There Is No Possibility of Reading Anything Interesting Here

Although I'm very interested and engaged in the current domestic political process here in the UK, I'm conscious that a lot of my posts are covering political events and attitudes and I worry about becoming one of the myriad 'political commentators'. I have no intention of wanting to, or becoming one. The world has far too many already; most of them burning oxygen for no good benefit! To keep it light and to vary the post content, I'm going to sound off, this week, about an everyday observation that some of you might find amusing, but I guess, most of you won't. The Evils of Smoking Tobacco The UK has recently introduced new legislation to further regulate the sale of tobacco. That's a whole (or series) of posts in and of itself, but I'm staying away from politics this week. My observation is of a more personal nature. Since the new legislation has taken effect, the standard amounts that can be legally retailed in the UK has changed. It...

Note: I had intended to post this article last week, but unfortunately I was unable, due to many appointments that I was obliged to keep. I'm 'late to the party' with this comment, but I hope that you'll consider it anyway. Thank you for your patience. An Historical Introduction Phyrrus of Epirus (c.318 - 272 BC) was a classical Greek General who won a costly victory at the Battle of Asculum. This is now referred to as a "Phyrric Victory" since he was quoted (by Plutarch) as saying: If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined. (Sorry for the hideous paraphrasing.) Phyrric Victories and Losses The General Election on the previous Thursday was labelled as what is referred to as a "snap election", since it was called by the Prime Minister at six weeks notice, which is a very short time as far as General Elections go. The result of the election was bizarre to say the least. To bring in Phyrrus...

Please use your vote this Thursday.  Apologies for the late posting. I was at the UK Games Expo this weekend and I've taken today to 'recover'. Right! If anyone out there in virtual space is actually reading this I was going to post an article on a completely different topic, but I've decided that the upcoming General Election is just too darned important not to spout my piece. So, here goes. The General Election is happening this Thursday, despite some doubt after the horrifying events in London on Saturday. I have one request: Use your vote and have your say. Do this on Thursday, if you do nothing else. I'm not worried about your views, it's just that if you don't vote, you can't have a say and you can't whinge about the result if you don't like it. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Use your vote. As the febrile campaigns have gone on (and on, and on) it's become clear that the result is likely to be far close...

I was born 'out of time'; that's to say, thirty years too early. When growing up, I had an eclectic mind. I was interested in a lot of subjects and was fascinated by finding how lessons in one subject could be applied to a completely different subject. I loved exploring the connections. This meant that I pursued many subjects and didn't really concentrate on one to the exclusion to all else. I continued that throughout my higher education and try to do as much of this as I can in my working life.  My biggest successes at work have been when I can combine knowledge across sometimes disparate subjects to design innovative solutions and it's the part of work I enjoy most: It really doesn't feel like work. At least two of my bosses have commented that my chief skill is "...seeing connections that other people don't see..." (I paraphrase). The problem for me, is that I get to do so little of this kind of 'work'. Modern IT is still very silo-...

Ever get that feeling of deja-vu? I do and I got it again this week. The reason that I got this distinct and unsettling feeling was the arguments around the need or desire for a second referendum on the whole 'leaving the EU' debacle. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron was the most vocal in calling for a second referendum and announced that this would be a formal policy of his party, if elected to Government. Immediately after this statement the inevitable, let's say, firestorm came his way. The sounds of knees jerking was almost deafening. I'm not going to bore you here with the way that I voted because what has happened, has happened. I put one of the reasons that the leave campaign won is the way that both sides approached the campaign. The leave side of the argument, to me, concentrated upon arguments that focused upon emotion : Vast additional money for the NHS instead of 'wasted' money to uncontrolled EU budgets; "Taking back con...

You have until Midnight  tomorrow to register to vote in the General Election vote on June 8th. Make sure you have a voice. Without it, you have no say in the future direction of this country. From Rize Up UK If you need reasons why, check out Rize Up       The impact of not voting in the last referendum is summarised in this infographic. Although it does appear to assume that all of the non-voters would vote the same way, which they clearly wouldn't, it does quite starkly illustrate the impact of those denied a vote or abstaining. From Rize Up UK. Graphic showing the number of people eligible to vote that did not in the previous referendum.  Please; get up off your butt and register to vote if you haven't done so. Take part in our democracy.

I had a bit of an internal debate this week about what to write. Several things were occupying my mind. In the end, I've decided to move from the important to the mundane for this post. Well, it can't be serious all the time! I've been fortunate enough to own all three generations of Xbox; the original, the 360 and the One. They're the only 'Windows' machines I own (go Linux!). I wanted a games console that I could indulge in "couch co-op" with my mates and when I saw Halo, I was suitably blown away. "That's the one for me!", I thought. The rest is history and all three machines still run. About two months ago, I took the plunge, and got an Xbox One. While there's no doubt the hardware is superior to the 360, I have to honestly say my impression of the machine is "meh...". Really and truly "meh". This, I think is purely down to the interface and the user experience (UX). My impression, and yours may be differen...