Back into the Ether
It's been a hard week. My computers decided to take a holiday. The main machine, the one that contains everything and for which I don't have a full back-up available, was running through treacle. Taken to the doctors the incompetence of the last computer technician was revealed. Some time agao I'd asked for a second hard disk to be fitted, and the memory to be upgraded.
The crooks had placed a new hard drive on top of the existing drive - making both drives work at over 50 degrees centigrade - which is a wonder as the designed operating temperature is much lower than that. It is some wonder that the machine worked at all, as says something for the credibility of the disk manufacturers.
The memory stick fitted proved to be secondhand, first made in 1996, and it did not work. Usable memory, supposed to be 250Mb was under 1000Kb - again a small wonder.
The original computer company, Alcor, has gone bust. Based in Peterborough they had another shop in Felixstowe. If you see them around I'd like to know, because they need to be told - and sued.
All this has me wondering why we tolerate such bad service, particularly from compter suppliers, who sell us kit that comes without understandable guides, and often without any real guarantee.
Television Trust
I don't have a television. That's a true statement.
Trouble is that the TV Licensing authority will not take my word for that. They want to come to my house, go into every room, to make sure that there is not a television receiver hidden away in a dark recess, that I can pull out on dark nights.
Is my word no longer my bond? There was a time when an Englishman's word was accepted without question, nothing more was required.
That said our ex-Home Secretary, the cuckold forced to resign for helping an immigrant speed her application for residency, is now suggesting that we should all be proud to be English. Whilst accepting his arguments, I'm not convinced he is the right man for such a job. I'm still old-fashioned enough to believe there are enough potential sexual partners in this world for it not to be necessary to steal away with a married woman.
Whatever of sexual morays is it no longer possible to check that I'm not operating a television using a gizmo that is outside my house? Why should a poorly-paid clod-hopper be allowed to force their way into my house - my castle even - and tramp through every room?
I tell the world again - I do not have a television. Believe me.
No doubt an insistent character will now appear on my doorstep intent upon breaking my resolve. Turned away they will return armed with an order from the court. I shall protest, perhaps refuse entry. They will force down my door, danmage my property, intrude upon my privacy, to see that I've not yet made the bed, and the washing-up remains, that my home is littered with books, paper, a computer or two, an unfinished bathroom and who knows what other embarrassments.
They will NOT find a television. Believe me. I am an Englishman.
Entrepreneur required.
The www.author.co.uk site needs new blood, someone with imagination who can move it forward to become the epicentre of British writing and publishing. Its been operating for over ten years, establishing a foothold for authors, lodging its information safely within most search engines. It has huge potential, and will make millions in the right hands.
There are several ways to make the site commercially profitable; authors can have their own sites - perhaps using subdomains, such as www.lockwood.author.co.uk; it could be used to promote British authors, and they need promoting; there's a whole range of other opportunities, from providing book production facilities, an online bookshop, promotional feeds using RSS, Blogs, adding audio-visual material linked to press campaigns; as well as providing information.
It's time to hand over to someone else, who can inject real enthusiasm into the publishing industry., which is in jeopardy as it becomes more controlled by a few very large agglomerated companies. The dream has always been to improve the pathways from writer to reader. The conventional model no longer works - certainly not for authors, who are too often regarded as cash cows who can be too easily discarded once sales figures begin to droop.
Using www.author.co.uk is a way forward, putting authors back in control of their own destinies. Somewhere out there are people who understand the potential of controlling a large hunk of British writing talent. After all where will publishers be without the words provided by writers?
Food
I'm tempted to start another Blog just to write about food; a natural obsession of mine. The meals I've prepared recently have been (modestly) superb, probably deserving a wider audience than my stomach.
Just run SpyBot on my machine, see Spybot, which has detected any number fo nasty beasties lurking in the registry and elsewhere. The program is free, and simple to run. All power to their elbows (very useful for drinking pints of Guinness, which is important as they are an Irish company).
Not that some Irish leaders are getting much company this week. The IRA (who like to be known as Sinn Fein) have not been invited to the US Presidents St Patrick's Day Bash. It's about time. We hear great talk about terrorism, but for too many years these people have been blowing up innocent people, and murdering anyone who gets in their way. It's been real terrorism, nasty, dirty work that has ruined too many people's lives - for little good reason.
It seemed to me that the 'Irish Question', as it was called in England, could have been solved by making Ulster the first independent European state: a territory with autonomous control, managed by its residents, answerable directly to the European Parliament. After all its the way true Europhiles would like us to go, so why not make a start? Ulster seems like a good test bed.
