I’m a tad miffed: a favicon I prepared for The Revcounter han’t been used there. Oh the humanity!
Vehicles
Declaring SORN
Well, I would if I could.
I realised yesterday that the tax has run out on my bike as of the end of October. Now given the bike’s been in the garage since it was last used in September, it’s hardly surprising that I’d forget.
But as it’s not been used on the road, surely that’s not an issue? Well it never used to be until the irritating idiots running this country decided on another scam called a Statutory Off-Road Notification whereby if you take your vehicle off the road you have to tell them or they come after you for the “lost” tax.
Now they’ve decided to allow you to do this online … or at least you can when it’s actually working:
“I am sorry the service is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance.”
And it’s been down all weekend for me. I wonder how much of my tax went on this useless system?
The Trouble with Speed Cameras…
So after people decided that the “scameras” were being located for maximum revenue potential rather than to actually save lives – pouring scorn on the pathetic “safety camera” doublespeak that our illustrious leaders and the NGOs indulge in to restrict us -Â regulations were introduced to require speed cameras to be brightly painted, be visible from 60m (200ft), and be sited only where there was a history of road accidents. Of course the scamera vans flouted these guidelines no doubt to be seen to be doing something about this scourge (sarcasm intended).
It was only by chance that I happened upon an article in the Motoring section of today’s Daily Telegraph which reveals an about turn by the Department for Transport and that those regulations are now merely guidelines. So we can now expect these little Hitlers to be concealing scameras all over the place to provide as much justification as possible for these useless wankers to keep their overpaid and unnecessary jobs.
Their true intentions are revealed by this telling quote from Lee Murphy, speed camera manager for Cheshire:
“If the rules weren’t compulsory, we could use cameras to tackle emerging trends rather than waiting for the minimum number of collisions.”
In other words, “forget the justification for speed cameras being that they are positioned to assist road safety, it’s all about the money!”
What’s in a Logo?
For many, many years now, I have been a Life Member of the Motorcycle Action Group. They say:
“The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG UK) is a lobbying organisation that exists to protect motorcycling from indifferent legislation that threatens the pleasure of riders.
“Established in 1973 specifically to campaign for the repeal of the mandatory helmet law MAG has dramatically broadened the scope of its activity and has now established itself as the legitimate voice of the road-riding biker in the UK….”
I joined them at the beginning of the 80s – I can’t be more specific than that and MAG’s Central Office don’t have the records going back that far – and went on some of their demonstrations.
Anyway, MAG move with the times – albeit slowly sometimes -Â and over the years have updated their logo only a couple of times from the frankly quite basic (and almost embarrassing):
In fact, I still have my enamel badge with that logo.
In recent years, they updated the logo to this one:
I quite like that one: an updated version of the original.
But most recently, they’ve revamped the logo once more, apparently to reflect the diversity of the membership:
So what’s wrong with the new logo? Well whilst liking the overall look and feel, I can see why a number of the longer term members in particular are up in arms about it. The two crash helmet styles – reflecting that diversity – almost admit defeat in the battle to remove compulsory crash helmet laws. Where is the naked head to go with them?
Rebel Without a Clue
What a rebel!
Today, IÂ flagrantly ignored the recently-updated Highway Code. What a radical I am!
How so, you ask?
“123
“The Driver and the Environment. You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.”
This morning, I needed to scrape the ice off the car’s windows so I started it up to warm the engine to clear the inside of the windows, turned the heated windscreen and rear window on to de-ice them and then scraped all the ice off the side windows. I then went back indoors to get my passenger. And all the time, I left the engine running.
You see, I reckon that it’s a safer thing to do this and to ensure that when I drive off I have clear windows than to risk driving off peering through little cleared areas of the windscreen and not be able to see other road users and pedestrians approaching from the side or crossing the road.
Maybe it’s just me…
The Last Laugh
My inital reaction was to laugh out loud at this woman who should have listened more carefully to what was on offer in what was apparently an April Fool’s Day prank.
But this is from America where they have loads of ambulance-chasing lawyers and where the Courts are open to the most bizarre and spurious claims (which only tends to reinforce the ‘only in America’Â stereotype). So of course the company has settled out of Court with her…
DBS Datamarketing Liars. Oh and Toyota GB Still Spamming
Remember I mentioned that Toyota GB were spamming me thanks to good old Spammers, DBS?
Well guess what? When Jenna Bibby from DBS Datamarketing told me on 17 January 2007 that:
“I can confirm that your email address has now been permanently removed from our system”
she was lying to me, as Toyota GB spammed me two days later.
And no, there wasn’t an issue with the lists already being in the system for that one, because I received another spam from “Toyota (GB) PLC in Association with DBS [dbs-toyota@emailmovers.ec-messenger.com]” today about some crappy “Toyota Arse” or something.
Oh and I asked Jenna Bibby about this on 19 January 2007 and haven’t yet received a lie reply from her yet. I wonder why?
Toyota Spamming with DBS
So you know all that stuff with T-Mobile?
Well I recently (Wednesday 17th) received this e-mail from DBS data marketing (or are they DBS Datamarketing Limited – seems they can’t even decide on what their company name is):
“Thank you for your email. Your email address originates from Business Flight Search (http://www.businessflightsearch.com/ ) with an opt in date of 09/12/03.
“I can confirm that your email address has now been permanently removed from our system.”
Never heard of them. Never used them. Never opted-in. A lie.
So when DBS data whatever say “permanently removed”, how long would you think that would mean? Permanently? Forever? No. Two days!
This time, it’s Toyota GB spamming me: “Your details were obtained from DBS Datamarketing Limited…” and they used spammer eCircle AG to send their shite to me.
Dingles Toyota (Norwich) whose name appears in the e-mail haven’t telephoned me back about this. I have also made a formal complaint to Toyota GB as by sending me this spam, they are in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 as enacted by Statutory Instrument 2003 No. 2426 – in other words, Toyota GB has broken the law and can be sued for damages by me and is liable to action by the Information Commissioner.
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