Miners from San Jose Mine On Their Way Out …

 General, Media, Politics  No Responses »
Oct 132010
 

From early this morning until tonight, the news channels have been broadcasting almost constantly from the San Jose mine in Chile and we have seen 17 of the 33 miners rescued. Probably more by the time I’ve finished writing this. This is one of those rare occasions when the news is dominated by a good news story.

But whilst we celebrate the rescue of the miners so far, and wait for news of the rest plus the rescuers who went down to help out, there are some things to ponder.

We are prepared to go to almost any extent to rescue miners in such a situation – and quite rightly too! But perhaps we should be considering just how much we are prepared to pay for pulling minerals out of the earth. The mine in question had a dubious safety history, which itself isn’t a reason for it to remain closed. But it does raise the question of whether more work should have been done before the accident to make it less likely.

But serious mining accidents occur world-wide and cause many deaths annually, without generating anywhere near the amount of attention that the San Jose mining accident has gathered. Perhaps that is understandable given that this is now a good news story.

There are those who say that mining is an inherently dangerous activity and there will always be accidents. But if you read work your way through that list of mining accidents at the link above, it quickly becomes apparent that in many cases sheer commercial greed is a major contributory factor. And not just in ancient mining disasters, but in the 21st century!

If we spend as much effort as has been spent on saving the San Jose miners on improving mining conditions world-wide, we can save many more miners from disaster. Isn’t that worth paying just a touch extra for your consumer goods ?

Liu Xiaobo Is Awarded Nobel Peace Prize …

 Politics  No Responses »
Oct 102010
 

And the Chinese authorities are more than a little upset.

“Good!” is my immediate reaction. Anyone who can irritate the Chinese authorities can’t be all bad, and it seems that Liu Xiaobo is doing more than his fair share. Which is why he got the prize of course.

When you are young, you eventually realise that when accused of doing something wrong, it is usually less painful to admit to it straight away than come up with silly excuses that blame everyone else – “It was the cat” …

The Chinese government is doing exactly that when it comes to Lui Xiaobo. It is claiming that he isn’t the sort of person who should be getting the Nobel Peace Prize. After all he is alleged to have broken Chinese law (so what?). Indeed they go on to criticise the Norwegian government for awarding this prize.

Of course the Norwegian government is not involved in the decision making process as the Nobel prizes are awarded by a committee independently of the government. Perhaps the most withering description of attempted Chinese interference comes from the Norwegian government themselves who explain that the Nobel committee is independent, but that the Chinese government will find such independence incomprehensible.

Another Trip To Swanmore Lake

 Photography  No Responses »
Oct 092010
 

I have been going to Swanmore Lake and the downs north of it for years now, and last week visited it again to see what images I could come up with :-

Lurking Cloud

I’ve made images of this little valley before, but this time I had the luck to have this little cloud trying to hide behind the trees – sorry cloud, but you need a bit of a diet to hide here properly!

Desktops, Laptops, Netbooks, and Slates

 Computing  No Responses »
Oct 052010
 

It is always funny reading articles trying to gaze into the future of computing especially when they start trying to figure out the form factor of future computers. The “desktop is dead, long live the laptop”, the sudden emergence and roaring success of the netbook, the gradual improvement in specification and increase in price of the netbook to encroach on laptop territory.

And of course the “new thing” – the slate (I refuse to call it the silly name that Applie chose).

Everything we read leads us to believe that this is going to beat that and there is no market for this other thing. The truth of the matter is that there is no reason why there should not be a reasonable market for all the different form factors.

For instance, I own and use :-

  • Two desktop machines (one dedicated to server duty)
  • A work-provided laptop for heavy duty work on the move.
  • A netbook for a portal “toolbox”.
  • An ‘all-in-one’ that sits on my coffee table and serves as a web browser for in front of the TV. Quite possibly to be replaced with a slate once decent 10″ Android slates start appearing.

Now I’m an extreme example, and it is unlikely that normal people would want all that. But it is quite possible the average family might, or even more.

But even more importantly, someone who has a desktop machine at home (and work) probably doesn’t need a powerful laptop, but may find a netbook useful. Or someone with a powerful laptop may not want a netbook, but may find a slate useful for random bits in front of the TV.

Different people have different preferred ways of interacting with computers. And the market is now large enough to provide different environments. So whilst the slate may eat away at the market share of netbooks, as indeed laptops have taken market share from desktops, there is no ‘death of the netbook’ coming anytime soon.

Pulsating Pustules on the Pimply Bottom Of Humantity

 General  No Responses »
Oct 052010
 

So for most of the summer we have had the following on Southsea Common entertaining both children and adults alike :-

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And of course along comes a crew of cretins and does this :-

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Undoubtedly those who did this think it was funny.

Watching the reaction in various places has been interesting … it’s quite astonishing just how popular this misshapen dinosaur had become amongst the local residents. It would be nice to see some form of fight-back – perhaps build another one ?

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