loz's blog » family

Government Apology

Jonathan Lozinski — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:45:08 +0000

Laura and I received a letter through the post today from HM Revenue and Customs. They’re apologising for the loss of our data on this CD which has disappeared. It’s a pain in the backside and could lead to our identities being stolen. These things happen however and we’re very good at monitoring our bank account.

We are however wondering when our apology from Royal Mail is going to arrive. It’s them who lost it really any way. Perhaps I can help by outlining a suggested letter for them to copy and paste:

Dear X,

We’re writing to apologise for an incident that we’re really responsible for. The loss of all your data from the government family allowance database.

You see, someone posted the information and simple expected us to do our part of the bargain. This should have been how it works, but unfortunately the stamp which is supposed to be a contract of sorts does not guarantee delivery.

We can’t possibly run a business where we promise that we’ll take what you want from A to B. Who could,… well apart from say Parcel Force, TNT, ANC, UPS, and even our selves if you pay us for Special Delivery (please read “Actual” where Special appears in the title).

I would like to say this won’t happen again, but unfortunately we have ancient sorting systems which we can’t possibly upgrade because all our postal staff will strike again in protest that modernisation will loose them jobs. Our only option is to basically get more inept at “mailing” items from A to B, so that ultimately another company will take the place of the Royal Mail, perhaps “Virgin Mail”, and then all our staff will be unemployed, it’s how they want it to be.

My Sincere aplogies and regrets

Postmaster General

There you go Royal mail, send that out to all us people who are going to get defrauded because of your inability to do your job. Of course when you do post it out be sure to use “Special Delivery” or perhaps via Business Post or a more reliable carrier, that way we’ll definitely get to read your lovely apology.

It’s A Girl!

Jonathan Lozinski — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:21:41 +0000

Hurray..

Laura gave birth on 14th August to a Beautiful baby girl. Elizabeth Joy Lozinski, 8lbs 7oz. Adoreable..

Free Culture

Jonathan Lozinski — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:55:21 +0000

There may be many of you (as if there’s that many people reading this , who think I harp on about freedoms and DRM a bit much, and are pretty much of the opinion that it doesn’t matter, and right of people who create works are important. I agree, but so are the rights of consumers and society. This talk on free culture by Lawrence Lessig is a great summary. There’s a flash animation with the talk and his slides, or you can listen to an mp3. It’s really good at explaining it. I really do recommend everyone listen to this talk to understand the importance of keeping things free (as in freedom, not necessarily the cost).

To sum it up, if freedoms had been resticted in the past on the Brothers Grim in the way Disney like to restrict freedoms to their works then Disney could not have created their works for the most part in the first place.. The conclusion is that the way many “artists” (or more likely producers/distributers) restrict works today will negatively impact their use in the future to build upon them and create new works.

It really is a great talk on the issue which is very easy for non-legal people to understand. Very interesting. I listened to it ages ago, and was reminded of it recently, it’s well worth a listen.

Record Industry Sucks

Jonathan Lozinski — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:17:56 +0000

This article: Courtney Love does the math is a pretty accurate (from what I know) description of the record industry of america (and record industries in general). My brothers (peter & daniel) have had some business with recording industries, and they seem to get just as screwed by them as any one else.

This year has seen the first non-signed download charting single, hopefully people like my bros and other artists can stuff the record industry and distribute their own content, and then actually get what they pay for. It’s criminal that artists are charged for everything they do, and in essence the RI don’t pay any costs and get 80-90% of the money comming in. So 0% of costs, 0% work, == 90% profit???? Crazy maths.

Read the article it’s pretty well put (although the odd F word), and seems that Courtney Love is going to try and kick up a stink as she’s being sued for basically leaving a job at the end of her contract..

America, land of the free – if you have the money to pay for it..

Marriage Is Better

Jonathan Lozinski — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:45:13 +0000

I have seen similar stats before, but this BBC article on a report from the tories shows that statistically marriage is better, and for children born in marriage stand a better chance socially. To put it simply:

God: 1
World: 0

Merry Christmas, Make A Snowflake

Jonathan Lozinski — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:51:36 +0000

Remember paper doylie’s, and snowflakes at Christmas. They just got updated..

Here’s mine..