PhotoBucket

When I first started posting on the web I found that I sometimes wanted to post a picture / photograph, as on this blog and then later when I developed my website I need to post even more photos. After a good search around I decided upon PhotoBucket which offered photo hosting for free. Then after a few years they introduced charging.

So I bit the bullet and started paying a modest annual fee. Then the hits on this blog and the web site meant that I hit band width problem with PhotoBucket, and the annual fee went up.

So again I bit the bullet and paid the increased (but still modest) annual fee. I correctly maintained my account registering changes as they applied, including a change of email address.

Yesterday I received an email from PhotoBucket advising me that I have 30 days to upgrade my account. While I find the new charge rates unpalletable what has really got me is that since I changed my email address they have obviously been sending emails to my old (dead) email account. How and why this final notice got through I have yet to determine but the fact that over 2 years since I made the change on my account PhotoBucket still haven't updated their systems.

So do I again bite the bullet and pay the increased charges at x3 what I am currently paying? No! I have a whole shed load of work to do but I am setting about moving the PhotoBucket hosted pictures and photos to another host site and leave PhotoBucket to shut down my long running account. And I have lest than 30 days to do it....

Motorcyclist fatalities

Motorcyclists account for just 1% of total road traffic yet account for 19% of all road deaths.

Well yesterday I drove a minibus into central London and as a motorcyclist I was gob smacked at the antics I saw. Had one "biker" get seriously upset with me when I inadvertently went to make a lane change not seeing him in my blind spot even though I was being especially vigalent with my mirrors and peripheral vision. Many of the riders I saw were simply "suicide jockeys” preparing to become donors, just hope they have signed up to allow their organs to be given to someone who will value them more than they do.

If Carpenters were hired like Programmers

I received an email from linked in today with a link to an article that is very tongue in cheek but comes under the scope of many a true word spoken in jest.

LinkedIn article

Plagurism

Browsing away through other people's blogs I came across this review of the Honda Deauville 650: romanticbikes.blogspot.co.uk

Now I have no objection to being quoted, but for someone to 'copy and paste' your work and claim it as their own rattles my cage. Yes, I posted that review (and a longer one) and not one word has been changed on this, the shorter one, not even the pros and cons.

In a way I am grateful as it spreads the word, but I am in equal measure annoyed that I get no mention as the author / originator. Still, that's third world participation for you (I suppose).

Ever dined at Wagamamas?

No, nor had I until Saturday afternoon, and I won't be repeating the exercise. Three of us had virtually finished our main courses before the 4th arrived. Yes, I know they said that all meals would not arrive at the same time but for 3 to arrive in under 5 minutes and then for the 4th to arrive 15 minutes later is stupid and disrespectful. Not as if the food is that good or anything special either.

Politics

I don't usually get involved in politics because in the past, on the few occasions when I have the result has most often been an opportunity for paid politicians to set about point scoring with no tangible benefit to the cause I am supporting. As a result I firmly believe Billy Connolly ("The Big Yin") got it 100% right when he said that the extent of person's desire to be a politician should be measured as the reason for them being banned from ever being one... or something to that effect. In my jaundiced eyes politicians, whether local, national or EEC/MEP are only after two things. One - money and lining their own pockets. Two - points and votes, as in points off their opposite number and votes to keep them in a position to achieve point #1.

Now I love filling in on-line surveys when I find them or get invited to complete one. They can be good fun and I love silly or not-so-obvious responses. Anyway, I recently completed a survey about my views on Europe - Should Cameron do.... x, y, z? Being devil's advocate I responded with all the options that would 'make the buggers work'. I selected all the difficult to do answers, all the hard options. In response I got a letter from Ms Emma McClarkin MEP thanking me for 'telling me what you think' which was very nice of her so I looked up images of her on Google. Seems that she must be doing OK as an MEP because she has piled on the pounds a bit since starting out in politics, but still, not a bad looker. Good old Wikipedia tells me she was (at 30) the youngest British MEP so she must have some brains to go with the 'out of a bottle' blonde good looks.

Now it turns out that I wasn't alone in my responses because 83% of the 13,500 respondees agreed Cameron should 'negotiate a fresh settlement with the EU' and 91% agreed he should 'cut the EU budget' - both of which I see as 'hard work' tasks. Oh, and 90% supported action to 'reduce net immigration' (which I understand he can achieve by letting fewer immigrants into Britain or financially supporting us Brits to leave England and move to sunnier/warmer/less stressed climes) while 97% support the work permit rules.

That's all very entertaining but a consequence of participating has been emails from Tory HQ asking me to go onto Twitter, Facebook and all the social media sites and 'like' various statements. Well what can I say to an invite like that? I'll tell you what, not a hope in hell. There's more chance of me swimming to the moon!

Dear Mr Cameron

I recently followed a link to David Cameron's Facebook page. Boy, doesn't he bang on spouting a load of poorly thought-out crap! Every other line refers to 'the working class' and him being 'one of us'. All posh boy's school tosh of course but hey, somebody voted him into power.

Anyway.... I want to take issue with some of his (and Tory party) policies, such as pushing up the retirement age before state pension is paid.

That is so much the wrong thing to do. Let those that want to retire earlier do and provide them with a state pension, but make it dependent upon the number of years they have been in gainful employment paying NI contributions - let's say 40 years. By allowing the 'older workers' to retire the young will have work opportunities. This will reduce payouts to the young jobless on benefits and allowing those that have done their bit to enjoy a more relaxed way of life.

An additional benefit from this policy would be that if the young have jobs then they can start saving for a house. And to encourage this the government should set up a scheme whereby every young worker who does not own a home automatically has money deducted at source to be paid into a government backed saving scheme towards their mortgage deposit. This would leave less money in the pockets of the young to go out on binge drinking sessions every time they get a pay packet.

My starter for 10 Mr Cameron - time you started thinking a bit more 'out of the box' and looking at the bigger picture, because IT IS MASSIVE.

NHS Budget

This isn't my first post on this topic and it is unlikely to be the last. I rarely read any national newspapers but for whatever reason I found myself scanning Saturday's edition of The Sun (OK, I agree, it is not a real newspaper but many think it is) anyway, they were making a 'big deal' over the fact that some wanna be famous tart was slagging off another of the same genre for having a tummy tuck on the NHS that cost £5,000. Pot calling kettle black as she herself had been the recipient of a boob job at a cost of £4,800... yes, you guessed it, on the NHS.

In these stringent times why the hell are taxpayers having to pay the bill for cosmetic surgery for sluts that wanna be famous? If the government is serious about reducing the bill to the taxpayers, well there is a suitable target. If they want cosmetic surgery then make them pay. If they haven't got the cash then there are plenty of loan companies out there, and maybe that could help see some of our banks turn a quick profit.

Bike magazine - Multistrada v Caponord

Got the magazine at my newsagents this morning simply because I wanted to read the head to head of the Ducati Multistrada Granturisimo and the Aprilia Caponord 1200 with Travel Pack. Great stuff, except on page 50 it states the Coponord’s fuel tank is 4 litres bigger than the Multistrada’s and then on page 57 it states that the Strada has a 20 litre tank and the Capo has 17.5 litres.

And fuel consumption – what is it with those guys? They say that over 110 miles the Caponord used an extra 4 litre of fuel. But what does that equate to? Simple maths means that if the Strada does 40mpg then the Capo is doing just over 30mpg, but they don't share the figures they achieved with us. Otherwise, I just love the way they got two different viewpoints down in print on one test.

Interweb says:
1. the Strada does have 20 litres but the Capo has 24 (and is 4 litres bigger).
2. Roland Brown got nearly 50mpg from the Caponord with Travel Pack when he road tested it (so if Bike's comment and Roland's figures are both true then the Strada was doing 84mpg).

They are promising us a whole new magazine from the next edition. Well I for one am hoping the new mag is more accurate than the ‘old’ outgoing version and gives us the whole story and avoids following the BBC’s attempts to sensationalise everything. As it stands it's just not worthy of a subscription and I will stick to buying the odd one now and then (usually 3 copies a year).

15 year old Commissioner

Also in the news this week - a 15 year old Commissioner in Kent resigned from a £15,000 a year post after her tweets caused offence.

What the hell is this country coming to when school, college and university leavers can't get jobs but a 15 year old schoolgirl is handed a job that she obviously doesn't understand and can't do? The lady who appointed her was interviewed by the BBC News and she said that she had asked the girl if there was any reason why she should not be appointed and she had said 'No' in response. How come she didn't think to check out the girl's tweets and use of social media - one of which referred to her temperament when drunk. I though 15 year olds were not legally old enough to purchase or consume alcohol, or has somebody changed the law overnight?

The recruiter(s) responsible need to get a grip on reality and be given a spell on Job Seekers Allowance to reprioritise their thinking.

Ridiculous

Monday, a 05:30 alarm call, leaving home at 06:00, a short journey to pick up a work colleague from his home in Draycott to drive to Reading.  A morning in the office before we leave to attend a meeting on the client site just over an hour away before returning to Reading and a night in a hotel.  Tuesday morning we breakfast, go to work and then drive back to Derby.  And that is becoming a the pattern, with additional days at Reading thrown into the mix which see me using the train on a daily commute basis. Over 400 miles a week behind the wheel of the car and a day or two in the local office means that by the time the weekend arrives I sleep heavily and well.

Now don't get me wrong, I know I am fortunate to have a job,but, and it is a big but, in this age with the technology available to us there should be no need to do this number of miles in either the car or on the train. Voice conference, video conference and file sharing should mean that the work that I do can be done from anywhere, including local office or from home.  But every client believes that their data is more sensitive than anybody else's, that face to face is the only way to do meetings, and the sales people allow these conditions to be written into the contract and our bosses always want to see us in the office having a "bums on seats" attitude believing that if bums are on seats then work is being done and results achieved. Just how delusional and out of touch they are. Almost Dickensian.  Attitudes like these mean we end up doing inordinate mileage which is totally ridiculous.

Politicians - more perks

Politicians continue to find more ways of sticking the taxes we pay into their pockets. The latest ruse is to "learn a foreign language". Now when I was preparing for my trip to France in June 2011 I looked at courses available locally, with the price typically working out at around £120. However, due to the pressures on my time I decided on a CD/DVD learning based learning that set me back the grand sum of £18 off eBay (2 courses, one £10 and the other £8). OK, not everyone uses eBay. Not everyone gets on with electronic learning. But our fabulous politicians have claimed sums varying from circa £600 up to £1600 to learn languages including French, Italian and Mandarin.

Now if I have to fund my own learning, and you have to fund your own learning why the hell do we have to fund over paid politicians learning?

£2m to assylum seeking "kids"

In the news at the weekend, missed by most of the news media, an announcement that £2m has been paid out over child asylum seekers illegally detained as adults. The legal case involved 40 youngsters who were locked up in adult units under Home Office policy that was deemed to be unlawful, read about it here in the Guardian

Now most "kids" between the age of 14 - 16 seeking assylum are regarded as adults in their home country, so why the hell are we paying these "kids" big payouts because of a slight cock-up? Are they worth thousands of GDP? (£2m divided by 40 is £50,000 each) Yet the government of this coutry sees fit to award them big payouts. In my book charity begins at home, so why are we spending £2m on somebody elses problem kids and not taking care of our own impoverished and under priviledeged kids.

No wonder this country is in such a financial mess - £2m given away to "kids" who are in no position to understand how to make the best use of the money and will probably waste it and return to poverty, where they (most likely) will be eternally happy. Makes me seeth.

Satnavs blamed

I read an article in yesterday’s Metro that claims these motoring aids are now being blamed for £203million in damage to vehicles as drivers blindly follow their instructions. Examples quoted are driving into a wall in Edinburgh, being sent over a non-existent bridge across the river Severn and across a golf course in Kingsdown (Kent). “Such is the concern that the Department of Transport is holding its first ever satnav summit next month”

Now there’s a waste of rate/tax payers money. The solution is simple – pass legislation that puts a legal obligation on the satnav manufacturers and their map suppliers to ensure that the software is current and up to date. They are making an absolute packet in selling these gadgets and map updates which are usually 2 years out of date. Make the obligation one to ensure that every detail is up to date and no more than 3 months old and that if any damage to property results from an a driver blindly following incorrect directions the insurance company or involved parties can claim back out of pocket expenses for any resulting loss. Then allow insurance companies to reject claims where the driver/satnav user has not kept the software in their gadget up to date.

Of course the satnav manufacturers will be up in arms, but, not only will they make their products better and fit for purpose, the consumer will get a better product and there will be fewer accidents where the incompetent numpties behind the wheel can blame the gadget in the dashboard / on the windscreen.

Commuting

Returning to this topic, Wikipedia defines it as follows:-
“Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.”

Now to me that means using the most effective method of travel both in terms of money and time. High cost commuting impacts the individuals wallet and reduces the money available for living expenses and recreation even if it is subsidised (unless fully expensed). Too long spent commuting reduces the commuter’s personal time for those general day to day tasks and recreation time that is part of life.

Because of the time aspect I have rarely relied on trains in the UK for my commuting, and on those occasions that I have the experience has not been pleasant / enjoyable. Crowded trains mean that the amount of work that can be done during the journey is limited, sometimes impossible. Linking to other forms of public transport is stressful with unreliable services either being missed or running late. Which means I prefer to use the UK road network.

Moving onto the roads means 3 options, bicycle, motorbike and car. I find the speed of other traffic intimidating and makes using a bicycle too dangerous for me to consider further. My preference is to use the motorbike but there are occasions when the weather conspires to make this much less attractive (frost, fog, heavy rain / sleet / snow). The result is that I split my commuting between motorbike and car. I am fortunate that I can do this, not everyone has the options I have. But why, oh why, do those that commute by car appear to be in a race? Maximising economy to keep costs down cannot be achieved by fast aggressive driving, but it is a feature of the daily commute, and if you do the same route day in, day out, it is the same people driving fast and aggressively. Is it just in their nature to always drive like that or do they not understand the costs quotient?

The UK government has spend millions of pounds on “safety campaigns” in an attempt to reduce accident figures and casualty rates. None of those campaigns have focused on why people are driving in the manner they do. Yes, I know that many will ignore any message and think it doesn’t apply to them (witness the number of people driving and using hand held devices). But the government claims that every “safety campaign” has some affect on behaviour, so isn’t it time they addressed the commuting driver and their bad driving habits?

Environmental resource planning

I used to think nothing of doing 100 - 200 miles before breakfast to be on site for a working day before heading home (or off to a hotel) for the night, only to repeat the next day. Now-a-days it just gets me dowm. Currently I'm doing a 45 mile each way trip into Birmingham 4 or 5 days a week and I find it tiring and depressing. With all the technology we have at our fingertips this travel shouldn't be necessary. I work for an IT Services company so it should be even less necessary than for workers in other industries, but it seems that rather than doing REAL resource planning it is simply a case of bums on seats, so I go to Birmingham while a colleague goes from Brum to Derby. What is the sense in that? Environment? No, just MENTAL!

Driving standards

If, like me, you've spent decades "on the road" commuting to different places of work it can't have escaped your notice that driving standards in the UK have declined. Correction, nose dived. This weekend we've had snow, disruptive snow according to official classifications, but it need not be if only drivers had 2 things:-
1. Some driving skills
2. Patience behind the wheel.

Driving skills - these are not there simply because new drivers are taught how to pass the driving test, not how to control the car, and as soon as they pass the test they assume that they are experts and know it all when it is only the driving aids that keep them alive.

Patience behind the wheel - coupled with looking ahead and reading the roads / situation. With snow on the road many drivers were quite simply and very obviously out of their depth. No idea how to control their car, what it or they are capable of.

Ambitious and impatient beyond their skills the inevitable result is always an "accident". The best ones are those with wallets and egos way bigger than their abilities driving AMG Mercedes, BMW M-Sports and Audi RS cars - which quickly become immobile road blocks to us lesser mortals. Will anybody learn anything from this dose of winter? Or course not, why should they, they are insured and will only be slightly inconvenienced for their display of stupidity and ignorance.

Honda VFR800X

Honda has announced the "new" adventure bike, the VFR800X and the question is, will it sell? You see, Honda has a big problem, and a nuber of smaller ones, that means it has to act now or abandon the European market altogether.

The issues:
* For years it lead the way on technology and build quality, but now the Europeans have taken over
* For years it was a Grand Prix & WSB winner, but Yamaha and Ducati have closed those doors
* For years the UK lead the European thirst for sports motorcycles, but since RWD & LWR sales have dived and continue to do so
* For 2 decades Honda quenched our thirst for new models, in the last decade they have managed 1 a year and nothing REALLY new until...
* The VFR1200 was annouced with all the latest gizmos, but, it's the bike nobody wants, not quick and light enough to be a sports bike, too small a range to be a proper tourer/sports tourer.

And here's the final issue.
* Honda have lost contact with their customers, they don't "know" their client base or what they want.

If you ride a Harley, BMW Ducati, Buell (before they got shut down) Aprillia, Benelli, MV Augusta you are absorbed into "The Family". You get invites to events, sent special offers and are treated as more than a customer. It's the modern way to do business. Contrast that to Honda, until very recently you'd ride/walk in, buy a bike and ride away -- That was it! If you returned nobody knew or cared who you were. So why shop somewhere where you aren't recognised when you can spend your money where you feel "valued"? Honda couldn't even be bothered with attending the UK motobike shows, better to cut costs was their short sighted view.

And now they are paying the price with falling sales. Now they are out to get YOUR name and address so that they can send you details by post, email and SMS, but there's another problem. Honda forced dealers to become SOLUS Honda dealers, and those same dealers don't see the need for this new attitude of customer contact and contact details beyond prising open the wallet for the initial sale.

So now we have a quick "gap filler". A parts bin special based on a bike that WAS iconic and which the press loved (until they rode 200 miles in one stint on it) using proven mechanicals in a "latest, must have" package. Will it be enough to save Honda in Europe? It had better be because otherwise Honda will be left producing basic motorcycle transport for emerging markets such as Brazil and the South Americas where Honda sell enormous volumes of locally produced machines on the smallest of profit margins.

It's still Honda - but not as we know it.

Burkhas vs Hoodies

France is taking the steps towards banning the Burkha and the British Immigration Minister says that Parliament won't be banning the wearing of the Burkha in public - defining Britain as a "broad minded society".

So then - on what basis do they ban the wearing of hoodies by the youth of Britain? And the wearing of motorcycle crash helmets in shops and places away from the motorcycle.

How, does the government reconcile their policy against terrorism with allowing muslim women to fully cover their faces (and frequently their whole bodies) in featureless black cloths?

I know and work with many from the Asian community. I don't force my Christian views on them and they don't force their religious views on me. Relion is not part of the workplace, but now the government is making it clear that it does have a place there as muslims will now be completely free to turn up at work fully covered.

Putting a totally different slant on the government's statement - if being British means that we are a "broad minded society" and "more tollerant" then how come there is intollerance of the BNP and speeding? Seems to me this government has opened mouth and spoken before engaging brain and thinking things through.

Exercise is good for you!

That's the popular saying. Well I'm not so sure....

Lunchtime today I took a 10 minute walk to the local ATM hole in the wall. By the time I'd got back to the office I'd got a lovely great big (and painfull) blister on my right foot.

So, exercise is good for you? I'm not convinced.