Great British Bake Off 2014

The count down begins to the new series of the Great British Bake Off which starts its 5th series in less than a weeks time on August 6th at 8pm , having moved from BBC2 to BBC1 this year after ratings peaked at 9.1 million viewers, the highest ever seen on BBC2. 

If you haven't seen it before each the bakers, all armatures are given three challenges: a signature challenge (which uses a tried and tested recipe), technical challenge (using a recipe provided by the judges), and finally a  showstopper challenge (a bake designed to impress the judges). During the show the bakers are assessed by the judges who then choose a "Star Baker" for the week, and a contestant who goes home. In the final three bakers are left and a winner is chosen from the three.

I never knew watching someone baking cakes could be so interesting to watch, although I have seen some amazing cakes made in my own kitchen, but it is. Hope you will join me and the countless other millions of people as the show hunts to find a successor last years winner Frances Quinn, from a group of 12 accomplished bakers and cooks. If you get hooked don't forget the "The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice" on BBC2 with Jo Brand.

Conflict isn't the Answer

Looking at the news in recent weeks there have been many conflicts are around the world and many of them are basically pointless. It about time that the war mungers of this world need to understand isn't the real answer to anything. You have to wonder how many innocent children, like this one in Gaza, have to die before they learn this simple lesson.

In the current conflict in Gaza the Israel is killing a child every hour, despite its claims that it doesn't intentionally target civilian targets. In one case a group of four children, aged between 9 and 11, were killed by Israeli missiles while they were collecting scrap metal on a bench in order to help support their family who can't sail their fishing boats while the conflict continues. Other children on the beach were injured by the Israeli missile fire and were helped by journalists who were in the area before being taken to hospital.

The Israeli forces blamed Hamas for the deaths claiming that  "based on preliminary results the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives. The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome. It will never be known for sure if there was a Hamas operative in the area but what is know is the lives of those children were taken that day and they will never laugh or play again.

Just looking in the news today, 16 killed in a UN school, despite the UN telling the Israeli forces that the school was being used to house displaced people 17 times. A market place was targeted by Israeli forces killing another 17 people and wounding many more. One witness said that "The area is like a bloodbath, everyone is wounded or killed. People lost their limbs and were screaming for help. It's a massacre."

All of those deaths were pointless as is the reasons for why they died and why there is a conflict. Israel has turned Gaza Strip into a ghetto by controlling most of Gaza's borders, waters and airspace. Further to this Israel has imposed tight restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip which has effectively laid siege to the area. It does all this on the pretext that it is preserve the security of Israel.

These actions by Israel make the people living in Gaza Strip feel confined and leads suffering and socio-economic hardship. The dominant Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas and other militant groups claim that the restrictions are intolerable. Having moved away from the hard-line view that the state of Israel must be destroyed, this group wants the lifting of the siege before it is willing to discuss a long-term truce.

The whole situation is it at a stalemate. The Israelis lift the siege and Hamas won't give agree to a truce unless the siege is lifted.  Nations of the world are split with America and many other counties, although condemning the Israeli attacks, being powerless to act because of influence of Jewish within their own countries. With a death toll of 1,336 of Palestinians and 58 Israelis, to date, it is time for the world to force both sides to stop this senseless war and for Israel to lift the siege of  Palestine which is barbaric in these modern times.

The first 1,000 blog posts

when I started this blog, even in its first form started an hosted on a machine on my own computer I never thought it would get to the point of having a 1000 entries. This in fact is the 1000th entry at this point of time. 

There have as I post this something in the region of 140,000 visits and many of them are repeat visits. It lovely to know people come back time and again for whatever reason, despite the fact that the posting rate has decreased in the last couple of years. Although this is the 1000 published post there are another 100 posts or so that are either part finished or finished and never posted. Maybe one day I will have time to finish the unfinished ones or decide the time is right to published the finished ones. 

Thank you all for reading the blog, I just wish I had the time and reason to post like I use to, but post I will at whatever rate the time I have allows. 

What Charles didn't see

Those locally will know that the Prince of Wales visited Rutland and Oakham today with all the usual self congratulation from the Country Council and their talk in the press how much interested he shows in the area, after all the last time he was here was just a mere 13 years ago. You have to love our Country Councilors for their idiosyncrasy and eccentricity when making comments to the press.

Like most people, I think it is nice that the Royals fly the flag for Britain and all that. In Charles case I like that he is politically interested in the country and especially environment and what it means to future generations. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to list the things in and around Oakham that I'm sure the Prince was kept away from or wasn't told about, so here is a shortened list:

• The destruction of the habitat of various forms of wildlife, including birds of prey, owls, woodpeckers and various small mammals, around Oakham.

• The destruction open spaces in Oakham, where people once walked there dogs and children played.

• The willful destruction of farming land to allow for the urbanization of Oakham and the threat of more it being used for development in the future.

• The destruction of playing fields by developers, which was sold to them by Rutland Agricultural Society, who you would have thought would try and protect the environment.

• The destruction of local communities that have existed for hundreds of years in the expansion of Oakham, destroying a way of life for many in those communities.

• The over stretching of public services such as doctors and schools by over development with poor infrastructure planning. 

• The loss and the threat of loss of emergency services in the town, starting with the sale of the police station. 

• The closure and sale of the Oakham Post Office (The for sale/let sign was even removed to hide the fact the Post Office has closed during the Royal visit).

• The slow decay to the High Street as we know it by the opening and development of more supermarkets in the town.

• The appalling lack of front line hospital services within 10 miles of the town. The nearest Accident and Emergency unit being in Leicester over 20 miles away.

The list goes on and on. I wonder what he would have thought about some of the people hands he undoubtedly shook today if he had known all that. I'm sure a man with his credentials and views would be applauded at some of the things that is happening to the beautiful market town he visited today.

De Havilland Comet - 65th Birthday

At Hatfield on the 27th July 1949, famous test pilot John Cummingham boarded the an aircraft designed, purely as a jet airliner, for the its first flight. The aircraft was a De Haviland Comet G-ALVG which was the first of two prototypes ordered by the British Government to specification 22/46 which was drawn up just after the war had finished in 1946 on the recommendation of the Bradazon Committe. At the time moving away from the reliance of piston engines was seen as the only way to beat the lead the American Aircraft industry had in transport aircraft.

De Havilland Comet Prototype at Hatfield

The aircraft was designed to carry 36 passengers in comfort in special  reclining "Slumberseats" and at high speed. It was powered by four H.2 Ghost 50 Mk.1 turbojets each of which produced 5,050 lbf thrust. It was a clean, low-drag design which many design elements that were fairly uncommon at the time, including a swept-wing leading edge, integral wing fuel tanks and a tricycle undercarriage, and of course it jet engines which allowed it to fly faster than any other airliner of it time. The aircraft was flown by a crew of 4 which included 2 pilots, a navigator and a  flight engineer. Inside the cabin there was a galley for the preparation of hot and cold food, a bar, separate male and female toilets and enough space for the provision of safety equipment including life rafts and life vests for everyone onboard. 

The construction of the aircraft used a high proportion of alloys, plastics, and other materials new to civil aviation. The reasons for this being high cabin pressure and fast operating speeds, which were unprecedented in commercial aviation at the time, as well as the need to reduce the weight of the aircraft to accommodate limited the amount thrust generated by the early turbojet engines. The Comet's thin metal skin was composed of advanced new alloys and was both riveted and chemically bonded, which saved weight and reduced the risk of fatigue cracks spreading from the rivets. The skin of the aircraft was at the time highly experimental and it allowed the aircraft operate in extreme heat and cold at high speeds. As part of routine operating procedures the skin of the aircraft had to be checked by the operators of the aircraft. 

Cutaway diagram of a De Havilland Comet 1

Early flight testing went extremely well for a aircraft that different from passenger planes that had gone before it and within a few months later the Aircraft appeared at September 1949's Farnborough Air show. After leaving the show the prototype started a long series of tests and trial flights which were aimed at studying the characteristics of the engines, fuel consumption and the flying times over the main commercial air routes of the time. During this process the first prototype was joined by a second prototype to speed up the testing process. During the tests the two aircraft made several non-stop flights on the old Empire routes. Between January 1951 and September 1952 a total of ten of this revolutionary aircraft were delivered to BOAC, and at first were used to familiarise pilots with the new type of aircraft.

The first commercial flight took place 2nd May 1952 with the introduction of the first regular jet passenger service from London to Johannesburg  using a Comet 1. This was quickly followed by a regular service from London to Tokyo which cut the flying time in half. So successful were these flights that interest in the aircraft started to mount and soon orders were place by other companies. The French UAT company, Canadian Pacffic and Air France commissioned various models of longer range and able to carry up to 40 passengers from De Havilland. These became known as the Comet 1A and in total 10 aircraft were completed in this version. Soon there were talk of more versions, the Comet 2 with an even larger passenger capacity and the Comet 3 which was further lengthened from the Comet 2 which drew orders from Pan American Airlines and Air India.

BOAC De Havilland Comet 1 at Heathrow Airport in May 1952

The first ever accident occurred to a Comet 1 occurred during takeoff at Karachi, Pakistan on 3 March 1953 and involved a Canadian Pacific Airlines Comet 1A, this accident was blamed on Pilot error due to trying to climb the aircraft too steeply. Then on 2nd May 1953 (G-ALYV) a Comet 1 crashed at Calcutta while climbing after take off killing all 43 people onboard the plane. At the time this accident was also put down air traffic and flight procedures. At the time it was just considered as the inevitable part of the development of a revolutionary aircraft, that was until two similar crashes occurred shortly after. The first of these crashes was on 10th January 1954 (G-ALYP) crashed near the island of Elba killing 35 people and then the second on the 8th April 1954 (G-ALYY) near Stromboli killing another 21 people. This grounded the whole fleet of Comets and started one of the longest technical investigations carried out in commercial aviation to find the cause of the crash.

 The first De Havilland Comet 1A to crash in January 1953

The initial expert investigation of the grounded Comet fleet failed to reveal any mechanical or structural defects with the aircraft, but such was the magnitude of the accidents and loss of confidence in jet travel that the cause had to be found. This lead to extensive flying trials with one of the Canadian Comet 1A's together with water tank pressure testing of one of the Comet 1's at Farnborough together with microscopic examinations of the remains of the salvaged wreck G-ALYY which was recovered from the sea bed near Elba. This eventually correctly pinpointed the failure of one of the corners of the rear ADF window caused by the metal fatigue due to the repeated pressurisation cycles. This in turn was probably partly due to the fact the skin of the aircraft had to be thin in order to reduce weight because of the relatively poor performance of the engines compared to those of today. The final report on the accidents concluded that the aircraft had been developed with the knowledge of the day and it was clear that still much to be learnt about the metallurgical aspects of aircraft design.

After the accidents the aircraft was redesigned using the knowledge gained from the experiments done to determine the fatal losses of the airframes of the Comet 1's the completed Comet 2 rebuilt and strengthened as was the single Comet 3. Rather than to end the line altogether De Havilland, realising it was a structural problem rather than a design problem, went on to produce a new version of the Comet, known as the Comet 4. Like all the the aircraft that followed the Comet 1's it had more powerful Rolls Royce Avon engines which could produce 10,500 ldf thrust each, nearly twice as much as the original engines. This not only allowed the skin of the aircraft to be thicker but also meant the aircraft could hold more passengers and fuel which allowed it to at last cross the Atlantic. This version of the aircraft made its first flight 27th April 1958 and showing confidence in the design BOAC ordered 19 aircraft to be used on the North Atlantic route.

Prior to the introduction of the BOAC Comet 4's the older Comets were being put to good use on trial flights and test flights. With the only Comet 3 becoming the first jet airliner to circumnavigate the globe in February 1957, setting a record for the passage between Perth and Sydney with an average speed 5001 mph. Then on the 4th October 1959 that two Comet 4's operated the worlds first transatlantic jet airliner service between London and New York, with one aircraft taking off from London at the same time as the other left New York.  Shortly after this the Comets took over all BOAC's London to New York flights, and later routes to Ceylon, Australia, Tokyo, Johannesburg. As time went on the 19 aircraft were used on more and more routes and during their first two years in service they flew 27,000,000 miles and carried 327,000 passengers with a total flying time of 68,000 hours.

The success of the Comet 4's especially at high attitude airfields in hot climates resulted in order from around the world for different versions of the aircraft. With the Comet 4A being ordered by Capital Airlines with a reduced cruising altitude to operate on short and medium range flights in America, but once these order were cancelled  the aircraft attached the interest of BEAC who ordered a stretched version of the Comet 4 known as the Comet 4B which could hold up to 101 passengers, nearly tripling the seating capacity of the original Comet 1's. These were were used on flights throughout Europe, Middle East and the Soviet Union . Again the interest drew more interest from overseas and the Comet 4C was produced with the same seating capacity as the 4B but with a longer range. By May 1960 De Havilland had orders for over 50 aircraft in the Comet 4 range, as well as orders for aircraft for the RAF.

Dan Air London De Havilland Comet 4C

De Havilland Comet 4 Cockpit 

De Havilland Comet 4 Flight Engineers deck

The cabin of a Dan Air London De Havilland Comet 4C

By the early 1970's the Comets started to appear on the second hand market. Slowly flights by the major airlines came to a halt with the last Comet scheduled service out of Heathrow being flown on 11th November 1972 by Sudan Airways.  And when the last Airtours Comet landed at Gatwick from Paris on 31st October 1973, Dan Air London became the last operator of the type. They had been slowly buying all the reaming Comet 4's in service during the 1960's and 70's. At the time the airline needed to replace it ageing piston fleet and saw the Comet 4's as a relatively cheap second hand aircraft which had a lot flying hours left on the airframes. This situation had arisen because the major airlines that had originally first brought the Comet 4s had quite quickly replaced them with more modern types. To make sure it had enough spares the company also brought Comets for scrap and dismantled them for parts from overseas airlines, which allowed them to fly on until 1980.

The last flight undertaken by a Comet 4B (G-APYD) was on 1st November 1979 and it was flown to Science Museum site at Wroughton by Joe Wright and his copilot Bryn Wayt from Gatwick. This left just Dan Air's final Comet 4C's flying with G-BDIW making the last commercial flight on 9th November 1980 after being chartered by a group of enthusiasts. With the demise of the last Comet 4, someone at Dan-Air calculated that during the fleet's life, the legendary Comet had flown a total of some 238,000 hours in Dan-Air service, which equated to a distance of 94,500,000 miles!

Thankfully there exists a number of Comets that have been preserved including one that is still able to move under its own power around the world that will allow generations to come to see what early jet passenger flight was like in the 1950's and 60's.

Footnote - Previous to the first flight of the Comet other piston engine based aircraft had been converted in the UK to use and test fly jet engines. The first hybrid piston/jet airline to fly in the UK was the Avro Nene-Lancastrian which first flew on 14 August 1946 and flew the first international all-jet passenger flight from London to Paris on 23 November 1946 with its two piston engines turned off. This was followed by a pure jet conversion of the a Vickers Viking (Type 618), again with Rolls Royce Nene Engines, which first took to the air on 6th April 1948. On the 39th anniversary of Bleriot's crossing of the Channel, on 25th July 251948, the Viking loaded with passengers left London Heathrow and flew to Villacoublay, Paris, in 34 min 7 sec, less than half the regular scheduled time and was the first, albeit experimental jet airliner. 

Old School Gaming

It is all too easy to forget in this age of Xbox Ones and alike to disregard the old classic games of the past. Many of us will have old games sitting in boxes and gathering dust on some shelf forgotten and unplayed for many a year, or you will see them for sell in charity shops around the town.

 

Game of choice this weekend is "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" which was released back in back in Novemeber 2001 and later released on the original Xbox some two years later. I will playing the original PC version of the game that been laying around for the last 12 years. Although ancient the game playing is classic first person shooter and is based on the original "Wolfenstein 3D" from 1992 which itself was based on "Castle Wolfenstein" from 1981.

The story basic this: back 943 AD, a German Prince known as Heinrich dominated Europe an army of undead and Dark Knights created by black magic until a monk stopped Heinrich by sealing him in a deep underground tomb. A thousand years later the Second World War had started to go bad for Nazi Germany due to their defeats on the Eastern Front and in North Africa. So the Chief of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, founded an SS Paranormal Division in order to revive Heinrich so he could win the war for Nazi Germany. Your task in the game is to stop Heinrich Himmler and his plans before it is too late.

Although on considered average at the time of its release by a number of magazines, I can still remember thinking it was a very good at the time, something that is backed up my players review scores of the game over thee years. Personally I am really enjoying playing it again and it hasn't disappointed the memory of when I first played it.

Strange Saturday

Been one of those strange days where everything in life just feels wrong, my mood has been low and I have felt tired and at a loss with what to do with the day. 

What is worse is when I feel on edge, frustrated and disappointed by life in general. In fact the the few days before starting with Wednesday has been this way. It something I haven't been able to shift for some reason. Hopefully things will get better and this mood will pass. I know we all have days like this but that never makes them easier.

Melton Mowbray

Over the recent months I have spent a lot of time traveling though and waiting for buses at Melton Mowbray. It was just a town before I never really thought much about before. It was just a place I popped to now and again when I needed stores like Argos and alike, but once you start looking there is so much more if you take the time to look. The town has a twice weekly market, a the famous "Ye Olde pork Pie Shop", the home of Stilton Cheese, some beautiful architecture of various styles and relaxing parkland. Here are a few of the many pictures I have captured on my phone:

The Anne of Cleves Public House and beautiful St Mary's Church

Setting up the Market the twice weekly on early on a Tuesday Morning

The Market Square in Melton Mowbray 

Home of the world famous Pork Pie that bares the towns name

One of the small streets leading to the Market Square

Melton Mowbrays refurbished 1930's Art Deco Cinema

Small green near St Mary's Church that seems untouched by the years

The beautifully kept Town Estates park in the center of Melton Mowbray 

Personally I think the town is completely underrated by many that live there and around the town. There far more to see if one just has the time to look. For example the normal church of St. Mary's is stunning in the summer with the light streaming through the stain glass windows and a real testament of faith of the people that built it in 12th to 15th century without the modern building aids of today. Them at the other end of time a 1930's Art Deco Cinema still delighting audiences today as it did when it first opened with it friendly atmosphere that makes seeing a films so much more enjoyable than some faceless multi screen. If you are passing through this market town, do stop and take a look.

Bus Travel (Centrebus)

Having had to use the buses in Rutland and the surrounding counties for the last few months, I thought it would be good to give my opinion of the service they offer the local community and my thoughts on bus travel. 

 

Let's start by saying what they not, they are not the fastest way to get about. They tend to take an age to get from A to B just by the fact they don't take a direct route and they stop all the time. They are not a public service as the majority of routes are run by private companies for profit and profit alone, as subsidies have been with drawn my councils in order to save money.  

The company I use is Centrebus not the biggest bus company in the country but the only one in the Rutland area. Over the years it has grown and taken over most of it family run competitors and now runs there services. Like most peoples impressions of Bus companies I should imagine my views on the company are mixed. The front line staff like the drivers are pleasant and generally helpful but the staff at the customer services side of the company at head office are unhelpful but never rude. 

Surprisingly it is a reliably method of transport on the whole, buses generally turn up within 5 minutes of the alloted time even at a rural bus stop and normally arrive at their destination on time. I wouldn't say you could set your watch by them but they do a good job on our busy roads. On just two occasions I have been delayed over 30 minutes and both of those were due to a breakdown. In both cases replacement buses arrived to take us on our way. They far better than breaking down in a car and waiting for the AA to arrive.

Ticket prices do seem high for short journeys, but I should imagine that is universal in the bus industry, you can pay one way £1.50 to travel 2 miles with a journey time of less than 10 minutes. However the further you travel once you have hit the maximum fare the better the value especially if you use return tickets which have a maximum fare of £6.30. For example you can travel from Nottingham to Peterborough and back with a through return ticket for £6.30, a journey of some 56 miles, which is great value for money.

Of course there are other ticketing options available to you like session tickets but these tend to limit you to a single route or are based on area. The latter aren't much use particular in Rutland. However if you need to use more than one bus there are some great deals out there if you know where to get them from. There a whole series of Network tickets that allow unlimited bus travel on the Centrebus network. These tickets can be brought from a day to a month.  It best to by the one day and three day products on the bus, other tickets such as the weekly and monthly tickets are available through Payzone (not avoid the three day Payzone ticket which is more expensive).

Being able to get a bus when you need one and timetabling is always going to be an issue with bus transport, especially since the demise of local authority subsidies caused by the capping of spending imposed by the Conservative government on councils. This can been seen in the bus timetables with cuts to later services that aren't so popular, although in many case still provide an essential service for those going to and from work, and example of this is the removal of 1830 service between Melton and Oakham, which led me writing letters and emails to the bus company, the County Council and my MP (who was as helpful as he could be).

Waiting time between connecting buses can be appalling. The people responsible for drawing up the timetables on seem to consider journeys from A to B, rather than journeys from A to C via B. This is a big issue for example a journey between Oakham and Grantham, there being no direct bus, takes nearly 2 hours because of at worse a waiting time of 50 minutes plus at Melton. If the waiting time was just a mere 10 minutes that journey time is reduced to about 1 hour fifteen minutes even in the Grantham rush hour. Another problem is the bus station at Oakham where all the buses seem to leave and arrive on the hour. Although there aren't that many buses using it but there is enough to cause a bus jam at the bus station meaning buses don't always leave or arrive at the right bus stop. This needs looking at and it is a problem that could have a better solution than is currently implemented.

Centrebus buses are clean although they are a little uncomfortable on the country roads. The suspension tends to be hard and so are the seats which doesn't make for a good combination. It not so much the bus company that is at fault here it is the design of the buses themselves and is true of both the newer and older buses they use. In the summer the buses could do with air conditioning like you find on buses in continental Europe as they can get warm and stuffy especially when they are not moving or moving slowly through town.

One nice thing about bus travel is that it is relaxing. They not much you can do on a bus other than read, listen to music or play on your phone. It just breaks up the working day and lets you unwind. What I do with the long waits between buses is look around the shops or maybe have a coffee in one of the many coffee shops and small cafes in Melton. This helps make the waiting a pleasant experience  rather than a core.

In general the bus service for a rural area is very good in Rutland especially if you compare it to the services offered to rural communities in the Grantham area for example. There are some oddities which don't seem to make sense, like the empty tourist bus which runs around Rutland Water everyday all year long. To me it would make better sense to just run the service at weekends and during the summer and put the money to better use on the main services. There is no direct service from Oakham to either Leicester or Grantham, two major employment areas where people can find work. Finally there is a set of late buses that people don't seem to be using, these need looking into if to find out if they are a good use money to provide subsidised services.

Beutiful Weather

This year it actually feels like summer after the disappointing summers of recent years. The sun has been high in the skies and the temperatures have been raising in to the upper twenties and better still it has been like that for day after day for a while now and with it have come stunning sunsets.

It just what I think we all need to banish away the winter blues and the wet spring that followed to drown our spirits. I know the girls are enjoying it and seeing the sun is enough to make most people smile. Feels like it hasn't been like this for years. Let's hope it carries on and on.

Just one of those days

In life you have good days and bad. Some that remember and some that you would rather forget. The feelings of both types of days tend to stick with you as do the reasons for those feelings. Sometimes it can be happy events and sometimes events of great loss. For whatever reasons we have days we remember more than most and more often and not those feelings are about things or people that matter to us in some way.

For me this time of year is full of those feelings and although I can think of some happy events the one that sticks out in my mind is of the later kind. Although I could talk about it here, maybe this isn't the place or the time, except to say it was something that hurt and changed my life and loss I will never forget or stop regretting. It was one of those changing points in life where you find yourself lost on a road you never believed or expected you would be on, and in my case one I didn't want to go down. You wished you said something and did more than you did. The affect of this change in direction was like being hit by a bus and being left asking question after question about what went on before and to which I still don't have complete answers.

So why am I writing this, well I'm not sure it just one of those days I guess, one that was important and where I lost something special that can't be replaced. Just one of those days.

Start of the Holidays

Always find this a strange time of the year for many reasons, some of them personal and not so good and some of more to do with work not so bad, but despite my mixed feelings it is the start of the summer holiday for many children around the country. For them it is a happy time of the year and full of freedom and fun, especially so in the countryside.

Living here means are free to roam and have fun were it is relatively safe from the pressures of city or town life and moving here is the one thing in life I won't regret, because I believe, although city life can be fun for adults, it is not the place to naturally bring up children. Children need room to grow and discover things for themselves, not to be told that it not safe to move out of sight of your front door even with their friends. They also need to understand the world and where things come from and have time to slow down in this modern world. Life outside the city gives them this opportunity outside their door step to leave the laptop screen, tablet, or games machine and see the real world.

For me it means, no more buses to work and maybe a chance that I can write some posts for the blog for a change. It defiantly needs it and it has suffered in recent years so some post would be sure to improve it. 

I hope you enjoy the summer and if you are in a city just take the time to take children out to the countryside and let them run free. All children deserve that and not the life that living in large estates of houses in cities and towns that many of us have contend with.

Surveillance Britain 2014

Today the Conservative led government introduced the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 after just seven days of discussion and debate in Parliament by rushing through the new law using it's emergency powers. Just the whole speed of the process makes you wonder what the Government are really up to that they need to rush through such an important piece of legislation. 

The Government has decided to fast-track the legislation due to concerns that communications service providers, such as fixed line and mobile telephone network operators and internet service providers, would start deleting communications data that they are obliged to retain under the Data Retention Regulations of 2009. This followed a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union that keeping data on individuals was unlawful and invalid on the basis that it was a disproportionate interference with the fundamental rights of individuals to a private life and to protection of their personal data. Other counties have accepted Court of Justice of the European Union judgement while the UK have taken moves to oppose it.

Basically, communications data can provide a very intimate picture of a  your life – who they communicated with; by what means; the time and length of the communication; where the communication took place; and the frequency of the communications. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruling said: “those data, taken as a whole, may allow very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained, such as the habits of everyday life, permanent or temporary places of residence, daily or other movements, the activities carried out, the social relationships of those persons and the social environments frequented by them”. It is this sort of data the Government wants to fixed line and mobile telephone network operators and internet service providers to keep on us.

The new act requires companies in the UK to keep and provide the authorities the following data upon request for an official body:

• data necessary to trace and identify a source of communication such as user IDs and IP addresses; 
• data necessary to identify the destination of a communication such as the user ID or telephone number of the intended recipient of a call through the internet; 
• data necessary to identify the date, time and duration of a communication, such as the date and time of log-on and log-off from the internet or an email service; 
• data necessary to identify the type of communication, such as the email service provider or internet telephony provider used; 
• data necessary to identify users’ communication equipment, such as the calling telephone number for dial-up internet.

Currently it doesn't allow for content of data to be stored, but this can be requested to be provided in real time if a warrant is issued, much in the same way that allows telephones to be tapped. As we know from past reports in the press this data has also been given to other government bodies, including local governments and not just used by the police and the security agencies.

The new act is meant to maintain the powers the Government had Data Retention Regulations and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, however it goes much further. Under the old regulations and act data could only be requested from companies within the UK. However the new act  will allow the government to request data from companies and service providers outside the boarders of the UK. Those companies that fail to compile with such requests from the UK Government will face civil sanctions or criminal prosecution under the new act, which would result in directors facing up to two years in prison for non-compliance. This change will allow the Government to monitor offshore communications and give them access to data stored on overseas servers, such as Twitter, Facebook and forms of social media and email accounts such as Googlemail etc. 

Like the previous act it would seem any public authority will be able to request data under the new act.  Given the extra powers that have been added to the new act they local authorities will now be able to request access to content on social media sites. Given some of the court cases brought by councils against individuals who disagree with council policies this could be seen as a worrying development that could affect free speech in the UK, since it could be used to bully individuals by sometimes less than trustworthy local politicians or government officials.

Clearly with something as important as this and how it affects our civil liberties and human rights it is imperative that there should be an open public debate on the issue both in the nation and within parliament. However a deal was done between the three major political parties that effectively meant that the whole bill was done and dusted even before it came to parliament to be rushed through, which made a complete shambles of the idea of democracy. Even looking at the debate on the issue on the BBC website about purposed act when it was announced the majority of people seemed against it and the process of rushing it through.

The Governments on MP's are questioning the rush though of the act with Conservative MP for David Davis saying:  “This Act of Parliament was driven through the House of Commons with ridiculous and unnecessary haste to meet a completely artificial emergency. As a result Members of Parliament had no opportunity to either research it, consider it or debate it properly and the aim of this legal action is to make the Government give the House the opportunity to do what it should have been allowed in the first place. Proper, considered and effective law making. The overall aim is to create law which both protects the security of our citizens without unnecessarily invading their privacy.”

Currently there are plans to oppose the introduction with a number of organisations objecting to the way the new act has been introduced. Personally I wish them success in their endeavours and hope that the Act has to be overturned and a proper public can take without the spin doctoring of the Prime Minister and his supporters getting in the way. 

Linux Mint 17

Every summer for the last few years I have been ditching Microsoft Windows and attempting to live without the Microsoft Dream. Thankfully as long as you don't mind ditching some of the programs that only run on Windows it isn't such a hard thing to do as you would imagine. This summer I have selected I have selected the newly released Linux Mint 17 which comes complete with all the multimedia extensions you are likely to need and more.

Linux Mint 17 Desktop and Start Menu 

Linux Mint 17 Update Screen

Linux Mint 17 Software Manager

 Linux Mint 17 OpenOffice 4 Word processor 

Linux Mint 17 OpenOffice 4 Spreadsheet 

Linux Mint 17 Media Player 

Installation is a breeze compared to Microsoft Windows. All you have to do is download the software flavor you want and boot the machine off a pen drive or a DVD. Once up and running it starts in a live version of the operating system where you can test all is well before you install. The installation process from a pen drive takes about 20 minutes and your up and running complete with drivers for your hardware. In fact the only system I have had, in recent years, that didn't have the specialist driver for a piece hardware was an Intel Atom N2600 based system that lacks the graphics card driver because Intel refuse to release the code of the chip despite petitions by users.

Once up and running like any new operating system you will need to update it with security patches and fixes. This is as simple as simple can be. The update manager is available in the task bar and tells you when you need to update. You just click on it and enter your password and off you go. Updates occur at top speed and within 30 minutes of you starting your install you will have an updated working system. Future updates are then indicated in the task bar as and when they are required and this includes updates to the packages you have on the system.

Unlike Microsoft Windows the first thing you will notice is that the operating system comes complete with many of the applications you will need to use the computer straight out of the box. This includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database and various graphics packages. However if you want something that you can't find already installed there is a Software Manager that lets you search for the package you want by keyword or select from the most commonly installed packages. There are simply thousands to chose from Games to Educational software. Even if you are missing your favourite windows package you can always install a Microsoft Windows emulator such the WINE package or set up a virtual machine to run windows within Linux.

First impressions of Linux Mint 17 are more than favourable in fact it is easier to use than Microsoft Windows yet does all the same things but much much faster and without wasting the system resources such as memory. It boot in less than a minute so you don't have to wait around and once your on the desktop everything is ready straight away. As for looks it ticks all the boxes there too and it does the job required and you can customise it to be the way you want it and even add features like the launcher from Apples OS.X, which is in fact the only major operating system still using UNIX on which Linux is based. Multi tasking is fast and the multimedia support excellent with a choice of inbuilt media players. The only thing missing it that hated, by many, program iTunes which seems to get so much flack on the Internet in its Microsoft Windows form. 

And finally the best it is that it is all free and doesn't cost a penny to use. All the packages you need can be downloaded from the Internet and that the only cost is the subscription you pay to your ISP.  If more people used it in business and well as at home it would be the end of bloated and slow Microsoft Windows for good. May be when time permits I will do a side by comparison post and added it to the blog.

Sony PSP

It is to forget in these days of instant entertainment on your smart phone the games and machine of the past that gave us so much pleasure. Games like Gottlieb Pinball Classics on the PSP, Everybody's Golf, Medievil Resurrection and even the Grand Theft Auto series of PSP games.

Of all the games I love Gottlieb Pinball Classics, it  has to be one of my favourite games because it something you can pick up and play and put down agin when something else comes along. I can remember in the past being taken with the game and playing it on holiday in the quieter moments during the evenings to unwind and relax from the day. Back then I use to have competitions playing the game with other people, both of us trying to get the high score on the "Big Shot" table. 

I never forget the first time I saw Medievil Resurrection which was one of the early games released for the PSP with games like the incredible Wipe Out and I was amazed at what such a tiny machine could do. Of course things have moved on from there with the games you can play on your phone being incredible, but then your phone won't let you play form between four to six hours without running out of battery which in my view is still an important feature of being able to play portable games.

Having charged my PSP I'm looking forward to playing those old games again. In all I have around 50 games and with games second hand from £2 to £5 there still lots of fun to be had from the old machine.

Retro Gaming

Even in the days of HD television and retina displays there is still a lot to be said of the old games of the past. They might seem so complete as the games of today but the game play can be just as good if not better at times.

Yes the graphics of GTA San Andreas on the original XBox are not even close to those of GTA5, which I have recently been playing on the XBox 360, but then the game play isn't that much different. The later is just more polished and less crude. 

For me the summer holidays are coming up and as a break I going to do some old style retro gaming to make me smile, given it is the cheapest way to get some entertainment and it will be a real blast to the past. 

After all what else can you do when you have loads of old games you haven't played in ages just sitting around and you can't do the tings you really want to do for whatever reason.

BBC Radio Northen Bloke

BBC Radio 5 live once had the nickname "BBC Radio Bloke" because it concentrated on News and Sport and the nature of it presenters mainly being from the male members of society. This was addressed by the BBC by the introduction of more female presenters, but it seems we are going to see a return to the past and it once again "BBC Radio Bloke" but with a slight change in name to "Radio Northern Bloke" if the management get their way.

The BBC have announced that both Victoria Derbyshire and Shelagh Fogarty the result of which will mean the station it will have only one weekly programme fronted solely by a woman, on Friday afternoon single one hour show presented by Eleanor Oldroyd. The changes will be taking part later this year but a date hasn't been given yet, but such a move will upset the female listeners of the show and is likely to cause a bit of a stir in the national press. The also seems be talk that the 5 live management are trying ensure that all new talent joining the station must live in the north-west of England, something that not all members of the broadcasting team do since the station moved from London three years ago.

Victoria Derbyshire leaving as she put it herself has had “brilliant opportunity too good to turn down.” and insisted she had left 5 Live of her own accord. At first it was thought that she could be replacing Jeremy Paxman on BBC2 late evening news programme Newsnight which has been looking for new faces for the show to bring new life into the old BBC workhorse. Later this was denied by the BBC and since then she has been linked with a  to ITV, She described her departure as “huge wrench to leave 5 Live where listeners and I have shared so many experiences, and I would like to thank them enormously for trusting me”. Not if sure the mornings will be the same without her on the show.

Shelagh Fogarty is leaving her afternoon show at the end of the year. She said that “At 5 Live I’ve had some of the happiest times and richest experiences of my working life, covering the fundamentals of life in Britain and presenting programmes from amazing places around the world. I’m very sad to be leaving but it’s definitely time to do so.”. Before going to say that she is going to spend the summer "exploring a number of opportunities, before deciding what’s next’. The radio rumour mill suggests one of the reasons for Shelagh leaving the show is the commute due to the move to Salford three years ago, and that might more to do with the move than being pushed of the station.

Also leaving the show is the popular figure of Richard Bacon whose style of broadcasting the station is sure to miss. He has been a corner stone of the afternoon schedule for quite a while and before he started appearing on the television. He said the following when the news was announced “5 Live has been a spectacular place to work, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about it. It’s been a hugely important part of my career and life, and I’ll always be grateful, and a listener, to 5 Live. After seven years, it’s time to have different adventures, many of which will still be at the BBC.”. According to reports we will thankfully be seeing more of him the television as a result of the change.

It is expected 5 Live will unveil a new daytime schedule with two three-hour shows, running between 10am and 1pm, and 1pm and 4pm. Tony Livesey has been tipped for a prominent new role on the station, as has Dan Walker, presenter of BBC1’s Football Focus, a familiar voice as the presenter of 5 Live Sport. Finally Adrian Chiles is to have an expanded BBC Radio 5 Live presenting role as part of the talk station’s biggest schedule shakeup for years.

I know I will miss all three presenters after the leave the station that I have listened to on and off years when driving or just doing stuff around the house. Personally I think the move from London was a bad one, but this is even worse. We need more women on stations like Radio 5 live not less and replacing them with men is just a bad move all-round and one that it appears the BBC trust agrees with.