Category: Uncategorized

Good to see that the number of candles has reached 1,915,512 lit candles, did it make a difference? I hope so.

As the story continues to unfold, I start to wonder what is going on with our Naval Forces.

As discussed in these two posts from the BBC web site, there seems to be issues in the way that this event seems to have been initially handled by the Navy.

“Knowing the waters well and having been myself ‘captured’ by the IRG, something smells here. Cornwall had the eye in the sky (helo) watching overhead, the zodiac boats can do 30 knots and the interdict was approx 2 miles from Cornwall. How did they not see the Iranian fleet steam up and ‘surround’ the zodiacs? How do you surround a rubber dinghy capable of 30 knots. Or is this the issue the USA has been needing to justify an offensive move against Iran?”

Phillip Carr, Sherborne

“There is something very fishy going on. HMS Cornwall is a state of the art ship with a radar tracking system that would have seen the Iranian boats as they left port. Why did the captain of HNS Cornwall not go to cut off the Iranians?. Why did the gemini boats not fight or at least run away when they saw the six boats coming?. No RN captain would send its people out without protection!!!. Either the captain is an incompetent fool OR he was ordered to stand by and do nothing!!!!!?????”

Beryl Hutchinson, larnaca, Cyprus

As the two posts point out, why were the movements of the Iranian boats not being monitored? If they were, why were the communications systems not used to get our personnel out of their reach quickly?

I spent many years in the Navy, granted not in any major conflict. But I always knew and understood that there was always a planned escape route for any mission that we were sent on. What about if an Iranian warship had come out as well as the patrol boats, would we have given up the Cornwall so easily?

I hope as I have read in a number of posts that this is will not be used as some kind of perverse logic to allow the ‘Allies’ to mount some kind of military action against Iran which would be totally disastrous!

Although I understand the need for caution in any conflict, I hope and expect that there is an active plan to fix this issue without the UK being drawn into another wider mess!

Another review of Police policies and procedures has been ordered by Tony Blair, perhaps this will be his final parting gift to us all and it will find out exactly why the many previous reviews have failed to get to the bottom of criminality in this country.

If as reports say, 100,000 criminals in the UK are responsible for nearly 95% of all crime, then perhaps the review will finally say how to deal with these people.

Here we go again! Another laptop containing mortgage details has been stolen from an Halifax employees car.  With so much current focus on identity theft, you would think that the companies that hold our data would pay better attention to taking care of their customers personal details.

It seems strange to me that after the Nationwide was fined nearly £1million by the FSA after one of their laptops containing personal data had been stolen, you would have thought that other companies would be paying more attention.

Clearly, the level of fines are not high enough to deter this happening again and clearly, the people charged with looking after this type of data have a cavalier approach to data protection.

This is not an IT issue, it’s about a lack management and fundamental flaws in procedures and responsibilities within the Halifax, perhaps the Chief Executive will be able to explain why his managers aren’t doing their job or perhaps which one was fired for this major mistake! No I don’t have anything to do with the Halifax, I’m just amazed that this sort of thing can still happen.

So let me get this straight, the European Union Transport ministers have approved a new aviation agreement with US authorities, great for transatlantic air fares perhaps.

But hidden in the small print – US airlines can now for the first time fly between European cities competing directly with European airlines. The European airlines can now do the same, well not exactly; it seems we have to wait till 2010 for that privilege, how Open Skies is that?

I wonder how Jacques Barrot, the European Transport Commissioner think that this is a good’ agreement? Oh! and by the way, I thought that we were worrying about the effect of airplane emission contributing to global warming! Perhaps Jacques Barrot, knows what side his bread is already buttered on!

Caught up with a pile of newspaper reading over the weekend and came across Fifteen painless ways to save the World, full for once with practical information on how to lessen ‘your’ impact on the planet.

I agree with most the fifteen points, though I would still like to find out why organic food has to be so much more expensive that normal food and why plastic carrier bags have still no been banned from our supermarkets!

One thing missing from the list though. Why is industry/business allowed to waste so much energy through the lights they leave on at night. If there is no one working, then what is the reason for the lights being on!

If Gordon Brown is as keen as he seems in wanting to tax everything, then perhaps a £1.00 per lamp left on at night would be a good start, I can’t think it would be a difficult tax to collect, you can see the potential tax every night!

I don’t mind being told that we have to save energy, in fact I agree that we need to cut back on our energy consumption, but come on industry/business allowed to waste so much?

Here a list of the information that may be stored about YOU if the ID Card sytsem that this government wants to implement goes ahead. You thought that you had to give a lot of information to fly to the USA, well you’d better get to used to never having control of your life again!

Here a list of what might be stored about you in Government databases that will be used as part of your national identity.

1. Name
2. Other previous names or aliases;
3. Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;
4. Address
5. Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;
6. Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;
7. Current residential status;
8. Residential statuses previously held;
9. Information about numbers allocated to the applicant for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;
10. Information about occasions on which recorded information in the Register has been provided to any person;
11. Information recorded in the Register on request.
12. Photograph
13. Fingerprints
14. “Other” biometrics (iris recognition);
15. Signature
16. Nationality;
17. Entitlement to remain in the United Kingdom; and
18. Where entitlement derives from a grant of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, the terms and conditions of that leave.
19. National Identity Registration Number;
20. The number of any ID card that has been issued;
21. National Insurance number;
22. The number of any relevant immigration document;
23. The number of any United Kingdom passport (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77)) that has been issued;
24. The number of any passport issued by or on behalf of the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or by or on behalf of an international organisation;
25. The number of any document that can be used (in some or all circumstances) instead of a passport;
26. The number of any identity card issued by the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom;
27. Any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom;
28. The number of any work permit (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971);
29. Any driver number connected to a driving licence;
30. The number of any designated document which is held by the applicant that is a document the number of which does not fall within any of the preceding sub-paragraphs;
31. The date of expiry or period of validity of a document the number of which is recorded by virtue of this paragraph.
32. The date of every application for registration;
33. The date of every application for a modification of the contents of his entry;
34. The date of every application confirming the contents of his entry (with or without changes);
35. The reason for any omission from the information recorded in his entry;
36. Particulars (in addition to its number) of every ID card issued;
37. Whether each such card is in force and, if not, why not;
38. Particulars of every person who has countersigned an application for an ID card or a designated document;
39. Particulars of every notification given by the applicant for the purposes of regulations under section 13(1) (lost, stolen and damaged ID cards etc.);
40. Particulars of every requirement by the Secretary of State for the individual to surrender an ID card issued to the applicant.
41. The information provided in connection with every application to be entered in the Register, for a modification of the contents of entry in the Register or for the issue of an ID card;
42. Information provided in connection with every application confirming entry in the Register (with or without change;
43. Particulars of the steps taken, in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) or otherwise, for identifying the applicant or for verifying the information provided in connection with the application;
44. Particulars of any other steps taken or information obtained (otherwise than in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b)) for ensuring that there is a complete, up-to-date and accurate entry about that individual in the Register;
45. Particulars of every notification given by that individual for the purposes of section 12.
46. A personal identification number to be used for facilitating the making of applications for information recorded in his entry, and for facilitating the provision of the information;
47. A password or other code to be used for that purpose or particulars of a method of generating such a password or code;
48. Questions and answers to be used for identifying a person seeking to make such an application or to apply for or to make a modification of that entry.
49. Particulars of every occasion on which information contained in the individual’s entry has been provided to a person;
50. Particulars of every person to whom such information has been provided on such an occasion;
51. Other particulars, in relation to each such occasion, of the provision of the information.

Uncomfortable! Take a look at more info on the No2id’s web site, if you don’t know about this alreadt, then be prepared to have your eyes opened!

50 years old and still going strong. The typeface Helvetica was created by Max Miedinger under a commission by the Haas type foundry director Eduard Hoffmann. Over the years it has become one of the most recognised and used typefaces, used by companies such as BMW, Nestle, Saab and many others.

Many similar typefaces have been designed over the years such as Arial, but Helvetica still remains very much in use today.

And now there is a movie about the typeface! Well not just about the typeface, more about typography and graphic design with the fount taking center stage. Helvetica the Movie was premiered last week at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas and will soon begin making a global tour.

As yet no there are no published dates for the UK screening. Zürich (understandably), Prague, Istanbul, Turkey, Berlin, Braunschweig, Saarbruecken, Germany, Paris, Oslo and Thessaloniki (you can find their screening dates here) all get a screening before the UK!

I suppose we are dependant on a minority film distributor picking it up. Maybe Channels Four or Five might pick it up.

If I hear about any dates, I’ll be sure to post them here.

This is the title of an article posted by John Simpson on the BBC web site yesterday. The article covers yet again how Intelligence was used by Tony Blair to justify the UK participation in the invasion of Iraq!

The article discusses how (as we now understand) the use of the intelligence was oversold to convince the doubters that something had to be done! It goes on to talk about the Butler report and how when the main press conference was given, none of the main stream journalists present asked any ‘killer questions’!

According to John Simpson’s article…

A member of the Butler committee, the Conservative MP Sir Michael Mates, said he was surprised that no one asked what he called “the killing questions” at the press conference when the committee’s report was published. “The media didn’t home in on that. Once we hadn’t provided them with a scalp, they more or less lost interest.”

What I find interesting about this article is that it really shows up how shallow the main stream media journalists have become in their investigative work.

Many of them now seem to have recast themselves as Presenters, more concerned about how they are perceived by the public than in hunting down a serious story. Had they paid a bit more attention to the situation at the time, perhaps ‘we’ could have called the governemt to account and we might not have the situation we have today.

Who wrote the first blog? That is is the question. Seems that there could be a number of claims to that question! It depends on what you can call a blog, is it a personal bulletin board?, Is it an online personal diary?

Here is the article from CNET News.com that asks the question.

I can certainly remember reading early technical diaries by a number of early ‘online’ journalists, pushing out very interesting articles about the changing technologies, like Jerry Pournelle for the now sadly defunct BYTE magazine (who still writes a good blog), plus of course may others.

It will be interesting to see who gets the final accolade, will it be Tim Berners-Lee? Will it be Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, I remember reading their notes after I had installed my first copy of the original NCSA Mosaic browser on a UNIX computer pretty soon it was released back in 1993!  We will see!