Absolutely Anything Else

SimCityAT wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

anns wrote:

Rehoming dogs and cats has become a good charitable buisiness. My neighbours in the forest do it and some profit is made somewhere.  There are very few strays in my area now so it must be a good thing. I also know people who have set themselves up as an animal sanctuary in Portugal alongside other work development. It's true that people are animal lovers but also true that there is some  profit to be made.
The animals to be rehomed are advertised on social media and in other places and they can be sent from Hungary to countries like the Netherlands.
It's just under 400€ to purchase a dog or puppy that has been vaccinated , chipped and brought up to a good state of health.
Vet fees are lowered when you are processing a large number of animals and volunteer helpers are used in the caring and delivery process.

Do you know if you can get vet fees insurance for dogs in Hungary?

I can also confirm something like a Golden Retriever puppy with chip, vaccinations and vet papers costs about 100K HUF.

Most of the large insurance companies offer some form of pet insurance.

Yes, here though, specifically in Hungary?

Just did a good search and found that they do

SimCityAT wrote:

Just did a good search and found that they do

Ok, thanks.  Maybe some will put something on about real life experiences with it.  Car insurance is a PITA here, especially if making a claim. Travel insurance is really difficult as well.

BTW, is it my imagination or has everyone gone back to work?  My e-mail has gone bonkers.

Not sure what to say...
Anything that involves money and profit seems a bit more selfish then trying to do a good deed.
I know when I wanted to adopt my Doberman from a rescue , they actually came to my home to make sure we were on the up and up etc.
I had to show vet procedures etc. after adoption or they legally could take the pet back if they felt he was being neglected.
The rescue made sure he had a place to sleep and a big yard to play in they also checked what sort of food was offered to him because anytime anyone makes a buck on a living thing, it's just wrong in my opinion.
Sending a pet miles away it's like , good luck chuck. I got my money so that's all that counts.
There seems to be zero follow up after sending a pet to another country.
God only know what some people are willing to pay for and for what purposes.
I seem to see allot of "people" are willing to spend money on evil deeds, animal sacrifice etc.Just saying, I would never if possible give a pet away without a follow up visit.
Of course it depends on how a person sees a living thing. Lower them themselves or equal in spirit.
As far as animal sacrifice , I'm thinking of pit bull fighting, etc. If someone can buy a dog for a few hundred dollars but groom them and take bets against  or for them then it's a  good deal to spend on the initial purchase.Profits post blood bath are more then  profitable shelling out a few hundred bucks for some live meat is well worth the investment.
Call me paranoid but like I mentioned before, I've seen the post fight results on the side of the road in Hawaii.
Many people do attend these underground fights even in the EU.
As a pure animal lover I would never compromise any animal in the hands of people I didn't know or check up on. Felt bad enough giving old grannie 's cat away to the Budapest cat lady.
The cat lady seemed for real, she was so into every cat in her overcrowded flat.
Anytime anyone can make a buck you know they are cutting corners.
People are not always as kind as they appear , like they say, money talks and you know what walks.
Better to make legit money off your own skin then an animals.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
I had to show vet procedures etc. after adoption or they legally could take the pet back if they felt he was being neglected.
....
Sending a pet miles away it's like , good luck chuck. I got my money so that's all that counts.
There seems to be zero follow up after sending a pet to another country.
.....
Many people do attend these underground fights even in the EU.
As a pure animal lover I would never compromise any animal in the hands of people I didn't know or check up on. Felt bad enough giving old grannie cat away to the Budapest cat lady.
Anytime anyone can make a buck you know they are cutting corners.

I think the idea is that Inter-EU, this is all regulated. Of course it's not.  It's cheap to produce inbred  dogs here,  Romania or Bulgaria, send them to the UK and get 10 x the price. There's a crackdown going on there in the UK.  If they've got vet certificates in Bulgaria then they can get marketed in the UK and even smuggled in - and with that, the risk of rabies.  Here, "pedigree" dogs are 300K HUF and up but "pedigree" doesn't always mean sturdy - all the congenital defects come out.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
I had to show vet procedures etc. after adoption or they legally could take the pet back if they felt he was being neglected.
....
Sending a pet miles away it's like , good luck chuck. I got my money so that's all that counts.
There seems to be zero follow up after sending a pet to another country.
.....
Many people do attend these underground fights even in the EU.
As a pure animal lover I would never compromise any animal in the hands of people I didn't know or check up on. Felt bad enough giving old grannie cat away to the Budapest cat lady.
Anytime anyone can make a buck you know they are cutting corners.

I think the idea is that Inter-EU, this is all regulated. Of course it's not.  It's cheap to produce inbred  dogs here,  Romania or Bulgaria, send them to the UK and get 10 x the price. There's a crackdown going on there in the UK.  If they've got vet certificates in Bulgaria then they can get marketed there.  Pedigree dogs are 300K HUF and up but pedigree doesn't always mean sturdy.

You can tell this subject is bringing out my old animal advocate.
Just spay or neuter and let it go.
These pets are not givin away with legit papers to prove their bloodline so I do wonder why anyone would pay for a pet that can not be shown or breed.
My Doberman was a rescue  but looked very much pure bread.  He was however a tiny bit larger in build then the US AKC standard.
I was told by breeders that I could have 5 breeders look him over and then I could possibly get AKC papers on him.
Not interested, he was just a family member.
To me selling pets is like selling humans, I just don't wish to think about it much.
Once a person recovers their investment in vet bills etc. then they should not try to make money on another living thing.
Way back before I was born my parents had a pure breed German Shepard, a female.
She was over protective of my 2 older sisters.In Conn. in the early 50's not many people had a fence in their front yards. My sisters played all the time in the front yard with the Shepard keeping an eye on them.
One day some old guy walked on the lawn and the dog went nuts, barking and almost biting the guy.
She was just doing her job.
My parents were concerned that she may bite a child  so they gave her away to a friend of theirs who ran a Mink farm.
He was a friend of my father's.
My mom was very upset seeing the mink in cages.
This man gave the Shepard a nice home in the country on a big ranch but my mom was very upset about the mink.
This man offered my mother a mink muff in exchange for the dog, she refused the offer when at the time owning a mink muffler was the height of fashion for a lady.
Mom just wanted to be sure the dog had a good home and never wanted any gain from it.
Proud of my mother, she was a true pure spirit.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
These pets are not given away with legit papers to prove their bloodline so I do wonder why anyone would pay for a pet that can not be shown or bred.

I think it's probably like the idea of having say, a Golden Retriever or Viszla version of Porsche or Ferrari. 

If it's not a hybrid or mongrel it must be better which of course, isn't quite the same doggy wise.  Some dogs have problems with hips, elbows, hearts and eyes. 

I mean if it's a trait that it's friendly, then pure bred means it must be extra friendly or good with kids or intelligent whatever.  Obviously that's a matter of training as much as instinct.

In our Fluffyette discussions, we're homing in on a female dog (smaller) with papers to show it's vaccinated, speyed and chipped.  It's also got to go to dog school. I am not sure how the papers look here as they could easily be forged or dodgy in some way.

I have never seen any sort of "dog papers" for Hungary.
No idea but there must be a version of AKC or similar org. that can tell what to look for.
I could of cared less about having a pure bred dog, just our HU friends had a female Doberman and she was so sweet that we wanted the same breed.
Just got lucky finding my boy at the right time.My sister was with me when I found him and she insisted I was crazy if I didn't scoop him up right then and there.
I almost took him back to the shelter the first night he was in our home, he was 5 1/2 months old and hyper, tried to snip my son's head, made him cry, he was only 9 years old at the time, scared me a bit too.
Just thought it over, he was over excited and we were to meet each other, he went to obedience school as soon as he got the all clear from the vet and after he nearly dislocated my shoulder while on lead.
Same shoulder that bothers me now, he is long gone but my pain is still here!
Every breed is different for training, Dobermans are smart but stubborn, too smart they think they can get away with murder.  They show you exactly what you want to see then 5 mins. later act like they have no clue, do it their own way.
Had him in 2 different classes,one was 2 months long and the other 6 weeks long. Once a week in group with 5 days of training at home for 2 hours a day, suppose to of been 3 hours but I got lazy.
What was odd though in class a women was a breeder and told me she would vouch my dog was pure breed and she could hook me up with 4 other breeders so I could get official AKC papers on my boy.Not interested at all but guess for a buck some people will do anything.
She said without the papers he could compete in obedience but not be shown as a stud.
My cousin in Ga. has 2 dogs, female that compete in the Amazing Dog Purina Dog Challenge, one of her girls has so many ribbons and awards it's not funny. Every week she has another show to do and loves it.
She is not breeding her girls at least not for now so not making any money off of all that work. Just enjoys it, her husband shows one dog and she works the other. Costs her a small fortune to travel all over , hotels etc.Those 2 dogs are their children.
She even has a professional studio do their family pictures with the dogs in more photos then she or her husband are in!
Crazy, must run in the family.
Yes some pure breeds have issues because of bad breeding practices, profit before safety, people breeding brothers and sisters etc.

My first cousins grandson is 18, just went off to start his first year of college.
3 days ago he nearly died from a hereditary issue called Meckel's Diuevticulum. Some say it isn't hereditary but it is, even his doc said it was.
Ok, now going home today from hospital.
My uncle had this same issue and had literally feet of his insides  removed over several operations.
My 3rd cousins doctor at Davis Medical center said the last case they had was in 1937! It's that rare.
My mom said my father's family in a small area of Poland were land owners ages ago and intermarried to keep the wealth in the family, interbreed too much or something like that.
Weird and creepy, almost like the "Windsors" hope not, just too odd.
Poor cousin though just hit him out of the blue, last case in our family was 3 generations back I think although one cousin in Conn. has had several operations for his intestines as well. can't eat much. Always buying the latest cooking gadget but not able to eat anything.
It's good to mix up the blood sometimes and many breeders are too lazy or too cheap to find a new source for the bloodline.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I have never seen any sort of "dog papers" for Hungary.
No idea but there must be a version of AKC or similar org. that can tell what to look for.
.....
My mom said my father's family in a small area of Poland were land owners ages ago and intermarried to keep the wealth in the family, interbreed too much or something like that.
Weird and creepy, almost like the "Windsors" hope not, just too odd.
Poor cousin though just hit him out of the blue, last case in our family was 3 generations back I think although one cousin in Conn. has had several operations for his intestines as well. can't eat much. Always buying the latest cooking gadget but not able to eat anything.
It's good to mix up the blood sometimes and many breeders are too lazy or too cheap to find a new source for the bloodline.

There must be some papers for dogs. I am not really  interested in breeding but want to make sure the thing is healthy.  Don't want to get hit for vets bills.  Mrs Fluffy's cousin's dog was very large, looked like a St Bernard.  One day, it just dropped dead running about in the garden.  Apparently it had a heart condition and it was only about 6 years old.  Best way really as it'd have cost a fortune to get fixed medically.

My mother has diverticulitis but it only flares up now and then.  She's got so many other things wrong with her, it seems almost insignificant even though it's quite painful.  I don't know about Meckel's version but reading from Wikipedia, it's not that unusual but the complications can be severe.

Anyway, the Windsors are hopelessly interbred. You only have to look at the exaggerated features of Charles, less so his sons William and Harry.  All of them are already bald even at a relatively young age so they must have plenty of testosterone going through them.

Btw, Captain Picard in Star Trek TNG was bald so they hadn't even solved it centuries into the future.

But I digress....   

Princess Di was even related to Charlie relatively distantly.  Phil I think was related to Liz as well via some obscure relations with the King of Greece. But anyway, at least Charles's two boys marrying out of the very small European gene pool has to be a great idea. Couldn't imagine Kate Middleton and Meghan Sparkle being in any way related to them.   

But overall, I'm surprised the Royals aren't all impaired in some way.   I suppose there must be some good stuff in their DNA as Liz and Phil are in their 90s so they are either technology marvels, replaced by clones or robots or vampires or they've struck gold and got the long life gene.

I'm favouring slightly the vampire option* and giving slightly less odds on the long life gene.



*  Ok, it's a cheap joke,  guilty. God Save The Queen.

Maybe they take a daily dose of adrenochrome to stay alive for so long?
Hope not! Just too horrid to think of.
I saw somewhere that MM and Kate are related to the Windor's but several generations back. MM has the line through her father.
All O neg blood if reports are true.
I know Mr Fluffy has that "brand" as I do, wonder if we are from a lost tribe? No just being silly.
I thought the 2 princes were cute when they were young but dang, not any longer, either the DNA went bad or their lifestyle is stressful because they both look allot older then they should for their ages.
At least they don't sport the Habsburg Jaw!
Sorry bout your mom, it's not easy getting older and seeing yourself have health issues.
What can we do though? Not much.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Maybe they take a daily dose of adrenochrome to stay alive for so long?
Hope not! Just too horrid to think of.
I saw somewhere that MM and Kate are related to the Windor's but several generations back. MM has the line through her father.
All O neg blood if reports are true.
I know Mr Fluffy has that "brand" as I do, wonder if we are from a lost tribe? No just being silly.
I thought the 2 princes were cute when they were young but dang, not any longer, either the DNA went bad or their lifestyle is stressful because they both look allot older then they should for their ages.
At least they don't sport the Habsburg Jaw!
Sorry bout your mom, it's not easy getting older and seeing yourself have health issues.
What can we do though? Not much.

Not sure what you mean by "brand".  If I was from a lost tribe, I can only hope it's an interesting one preferably with alien DNA.

I tell Mrs Fluffy that she always looks more elegant as she ages.  I am not sure what platitudes I'd like to applied to myself by others.   

My  Mum is really old now so a few things wrong is inevitable but her quality of life is dropping rapidly.  I can see as it grinds, it would become just a case of giving up.  Very sad but understandable. 

In the USA - when I read about say film stars -  a lot of people seem to be keen on explaining their ancestry but I wondered why?   Some kind of anchor in an unstable world? 

In my own country, I don't think people care that much although many of us have long - centuries -  traceable ancestries.

"Brand" was my silly way of explaining the types of blood groups.
A B AB and O pos or neg.
Dogs can be blood donors but actually I am not even sure if they have their own blood groups or not.
I'll have to look into that.Of course they can only donate to other dogs.
Again, sorry your mom isn't feeling her best. It's hard to see a loved one not feeling well.

I think it is sort of true about people looking for something stable in a unstable world.
In the US many people don't know much about the last few generations of their families, people move and lose touch with others.
Seems with the world changing so much and people moving all over the world this will only increase in the populations.
People will not longer feel part of a group, could be good and it could be bad.
I've mentioned allot about finding my family in these past 5 years from my dad side.
Way too many people to keep up with.
If we had not lost contact and moved to Ca. from Conn. i would of had about 12 male first cousins if not more.
hard to think about doing holidays etc., with so many people.
Maybe my dating pool would of been larger though, so many cousins do have friends.
At least they would of cleared off the riff raft when my sisters and I were teens and dating.
The cousins I've met so far have really strong personalities, makes me fell like a marsh mellow next to them.
Would of been rough maybe having so many bossy older brothers around after all.Hard enough to of had 2 bossy older sisters.

Had to check up on dog blood typing.
Seems they have 8 different blood groups with DEA 1.1 positive being the most common and a universal recipient.
DEA 1.1 Negative is like O neg. in humans, the universal donor.
German Shepards, Greyhounds and Dobermans are DEA 1.1 - universal donors.
Now I know why I was once asked if my dog was a blood donor...
Interesting, learn something new everyday.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

"Brand" was my silly way of explaining the types of blood groups.
A B AB and O pos or neg.
Dogs can be blood donors but actually I am not even sure if they have their own blood groups or not.
I'll have to look into that.Of course they can only donate to other dogs.
Again, sorry your mom isn't feeling her best. It's hard to see a loved one not feeling well.

Oh, if we were branded, i.e. tribal on blood groups, I'd be in the largest one but Mrs Fluffy would be in one of the less common but in great demand - she's compatible with just about everyone including me.  Rather lucky!

When you are in the military, you write your blood group on your kit just in case you stub your toe or someone stubs it for you.

Dogs do have  blood groups. I looked this up once as it was question in a quiz on the radio.   Don't remember the details

My mother has her good days and her bad days but she's very obviously declining slowly.   This is what I noticed with people. It starts a bit here, then a bit there, then a complication of another thing, then another and eventually they all coalesce into some dominant problem which then starts the real decline.  Most people seem to decline slowly over years rather than drop dead in days or months.   

Basically she's worn out her body.   It's no surprise but she's had an adventurous life.  It's her birthday next Monday  so I think she'll make it to then.   I only hope we can keep enough interest for her to keep going and that she's up for it. Her mind is in good shape mostly - she fully realises that there's the final destination on the horizon. 

I find the doctors a bit weird.   They seem to be stalling on her medical treatment as they know she's not going to survive anything invasive.  In a way, it gives hope or removes some concerns but some Docs are better than others at acting.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I think it is sort of true about people looking for something stable in a unstable world.
In the US many people don't know much about the last few generations of their families, people move and lose touch with others.
Seems with the world changing so much and people moving all over the world this will only increase in the populations.
People will not longer feel part of a group, could be good and it could be bad.
I've mentioned allot about finding my family in these past 5 years from my dad side.
Way too many people to keep up with.
If we had not lost contact and moved to Ca. from Conn. i would of had about 12 male first cousins if not more.
hard to think about doing holidays etc., with so many people.
Maybe my dating pool would of been larger though, so many cousins do have friends.
At least they would of cleared off the riff raft when my sisters and I were teens and dating.
The cousins I've met so far have really strong personalities, makes me fell like a marsh mellow next to them.
Would of been rough maybe having so many bossy older brothers around after all.Hard enough to of had 2 bossy older sisters.

I can see that it would be hard to keep in contact but these days, we've got FB, e-mail, cheap airlines and so on.  The world is electronically smaller.  And in other ways, the smaller world will mean a dilution somewhat of identity I suppose but also an flattening out across cultures and countries which might be a good thing for cultural harmony.

In my  own case, my HU kids have a foot in both HU and UK worlds but they have stronger roots here of course as this is where they have been brought up.  But I think the real issue is the glue of the generations before.  Like my parents are glue to cousins but when they disappear the links will get more distant, especially if  FB is no longer in vogue (I'm definitely not in it) and the social gatherings reduce as the aunts and uncles disappear.  My Dad for example is the only one of his siblings left.  I have no idea how some cousins could be contactable. I presume my own siblings are in FB and remain "connected".

My Mum was an only child and we've completely lost that side of her family - all dearly departed.

I'd like to wish your mum a very Happy upcoming Birthday!
Not one to make a fuss about them but after a certain age every one is a blessing.
Would be nice if you could pop over and see her.
I really wish NV was a close as the UK is, I would visit every 2 months or so , I just dislike the long time spent up in the air and the 9 hour time difference.
Not too horrible, could be worst I suppose. Some HU guys we know were here last month for only 2 weeks, flew from Hawaii with a overnight lay over, 12 hours difference and a world away.
We got a message they were in HU and we were thinking of hooking up with them but naw, decided not to, been over 25 years since we last saw them so guess we have grown apart after all.
These were my husband's friends, my old friends I would visit even if 50 years had gone by but that's me.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I'd like to wish your mum a very Happy upcoming Birthday!
Not one to make a fuss about them but after a certain age every one is a blessing.
Would be nice if you could pop over and see her.
I really wish NV was a close as the UK is, I would visit every 2 months or so , I just dislike the long time spent up in the air and the 9 hour time difference.
Not too horrible, could be worst I suppose. Some HU guys we know were here last month for only 2 weeks, flew from Hawaii with a overnight lay over, 12 hours difference and a world away.
We got a message they were in HU and we were thinking of hooking up with them but naw, decided not to, been over 25 years since we last saw them so guess we have grown apart after all.
These were my husband's friends, my old friends I would visit even if 50 years had gone by but that's me.

THanks for wishing my Mum Happy Birthday.  Strangely enough I got an e-mail from her so she cannot be in that bad a shape just now.  Probably a bit of interest as many people are going to see her - perhaps 30 in total. She's a silver surfer on the Internet.  She struggles to see the keyboard. Probably took her 2h to type it.  Shame!

But yes, UK is very accessible - it's relatively an important country and so many airlines fly there for the hub airports. Everyone has flights going there. Same for Germany but I'd say less so for France, Spain or Italy (as hub airports). 

Getting to Heathrow is easy - if I look on say Swiss, there's probably a choice of 30-40 routings to there alone.  On the other hand, try going somewhere a bit more obscure like Barra or Benbecula (they are Scottish Islands) then you are likely to be really out of luck.

There are some people where years seem to not matter and others where the friends or even relatives seem like strangers.  No wonder really, all those different experiences changes people for the better and I can think of a couple of people where it's changed them for the worse. Sometimes it's better to be further away - you can choose your friends but not your relatives!

So true, a few years back my BFF took a long 6 hour bus ride from Ca to Vegas to visit with me for only 24 hours.
She just didn't feel like driving that far alone.
We met her at the bus depot and for about 5 seconds I was like "who is that"? But as soon as our eyes met we went back in time and had a blast.
Our rotten luck, (made us laugh because sometimes things never work out right no matter what) we finally are ,"adults" or so our ID's say, so we sat down in Main St. Station casino at the bar( I never go to bars) and ordered 2 of her fave drinks, Budweiser beer.
They barkeeper was busy , gave us our order and walked away . We realized our 2 beers were frozen solid .
Couldn't even drink them.
No matter, we polished off a 24 pack later in the hotel room. Well, I forced myself to have 3 or 4 of them and she handled the rest!
We later went to another old school mates home in Vegas where she set up a party with snacks , talked ,laughed and had one of the best times ever until we left at 5 am.
Had so much fun that we repeated it the next time I was in Vegas.
This time however  our mutual friend got nuts and we are done with her. Think she has her own issues since she is in a wheelchair, just got way to nasty with us.
She and her husband just inherited a house from his mom and she was flush with cash, she just acted a bit too big for her shoes, or should I be mean and say slippers?
You're right some people just change for the worst when either money or time passes by.
My next trip to the states it will be my turn to make the effort to visit her in Ca.
Had so many crazy adventures with her  that no matter how many years pass we will always enjoy each other's co. Even my husband gets a bit jealous as did I think our mutual friend. some people just click and other don't no matter how much you force it.
We were together in school when 40 to 50 low riders wanted to beat the two of us up, we talked ourselves out of a beat down, she was with me when I nearly blew up my apt. building on my birthday while trying to light my old oven. Visited me many times in Hollywood when I lived with my older sister. Was with me when the perverts would follow us while just out sight seeing, with me when my "gay" boyfriend had us over for a slumber party. We were both very high, he wasn't even aware how high we were. So insane really he was sweet but a "closet case" we were 17 and he was 21 but lived near Beverly Hills in his parents beautiful home. He gave us both vintage sleeping gowns to wear and he feed us M&M candies while reading us fairy tales in bed, he sat on a big chair like a parent.
Had to be high to even let that happen!
Yes, she is one of the funniest people I have ever met and that is a rare thing to find someone who can make you laugh when you really wish to cry.
I realize my BFF is probably a functioning alcoholic but hey, no one is perfect!

I mentioned awhile back that we went into the HU SS offices to file my retirement paperwork( got early retirement before 66)
Had all original official papers with me.
The office worker made copies of everything and said we'd here back between 45 and 90 days.
Am filing to get a retirement travel pass, the SS office handles it for BKK.
First need approval from the home HU SS office.
Ok, so yesterday they finally write me back, in typical Hungarian fashion  they now want the original papers, what their own employee copied was not good enough,they want to send the original papers from the US upstairs to who ever actually gives out the papers for BKK.
Sort of what I expected really, if not one thing then it would be another from them.
Sort of get the feeling they enjoy stalling people.
Maybe it will be sorted out before I actually turn 66 in a few years!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.......
Ok, so yesterday they finally write me back, in typical Hungarian fashion  they now want the original papers, what their own employee copied was not good enough,they want to send the original papers from the US upstairs to who ever actually gives out the papers for BKK.
Sort of what I expected really, if not one thing then it would be another from them.
Sort of get the feeling they enjoy stalling people.
Maybe it will be sorted out before I actually turn 66 in a few years!

Yup, not unusual.  Had similar issues with papers not being sufficient even though they've seen the originals.  But it occurs all over the place, not just hereabouts. 

I was once told by someone in another country that my passport was not proof of identity!  Incredible.  If I had been sitting on a chair, I'd have fallen off.   There then ensued a conversation about what it was for. 

After some time rolling on the floor laughing, I regained my composure and realised the person was working to a script and did not have passport on their list of acceptable documents.   

They liked my driving license though. 

I said next time I see one of their passport officials I'll show them my driving license instead and refer them to Ms X at the  SNAFU Department of their government.

Never mind bureaucracy, it's idiocracy.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...
I realize my BFF is probably a functioning alcoholic but hey, no one is perfect!

Oh, we have someone in the wider family who is alcohol addicted.  He's superficially a pretty good guy but when he gets smashed he's still functioning but he's unable to keep his feelings under control and to me, it looks like depression.  2 bottles of wine a day plus unlimited quantities at the weekend - 8 bottles or more a day.  It's really a dysfunctional mind underneath.  He realises now he's killing himself but is unable to stop. Like slow motion suicide. 

To get off the booze, the medics want him in their hospital for a minimum of 2 weeks.  He's lost his very professional job due to heavy boozing.  I think he's going to have to get into a dry environment and away from his weird relatives and move away from them.  They are all part of it.

Mental health problem really.

One thing i've learned in 63 years is never trust anyone who doesn't take a nip once in awhile!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

One thing i've learned in 63 years is never trust anyone who doesn't take a nip once in awhile!

Or the person with the tidy/empty desk....every time I see The Donald on TV, he's got an empty desk!  No work to do Donny?  Or a paperless office?  It's a left wing plot!

(I have worked in places where empty desks were a requirement - end of each day, all the papers etc had to go in the desk drawers and locked).

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

One thing i've learned in 63 years is never trust anyone who doesn't take a nip once in awhile!

I am not sure about taking a nip once in a while. Surely kidnapping is still a crime?

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

One thing i've learned in 63 years is never trust anyone who doesn't take a nip once in awhile!

(I have worked in places where empty desks were a requirement - end of each day, all the papers etc had to go in the desk drawers and locked).

Yes, well I have worked in places where the desk drawer is not good enough, it has to go into a locked and secured cabinet or firesafe and so on. I know what you are on about. And every document has to be in a document register, at that time on paper. I have had UK EYES B, SWISS EYES ONLY on a document wot I wrote and could not get a copy of it for revision, out of central store, as I was not on the Need to Know list of authorised readers. I wrote the bloody thing but I didn't need to know what was in it, apparently. This made it somewhat hard to correct a few minor typos. Well OK I had gravity going in the wrong direction but all it needed was an inverse matrix et son oncle s'apelle Róbert.

Clear Desk Policy is fairly standard in the financial audit industry also. It is not about being tidy, it is making sure you have finished, or at the least, have a good idea where to start the following morning. My missus worked as a bank teller and bank manager for many years, you balance up at the end of each day, you clear your till. Sometimes you are 1000 pounds over or under, that is easy to find, that is a missed transaction somewhere. Sometimes you are 596.73 over or under, that is really hard to find, as it is unlikely you have a transaction for 596.73. You probably have one for 978.67 and another for  330.104 and while she tries to find those two her tea is getting cold.

It has really very little to do with office work. I clear my workbench after I do some woodwork or metalwork, put my tools away, oil them and grease them and clean them and sweep the mulyhegy of sawdust and swarf. CLEARING UP IS PART OF THE JOB. That is what my granddad taught me and that is how it should be. CLEARING UP IS PART OF THE JOB.

When I worked in pubs, or on the milk round when I was a teenager, you balanced the books each morning (on the milk) or evening (in the pub), you would count the till and balance the books. If it were a few pennies over or under wasn't a big deal, if you were ten or twenty out it was a big deal. I was, with the rest of the bar staff, accused of stealing twenty pounds from the till. I had to calm that one down. It was a new landlord. Look, (landlady's name removed) we all work here second jobs to bring in some extra income. Do you think that the girls here or me are going to take twenty quid, jeapordise our main jobs with a criminal record for theft, for twenty quid? Do you think maybe it has fallen down the back of the till? We searched everywhere for it, no sign of this twenty quid. Now the only reason she knew it was missing is because we did, what we always did, balance the books at the end of the night. Her husband comes rolling home after a boy's day out and said oh, yeah, I took twenty quid from the till. And that was not an excuse to get us off the hook. Paul, next time, please just leave a note an IOU in the till saying there is twenty quid missing, IOU twenty quid. It doesn't matter that you have it and there was not a cash machine nearby, you are entitled to take the money, just leave an IOU for it will you so we can balance the books?

And you can imagine the apologies the bar staff got for the j'accuse. None.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

One thing i've learned in 63 years is never trust anyone who doesn't take a nip once in awhile!

(I have worked in places where empty desks were a requirement - end of each day, all the papers etc had to go in the desk drawers and locked).

Yes, well I have worked in places where the desk drawer is not good enough, it has to go into a locked and secured cabinet or firesafe and so on. I know what you are on about. And every document has to be in a document register, at that time on paper. I have had UK EYES B, SWISS EYES ONLY on a document wot I wrote and could not get a copy of it for revision, out of central store, as I was not on the Need to Know list of authorised readers....

Where's my cat and where are the pigeons?  Ah here, ......clean desks reminds me of my days in passive radar detection (and recognition).   

I regularly work in places where nothing on paper can leave the premises and only a few people can see the paperwork.   

Strangely they always let me take my laptop in  and out AND my smart phone.  Bit daft really.   But I would have to insist on taking my laptop home and to the office. 

I mean, really, how else am I going to watch You Tube silly cat or old car restorations videos or chat on Skype to my relatives and friends while in the office?

fluffy2560 wrote:

Strangely they always let me take my laptop in  and out AND my smart phone.

The best one I heard, at the gate at where I worked in defence they would do occasional checks on your briefcase. I am pretty sure this is true but only heard it from my dad (who worked there, the whole family worked there, it was a defence town). A chap he worked with got his briefcase searched and found nothing, said to the security the Mod Plod oh I suppose you want to check my Thermos flask. Thank you sir, we had not thought of that. Pours out his tea onto the ground, checks, "No, sir, that seems to be clear. Have a good morning."

Like any form of security, actually ignorance is a deterrent. It is very easy to get through any security system when you know it from the inside. I know that the original description of Enigma is "it is assumed that the enemy has the machine", that is the basis of public key cryptography (although Enigma was private key cryptography, the principle still holds, assume the enemy has the machine, the difference with public key cryptography is it is bloody hard even when you do have the machine). Ignorance is quite a good deterrent, but nothing is perfect.ű

Since security guards are usually paid minimum wage you can expect them to be stupid and lazy. It is not their fault. It just is basic economics that it is better to hire idiots than clever people, and suffer the losses as they come. It does not take an artful dodger to outwit a security guard. I always pay at the till and regularly the little shopping cart goes beep beep etc I just keep on going. I have the receipts, I know I have paid for it, why should I stop? Not once has a security guard challenged me. Not in Hungary, not in the UK, not in the USA. I know I have paid for it, their job to show I have not. If you pay for minimum wage they will not bother. If it were Frank Bruno or Muhammad Ali on security I might have second thoughts.
,
The way we used to do it was to put stuff in the boot of the car, all declared go to the security with the blue for what we are taking out, do you want to check the boot it is on the form? No you are OK off you go... thanks officer. We actually had a 76mm course corrected shell in the back of the car once, well it was in a box but getting late so we could not be bothered to take it through the magazine, it spent all weekend under the stairs while we had a party but we got it safely back Monday morning before anyone noticed. I can't remember why we took it out but the managers were not working weekends and would start late on Mondays or something whereas us skivvies started early so we wanted it early for Monday morning to do some tests on it or something, easier to take it out Friday afternoon and keep a live round in your stair cupboard rather than having to do it all monday morning.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Strangely they always let me take my laptop in  and out AND my smart phone.

The best one I heard, at the gate at where I worked in defence they would do occasional checks on your briefcase. I am pretty sure this is true but only heard it from my dad (who worked there, the whole family worked there, it was a defence town). A chap he worked with got his briefcase searched and found nothing, said to the security the Mod Plod oh I suppose you want to check my Thermos flask. Thank you sir, we had not thought of that. Pours out his tea onto the ground, checks, "No, sir, that seems to be clear. Have a good morning."

I have been to jobs where the offices have armed guards often in military uniforms - sometimes in countries with conscription.  They are often rather uninterested in what you are doing and why.  They are there reluctantly.   

The worst ones I ever encountered were the Marines at a US Embassy.  They were robots even if non-conscripted.  It doesn't matter how friendly you are, you are on the other side of the glass and therefore you are - apparently - an enemy unworthy of even the lightest touch of politeness. 

It got so bad going there, we would only meet with their people off their site, usually in a Turkish coffee shop/restaurant down the street.

I've also been in a few British Embassies and they were really rather snotty and superior rather than being like robots.  There's a real kind of "class" issue with those people. Shocking really but that's really a feature of some parts of the UK political and civil service system.   

SimonTrew wrote:

Like any form of security, actually ignorance is a deterrent. It is very easy to get through any security system when you know it from the inside. I know that the original description of Enigma is "it is assumed that the enemy has the machine", that is the basis of public key cryptography (although Enigma was private key cryptography, the principle still holds, assume the enemy has the machine, the difference with public key cryptography is it is bloody hard even when you do have the machine). Ignorance is quite a good deterrent, but nothing is perfect.

It's still the same now in a different scale - just make it really expensive in processing power to break the encryption and therefore make it uneconomic or irrelevant.  Lucky for us way back in the day that there were smart enough people around to populate Bletchley Park in the Enigma days.   I've never been to the museum there but I think it would be very interesting.
,

SimonTrew wrote:

......76mm course corrected shell in the back of the car once, well it was in a box but getting late so we could not be bothered ....

Could you hear the sea if you held it up to your ear?

fluffy2560 wrote:

reminds me of my days in passive radar detection (and recognition).

Passive radar is so passé. Nowadays we just track them by GPS, that is, George's Passive Surveillance.

Big Brother is watching you.

Be fun to see what happens with the cockle shell fight in the Bay of Biscay. The French by decree are only allowed to harvest the cockles from October until March. The British under well basically the Common Fisheries Policy have gone in and are not under that accord, so it is rather another five day battle really, the British are calling on the help of the Royal Navy, which considering both France and the UK are part of NATO - I think even Hungary is now part of NATO although it lost its sea coast in 1920 under some kind of treaty, Trianon I think, but it is the dirtiest swearword in Hungarian so I imagine that will be blanked out.

It is a victory for the British and this has not worked its way out yet. It is patently a victory for the British saying we can fish, you can't, the Common Fisheries Policy is a nonsense. That is maybe not what it set out to be (I bet it was although they say it was not) but since Spaniards are allowed to take all our fish and keep British fishermen in dock with no work to do, I do think it is a political action, even if they are just trying to make a living. Spaniards are constantly coming up the west coast and into the Irish Sea depleting British and Irish fish stocks under the CAF, and the Common Agricultural Policy is no better. Fish in your own waters, if you have any. the CAF and the CAP have done nothing but harm to British agriculture and fishery. You may not have noticed but we are surrounded by sea, but it is every other European nation including the French that come and fish in our waters.

But then I am not a piscator, just a pistacor.

There was a reason I voted "leave", and this is it.  Of itself it is trivial, but let us see what happens. The merchant navy have asked for the Royal Navy's protection, now let us see what happens. It is silly season until the politicians get their arses on their chairs and start payiing themselves from our taxes. Oh, they do already, I forgot.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, the Windsors are hopelessly interbred.

Surely you mean the House of  Saxe-Coburg and Gotha? They only changed it to Windsor in 1917. And have you ever noticed that Tsar Nicholas or Russia, the one that got copped in 1920, bears a striking resemblance to Edward VII? That may have been because they were second cousins.

They are all inbred, of course they are. Wow, now Kate Middleton, from upper middle class stock, might happen to be Queen after Charles dies. I would hardly rate her as a commoner. Her father is an Earl.

Now her Maj I have a lot of respect for, she has done what she said in 1953, every day she has served her country through thick and thin and that is what she promised to the country and promised to God and I have no truck against her. The rest of them are just timewasters and I don't want them up against the guillotine but go and get a proper job. Yeah, they served in the army or navy, William served in the Army but was not allowed near the front in case he got killed well that is not serving is it. My missus can kill me every day with her dodgy sparks but I don't get a medal for it. Keep the Queen, otherwise how else are we going to call 'heads' or 'tails', but get rid of the rest of them time wasting bunch of losers.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyway, the Windsors are hopelessly interbred.

Surely you mean the House of  Saxe-Coburg and Gotha? They only changed it to Windsor in 1917. And have you ever noticed that Tsar Nicholas or Russia, the one that got copped in 1920, bears a striking resemblance to Edward VII? That may have been because they were second cousins.

They are all inbred, of course they are. Phil the Greek, the Duke of Edinburgh, was born in Corfu and somehow went through the French royal family which was supposed to be got rid of some time in 1791. Now Kate Middleton, from upper middle class stock, might happen to be Queen after Charles dies. I would hardly rate her as a commoner. Her father is an Earl. Lady Diana Spencer, a "commoner", her father was an Earl. I need not multiply examples.

Now her Maj I have a lot of respect for, she has done what she said in 1953, every day she has served her country through thick and thin and that is what she promised to the country and promised to God and I have no truck against her. The rest of them are just timewasters and I don't want them up against the guillotine but go and get a proper job.

Yeah, they served in the army or navy, William served in the Army but was not allowed near the front in case he got killed well that is not serving is it. My missus can kill me every day with her dodgy sparks but I don't get a medal for it. Keep the Queen, otherwise how else are we going to call 'heads' or 'tails', but get rid of the rest of them time wasting bunch of losers. Prince Andresiw can fly a helicopter. So what? I wanted to fly a helicopter, I can do it I am not talking on the computer at home but in proper simulation software wot I wrote in a physical simulation with loads of hydraulics and stuff. Do you think they let me up in a helicopter? Fat chance. But if you are Prince Andrew you can. Do you think they have to do five years of aeronatic theory and meteorological charts and so on? Nah, fuck, stick him up in a chopper and his mate on the right will drive the thing so he gets another gong. Complete waste of time, should have dropped him out without a parachute.

SimonTrew wrote:

....., the British are calling on the help of the Royal Navy, which considering both France and the UK are part of NATO - I think even Hungary is now part of NATO although it lost its sea coast in 1920 under some kind of treaty, Trianon I think, but it is the dirtiest swearword in Hungarian so I imagine that will be blanked out.

It is a victory for the British and this has not worked its way out yet. It is patently a victory for the British saying we can fish, you can't, the Common Fisheries Policy is a nonsense. ..... You may not have noticed but we are surrounded by sea, but it is every other European nation including the French that come and fish in our waters.

There was a reason I voted "leave", and this is it.  Of itself it is trivial, but let us see what happens. The merchant navy have asked for the Royal Navy's protection, now let us see what happens. It is silly season until the politicians get their arses on their chairs and start payiing themselves from our taxes. Oh, they do already, I forgot.

France wasn't a member of NATO for years.  It belonged to the political wing but not the military wing.  However, they've been back for a while now.

The French fishermen need to refer to their government.  The British were not doing anything illegal.  Not a question of who has the mussels or can dish out a few squid for protection.  The British haven't whelked on any deal. Any reports that this wasn't legit fishing are just red herrings.

I heard a phone in on the radio yesterday and apparently the British sell fishing licenses and quotas like shares which anyone can buy, including foreigners.  Foreign trawlers then rent licenses or quotas and can therefore fish in British waters.   It was a surprise to me.  Brexit will - apparently
- make no difference to that system whatsoever.   According to one caller, there's a Dutch trawler that owns 40% of all the quotas which they rent out.  Don't know the truth of that but it must be verifiable.

Never mention Trianon in a favourable way as the Hungarians have never accepted it.  They were sold down the river by the French in cahoots with Romania.  The British opposed it so we get some points for that.   There's also that small problem of the Austro-Hungarian empire.  I was drinking beer the other day and said cheers with Mrs Fluffy we did the clink of glasses but the others wouldn't do it.  I understand it of course but I thought it had gone out of vogue.

SimonTrew wrote:

They are all inbred, of course they are. Wow, now Kate Middleton, from upper middle class stock, might happen to be Queen after Charles dies. I would hardly rate her as a commoner. Her father is an Earl.

I am pretty sure you will find that he is not an Earl. I think you are thinking of Lady Di, her father was an Earl (John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer)

SimonTrew wrote:

....Now her Maj I have a lot of respect for, she has done what she said in 1953, every day she has served her country through thick and thin and that is what she promised to the country and promised to God and I have no truck against her. The rest of them are just timewasters and I don't want them up against the guillotine but go and get a proper job.
....

I used to criticise them as well and wanted them to be out of a job but I've come to realise that however stupid the system might be, there's no way we want an elected head of state who behaves like a total nutter with random policies and eccentric destabilising actions. 

Yes, we know who I mean*.

Out of anyone who could be President of the UK, who could you choose?   Has to be a national treasure.  The only person I can think of right now is Lenny Henry (he's in my mind as it's his 60th birthday - was a BBC news article on him).   Maybe Prof Hawking but he's unfortunately dead.  Maybe Stephen Fry.    Difficult.

Liz has kept it together forever and deserves our respect as you say.


* I am of course referring to Saparmurat Niyazov, former President of Turkmenistan.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

...the difference with public key cryptography is it is bloody hard even when you do have the machine). Ignorance is quite a good deterrent, but nothing is perfect.

It's still the same now in a different scale - just make it really expensive in processing power to break the encryption and therefore make it uneconomic or irrelevant.  Lucky for us way back in the day that there were smart enough people around to populate Bletchley Park in the Enigma days.   I've never been to the museum there but I think it would be very interesting.

You should go, if you have the chance. The missus and I happened to live not too far away on the Bedfordshire border so took a day out there, it is wonderful. I am a Friend of Bletchley Park it is one of the charities I give to. It is wonderful. The National Computer Museum is there too.

As for the uneconomic or irrelevant, I think it is very economic and relevant. BitCoin and all of these cryptocurrencies rely on the fact that it is hard to crack the cryptography. Now, it has been broken several times by brute force. As far as I understand it, being brief, varous outfits set upserver farms where electricity is cheap and Internet backbone available (e.g. in Ontario near Niagara falls, just as an example) and "harvest" the BitCoin. The word "Bubble" springs to mind. Yet Venezuela, in a rather odd move, is backing the Petro, which happens by the way to be my wife's maiden name, which is a pseudocurrency against the petrodollar which is essentially barrels of oil but denominated in something other than US dollars like normal people do, so you have a pseudocurrency or quasicurrency backed against another pseudo- or quasi- and that will get you out of the mire? You have plenty of mire, crude oil is nothing but mire, but all your politicians took it.

So let us get from the sub-limestone to the red oculars, I will now peer through rose tinted glasses.

I have a few old machines here and I am a whizz at Atari 8 bits - my first paid publication was fifty quid for a program and article in Page 6 Magazine and for many years I supported LACE, the London Atari Computer Enthusiasts, and that was good fun wrote a lot of 6502 machine code to do tricky things on those, I am not quite so green as I am cabbage looking

I can read punch tape as if it were braille, although I cannot read braille, my aunt was a teletypist and always had reams of cast off punch tape I have no idea what she was trying to do with it. I still have her baby typewriter that is my aunt sitting just there. five feet away, I typed on that when I was seven years old. I, am not quite the arsehole I may seem to be, I have cleaned that all up, every moving part, oiled it, repaired it, made and annealed a new spring and new gear for the R key which was mis striking a bit. I I did try to get a replacement spring at the locksmith but he said "I do not have one. I have a spring catalogue". I said "Well so does Debenham's". (This is absolutely true. He didn't get the joke.)

I have cleaned the case and stitched and repaired the leather on the case, it is only worth fifty pounds or so but that is my aunt, right there, she is blown away in the wind, but she is still with me. She taught me how to touch type, age seven, and to read five punch tape on my fingers. I could read that before I could do a loop on the letter G.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Could you hear the sea if you held it up to your ear?

Not really, you can't really get that sonar pulse in your shell-like.

But if you hold a half filled pint glass up to your ear, you can hear the brewery.

Well really the problem with Enigma and indeed what is less celebrated but far more difficult the Lorenz cipher is that they are symettric codes. The flaw in Enigma is you could not encode something to the same letter, the electrics just would short circuit if you tried that way, so already you have a crib or in, that nothing can encode to itself. Lorenz was much more clsoever and an absolute complete mindblowing feat of decoding, that without ever seeing a machine just for looking for runs and repeats to work out that you have 29 and 41 and so on different primes on different wheels, to do all that without ever seeing the machine or knowing the plaintext, that is just absolutely astonishing. To give a mathematical description of the machine, which was absolutely bang on and official secret until what? 1987 or something? I am lucky if I can get my wallpaper to hang vertical, to do all that just out of your head, that is just astonishing to me.

Yet anything I cannot do is astonishing to me. I can do lots of things, but I could never do that.

I can't use a sewing machine, for that matter.  I know how to sew with a needle and thread, several stitches. I know how to grease and oil and thread it and replace the foot and so on etc etc. I still cannot use it. For some reason I cannot and never will be able to use a sewing machine. I have repaired many but then have to call in someone else to check it is working properly. Which one is the soft pedal and which one is the clutch? I just have absolutely no idea and all it goes horribly wrong. So I just stick with needle and thread. As you get older you learn to get humble.

SimonTrew wrote:

....

As for the uneconomic or irrelevant, I think it is very economic and relevant. BitCoin and all of these cryptocurrencies rely on the fact that it is hard to crack the cryptography. Now, it has been broken several times by brute force. As far as I understand it, being brief, varous outfits set upserver farms where electricity is cheap and Internet backbone available (e.g. in Ontario near Niagara falls, just as an example) and "harvest" the BitCoin. The word "Bubble" springs to mind. Yet Venezuela, in a rather odd move, is backing the Petro, which happens by the way to be my wife's maiden name, which is a pseudocurrency against the petrodollar which is essentially barrels of oil but denominated in something other than US dollars like normal people do, so you have a pseudocurrency or quasicurrency backed against another pseudo- or quasi- and that will get you out of the mire? You have plenty of mire, crude oil is nothing but mire, but all your politicians took it.

What I meant was uneconomic because you'd need huge processing power that would cost huge amounts.  And irrelevant meaning it'd take years to crack whereas the information therein might not be useful years later when someone has decrypted it.

The Economist has had some interesting articles on Venezuela recently.   I've been following what's been going on.  Some interesting comparisons to Zimbabwe which opted for dollarisation.  Obviously Maduro isn't keen on that but he could go with a basket of currencies not including the USD if he needs that politically.  Doing  what he's doing isn't going to change the underlying mess.  I actually thought the OAS might eventually invade - Brazil was moving troops up to the border.

For Bitcoin, the cheap electricity and server farms are quite popular in Iceland - free cooling helps.   I expect the North and South Poles could be worth while exploring for opportunities like that.  Server farms under the sea a possibility too.

The encryption is not the main thing in Bitcoin that caught my attention as that's a bit so what. It's the distributed ledger which I found more interesting.   If you take a look at the internals, it's rather weird, almost simplistic in how it works. 

SimonTrew wrote:

....
....and that was good fun wrote a lot of 6502 machine code to do tricky things on those, I am not quite so green as I am cabbage looking

I can read punch tape as if it were braille, although I cannot read braille, my aunt was a teletypist and always had reams of cast off punch tape I have no idea what she was trying to do with it. ....

.....Not really, you can't really get that sonar pulse in your shell-like.

But if you hold a half filled pint glass up to your ear, you can hear the brewery.

Ah well, the old 6502, that was used in the BBC Micro.  Excellent machine.   We used to load the OS program on PDP-8s using paper tape (actually it was Basic).  You had to load registers through the front panel in Octal to get the paper tape to load.

If you have enough of those pint glasses you can talk to God through the big white telephone.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Not a question of who has the mussels or can dish out a few squid for protection.  The British haven't whelked on any deal. Any reports that this wasn't legit fishing are just red herrings.

No need to carp about it, I reckon you are still about 2 behind with good puns, and at least ten ahead with bad ones. And I am counting "red herring" as a pun there... although really it is a dead metaphor. A a tale of herring-do.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

....

As for the uneconomic or irrelevant, I think it is very economic and relevant. BitCoin and all of these cryptocurrencies rely on the fact that it is hard to crack the cryptography. Now, it has been broken several times by brute force. As far as I understand it, being brief, varous outfits set upserver farms where electricity is cheap and Internet backbone available (e.g. in Ontario near Niagara falls, just as an example) and "harvest" the BitCoin. The word "Bubble" springs to mind. Yet Venezuela, in a rather odd move, is backing the Petro, which happens by the way to be my wife's maiden name, which is a pseudocurrency against the petrodollar which is essentially barrels of oil but denominated in something other than US dollars like normal people do, so you have a pseudocurrency or quasicurrency backed against another pseudo- or quasi- and that will get you out of the mire? You have plenty of mire, crude oil is nothing but mire, but all your politicians took it.

What I meant was uneconomic because you'd need huge processing power that would cost huge amounts.  And irrelevant meaning it'd take years to crack whereas the information therein might not be useful years later when someone has decrypted it.

The Economist has had some interesting articles on Venezuela recently.   I've been following what's been going on.  Some interesting comparisons to Zimbabwe which opted for dollarisation.  Obviously Maduro isn't keen on that but he could go with a basket of currencies not including the USD if he needs that politically.  Doing  what he's doing isn't going to change the underlying mess.  I actually thought the OAS might eventually invade - Brazil was moving troops up to the border.

For Bitcoin, the cheap electricity and server farms are quite popular in Iceland - free cooling helps.   I expect the North and South Poles could be worth while exploring for opportunities like that.  Server farms under the sea a possibility too.

The encryption is not the main thing in Bitcoin that caught my attention as that's a bit so what. It's the distributed ledger which I found more interesting.   If you take a look at the internals, it's rather weird, almost simplistic in how it works. 

SimonTrew wrote:

....
....and that was good fun wrote a lot of 6502 machine code to do tricky things on those, I am not quite so green as I am cabbage looking

I can read punch tape as if it were braille, although I cannot read braille, my aunt was a teletypist and always had reams of cast off punch tape I have no idea what she was trying to do with it. ....

.....Not really, you can't really get that sonar pulse in your shell-like.

But if you hold a half filled pint glass up to your ear, you can hear the brewery.

Ah well, the old 6502, that was used in the BBC Micro.  Excellent machine.   We used to load the OS program on PDP-8s using paper tape (actually it was Basic).  You had to load registers through the front panel in Octal to get the paper tape to load.

If you have enough of those pint glasses you can talk to God through the big white telephone.

6502 code still crops up a lot in various embedded microprocessors, it is amended but you can still see the lie of it, more likely the 6510. The BBC Micro was far too expensive, it was designed for schools (here we go again, public money, who cares how much it costs). You could get a Z80 extender board. I think they were 399 quid to the consumer, plus extra for the VDU as you could not shunt it to your telly with the god old UM1223 as everyone else did, had to have composite video. Ridiculously overpriced, this is what happens when you spend public money. My school had Research Machines RML380Z and woo one RML480Z in colour, but we were not allowed near the machines, far too precious, sat next to them doing flowcharts and stuff like that.

I am calling your bluff on you doing a bootloader on a PDP-8 in octal. Yes, that is how it was done. No, you never did it.