Lightbody Live

There is an annoying Americanism creeping into our language.  Young American-influenced people when being interviewed and asked a question, start their reply with “so….”.  Its entirely meaningless, adds nothing, and drives me completely up the wall !  I wonder where it came from, and I wonder how it can be stopped…

Installed it on my laptop, took about 30 minutes I think, rebooted after just a couple of questions, and it worked.

I had to go looking on the nvidia website to get “Aero” working for the graphics card.

None of the fn-keys work on the keyboard though, because Samsung don’t have a driver for my 9 month old Samsung Q210 yet.  Apart from that it just works, and is comprehensively unexciting.

However, on this laptop, Vista has always been great, so I’m going to continue to boot to Vista until they release the drivers to make the laptop work fully.

My friend Adrian Cooper is doing a huge 500 mile cycle across Scotland.  He calls it ‘SOSNOS’ – South Of Scotland to North Of Scotland.

He’s on his 2nd last day I think, and has done really well, despite some awful weather.

To find out what he’s going through I just cycled 21 miles in the pouring rain and am pleased as punch with myself, soaked to the skin, and exhausted.  Today Adrian cycled 60 miles, with 400 behind him!

Please consider donating something – its in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care

http://www.justgiving.com/adecooper/ 

Well done Adrian !!

I've been thinking some more about the scrappage (UK) and clunkers (US) schemes.

Maybe its my upbringing, where I was taught never to waste anything.  But no, I think its more than that.

I absolutely hate these schemes.  I understand the concept, but its horribly, horribly flawed. 

Firstly, couldn't they have done something useful with the cars, all of which have further life in them?  Couldn't they have sent them to a poor country or given them to people who can't afford cars at all? 

Secondly – “the green thing” – it would be greener to make less new cars, and keep the old ones going (except maybe the REALLY thirsty ones).

Also, in both the UK and US, many domestic cars, which are maintained by local mechanics using domestic parts, are being scrapped and replaced by foreign cars (needing no local mechanics and no domestic parts).

If you look on youtube for clunkers, you will see how they ‘kill’ these cars in the US, so that they cannot be used again.  They put ground glass in the engine, then run it full speed until the engine grinds and melts itself solid.  Horrible to watch.  Some of the cars put up a VERY good fight, signifying that they had LOTS of life left in them.  Here for example -

Wouldn’t it be better for them to dismantle it, and use the parts to help keep another car on the road so that we don’t waste yet MORE precious resources building more cars, just because a PART on an old car fails?

It would be OK if they’d REALLY gone for the green thing – you’re ONLY allowed to trade in a car that doss less than 25mpg (or 200mg CO2) and you’re ONLY allowed to replace it with one that does more than 40mpg and less than 100mg CO2.  I just cannot comprehend why they didn’t do this.

The scheme does make more sense in France and Germany, where people will buy a new domestic car to support their country.  But makes little sense elsewhere

And finally – I bought a £2k car 3 years ago because I couldn’t afford anything else.  It was the first “banger” I’d ever bought.  its been GREAT!  Great fun.  Low hassle (who cares if it gets scraped!?).  And I know that lots of cars like this, or better, have been scrapped, when they’d be GREAT for poor people and young people starting out.

ARGH!

I’ve always loved the radio, since I was a wee boy.  I’m not quite sure why, but I remember spending hours listening to the Moscow World Service and other things from around the world on my tiny transistor radio, under my bed covers!  One of my greatest (sad) luxuries nowadays is to lie in bed dozing, listening to the radio.

Yesterday morning, Saturday, I did just that – Radio 4 was on top form – first the news, with lots of interesting stuff going on the world these days, then Saturday live, which again had lots of fascinating topics, and a great feature about the Queen Mary’s maiden voyage!  Then there was another interesting programme – Punt Pi about the people who live in a large luxury 1930s block of flats in London, who think it was going to be Hitler’s base in London… great stuff and made me want to break out wikipedia, which i probably still will!  Then this week in westminster – which was more interesting than normal due to all the goings on, and had a live studio debate – then From our own correspondent – again, fascinating, learning about Detroit – I’m wanting to wikipedia that too!  And it continues… Money Box always fascinates me (don’t know why) – i think its the punchy short rushed style of the programme, The News Quiz always good for a laugh and finally Any Questions/Answers after lunch.

People say Radio 4 is for old people, but I just don’t get that.  I don’t see why being interested in things is just for old people.

I think my BBC Licence fee, and what I get for my money, is incredibly good value for money, and one of the very best things about Britain, and one of the things that sets us apart from other countries.  I hope they don’t mess with it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgd0/Saturday_Live_06_06_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgd2/Excess_Baggage_06_06_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgd4/Punt_PI_Series_2_Episode_1/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgd6/Week_in_Westminster_06_06_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgd8/From_Our_Own_Correspondent_06_06_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00krgdb/Money_Box_06_06_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kr7bk/The_News_Quiz_Series_68_Episode_6/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kr7bm/Any_Questions_05_06_2009/

I am so ANGRY about this I don’t know where to start!!  Its ridiculous!  WE MADE TOO MANY CARS – EVERYBODY WAS PAYING FOR THEM WITH MONEY THEY DIDN’T HAVE - TIME TO STOP MAKING SO MANY!  How hard is that to grasp?

• The car companies aren’t British.  The government will be helping to prop-up foreign companies.
• Many of the cars that will be scrapped, ARE British-made, and take British-made parts to keep them going, as well as mechanics etc.
• I bought a £2k car 2 years ago and its been GREAT!  One of the best cars I’ve ever had.  Less hassle because I don’t care if it gets scratched.
• Building a new car creates the same CO2 as what a car emits IN ITS ENTIRE LIFE!  Its greener to keep the old cars going, even if they do pollute a bit more.
• At the moment there are thousands of used cars, available for £1k or £2k, which are safe, reliable and rust-free.  Its not like the old days when 7+ year old cars were rusty dangerous death traps.  Its a SCANDALOUS waste to scrap all these perfectly decent cars.
• The companies need to get used to making less cars – they need to reduce capacity so they can be profitable at far lower volumes.  Replacing cars every 3 years is completely and utterly ridiculous.

Just go and try it, right now!  Its one of those ‘wow’ moments when the internet makes something possible that 10 years ago would have seemed completely utterly astounding.

This week was a bit upsetting at work… various people were made redundant, most of them disappearing immediately… ‘out of office’ notices were the first sign, but then they didn’t come back…  it seems worst in our London office though.

Scotland’s going to be hammered.  Glasgow & Edinburgh’s finance districts are basically just extensions of the city of London.

I installed a fresh copy of Windows Vista on my sister’s 2.5 year old Dell desktop PC last night.  Now this wasn’t an expensive PC even then.  She has 3 kids and a husband, and the PC was very well used for games, photo editing, website development, even video conversions, and yet XP had only caused one problem in all that time when it was unplugged in the middle of starting up.

So XP good… but Vista Better!

After a very cheap (£20) and easy upgrade to 3gb of ram, It took less than an hour to install, and then took a while to update itself, but it was easy and I only had to click a couple of options during the whole time.  When it booted up, every single component and gadget was identified automatically.  The PC is a delight to use and feels like a new computer –very quick and smooth.  I also then installed Windows Live Safety – parental controls – to protect the kids from the dangerous internet… it also was easy, once i understood how it works.  Also free!  Highly recommended.

So this reinforces what I’ve been finding over the past few years, Windows computing just keeps improving, and is easier to live with, is cheap, and actually is something i don’t normally think about much (except last night) because it just works, all the time.

Lots of news programmes debating why the country (England) ground to a halt in the recent snow.

One reason that nobody mentioned was, the last time they had major snow there, 18 years ago, cars had quite skinny tyres.  Nowadays cars have ridiculously huge wide tyres, which are HOPELESS in snow.

In some other countries, cars actually have winter wheels & tyres, which are narrower and smaller than normal ones.  Mind you they also have snow chains etc…

The credit crunch has hit Dubai.  Hard.  Very hard.  And my beloved QE2’s fate is now uncertain again.  She’s still sitting there, engines running, fully powered up, all systems alive and kicking… its now well over 2 months since she arrived and in that time, her owners, Nakheel, have cancelled all sorts of projects.

Whats to become of her?  Scrapped?  Sold on?  Just going to sit there?  We shall see…

Nobody seems to much care about the ‘investment bankers in London’ who are losing their jobs recently.  After all, “they got us into this mess in the first place!”

However its not just them losing their jobs as the banks lay people off and/or go bust – in fact its mostly not them!  For instance, many thousands of these jobs are highly skilled jobs in relatively poor areas of Scotland, such as Glasgow.  Without these jobs, there are going to be a lot of skilled people looking for work, or taking their skills elsewhere. 

For instance, and these figures are rough figures off the top of my head, JP Morgan employs 1,000 technology people in Glasgow, earning on average £35k… that is £35m of take home pay.  If you add in Barclays Bank, Barclays Stockbokers, Barclays Wealth, Morgan Stanley and other financial houses, it becomes a huge figure.

The Scottish press, has been notably silent.

What a rollercoaster year!  My contract ended with my enjoyable government job and i moved into the financial sector just in time to join the rollercoaster ride of the credit crunch and the banking crisis. It looks like it will continue too…  I managed a record 6 or 7 colds this year, and i think the change in working environment was a large part of  the reason for this. I’m also a news junkie and followed every market or business downturn closely, which didn’t help with my stress!

My dream-come-true cruise on QE2 finally came around, and was everything i hoped it would be… then a few months later i watched as QE2 left forever, and arrived in Dubai where she is to be torn up and rebuilt as something quite different.  I’ve watched her sail the world for 20+ years so its been quite emotional at times.  I know, its just a ship, but I’m amongst many thousands of people who think like me.

Absolutely terrible, terrible weather this past summer – unrelenting grey, week after week.  Not at all typical for us.  if it hadn’t been for my sunny escape to the Med it would have driven me crazy.

To my horror, i turned 36, my mum turned 65, and my nephews turned 6 and 11… the years are flying past now!  When I look back at what i was doing 10 years ago, it doesn't seem that long ago at all.  I think your thirties, mid-30s, are when you start to understand how short life is and how a year isn’t really a long time at all.

 
Anyway, next year is ‘Mini 50’ and I've been a Mini addict since the late 80s, so I’m planning on having some fun with my Mini, if I can keep it going that long!

Happy New Year!

You should watch this – really – its pretty amazing.

BBC iPlayer link to 'How to Rob a bank' program

The Times says it all for me today!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/sathnam_sanghera/article5267814.ece

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fkbrp/QE2_Portrait_of_an_Ocean_Liner/

A ship that is, basically, to be demolished.

This is written by John Maxtone Graham, a famed maritime historian and he confirms what I knew to be true already – almost the entire ship is to be destroyed - http://www.worldshipny.com/qe2lament.html

Next week, on the 26th, QE2 will tie up at her ultimate destination after a long, record-breaking, successful and triumphant career which has spanned the end of the once crucial transatlantic passenger ship trade, to the start of the global cruising boom.  Then, there will be no more great Clyde built liners in service.  No more British built liners or cruise ships.  And, in my view, no more beautiful liners.  A sad day.

BBC South’s Main QE2 Page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/history/local_history/qe2/

BBC Radio Solent : Live Coverage all day and lots of coverage before that too!
(I just turned it on at random and they’re talking QE2).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/realmedia/live/localradio/solent.ram

“QE2 People” – click the 13 portholes for their stories! Really nicely done, and so sad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2008/10/11/qe2_people_feature.shtml

QE2 Farewell Information
This page should be ‘streaming’ the TV special live from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. Its also on Sky channel 984!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2008/10/10/qe2_farewell_info_feature.shtml

QE2 interactive Farewell Guide – where to watch from if you’re in the area
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2008/10/22/qe2_farewell_interactive_feature.shtml

QE2 Itinerary for Tuesday
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/events/QE2-final-departure.asp