211–220 of 337 posts
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Chesterton's menace
Clever. Chesterton's fence, for the non-Tamarians among us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton (Tamarians is a Star Trek reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok )
I guess I could start calling such a situation "HPsquared and schlauerfox on Chesterton" : - )
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My favorite thing when moving at the big co that owns my co is that they give you these stickers for desk items to show up... whatever you put the sticker on comes along to be by the desk. WHATEVER YOU PUT IT ON. The movers just do what the stickers said. One coworker got every white board in the area. Another got a sandwich and some empty coke cans. Another got a sofa and an empty trash bag. The Machine Works.
> The movers just do what the stickers said. I'd be pretty pissed if movers ignored instructions and tossed any of my stuff away of their own volition. I keep some non-functional belongings that may appear worthless to others, and my judgement should be what matters when moving or discarding my stuff.
So long and thanks for all the mislabeled SSDs. Just wiped them single pass, and used them in systems all over.
It's your judgment and that should always be respected, but everything else... Catch-22.
I worked for an old company that had a lot of old processes and paperwork. Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something ... nothing ever happened. I once hand delivered some paperwork (I was running late) to HR rather than using the inter office mail service. I asked them about it, they told me "Oh you must be Mathew..." I was HR famous. They didn't actually mind, th…
My favorite thing when moving at the big co that owns my co is that they give you these stickers for desk items to show up... whatever you put the sticker on comes along to be by the desk. WHATEVER YOU PUT IT ON. The movers just do what the stickers said. One coworker got every white board in the area. Another got a sandwich and some empty coke cans. Another got a sofa and an empty trash bag. The Machine Works.
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The UK government/BBC is happy to give £91m/year to Crapita to administer the TV License [0], and there are a bunch of other contractors [1]. Almost 100 million pounds wasted that could be spent on programming, but instead go to private businesses. Instead, the UK government could just directly fund the BBC out of taxes. Even if it might require a small increase of the tax rate, they could save on the enforcement and…
> Almost 100 million pounds wasted that could be spent on programming That's kinda assuming that everybody would continue to pay the license fee if the enforcement was stopped. I have no clue how much revenue the TV licenses generate, or whether 100 million for administration and enforcement is a reasonable number. It feels unlikely to me? Google google google: In 2021, there were 24.8 million households in England T…
A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK. Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.
It's real in the sense a thing called a TV Licence exists but the TV Licence enforcers are just an arm from the BBC who larp as a government organisation to threaten people.
So in a sense it's real but it's also not.
Good news everyone - I was able to follow the link in the letter, successfully fill their form, and confirm with the TVL that I do not need a TV license. We’ll see if they send mail or jackbooted inspectors across the pond to confirm.
Amusing that you can fill the form out with (presumably) foreign addresses.
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It sounds weirder than that to me: > colour TV: £169.50 per year; monochrome TV: £57.00 per year; blind people: 50% discount People who can't see their color TV at all pay more than people who can but have an old black-and-white one?
People who can’t see their colour TV pay more than people who can’t see their B&W TV. Oh to be a a fly on the wall when the inspector has to explain the difference to a blind person. I think it made a lot more sense in the past. The license is set up so it’s a consumption based tax rather than taxing everyone. So only people with TVs paid TV tax. If colour increased the costs, only people consuming colour paid those…
I worked for an old company that had a lot of old processes and paperwork. Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something ... nothing ever happened. I once hand delivered some paperwork (I was running late) to HR rather than using the inter office mail service. I asked them about it, they told me "Oh you must be Mathew..." I was HR famous. They didn't actually mind, th…
In a similar vein, I put an ill fitting jacket on a coat rack when I started my current job in 2012. We have moved offices twice, and the coat rack and jacket have followed me across both moves at no effort of my own. We've been working remote now since the beginning of covid, but our office is still open for anyone who wants to use it. I visited earlier this summer and my jacket was gone. I asked our office assistan…
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Yes, but the UK is the only country with a license ridiculous enough to offer you a 50% discount _if you're blind_.
The TV license is certainly bit ridiculous, but being legally blind doesn't necessarily mean you can't see at all, just you fall below the legal threshold where it's judged that poor sight will interfere with your day-to-day life. Lots of people registered as blind can still watch the TV just fine even if they won't be able to see the detail.
Of course, to be considered legally blind, your vision has to be that bad with the best correction available. (Below 20/200)
The purpose seems clear to me from the explanation provided. Here's what I read between the lines. 1. Send out thousands of letters expecting some to be returned. They may be returned due to deliverability issues, or they may be returned with a reply attached or (probably less commonly) scrawled on the pages of the letter itself. Replies to letters are of course common whether they're expressly requested or not. 2. G…