Before you read on, here is what you could be reading now (blame the unions – it’s their fault you’re missing out, not mine!):
* The iPhone is apparently destroying society (not my words, although I am tempted to agree!)
* An interesting view on Windows ’95 and Word 6 (remember them??)
* and even a suggestion for improving televised sport (yes, I really am going to write about sport!)

However, I am now “very disappointed” with the public sector workers who have the decided to take a day off.
In fact, my main problem is with the teachers. Not all of them, just the ones that are striking.

Why?  Not only are they hitting my wallet as I have to arrange and pay for extra childcare, but they are also taking away a days education from my son.  This day cannot be recovered – how many days are being lost?

I had a teacher at school who would calculate how much lost time needed to be paid back by multiplying the minutes by the number of people affected.  For example, if you arrived 1 minute late and there were 30 people in the class (29 pupils plus the teacher – don’t count yourself!) then you would owe 30 minutes.  5 minutes late would be 2.5 hours and so on.  I was always on time for this class!

So, one strike day multiplied by 30 pupils per class works out to be… Well, it works out as a lot of teaching days when you look at the whole country!

But more importantly, what type of lesson is being taught?
I think the title of this post sums it up quite well – if things don’t go your way then why not “throw a strop” (a phrase that seems especially suited to teachers from a bygone era).

About a week and a half before the strike, my son’s school observed an “Anti Bullying Day” as part of Anti Bullying Week where the pupils were encouraged to “Stop, think and do the right thing“.  Maybe we should encourage them to “Stop, think and practise what you teach“.

After all, teachers are supposed to be pillars of our community helping to shape the minds of the next generation – workers and leaders alike.

The General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) published revised guidelines two years ago setting out expectations of teachers both inside and outside of the classroom.
They say:

Case law supports the view that individuals have a responsibility to uphold the reputation of their profession, and that their individual interests do not override the greater public interest in maintaining that reputation.

Is this the case here?  I really don’t think it is.  The interests of this group of individuals is not in the greater public interest.

It’s more like a case of them ganging up and trying to get their own way. And it looks like the gang is recruiting.
Join the NUT now and pay nothing until next year.  Not only that, bring a friend and you could win an all-inclusive weekend break! The only catch is that they need to join by 30th November.

Now, why does that date ring a bell?

My own cynicism aside, I do understand why there is a protest. But the fact still remains that the number of “senior” members of our society is growing and will continue to do so the existing pension arrangements will not suffice.

But it’s not all about the amount of pension being paid (in and out), it’s also about the age of retirement.

I am sure that there are very few sexagenarians that would want to be in charge of a class of young children (for evidence, just have a look at your parents faces next time you ask them to babysit!), but who said that a teacher has to be full time in the class room in their final years?
There are plenty of additional roles that could be carried out using all of those years of experience.
This could be providing cover in schools as a supply teacher, consulting or advisory positions or even acting as a mentor to the next generation of teachers.

Striking is a bit of a legal oddity – technically it is a breach of an employee’s contract but because the industrial action has been lawfully called there is no option to carry out disciplinary procedure against the employee.
Isn’t it about time that the right to strike was removed?

The way things stand, I think that something we should all do is to ask for our money back.
In my case, an invoice will be sent to the teacher (not the school) for the additional childcare costs.

I am sure that it won’t be paid – but if everyone else follows suit can you imagine the reaction when they see just the financial repercussions of their Xmas shopping day?

It is obvious that the money is not there, this isn’t a cunning plan to steal from the public sector pension pot. It was announced today that the retirement age is moving to 67 from the year 2026. I expect it will be 70 by the time it get there but I am planning for that – not walking out.

Putting it simply, I can see three clear options here:

1. Pay more into your pension
2. Work even longer
3. Die earlier

You can choose one or more of these – I know my choice.

What about you?

But that might not be the case now due to continued legal delays.  The change is the new “Timeline” profile pages and the legal action is between Facebook and Timelines.com – who own the registered trademark “Timelines”.
(For more information about why, read this:  timelines.com/trademark)

Assuming the everything is all sorted out and the feature is launched early next year, how long will it be before the normal cries of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” are heard?  Maybe it should be “Who moved my cheese?”

According to their own stats, Facebook has more than 800 million active users.

I can see three opinions here – 1 – Like the changes, 2 – Don’t like the changes and 3 – Don’t care/ didn’t notice – the “Don’t Likes” would need to be more than 400 million strong to obtain a simple majority.
Based on my own observations that less than 10% of my own friend list (I have more than the current average of 130) were vocal about it then it does appear that most people either don’t care, like the changes or maybe they are one of the ~44% (and growing) of active users who access the site through their mobile?

You may respond to the whingers with something along the lines of “Facebook is a free service, stop using it or shut up”. After all, it does say on the login screen “It’s free and always will be.”

But is Facebook free? I mean, really free?

My view is that it’s not truly free.  Just because you don’t give them cash doesn’t mean it’s something for nothing .

In exchange for accessing the site / apps and so on you we give them something far more valuable.
Something that gives them the biggest revenue stream they could possibly hope for – your data.

Every “Like” and keyword you post helps to target advertising at your unique profile.

I suspect that some agree and don’t “like” it.  How else would something like this keep on popping up (last seen in September)?

“FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY !”

Sound familiar?  It should do, you see it’s not the first time that messages like this has been circulated, or copied and pasted from one status to the next.

In July this year this version was doing the rounds:

Its official.. signal at 12;20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer. If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your count will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icon turns blue, So please put this as your status

In May last year:

NO, I WILL NOT PAY $ 10 A MONTH TO USE FACEBOOK FROM SEPTEMBER 9TH 2010
facebook have confirmed that if they get get over 2,000,000 people against the idea to charge $ 10 a month they will reconsider.

In April last year:

I’m quitting facebook when the start charging $50/per month on July 8, 2010

In March last year:

I’m Quitting Facebook Once We have to Pay $14.99/month on July 9, 2010

In February last year:

NO! I WILL NOT PAY $3.99/MONTH TO USE FACEBOOKK STARTING JULY 9, 2010! JOIN. (link removed)

In December 2009:

There is a website that has over 83,000 members of people protesting the following…
WE’RE AGAINST THE 4.99 A MONTH CHARGE FOR FACEBOOK FROM JUNE 30TH 2010
See website here… (link removed)

The monetary value may change (anything from $4.99 to $50 per month), but the message is basically the same.

It seems to have started following rumours that Facebook was expanding too quickly and couldn’t support the userbase. Something that was denied by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg way back in April 2009 in an interview with Business Week:

The answer is no, we are not planning on charging a basic fee for our basic services. Once again, that question stems from people thinking we’re growing so quickly, we’re running out of money. We’re growing really quickly, but we can finance that growth. We’re not going to charge for our basic services.

So there you have it – straight from the horse’s mouth (just for the record, I am not implying Ms. Sandberg is a horse!).

If Mark Zuckerberg is right and Facebook does  hit 1 billion users  soon then I predict more of these messages.

I also predict that a vocal minority won’t like future changes like timeline.

I also predicted way back in 1997 that everyone would have a computer in their house and it would be used for communication and entertainment.  I wish I’d put some money on it!

What do you think??

The “Watch List” gives details of the TV shows I am currently viewing.

I will keep this updated with upcoming and recently finished stuff as well.

As soon as I know the return dates of a new programme I will add it to the list.

Anything missing?  Why not leave a comment and let me know.

Sometimes I want to talk about something that cannot be classed as a status update for Facebook.

Sometimes I want to share a few links on a common topic in one go.

Hopefully, this blog will enable me to do that.

So, what type of content can you expect to see here?
The easy answer is, pretty much anything that I want to talk about.  Expect anything from politics to TV and music as well as the odd rant about stuff that annoys me.

That’s all for now!