Delays on the Trains

Congratulations to Railtrack and South West Trains who have collaborated to produce my longest commute so far; four hours from home to the office. To their credit they did offer free coffee by way of compensation but unfortunately they only had their usual instant muck available. For a two hour delay I’d really expect high-quality beans, hand-ground and served by sultry and scantily clad maidens.

Another question; why does the fast train, which in this instance stops only at Winchester on the way from Southampton Airport Parkway to London Waterloo, make apparently unscheduled stops at Basingstoke and Woking? I’ve checked my copy of the current timetable and neither of these stops is advertised – I suspect they simply wake up in the morning and think “Woking today, just for the hell of it”.

Musings on the Tube

Funny thing, the Tube. In the space of five minutes, three trains can pull into a station, the first two packed solid, the third almost empty. Why? Who knows?

I saw a Walkman in use today. Not one of the new MP3 versions, an old cassette player. Can you still buy cassettes?

And why do trains stop at Woking, for pity's sake? Ordinarily I don't mind where the trains stop, assuming I'm not on them, but late at night, when I'm just trying to get home to sleep, the last place I want to stop is bloody Woking. In my considered opinion, there are few places less inviting than Woking; even Coventry starts to look mildly enticing when you've spent a few hours in the drizzle at Woking. Did I mention the rain? It rains continuously in Woking, a horrible fine mist, not proper rain, and it soaks through whatever you're wearing to chill you to the marrow.

Don't get me started on the town centre. The layout is mid-20th century amalgam - half post-war mistake, half enthusiastically mis-guided town-planner. Why does the train stop in Woking? It's a mystery that man is not meant to solve.

Train Journeys

You meet some interesting people on the train. As I write this, I'm sitting opposite an octogenarian travelling home to the Isle of Wight (and reading a book called "Jesus of Nazareth") and the Bishop of Winchester, who is dozing having apparently been bored senseless by his rather well-read Bible (to be fair, I think he’d suffered a long day of meetings but one should never pass a chance to have a dig at the church).

On Tuesday, the chap next to me slept all the way from Southampton Airport Parkway to Waterloo, listening the entire time to two tracks from The Verve, set on repeat. His Walkman was running just about loud enough for me to identify the music but not quite loud enough for me to listen to it. More reports of strange people in future posts.

New Job

I started my new job on Tuesday so, as I write this, I'm halfway through day three. All looks good so far; the job seems interesting, challenging and (with any luck) rewarding so at the moment I'm happy.

In fact the thing that I was most worried about before I began (the commuting) hasn't really turned out to be too much of a problem. Sure, it can take a ridiculous amount of time to get to or from work but that time doesn't have to be wasted (I have a laptop) or stressful (it's not as if I'm driving to work). My position on this might change as I become more jaded about the whole traveling thing, but at the moment it doesn't seem too bad. More news later.

Iraq

Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt told the Daily Mail that the military campaign fought in 2003 had "effectively kicked the door in".

Looks like the cat is well and truly out of the bag. This quote, from the BBC News website, is part of a report of Sir Richard's comments today in the Daily Mail. His opinions, largely (I suspect) shared by the public, are seriously at odds with the Government's position; surely the Government can't continue with both their current policies and Sir Richard? The two positions are so opposed that reconciliation doesn't appear possible. Will the Government accept his advice or will they fire him? Time will tell.

Science and Reason

I've been reading Richard Dawkins' new website quite a bit recently. There is some fairly controversial stuff on it, particularly if you have any religious beliefs, but it's quite fun. Have a look here and see what you think.

Internet Explorer 7

Looks like Microsoft will release the latest version of Internet Explorer later this month (source). I'm never keen on these things being automatically installed as part of a patch but The Register suggests that this is what will happen. To me, IE7 is an upgrade, not a patch; it should be completely optional but I suspect it won't be and I'll have to keep taking it off the upgrade list whenever my computers try to update.

It's always possible that IE7 will turn out to be a great program but I'd prefer other people to work through the bugs - I use IE6 as my 'lowest common denominator' browser and I don't want to risk having no workable browser with which to access important sites.

Vatican Antics

This story (link) describes changes to Catholic teachings that the Pope is considering. This doesn't concern me directly as I'm not even vaguely religious but the fact that this sort of thing can be changed in an 'bottom-up' rather than 'top-down' fashion intrigues me; it makes it appear, to a non-believer, as if God set out a few basic rules and then allows his current representative to 'interpret' them as appropriate for the requirements of the time. Very pragmatic and admirable, but not really in the spirit of the "thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's glass", or whatever. If the Catholic Church can simply re-write the rules (or create new ones) whenever they feel it appropriate, what part does God get to play?

As an atheist I don't normally get to take part in this sort of argument; we're excluded from all the really juicy religious topics on the grounds that we don't take it seriously which is unfortunate because highlighting inconsistencies in religious doctrine/teaching can be great fun. You have to pick your targets with care, however. It's no fun arguing with friends or family - strangers make much better opponents.

Original Thinking

I've just been pointed to this article about blogging in the online edition of The Daily Mail. It's rather insulting to bloggers and people who use Google (surely that's pretty much everyone who uses the internet?) but does Keith Waterhouse have a point? True, much of what I write is meaningless drivel and neither entertaining nor particularly original. It's mine, though, and I write because I enjoy it.

Is Mr Waterhouse's article original? No, not really; it's been pointed out many times that the majority of blogs are pretty dull, mostly because they're written by amateurs with little or nothing to say of interest to anyone outside their immediate social circle (and I'd hold my hand up to being a monumentally dull writer, before anyone feels they need to put the boot in). I'd like to say that Mr Waterhouse's article was brilliantly written, that it makes useful and valid points about Blogging and that it strengthens the journalistic reputation of The Daily Mail but that truly would be an original piece of writing and, as a blogger, I don't do original.

Regular Blogging

The thing about blogging is that it is an activity best done regularly; if you aren't posting every few days people get bored and stop reading the site (which isn't to say that they don't get bored reading mindless drivel, but it takes all sorts). The problem is that I don't always have something worth saying but, as Lucien was kind enough to point out, that's never stopped me in the past.

So here it is. More worthless posting with no real message, humour or value. Story of my life, really.

Online Gambling

The news that the US Government has successfully tightened the laws against online gambling gave me a bit of a worrisome morning yesterday as the date for starting my new job, which is connected with online sports-betting, draws near. Further investigation and thought suggests that the changes shouldn't directly impact me or the company I'm moving to (Betgenius) but it will certainly make the industry more interesting. For a start, it'll make it more difficult (although probably not impossible) for American citizens to fund their online gambling (although off-shore clearing houses or indirect funding routes should enable determined gamblers to continue their activity).

All in all, this new law (which was attached to the end of a completely unrelated piece of legislation) looks like an attempt by the Christian Fundamentalist right-wing in the US to clamp down on an activity of which they disapprove without having to go through the rigmarole of creating completely a new Act. It's a half-baked 'solution' to a problem that arguably doesn't exist and will, in any case, continue as people find workarounds for the new rules. Online gambling, which removes the practical difficulties associated with traditional book-keeping, is simply the latest chapter in a long story.

Firefox Adverts

There are some deeply strange people in the world. Take, for example, the people who choose to film adverts for somebody else's product, as shown here: link to Firefox advert. It's quite a fun advert and it looks like they enjoyed making it, but I can't help but think that Firefox is rapidly gaining the sort of fan-boy following that would embarrass even Steve Jobs; it's just a browser, after all.

That said, the RC1 version of Firefox 2 is a joy to use; if you're still using IE6 you should visit www.mozilla.com and join us at the forefront of the digital revolution (ahem!). Oh, and I'm not a fan-boy, I'm a serious computer user who values the quality of the tools he uses (or something).