On inconsiderate and muppit-like parking...

OK, it's a Sunday in not-so-sunny Basingstoke, and there I am, with my partner, going to see a movie at the Odeon at the Basingstoke Leisure Park, and most of the parking places are occupied. Including two spaces taken up by one extraordinarily selfish driver. I mean look at it. There is NO way on the planet anyone could possibly mistake this for careless parking, is there?

So, I photographed it. I also date-stamped and GPS co-ordinate tagged the photo. All the owner needs do, if terminally embarrassed, is write a polite comment here as to why he or she parked like Miss Piggy, and I'll be happy to obscure the numberplate.

In case you can't read the Tagging information, here it is:

[Image]
Model = hp iPAQ hw6900
Exif IFD Pointer = Offset: 65
GPS Info IFD Pointer = Offset: 163

[Camera]
Exif Version = Version 2.2
Date Time Original = 2008-05-25 14:01:07
Light Source = unknown
Flash = Off
Exif Image Width = 640
Exif Image Height = 480

[GPS]
GPS Latitude Ref = North latitude
GPS Latitude = 51°15'56"
GPS Longitude Ref = West longitude
GPS Longitude = 1°6'57"
GPS Altitude Ref = Sea level
GPS Altitude = 132m
GPS Time Stamp = 13:01:07 UTC
GPS Status = Measurement in progress
GPS Measure Mode = 3-dimensional measurement
GPS DOP = 0.5

And the location, to it's actual and exact position, is here.

Bear in mind that all GPS units have a tendancy to be a few metres off, so I corrected the location of the parking bay to the actual location on the map. Never the less, the photo is untouched!

Ball's in your court, have a nice day!

err..... "Oops?"!

So, there I am, on the phone to someone in a well-known bus company's depot, looking to recover some lost property for a mate. I get the stock answers of "Hello, (Company Name), how can I help" and so on; this is roughly how the rest of it went...

"Yeah, I'm looking for a mobile phone that belongs to a mate of mine, it's an LG (details deleted), black in colour with a kind of dragon motif on the back below the camera, lost on a route (withheld for the privacy of my mate) bus last night, around 10 pm or so. Can you tell me if anything like that was logged in as lost property last night when the bus came back in the depot?"

"Sorry, sir, I can't check the register right now; can you call back later?"

"Not really, I'm at work"

"Well, I can call you back if you like?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks; the number's (censored)"

"Oh, you work for (he actually knew the phone number of the bus company I work for)?"

"Yeah, I'm in Customer Services at the moment"

"OK, well, tell the truth, we've had a bit of a cock up. Some twit sent our lost property register along with the last batch of stuff we sent to London Buses Lost Property last week by mistake, and we're still waiting for it to be returned!"

Cue me falling off my chair laughing my backside off!

What a way to start the Bank Holiday Weekend...

So. We've lost Ken, and gained Boris. Call me somewhat cynical, but even when the Tories have said that they're going to improve public transport, they've slashed it with wild abandon. Boris, old boy, be ye on notice: We workers on the buses are watching. That's not just from me: Everyone I've spoken to on the buses of late have been wondering just what changes (aside from your promising to get rid of the bendy buses) you're going to try to make, and what it's going to cost the industry.

Say what you like about Ken, he did OK by us.

I hope that we can say the same about you in four years time, but I have my doubts. You're a blue rosette bearer, after all, and that colour hasn't exactly got a good record when it comes to Public Services, has it?

Be honest now, 'cause we're watching!

Spilt Coffee...

Cough - splutter - spray.

All over my keyboard, no less.

And I'm still laughing my backside off

What just happened?

I read an article on The Register. You have to laugh at the terms and expressions some folks come up with. In Gulf War one, it was General Normal Schwartzkopf's "Studies of Bovine Scatology".

Today's Register article stated that a major internet advertising company, BareFruit, when told how hackers could use a flaw in the way they delivered their advertising to their client's customers, "defecated masonry"

How colourful

Especially as I was chomping on toast and taking a swig of coffee at the time

I'll get you, my pretty - and your damn vulture too! (with apologies for the misquote )

An interesting week...

Well, it's been interesting, and a little surprising, coming back from three months of 'being on the sick' to being a full-time wage slave again!

I've been seconded from my normal job of driving a bus to the Customer Services section of the firm at head office; revealing is not quite the right word for the job; it's mostly computer-based, handling complaints sent in to London Buses Limited, which are then re-directed down to us, the Bus operating Company. We then investigate, and report back to LBL, who pass on our comments (we have to be polite in our replies to LBL!) back to the customer, in most cases.

Then there's the internal aspect - folks from all over the company come to us in the first instance for information, phone numbers, and much more besides. To say that we're the central clearing house of information and complaints wouldn't be stretching things by much - and strangely, I'm finding it oddly satisfying; I'm able to get my head down and plough through the work (while learning the oddities of the computer system we have to use, of course); granted the phone will always ring just as I'm getting my head around another problem, but hell, that's life!

Interestingly, the company posted an internal vacancy advert about the same time as I arrived on secondment. Let's hope my having one foot under the table, on secondment, helps my chances of getting this job full time - it pays around five grand more than I'm getting as a driver as well!

Oh yeah - the best bit about the post?

The coffee's free!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back To Work I Go!

Well, the sick leave is almost completely over; I go back to work on Tuesday

The sick note says: "Indoor duties for two weeks then to bus driving"

AT LAST!

I've been bloody climbing the walls with boredom this last while, I can tell you! The first month off was a bit of a novelty, aside from the shock of having had the bloody heart attack, of course; month number tow was settling into the daily routine.

Month number three (this last month)? Let me put it this way: I've been ready to try for low earth orbit on boredom power alone!

So, updates'll be a wee bit slower now, but at least I'll be back earning a half-decent wage again!

Enjoy your weekend! I know I will now

What next?

OK, for background on this, read the news, and come back...

How in the HELL can you copyright a street sign for pities sake?! Street signs display names, and are PUBLIC information. By copyrighting them, you are effectively prohibiting even map-makers from using the street names. Hell, someone writes an address on a letter, and bingo, copyright fees are incurred. The reason? If you copyright something, you MUST go after copyright violators, or lose the right to the copyright. It's a legal technicality thing, but trust me, it's true: Protect it or lose it.

Where the HELL do you draw the line?!

Easy. You TRADEMARK it, not copyright it.

Westminster Council went about this in entirely the wrong way - all they needed to do was TRADEMARK the DESIGN of the street signs, not copyright the content, to prevent unlicenced reproductions. Talk about local government stupidity.

It's also, and in my humble opinion, clearly a case of more Council officials seeing a potential money train, and going after it with little regard to the innocents who'll be caught in the middle. Say a tourist snaps a photo of the street sign. A council official notices, and gets a Copper to take their details, as they've obviously just committed copyright theft (image of copyrighted materials). Instant criminal, they just incurred a fine. See what I mean?

So, as I asked a moment or two ago:

WHERE do you draw the line?

By the way, fair use policy extends to all my blog articles - you MAY use text and images that I have produced, provided they are not used in any profit-making effort of any kind. For that, you'll need a licence from me ;) Third Party material may be subject to other copyright restrictions, so I wouldn't touch those if I were you ;) The T&C at the foot of the page will be amended before long :)