Rant Mode ON

There are some things that piss me off; a lot: Regulations and rules that create more hassle than I think they are worth. Ongoing attempts to regulate against stupidity. Myself:, for getting involved with a "nice guy" / company which proved not to be trustworthy. It cost me 5 years work and a lot of money. I got ripped off along with some others. The moral: cover your arse and don't trust anyone. Sad but true. The police with their fine quota. They let some moron cause chaos driving well below the speed limit and then ticket the driver doing 10% over the speed limit on a deserted road. Politicians take no responsibility. The patent system is totally screwed and should be abolished. The legal system only works for the authorities and whoever has the most money.

DIY - A thing of the past. This one has the potential to piss me off to the point of action. Another fundamental freedom is being lost. I heard last night (26-3-05) on the TV news that some new rules will allow only registered builders to work on homes etc. Again it's in the name of safety and at the expense of the more motivated people of our society. It appears to be the 2004 building act that will require voluntary registration of builders in 2007 which becomes compulsory in 2009. In the name of safety it will prevent DIYers from doing anything that could affect safety or would require a building permit (for just about anything worthwhile). The end result will be unnecessary complication and expense. I can see that there is a need to protect home buyers from shoddy and dangerous workmanship. But to create another system of registration and regulation, and to criminalise DIY is just another typically fucked-up response from incompetent rule makers. They can't use the leaky-home argument to justify this one. Leaky homes were in most cases built by "registered master builders" using materials and techniques approved by BRANZ, a largely government funded research and approvals organisation. Who in their right minds would attach a rigid plaster finish over a flexible polystyrene base attached to untreated framing timber and then expect it to last more than 5 years exposed to the elements. A bunch of totally incompetent morons, that's who. And who now suffers the cost of all this; the DIYer and homeowner (actually I think the government, BRANZ and the builders responsible should take equal share of the blame for the leaky home problem). I see this being similar to the electrical wiring regulation balls-up, where a typically lower standard of workmanship is now overlooked because the inspections are being paid for by those doing the work. Previously, inspections were done by impartial electrical inspectors provided by the supply authorities. I'll have to think about this some more but there must be a solution along these lines: A separate, government funded department provides electrical inspections at a nominal cost to the builder or DIYer on a regular basis throughout the construction. If organised properly this can't be more expensive than the current system. The inspectors have to be impartial and not attached to any council or organisation that can benefit in any way by influencing the process. Maybe the government could take over the building inspections departments of local councils. They could subsidize the costs by providing a comprehensive inspection service to home buyers. It has to be done in such a way that building techniques, materials and workmanship are monitored to be of a high enough standard without trying to control who does the work.

Pedestrian Crossings and Road Safety Driving late the other night I noticed a brightly lit bus stop with a large backlit advert; something about how many people were being killed on the roads. I realised as I was just passing over the pedestrian crossing that my attention was drawn to the bus stop. Luckily it was late at night and nobody was crossing. On the opposite side of the road is a large school. A great piece of advertising designed to increase the number of accidents on that pedestrian crossing. It just shows that safety doesn't really matter if there's money to be made by selling advertising space.

Telecom New Zealand difficult to deal with - profit before service I've just discovered that if you want to cancel an "additional service" listing such as an email address and cell phone listing in the white pages you still have to pay the account because they reprint the book THEN send the notification and invoice. Tuff-crap if you wanted to change anything. Generally it's not something you think about until the bill arrives. By then it's too late. If you call them up to cancel, one of the first things you hear is something about a debt collection agency if you don't pay the account. I guess they figure it's better to keep it a secret and then hit you with the bill; when it's too late. It must cut down on the cancellations, and if you do cancel they still score another years charges. It's been pointed out that it's been policy to roll-over yellow pages advertising. That's fine; I wouldn't want my yellow pages advert deleted because I forgot to reply to the notification. I would expect to be notified and given the opportunity to review my advert prior to the reprint; not 3-weeks after the latest book has been distributed. BTW: They charge me $54 for 23 additional characters in the Wellington New Zealand White Pages. It's likely that when you agreed to the additional service; probably years ago; you didn't realise that you could not cancel without incurring an additional years charges. Actually, I think they used to send out notification of a reprint and provide the opportunity to make changes. My advice: Don't use any Telecom service if another is available. Stay well away from Telecom and associated companies. You will likely be overcharged, but worse still, you won't be treated fairly or with respect.

Greenhouse gasses, wind farms and NZ Government proposes a tax on farm animals We have some good sites for wind farms here in New Zealand, but some people don't want them. I think a couple of local sites here in Wellington have been proposed but people living a few miles away (in one case across the harbour entrance) complained that they would be unsightly and/or noisy. So, nothing is done. What's sad is that now they run the coal fired stations and produce pollution. The government proposed a tax on farm animals because of the greenhouse gasses they produce, claiming that it will make farming more efficient. Not quite. They now claim that it will fund research into feeds that will cause the animals to produce less gas. Why not just call it a tax and add it to the weekly shopping? That would be popular! Maybe it would be better to get all the people with nothing to do out planting trees. Update: The government has backed down on the fart tax.

Falling driving standards It seems to me that driving standards are falling, and I don't mean anything to do with speed. I'm referring to common sense and courtesy. Too many drivers are now fundamentally incompetent and the authorities do nothing but chase some poor bugger traveling a bit over the posted speed limit on a clear road. I blame the Police, but I also have some sympathy for them. The police are not able to solve the problems. The morons making the rules and providing the resources are the real cause of the problem. I have some sympathy for the police because because they spend so much time dealing with idiots and blame the police because they do not enforce the little rules. There is no one thing, it's a lot of little things which added together cause a big problem. not indicating when turning or changing lanes braking to turn before indicating not giving way running red lights lacking basic vehicle control skills driving too slowly lacking the confidence to drive effectively If the vehicle owner could cop a $100 fine in the mail for any of these offences it would cost some people $1000 a week to commute to work. It wouldn't take long before they were being a lot more careful and courteous or better still went by train or bus. You no longer have to take responsibility for your actions or lack of ability. If something goes wrong it was the car, or the road, or the weather, or bad light, or something else; never my fault. Too often the road has to be improved because there is a "black-spot", or a new rule has to be created because someone did something that was not specifically covered by the existing rules. In most cases the black spot is between their ears. The only thing the that's actually "targeted" is speed which is not a major problem. It's just easier to point a machine and ring up the dollars. The radar and laser equipment gives an immediate yes/no answer that is not easy to argue with. Why argue with a driver about indicating when changing lanes when you can collect revenue with a low cost hand held piece of equipment that the victim has to accept as accurate.

Standards and Regulations I'm pretty pessimistic about the future in this area. In another 10 years we won't be allowed to do any home DIY or wiring, even low voltage stuff without a license and permit. There will be no point owning tools because it will be illegal to use them. The "system" has gone mad with rules supposedly there to protect us from ourselves. In a few years they'll have to close all public hardware stores because they sell far too many dangerous tools. You will have to be a qualified, registered and a currently licensed specialist to be allowed to apply for a permit to buy a plastic hammer. That's a thought; imagine having to apply for a permit and do a 2-day safety course before being allowed to buy a $20 battery drill. With permit and course fees it will cost $250 and take 4 weeks. Electrical Wiring Regulations Back when I did an electrical apprenticeship the regulations made sense, the inspectors were independent and run by the supply authorities and the standard of workmanship was generally much higher than it is now. I can't remember exactly how it happened, and who cares, but it got all changed around. Now the regs book is five times the size and seems to contain less useful information and the inspectors are employed by the electrician to inspect and sign off on that electricians work. There are still some good electricians but the majority of the work I have seen in the last 10 years would have been rejected by the inspectors 15 to 20 years ago. I guess my complaint is that the system worked and should not have been changed that much. With the demise of the power authorities, the inspectors had to go somewhere but they should not be employed directly by the electricians. There was nothing wrong with the regs book other than it needed ongoing updates to keep up with natural changes and new techniques. I believe this segment is from the current electrical regulations. 2.1.2 Switchboards are not allowed to be located: ... (f) Not less than 1.2 m from the floor and not more than   2.0 m from the floor or ground. So does that say it has to be below 1.2m or above 2m? Common sense says that the idiots who wrote this crap actually mean to say that it must be between 1.2m and 2m above the floor or ground. As far as I'm concerned there's no excuse for this form of writing. It should be easily understandable on first read and written in what most people would consider plain english. The idiots who created the current regulations should be fired and forced to personally fund a plain english replacement. If you know who these idiots were/are please let me know.   Firearms Licenses Back when I got a license you did a course and were registered. To buy a gun you went to the police and got a permit to procure which you took to the dealer and bought the gun. Within x days you had to take the gun to the police to be checked and registered. This system sounds good because it tracks buyers, sellers and firearms. Currently, you get a license and can buy and sell without the police tracking who has what or where specific firearms are. The original system probably suffered from 2 problems; lots of paperwork for the police in keeping track and it was restrictive on dealers. With better computers and data management the paperwork wouldn't be a problem now. For the dealers, I don't know. I'd rather see the old system back in place.

Microsoft After using Win 98, my first impression of XP was not very good. After a couple of years I still don't like it. It's now been replaced by Linux. I don't do any gaming; I just want things to work with the minimum of fuss. Over the years I've bought about 8 Microsoft operating systems from DOS through Windows XP, and 3 competing DOS OS's. I'm definately anti-Microsoft, having struggled with operating systems over the years and wasted thousands of hours. I feel that MS have not played fair in recent years in the way they've treated competitors and their own customers. I do think they've done some great things for the computer industry in general, but with their current attitudes it's time they were gone. So, I've been playing around with Linux (see below). I think it's only recently that Linux has come of age as a useful desktop OS. I currently have only one Windows-98SE laptop to run a few older specific windows applications. I decided years ago never to buy another MS product; software or hardware. As for XP, I can't accept an OS that won't let me access parts of my PC and wants to report everything I do to it's masters. If MS carry on uncontrolled, they'll be telling us which applications to use, what files we're allowed to create and what we can do with them. Other problems I have with MS are proprietary file formats, future forced upgrades, data access problems following upgrade, deliberate incompatibility with competing products, the inability to use the software in the future and software activation. Incompatibility, closed "non"-standards, lack of security and simply not knowing what it's realy going on inside your PC are more than enough reasons to stay well cleay of Microsoft Operating Systems and applications. Although the average user doesn't have a clue what's going on inside Linux, at least it supports open standards and the inner workings are freely available to be inspected and tested. The opportunity to cheat is very small. It's already getting to the point where it's becoming difficult to continue using Win 98. From a user point of view there's nothing functionally wrong with a basic Win 98 system. The problem is that applications are forcing users to upgrade. Only a major competing product like Linux can have any affect on MS. We've already seen that the US justice system is under MS control; which makes sense considering the taxes, jobs and exports they provide. I can hear Mr Gates saying "make that punishment hurt and I'll move the business to Ireland". I'm all in favour of open source and open document standards. I was recently reading that MS Vista has been such a challenge to develop that it could be their last major OS release. I doubt they will give up. The info suggested that Vista was a shaddow of what was originally intended and is two years late. In the time Microsoft has been working on Vista there have been a number of major upgrades from the open source Linux community. I've seen huge improvements in Mandrake-Mandriva in this time; just one Linux distro. If a huge well funded company like MS cannot keep up with the unpaid open source community it makes you wonder how sensible it is for commercial software developers to continue creating exclusively for Windows. It 's time they started releasing a Linux version of their products as well.

Linux Replaces Windows I'm not interrested in computer games so I'm only thinking of operating systems that do useful things such as handle email, browse the web, create documents, spreadsheats and graphics. Does Linux replace Windows? Depends on what you want from a PC. To play games; no it doesn't. To do the common PC desktop stuff; yes it does. There are a few specialised programs that I use that are not easily installed to a Linux PC, but these don't affect 99.99% of computer users. My preferred Linux distrobution is Mandriva (or whatever the latest release is called). Generally I've found Mandriva to be quick and easy to install; the default installation from DVD has installed without major problems on a dozen or so PCs I've tried it on; it installs quicker than Windows and includes all the standard applications with the default installation. The only noticable thing is that it's slower to boot and slower to open some major programs than Windows. Not realy a problem considering it's more reliable than Windows and doesn't lock you files up in proprietry formats. So far I haven't had any problems with opening files from MS Office. This will likely change with the introduction of newer versions of Office and Vista. If anyone sends me an MS Office file that I can't open in Open Office then they will have to save it as an earlier version office file if possible. I'm not having anything to do with Vista or MS Office just for file exchange. I'm not interrested in spending 6 hours every evening for six months learing to install and manage an OS. As far as I'm concerned an OS should be like a TV set; you turn it on and "everything you need" works; who cares how; it just has to work. Well, we're still a long way from it and anyone who says differently has many hours of tinkering under their belts and can no longer see it from a novice point of view. OK then; Linux sucks almost as much as Windows but in a different way. The main problem I find with Linux is that it's created by experts for experts. It's not easy to install anything that's not already built in. And what's up with those "informative" linux web sites? Most of them look like a shreaded phone book, text thrown everywhere. I was running Windows XP-pro on my main PC untill I had a problem with a Virus. Two days of work later I decided to reinstall from scratch. Then came the activation problems. After fussing with on-line, dial-up and waiting on hold for ages I began to wonder why I was going to all this trouble to reinstall a flawed operating system. Since I was starting again why not install Mandriva Linux. There have been a few problems but nothing very serious. I've now been running Mandrake/Mandriva Linux full time since late 2004 on my main PC. I still run Win-98SE on a laptop which handles a few older applications. Until recently I had XP-Home running on a PC that was only occasionally used; it's now also running Mandriva. So far Linux has definitely not been free. The expense in time wasted was significant initially but so far has not caught up to that of Microsoft Windows. The general day to day reliabilty is much better.

Politicians They are there to work for the people of New Zealand. Some even claim they are there to do good. But they take no responsibility for what they do nor the long term outcome. They cost the country more and more and achieve less and less. I think that politician should be a minimum-wage job with no perks that an efficient small company would not normally provide to the majority of their staff. They should find their own way to and from work, and be paid only for the time they are clocked in. They should be held responsible for their decisions, actions and statements; with no special protection. Maybe each election promise that's not made good during the term, gets each party member involved a year of community service on minimum wage and a 3 year exclusion from politics. That should reduce the crap and the number of candidates for each position. Something else that may be worth thinking about: If someone is sucessfull in their chosen line of work, it doesn't make much sense that they would want to give it up. Does this mean that politicians are not good at what they were doing before? Oops; screwed that up; let's have a go at running the country. I recall hearing recently that the government want to spend millions of dollars building in basement of the Beehive (government buildings) a media centre that they can control. The reason being that they don't like the uncontrolled media showing members of parliament sleeping and generally not paying attention. So this must mean that they want to spend taxpayers money to build a system to allow them to missrepresent themselves to the public of New Zealand. That's simply dishonest.

Don't buy these Products Breville Pronto benchtop oven Inefficient - gets far too hot on the outside. In my opinion it's dangerous. Black and Decker line trimmer Inefficient - gets far too hot on the outside. In my opinion it's dangerous. Creative Mouse - Freepoint Travel Mini - wireless A piece of crap. Power management does not work. Always goes flat when most needed. Does not charge reliably. Does not always switch off when dongle parked. Sleeps when in use. Slow to restart. The most anoying mouse I have ever used. I've had this for over a year and used it on a few occasions, giving up each time. I have put new batteries in it. Finally decided to crush it. I'm not buying another Creative product. Logitech Mouse At some point I had a Logitech mouse. It can't have been much good because I only remember the problems I had with the bloated software that it insisted on installing. WhyTF do you need a taskbay icon that winks? I finally got rid of the remains of that software and now the wheel on my Genius netscroll+Mini Traveler mouse works.

Next Topic ??

I haven't thought of any yet.

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last updated: 02 Dec 2007