Whatever happened to Purdah?

Once upon a time a British Chancellor wouldn't let on what might — or might not — be in his forthcoming Budget. But tomorrow the present Chancellor appears to have lost the habit of purdah and leaked like a sieve on the likely content in his 'pre-Budget statement'. There is also that corollary of 'What goes up, must come down' in that if there are temporary reductions in VAT, for example, then that means they will go up even further afterwards. I was speaking with a friend of mine who owns and runs a small bookshop earlier today and she was telling me that this reduction — of itself not likely to bring shoppers flocking to the tills because its effect will actually be so small — will cost her substantial money in creating new tax rates within the business accounts along with calculating and publicising the new cost of each item. The strong rumour that a new higher-income tax rate will be introduced — 45% on earnings of £150,000+ or thereabouts — breaks Labour's election commitment that it wouldn't raise the top rate of tax although, to be strict about it, they aren't amending the current 'higher' rate just adding a new one on top. One which, personally, I'm in favour of. I was looking at new laptops yesterday in the stores down Tottenham Court Road, London's electronics centre, and am rather glad that I didn't make a purchase then. I'll probably save myself a 'massive' £15 or so by purchasing it on Tuesday instead.

Radio but not ga-ga

After I returned from Iceland I fell somewhat ill. The usual sore throat, blinding headache and such that precursors an early winter cold so nothing really serious. But it kept me abed for a few days. And I rediscovered radio. Now don't get me wrong, I always listen to the radio. Every day includes an hour or two of Radio 4, whether it be Today first thing in the morning, or Today in Parliament as the night comes along, but it is just about always BBC Radio 4 I have my dials^† turned to. A few weeks ago, however, I bought a DAB radio as I needed a bedside one for when I am visiting my mother; something I've done a lot very recently as she had a fall and cracked a couple of bones so, doing the dutiful daughter bit, I've been looking after her. And DAB radios are, in some ways, easier to tune. They also give access to stations I can otherwise only listen to online, which means keeping a computer running when I don't necessarily want it on, such as Radio 5live — for the cricket (terrible news though it has been!) — and Radio 7 for comedy and, more importantly for me, drama. I've always loved listening to radio drama. Not only the daily and weekly dose of the countryside reality show which is The Archers but also the afternoon play, and sometimes the Book at Bedtime. Maybe it was being brought up on Listen with Mother as a young girl, but then it really is a truism that the pictures are so much better on radio than on tv or in film. And Radio 7 does some mighty fine drama. And since I've returned home I'm still getting a daily dose of it, so thank you BBC for standing by your DAB services, especially Radio 7! ^† Actually I only have one radio with a dial, all the rest are push-button-up and push-button-down. Such is the progress of technology.

Iceland

Flew up to Reykjavik last Wednesday for the Eve online Fanfest event. Mostly great fun with lots of news about upcoming changes to the game along with discussions about what direction it should take in the future. I was also on one of the panels, which was enjoyable too. being the report-back session of the Council of Stellar Management Didn't like Iceland in Winter though. Going down to breakfast at nine am and then seeing the dawn start to turn the view through the windows turn from pitch black to dull grey — and then the afternoon turn back to black around 3pm — is not my idea of a good climate. I like sunshine every day, indeed it was one of the reasons I really liked flying all around Europe daily in the late 90s — at 30,000ft you are guaranteed to get sunshine (except at night, obviously!)

Double BSOD

So this morning I am browsing and catching up on my email when I get the dreaded BSOD. Most annoying, especially as I've been getting them every few days (or even few hours) since I was forced to upgrade from XP service pack two to SP3 ^†. Then, when doing the forced 'take out battery and disconnect power brick' restart, it does it again. With SP2 BSODs were extremely rare and usually associated with me doing 'dangerous things' so not really surprising me, but in the last few weeks it has got pretty bad. ^† Yes, I know this laptop is Windows which is bad™ according to many people. But I also have Leopard (on an iMax), Ubuntu (on two servers - one AMD, one Sun Sparc) and FreeBSD running on other machines.

Linkage

Some recent stories and articles which have grabbed my attention: · A great article in the New York Times about the creeping friendship nature of Web 2.0 social networking (cf. my post last week on the same subject ) · The Telegraph reports that some (very silly, imho) local Councils are banning the use of Latin phrases - such as ex officio, ad lib and pro rata because, according to Bournemouth Council — one of the offended — "Not everyone knows Latin. Many readers do not have English as their first language so using Latin can be particularly difficult.". · The Mail on Sunday leads with this week's data loss by HMG. Hands up anyone who thinks they have any information about themselves which is still private! · And finally, as one should always end on a note of levity, Sarah Palin demonstrates to an adoring world — or in this instance Marc Antoine Audette (one of the "Masked avengers") pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy — that she has absolutely no idea. Johnny Hallyday as French ambassador to the United States, indeed! (Reported by the BBC )