General | Keys Corner

The NIC report

By John, on November 22nd, 2008

The US National Intelligence Council (NIC) published a report this week assessing how the relationship between the USA and other parts of the World will probably develop by 2025. The report is written every four years for the incoming government and is thus relatively easy non-technical reading.

It predicts that US influence will . . . → Read More: The NIC report

Stay off the bleeding edge

By John, on July 2nd, 2008

Reading the newspapers at the moment, you could be excused for thinking the prices for everything have been climbing steeply – oil by 50% in 2008, and in the last 12 months it has doubled in price, all manner of foodstuffs and other raw materials such as steel.

So I was surprised, today, . . . → Read More: Stay off the bleeding edge

Back home now

By John, on June 27th, 2008

We didn’t have any opportunity to post to the blog in the later part of our holiday, and we’ve been back home since last weekend, but had little free time. However, we have now loaded some of our photos – particularly those we took in Valencia, which we loved – on Picasa.

If . . . → Read More: Back home now

A fine example of democracy

By John, on June 6th, 2008

The US government is going to show the rest of the world what it understands democracy is:

The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation . . . → Read More: A fine example of democracy

Unsubscribe me – waterboarding

By John, on April 23rd, 2008

See Amnesty’s latest film showing what George Bush calls an acceptable ‘enhanced interrogation technique’. Sign up to unsubscribe-me.org.

Microsoft DRM woes

By John, on April 23rd, 2008

If you bought music from Microsoft’s MSN Music Store, you need to make sure you have it installed on the computer and operating system version that you intend to use for the rest of your life before August 31st 2008. Or you need to burn it to CD and reimport it into your music . . . → Read More: Microsoft DRM woes

Blair afraid to be branded a “nutter”

By John, on November 25th, 2007

It seems the Iraq war was started by two religous zealots, as some have suspected for several years:

Tony Blair was reluctant to discuss his Christian faith during his time in Downing Street for fear of being seen as a ‘nutter’, the former Prime Minister reveals in a BBC interview.

It strengthens my . . . → Read More: Blair afraid to be branded a “nutter”

Becoming useful

By John, on November 10th, 2007

I bought a couple of 12V LED lamps to replace conventional halogen spots this week. I have tried this before, but the last time I experimented, the light output of the LED units was pretty pathetic. These new lamps throw 450 Lux and use 60 LEDs drawing 2.1W – the result is acceptable – . . . → Read More: Becoming useful

Centro – the better Treo?

By John, on October 11th, 2007

When Palm announced the Centro smart phone recently, I was skeptical about whether it would be any good – the phone has a full keyboard (good) but the keys are even smaller than those of the Treo (bad?) which I use today. I would like to replace my Treo 650 because it is quite . . . → Read More: Centro – the better Treo?