Posts by Green Nigel 42
63 posts • joined Tuesday 16th October 2012 17:20 GMT
A League of gentleman
I cynically wonder if there is any political will to change the byzantine nature of our tax system when it benefits the professionals who make up a a fair proportion of MPs in Parliament.
With G8 coming prehaps we could see a global tax for global corporations.
Paris, because she knows the value of kiss.
Old boy network alive & well?
If one refer's to the Smith Ìnstitute Survey on who governs Britan its summary was
"Parlement today better reflects the gender balance and is more ethnically diverse, but in the terms of educational & vocational background the new political elite look remarkably like the old establishment. It is suprising how many of our MP's were privately educated, went to Oxbridge and worked in the professions, particularly the Conservatives and Lib Dems. It seams that our Parliament is becoming less representative in terms of education and occupation, and continues to attract similar types of people from a narrow professional base".
http://www.smith-institute.org.uk/file/Who-Governs-Britan.pdf
With this in mind, what is the likelyhood of persuading your MP & using the established democratic process to change laws & enact tax reform?
I did find it dissappointing to hear this morning that both BP & Shell's Uk headquarters were raided by the EU looking for evidence of price fixing, why was'nt our UK authorities dealing with it, why the big suprise from the MP's questioned, I wonder?
I suspect that with this inbreed cronisim, nepotism, lack of real world experience & vested interests the Global Corps will continue to evade there moral dues.
I genuinely hate W8, but upvoted your post because I respect your integrity for merely saying it works for you & I suspect others. In my book your opinion on actual use does not merit down votes.
Adobe flash updates anyone?
No thanks, I'll stick with the Malware.
The name is Popov, Dusko Popov.
He was a Serbian, double agent who worked for the British Intelligence during WW2, fed misinformation to the Nazi's including false D day locations & times. Also gathered intelligence including actual details of Pearl Harbour attack which Hoover ignored ( despised Popov's colouful playboy character).
Ian Flemming's experience working with Popov lead in part, to the creation of James Bond.
The Perfect Spy?
If Brabford simply wanted a film/book to illustrate the shadowy ( duplicitous, amoral & seedy) nature of intelligence work, did he or has he considered Le Carrie's " The spy who came in from the cold". The film in its bleak black & white complemented by Richard Burtons complimentary performance of resigned dissolute operative haunts me still.
DRM'd?
Did IBM DRM protect @ molecular level too?!
Their asset?
Its the issuing of bonds against an asset that has been gained by questionable morals that has upset people here & which the article points to.
Re: Practical solutions
I agree that Apple have not done anything illegal, but the point is they are morally deficient & actions are damaging to SMB's, hence to the economy & ultimately us.
As I originally stated I have with others, approached, written, emailed (& received responses) my MP, the deputy PM on this & other issues.
Unfortunately I agree that my & others decision not to patronise these companies will not be noticed, but I will do this out of principal & of course enable me to look my MP squarley in the eye!
Re: Practical solutions
To those who thumbed down my exercising the democratic & market processes to attempt change.
What actions do you propose?
Please note that we have shamed the London Olympic sponsors into dropping plans to take the special tax dodges.
We are now focusing our attention upon Npowers tax limiting practices. So democracy driven by the grass roots can work & will again.
Re: Practical solutions
Where as I agree with your preservation of personal integrity (hence my thumb up on your reply), you have done this by making a moral judgement that Apple has violated a moral standard and are guilty. If you had decided to purchase, knowing & accepting this, then you would have both endorsed & profited too from that original violation & therefore guilty by association.
Hypocrisy or ignorance
Yesterday during one of those interminable wife's shopping trips, (usual does this make my bum look big in this trap! (no its your fat thst does it I think!) she decided to stop at a Starbucks for a break. I declined a coffee & justified being there to myself, by taking up a seat of a paying customer (sad cop out I know).
Next to us where a group heatedly discussing corporate tax dodging as we are now. However they where supping their Latte's & enjoying the free Wifi surfing on their iPhones!
You are what you buy?
Agree
The tax they dodge has to be picked up by you, me & the honest with increased taxes, cuts & government dept.
Such companies often hire at minimum wage which in effect is subsidised by benifits to make it a living one.
So a portion of their profits & cash mountain is our tax, that has been sucked out of our economy.
Practical solutions
It's nice to let off steam, offer opinions & hopefully test out ideas in an open forum here. The point is to take it further & do something!
For myself I try not to patronise the tax cheats, by buying their stuff you purchase part of their guilt.
Secondly, sign petitions, written, emailed as a group & talked to my MP, MEP, councillors.
Yes, the little I do may be insignificant but as Gandhi said, it is important to do it.
SMB hell
What are the solutions?
1. Globalisation of tax
2. A simple point of sale tax
Both fraut with problems, inertia of self (politial)interest & potential loopholes. Would they be any less effective & inefficient?
At present it is the SMB's who are trying to complete with higher margins of honestly paying their taxes that have to be suffering. Aren't these the true engines of the economies, is such actions by Apple again stifling growth,innovativation & the world economy for the benefit of Wall Street?
Photoshoped
I do hope not.
Re: "Coffee?"
On reflection prehaps the Ceo of a certain Korean conglomerate might relish "coffee" with Tim!
Beats the heck out of suing him.
"Coffee?"
Is that like "coming in for a coffee? ", Ooer!
What utter tosh
Sorry , must rush or the BB Ark will leave without me, and the mutant star goat gets us all.
Intro Offer
It would be interesting to know how many W8 licences they've sold sans the £40 & other upgrade introductory offers.
Square steering wheel.
With that one analogy you made me think of W8 as the Austin Allegro of operating systems.
Was' nt that a fugly mess that was forced on us by arrogant management & thrown together by a demoralised work force too.
To cap it all it became known as the "All agro" in the trade too!
Re: Flop
Or can't work out how get them online!
Re: Flop
Maybe that's because they are so trouble free!
Re: Who cares anyway ?...
If find Kingsoft & co are great for minor editing, but still suffer from incompatibilities with Office docs. These mainly being format, tables & macro on the more heavyweight items. I do suspect it is more to do with MS twisting the doc standards.
However I have recently been able to load CloudOn on to my Android device. Problems gone so far as it appears to be MS Office for free! Only hassle is the online need, but no different to Office 365 & s whole wad of cash cheaper.
And today we are going to look through the Square Window
Knock on the Door,
Turn the key
Open the door & its Playschool.
Re: But surely?
Does this not make the boards of sale banks, the finacial watchdogs, the major share holders (thw expert pension investors), those who voted for & set in motion deregulation with associated loan fuelled econonic boom, even more culpable? After all this is their traditional business which they should know inside out by now, unless they are incompetent arrogant privileged horray Henry's!
Oh & stop calling me Shirley
Re: UK or US?
That sounds like affordable Andriod vs iPhone!
The iPhone would make a superior hammer thou!
Re: UK or US?
Or Brits buy on value, Americans on the latest shiny new! Lets face it you can't really generalize & quote stereo types as facts,
One fact though Brits went to Afgan as part of their NATO commitment along with the other members.
Posted in Ten smartphones with tablet ambitions...
Re: Name Change
Suggest Mopads as the phone side is a small proportion of actual use.
Posted in Ten smartphones with tablet ambitions...
Re: very few users have any use for them
Apple started this unwelcome trend not only to buy ludicrously expensive RAM in upgrading, but forcing you to buy more storage on the iCloud, which pleases the Carriers with increased data usage with streaming. ( thus justifying their promotion of Apple phones @ its un subsidies high margin price).
Re: Just a little load of old wind
Only governments could support the development, waste disposal & decommissioning of nuclear stations.
Thats why the Nuclear was split of during privatisation & sold off subsequently with resposibility for operating costs.
The B Ark awaits
Probably best to keep the telephone sanitiser' s this time!
Re: Why not just build a solar panel that covers half the world....
Pro Nuclear as I am, does not the cost of R&D, construction & disposal incurred over the past 60 years running into billions mostly paid by the governments on for stategic needs (military & economic) count as a subsidy?
When the Power companies were privatised, the nuclear side was split off & sold without the disposal costs to make it attractive to the Stock Market
Solar panel subsidies were grossly excessive, but are only temporary & there to kick start the market ( as seen by ever lower cost/watt by economies of scale + r&d benifits at the rate of Moores law towards parity with coal generation rates ). If only the intermittent nature & night time/winter problems could be sorted by storage!
Please note that people with micro generation match their consumption to their genetation & so effectively reduce grid base load & storage needs.
Re: In the early 60's Labour cancelled the TSR2 in favour of the "customized" F111 variant.
Black night rocket program before that, built on a shoe string & successfully put a satellite in orbit then shut down!
Think deeper.
Fail for procurement MOD/BAE/LM/DOD & we were going to be stitched up like a kipper from the start!
Staggering incompetence, as the old joke said, man walking down Whitehall asked which side the Mod was, "ours I hope" replied the PC.
Posted in Electric cars stall in USA, Australia
Re: @ Matt Bryant, Chicken or Egg?
First off, I'm actually pro nuclear, happy to live within 10 miles of a Nuclear station and support the planned building of additional reactors. As an engineer (not in that industry but have worked with colleagues who were), I find easy to accept the very small risk of accident and disposal of waste has. As such regard it as the only present cost effective non carbon based fossil energy source & not those windmills & solar panels which do have their place but can only be seen realistically as under development at present.
Again I see Fission only as a stepping stone (giving us 50-100 years by which time Fusion may be ready!) towards a truly sustainable energy solution, In many areas I agree with the I MechE 's UK 2050 energy plan (see link)
.http://www.imeche.org/Libraries/Key_Themes/IMechE_UK_Energy_2050_Report.sflb.ashx
This outlines an achievable plan rather than the UK governments impossible Energy Bill of 2012,(which of course includes the excessive reliance on wind, something Parliament produces an excess of!)
As regard the heavy influence of Big oil & defense on Government. I can bear witness to the extraordinary efficient use of resources by procurement of lobbied for government projects in the Western nations, collaborative programs are even more effective (the JSF & non cat & trap carriers my favorite). The benefit we do gain is in the rapid development of technology in times of crisis, but these of course cannot be released for commercial exploitation for security for many years.
The real waste however is that the brightest & most talented are attracted to these industries for the higher salaries in common with the City recruitment. To be fair the Defense industry has preserved the core of engineering in the UK against the Citys,Government policy & old style British managements destructive short term outlook that has destroyed most of our manufacturing base.
I do not say that the Defense Industry or big Oil should be prevented from lobbying it is a question of balance, after taking in practicalities, it is still a dangerous & uncaring world & change cannot happen that quickly, but they should not be seen as the only way to secure our energy needs (as seen by recent conflicts & support of unsavory regimes). The defending of our economy can be increasingly, more effectively achieved by applying as much political will, resources, vigor & talent into developing a diverse non fossil fuel energy system as we have applied to in supporting Oil & Defense. Innovation built this nation & can again if we apply it to an expanding market area, it could generate far greater, longer lived sustained growth, than applying lt to the same old projecting of political economic & ultimately military power for an ever diminishing resource.
Posted in Electric cars stall in USA, Australia
Chicken or Egg?
Having read through a lot of the posts and arguments for / against the battery swap scheme, EV's, crop fuel & other alternatives here, I am drawn back to my initial thoughts.
We need urgently to change our suicidal mono-culture dependence on fossil fuels which we almost exclusively depend on not only for the the maintenance of our living standards, but for our survival.
China, India & other rapidly developing economies competing for this finite resource to supply their industry, transport & change to a meat centered diet. The laws of supply & demand will drive prices up & force us to look harder, take greater risks & fight wars to preserve a secure supply. . Of course big oil & defense companies with their powerful lobbies have a massive vested interest to maintain the status quo & have the consequent benefits of state subsidies in the hidden form of political & armed intervention . However Shale oil/gas only be viewed as a breathing space to develop & try out new methods of energy generation, supply, storage & efficiency improvements
As I see it, this company is attempting to setting up a commercial solution to overcome the short comings of EV's, battery technology & the variability problem of solar/wind (with out the need for subsidy?). They are putting their money where their mouth is, (our opinions are cheap by comparison)! If they succeed or fail the knowledge & skills of this exercise will be of benifit to us all.
Posted in Solar undercuts coal in New Mexico
The search for a viable sustainable energy source
Renewables are not about an attempt to cut Carbon dioxide emissions & their associated global warming effects ( a link yet tobe understood or proven in any true scientific methord yet). Its an on going attempt to develop in a real world senario viable alternatives to increasingly difficult to find finite resources for economic & most importantly strategic/political factors.Maybe as much effort, resources & political should be applied to achiving this, as given to the production and running of defense policies around the world & so break the prisoners dilema attitude.
Ubuntu 12.10 & Fedora
Is this Samsung firmware brick problem restricted to Ubuntu 12.10 triggering it.or will other distro's do it?
It seams especially ironic as Ubuntu 12.10 (& Fedora) are supposed to come with a MS generated EUFI key, (with great lot of criticism from the Free Software Foundation & Linux community !)
I agree with AC, stop using Ubuntu, its getting too bloated to run on anything but the latest machines, bugs remain unfixed. I too have moved to Mint.
Re: @RAMChYLD NO problems with old Samsungs
Your case in point of Jap cars being quality British built, (often regarded as better built & in higher productive factories than Japan) illustrates what happens when you remove the cronied, nepotist, corrupt. arrogant, Ox bridged BA'd old style British management.
Now all we have to do is remove them from the expensive inefficient legal, banking, city "investment", parliamentary systems & the recession will be sorted!
Re: Original mistake to build lap-tabs was Apple's
Please, make my shallow chauvinistic male anti PC day, is this Ipad Training Class in Essex, are they Blond?
Nexus media importer
As I understand it the Nexus has to be rooted for full import/export & file editing to USB OTG connected storage.
Using Nexus Media Importer App allows access & of course import on the none rooted, but no editing & exporting.
So if still true, it is good as it forces you to keep running of Apps on the internal memory, and data on the removable. However not as tidy or useful as a SD slot.
Re: Good news
I believe it is common practice that all the major aerospace companies use their own people to gather the Flight test data required for civil cerification. Normally, the civil certification agency does not get involved in flight testing until the manufacturer has found and fixed any development issues and is ready to seek certification. At the end othe day said data is presented for granting of aircraft certification
All those involved have hold licences issued by the controling authority for that country. eg FAA or CAA
Boeing and many others have been given dispensations on certain saftey requiements, citing past reliability data, (The design and certification concept that fuel tank explosions could be prevented solely by precluding all ignition sources that are regarded as causing the loss of TWA flight 800. or the staggered rectification of the rudder actuator on the 737, rather full grounding (this caused rudder to be locked full stbd or port after correcting from severe turblance & causing the aircraft to roll & nose dive in. and many other instances from other manufacturers)
It appears that commercial pressures are powerful in mitigating saftey.
With the real risk to Boeing that the 787 holds, I know of one avionics bay fire occoured in the prototype, that maybe history is repeating it's self.o
