Just to wish a Merry Christmas to all (all right, both) my regular readers - Jorge and Beverly - to the less regular visitors - Miguel, Eme and Lumife - and to the other lurkers who come back from time to time without leaving comments, especially Sunnyvale, CA and Lancaster, UK.
Got a new piece of brilliance from Windows today in the office. Windows XP Professional is very good at dealing with most things you throw at it. Give it a corporate network and it will recognise it automatically. Today it decided to no longer recognise a network card. Help said try uninstalling - it wouldn't allow that: "required for boot-up". Then Help said "update drivers from the internet" - bloody brilliant considering that the PC "knows" that internet access is via the corporate network and that there is no network card installed. Doh!
This is just another in a long series of great messages. Try: "USB device error - click here to continue", when the only USB device is the mouse. And how about the MS-DOS classic when booting a PC with no keyboard: "Keyboard Error - Press F1 to continue".
There are some brilliant guys at Microsoft. It's a shame the ones who write the error messages have never manned a help desk.
In my opinion, the best performance in the Presidential election debates so far has been from Miguel Sousa Tavares. It's a shame he's not standing...
Just what Soares needed: a personal attack to make voters sorry for him. I don't think the phrase "Atrasado Mental" was the best judged reaction however. (Try putting that into Google's translator!)
If it comes to a fist fight, my money's on Jeronimo.
"Barroso warns Blair not to act like Sheriff of Nottingham" - Financial Times
Arioplano would have done it better...
So the media, and even the banks, have been provoking mass panic about tomorrow's likely quarter point rise in the Eurozone base rate. Now I can understand journalists not knowing how the markets work, but the banks?
Just a quick summary - market rates rise and fall in accordance with the economists' expectations of Central Bank decisions. Those economists have been expecting a quarter point rise in interest rates for months now. So rates have been creeping ever nearer to 2.25% in anticipation of the ECB decision. Many homeowners and other borrowers are already paying the higher rate, because their revision date has occurred since the market has been reflecting the expected ECB rate increase.
What will be the practical effect of a quarter point rate rise tomorrow: NONE WHATSOEVER. The ECB decision tomorrow is only newsworthy if the rise is not 0.25%.
Admittedly this is not an easy concept for many people, but the media should show some care in what they say. If they can't explain a subject adequately, they shouldn't bring it up!
Having been woken by Netcabo's advertising on SIC Notícias over a long period, claiming that Netcabo is the best ISP in Portugal, I was surprised to hear that the above Diário de Notícias survey stated the opposite.
Shame it's not possible to get the details online. The link doesn't work. Couldn't be because the DN site is hosted on a Portugal Telecom server, could it?
Looking at the practical aspects, what is the percentage of internet users who have ever changed ISP? It's hardly practical to compare your only experience. I have used four ISPs, two of which PT group. I now use Oni ADSL, which is very good and the best of the four. I will shortly be changing to Netcabo, not because I want to but because I have no choice. Watch this space for feedback.
What is Jorge Sampaio playing at?
After ten years of invisibility, he is spending his last three months running round the country, pointing out all that is wrong. What's the point? He's not going to leave a legacy - it's too late.
And then he starts on Higher Education - "we need more graduates". "It's wrong to close degree courses with less than ten students". Both statements are superficial.
Why can't he take his five years off quietly and make way for the Presidential Election Circus.
Graduate Unemployment
Why is there so much graduate unemployment in Portugal? Because the mix of courses is wrong, that's clear. What can the country possibly do with so many Economics graduates, for example? But that's only the surface.
I avoid recruiting new graduates because they are little use to me. They have theoretical knowledge but no skills. Most of them can't even write a letter or draft a memo or report in Portuguese.
In a small company you can't afford the luxury of taking on unskilled staff. What I value is experience.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry is faced with a monumental task in turning the Higher Education establishment away from what they want to teach, towards what employers need. Either that, or send everybody to Hotel and Tourism Schools, so that at least service to tourists is improved. That's quite a safe bet for the future, as climate change is relatively slow...
Following on from my previous post Ota Airport, couldn't resist this one:
"Otário - indivíduo que defende com ardor, mas sem argumentos, a construção do Aeroporto da Ota."
Fool - individual that defends with ardor, but without arguments, the construction of the Airport at Ota.
Translated by Google.
Once a year (October 27) a green edition of "Diário da República" comes across my desk, to signal "National Red-Tape Reduction Day".
It's true that the bureaucratic nightmare of living and doing business in Portugal has lessened over the years, but isn't the extra work of publishing a green edition just another example of red tape?
Wasn't it nice of SIC to dedicate a large section of this evening's news to betandwin.com, the on-line betting site: "Who are Betandwin?"
Lots of questions raised - none answered other than "where" - Vienna, Austria. Didn't know that.
"The site is challenging the State's monopoly." Cue learned comments from Estoril Sol and Santa Casa (taped some weeks ago). The piece failed to point out that neither the casinos nor Santa Casa offer on-line betting on the outcome of individual sporting events.
"The tax man receives nothing." Also unresearched. I see no reason for bets placed from Portugal to be subject to Corporation tax and possibly VAT. The rules exist. It's just a question of finding a way to apply them. No interview with an expert in this area.
What sort of training (or is it the brief?) do these journalists have, to produce such a half-hearted report to be aired on prime time TV? If I were Betandwin, I'd be rubbing my hands with glee. Prime time, free publicity to a large proportion of the Portuguese public (excluding those who were watching the Benfica match on TVI).
Just finished reading The Golden Era by Gore Vidal (in Portuguese). Awful book. Stodge from beginning to end. I received it for Christmas 2004 but, as I could only face a couple of pages a day, only finished it now.
It's about as good a read as (imagine) Nicholas Nickleby translated by Dostoevsky: too many characters, over-elaborate phrases. I was half way through the book before I understood who the major character is. A lot of it is opinionated rubbish, particularly the introduction of the author himself as a minor character who metamorphoses into the star of the anti-climatic final chapter. Even the explanations and justifications in the epilogue fail to compensate the reader for the purgatory of having read that far.
I can't believe that the translator is to blame. I only occasionally found myself translating back into English to find the correct translation for non-sensical phrases, which considering the historical context and obscurity of many references is quite an achievement. She successfully reflected a different style in the epilogue to the main text.
All in all, a complete waste of time.
What is Vodafone thinking of with its new "Mayfly" advert? How does that relate to me, my lifestyle, my mobile phone?
It's time for TMN to seize the advertising initiative. The "We like life as it is" campaign is a valid criticism of Vodafone's advertising philosophy, regardless of the dubious taste of some of TMN's images.
Record profits for Petrogal, taking advantage of the motorist and its dominant market position.
How would the profits look if Galp stations advertised their prices like other companies. When prices started rising, they covered the advertised prices with a picture of an alien, which has been there ever since!
Galp's prices are consistently higher than others. How can they get away with this cover-up? Hasn't Deco, the consumer watchdog, complained?
No point asking what the Government's role is in this - just look at the number of political appointees at Petrogal...
It may be a very serious subject, but I couldn't help remembering this:
The Dead Parrot Sketch
Apparently the tax inspectors will have even more power to fight evasion from 2006. That could be a waste of everybody's time.
Over the last couple of years, the tax offices have issued thousands of assessments dating back years, which they are unable to collect. Some because the assessments were already outside the legal time limit when they were raised. Others due to incompatibility between computer systems - Contribuição Autárquica and IMI are separate systems, requiring duplicate introduction of data by overstretched staff.
The overall effect is to clog the tax offices with taxpayers who wait hours to be told that their assessments will, indeed, be cancelled, one day. Meanwhile, many innocent taxpayers are prevented from carrying on their business due to the services' inability to process cancellations.
Those who praise the performance of Paulo Macedo in beefing up the taxman's powers have clearly never tried to contest an assessment, in person, at a tax office.
Congratulations to Continente supermarkets on their recycling initiative. Aware that most customers later use their free carrier bags for household waste, the company has produced yellow bags for recycling packaging and blue bags for recycling paper.
This is the first post where I have nothing negative to say - better go and lie down for a while...
"...
Oh, as voltas que a gente dá,
Oh, p'ra não sair donde está,
..."
(Paulo Gonzo, Sete Vidas)
Says it all really...
Who's the f***ing idiot at Lusoponte who decided to now remove all the Via Verde systems in Almada except in lanes 1, 2, 14 and 15? THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR THE VOLUME OF TRAFFIC.
How can anybody get away nowadays with giving a lower level of service - aren't services supposed to improve as time goes by?
You can complain here: http://www.lusoponte.pt/contacts.htm. I did.
Looks like José Peseiro can do something right after all: Leave Ricardo on the Bench.
Scolari should take note.
Just out.
If José Sá Fernandes is elected mayor of Lisbon, he will be opening a public inquiry into the reconstruction of the city centre after the 1755 earthquake. It seems the Marquês de Pombal forgot the environmental impact study before authorising reconstruction work....
Strange phenomenon this blogging. Makes me research what I thought I already knew.
I hate those Portuguese football commentators who insist that Liverpool FC's ground is called Anfield Road. As a loyal fan, who has never been there, I was sure the ground is Anfield, always has been. Looked it up on The Stadium Guide, which confirms I'm right except that it has another entry for Anfield Road - the name of the stadium prior to 1892!
So I will continue to rant, especially if the Reds lose to Chelsea.
Can't blame the players
and it's not the coaches' fault
Maybe it's the fans.
I enjoyed the debate on SIC Notícias last night, which reached the conclusion that, so long as public figures behave in an unacceptable fashion, there is no hope for society.
The case in point was Fátima Felgueiras, who has immense popular support despite (allegedly) stealing from the very council that she ran "because everybody has their finger in the pie". No shame. No resignation from office. Worse, she's running for re-election as an independent!
The same principle applies to all aspects of public life. The military, who earn relatively badly, have elaborate schemes to skim off supplies for personal gain, from food to office supplies to appliances and building works on their own houses. They nearly all do it, always have. How can that be condemned if everybody knows and nobody acts?
Then we have traffic laws. Politicians (and lowly policemen) don't keep to the speed limit; abuse their privileges to overtake rush-hour queues on the hard shoulder. This cannot be justified by security considerations. Why should your average citizens worry about compliance if they have bad examples to follow?
The public have to demand ethical behaviour from public figures, not follow their bad examples...
TVI is advertising that they will classify programs, with warnings "to help viewers". Where did I see this advertised? During an interval in "Commando" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, shown at 2 p.m. on Sunday!
According to IMDB, this film is generally rated "Adults Only" - not exactly appropriate for early Sunday afternoon, though TVI on-line considers it only M/12.
If TVI is worried about children seeing inappropriate content, why not use responsible programming, which is likely to be far more effective than a classification system.
It remains to be seen where and when the warnings will appear - permanently on screen, after commercial breaks, in printed and on-line programme listings, or just at the start of each program.
So the Government has delivered on its election promise of English classes for all children from Year 1.
Just a few minor oversights:
And I wont even start on the language knowledge of the teachers who are in the system already....
According to Expresso newspaper, Galp cut off fuel supplies to Lisbon City Council due to non-payment.
One of my suppliers had the same problem with the City. When calling to request payment, they were told, "The 'Santanistas' spent everything".
How is it possible for a City administration to be so irresponsible that they spend to a point that there are no funds for basic necessities such as fuel for the refuse collection fleet?
Budgetary discipline cannot be restricted to Central Government. Tighter control is required over Local Government spending, which is subject to less public scrutiny and therefore open to greater abuse.
It is admirable for a city councillor to come forward and denounce corruption in the planning approval process.
Unfortunately his timing is disastrous - at the end of his elected term, when he knows that his party is not putting him forward for re-election. What is a serious matter appears more an opportunity for petty revenge.
Everybody knows the planning process is frequently corrupt. He should have resigned mid-term and taken evidence with him for the Public Prosecutor.
At least the Prosecutor is taking the matter seriously and has called him to make a statement.
Only the Communists could have so little of relevance to offer voters in the run-up to local and presidential elections.
At their annual fundraising festival in Seixal, they had an exhibition describing the Soviet Union's (apparently praiseworthy) role in defeating Hitler. This is aimed at a public aged mostly 20-35, which has little interest in the 1974 revolution and even less inWW2.
If the PCP is not interested in getting elected, why bother even standing for election?
Surely if the politicians want the voters to take politics seriously, they have to field credible candidates. Francisco Louçã for President!? Enough said!
At least there is still the hope that, with the splintering of the left-wing vote, Cavaco Silva will win the first round outright to cut short the agony.
Anyway, congratulations to Cavaco Silva on his forthcoming victory in the presidential election.
Dear Mr Margolis
I have always appreciated your low-tech approach to the internet in the Financial Times "How to Spend It" magazine. However one of your recent columns left me quite seriously
annoyed.
First of all you complained about web sites without a credible contact address. I could sympathize with you, until I tried to send you an email with my comments. You come up frequently in articles, but no contact details. Even the FT site only has a "Letters to the Editor" option. In the newspaper the columnists publish their email address, but not in the magazine.
I have to admit that this was only a problem once I had reacted to your other comments.
You went on to state that spam is dead. I can assure you it's not. As system administrator for a small company, I estimate that over 90% of all incoming mail is spam, and at least 75% of outgoing mail despite a "business use only" written IT policy. Perhaps my definition of spam differs from yours.
The last straw though was your complaint about the country list on registration pages. "How many visitors do they get from Afghanistan?" "The major countries should be at the top of the list" Let's see. Major countries.... That would certainly make life easier for the Chinese, Filipinos and Indians. We could use population, land
area, birth rate etc. If we search hard enough, we might find some where Britain is still in the top 10.
That obsession with British superiority doesn't get you very far once you cross the channel or the pond.
Then it occurred to me, you don't know how to use that list box! Click on the box and you get the usual 'Afghanistan...' list. Press 'U' 4 times. Hey presto "United Kingdom". That's not too hard is it? Or press 'P' and use the down arrow like we do in Portugal. As far as I am aware, that list is a standard feature provided by Microsoft, so it is natural that everybody should use the same list.
Yours sincerely
Harry
PS. I'm not posting my email here, so you'll have to leave me a comment, which doesn't require you to register, for now.
Couldn't resist passing this on one, which I found here: shut up! i know!
Just Google for the word failure
Got my first hit from a search engine today - msn.co.uk - so I tried finding my posts on other services. Yahoo.co.uk also finds my Ota airport posts. Google does not.
Puts a bit of a dent in my blind faith in Google's superiority, especially as blogger.com is a Google service!
The wildfires rage on all over Portugal. The strangest part is how they start. Fires appear after midnight or in remote locations where nobody would go by accident.
Occasionally the authorities catch suspected arsonists. What are the consequences? None! They are usually released with a caution. I'm not usually in favour of citizens doing justice with their own hands, but here I could make an exception due to the arbitrary and grave threat caused to whole populations by the irresponsibility of a few.
More serious are allegations that the companies hired by the government to provide air support to the firemen have been seen setting fires. These companies invoice per hour flown, so for them the more fires the better. The annual flight time budget was exhausted at the end of July, but the government has no choice but to sign up for more time.
Perhaps this is an area where the government could show a tangible return on investment, buying planes and helicopters, training ground support personnel and providing an alternative for the pilots who leave the Air Force for better paid private sector jobs.
But such a scheme would not suit the private sector lobbyists nor the politicians that benefit from their attentions...
The worst e-mail I received this week was a rant from somebody (anonymous) against the extreme lengths that the police are going to in order to catch drivers who break the law. They have radars, unmarked cars, databases and heavy fines at their disposal, which he thinks unacceptable. He doesn't even dream of the lengths gone to in other countries. Imagine his reaction to investigating accidents properly with a view to prosecuting those responsible for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon. We will get there eventually.
Portugal has a ridiculously high death and injury rate from traffic accidents, not because of the law, but because there continues to be a minimal chance of being caught. Prominent people go on TV regularly to criticise lack of safety, but then go on to say that their larger, safer, more expensive than average cars are a reasonable exception.
The author of the e-mail gave the example of a friend who had to sell his car to pay a fine - perhaps if he received such a high fine he wasn't a fit person to own a car.
Something has to change. If "extreme" policing techniques can help I'm all for it. The self-styled intelligentsia must take note too - what they need is a high profile prosecution of a jet-set figure for a traffic offence.
This source of national shame has to be dealt with, and the sooner the better.
So the political silly season is upon us with the government off on holiday leaving 81 year old Mário Soares as the distraction. It is ludicrous for the Socialists to put him forward as a candidate for a third presidential term. Even Soares can't stand up to Cavaco Silva if he chooses to run, which he probably will once autumn polls confirm his lead.
The problem is finding a Socialist candidate prepared to accept certain defeat. My choice would be António Vitorino, for a credible contest. At least he made a good showing in Brussels. Soares in Strasbourg is hardly headline news. Give him a dignified retirement and save us the embarrassment of watching a tired campaign by one of Portuguese democracy's founding fathers.
Saldanha Sanches, the well known economist and tax expert, continued with his informed and relevant opinions on Thursday night on SIC Noticias.
Irrespective of the real reason for the Finance Minister's resignation, no self-respecting economist can support the government's plans to invest billions in Ota airport and the TGV. His argument is based on profitability. What is the Country's return on those huge investments? Where are the viabilty studies to justify the capital invested.
Even if we discount the capital investment as a short-term contribution to increased employment and to fill the coffers of the powerful construction lobby, will the business activities be able to break even? That argument appears to favour the airport over the TGV.
Unfortunately, time did not allow Saldanha Sanches to develop his ideas to propose "profitable" investments, assuming there are any; he suggested investments to increase exports to improve the balance of payments deficit.
As Portugal's greatest assets are its climate and location, those investments should be in quality tourism, following Spain's lead perhaps, to eliminate the mediocre and make prices more competitive.
Carmona Rodrigues presented his election manifesto for (re-)election as mayor of Lisbon yesterday.
According to RTPN, he declared himself against the new Lisbon airport. They then showed a clip of his news conference to support that assertion, where he actually said that he was against the closure of the current Lisbon airport at Portela.
The construction of alternative airport facilities does not necessarily imply closure of Portela, as I noted in Ota Airport. Why should the RTP journalist choose to mis-quote Carmona Rodrigues? It's probably just the journalistic habit of creating sensation out of nothing, opposing a PSD candidate to the PS government's recent statements. That's a habit we can do without.
SIC Notícias quoted him correctly this morning - congratulations are in order.
Nobody can be indifferent to the bombings this week in London. Once again faceless, misguided fanatics choose to kill and maim at random.
Such actions only serve to harden the resolve of the decision takers. The British public will react similarly. I had to go to London on the night of the Harrods bombing by the IRA. The mood that night and the day after was one of determination not to let terrorists change our way of life, our routines. There was no panic, just as this week.
In the UK, the bombs will make little difference. The British people will continue to support its government despite lies and spin. Unfortunately, there is no credible alternative to New Labour since Labour moved to occupy the Liberal Democrats' place in the political spectrum, pushing them and the Conservatives further to the right.
At least Tony Blair has admitted some of his mistakes, unlike the idiot in the White House who only this week continued to connect Saddam Hussein and Al Quaeda.
Our hearts go out to the families of the dead and wounded, chosen arbitrarily from among the millions of people of all nationalities who use London's public transport each day.
So, the Government's going ahead with investment in the new airport, regardless of the size of the deficit. Must be to create the jobs promised in their election manifesto.
Shame that the new jobs are only likely to reduce unemployment in the Ukraine and Africa.
Wouldn't it be easier (cheaper and quicker) to create a terminal to receive charter flights at the military airport in Montijo?
It will never be possible to close Portela airport in Lisbon. Imagine Spanish or German businessmen flying in for a meeting and spending an hour in a taxi to get from Ota to Lisbon.
Couldn't be any vested interests involved here, could there?
According to SIC Notícias, victims who go to Portuguese police stations will be attended in private rooms, to avoid having to lay bare their ordeal in front of all other people waiting for attention.
Hopefully this concept will be extended to other public services, such as the tax offices, so that people who are victims of the poorly functioning systems and badly trained staff could be saved the ordeal of discussing their private life in front of the waiting throng.
Somehow I think not.....
How can Brisa justify charging to use the A5 motorway beyond Carcavelos? Doesn't the toll paid imply some minimum level of service?
Got a call from Portugal Telecom at the office today. "Can we do a telephone survey of customer satisfaction. It only takes half an hour"! They have got to be joking! 30 minutes to help PT improve its monopoly! Maybe I have nothing better to do during working hours.
We only use them because, until recently, we couldn't get fixed line rental from anywhere else and now it's major hassle to change.
As you would expect from a fixed line operator, the quality of service is fine, but monopoly power comes to the fore when they price that service.
This monopoly serves nobody but the Board of Directors and their politician masters.
Just when F1 was starting to get interesting again, Michelin causes this disaster.
I'd given up watching F1 due to years of Ferrari domination, and was just getting back into it. Don't the teams have contractual obligations? As a sponsor, I'd be seriously angry. Somebody should expect to be sued - hopefully Michelin.
Though not a Ferrari fan, I can't help but support their position. Imagine the reaction of the other teams if the tyre problem was Bridgestone's.
Congratulations to Tiago Monteiro. It's good to see dedication pay off, even in these circumstances.
Once again, Lusoponte has changed the toll booths on the 25 Abril bridge that accept Via Verde, keeping customers guessing as to the best one to use. Why can't they put their differences with Via Verde aside, in the interests of customer service?
Surely the advantageous VAT rate Lusoponte has on its tolls is more than sufficient to make up for the loss involved in paying Via Verde for its service.
He is to thank for finally getting me angry enough about something to start a blog.
Has he no shame? How can he justify not resigning after presenting that report? What did he do at work under the previous PSD government?
Irrespective of the real size of the deficit, either he's incompetent or shown to be completely lacking independence. He should go, or be pushed!
