Bad weather.

What a joke a bit of snow and the country go’s up the creek without a padel. Why? The first point is that health and safety is running a muck to the point where it is making life difficult for those who would do their job as normal no matter what.

The total lack of gritting on side roads and walks making it impossible for people to get to the main routes without taking their lives into their own hands. News reports about A and E having an over load of broken bones and an increase in the numbers  of deaths all travel related.

The lack of help and coöperation between people  and business. Casing point: I had to take the van out to get some supplies. Now it is rear wheel drive which means that icy roads make it difficult  to get moving once stopped. This happen twice causing a tail back in both cases. The first time while trying to get onto a gritted road I had to get the shovel out and chip the ice away from in front of the drive wheels. The people behind just sat there and watched or tried to drive round, no milk of human kindness there. The second time was trying to get to a well-known supermarket car park the road was pure ice, again out with the shovel only this time all I got was angry looks that anger would have been better spent giving the van a shove so we could all get on our way. Society now a days is all about me, if we spent more time helping each other we would all be better off. 

Related Articles

• Top tips for driving on snow and ice (mirror.co.uk)
• My alternative winter driving tips (telegraph.co.uk)
• Weather wise Storm savvy (commercialappeal.com)
• Britain braced for big freeze again as temperatures set to plummet -10C tonight (dailymail.co.uk)
• Why did Britain slide into snow chaos again? (telegraph.co.uk)
• Weather a huge blow to economy (mirror.co.uk)
• Truckers to work longer to clear food and fuel backlog (guardian.co.uk)
• UK snow: Transport chiefs under fire for gritters and rail failure (dailymail.co.uk)
• Driving in snow and ice (tcfpodcast.wordpress.com)

Diaspora!

I have ranted on about the lack of respect that companies and web site’s have for their customers.

Yes! I know I am one of these companies, but I am not! Having spoken to my customers they do not want me to share their info with others. It is a shame that big business does not follow the same policy. It would make customers more loyal knowing you can be trusted.

It is funny how things, happen I have cruised the WordPress blogs and came across ”why I cancelled my Facebook account” It is about an individual  fed up with his data being used for other peoples gain and I agree with him.  Just for the record I’m a customer too.

I have posted on this subject a couple of times  before ( Privacy and Terms and Conditions )  because I’m feed up with the way I’m treated and would like to see change.  I was starting to think that I was the only one but having read a large number of  posts on the Facebook thread, it’s great to know I’m not alone.

While reading through the posts I came across William Wards post about a group of young men and the Diaspora project.

This is Williams post:

A couple months ago, Eben Moglen spoke about how our loss of personal privacy was in large part related to the migration of our data to the Facebooks of the world. He was disappointed that, in 2010, we weren’t able to use our considerable personal computing resources to do this at home, with the same sort of great user experiences and ability to link up with everyone you know (or ever knew.) There really isn’t a good reason for just one firm to hold onto all your stories and persona and secrets. Better to spread them around and use networking to connect them together and clever software to link them up for easy sharing.

That said, some computer science students took up his point and decided to build an open social network, one that will let you control your data absolutely, while being able to share with people you know or people you don’t know – your choice.

They’re just getting started – you can check out their plans here at http://joindiaspora.com . The goal is to give you back your control and create a social network scheme where the users run the show, not the marketers.

With all our broadband, all our easy web hosting services, and all our computing power – we should be able to do this without being at the mercy of one company’s idea of privacy.

It is great to see the younger generation are not going to sit back and be dictated too by big out of date businesses and hopefully they will make some money in the process. I for one will be following their progress with great interest.

Privacy policy?

What a joke!

It is only when you set up  a web site for yourself that privacy becomes an important  issue. I am probably right in thinking that some of you never look at the small print and those that do must think “ what am I letting myself  in for?”

 I’m talking about when you come to a privacy policy  that runs to more than a page you know your in trouble with that company. Basically they say we will protect your data but send it all round the world for other companies to look after but if your identity gets cloned, it’s not their fault! Where do these companies get the moral right to tell everybody your information? They don’t, but they think they do! because you have used their product/web site etc. It is time these companies started offering their customers a proper service and not lip service to your data with long-winded policies. They should all say we do not share your info and honour that!

The Claw back begins

It looks like the first people to suffer a tax hike after the election will be bikers.

 

Chris Hodder the BMFs (British motorbike federation) government Relations Executive is hopping mad at what was outlined in the pre budge report. The increase may only be between £2 and £4 which is not a lot in monetary terms, comes on top of the motorbike industry has being hit with a 25-30% fall in sales this last year and an increase in the forecourt prices is making it hard for companies to stay afloat.

 

The BMF are asking bikers to show there support in this election year by signing the petition on the number 10s site.

 

It states: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the increases in motorcycle tax proposed for 2010.

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/motorcycleved/

 

It may make no sence to raise the cost of motorbike ownership at this time especially as the motor industry has had a lot of help in being kept afloat.(A golden opportunity missed but that another story) There are a number of things in play here one the government would like to see a drop in the number of bikes on the road in part because of the number of deaths and severe injures involved. 

 

You have to remember Road Tax for cars go’s up year on year so why should bikers be a special case. With the bankers getting us into so much trouble the Chancellor is going to claw back as much money he can from where ever he can and this is only the start and it will not matter who we vote in, maybe the devil we know maybe better than the one we don’t.

 

 In most cases bikers will swallow the increase and keep on biking, some will keep their motor a bit longer giving the motorbike industry a bit more of a headache. You never know the manufactories may start selling their bikes at more realistic prices. Some hopes!

 

What do you think?