Oct 28
Ben KingLife
The whole debate about politicians pay and expenses has raged on and on and been right old farce.
I think the point everyone has missed is that we clearly aren’t paying them enough! The government is effectively the biggest company we have in the UK with the biggest budgets ultimately spending our money.
Yet we entrust it to be managed at the top by a bunch of people who we only deem worth £60K per annum. This is rediculous, and frankly frightening, you will struggle in the commercial world these days to get a decent project manager for £60K let alone someone you could put in charge of a budget of billions. No wonder they are all trying to squeeze the system where they can and the country is a shambles.
The bigger issue though is that we aren’t attracting the best and bright to the job, instead of attracting the best brains from business, science and the arts to government, we end up getting a bunch of idiots who can do no better (well judging by the desire to generate more cash if they could get a better job they would).
We need people running the country who are really bright, know how to make rational decisions and test theories scientifically rather than riding on the wave of public popularity.
Unfortunately none of the suitable candidates are interested in the job because they are off elsewhere earning proper money.
Oct 28
Ben KingInternet, Life
Commenting on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8328820.stm
Yet again we get more suggestions that it should be down to the ISPs to do the policing for the content providers, and its down to us (the ISPs) to block users who file share.
I am interested to see how 3 strikes applies to a corporate environment, I don’t mean the big corporates with sensible IT teams, I am thinking of the 5-10 man company with one person sat in the corner quietly downloading the latest episode of the Simpsons while sharing it with the world… that’ll will be fun when they get cut off…
Anyway back to the point… the music, tv and film industries have an amazing luxury which they are still rejecting… i.e. they have an effectively FREE distribution medium, where anybody in the world (pretty much) can get any of their content without it costing them a penny….
Yet rather than investing their time and effort in how to achieve a revenue stream from this amazing advantage, they persist in trying to stop it happening falling back on all the traditional ‘approved ways’ of getting their content.
Take myself for example, I have a UK TV license and a UK Sky TV subscription. This in effect gives me access to pretty much legal acces to every TV programme I could wish for. I still however download/iplayer the key programmes I watch, why?
Well:
- I definitely no longer want to watch TV at a prescribed time, those days are gone. TV is now when, where and how I want it, not when the broadcasters dictate.
- I could of course PVR the content (Windows Media Centre enables me to do this easily) and watch it when I want, and where and how I want.
- If I PVR it, it involves faff and hassle. Torrents are easy to get and come in a portable format that I play on any TV or PC in my house.
The problem is that not everyone is paying a subscription for TV, and of course they lose advertising revenue on downloads – saying that though Sky are clearly having a right giggle at their advertisers with Sky+, i.e. yes we encourage our customers to have a technology that means they can skip the adverts!
So media producers, yet again I encourage you to stop criminalising people before you have at least given them the chance to subscribe to content when, where and how they want it! i.e. via bittorrent, et al.
Oct 24
Ben KingLife
I am finally looking to buy an Aircraft, after much debate and discussion I have settled on a Piper Arrow.
The reason for the Arrow is:
- I want something I will find a challenge now and can ‘grow into’ as my experience increases.
- I want the extra performance and efficiency above say a Warrior or 172.
- I can get some return on the aircraft hiring it back to my club for CPL training and thus avoiding some of the risks associated with PPL training!
- It very much looks like a ‘real aircraft’!
So I am looking for a:
- Arrow III or IV (though not sure about T tail!).
- Non-turbo
- Full IFR
- Autopilot
- FM immune radio
- Low to mid time engine and prop
- 3 blade prop (preferably)
- Budget < £50,000
Anyway, if anyone knows where there is one that might be of interest to me, please drop me an email to ben@benking.me.uk or give me a call on +44 (0) 7973 848007.
Oct 17
Ben KingOther Bars
I just discovered http://www.worldsbestbars.com/top-100.htm
I haven’t been to any of them!
Best get started…
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