Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Monday, December 03, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
You knew where to come
So Comet are no more. I'm sure, behind the public condolences, high fives and bottles of champagne were consumed in the head office of another struggling electrical retailer. With one year in profit out of the last 4, including a loss of over £250 million less than 18 months ago they have much to be cheery about. Let's hope they discover that hubris is a fickle bitch.
I also note that the big money transfer of a senior executive from said retailer to the world's largest purveyor of electronic validation didn't quite go according to plan. Clearly not enough people wanted to avail of extended warranties, anti-virus software, MS Office, laptop bags or suspiciously over priced "services" to justify their continued employment.
In a couple of weeks time these shops will also be filled with peculiarly priced products. You know - the basic toaster selling for £40, the hopelessly outclassed 32" TV at £599, none of which appear on the manufacturers web site. I'll be keeping an eye.
I've spent the last couple of weeks fighting with a DLNA client on a Blu-ray player. This is one of those things which is better in theory than it is in practice. The whole folder / sub folder / file format is so wilfully clunky that it is hard to see the benefit it offers over just sticking a frigging disc in. So how do I play this album by this artist and then that one by another one conveniently stored in a different folder? Not easily. And if it happens to be in a format that your player doesn't support, well that client they've given you isn't going to work. You'll need to buy one which transcodes on the fly, which means all that content you have created in a format this manufacturer as deemed incompatible on your stand alone DLNA compliant media hard drive is as playable as a wax cylinder. So it's more awkward than playing a CD.It doesn't sound as good as CD and if you want to navigate around you either need to have the thing plugged into a TV screen or be skilled in the use of divining rods. Hey that's me sold. My CDs are for the bin....
Recently I posted a question on a Surround Sound forum asking a guest "star" what the difference was between someone selling a second hand disc for a grossly inflated sum, where the artist receives nothing, beyond the initial royalty when the disc was sold, and downloading said content from a hooky website for free? Isn't the net result, the artist getting nothing beyond the initial royalty when the disc was sold, exactly the same? I don't know what their response was. The friggers deleted it. Still I wonder if they care? They could press more, charge a wee premium and watch the sad hi res (like me) lap it up. But no. You want buy it? Then buy it "new" from ebay such as Roxy Music's "Avalon" on SACD going £750. Bargain. Can I have two please?
I also note that the big money transfer of a senior executive from said retailer to the world's largest purveyor of electronic validation didn't quite go according to plan. Clearly not enough people wanted to avail of extended warranties, anti-virus software, MS Office, laptop bags or suspiciously over priced "services" to justify their continued employment.
In a couple of weeks time these shops will also be filled with peculiarly priced products. You know - the basic toaster selling for £40, the hopelessly outclassed 32" TV at £599, none of which appear on the manufacturers web site. I'll be keeping an eye.
I've spent the last couple of weeks fighting with a DLNA client on a Blu-ray player. This is one of those things which is better in theory than it is in practice. The whole folder / sub folder / file format is so wilfully clunky that it is hard to see the benefit it offers over just sticking a frigging disc in. So how do I play this album by this artist and then that one by another one conveniently stored in a different folder? Not easily. And if it happens to be in a format that your player doesn't support, well that client they've given you isn't going to work. You'll need to buy one which transcodes on the fly, which means all that content you have created in a format this manufacturer as deemed incompatible on your stand alone DLNA compliant media hard drive is as playable as a wax cylinder. So it's more awkward than playing a CD.It doesn't sound as good as CD and if you want to navigate around you either need to have the thing plugged into a TV screen or be skilled in the use of divining rods. Hey that's me sold. My CDs are for the bin....
Recently I posted a question on a Surround Sound forum asking a guest "star" what the difference was between someone selling a second hand disc for a grossly inflated sum, where the artist receives nothing, beyond the initial royalty when the disc was sold, and downloading said content from a hooky website for free? Isn't the net result, the artist getting nothing beyond the initial royalty when the disc was sold, exactly the same? I don't know what their response was. The friggers deleted it. Still I wonder if they care? They could press more, charge a wee premium and watch the sad hi res (like me) lap it up. But no. You want buy it? Then buy it "new" from ebay such as Roxy Music's "Avalon" on SACD going £750. Bargain. Can I have two please?
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Aye.
Opera doesn't work with Blogger again.
They should just rename Sunday "Nothing But Frigging Cookery Programmes On TV" Day.
And no I don't give a fuck about your new phone, or how it validates your otherwise empty existence. Defining yourself by the consumer durables you own is so far beyond pathetic it defies the normal parameters of what actually constitutes "pathetic".
In ten years time people will look back at a time when smartphones and auto-tuned fuckery define popular culture not with nostalgia, but with bewilderment at how we let things slip.
Whatever headline is on the BBC page, not now, but when you read this, is the worst thing ever. And it will remain the worse thing ever, until it is replaced by the next, different worst thing.
They should just rename Sunday "Nothing But Frigging Cookery Programmes On TV" Day.
And no I don't give a fuck about your new phone, or how it validates your otherwise empty existence. Defining yourself by the consumer durables you own is so far beyond pathetic it defies the normal parameters of what actually constitutes "pathetic".
In ten years time people will look back at a time when smartphones and auto-tuned fuckery define popular culture not with nostalgia, but with bewilderment at how we let things slip.
Whatever headline is on the BBC page, not now, but when you read this, is the worst thing ever. And it will remain the worse thing ever, until it is replaced by the next, different worst thing.
Sunday, September 02, 2012
Angry Since 1967 "Most Popular" Angry Since 1967
In figures released today "Angry Since 1967" confirmed its position as the pre-eminent "Angry Since 1967" blog. Commenting on these results AS1967 claimed "we're seeing record numbers of hits to the site. This is matched by our engagement statistics which demonstrate people are spending more time exploring the blog, up 50% per visit". Dismissing suggestions 3 hits a month, most of which came from Google was, in fact, pish poor AS1967 claimed that these were just "bald" figures which had not been adjusted according to well established interpretive models. "These numbers are representative rather than indicative. In this instance we use the commonly accepted assumption which directly equates the numbers of hits Angry Since 1967 receives and the population of the country which coded the automated web spider browsing the site. When this is factored into the calculation, it means a single visit from Google is equivalent to getting 312 million views.".
Monday, August 20, 2012
Now That's What I Call "Odds And Sods" Volume 12
The latest panacea to cure the economy is the extension of Sunday shopping hours. I see their point. Not even slightly. Forget about the people who'll have to work these extra hours - which I will dismiss with the following "well, they're lucky to have jobs. And we should bring back hanging. And National Service" and rather focus on how this will actually work. Puzzling isn't it? Now I'd argue retailers open too many hours already. From 9 O'clock on Monday morning, right through until 10 O'clock on Saturday evening there are national retailers open for business. If you add the 6 hours on a Sunday as well it means you can buy a TV, bread, marmite, condoms, batteries or whatever else you want during 83% of the available hours in a week from a shop. Yet the contention is if you allow retailers to open for a few extra hours on Sundays the economic problems which afflict us will be solved. Clearly the government and the advocates of this are expecting these hours to be busy. Of course this is patent nonsense which ignores the not insignificant fact that, property aside, the retail sector has taken the brunt of the effects of the recession. You don't have to go far to see vacant units in the high street or in shopping centres, nor does it take much effort to recall those retailers who have have gone to the wall. I suppose if you were to forget that business volumes are unlikely increase but will remain constant spread over the longer hours*, or factor in additional staffing and running costs, or the not inconsiderable fact that the quietest hours for retailers are those first thing in the morning or last thing at night, then letting retailers open at 9 on a Sunday until god knows when still doesn't make a poke of business sense. Yet it will happen. Why? Retail strategy isn't based on what your organisation does, rather it is based on a paranoid perception of what your competitors do (or more correctly might do), rather than giving a moments thought to what the impact replicating their actions will have on your business. If Comet started sticking people's heads in to fires, Curry's would offer it as well, but they'd try to cajole you into buying additional firelighters and scorch insurance, then blame their sales people for not selling the benefits of these added services. I'm not anti the idea of extended opening hours, I just wish they didn't attempt to justify it with spurious proclamations declaring wholesale economic benefits.
HMV released their annual results, in a statement which could be best described as "Jam Tomorrow. Promise." They have changed their focus again, with the shops making more of an effort to sell music rather than ipod docks. The downside is they've upped their prices for music. What this means is that they are effectively back where we started. If I can buy an as new disc from Amazon for 1p plus postage and packing, then what tangible (or intangible) benefit is there for me buying the same disc in HMV for a £10? It's not just the price either though. The news that last weeks No.1 album sold just over 9000 copies (CD and download) means that all those music retailers and supermarkets were scrambling over something which had a maximum sales value of less than £100,000. That's split between every single branch of Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, HMV and the online retailers. Which if you count the three main online retailers and you simply divide the figure by these, plus the five above that means they were getting on average sales of £12,500 each. The word "pittance" springs to mind. Or put another way? The Dandy is being cancelled after 75 years because it has a weekly circulation which has slumped to fractionally less than 9000. HMV are caught in a perfect storm. Too expensive, selling stuff that no-one wants, in a market which is in decline. I'm astonished they still exist.
*Of course longer opening hours also mean that your fixed costs per opening hour are reduced. But as your average hourly sales will be reduced the net result is they will effectively cancel each other out. The retailers who engage in 24 hour opening do rationalise this - if we have staff already in the branch replenishing anyway, then we might as well open the branch as our costs won't really increase and we might sell someone some Rizla's and Monster Munch at 4 in the morning, which we wouldn't otherwise have sold. Yeah up yours 24 hour garage! If, on the other hand, you are a retailer who doesn't use the hours you are closed for this purpose, then any additional opening hour is an additional cost.
HMV released their annual results, in a statement which could be best described as "Jam Tomorrow. Promise." They have changed their focus again, with the shops making more of an effort to sell music rather than ipod docks. The downside is they've upped their prices for music. What this means is that they are effectively back where we started. If I can buy an as new disc from Amazon for 1p plus postage and packing, then what tangible (or intangible) benefit is there for me buying the same disc in HMV for a £10? It's not just the price either though. The news that last weeks No.1 album sold just over 9000 copies (CD and download) means that all those music retailers and supermarkets were scrambling over something which had a maximum sales value of less than £100,000. That's split between every single branch of Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, HMV and the online retailers. Which if you count the three main online retailers and you simply divide the figure by these, plus the five above that means they were getting on average sales of £12,500 each. The word "pittance" springs to mind. Or put another way? The Dandy is being cancelled after 75 years because it has a weekly circulation which has slumped to fractionally less than 9000. HMV are caught in a perfect storm. Too expensive, selling stuff that no-one wants, in a market which is in decline. I'm astonished they still exist.
*Of course longer opening hours also mean that your fixed costs per opening hour are reduced. But as your average hourly sales will be reduced the net result is they will effectively cancel each other out. The retailers who engage in 24 hour opening do rationalise this - if we have staff already in the branch replenishing anyway, then we might as well open the branch as our costs won't really increase and we might sell someone some Rizla's and Monster Munch at 4 in the morning, which we wouldn't otherwise have sold. Yeah up yours 24 hour garage! If, on the other hand, you are a retailer who doesn't use the hours you are closed for this purpose, then any additional opening hour is an additional cost.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Too Obscure...
The problem is, as far as I can tell, taking the piss out of things which despite deserving it, are far too obscure. I should provide a link I suppose, but as the site I'm having a swipe at sees web hits as not only legitimatising what they do, but also giving it a sense of authority. I don't see any reason to feed their egos. Of course this veneer of legitimacy is ultimately undermined by the execrable horseshit which fills their site. Nonetheless I'll be damned allowing even the minuscule traffic a link from AS1967 could generate to contribute to their delusion.
And this is the thing now. Many websites, not just those run by aggrandising amateurs like the one I've referred to above, equate "hits" with "authority" and "legitimacy". This is especially true of those related to newspapers with declining circulations. One Belfast based paper now, to all intents and purposes, runs its printed version as a teaser for the online version. Were once they sold 120,000 a day they now sell less than half this. Now newspapers have always had their influence ascribed by their circulation. As their readership declines, so (and I think rightly) their relevance declines as well. They can no longer claim to speak for "the people" if "the people" don't bother their holes any more buying their publication. And it's the "buying" which is important. In a previous post I suggested that whoever came up with a level of engagement less than pressing a like button would be a billionaire seconds later. If you buy a newspaper you are making a conscious decision to engage with it. If you accidentally surf to a page which happens to be related to a newspaper, or look at a link to one story then frankly you are not engaging with anything.
Web hits are not, regardless of how much they howl to the contrary, equal to paid for circulation.
And this is the thing now. Many websites, not just those run by aggrandising amateurs like the one I've referred to above, equate "hits" with "authority" and "legitimacy". This is especially true of those related to newspapers with declining circulations. One Belfast based paper now, to all intents and purposes, runs its printed version as a teaser for the online version. Were once they sold 120,000 a day they now sell less than half this. Now newspapers have always had their influence ascribed by their circulation. As their readership declines, so (and I think rightly) their relevance declines as well. They can no longer claim to speak for "the people" if "the people" don't bother their holes any more buying their publication. And it's the "buying" which is important. In a previous post I suggested that whoever came up with a level of engagement less than pressing a like button would be a billionaire seconds later. If you buy a newspaper you are making a conscious decision to engage with it. If you accidentally surf to a page which happens to be related to a newspaper, or look at a link to one story then frankly you are not engaging with anything.
Web hits are not, regardless of how much they howl to the contrary, equal to paid for circulation.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Angry Since 1967 Redefines Blog Scope.
In today's fast moving, multi-faceted, information rich society, growing insight deficitism allows for little time to expend pausing to consider the ambient entirety of the worldscape which surrounds us. In an effort to identify, regenerate, empower, and explore this intravoid, Angry Since 1967 announces a redefinition of its online proposition, moving to occupy the thoughtspaces neglected by the paradigms which now constitute the concepts of "social media". By emancipating these boundaries and removing the shackles of social media's accepted modalities, Angry Since 1967 will provide antithetical commentary, freed from the clichés which reinforce and ultimately narrowize its didactical scope. With photography, poetry, art, music and video at its core, Angry Since 1967 will re-energise the dialogue, unafraid to use these constructs as tools to expose and contextualise that which would remain otherwise obscured and unchallenged by the quasi-intellectual sophism which shackles the extant narrative.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 09, 2012
Odd and Sods - Redux. Part 2
I counted 9 advertisements for jobs in Belfast were the deal breaker is the ability to speak a Scandinavian language (other than Finnish), or Hebrew.
Aren't job creation grants wonderful?
Nope.
Google have decided Opera isn't compatible with Blogger any more. Weeker!
Regardless of what certain media sources may claim, the number of clicks on a Facebook or You Tube's "like" button are not an indication of empowerment or participation. Nor do they, in themselves, offer justification for a news story. Clicking a "like" button is currently the least amount of participation possible to have with anything. I say "currently" as whoever comes up with something even less committal will likely be a billionaire a matter of seconds later.
Aren't job creation grants wonderful?
Nope.
Google have decided Opera isn't compatible with Blogger any more. Weeker!
Regardless of what certain media sources may claim, the number of clicks on a Facebook or You Tube's "like" button are not an indication of empowerment or participation. Nor do they, in themselves, offer justification for a news story. Clicking a "like" button is currently the least amount of participation possible to have with anything. I say "currently" as whoever comes up with something even less committal will likely be a billionaire a matter of seconds later.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Angry Since 1967 Announces "Digtal®" Consultancy Service
Strategy in a chaotically organised world.
Angry Since 1967 Consults is the new Digtal® Consultancy arm of Angry Since 1967. As well as developing content packages for one of the most successful blogs called "Angry Since 1967", AS1967 now offers a package of Digtal® assistance for organisations and businesses to help them survive in a period of rapid change.
Digtal® Coaching – Nothing can grow if the movers and shakers in your organisation are feeling insecure or confused. With nearly ten years of award winning online engagement we can help your executives.
Strategic Counsel – We help you see beyond speedy technological change and understand the context of political, social and economic change.
Thought Leadership – Intelligence is about making connections. Our powerful network of partners comprises thinkers, mediocre, failed politicians, armchair commentators, Radio Ulster newspaper reviewers, sudden experts, subjective specialists, jokers, smokers, midnight tokers and cutting edge Digtal® entrepreneurs. We can put you in the picture and ahead of the game.
Correct Spelling - As an AS1967 client you want professionalism from your knowledge facilitator. Recognising the inherent weaknesses of proof reading, we've developed and deployed powerful Digtal® linguistic algorithms meaning you can be assured that our grasp of spelling is second only to our understanding of basic grammar, so you can.
Jargon Caching - Angry Since 1967 believes that anything worth saying, is either worth saying evasively, or disguised with empty jargon. Pico-trending, marketing funnel, hegemonic social space, heterogeneous empowerment and noise emancipation are fundamental tenets of our core participant benefit map.
Self Aggrandisement - You deserve the best. Which we will deliver, despite ample evidence to the contrary. This includes a badly designed, off the shelf, templated website which hasn't been proof read properly, filled with bad spelling and worse grammar. Trust me - sorry I mean "us"- I wrote something for someone once. And we get six hits a week.... Okay then, a month. And we nearly won an award. Honestly.
Now where's my grant?
Is this too subtle?
Angry Since 1967 Consults is the new Digtal® Consultancy arm of Angry Since 1967. As well as developing content packages for one of the most successful blogs called "Angry Since 1967", AS1967 now offers a package of Digtal® assistance for organisations and businesses to help them survive in a period of rapid change.
Digtal® Coaching – Nothing can grow if the movers and shakers in your organisation are feeling insecure or confused. With nearly ten years of award winning online engagement we can help your executives.
Strategic Counsel – We help you see beyond speedy technological change and understand the context of political, social and economic change.
Thought Leadership – Intelligence is about making connections. Our powerful network of partners comprises thinkers, mediocre, failed politicians, armchair commentators, Radio Ulster newspaper reviewers, sudden experts, subjective specialists, jokers, smokers, midnight tokers and cutting edge Digtal® entrepreneurs. We can put you in the picture and ahead of the game.
Correct Spelling - As an AS1967 client you want professionalism from your knowledge facilitator. Recognising the inherent weaknesses of proof reading, we've developed and deployed powerful Digtal® linguistic algorithms meaning you can be assured that our grasp of spelling is second only to our understanding of basic grammar, so you can.
Jargon Caching - Angry Since 1967 believes that anything worth saying, is either worth saying evasively, or disguised with empty jargon. Pico-trending, marketing funnel, hegemonic social space, heterogeneous empowerment and noise emancipation are fundamental tenets of our core participant benefit map.
Self Aggrandisement - You deserve the best. Which we will deliver, despite ample evidence to the contrary. This includes a badly designed, off the shelf, templated website which hasn't been proof read properly, filled with bad spelling and worse grammar. Trust me - sorry I mean "us"- I wrote something for someone once. And we get six hits a week.... Okay then, a month. And we nearly won an award. Honestly.
Now where's my grant?
Is this too subtle?
Monday, June 25, 2012
Take a look at our comedy, it's the only one we got.
If I ran a charity in a deprived neighbourhood and a guy appeared, claiming to be interested in what I was doing, but was being followed by a Channel 4 camera crew I'd be asking for the £20,000 cheque right there and then.
If, one day, I was standing in work, and I was introduced to someone who was there on "work experience" which was coincidentally being shot for a Channel 4 documentary I'd ask the Managing Director what their game was.
I've come to think that TV comedy needs a solid boot in the gonads. The parallels between what we have at the moment, and what existed in music in 1976 are obvious. Out of touch comedians whose sole target is to appear on a panel shows, rings with musicians whose sole target was to appear on Top Of The Pops. Then? Successful bands doing huge, indulgent stadium tours, playing set-lists filled with songs about the pains of being a member of a successful band, and the trials and tribulations of fame and fortune. Now? Successful comedians doing huge, indulgent stadium tours, filled with jokes about the pains of being a successful comedian, and the trials and tribulations of fame and fortune. Then? 70s Radio One DJ's hosting "Seaside Special". Now? Modern comedians hosting something which is effectively "Seaside Special". As I watch TV comedy I'm filled with a nostalgic feeling akin to that of someone living in the economically ravaged industrial wasteland of 70s Britain, hearing Supertramp's sunburnt mid-Atlantic AOR and wondering "what relevance does this have to me, and to my experience of everyday life?" And the answer transposes across 40 years; "fuck all". Yet this cycle of detachment and irrelevance continues. Amply demonstrated by the BBC decamping for another one of their annual jollys to Edinburgh, where finding someone new or fresh isn't as important as returning with more, barely indistinguishable Oxbridge gristle to fill the seats on their endless procession of smug, self-replicating, panel shows.
If, one day, I was standing in work, and I was introduced to someone who was there on "work experience" which was coincidentally being shot for a Channel 4 documentary I'd ask the Managing Director what their game was.
I've come to think that TV comedy needs a solid boot in the gonads. The parallels between what we have at the moment, and what existed in music in 1976 are obvious. Out of touch comedians whose sole target is to appear on a panel shows, rings with musicians whose sole target was to appear on Top Of The Pops. Then? Successful bands doing huge, indulgent stadium tours, playing set-lists filled with songs about the pains of being a member of a successful band, and the trials and tribulations of fame and fortune. Now? Successful comedians doing huge, indulgent stadium tours, filled with jokes about the pains of being a successful comedian, and the trials and tribulations of fame and fortune. Then? 70s Radio One DJ's hosting "Seaside Special". Now? Modern comedians hosting something which is effectively "Seaside Special". As I watch TV comedy I'm filled with a nostalgic feeling akin to that of someone living in the economically ravaged industrial wasteland of 70s Britain, hearing Supertramp's sunburnt mid-Atlantic AOR and wondering "what relevance does this have to me, and to my experience of everyday life?" And the answer transposes across 40 years; "fuck all". Yet this cycle of detachment and irrelevance continues. Amply demonstrated by the BBC decamping for another one of their annual jollys to Edinburgh, where finding someone new or fresh isn't as important as returning with more, barely indistinguishable Oxbridge gristle to fill the seats on their endless procession of smug, self-replicating, panel shows.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Monday, June 04, 2012
Nope. Nothing to see here.....
There's an old internet adage, records of which have been found prefixed with a hastag on buried Greek ruins "nothing kills a blog like a lack of content". Or, depending on the emphasis you put on the words "a lack of content". I think in the instance of Angry Since 1967 I'm doing a spectacularly good job of killing it either way.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Odds and Sods - NEW POST PREMIER 8.00 EST
So I had call from a recruitment agency yesterday. They said they'd ring me back. Needless to say my expectation of them actually doing this falls into the theoretical gap between "none" and "zero"
When I see today that Egyptians are voting in a landmark poll. I hope the Sphinx wins as it's my favourite.
I'm announcing my retirement from Discovery Channel / National Geographic documentaries. They trail what happens at the start, then at the first break they tell us what happened before the commercial break, and then what will happen between now and the end of the show, repeating this at each subsequent break. One I watched spent so much time with an onscreen graphic telling me that in a week's time some new show was on, that I felt like I'd fallen into some strange temporal flux were now, then and the future had become indivisible. And I released; this future show they are plugging will, in turn, have a graphic on it telling me about another future show. And what of this further show? An infinity of teaser graphics, episode trailers and season premiers spun in front of me. Then my head started to hurt. Honestly? It is so bad these stations should just cut to the chase and rename themselves "Jam Tomorrow".
When I see today that Egyptians are voting in a landmark poll. I hope the Sphinx wins as it's my favourite.
I'm announcing my retirement from Discovery Channel / National Geographic documentaries. They trail what happens at the start, then at the first break they tell us what happened before the commercial break, and then what will happen between now and the end of the show, repeating this at each subsequent break. One I watched spent so much time with an onscreen graphic telling me that in a week's time some new show was on, that I felt like I'd fallen into some strange temporal flux were now, then and the future had become indivisible. And I released; this future show they are plugging will, in turn, have a graphic on it telling me about another future show. And what of this further show? An infinity of teaser graphics, episode trailers and season premiers spun in front of me. Then my head started to hurt. Honestly? It is so bad these stations should just cut to the chase and rename themselves "Jam Tomorrow".
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Meanwhile here is some music*
*Normally when I post stuff like this about twenty minutes later I think of something to "actually" post.
Monday, April 23, 2012
If In Doubt
post a polemic...
I note that that there are now many urgent IT jobs in Belfast for native Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, German and Hebrew speakers. Now far be it for me to suggest that this "urgency" is inversely related to the numbers of said speakers in Belfast, but it is somewhat bewildering to consider the rationale behind locating these jobs in a place on the remote outskirts of western Europe which has a negligible history of immigration, much less a culture of multiple non-indigenous languages. You'd almost think some one was at their work "Another job creation grant? Er you'll need proof of actual employment? No? In that case I don't mind if I do"
Recently I've become even more questioning of the point of "the news". Now it is not for me to judge which are the important news stories, even though I'm just about to do that - albeit in a roundabout way. So rather I'd ask why does it matter if (for example) a politician, in a country you don't live in, says something which will have no impact on you? But it's not just politicians, it's everything. I've come to the conclusion that most of what passes for news is just simple voyeurism. Like the old days of the travelling show with its bearded woman, much of what we see is little more than an excuse to gape. Whether this is in wonder, fear, incredulity or outrage makes no odds. A consequence of this are the attempts to make these stories, no matter how irrelevant they may be, strike a cord with the viewer. Or rather make the viewer believe these have a direct bearing on their lives. Now I'm not suggesting that such things don't happen, but I find it more difficult to square the implicit sense that they always do. Much of the vocabulary used in the news is more akin with the notion of chaos theory. A butterfly flaps its wings and, half a world away, it rains. Therefore a bus strike in London results in me not being able to get to work this morning in Belfast, whereas a bus strike in Belfast simply means I just can't get to work in Belfast.
As for all those cropped disembodied fat torsos which have been photographed in such away so that individuals can't be recognised, or the blurred shots of school kids used to illustrate news stories (surprisingly never about Cropped Disembodied Fat Torsos UNCOVERED! or "School Kids In BLURRED video SHOCKER!) have become the visual short hand for shallow news coverage. Add the "inappropriate pop-up graphic superimposed over something" which they use (my favourite at the moment is the BBC's "The Sun" logo stuck over the top of the "New Scotland Yard" sign - gem!) and all I can think is that I'm being patronised by lazy simpletons who presume we need to be spooned information in a predigested mush, in much the same way one would feed an eviscerated toddler.
I note that that there are now many urgent IT jobs in Belfast for native Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, German and Hebrew speakers. Now far be it for me to suggest that this "urgency" is inversely related to the numbers of said speakers in Belfast, but it is somewhat bewildering to consider the rationale behind locating these jobs in a place on the remote outskirts of western Europe which has a negligible history of immigration, much less a culture of multiple non-indigenous languages. You'd almost think some one was at their work "Another job creation grant? Er you'll need proof of actual employment? No? In that case I don't mind if I do"
Recently I've become even more questioning of the point of "the news". Now it is not for me to judge which are the important news stories, even though I'm just about to do that - albeit in a roundabout way. So rather I'd ask why does it matter if (for example) a politician, in a country you don't live in, says something which will have no impact on you? But it's not just politicians, it's everything. I've come to the conclusion that most of what passes for news is just simple voyeurism. Like the old days of the travelling show with its bearded woman, much of what we see is little more than an excuse to gape. Whether this is in wonder, fear, incredulity or outrage makes no odds. A consequence of this are the attempts to make these stories, no matter how irrelevant they may be, strike a cord with the viewer. Or rather make the viewer believe these have a direct bearing on their lives. Now I'm not suggesting that such things don't happen, but I find it more difficult to square the implicit sense that they always do. Much of the vocabulary used in the news is more akin with the notion of chaos theory. A butterfly flaps its wings and, half a world away, it rains. Therefore a bus strike in London results in me not being able to get to work this morning in Belfast, whereas a bus strike in Belfast simply means I just can't get to work in Belfast.
As for all those cropped disembodied fat torsos which have been photographed in such away so that individuals can't be recognised, or the blurred shots of school kids used to illustrate news stories (surprisingly never about Cropped Disembodied Fat Torsos UNCOVERED! or "School Kids In BLURRED video SHOCKER!) have become the visual short hand for shallow news coverage. Add the "inappropriate pop-up graphic superimposed over something" which they use (my favourite at the moment is the BBC's "The Sun" logo stuck over the top of the "New Scotland Yard" sign - gem!) and all I can think is that I'm being patronised by lazy simpletons who presume we need to be spooned information in a predigested mush, in much the same way one would feed an eviscerated toddler.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
And AS1967 is back
on Twitter.
Just down there - to the right? See it? Yes? Read it? Any the wiser? Nope. Me neither.
Yes. I am taking the piss about all the fucking inanity on twitter. Breaking news, gurning activists who can't be arsed getting off their fat holes and doing things - tweeting is not a substitute for action, celebrities tweeting their sincere condolences / outrage / or whatever the fuck it is they get their lackeys to do and the rest.
Monday, April 09, 2012
In administration?
Game managed to beat HMV to the "in administration" punch. Reading the details of the rescue package it's hard not to be cynical. Okay some jobs have been saved, and Game live to fight another day. But this seems to be a way of closing branches which they probably should have closed when they went on their acquisition spree a few years ago. In this context, and much like HMV, they aren't solely a victim of external factors beyond their control - despite how much they protest to the contrary. Over expansion, foolhardy acquisitions, and being fully paid up members of the "If it's like this now, it will always be like this" school of economics contributed. As did being entirely reliant on the whims of a narrow, finite market. Mix their foolish duplication, triplication (and whatever 4 times is) of shops in (seemingly) every single town, all of whom selling the same stuff at the same price and this outcome was unavoidable. Of course the poor saps in the shops, who had nothing to do with making the "big" decisions, are on the receiving end of the pain.
Typical.
Of course "Game" aren't alone. Others gaze Canute* like into the abyss. Dixons are another troubled retailer with an unsustainable number of identical branches. None of this is more obvious than in Northern Ireland where a population of 1.7 million have access to 15 outlets, many of whom are just across a retail park from each other. Now if you'd posted losses in the last complete financial year of £225m wouldn't you perhaps consider cutting costs? Perhaps merging one branch with another? Now obviously this isn't cost free. But the alternatives aren't sustainable. Selling the odd £15 laptop bag or a £39 HDMI cable when a punter buys a laptop or a TV isn't going to help pay the rent. No matter how many times you click your heels and wish very hard that it will. Again though, when the pain comes, you can be damn sure it won't be the culpable who suffer**. Currys are (along with HMV) the prime example of a retailer with a world view entrenched in the 1990s. Yeah they have a website you can buy things from but their entire "bricks and mortar" mortar model has been rendered irrelevant. Their approach - sell a warranty, sell an install, bung in a free bag if they take either, might have worked when (for example) a "cheap" Hotpoint washing machine was £400, but not now when the equivalent is only £220. But we'll talk more about Currys when they release their annual figures which, if I was a betting man, will be better than last years. Why do I think this? If they are much worse they will simply cease to exist in anything like their current form.
*I'm using this metaphor in the popularly believed sense, rather than the more appealing (to my mind any way) truth - Canute didn't try to stop the tide, rather he did what he is famous for to prove he couldn't.
**Likely as not they'll be head hunted by some other organisation. It seems there are plenty of companies who want, in amongst their skill set, at least one executive who've led their previous employers to the brink of oblivion.
Typical.
Of course "Game" aren't alone. Others gaze Canute* like into the abyss. Dixons are another troubled retailer with an unsustainable number of identical branches. None of this is more obvious than in Northern Ireland where a population of 1.7 million have access to 15 outlets, many of whom are just across a retail park from each other. Now if you'd posted losses in the last complete financial year of £225m wouldn't you perhaps consider cutting costs? Perhaps merging one branch with another? Now obviously this isn't cost free. But the alternatives aren't sustainable. Selling the odd £15 laptop bag or a £39 HDMI cable when a punter buys a laptop or a TV isn't going to help pay the rent. No matter how many times you click your heels and wish very hard that it will. Again though, when the pain comes, you can be damn sure it won't be the culpable who suffer**. Currys are (along with HMV) the prime example of a retailer with a world view entrenched in the 1990s. Yeah they have a website you can buy things from but their entire "bricks and mortar" mortar model has been rendered irrelevant. Their approach - sell a warranty, sell an install, bung in a free bag if they take either, might have worked when (for example) a "cheap" Hotpoint washing machine was £400, but not now when the equivalent is only £220. But we'll talk more about Currys when they release their annual figures which, if I was a betting man, will be better than last years. Why do I think this? If they are much worse they will simply cease to exist in anything like their current form.
*I'm using this metaphor in the popularly believed sense, rather than the more appealing (to my mind any way) truth - Canute didn't try to stop the tide, rather he did what he is famous for to prove he couldn't.
**Likely as not they'll be head hunted by some other organisation. It seems there are plenty of companies who want, in amongst their skill set, at least one executive who've led their previous employers to the brink of oblivion.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Doublethink. Ahoy!
Highland Spring water claim their water is drawn from beneath "organic land".
Dominos are now flogging "boneless ribs."
A problem with your Apple computer is a "less positive experience."
ITN reckon "growth declines."
Dominos are now flogging "boneless ribs."
A problem with your Apple computer is a "less positive experience."
ITN reckon "growth declines."
Saturday, February 11, 2012
AS1967 goes "viral" as "internet sensation" attracts "several" hits in a week
There is little which encapsulates the cold dead heart at the centre of modern life more than the fixation with "internet sensations". Man calls dog. Band plays tune. Failed politician appears in unsigned band video. "Star" farts. "Star" says something. Woman builds prop from SF show. Dog surfs. President eats burger. Man jumps. Man falls. Cat wears hat. Cat doesn't wear hat. School does something. And, just like performing seals, we're expected to uncritically bark and clap our flippers in the expectation for more of the same. Share it on Bakebook, twat it on Twatter. Post a response on Ya Tube. Me? Well I'm completely fucking bored with it. And I'm bored with the way the media sucker for bollocks like this. Every. Single. Fucking. Time. John Craven's Newsround is credited with popularising the "and finally" story at the end of a news bulletin. You know the monkey on the scooter / cute panda story which was designed to bring some light relief. Somewhere along the line this changed - now the "and finally" stories are "the news". Yet these stories are now so obviously and cynically constructed to be a "quirky news story" that I question the editorial wit and integrity of the people who are quite happy to fill their pages and rolling news hours with such manifestly contrived sub-trivial shite. No matter how "cute" or "funny" or "quirky" or "sensational" they think it may be.
And breathe*.
And breathe*.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Concise AS1967
And here we are. Out of sight and largely out of mind. There is a lot for me to write about. So here it is neatly summarised.
- The long drawn out death of HMV.
- The comedy league table of failed / failing retailers the BBC have created.
- Watching the transparent doublethink of several of these same retailers claim their decline in sales is good news because it wasn't as bad a decline in sales as they'd predicted.
- Pointing out the claim, repeated by the BBC, that company profit warnings are up by 70% is blatant misdirection.
- The charade that is the SACD release of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here".
- My continued pursuit of High Def music.
- How this is being thwarted by skelping fuckers on ebay trying to sell Peter Gabriel SACD's for a few pennies shy of £100.
- Wondering why, if it is wrong for people to profit from illegal downloads, it isn't just as equally wrong for people to profit from selling second hand music, music which according to copyright law isn't actually theirs to sell?
- The moral rights and wrongs of downloading high def music which can't be purchased new, and is only available from the shysters above.
- Gurning how a property company and a shitty generic sub-premium "premium" clothes brand gazumped the only decent music shop in Belfast, forcing it to close.
- Crap product training which not only answers questions no customer ever asks, but then gets these answers wrong. LNB? Low Noise Blocker? Fucking morons
- Wondering who at Intel signed off training which compares the performance of an Intel based machine, running Excel, compared to the same machine with an AMD graphics card running Excel. Adding a graphics card makes no difference? No. Shit. Sherlock.
- More "Tales From The Public Domain™", including the rebooted Sherlock.
- More "Even an Eric Would Serve Me Well™" especially as we're in Oscar / BAFTA /FUCKOFFANDLEAVEMEALONE time.
- Wondering who decided that basing a Norwegian / Hebrew / Dutch customer service function for people who play FIFA' 12 in Belfast would fill a critical gap in the city's employment needs
- Remarking how a decision I made, in response to a short term problem, ended up defining the last twenty years.
- Thinking how completely fucking powerless I am to change things, and how despite going to extreme lengths to prevent it, I've ended up precisely were I started.
- Wondering, if the old saying "any port in a storm" is correct, why I always end up in Larne rather than Monaco?
- And death by bacon.
- And mutant bird flu.
- The long drawn out death of HMV.
- The comedy league table of failed / failing retailers the BBC have created.
- Watching the transparent doublethink of several of these same retailers claim their decline in sales is good news because it wasn't as bad a decline in sales as they'd predicted.
- Pointing out the claim, repeated by the BBC, that company profit warnings are up by 70% is blatant misdirection.
- The charade that is the SACD release of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here".
- My continued pursuit of High Def music.
- How this is being thwarted by skelping fuckers on ebay trying to sell Peter Gabriel SACD's for a few pennies shy of £100.
- Wondering why, if it is wrong for people to profit from illegal downloads, it isn't just as equally wrong for people to profit from selling second hand music, music which according to copyright law isn't actually theirs to sell?
- The moral rights and wrongs of downloading high def music which can't be purchased new, and is only available from the shysters above.
- Gurning how a property company and a shitty generic sub-premium "premium" clothes brand gazumped the only decent music shop in Belfast, forcing it to close.
- Crap product training which not only answers questions no customer ever asks, but then gets these answers wrong. LNB? Low Noise Blocker? Fucking morons
- Wondering who at Intel signed off training which compares the performance of an Intel based machine, running Excel, compared to the same machine with an AMD graphics card running Excel. Adding a graphics card makes no difference? No. Shit. Sherlock.
- More "Tales From The Public Domain™", including the rebooted Sherlock.
- More "Even an Eric Would Serve Me Well™" especially as we're in Oscar / BAFTA /FUCKOFFANDLEAVEMEALONE time.
- Wondering who decided that basing a Norwegian / Hebrew / Dutch customer service function for people who play FIFA' 12 in Belfast would fill a critical gap in the city's employment needs
- Remarking how a decision I made, in response to a short term problem, ended up defining the last twenty years.
- Thinking how completely fucking powerless I am to change things, and how despite going to extreme lengths to prevent it, I've ended up precisely were I started.
- Wondering, if the old saying "any port in a storm" is correct, why I always end up in Larne rather than Monaco?
- And death by bacon.
- And mutant bird flu.
Monday, January 09, 2012
We're BACK!
Google have graciously consented to allowing Opera full access to Blogger's WYSIWYG editor. Does their beneficence know no bounds? Yeah that's what I think as well.
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