Andy Ramblings

Over from chez Anne,
Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Green Lantern 75% Spider-Man 65% Supergirl 65% Catwoman 65% Batman 60% Wonder Woman 55% Robin 52% The Flash 40% Iron Man 40% Hulk 35%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Mind I could equally be the Green Latern (not 100% sure who they are but check the link)

There you go, you now know some more about me and maybe some delusions I may be having today as it's bleedin' cold and someone has run of with my 'keep my head warm' hat.

Well yes, but so does drinking too much booze and smoking too much as well.
This entry has been inspired by the ridiculous discussion that has been on going since David 'Casznova' blunket reclassified cannabis from a class B drug to a Class C. OK, it's still not 'legal' so I really don't understand why people get confused with this statement


We know that cannabis can cause problem, but as far as I'm concerned someone who is high on cannabis is less likely to cause any fight than some one who is boozed up to the eyeballs.

If we look at the statics and the cost to the state of the two 'drugs' that are legal I really am confused. if we add to that the number of deaths and family breakups due to drink and all other problems (Which there are too many for me to note down) that it can cause. Read More

Right, some of us just 'Need' to know how much people love us, how great we are in this wild world. It's a hard thing to work out, but some boffins (a very english work) managed to go one step further and found a way to calculate your Internet Ego!
Wow I hear you say? (did you?) Ok, I'll cut out all the geeky stuff like that they have a fantastically complicated secret way of working it out and if I told you I would have to kill you?! It's that serious.

Now that you have the basics, I'm glad to know that well my ego isn't that big just yet, but I'll get there before it deflates any more!
You want to know where you can find out how your ego is doing don't you? Just so that you can make mine that much worse? Go on? ask away! I ain't gonna tell you?
Oi you there, no need to break my arms off! I only have 2 and you went and did my right arm as well, how am I supposed to tell every one? I can't type with out that arm OK... A cheers, thanks for letter go.... No not the left one ... I only have one left arm?!

Sheesh no need to go that far! Look the wee kitten is young and cute, yer not gonna do it are you, I mean, look at it, it's standying there looking scared.... Ok I'll tell you ... Poor puddy kat! Read More

I've worked in the past as a technical support person, and while there came up, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this, with a theory of three types of Technical people.

1. Those who accept that they don't and will not understand the technolgy and will basically allow you to fix the problems without too much trouble and will follow your instructions very well.
2. Those who don't accept that they don't understand the technology, these people will also read the technology pages or magazines and pick up all the buzz words, latest technologies. These people will not do the leg work to understand.
   
3. Those who do know the technolgie and do understand it, for me, I can have a good technical conversation about the merits of this or that technolgy.

Right now that's that explained, now why am I talking about the three types of users? well it looks as if Charles Clark the home secretary technology advisors or himself are full of the 2nd type.

Charles Clark in the labour's almost biblical zeal to capture, trace and monitor everyone, wants ISPs to retain all your access traffc to the internet, this includes, your e-mails, which sites you went to, how long your logged on for (told you, daft, what if you have adsl or cable, you don't 'logon or log off') and who knows what else.

Charles Clarke says he understands why ISPs are concerned about the cost of implementing the new data retention law, but seems to be as reluctant as his predecessors to give the industry any help

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So yesterday, (I've been thinking about this one) Blair published his Respect initiative. The idea behind this is simple, How can we deal with what is essentially a social problem, but lets use a sledge hammer to crack a peanut.

Personally I agree with the notion that respect of ones elders, people of responibility has gone by the sideway over the past years. One has to ask the question why has this happened, what has changed?

Some people who say that they never had that problem in the past, I would answer, yes, every generation has it's group of of social out casts, people who don't fit in to the present model of what the norm is at the time. The thing is, the norm changes at every generation.

Kids demanded rights, they got them and I agree, again with a lot of these rights, but the problem that a lot of kids forget is that with Rights come responsability, this is where things begin to fall apart. and I think where the problem has a starting point.

Firstly, discipline always starts at the home, It is part of the parental responibility to teach this, if this task is left to the schools, it's already far to late, So, with respect to Blair's initiative, taking parents of disruptive teenagers to parenting classes is, well, a total waste of time. Read More

January 03, 2006

On the death of the Official Secrets Act

It has come as a surprise to some that I am not currently a guest of Her Majesty. It is plainly a disappointment to others, particularly the trolls who have been gleefully predicting on Lenin's Tomb that the agents of the state will come and get us.

We have published what were, undoubtedly, classified British government documents. Under the notorious Official Secrets Act that is an offence, and everyone connected with it is plainly guilty. There is no public interest defence.

But there are problems with the Official Secrets Act. Despite New Labour attempts to roll them back, British criminal trials still involve juries, and they are reluctant to convict in OSA trials, where they often sympathise with the motives of the defendant. Clive Ponting was acquitted after leaking that the Belgrano was heading home when we sank it. The jury acquitted him, against the clear direction of the judge. And that was in the context of the Falklands War, which the British public supported. What chance of a conviction in the context of the Iraq war, which the British public oppose?

Katharine Gunn released details of GCHQ's involvement with the NSA in bugging UN delegations in New York, and the government withdrew the charges against her rather than face a trial.

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The photos are provided By that National Geographic some are brilliant some are so and so.

Click on image to see a sample


Click here if you want to download the set.

This is begining to look more like flash backs to Nixon. I'm Sorry George that you have to break the consitution that you swore to uphold, this same contitution that you show to all fledgling democracies as the blue print of 'how to be democratic" You cannot have your cake an eat it.

You have in one word, Broken you oath to the people of the United States of America. This is an impeachable offence, but you don't care do you, you want your OIL and you will use what ever means at your disposal to get it. Even Breaking the US constitution.


This is Bush trying to defend the indefensible. He now wants to investigate why this was leaked:
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London put on quite a bit of a show tonight. Using the London Eye as a platform/backdrop. However, I still don't think it can compete with Sydney Harbour Bridge.
So to see what the show was like, I got some screen captures (68) of the display over at my gallery site or to go straight to the slideshow. In the slide show, you may want to change the max size from 320x320 to anything larger. Enjoy.

And I do Hope that you all have plans for the year, Goals to achieve etc... For me I have plenty. But no New Year resolutions as I find them a great waste of time as I can never keep them.