'He's An Old Hippy' Am I really that old? Hell's teeth. I must be. Last Christmas Day I shaved off a beard that was older than Paul.

Trials and maybe some tribulation. Moral blackmail from certain people has forced me into playing with colours, graphics etc on my other blog with some 'interesting' results. I am very cautious when it comes to doing anything suggested by possibly manipulative women but it seems churlish not to wish Paul 'A Happy 30th Birthday'
However I draw the line at mentioning the word oulipo in my post.

The world needs more Psychokitties. That and a reasonable political structure to direct them. The system that is in operation now is so open to political and nationalistic abuse as to be barely an improvement over complete anarchy. However I would be the last person to suggest that the UN should be done away with. What everyone with an interest in improving things should be doing is pushing for gradual but actual strenghthening of the organisation. It must be in every individuals' best interests to strengthen the institution and its credibility. The removal of imbalances in the power structure is one area worthy of immediate consideration. Permanent seats on the Security Council and vetos should be reviewed on a regular basis. Voting power based on size of population would seem to be a reasonable long term aim. The ability of some states to delay and avoid payment of contributions borders on the ludicrous. A fair level of contribution based on national resources would not require Albert Einstein to work out. It would need several Nelson Mandelas to get reforms past the vested national interests but if the timespan alloted was greater than that required for a couple of changes of power in most countries then the politicians wouldn't feel so vulnerable over making the right decision. Psychokitty seems to be a fairer bet than psychos Bush, Blair and Hussain.
Fun pics of a moggy to World Peace, not that big a step really. Thanks to a dreamer for the link.

Simple things please...
So it's just sitting there doing nothing. It's all there. Hasn't been used for a couple of years or so. I've got a bit of time to spare, why not? To hoover or not to hoover? That requires an executive decision. If it doesn't work then the hoovering would be pointless. If it does work then why clean it? It might stop working. Good point.
Plug in, switch on. Bingo! Ok so it thinks it's 1997. I can fix that. Settme2-24-2003. That's not right. Hmmm. Iffy keys. Hmmm. Ahhh. SetAlt32tAlt102BsAlt105me 2-20-2003 Enter. Yes! Yes! Yes! How/why on earth did I remember that? I wonder if the other one works? Of course it does. The only thing that doesn't is the human memmory. Who the hell was I and what was my password 6 years ago. Desparate measures called for. RTFM. Strewth! It worked. Oh ye of little faith. I am now Network Administrator in charge of a fully fuctioning IBM AT (Intel 286 1Mb RAM two Seagates 20Mb and 10Mb) running Novell v2.15 together with a bitsa 286 workstation running DOS. I've got Lotus 1-2-3 v4 for DOS , Amipro, Paradox v3.5, assorted DOS utilities and if I boot DOS 3.3, joy of joys, Edlin. The kit was purchased/assembled second hand in the early 90s and the total cost back then was less than £500. I blame my enjoyment on a misspent childhood playing with Meccano and Lego. I may be a seriously sad ba...rd but I am a HAPPY sad ba...rd. :-)
...simple minds.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Windscale, Chernobyl etc. I must be dreaming. The UK government has just announced that it won't continue to subsidise the nuclear industry. Not only that but it intends to boost renewable energy resources. Whilst I doubt the purity of their motives I definitely agree with the idea of not making any more nuclear products.

Credit where due. Am getting to be more comfortable with HTML Kit. It doesn't seem to have any really bad habits although I am unlikely ever to stretch its capabilities. I still haven't RTFM which always gets my vote.
I have set up a test blog and am playing with stuff there. Templates, graphics and comments are on the agenda but prepare post check result cycle seems to take forever at the moment. I don't see much likelihood of anything very decorative for Baker's Dozin'. Not my style and too much good competition.

Wow. I am not alone. There is another, out there, who sometimes thinks like me, though I reckon I can claim precedence over Dave on this because I have vivid recollections of enjoying clearing snow at New Year 62/63. However I have to bow to his ability to put the comforting glow into words. I get the same satisfaction from doing other people's washing up. Even to the point of scrubbing the nasty bits on the outside of saucepans. It plays havoc with the fingers but it's worth it.
I think part of the good feeling comes from either the lack of obligation or instruction to do it. There is also the benefit of time out and time to think while doing a mundane task. Does this make me a sad person or just peculiar? (Sorry Dave)
Thank you Jennifer for the link.

Freedom of Speech The web is spreading without much fuss to most corners of the world and because 'ordinary' people can communicate at will it is already a great leveller. Once the middle classes get hold of the web it rapidly becomes part of their 'minimum requirements'. A large strong middle class is a requirement for a stable society. There is a need to spread the web to the impoverished unconnected classes world, preferably after we provide them with food and water. Countries can disrupt contact with the outside world but in order to run a country nowadays you need modern communications systems. The web is a two edged sword and, as with 'the media', it is being subverted by vested interests but freedom is there for the taking. Bloghoods provide a forum for anyone to expose manipulation and dishonesty. It should be nearly impossible for any one corporation or country to control the communication. Bill Gates could conceivably buy a country but so what. Google-Pyra could control access to information on their sites but look at this, incomplete, list.

Google, Lycos, Excite, Alta Vista
Blogger, MT, Radio
Haloscan, Rateyourmusic, Yaccs, Blog Back
Windows, Linux, Apple OS
Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera
HTML Kit, PageMill, Word, Star Office, Notepad, Wordpro, Wordstar, Edit, Edlin(OK call me sentimental)

Pick one from each line and your average punter can blog at will, hosting their site anywhere in the world. New options will come and some options will disappear with little trace. This provides long term stability for easy personal communication across time zones. What we need now is an honourable police force to back up the International Courts of Justice. What we have is an unholy alliance of politics and commerce that makes saints of criminals. I'm off to my tailor for a fitting of my Miss World costume and will continue to work for 'World Peace'

Baker's Syndrome I am a sufferer. I learn just enough of any subject to be able to fool my inferiors, hold my own with my equals, understand vaguely what my superiors are talking about or make a complete idiot of myself. If this were a law then subsets would include:-
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, manage/teach. Not the insult it appears.
The only person entitled to an opinion is the one who knows nothing of the subject.
To find the easiest way to complete a task ask a lazy man.
Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread.
In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.

Another one done gone.
I've been following the debate on Google/Pyra, in the bloghood I wander round, hosted by Shelley and Jeneane. Just as I was trying to sort out my thoughts, Alta Vista is sold for $140M to on-line advertiser Overture Services.

A Simpleton's view of current world politics. We appear to have a school playground containing a couple of hundred children of mixed ages, abilities and backgrounds. There are several bullies present whose obnoxiousness varies from very slight to massive. Is it such a good idea to join the most powerful bully in dealing with one of the smaller offenders who happens to displease him? The end result is unlikely to be an improvement to school life. Not a very good analogy but it has some merit.

This is Justice? A man who knocked the head off a statue of ex Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was sentenced to three months' jail today. This is in comparison with the sentences of Community Service or cash fines handed out to drivers who have caused the death of others through drinking and driving.

You got a complaint? Keep taking the tablets It was 24hours before a post "took" on blogspot. The post wasn't anything special but having finally put it together I wanted to post it NOW. It took me 24hours to get a comment onto a blog. Naturally this was a deeply meaningful insight. I still haven't learnt to organise my blogging around the blog "rush hours". Why should I have to make allowance for a few million other users? They are probably not British anyway. Google must improve the access and they'd better not charge.

Professional ComplainersWe've all met them. I am indebted to Dr Mary Selby for this definition.
"the kind of people who would have elbowed their way off the Titanic, and then complained that the drowning hordes were too noisy".

Jam tomorrow. Traffic congestion charging started this morning in Central London at £5 per day. A combination of Monday morning, school holidays and hype reduced the amount of traffic to the level of a Sunday morning. So far so good. This scheme needs to work so that buses, taxis and bikes can move at a reasonable speed. The system doesn't cover a large enough area at the moment.
There are a couple more natural borders that could be utilised to provide a graded charging scheme. They are: the North/South Circular and the M25 Orbital Road.
Here's hoping it is given time to settle down and that when changes are made they are based on hard evidence and not Party Political considerations. The Conservative Party cadidate for Mayor has already stated that the scheme will be abandoned if he is elected. This was before it started. The Labour Party regard Ken Livingstone as a dangerous man mainly because he has one or two principles and is willing to stand by them.

Cosy feeling. It's nice when politicians take charge of things and tell you exactly what to do. Here in the UK we have a lot to learn from the US. - QUOTATION OF THE DAY - "We don't want folks sealing up their doors or sealing up their windows." - TOM RIDGE, secretary of homeland security.

Where do old blogs go when they die? I've been away for a couple of days and started to catch up with the blogs. Some blogs I visit daily and others I catch up on every week. Nothing particularly organised, I work from a list in my browser. It is not a very long list.
Start at the top and move down. I am getting used to the regulars and their layouts I follow links and when I like what I see it goes on the end of the list to be visited when time allows. When I revisit I may decide to move the URL up the list or not. The system is unscientific and absolutely subjective.
I read what I find interesting, amusing or informative. I have become aware of the bloggers as people and personalities. The blogs have started to become more than just screensful of text and graphics. They provoke thoughts and responses, some of which are pleasant and some which I might prefer not to have or feel uncomfortable with because I have always avoided them. For an habitual shallow thinker this is a slightly awkward business. The great thing is it is carried out in private. No peer pressure to mould the reading list or ones' attitude to the subject matter.
About two or three weeks ago, after several bloggers said they were tired and were taking a break, I started to wonder about blogsville.
Although one or two sites host a sizeable minority of blogs the rest are well distributed. That is all well and good while the posting lasts.
The avenue I started to wander down was what happens when it stops? OK. No problem. I'll read all the others. Purely by chance I had come across a blog that hadn't had a post for a year and a half, so referring back wouldn't be difficult surely.
Then just now the bad news arrives on screen. Letters never sent is not only finishing posting but is being wiped. Whoa! That blog had gotten under my skin more than I liked to admit. It dealt with things so well that I had mentally filed it as worth reading more than once in the future. Now it is evaporating. I have no right to object to the author deciding to pull the plug. There are those who are currently discussing these matters far better than I can, BUT... Damn it I feel a sense of great loss. So I could copy all the archive pages as text with or without permission but it wouldn't feel right.
It would also lose all the feel and some of the impact of the original. Doubtless it is possible to recreate the entire blog, although I doubt my ability to do so and that would definitely be wrong. So I will read, learn and inwardly digest Letters Never Sent whilst it exists and then mourn its loss. Joni Mitchell put it well. 'You don't know what you got, till it's gone'

Trials and maybe no tribulations. So I take the advice that the nice lady offered and download HTML-Kit from Chami.com. 3+Mb over tincan and string modem - 15 minutes including installation. Type this post and Blogger it.
It works for me. Thank you nice lady.

The Boss was wrong. I have never been a great fan but *57 Channels and nuthin' on* has always captured for me the state of TV broadcasting. Last night - the exception that proved the rule. A one hour program on UK Channel 4 the last of a short series on The Machines of Leonardo da Vinci. The program followed two projects to make machines from his drawings that he himself had never attempted, a massive crossbow and a hang-glider using authentic materials. Due to the fact that progress has allowed us to lose the knowledge of wood
technology the crossbow failed to live up to its full potential. In all fairness only one attempt was made at the construction and undoubtedly further models would have succeeded. The glider, built from drawings generated by observation of birds in flight 400 years before the Wright Brothers, exceeded Kitty Hawk's flight by a healthy margin.
Apparently only a quarter of da Vinci's papers survived the agendas of church and politics. What have we missed? If this man were alive today I for one would seriously consider having his babies.

Damn. As usual there was only one tiny problem with that cunning plan. As Blackadder would say "It was utter b......s"

A little more learning. I am preparing to be smug.

A little learning. A tagfest acquired from behind the virtual Bamboo Curtain. A tip taken from a recently started blog behind the actual Bamboo Curtain by Leylop (well worth a visit). What if I combined them? Theory has it I could have my own pictures here. My own fridge on the Project. If it works I shall be unbearably smug. If it doesn't I shall spend more time getting comments installed here so that I can at least hear the guffaws.
Lights blue touchpaper..................

A close encounter? I think I may have been contacted by an alien species. I have received an email offering help. No whoopee cushion, no buzzer in the palm, no banana skin, batteries are included. This can't be right. The standard procedure seems to be to let a new blogger learn while dodging virtual bullets and crawling through a tagfield. It provides light entertainment for the cognoscenti. (It is also hugely enjoyable for me.) So, regardless of my natural cynicism, I intend to check out the HTML editor recommended by this lady, from the UK naturally. ;-) I have left the URL of this lady in a sealed envelope at my bank with instructions to open if my blog meets an untimely end.

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. I was starting to feel moderately comfortable about the bit of blogsville I roamed. I thought I had gotten away with some speculative remarks. The mildly abusive responses were encouraging. Lamb to the slaughter. First I was morally blackmailed into my own blog. No need to tell anyone - just keep quiet about it. Continue to delight in reading half a dozen and commenting on one or two. Learn a little about etiquette. Stand back and enjoy a spectacular virtual blog-room brawl. Steal a few ideas here, copy some code there, nothing that wasn't in the public domain, nobody gets hurt. Big Mistake. These people know what they are doing. God help us if the politicos get hold of the technology. So I was 'outed' as a blogger. Then I find out how devious They can be. A game played on an inexperienced blogger attracted my attention. It looked innocent enough, fool that I am. I forgot Granny's warning 'If you sit down at a poker table and can't see the mug, you're probably it. So, having been led by the nose to front and centre, the downside hit me. GOTCHA. Right between the eyes. Chuckles all round from those who had been in the know. Even a posting from a blog that had appeared relatively gentle. So I have been called 'a fridge raider' 'an old soak' and now 'the dude'. I am no longer in control. I have been suckered in. I have a nasty suspicion that I may be tempted to join in the communal baiting of the next person who appears. The social dynamics of blogging, don't I just love 'em.

More gratuitous blaming. They always make it look easy. 'Just copy and paste' they say and it will look great. Perhaps I should trust
'Them' and do it straight into the blog. Other things I've tried worked fine, well I impressed the hell out of me. So here goes for the small picture.

GERONIMOOOOooooooooo...............

YOUR TEXT GOES HERE

Buggy training. He is doing 'A Very Important Thing'. He is taking his very small son for a walk in his buggy. It's one of the face forward type with a hood like canopy. Daddy is silent and not visible. The child stares vacantly into space. This is not quality time. This is solitary confinement. This has got to be a basic design fault in terms of child friendliness. I feel the same way about those strap-on baby carriers that face the child away from the parent. There is little emotional contact even if the adult keeps up a running commentary. Perhaps this generation is in training to become car driving zombies, just like the last one.

Deaths. A subjective view. Some deaths touch your life and others seem to mean nothing. I am leaving aside my family
bereavements, those are difficult to handle. This last week's headlines have seen a bomb in Nigeria, a train crash in Australia, Columbia, Ripper, an American jogger in London, a postman in Wales, a Briton on Death Row in Texas. The other million or so around the world are barely mentioned.
Which deaths do I remember and why?

Queen Mary 1953 Newspapers edged in black. Why mummy?

Stalin 1953 My mother commented on him while reading the paper. My first vaguely political memory.

Buddy Holly 1959 I was at the age when the current music was important to me.

Taylor 1960 A boy in my class was killed in a road accident. The whole class attended the funeral. The trip there was in light hearted mood. The trip back was definitely not.

Kennedy 1963 It's true. I can remember precisely. A pub in Great Portland Street. close to Oxford Street and some guys at the other end of the bar were huddled round a radio. I asked the barman and the response was 'President Kennedy's been shot'

Churchill 1965 After finishing working in a coffee bar in Hampstead at 1am a group of us went to Westminster and queued for hours to file past the the coffin the night before the funeral. Just after we entered the Great Hall the guard changed in silence and with perfect precision.

Caroline 1971 Killed in a car crash in Spain. Of all the girls with whom I had shared a house in Chelsea she was my favourite. Sweet Caroline. That hurt.

Challenger 1986 The repeated clips forced you to imagine what it might be like to be on board.

The law of diminishing returns. Blogging takes a degree of organisation and writing ability I lack. I get a subject I want to blog and start it in the software I use,Pagemill v2. I get the bulk of it done then get diverted, blocked or need to find some detail. Coming back I re-read and am dissatisfied but don't know how to change things or keep changing my mind. Result - a lot of unfinished blogs most of them past their sell by date. In order to avoid not posting I am going to post whatever I've got and the hell with the quality so long as I think the idea is there. This applies especially to the next post.

Football Crazy? Who said Marketing wasn't a serious business?

PC or not PC. Political correctness is a bad idea looking for a home. Personal computers are inanimate and frequently don't compute. (Alright so I've had a particularly trying day) In order to avoid giving the acronym a uniformly bad name how about these alternatives to add balance. I hope I have only insulted people I like with the non-PC examples.
pathetically confused - advocates of political rectitude
permanently convicted - lifers without parole
psittically challenged - owner of Norwegian Blue parrot
pulchritudinally challenged - Gerard Depardieu
psychotically challenged - Norman Bates
psychotic cuisine - Hannibal Lecter's lunch
psychotic computer - hardware with MS
politically charismatic - Nelson Mandela
pathetic claptrap - political correctitude
personal challenge - blogging
pathological commenter - Malcolm
published columnist - Nonsense verse
principled commentator - Shelley
pathological communicator - Jeneane
photographic commentator - Farrago
purple commentator - Yoga
periodically challenged - TMItalk
penguin collage - Farrago's logo
plucky chappie - Have-a-go Hero
pneumatic character - Bibendum
pneumatic chanteuse - Dolly Parton
peculiar custom - driving on the right
political cretin - Tony Blair
petroleum conflict - Iraq war
political claptrap - Reasons given for Iraq war
paranoid cynicism - to be used for political claptrap
pyrotechnic catastrophe - Krakatoa
potential catastrophe - Yellowstone National Park
personal comforter - Linus' blanket
pants chatshow - Jerry Springer
procrastination conundrum - starting today
pensioner comedien - Elaine Strich

The day the music died. 3rd February 1959

Columbia. A loss to humanity. Space and what's up there is part of our global infrastructure and only the best can keep it going. They were the best, they knew what they were doing and took the risks involved and they paid. May they be at peace with their god and may we be grateful for their kind.

Gung hei fat choi. It's Chinese New Year today. Even though I am married to a Chinese that phrase is one of the very few that I know and can remember without effort. Yet another opportunity I've missed out of
laziness. I should be ashamed of myself and probably am. However just to show that I am not totally ignorant of my wife's traditions here are some 'Hoong Bao' (red packets) for the unmarried children.

£££££

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