Pack of bastards

Couple convicted for neglect of dogs. (ABC News Online)

Without knowing anything more about the circumstances, what are the odds that this couple of scumbags defend themselves by saying (cue belligerent tone) that they were looking after the dogs, and weren't doing anything wrong, and it's all the fault of some neighbour who doesn't like dogs and complained about the noise?

Please note that the article, as extraordinarily short as it is, mentions 100 dogs kept in fenced compounds, and "malnourished, with mange, eye ulcers and open sores".

Rot in hell.

When account-level system security gets REALLY ANNOYING

"You do not have the proper privilege level to change the System Time".

How fucking bad does Vista have to be if XP is preferable?

This is called "free market economy"

As reported by ABC Online, aged care nurses might be tempted to move into the hosiptal sector if they're offered more money.

Well, this is about the least surprising thing I have ever heard in my life. When I saw the heading "Aged care nurses neglected" I wondered which aspect of third-world wages, attrocious working conditions including regular assault by residents (sorry, clients (sorry, customers))), incompetent union, poor training and bewildering constant change in fairly hippy-philosophy-driven working practices they were talking about.

But no. All the article is saying is that if Queensland Health is aggressive about recruiting nurses into the hospital system by making the financial rewards more attractive, then aged care nurses might siddle sideways and leave aged care even worse-off than it already is.

Deal with it. Plenty of aged care nurses of the non-Registered variety are burning the candle at both ends working and studying in order to upgrade their qualifications from AIN (Assistant In Nursing - read: "shit-kicker") to EEN (Endorsed Enrolled Nursing - something about being able to administer drugs and work in hospitals) precisely in order to flee aged care at the first available opportunity. This does not make the prospect of holding onto nurses, in the face of even extra tea breaks as an incentive, look very good. Keeping aged care nursing pay in line with hospital pay will be a start, but won't benefit the Personal Carers/AINs who do most of the actual work and won't fix a system that is basically a bit broken.

Blogger needs a "Discard post" button

Well, it does.

"Turn the other cheek, that I may smite it."

Yeah, sure, Christians are peace-loving people who should have sole say over the laws in this country.

I really don't think so.

Some of the comments are especially entertaining.

That's not a malicious prosecution, that one's fine!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Psychics in the UK are pissed that new consumer protection laws will force them to try and prove that they're not fraudulent. Good fucking luck.

I love the "Other religions" comment. So it's not a medical service, it's a religious service. Frankly, I think that the "other religions" should be forced to provide a disclaimer that there is not adequate proof for the existence of the afterlife, so this should be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to obey behavioural rules and regulations intended to avoid punishment within it.

"Our reading today is from the Consumer Protection Act..."

The year is what, exactly?

I have just started work at a new organisation, and have therefore been thrust whimpering and fearful back into the world of Windows Desktops. The XP is not so bad - if all you want to do is research and write, it's serviceable if showing its age. No, sorry, scratch that. It is bad.

Then there's Internet Explorer. In 2008, there should be a law against forcing people to use IE6. No tabs, crude bookmarks management that they insist upon labelling "Favorites" with a blatant disregard for truth or international spelling, and a general impression of being out of step, behind the times and, fundamentally, Not Good Enough.

Install Firefox? No. I don't have Administrator privileges, it seems. They don't trust me. And because the IT person is not in the same building, I'll bide my time before asking her about it. Not having administrator privileges also means that I can't install the Google toolbar. Or do anything else that might be halfway useful. It's like being stuck in the Wayback Machine.

And then there's Windows itself. Alt-M to minimise the current window: Not available. Bulk renamer within Windows Explorer: Not available. The taste of impending doom? All too present.

But, intriguingly, when turning off I was given the option of "Install updates and then shut down." There was one update after the first day, 93 the second. I wonder what I'll come back to the next time I turn it on? A web browser which looks like one?