Posts by TheTick
30 posts • joined Thursday 6th August 2009 15:54 GMT
Re: Sovereignty
"The elite are threatened by a currency which is not under the control of the state" - Fixed for you.
The rest of us want money that does not lose value over time. Sovereign countries in the last century have continually debased their currencies for the benefit of the elites and the detriment of the rest of us, especially the middle class with some modest savings (like me). This process went into overdrive after 1971 when Nixon took the world off the gold standard and made the world a fiat currency zone.
Prime example: I have a gold sovereign coin which is legal tender as a £1 coin, and was in circulation before WW1 as such. In August 1971 the gold in the coin was worth about £4.10 so had lost about 76% of it's value before Nixon broke the link to gold (pound exchange rate to dollars, dollars could be converted to gold). Today the gold value of that coin is approx £220, meaning the good old British Pound has lost about 99.55% of the value it was 100 years ago and 98.14% since the month Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.
Fiat currencies allow governments to print without any constraint, which they have done with abandon. So screw state sovereignty when it comes to money - they can't be trusted with it.
Re: RE: ... is not a viable business case.
@ Fatman
I've had a similar issue with a phone I returned to Vodafone but they failed to cancel the contract on it and proceeded to set up a direct debit and bill me (which they couldn't because I cancelled the DD). Talking to their customer service was completely futile, the only action I took that got a response was a small claims court action after months of frustration. I had to take action because they put a black mark on my credit record, which was eventually removed and returned to spotlessness.
Keep a log of everything you have communicated with that lot, all calls, letters and time taken (keep as much proof as possible) then send them a small claims court action for recompense of your expenses and time. Claim for double your hourly working rate (after all it's essentially overtime running around after their failures), and also state that you want the system corrected to not have this problem again.
After you have sent in the small claims - sit back and relax as the company shit themselves and solve all your problems, paying you for the privilege (accept a smaller sum than you originally claimed, to show yourself as a reasonable person).
Above all don't let it get your blood pressure up too much, I let that happen and it's no good at all. You will get justice if you have the patience.
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Re: @AndrueC - Between The Unions and Thatcher
"OTOH my parents and grandparents would not buy anything from abroad on principle. That would be utterly impossible today, which shows how far things have gone."
Your parents and grandparents were part of the problem then. If they were not willing to purchase superior goods at a cheaper price from abroad then the British companies taking advantage of their little England mentality saw no reason to improve and compete in an increasingly global market. Whereas if your forebears had not subsidised them they may have restructured and innovated and still be around today.
Of course the Labour party (and Ted Heath's Tories) were massively to blame too, by propping up these industries with the money from productive people.
Mrs T. did what was necessary, and took all the hatred that should have fallen on the shoulders of those who went before her.
Re: Thank the stars she privatised BT...
If anyone doesn't admit Thatcher did a lot of good they need their head examining. But people rarely admit they were wrong all along, far easier just to go with the herd than engage thought processes.
Re: More detail
"Whereas those of us familliar with Hayek and Friedman, recognise it as such and know it's bollocks from the get go :-)"
I refer my right honourably friend to the "Fight of the Century: Hayek vs Keynes - Round 2" :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc
Hayek CLEARLY won, we was robbed etc etc...
Re: More detail
"Rich bastards" will get taxed, rich companies are not the same thing. Dividends from the company to the shareholders would also get taxed.
But, assuming the "Rich bastards" in question were operating in a free market then they will have become rich by providing goods and services that consumers actually want, at a price and quality that the consumer has found fair in an equal trade according to the value the consumer places on them. They might still be bastards, but that's their right as free human beings, as is your right, nothing to do with the company.
Your point is good though, what if they just take the money away and hide it offshore? Well firstly it's their money, fairly earned (again assuming a free market) so they can do what they like with it. If they hide it in a bank then they effectively remove that money from the money supply in the system, which will have the opposite effect of the Bank of England spunking money all over the economy i.e. deflation - prices going down. I can't see that being a problem.
But let's be honest, the issue most people have has fuck all to do with economics or tax - it's jealousy.
More detail
I agree with the main thrust of the article but it needs more detail on why taxing companies is counter-productive.
I would have liked to have seen some depth on how not being taxed gives companies more scope to invest (more IT, buildings etc = economic boost), hire more people (less unemployment) and stuff like that. Without the meat to your argument people who haven't listened/read Friedman or Hayek et al will be genuinely confused about how it could be a good thing not to tax companies on their profits.
Re: But...
Yep, I made a short comment about it a few weeks ago about the Sale of Goods Act (which I used as the basis of my argument), here it is:
http://forums.reghardware.com/post/1566157
Never got to court I hasten to add.
Re: But...
My missus was all set to get her first iphone on her next upgrade too until she saw my Note 2, and now wants a Galaxy S3 instead. That and the fact I had to sue Apple (successfully) to get a replacement for a broken 18-month old iPad took the shine out of the reality distortion field.
Re: It
" look how many points Mitt Romney is now ahead in the poles."
Those darn right-wing eskimos/penguins!
Re: conservative republicans?
Rubbish - Republicans/Right-Wingers/Tories etc have little interest in THE STATE providing social solutions except as a last resort because the state uses coercion to obtain the resources to provide them. The state also has a terrible track record of inefficiencies, vested interests, unintended consequences and sometimes plain corruption in the provision of these services.
Alternatives are organisations such as charities, churches/mosques/temples, friends, families, local groups etc, all of which are closer to the intended recipient so less layers of bureaucracy taking their slice of the pie, better targeted to needs and perhaps more appreciation by the recipient of where this help has come from. There can still be inefficiencies and corruption but less layers of bureaucracy give less scope for these.
An even more hated (by the left) alternative is that leaving the money that would otherwise be taxed for social services in the pockets of people and business then perhaps they can even fund more JOBS for the poor!!! But that of course would mean the no-longer-so-poor are less dependant on the dear leaders of the state, more self-reliant and with more pride in themselves, so much so that they might even consider voting Tory/Republican...
Can't have that can we!?
Re: SOGA should be mandatory teaching in schools
Fraud? What the hell are you talking about?
My faulty iPad was replaced (after me having to use the courts to get them to do anything about it) and I sold the replacement. How the hell is that fraud? Please explain.
SOGA should be mandatory teaching in schools
Absolutely right, and an important section of the Sale of Goods Act is this:
14 Implied terms about quality or fitness.
(2B)For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—
(a)fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,
(b)appearance and finish,
(c)freedom from minor defects,
(d)safety, and
(e)durability.
Durability was the argument I made when I sued Apple for an iPad failure after 18 months of use. As far as I was concerned an iPad should reasonably work without failures for much longer than 18 months i.e. be durable. Apple Store rejected this, so did their phone support, my email never got a response.
Within a week of me submitting the small claims court action they were on the phone doing everything they could to "resolve this problem to my satisfaction". Old original iPad got replaced with a brand new top of the range 3rd gen one which promptly got eBayed for more than I demanded on the court claim.
Little guy 1 - Apple 0
Re: America bashing
Well said Miami Mike, and I assure you not all us Europeans think badly of the USA. Just too many loud ones.
Posted in Ten netbooks
Asus X101CH
Bought one of those X101CH models recently and it's perfect if, like me, you have to delve into messy networking cabinets on a regular basis to connect up to Cisco kit. It's so light I can hold it in one hand while typing on the other and totally fanless so won't suck in any dust.
With all the pre-installed crud stripped out and a spare ssd installed it's a perfectly acceptable web browser too.
Re: Not man-made
"Actually you can't say it isn't man-made. It might be."
In fairness, you also can't say it's not the whim of Loki. It might be.
Posted in Ten... Ultrabooks
Re: Overpriced
SSD's are under £1/GB now so around a ton for a good make 120GB SSD. Plenty of notebooks out there with good build and battery life as well.
The Acer model approaches reasonable pricing though, to be fair.
Posted in Ten... Ultrabooks
Overpriced
The prices on most of these ultrabooks are ridiculous.
I'll take a notebook 5mm thicker and £700 cheaper thanks.
Posted in Nvidia shows off first 'Kepler' GPUs
Power consumption
"Performance scales more or less linearly (okay, less) with the number of cores on a CPU or GPU, but power consumption and heat dissipation go up exponentially with clock speed."
Nonsense - power consumption and heat dissipation go up exponentially with voltage, but linearly with clock speed. Agreed, you often need to boost voltage to reach the higher clock speeds, but 10% more clock speed = 10% more power used as I understand it.
Intelligence -1 - Wisdom +2!
As any gamer knows well, Intelligence and Wisdom are two separate stats.
I like my conservative paladins built like an ox with the brain of a pea, but the Wisdom to know right from wrong.
That's how I roll! (the d20...)
“There is clearly an underlying problem with data protection in social services departments and we will be meeting with stakeholders from across the UK’s local government sector to discuss how we can support them in addressing these problems,” she added.
Indeed - the underlying problem is that when these things happen then taxpayers, who were not at fault, have to pay a fine. Yet we hear nothing of the individuals who were at fault, or their immediate superiors, losing their jobs, being demoted or perhaps they themselves being fined.
No dis-incentives for failure along with "shared responsibility" means no one cares - I've seen it way too much while working in the public sector.
Posted in Obama says his birthplace is 'in Asia'
If I didn't know any better I'd say all you respondees just got trolled.
Posted in Can the iPad save newspapers?
Re: How do you
Quite easily, they have a lovely crossword section where you tap on one of the clue numbers at the side and it highlights the relevant squares, then just type the answer. You can change individual letters just by tapping on the square.
I love the Telegraph crossword on the iPad and the software is finally getting stable. It was a nightmare in the beginning though, constant crashes to desktop on an older iOS version.
It's worth the ~£10 a month for me, the Telegraph has good journalism with my preferred right-wing slant, minimal ads (none if you navigate via the panels on the left), no bulky papers annoying people to the side of me on the tube/bus, and of course the crossword.
Re: Wow, the more I read of these the more I sympathise with the rioters
"I just value people based on their merits not their bank balance"
Their merits? Their merits seem to be to loot and destroy whenever the opportunity arises, this is clearly proven. It has fuck all to do with the amount of cash in their pockets. I'm sure every single one of the looters has a roof over their head, clothes on their back, and food in their belly. Yet they still went out and caused terror and destruction because they could.
Remove your cranium from your posterior and come down from the ivory tower - the looters of the last few days are scum pure and simple. The reasons for them being scum can be debated at length, and will be, but as of now they are scum.
Those who believe benefits should remain or there will be more crime are making the same mistakes the Romans did, and which led to the fall of their empire: Throwing money at the barbarians to make them go away, only to have them come back for more because it obviously works for them - until the coffers were empty and they decided to stay. We are at the coffers empty stage now.
The answer is exceptionally low benefits (a soup kitchen to eat, a tiny flat to live, clothes from Oxfam), combined with effective, zero-tolerance policing. Leaving only one route open for people to improve their lot: Getting a job and contributing to society.
An emphasis on personal effort as the way to achieve this is crucial, and an end to the bollocks excuses that bleeding-heart wankers give people at the bottom to blame for their lack of success. It's not the bankers, the politicians, the rich or anyone else keeping them down - it's themselves.
Now I've set the world to rights I'm off for a wank!
Re: One swift kick and the whole lot will crumble
"What is it my grandfather used to say "Those who believe in a free market must become its slaves""
Perhaps your grandfather should have read Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" then.
I use the free market to get the things I want at affordable prices, and to sell myself to the highest bidder, or withhold my labour should I feel the need or want.
The only things in my life that I am a slave to are the missus and the state.
CVV?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need to enter the CVV number for any purchases made without the cardholder present, as in most online transactions? And isn't it illegal for companies to retain the CVV number on their systems?
So is MS breaking the law or was the kid just clever enough to remember the numbers?
Um...
So we have to ask Europe to be able to enforce our own laws in our own courts?
Posted in Intel X25-M 34nm Flash SSD
BIOS bug
You did not see the BIOS password bug because Intel stopped distribution of these drives when they found the bug, and only sent the drives back out after they had their firmware updated.
Posted in Twitter goes titsup
Too many twits make a tw...
My money's on Davey Boy over at Tory HQ being the evil mastermind of all these shenanigans.
