Thursday 11 January 2007

Not my kind of victory!

Sorry to use this medium to express my innermost thoughts about the kind of week I have had. As I sit here with a glass of my Argentinian Chardonnay, let us call it therapy!

For obvious reasons, I cannot go into any details. However, I say this: If someone ask you to give up what is rightfully yours, he damn well must be willing to negotiate and compromise! If, however, he uses his position to get his way, then he might loose something greater in the process.

This is Pyrrhic victory...he won the battle but lost the war...alas, not my kind of victory.

Thursday 4 January 2007

My eBay adventure - 2nd instalment

'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail' - Benjamin Franklin (from Brain Quote).

As I embark on my 'cyberventure' into eBay, I clearly haven't prepared. Normally before I
embark on something like this I will do some ground work. In this case I will search Google (and any of the other major search engines) and blog sites to see what problems other people have had with eBay in order that I may avoid some of the pitfalls. I might even want to see if there are sites out there which offer better services. No, No, No..not this time! I will just dive straight in - after all I have to clear my loft (and fast!).

What is eBay anyway?

A site that helps you sell?
An auction site (I am indifferent to auctions - maybe because I have never partaken in one before)?
A merchant?

Well eBay claim to be: 'The World's Online Marketplace®, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.' That sounds great to me...

Will keep you posted on how I'm getting on...

[amendment: It is 'eBay' not 'e-bay' - what do I know?]

Tuesday 2 January 2007

Children's Mutilation by our Canine friends - Will somebody do something?

Yet another case of an innocent child being killed by a dog ! Over the last 6 months in the UK, there has been a number of reports of children being killed by dogs (1, 2). Although cases of this nature has occurred in the past, anecdotal evidence may suggest that this is an increasing trend! Why then is someone not doing anything about it?

From a rational standpoint, the actions of 4 main actors might have contributed to these tragedies: The dog, its owner, the child and his/her parent(s). In all the above cases the children were less than 5 years old. It is therefore unreasonable to lay the blame on the children. What about the other actors?

The Dogs

Undoubtedly some breeds of dogs are more aggressive than others. The following are the breed of dogs which caused the mutilations in some of the cases: Rottweilers (x2 cases) and Bull Terrier (x2 cases). The strengthening of the Dangerous Dogs Act may now be required, although the DogsTrust may disagree.

The Owners

The owners of these dogs must shoulder a significant responsibility for these unfortunate incidents. It has been suggested that the lack of appropriate care for these animals has contributed to these attacks (3, 4). A mandatory custodial sentence must be considered for owners who has demonstrated a stark lack of onus.

The Parents

As a young parent myself, I will avoid putting my baby in an environment where this is likely to happen. Most parents will act responsibly but these tragedies are sometimes unavoidable. As long the parents have taken reasonable steps, then there is nothing more to say.

What is not excusable is the irresponsible owners of a dangerous dogs with small children. These group of owners must be sent to jail and the keys thrown away...

An e-bay account setup - How hard can it be?

I consider myself to be IT savvy, but the e-bay 'thing' passed me by. I just wasn't interested. Too much hype, I thought.

Well, as part of my new year resolution, I wish to get rid of a number of stuff with minimum fuss. I don't have too much time, so I am devoting a day to get all my gear on e-bay - how hard could it be? It will have to be done with military precision.

The critical factors for me are:
  1. Time it takes to get the stuff online
  2. Time it takes to sell the stuff
I hope e-bay will live up to the hype and deliver. I will be starting on a blank canvass i.e. read all the online instructions etc. I'll let you know how I get on.

Surely if I am disappointed, it will neither be because I am a technology novice nor because I am selling the wrong sets of goods...