High Finance Revisited

Posted: Fri 10 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Just a quick extra thought regarding the National Debt of the United States, which went over the $10trillion mark the other day.

According to the CIA World Book, the US’s current population is 303,824,640.

That means that the National Debt amounts to $35,000 per person in the US.

Sheesh.

Reducing the Links

Posted: Fri 10 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™ | Leave a comment »

If you’re observant (and not reading this on RSS) then you may have noticed that the list of links over on the right-hand side has just been slashed fairly radically.

All told, I’ve got rid of some 25 links, which all went to sites that were either dead, deleted, hadn’t been updated in at least twelve months, or that I simply don’t read any more.

If there are any links you feel I shouldn’t have removed, let me know.

English

Posted: Fri 10 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky | Leave a comment »

Apparently, facebook is now available in “British English”.

Screenshot of Facebook in British english

Now, if that’s that case, does Facebook class its original version as being in “American English”?

I’d rather see the definitions “English” and “American English”, but I bet that one won’t take off.

Twats.

High Finance

Posted: Thu 9 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

The more that the ‘credit crunch’ continues, the more I realise just how much I don’t understand about finance, and the way it supposedly works. (Although “works” is a pretty loose term for it, in this context)

For example, I simply don’t understand how a country can continue to operate when it has a National Debt of over 10 trillion dollars. I can’t see any world where that makes sense. But maybe it’s just me being simple.

And I don’t understand how local councils can complain on the one hand about their ever-shrinking budgets, and how they’re going to have to make cutbacks to services every year, yet they can also afford to invest millions in an Icelandic bank. (For example, our local council has £12 million there, yet keeps on bitching that it hasn’t got any money, and that services have to be reduced)

I must be simple. I just don’t get how this can be seen as a working system…

Changing Tracks

Posted: Wed 8 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

In a couple of weeks time, I’ll be changing tracks again, allbeit only slightly on this occasion.

Basically, I’ll be starting a new job, only it’s a permanent role (at least in title) rather than being a contract. In some ways it’s a bit of a retrograde step, and not least because of the position/work I’ll actually be doing. However it’s something that makes sense in the short-term – by which I mean the next six months or so.

You see, with the various bits of guff going on about “credit crunch” etc., I’m highly aware that we’ve got a mortgage renewal coming up in March ’09, and it’s likely to make things awkward at that time if I’m employed by my own limited company, which by that time won’t have even filed a return to Companies House. In that context, it’ll be infinitely better to have a “proper” employer, and to have been there for a while before we even get to the contract renewal point.

At the same time, I’m going to be keeping the limited company going, and doing as much work as I can through that. I’m even getting the clause deleted from the contract about “can’t have any employment other than us” with the new place, so it won’t be an issue.

It’s not ideal – I’d much rather stay with what I’m doing now – although at least this new role contains plenty of challenges and extra development stuff that’ll stand me in good stead for the future. And it’ll definitely be weird to return to the world of “proper” jobs again, even if only for a while…

All Caps

Posted: Mon 6 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Why is it that, even after more than 25 years of (even vaguely) generally affordable computers/computing, there are still people who think it’s acceptable to send emails written all in capitals? And particularly to do so in a business context.

I suppose that these people have just spent the last quarter-century living in a hole in the desert (or in Antarctica) with no clue about email etiquette, manners etc.

(Oh, and for anyone who thinks it’ll be funny or clever to leave a comment written in all caps, believe me, it’s neither.)

Icy

Posted: Mon 6 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Thoughts, Work-related | 1 Comment »

For the first time this year, I’ve had to scrape the ice off the car windscreen before I could go to work.

Well OK, for “scrape” read “Use the heated windscreen, and hot air blowers”, but the concept is the same.

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