New toys.

Look what i just bought.

The best sunday.

It is the only way i find songs of praise watchable.

How expensive is vista

I dont care if it the most complete version.

Green leaf

So I'm experimenting with the new Photoshop.


What do you think ? OK Since Goat girl asked in the comments for me to highlight where we ate lunch this week. Liverpool Road, Manchester - Sapporo, as highlighted here in Manchester Confidential.

Ryan and naan

In east is east

Future of web apps

Apparently it is not carson systems it is now carsonified.

Future of web apps

Ryan is still wearing a hat.

Future of web apps.

Ryan is in the hat.

Facebook leanings on privitisation and why I'm not really a facist.

Some explanation is needed prior to this post. I have just spent an hour on facebook in the group "Why is everyone on facebook a fucking tory" in the discussion "What I hate about the righties" think at first it was a discussion about how great it is being left handed, I then found myself embroiled in several rants about Empire (Which is apt as this weeks marks the 60th anniversary of Independence for India and Pakistan), Privatisation and the social state. I wrote my epistle after someone had called someone else "Mr. Dickhead" because Mr. Dickhead had tried to compare the Asian tiger economic boom based on free market liberalism to the cock up that is most of the African economies and blamed it all on African experimentation with socialism. To which someone pointed out what a great raving success Cuba is... the last bastion of anyone wanting to suggest Socialism actually has a shot in the real world I often find. A real go at Communism if ever I saw one. There was also a bit of a rant about Gay Marriages thrown in for good luck, people assume most Tories hate the gays... live and let live I say - as long at they don't ram it down my throat I say... BOOM BOOM.

Always loving a good bit of banter, I chipped in. Enjoy.
===
OK Can't compare the "tiger" economies to the African ones.. this little point about imperial destruction and propping up puppet governments, we couldn't quite get away with that in the likes of Japan et al.

Mr. "I know a gay person who got married for a grant" hello what do you think the net result of the married couple tax break policy that's currently on the cards... yup marriages will rocket all for the tax relief so since straight couple will do that just as much that's not reason enough to "not like" gay marriages... and anyway they're not marriages... (at least I've got my religion on my side for that statement)... they 're civil partnerships.

Given the demographic in the UK of the facebook generation you'll find a lot of disgruntled uni personages who won't forgive the Labour shower for making uni prohibitively expensive - hence I'd suggest that as a reason for there being so many "Fucking tories"

Ridiculously nebulous statements like "hate about the righties" server no purpose and don't even warrant a decent discussion and input. Surely a better approach would be... "can someone from the right explain why this caricature of your political leanings seems to be based in fact from all the tories I speak to...." in a similar vein to when I'm being lambasted by a friend for being a facist and they open their discussion with "What I hate about torries is" they don't want a chat they just want to be a tosser and remain ignorant, whereas I'd happily have a good discussion and challenge each other about small state, economics and the welfare state.

Now now Mr Cuba there is no need to call people mr dickhead merely because they disagree with you. Cuba soldiering on... yes press freedom away... soldiering on running their economy on the dollar. And don't come back with the good old 100% literacy rate in cuba... cods wollup. When I was in Cuba I met plenty of people who couldn't speak English (Now that's sarcasm) but seriously you can't take any of their own numbers as gospel it is about as reliable as a weapons of mas destruction evaluation from Hans Blix. Socialism (Which I'd hasten to say has never really been tried, Communism, Marxism and Maoism etc. do not count) is a truly lovely idea and it works in Books.. like The Beach... for a while. Eventually someone will take the piss and it all starts to wonder unless you combine it totalitarianism and make the skivers be punished - which you can't do as "It's not fair"

However I disagree with the idea that the hand holding state is a bad idea because "some will take advantage" as long as it is some and not all one must continue because that benefit somewhere is helping someone who must not be deprived. EMA is currently a wonderful example, 70%-80% of people receiving EMA spend it on sweets, beer and lunch. However there is 20% who need that funding to attend post 16 education because they want to work hard and better themselves maybe even to, in the future, help those who also cannot help themselves... a truly Tory ideal that rings of that chap Disraeli. I wouldn't dream of depriving those who need this assistance.


One last thing... some privatisation worked, some did not. Energy overall has been a success. However whilst the first BP shares were sold under Labour, the overall removal of state interest is questionable. The example of buses is a bad one in my opinion I think the privatisation is supposed to lead to competition and is why it is said to benefit the consumer, there is no true competition on the buses and for that matter or the trains - hence public transport has been a bit of a bad doo. However the sale of the flag carrier and the de-regulation of the communication market was very successful and free market forces has got the likes of BT and Virgin etc fighting for every last customer... excellent. Tha tdoes not apply to the airport authorities themselves... BAA has an egregious monopoly in Scotland on the South. Indeed even handing over the control and regulation of air traffic to private company hasn't endangered all the lives the naysayers said it would. I leave privatisation behind now, after outlining there have been both some successes and some failures. This carries me over in a bit of a segway to the EU. Briefly economic unity cannot be had in the EU without political unity. Political unity cannot be constructed whilst the persons that are required to maintain advantages to their own states attempt to build it. Every single member of the EU is guilty of this because so few of the citizens of the EU want to grasp the larger picture of the ideal about a unified Europe, despite how foolish Baden Powell said it was.. patriotism is a terribly strong force.

However the EU can be exceedingly successful when it collaborates properly, and to be honest I only see this when, in fact, large private companies within member states collaborate. It appears that the political masters are too busy, as I said, trying to maintain their own states advantage, whereas a business just wants to do good business (of course you have to beware of state interference and subsidy another evil throwback to total nationalisation). Research into telecomms, defence, space exploration and even biochemestry now costs far more than any country is truly willing or able to spend singly, so by pooling their resources and paying into a research pot with everyone else that the large research companies then bid from works and it is able to take on the best of the Japan, Malaysia and the US.

The iMac event

Live chat room coverage...



So far, new iMacs, thinner, glossy and aluminium... no idea when they'll hit UK. For me upgrades to .mac, more storage etc.


Still only shipping the iMacs with one gig though... what gives.


.mac is gone for a bit.


New videos on .mac training for new .mac features... but check out the extra icon in the dock...

Looks like a graphing icon to me. Is this an icon people are familiar with or the much rumoured new spreadsheet app.
It is also on this shot takn from the audience posted on engadget...


Just browsing round some of the Numbers videos... yup numbers... and it appears Apple have screwed up...

They have inserted the same video on two different demos... one for Interactive Canvas and one for intuitive tables...

Wireless Working...well except for some juice

One of the things I'm less likely to do whilst working wireless is e-voting. Agreeing with my earlier critiques of the planned UK e-voting scheme, this article from the BBC highlights the comments made by the electoral commission that the idea of sweeping changes to our electoral processes in this manner.

Happy birthday!

I might be in late tomorrow.

Could UK Foot and Mouth save the Conservatives a snap Election defeat ?

Foot and Mouth has reared its ugly head in the UK again a farm in Surrey will begin culling all its cattle to avoid spread. However during the last major outbreak in the UK special measures forced the postponement of a national poll in 2001. Originally slated for May, the general was pushed back to June. This was seen as a good decision and the majority of the country backed this, allowing ministers to concentrate on the aftermath not their own re-election.

Quoted from the article, Tim Bonner, from the Countryside Alliance, said: "Even the words 'foot-and-mouth' will send a chill through the spine of every farmer in the country.

"We hope for a better response this time from the government - the last time it was chaos."

However this outbreak, if it spreads, could scupper the rumoured plans for a Brown snap Fall election in the UK, one the current Tories would almost certainly lose, again. Pushing the election back would almost certainly place it post Winter - but even by the Spring I can't see DC being in any better a position to fight Brown either from a policy position or a "Look at the state of the country under this dower Scottish socialist"

New iTunes 7.3.2

Well it's all very exciting watching an iTunes update download. not nearly as much fun as the rest of these including a much over due Airport update... blighters... Improves stability... they mean it repairs stability after screwing us all up last time.. laggards the lot of them.