10th Feb 2010
You should probably Tweet that?
Okay, this is taking the mickey now. Google Buzz will now be included in Google Mail to take on Twitter, who is stealing share from Facebook who in turn made MySpace redundant. Right, so this is in addition to Google Orkut, Google Wave, Google Talk and Google Boss Alarm. Google Buzz basically means you can do in Google Mail what you can do on Twitter, or Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Bebo, LinkedIn etc etc – so why should you care?
Put simply, you shouldn’t. Because before long someone will develop a method for updating your Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, Talk, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo and MySpace from the same place – a mash-up that will leave all the individual sites as nothing more than delivery platforms with less relevance on the user interface, and consequently advertising revenues. Hence the “race to the bottom” that is going on right now.
The solution? There isn’t one. Money is there to be made and you and I are merely a metric in their KPIs. If you go to a different social network they lose money and therefore you must be stopped at all costs. Again, you need not care because eventually it will all balance out and the various SocNets will focus on core areas …more
14th Jan 2010
The British. Always first to the post with charity donations which, considering we’re all skint, is an outstanding testament to the British character. No matter the cause, so long as it is worthy of course, we’ll dig deep to help those affected and we can all be proud of our achievements when it comes to giving. There are two well publicised means by which we British donate, that is Government Aid and our own pockets, but we should be more aware of how business finance donations.
It’s all good and well the public dipping in to their hard earned wages and the government getting the vote-factor by sending of millions in tax revenues but businesses should be profiling their own charitable donations to allow the public a break from their guilt. If business were to finance large donations in the name of the country then the public could feel somewhat better about holding on to their cash and spending it here. That may come across as an excuse for the public not to bother helping people out but the point is not to reduce the amount we give in aid, but to force the hand of business to relieve the stresses on the already stretched public. …more
11th Jan 2010
I think that the NHS would work great in a country whose population is not more than 40 million
Private Health Insurance in the UK is now a better alternative for your health and well-being than the NHS following rumoured plans to make it increasingly difficult to receive adequate treatment for many ailments and serious health issues. There is mounting evidence that the Government will instruct the NHS to prevent Gastric Band surgery for all but the most severe cases with an limit set at 60 BMI for patients to be considered for the controversial treatment.
Private Health Insurance companies are keen to make the public aware of the alternatives to constantly shifting restrictions in treatment including procedures and drugs. With NHS spending to be pushed further in to the spotlight, given the present economic climate, it is left for the British public to consider private options for the health needs of themselves and their family.
While many will ask how effective an instant treatment for an arguably self-induced medical problem, such as obesity, should not be funded by the NHS without the patient first considering radical changes in lifestyle it remains an ethical quandary that the gastric bands work and could potentially save the NHS money in the long term. Experts agree that the so-called ‘fat-band’ could pay for itself within 3 years. The argument pushes in to smoking and drinking with drugs being ruled out in an attempt to ‘cure’ the patient of their addictions instantly. …more
09th Dec 2009
Labour, on course to destroy the UK!
No. It can’t and it won’t. Alistair Darling will today announce a super tax on Bankers bonuses which will likely send every banker, and their £7 Billion annual tax contribution, packing to some nice European city to do their business. The impact of this on business finance is potentially very bad and yet Labour reacting to a crisis by waving another tax law at the top of the money tree. Not content with keeping the poor poor, Labour are seemingly trying to make the rich poor too.
Blame not the bankers for the mess we’re in – remember this government have whizzed nearly a fifth of a Trillion on this recession and we are the only G20 country still in recession. The government would have us believe that it’s business finance and the plundering of it that will save us. Wrong, it will dry up credit for smaller businesses that make up the lions share of employment in this country.
What is their problem? Communists. Plundering the Bankers wallets will have a negative effect on business finance as SMB’s will struggle to get the credit they need without banks taking a few risks. This government seems bent on destroying this country and there can be only one explanation – they’re French. …more
27th Nov 2009
Oh look! Someone waved me a picture of a cat with a gun. Again.
Google Wave is widely being regarded as revolutionary and is expected to become the new must have Application for this brave new internet of everyone knowing everything about you and everyone else being told, whether they care or not. Most likely, they don’t. Which is why Google Wave provides the new benchmark in pointless crap I don’t want to read.
Having been included in a number of Waves I have so far struggled to grasp one nugget of anything even remotely resembling useful information. Typical nonsense includes “Can you read this?”, Wow this is so cool”" or “OMG LOL ROFL LMAO TBH IMHO ETC BLAH YADA”. The only thing I get from Google Wave is that it has potential to be a very useful tool. But it won’t be.
It will instead be hijacked by people hell bent on telling you a lot of [poo] you don’t want to know, or telling you a lot of [poo] that just doesn’t matter. Google Wave is not the application for people who care about significant things because they will be disappointed with what will turn out to be a new way of passing on the same old jokes. …more
23rd Sep 2009
Far from being the dour Scots man he has been marketed as it seems Gordon Brown is a coward of French proportions. Last night word spread of Monsieur Browns willingness to take Britain’s best defence and strongest deterrent and bin it. France are expected to become the new Britain while Britons get used to being dull, cowardly and pusillanimous – but never arrogant. …more
21st Aug 2009
Previously it has always been thought that the Scots exist only to dislike the English despite being almost completely dependent upon English tax revenues to subsidise their own economy. Now it seems they have turned on the US with the release of a nasty man who had been involved in the killing of a lot of people by blowing up an Aeroplane over Lockerbie. Killing 270 people, 189 of whom were American. …more
12th Aug 2009
I had a fair few toys when I was a kid – but there was one toy that it always came back to. Lego. I just couldn’t get enough of those little bricks – and the seemingly unending scenarios I could conjour up.
Lego childrens toys
When I look at the kind of childrens toys today, it seems that there is a missing element of imagination. I don’t mean the toys themselves are lacking in imagination – some are excellent – but I mean that there is limited capacity for the child themselves to be imaginative.
I think this is where those bricks were so good. It’s true, you got instructions to build a certain model – be it a house, car, boat, castle – whatever – but after you’d got tired of the model, you could simply take it apart and start building another completely different one.
And of course the best thing about Lego that makes it one of the best childrens toys (in my opinion) is that you could use the bricks from, say, a castle – and make them into something like a spaceship instead.
In terms of learning, I think that Lego must be responsible for many an engineer’s career. More than that, I think it probably inspired the storytelling element of childhood; you could come up with infinite variations of conflicts and situations. Admittedly, most of my stories involved laying siege to a castle and somehow destroying it.
You could get Lego on all sorts of themes – many of which are now long gone. Castle, Space, Pirate – something for every taste and imagination.
Video games now account for a great deal of childrens toys – and although they are often hugely impressive – do they stimulate the imagination of the child concerned? I would say it probably doesn’t – but nevertheless, they are great fun.
Still, it’s not like they don’t sell Lego anymore. And if you really can’t bring yourself to buy your child a box of Lego – just buy the latest Lego video game instead!