New Things

Okay, so finally sorted out wordpress and the like, everything is now at joshjgordon.com/blog

no idea what I am going to use most of it for, but it is there now. There seem to be ways to change the RSS to auto update you all to the right place, but I cant be bothered to work out how. so click on the link then click on the RSS button.

I set up a feedburner account, and changed the big orange button to link to that. I am actually quite impressed with myself, I opened and edited random text file and after several attemps it actually does what I expected.

RSS Link

New URL

Moving to blog.joshjgordon.com

Nothing there at the mo, but will be transfering stuff and setting stuff up soon. There may even be a way to redirect everything so no one will know the difference. I have no idea.

J

Technical Help

So now I am on holiday I have decided to sort a few things out. And many of them I am not sure how to do, or the best way to go about them, or if some of them are even possible.

So would like some help / pointing in the right direction.

1. Emails.

I have several email accounts and am getting fed up of checking them all, so I have thought about using Outlook or something similar to kind of group them all together.

Is this wise? Any known issues with doing this?

With outlook, can I create an 'account' that includes all my 5 or 6 email addresses, and I can log into any PC and check them all using outlook?

What do I do when I change my operating system to Windows 7 in a short while. Is there a way of saving all my downloaded emails/contacts/calender and just transferring the files without having to set it all up again?

2, Contacts + Calender.

I am going to restore my iphone to factory settings (many many issues that I am hoping will fix themselves), so I have saved all my iphone contacts to outlook (it was empty, so seemed like the best place), is there a way to merge the numbers I now have in outlook with the email addresses from Gmail, and then put them back onto my iphone?

Is google calender better than outlook calender? (re. syncing with iphone etc.)

3, I now have a domain. joshjgordon.com and I am finally going to put something there (not entirely sure what yet, probably this blog and some other stuff). I hear wordpress is good for the blog side of things, is there a good program to use for other non-blog stuff?

Could someone point me in the direction of a good FAQ / Tutorial for web design etc. I have never done it really before.

4, Why does outlook only download 270 (out of several thousand) of my emails at once. It is rather annoying, has taken me for ever to get up to march 2009 (started feb 09, when I first set up outlook and have since ignored)

5, Andy, what app do you use to do your contacts? They look pretty snazzy.

Cheers Y'All. More questions later, probably.

Rights and Freedom

It has been a while since I have posted, and was thinking about just letting this die but have changed my mind. 2 reasons, have purchased my own domain. joshjgordon.com not sure what to do with it, or how to move this across, any one with advice would be nice, but I will look into it after exams probably.

2nd reason, I need a place to be angry and vent. Something made me angry today, so I am here shouting at the Internet.

I have very few beliefs, in fact my only one that I can think of right now is freedom. Weather that be in the case of a free market, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, freedom of education, even freedom of immigration etc. (which I see as just an extension of the free market by the way, to have a free system you need complete freedom of movement internally and externally.) and freedom to be anonymous.

Anyway, shouting..... I have noticed over the past few years an erosion of these freedoms. some have never existed and really should have done and some were never been as strong as they should be.

But what has really gotten me annoyed recently is the G20 protest, a couple of things.

First off to make it clear, I do not agree with what the protesters are saying and generally do not listen to the objections of people with nothing better to do unless they offer decent solutions, but I will defend to the death their right to say it.

I considered going down to have a wonder round the protest just to say I was there and ask some of them some awkward questions. Just for a day out really, not to protest not to case trouble just to be a bit of a tourist. I am very glad I did not.

In the past couple of days I have heard some stories about people doing as I have planned to do, just go down for a look around and then being trapped for hours in a police barricade.

here is quite a good account, http://rooreynolds.com/2009/04/01/on-the-ground-at-the-g20-protests/

there are others but I cannot find the links at the moment.

of people being trapped against their will. Not prevented from accessing somewhere, but completely trapped! The guy from the link above was only able to get out because he flashed his BBC ID card.

Why was this done? Why were protesters blocked in on all sides? It is just asking for trouble, you trap a group of people in a confined space without food or water and they become a mob. It is that simple. I am very very surprised that there were not huge clashes with the police barricade at the end of the day.

Obviously the treats from various anarchist groups to case hassle did not help things, but it is not an excuse! if people case damage or try to start a fight, arrest them and charge them. If they are just standing there being peaceful then what the fuck did the police think they were doing! Is there not a serious case here of one of the articles of human rights, I think article 5 liberty of movement but it has been a long time since I studied law.

Then there is the story Andy brought to my attention, few links

http://aiusepsi.co.uk/2009/police-brutality/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault



Seriously, what the fuck is going on! an Innocent man attacked for no reason! now I normally do not jump to conclusions and if it turns out that this was justified by the police officer concerned I will unreservedly apologise, but I really do not see this happening.

A man not involved in the protest, just walking home from work brutally attacked by a police officer in riot gear. And the most horrific thing is that if he had not have died recently after the attack, no one would have heard about it.

I am normally a peaceful and law abiding man, but if anyone feels like getting dressed up in riot gear and forming a square around Scotland Yard and preventing them from leaving until almost midnight, occasionally randomly beating and pushing to the ground a few of them, I am up for it.

I am seriously really pissed off with what has happened to our laws recently.

ID cards being introduced, several instances of police brutality, restrictions on protesting around Westminster and other places without police approval, 28 day detention without charge ( could have been 42 or 90 days have the government gotten its way on 2 previous attempts), potential databases tracking recording our phone calls and emails.

I mean seriously what the fuck is going on. I am beginning to think that Guy Fawkes may have had the right sort of idea.

running out of battery now, will post more later.

XKCD

I have been looking through old XKCD comics, and after many hours research have decided that this is probably the best one:

http://xkcd.com/496/

A few other brilliant ones to brighten up the day:

http://xkcd.com/182/

http://xkcd.com/327/

http://xkcd.com/227/

http://xkcd.com/466/

Summer Holiday

So, I am going on holiday to Canada and the US in the summer.  And I am looking for some places to go.

This is a rough plan of my trip, 

View Larger Map

I will be there for almost all of september, and I am looking for some exciting stuff to do, anyone have any ideas?  

Security

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7877182.stm

normally I am the first person to shout and complain when a new government database is announced.  Not so sure this time though.

Probably because I had assumed it already existed.

I have no problem with this one, as long as what it stores is limited, your name, when you left and where you are going.  Then the same coming back in.  I would also expect it to be run by the police or immigration control or what ever organisation runs this sort of thing, not the 'Government'.

On the other hand I do worry about being watched and tracked, and I do not like it.  I want to be free, and I sometimes feel that I am not.

I cannot one day simply disappear and live in a log cabin somewhere in the woods, just because I felt like it, someone will own the woods, or there will be council tax to pay on the log cabin, I will have to register my new address with no end of agencies.

Don't even get me started on protesting outside Parliament and terrorism laws and ID cards.  I will never carry an ID card, I will go to prison before I do.  And if I get locked up for 42 days under terror legislation for no good reason, I will become the terrorist and take down the houses of Parliament.

Seriously, why do we need all these laws?  Not only does it go against the freedom that we supposedly stand for, but it really does not help.  Nor is it really necessary, do we really need to fear the sort of terrorists than cannot park a car without being towed and fail at driving to an airport?

I mean no offence to the security services, I am confident they are doing a great job at keeping us safe, we never hear of their successes only their failures.  I also understand that sometimes people just need to be taken out, which incidentally is what I would have done instead of setting up the whole Guantanamo bay thing, if people are too dangerous to be allowed outside just quietly take them around back and be done with them.

However then the question is who makes that decision, what about the mistakes that will inevitably be made?  Questions too difficult for me to answer on a Sunday morning, maybe later in the week.

Man Up

http://www.fandome.com/video/109098/The-Longest-Play-In-Super-Bowl-History/?q=c

Now I know American Football is shit and the players are pansies, but I had no idea how much until now.

Fair enough he ran for a bit, threw a few people off him, but then watch carefully at the end.......  He needs Oxygen!!!???  Man Up.

Americans seriously need some better sports, I will give everyone in the world a Big Mac if any of the players in this game needed oxygen at any point.

Then there is the guy who discovered his opponents tooth embedded in his forehead 4 months later, he didn't even notice!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/6902166.stm

There is also a scene I remember from 06 or 07 Six Nations with an Irish player, whose face I can picture but name I cannot remember, who actually had to be sent off the pitch by the referee to get stitches when he had blood pouring all over his face, he just kept on wiping it out of his eyes.  He was back on the pitch within 20 mins.

Dont even get me started on Football.... IF there were ever a game where the players needed to man up! Its football!

Foundation

http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/archives/2008/07/asimovs_foundation_film.html

£5 says that it will turn out to be shit.  Seriously, Hollywood will find some way to mess up one of the best series of books that I hav read.  You would need at least 6 films to do it properly.

Dublin

So, was thinking about aranging a trip to Dublin next term.

Any one interested?  Any particular dates?

Will be approx £40 flights, £20 a night accomodation + beer and food.  So say £200 total.

Was thinking about the 28th Feb.

http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/10734.php