Royal Mail Postal Strike

After much wrangling the workers of Royal Mail have decided to strike. As a business it's going to hurt us, there's no doubt about that. We're a mail order business and Royal Mail is our lifeblood.

We do however understand that strikes are a last resort. It seems that the media, the management and the government are against the workers on this one. We are not.

Although the strikes aren't good for us, we understand that they are necessary. They are due to start on the 22nd of October.

This is an edit: just been onto the bbc and I'm shocked at the lack of empathy for Royal Mail workers. Comments like "we never have the same postman anymore", "they closed our local post office" and "they leave the while you were out card when I was in". The decisions behind these changes are not from the workers on the ground, who are striking but the management they are against. The Royal Mail service has been run down over the last decade with an eye on privatisation. That is without a doubt what modernisation means. It will mean a service where Royal Mail is only the "last mile" courier. Anything that makes a profit will be sold off and the public will be saddled with the pensions deficit.

Rollercoaster Year

Well it's nearly a year since phenoptix stopped being a hobby and turned into a full time job.
Lots has changed, including our product range and website. We're about to move offices too, which is long overdue. We're custom building which sounds rather grand.

Where phenoptix starts and Ben ends.

Having been phenoptix, the name of my LED business, on all manner of forums for about 6 years now it feels like my business identity is also my own. phenoptix (always lower case) has a number of online outlets for my opinions but as phenoptix, the legal business entity, grows I (Ben) feel that I should actually use some of these same outlets for my own personal feelings rather than channel them through phenoptix.
Firstly phenoptix doesn't have an opinion on Lily Allen's recent outbursts on filesharing, I on the other hand think that she cunningly advertised in her early days that her work was available on limewire, and nowadays she's against the whole thing along with Darth Mandleson. A bit two faced methinks.
Anyway phenoptix needs to write a blog now.