Posts by thegrouch 66 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Feb 2012
All the criticism of Trump reminds me of the anti-Brexit rhetoric during the run-up to the referendum. Brexiteers were ignorant bigots, all talking lies etc etc. And yet a majority of voters chose Out. I wonder, despite what the press and various talking heads say about Trump, if he won't still get voted in. When you're constantly being told what to think and that your opinions are wrong, folk tend to get a bit defensive about it and will use their vote to express this. I wouldn't say Clinton is a shoe-in by any means.
Last time I checked, your average US citizen was at far greater risk of being shot by a disgruntled employee/mentally unstable individual/aggrieved former partner/deluded student on a rampage. Although there is often an attempt to put an Islamic spin on these stories, the truth is that there are a lot of nuts with guns over there and rather less boogeymen on a jihad.
Hollywood has found it's magic formula, gone are the days of decent films. It's all about the big, shiny 3D these days, lots of colour, explosions and more explosions. Just look at what's made money over the last few years. Would you call any of these true classics?
Avatar - $2.7bn
Titanic - $2.1bn
Transformers 3 - $1.1bn
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (and 4) - $1bn
Alice in Wonderland - $1bn (how did this POS make this much?)
I'm sure there's some kind of payback to the Treasury here. Just like the panic over petrol price hikes gave a boost to the VAT take last year, or the scam over child booster seats a few years back. There's got to be VAT on the cost of buying and installing these things, assuming independent contractors are farmed out to do it. Ker-ching Mr Chancellor!
"All too obvious causes of climate change"? Yes, I suppose the pollution generated from power stations providing the electricity for this car would fall into that category. And the 'tough sh!t' rhetoric at the end of the article shows that the electric car still has a way to go before it can be a realistic alternative. Browbeating the reader isn't going to make this effort look any better.
Yes, Nationwide have moved to SAP but all the development and testing was done by offshore resources as is the ongoing support. For those of us in the industry it can hardly have escaped anyone's knowledge that as many businesses as possible are seeking to cut costs through offshoring. I suspect COBOL is suffering less from this than newer languages.
You have to allow for the number of adverts which are just fishing exercises written by agents looking for CVs, these represent no job whatsoever. I'd lump recruitment agents in with bankers, estate agents and Justin Bieber as prime candidates for Soylent Green. That said, I'd rather have a Findus Lasagne.
Little harsh to label teenage conscripts as 'Darwin award contenders' when they had no choice about their assignments to the trenches, nor anything approaching sensible orders when they got there. One week they're turning in the harvest, the next they're sitting in a shithole in France being shot at. Turning around to run away from the enemy guns got you shot by your superior officers for cowardice. They were led by dickheads playing with toy soldiers miles away, thinking they were still battling Frenchie at Waterloo. Whilst you might disagree with the motives for WW1, a little sympathy for the poor bastards who had to endure it wouldn't go amiss.
I have a DAB radio alarm clock tuned to Planet Rock. 50% of the time it wakes me up with the buzzer instead of the radio as it's failed to get a signal. Neither the clock nor the bit of wire out of the back is ever moved. In a moving vehicle I could understand it but my house hasn't budged an inch!
Not for the lack of trying. Unfortunately advertised roles state that candidates must already have clearance. It's chicken and egg, I can't get a security cleared role because I don't already have it, but I won't get it unless someone is willing to take a chance and wait and that's a rare thing when start dates are invariably ASAP or by the end of the week. I also know you're not supposed to advertise roles which insist on SC candidates only but all agencies do it.
I'm at a loss to understand why folk base all their beliefs on a book of legends, translated from different languages multiple times. In the Bible it states that those without beards should be put to death and that your children can be sold as slaves. You'd be hard put to find a Christian who supports those views but the bit about men not 'lying' with other men has to be adhered to without question. It's all hypocritical bullshit, all of it.
I'm of the opinion that religion has done nothing to benefit the world at all, it has stunted our development as a species, been responsible for millions of deaths and even today is the cause of more conflict than any border dispute or sabre rattling. It's used as an excuse across the world to bring death and despair, the repression of women and persecution of minorities. I'm heartily sick of it, this apple bitten bollocks is just another example of why we're going backwards not forwards.
Bigfinish.com are the only company I can think of which offers both formats for one price. Each CD sale includes an MP3 download which is accessed from your account. If you only want the download, the price is cheaper.
However there's nothing to stop you then selling the CD on again on eBay and keeping the download for yourself but I guess BF have learned to live with this and are happy to give their customers the flexibility. Can't imagine any of the big record companies or publishers doing this.
Unfortunately content isn't available immediately consistently across the world due to staggered release times. Combined with region locking, the distributors seem determined to milk local markets as best they can. No wonder piracy is rife, when a film is released on DVD in the US before it's even reached our cinema screens then there will always be those who can't wait. I wonder if a simultaneous release worldwide for a film, followed by the same for the DVD/Blu-Ray would reduce this. If it's there for everyone at the same time, there's no incentive to pirate it from another region.
As for UV, this is meaningless to me having only a 2Mb (at best) connection. Streaming anything beyond a small window in Youtube is impossible. I'm doubtful that broadband provision in this country is up to the job yet, even in built-up areas. I'm happy with hard media while it's still available. I'm only ever going to watch it on a TV or laptop anyway which already have suitable drives. I can't imagine why anyone would stream a film to a phone or tablet. Aside from the screen size, if you're using your contract data allowance I can see it disappearing pretty quick.
I'm reminded of the dangers of sitting on a chair from Pete and Dud's 'Dirty Uncle Bertie' sketch..
"Roger, in order for you to be brought about, it was necessary for your mother and I - to do something. In particular, it was necessary for your mother… it was necessary for your mother - to sit on a chair. To sit on a chair which I had recently vacated, and which was still warm from my body. And then, something very mysterious, rather wonderful and beautiful happened. And sure enough, four years later you were born."
Possibly because an exploding gun next to her head might not be ideal?
I think all the moaners on here who haven't seen the film should give it a chance. Judicious use of CGI and pretty backgrounds don't make a film any better. See the risible Total Recall remake for a fine example of this.
It smacks of the old argument about video nasties from years ago, 'oh we have to protect the children'. Well I don't recall it making monsters out of a generation and ironically those same films are now mostly available uncut on DVD. It's nothing to do with censorship and all about control and the imposition of someone else's morals on your lifestyle.
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