Posts by DavCrav

Re: Attainder

"Forbidden by the US constitution, but probably still OK in the UK."

Last used: 1798.

"BA ain't paid"

They are appealing the fine.

"Marriot ain't paid"

They are appealing the fine.

If their appeals fail, I guarantee you they will pay the fine.

"Sending muggers and burglars to jail also is very expensive, it would be cheaper to give half the money to the naughty people in return for staying at home and behaving themselves"

I'm confused. Did you think I was against spending money to convict criminals? I'm not, I think more should be spent, particularly by HMRC for tax-dodging (as that's actually a profit, not an expenditure).

"What I am trying to say is, rather than trying to lock down everything and contrain your employees into narrowly defined processes of what management thinks is their job; hire competent people, give them all the access they ask for, and trust them to use that access appropriately. That is how you get work done."

So which bit did Morrissons get wrong? It was the trust bit, I suppose?

Re: Perhaps the answer...

"do not fancy the in-between scenarios where reacting to emergency will be slower if focus has been lost due to partial automation"

I agree with you, but I have found the manually set speed limiter to be very useful when going through roadworks or average/reduced speed areas, particularly on the A34 round Oxford where there's a 50 section with a police <redacted>.

Re: M.L.O.C.

"1) An (otherwise empty) motorway with a middle lane has a WHOLE LANE in which you can overtake said 'clown'. What is your problem?

2) If said 'clown' is already travelling at the motorway speed limit, you are in breach of the law in overtaking."

Interesting juxtaposition. Middle-lane hogging is also an offence.

Re: Perhaps the answer...

"An Audi A4 (black) was the culprit."

I don't believe you. I think it was really a white Audi A4. White Audis and BMWs are always the culprits.

Re: Railway Lines?

"Spain is the 4th safest country to drive in apparently."

Link? I have never seen any source that puts Spain that high. Top ones are always Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and UK, in various orders depending on year and chosen statistic.

Re: Ever solved a silly problem, but spared the user from office-wide embarrassment (...) ?

"but I guess an ethernet crimping tool comes under the heading of "take steps"."

I don't see how. You can't fit an eyeball in one.*

*What? I mean, they have two. They won't make the same mistake again.

Re: HP

"Has porters to carry stuff about for him..."

Did he shout at them to do it? If not, cannot see the relevance.

Re: This years excuse

"The article clearly says that they haven't had their duties changed so its not a case of low demand"

You are looking at the wrong market. Demand for BT's service is holding up, sure, but demand for contractors is low. Thus the price drops until the excess suppply (i.e., people) clear the market (i.e., leave) and a new equilibrium is found. Once the job market starts to look better, rates will start to pick up as companies hunt for contractors. The flip side to being able to quit at will and take a new, higher-paying gig, is the opposite.

Re: So do I re-negotiate my BT Broadband

"Do I re-negotiate my BT Broadband under the same terms?"

If there is a material change in the terms of the contract, then you should be able to break it, or at least that was my understanding.

"I have recently been migrated (against my wishes) to "Fibre down the street" it is a lot more tempremental with it being slow at peak times."

This sounds like a material detriment. Contact BT, make a complaint, and then if it isn't resolved, you might have a case to break your contract without penalty.

Re: This years excuse

"I presume the staff are getting the same deal too?"

What happened to contractors deserving more money because they shoulder much more risk? This is the risk!

Re: This years excuse

"It's simply taking advantage of the fact that many contractors don't have anywhere else to go at the moment as an excuse to squeeze contract terms."

Well, yes. This is the nature of contract work. You can charge big fees when you are in high demand, but when there's low demand you can't. I'm surprised it's only 20%, to be honest.

Re: And so begins the middle game

"How much US debt does China hold now? In terms of US GDP?"

Who cares? You cannot call in government paper, so the only thing they can do is sell it. There are plenty of buyers for small amounts of teasury notes, and you cannot shift large mounts of it for the precise reasons above, that you need to sell it and buy something else with it, as there's no such thing as pure money.

Re: And so begins the middle game

"Chinas BRI is very extensive, giving them a huge market to play with this. It may well become the only digital currency that is sovereign backed and there are large parts of the world, including the oil producers, who may well have no problem using it."

No. To understand why you need to know what a global reserve currency needs to have:

1) A deep and liquid bond market, so that money can be stored in that denominated currency, backed by a central bank that one trusts not to debase the currency;

2) No capital controls of any sort.

China will need to have both of those to have a chance, and it refuses to do 2), and 1) will not be around for a while.

"OkK, the USA, Europe and the UK etc ain't much better"

Actually they are much better, just not good, even given BJ and DT. Our legal systems are by and large independent, less so in the US given the fact that the president and senate have so much control over Spreme Court appointments, whereas nobody with half a brain thinks that Chinese court verdicts aren't decided by the CCP.

Re: "Afterwards we whine because Europe has no tech industry "

"You voted to leave "Europe" in 2016."

Again, EU != Europe.

Re: Why sell Arm anyway ?

"It's called "capitalism""..."

It's not capitalism. It's just reality. Unless you want to live in a society without property, in which all things are decreed by a central dictator and people do what they are told or die, you need a medium of exchange. Even in barter economies, if you need food and you have only a cow, you can either barter the cow for food or kill the cow and eat it. You then won't be able to use the milk to pay for other things people have.

If you need liquid assets and have only illiquid ones, you have to liquidate your assets.

Re: Why sell Arm anyway ?

"Poor move to my mind, it is one of the investments that will bring long term rewards"

It's a short-term gain for long-term pain, yes, but if you are in a short-term hole, you can only sell assets somebody wants.

Re: This has nothing to do with where data is stored

"Creepy Pedo Joe."

Is that a standard South African insult 'pedo', or a libellous 'I mean a paedophile' 'pedo'?

Re: Good old propaganda

"Makes the Chinese effort of 2.4 million entries look amateurish by comparison."

This is a 2.4m-strong database of pressure-points to be used in blackmail and extortion, not to send campaign ads.

Re: Oh....bad....bad....bad.....Nothing Like That Going On in the US or the UK.....No Siree!

"But seriously folks....when the China-bashing has lost its lustre......take a look in the mirror."

Last time I checked I never harvested any organs from prisoners. But OK.