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car tax, what a joke.

toffee_pie said:
Howdy Pete. I'm doing well thanks. Is that Accord still serving you well?!
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Hi Eric, yes still going like the day I bought it but due to illness :( has been of the road for a bit but will be burning up those miles again soon :) .
 
toffee_pie said:
Everything pollutes, but diesel cars are ridiculous, whoever thought it was a good idea that they were good for the environment was not a very bright spark.
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Both Diesel and Petrol cars will be replaced with HCCI hybrids and full EV's. The prevalence of petrol and diesel engines have a clear socio/political/economic history as to why there are where they are currently. Arguing about which is better is akin to defending a religion. Or drunk wrestling.

Humans, and the systems they create aren't logical or smart, as realities are created through interplay fraud with illogical ***umptions, vested interests, deceitful lobbying and simplistic solutions. Petrol has a long history of stubborn vested interests and diesel managed to get in there due to CO2 becoming a temporary environmental poster child.

Just enjoy whatever imperfect machine for whatever reason you connect with it.
 
Let's say that mass-produced petrol-engined cars have been going now for 100 years, and that mass-produced diesel-engined cars have been going now for 35 years. Well the latter has certainly reached its zenith and so let's say they won't be around 35 years from now. Even if the petrol engined-car has reached its zentih, well using the same curve, it will be around for another 100 years.

I'm not convinced by HCCI replacing the bog-standard HCSI, IMO it's a fad like the rotary engine.

The only thing with an electric motor that stands any chance is the PHEV.

I doubt if the DVLA give a damn as long as they can raise some income for the government.
 
freddofrog said:
I'm not convinced by HCCI replacing the bog-standard HCSI, IMO it's a fad like the rotary engine.

The only thing with an electric motor that stands any chance is the PHEV.

I doubt if the DVLA give a damn as long as they can raise some income for the government.
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Land vehicle power plants jumped to petrol / diesel from steam/coal somewhat near the debut of the personal carrier. What has not gone away are the earlier forms of personal transport, horse/carriage, bicycle or shanks' pony, with a few appearing in the meantime, I class electric as being one of the latter forms of movement rather than a new invention. What does not change is the excess / surplus mass of the power plant. Nobody brought their horse into the office, neither does one entertain a board meeting from their SUV.

The main medium by which travel occurs is commuting, usually from remote home to office in centrum, until the ethics of 'travelling to work' is thoroughly revised, there will be small improvement snippets in transport efficiency, but nothing that overhauls the way humans pollute the environment.
 
I was one of those that extolled the virtues of Small Office Home Office some 15-20 years ago, working on solutions based on technology , video and audio technology. It worked, but the main stumbling block in getting it out there was always the profitability of revenue through commuting, the legislation that made certain one paid to travel, no matter if it was personal or public transport, or was banned from using something innovative on the roads.

Mid management has always been scared of remote working and rightly so, they would be shown to be B-Ark fodder if it came in, and will do anything to prevent it.
 
Yep. I work remotely now, and it saves 25,000 miles of diesel crud being spewed out every year.

It's a viable option for a few people, but as you say, there's always someone trying to harpoon it through fear of their lack of usefulness being realised, or just through jealousy.

You also need the right person to be able to work remotely, they need to be trusted, and have already paid their dues and proved themselves as such.
 
Goodluckmonkey said:
Yep. I work remotely now, and it saves 25,000 miles of diesel crud being spewed out every year.

It's a viable option for a few people, but as you say, there's always someone trying to harpoon it through fear of their lack of usefulness being realised, or just through jealousy.

You also need the right person to be able to work remotely, they need to be trusted, and have already paid their dues and proved themselves as such.
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Not a few, think of the sheer number of employees that use little more than a keyboard, telephone or are simply brought into the office environment to serve others with consumables, or 'manage' a team.

I concur there is a skillset and discipline needed for remote working, but connection timestamps, device location and the sheer number of cameras that exist in modern electronics makes skiving or disruptive multitasking a thing of the past.
 
That's an excellent tangential look at the issue. Indeed not that long ago I used to work on a project where I had one of the laptops of the client company, which had full VPN capability and worked perfectly ok in the out-sourced company's building. Yet the project managers of the out-sourcing company would not allow me (or anyone else) to work from home. That still bugs me even today, it would have been totally practical to work from from on that project, yet everyone had to commute tens of miles to one building. I suspect that project managers would feel very alone if hy didn't have their minions sitting at desks in the same building.
 
freddofrog said:
That's an excellent tangential look at the issue. Indeed not that long ago I used to work on a project where I had one of the laptops of the client company, which had full VPN capability and worked perfectly ok in the out-sourced company's building. Yet the project managers of the out-sourcing company would not allow me (or anyone else) to work from home. That still bugs me even today, it would have been totally practical to work from from on that project, yet everyone had to commute tens of miles to one building. I suspect that project managers would feel very alone if hy didn't have their minions sitting at desks in the same building.
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The only company which I have been involved in that advocated shorter commute times was BT, and that was with the introduction of two 'satellite' offices near the M25, one near Brentwood and the other just north of Sevenoaks.

http://property.jll.co.uk/img/commercial_pdf_ks27055_1.pdf

http://www.foremanroberts.com/updated-projects/Technology/bt-sevenoaks.html

These were built with the specific purpose of removing the need for staff to travel all the way into London.
 
freddofrog said:
That's an excellent tangential look at the issue. Indeed not that long ago I used to work on a project where I had one of the laptops of the client company, which had full VPN capability and worked perfectly ok in the out-sourced company's building. Yet the project managers of the out-sourcing company would not allow me (or anyone else) to work from home. That still bugs me even today, it would have been totally practical to work from from on that project, yet everyone had to commute tens of miles to one building. I suspect that project managers would feel very alone if hy didn't have their minions sitting at desks in the same building.
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I had this. Spent years setting up systems so that they could be managed remotely. Offered 24/7 support in return for working remotely and flex time. Things are really looking up and we are even thinking we could branch out and remotely service similar organisations. New management comes in and sets everything back to the 1950's - strips department to skeleton admin staff only, cancels entire development project in mid-project, and the gloats over all the "savings" while we are only 1 line of code away from having to resort back to hand written receipts and half the staff are looking for other jobs. It would be comedic if it didn't directly affect my life :wacko:
 
BTW I resigned not long after this post.

Question - what happened with Mr Freddofrog? His status says "banned" and that he went travelling. Is this a self-imposed ban?

BTW I'll delete this question if I've inadvertently opened some nasty can of worms.
 
Pretty much...
 
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