Jump to content

General News


Chest Rockwell

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 245
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Smart-phones can be hacked/cracked/accessed, all thanks to an Israeli company.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37441109

 

*shudder*

 

They unsurprisingly decline to comment on their customers, but you just *know* that they'll be selling to the intelligence services, for starters, plus individual police forces everywhere eventually.

 

It's not God watching you masturbate, it's Mossad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Eh. Google based phones are notoriously susceptible to that sort of stuff. And private messaging services that advertise end to end encryption may claim that shit is the bane of law enforcement but you gotta watch what messenger service you're using. Threema and Wickr are the best bets. Telegram works as well but is a bit dodgy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • Moderators

Does anyone have a link to a good, balanced article about Southern Rail, RMT, ASLEF etc. and why we've got to the point of constant strikes, what they're for and generally what the fuck is going on?

 

It affects me continuously but I haven't bothered to take an interest yet, because I'm a slack idiot.

 

Or maybe one of you knows enough about it to give me a bit of an explanation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

The argument centres around the wish of Southern Rail to make services operate with drivers being responsible for the opening and closing of train doors, not conductors.  This does not necessarily mean conductors will be fired (numbers would stay the same initially), but according to Southern Rail they will be able to offer a better customer experience if they are not required to also operate doors. 

 

The RMT claim it will endanger passenger safety. Reading between the lines, Southern Rail want to eventually can some of the guard staff and are lying and RMT are lying if they think for one second this is about passenger safety instead of protecting jobs. They would both do well to stop being fannies and actually admit to each other what the issue is rather than continuing this hopeless charade which only damages passengers.

 

Incidentally, for my two pennies worth, Chest, rail staff do get a ridiculously cushy number in some respects i.e getting overtime on a Sunday and drivers being given an inflated 'Walking Time Allowance' for, seriously, the journey they make betweem the crew room and the train they are driving. From an RMT perspective, they have had great success bending over companies/the gov before so this makes complete sense, because it may well work. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Both sides are looking at the long term ramifications of this basically. Hence why it's highlighted an issue that no one in their right mind could care about that much. RMT are scared that this would be the start of some 'Thatcher and miners' style burning of benefits, like the couple of examples I gave above. Southern Rail are desperate to start curtailing some of those benefits to recoup money and, long term, increase the efficiency of the train service so we aren't spending about 30% more on rail staff than other countries with far better services (Germany and France for example).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

If they are getting rid of conductors wouldn't that meant they lose a shitload in unpaid fares? I reckon a fair amount of people aren't going to buy a ticket if they know it's not going to be checked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...