Badgerguy

Well, this will make the conservatives happy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8333192.stm

The nightmare possibility of a 'President Blair' could well be over almost as quickly as it began. It also now looks like this was a rather obvious conclusion, would any EU country support a Brit for President? Clearly no, they don't trust us.

RBW tomorrow.

Leaning toward taking the train.  Herein lies the problem of a convention in London, even though it may not be in ‘zone 1’ – it’s still deep enough in that travelling by car could be painful – not to mention expensive, parking alone is a costly looking proposition.

So, train then – with the rather annoying issue that it means having to leave before the dead dog party on Sunday.

This kinda defeats one of the big advantages of having a convention in your own country.  When I’ve been to Confuzzled, on both occasions I took my car – meaning I could just throw anything I could possibly want in, including things that I’ve been happy to issue for convention use (such as putting my large pedestal fan in the Fursuit lounge).

Now, I appreciate this only applies to those people who actually have a car – but using a car significantly opens up the freedom of what you can bring along when you travel places – but if that ‘place’ is London, many car users are put off.

Tis a problem to decide – but one I’ll try to decide tonight, as getting tickets booked will be far more advantageous over buying on the day.

Already starting to think about what US convention to do next year.

I had wanted to do MFF this year – but uncertainty at home (primarily being down by one housemate and still not having a ‘replacement’) means it’s been more sensible to save money ‘just in case’.

I’d decided not to do FC again next year, as having done it three years in a row, it seems like a good idea to give something else a try, and go somewhere else in the US.

So, it seems like Megaplex, AC, MFF(2010) are all worth considering (although if I wait until MFF 2010, that’s a long wait until my next US convention) – any other suggestions? :)

Not watched the whole thing yet, only the first 20 minutes or so. He certainly didn't seem to be putting himself accross cery well, strugglig as he did with questions on the holocaust.

I intend to watch the rest of it, but it seems clear that nothing he has to say can hide the fact that he is a racist leader of a racist (and homophobic) party.

Bravo to the BBC though for having the courage to do this. Whilst his views maybe abhorrent, it should never be down to any media group to control free speech - people can make up their own minds. If the anti facist protestors feel the need to 'storm the gates' then they clearly don't have much faith in the British people.

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ARGH!

New iMacs, new Mac Minis, new mice, new Macbook.  Wow – but it brings surprise and disappointment in my opinion.

It brings surprise because Apple have launched all this without so much as a wave and a smile from God Steve.  They’ve bumped specs and launched isolated products without making a spectacle of it before yes – but to launch so many products, some of which have had a total redesign, not to mention the introduction of quad-core ‘i’ CPUs from Intel, without making a song and dance about it really isn’t Apple’s style at all – not that I’m complaining, I don’t really care, but it’s an interesting point.  Of course, many will view the timing with cynicism, as it all comes just a couple of days before the launch of Windows 7 – had they made a big splash, with an event announced far in advanced, the cynicism levels could have been even higher.

What’s disappointing is that Apple haven’t brought the i5 / i7 Intel chips into more of the product line.  I’m sure it will creep into the whole range eventually, but on many PCs, Core i7 CPUs are becoming standard – in the land of Apple, the i7 is an option on the highest-end new iMac.  Had the i7 become prevalent across the range yesterday, I'd be seriously considering an upgrade.  What worries me is that when the ‘i’ line does make it into more products, that it will be the i5 – and not the i7- that becomes standard.

One other point to note is Apple’s ‘flipping’ between nVidia and ATI.  ATI is clearly back in fashion in Cupertino, with 4650 and 4850 chips being prevalent in most of the new iMacs – curiously, this is a GPU that is not supported for hardware acceleration in Quicktime X in Snow Leopard (only the nVidia 9400M is supported for that).  This may change with future updates of course.

The new mouse is interesting – multi-touch in a mouse.  I’m curious to see how well that works, and whether it is any good at ignoring unintended gestures.

I’ve been considering selling the iMac in favour of a MacBook Pro – for now I think I’ll wait and see whether the MacBook Pro line gets blessed with new CPUs.

‘It has been announced that Royal Mail workers will no longer ‘clock-in’ every morning — instead they’ll be invited to sign the visitors book’

An adaptation of the old ‘Two Ronnies’ anti-union joke originally about British Leyland – some classics just last and last :)