WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[hartley353]

Graham most of what you say is correct. Two things which are blatantly incorrect, the public has never asked for its produce at the standards you describe Supermarkets have, secondly if you believe these chemicals are governed by licences take a look at what is available at the garden centre. Allotment societies buy in large quantities which is then split into what ever container is produced, and the recipient uses by guesswork. The fact that over 90% of our produce when it reaches the table is still contaminated with pesticides, pesticides that have been used as an insurance rather than a cure. The detritus of this food which goes into compost heaps and is also collected by the council contractor for larger schemes carries the poison even further, I see no responsible actions in these, and are able to other far more examples. Heavy metal pollution of our oceans had very little to do with burning coal, and more to do with inconsiderate chemical companies, and mining processes in which I exclude coal. But this is another story. The facts which began this debate is that Chlorpyrifos is freely available, and that it can kill indiscrimanately

[hartley353]

Graham/Chinatyke, thanks for your support on the topic of agrochemicals etc. In Hartley's world he wouldn't even have a computer because he wouldn't allow the use of all those chemicals needed to make it! And the biggest threat to fish worldwide (and a threat to us via the fish we eat) is the mercury being deposited in the oceans from the pollution derived from coal-burning power stations. The north Pacific is particularly bad due to the increasing burden of coal burning emissions from Asia as I'm sure you're aware. In Reply........ Tizer get your facts straight the seas of japan were polluted by heavy metals long before coal fired power burgeoned in the orient, much of this pollution came because we sent our dirty processes to the chinese because the heat in or own kitchens was to high from protesters, and the chinese were only to willing to pollute their share of the planet.

Ian, you have my sympathy, dealing with big businesses is getting increasingly fraught!

[Tardis]

The BBC HR exec at the centre of the payoff scandal has quit without a severance package

[Pluggy]

Arrived in my email this morning. Has chinatyke got something to answer for ?

It appears to check out, I've sent a reply saying I'll put it to the membership but otherwise left it hanging.

Opinions welcome. Should we be asking for royalties ?

Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China and Asia.
We received an application from Huafeng Ltd on August 26, 2013. They want to register " oneguyfrombarlick " as their Internet Keyword and " oneguyfrombarlick .asia "、" oneguyfrombarlick .cn "、" oneguyfrombarlick .com.cn " 、" oneguyfrombarlick .hk "、" oneguyfrombarlick .com.hk " domain names etc.., they are in Asia, China, Hong Kong domain names. But after checking it, we find "oneguyfrombarlick " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,

Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.yg-registry.cn

[Tripps]

If they register oneguyfrombarlick as their keyword - we may well end up paying them? Can we prevent them from so doing?

I looked at the dot com version, and that was registered to someone in China, but his ownership lapsed some time ago. Perhaps that's where the Chinese interest in the name comes from.

I've mentioned several times on here recently that China will soon be running the world - didn't think it would have any effect on me so soon though.

PS - just checked - all the usual versions for Europe seem to be available quite cheaply. Should we buy the bundle for protection?

I'll leave it to you Plugs.

[PanBiker]

It's not very clear who has made the application, are we talking about Huafeng Group Holdings Ltd or some other organisation. The former has many different companies who are subsidiaries of the parent. My second question would be why would they want to register those particular domains?

[PanBiker]

On to my own monkey on my back at the moment, boiler repair. British Gas turned up at 3pm effectively trashing the afternoon for doing anything useful with the grandchildren.

We had a female engineer this time, the cynical side of me wonders if BG send out a lady when bad news is in the offing as you are less likely to shout at her or loose your rag at the abysmal performance so far in my sorry tale.

Anyway, she asked me to relate the tale so far so I told her that the boiler was serviced 10 days ago and was passed as fully serviceable. Boiler packed up last Tuesday, engineer diagnosed gas valve problem on Wednesday then found faulty flue installation from new. After repairing the flue problem the gas valve appeared to start working. Boiler worked rest of Wednesday and Thursday morning then failed again with the same symptoms and fault code showing on the appliance.

She consulted the fault codes on her laptop and did the same tests that the engineer did on Wednesday. Then she reconfirmed that the gas valve was the problem. She added that this was a common problem on this particular model of Worcester Bosch boiler. Great I thought, she's bound to have one. Not so lucky, they don't carry the part and it will now be Monday before they can get one! She also decided that there was a minor leak on one of the internal seals within the boiler so she has ordered a replacement set to be fitted when they come with the gas valve next week. The boiler has been drained and disabled.

I find it quite incredulous that they don't keep on stock or cannot source a common problem part. In many other trades it is a given that you have the parts backup to deliver the service you are offering. Garages use Autopart and can usually get most stuff the same day, electrical contractors are the same. When I was in the TV servicing trade I carried about 90% of the stuff that regularly broke down on the TV's and video's in my van. Taking something back to the workshop for lack of parts was the exception rather than the rule. Removing a unit and leaving a spare is not an option of course with a boiler so in my book even more important that you have a ready source of supply for the common parts.

So top and bottom of it is that by Monday I will have been without a functioning boiler for six days. I will be taking BG to task over this particular episode as part of the problem stems from the original install with the faulty flue. I won't hold my breath over this as I would almost certainly expire waiting for BG to get their act together the way they are performing at the moment.

[Pluggy]

I'll bet they don't have any issues taking the money off you....

[PanBiker]

Re the received email earlier in the thread. If you Google "Internet Keyword" it returns this:

Keyword Scam

Amongst many others on a similar subject.

[Tripps]

Well spotted......File 13.

[PanBiker]

Quite..

[chinatyke]

Arrived in my email this morning. Has chinatyke got something to answer for ?

I guess I have plenty of things to answer for, but this isn't one of them. However I would say it has almost certainly come about because of me logging on to OGFB from inside China. I would assume Bots are the problem. I am not behind the registrations and have nothing to do with it in any way and don't have the technical knowledge to interfere in any way.

I am sorry if I have inadvertently caused you trouble. If you decide I am making a problem then by all means deactivate my membership, I fully understand. I want to live peacefully and the last thing I want is to make trouble.

I use a Mac, have Avast, AdBlockPlus, and other protection installed. I regularly scan my computer and as far as I am aware I do not have any malware on it.

Beware: we are all being watched! Probably me more than you!

Apologies again, Graham

[Stanley]

China, Pluggy was obviously pulling your leg. All of you, don't take the scam seriously, just ignore it. Don't on any account start a dialogue. The world is full of attention seekers.... this is a storm in a teacup. Ian's boiler is far more important!

[hartley353]

On to my own monkey on my back at the moment, boiler repair. British Gas turned up at 3pm effectively trashing the afternoon for doing anything useful with the grandchildren.

We had a female engineer this time, the cynical side of me wonders if BG send out a lady when bad news is in the offing as you are less likely to shout at her or loose your rag at the abysmal performance so far in my sorry tale.

Anyway, she asked me to relate the tale so far so I told her that the boiler was serviced 10 days ago and was passed as fully serviceable. Boiler packed up last Tuesday, engineer diagnosed gas valve problem on Wednesday then found faulty flue installation from new. After repairing the flue problem the gas valve appeared to start working. Boiler worked rest of Wednesday and Thursday morning then failed again with the same symptoms and fault code showing on the appliance.

She consulted the fault codes on her laptop and did the same tests that the engineer did on Wednesday. Then she reconfirmed that the gas valve was the problem. She added that this was a common problem on this particular model of Worcester Bosch boiler. Great I thought, she's bound to have one. Not so lucky, they don't carry the part and it will now be Monday before they can get one! She also decided that there was a minor leak on one of the internal seals within the boiler so she has ordered a replacement set to be fitted when they come with the gas valve next week. The boiler has been drained and disabled.

I find it quite incredulous that they don't keep on stock or cannot source a common problem part. In many other trades it is a given that you have the parts backup to deliver the service you are offering. Garages use Autopart and can usually get most stuff the same day, electrical contractors are the same. When I was in the TV servicing trade I carried about 90% of the stuff that regularly broke down on the TV's and video's in my van. Taking something back to the workshop for lack of parts was the exception rather than the rule. Removing a unit and leaving a spare is not an option of course with a boiler so in my book even more important that you have a ready source of supply for the common parts.

So top and bottom of it is that by Monday I will have been without a functioning boiler for six days. I will be taking BG to task over this particular episode as part of the problem stems from the original install with the faulty flue. I won't hold my breath over this as I would almost certainly expire waiting for BG to get their act together the way they are performing at the moment.

Very few mobile engineers carry many spares these day. Most of the parts are expensive, and unable to take the day to day punishment of being subjected to the vibrations of modern roads, the second reason is VAT, Just in time is the modern method get it when you need it.

[PanBiker]

They obviously needed it on Wednesday same as the flue which was sourced on the same day. What's the difference? Having been involved in the service sector in one way or another all my working life I understand the ramifications and economics of spares handling but it's still no excuse.

Just as an exercise I Googled the required part last night, simple matter to get a page full of results with next day delivery options at worst. It should have been sorted on Thursday at the latest in my book. Of course the flue was a safety component and they were covering their own backs as the fault had been missed the week before, a faulty gas valve just ensures we don't have any hot water. Priorities of course but not good enough.

[Tizer]

Graham, it's nothing to do with you, lots of people have received the same scam message. It's being sent out with `From' addresses that are all variations on the same theme, which is the typical way Internet scammers operate. As others have said, everybody ignore it - never respond to a scammer even if you just want to swear at them, it will only get you entrapped.

Hartley, the `just-in-time' system was great when introduced because so many companies had very poor stock control but it has since been abused in order to make savings. It's now not uncommon to find that even main dealer garages will tell you they've got a L.H. (offside) part for your car in stock but not the R.H....even when they know it's essential to replace both R.H. and L.H. at the same time. I know because our village mechanic orders his parts from main dealers and encounters this problem often.

[hartley353]

When we had a new boiler fitted the installer wanted to remove the cistern tank with its electric immersion heater. I insisted that it was left in and was rewarded for my intrangience when it stopped working due to icing, and we still had hot water. As you have done I first researched the heating boiler and then tore into the supplier, and installer. To my surprise I found that condensing boilers were expected to have a life span of less than 10 years, and probably nearer seven. This probably explains the poor quality of its components and its very tinny build quality. luckily I have an acquaintance who is a heating engineer he has been many times since it was installed, as for the guarantee it was thrown away. We live and learn.

[hartley353]

Tizer Agree completelely with the car spares situation, but having owned two service stations I can sympathise with the main dealer. The modern automobile is composed of so many parts with variations for model, That you would lose half of your operating space to have a fully stocked parts department. So as you say one dealer may have left hand parts, and anothe dealer right hand parts. but they are available within a short time constraint. This is common to most factoring businesses, when I would order equipment for electrical systems they would be delivered from multiple branches of the same company because no one branch had every thing, but the whole did.

[Tardis]

One third of all doctors hired by the NHS last year were non-UK citizens, over 33,000 came from the sub-continent according to the reports. Does the sub-continent have so many to spare?

Isn't that a terrible indictment of our University system, that we can not produce enough? Does it mean that there is very little competition for those jobs? Get onto the course and that's you for life?

[Wendyf]

I ordered some new walking trousers and a jacket from Karrimor last weekend, and it turns out that they use Yodel for deliveries. This is the tracking information for my parcel....
I assume that the "Shaw hub" where it arrived four days ago is somewhere near Rochdale and about an hours drive away,


Returned to local service centre Middleton service centre 31st Aug 2013 15:18
Address problem, please contact sender Middleton service centre 31st Aug 2013 14:35
Parcel out for delivery Middleton service centre 31st Aug 2013 09:43
Parcel received at service centre Middleton service centre 31st Aug 2013 04:22
Despatched from service centre Wednesbury hub 30th Aug 2013 21:56
Parcel received at service centre Wednesbury hub 30th Aug 2013 21:54
Despatched from service centre Carrickfergus service centre (yodel 29th Aug 2013 14:35
In transit, parcel delayed by 24 hours Carrickfergus service centre (yodel 29th Aug 2013 04:40
Parcel received at service centre Shaw hub 27th Aug 2013 18:3

[Stanley]

Wendy, I sympathise. DABS at Blackburn use Yodel and my experience with them explains why I went to Scan for my screen. I'd have been a lot quicker getting on the bus and going to Blackburn.....
LTP going well! The end is nigh.......

[Tizer]

One third of all doctors hired by the NHS last year were non-UK citizens, over 33,000 came from the [Indian?] sub-continent according to the reports. Does the sub-continent have so many to spare? Isn't that a terrible indictment of our University system, that we can not produce enough? Does it mean that there is very little competition for those jobs? Get onto the course and that's you for life?

Tardis, the following comes from Wikipedia: "As of 2013 there are approximately 8,000 places for medical students annually with 21,000 applicants each year. There are 3,500 more places than there were 15 years ago. Medical school is extremely competitive in the UK with as many as 16 students applying for just one university place." So, there's plenty of competition. I don't know what proportion of the 21,000 applicants are from overseas but each UK medical school has a set quota based on its total annual intake numbers. For example, Dundee has a total annual intake of 154 and a set percentage of 7.5%, which gives 11 overseas places. I presume most of the 33,000 you refer to must have come here after qualification. Perhaps we need more medical schools but we also need to make sure that more of the UK applicants are sufficiently well qualified to justify entry.

[Bodger]

Just an aside to the above, we have a similar situation in Ireland, my biggest gripe is that like the "computer cure" engineers i have a major problem undersanding the foreign doctors " pigeon English" when discussing ones problems, i remember 70 years ago you were considered lucky if you had an Irish or Scottish doctor, but now im sorry i cannot understand a lot of overseas doctors, and im sure there are lots of patients who are mistreated because of this .

[hartley353]

Only the other day I read of a English student off to learn medicine in Poland. Many of the English doctors seek foreign pastures after graduation, We pay for their training then they desert to enrich theirselves. We need a system where they must give a period back to the NHS before they scarper.

[Stanley]

A visit from my daughter and her husband. The shrinking list of transcripts left to edit in the LTP.
Nelson Mandela swaps intensive care in hospital for the same level of care at home. I can't help wondering whether this is simply to allow him to die at home with his family. No doubt that he is a very old, frail and poorly man. I hope they can keep him comfortable.... He deserves a good exit.