Compulsory water metering

[Andy Hall]

No, I'm asking you one....

I'm not expecting a meaningful answer of course.

[Mike Halmarack]

So did my great grand uncle Sid, a deeply disappointed grave robber who moved to Australia in the century before last.

[Doctor Drivel]

Matt, but then yoiu anmswerdd with the answer you wanted. Obessed and narrow minded peopel do this.

Matt, I didn't think your answer was meaningful either.

[Capitol]

On this occasion, he is correct. The purchasing function is wildly inefficient. A repeat generic prescription for say six months is frequently six pieces of paper. The cost of the drugs on the internet is £10. for a 6 month supply. The NHS is paying in the region of at least £180 to achieve this aim. That's inefficiency and somebody should be fired.

The drug companies certainly are charging what the market will bear, but allowing drug companies to merge and suppress competition is a political decision. The NHS is wildly inefficient, bureaucratic and not doing a good job at the administrative level. Unnecessary tests are prescribed, just to allow the Dr to tick a box (APE exercise) and say that he/she has done something. Real problems are ignored as this requires mental engagement, which at the GP level is a very hit or miss affair. As my GP has said "I'm only doing this to try to save the NHS money", ie to hell with the patients interest. Until the customers have the right to select their GP, with real competition, as used to be the case under private medicine, and the NHS has the capacity and ability to select between providers, the situation will remain in it's present mess, where the hospitals are generally doing a very good job when it's an emergency, but routine stuff is very inefficiently controlled or organised. When I go to a Dr in the US, if he wants a routine blood test, this is taken within 20 minutes of the request. The results tend to be the next day. In the UK, locally, 3 days seems to be the norm to arrange a local test, with results available after 3-4 days.

There is now a 9-5 mentality in many areas, so the GP and local practise has been allowed to opt out of the patient care position. I just don't understand how I can achieve this lack of responsibility in my working life.

I can go to a local US shopping centre and purchase a whole body scan for about $450, which my insurer will pay most of the cost of. Here it's n months wait for routine scans, hence they are rarely specified. Yes, US hospitals routinely run unnecessary scans, just because the insurer will pay, but at least the capacity is there.

Rant temporarily over.

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

No. BT had digital exchanges in 1963. Some of the best design I've ever seen using the components available. It wasn't substantially improved upon until the mid 70's. It was a conscious decision not to invest in the business to increase capacity. There was a very cosy relationship between BT and the suppliers. BT was a monopoly and fixed the customer prices and the suppliers continued to supply outdated product at very high prices due to lack of competition.

BT did however, at that time, have some outstanding engineers who were generally ignored by their management, in favour of the status quo.

Regards Capitol

[Guy King]

The message from Capitol contains these words:

Remember - you used to /rent/ the handset at something like a fiver a quarter - now if that isn't a license to print money I don't know what was.

[Andy Hall]

So tell me what you actually think.

[Doctor Drivel]

Matt, It doesn't matter what I think, as you will think the answer you want to have.

[Andy Hall]

OK, so you want to duck it. That's fine as well.

[JethroUK©]

assume you've never heard of soonest-first method of filing (posting) - it's been around long before computers have - speak to an administrator (someone who archives for a living (professionally))

i suspect your newest gas bill can found alllllllllllllllllll the way behind the old archived ones - good thinking - not!

[Doctor Drivel]

Balls. Usenet convention is bottom posting and always has been, as that is the way we write, top down. There are countless web page on Useenet etiquette. If you top post people will not respond to you on Usenet and many will just killfile you. Look at this group, all bottom post, just go with the flow. BTW, I have been on Usenet for eons, initially using green screens.

This top posting crap came in because of useless MS Outlook which puts the cursor at the top.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I remember you appearing as Adam. What did you call yourself before then?

[Guy King]

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

[dennis]

If you have a stupid reader that puts the cursor at the bottom then the first thing you have to do is move it to the top to select what you are going to snip.

It is perfectly logical to start at the top and work down as you pointed out.

M$ can't be held responsible if stupid people can use their products and it is they who don't follow the rules.

Not that I agree with the rules regarding top posting or that we shouldn't use html for posts either. Its only the users who insist on being traditional (old fashioned) that think we should restrict the world to using plain *ASCII* text rather than rich html.

[JethroUK©]

noone can help usenet defying common-sense - rules will always have problems when they do that

say - you - with the benefit of limited comprehension - that maybe 'a rule', but it is certainly not the reason

rules are for those who lack the intelligence and common-sense to work without them - i can prove this without contradiction

more fool them - then they wont be able to benefit from my wisdom

secondly - no one ever kill-files - they just say so - curiosity is toooooooooooooo powerful

you can use 'green screens' now - so what are you saying exactly?

yet another case of you putting 2 & 2 together and making 5 - email clients (not just outlook) put the cursor at the top for a very good reason - the fact that it hasn't dawned on you cant be helped - i suggest you stick to rules

Fact - You file your new gas bill behind alllllllllllllllllll your old (archived) gas bills - i know this to be so, in fact i am so confident that i will shoot myself in the head if it isn't so - based on 'your' confirmation

before computers were even invented, professional filing was (still-is) current-most-first - current information (the latest news) is filed in front of the old news - 'archives' are kept immediately behind from the most current to the least current

i'd like to say for obvious reasons but i fear it eludes you - however, rather than explain the reasons i have decided to let you 'think' about the benefits before i tell you

this method of handling news could not be transfered to paper until the advent of computers - but now it can - and has been - by all email clients - i dread to imagine what your email responses look like - i fear you will be fighting a losing battle with the rest of your colleagues whilst you pontificate your misguided conclusions

'the' reason for posting in-line is where you need to address specific points (as opposed to the post as a whole) - so it is also common-sense that the reply by within the vicinity of the point it is addressing

[Bob Eager]

Exactly, facing towards me, so that if I lift the pile out, the oldest is on the top.

Nope.

[Capitol]

The only user of a stupid paper filing system?

Regards Capitol

Bob Eager wrote:

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you gave a tiny bit of thought about the storage needed for HTLM against plain text on the news servers - and want it to remain a free service - you'd have your answer.

Also, it's designed to be a service for all the world, and not everyone has 'free' broadband connection.

[John Cartmell]

The news.newusers.questions FAQ

to post to uk news groups quoting style explained

[Gully Foyle]

Firstly, MS Outlook is an email program and cannot be used for Usenet. I assume you are talking about Outlook Express.

Secondly, Agent (which I use) places the cursor at the top as well.

Thirdly, the correct place for the cursor is at the top, not the bottom - this allows judicious snipping of irrelevant stuff and the interjection of comments. I would expect all good newsreaders (and some rubbish ones) to place the cursor at the top.

Fourthly, top posters are mostly stupid, ignorant, young or a combination of all three. Their posts are also so rarely worth reading that it's not worth worth bothering about any of them.