun's own legal beagles and, if it's particularly contentious, BTL comments themselves are all pre-modded.
But it's been done countless times and doesn't explain the screaming silence from many of the Graun's big hitters on the subject. In the interests of being fireproof, you can reference specific cases - amounting to many, many thousands at this stage - where people have been wrongly thrown of benefits. We can say in complete confidence that they have been definitively wrong in many cases, as 40% of all appeals against Atos are successful. It should also be a matter of public record (or a couple of Graun hack phone calls) to ascertain the level of medical expertise of assessors.
And it is breaching no civil or criminal laws to suggest changes in the assessment criteria themselves. Which are shite.
It boils down to two things. First, remember Polly's comment about how electorally toxic it is for Labour to be seen being 'soft on benefit cheats'. And then the other thing - the middle-class liberal left do actually believe that a thumping chunk of the chavs are on the take. In their own minds, they might even file it under 'necessary work' and 'in their own interests in the long-term'.
Eddie
ReplyDeleteIt is true that all 3 major parties are complicit in the great ATOS scam . Unum -Cardiff model of illness as a social construct developed under NLab along with 'fit for work test'
A4E , ATOS - all of it taken over by Condems and enthusiastically pursued.
There is no party able to criticise .
ATOS, Unum and A4E all run hand in hand each creating dependent 'customers' for each other.
It looks as if Jeremy Cunt has been given his instructions to let the BSkyB deal go through.
ReplyDeleteThis is looking to me increasingly like a government that has absolutely no expectations of winning a second term and so is hurrying through everything the very richest want done and not even pretending to care about the interests of the general public.
As I've said before, this is a declaration of war by the rich and powerful on everyone else.
Is there a free Bradley Manning campaign? Apparently he's potentially facing the death penalty for "aiding the enemy".
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where to sign?
It's very quiet on here today...
ReplyDelete