Oh God, it's Trains Again

I have just noticed that all the window-breaking safety hammers have been removed from the carriages of the SWT train on which I am riding. They were presumably deemed necessary when the carriage was built so it would be interesting to see what might have changed.

My suspicion is that removal is simply to reduce the risk of vandalism; can anyone suggest an alternative reason? Will investigate further and update if anything can be uncovered.

Jacqui Does London

I see Jacqui Smith has been caught claiming expenses for Adult films (ironically purchased from Virgin). The amount of money is trivial, but I continue to be surprised at the audacity of our Ministers. I wonder which films she was watching?

The Now Show Strikes Again

From The Now Show, Friday 13th March:

Religion is like a huge dog. When it's yours it feels comforting and safe, but it scares the hell out of everyone else and the least you can do is keep it away from the kids. My apologies if this seems like an anti-religious rant but think of it as payback for 40 years of Thought for the Day.

Excellent stuff. This rivals the legendary rant by Marcus Brigstocke (link). 

Short Trains

SWT seem to have run short of rolling stock this morning so instead of ten carriages with four seats abreast we have eight with five.

The biggest problem with these carriages is that the seats are too narrow for even a slim person to sit comfortably. With my left shoulder against the inner wall of the carriage my right elbow must sit either in front of me or across the edge of the adjacent seat, which will be tricky if someone occupies the seat.

There must be a better solution. I wonder if the Government could spare a few quid to construct a high-speed rail network?

Oklahoma - Getting it Wrong Again

News of religious extremism in Oklahoma isn't really news but sometimes it's just mad enough to mention. In this article Greg Lukianoff describes the State Legislature's ongoing investigation into the speech given by Richard Dawkins at OU earlier this month. Apparently, state representatives are in favour of free speech as long as the freely spoken thoughts are in line with their own. Cretins.

Football Signatures, Mk 2

For anyone interested in seeing more photos of a football, here they are.

Footballs and Signatures

I have a football, only one, made from leather and signed, it would appear, by a load of footballers from some northern club. I can't be certain exactly when it was signed but the signatures I have identified suggest it dates from between 1978 and 1982. 

Anyone know anything about these things?

Commodore Amiga Computers

My parents recently cleared part of their loft so I now have two Amiga computers (a 500 and a 1200) sitting in my spare room. They pretty much work, I think (although the TV modulators may be a little dodgy), so I thought I would throw them on eBay and see what they would fetch. Unfortunately, a quick scout around suggests that these models are not big sellers and I probably won't get more than a few quid.

So what about re-commissioning one of these beasts and making it do something useful? I got as far as looking around the Internet for a supplier of spare parts before I realised that my phone has 20 times the power, a better user interface and usable modern software.  These computers are going back in their boxes until I can bear to bin them or I can find someone who wants one. 

Any suggestions?

Estonian Air

I don't really like flying with Estonian Air; the timetable doesn't really work for me, the flights to Tallinn are fairly expensive, the in-flight catering is pretty awful and the seats are cramped anduncomfortable.

The only good part of the service is Tallinn airport, and that isn't run by Estonian Air.

iPhone feature Delivered

Well, almost. The announcement yesterday that the version three operating system would include a phone-wide search tool ought to give me what I want, which is great. Who says Apple don't listen to their users?

Airborne Wifi

I am not too keen on the use of mobile phones on aircraft because planes are already noisy environments but it would be very useful to have in-flight wifi access.

iPhone Feature Request

When searching the Contact List, it would be nice to be able to search address fields as well as names. Why? Because unlike other phones, it is very easy quickly to create lots of contacts for bars and restaurants (from Maps, for example) and it would be nice to be able to list all contacts in a town. Not a killer feature, perhaps, but useful nonetheless.

iPhone Pricing

More news from O2. It looks (link) like O2 will reduce the price of the current iPhone to £0 from 1st May, possibly to make way for stock of an expected v3 product in July.

iPhone 3.0

Apple have announced the demonstration next week of iPhone firmware version 3.0, the first major upgrade for a couple of months. The new OS is expected to be released in June/July and there are hints that it might be accompanied by a new hardware platform, iPhone 3.

Would I upgrade? Yes, as soon as possible, if the new platform offers:

1. An improved camera - faster operation, 5Mp, a flash and, ideally, a video mode,
2. A faster processor - iPhone 3G isn't slow, but more snappy operation would be nice,
3. Better battery life - I am in the habit of charging my phone whenever I have the opportunity, so it isn't an insurmountable problem, but it could still be improved, and
4. More reliable download speeds - 3G is probably great, but coverage is rubbish and connecting to the service seems more a matter of luck than anything else.

Upgrading the current platform to OS3.0 seems like a no-brainer if it offers the rumoured (and much requested) improvements:

1. MMS and SMS forwarding,
2. Cut and Paste, and
3. Background applications.

Anything more than these three features would be a bonus, and I'd be happy just with these three. Roll on Tuesday!

Exciting Battery News!

BBC News has a story about super-fast charging batteries (link), ideal if you want to charge your CrackBerry.

Drugs and the Law

This blog (link) has some interesting articles about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of current drug policies. Interesting stuff.

AccuWeather

I installed today the AccuWeather application (iPhone) and, despite the advert at the top of the page, it's a huge improvement over the standard Weather App that comes with the phone. It has two main advantages:
1) It uses GPS to provide a local weather report, and
2) It offers a much greater level of well-presented detail.

It is free, so fire it up now and ditch Apple's flawed alternative.

Graveyards

What is the point of graveyards? The country is littered with these anachronisms, monuments to an age when public incineration was not readily available, and their only purpose is store dead people - can there be anything more useless or less worth retaining than a buried corpse?

My plan is to get rid of them all. Dig up the coffins and cremate anyone who is still juicy in a waste-incinerating power station (where they can make a final contribution to society) before building something useful on the recovered land, like a park or a community activity centre. It might, at one time, have been reasonable to expect your descendants to carry an open-ended commitment to maintain and preserve your grave, but that time has now passed and we should recycle the land, building for our future rather than preserving the dry, worthless bones of our ancestors.

Chilly Hampshire

Very cold in Hampshire this morning with a light dusting of snow across much of the north of the county. No problems yet with the trains, but I don't like the way the driver keeps sounding the horn; this may not have been a good day to sit in the first carriage of a ten car train.

Music

I may be in the minority in this age of music downloads, file-sharing and copyright piracy, but I still buy all my music from legitimate sources. With the continued retreat of music on the high street, my main sources are iTunes, Amazon CDs and Amazon MP3; these options cover pretty much every album available so it is just a case, when the need for new music takes hold, of zipping round these stores looking for the best price.

Here's an example of price variation for U2's new album, "No Line on the Horizon":

• CD from Amazon, £8.98
• MP3 from Amazon, £4.50
• Download from iTunes, £7.99

Amazon's MP3 price looks pretty good and I don't begrudge them the money - it is certainly an improvement over the £12-16 that the high-street retailers might have charged ten years ago.

iPhone App Store Bug

Or it may be a "feature" - if you are reading about an App and you
travel beyond the range of your wireless network the iPhone punishes
you by immediately displaying the screen shown below, preventing
further browsing and raising blood pressure.