andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2011-12-01 11:00 am
andrewducker) wrote2011-12-01 11:00 am
Entry tags:
- alanmoore,
- aliens,
- android,
- art,
- bbc,
- belief,
- benwerdmuller,
- carrieriq,
- celebrities,
- children,
- computers,
- data,
- ebooks,
- electric,
- energy,
- everything,
- facebook,
- farenheit451,
- freespeech,
- fun,
- funny,
- government,
- hacking,
- housing,
- ice,
- income,
- information,
- intelligence,
- italy,
- journalism,
- knowledge,
- law,
- links,
- livejournal,
- media,
- movies,
- open,
- passwords,
- pension,
- play,
- politics,
- privacy,
- psychology,
- rationality,
- raybradbury,
- religion,
- renewables,
- rental,
- salary,
- science,
- secrets,
- security,
- sex,
- smartphones,
- social_engineering,
- spending,
- strike,
- surveilance,
- thefuture,
- time,
- toys,
- trains,
- transport,
- uk,
- unions,
- usa,
- visualisation,
- warrenellis,
- wind,
- wtf
Interesting Links for 01-12-2011
- The BBC asks if a family can really live on £40,000 in an article that makes me _really_ angry.
- Landlords Use Computers to Arrive at the Right Rental Fee
- Evidence at the inquiry into journalistic practices shows that some journalists are just scum.
- How to report a strike -- a guide for the British press
- A petition on the Government website to have MP pensions brought into line with the rest of the public sector.
- Fast jet stream winds cannot contribute much renewable energy after all
- Fahrenheit 451 becomes e-book despite author's feelings (Is that the smell of melting plastic?)
- Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps (Android, Blackerry and Nokia affected)
- UK Government opens up more data for free. Met Office, House Prices, Public Transport and more
- Rail line to be reopened between Oxford and Bedford. Nice to see new lines being opened!
- Warren Ellis does an awesome Alan Moore impression
- 11 Celebrities Who Were Secretly Total Badasses
- A brief history of the universe.
- Researcher shows how to "friend" anyone on Facebook within 24 hours (and then steal their identity)
- Boy, 6, Charged With Sexual Assault for Playing Doctor, Parents Sue D.A.
- The 5 Best Toys of All Time. I've played with all of these, and they're awesome.
- HELLO THIS IS LIVEJOURNAL (a spoof of the current password phishing issues)
- 'Aliens on Ice': The Review. Dammit, not playing in Scotland!
- Italian court: Online editors not responsible for reader comments
- The psychological effect that having a high security clearance can have
- Spiritual practice as performance/art. That's something I can live with.
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Difficult to see past Mr Micawber on financial happiness if you* earn an okay salary.
*I nearly wrote if you are fortunate enough to earn an average salary and then I thought - you shouldn't *have* to be fortunate to earn an average salary - just average.
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But the car pictured was a rather newish compact hatchback.
That's basically pissing away money on a nasty-but-fashionable tin box that will be dying after 80,000 miles/five years.
She could spend the same amount of money instead on a 5-6 year old BMW 3 series or similar, rather than a 1-2 year old tin box. A much nicer car, somewhat more expensive to maintain but more reliable and built to last a lot longer. Then she'd get 4-5 years' use out of it instead of 1-2 years. Which works out cheaper in both the short and long run.
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T has a 7 year old Saab which is our 'main' car. It would be very expensive if new and which was nearly 5 when we got it, but because of the build quality we're not at all worried about its age and will run it until either it's no-longer cost-effective.
At my stage in life, I'd honestly rather put the 10 grand into reducing the mortgage, although in many ways that's a symptom of buying in Edinburgh.
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I bought my first new car 3 years ago, and I'm still happy we did. It's a popular make in the local area and the make also has a track record of lasting pretty damn near forever. We'll probably hold onto it that long too...
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And yes, the economy is dependent on expansion, and if we all spent our time paying our debts off rather than buying more shiny things it would pretty much grind to a halt. As it is currently doing. The only question is how long the grinding will take, and how sharp it will be.
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If I had stayed in my first place in Morningside, it was last on the market about 4 years ago for Offers Over £220k, when I lived in it my mortgage repayments were about £200, so if I hadn't moved through three other houses I would still be sitting pretty with minimal outlay. In fact I'd possibly have no mortgage as I bought it in 1989 on a 25 year mortgage so would certainly be into my last three years now. Damn why did I ever move?
Just saying, don't get worked up at an article missing key facts.
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We got a lot of trouble when we bought our flat in London because I wasn't prepared to borrow as much as they wanted to lend up. We ended up with a mortgage that was less than 150% of joint income and they wanted to offer us 4-5 times income...
The day after I bought my first home the interest rates went from 10% to 15%... which taught me a life lesson about interest rates.