Book by Blog

Haven’t done any book writing this week - been too busy bug-fixing DespatchPal and fitting solar panels in an attempt to mitigate the latest increases in electricity prices. The first panels  are complete so now the office lighting and the  low-power kit like switches are supplied by solar and are running for free.  Yippee. Payback time just dropped by 16% as we are supplied by E-on who are the latest to up the ante.

The panels are from a Maplin lighting kit that is/was reduced to a sensible price. I bought enough of them to link them up and produce 120 watts of PV electricity. Given that JUST a solar panel of 120watt capacity is £829.00 I have the panels and the batteries and the light bulbs AND the controllers for under £500.00 - Bargain

Well, as noted in the previous post, version 2.0.0. has several problems In response I have been frantically re-coding to produce version 2.0.1. This has an updated editor for the individual items and manages to get the arithmetic right on the invoices.

A full list of the fixes and improvements is on the free-label-printing website front page.

On the sort-of good news side (for me at least) is that DespatchPal has spread far and wide onto numerous Freeware sites. try typing DespatchPal into Google and you will see how many sites now have it, I’m amazed actually that one post to FreewareFiles.com could produce this effect.

The downside of this is that a lot of people now have downloaded the buggy version and will dismiss the arrival of the fixed one. I will have to see if this impacts site visits of downloads.

Personally I can’t actually believe how I issued it in that state. I mean honestly, the copy and paste using internet explorer doesn’t even work (Firefox is just fine).

This post is late because my internet has been down for three days!

As a country we have bought a very expensive bank! What should we do with it? Bail it out and then turn it over to the private bankers again? No. Let’s USE IT.

Conversely, for us as a country there is a lot of money to be SAVED here! How? well How about this for an idea:

We know that banks make money by charging the businesses that accept your payments, whether by card or cash. Why do we allow them to make money on all the benefits, tax credits and unemployment money we pay out?

If there are say 1,500,000 people receiving benefits why is that we allow chunks to be taken out of this by private banks? Lets work it through:

1,500,000 people who receive for the sake of argument, £100.00 each week. This money is deposited automatically by the Government into peoples bank accounts. At my low estimate that is 150 Million pounds ( £150,000,000 ) per week or 7.8 Billion (£7,800,000,000) a year being deposited that gets under the control of commercial banks, and we know what they do with it. Plus many of the people receiving benefit are on the borderline between credit and debit most of the time. They will probably be incurring interest on overdrafts and charges when, in desperation or panic, they make payments that they can’t afford. And I expect the banks are charging us, via the government for paying all the amounts each week. Lets say it is just 10p per transfer or payment that would amount to £7,800,000 per year just for making the payments!

I believe that we can use Northern Rock (Our New “Civic Bank”) to massively reduce the costs to society of the administration of the benefit system and help us to control the money we using to support those in need. If we use Northern Rock as the “Civic face” of the Bank of England (effectively what it is now) we can benefit in the following ways:

• By issuing a “civic debit card” we bring the benefits system in to the 21^st Century.

• By issuing a “civic debit card” to people receiving benefits instead of hard cash or transfers to commercial banks we reduce costs.

• Reduced and easier access to “emergency money” by people in short term money trouble.

• This emergency money to be Interest free.

• The ability to recover the short term emergency money loans by automatically debiting a weekly amount (that is agreed to be affordable) to the persons civic debit card account.

• Reduced cost for the applicants - no need to travel to make an enquiry – can be done by phone.

• Reduced interest paid by credit-borderline people.

• No charges on accounts for credit-borderline people.

• Reduced expense for the country by keeping these charges down (after all we probably end up paying them)

• Reduced benefit fraud – the civic bank will know how and where the money is being spent so unusual or strange spending will be investigated. (The credit card companies and banks already do this.)

• Proper realistic interest rates paid on money kept in the civic card account encouraging saving.

• Reduced fraud in applications for benefit and distribution.

• Less threat to DHSS staff – there is no actual cash on the premises.

• Having the cards will carry no stigma.

• No other bank account necessary to hold a civic debit card.

• Limited Cash withdrawal so benefit spending can be tracked.

• Options for unwell and/or addicted people on benefits to restrict their card voluntarily for instance so they cannot buy alcohol or cigarettes.

• Particular people could benefit from a different form of card – a “Civic Pride Card” these would be issued to people who have given or lost something or someone for the benefit of our society or it aims. Particular instances come to mind:

  • The remaining partner of a member of the armed forces killed in combat

  • The remaining partner of a member of the police service killed in the line of duty.

  • People elected by the Queen or the People to receive a Civic Pride card.

  • Injured and disabled services personnel themselves injured in the line of duty.

  • Civic Pride cards are a lifelong entitlement to an agreed and indexed sum per year or month– the recipients’ service being considered “beyond price”. We should not quibble or be reticent about honouring those who give so much.

 

• The civic bank will cover its costs by investing the unspent money in the civic card accounts – it can do this profitably and competitively because the money source will be cost-free. It will not be permitted to lend money it has not got – no leveraging/gambling with the country’s assets!

• The civic bank will cover its costs by participating in the current per transaction card charging scheme.

• Reduced cost of living by negotiating with large regional supermarkets for the best discount for food and essential goods charged to the civic card.

• Accessibility – Northern Rock to take over the existing Post Office network scheduled for closure. Providing those vital services where they are needed – not where commercial banks think they would be most profitable.

• Could double as an ID card – covering the costs of the ID card scheme using commercial practices.

• Civic cards for pensioners. More transaction coats saved and as pensioners tend to be better savers, more deposits for the civic bank.

• Civic cards available to all not just those on benefits.

• “Untied” cards available for asylum seekers and refugees. With a limited life span. (3 Month temporary permit? 3 month civic card.) With use restricted to essential purchases. To extend it or receive a new one we want to know where you are and what you are doing.

The uses for such a system go on and on. The possibilities are almost endless once such a card was established and in use.

There will be fraud of course, but there always will be, no matter what the system.

Is this the way we want OUR bank run

clipped from www.theyworkforyou.com Vincent Cable (Deputy Party Leader; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source | Watch this That is a helpful correction. However, the point in answer to both Mr. Redwood and Mr. Jones is that we now know that over the past few months the Northern Rock management has refused to accept any individual voluntary arrangements. Northern Rock is the only bank that has refused to do that. It is clearly worried about the security of the people who have been lent to. There have been complaints from the Insolvency Service that that is bad practice and against policy. Northern Rock is the only bank that is taking that extremely aggressive approach towards the people who have borrowed from it, as it is worried about conditions such as those described by the right hon. Member for Wokingham.

Well 2.0.0.11 may be released but the release has a few flaws to date these are:

1) The “Not Found” image file is missing form the installer.

2) Final testing did not reveal that pasting “eBay Order Details” only works in Firefox (2 or 3) and fails in Internet Explorer.

3) Paypal seem to have changed some character encodings for Characters from Mainland Europe.

As I only work on DespatchPal at the weekends the fix should be available by Monday Morning of the 11th August.

Getting repetitive this…

Just testing really - making sure that posts and categories appear where they should.

The blog has wiped out my web site

Traditionally I am supposed to say “Hello World”, so I just did.  My first thought  was to  start with “I always thought there was a book in me”  and I haven’t changed my mind. I’m sure that the saying “there is a book in everyone” is correct,  it’s just hiding underneath the will or motivation to write each page out.

I also remember reading that you only need to write one page a day, the result of a years pages being a whole book (365 pages long surprise, surprise!).  Personally my problem will be finishing it or even maintaining a page a day given my programming commitments, my money making attempts, linked to an overriding need to get out of debt and beat the “credit-crunch”, and my liking for the local watering hole.

Keeping it on topic (if there is to be an overriding topic) will tax my natural tendency to ramble and digress into any subject that has annoyed or interested me.  If I write the page  after a visit to the watering hole then this tendency will really come to the front - boy do I know everything about anything!

The problem with writing “a book” is that it seems real authors actually plan the whole thing! They get a “book idea” decide on a ending, a middle, some characters and then arrive at a beginning, filling in the dialogue and padding out the story with detail as they go.   Hmm.   I don’t have an ending in mind, I don’t have any characters except myself and my friends and family.  I do have a start - “The Introduction” (this is it) Page 1. or page (i) . No that’s wrong too, I need a copyright page! So the first thing to write should be that. So here goes:

Page (i)

Copyright 2008-10

First published by Keyboard, Wordpress and Blog

Whoo hoo! I’ve done today’s page. I going for a second! The dedication page!! (Note  dedication pages never have a page number).

To Georgina.

Double Whoo hoo! (Whoo hoo! Whoo hoo!) Two pages done.

Page (i+1) Tomorrow, when I will try discover the main topic or possibly even a story line and complete the intro.