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Clives post about the price of fuel and the release of the new Ford Focus Electric got me thinking..

Not really one for conspiracy theories, but maybe there is something in it when you look at the slowest technological advance in modern history.

Putting into context, in 1939 the RAF still had bi-plane fighters, at the end of the war technology had advanced so much that the first operational jet fighters were in service.

Only 10 years separated the design of the Lancaster bomber and the Vulcan bomber. We even got a man on the moon with technology a fraction of the power of your average smart phone. 

Meanwhile, the humble Electric Milk float, which originated just after the war, was battery powered and had a range of 25 miles.

In 70 years, the electric vehicle has now advanced to the 2016 Ford Focus, which has a range of..

drum roll...  76 miles 

Admittedly we've increased speed from 15mph to 84mph, but compare normal engine technology over the last 70 years, or even 25 years.

Electric Car Evolution... in 70 years, we have increased the range from 25 miles, to 76 miles...

Image source: milkfloats.org.uk

So do all these crack pot conspiracy theorists have a point? Have all the oil companies being buying up and burying ideas and new technologies over the years?

Or is the world wide engineering and scientific community just rubbish at developing electric cars?

Genuinely doesn't make any sense. Give us all a ford focus that will do 400 miles between charges, and your half way to solving climate change. If we can go from biplane to jet fighter in 6 years, surely we can do better for electric vehicles?

Well after a week of data chaos, finally seem to be back on an even keel.

Have decided to go with a RAID 1 4TB Synology NAS Server. Seems to have gone very smoothly, synchronising nicely at home as well as in the office, no more monthly fees and dubious support.

Early days, but calm is returning, now just have a weeks worth of work to catch up on

Well so it begins, the RAF are certainly getting their moneys worth out their Tornadoes! I reckon they ,must have wound the clocks back to get a few more miles out of them.

Be interesting to see what happens now in the Labour camp and how the recriminations go.

Great thing on the beeb, "find out how your MP voted"

I feel better now for getting that off my chest

Last Friday, our wonderful Cloud solution went bang and I've been in a world of chaos ever since. Luckily it's only our internal data, and its all safe, just currently not accessible 

I've never liked the cloud, have always been a cloud cynic, and now have been proven right... After the plan B cloud solution also let us down yesterday, I've decided to bring it back to the office and use good old fashioned NAS (network attached storage) or big hard drives plugged into our local network.

For anyone considering moving your business data to a cloud solution, think and choose wisely!

So it's spanners, socket wrench and NAS for dummies out tomorrow while I build us an internal solution.

Anyone mention the Cloud again will be banned 

You really do need to take up a new occupation, preferably a home worker with no vehicles or boilers involved 

Forget the book, Barney the movie 

It seems some other cuts have appeared which didn't get much of a mention in the Chancellors Autumn Statement.

The Government funded Business Growth Service which includes the growth accelerator has been quietly axed.

So after hailing small business as the salvation of the economy and driver of growth, it looks like some quarters would disagree.

According to the Guardian:

"a statement from BIS said the closure of the BGS would save government £84m. It also said it was investing £12m per year into 39 local growth hubs that were led by Local Enterprise Partnerships."

Haven't really heard much about the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) network, but it has been around since 2011. It offers a series of "local information hubs" that give you some support and links to various local agencies and information, as well as hosting business events.

I suppose its a replacement for the old business link, coupled with the high level greatbusiness.gov.uk website which can be a useful resource if you are starting out in business.

Seems a shame to take growth resources away from businesses, but it looks like there has been a lot of number juggling at the treasury in the last few months as spending plans seemed to be getting turned on their heads.

Has anyone used the Business Growth Service, or use the Business is Great website?

Does anyone have any experience of using their LEP network?

Originally Posted by Barney

“I'd be interested to know what the colour 'black' has to do with it.... Asked several merchants on Friday and everyone replied "dunno mate"! ”

ahhh you didn't read my first post 

...According to Wikipedia, the term Black Friday came from the 1960's when retailers traditionally broke profit and "went in to the black".

I think it's been long overdue, but the FSB has re-branded and modernised it's image. I remember the not so long ago days when we used to get hit with full on hard sell FSB salespeople, which never used to convey the public image they portrayed, as a small business champion and pressure group.

So with a new logo and "Experts in Business" tagline, here is there propaganda film.

What do you think? Has it won you over?

Do we have any current FSB members? Be interesting to get an internal perspective.

Anyone take advantage of Black Friday, either in the form of more sales or a bit of personal shopping?

From the news it looked like a bit of a damp squid after the madness of last year.

Supposedly it's Cyber Monday today, but from shopping around online, it seems to have turned into a week long sales push!

I actually like that approach. I know some will see it as being weak or liberal, but it has to better than locking someone up for a set period and that's it, then letting them out at the end and wondering why they did it again.

For a 29 year old to think it's ok to vandalise gravestone shows something missing in his thought process and understanding. Regardless if mummy didn't love him enough as a child, or Dad knocked him around, as an adult, if the penny finally drops that it is wrong and somehow his remorse button is switched on, then great stuff, if it's possible. Otherwise chop his hands off and satisfy my primeval thirst for justice