Booting Linux from a USB stick – a beginner’s guide

On a forum thread regarding being tracked by cookies on the soon to be mandatory Universal Jobmatch website, and the pitfalls of having to use unsecured wireless access points after having had your broadband cut off due to benefit sanctions, someone mentioned that it is possible to boot your laptop into Linux from a USB stick!

But how easy is it to actually achieve this? Well not very, I am a computing professional and it took me 3 or 4 hours to successfully load my chosen Linux Distribution onto a USB stick and boot from it. I took about 5 attempts using several different utilities before I finally achieved what I had set out to do. So, to save yourself a lot of frustration, annoyance and worry please learn what you can from my mistakes:

First of all you are going to need a USB stick or flash drive, I suggest you use a 4GB or larger, however most Linux distributions will fit on a 1GB. Some Linux distributions will not boot from a drive that is NTFS format, so FAT32 is preferred. If you want to reuse an old USB stick you may be tempted to reformat it using windows, DON’T. Windows (at least XP) seems to only be capable of formatting a USB stick up to 1GB with the result that a 4GB will be reformatted to 1GB by windows. If you must reformat your USB stick, perhaps because you partitioned it or whatever try using one of these:

RMprepUSB : This is able to do the entire job for you as well as preparing the USB stick(formatting) however it is far from the simplest to use. It also depends on Grub4dos, which I can not recommend unless you are already familiar with it.

BootICE : This will enable you to restore your USB stick to its original format, for example if your 4GB has been turned into a 1GB due to formatting it in windows.

Assuming that you have a fresh or reformatted USB stick ready to go you then need to look at what flavour of Linux you want to use. There are several utilities that claim to do this for you, however each one seems to favour its own selection of Linux distributions. If you try to use them to setup a Linux distribution ISO that you have downloaded, and its not one that the particular utility favours it may try to install it for you but there is a good chance that it won’t work when you come to boot from it. There are other considerations which need to be taken into account also, some of these utilities are designed to build ‘Multiboot’ USB drives, allowing you to boot into any of several flavours of Linux, and/or utility boot images such as ‘partition magic’.

XBOOT is one such utility, however the selection of Linux distributions that it supports is limited, and it tries to get around this problem by enabling you to load whatever ISO you have downloaded using Grub4dos emulation, which I do not recommend as mentioned above. Grub is not for novice users!

Another situation where it is possible to go horribly wrong in trying to create a Bootable Linux install on your USB stick is where the utility offers you to select the flavour you want from its list, saying it will download and install it for you to your USB drive.

UNetbootin is one of these. You would expect that such a program would download the ISO image to your hard drive under windows first, but this is not so. Like many bootloader utilities it installs its bootloader onto the USB, then expects you to reboot into the USB drive, where upon it tries to download and install the ISO. Which is fine if you have a hard connection to the net, but if you are on a wireless laptop you are in trouble! The instructions for this one, in this situation give the host name of the download server, but when you are booted from the USB and trying to download the ISO the bootloader wants the IP address, any you may well have no means of obtaining that without rebooting back into windows. This utility also allows you to create a bootable Linux distribution from an already downloaded ISO, but again unless it’s one that it explicitly supported by  UNetbootin, the USB may well not work, due to missing kernel components and so on. For example using UNetbootin to make a bootable USB stick with openSUSE-12.2-GNOME-liveCD-ISO (the latest version as of time of writing) the operation was successful however booting from the USB failed at boot time because the boot loader could not find the kernel image ‘gfxboot’.
The best utility for the beginner, and the one that I recommend is;

Universal USB installer from pendrivelinux.com ! This utility is simple, straightforward, and easy to use and supports almost all of the Linux distributions that can be loaded from a USB stick. It expects you to have downloaded your chosen ISO image already, and if you place the ISO in the same folder as its executable it will pick it up for you automatically. It does NOT support multiboot, i.e. it can only create a bootable USB using one ISO image, which is its only major drawback, but I suggest that ‘multiboot’ is something for the expert, and not for the beginner!

All of the above may well have problems if you are trying to make a USB with the very latest version of the Linux distribution you want, since they will all lag behind the distribution’s development cycle, that’s to say that the utility developer will most likely not have had time to update their product, so you should choose an older version of the ISO in this case, perhaps the most recent stable release rather than the current beta version.

Finally, You can’t accidentally damage your windows laptop by booting it from a USB stick unless you are really stupid! for example by formatting the wrong drive letter during the setup, or by attempting to use the USB to install Linux on the hard drive of your computer into the partition used by windows operating system.

You may be wondering by now how the hell you make your computer boot from the USB drive rather than the hard drive. The thing is that precisely how you do this depends not on what operating system you want to use but on what BIOS your computer has installed, and the exact procedure varies from BIOS to BIOS. In general the first screen that loads during the boot process is a placeholder for the BIOS, and usually this screen will tell you that such and such an ‘F’ key will allow you to enter the setup screen for the BIOS. On most PCs this is F8, on laptops (such as Toshiba) it may be F2. You will have only a couple of seconds in which to press it. On PCs the setup screen will allow you to specify which drive letter to boot from, or will allow you to enable booting from drive letters other than the default (C:). Or as on Toshiba laptops you can specify which devices can be booted from. This will enable the boot menu, which on a Toshiba is accessed by pressing F12 on the first screen. This allows you to select the device you want to boot from at startup. However every make of computer seems to have a different BIOS, and you should refer to your machines user manual to get the exact procedure for your machine.

The language of Science Fiction - An Essay

I remember Bob Heinlein talking about a writer who served up the same basic plots over and over, sometimes 'filing off the serial numbers' of a story he liked changing the lines a bit and then he 'owned it'. I have always shied away from this method of writing, even when people writing about writing have stated that there are only a limited number of basic types of plot, and almost all stories will fit to these basic types. I figure there are going to be no more Heinlein stories, since the guy is deceased. How about filing off the serial numbers and changing the lines a bit on some of his stories? The fact of the matter is that you can't copyright Ideas, only the form in which they are expressed. This of course smacks of plagiarism but consider for a minute what would happen if plagiarism was in fact a criminal offence. If plagiarism extended copyright to the extent of protecting ideas then any idea in science fiction, once used (and published!) would no longer be available to any other writer to use as his or her work and separate works which were published that did use the same or similar ideas could face years of legal wrangling to determine to whom the idea belongs. If one work used the concept of 'gravity plating' for example, then no other work except by the same author(s) could use that or a substantially similar concept. This is verging on the ridiculous! The non-legal definition of plagiarism is not clear and it is this concept of protecting ideas which makes it unclear, so we must beware of taking large chunks of another person’s work and claiming them as our own, or indeed whole works and simply changing a few proper names and so on. But, using an idea which is already present in the language of science fiction is not a crime, so long as the actual use of the idea is in your own words and your own story.

It is Heinlein's ideas that make his stories so interesting, in many cases the plots themselves are somewhat weak, but the ideas presented make the story worth reading. Clearly much of the technology he describes is defunct. Stories written in the 1940's and 50's no longer stand up technically in the 21st century. For example, in one story he describes an atomic powered 'space ship' which is basically an orbital lifting vehicle powered by steam, super-heated by a fission pile. The ship is cobbled together by a bunch of teenagers and an 'old space hand'. We now know this would never have worked due to the weight of the shielding that would have been required to prevent the occupants being irradiated. In another story a ship of a much larger scale is described, also using the same basic principle but of sufficient size to carry the necessary shielding for the passengers to at least survive in the short term. The danger of radioactive contamination is such that such a ship would never be permitted, unless either these dangers are solved, or nobody gives a shit about the danger. Another classic Heinlein story involves a 'tunnel in the sky' which is basically a Stargate concept not dissimilar to the movie of that name.

Once of the main problems which has been holding me back in my writing of science fiction is the feeling that it is necessary to always come up with something, some concept that is completely new, never been done before, and such ideas are few and far between. By the 21st century, most if not all possible ideas have been explored, often in several ways and differing approaches. Science Fiction has become more mainstream, that is to say that the story has become more significant than the ideas which are explored. Which in my view makes it possible incorporate old ideas in the form of the genre, with good plot and characters. In much the same way a writer may approach writing a detective story, or a western, the ideas and concepts of these genres are basically dictated by what has gone before and it is only the implementation that differs from example to example.

So how would we go about 'ripping off' Heinlein, without being plagiarist, and which stories or ideas are the most suitable to be 'updated'?

Let's look at 'Tunnel in the Sky' in more detail. The ideas behind this is the basic precursor to the Stargate concept; a planar region of space-time is by means of some sort of machinery, connected directly to a similar planar region of space-time, usually light-years removed. This story actually pre-dated several academic papers derived from Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity, where some solutions to his equations implied that a traversable stable wormhole could be created, given sufficient energy and a source of negative mass. Subsequently a whole new field of physics has been developed to theoretically describe the physics of wormholes. I have mentioned the Stargate movie previously, more recently we have the concept of 'Runcible Gates' described by the author Neal Asher, and probably other variations on the theme by numerous other writers. This is to say that the 'Stargate' concept has become part of the language of science fiction and indeed also the language of theoretical physics. Asher's Runcible gates are more or less identical in effect to those gates found in Heinlein's story. So basically there is no problem using this idea, since it has become part of the language of science and fiction.

So what about the plot of the story?

The basic plot is that a group of high school students are taking a frontier survival class taught by a veteran. Their final exam involves being dropped by means of a star gate onto another planet with only what they can carry and expected to survive for 10 days or two weeks. The survivors are picked up by means of another gate set several kilometres away from the initial drop. Only this time it goes wrong, the recovery gate does not open, due to 'solar interference', and the group is marooned for months. The lead character becomes 'mayor' of the primitive village that they establish. There are various trials and tribulations when the kids assume rescue is not coming, and with negligible resources they do in fact survive after a fashion. The premise is that even a bunch of teenagers can whip an alien environment and survive with only minimal losses given the basic appropriate training and moral turpitude.

Echoes of filed off serial numbers and altered lines here? Perhaps those who have read 'Lord of the flies' or other similar stories will find elements of the plot recognisable, Heinlein did say in his writing that there are no new plots. But is the plot worth ripping off (again). Perhaps, perhaps not.

Given that the Stargate concept is now accepted as part of the language of science fiction, what other concepts are also now part of that language? Well certainly the 'Star trek Universe' or series of series have added a number of 'concepts' to the language of science fiction. Most notable of these would probably be the 'phaser' and 'photon torpedoes' and the 'transporter'. Star trek conveniently glosses over the problems involved in creating artificial gravity, instead of ships which require spin to provide artificial gravity using centripetal force, the deck plates of all ships in the Star trek Universe magically produce a one directional and variable gravitational field apparently by electro-mechanical means. The 'transporter' concept is an interesting one, in that it is basically predicated on matter-transportation from one place to another by means of some electro-mechanical process, something that has also been used elsewhere in science fiction. For example, the movie 'The Fly' where the inventor of a matter-transport machine gets merged with an intruding fly. Safe to say then that 'matter-transport' is now part of the language of science fiction. A variation on the theme of matter-transport has been used in several novels, in the form of a person (or animal!) being able through the power of their mind to teleport themselves and or others between locations in space-time.

Another concept that Star trek has gifted to the language of science fiction would have to be 'warp-drive' or 'warp-bubble'. The basic concept is that a warp-bubble is created around a space ship, then space-time is compressed in front of the ship and expanded behind it, thus allowing the ship to travel at a velocity faster-than-light. The actual physics of this is far from proven, unlike wormhole theories which have a basis in Einstein’s equations, warp-theory seems to be completely fantasy, however in his 1994 paper Alcubierre formally proposed this concept, in his metric the relativistic effects, such as time dilation do not apply. One aspect of these Star trek theories is in fact realistic, warp-bubbles require the use of anti-matter as a source of energy, and anti-matter has indeed been detected in real physical experiments. Unfortunately, at present it would take millions of years to collect a sufficient amount of it to be useful in this respect.

An older concept, in the same vein, is 'hyperspace', often characterised as a region or property of space-time which when entered will allow the spaceship to travel faster-than-light, there is no real world theoretical basis for the 'hyperspace' concept. However, recent developments in theoretical physics require that higher orders of dimensions in space-time must exist mathematically in order to describe quantum mechanical objects and behaviours that exist. It is not then beyond the realms of possibility that some sub-set of these higher orders of dimensions might not represent something like the 'hyperspace' concept.

Heinlein has also looked at the possibility of higher order dimensions, for example in his book 'The Number of theBeast' where he postulates that the four space-time dimensions we experience are in-fact a sub-set of six available dimensions, and if a machine could be made to switch between these available dimensions it would not only be possible to travel faster-than-light, but also to travel to 'alternate dimensions' and to travel forwards and backwards in time. The concept of 'alternate universes' has been much used in science fiction, though usually the writers spend little or no time actually explaining the conceptual theory, and just get on with the story.

The concept of time travelling is very popular in Science Fiction, so much so that most people will be familiar with 'The Grandfather Paradox', where a time traveller travels back in time and impregnates his grandmother, thus becoming his own grandfather. Many entertaining plots have been developed using loops through time or loops in time. Again the means of travelling is usually by virtue of some electro-mechanical device the theory of which is rarely explained in any detail. It is my view that 'time-travel' has been 'done to death' in the genre. However, in each case it is done by means of the hypothetical electro-mechanical machine, whereas in theory the only way to achieve time-travel currently would be by means of two 'Krasnikov Tubes' (a type of wormhole), one outgoing and one side by side returning, which when traversed in the reverse direction would give rise to time travelling in that the traveller would arrive before having left, the temporal displacement being directly proportional to the length of the tubes. There is some discussion as to whether there must be some currently unknown physical law which would act to prevent this, a sort of 'Law of Conservation of Time'.

In summary I would say that the state of science fiction today is that the language, as of that of any other genre of writing, is well established and there is no shame in using that language to tell a story, so long as that story is sufficiently entertaining that someone wants to read it. It doesn't matter whether you use the concepts behind faster-than-light travel to enable your setting to be that of a space empire in conflict with its neighbour, or you use the multi-universe or multi-dimensional concepts to enable your character to travel in time, with all the interesting philosophical paradoxes that that entails. Your readers are assumed to understand or simply to accept these concepts as part of the language of science fiction, so much so that many writers now use these concepts like buzz-words without really going into detail on the theory.

Breach of Contract by British Government

At age 16, I was issued with a national insurance number/card, as was everyone of my age at the time.I had already been working part-time while still at school, pumping petrol on weekends, and washing dishes in the local hotel during holidays. It was explained to me then that this NI number would identify me to the National Insurance system and that out of my pay I would contribute a percentage which the government would use provide me with a pension and to pay for medical treatment throughout my life, and to pay me unemployment benefit if and when I needed it. That was the deal that this country made with me as I entered the economy. Now, after 30 years of contributions and taxes  I am sick and disabled, and claiming disability benefits. I have had asthma since I was 7, and now have emphysema, Irritable Bowel syndrome, arthritis/poly myalgia rheumatica, depression and anxiety. I am now to face assessment under the WCA and if past performance is any indicator will have my disability benefit taken away, leaving me with the only option of trying to claim JSA.

I had to claim JSA or as it was then unemployment benefit the last time we had a Tory sponsored recession. I lost everything in that one, my job my home, most of my possessions, my car and my health. Over the course of a handful of years I went from being an aspiring professional  to being all but homeless living in one room surrounded by pimps and prostitutes, drunks and drug abusers and petty criminals. During the course of 4 years in that one room I dealt with two fires, two overdoses, and multiple medical emergencies, all on behalf of my fellow inmates. I managed to dig myself out of the debt that had accrued, and retrained myself over the course of several years at college, and re-launched my career, this time as a college tutor. I taught people from age 16 to 70, until my health again left me unable to continue. Refused DLA I have had to manage on Incapacity Benefit, and it has been possible just, but without DLA I have no car, and because of my condition no prospect of employment.

And now even the little that I do have is under threat, my housing benefit has been cut, meaning I have to supplement rent from my benefit, and I am facing being moved from IB to ESA, to have my ESA taken away under the discredited WCA, eventually to expect to again be forced to claim JSA, but this time also to face crippling sanctions if I fail to jump through hoops, or fail to perform free labour for private companies under the Work Program. Even should I be granted ESA I could still face these sanctions.  So it is not surprising then that I should feel that this government has breached its contract with me, and with hundreds of thousands of people like me, why did I pay in all those years, if the promised support can just be taken away? I count myself lucky that I did not have a family, and children. What would I say to them, not being able to provide for them? So what was the point of National Insurance, indeed what is the point of any insurance if they will not pay out on claims after having unilaterally changed the rules or the fine print?

The policies of this ConDem coalition are indefensible, attacking sick and disabled people is the lowest form of expression of power. The demonising of the sick and disabled, branding us ‘scroungers’ and worse in order to justify these attacks on disability benefits is immoral. Millions of taxpayers money have been spent on propaganda of this form, and billions are being handed to Workfare Providers to bully people into applying for jobs that are not suitable or non-existent, and the labour of these poor unfortunates is being handed to charities and private companies for free. They are literally being used as work slaves, for profit and on pain of having the bare pittance they receive removed if they will not submit to this indignity. Not content with making slaves of the healthy unemployed they extend this programme to the sick and disabled, to those whose medical practitioners have declared unfit for work, but whom so called healthcare professionals employed by a private company subsequently declare fit for work in accordance with a government determined quota system.

New charity food banks open every week, to provide emergency rations to those affected by the cuts. The list of suicides gets longer every month, each new death adding to those who have died after being unfairly assessed ‘fit for work’. Disabled people who were living independently and receiving care in their own homes now face isolation, or committal to nursing homes with all the potential for neglect and abuse that comes with that. And why is this being done? apparently to reduce the deficit under the pre-Keynesian  notion that this will bring us out of recession, when the evidence shows that this can not work, and has already cause not just a double dip recession but we are now going under for the third time! Britain is drowning and far from throwing a lifeline, this Government is confiscating the life belts, refusing to buy any life rafts and mothballing the life boats!

Meanwhile MPs fiddle their expenses and are not jailed, corporations pour millions into Tory party coffers, bankers fiddle the interest rates and pay themselves huge bonuses and are not jailed, while sitting on the bailout money taxpayers have forked over, and tax avoidance amongst the rich is rife with billions being sequestered offshore, with corporations paying a paltry couple of million in tax on multi-billion pounds worth of revenue. There is a perfect storm coming, the government has breached its contract with the people and sits smugly enjoying subsidised homes, lunches and free Champaign while the unemployed, low waged and the sick and disabled face homelessness and starvation in one of the richest countries in the world.

Sick and Disabled People returning to work face discrimination at every level

The British Government has changed the rules regarding incapacity, sickness and limited ability to work so that an estimated 40% of the 2 million people previously regarded as unfit for work are now to be re-classified as fit for work under the Work Capability Assessment, which is based on the UNUM sponsored bio-psycho-social model of disability. This has already or will leave many thousands of people with chronic illness and disability having to try to meet the conditionality requirements of job seeker's allowance or have no income what so ever.

As I myself am facing this situation I decided to see just exactly what, realistically are my prospects for obtaining paid employment. I approached two employment agencies in the town where I live and asked each the following question; “Realistically speaking , what are my prospects for getting a job?”. Both were told that I have been on Incapacity Benefit for approximately 10 years with a number of conditions that would affect my capacity for work.

The first agency was IRWEB trading as Interaction Recruitment, the agency was entered by a narrow doorway between two shops, and required me to negotiate 3 flights of stairs to reach the office, there was no lift. I walk using a cane, and have COPD. I arrived eventually at the top floor, breathless and in pain. Had I been in a wheelchair it would NOT have been possible for me to reach the office at all. When I was able I explained briefly my situation and asked them the question ‘what realistically are my prospects of getting a job’. This is the reply I got (paraphrased) “We require references that aren’t family or friends for the last five years, you don’t have any so we wouldn’t put you on our books”, I asked if that was a legal requirement and was told “Sorry those are the rules,”  I expressed the opinion that this was discriminatory and was told “it’s like you just came out of prison” . I did not leave my name.

The second agency I approached was ADECCO, which I also approached on the same date, 25th September 2012. Their office was fortunately on the ground floor, with street access. However the reception area was small and filled with a table and 3 chairs, anyone attempting to enter with a wheelchair would have no choice but to block the entrance. I explained my situation to them, that I was on IB and expected to lose my benefit and asked the same question ‘what realistically are my prospects for paid employment’. I was told that they would be happy to look at my CV, when I asked about references they allowed that I could cite my doctor as a referee however they did state that some employers did require recent experience and that they felt that this was not discrimination. I sent my CV by email that evening, this is the response I received:
“Thank you for sending us your Curriculum Vitae.
At present we have no vacancies relevant to your requirements. However, we will keep your details on file and, should any suitable vacancies arise, we will contact you.
We wish you every success in your search for employment and would like to thank you for thinking of Adecco.
Regards,”

Two days later I received the following letter from the Dept. of Work and Pensions ;
“Date 25/09/2012  THE BENEFIT YOU RECEIVE IS CHANGING” ,.. please note the date of this letter as I think it is significant, I am now to be re-assessed.
Subsequently I had a look at Adecco’s website and found three vacancies I was interested in, as I felt I had relevant experience, all be it that this experience was more than 10 years previously. I wrote an email to the local agency person I had spoken to previously expressing an interest in the 3 vacancies and received the following in reply;
“I do not believe you will be suitable for the jobs as they require recent experience but if that is not the case one of my colleagues will contact you should you be suitable for the position.”

In conclusion then it is very clear to me now just what the barriers are to sick and disabled people returning to work, firstly agencies and employers know that being passed ‘Fit for work’ under the WCA does not in any way guarantee that a person is actually capable of working. The practice of requiring recent experience is of itself discriminatory against sick and disabled people returning to work, this practice completely disregards any wealth of past work experience, and of life experience a disabled person may have and any qualifications they may have obtained. Disabled access to many premises is simply non existent and agencies are as guilty as employers of failing to provide such access.  And lastly but perhaps most significantly the prejudices promoted against sick and disabled people by this governments propaganda and ‘scrounger’ rhetoric have condemned us to life on the dole with no prospect of paid employment, or to work unpaid at whatever menial post the DWP and their agents demand of us, otherwise to have no income what so ever. This is unacceptable, and we will fight!

Privatising the NHS will put Britain in debt to private corporations for up to 60 years

 

Much has been made by politicians of the supposed benefits of public-private partnerships, but let me explain how these deals actually work;

Let’s say we want to build a hospital in Corby, because presently any accident or emergency patients, and maternity patients have to travel to Kettering. Let’s say the cost of actually building such a facility is around £6 million using public money. The government says that there simply isn’t the money to do this, but that they will create a public-private partnership called Corby NHS Trust to do this. The private member of the ‘partnership’ puts up the money, and has the hospital built. This means that the cost of building the hospital does not come out of public funding and thus does not appear on the exchequers books. But this money is then a debt owed to the private corporations who provided the finance and must be paid back to them over lets say 30 years, including interest. If the interest rate is only 2%, after 30 years £10.868 million will have to be repaid! Almost doubling the cost of building the hospital. The real figures and interest rates are probably much larger, but you get the idea.

Now if at the same time the services of that hospital are also privatised and therefore NOLONGER free at the point of service, the corporations who provided the finance will be charging those of us who can pay, and NOT serving those of us who can’t. They then stand to make not only the £4.868 million in profit from the government paying them back but also whatever amount of profit THEY decide to take after running costs.

The repayment schedules being talked about are up to 60 years, anyone with a calculator can see that this is a brilliant deal for the private investors, but a really crap deal for the British people, as we will be paying 3 or 4 times what it actually costs to build such hospitals, and be tied into paying for them for up to 60 years. Meanwhile assuming the privatisation of the NHS goes ahead, we will also be paying for the products of those hospitals, in terms of services we receive. It’s a Lose-Lose situation for the British people and a Win-win for the private corporations.

Now you see why millions of pounds are pouring into the Tory party coffers from private corporations, and how the millionaires who have usurped our government are laughing all the way to the bank!

How the British Government Scuppered Permitted Work

The Department for Work and Pensions regulations allow that a person who is claiming Incapacity benefit or Employment Support Allowance may do ‘Permitted Work’ while claiming. This regulation allows that a person claiming IB or ESA can earn up to £97.50 per week from working less than 16 hours per week without their benefit being affected. This amount is also passed on to Housing benefit and Council Tax Benefit as a disregard which is applicable under certain circumstances only. Permitted work is also an option available under the Provider led Pathways to work guidance, where a provider can obtain a ‘Job Outcome payment’ under specific circumstances.
On the face of it ‘Permitted Work’ seems like an ideal opportunity for claimants of IB and ESA who have been on benefit for a long time to see if they can actually do some work, and to be guaranteed to be better off whilst doing so. However in practice it seems that very few people are actually taking up this facility, exact figures do not seem to be available. A freedom of Information Request is still outstanding on this matter.
What then might the barriers be to claimants taking up permitted work? The first fear that comes to mind is that if you show any interest in doing permitted work, that you will trigger a re-assessment of your fitness for work. The DWP guidance states that anyone doing permitted work will still be subject to assessment of their fitness for work;
“If a medical assessment is due as part of your ongoing benefits-related review, it will go ahead as planned.”
Previous guidance to Incapacity Benefit claimants suggested that taking up permitted work may indeed trigger a re-assessment of their capacity to work. 
Another concern is that doing permitted work may affect your Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. It seems to depend mainly on if the Decision maker at DWP decides your work is ‘permitted’ and what disregard you are allowed, if you get the £20 disregard then anything you earn over this amount will affect IB,ESA and HB and CTB, similarly if your work is judged to be permitted and you earn in excess of the £97.50 disregard this too will affect your benefits including HB and CTB. Additionally if, in any one week, you work for 16 hours or more then your entitlement to Incapacity Benefit or Employment Support Allowance STOPS!
The main problem however is that if your work is determined by the DWP decision maker NOT to be allowed as permitted work your benefits are immediately affected by the full amount of your income from any paid employment. This is compounded by the fact that the claimant is NOT TOLD prior to starting any work if the work they are proposing to do is ‘permitted’, claimants must start the work, send in the PW1 declaring that they wish to work under the ‘permitted work rules’ and wait to see if the work they are doing is permitted, they are then completely in the hands of the DWP decision maker as to whether the work they want to do will benefit them financially in any way or if it will result in their benefits being cut by the amount they receive, the fact that they are then doing some work would doubtless be taken into account during their WCA assessment regarding their fitness for work.
A further concern is that it appears that on disclosing that you are doing work which you wish to be considered as permitted work under the permitted work rules, your claim for benefit is immediately suspended, pending the DWP Decision on whether such work is ‘permitted’.
It is this writers view that the regulations regarding ‘permitted work’ are a minefield for the claimant and for welfare rights advisers alike, with amendments to regulations, changes in types of benefits and a total lack of clarity as to what work is permitted. It occurs to this writer that this government has No Interest in encouraging the uptake of permitted work as provided for by the regulation because, if permitted, it does not reduce the benefits bill in the short term, no matter how much it may benefit the claimant. Further the regulations and subsequent amendments seem to have been so crafted that any claimant wishing to take up permitted work does so at the immediate risk of their entitlement to benefits.
In conclusion what could have been a significant aide to the long term sick and disabled in trying some limited work and being rewarded for doing so has been successfully scuppered by opaque regulation and lack of information. Whether permitted work, had it been implemented in a transparent and fair manner, could lead to claimants no longer needing  the support of these benefits in the long term is unknown, if the Freedom of Information request  is answered perhaps the answers to these questions will finally come to light. Instead claimants of ESA are now facing Mandated Work were the sick and disabled will be expected to work for their benefits for as much as 30 hours per week and for as long as 6 months at a time on pain of being sanctioned in exactly the same way as claimants of Job Seeker Allowance, among whom will be those of their fellows found ‘fit for work’ under the discredited WCA.

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Update And response to kelly Peters:

"Claimants on ESA can never be asked to do any activity (i.e. training) that is over 16 hours per week. Mandatory Work Activity is only for JSA claimants. Under DWP guidance ESA Claimants can not (and will not) be forced to work or to apply for a job. There are various other false and/or misleading statements within this article. Given the high levels of anxiety felt by many claimants of incapacity benefits - please check your facts before posting articles on such an emotive subject."

For some reason Blogger is not letting me reply to comments so ;

Kelly,  I agree that IB is currently an emotive subject, as I too am on IB waiting for Graylings' axe to fall, and from what I see in the press and media, I have little hope of getting a fair assessment under the WCA. We have seen no matter what DWP guidance is given that ATOS have been working to targets, as shown by C4: Dispatches. (When is a target not a target? when its a statistical norm, a target by any other name) . From what I hear and read the rules regarding ESA appeals will change as of April 2013 (Welfare reform bill, clause 99, source social welfare union), such that anyone appealing a decision on their entitlement to ESA will automatically be put on JSA, and thus one would expect to be subject to JSA jobseeker regulations, sanctions and mandated activity. Grayling has said elsewhere in the press that it is his intention to 're-design' the system so that those persons coming off IB/ESA whom jobcentreplus feels are too sick to take work placements will be forced to do so.

This is my blog, I will do , Kelly such fact checking as I am able and will post whatever I like in my blog. I therefore invite you to challenge any and all statements of mine which you feel are wrong or misleading, and please be sure to include your sources, or I will not allow your comment.

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Investigation into the source of claims made by SWU above: Original SWU post :

http://www.facebook.com/SocialWelfareUnion/posts/378098418924587 

source of the above post

http://www.youreable.com/forums/showthread.php/2086-Clause-99-of-the-Welfare-Reform-Bill-which-comes-into-effect-in-April-2013

source of that post :

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1633472

and the origination of the Chinese whisper :

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1530-no-esa-for-claimants-who-want-to-appeal

In the above post benefits and work say that

“Given that reconsiderations could take many months, many claimants will be obliged to make a claim for JSA, even though they may consider themselves wholly unfit for any kind of work.  Alternatively, they will have to manage without either ESA or JSA, at least until their appeal is lodged.”

I accept that the word ‘automatically’ as used by myself above was incorrect but assert that my statements above regarding ESA claimants having to face the same requirements as JSA claimants, given the above statements from Benefits from work, were in fact substantially true, However is appears that currently available guidance from the DWP states that a claimant may continue to receive ESA at the  assessment phase rate.

The fact remains that persons having an illness and or disability which would give them rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of People with disabilities, will still face being forced to work for their benefits should they find themselves on JSA, in contravention of article 27 of the convention. Article 27 also implies that if it is a contravention of the convention that a disabled person is forced to work, it is also a contravention of the convention should any other person be forced to work. A converse (perverse?) interpretation could also be made , that if a non disabled person can be forced to work, then so can a disabled person, but I think that such and interpretation would be seen to be against the spirit of the convention.

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Update 15/08/2012

The following article and documents from the DWP have recently been pointed out to me, this was originally reported on The Guardian website in an article entitled “Disabled people face unlimited unpaid work or cuts in benefits” published in February of this year. The title statement is supported by two DWP documents; The first is “Work Experience and work placements for ESA Work-related activity Group” and is a presentation from the DWP policy and strategy forum, December 2011. In this document the DWP shows its intention to introduce work experience and work placements for sick and disabled persons in the WRAG. In the second document which is a redacted copy of the minutes of the DWP policy and strategy forum meeting of 1st December 2011. In this document the intention to mandate this activity is made clear;

“Ministers strongly feel there is a link-up to support those who are moving close to the labour market and the individual’s responsibility to engage with the support. Ministers feel sanctions are an incentive for people to comply with their responsibility.”

The Guardian article includes information received from the DWP saying explicitly that some would be mandated to this activity and some would not. I am at pains to point out to any sick or disabled person facing such activity in the WRAG on ESA, or any person who is disabled under the terms of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and has been declared fit for work, and to the DWP and any disabled groups reading this article that under article 27 of the convention disabled persons “..are protected, on an equal basis with others, from forced or compulsory labour.”

An open letter to Nick Clegg MP

Dear Nick,

I have been a Liberal, and then a Liberal Democrat supporter for many years, in fact since Sir David Steel was leader of the Liberal Party. As a teenager I campaigned in elections, delivering leaflets for my local candidate as a member of the Liberal Radical Youth, and as an adult I have voted Liberal or Liberal Democrat in every election, bye-election, or local government election that there has been to date where I have been living in the UK.

I now withdraw my support for this Liberal Democrat/conservative coalition government, and my support for the LibDems while they are led by you. This is because of your complete and utter failure to protect the rights of sick and disabled people in this country, because you have allowed sick and disabled people in this country to be portrayed as lazy scroungers, without once to my knowledge showing support for us or objecting publicly to those government policies and attitudes which demean us, policies which seek to deny us the right to live dignified and independent lives, because you have allowed this government to arbitrarily withdraw benefits from sick and disabled people based on a work capability assessment which has been thoroughly discredited by the British Medical Association, and because of your continued failure to support EDM 295 ATOS, which would at least allow these matters to be debated in the house.

Furthermore I commend your decision to continue to fight the next election as leader of the Liberal democrats, this shows me that you will continue to bury your head in the sand while innocent people suffer. My vote is one that you will not have, and nor I hope will you have the votes of those sick and disabled people that find themselves in my position.

The British Government attempt at Redefining Disability

The United Kingdom has signed AND ratified The UN Convention on the Rights of people with disabilities which states that;

“Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission Guidance states that the convention is based on the Social Model of disability. The social model of disability sees the issue of "disability" as a socially created problem and a matter of the full integration of individuals into society, as opposed to the Medical Model which sees disability as  a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals.

However the governing Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition seems intent on denying that either of the above models apply. Perhaps as a reaction to the current economic situation, or as a matter of Tory Party ideology, they are applying what amounts to a purely Economic Model of disability;

“The economic model defines disability by a person’s inability to participate in work. It also assesses the degree to which impairment affects an individual’s productivity and the economic consequences for the individual, employer and the state. Such consequences include loss of earnings for and payment for assistance by the individual; lower profit margins for the employer; and state welfare payments. This model is directly related to the charity/tragedy model.”  - Source Wikipoedia.

The Coalition government has, in order to reduce the welfare benefits bill, introduced a new method of assessment and a new benefit to replace Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living allowance. The new benefits are at a lower rate than the above benefits and are assessed using a ‘Work Capability Assessment’. This method of assessment has been discredited by The British Medical Association, who have called for it to be scrapped and replaced with something more fit for the purpose.

That the Coalition government is using the economic model of disability is evident in the criteria used in the WCA, where claimants are found ‘fit for work’ and in the public  statements of its officials. Claimants have been portrayed in the media as ‘Lazy Scroungers’ and The Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Work and Pensions (Terry Morgan) made  the following statement to a public meeting of his civil service colleagues ;

“One of the things that distresses me greatly is when I see these headlines in newspapers when people have pretended to be disabled in order to get money out of the system.

“If I had my way I would put their photograph on every lamp-post in the street where they live because it is a very distressing thing for genuinely disabled people to see the reputation of disabled people damaged in the way that is by those people. We have got to do something about it constructively.”

The above statements make it distressingly clear that the DWP define a person who is ‘fit for work’ as not disabled, and a person who has been awarded benefit under the WCA as disabled, thus implementing the economic model.

Even more distressing to persons who have rights under the UN Convention is that this official advocates actions toward persons with disabilities that contravene article 15 and 16 of the UN Convention;

“Article 15 Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

'No one must be tortured or subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.Degrading treatment means treatment that is grossly humiliating and undignified.'

Article 16 Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

'Governments must do everything they can to: protect disabled people from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse at home and in the community'”

As of the date of writing the WCA is being considered for judicial review by a judge of the High Court, on the grounds that it discriminates against people with mental health problems. The official figures for fraudulent claiming of these benefit has been put at  0.5% . The number of disabled people previously classed as unfit for work, who are being re-classified as ‘fit for work’ and denied ‘Employment Support Allowance’ continues to rise, as does the number of successful appeals, and sadly also the number of people who have died where removal of these benefits is seen as a contributing cause.

=================================================

Update : Since this article was written a more detailed examination of the issues involved, the models used and their origins has been produced by Debbie jolly : A Tale of Two Models on DPAC’s website

Arbeit macht frei – Social cleansing in the UK

 

Driven from their homes, shipped in cattle trucks from the ghettos the first words they saw upon entering the concentration camps were ‘ Arbeit macht frei’ wrought in iron ,..

These were Jews persecuted for their race and religion, but let us not forget that amongst them were the mentally ill, the disabled, the sick and the ‘special people’. In fact if I remember my history correctly the ‘special people’ , the sick and disabled and the mentally ill were the first groups that were chosen for ‘Euthanasia’.

Present circumstances have led me to deplore the behaviour of the current British Government in no uncertain terms.

In May of 2010 I wrote the following blog ‘get your rotten eggs ready for Ian,..’ as you can see I was keeping an open mind, giving Ian Duncan Smith the benefit of the doubt. But now I feel the verdict is in, and IDS is among the culpable.

Arbeit macht frei !

The words mean ‘work will set you free’, how ironic then that these words appeared over the gates to Auschwitz and other camps, where victims of the Nazis were worked to death. David Cameron and IDS have shown how the land lies, the road ahead for the unemployed and for sick and disabled people is not real Jobs with a guaranteed minimum wage but instead leads to ‘Workfare’ where ‘Benefit Slaves’ are forced to work in gangs, on pain of loosing their pittance, sleeping under bridges, with no sanitation or food.

Arbeit macht Frei !!

The characterisation of Sick and Disabled people as ‘scroungers’ began with the outgoing Labour government, let’s not forget that, but IDS and Cameron jumped on the band-wagon wholeheartedly. The sick and disabled are viewed as easy targets, in the media the portrayal of the sick and disabled in this way has led to abuse and to their being scapegoated, much in the same way as the Jews were (the sick and disabled, and the mentally ill were quietly herded into air tight vans and simply gassed to death).

Arbeit macht Frei !!!

One of the first things they did was to force Jewish people into ghettos, evicting them from their homes and concentrating them in into restricted areas, families into single rooms, several families to a house. Notice what is going on with Local Housing Allowance, not only is this benefit cut to the 30th percentile but the rules are changing so that younger people especially are forced into shared accommodation.

Arbeit Macht Frei !!!!

Let these words be a rallying cry, and not an epitaph for those who in desperation have taken their own lives.

Let these words be a warning from history,. throw them in the faces of The British Government and remind them in no uncertain terms that if we discard our social conscience, where the slippery slope will lead us.

The Great Holland and Barrett Rip-Off!

Like many people in the UK I have Irritable Bowel syndrome and was looking for a dietary method of treating this, hopefully to achieve prevention rather than just treating the symptoms with medication. I figured if I could make some adjustments to my diet ,.  well if you look online on this subject you find allsorts of things you should try excluding from your diet such as lactose and gluten etc but this presumes that your IBS is due to an intolerance for these things, and if this is the case well it isn’t IBS. I have IBS-A and am not lactose or gluten intolerant.

So having done some research on the matter I found that I can use liquorice root as an anti-spasmodic, flax seed, okra and fenugreek for their mucilage (Instead of Ispaghula husk). So looking on line I found a health food shop apparently located within 400m of my house so I put my hat and coat on and went to find it, guess what ? It went out of business and is now a pet-store. never mind I thought, there will be a Holland and Barrett in the shopping centre, and sure enough there is. I know from my research that ‘fenugreek’  is both a herb and a spice and commonly called ‘methi’ in India, a common ingredient in curry, the leaves are used as a herb and the seeds as a spice. That’s fine I like my curry as well as the next Englishman,.

I found ‘Fenugreek’ in Holland and Barrett in capsules packaged as a medicine (100 capsules 610mg for £4.12 , previous price £8.25) . I found other items similarly packaged, such as ‘linseed oil’ (£13.35  for 120 capsules), along with various other herbal ‘remedies’. I stormed out of the shop literally swearing under my breath, they are literally repackaging common herbs and spices , oils and so on as ‘medicines’ and charging a fortune for them!

When I got home I did some more research and found that I can buy 250g of fenugreek seed for £1.35, 500g of brown Linseed(flax) £2.42, and to complete my order 250g of liquorice root for £4.68. Where from ? Amazon.co.uk : ‘Buy whole foods online storefront’. Okra is a vegetable and I figure if anyone has any fresh Okra it will be Tesco.

My point here is simple, lets stop paying people like Holland and Barrett to grind stuff up and put it in capsules and learn what herbs, spices and vegetables can help with our health problems, most of them have been around for centuries for good reason.

QuickTime UpDater runs adware process ‘Moozy’ ( DeleteMe1.exe )

Today I allowed the apple auto-updater to install what I thought was an updated version of QuickTime,  the apple updater ran and detected an update to QuickTime was required, on attempting to install this the installer appeared to hang, and was manually terminated. Subsequently SpyBot resident protection detected the process ‘moozy’ an adware plugin running from Quicktime plugins directory as ‘deleteMe1.exe’.

The following is the Spybot Search and destroy Resident protection log entries ;-

22/05/2012 18:41:44 Allowed (based on user decision) value "QuickTime Task" (new data: ""C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime") added in System Startup global entry!
22/05/2012 18:42:29 Allowed (based on user decision) value "QuickTime Plugin Install" (new data: "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\Plugins\DeleteMe1.exe") added in System Startup global entry!
22/05/2012 18:42:29 Encountered and terminated Moozy in C:\Program Files\QuickTime\Plugins\DeleteMe1.exe!
22/05/2012 18:46:45 Allowed (based on user decision) value "QuickTime Plugin Install" (new data: "") deleted in System Startup global entry!

As you can see from the above it appears that Resident caught them red handed !

Google complicit in UK premium rate phone number scams?

So you need a phone number fast right, and you know that if you call directory enquiries from your mobile or land line you are going to get charged for the call, so you Google the service you need,..

As an example let’s use the UK National Health Service direct health advice line, NHS Direct. This line is an 0845 number that’s free to call from a land line. You Google it and the first result is this site :

http://www.medhelpline.co.uk/nhsdirect.html

which offers to connect you to NHS Direct through an 0906 number which is actually PREMIUM RATED! (Only the words ‘premium rated’ do not appear anywhere near the number itself, Well you’d think that most people would not fall for this scam, but at 4am in the morning, perhaps your having palpitations? taken too much of your medication? or are having other symptoms that have you in a panic?)

Looking closer at the Google search we can see that the legitimate website entry NHS Direct, has been pre-empted by a paid avert which is barely distinguishable from the genuine search results. The scammers have used Google Adwords advertising to gazump the real service, and the spoof website even uses the same style as the legitimate one. This is just one example among many.

Now the question is , is Google aware that its adsense program is being exploited in this way or are they quite happy to continue making revenues from such scam advertising? The advertising that appears in your search results is clearly being deliberately disguised as a legitimate search result, google itself exploiting the tendency for users to take the first result in the list. And the next question to ask google is , what if any checking are they doing on sites advertised in this way?

If you have been scammed into calling a premium rate number you can report the scam to Actionfraud.org.uk

General Increase in benefits : UK Government Claw backs

From 12th April 2012 there is scheduled to be an increase in the General Level of Benefits, this will mean that for example the basic rate of Incapacity benefit, long term will become £99.15 per week. The incapacity age addition will be £5.90 making to total weekly benefit for a single sick and disabled claimant over the age of 45 to be £105.05 per week, from a previous figure of £99.85

However those who are also in receipt of housing benefit, possibly the majority of such claimants face a considerable government claw back which will come into effect on 13th August 2012 when protection ends against the governments reduction in LHA to £80.77 This will be the second such reduction in LHA which will impact the sick and disabled during this government. Housing benefit is an essential form of income for benefit claimants and is being systematically targeted by this government for cuts. Housing benefit is calculated using a figure determined by government of how much the law says a sick and disabled person needs to live on, this figure is £67.50 plus £28.85 for sickness or disability. £96.35 in all.  If this figure is not increased on 12th April, or by 13th August sick and disabled people face a considerable reduction in the total amount of benefit awarded.

Housing benefit awarded prior to 12 April :         £84.02

Housing benefit projected after 12 April if the amount the law says a sick and disabled person need to live on remains the same :  £80.64

Housing benefit projected after 13th August :      £75.11

The net effect of all this is that the general increase in benefits for all those on incapacity benefit of £5.20 per week stands to be offset by a reduction of housing benefit of £8.91 per week, leaving them on average £3.71 per week worse off DESPITE the general increase in benefit. And that sick and disabled people will now have to pay on average £12 per week towards their rent to make up the housing benefits shortfall. Where prior to the incumbency of this UK government LHA in most cases covered all of their rent at its previous level.

This is simply the final straw in this governments’ scapegoating of the sick and disabled, the amounts seem tiny until you look at them as a percentage of weekly income, in this case a reduction of 11% during the course of this government.

The Great Mobile Broadband Rip-off

Are you a mobile broadband user? If you are a heavy user of mobile broadband and this is your only form of connection you are doubtless quite happy paying £10-£15 per month for your 3-5 GB data allowance, after all wherever you are the connection is perfect and and the data allowance you get for the money is more than enough, isn’t it? No? Surely you jest, surely mobile broadband is just as good as fibre optic in terms of connectivity and price and even better because you can use it at any time and place? No? so are you trying to say that Mobile Broadband suppliers have been Bullshitting us and ripping us off? Well who would believe it!

Of course if you are a light or occasional user of Mobile Broadband you well know that you are being ripped off. If Mobile Broadband is something that you only really need when you are not at home or in the office, something that you would only need to use two or 3 times a year because you have wireless broadband at home or in the office then you like me have experienced having to top up every time you want to connect using your dongle, usually £10 at a time for a data allowance that will expire in 30 days. But to be fair most carriers are now offering a pay-per-day option, usually £2 for 250MB that expires in 24 hrs. That sounds fair doesn’t it? after all that’s £60 per month for daily use and a data allowance of 7GB. Humm well maybe not so fair when you put it like that! When you put it like that it sounds like blatant usury.

Here’s an example of what recently happened to me : My Cable connection went out at peak time on Saturday afternoon, so I phoned them and they said it was an area fault and it should be fixed within 24 hours. Ok so that’s 24 with no TV and no broadband ,. so I got my mobile broadband dongle out (3 mobile) and of course  I had no data allowance left cause it had expired, it being some months since I had needed to use it. So what are my options? well I can pay £10 for a month of pay as you go, or £3 for one days allowance of 500MB. Fine they said my broadband will be back in 24 hrs so I paid my £3 and got connected. THEN my TV came back online, THEN my cable broadband came back online,..

IN 24 hours my data allowance will have EXPIRED and I wont have actually used more than a few bytes ,. To say I am unhappy with 3 Mobile Broadband is the understatement of the century!

Mobile Broadband data allowance expiry is the biggest rip off thought up by the mobile communications industry, these people need to be sent to jail for fraud and usury. And what is OFCOM doing about it ? well looking on their website there is NOT EVEN AN OPTION to complain about this. Thanks bunches OFCOM, you were no help at all.

Windows live writer – test post

This is a test post , the idea is to verify that I have configured Windows Live Writer correctly to access and post to my blog.

You too can do this if you have Windows Live installed on your PC, I have been using it for some time however when my old laptop blew up , died a death and became defunct I  lost this functionality until now that is. Unfortunately all my drafts etc are now on the old laptop,..  anyone know how to get the hard drive out of a busted lappie and recover the data ? LOL

Some advice for amateur website developers

I recently heard about another website that has been stolen from under the noses of its developers, which happens more often than you might think these days. Good ideas are at a premium and if your idea takes off online you are at considerable risk from unscrupulous internet 'persons'.

When a 'lay' person gets an idea for a website they usually go to a 'friend' who knows about these things to get it going, often that 'friend' is not a real life friend at all but rather an 'online' acquaintance with expertise and possibly contacts that the lay person lacks. This is a really good way to get ripped off!

The first thing to remember when developing a website is that without control of the Domain Name you have or own nothing! Register the domain name you intend to use with an independent registrar, DO NOT register your domain name with the hosting company or 'person' as this will leave them in control of it. The second most important thing you need to do is to keep an up to date copy of all code and data that the site consists of. You must have FTP access to the hosting server and update your backup every time a major change is made to the site, any reputable host will have staff that can help you with this. You should also choose a hosting company that is In Your Country of Residence because as a last resort you may need to go to court to establish your ownership of the site.

Be careful who you grant access to! how well do you know the person or persons who are working on your website? If you meet them socially in real life you retain the option to smack them on the nose but if you grant access to an online acquaintance you have no real proof as to who or where they are, and hence NO recourse if they screw you over. The sort of things that they can do to you are possibly; insertion of 'phishing' holes in your site and other unauthorised code. Theft of your data including credit card info, email addresses and IP addresses of your members and visitors. Note that any website is valued depending on the number of members it has and the number of page hits it gets, if your website takes off you could be sitting on a membership/email list some company's will pay a fortune for! And ultimately they could steal the entire site and deny you any further access to it. You are particularly at risk from this type of theft if your host is an online 'friend' and they control the host server, which is why it is always best to go with reputable hosting company in your own country even if this means that you have to comply with restrictive laws and legislation.

Finally: A 'Gentleman's Agreement' is worth only the paper its printed on, i.e. nothing at all. Get written contracts for expensive development work, transfers of ownership of sites and or domain names and know that the most important page on your website is the 'Terms of service' page, get this wrong and you could loose your shirt.

Get your rotten eggs ready for Ian,..

Ian Duncan Smith (Tory) has been put in charge of sorting out the benefits fiasco which affects an estimated 5.9 Million people in the UK including me, I suggest we all get our rotten eggs ready in case Mr Smith gets it wrong!

The important thing to realise here is that people on benefits are living on a knife edge, one miscalculation can ruin the family budget and leave you eating mush and smoking ‘dimps’ for a couple of weeks, or worse in hoc to a loan shark. Most people on benefits would like to work if it were financially practical to do so, unfortunately in most cases it’s simply NOT practical and taking what work is available would leave them even worse off. For example a person on Job seeker's allowance cannot take part time work for the simple reason that they are only allowed to keep £5 per week of earned income while claiming, this in most cases will not even pay their bus fares to their job. So its full time permanent employment for them or nothing.

A similar situation exists for those of us on Incapacity Benefit, we are allowed to keep £12 per week of what we can earn part time. However for the vast majority of Incapacity Benefit claimants full time permanent employment is physically impossible.

Clearly New Labours approach, i.e. bullying claimants into taking whatever work is offered even if it makes their situation worse rather than better is not acceptable, but considering the huge deficit which is New Labours legacy to the UK what can Mr Smith do that will not hurt claimants, the sick, disabled and impoverished?

UK Election : No Overall Control WINS !!!

So we have a hung parliament here in the UK as a result of Thursdays general election. Its now been 5 days and negotiations between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are still underway however talks between Labour and the Liberals have clearly failed.

Personally I have been waiting for this particular circumstance to come about for over 20 years, in fact ever since I became old enough to vote. As a life long Liberal I have always know that this is THE chance for liberals to make a lasting impact in British politics. I am keeping my fingers crossed right now in the sincere hope that this chance is NOT wasted. It has to be the case that Proportional Representation has to be the price for Liberal cooperation in any coalition government, anything less would be a betrayal of the 23% of our population who voted Liberal.

Gordon Brown must go! Mr Brown was not elected to be the British PM, he got in by default when Tony Blair left, and in this General Election the British people have decidedly NOT voted for Gordon Brown to continue running this country. In my view there is no circumstance where Gordon Brown remaining PM could be acceptable to the British People. Even if talk between the conservative and liberal parties should fail Gordon Brown personally has lost the mandate to govern, in fact he never had any such mandate from the people of this country.

So we are living in interesting times, the Conservatives look set to lead the next government, whether in a full coalition with the Liberal Democrats  or as a minority government remains to be seen. At present there is still much horse trading being done behind closed doors and hopefully the long term result will not only be electoral reform but also long term stable consensus government of this country.

DONT BUY ‘SAN MARCO’ PIZZA

Just sent the following email, and copy here for your information :

To whom it may concern;

I have just had one of your 'san Marco deep pan pepperoni' pizzas
ref : APR 2010 A 9107 10:11

To say that the thing was vile is the understatement of the century, your 'cheese analogue' is positively disgusting, it made me want to vomit. How on earth you manage to earn a living producing such garbage is beyond understanding. I will NEVER AGAIN purchase ANY san marco product no matter how attractively packaged.

You don't even care enough about your product to put real cheese and tomato on it, I simply can't be bothered packaging the remains and sending it to you for a refund, instead I SHOULD be sending it to environmental health to have it checked for contaminants and to see if it actually contains anything of real food value.

I had to eat 2 oz   of REAL cheese just to get the vile taste of your foul product out of my mouth.

Yours disgustedly
a very unhappy customer

A big THUMBS DOWN for ZoneAlarm

I recently installed the current free version of ZoneAlarm, which is for those of you who don’t know a personal firewall application. I had used older versions some time ago and though it could help me resolve current problems,..

The problem I was having was that FireFox was hanging while I was playing Zynga poker, causing me to loose a shit load of play money. Now I was planning to try real money online poker so you can see that I was majorly concerned. Loosing $5000 play money is nothing but when your playing for real money you do not want this to happen.

So I figured that one possibility was that I was being pinged to death, ( Ping flooding in order to deny me the service, see DOS attacks) and decided to use ZoneAlarm to detect and block this.

Sure enough I was getting unsolicited pings etc but no more than the usual background noise one expects these days, however that was just the start of my problems. ZoneAlarm itself became a problem! First of all there’s the usual malarkey in-re configuring the damn thing, then it starts messing with Global hosts, preventing SpybotSD from doing a full immunisation,1078 global hosts could not be immunised until after ZA was removed. Then it hogs my CPU resources using on average 25% of available threads, which led me on to the REAL problem: Spybot’s TeaTimer (resident protection from malware and spyware) was working overtime and chewing vast amounts of memory, why? Because I had too many damn applications running; Messenger, Iplayer, Skype  etc. With ZoneAlarm running as well 100% of my available resources were being used!

So I fixed that, but then Windows Live Messenger would NOT connect. I ran a diagnostic, no connection problems. I ran the trouble shooter and it detected a problem with the hosts file but would NOT complete, it hung at ‘key ports’ preventing the fix, more ZoneAlarm interference I expect because again after removing ZoneAlarm the problem magically resolved itself. BUT That not the end of it,..

As a parting present from ZA a windows application window opens on my desktop on reboot after removal, ‘cpes_clean_launcher.exe’ scaring the shit out of me. I googled it and found a guy who couldn’t get rid of it, others who feared it was a trojan dropper but no definitive article. Not even on ZoneAlarm’s own website! Anyways my system scanned clean and ‘cpes_clean_launcher.exe’ did not reappear on reboot so all is well. But its a big thumbs down for ZoneAlarm from me, more trouble than its worth!