October 08, 2011

This And That

First up, I am still alive. (Some of you were wondering).

It's been a grim week. Not for me, I hasten to add. I have just been busy with work.

I watched, with mounting disappointment, as iDave blethered on. And on. And on. About nothing. Never have I listened to a prime ministers speech with such a sense of underwhelmingness. I was consumed with indifference as he launched into....bugger all. Empty words, empty promises and meaningless rhetoric. There's an hour of my life I will never get back.

A bloke called Steve Jobs died. It was a tragedy. It's always a tragedy when any man or woman dies at 56. I never used any of his products. I never wanted any of the shiny things he produced. The outpouring of grief, false, as always, on Twitter particularly, had me clicking on the little "x" in the top right-hand corner. Twitter is (mostly) shallow at the best of times, but some of the people in my timeline plumbed new depths. I had to step away. He was just a bloke. You'd have thought someone really special had pegged it. If we really are searching for a hero let's find someone who isn't obscenely wealthy and famous only for selling shiny things to the gullible.

Twelve UK banks have been downgraded by Moody's. You might think "So what?" but someone will have to pay for that, and it is usually you and me.

Merv King has printed another 75 billion quids. Now that will hurt us. Quite why no-one ever makes the Mugabe/Zimbabwe connection is beyond me. Everything will now get very expensive, despite the fact that everything already costs too damn much. Still, the Old Lady will not feel any pain. No matter what the economy looks like, the private board of the BoE does very nicely, thank you. No change there. The shit will rain down on...you and me. Again.

Foxy Knoxy released from her Italian gaol. If she truly is innocent then I wish her well. I thought harder about the Kercher family, who, despite the fact that the third person involved remains in gaol for their daughters horrible murder, feel that they do not have closure. The truth will out. It always does.

My jaw dropped when I read this brilliant article over at Ms Raccoons den. Do read it all. If you can get through it without any profanity whatsoever, read it again. The gormlessness of EU adorers knows no bounds.

No news from the chief inspector on my alleged traffic "violation". You would imagine that if he had a cast iron case he would have written back within nanoseconds of opening my notice to him. But no. Nothing at all. He may well be still reading and rereading it and scratching his head. Or, he rolled it into a ball and hurled it binwards. There are another couple of weeks remaining before the violent men come to haul me courtwards so I'll update you when/if something happens.

No news from the leccy people either. I am rather hoping they are in a mild panic at having to explain to me why they are stiffing me for an extra 12% every year when no law exists to support that theft. Again, I will let you know what occurs.

Have a lovely weekend.

CR.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

keep it up cap!
was wondering if you have watched this guy,he is awesome,makes it so simple.
http://youtu.be/84q3RyNR86c
nige.

The English Painter said...

Without the likes of Steve Jobs and his 'shiny things', a lot fewer people would be able to appreciate your opinions…

Anonymous said...

ah the bitten apple,the original sin
nige.

Captain Ranty said...

Nige,

Yeah. I have seen quite a few of his vids. He knows his stuff!

Thanks for the link though. Other peeps may not have heard him speak before.

CR.

Captain Ranty said...

Tux,

If he hadn't have invented portable shiny things, someone else would have.

But I do take the point.

CR.

Anonymous said...

Party conference season is an exhibition of the absurd, incompetent political class, drunk as ever on its own self-importance, chattering away to itself and to a media that has days of airtime to fill and much "programming" to be done.

Take the catflap over TEH KITTEH, and that Sky News decided to spend all day telling us how CMD was re-writing his speech because of some bollocks about paying off credit cards, as if 99% of the population will be watching or will give a shit.

Not that any part of anything that anyone said will make the slightest bit of difference or contained any semblance of genuine motive, truth, substance or accuracy. Gah.

iThings have never seduced me. A relative converted to Jobsianism some years ago and yet out of all our systems it's the iWotsits that always need coaxing more than anything else.

This is a personal opinion that on some websites would result in NEWKULA HEATZ!!!1!1! being directed my way, but I have always found Apple products either badly made or shit to use (and in the case of ShiteTunes, both, albeit from a software perspective).

Same relative's Macbook battery did the usual planned obsolescence trick of overheating and swelling up after barely 18 months of normal use. Usual practice was to take it to the Apple store and get it replaced at an exorbitant cost. I did it myself, and fitted a larger HDD, both for less than half the price the iStore wanted for the battery alone. The next generation Macbook has a moulded shell making it impossible to get at the battery or the components, thereby forcing you to take it to the iStore or try and rip it apart yourself. ROLLS EYES

I do appreciate the way the ecosystem was built. They have 2 years' worth of product ideas lined up IIRC, but after that? Who knows...

The BoE's ever-enlarging pension fund is based on inflation being high, see Guido reporting on it back in June.

I read that EU article. I laughed (sometimes it's all you can do). They are utterly mad.

On Knoxy - did you see the EPIC FAIL by the Daily Mail? I think Max Farquar caught it.

Regards

TSL