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Re: Don’t make the poor pay for political cowardice

spicycauldron — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:25:43 -0000

Yeah, the bitterness of the well-off towards the poor and unfortunate has never, ever been something I could understand and I don't think I ever will. Why the rich should resent those who have less, no idea - but they do, of course.

Re: Don’t make the poor pay for political cowardice

emsquared — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:30:31 -0000

The poor have always been an easy target. Gordo just retracted a bill to cut housing benefit due to a possible backbencher revolt though no doubt disco Dave would have less backbench dissent once his hand is on the steering wheel of the ship of state. There are some good proposals in the IDS think tank study(though much of it is tainted by its rabidly right wing viewpoint of course) such as phasing out benefits once in work rather than a brutal cut off the moment a claimant get s a job off (thus having to live on fresh air until the 1st months derisory pay cheque is received). In America they found they had to pay people to keep them in work rather than having the poor endlessly falling on and off benefits.No doubt eventually the benefit costs will just move to just having to top up a vast range of very poorly paid and poorly treated 'jobs' (the real cause of any possible benefits trap that some may too easily fall into and which increased as the deregulated 'flexible' jobs market culture increased) which may or may not placate that certain bitter middle England viewpoint of the poor.

Re: Many Tories still hate the NHS

emsquared — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:02:05 -0000

Hannan's clearly a bit of a loose canon but he does appeal to a large legacy Tory rank and file and there was talk of breaking up the NHS during the last Conservative government (and in the early years of New Labour's reign re a two tier health system and they've helped damage it with the promotion of an internal market within the NHS) as it's easy to criticise when compared to the state run health systems in parts of Europe (and who the US detractors would perhaps prefer to overlook as they are perhaps better models for socialized health care than our own). I've been quite encouraged over this outpouring of support for the NHS even if it is riding on people's knee jerk reaction to criticism that comes from outside of the UK. At least there's finally a line being drawn in the sand with regard to an insipid kind of creeping social Darwinism favoured by successive UK governments and fires a warning shot across the boughs of any political party who talks of dismantling the NHS . Does this social event harm the Tories? Well marginally maybe but I'm no longer sure that enough people really vote on core issues and will probably primarily be motivated by a dislike for the sitting government and desperate for change whilst dismissing other viable alternatives. Mind you political parties often say what needs to be said in opposition and then do what they like when in power.

Re: Excessive banality on Twitter

spicycauldron — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:42:11 -0000

Very good points. I thought the #moonfruit hashtag to win a MacBook Pro was kind of cute, but can see how it will be aped ad nauseum and quickly lose the novelty shine. Kudos to the company behind it for being the first, and clever, though. I'd rather that stuff than the endless followers who seem to think we want to see Britney doing something I won't mention here but is of no interest to me, certainly!

And yes, there are a lot of teenage CEOs out there. Lots of people wanting to 'help' with Internet start-ups, debts, counselling and so on.

I dunno though... The banality is so... sad. I find feeling sad for someone infinitely more uncomfortable than I do find spam tweets frustrating and annoying. If I am sad for a friend in need I can offer help or answer a call for help if requested. You can't do anything but stand back and gulp at the loneliness evident in what some people post, because they come across as utterly unaware of how they present their lives and the last thing I'd want to do is point it out to individuals.

But yes, life is banal for a lot of people. And they like it that way, or seem not to know they could easily improve their lives just by looking up once in a while and taking notice of the world around them, smell some flowers, go for a walk, engage with real life. It's very depressing if I were to allow myself to dwell on the fate of so many. Social poverty is in many respects as awful as physical poverty. All the lonely people, as The Beatles sang, where do they all come from?

I agree on the failings of Tweetdeck but it is in its infancy and has been my preferred client for a while now.

I think that penultimate line of yours is quite prophetic. I think people will look back on this era, not only because of Twitter, as an era of wanton waste, narcissism, irresponsibility and a complete failure to appreciate the things that we increasingly learn won't be available to future generations. Even the humblest of things in the West, like plastic carrier bags and short car journeys, will one day be no more. And what do we do? We think nothing of getting into cars and most still stick their plastic carriers into landfill without a thought. I guess, in summation, we fail to appreciate. All of us do that, to a greater or lesser extent.

The Truman Show... Yes. There's an element of people signing up for that kind of examination, whereas in the film of course the lead character of Truman was an unwitting, and eventually unwilling, victim.

Re: Excessive banality on Twitter

emsquared — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:15:52 -0000

Personally I'm more annoyed by excessive commercialism, 'tweet to win' posts,endless teenage ceo's (growing exponentially at a faster rate than Elvis impersonators?), so called social media experts (aka bullshit merchants) and the unbelievable obsession with making money.
Compared to that deluge of sewerage banality is almost a whimsical jewel of innocence and honesty in a box of braggish cheap tat (for me anyway-but hey we're all different).I count myself in amongst the anonymous brick-a-brack by the way. Don't you think life is pretty banal for an awful lot of people?
Admittedly Twitter clients desperately need the ability to filter out posts by keyword filters but that'll come (Tweetdeck has only one filter per column,come on how useless is that?). Or at least it better bloody eventuate or I'm off matey.

Maybe Twitter archives will paint a more accurate picture of the society at this time in history (compared to the film camera era that just shows the happy bits) or maybe over time it'll just accurately show swathes of disconnected people seemingly having or pretending to be having wonderful interesting (or equally banal) lives talking endlessly about themselves whilst pimping goods and services to each other. The generations to come will look wistfully back at a golden era of glorious irresponsible narcissism.A kind of self aware Truman Show writ large.

Re: Apple and O2: another year, another iPhone, another set of rip-off tariffs

emsquared — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:55:23 -0000

I presume the low upgrade price is a a marketing ploy to steal a bit of thunder from the Windows 7 release(s) the following month. Just waiting to see the special UK pricing on that. My bet is circa £36-£42 but that's with my realism tinted glasses on.

Re: Apple and O2: another year, another iPhone, another set of rip-off tariffs

spicycauldron — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:47:23 -0000

I was thinking Snow Leopard should be priced around £18 in the UK for established Leopard users. So I take it that won't be case then? I was thinking that the pricing announcement on that was very laudable and impressive. Go on. Shoot down my dream of fair play in at least one aspect of Apple's business practices...

Re: Apple and O2: another year, another iPhone, another set of rip-off tariffs

emsquared — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:43:24 -0000

On the announcement yesterday I went first to Apple US to see the original iPhone now offered for $99 (vague as to what the package tie in is admittedly) then to the UK store & lo £342.50 (payg). Bit of a disparity or wot!. I did try to find out how much Orange in France do the unlocked version for (French law dictates it must be unlocked. Gotta love the French for this). It does feel like Britain gets singled out for an especially good kicking but then that applies to so many consumer items. It's like we've be reared to expect premium prices for everything & sadly we're so pants at complaining or standing up to this treatment we almost seem to secretly say to manufacturers 'hit me some more I actually enjoy it'.
Still $29 upgrade for Snow Leopard eh. Bet it's not that cheap in the UK.
I for one welcome our new cash-cow overlords (er...not)

Re: Great Britain no more – but the fight is far from over

spicycauldron — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:33:14 -0000

Yes, I've always felt blaming entire groups in society for your own predicament is moral cowardice and shows that, actually, whatever your beef you probably deserve to be in the hole you're in if your attitude is to go on the attack rather than look at what is wrong in your own life, and change it. No get up and go? Want to rob the people who are prepared to study and work because you're too busy moaning to get some qualifications? Why, vote for the BNP - they're here to make inadequates feel so much better about themselves. But then, that's because the mainstream parties have ignored those inadequates for so long, and the question remains, how to address and engage with them without pandering to hatred and ignorance and lies.

I hold out no especial hope as such for a hung Parliament but it remains the case that if we want real electoral reform, that is indeed the thing that could bring it about.

We face more and more bad news over at least the next few years irrespective of who wins the General Election, with the parasites reaping a dividend from the stupid and malicious. It is depressing but there are positives as well--the BNP's share of the vote decreased, the membership of the Green Party had a huge boost and its vote did increase by over 50 per cent, and the Tories have failed to gain a ringing endorsement from anyone but their traditional hardcore supporters.

Re: Great Britain no more – but the fight is far from over

emsquared — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:13:14 -0000

Yes a sad day. The media has long played a part in whipping up public prejudices so I have to assume that some of that media is happy with what has transpired. All my voting life there's been talk of hung parliaments but it's never transpired and I'm not holding out much hope of one at the upcoming general election either. Now in a recession and without the money and property owning love fest of the past decade and with employment worries plaguing many we find the shallow and narrow minded aspects of our society are seemingly coming to the fore once again. Blame is the new new game in town and as a society we seem very good at playing it

Re: Is there a BBC gnome that exiles old songs to Radio 2?

spicycauldron — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:13:59 -0000

Good point about audience fragmentation. Yes, Radio 2 was a lot more coherent back in the day. That perception of it as schizophrenic certainly only came about in the past decade. And yeah, I guess everyone still grows older but we don't age mentally the way people did not so long ago - at least, if that still happens, it happens much later. In many respects kids who were born in the 70s and 80s and onward could be said to never have left their teenage years behind, certainly not when it comes to music and quite possibly other interests as well.

Re: Is there a BBC gnome that exiles old songs to Radio 2?

emsquared — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:46:19 -0000

Radio 2 has changed a helluva lot from the Radio 2 Jimmy Young Mantovani fodder of old (except bizarrely for Friday nights into Saturday morning where it reverts to a decided easy listening few hours though it could be argued that Sunday goes a bit middle of the road too). It was after all Radio 2 that the whole Wossy/Russell Brand thing kicked off. There is a lot of niche content on 2 that I would have expected to find on R1 back in the day (eg: Mark Lamarr covering Reggae and in depth documentaries about music which now have no place on Radio 1 whereas they would have done 20-30 years ago) which is probably more an indicator of how music listening has fractured across the generations. Look at the average age of many Radio 1 DJ's not to mention Tim (51 going on 15) Westwood. There's just a lot of crossover now. The 'middle aged' no longer listen to modern equivalents (if any) of Renee and Renato though of course they do listen to the music artists of their supposed youth with many of those artists continuing to release new material. I admit it can be hard to accept the mantle 'Radio 2 listener' due to its image and defined demographic of old. Maybe it's slightly more the home now of the generation that Danny Baker once described as "possibly hipper than their children".

Re: Poem: Sir Clement Freud

emsquared — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:35:27 -0000

Sad news.Lovely poem. I thought the Minced Morsels dog was a bloodhound but not sure.
Hovered over your wizard of Oz survey btw.Not sure I'd actually be Dorothy. More likely a friend of Dorothy (il est évident!)

Re: Big business extortionists and the curse of Direct Debit

spicycauldron — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:42:07 -0000

All good points well made. There are many not-for-profit companies producing everything from food to clothes but they are currently more expensive than most can afford, perversely, even though all funds are reinvested into the companies.

I don't honestly think, though, that a rounded-edged softer capitalism will be born from this present crisis. Partly because we don't have people of vision and integrity in power but people whose pursuit of power is all they have and all they want, irrespective of their surface-only politics. Politicians join clubs. They are able to leave free will at the door, and do so willingly.

Re: Big business extortionists and the curse of Direct Debit

emsquared — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:57:17 -0000

I'm keener on the notion that people make bad choices in bad systems. Big business is forced to chase profits for themselves and shareholders.That's the bottom line sadly.Th-th-th-that's capitalism folks.The answer in the short-term is to have better regulation (with actual teeth) and governments less beholden to the power of big business. Achieving that is going to be difficult. Clearly we're going to be trying a slightly more left of centre economic policy for a while (whilst a right wing social policy eventuates) and reigning in the excesses of the free market up until the point we probably (cynic central here) decide that controlling the free market also damages us as well. If you can find a not for profit company to buy your services off then great but sadly they have to compete on a playing field that rewards exploitation.

Re: What’s wrong with Tom?

spicycauldron — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:43:00 -0000

Thanks. It's weird. He's happy and in no pain, at least right now. If he has FIP, we've no idea how long he's got. The vet was curiously non-committal about his lifespan if he has the virus mutation. And it's what they term the 'wet' variant, if he has it, as that causes fluid in the belly. There's a dry variant too, but as well as FIP only affecting 1 in every 5000 cats, the wet variant is even more rare. So perhaps something else, something fixable, is going on. We can but hope.

Re: What’s wrong with Tom?

emsquared — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:41:29 -0000

Fingers crossed for Tom.Best wishes to you all.

Re: The ITV Zombie - Adam Wilcox's WilcosWorld.co.uk

emsquared — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:27:10 -0000

It's hard to know if ITV would have been in better shape if the regional franchises had been left as was. Clearly somebody's got to lose out in a multi channel environment when there's shrinking advertising revenue and a change in the status of television in general. ITV1 needs to partner with the right people if it doesn't want to lose whatever is left of its legacy identity. Before Woolworths went under the question was being endlessly asked as to what exactly Woolworths was for. The same question is being asked of ITV1 by many people including yourself. I agree about the mooted merger. Channel Four would be better pushing for a merge into BBC worldwide. I expect Five would be happier with a merger without the Channel 4 public remit element. Interesting times.

Re: Channel 4 still providing bullshit-on-demand to Mac users

spicycauldron — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:25:05 -0000

Yeah, the problem with the tide metaphor is, they all seem to think like Canute was rumoured (actually, falsely) when he tried to stop the tide coming in. Change, whether technological or social, is a force of nature no man or woman or company can ultimately stop.

I said 'falsely' about Canute, by the way, because it is now said he was actually seeking to demonstrate the limits to the powers of kings. Shame he was so wise and many of those trying to control or even stop change are not!

Re: Channel 4 still providing bullshit-on-demand to Mac users

emsquared — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:21:44 -0000

I think the trend is towards more cross platform solutions. Even Five have started moving to a streaming flash solution (shame there's nothing I want to watch).The beeb iPlayer has shown that streaming flash solutions are used more than download solutions anyway and that applies to windows users too. "Oooh the tide is turning".

Re: The land of lost things

spicycauldron — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:02:16 -0000

Yes, that's true. One of those unspoken rules of which science can know nothing! I need to get really nonchalant about it, and see what happens!

Re: The land of lost things

emsquared — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:33:10 -0000

I'm a great believer that inanimate objects have a secret life we know nothing about (only half joking here) and can will themselves into a parallel dimension as a way of 'throwing a sickie to get a day off'. They return as and when they want to.Best thing to do is pretend you're now looking for something else entirely and the previous object will quickly swap places with it and return.Fingers crossed.

Re: The sometimes problem with Web 2.0 whizz-bangery

Matt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:13:04 -0000

Yes we're getting Intense Debate running fully on Automattic infrastructure, so it'll be fast and reliable just like Akismet, Gravatar, and WordPress.com.

Re: The sometimes problem with Web 2.0 whizz-bangery

spicycauldron — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:11:24 -0000

That's exactly it! Thank you... "The less moving parts"... Brilliant, a great way of explaining the situation. Yeah, I know Automattic now owns IntenseDebate and to be honest, it's a great system. It's very close to Disqus, to such an extent I'd say it boils down to personal choice but I do notice that Disqus seems more widely used.

I'm missing the ability with Disqus to notify my Twitter feed of my replies to comments, but I love the inclusion of Facebook Connect and the Friendfeed service, both of which I think a lot of my readers will appreciate and it may even encourage more comments. x

Re: The sometimes problem with Web 2.0 whizz-bangery

emsquared — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:04:56 -0000

The odd things is that Automattic (owners of the Wordpress platform) now own Intense Debate.Everyone has frustrations with the balancing act of externally hosted sites, plugins, safe code etc. I guess it's finding a workable balance.As is always said 'the fewer the moving parts, the less there is to go wrong'.