Mysterious Mr Mofokeng [ themachine/ ]
This post is clearly not much about self-sufficiency, homesteading, gardening or anything related, but I have to get it off my chest. Regular readers (yes, both of you) might want to give this one a miss...It must be the first of the month. My cellphone hasn't stopped ringing. Just like every first of the month.
None of the calls are for me, though, and most of them show up on the screen as "Number Withheld". The calls are all for a Mr. Mofokeng. I don't know his first name, though. Or, rather, at last count I've been asked for around fifteen different first names. Albert Mofokeng, Charles Mofokeng, Sidney Mofokeng, Mbazima Mofokeng, Jonathan Mofokeng, September Mofokeng, November Mofokeng... I think he started running out of names... The best I can establish is that Mr. Mofokeng is a small-time conman who opens accounts with various stores, banks, phone companies, buys some stuff on tick, and then skips on payments, leaving the creditors with my phone number.
Some of the people who call are quite polite and see the humour in the situation when they understand that Mofokeng has dished out a fake phone number. Others are quite a lot less polite. Yes, Virgin Mobile; I'm looking at you! Isn't it peculiar that a phone service provider can be fooled with the wrong phone number? Don't they consult their own database?
Even odder is that this thing has been going on for years. Surely this guy has long since been listed with the various credit agencies and blacklists? Don't credit-grantors actually check any of the information an applicant gives them? I mean, really, if I were sitting with some person in front of me asking for a line of credit, clutching their freshly lettered application form, and the form gives their cellphone number, why not just pick up the phone on your desk and call the damn number! If it rings in the applicant's pocket, all's well and good. If not... well, would you grant them credit? So I have little to no sympathy for the idiot companies that get taken in by this guy. If their vetting process is so badly broken, they deserve all the woe they bring upon themselves and should stop wingeing.
But I do wish that Mr Mofokeng would give out somebody else's number for a change. Or perhaps he does!
Chainsaw Woes 2 [ themachine/ ]
Following my whinge (winge? whinj?How the hell do you spell it?) to Husqvarna yesterday, to their full credit, I had responses by email from their MD and their Territory Manager by phone first thing this morning. That sort of response is pretty unusual in the Global Kakistopoly, in my experience, so full marks to Husqvarna South Africa!The real point, as I reiterated to them, is that, so long as Topsaw is the sole agent/dealer for them this area, there is no way I will own Husqvarna products. The pain and uncertainty is just not worth it.
Just thought that Husqvarna's name should be kept in the clear on this, in all fairness...
Chainsaw Woes [ themachine/ ]
A copy of my letter to Husqvarna South Africa:I recently took my chainsaw to the local dealer/agents in the South Cape, Topsaw, for a minor service. I was told that the expected price of such a service was in the range of R250-R400, which I accepted, with the clear instruction to phone me if any other problems were uncovered.
Upon calling to enquire about the progress of the service after a week, I was told that parts were on order and that the repair bill would be R1250! You can imagine my consternation. Times are tough, and I cannot honestly afford to pay that much.
Their report of the behaviour of the chainsaw after its service bears absolutely NO resemblance to the performance of the machine prior to the service, and I strongly believe that they have carried out this additional and expensive work unnecessarily. It is my considered opinion, in the light of disucssions with numerous friends and acquaintances who have suffered similar occurences at their hands, that Topsaw are no better than a bunch of thieves and con artists.
As a result, despite believing that Husqvarna makes a top-class chainsaw, I shall be selling the machine as soon as I have it back (though I fully expect there might be some further delays, obfuscation and additional expenses) in order to go and buy a Stihl, simply so that I never have to deal with this bunch of sharks ever again.
Air Traffic Control [ themachine/ ]
Over recent months we have seen a large increase in light-aircraft traffic overhead, using local farm-fields for take-offs and landing. So here is a letter I have just sent-off to the Civil Aviation Authority - lets see how they respond... I'll refrain from ranting about the abysmal design of their website :-)I am writing to express my deep concern with a recent marked increase in air-traffic (light aircraft) in our area - the Rheenendal area north of Knysna.
Over the past few months I have noticed a very marked increase in air traffic in the area, evidently taking-off and landing using local farm fields, as I am unaware of any licensed airfield in the area.
I particularly strongly object to such traffic due to:
1. Noise nuisance
2. Invasion of privacy, as these aircraft frequently take-off directly overhead my dwelling, and
3. Hazard to a source of my income: I am an organic vegetable grower, and the pollution caused from hydrocarbon emissions from aircraft has, in several cases around the world, resulted in organic growers losing their organic certification.
Please advise me
1. Whether any airfield has been licensed to operate in the area,
2. Who is responsible for authorising the use of farm-fields for
light-aircraft traffic, and
3. What can be done to stop such overflight.
Technorati Tags: aircraft, flight, noise, pollution, privacy
Amusing Story (Cindy Crawford Featured!) [ themachine/ ]
As you may have noticed in my blogroll (see, I'm learning the jargon!) I sort-of keep track of a marketing blog by Seth Godin. Mr Godin is funny, honest (as far as a marketer can be I suppose :-) and spot-on about stories!
I learned all about telling stories in my years as a teacher of programming, Java and OO design. The best teachers are just story-tellers. I claim the proud distinction of having taught a sales-person how concurrency controls work in Java!
Mr Godin tells a story in his blog today about when to turn a customer away. Logically, following on from this, you could actually be turning a hostile, costly, nasty customer into an ally by handing them over to your competition (for whom they now become a liability, so a cost item, so reducing your competitor's efficiency.)
All this brings to mind a story I heard many years ago about Cindy Crawford. I make no claim as to the veracity of the story!
Evidently Ms Crawford was in the market for a Lear Jet. Approaching the Lear company for same, she was told, "I'm terribly sorry, but you don't fit our client profile..."
Coal-to-liquid Myths [ themachine/ ]
An article over on ifenergy.com carries a quote to the effect thatSASOL, a South African energy and chemicals firm, to build two
coal-to-liquid fuel plants in China. These plants, costing $3 billion
each, are reported by the Financial Times to jointly produce 60 million
tons of liquid fuel (440 million barrels) a year.
...
raw material and capital costs of a barrel of fuel would fall under $10
and other costs would not bring total costs over $15
...
If these newspaper reports about the SASOL costs and
volumes are correct, they would indicate a breakthrough. The SASOL
costs are also far less than those of current US technology.
As a South African I am not inclined to believe a single word put out by SASOL. If the figures are so good, why do we South African taxpayers continue to (involuntarily) subsidise these assholes to the tune we do, year after year after year, despite the high price of oil?
Not to mention that coal-to-liquid tech -- no matter how good, cheap and efficient -- is still going to add to the atmospheric carbon load, continuing to drive global climate change.
The "we can continue live our soccermom-driving-4.8litre-Land-Cruisers lifestyle just by using some magically-more-sustainable energy source" propaganda machine rolls on.
Technorati Tags: peak-oil, energy, coal, oil, sasol, china, climate-change
Evil Supermarkets and Organic Labelling [ themachine/ ]
A fascinating story, "Wal-Mart, the Cornucopia Institute and Organic Labeling" unfolds over at Sustainablog. Is Walmart deliberately misleading consumers? Is the Cornucopia Institute simply on a self-serving mission of revenge?When I did a consulting gig to a major local supermarket chain some years ago, I learned that people (shoppers, competing merchandisers, illiterate shelf-packers) shifting shelf-labels around, accidentally or mischievously, is always a major headache for supermarkets.
So this would tend to support Wal-Mart's claim.
On the other hand, a (different) local chain, focused on selling into the A-income (rich people) market, screwed a lot of small organic farmers. Their tactic was to place organic meat close to non-organic meat, with both organic and non-organic products deliberately packaged in very similar packaging.
After 18 months ( ? a year? two? - memory fails) or so they cancelled all contracts with the organic farmers, putting a lot of farmers out of business in the process. They also did not bother to mention to consumers that they were dropping the organic meat products, and, although their labelling and packaging was technically legal, many, many consumers continued buying way-overpriced meat in the belief that they were buying organically-raised meat.
So this would tend to support a "deliberate obfuscation" theory.
I wouldn't like to guess what is really going on in the case Jeff wrote about, but it sure looks suspicious to me.
Technorati Tags: organic, walmart, consumerism, fraud, fud, food
Fourth Reich is Rising [ themachine/ ]
So there's this halfwit, right-wing American senator who believes that "People who believe in global warming are like the Third Reich."Lets look at what he is saying:
- Hitler claimed that the Jews were guilty of spreading "The Big Lie".
- Global warming is a Big Lie.
No. From his axioms the only logical conclusion one can draw is: Sen. Inhofe, by claiming that people who believe in Global Warming are perpetuating a Big Lie, is a modern analogue of Adolf Hitler. Please note that this is the inescapable logical outcome of his own axioms. I did not make this up.
Well, I don't really believe that he's in Hitler's league. But his logic is equally twisted and faulty.
I'm off to listen to Stratovaius's "Fourth Reich"... (highly recommended band!)
Technorati Tags: third reich, fourth reich, global warming, environment, halfwits, hitler, inhofe, denial
Lies of Duration [ themachine/ ]
Guy Kawasaki, in "The Top Ten Lies of Guy Kawasaki", describes his lie no. 8 as a "lie of duration".“We don't have a position at Garage or in our portfolio, but I'll keep you in mind.” This is a lie of duration. At that instant in time if I can think of a relevant position, then I help. But I don’t have the bandwidth/disk space/chip speed to keep the candidate in mind very long."
Reminds me very much of one I caught myself using some years ago:
"If you do X for me, I'll be eternally grateful"
Really? Bullshit! At the very least I'll be dead sooner or later, and I'll almost certainly forget to be grateful then (modulo any positive karma I might rack up for the next life.)
In fact, if I'm honest with you, I'm unlikely to be grateful for as long as 3 minutes. Not that I'm an ingrate, mind you - just trying to be completely honest about this. The world is just too busy for me to honestly keep gratefulness in mind for very long. Sure. I'll probably be positively disposed towards you for quite a long time; but actively "grateful"? I doubt it.
When you really think about it its a stupid phrase.
I replaced it with "A Thousand Thanks" as my stock expression of gratefulness.
Monsanto Pigshit [ themachine/ ]
Monsanto files patent for new invention: the pigTrust the megacorps! (Hint for humour-alternatively-abled)
Well, before overreacting, we have to understand something of how the
patent process works: you start out with some incredibly broad
claim, which will likely get struck down, then follow up with
something ever-so-slightly narrower, which is
ever-so-slightly-less-likely to get struck down, followed by some
ever-so-slightly anrrower claim,.... ad nauseam until you get
soemthing you hope is still defensible. Only a lawyer could love it.
Basically it is a strategy that relies on the fact that Patent Offices all over the world are overburdened with bogus claims. Particularly the USPTO. So, in the torrent of patentable-but-shouldn't-be shit, some of these ridiculous patent applications will slip through, especially since the patent examiners frequently lack the technical expertise to evaluate the detailed claims of a given patent application.
Of course once a patent has been granted, someone "just" has to come along and prove prior art or obviousness (which shouldn't be hard in this case :-) to get the patent tossed, and that's quite hard, expensive, and carries little or no reward.
It looks to me like Monsanto are really seeking a patent on some genetic quirk that has the effect of speeding the normal selective-breeding cycles, and they're throwing a lot of extra mud on the wall because, who knows? some may stick! They're almost certainly right!
At the root of the problem is the broken American patent system that is allowing non-material "things", like ideas, mathematical expressions and descriptions of processes, to be patented, and the laws (American in origin, but now pretty universal) that give corporate entities the same legal status as real people - but that's another rant for another day. I strongly recomend the writing of Lawrence Lessig, who is not only far cleverer than me, and happens to also know a near-infinite more about patent law than me, but also explains the issues in a very digestible manner. Don't be put-off by the fact that he's writing mostly about patent (and other intellectual-property) law as it applies to software - exactly the same law and arguments apply to the world of genetics, and our food supply, with far, far more dire consequences.
Technorati Tags: monsanto, pigs, patent, food security, food, risks, sorporatisation, freedom
No problem with mobile! [ themachine/ ]
Once again I quote Seth Godin's marketing blog: He muses about why the mobile (device) market hasn't exploded with other useful services than Plain Old Telephony, and suggests that, far from being a problem with the mobile space, is really a problem of marketters' (mis)perceptions.I want to suggest another, much simpler, explanation: All we (the unwashed masses) really want is (mainly) Plain Old Telephony. The only truly massively useful things I get out of my cellphone that are a value over-and-above what my Boring Old Landline gave me is the Phonebook - I know longer know anybody's phone number, nor do I care.
I don't want to play games on that tiny screen.
I can't be bothered to take notes using that half-assed keyboard. The keyboard is just fine for entering phone numbers, but really pretty useless for real word-entry.
I will almost certainly never use the Appointments functionality - same reason again - it's just too hard to type the stuff in.
I admit to occasionally finding the Alarm Clock useful.
What a pity they can't make the damn phone just work properly as a phone!
"Sell" isn't so Bad; Selling is! [ themachine/ ]
In "Why is “Sell” Such a Bad Word?", Brian Clark musesHmmm.... let me see if I can tackle this from the other side of the fence.Sell. Selling. Sales.
Not very popular words, are they?
Quite frankly, I wasn’t initially sure whether I would be banished from the blogosphere for daring to use the word “sell” in my tagline.
It's not that I have any problem with the word "sell" or the idea of "selling" at all. What I object to is the absolute requirement imposed on us to sell whatever we do, failing which society will punish us in the severest possible ways.
I grow veggies to a very high standard of organic practice. I love to grow veggies. I always grow far too much for our own use. I am happy to give them away, because I know that people will be getting the best, tastiest, most nutritious food in the world, and because giving away beautiful, sun-ripened veggies is a way of gifting the gift that the Earth has given.
But if I want to stay alive, to keep a roof over my head, I am forced to sell.
I'll say it again: I have no problem with the concept of sales. I just don't want to do it. It's not my thing. I can "sell" if I have to, for a limited time, but in the long run I am deeply uncomfortable and unhappy doing it. That's why, in any business venture, I make sure I seek out team members who are good at selling and love doing it.
I also love to teach people about organic gardening, programming, Java, software design, sustainable living, peak oil, alternative energy and self-sufficiency, but I have no desire in me to "sell" these things.
I know, I know; someone is going to tell me that my enthusiastic preaching on these subjects is just selling. Nonsense, I say! Nonsense! Selling is when someone actually pays me money for those things. Up to that point there's no "sale", and my point is that, in the world as it is, I have no choice but to sell. If I just keep doing things for the love of them, I'll... well, I won't starve, since I have all those veggies, but I certainly won't be able to afford many of the necessities and pleasure of modern life - stuff like electricity, connectivity, computers, transport.
So. Its not "sell" that's the problem, but "coerced into selling" that is.
Technorati Tags: sales, selling, self-sufficiency
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Zeitgeist
- Recent ramblings...
- Mysterious Mr Mofokeng
- Chainsaw Woes 2
- Chainsaw Woes
- Air Traffic Control
- Amusing Story (Cindy Crawford Featured!)
- Coal-to-liquid Myths
- Evil Supermarkets and Organic Labelling
- Fourth Reich is Rising
- Lies of Duration
- Monsanto Pigshit
- No problem with mobile!
- "Sell" isn't so Bad; Selling is!
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