Jonathan Stott

This quote made me think of some recent work I have been doing:

“Oh, it was perfectly straightforward once I started thinking about it,” said Blouse. “It was exactly the same when I had to redesign the department’s filing system, you see. People build something that works. Then circumstances change, and they have to tinker with it to make it continue to work, and they are so busy tinkering that they cannot see that a much better idea would be to build a whole new system to deal with the new circumstances. But to an outsider, the idea is obvious.”
– Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

The council tax bill arrived this morning. For our humble Band C house, we would now have to pay a massive £1110.40 - a huge 4.6% increase in over last year. This is some 2.1% over and above the Government target for inflation. So one would assume that council services are getting better?

Well, my view is that they aren’t. Just two examples: domestic refuse is only collected every two weeks and there are more potholes in the roads than there are craters on the moon (and some of them are larger!). So where is the extra money going? The council claim that the bills have to go up because in real terms the amount of money they receive from central Government has decreased. So the Government can stay in power because your income tax hasn’t gone up but you are still really paying for it because all the other stealth taxes (like council tax) are going up instead!

One of my friends is going to withhold 2.1% of his council tax bill and is willing to go to court if 1000 other people do the same. Let him know you want to join in!

Payday was a week ago, so it’s time to treat me to my quota of new toys

New arrivals today include a new Nikon D200 dSLR camera (to replace my Nikon D70). Should be a better alternative to the D70 as I was starting to grow out of it. My view is that I should have the right kit to be able to take photos of whatever I want in the knowledge that if the photos are rubbish, then it’s my fault and not my equipment! I was becoming frustrated with things like no ISO setting display in the viewfinder, the size and brightness of the image in the viewfinder, and a few other things. Also looking forward to trying out the ISO 100 setting (and seeing if it allows more creativity than the lowest setting on the D70 of ISO 200), taking the camera out in the rain (it’s weatherproof, and so is my Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8), trying out the time lapse and using mirror lockup for macro photography. I might also invest in a cable to connect my Garmin Geko 201 GPS receiver so that I can automatically georeference my photographs. Expect to see the first photos on my photography website before long

First photo with new Nikon D200

My second new arrival is a DrayTek 2800 ADSL router. My old router (D-Link DSL-504) was getting long in the tooth and the router was crashing frequently (probably when my housemates are using MSN!). Hopefully the DrayTek is more reliable (I have heard some very good things about them). It also has more advanced options with regards to security and quality of service - something that I will need to configure when my new housemates move in and I still want to be able to use the Internet while they are busy on P2P

DrayTek 2800 ADSL router