yet another blog

Sign spotted in one of the car parks near my local hospital.

Ok, I know its a hospital car park, but it has to be observed that this particular car park is in fact on the other side of the road from the hospital buildings.

And its a car park. You know… those places where people park their cars… you know, those smelly things that emit loads of noxious fumes from their exhaust pipes.
And car parks are places where folk tend not just to park their cars, but also rev their engines, leave the motors idling, and generally belch out even more noxious fumes.

Yet if the implications of this particular sign are followed through, then all that’s fine, providing one doesn’t smoke. Clearly, in the hospital authorities’ opinion smoking in the environment of a car park is a far greater health hazard than car exhaust fumes.

Now don’t you think this anti-smoking campaign is getting just a tad too obsessive, a mite too ridiculous?

Just had my phone bill in from BT, and I noticed a new and interesting little charge of £4.50 (before VAT that is) itemised as “Payment Charges”.

Now you need to understand that all I pay BT for is the actual phone line. All the calls I make, and my internet connection, have been transferred to another supplier (the reasons for which being described in an ealier post at BT Yahoo sucks; suffice to say that it could be attributed to BT incompetence).

Well, back to the issue of this new “Payment Charge” (and if ever there was a misnomer this must be it, for its literal interpretation is that BT are charging customers for making a payment to them!!! - the logic of which is, to avoid the charge simply don’t pay them!).

They very kindly (that’s a bit of sarcasm incidentally) enclose a semi-glossy coloured four-page leaflet (wonder how much that cost to produce?) explaining this new charge, in the following terms…

“The payment processing fee has been introduced because some methods of payment are costly to process. But it’s not just about the cost of taking the payments; following up when customers forget to pay on time does involve spending time and money. Most telecom providers do not accept new customers unless they pay by Direct Debit.”

Well, my immediate reaction to that statement is, in a word, “bullshit”.

Lemme explain. I pay my BT bill quarterly, in cash, over the Post Office counter (and generally on time).
From the point at which the hard cash leaves my grubby little mitt and is handed over the entire process is automated, i.e., computerised. The only cost involved is that of one computer talking to another (given that the systems for enabling this are already in place, and have been for quite some time).
The extra cost that BT incurs by having to bill me quarterly by post (oh dear, what a hardship!) is in actually producing my quarterly bill, printing it out, and mailing it to me (all processes that can be, if not already have been, computerised be it noted).

Now I don’t know if anyone’s actually ever explained this to BT, but it has long been a tradition that when one enters into business the arduous task of actually collecting payment for services has always been, and indeed should be, regarded as part and parcel of the service being provided. Were it not so its difficult to see how any business could actually have ever gotten off the ground.
The point being that the reason one enters into business in the first place is to… um… earn a living; i.e., actually receive (which implies “collect”) money for the service or goods provided. This in fact is the very nature of trade.
The idea that the task of collecting payment for the service or goods provided should become a service in its own right (that is to say, incurring a separate and distinct charge) is perverse to say the least.

And in regard to their comment about “following up when customers forget to pay on time does involve spending time and money” - have they never heard of levying surcharges for late payment?

Basically the whole thing is a con, and represents a price hike, with a slight discount being given to those who choose to pay either by Direct Debit or (another recommendation of BT) “Monthly Payment Plan”.

And here we get to the crux of the matter. For in fact what BT are doing is penalising all those who choose not to pay by (or simply don’t have) a bank account.
And this is the most disturbing aspect of the con. For it represents yet a further inducement to encourage folk to have all their cash affairs handled by the Banks, the implications of which (in terms of transaction tracking, potential identity theft, etc) deprive us of true control of our own finances and privacy.
(To say nothing of the even more worrisome implications should compulsory ID cards ever be introduced along with a national database incorporating linkages to Bank databases, opening up even more possibilities for State monitoring and control of personal finances.)

Nor let’s get into discussing the situation where a person agrees to pay BT by Direct Debit but, for one reason or another, fails to have sufficient funds in their account to cover the Order. Consequently the Bank sends them a snotty letter and charges them an horrendous amount for the privilege, or extends a temporary overdraft facility and then charges an horrendous amount for that. The conclusion to draw from which is that BT must be in collusion with the Banks to engage in profiteering!

I’ve said it before, and no doubt I’ll say it again… BT sucks!

Were it not for the unfortunate fact that my current ISP requires a BT phone line in order to function I’d have told BT to sling their hook a long time ago.
Hmm… perhaps its time I looked for an alternative setup.

Is it any wonder that the US is increasingly being perceived as a rogue and terrorist nation when its domestic policing leaves so much to be desired.

By chance I came across this video clip of a police officer in Hot Springs, Arkansas, arresting youngsters for, of all things, skateboarding! What completely amazed me wasn’t just the fact of their arrest, but the manner in which that was carried out. Watch for yourself…

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direct Skateboarding in Hot Springs, AK

So completely bizarre did this seem to me that I was prompted to email the Chief of Police there. Here’s my message…

For the attn. of Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
641 Malvern Avenue Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901

Sir,

I’ve recently had the privilege of watching a video clip of a police officer arresting some skateboarding kids. As if that weren’t sufficiently ridiculous, I watched in complete amazement bordering on disbelief as this particular officer (probably twice the weight of each of the kids he attempted to arrest) forced them face-down on the ground, threatened to spray them, and handcuffed them.

I’m intrigued to know whether this is standard operating procedure for American police officers, or is it unique to your particular jurisdicton?

“Disproportionate response” is a phrase that springs to my mind; “over-reaction” is another; “abuse of office” yet a third.

If this is indeed standard operating procedure at grassroots level in your domestic law enforcement agencies it helps to explain so much about the exreme human rights abuses and blatant disregard for the Rule of Law demonstrated by your federal government.

Just thought you’d be interested to know that this officer’s despicable behaviour has attracted the avid attention of people as far away as here in the UK.

If anyone else fancies sending a message of greeting to the Chief of Police there, contact details are as follows:

Phone: (501) 321-6789
Fax: (501) 321-6708
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
email: bsouthard@cityhs.net
641 Malvern Avenue Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901

“Respect zones” criticised as gimmick - Yahoo! News UK

LONDON (Reuters) - The government was accused on Wednesday of failing to get to grips with anti-social behaviour after plans were revealed to give 40 areas of England and Wales with the worst social problems special help.The Home Office’s anti-social behaviour advisor Louise Casey said councils would have to agree to introduce “respect zones” to crack down on yobbish behaviour in exchange for extra resources.

The Conservatives dismissed the plan as a gimmick and said it was an admission of failure by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government, which has pledged to tackle delinquency and other anti-social behaviour.

read the full article…

Whenever I come across articles like this, I’m irritatingly reminded of Blair’s “respect agenda” that he was pushing during the last election (which also reminds me - we’ve not heard that catchphrase recently. I wonder why?).
Anyway, “irritatingly” because I’m struck by the audacity of a government and a prime minister that dare rumble on about respect when their own behaviour leaves so much to be desired in terms of commanding the respect of others.

Possibly if they learned the meaning of such words as “honesty” and “integrity” - and what the hell’s the word to describe not abusing one’s office? - and, having learned those meanings, fully embraced and practised them, then maybe they could start preaching to us lot.

Absent that, so far as I’m concerned all their utterances on the subject of respect are meaningless drivel - a view I don’t doubt is shared by a lot of folk.

To my old-fashioned way of thinking, for commercial enterprises “service” should to a large extent equate to providing the customer with what the customer actually wants.
Apparently it doesn’t work that way with takeaways.

Now I’m not a great fan of takeaway food, but over the past few years I’ve frequently found myself in situations where that’s the only viable sustenance option.

So there I am with a bunch of others and someone proposes ordering a takeaway for delivery.

Nine times outta ten I’ll go for the beefburger option - straight beefburger, in a bun, with onions… and nothing else!
(Got a bit of a weakness for these, I have to confess. Almost certainly harks back to the days of my mis-spent youth when, returning home after a night on the town, and considerably inebriated, I’d find myself stopping at one burger bar after another, such that my homeward trek of some miles was one continual munch.)

Now, I’m a very simple person, with very simple tastes. So I’ll repeat: straight beefburger, in a bun, with onions… and nothing else. Not difficult, you woulda thought.
So guess how many times what I get is beefburger in a bun sure enough, plus cheese, plus salad, plus relish.
Or sometimes without the relish.
Or sometimes (more often than not) without the onions.
Or with cheese, and tomato ketchup.
Or sometimes without the cheese.
One time I even got all the trimmings above, plus an egg! But no onions.

How many times do I get what I’ve actually asked for. It doesn’t happen! The default seems to be beefburger in a bun with a slice of cheese, and ketchup.

Now if that’s what I wanted, surely I would have asked for it?

So what’s wrong with takeaways? Does working in one preclude the use of ears, or a brain? Have they never heard of giving the customer what the customer wants?
And since when did the cheeseburger transform into the standard beefburger?

Nor is this curious behaviour confined to one particular takeaway. Over the years I must have tried every one in town - all of them seemingly incapable of actually providing what I’ve ordered.

P’raps there’s just one lot of incompetent people and they spend their entire time working in every takeaway in town. Or maybe they’re all thick. Or could be there’s a conspiracy against me personally.
Now you could argue that its me that’s the stupid one, cos I should have learned my lesson by now. I suppose in a sense I am, as I can’t seem to stop harbouring a misplaced optimism that “perhaps, this time, they’ll get it right”. Or possibly I’m just a grumpy old man.

Whatever, I sometimes fear this perverse desire on the part of seemingly all takeaway staff to not provide me with what I (usually quite politely) request may be just enough to make me turn vegetarian (said with all due respect to my many vegetarian friends). Saying which, I wonder if I ordered beefburger in a bun with onions and nothing else and without the beefburger I’d end up with a salad roll?

What it all boils down to I think is a deep-felt burning resentment at having someone else’s food fads imposed upon me not only without my permission but also against my expressed wishes.
One day I’m gonna order a hundred of the little buggers (sorry, burgers) then return them unpaid-for on the basis that what I get isn’t what I’ve ordered. Perhaps that’ll teach ‘em!

Check this one out!

Doubt if this’ll indicate any significant change overall for smokers, but its about time we saw initiatives like this being developed.

The almost world-wide anti-smoking campaign that we’ve seen maturing over at least the last decade (possibly longer - its been going on too long now for me to remember accurately) is a superb example of successfull mass brainwashing.

Mention smoking now to self-professed human rights, civil liberties and freedom campaigners and it seems their ability to think clearly and rationally, to question, to probe, and to analyse, suddenly goes into melt-down.

Yeah. Sure. Smoking is seriously bad for one’s health. But so are countless other human pursuits, not least of which is the excessive imbibing of alcohol.

And the bottom line has surely always got to be the question: “Should we have the freedom to choose”?

Whilst I’m totally in favour of ensuring that full information is freely available regarding the risks attendant upon the pursuit of a given activity, the choice of whether or not to pursue that activity should still be ours to make.

Far too many of the tactics and arguments that’ve been used to promote the anti-smoking position have been, to say the least, dubious. Words such as spurious, logically flawed, and downright dishonest spring to mind. (a propos of which, its almost amusing to note the way the following article’s been written: a classic example of the way emotive words can be used to elicit a desired response!)
IOL: Smokers light up, chill out on their airline
By Eva Kuehnen

Berlin - “We would like to remind passengers that smoking is permitted on this flight.”

It has been a long time since most European air travellers heard anything like this, but a German entrepreneur has set up an airline that will give its customers the freedom to chain-smoke from take-off to landing.

more…

Against my better judgement, thought I’d try out one of those “social bookmarking” services - y’know, the ones where you upload all your fav bookmarks and share ‘em with other folk.

As there’s a Firefox plugin for del.icio.us (another Yahoo connection here - apparently it was bought out by Yahoo) seemed worthwhile to go with them, so I signed up and then uploaded all the bookmarks from my browser.

Ok, perhaps that was a bit of a silly way to do it, but there’s an option the site provides for doing that, and no attendant warnings that anything can go awry, or even friendly cautions as to what not to do.

Well, I’m now faced with the task of trawling through all of them, selecting those to share, deleting the rubbish ones, tidying up the tags, and generally making them presentable. In other words a fairly intensive bit of processing involved.

Get about two-thirds of the way through when the whole thing freezes on me an’ I’m presented with an error page that advises me either there’s been an error in the program or that I’ve not been “gentle” enough in my usage! In any event, I was locked out and, here I am some eight hours later, still locked out. Ho hum! I’m beginning to think that anything with a Yahoo connection might be worth avoiding.

‘fraid I have to confess… I’m one of those net-Luddites who’re still using dial-up to connect. But at least I have two separate isp accounts. Or I did!

My main one was with BT, principally cos I’ve got a BT phone line, so it made sense to have my internet access with them as well (or at least, I thought it did).

Well, everything worked fine until they hived off (or whatever they did) their internet division and created this weird entity named “BT Yahoo”.

First problem I noticed was with my webspace. It was still there sure enough. But could I access it? Could I hell. Everything was on-line, but I couldn’t upload, edit, delete, or anything (an’ I’m not really a novice at this sort of caper, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t “user error”).
Normal ftp wouldn’t work. Ftp through the browser wouldn’t work. Ftp through Dreamweaver (the way I normally manage sites) wouldn’t work. Even trying to go through my own account page at BTinternet (latterly BT OpenWorld - before it became BT Yahoo) wouldn’t work.
So I gave up. Wasn’t too critical, cos I’ve got plenty of other stuff to be getting on with anyway.

Tried emailing BT, but to no avail. In fact, I didn’t even receive a response (or responses, cos I sent more than one email).

So I put the problem on the back burner.

Until yesterday.

Now let me explain that my second isp is the one I normally use to access the internet, reserving the BT account only for BT-related type stuff (like not managing the website I’ve got with them!).
So I disconnect from my default isp and dial up BT, only to be confronted with a page informing me there’s a problem with accessing the ‘net, and redirecting me to another page. Which link I dutifully click, taking me to a page that informs me BT Yahoo have had a problem collecting payment for my package and have therefore downgraded me to Pay As You Go. Which is very strange, cos I always pay quarterly in advance through my phone bill.
Anyway, I’m being redirected to yet another page, promising me the option to re-register for my package.
So once more I click the link… lo and behold, here comes a message saying I’m using the wrong browser and should upgrade to at least IE4!

Bloody cheek. Not only do they lie to me about my account status, they’re now telling me I’ve got to use some crappy Microsucks product instead of Firefox (and the latest stable version of Firefox at that)!!!

Obviously a phone call to BT’s in order.

Following morning (i.e., earlier today) I prepare to spend a coupla hours on the phone negotiating the ubiquitous automated answering system. Finally I get to speak to someone in BT accounts.
Before actually mentioning the problem I’ve encountered I talk them through my account, getting them to list the various items I’ve got on my quarterly bill; further getting them to confirm that I’m actually paying quarterly in advance for BT Surftime and BT Yahoo Internet Services. Yet further getting them to confirm that my account has always been paid in a timely manner, and that there are no outstanding amounts waiting for payment.
I then clarify for the very pleasant gal on the other end of the phone why I’m calling and, after a few seconds embarrassed silence from her end, there’s the open admission that clearly there’s been a mistake, and they offer to connect me to BT Yahoo straight away so that it can be sorted.

Preparing for another lengthy wait I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself, almost immediately, talking to someone whom I suspect was probably talking to me from India or somewhere.
Anyway, describing the problem (and having got this other person to admit there’s obviously been a screw-up), I’m then informed that what’s happened is that BT Yahoo have discontinued the Surftime package. “So how does that justify downgrading me to PAYG from a service I’ve already paid for in advance?” I ask, and “why wasn’t I at least notified?”.
(I forgot to point out that had this explanation been offered on the first error page I’d encountered on the web I’d have been in a far better mood than that generated by it being implied that I’d lost my service cos I owed them money… bloody cheek!)
Cleverly avoiding my questions, this remote telephonist offers to get the responsible department to re-activate some sort of service for me, and that they’ll phone me back.
“So do you mean I’ve got to sit here for the next couple of hours waiting for a phone call?” I ask, rather irately (silly me.. I’d been expecting that they could get the problem - i.e., their screw-up - sorted straight away, or at least within a few hours, without needing further input from me).
I’m told that the department in question will probably call me within the next two to three days.
“What?!” I yelp. “So what about the internet access that I’m not getting that I’ve already paid for in advance?”

By this time I’d just about had it with BT Yahoo. Which is what I told them. In no uncertain terms. Adding the rider that for the past coupla months I’ve been mulling over going broadband (true, absolutely true) and that BT would have been my preferred provider. Tough! I’ve just this minute signed up with my other provider, and BT Yahoo can get stuffed.

They’ve clearly got a lot to learn about customer relations.