What I Don't Understand

By Bruce Barbour
Version 1.2 - December 2011

Downloadable Music Files and the Demise of the Music CD

My experience is that the quality of the music obtained from downloadable music files is a lot less than available from the old music CD format. Also you don't have the CD as another source for back up if your hard disk fails. With CDs you can still copy the music to you computer (at a much higher quality - provided it hasn't go some form of copy protection) and to your MP3 player so that is not the reason to do it. The only reasons I can see to get downloadable music is if you can get it for free, you only want one track or it is not available locally on CD.

As with the LCD and plasma televisions I think it is a case of quantity over quality. The small file size means that a lot of music can be jammed onto a MP3 player. This is a retrograde step.

"Freeing the Capital From Your House"

This is a con perpetrated on the unwary by sectors of the finance industry so that they can lend more money to people. The only people it really benefits is the finance company, who get the capital of your house as security for the loan. When they say your home capital is "freed" what they are really saying is that your home capital is reduced. You may get a slightly lower loan rate but they can take your house if you default. I think the only valid use of your house as security is if you want to do renovations to the house itself or possibly for building a business, however this is a risk that could end with you on the street. If you want to buy an investment property then have enough initial money for the down payment and then borrow the rest using the capital of the investment house as security, not the house you live in. Loan money with your house as security should definitely not be used for consumption - the holiday, the new television etc. The way to financial security is to pay off your house as soon as possible, not to keep in debt by borrowing against it.

Please seek independent financial advice prior to undertaking any significant investment.

Fridge Magnets

It seems our politicians think that if we have a problem it will be solved by giving fridge magnets to the citizens. Howard's problem with global terrorism, send fridge magnet, problem solved. Brumby's problem with water running out, send Target 155 fridge magnet, problem solved. Now why didn't any of our politicians think about this for the "global economic crisis", all they had to do was send out a fridge magnet, problem would have been solved. Just not good enough!

The Spelling Rule "I before E except after C"

There are so many exceptions to this rule that it is useless. Examples: rein reign weight eight feign their being weir neighbour height either neither leisure reinforce vein albeit seize heir unveil beige deity weird sheik etc.

Why does this rule exist? Because it rhymes??

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