Revolution or Revelation?

An old article, but i can't wait for the day.

"The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx," says the report. The thesis is based on a growing gap between the middle classes and the super-rich on one hand and an urban under-class threatening social order: "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest". Marxism could also be revived, it says, because of global inequality. An increased trend towards moral relativism and pragmatic values will encourage people to seek the "sanctuary provided by more rigid belief systems, including religious orthodoxy and doctrinaire political ideologies, such as popularism and Marxism". 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/apr/09/frontpagenews.news full article -   

Congestion Charge Manchester

So it's the big vote on congestion charge is due - I've had plenty of time to ponder the Congestion charge and how it will effect Manchester and the people traveling in and out of the city (normally when stuck on a platform after my train has been canceled). 

First of all am going to say I would vote "NO" if i was allowed to vote but am not. I just use this Public Transport and the roads in the past. But i live in Liverpool so no vote for me.

Secondly i would say i think the government have made a mistake picking Manchester as the testing ground for this experiment. "Why" you may ask, the reason being like Liverpool, Manchester's people have never been scared to stick up when they see an injustice. Or miss an opportunity to "poke the Man in the eye". What does that have to do with the congestion charge? Well this is the biggest Class tax imposed in years. Basically if you can't afford to drive it will free up the roads for those that can? 

So anyway back to my reason why i would vote "NO", these are just my reasons. If you are lucky enough to get a vote, please read up on the subject and make your own choice.

Reason 1: I already mentions it but i will again. It's a class tax. Your too poor to afford to pay therefore your not allowed to drive on my roads? It's like some medieval tax for passing through the Lord's Lands and if you can't pay it, then you have to walk the long way around. I used to drive, but was forced out of my car and on to the train because of the price of petrol. When i did drive in/out of Manchester using the M62  i always found Junction 10 to be the worse part of my journey. Will the congestion charge ease this traffic "No". 

Reason 2: The lies - Why does the Government need to throw 3billion pounds at private companies to improve Manchester's travel networks. Are they admitting that they have fallen behind fixing every major city's travel network in the UK. "No", but they should do. When i did drive in the second busiest part of my journey was as the motorway ended and came on to Regent road and this was busy until you got past the beginning of the ring road. But i used to park here on the street and walk to work (20min). Why not just open huge free park and rides off the junction just before the end of the motorway. Put the 3billion pounds in the bank and run the park and ride off the interest? But then that doesn't make money does it, that doesn't make a profit after 30 years (more like ten). 

Reason 3: The Trains (and trams) - Now as I've said already i now get the train,  it's not a long train ride 45 Min's, but i am implored at the thought of such a bad service getting more millions of pounds to waste. For the last month I've taken the journey from Broad green Station at 7.56am about 25 times and only once has the train arrived on time. Today was another sample of how badly run the trains are, we arrived at Victoria the normal 7Min's late and the train stopped 800 yards from the station. We then sat there another 7 minutes while a platform was made available? My office is ten minutes away from the station and i was late before i even got off the train. My home journey is no better, i leave from Piccadilly and change at Newton-le-willows. The amount of trains that have been canceled when I've been at this station is stupid. I would say at least 3 trains a month, that's not late that's full stop canceled. The latest one, last week, the reason given lack of staff? Oh there is another train 20 Min's after a canceled on it just doesn't stop at my stop. No that one is another 20 Min's on top of that, so my 1 hour and 20 min (long getting home then coming in) journey now became 2 hours (a car on a good day at peak can do that in 50min). Now think about it, the trains have had plenty of time and money to get a service running that has been running for years. This is a line not even pushed to capacity. Imagine the chaos of an extra 1000 people trying to use the trains and trams. Wow we would get extra carriages, am more concerned with the train running on time or at all. Most of these trains are coming in from outside the Greater Manchester region, how do they intend to monitor and improve these? Name me one company that claims it couldn't do better with lots more cash. Also this thing about the tickets being kept at the same price, for how long. Who's to say in ten years time we aren't paying extra for our public transport, because the congestion charge is still paying the loan off...

Reason 4: The Biast: All this vote yes being thrown down our thoughts, i do take a perverse pleasure saying sorry i can't vote, but it would be a "NO" anyway. 

Reason 5: Local economic: Am interested at the impact this will have on the shops of the area and the car parks of Manchester. But it doesn't happen over the weekend i hear you say. "No" that's right it doesn't, but Northern Rock wasn't in real financial trouble until the papers said they where. So picture this, a family of four wants to go the cinema. Would normally travel into Manchester to see a film on a Saturday morning, then shop a bit in the afternoon. The husband turns to the wife and Say's "Don't they charge to drive in to Manchester now". Wife replies, "no, they charge during the week, don't they". Husband says, "am not sure lets go to Cheshire Oaks instead, just to be safe". And this is what will stop people coming into the city at none charged times. Car parks, shops, cinemas, bars and restaurants will suffer.

Oh well I've had my rant - so it will be interesting to see how the public vote, i have a feeling that while most of the Manchester population is a "NO" voter, most of the "YES people are the sort to love this sort of thing and more likely to vote. 

Cya Later (if by train MUCH LATER)

Andy

Why do it?

Warning this is a RANT! So we finally finish building our new corporate website for VisitManchester corporate division. Now we need a URL. Let's see, VisitManchester.Org would be nice. VisitManchester.com for the tourism site, www.visitmanchester.org for the corporate site, let's do a search. Nope it's not free. Cyber swatters again no doubt. No it's not it's access advertising? The same Access Advertising that bought www.visitmanchester.co.uk (before my time because it wouldn't have happened). Why do Access Advertising require these domains, surly anybody searching for Visit Manchester or Visiting Manchester aren't going suddenly think, you know what i need some "advertising" - Lucky i typed in .org or .co.uk instead of .com? 

Not this is what made me laugh more then anything else - www.accessadvertising.org is still available? WTF? www.accessadvertising.mobi and .tv is still there as well. Well maybe am wrong and people who are trying to find out about Manchester do need some advertising. As this company has spent more time picking up visitmanchester domain names then their own brand name? It's a very strange tactic because if you do a google search for advertising Manchester (or various arrangements of that search term) they are no where to be seen. Maybe they should concentrate on their own brand instead or getting useless enquires to the website, just so it make the website look like it's performing. 

For a so called advertising company to do this, makes you wonder how in touch access advertising are with the use of the web and understanding about it being more quality then quantity that will reap the rewards in the end. While they might catch many people out once and even a couple twice, the number of people will soon drop. www.visitmanchester.com = information about Manchester from the official Tourist Board, www.visitmanchester.org and www.visitmanchester.co.uk = advertising by access (but i wouldn't look at them doing any web/seo work for you). At least i under stand cyber squatters trying to make a quick buck, maybe this is access advertising plan? Maybe they can't make any money by doing advertising and they want to sell the domain? Or maybe we will take the money you want for the URL's and buy all the free access advertising domains and point them to Mando!!! 

The above is a personal view and not the view of my employer or any of my work colleagues unless stated by them personally. 

Google about to take over the world...

So this month has seen Google Chrome and Google Android released to the masses.
I like Google and the fact that they encourage a free market and give me lots of great applications for free. But i have a couple of things i picked up on for a conspiracy theory I've been musing over. Upon the realise of Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) we are presented a comic explaining why and what. In this publication the sentence Google Lives on the web is used, also in the past when Google was scanning all the books it could muster, an employee of Google said "we aren't scanning these books to be read by people, they are to be read by AI" and finally in a document from 2006 about google's plans for the future, it had an entry that said it "wanted the largest AI department in the world". Many people have talked about the web being similar to a human brain, parts of the brain is better connected because we use it more (Google ranking anybody). Last year the Internet suppressed the supposed number of required web pages to become animated holding more information then a newborns brain. The neural pathway are far to far apart and slow (no matter what broad band you have) for this to work. But on a locally stored computer that copied the whole web (well just the really important bits).
Now it already makes sense to have AI looking at the web and making decision on what you want or think you want, maybe "Suggest" while you type?

If (and they are always big "IFs" in conspiracy theory's) Google already has a machine that is learning from the web, books and video (Google released a search on video audio sounds) it becomes quite a scary thing. For it to become a sentinel being in the real sense of AI, it must demonstrate an oppinion, what if it's opinions differ from mine?

Now for the point of the blog today - I quoted to my boss that a new time line had been mentioned - BG (before Google) - Again i will say i love Google, over the years it has helped me cement my place in the world, first as a spell checker, then as a reason to create new media jobs, with SEO and PPC AdWords and such. But what if a ghost in the machine tailored my search request to coincide with its own opinions. How many other people like my self don't even go off the first page of Google results, or like me do you search, scan, click, read, back, search and scan again? How many voices are being left out because the person saying it don't understand about SEO and the advantages of a well thought online presence. In the past this has always been a automated service, like a car wash, i didn't always get what i wanted but i could always try again. Now it could be more like a sales man who has too many red paper clips and i go in needing a blue one. But am told they don't have any blue ones, just red ones and they do the job just as well as the blues?

Also back to Chrome and Android - this i believe to be the final pieces to the Jigsaw that is Googles own online-OS (operating System). Apparently the browers that where being used before Chrome wouldn't cope with an online-OS, now Google have released a browser that will and made it open source so IE and FireFox can copy and update and when that happens the Google online-OS can be released because it will run on any system, with any of these browsers, brilliant!
And before you say it can't be true, how can Google offer a full OS when windows Vista cost you £150, before you tick the accept box on the T&C of Chrome check out number 17 and the text about Adverts:

Honor i rest my case!

Socialism without the boundaries

So this is a blog am sitting here writing that was on my mind anyway but has just been changed slightly thanks to a friends interesting film about East Germany (DDR) and it’s people. The film “My DDR T-shirt” explores the symbolism and the merge of East and West before and after the wall came down. More details can be found at http://www.myddrtshirt.co.uk and the film should be available to view soon.

This Blog was to be about the reasons why social networks / web 2.0 haven’t changed the world as we know it. In the UK we have 3 main parties all promising the same but at a different angle, all slagging each other off like children. Each in it for there own gains. Elections where held in the UK last night with pitiful number bothering to vote. I honestly believe these number of none voting people are so high because they are bored of what the parties are offering and of the one’s that took the time and effort probably fall into 3 categories, one would be the “because I always vote for them”, another would be “They are the best of a bad bunch though they don’t have much in common with myself” and the last would be “the true believer in their policy’s”.

The title of this blog was going to be why hasn’t Social networks changed the world, but after watching Ian’s (creator of My DDR T-shirt) film and being a child of the cold war, it brought many memory’s back. I was born into a poor family, growing up I because friends with somebody called John Braddock. His family where heavily involved in the Labour movement and incredibly generous, looking back on it now I understand the reason for the generosity a lot more and appreciate it more then I could ever explain. Anyway I spent many a day and night with the Braddock’s in this political hotbed and I learnt a lot about Socialism and Communism. I witnessed many things in the Braddock house, such as the Berlin wall coming down, Nelson Mandela being set free and Labour winning government off the Tories for the first time in many years. But I also learnt the values of sharing and giving when you have plenty to those that do not. Seeing the DDR film and the people from East Germany was interesting because to me they seem to display a sadness of loss, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a family member who’s passed away and their memories would have you crying your eyes out. No it was a lost dream, a being apart of something that you could never be apart of again. Or a family pet, it wasn’t your pet it was everybody’s pet, but as an individual you feel you loved it that bit more and the pet loved you that bit more then everybody else, so you miss it more.

But back to the point, now we have a communications tool to pool ideas, be out spoken; right the wrongs of our fathers and mothers. I hope people grasp it for what it is, an opportunity for something new.

Online games = Better then life

Better then life if you don’t know is the machine the Red Dwarf crew where stuck in, this machine like the Matrix produced a program that all the player thought was real. Unlike the Matrix which had to be programmed to make life dull and boring, because the human psyche couldn’t cope with everything being pleasant and nice (am willing to give it a try, any programmers doing this programme, a nice lottery win please). But the better then life machine was much cleverer then the matrix as it brought into its reality what your subconscious wants, not what you think you want (me and my subconscious really want that lottery win).

In Red Dwarf this brings mishaps galore to poor old Rimmer as his subconscious hates him. Lister lives a quite life and the cat is worshiped like a god, on his island of Valkyrie (warrior women). Now I play online games more then I should, but I use the games as entertainment like other watch the telly. 3 hours a night of television (6pm – 9pm) is not extreme but play online for 3 hours a night and your almost classed as a hardcore gamer. You might not watch telly but loose yourself to a good book or listen to your favoured albums, all none constructive, all considered a good waste of our own time. So what is the point of this blog I hear you ask? Well crawling to work the other day stuck at juc10 on the M62, my mind got to wondering what the next couple of years the next big MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game), and how far away from the first Matrix or Better then life game. I personally play World of Warcraft, before that Everquest. Other people play the Sims or second life. Don’t let the Role playing fool you, it’s very rare anybody actually role plays in these games, real people present themselves to complete strangers probably more openly then work colleges and family members, I have seen friendships grow and flourish and also hate campaigns against people that are no more that pixels on a screen. World of Warcraft has 10million active accounts. Also I have seen addiction to the games just the same as any drug and the reason for this is they produce the same reaction, they are an escape from reality, just like so many people are addicted to the TV. Addicted to the TV, there is a statement, but try and go a full 2 week with out watching it. Being at home with the blank box, missing your soap or top gear, it’s not as easy as it sounds. When I recently moved I was without a TV and Internet, by the end of the week I wondered why I bothered with it, then the virgin box arrived and the modem and little by little just like a cigarette pack being left with an ex-smoker you switch it on and just take one last pull.

So anyway back to the Better then life, when I first sat down I considered the argument for people refusing to be sucked into such a machine, how we would miss the human touch, our family and friend, but I honestly don’t know if as a race we would, after all in our heads we are all a lone when we think, we only know what we think and we choose what we communicate to the outside world, we only know what makes us really happy or sad, we can share/express most things, but we can’t give ourselves 100% to another person because we wouldn’t be what we are. We are limited by social reasons in the way we act to others. But we all have Yin and Yang, darkness and light, maybe seeing what the subconscious needs would be enough to make you not want to enter into such a machine or make you want to enter it more and more. I personally believe that if such a machine arrived in 40 years time, people would either fall under a player or none-player. But most would play it, which of us wouldn’t want a perfect life without a worry, unless you’re subconscious hates you.

Don't read this...

I come to the conclusion about one of the things wrong with today’s society. I was standing at the train station today and read the many signs around the station while waiting for my train. And my conclusion is that signage is stopping the normal natural selection (stick with me and i will explain), millions of years ago when man first developed the weak died off as a matter of fact, which was good because being weak meant you would have to be clever to survive, increasing intelligence. But what also happened was the dumb people, the ones with no common sense also got wiped (hey look at that sleeping lion I bet I can kick it and run away before it gets me).

And this natural selection is now missing from society, in the 60s these where the kids who fell off school roofs, flew kites near electrical lines or played chicken with trains. If they have no self-protection mechanism then they will lack an awareness of their kids activities, when the children live in this self-preservation less environment they too feel a lack of environmental awareness and this snowballs with each generation – the abused may become abusers, the child with drunken parents my become a drunk and the child with kn*b-heads as a role-model will undoubting become d!cks…

We should teardown all warning signs and let nature sort us out as it should be doing!