KeyboardJunkies Domain and Rant Zone

Wow.. just been reading the news - I should learn to stop doing that because it just gets my blood boiling..

Petrol Up Again

It's going up 2.3p (inc VAT @ 15%) from tonight.  That means the average price for fuel will be around the £1.07 per litre mark... It wasn't so long ago that lorry and car drivers blockaded all the refineries and ports because petrol went over the £1 mark!  What's happening now I hear you ask?

Sod All!

This country just takes and takes whatever the NuLabour party dishes out.  No grumbles, no annoyance... nothing. 

We should be like the French.  When the Goverment in France do something unpopular the have riots on their hands.  They have the people saying 'Non!'

What do we have in this country? People just going 'ok... suppose that's just the way it is'...

It's catastrophic so it is!

We shouldn't put up with all of the new stupid laws (over 8000 amendments and new laws have come into force since NuLab got in)  The majority of those decisions have been put in place without the government consulting their employers... US...

Hehe! - That's better, needed to have a rant..

HoHum,

KbJ

I was reading this morning again in the press about all of the support for Gary McKinnon from actresses, politicians, musicians, models and just about every other corner of society except for..... wait for it!.... other computer geeks!

I was reading about the Marillion keyboard player Mark Kelly putting a petition up on the bands' website and how it angered lots of U.S of A(rse) fans... Why should they get angered? Did Gary fly the planes into the World Trade Centre buildings? Did Gary blow up the London tube stations? Did Gary start the illegal war in Iraq? Did Gary terrorize you little children? - Answer? NO.  The great American public have no right getting bent out of shape because as far as extradition laws go, the U.K and it's citizens get shafted everytime.  The Americans need 'probable cause' for extradition of one of their citizens but in return only need 'reasonable suspicion' for extradition of a U.K citizen.  Where's the fairness there?

There isn't any.

I think that this country we live in used to have more balls than this.  A country where our grandfathers fought two terrible wars on a cup of hot tea and a few soggy biscuits.  If we as a nation had half the backbone those men had we would fight this extradition and simply tell the U.S of A(rse) bugger off!

Or better still, if their looking for hackers, maybe a call to HACK THE PLANET or at least HACK THE U.S.A should be shouted out around the U.K and the rest of the world... see how many people the U.S can extradite then...

We live in a society that shouldn't need these types of rallying calls but it's about time that the people in this country stopped being so complacent and realised that we are supposed to be living in a democratic society where the Government are supposed to be scared of the people, not the other way around. 

It's time that this country's goverment started to listen to it's people, after all it's us that pays their wages and keeps them in jobs.

Great Britain eh? Where's the 'Great' in it now when they let people like Gary be extradited for being curious.

Sheesh

HoHum.. 

So... I was reading about Gary's latest rejection from the court system in the UK of extradition to the good ole U S of A...

I must admit to not understanding a few things:

• Why is it that the US can force a British Citizen to be extradited to the U.S for offences that he/she committed on U.K soil?
• Why is it that we don't have the same power of extradition with the U.S when one of it's citizens does the same?
• Gary has Aspbergers (sp?) - He's not mentally fit enough to serve time in a U.K prison let alone a U.S prison.
• $700,000 worth of damage?  Can you send an itemised bill please Mr Obama?
• If the U.S computer security was tighter, Gary wouldn't have gotten in using weak passwords like 'password' and 'testpassword'
• WHY DOES THE U.S THINK THAT IT CAN JACKBOOT AROUND THE WORLD BENDING EVERYONE TO IT'S WILL?
• Why can't the U.S just offer Gary a consultancy job if they think he's such an amazing hacker?

I just don't get the U.S at all.  They preach freedom and democracy but start wars all over the damn place - and just when the world can't get any worse (wars, recession etc.) they jump all over Gary McKinnon making him out to be some sort of Uber-Satan-Hacker-Meister and killer of little children!! (well that might be a bit strong, but you get the idea.)
The U.S is great at defining fundamentalists.. religious fanaticals that are hell bent on dominating and taking over the world using terrorism as a means to an end...

WELL... read bible bashing U.S starting wars as a means of controlling wealth (and oil) taking over the world using said war in order to kill terrorism (but that war just being a more righteous form of terrorism, but no less illegal!) in order to dominate the world and set it U.S style 'free'.

Just another bigger terrorist beating up the smaller terrorist in my view..

Suppose this post will get me on Gordon Brown's 'list of people to watch' list... Mind you, I'm not that worried. 

Oh, and if you need a picture of me Mr. Brown, just check out all the CCTV camera's you've allowed to interfere with our privacy in the name of security, I'm sure my picture will appear 700 times on some of those..

Bollocks to this country.. and the U.S for being so arrogant.

HoHum..

• Asked me to describe what had happened from the moment I "poured the coke on the laptop" to which I replied "no, not poured, spilt by accident.." till the time I called the insurance company.  I went through it all for her - being asked what was on my desk, what part of my arm knocked the glass (was it a book that you knocked the glass with? - no I replied, my arm, but I already told you that!!)
• When I had finshed going through it all and answering her questions multiple times, she asked me to go through it again from the beginning so that she could take notes.. my reply? "Why didn't you take notes the first time??!" - at this point, I'd been on the phone for more than 20 minutes...
• I went through it all again for her, letting her take 'detailed notes'.  I answered the same questions again and again - "was it your book that knocked the glass over?" - no I replied, "My arm! Remember??!" - at this point I'd been on the phone for about 45 minutes..
• At the end of all of this she said "I need for you to contact Apple computer and get a receipt." - I replied, "The machine is about 5 years old!!! - You are kidding me??!", "No" came the response.. then the final straw - she said "you'll need to get an engineer to look at it and send us a report on what's caused the damage.".. What caused the damage????!??!!??!! "IT WAS A SPILLED GLASS OF DIET COKE YOU FECKING MORONIC WOMAN!!!"... Then she had the audacity when I asked her why she kept trying to catch me out that she didn't beleive that I'd knocked a glass of coke over the keyboard... like I'd do that on purpose.. jeeezus..
• At that point I thanked her, told her that she was a great insurance consultant and she said "oh?" and I said, "Yeah, you can be safe in the knowledge that you've put another customer off pursuing a claim through AXA INSURANCE and you'll no doubt get your bonus this month when you let your boss know.  For the sake of a few hundred poundsI'll buy myself a new one but I will be cancelling my insurance policies with you immediately!!" and I said goodbye and put the damn phone down.

2 Days into the future....

I get a call from Chris at AXA and I call him back.. He wants to put my claim through and apologies for the way I've been treated... I was on the phone about 25 minutes and it was all sorted.. new laptop on the way shortly..

I HATE insurance companies... they shaft you left right and centre and then renage on their obligations when you have to make a claim..

HoHum..

KbJ.

 

You know what.. in this day and age there is a big emphasis on getting what we pay for in this life.  More so I think than in years gone by.  We live in a culture where we demand more for our hard earned cash and expect sellers to go that extra mile just to please us - and I think that this is a good thing - the only way to make an economy thrive is to be meaner with our money and get the most out of it..

But....

Council Tax.

Have you noticed that as council tax increases, the service that we get decreases?  Take a look at the like of items below and tell me that I'm imagining it all..

• They make us sort our own rubbish (and charge us for doing it via the council tax)
• They only take our rubbish away every two weeks now (and charge us for it via the council tax)
• They don't take certain kinds of plastics or glass bottles.. that's what bottle banks are for (and charge us for taking them to the bottle bank via the council tax)
• We have to put our bins out on the street and bring them in (and they charge us for doing it via the council tax!!)
• Bin men won't wheel a bin 10 feet to the lorry onto the automatic lift if the lid is more than 1 inch open.
• If you get a blocked sewage pipe, they charge you for unblocking it on top of the council tax!
• if you want a special lift of unwanted items, they charge you for it on top of the council tax.

So....

Basically, we sort our own rubbish, take it out for them, recycle things they won't take away, have to deal with 10 different coloured bins that make our gardens look unsightly, allow them to charge us for things that the council tax doesn't include and let them only pick up our rubbish when the bin(s) are overflowing only to be told that they won't lift them BECAUSE THEY ARE OVERFLOWING...

Sheesh....

All this to lower emissions and our carbon footprint...

BUT WAIT!  I've got an idea for the Government of this country!  Why not put a tax on breathing air?  We all breathe in air and breathe out carbon dioxide!  Surely we should get taxed for that emission too?!  And what about farting?? that's got Methane and Sulphur Dioxide in it!!

This country has gone to hell in a handbasket and its about time that everyone stood up and shouted ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Don't get me started on fuel prices...

HoHum....

KbJ

You Are 5: The Investigator

You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it. At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world. At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid. Your Fixation: Greed Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed Other Number 5's: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.