Posts by John Wise

Govt powers up electric cars with £5k subsidy

Battery powered red herring

What about the people who park their cars on the street? It’s all good and well being told you can charge your car up over night to get round the several hours full charge cycle, but the Beeb made me laugh this morning when they reported this.

They showed someone plugging their car in on the street to, what I can only describe as a “charging bollard”. Great, apart from the fact that they were literally “plugging it in”, both ends. 3 pin to the bollard, the other to the charge port on the car.

Now, call me a realist, but I just see that as a prime target for “drunken shenanigans” and ne’er-do-wells to steal your charging cable. You can just see it now. “Ha! Imagine the look on that tw@’s face when his car’s flat in the morning.”

And you can bet your bottom dollar, like mobiles phone chargers, all car manufacturers will make the charging ports on their models non standard so you have to buy a specific charging lead from them. And what price will they be? Will you be happy having to buy a new charging cable once (or more) a week when it’s been robbed?

Plus, where is all this extra juice going to come from? Aren’t we already facing an energy crisis in terms of not having enough in the national grid to power everything now? If nuclear (and I’m not saying I’m pro or anti-nuclear) doesn’t get the go ahead, just how do they plan to create all the green leccy required to power these enviro-boxes?

Bandwagons and jumping spring to mind.

Brits decline to 'think outside the box'

A bit surprised...

...that "Take this offline" isn't there (in relation to discussing something outside of a meeting).

That phrase makes my blood boil! A poncey way of saying they don't want to talk about something.

Jolly Roger, as most who like to use this kind of lingo are *** pirates!

'Series of Tubes' Senator convicted of corruption

But you get free Ring-Ding!

"Just the other day an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o' clock in the morning on Friday – I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things that are going on in the Internet commercially."

Surely he needs faster Internet Service Providings!? Something like a 42 Megabytings connection should do the trick nicely. And, if he signs up in the next 3 days, he will also get a free ring-ding!

Mine's the one with bobblehat in the left pocket!

Wacky Jacqui's yoof ID site goes silent

Home Office Security!

"The requirement to register to post on the boards didn't stop the No2ID crowd gettting involved"

Home Secretary: "Darn! How do they keep getting on when we have their email address and have banned it from registering? It's a little like that other offender register we have, and the security / tracking measures we have in place on that too. Foolproof! I just don't understand!"

Mine's the one with the long list of alternate email addresses.

Set-top box modders sent to prison

@ bobbles31

To liken this to other nefarious human doings, Jean Rostand once said:

"Kill one man, and you are a murderer.

Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror.

Kill them all, and you are a god."

Eddie Izzard once said that we as humans just couldn't seem to cope with idea of someone murdering that number of people, especially if they are "their own" (he was talking about Polpot at the time), and so we cope with it like this:

"A hundred thousand you say? That's quite a lot. Yes, hmmmm, well, errrr, well done!"

I imagine (personal opinion, not fact) that a similar scenario might be playing out in halls of power and certain teleco's and 3rd party information suppliers.

Mine's the one with the soldering iron in the left pocket!

When flash mobs go bad

This can't be right

All this wanton destruction, and yet no mention from the Authorities about this being attributed to reefer madness or GTA IV bloodlust! What will the Daily Mail gang make of it?

Madness Jim, but not as we know it!

BBC should not pay for fibre, Ofcom tells MPs

@ Alex

Don't even joke about stuff like that. The next thing you know, some Whitehall Policy maker will overhear someone on the tube and think "Hey, that's a GREAT idea!", and before you know it, the Govt. will announce a Broadband Tax (in the interest of preserving freedom by taking yet more money of you or some BS excuse).

Bleed a few more pennies from the public? Oh........go on then!!

Paris, because she knows all about getting screwed repeatedly.

IT depts under threat as City braces for 20,000 job cuts

@ Pete

"The problem is that a lot of companies can't tell the difference between a productive employee and one who goes to lots of meetings. The consequence is that they shed the wrong people and soon afterwards either go bust or get taken over."

Couldn't agree more

Byron review calls for computer game ratings

It's a mixture

Many differing factors on this one really.

Firstly, I have been playing computer games for nigh on 25 years now. I remember as a young'un playing on the Atari 2600. Pong, Space Invaders, and some game with "planes" and "tanks" in where you tried to destroy the opposition. All blocky, vector graphics agreed. Still playing games today, yes you notice the realism now. Playing the likes of Forza 2 and GT5 makes my mouth water, but it does not encourage me to rag my motor round the streets Fast and the Furious style! But even back when I had my Sega Master System with Shinobi, and Golden Axe, and Double Dragon (I could go on) did I ever think "Hmmm, I really must go out a beat the seven bells of **** out of someone". To be fair, people being idiots and ignorant in real life is more than enough incentive to want to dish a bit of pain out now and again, but obviously we don't do that, we know right from wrong.

Secondly, as has been mentioned, parents not wanting their kids around while they watch Jeremy Kyle, Eastenders, Corrie, whatever and so ship little Johnny off to his room, with the latest game he pester powered them into buying. "So long as he's not bothering us, he's doing alright". Their own parents never spent time with them as kids, so they in turn do not really know how to be a role model and parent to their kids. And guess what is going to happen to little Johnny when he hits 14 / 15 and becomes a dad to baby Shaniqua? He's not going to have the first clue how to be a responsible parent (whatever age he is) as he was never exposed to it himself. It's a continual cycle due to a lack of responsibility on behalf of the parents.

Not all parents who buy <insert favourite 18 / 16+ rated game here> for their kids are irresponsible as such, but I do agree that their own lack of knowledge about the core fundamentals of such a game leads them ignorantly into game shops to buy it for little Johnny because he nags. As was said above, if they sat there and watched their child play these adult rated games, you know within minutes a half responsible parent will do the right thing, take the flak from the child and get rid of the game. It's the "parents" who will more than likely sit with their child and play also, encouraging them to rob cars, run people over, bludgeon them to death with a hammer. These are the children at most risk of having a distorted sense of reality as they see their "role model" going "Yeah, get him, Do him over. Keep kicking him now he's down! That's how you do it!"

Heck, in an ironic sort of way, games like GTA, CoD4 etc allow me to vent my frustrations in a safe environment as I know the difference between reality and fantasy, and they allow me that avenue to get pent up rage out of my system on a computer sprite rather than losing the plot in real life (Falling Down with Mikey Douglas?).

Some parents need educating and you'll see them suddenly take more notice. They then will make the call if their child is mature enough to play a game rated higher than their age. Some parents will never care so long as it keeps the child happy and they are not being pestered. These are the future "issues" that will come back to bite us.

Paris, because she has probably never been told "No" by mummy and daddy in her life!