I1
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Posts posted by I1
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Several years ago when there was the big “ho-ha” about cars being more expensive in the UK than Europe, the car manufacturers stated (in their defence) that UK cars were higher spec’d. Of course I (probably like most people) treated this with the predictable attitude. However, when I purchased my car in France I actually started be believe that this was actually the case. Although I was looking at second-hand, there were no CD players, no central locking, no air conditioning, no alarm, etc. whilst I’m sure the missing items making European cars “lower spec’d” did not justify the price difference, I did get the impression that the “more optional” items were not standard (nor generally purchased) in France.(All this based on my personal search for a 2nd hand car.)
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But did you spell it ****** (French way) or ****** (English way)
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Although its very old and everybody has probably already seen m(many times), just if case you have not:Browse to www.google.co.uk (or any google).Enter weapons of mass destructionas your search clue and press the “I’m Feeling Lucky button”.Don’t just glance at the page that is shown as it may not be the page you think if you only glance at it. (As far as I’m aware) this is not virus/trojan/etc. infected and has never set of any virus/firewall/etc. alerts on my PC.
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One aspect to the “impeach Blair” that may be considered different to the general level of MP’s (mis)behaviour is the consequences.I’m sure may MPs are not 100% accurate and stretch things when it suits them. However, often these do not result in the level of death and destruction caused by this (possible) case. Minor infringements (e.g. dubious property fraud) maybe does not require such a thorough investigation as nobody died and it did not (directly) cause any foreign countries to be invaded. However, the (possible) lies told to both MPs and the general public (possibly) contributed to the (possibly) unnecessary death of many people.I add lots of possibly’s to the above as there are a lot of questions about the whole affair that need answering and nobody is prepared to answer them. Without facts (which for some reason Mr. Blair and his cronies are not prepared to reveal) I can only make (possibly) ill informed opinions. Just that the facts will not be revealed makes me even more suspicious about the “truth”.
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When they withdrew it I wrote to them with my thoughts. I got an individual response and I had the distinct impression from what they wrote that I was far from the only person to express an opinion to them.More recently they commissioned some “market research agency” to carry out an e-mail survey (I got included following the e-mail I sent them). It was a pretty minimal web based survey (Are you a boy or girl, few silly questions like that, then “Should the forecasts be free ?” – maybe I exaggerate a bit but it was not very deep).I guess this is the results of the survey. They departmental based longer range forecasts seem to be chargeable still.One problem with such an “experiment” is how do you stop it in a tidy manner. There will have been some people who have paid money for access, so do you refund then, just let their funds run-out, etc. ?I always used to use Meteo France (before the charging). The charging prompted me to find other sites which are pretty good. Meteo France always seem a bit pessimistic in their forecasts (they err to the side of “Its going to rain”).
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There have been a few “What has this to do with France” comments in a couple of Postbag threads recently.Should the Postbag have only French related posts.Is there a Forum Admin policy on use of the Postbag or is it pretty much what people want to use it for (within the general forum use guidelines, etc.) ?If no policy, is it a “don’t read-it if you are not interested” situation ?
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[quote]Depends on how you see resentment. In my son's collège, you do see children with anti-Bush stickers on their bags. One, for example, is a US flag with a big cross through it, another is a US flag w...[/quote]
Very interesting. Other than the particular radio commentary I mentioned I had seen nothing. However, my experience is limited by my circumstances and thus experiences of others is quite enlightening. Many thanksIan -
I think the previous post now establishes, illustrates or emphasises my point.
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Living in France, I am very surprised at how little resentment there is about/toward the UK and US over the way France was treated in the run-up to the war. British and US politicians were “truncating” what the French were saying in the UN to the point of changing the meaning. Good old M. Straw was quoting the French and totally omitting the “unless …” part of what they had said.As a slight aside, on the D-Day memorial events, I remember listening to a French commentary on the radio. Don’t know the station but is was a serious one. They included commentary of the US parts of the celebrations, but hardly ever referred to M. Bush by name – instead referring to “Britain’s Best Friend”.
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Personally I was strongly against the war at the time it was started. I cannot say that it would have not been necessary in the future but at the time GW/TB “went for it”, other options were still in progress, any potential risk was contained and there was not the need to invade. That is not to say I support Sadam (nor the associated assumptions), just that peaceful solutions had certainly not been fully explored.Certainly somebody was not being completely open about the true situation. As to whether M. Blaire personally lied I have no information. However, he is responsible for his staff, government, security services. There used to be an (admittedly American) expression “the Buck Stops Here”. These days it is more “if you cannot legally provide it was personally me then I’m off the hook”.There are major questions the (both US and UK) government needs to answer. I have greater interest in the UK – but none of our politicians seem prepared to answer them – they just keep a steady supply of sound bites.A lot on people have been killed by the invasion. A lot of damage has been done to international relations. A lot of damage has been done to the credibility of the UN, etc. It is a serious matter and if an impeachment “campaign” is the only way to put further pressure to obtain answers then I’m in favour.As a nation, the UK cannot go around (with the US) as a self appointed international police force. Personally I do not subscribe to the it’s “sleeping dogs” approach as the severity of the issues is pretty major.All personal opinion – and I welcome other opinions.
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Having only been in France for a year I’m still trying to understand the logic and financial aspects of the organisation of things (in the broadest sense). In many respects it does seem very different to the UK. I’m not a great fan of centralisation and have the impression that in France a lot of services are provided (or managed) very locally. I live between two villages, each with a population of 750, each with its own Marie, each with its own fire station, etc. In the UK such things would have been centralised in some cost saving review ages ago.However, without an complete understanding of how these types of things operate I find it difficult to form an opinion about their viability and the service/cost balance. Hypothetically, for example, the local fire stations in many respects cannot make financial sense unless there are other cost factors (maybe something like volunteer firemen, etc.) that make it viable (who knows – I don’t).In the UK, do the supermarkets actually sell more by being open 24 hrs a day. I agree with a previous poster in that in the UK I believe the supermarkets have managed to get (or be given by us) too much power and that then needs for profits are having negative impact on farmers and in developing countries.
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My comments on the electrics relate to current and previous standards. EDF will not connect up a supply that has not been inspected/approved, so when it was installed it complied with the standards at that time. Regulations do not always relate to safety – I clearly referred to “regulations” not “safety regulations” yet one person jumped to the “assume the worst” conclusion (in a quite strong way as well). I also stated that I considered they were ok.In any domestic environment there are loads of potentially dangerous things – some of which are regarded and dangerous and others (which are equally dangerous) are not “taken so seriously”. My workshop has nothing in it that you cannot buy in any tool shop. In practice, a bench mounted circular saw that is disconnected is probably safer than a small chisel or screwdriver or kitchen knife (as a child does not pick it up, play with at nor run around with it).When I sold my house in the UK, I had loads of grief because the purchaser had every inspection/survey possible. The electrical one could only test against current standards (which it did not meet). Their report cannot make any inferences about safety (apparently due to liability against the inspectors), and can only report as to meeting the regulations in effect on the day the inspection was carried out. When chatting to the guy doing the inspection he freely said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the system and it was perfectly safe.In one response I was clearly accused of being somebody who puts financial gain before consideration of the lives and others safety. This accusation was totally unjustified and quite offensive. When I posted to point out that I was not such a person I have received no apology.Bye
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There is room for both speculation/opinion and fact in a forum, provided that speculation/opinion is clearly presented as such. What I am sensitive to (and have seen on several occasions to different individuals) is negative comment that adds nothing except a “poke” at the author.People need to be encouraged to participate and not to receive negative comments when making posts (particularly when they are quite valid).A general comment “Speculating again I1 theres a lot of guessing going on there” appears as a general “dig” rather than disagreeing with specific points – adds nothing to the discussion and is just negative. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me (I actually welcome it as our opinions develop through discussion). Similarly, should I have “got the wrong end of a stick” then I welcome being corrected.With regard to opinion I do not consider there is a “right” (nor “wrong”).I’ve said my bit. Bye.
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I must confess I do find the 2 hour lunchtime close “difficult”. When I have a fair number of different shops to visit and don’t start when the shops open, I may have not completed it by 12:00 when everybody (except supermarkets) close. Not a major deal as I do have the time.I am surprised at how the village bakeries and butchers stay in business given the price of what they are selling. I have noticed that the village post offices seem to be under threat. My two local villages both have Post Offices and both are under threat. One village is saying that business has fallen below a threshold, whilst the other village is saying the La Poste are changing their policies on village Post Offices.The huit-a-huit shops are interesting as I have not yet hound one open (ever). In my area a few of the supermarkets are starting to open on Sunday morning.
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Maybe I’m taking the wrong meaning from “so if the poster doesn't like this one why log on to it” or “aim them at where touchy feely has taken another place...” – but it sounded like a “go somewhere else.I was not aware that there had been “after the current spate of nastyness by some posters” as everybody seemed to be denying there was anything wrong anywhere and that there was no “nastyness” problem. Other responses seemed to be along the “like it or lump it” lines – if you don’t like the nastyness then “why log on to it”.I am a great believer in forums. Different aspects to forums are useful to different people. In my opinion, one important aspect is that of mutual assistance. Moving or living in a foreign country can be challenging and finding what, when, how, etc. to do things is not always easy. However, different people find different things through different experience. Similarly, different members have different “specialist knowledge”. Even those with specialise knowledge can benefit from other people’s “real world” experiences. Through posting of questions and responses, this knowledge and experience is made available to all. In effect aspects of the forum become a “Knowledge Base”. These types of forum area greatly benefit from a wide user base, which is partly my reason for comment.
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(Personal Opinion)I believe that there is certainly an issue with the server side code (as on occasions I get a server timeout error page returned by the server (i.e. its own code timed-out). Though there will always be a "limiting factor" and when you remove the most limiting factor, there is still a "not quite so limiting" factor, etc.I was not aware that the server side code was written in asp.NET (as somebody posted above). This being so I an not atall surprised there are performance issues. I am neither a Microsoft hater not an Microsoft lover but, having worked in software development for 25 years plus (embarrassing), asp.NET is very poor performance (amongst other issues).With .NET it seems just an attempt by Microsoft to “take on” Java with their own platform independent code execution system (it is platform independent in that it will run on virtually any windows platform !!).In computing I have always found the “not invented here” syndrome very counterproductive to progress and whilst Microsoft’s .NET may have some good features, I consider it basically yet another proprietary development environment – particularly when there are other (currently superior) development systems. Maybe it’s cynical, but the main thing about .NET is it makes Microsoft “loads of money”.
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True, but what the point I was trying to make was not so much a like/dislike but a general point about being pleasant. People seem to have taken is as a personal criticism. My comments were of a general nature, maybe asking that before people make a irrelevant post that is being unpleasant, they take the opportunity to pause and reflect on why they are doing it and what it will add to the forum.Although probably a bad example, when people e.g. go on TV and say we must stop crime, they are not suggesting that all viewers are criminals. Similarly, if you have not been the victim of crime, it does not mean that it does not happen (but this is not a personal grievance).The medium of a Forum is actually ideal for providing the opportunity to reflect before commenting (unlike some other forms of communication).I do find it quite surprising that, when I raise a suggestion maybe that people be nice rather than nasty, reactions are “No lets not”. When I raised the subject I did not expect such negative comments about what I would have thought was a pretty reasonable suggestion (to be ignored if you don’t agree with it). However as people seem to feel that such things as being polite really don’t matter and we “don’t want things like that here”.When I raised the post it was a general comment and reflection on some (unnecessary) responses I had seen around the forum (and nothing personal). However, clearly people think that if you consider being polite, etc. worthwhile then go elsewhere . Fine.
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No criticism taken. My outburst was as, having found something that I thought would be interesting and maybe useful to people, to then be told I’m speculating just makes me wonder why I bother.I know nothing of DEFRA politics but entirely agree about not liking pumping pets full of drugs. Ages ago back in the UK I actually got a bit annoyed with my vet when I took my dog in with a “runny tummy”. Vet didn’t know what it was but it wasn’t desperately serious – so he just gave a course of non-specific antibiotics “just in case”. I’m always quite happy for people to say “don’t take an asprin but just rest it” (or equivalent).Starting the dreaded speculation, I think that piroplasmose may be one of the reasons DEFRA are concerned about French ticks emigrating. It does sound pretty nasty and as far as I’m aware, is not currently in the UK.If your pet stays in France for 3 months it becomes resident and needs to be registered with the SCC (something I've been a bit remiss about but will do soon). Certainly the French reaction to the recent rabies incident has been quite “extensive” (for want of a better word). However, without knowledge of things like disease control I don’t know how much of that is justified to contain risk and how much politics. Certainly I have read that is was not the first case this year and there have been other case in the last few years.
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I really could not have explained myself very well and it was a bad idea to reply with a couple of examples (but I’m not going to spend ages going through to find others I’ve seen before). It isn’t about me having a grievance (as I would just go elsewhere if I did).My comments have nothing to do with everybody agreeing with each other. Of course (and thankfully) people disagree – the world would be pretty horrible if everybody agreed with everybody else the entire time.Some threads/topics are bound to start more heated debate than others, bringing out stronger reactions. Other, more informational threads need not be subject to similar comment.My comments were about not assuming the worst in people, about not leaping into and informational thread with a nasty and unjustified comment about somebody who has put up some valid information (just because ? well God knows why). It has nothing to do with being “touchy feely” and “hugging trees” (I know what was meant and I would agree that I don’t seek such a forum). An earlier response says it all “We can be friendly” – which to an extent sums up my thoughts. We can disagree and be friendly at the same time, no need for a few to just leap in with nasty critical comments.It is a minority who seem to make such comments. But if people really like or tolerate others being abusive, arrogant, rude and acidic in replies to informational type posts, that’s fine – as long as people posting know where they stand (and what they can expect from the few).
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I actually don't have any grievances. When people are rude and "nasty" I believe they are saying more about themselves than the people they are posting about. I probably should no have show a thread where one of the "assume the worst" comments was (partially) about me (as an example) as that can lead to people misinterpreting the reasons for my comments.
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Sorry, if you don't agree that's fine. I'm not going to accumulate lists out of 40000 threads. I've seen quite a few and felt it was worth commenting that such behaviour by others is neither necessary nor constructive.Maybe I didn't express my comments well (as I'm particularly good as such things), but my comments were not intended to be about agreeing (I would not expect people to necessarily agree), but rather to maintain a pleasant manner.I just referenced two as they were ones I remembered and had seen. I was not trying to make a point that I had seen two nasty comments.
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A couple of very quick examples http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=18&MessageID=44993&TopicPage=3 or http://www.livingfrance.com/instantforum/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=16&MessageID=44182 (just a couple of examples that I've seen and can remember - but there are a fair number more. One of the above a moderator steped in and told people to go debate elsewhere.
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Why do some people seem to like being unpleasant and critical of/to others on forums. Is it that unlike in face to face communications they are “protected” by anonymity. Is it that they are arrogant and cannot tolerate others passing comment when “they are the expert” or could it be one of many hundreds of other reasons.(Ignoring the “chit-chat” areas of forums) for a forum to be useful and helpful it needs input from many different people who are prepared to share their opinions, attitudes and experience in a positive way. A forum is not an “ask the expert” panel game where only those who are qualified to degree level in their subject may respond. It works by many people sharing bits of knowledge and experience they have acquired “along the way” in addition to the input from those who are “in the know” on a subject.There seems to be a trend amongst some participants in this and other forums to become personally critical of people posting helpful snippets, opinions, etc. Some people seem to assume the worst of somebody else, then exaggerate their already unfair opinions and post a response that can be decidedly nasty.Nasty, rude and critical responses do not help anybody, do not help answer the posted question and add nothing to a thread. However, they do discourage people from participating. When you can add something to a thread somebody has started (e.g. ‘cos you’ve already done it, etc.) why bother to post it if you risk nasty acidic critical responses from others. Why bother to post a question atall when you’ve seen some of the responses posted.I would suggest a bit of the “I you can’t say something nice they say nothing” might be useful guidance for some people. There are ways of pointing out somebody has said something wrong without being nasty. People do that verbally every day – it’s a “social skill”. Would appeal to everybody to remember these “social skills” when using forums.
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Actually the information came from the “Vetinary Record” magazine (vet’s professional magazine), the particular article being written by a vet (who cited the sources of information it contained).To allow people to check what I had written (as I was repeating information from others RATHER THAN GUESSING), I provided the links to the relevant article.I actually take it in “bad form” to be accused of “speculating again”. When I post something I am not confident about I generally include comments such as “as far as I’m aware” (or something similar). You may know more that the vet who wrote the article concerned in which case take it up with him rather than accusing me of speculating.BEFORE CRITISIZING, TAKE THE TROUBLE TO READ WHAT IS WRITTEN AND MAYBE FOLLOW THE REFERENCED LINKS.An important aspect of forums is to allow people to give and receive help from others who have knowledge or experiences that may assist others. This “criticizing others” attitude that some seem to adopt on forums is not helpful and does not encourage others to participate.I apologise if my response is a bit strong but I get a bit ******-off by people being critical when others are only typing to help, provide information, etc. It’ well “out-of-order”.
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in The Complete France Post Bag
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