Toms View of the World

I have to agree with everything Malcolm wrote on his site about this simply superb film.

V for Vendetta is breathtaking - a look at what might happen in the future if religion takes too strong a part in Government, this film touches on corruption of both Government and Church, and revolution and protest, as the investigators start opening their eyes to the corruption that is happening around them.

The finale sequence is everything it should be, tension, unarmed protestors, heavily armed soldiers, which leads to the fireworks…

This is a film that every politician should be made to watch!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November. (though how much of that relevance the US audiences understood, I don’t know)

Today “Real Life” comic displays the dillemma that every TiVo owner will face at some time - going back to watching stuff “live”…

This is a serious question - I know there are a couple of Mac users who read this (thanks to the server logs) - I’ve been looking at Mac’s in the stores, but I’m trying to figure out why people say they’re better…

Apples latest adverts seem to suggest that the Mac is a better place for an Intel chip than a PC every was. Why? What makes the Mac so much better to use? I don’t want to go and spend a few hundred quid on a Mini (which seems to be the most economical way into the world of Mac - given that I could reuse my PC’s monitor etc) if I’m not going to get any benefit over my existing PC. I need to know that if I spend the money, I’ll get something “better” in some way - but I won’t lose out in other ways.
So I’m offering up this challenge - sell me on giving a Mac a go - pursuade me that I will benefit from making the switch. Please however don’t make your arguments based on security or viruses etc - tell me why it’s better to use for my day-to-day tasks.

Remember also that many of the so called “features” of MacOS (like Widgets or Expose) can be added to a Windows XP system with mimimal fuss - tools like Yahoo! Widgets (formerly Konfabulator) give similar functionality.

I will not let the comments turn into a Mac vs Wintel warzone - I want justified honest debate as to why a Mac is better.

Well, today was the day for Chancellor Gordon Brown to make clear the governments budget for the this year, would it be a “family friendly” budget, with more benefits and breaks for couples and parents, or would, for once, the government recognise the very different needs of the single person, already hit hard in recent years by increasing petrol, gas, council tax, national insurance etc.

In the early stages, it looks good Continue Reading »

Lizzy as in the portrait of the Queen found on British banknotes!

FindLizzy.co.uk allows you to enter the number of a banknote, and if that note has been entered before, you’ll get an idea of how far it has travelled - yes, it’s vaguely pointless, but in another way interesting nonetheless.

The only banknote I had handy wasn’t listed (of course, it is now, so if anyone else logs it on the website, it’ll show how far it’s travelled…)

The BBC is reflecting on the fact that’s it’s been 3 years since the coalition invasion of Iraq with the purpose of searching for those still-elusive weapons of mass destruction overthrowing an evil dictator, and asks the question - “Would we do it again?”

Not surprisingly really, the answer is “no”, as the UK Government basically followed the trigger-happy US adminstration into a war about weapons of mass destruction regime change.

The question of “should we have gone in the first time” - of course, remains steadfastly unanswered, as does the one about when we’ll get our troops out of there and leave a war-ravaged and unstable country (a war, which admittedly the US and UK governments started) with insurgents making the news on a daily basis, to fend for itself, so we can concentrate our taxpayers money on solving the problems here at home.

Problems we have to face of course include the lack of NHS dental care, crime on our streets, the rapidly rising financial burden on the regular Joe on the street - paying through the nose for his petrol, and ever more so, his gas and electricity, while the government spends a fortune on the ongoing military activites in the middle east.

[thumb:433:r]Now, what’s the quickest accellerating sports car you can think of, well, I thought of a Formula One car (having just finished watching this weekends race) and according to FaqFarm they accellerate from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds (pulling 1.2G in the process)

I spent today being repeatedly accellerated from 0 to 80mph in 2.8 seconds. I still can’t imagine what it must be like to drive at those kind of extremes for an hour and a half in an F1 car - 5 rides on Thorpe Parks “Stealth” were enough for me, and all I had to do was hang on…

However it’s an excellent ride - and comparisons with the only other Intamin Rocket Coaster I’ve ridden are inevitable. To put it simply, Stealth is far and away better than Rita Queen of Speed at Alton Towers - the launch is even more insane, the “top hat” manouver is stunning (as is the view from the top) - yes it may be very short, but it packs a lot of punch into that…

All in all, an enjoyable ride, and a great day seeing some friends I’ve not seen for a while…