Tom Reynolds's Blog, page 5

Answers

I've just spent longer than I'd like to think in deleting spam from this blog. While I do like the simplicity of the Blogware system, it isn't the world's best at filtering out spam. I wish there were a way of turning off the comments to an article automatically after a month or so.

As it is I've turned on moderation for comments that the Blogware system thinks is spam and decided to not allow HTML in comments any more. Sorry if this annoys you but I have better things to be doing with my...

Questions

There has been a bit of a meme going around where people are using Formspring.me to have questions asked of them. I'm somewhat wary of formspring, but I do have a blog. So this week is your chance to ask me any question you'd like. On Friday I will answer as many of them as I'm able.

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You can ask your questions in a number of ways.

You can leave a comment on this blogpost.

You can email me at reynolds@randomreality.org

You can direct message me on Twitter @Reynolds

A Letter From The Government.

Comrades!

Feel glory in the wonderful opportunity that central government has given you. Your inability to reach the required number of 'Amber' calls in the mandatory time has resulted in a new and innovative plan to allow intellectuals to shine.

We are to cut your budget by £1.6 million, thus allowing you to 'think smarter' in order to reach these same goals in time for next year's auditing.

As that cute white kitty says 'hang in there baby' for while some of the proletariat may see this as a '...

Round And Round We Go

Here we go...

Ambulance service gets £38 for every patient they don't take to hospital

Patients' groups expressed horror at the "sick experiment" in which NHS managers have agreed to pay £38 for every casualty that ambulance staff "keep out of Accident and Emergency" (A&E) departments after a 999 call has been made. The tactic is part of an attempt to manage increasing demand for emergency care amid failings in the GP out-of-hours system.

Documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph disclose...

In Much Happier News

'More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea', is about to be released in what is called 'Mass Market' edition. This is a cheaper and smaller format of the book - hopefully it'll mean a bump in sales, and therefore a bump in royalties coming to me.

It's the same book, just a handier size.

It is released on April the first (yes, yes, I know...) and if I may dare to be so bold, would make a lovely gift for your loved ones, neighbours, acquaintances and random people in the street.

It's being ...

Drunken Options

When we are called to a drunk in the street we have a number of options open to us. Well, we have four options, but realistically we only have two.

Option One

Leave them where they are - either they aren't that drunk, or they have friends who will look after them. We don't do this that often as it will only take one of them to then waltz out into traffic and get their fool arse killed to lose you your job.

Option Two

Call the police. If there is nothing wrong with them then surely we should c...

Worn

It's getting harder for me to blog because I'm trying to not lose my sanity.

You see, this blog has been a place for me to tell stories but it has also been a place for me to get angry - to shout about crappy social care, uncaring and criminal nursing homes, the misuse of our service and, indeed, the mistakes that I think the government and our own management have made.

But of late I've come to realise that getting angry about things doesn't matter, not really.

I can shout all I like, rant and r...

Windowing

Sorry folks, another crosspost from Paper Not Included, my mea culpa this time is that I'm recuperating from a pair of nightshifts that were less that smooth. Something ambulance based tomorrow though.

Windowing makes ebooks more like DVDs than CDs

I got into a discussion on Twitter last night with someone who I respect about ebooks, made slightly difficult by constraining myself to 140 characters and by fitting my tweets around work. And it being silly o'clock in the morning when my brain...

Unwarranted Uncharitable Thoughts

The first job of the day was to 'female slipped on ice - police on scene'.

I'll admit that, at half past six in the morning my thoughts towards people, actually towards anything, are often less than charitable.

'It's not that cold', I said to my crewmate - although years of working in all weathers mean that I'm perhaps not best placed to judge, 'I bet she's found the one tiny patch of ice in Newham and fell on that'.

It's the end of the financial year, and so there are roadworks and temporary...

Examples Of IT

I really like I.T - Information Technology, after all I've been using it since I was around eight years old. However, in those thirty years of using computers I'm also fully aware of some of the problems that I.T can make manifest.

Especially when you bring in the cheapest contractors, don't supervise them properly, don't consult properly with the people to be using the system and then start cutting budgets halfway through the project.

*cough* NHS *cough*

I mean, if you can't get contractors...