Jargon doesn't phase me

Just doing a job for a friend who's looking for a new laptop. Asked round the office about where to get a laptop, and all courusd the same supplier. Which I won't name, as this is not about them.

I'm currently getting to grips with the website of a competitior. The recommendation being that they are on the high street, and although the general low level of technical knowledge leads them to give over simplified explainations, they do sell good quality kit and aren't likely to be here one day and gone the next.

The frustrating thing is that in order not to baffle and scare off some buyers with too much jargon, they've replaced technical terms with exciting marketing language. The worst culprit being a "Super Multi Dual Layer Drive". I prefered the jargon! This term isn't explained anywhere in the jargon buster (because it's marketing speak, not jargon) so instead of a term some people won't understand, we have one that no-one will understand.

Great!

Fairtrade Fortnight

Just a quick nudge. Fairtrade fortnight starts today. As well as being able to buy from fairtrade shops both online and physical, you will be able to get some products alongside your regular groceries at your local supermarket.

Co-op fairtrade wine is particularly good, as is their policy of sourcing only Fairtrade coffee and chocolate for their own brand.

Keep a look out when you are shopping, because last year many supermarkets trialed several new fairtrade lines at discount prices. Not only are these new lines a fair deal for both producer and consumer, seeing these lines snapped up will encourage more responsible buying by those who have power to make as much of a difference as the great British buying public.

Healthy Eating

Well I've done it! On the way home from an equipment purchasing trip last night I popped in to Tesco and weighed myself. Since I started in June 2006 I've lost 19kg (over 3 stone!). The last 10 lbs being part of my new years resolution.

I'm now as slim as I was when I was 16, and lighter than I've been for at least 5 years.

My worry is now stopping. I need to get into a routine where I maintain a healthy weight. I need to eat more or less what I like without piling it all back on. I am helped by the fact that what I like has changed- my taste in bread products has improved and I eat far more fruit, veg and salads.

Corrected weight loss in stone- the 21st century measurement was correct.

Freecycle

Sometimes I think of writing a post only to find someone has already done it.

Freecycle is about reducing waste. Yes the recipients get something for nothing, but that is a side effect not the purpose of the community. It's about making sure that useful things that don't get used, and are unlikely to get used again become useful rather than taking up space in cupboards or landfill. It's not a place to get people to take away your rubbish for free, nor is it in any way about hard luck cases finding nice people to give them things.

It's unpleasant to read some of the emotional blackmail on there. If I have something to give away I hate going by the stories because I don't like to disadvantage those who have more pride than to tell their life stories to a total stranger.

Is it canon?

Paul Cornell takes nearly 3000 words to explain why in Doctor Who "there's no such thing as canon".

It's a good and eminently sensible read, and I agree 100%. Jonn Elledge, (a decent chap I haven't spoken to in years), sums up my perspective on this. Many of us who enjoy Doctor Who pick up knowledge of the series through osmosis, and see it as something as a curse, a by-product of obsession rather than something to aspire to. Others see knowledge as a badge of honour and seek to classify what they don't know or want to know about as wrong and "unofficial".

And yet I think the rest of us can be a little too scornful of those who seek to define canon because they feel to get full enjoyment they have to know everything about the whole story there is to know, so feel the need to limit the story in order to limit the task. I certainly have little tollerance for such people, but perhaps for a quiet life should hold my (virtual) tongue more.

I think canon is used more as a weapon to exclude things that people don't like. You will for example get far fewer people who are fans of the books arguing that they are 'canon' than those who argue it's silly to say they aren't. But in the end most of us have moved on and let those interested in the silly term preach to their own choir.

Because at the end of the day, who in their right mind cares?

Meejah

Had a successful day yesterday and purchased everything we needed more quickly than expected. So we then visited the national Media Museum in Bradford.

Unfortunately some inconsiderate so and so had built a city centre between where we were and the museum, so after a bit of driving round and some squeezing into a very tight on street parking space we arrived.

The museum is really excellent. I've only visited twice before, once organized by Simon Bubb three or four years ago, and once way back when I was about 10. Last time much of the TV gallery was the same as ever and looking ever so slightly tired. This time the TV experience has been rehoused in nice shiny new displays, and it looks all the better for it. Sarah had a go at reading the news on an autocue, and we both had a go at operating cameras. A new interactive exhibit demonstrates how TV signals get to you via cable Satellite and terrestrial routes, and I thought that was quite clever.

On the way back I decided to go a different way to normal, and ended up taking a more direct route into Bingly than anticipated. Sarah may describe this as me getting lost, but I wouldn't!

Then back home for some very important Internet shopping!

Democracy in Action?

I've received this chain email several times, in slightly different wordings:

If you drive a car, please read -

Sarah Kennedy was talking about this proposed car tax scheme on Radio 2. Apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay As You Go' road tax.

The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people had signed it and 750,000 signatures are required for the government to at least take any notice.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you are concerned about this Orwellian plan and want to stop the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible. Sign up if you value your freedom and democratic rights -

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

Please pass this on to anyone who owns a car/motorcycle. It affects them.

Being sent a chain email about something is never going to endear me to a cause.
According to the news this morning, the petition has topped 1 million signatures. Call me pedantic, but i don't enjoy being cajoled into supporting something by such obvious hyperbole and exaggeration. Yes road pricing will mean some will pay more than others. But the numbers above are surely plucked out of thin air. Some will pay more, others less.

And am I being too "let them eat cake" by saying surely a non-working parent should be walking their children to school rather than irresponsibly adding to congestion? Any safety elephant who believes it's not responsible to have children over 8 walking up to half a mile to school deserves a slap, even if it's a financial one. Of course in rural areas people will need to drive to School, but also will pay lower per mile road charges because they won't need to travel on busy urban roads! I don't buy the "we all need to use cars" rhetoric. We don't. All but a minority of us chose a lifestyle where we need to burn petrol. And yes if you break the speed limit you are as much a criminal as someone who nicks socks from Marks and Spencer.

As for there being a deadline and a quota for signatures- don't make me laugh!

Please don't imagine I'm in favour of road pricing. I'm just against disingenuous chain emails. There are many good reasons against road pricing, I just feel none of them are in the email above. My main objections are the unnecessary complexity of it all, and that it will be a nice loophole for lawless and irresponsible types to avoid tax.

The petition itself is more sensibly worded, so I'm not sure its more loony supporters should put you off like it has me!

James Graham has an interesting article on what should be done about the Downing Street Petitions and their implications for democracy.

Technicians, Repairmen and Engineers

A bugbear of mine is on the use of the word engineer.  An engineer is a high level occupation requiring a high degree of intelligence.  Engineers design things.  They may, on occasion, get their hands dirty, but on the whole it's a white collar job, requiring a degree level education or equivalent life experience.

Unfortunately it's a much misused term.  Companies using the term "Service Engineer" to describe a person who is essentially not an engineer, conflate the two terms, and many people confuse the role of technician and engineer.  Not that being a repairman is not a solid and worthwhile job, but being a proper engineer is so much more than that. 

In countries other than the UK, Engineers are well respected, and perhaps this is a linguistic thing because they aren't confused with repair technicians.  So what can be done.  You can't explain how offensive the mixing up of the two roles is because real engineering has a bad enough image as it is, and people don't like having their deficiencies shown up, however much they deserve it.  Letting the repair people have the word Engineer and inventing a new term for the other role?  Perhaps.  Certainly, it doesn't do the relationship between the two professions any good to have the two confused.

Sad but true

I don't often pay attention to the wind ups posing as news that newspapers print on the front page, but today's Indipendant made me angry, and not with the journalists who published the story.

Austin Mitchell MP reports on the shameful conduct of the minister for immigration, and how it has made hi ashamed of his party.

Readers of a sensitive nature on these issues are warned that they may find the article upsetting.

I should have spent more hours in Hodge Hill two and a half years ago.

Also observed by Lib Dem Voice and Duncan Borrowman and others.