Posts by heyrick

Re: You are all thieves

There was stereo 8 track. It used two tracks in tandem. There was also a quadrophonic version as well, believe it or not. I used to have a player, along with some obscure stuff from the 70s (sounded like a cross between Abba and Queen, only not as good as either) recorded with four channels, but the player died and I never managed to locate another.

Re: Typical '80s IT: Good idea leads to additional duties, without extra training or pay

"It happens *all the time*"

Oh, yes.

Any idea one has that is considered a good idea is:

A, appropriated by a boss who claims they thought of it

B, now an expected part of one's job

C, with no increase in respect or salary

And:

D, utterly one's fault if it all goes tits in the air (said boss will suffer convenient amnesia regarding their previous claims)

I've found it's simply much more peaceful to make and refine plans in my head, whilst doing exactly nothing.

Re: Against all odds

Given that China's population is the same as America and the EU added together, then doubled... I don't think that's going to worry too many people right now. Their local market is potentially massive.

Re: The next U-Turn?

"BoJo will take us out without a deal then he'll quit as PM"

Well, be did get voted in on the promise to "get Brexit done", so I guess crashing out, breaking the country, and making it a global laughing stock is technically getting Brexit done...even if it's about as useful as tidying the garden by flamethrowing it...

Re: Google, you suck donkey balls

Firefox on Android (am older one that, like, works) and UBlock Origin. Drops placeholders for every image over 256K. Works with fancy JavaScript image manipulation too.

Sure, it breaks some sites (like online shopping) but there's an option to allow images for that site upon my discretion.

So there's absolutely no technical reason why it can't be done. Simply a matter of an advertising company creating a browser that makes it easier to provide intrusive adverting. Duh, whodathunkit?

Re: @Cederic - Stockpile your popcorn

"Stop believing the EU."

Conveniently, stop believing in the options of those whose narrative is contrary to the effluent spewed by the current bunch of wankers pretending to run the country.

How about you stop believing the Tories instead? After all, their numerous U-turns indicate that even if they should happen to say something that makes sense, they'll disagree with it shortly afterwards. You know, like the so-called Withdrawal Agreement.

Re: @Cederic - Stockpile your popcorn

"belief that Brexit will lead to violence due to empty supermarkets? I haven't seen a single credible argument"

Uh, didn't the government do some sort of study that included exactly that as a very probable outcome in the event of a messy transition due to a crash out?

I seem to remember that was around the time that we learned that Rees-Mogg's claim that things would all sort themselves out in a little while was measured in decades, not months...

Re: And this is why I stopped buying stuff from Amazon about 3 years ago

"Plenty of local shops can order stuff for you from their suppliers that they don't stock in their store."

I use Amazon. Because my experiences with local shops was variations of:

* If it's not on the shelf, we don't have it.

* Huge markup applied to stuff that is ordered in (moreso if it was priced in another currency).

* Plus they'll expect you to pay for shipping too.

* And the date it'll arrive may be "several weeks from now".

As opposed to the evil empire that sells the thing at the expected price and will get it in my letterbox the day after tomorrow.

It's hard to wean away from Amazon when the local shops are so fucking useless that you wonder if they even understand the concept of commerce.

Re: Before shouting at Amazon...

"already absolved Amazon of all responsibility for their actions in the presence of a government to blame"

Which is an amusingly incorrect interpretation of what was written.

Employees want rights, privileges, decent pay, etc.

Companies want to pay as little as they can (anything else eats into their precious profits that the people at the top of the pile enjoy), treat their staff as expendable commodities, and offer as little as possible. I would imagine, now that there are more people than jobs, that such concepts as employee loyalty are little more than nice sounding platitudes to stop the employees forming unions... Companies aren't run for the benefit of the employees.

Enter the government. The ones who are supposed to have the power and ability to get things done. Employees don't make employment law, neither do companies (although they're in a better position to be able to bribe lobby the politicians). Companies won't willingly have a change of heart and suddenly treat everybody like actual people. If they did, if they would, then we wouldn't need the many pages of employment law that exist. We wouldn't have needed the EU to enhance workers rights. And we wouldn't need to have such things as tribunals.

If a company treats its employees badly and this treatment is enough to cause outrage (and Amazon's treatment of employees is a story that gets done to death every Christmas) then there are only two possibilities:

Possibility one, they are breaking the law and should have their asses handed to them.

Possibility two, they aren't breaking the law, in which case it is the government that should be brought to account for explain how and why they're okay with such behaviour. But don't hold your breath as the government are completely okay with zero hours contacts, just to prove how much the little low wage "employee" really means in the scheme of things.

I'm sick to the back teeth of it.

You may be, we all may be, but it isn't going away and it will be an important (fundamental) aspect to England's interaction with everything (including the other parts of the union) for many years to come.

It isn't going away. If anything, it's going to get worse (as if that were possible).

Perhaps the current idiots in Westminster are hoping that everybody will be very fed up with it all. It'll help them push through whatever clusterfuck "deal" benefits them and screws the likes of you and me...

Re: "moral default"

Take it to its illogical conclusion. Get a bunch of people into the MRI, show them some photos of primary school children flashing the camera.

Right... You you and you, prison, now.

Re: Theft is taking with the intention of depriving the owner of the thing stolen

Your intention may well not have been to deprive the owner of his or her property, but the thing is that the law attempts to provide remedies for harm. Your taking something did not directly cause harm, the subsequent absence of their belongings did. Since the law will look at it from their point of view (deprived of thingamabob), that's how it's going to be approached.

Exactly.

There's also a big difference between tax evasion, and a music industry that would like to sell you multiple copies of the same thing. Who is really dishonest there? It's shades of grey.

Besides, ripping songs off YouTube (that somebody else uploaded) has helped introduce me to groups I've not heard before, some of who can count me amongst their CD sales.