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1

General Discussion Area / Re: BBC cancel IT project

« on: 28 May 2013, 16:01:04 »

I don't think you can blame ITIL per se.  ITIL can be as simple or as complex as you want (the motto seems to be "it depends"  ) and there are no compliance credentials as such.  The boundaries for requiring change control are defined by the organisation, as is the level of detail recorded in the CMDB.

The problem tends to come from Senior Managers who have attended an "ITIL Awareness" presentation who then think they are experts and try to wrap everything up in a one-size-fits-all set of procedures and processes just in case any of their staff try to think and use their initiative.  If an actual ITIL-qualified manager tries to apply some reason and logic by relating the scope of activity to the value to the business they get talked over, sneered at and generally treated like 70's throwback at an Equality and Diversity seminar.

Or that's my experience anyway.   

2

General Discussion Area / Re: Politics and stuff

« on: 18 April 2013, 13:33:43 »

Would be more than interested in the views of newbies/low postcount members/silent majority on this subject, rather than simply viewpoints of the more established membership. 

I'm not exactly a newbie, but considering the 2 years+ I've been on here I do have a low post count.

I no longer have an Omega, after replacing it with a Vectra, but one of the reasons I come back to here is because of all the forums that I visit this has a good balance of serious discussion and inane banter.  Now, I'm really not that interested in the inane banter (although some of it can be quite humorous) but I do like the serious discussion and those threads are the ones I specifically tend to open and return to.  As far as I can tell, most of the political discussions seem to be well balanced and tolerant of other people's views.  I think this was particularly true of the Maggie thread where there didn't seem to be many (or any - I don't remember it all) personal attacks.

Politics is part of our life, like it or not.  If we can't have such discussions in GenDis it would make this forum a less attractive place for me to come.  I intensely dislike censorship, particularly in what should be adult conversations, as it always seems to be another step towards totalitarian control such as we see in places like N. Korea (oops, getting politacl there!).

So leave it alone.  If you don't like it, don't read it.  If you don't have an opinion, let those that do have their say.

Long live OOF!

3

General Discussion Area / Re: Margaret Thatcher is Dead!

« on: 10 April 2013, 16:16:45 »

The trouble is Pete, that had they been able to operate effectively, then they would never have cost the taxpayers of the time so much money. In the end, selling them off to the highest bidder was the only way to stem those costs. Shutting the stable door behind the horse perhaps, but summat had to give

think of an organisation that is a monopoly in its area.. some famous Thatcher copies here sell them for the reason that they cant make profit..   how could this be..    even kids wont believe this lie.. and so many other things..
 
is it the correct way to sell something so valuable to community instead of restructuring and re-organisation.. and then later pump the taxpayers more money to some lucky relative individuals..  for that privatisation subject,  whoever says anything I'll be completely deaf..

Really Cem, you had to be there.  The nationalised industries were a standing joke, not just for the way they were so inefficiently run and bleeding money down the drain, but for the pathetic levels of service they provided.  Nickbat already gave some examples of that, and somebody else has also pointed out how we had to go on a waiting list to have a phone installed (and even then, we may have had to share the line with a neighbour).  And there was no option but to deal with these monopolies.  Just to stick with the phone example, it was illegal - yes, actually illegal - to connect a device to the telephone network that was not provided by the GPO, and those devices (telephones and answering machines) were rented to the user as it was impossible to buy any privately.

Monopolies should make huge profits, but although it is hard for you to believe, the British nationalised industries didn't (or at least, I can't think of any that did - electricity, gas, coal, steel, railways, ship building, post, telecommunications, buses).  They were funded by the taxpayer, which meant there was no incentive to operate efficiently as they had almost limitless access funds whenever they needed it.

The world, and especially Britain, was a very different place in the 1970's from what it is today.  I would say that the world today is very different from what it would have been if Margaret Thatcher had not come along.

4

General Discussion Area / Re: Margaret Thatcher is Dead!

« on: 09 April 2013, 16:32:23 »

She did also order police on horseback to beat the living shite out of ordinary working men( miners) with truncheons who were striking to try and ensure their jobs

Really?  You have any proof of that?

I suppose you also think she ordered the police to open up the gates of Hillsborough so that a few working men (and women) could be crushed to death.

5

General Discussion Area / Re: Horse meat fiasco

« on: 13 February 2013, 11:34:31 »

I think you have missed the point. We all know that horse meat can be pleasant to eat and is on the table in a lot of countries. In Spain it is labelled Potro.

The issue is purely one of knowing what is in the food you are eating. The label Beef should mean beef. It is only a small step from horse to condemed meat or meat(e.g. Pig) that a person wouldn't eat on health grounds(allergic) or religous grounds.

And just to illustrate that point, Sainsbury's Frozen Beef Meatballs have now been withdrawn as they have been found to contain pork.

6

Omega General Help / Re: poor fuel consumption

« on: 13 February 2013, 10:55:54 »

I just part-ex'd my 2.2 on Tuesday, but when I did the average fuel consumption was showing 28.8.  This had dropped from 30.2 over winter.

7

General Discussion Area / Re: guns

« on: 07 February 2013, 13:42:26 »

I would like to move to the US one day but the gun thing really puts me off even to the point of putting off having a holiday there 

I have been to the states over 20 times to various places and never seen or heard any gun fire or people shot, you are more likely to get run over in london than get shot in the US. Unless you go looking to get shot

Its just the thought that in any given place you could be surrounded by guns hidden on people ready to use when they want to , same can be said anywhere of course but knowing how many have a gun in the US puts me off 

I don't think many states allow the carrying of concealed guns - they have to be on show.  Even in cars, they need to be displayed.

Most gun owners won't be carrying their guns anyway.  Most of them will locked away in drawers and cupboards at home.

Sorry but most states require them to be concealed and not on show i:e in holster under jacket or the like, in carry case and in cars they should be kept in glove box or the like. In Texas and Arizona they do wear them on show, New York you are not allowed to carry.

You're probably right, but I thought a permit needed to be granted to carry a concealed weapon in most states.

8

General Discussion Area / Re: guns

« on: 06 February 2013, 12:46:20 »

I would like to move to the US one day but the gun thing really puts me off even to the point of putting off having a holiday there 

I have been to the states over 20 times to various places and never seen or heard any gun fire or people shot, you are more likely to get run over in london than get shot in the US. Unless you go looking to get shot

Its just the thought that in any given place you could be surrounded by guns hidden on people ready to use when they want to , same can be said anywhere of course but knowing how many have a gun in the US puts me off 

I don't think many states allow the carrying of concealed guns - they have to be on show.  Even in cars, they need to be displayed.

Most gun owners won't be carrying their guns anyway.  Most of them will locked away in drawers and cupboards at home.

9

General Discussion Area / Re: Gay marriage vote.

« on: 06 February 2013, 12:41:07 »

My tuppence worth. Many people are not religious but still marry in church to be seen to be doing the right thing. If we accept that religion is more a business than anything else then the church surely has the right to deal with customers how it likes. At the end of the day no business has to deal with anyone it does not wish to deal with. So if you make a law stating someone can use a business by law then that has to be an unfair in my book. Pubs often refuse to serve some people, clubs refuse entry, shops can also refuse to serve people, banks don't have to give you an account.
So why should the church be "forced" to serve anyone who demands it ?

Tell that to the couple who owned the guest house where they wouldn't let a gay couple share room...

10

General Car Chat / Re: Time to move on

« on: 04 February 2013, 13:54:29 »

If they've given you £500 (which isn't a bad PX TBH) then it will go to auction

Good luck with the Vectra

They didn't want to give me £500, they only offered me £250.  The other £250 is coming from a "cashback" deal so the paperwork still shows the trade in as £250.  I don't care how they did it, as long as I got what I wanted 

11

General Car Chat / Time to move on

« on: 04 February 2013, 10:40:54 »

I've loved the last two years of Omega ownership.  There have been some good times and some bad times but every time I have got behind the wheel I've enjoyed it.  I just love big automatics, and while many may scorn the 2.2 it's been all I've needed.

But, I've had to let my head rule my heart now.  I have a 27 mile commute and my previous car sharing arrangement has ended which means my travelling costs have now effectively doubled.  So, I decided I had to go diesel manual to minimise the costs.

I've just bought a 1.9 CDTi (150) Vectra SRi Estate to replace my beloved Omega (which is going in on part exchange for a measly £500).  Ah well, at least the missus seems to like the Vectra, which is more than could be said about the Omega.  I don't know if the dealership will sell the Omega on, but I doubt it.  I suspect it will be scrapped, which is a shame but probably the fate of many these days.

It was good while it lasted...

12

Omega General Help / Re: Anyone Know / Used this Guy Before ???

« on: 04 February 2013, 10:26:13 »

Use him once and you'll keep on using him.

Top class service.

13

General Discussion Area / Re: £2000 to murder someone.

« on: 01 February 2013, 15:08:19 »

I was reading this earlier. I suspect it will be a completely different case and may not have come to court yet. Although just guesswork on my behalf.

I'll bet the intended target is hoping you're right!

14

General Discussion Area / Re: HS2 - younger forum members only.

« on: 30 January 2013, 10:35:11 »

<snip>

IT, working at home, is all very well now.  But in years to come, if not now, we must return to manufacturing, in the physical form, and that will require workers to be on a site actually building things.  We need those industries in the Midlands and the North generally, so we need a large commuting / living population in those areas to revitalise the commerce there, and for Great Britain generally.  We need to move people at high speed around the land and from Europe to get the best for our industries for their expansion.

<snip>

OK, we need the industries in the Midlands and the North so how does a high speed train between Birmingham and London help this to be achieved?  We already have "a large commuting/living population in those areas" so there is no need to "move people at high speed around the land".

Decentralisation is the answer, not extending commuting.  As technology moves on we will (or should) require less commuting and travel will increasingly be for recreation.  Manufacturing requires less manpower now than it did 50 years ago, and I don't see that trend reversing.

HS2 is about moving people between very limited locations.  That is a backward-looking solution rather than being innovative about the future.  We should be trying to reduce the need to move people around the country.  That's the real challenge for the future.

15

General Discussion Area / Re: HS2 - younger forum members only.

« on: 29 January 2013, 15:43:04 »

London and the home counties has a population of approx. 18 million people.The whole of thenorth of England has a population of approx. 14.5 million people.Thats why everything tends to centre around London and the surrounding area.Its the capital city and  also arguably the worlds biggest finance centre,so that will always be where the money (and therefore people) tends to be concentrated.
In many ways people in the north are better off as its a much less crowded & hectic place to be.

So, that's 42 million (70%) that don't live in London and the home counties.  And just because London is the capital is no reason for eveything to be based there (the population of Washington DC is around 650,000, New York City is around 8,000,000).

People tend to be concentrated there because businesses and Government is concentrated there, and it becomes self perpetuating resulting in overcrowding and increased costs.  If businesses were incentivised to move away and spread out (and they could be highly incentivised with £50bn) we could all enjoy this green and pleasant land a little more.

There will not be much left at this rate

Except in the North, where they build bugger all these days!