When I read about cases such as Troy Davis, who was recently executed for murder,  in Georgia, even though it appeared that the jurors were threatened, that someone else had confessed to the murder, and the evidence wasn’t concrete, I find myself asking how I feel about capital punishment.

Then a few days later, I read about how David Simmonds, brutally murdered Jia Ashton. Simmonds, at 6ft 2in and 19 stone, was more than three times the weight of his victim who was 4ft 11in and weighed six-and-a-half stone. Then I find myself asking why we don’t still have the death penalty in the UK, as a sub-human vermin such as Simmonds deserves no less than execution. I truly hope he is viciously beaten or murdered in jail.

Read more on Jia Ashton’s murder here

Death Penalty: For Or Against? is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

So the moaners are out already!

We get a month of pretty crappy weather thru July, and as soon as the weather warms up again, and we get some glorious summer days and evenings, the muttering commences!

For those of you who do not like a decent summers day, just remember that warm spells here rarely last long!

River Thames, at Twickenham, looking downstream.

Heatwave? is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

So we all hate paying taxes. I guess even those clowns in Government that set taxes hate paying them, but then most of those mandarins have large salaries, expense accounts, and many other perks not available to the ‘common man’ – even in these days of austerity, cutbacks, and expense account investigations. Like many of us, I have a weekly wage. That’s it. I can’t put anything on an expense account that someone else (us poor soaked taxpayers) pays for.

Still, that aside, the thing that really gets me going about taxes is not even the amount we pay. I realize that in a civilized society we need to pay for some items for the common good. Now we all have differing opinions about that  - what items, and how much.

No, what really gets my goat is the inefficiency of it. The waste. The red tape. Bureaucratic Bullshit, dear reader.

Also, the public works that seem to be arse about face.

Here’s a small example. In Richmond, Surrey, which is, by and large, one of the more affluent London Boroughs, even in today’s troubled times, there is disruption caused by digging up of streets. Replacing vital services? Don’t be daft. Putting in new kerbstones. I’ve seen this going on in many places. I’m picking on Richmond because I drive through it almost every day. While new kerbstones ultimately look nice, paving stones are still askew, presenting trip hazards, and the road surfaces in many places leave much to be desired.

So, I have to ask myself, why is Richmond messing around tarting up the kerbs, when the money could be spent giving the overtaxed road users a better surface to drive on, leading to less discomfort, and fewer accidents, and less wear and tear on vehicles?

Bureaucratic Bullshit is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Reading about a possible anti texting while driving in today’s Digitel leads me to put fingers to keyboard here.

I’ve long felt that not only are there too many distractions for drivers these days, but that too many drivers simply don’t take driving seriously enough.

It’s potentially a lethal weapon in careless hands, and one reason just about everywhere in the world a driving test of some kind is required before one is allowed a license to drive, first.

Apparently, lawmakers are concerned over two main issues.

The first is that any new law is almost certainly to infringe on the individual’s civil liberties. While I would agree that there are already many petty rules and regulations that do just this, those that text and drive are not only putting their own safety, and indeed life, at risk but the safety and life of those around them – both other drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. You want to increase your own chances of dying in a wreck by not wearing a seat belt, go right ahead; you know the risks. Texting-while-driving is different for  the reasons stated above. If so many people can’t be responsible drivers then legislation is probably the only way to attempt to make them drop this dangerous practice.

The second issue is that it would be hard to enforce. There is some truth in this, as has been seen in the UK. Texting while driving (and even talking on a non-hands free cellphone) has been illegal for a half dozen years or so now, and yet people still do it.

The fines have been increased as have the number of penalty points on the license, and it has had some effect.

It’s often teenagers, who have less driving experience, and less speed/distance pereception, that are performing this dangerous practice the most.

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Still, do we not pass other laws because they might be difficult to enforce? It can be difficult to track down a murderer or a rapist. The drug laws in most countries are quite ineffective, but there are still laws against murder, rape, and drug taking.

The sooner that the message is pushed out there to everyone, that texting and driving is as bad as drinking and driving, the more chance we have of reducing its occurrence.

People still drink and drive, but it’s arguably not nearly as prevalent as it was years ago, when there were no real DUI laws in place.

Texting & Driving Ban is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Well, go then! If you and your colleagues hadn’t been so greedy over the last few years at least, and taken all the money you did, while running the banking industry worldwide into the ground, then none of us would be in this mess now.

The Royal Bank of Scotland was so badly mis-managed that the UK Government felt necessary to take a 70% stake in the bank (and a 43% one in Lloyds).

Now, those at the top are customarily paid huge bonuses based on performance. However, with so much money owed to the taxpayer (remember that the Government doesn’t have any money of it’s own), is it right and proper that these executives should be paid up to £1.5billion in these bonuses this year. This is some 50% more than last year.

The old cry is always that if we don’t overfeed these leeches at the top of the pile, they’ll leave and go elsewhere.

Some have reportedly been advised to resign.

I am still amazed that very few of these executives have faced legal proceedings. Bernard Madoff might have systematically ripped off his ‘investors’ for a number of years, but the average bank all the way down to High Street level has been doing the same thing for many years too.

While Lord Mandelson has pointed out that the Government doesn’t run RBS, it’s board and management does, that surely doesn’t give the board and management the right to award themselves such huge sums of money, when almost three quarters of their business is being propped up by the Government.

Heck, if, as a small businessman, had a bridging loan from one of these banks, and decided to use my profits to pay out extra to myself and my staff, instead of paying the loan back, they’d have me in court before I could say ‘bailout’

As for those that scream about Government control, I quite agree that Government needs to stay out of business as much as possible. However, Government surely has a responsibility to formulate and prosecute laws that ensure that people aren’t ripped off, especially, when it’s our money

So, you greedy bastards, pay back your debts first, before you start spending other peoples money lining your own pockets yet again, as you’ve already done to excess in the past.

RBS Bosses May Quit is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

My first thought at hearing that Rupert Murdoch was considering pulling his news sites from Google’s news servers was ‘Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish’.

I have had a subscription to the Wall Street Journal’s daily podcast at Audible.com for a few years, but I’m watching closely to see how the content changes since News Corporation took over.

I don’t like the way News Corporation manipulates the news. In a quest to keep up viewing figures and newspaper circulation they target much of their output at the lowest quality end. Trashy tabloid titbits, and sensationalist soundbites does not make for decent news material in my view.

Much of News Corporation’s output is full of political bias and partisan politics too. That, I have always felt is an insult. I want to be given news, and facts, that I can go on to form my own judgment about. I don’t need or want to be given news with any particular slant. I realize that Murdoch likes to appeal to the right-wing nutjobs, but I am not one of those. I’m also not a bleeding heart liberal, and would (and do) complain about biased output in that direction too.

Still, if Murdoch is able to use his wealth to manipulate the Internet and screw it up like he has with traditional media, then the outlook for fair and unbiased, quality news is bleak.

Murdoch & Google is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

U.S. Attorney General says too early to say whether Somali pirates would be tried in the U.S. if they are captured.

Why not just make them walk the plank?

Both sides can surely play at the pirate game?

Pirates! is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

As Mona says in her article at Pixelbits, Facebook can now do whatever they want to with whatever you post on their site, even after you have left.

Now today, I’ve seen lots of indignant words going back and forth over this issue, on Twitter, and Friendfeed, and in numerous blogs.

Now, whilst I’m not saying that everyone should simply roll over and let Facebook run over them; will our protests about the change to their TOS really cause any change to their change?

I think not, any more than all the protests that went on about the ‘old’ interface. There are approaching 200 million users on Facebook now, and I think it’s true, that for Facebook, there’s safety in numbers.

Heck however, much us geeks, nerds, and online activist types shout about it, most people aren’t even going to read about it, and most that do won’t understand the implications, or even care about it anyway.

I’m am NOT using this as an excuse for inaction at all, but once again, there is that big wall. The wall of Apathy that blights everything that happens on earth.

That’s the real enemy.

The Facebook TOS Issue & The Real Enemy is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

Do you consider yourself on the right, or the left?

Are you a progressive or a conservative?

Democrat or Republican?

I’m none of those.

Allow me to digress a moment. I hate crowds. Ask my wife. I dislike being in a crowded mall, or in any huge crowds of people. I’m not claustrophobic, I just get impatient with not being able to make progress to where I want to get to, and often with all the noise about something I’m not enthusiastic about.

You see, I don’t care if I’m in a group of 1,000 that are all supporting Idea X. If I don’t like Idea X, I’m not going to cheer for it.

I’m not going to go see a movie that most of the world thinks is the greatest ever, if it doesn’t appeal to me.

I’m not going to eat turkey on Thanksgiving, even though I am ‘supposed’ to because I don’t like turkey.

I am not going to put myself into any one political group either. I hate partisan politics. I hate the way that some folks will trash anything and everything that the Democrats do, simply because they always side with the GOP. Oh, and vice versa too!

No one group ever has the right ideas and policies for everything. Why can’t folks take a good hard look at an issue, and then come forward with some unpartisan ideas of their own, instead of wasting all their energy simply slamming the other side, imply because the other side thought of it?

A current example is the Stimulus bills or bailouts. Heck, the previous Bush administration started it, and it all went through with barely a whimper – give money to the Wall Street Bozos that have FAILED the American people in a bug way, but then, once the administration changes, condemn any further idea of bailout as wrong.

Labels again -  now it’s Marxist, Communist, Socialist etc. All soundbytes really, as the majority of folks in the USA have never had a true experience of any of those things, and in any case, what the current administration is proposing is far from Communism, Socialism or Marxism.

It’s all down to these labels though. It’s like bumper sticker mentality, but an exclusive one. Whereas I might have a sticker that says I support a charity, that doesn’t mean I exclude other charities or causes, it simply means I want to promote this particular one, right now.

But the divisive partisan labels you see, are mostly negative. They don’t say that supporting any political view is good, but simply trash every other view except theirs.

There are whole twitter groups now, where the members twitter about politics, but not promoting their ideas, just condemming everything that their group or party hasn’t thought of.

Of course this is nothing new, but I’ve always gone through life looking at the glass being half full, not half empty.

It’s sad to see such negativity. Anyway, the last General Election was a vote for a change in the way things are done. The last eight years haven’t been any kind of spectacular success.

Why can’t people move forward together, and work in a constructive manner, instead of throwing negative junk around all the time, that benefits no-one?

Silly Partisan Labels is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog

I like Open Source. I don’t like Proprietary solutions.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement to make, I know, but that’s my general take on things.

Not just computers you understand. Anything. I don’t want to be tied down to one manufacturer for anything if I can help it.

In many cases manufacturers work together to develop open standards. Ok, we get rival groups – Betamax vs VHS; HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray are two that spring to mind for example. There have been many other cases through history. One solution almost always wins out in the end.

It’s not always technically the best solution either. I remember back in the days of those Video tape format wars, there was, in Europe and the UK at least, another format. Philips released a number of formats, and the one I tried for a while was Philips 2000. The tapes were up to four hours long per side. Per side you say? Yes per side, as like an audio cassette, you played one side, and then turned the tape over, and re-inserted it, and played the other side. There was dynamic tracking too, so none of that messing around with tracking buttons like you had with VHS. Actually Sony’s Betamax was arguably better than JVC’s VHS, but VHS won through because of better marketing. Philips have often come to market with some great ideas, but their marketing tends to suck.

It’s one of the reasons why Microsoft is so successful. Not that they have the best products. You can hardly call innovative either.  They tend to copy or buy out other companies ideas and solutions. Lotus 1-2-3 was a far better product than Excel, but Excel became market leader simply because it ran better on Windows that Lotus’ spreadsheet. Same goes for Word over Wordperfect. Of course one they become ‘industry standards’ then most folks learn these applicaiton and become proficient in them so they can get a job working with them.  By and large, being proficient in 1-2-3 or Wordperfect isn’t going to impress many interviewers these days.

However, the thing that makes me mad is the way that Microsoft want it all their own way. Not only do they want you to buy their lacklustre Operating Systems (which are popular because they’re bundled on most computers on sale at retail outlets); not only do they want you to use MS-Office products (which are also often bundled on computers for sale to consumers at retail outlets), but they change the file formats that these applications  output, so that  everyone you send them to, will also have to go out and buy the latest copy. It might be a way to generate sales, but it sucks.

If you use MS-Office at home, why should you have to spend $100+ on upgrades to do this, if you’ve got a perfectly functioning copy of  Office 2003 or even 2002, simply to read a new file format? What extra wonderful functionality is in that new .docx format, that I can’t live without anyway?

OpenOffice got ISO9002 certification for their .odt format, but that wasn’t good enough for Microsoft, they sulk and pout becuase they want .docx to have that too. Hang on a minute, you can’t have two standards.

We have a similar issue of course with Internet Explorer. The lousy security aside,  why do Microsoft sit down at the W3C  table, agree to be part of the standards, and then go off and only implement the bits they feel that they want to?

It’s like Microsoft says OK, lets sit down and see what everyone else is doing. Right, we don’t much like that, and as we’re the biggest in the world, we don’t really give a crap, as we’re going to do our own thing, because everyone will buy our product anyway, whether it’s to an agreed standard or not, because we’re THE standard. Such arrogance.

I’ve no problem with Microsoft being a huge wealthy company. I’ve no problem with sucess. I do have a problem with arrogrance, bullying, and treating everyone else with contempt to get there and remain there though.

Eventually of course, everyone gets ticked off with arrogant bullies, and they get taken down a peg or two. Every dog has its day. No empire lasts forever, and history has shown that over and over.

One day the sun will set on Microsoft, and I doubt few outside of it’s empire will mourn it’s passing.

Open Source, Standards, and Empires is a post from: The Eye An Eyebeemania Blog