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

The Fallen

I have previously watched a programme on Sky 1 called Ross Kemp in Afghanistan and I have just watched a programme on BBC 2 called The Fallen tonight that I seriously encourage you all tonight to watch. The first is an account of life for a soldier on the front line and the second is documenting the effects of the deaths of the 300 military personnel killed while on operation in the past 7 or so years. Effectively Iraq and Afghanistan.

I feel no shame in admitting that I cried while watching both.

I felt quite ashamed at all the pain and suffering that could have been prevented. Don't misunderstand me here. I am not trying to make a political point here about being at war in the middle east or the legality of the whole thing, that is an argument for another day, however I have serious concerns about the conditions in which we are expecting men to wage war.

So I have made two decisions tonight. One inconvenient and one with serious ramifications. First I am seriously appalled at the conditions in which these men are expected to fight. We have sent them to a land thousand of miles away to fight and die for us, and we do not give them the finance and the equipment needed to do the task assigned to them.

While politicians may argue that defence spending has increased the past 10 years, we were not fighting two separate wars on the other side of the world 10 years ago and the budget has not increased nearly enough. There was a story a few weeks ago that the government was releasing a few tens of million of pounds to buy new vehicles. That seems like brilliant news, until you realise that the vehicles should have been replaced 5 years ago when it became apparent that we would not be seriously involved in northern Ireland in the foreseeable future and we were going to be fighting in the desert for quite some time. There are no where near enough men, supplies, helicopters and the quality of ammo and equipment is way below what it should be.

So I plan tomorrow to write to every person I believe could be in a position to effect some sort of positive outcome on this situation however unlikely it may be. I do not normally sign or agree with petitions or masses of letters because they are done in such large numbers for such insignificant things, however this is something that I am willing to fight and argue for in the strongest possible terms.

The second thing I plan to do is joining the TA. I planned to join the Territorial Army a few years back but never got around to getting into shape and being fit enough to pass the inevitable exams. However this is something I will change quite rapidly, and I am telling you all to try and gain your help in making sire that it happens. I shall join the TA and train as much as possible in the next two years. i shall refuse for the next two years to go to fight because I believe my degree is more important and I shall be in a better position to help more people when it is completed. However after I have graduated I shall have no problem with going to Afghanistan or anywhere else to lend a hand in defending our country and our freedoms and our way of life. Yes I may die, but if I die others will live, and I wish to do as much as possible to keep people alive.

So I am effectively writing this as a letter of my intentions so that I will not back out, and to ask for all of your help in achieving this and encouraging you all to join me to try and make the world a better place and keep the men who have volunteered to keep our country safe alive to fight another day.


J

Hypocrisy

Pope criticises pursuit of wealth

Anyone else see the giant golden stick?

Debatable

A slight variation on a common quote from a someone on XKCD forums.

Biologists think they are Biochemists
Biochemists think they are Physical Chemists
Physical Chemists think they are Physicists
Physicists think they are God...


and God? He thinks he's a Mathematician.

Stats

So I signed up to a stat counter thing when I set up this blog, just out of curiosity really, and every coupple of months they send me an email with some stats. Here is one of the readouts from the last email.

Now obviously the ones from the UK are expected and the unidentified ones I assume are from the UK also, but there are issues with me seeing where they are, and the ones from the US can be possibly explained by Samir being there a while back. But who is looking at this in Ontario, Tel Aviv, Republika Srpska or Jiangsu????

Seriously, I want to know.

LHC 2

I have heard that some people believe that when the LHC is first used it will create miniature black holes that will devour the earth. Now I have thought about this, from a physics point of view, for a good 1o minutes and have decided that it is not going to happen and they are being daft.

I have also decided that from a quantum mechanical point of view there is no reason that the scenario set out in the 'Lynx 3' advert could not happen in reality - two colliding wave functions constructively interfering - and that 'Lynx 3' some how magically increases the probability of such an event occurring, and so I shall continue to buy it just in case.

LHC

Spore

Spore, so I went down to GAME yesterday morning to buy Spore on release day.

I have been looking forward to spore for ages.... and to be honest I am a bit disappointed.

It started off awesome, developing through the stages was fun and exciting acquiring DNA points and spending them to make yourself better. I have played the beginning stages twice, once as vicious and aggressive carnivore, and then again as gentle soft and cuddly omnivore. Both were fun in different ways, but both very similar, instead of ferociously building things to destroy something you ferociously build things to trade with something.

The space stage was very repetitive and required far to much micro-management, was way to awkward and took far to long to change viewpoints all of which became very frustrating very quickly. And seriously, only one ship? You can get more donated by your allies as the game progresses but they just follow you around and help out a bit. I want several (at least) ships that I can leave places to look after things, so that I can go exploring without having to race back to solve problems every 2 mins. You may get more ships as you travel through the game, but I don't know if I can put up with it for that long.

For a more thought out and better written review read this. I agree with it completely.

It was good and I will play it some more, I want to reach the galactic center, but in a few months/years time and I feel and urge to create a civilization and see it grow over time I think i will always reach for Sim-City 3000.

Things I wanted / expected from spore:

• The Cell stage to be longer (could be optional), there were bigger and better creatures than me when I "chose" to evolve legs, but when the option to evolve was given no matter how much I ate I collected no more DNA points s could not get bigger/better/stronger.

• The triabal stage to be a lot longer, more complex and more like Age of Empires in general.

• The city stage to be a lot longer, more complex more options for buildings, better control for the military/economic options, more options over all really, and in general a cross between Sim City and Red Alert

Notice a pattern? The game was good, but when you break it down into individual stages there are games that are better. Spore should have been at least as good as all the individual games but then linked them together, but it just is not.

Red Alert

Surprisingly I only heard about this a month or so ago, and to be honest I was not too happy about it. I expected that EA would make a hash of it by trying to make a sequel to the best game of all time. However looking at the trailers and reading some beta reviews it may turn out to be surprisingly half decent.

The graphics look good, without being to busy or complicated and overwhelming, they have kept a lot of classic Red Alert 2 things around. Such as the voices and the music, which still sound as brilliant now as they did 8 years ago, the maps and terrain have the same sort of look to them, they are open and bright and seem somehow familiar.

There are two things I am slightly worried about. The inclusion of a third faction, C&C have done thisfor a while now and I don't think they have ever gotten it to work all that well, The Scrin were just annoying, although it did add an interesting aspect to the game play when you are fighting two different factions at once, Generals was too shit to play to see if 3 factions worked well however there is always the exception of Yuri's Revenge, which was just an expansion to Red Alert 2 so borrowed a lot from its greatness and slightly improved graphics. The second is the emphasis on the naval warfare, I am not a big fan of it really, but judging from the videos and the walkthough they may have done it properly and it may turn out to be amazing... I just hope they do not do the same thing as Age of Empires 3 and make the water so visually intensive that even on the lowest settings a decent PC could not run one of the levels because of the sheer amount of lag created. The release date is the end of October, by which point I shall have my new PC, so hopefully the water will not be an issue.

I am actually quite looking forward to it. And now back to waiting for spore to be released tomorrow.

EVE

This exactly mirrors my experience with EVE. I was a bit bored a few weeks ago and decided to give the 14 day free trial a go. After 2 hours of staring at tiny buttons with no obvious labeling or organization and deciphering unintelligible sub menus in the space port only to buy missiles that I could not attach to my ship because I had the wrong something (not entirely sure what, attaching skills possibly) I gave up and went back to watching repeats of Top Gear on Dave.

Woah

Seriously weird.

http://www.jeffbridges.com/images/somethingtodo1.gif