daveydave

Yes. I read it . Thoughts in brief: It could have been significantly shorter. There is so much repetition throughout the document, it almost feels like a hopeful 'say it enough times and it shall be'. It is a curious blend of government white paper and political manifesto. I'm not convinced it works as a document. A huge amount of future policy up in the air - there is a lot of aspirational stuff devoid of any real detail. There are some very sizeable assumptions in there over which the Scottish Government has no real say. (e.g. EU membership, Sterling zone membership) The complexities of splitting things such as pensions are not really detailed. Look, I'm not a policy expert - or an anything expert for that matter - but the further through the document I got the more concerned I was about what is being offered here. There is much aspirational stuff with little or no detailed proposals how policy goals can be achieved. So many areas of policy seem to rely on the...

Great quote from Paddy Ashdown : "I think far too many politicians today come into politics in short pants straight out of school never having done anything else. Before I was elected I was a solider for 11 years, I was in the foreign service, I was a businessman, I was unemployed twice – I was actually elected to parliament from the unemployment register when I was given a temporary job as a youth worker. I’ve done a lot of things before I went into parliament. What I can say is that all of those things proved an accidental apprenticeship for the job that I then did. And I do think politics is diminished today by being far too professional, and having people telling us what to do who have never done a real job themselves." Can't argue with that. References: Original interview on ArabianBusiness.com via the Liberal Democrat Voice website.

Is anyone else having problems with their HTC One X following the OTA update to Android 4.2.2? Battery life on my phone is now awful; as is WiFi connectivity. The phone has, as a result, gone from brilliant to barely fit for purpose. This is most annoying to say the least. Ok, I am at the end of my contract. Yes, I can start hunting around for a new phone. But I want to do that in my own time, not rush it because of some software update gone bad.

I am a big fan of rail travel. If it was down to me I'd be expanding the rail network, so you would rightly expect me to be in favour of HS2. Well... yes and no. The plus points are simple enough: faster joutney times between major cities; extra seating capacity for those passengers who find themselves standing before and after work; and a freeing up of space on the current main lines for regional services and freight. There are problems, however. Firstly, journey times aren't really that bad to and from London as it is, whereas if you want to travel from Newcastle to Liverpool, be prepared to write off a big chunk of your day. Secondly, HS2 will start at Euston not St Pancras, where the high speed link to Kent and the Channel Tunnel terminates. So, any through service from say Birmingham to Paris, wouldn't stop there. Very strange concept and perhaps more to do with protecting Eurostar's market share than constructing an integrated rail system. Compare that to Berlin...

It has been a few years since I posted about finding my 4th-great-grandfather. Although I was sure that I had found his death in 1852, I was never convinced about his birth, mainly because he had never been at home with the wife on census night. As as result, I knew his age at death, but not where he had been born. I had, during a visit to the National Archives in London, noted a few William Millers down from the register of seamen and one had seemed to be a fit: William Miller of South Shields, born 17 Dec 1795. This was wrong. Now then, I count myself very fortunate indeed to have a partner in crime as far as family tree research is concerned. A distant cousin living in Australia is looking at exactly the same William Miller as I am and, conveniently, he retired this year. Boy, has he put his time to (what I would class as) very good use. The key documents he found were William's claim for his Master's Certificate of Service and the resulting certificate itself which, bet...

And so begins another rambling post... You may have read my last post (which was about 3 months late in publishing) about fountain pens which included a brief reference to notebooks. Specifically, the A5 Leuchtturm1917 I am now using as my main notebook. This has turned out to be a really lovely book to use, with very nice features such as contents pages, archiving stickers and page numbers; and the paper is splendid to write on. I tend to carry a smaller A6 book around with me all the time and, recently, this has been a hardback Black n' Red. The paper in these books is lovely and smooth and takes fountain pen ink really well. But, as my current book was almost full, it was time to think about a replacement. There are many premium notebooks available these days, Rhodia and Moleskine being two fairly well known brands. My wife has a Rhodia (because I bought her one, not because she's that interested in this sort of thing) and I considered getting one of those, but then I ca...

I was given a fountain pen set for a birthday long ago, a lovely slim Elysée with matching rollerball. I've no idea where the latter has gone, but the former hadn't been out of the box much for many years, until I decided I was going to make proper use of it again a couple of years ago. Despite the French-sounding name, Elysée was a German brand which went out of business in around 2000. Sadly, despite still being a great writer, the top doesn't stay on very well any more; it is also very slim and light. It was time for something more substantial. As usual, I procrastinated about which make, style, etc. and I had really wanted a British pen if I could find one. But nothing was available at a sensible price, so I ended up looking at US maker, Sheaffer. They have a large range of good, solid pens and I did the usual "if I stretch another fiver, I can get this one" a couple of times. Anyway, I settled on a Sheaffer Prelude which I got at First Stop Stationers f...

I have an interest in law and, in particular, constitutional and administrative law - how the state works - and I have been thinking about this for a little while, because I'm odd like that. The current set up in the UK is not, to my mind, satisfactory. The UK government is far too centralised (although Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a better set up thanks to devolution) and local authorities in England have too few useful powers to affect the lives of the people who live within their borders. This lack of influence over their own territory will become more important and more marked over the next couple of years as Scotland gains more powers either as an independent state, or with a more powerful devolved government. Here in the north east of England, we have already seen this imbalance at work when Amazon decided to set up a new site in Scotland rather than North Tyneside. Even now, the Scottish government has sufficient powers to significantly influence the lives o...

Back in October I posted about replacing Ubuntu on my Dell Mini 9 because it was just getting too much for the poor little netbook to cope with. I went into some detail about installing Chromium OS (different to Chrome OS) which was a bit of a chore, finally installed, but then really didn't do anything for me. So I removed that and installed Joli OS instead. Joli OS is Linux based, syncronises with your JoliCloud account which allows you to have the same interface / applications / etc. on your computer and through a web interface (say, on a Windows box). It's interesting and quite nicely done, but it hasn't inspired me to make any more use of the Mini 9, which I suspect will now be heading to eBay to help fund a Google Nexus 10. References: http://www.jolicloud.com/

I've had my Dell Mini 9 for 3 or 4 years now. It came installed with Ubuntu 8.10 and I've upgraded it every April and October ever since. This has been mostly fine (apart from the occasional WiFi glitch) until recently. I have been running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS since April, but recently system updates have been causing problems and last week I just couldn't get it to update properly at all. So, I thought I could either revert to Ubuntu 11.10, or try something else. As a Google Chrome user, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at Chrome OS, which the Dell team had conveniently ported for the Mini 9. It took far longer to install than expected due to a small but significant error in the installation. This led to a trawl of the interwebs for a fix. Here I present my mashup of useful information (with references at the end). If it doesn't work for you, please let me know and I'll investigate. Onwards: Download the archive (ChromiumOS_x86_April15_2012.img....

I have at various times over the past few months had a Kindle in my Amazon basket, but have managed to summon the strength to remove it. Last week, I finally gave up resisting. The idea of an eBook reader has appealed for a while. My Dad got a Sony Reader a couple of years ago and he really likes it. He's never actually bought any books for it yet (plus it's impossible for me to buy him one indirectly for a present) but he's been happily working his way through the sizable collection of free classics that are supplied with the device. Of course, you can carry a lot of books around with you in one of these things. Kindle plus points? Well, it's compact, the screen is lovely and clear to read and it is very easy to get books onto the Kindle: you don’t have to use dreadful software to get books onto the thing. So the system works (wake up Sony), the books are not stupidly overpriced (i.e. more than a hardback - wake up Waterstones) and, though you can easily find books fo...

Well... I like him even less than I did yesterday, which is saying something. I've never made much of a secret of the fact that I dislike News International. The organisation has far too much influence for my liking - although a good point has been made on this evening's news: that the influence is probably more in the minds of the politicians than anything else - did everyone who reads the Sun vote Tory last year? Doubt it. Regardless, the politicians in their infinite wisdom, curry favour with the Murdochs and no doubt BSkyB was a sweetner for News International's support of the Tories last May. On to the News of the World. My initial response on hearing about its imminent closure was one of satisfaction. A deserved kick in the eye for News International given the appalling revelations that have come to light. However, when you sit back and think about it, that act has done nothing towards atoning for the wrongdoings of the past. The editorial team currently at the News o...

Around fifteen years ago, a 28" television rattled off the Philips production line - in an era where the UK just about had 5 terrestrial channels. Tonight, it showed me video from the internet. Here's how: The internet arrives from the outside world through a filter and into an ADSL router. Out of the router via a short length of network cable, it enters a powerline network adapter and through the domestic 240v power system at 130Mbps. At the other end it comes out the socket, into a 4-port adapter and through more Cat5 to the FreeSat box. There, it travels the short distance to the TV through a SCART lead and lo... BBC iPlayer arrives on the screen. It may not be a holiday on the moon, but it's a little bit of future.

Continuing with my "not writing proper reviews" thing, here is a list of gigs we've been to since the last round-up in April. So, where was I... Woody Pines at the Cluny 2 in April. Right, here we go. We went to see Crowded House at Newcastle City Hall in May, they were really excellent, and the lovely Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis was at The Sage (Hall 2) in June. In July there were back-to-back gigs as part of the Mouth of the Tyne Festival by Seth Lakeman (at the newly refurbished Whitley Bay Playhouse ) and James Morrison ( Tynemouth Castle - fine backdrop for a concert). No gigs in August, which just feels wrong to be honest, but The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were splendidly bonkers entertainment at The Sage in September. A folky night at The Sage (again) highlighting the songs of local songwriter Ed Pickford was great fun and the truly fabulous Spiers & Boden at The Cumberland Arms the following night rounded off October. Final push, honest. Salsa ...

It's been a pretty busy 12 months or so for live music and although I have pushed out a few Tweets , I thought I'd do a proper round up on here. However, I've left it so long that I really can't do proper write ups of all the acts, so I'm just listing who I've seen since the start of 2009. Dull, I know. Maybe I'll get some proper reviews done in future.... So, I saw an Abba tribute in March '09 who were pretty good, April was an Indian Classical music double bill and Rumours of Fleetwood Mac tribute band. 10cc in May, Naturally 7 in June, James Morrison at Durham CCC 's Riverside Ground in July along with incredible guitarist Preston Reed and a latin double bill including pianist Roberto Fonseca and brilliant Columbian Salsa band La-33 . September saw some Taiko Drummers at The Sage , and October was a busy month with the other incredible guitarist Newton Faulkner , the real Fleetwood Mac at Manchester Arena and the awesome Buena Vista Social...

So much has be said and written about the BNP leader's appearance on BBC Question Time that it scarcely seems worth adding more to the discussion. But on the drive in to work this morning I thought I'd jot down a couple of brief points. Many people were furious that Griffin had be invited to join the QT panel, some to the extent of turning up at BBC HQ and causing a ruckus. To those people I say that, in my opinion, it is far better to get this debate out in the open so everyone can see exactly who this person is and what he represents. Trying to suppress the BNP, ignoring or denying their existence is essentially appeasement-by-default and thoroughly counter-productive. Griffin and his party have, for various reasons, gained a percentage of the national vote. Ignoring this fact is dangerous. Winning the open debate is, to my mind, the only way to ensure they make no further headway. The BNP's recent electoral successes are a wakeup call to the mainstream parties who must l...

I used to be able to write with reasonable coherence, I was never a master craftsman, but what wrote was normally readable to a fashion. Having just re-read yesterday's post on the HTC Hero, it looks like I'm out of practice. Well, it has been months since I wrote anything longer than a tweet, so perhaps I shouldn't rely on Twitter so much, and actually write some posts for this blog. We'll see how that works out...

Anyone got any idea how to get rid of that annoying gap to the left of the post text? Come on Mal, you must know! :)

Technically, the T-Mobile G2 Touch , but it's an HTC Hero really. First, I'll tell you where I'm approaching this from. I have been using a Nokia N95 for almost 2 years and I use pretty much all the features on my phone: GPS, web browser, email integration, etc... The N95 does the job very nicely, so much so that when I was due to upgrade last year, I didn't. Yes, it has its problems (I'm not a great fan of Symbian ), but it is a very effective package. So, I was interested to see how much better Google's Android system and the new hardware were. The company I work for has just kitted out its staff with Heros. We use Google Apps to service our email, contacts, calendar requirements and as Android is a Google product, you'd expect these things to work together pretty seamlessly. And yes, they do. Setting up the phone to talk to my Google account was simple and in no time all my contacts, emails, etc. were synchronised. Whatever tools, gadgets and applicat...

This is exactly how legal downloads should work. I was looking around to see if Yasmin Levy had a new album out and Amazon, as it does, suggested a few alternatives it thought I may like. I previewed The Beauty and the Sea by Mor Karbasi and liked the sound of it, so I coughed up my seven quid and downloaded it using the little Amazon download gadget. Now for the best bit. Having bought and downloaded the album at work, I copied the MP3s on to my USB key and transferred them over to my system at home. Within a few minutes I was listening to the album on the telly (via the wireless media streamer) - no hassle, no error messages telling me I wasn't allowed even though I'd paid good money for it or any of that caper. Absolutely spot on and exactly the sort of thing I couldn't do, thanks to the damn DRM infection, the first (and last) time I downloaded music. Music and video producers/sellers take note: make legal downloading as nice and easy as this and people will buy. Conti...