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Who gives a rats turd about the Iphone anyway.
I’ll put my hands up, I am not an fan of Apple and its form-over-function approach to devices which has proved so popular with the gadget buying public. But even with that in mind, how have they managed to bewitch so many called hard-nosed journalists in to thinking that the Iphone is intrinsically brilliant and beyond criticism?
I am subscribed to a number of newsfeeds on Google reader (if you don’t use google reader yet, start using it now) that are relevant to my interests, such as new and interesting gadgets. I read the sites Gizmodo and Engadget, both of whom are so enamoured with, no matter what way you slice it, a media phone that they cant shut up about any little insignificant detail that comes to their attention. More features are written about this phone (that is swish to look at, but for me, pretty impractical) then any other device or gadget…. apart from perhaps the fucking Macbook Air.
Surly I cant be the only person who finds this a bit or and pretty irritating. You can imagine that if these pages did feature after feature about the Nokia N95 people would be scratching their heads wondering what all the fuss was about.
They may as well just repeatedly have a feature of various staff members knocking one out over an Iphone, apart from every 5th post which could be the editor knocking one out over a mackbook Air.
Jesus.
Edit:
And while I am on the subject. They have just released the 3G Iphone and everyone is going on about how brilliant this is. People are queuing round the block to buy one. Why are people saying this is great and not saying “3G has been around for years, why are you just releasing this now. Why do I have to buy a second Iphone just to have almost out of date tech like 3G?!?!?!”
TwatsLabels: *sigh*, apple, soap box
fcuking dyslexia
Yesterday while walking through town I saw a skip being loaded on to a lorry. I read a sign painted on it and said… out loud…
“why don’t they want you to put fries in that skip”
*sigh*Labels: soap box
To cycle or not to cycle.
I have ranted about the motorists attitude to the cyclist a couple of times before on this blog. My general complaint has been that at best, if you are not two tons and don’t make car noises then you are pretty much invisible while at worst, they will purposely try put your life in jeopardy to avoid being stuck behind you. Due to this I have been weighing up weather cycling is worth it.
Well, on Tuesday of last week at about 08:30 they got me. I was going down Northumberland avenue, which is a bit of a hill. The road was clear and I was free wheeling down the hill, probably at about 20 mph, not excessively fast. Some…how should I put this…. “stupid bitch” travelling in the other direction decided that she wanted to nip in to a parking space on my side of the road, so she just pulled across my lane. I slammed on my anchors but it was too late, I flew over my handlebars and made a nice dent in her passenger door with my head. I hit the ground badly on my left had side and started screaming.
I was very lucky, it turns out that what was left with was only bad bruising. But my god did it hurt. I could not move because of the pain. An ambulance turned up and strapped me to a back board, which was incredibly painful, examined and then given some morphine (which I would recommended).
I got taken to A&E, had my shirt cut off, got an x-ray and was told I should be OK and to go home.
That was now a week ago, I still can’t really use my left arm, and I have only just started helping out with the dog walking again.
To say I am pissed off would be an understatement. But then, I am going to sue the stupid bitch, who, incidentally, is getting done fro careless driving. So, hopefully this will pay for a nice holiday or something.Labels: *sigh*, cycling, my life, soap box
What constitutes “bulky waste” to you.
We have a number of items that need to be taken down the tip. I don’t want to ask my Dad or my brother to help with this (I get there help for this type of thing all the time) so I phoned up the council to have it taken away.
I know that I don’t, in fact, get this done for free because I have had to do this once already to get shot of an old wardrobe. But they managed to stagger me with their uselessness anyway.
When she asked me what stuff I needed throwing away I said:
1 living room carpet (about 10 foot square)
1 10 foot length of chicken wire
2 bags of garden refuse
1 dismantled picknick bench from the back garden. Of this I was told that I would have to cut the carpet in to 6 foot lengths which would have to be rolled up, there was no way they would take the chicken wire and she was not sure about the picknick bench.
She specifically came back to confirm this was a “pick nick bench” (as apposed to what I am not sure) and to ask what the chicken wire was used for. I told her the chicken wire was a temporary fence when used last year when next-doors fence blew down. She was adamant that these items could not be taken.
I asked her why. This is the brilliant bit…. Wait for it…….
The council will only take items that you would take if you were moving house!!!!
You know the one kind of thing that I would not take if I was moving house? Rubbish, that is one type of thing that I would consider *not* taking, due to the fact that is is rubbish that QED I no longer want. For Fucks Sake. She went on to explain the kind of thing they take are washing machines, furniture, that kind of thing.
I asked her if she would take the bench if I put it back together, making it in to the kind of thing that I would move house with. She said that it is garden furniture which, for some baffling reason only known to them, does not deserve to be taken away.
What really puzzled me is, why she checked about the chicken wire. What sort of use would have been acceptable for it to be removed. If I had said, “ I have been using the chicken wire as a 42" plasma telly and a wahser dryer” would they have taken it then?
For the love of Christ, this sort of pointless bureaucracy drives my up the fucking wall. I would have thought that the process could work like this:
Me: I have a load of rubbish in my front garden that needs to be taken away.
Council: Is there loads and loads of it to the point where you are taking the piss?
Me: No, but if there were, I would be happy to pay the difference.
Council: fair enough. Anything there that would be a danger to our bin men?
Me: not at all.
Council: cool, well, seeing as it is all rubbish, and it’s going in the back of a van to the tip, we will take the lot.
Why does life have to be so complicated.
On a positive note, my boss has a Landover and has offered to help me get rid of it one lunchtime this week. Funnily enough, he doesn’t care what the rubbish is as long as it fits in the back of a Landover.Labels: *sigh*, my life, soap box
I don’t know what pisses me off more, cars or bikes.
Bikes: I always seem to have something wrong with my bike. No sooner have I nailed down one problem, another springs up. For instance, my chain was rubbing against the derailer, this was making noise and resistance. To fix this, I did what I could to get the derailer out as far as it would go, which sorted that problem, but a few days later, *bang* the hub on my front wheel exploded, so I got that fixed (thanks Ed), and all was fine, for a couple of days. Last week, I noticed that I was unable to my chain was not on to the biggest cog on the front, I managed to put it there manually once (with my hands) but now, it just slips to the middle cog, and for some reason, on the middle cog, the chain is slipping every few revolutions, making cycling slow work. Its just one problem after another.
Cars: Or more specifically, the “people” driving them. I am used to people in cars doing there best to kill me, so today’s events were of no surprise. I was at a junction waiting to turn left, and then do an almost immediate right turn across traffic, so I have to make sure I am in the centre of the road as soon as I pull out. I waited for a good space in the traffic and pulled out, some cunt in a blue ford escort shot right up my arse, almost touching my back wheel with his bumper. I looked behind me in shock, attempting to get out of the idiots way, when I saw him pull back, I went back in to the middle of the road (so I could make my turning) at which point he tried to speed up again. I just held my ground, and he had to back off. When I got to the central box to turn right, he shouted abuse at me has he went past.
Its one thing having selfish, thoughtless drivers attempting to kill me because they don’t understand that I am not intangible\on the pavement, but it’s another to have abuse shouted at my for your trouble.Labels: *sigh*, cycling, my life, soap box
Gypsies are 'Europe's most hated'
This is a very old (2005) BBC news report I came across while reading this article on tacky gypsy palaces.
It talks about how the Nazi’s attempted to exterminate Gypsies during the holocaust and how this is a terrible event that is often over looked. It goes on to say that because of negative reports in the media about travellers, they are being demonised as minority group which is a bad thing.
This is a shocking abuse of inclusive, anti prejudice attitudes of many liberally minded people who risk being called politically correct for attempting to understand a monitory group rather then slate them out of hand.
The reason that people hate Gypsies is not because they live in caravans or because they are descended from Romanian slaves (althought, this may have been what the Nazi’s hated about them, I don’t know). It wouldn’t matter who they are or why they are there, the reason they are hated is because they move in to an area, damage, steal, threaten and otherwise make the locals lives a misery. I find it outrageous that the people who live in these in these communities and have to put up with this shit, should be, in any way, branded prejudiced against a minority because a specific group of people negatively impact their in such a selfish and thoughtless way.
Speaking personally, if someone asked me if I I hate Gypsies, I would most likely says yes. But I can be more specific. If there are Gypsies out there that are living on land with the owners consent who are not stealing, leaving massive piles of burned out cars and car batteries with a smattering of human facieses, who are not using state resources such as schools and NHS without paying taxes, then I don’t hate them. I am, infact, totally indifferent to them, as I am with most people I haven’t met. I imagine this is the case with most people.
The article mentions the case of the group who burned a mock up of a caravan with the number plates P1 KEY on a bomb fire who subsequently got arrested for inciting racial hatred. They were not inciting racial hatred, they were inciting hatred to a specific group of Gypsies who had made their lives a misery. By all means, arrest them for that, but don’t pretend this is some sort of racial issue. Because, for most people (UKIP and the BNP aside) it’s a matter of having someone nick your bike or smash up your local park, not a matter of were they come from.Labels: soap box
I have been having a super fun day so far
After getting up this morning and having to try to remove some particularly stubborn Seren poo from the plastic matting by the front door, and deciding that the door mat needs to be chucked out (I think it may be more poo then mat these days). After almost having my trousers ripped while putting the cleaning products away (my belt loop caught on the door handle) and after setting off on my bike to discover that my chain had come off *both* the front and rear gears. After almost being killed by 3 separate motorists (one tried to run me in to the rear of parked car, one came so close to me at high speed his car very nearly touched my knee, the last one just pulled out from a parking space without looking almost hitting me, I must have stupidly left my invisibility powers on today) After all of that, while in deepest darkest whitley, my bike makes a very concerning *TWANG* sound. I have a look but cant see the problem, so I set off again. A weird tinkling noise is coming form the front wheel. This noise is caused by the lose spokes which are now freely pinging off my forks. Amazingly, the bit of the wheel that the spokes attach to in the centre looks like it has exploded, leaving my bike only partially connected to the wheel. So, that would be another go at pushing my bike to work.
Bugger.Labels: *sigh*, cycling, my life, soap box
Useful Windows XP Commands | Gatzet.com
Apple is even more evil them Microsoft.
It is a well understood truth that Microsoft are evil (or at least it is within the Apple and Linux fanboy-sphere). This is because they have lots of money are attempt to get a monopoly on various technical fields. Which may be true, but they don’t attempt to force you to only run their software on specific hardware. Apple, on the other hand, do. This has lead to good news and bad news.
Good news: The people that make the operating system and the software also make the hardware, so they no exactly what to write when they are coding their software, there is no excuses for any sort of compatibility problem on a Mac.
Bad news: they cost a bleeding fortune, and are a nightmare to get repaired or purchase components for. Lets do a little Apple vs. Microsoft comparison.
(it should be noted that you don’t have to run Windows or OS X (apples equivalent to windows) on either box, but they are included in the price, it should also be noted that you cannot buy Apple hardware without buying OS X, you can with non Apple kit, which is good if you want to run Linux (which is free) like me).
Lets start off at the budget end of the spectrum, the Mac Mini vs a cheap “windows” box. Bare in mind that the Mac Mini is very small (hence the name)
Apple Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 1GB 120GB DVDRW
£495.42 inc vat
Acer Power FH Pentium Dual Core 925 1GB 250GB DVDRW Windows Vista Home Premium
£239.98 inc vat
That is a difference of £255. I guess if you really want a small desktop. But then, you could go for a Shuttle small form factor desktop.
Now, lets have a look at the higher end of the market in laptops. Interestingly, I am using Dabs.com to get these prices. Dabs stocks 11 Apple PC’s and 313 non Apple PC’s. which one do you think I will find the best deal on?
Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2GB 250GB DVDRW
£1,608.79 inc vat
This is the most powerful Macbook on the site, lets have a look at some of its stats:
Processor
Clock Speed 2.5 GHz
Multi-Core Technology Dual-Core
Type Core 2 Duo
RAM
Installed Size 2 GB
Storage Hard Drive
Capacity 250 GB
Display
Diagonal Size 15.4 in
For a similar price you can get this:
Sony VAIO AR61ZU T8300 4GB 500GB
£1,629.99 inc vat
Loads of money again, but lets see what you get for your pennies.
Processor
Clock Speed 2.4 GHz
Multi-Core Technology Dual-Core
Type Core 2 Duo
RAM
Installed Size 4 GB
Storage Hard Drive
Capacity 250 GB
Storage Hard Drive (2nd)
Capacity 250 GB
Display
Diagonal Size 17 in
Ok, so you get twice the ram, twice the storage (and an actual second disk) and a much larger screen.
I am not even going to start on the Macbook Air, largely because I don’t think I can compare it to anything, apart from a stack of porn mags, or the emperors new clothes or something. (incidentally, the macbook air is £1,189.96, that is more expensive then the Sony desktop replacement laptop above *sigh*)
Ok, so apple have products that are more of a fashion statement then a good computing product (iphone anyone) but the real evil bit is yet to come.
Since apple started using Intel processors (the same a s windows computers) in their Mac products, the way has been opened up to potentially sell computers running OS-X (which the fanboys all think about when relaxing in a gentleman’s way) on non apple kit, this, of course, makes it much cheaper and much more expandable. Infact, the OpenMac as it was called weighed in like this:
Psystar Open Mac:
• 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
• 250 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 2 GB DDR2 667 RAM
• Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
• DVD+/-R Optical Drive
• 4 USB ports
Ok, that’s better stats then the Mac Mini, what about the price:
$399 so, I guess about £200. That’s a saving of almost £300 over the Mac Mini. Obviously, Apple didn’t like having their monopoly challenged, so they got them shut down see this story
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9918069-37.html
how evil is that.Labels: apple, geek, soap box
The Experiment 112
I recently started looking at a new and very original take on the adventure game. In the game you are on a boat somewhere in the tropics on which some sort of experiments have been taking place. The only interaction you have with the ship is via its security systems, i.e. cameras, door locks and other devices which are wired in to the control system you find yourself at. As far as you know there is only one other person on this boat, you can communicate with her by nodding and shaking the cameras that you control to answer yes and no to questions, or by turning on lights and other devices to draw her attention to specific areas.
The clever part about this game is that you play the roll of a person sitting in front of a computer who has no knowledge of what is going on, basically, you play yourself. This works quite cleverly to break down the fourth wall and provides a lot of atmosphere.
I do feel that I have somewhat of an unfair advantage with this game having spent quite a lot of time with security guards over the last few months. I know exactly how to play this game. I brought up the display from a number of different cameras then spent the next 3 hours moaning that I don’t get paid enough. Well, that’s how the professionals do it. It did get a bit boring after a while.
Gamespot page hereLabels: Review, soap box
Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares… USA
America produces some fantastic telly, typically drama or action. Heroes, Prison Break, Lost (if you can be bothered with it). While they came up with the original concept of the “reality program” the ones they produce are an almost unwatchable mess. Add this to the fact that a British format program has almost never been sucsesfully ported across to the USA successfully and you will get some idea of the problems with the US version of Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Before I go on, let me make a few things clear. My comments are based on the actual US broadcast of the show of FOX. I haven’t seen the UK version, and I hope that it has been de-Americanised to an extent. Also, I love Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
I am happy to concede that a lot of what is portrayed on the UK version is contrived, for instance the first time he walks up to a restaurant, he has obviously seen it before because his director will have been setting the shot up, but a guess a steady cam shot of Ramsey walking up to a Restaurant would not have been dramatic enough, so in the US they bring along a camera crane, so all of the external shots of the restaurant look like something off of a Hollywood movie, which only works to diminish the realism (and therefore the point) of the show.
For some reason everything that happens on the show has to be explained to the viewer like they have suffered terrible brain damage as a result of a car crash. For instance, imagine a scene where Gordon walks in to a kitchen to find it is very dirty, here is the way it would be shown in the US version:
• From the start of the show we would have seen clips Gordon’s reaction to the dirty kitchen.
• Just before he walks in “voiceover man” would have accounted “Gordon walked in to the kitchen to find it dirty”.
• Then the shot of Gordon walking in to the kitchen
• Then one of the almost constant talking head shots of one of the restaurant staff saying “when Gordon walked in to the kitchen, he saw it was dirty.
• All through this the incidental music would have been playing letting you know if this was a good\bad\tense situation.
This incidental music is literally playing all the way through the program. There is not one second that does not have music playing to let you know if you should be cheering or jeering. It gets very distracting after a while.
I know it’s very popular to say that Americans are stupid, but surely that cannot be so stupid that they need every second of the show spoon-fed to them in three different ways. It’s not as if this is a Brief History if Time or something, the concepts in the show a pretty easy to grasp.
Of course, this is all covered in the usual American schmults that I guess I can’t complain about, it’s a cultural difference. For instance, in the British version, sometimes a man may be brought to tears when he realises that he has been the problem damaging his restaurant, at this point they will normally try to get a way form the camera to get a few moments to compose them selves. On the US version most of the staff of the restraint are blubbing for half the show, it’s like some sort of badge of honour “look how sensitive I am, I cry if I over cook the cabbages”.
They have taken what was a fantastic format which is largeley due to Ramsey himself and the humanity of the situations it records, and put it through the lowest-common-denominator-created-by-committee meat grinder and come up with something that looks as if you are watching a documentary through the worst soap opera ever written.Labels: soap box
“Review” of the Mac Book Air
Apple have just release their “ultra portable” Mac Book Air, which is basically a very, very flat Ibook. You cannot change the battery and it only has one USB port on it, only got a 60GB disk. Like a lot of Apple stuff, it looks really nice, but has some pretty major usability issues.
This video is of its launch. Unwired, for it is they who made the video, review a bunch of things in a normally pretty even handed way. Unfortunately they decided to send a guy who owns an iPhone to this event. QED, a Mac fanboy.
The Mac fanboy is a particularly obsessive creature. If Apple released the iTurd, a white, shiny, plastic covered dog egg, the Mac fanboy would still rush out and buy it by the truckload. This kind of almost religious fandom is demonstrated when Steve Jobs (their messiah) opens an envelope (containing the as yet un revealed mac book) to which the crowed cheer and whoop… the opening of an envelope.
The unforgivable thing is the guy from unwired is pretty much knocking one out over this laptop all they way through his little demo, not exactly impartial. I love the bit where he ask how much it is, they say “£1199” (baring in mind that the EEEPC ultra portable is only £200) to which is says “wow twelve hundred quid is pretty impressive” implying that its reasonable price.
He then signs off with “I’m going to have mine on order very soon”. This makes me hate Apple in an irrational way.Labels: apple, geek, soap box
They physics of Crysis
I have just started playing Crysis (the follow up to far cry). I am please to say that my new games rig will run it at a nice speed with high res textures and a reasonable resolution as long as I keep the fancy shadows turned off.
The process of tuning the game has been to run it with most of the bells and whistles turned down, periodically increasing some of the settings to see how the performance is affected. The most recent setting that I updated was the “physics”. In a computer game the physics refers to the realistic movement of objects within the game based on gravity, buoyancy and friction. i.e. wood floats, metal sinks. You throw a tin can and it goes a long way, you throw a light rubbish bag it doesn’t.
The physics of the game and already impressed me when at one stage I was hiding behind a palm tree to avoid the bullets of a jeep mounted machine gun when I saw trees started falling over in the direction of the jeep. I thought this must be some sort of scripted sequence until I realist the trees where being mown down by the machine gun fire. That’s when I realised how “physicsy” the game is. I obviously then stole the jeep and spent 5 minutes mowing down trees, then driving over them to make them snap. Very cool.
This was all with the physics turned down to “low”. I was intrigued to see what would happen when I turned them up to “high”. How could physics quality be improved. Well, its not, you just get loads more of it. Everything becomes moveable and destructible. Shoot your machine gun in to the branches of a tree and you are showered with leaves and branches. Run your jeep in to a shanty town style shack and the thing comes crashing down. Some of these shacks have window shutters that are helped open with wooden supports, if you want to shut the windows, knock the supports away. You can have hours of fun just making things fall over.
In the game you can fix it so you have super strength (I won’t bother explaining why, but it is very cool). Also in the game you can pick the bad guys up by the neck and throw them. What’s really fun is to throw a bad guy though a house with super strength. He dies and the place falls down, W00T.
The reason that I have written these words is because the physics is a little out of sync with reality. Things fall over far to easily. The specific example that I am thinking of is a water melon that I saw in one of these shacks. I had already sent that if I shot the melon it would split in to various juicy bits. I thought “I will throw it at the wall to see what happens”. What happened was, I knocked one of the walls out and the ceiling fell in.
I had knocked a house down with a water melon… which remained intact.
That aside. If you have computer that can handle it, and you only play one first person shooter this year. Make it Crysis, its amazing.Labels: geek, soap box
American by birth, Irish by blood.
Let me start this by saying that I cant stand trolling, and that was not my intention at all by joining this Facebook group. With that said….
There is a Facebook group for people of Irish decent in the USA called “American by birth, Irish by blood”. You can imagine the kind for syrupy, stereotypical, patronising, “there always after my lucky charms” type rubbish these ever-so-slightly-of-Irish-decent Americans post in it.
My reason for joining this group was to challenge the idea held by a lot of these people that they are, in fact, not Irish. One guy I spoke to was fiercely proud of his Irish heritage and the “Irish tattoos” that he has. I asked what his nears Irish relations where. Two great grandparents. That makes him what… one thirty-second Irish or something. Its laughable.
Anyway. An actual Irish guy started a discussion thread titled “All of youse… FUCK OFF”. This is what he wrote:
First post:
American by birth...hold it right there, that means you ARE fucking AMERICAN. NOT Irish. I'm Irish...the likes of you who think that drinking a few guinnesses on St Patricks day, having a few red hairs watching Gangs of new york and tatooing a 4 leaf clover on your arse makes you irish, ARE AMERICANS. What the fuck do any of you know about the Celtic Tiger economy, about the REALITY of the situation in Northern Ireland, the recent Irish elections...nothing, thats what.
I don't care where your ancestors emigrated from, don't patronise us with your fucking ideas that Ireland is a land of leprechauns who rely on your moral support to free Northern Ireland from the redcoats or whatever the fuck it is you (wrongly) think is happening back in the country you stopped having anything to do with 12 fucking generations ago.
Rant over!
Second post:
actually no, theres more!
look at all the fucking patronising shite in this group, tin whistles 'town wanker' limerick writer, leprechaun, it's all there.
if its ok for youse to stereotype, why don't you obese, ignorant, christian fundamentalist, right-wing bush-voting gun nut loud arrogant cunts just fuck right off and find someone else to patronise.
Brilliant.
I would now like to give you a rundown on some of my fave quotes from this group, in no particular order:
- my friends look at me cause i take pride in my Irish heritage cause im 50% Irish. My friends make fun of me for it cause i listen to irish music, talk with an irish accent(when im really drunk) and want to get two more irish tattoos
- all i can say is im glad imirish, and i would hate to be any other type (ie french or italian.) I think the UK region has the best and most proud people and culture in the world.
- hey i got an idea, y don't we all just put this behind us and go have a pint of the best god dam beer in the world, GUINNESS !!!!!!
- definitely. henever I bring up my heritage people just roll their eyes at me and say "your American! get over it" It kinda makes me ... pissed..
- Top of the morning to ya mates! ^_^ Today is a green ole' day! I have to get going so Cheerio :D
- nobody believes i'm Irish because I have brown hair... i mean come on!
this next one was in response to a post “Fuck Italy”. Bare in mind the guy responding to it is American:
- Why Fuck Italy they are our friend. We are all a European alliance and we shouldn't hate anybody.
I really should find myself a new hobby that doesn’t involve arguing with strangers about very unimportant stuff.Labels: real world, soap box
Letter to the Post
This is a response to Michael Batstone’s letter (Friday) regarding cycling and cycle paths.
Agreed, cyclists should use cycle paths wherever possible. It really annoys me when there is a cycle path next to a pavement, yet cyclists are still on the pavement almost running me over.
That said, when was the last time you actually cycled in Reading? Once of the big problem with cycle paths is that motorists park their cars on them, making the useless because you can’t simply nip in and out of busy roads without getting yourself killed. Particularly, the stretch of cycle path on the Basingstoke Rd, near the corner of Elgar Rd, there is always someone parked there while they pop in to get a paper, or worse, council vehicles. So, forgive me if I do not use this stretch of cycle path, I prefer not crashing in to stationary vehicles if I can possible avoid it.
To address your question “what gives them the right to ignore every road sign they come across?”, obviously nothing. But there are a few things you should bare in mind. As a cyclist you are very vulnerable and exposed on the roads. Roads and road signs are not designed with the cyclist in mind. There are times where, for your own safety, you have to ignore these signs or behave in a way that would be impossible in a car.
From my perspective, the big problem on roads are the arrogant motorists who do not provide adequate space on the road for the cyclist. I am regularly cut up, overtaken while entering roundabouts and victim to many other forms of unsafe driving that make me amazed that I haven’t gone gray yet.
Like it or not, cyclists have as much right to be on the road as motorists do. While I am on the road, I treat my self as a small, slow car. I would like motorists to do the same.Labels: letters to the editor, soap box
letter to the post
This is a response to G Bello’s star letter on Wednesday. I agree that our leaders, or anyone else for that matter, can follow whatever faith they like, assuming that it does not interfere with their professional duties. Which, in Blair’s, case I think he archived. This would feature as one of the only things that I would commend him for during his decade in office. G Bello raised the point that Blair should have felt comfortable speaking of his faith without being labelled a nutter because politicians in the US do this. In what way does George W Bush *not* appear to be a nutter to you? Do you think that our leaders should be taking actions that “God told them to do” or do you think that they should be acting in the best interests of the country. If you do think that carrying out gods work from the highest office in the land is OK, whose god are we going to follow? It defiantly won’t mine because I am an atheist. Religion has no place in government what so ever. Labels: letters to the editor, soap box
How sick are you of my sexism rants?
Not too sick to read this one I hope.
I read a story in the Metro last week titled “women do worse from divorce”. I have had a poke around and found the story on the web. You can read it here.
I think the title of the story “women do worse from devoice” is spin. The meat of this issue is that women have fewer savings and their pension provisions are not as good, the upshot of which is that men, on average, recover financially from devoice quicker then women. In cases where children are involved or where there is a reasonable case for loss of earnings, one of the parties must may money to the other in maintenance or alimony (I don’t know if we use that word in the UK) so this story cant be a reflection on institutional sexism, its just a statement of fact. It could just as easily be read “women do not save as much as men”
I appreciate that there is nothing in this story that explicitly attempts to apportion blame for this “problem”, I just think it’s a peculiar way of reporting facts. It’s a bit like announcing the gender gap that is always reported when the GCSE and A level results come in as “Boys are losing out in secondary education”.Labels: sexism?, soap box
Prospect
I was just having a look at the Facebook group for Prospect School. What a load of chavs, pikes and slappers.
Best years of your life? I think not.Labels: soap box
the brownhaze is laughing at eComStation
I am all up for new operating systems. You may have noticed that I quite like Ubuntu. Each new iteration of these new operatins systems presents new opportunities and ideas. However, I don’t credit eComStation with any of these benefits. Here is why.
In the dim and distant past, a little while before Microsoft came out with Windows 95, IBM released and operating system called OS2. I am not going to go in to weather or not this was a good o/s, we just have to know its old.
eComStation is a new distribution of OS2, which is fine. There has been a small community using OS2 since is conception (and subsequent shunning by most of the world). The part that makes me laugh, is that they want £185 for it. Its like selling a tarted version Windows NT 3.5.1.
I have been attempting to understand what the benefits eComStation presents that is worth £185 (baring in mind Windows Vista is £95 and Apple’s OS X is about £80). I had a look at the “Why eComStation” page. Apparently it has a nice GUI, you can drag and drop stuff, you can tailor the GUI to your own needs, its multitasking and multi threaded and is, by design, malware and virus resistant. OK, not bad, and if you had gone through this list in 1995 it would have looked very impressive, but it is now some 12 years later, offering these “benefits” for the best part of £200 is ridiculous.
I particularly like this exert form the page “With eComStation and its Workplace Shell you have, without doubt, the most versatile and user friendly graphical desktop at your fingertips.”. Lets compare. This is the eComStation £185 desktop, while this and this is my free Ubuntu desktop.
If anyone can explain to me why this would be useful in all but the most niche of cases, I would love to hear about it.
Also...
…. and I thought Ubuntu was a stupid name.Labels: geek, soap box
why I *heart* Ubuntu
Yesterday I was attempting to find a solution to a problem with one of my Ubuntu box’s and found myself in a general Linux forum. A user had posted a script which may have been of use. Another user replied saying that it looked like what he was after, but it would need some changes that he didn’t know how to make. The first user replied to this with a comment along the lines of “what, you don’t know how to code, what are you doing using Linux”.
This reminded me of one of the main things that sets Ubuntu aside from the other Linux distro’s . The community. In my experience the Ubuntu community is inclusive and helpful to a fault (the polar opposite of my experience of general Linux fan-boys). If it where not for this, I don’t think I would have embraced Ubuntu in the way that I have and subsequently would have missed out on all the learning that I have achieved over the last year and a half which has benefited my professional and home life.Labels: geek, real world, soap box
Letter to the post
This is in response to Melinda Webb’s column, (Monday) where she concludes that the smoking ban is a bad idea because a) it doesn’t encourage people to give up smoking b) pubs “are not health spars” so landlords’ should be able to choose their own smoking policy and c) smoking is not illegal.
My response to this is:
a) Sure, smokers all know its bad for them and that doesn’t cause them to give up. We know the long term heath risks are not motivation for a lot of people. When I gave up smoking my mind was squarely on the short term benefits of more cash in my pocket, an increased feeling of wellbeing and the convince of not relying on smoking. It is this last point that will encourage smokers’ to give up. When doing something becomes intolerably inconvenient one may start thinking about jacking it in.
b) Agreed, pubs are inherently not good for you. But the difference here is that when at I am at the pub, it doesn’t matter how may of the other patrons are eating crisps and drinking beer, I can choose to have a glass of water and an alfalfa salad with no negative effect to me. If, on the other hand, they are smoking I have no choice about breathing their smoke short of leaving the premises.
c) Agreed, smoking is not, of itself, illegal. In that case, do you think that we should bring back smoking in the workplace? Or perhaps we should allow other non-illegal, antisocial activities in pubs? I do not believe this is a relevant argument.
One important point to bear in mind with the smoking ban is that it was not specifically designed to ban smoking in pubs, but in “the workplace”. Pubs are the workplace of bar staff. Bar staff should be able to expect to work in an environment where they will be able to breath without risking their health. If you worked in an office where the ceiling tiles or the carpet was giving of carcinogenic fumes, wouldn’t you expect something to be done about it?
With regard to the potential negative effect it will have on business (and please forgive inflammatory example I am about to use); I am sure that that banning of slavery was very bad for the slave trade, does that mean that it should still be happening today?
Personally, I don’t want the government getting in involved in my life telling me what I can and can’t do to my own body. I think it’s entirely possible that you could have pubs where being a 20 a day smoker was a required qualification to get a bar job which could potentially resolve the problem. But as an ex smoker (allegedly the worst kind of person for opinions on smoking), I think smoking is such a negative and fruitless habit that, on this occasion, I am on the side of the nanny state.Labels: letters to the editor, real world, soap box
Perhaps if your corner shop wasn’t so crap…..
I just read a feature in the Post relating to the new Tesco’s that is going to open up down the Oxford rd. There is going to be a big one where Battle Hospital used to be, and a little “Tesco’s Express” just across the road from Oxford Road School and the Jet garage.
The “exclusive” (like anyone else is going to give a turd, I cant imagine that the Observer is kicking itself that they go scooped by the Reading Evening Post) report is an interview with the Babar Butt who is one of the partners who run Butts Convenience Store on the corner of Oxford Rd and Prospect Hill (it was called Anand Stores when I was a kid,). He is saying that this is going to be a David and Goliath style battle, stating that Tesco will undercut local businesses to drive them to bankruptcy then put the prices up. I don’t know how true this is, but I don know one way in which the Tesco’s Express will have the upper hand on Butts, you will be able to purchase all the items required to make a meal.
I have been in Butts convenience store a few times. Its typical corner shop fare, far too many chest freezers so you have to walk sideways at some points. An entire gondola end dedicated to 3 litre bottles of strong white cider. Plenty of porn. Notably, no garlic bread. I know garlic bread is not a staple, but it’s the kind of thing that you want from a “convenience” store as apposed to a glorified off-licence.
Their problem is that they are about to lose their monopoly of a catchments area that just about sustains them at the moment with their focus on frozen ready meals “tramp-juice” alcohol. They (and every other badly stocked corner shop in the area) should be very worried about a business moving in from where you will be able to purchase actual, and in some cases not even frozen, food.
The choice is, Raise your game or diversify to provide something that Tesco’s doesn’t or go out of business. And if you do go out of business, for gods sake don’t do another half page spread in the Post about how unfair it was a better business model put you in the poor house, its not like you have had no choice about what sort of shop (hybrid walk-in-freezer-off-licence-sex-shop) your are running.Labels: real world, soap box
The topic of today’s rant. America. (again)
This rant fits neatly in to two categories. Military Arrogance and the Rightwing and its Associated Beliefs (religious and otherwise).
To start, Military Arrogance.
This relates to a news story that I heard this morning about how some NATO members are not pulling their weight in Afghanistan. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is a fully international effort and any member country of NATO should be pulling their weight. Either that or we should all pull out. Otherwise, what’s the point of NATO. Pretty clear.
On the Today program on Radio 4 they had some US military\political pundit type (I don’t know who he was, I only had half an ear on it). He was making some fairly balanced comments about the situation up until he said something along the lines of:
“[because of their actions (or inaction) in Afghanistan] Europe will find it much harder to get the USA to save the day next time we have a war”
I take it from that comment that he thinks Europe found it easy to get the USA on side in the last two wars. I don’t know how he remembered it, but a War in Europe with very clear goody’s and baddies breaks out in 1939. They finally get involved two years later in 1941 when half of Europe had fallen and they, finally, had been attacked by someone.
Or, lets take a look at World War 1. The war started in 1914. I guess there must have been a really good reason that the USA waited until 1917 to get involved, seeing as how they are world police and all. Oh yes, the Germans sent loads of U-boats to the coast of the USA when they had promised that they wouldn’t and then sunk Lusitania.
Not exactly the kind of philanthropic antics that this pundit apparently remembers it to be.
To put it another way, yes, it will be difficult to get the USA involved if we ever have another war in Europe, but that is nothing new. It’s hard to get them involved in any wars that they didn’t start themselves.
Now, on to The Rightwing and its Associated Beliefs’ (religious and otherwise).
Recently I have been having a look at the gallery section on the brilliant Snopes rumour analysis website. I am guessing that Snopes in an American run website, so it has a real American slant, this is to be expected, UK sites have a UK slant.
If you have received a e-mail with some fantastical story or amazing photograph that you think smacks of an urban legend you can send it in to Snopes and they will analyse it and post it on their page.
What has amazed me is how many of the pictures that I have looked at appear to be designed specifically for pro-war-pro-god conservative America. Lets look at some:
God will even send us Teddy Bears
Someone Photoshops a cloud to look like a Teddy Bear and some religious nut decides is a sign from their God. Whatever.
Talk about the beauty of God’s creation!
This is a real, and very striking picture. Stop making it about God, its just a pretty hillside.
Fuck Iraq
This is a Photoshoped pic of what appears to be sailors on the deck of an aircraft carrier standing in a formation to spell out the words “fuck Iraq”. I imagine that one generated many woops and hollers form the inboxes of rednecks all across the land. Until you think they are supposed to be “liberating” the place not “fucking” it.
Some Afghan is probably freaking out right about now.
This is a story of a, allegedly, US helicopter in Afghanistan painted by its crew to look like and Eagle. I guess they could call it the “Ameri-copter” and have Uncle Sam fly it to bring peace to the world. Fucking Mornons. A) no military pilot in his right mind is going to fly that in to a battle zone where people are firing rockets at him in that thing, the idea is to not draw attention to yourself. B) That helicopter is a Hind, a very famous Russian built machine, not flown by the US. C) That picture is not taken in Afghanistan D) It was a helicopter used by the Hungarian Air force for display purposes.
“USA” formation
USA, USA, USA. Planes flying in formation to spell USA, woo hoo.
Ever heard of the product Photoshop!!!!
Floral Flag
A field of flowers grown to look like the stars and stripes. Why, why would you want to do that, what are they trying to say. The mind boggles.
Sun makes cross shape on flag
Yup, that’s it. The sun shines on a flag and made a bit of a cross shape in just the right place when this photograph was taken. What the hell is that supposed to mean. In the text it says “Goes to show, Persons may try to get God out of the government, but he will still shine through”. That kind of talk scares the crap out of me.
“This SHOULD be on the front cover of Time, Newsweek, etc. But it won’t”
Because it’s a Photoshop dick for brains. This is a Photoshoped picture of a US soldier with a patch on his right arm saying “doing the work of “ the three patches representing the flags of Netherlands, Germany and France. They don’t point out what work is he is doing or why it should be their work, but that’s irrelevant because its fake, but I am sure a few “lets-make-a-big-glass-crater-out-of-the-whole-of-the-middle-east” type shit for brains’s got a stonking hardon over it.
And just for good measure
This has nothing to do with beliefs or religion. I just can’t believe that anyone thought for a nanosecond that this was anything other then an amusing Photoshop and sent it in to Snopes of analysis.
Tigers Yacht.
Cleary an aircraft carrier with a golf course Photoshoped on to it. You would have to be an officially registered mong to think that was real.Labels: soap box
Sexism rant time
While I was cycling in to work to day I was listing to Radio 4. I do this for the Today program to catch up on news on my way in, but because I was late I heard a little bit of Midweek which starts at 09:00 and is dire, but I was cycling and couldn’t be bothered to turn the radio off.
Anyway
Midweek is a kind of rubbishy chat show where they get “ever so interesting” toffs on to talk about crap. For whatever reason they where talking about art and commenting on how, while there are a lot of successful female artists now, there where not in the last century. One of the female guests offered a potential explanation to this. I can’t remember it word for word, so I will have to paraphrase a little bit.
“There where not great female artists because all of the female artists where married to male artists and men’s ego’s (particularly men-artist’s egos) require so much massaging that they cannot stand their wife’s being good at painting or whatever”.
Figures. There where no great female artists in the last century because men where stopping them because men are like children.
Now, I don’t know what the actual cause was for this phenomena. But what this woman said sounded a lot like the stereotypical representation of men in the media that is now totally accepted. Stupid, childish, unthinking, unfeeling, I could go on.
I have another suggestion why there where no great female artists’ during this period. Its because women are all crap at art and the only reason that there are female artists now is because of feminism and we have to buy their stuff otherwise we are sexist.
Now, I dot actually believe that, but I think it’s just about as valid, and offensive, as the comment made on midweek.
And while I am on the subject.
Why is it that if there is a thing that lots of men like or do but is not that popular with women, lets say, the Internet in the late 90’s, the reason that women don’t use it is because there is some sort of conspiracy to keep women off of it. This one has particularly been shown to be rubbish with the introduction of shopping and social networking there are more women on the internet then men.
Another example. Women MP’s. Now, I do believe that women have the odds stacked against them to an extent in a male dominated organisation in the same way that I think men would in a female dominated organisation. But I think one of the reasons that there are not many women MP’s is because, and I know this is going to sound controversial, not that many women want to be MP’s. In the same way, if I where to go on a course at collage to be a nursery nurse (or whatever they are called) I would, most likely, be the only bloke on the course. This is not due to a conspiracy, I am not getting threatening letters telling me that if I start working with children I am going to be dropping in the Thames with a pair of concrete loafers on, its because I cant imagine a worse job then having to deal with other peoples little children all day. And I’m not a pedo (woops, slipped in to Daily Mail mode again)
Do I think there should be more women MP’s? Yes. Do I think that there are not that many because of a male conspiracy? Lets wait until there are equal numbers of mail and female’s standing in elections before we even try and work that one out.
To give this rant a little balance, and so I don’t come off sounding like a total Daily Mail “the-most-oppressed-people-in-the-country-today-are-white-men”-nutter, I would like to point out that I have worked with people with what I would call, a slightly old fashioned outlook in the workplace. I have heard comments made about female (as well as gay and foreign or ethnically diverse) staff that made my jaw hit the floor. I am totally against this. I am in favour of equality, not some sort of pendulum swing where one half of society has it bad for x amount of time, then it’s the other half has a go.
Well, that that rant went to all sorts of places that I wasn’t expecting.Labels: real world, sexism?, soap box
Argument in the Post
I am now officially having an argument with someone on the letters page of the Reading Post. Bellow is his response to the letter which I sent in, responding to his letter
I’m afraid I have to respond to Stuart Winter (evening post Thursday October 4) – although I had hoped I wouldn’t have to
True Gordon Brown has little or nothing to do with the Olympic committee , but he is if I’m not mistaken the prime minister so hopefully one would this he has a say within the government
Shouldn’t be any confusion with the military and the red arrows being one of the same
I also didn’t infer that the British Muslim community had anything to do with the Red Arrows being omitted from the opening of the 2012 Olympics.
What I am saying, and I assure you I am no alone on this subject, is that wheat you like it or not our armed forces are fighting a conflict on two fronts –Iraq and Afghanistan – which are predominantly Muslim countries.
So in my view that decision has been made to appease the Muslims, not just in the country but worldwide. I am not a member of UKIP or the BNP just incise you ask.
But I am British and proud of it. And the Red Arrows , the home guards, the royal marries or the Girl Guides should be able to open the Olympics or the local flower show without having to wonder if it upsets one group or another. Like I said, political correctness gone completely mad.
And while we are on the political subject, decisions like this one taken will and up driving vertian (larger then you might think) natives of this country into the arms of parties like the BNP and drive an even bigger wedge between predominantly Christian British people and the Muslim community in this country. God Forbid
Adriean Keep,
Via e-mail.
and now, for my response
This is in response to Adrian Keep’s letter (Tuesday 9th October) with regard to the Red Arrows performing at the opening of the 2012 Olympics.
Adrian,
I would like to start by addressing a few of the points in your letter.
You say “shouldn’t be any confusion with the military and the Red Arrows being one and the same”. The Wikipedia says “The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force”. The Red Arrows websites (http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/ which is part of the RAF’s website) says, “Many of the Red Arrows’ pilots and support staff have recently returned from Afghanistan and Iraq and many will be temporarily detached on operations overseas during their time with the Red Arrows.”. I don’t think I have any confusion with the military and the Red Arrows, I am very clear that the Red Arrows are military fighter pilots flying planes that the military own. If I have got something wrong here, perhaps you can explain it to me.
You also say “I also didn’t infer that the British Muslim community had anything to do with the Red Arrows being omitted from the opening of the 2012 Olympics”. In that case I hope you will forgive my misunderstanding of your statement in your previous letter “we are actually only worried what the Muslims in our country think.” To clear up my obvious confusion, can you explain which country “our country” refers to?
From your next statement I think I am begging to understand your point. We are not having the Red Arrows at the Olympics because we believe it will offend the people in to two countries that in which we are presently fighting , and the wider Muslim community. Is that a fair summary of you points?
Now, to get to the real point. What you have done is taken rumour to be fact and got your kickers in a knot about nothing. I will now quote from the London 2012 website (http://www.london2012.com/news/archive/2007-10/no-truth-in-red-arrows-rumour.php) “London 2012 has responded to reports that the Red Arrows have been banned from the Opening Ceremony of the Games, describing the rumours as 'utter nonsense'. The London 2012 Organising Committee will decide what to include in all celebrations and they will be a showcase of the best the UK has to offer. But with five years to go, decisions are yet to be made on what the celebrations will look like.
The Red Arrows have in fact been used before in connection to London and the Games. They did a spectacular fly over of Trafalgar Square in London to celebrate winning the bid in July 2005, and also flew over the Mall when the Athens Torch Relay was in London in 2004.”
If I told you that the EU had told that the Queen that she was not allowed to eat sausages or drink tea on St. George’s day because it was “too British”, would you have immediately written in to the paper to express your rage? Or would you want to check that I wasn’t just winding you up?
What you have demonstrated is the kind of knee jerk reaction to perceived “political correctness gone mad” that, in this case at least, didn’t exist. It is letters such as yours that fuel some widely held misconceptions which do more to “drive a wedge” between groups of our society then the story to which you took such umbrage.
I had to leave a whole bunch of paragrahs out, I was trying to keep it as ashort as possible. but I think you will agree with me when I say "back of the net".
Lets hope her writes back.
Labels: letters to the editor, my life, real world, soap box
I can like Linux without pathologically hating Windows
I like tea.
I can say “I like tea” without immediately saying “I don’t like coffee”.
I can talk about tea and how much I like it without sounding like I am the follower of some weird religion.
When I write about coffee I don’t write it “kofeee” or some other purpose miss spelling to make sure everyone knows that I hate it.
I don’t think that all those that like coffee are evil\stupid.
I can see that coffee is not to everyone’s tastes and has stuff wrong with it. This does not make tea any nicer, nor dose it give tea magical properties.
I can do this with tea and coffee, I can also do this with Linux and Windows.
In my house I run several Ubuntu PC’s. I also run a few Windows PC’s. At some point in the future I imagine that I will no longer run any windows PC’s. Even when this happens, even if Ubuntu has become as end-to-end user friendly as Windows, even if windows still has the security problems that are forcing me off of it, even if Ubuntu is just as good for gaming as Windows I will not call it “M$ Windoze”.
I will not be found to make a statement like “I just did this cool thing with this new software on my Ubuntu PC….. YOU CANT DO THAT ON VISTA BECAUSE VISTA IS BAD AND INHERENTLY EVIL AND YOU GET BAD AIDS IF YOU USE IT AND, AND, AND IT SMELLS OF POO *foam at the mouth*”
This is because I am a grown man and not a child. As a child I had a Sega games console which meant I had to hate Nintendo. Luckily I went through this process called “growing up” whereby you get to do cool things like not being 100% polarized on issues such as brands that I like.
It’s an operating system, use it, enjoy it, then get out of the house and enjoy your life. It makes me ashamed to call myself a geek.Labels: geek, soap box
Yet another letter published in the Post.
I wrote a letter to the post which was a response to a letter sent in by another reader. I have copied the letter out so that my response will make some sense and hopfully you will see what inspired me to write in:
I see the idiotic Government along with the equally idiotic Olympic committee has decided to axe the world famous Red Arrows form the opening of the Olympic Games in 2021.
Most people from most countries would love to see the Red Arrows perform – that’s why there so popular in many parts of the worlds
I , along with countless others, am sick to death of political correctness gone mad. If Brown wants my vote he can get stuffed. We have brave man and women fighting and dying for this country and not many people give a damn. Our military do a fantastic job ain very difficult conditions – often with one arm tide behind their backs.
Lets not b | |
