Yes I’m finally back online at home.  However irony is this:

1. Order new NIMO modem / router from Amazon
2. Order on next day delivery
3. Order not dispatched until a day after order to a day when we’re not home
4. Royal Snail try to deliver but not home
5. Go to Marlborough to pick up said router
6. Get router home and notice post mark is Marlborough
7. Open packaging and find it was dispatched from a five minute walk from home

You would think they might have poped round and said “it’s more environmentally friendly just to walk this round to you so you get it when you order it…” Oh well C’est La Vie.

Still in major unpacking mode.  I don’t know where to put anything anymore it’s not funny.  I need the place to be finished, but no sign of builders to plaster the pantry and no sign of when the conservatory is going to be plastered.

Never mind, these things happen.

Not one, not two, but three letters to confirm I’ve set up a Direct Debit with them… idiots… one would have done. So much for saving the environment. Postage and printing of the paper cost them money alone. Twats.

Not to mention I know that Centrica the people who own British Gas are doing a massive Sharepoint implementation for their intranet. Sharepoint the product Microshaft encourages you to customise… only it’s not easy to do, why? because the design elements aren’t controlled by CSS & HTML, some dumb ass code called Camel… so it’s costing them mundo cash. Why not save the money and pass it onto their customers rather than spend hundreds of thousands customising something that doesn’t want to be customised.

I pinched this….

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Green

Your actual outcome:

Labour -17
Conservative -1
	Liberal Democrat 6
	UK Independence Party 27
	Green 39

You should vote: Green

The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

From here… Southern Bird I dont’ know what’s surprised me more, that it said I should vote for the one I was thinking of voting for or that I shouldn’t vote for UKIP (I was hoping it wouldn’t say that). Anyway… mundo busy today, so I’m off to do some more work.

So there’s this thing in the news about businesses snooping on what they’re staff are up to. This is kinda freaky to a certain extent one feels. I’ve worked for companies that have big brother in use and those that don’t. Let’s just say the level of two way trust is a lot better when there are no snooping devices employed by the bosses.

However this raises another interesting point. Do they have the right to act to such extremites? I understand when companies don’t want their staff drunk or drugged whilst at work, and to a certain extent it’s good that they are monitoring what their staff are doing, but when do they cross the line and become point blank intrusive?

I think the employers have a right to set it out clearly that they have security cameras monitoring you, that you’re e-mail is being read and your web access monitored. Coming from an IT support point of view I don’t think it’s made clear enough what is monitored and what isn’t, what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Also if using the internet at work to browse for things is wrong then more needs to be done to restrict sites and have it made clear to staff what are restricted and why they are restricted. If you give someone a good enough reason as to why they aren’t to do certain things then you are respecting their intelligence. Then if they are not permitted to use the internet for certain things or for personal use then why don’t large companies have an in house cyber cafe, they could charge and the money that doesn’t go towards the up keep of the equipment can go to charity.

In this day and age we are over worked, and I know for a fact that I cannot work straight through the day without a bit of time goofing off, I don’t give 100% otherwise. When I was working in London, I was leaving my house at half 6 in the morning and getting home at about the same time. I was so knackered that I didn’t do anything in the evening, didn’t have time to pay bills or deal with things like that so they had to get done in the day. Lets face it an hour isn’t long enough to get everything done so you have to find other time to deal with it.

I work hard for what I do, I believe in efficency and like to think of myself as one of the rare few people that is proactive rather than just reactive when it comes to IT support. If I see something else that needs doing whilst I’m fixing something, I’ll do it while I’m there, save them having to log the call, drag me back to their desk to fix the problem and thus saving the company money. I don’t believe in doing half a job, it’s not worth it and I feel it comes back to haunt me. There is only so much a person can give before they start to cost the company money. Would it not be better for two way communication to be given between the upper eschelons and the lower ranking peeps? Be constructive, bosses say why you want to monitor staff, staff say why it de-motivates you, keep it short, come to a compromise, you’re all supposed to work together, after all it’ll make for a happier environment.

Morning all… Was musing around amongst the various places I check things on from time to time and I came across the following below (got it from a poster on empireonline forums although it original came from the independent Newspaper). I’m shocked is all I can say. I know I’ve hated the pompous twat since he got into power and disagreed with his dictatorship of America but these facts are just unbelievable, the guy is going to end up as bad as the dictator he’s just forced out of power if he’s not careful. Anyway, have a read for yourself.

George W Bush and the real state of the Union
Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle begins, how does his first term add up?
20 January 2004

232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004

501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the war - so far

0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to the Allies in May 1945

0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for soldiers killed in Iraq

100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003

13: Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President

10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for simultaneous protest

2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into the White House

9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion in March last year

1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since hostilities began

16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the conflict

$100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the end of 2003

$13 billion: Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq (much of it in loans) as of 24 October

36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

92%: Percentage of Iraq’s urban areas that had access to drinkable water a year ago

60%: Percentage of Iraq’s urban areas that have access to drinkable water today

32%: Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not precision-guided

1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs

45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

$127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became President in 2001

$374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

1st: This year’s deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States history

$1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day

$23,920: Amount of each US citizen’s share of the national debt as of 19 January 2004

1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 million) was set in 2002

10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and Bill Clinton 33

1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

$113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a record in American electoral history

$130 million: Amount raised for Bush’s re-election campaign so far

$200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004

$40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest holiday of any president in US history (Recordholder: Richard Nixon)

13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year

3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children

1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in modern US history

2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three years of the Bush administration

221,000: Number of jobs per month created since Bush’s tax cuts took effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000

1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its complete term in office

9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

55%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war

43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with an American military presence

40%: Percentage of the world’s military spending for which the US is responsible

$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush’s original 16-person cabinet

88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,000: Average savings members of Bush’s cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001

$116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes

44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President’s economic growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

700: Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war

+6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty

1951: Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was greater than the one the previous spring

54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to his post

1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level

9: Number of members of Bush’s defence policy board who also sit on the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court

$300 million: Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes

$1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to offset the “burdens” of the US war on Iraq

58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road building, logging and drilling

200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to downgrade or weaken

29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a whole army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon

90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001

53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004

Sources: Vanity Fair magazine, Harper’s Index, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Army (Washington), US Department of Defence, Iraqbodycount.net, Citizens for Tax Justice, Bureau of Economic Analysis (Washington), New York Times/CBS News Poll (NYC), US Department of Commerce, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (NYC), Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad), World Health Organisation (Geneva), Office of Management and Budget (Washington), Centre for Responsive Politics (Washington), Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc (Arlington, Va), Election Systems & Software (Omaha), United States Central Command (Tampa)