Blair Chilcot Iraq

I heard some of the 6 hour long interview with Blair at the inquiry and whether you buy his analysis or question his decision making, he came across as a polished performer still - a real class act. He probably asked more questions than he answered, great use of deflection that. It also reminds us what a slick performer we lost when he stepped down, to be replaced by the hapless Brown.

I do feel for the people who turned up who has lost children in the conflict - they wanted much more context to their loss. Blair perhaps rightly put it across as a dispassionate decision - maybe as a Prime Minister should. But you can see the unfairness he walks away having staked nothing and benefited immensely where the soldier's families will always have lost someone.

Book read: Six Easy Pieces : The Fundamentals of Physics Explained by Richard P Feynman

A book I had previously read a few years ago but have taken the time to re-read. It is taken from Feynman's famous lecture series in the 1960s and seeks to distill the essence of physics in such a way to provide a starting point for a future generation if all current knowledge was lost.

It's an interesting read, the book is divided up as follows:

Atoms in Motion
Basic Physics
The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences
Conservation of Energy
The Theory of Gravitation
Quantum Behaviour

Each chapter can be read in isolation, the most thought provoking is the final one on quantum behaviour. This lays out the electron detector experiment by building up a series of thought experiments that give some insight into the wave/particle nature at the atomic level.

I was not a great physics student at college, I would like to think I could have been better if some of these ideas had be presented - maybe not as the core subject but as a summary of current thinking. The original reason for Feynman's lecture series was such a complaint about undergraduate physics stifling or hiding the true frontiers of the subject.

FA Cup draw 5th round

A great draw Southampton vs Portsmouth. They have played in recent years in the cup but to happen again so soon is interesting.

This really could be a fitting end for Portsmouth, the last game against their greatest rivals - before having to reform in the non league after bankruptcy.

BBC Freeview HDTV

There maybe a DRM component to the HD broadcasts the BBC puts on Freeview. The theory is that content providers will not be happy unless there is some protection of their content.

All this will probably imply decoder upgrades for the sector of the public that is happy with the Freeview service.

That's just not fair. I do not expect that the BBC will have premium HD content as in the latest films or dramas just as they do not now for SD content. If I wanted that I'd go elsewhere...

But I do want to be able to buy a TV or decoder and choose from a range of suppliers who have all been able to compete on open standards. As far as I am concerned that is what my license fee was for.

The same discussion was had over codecs for iPlayer - the BBC eventually got hounded into making sure that could be multi platform. The uproar here was more the "Windows only" of the initial trials but a similar principle applies here.

Blair Showtime

Tony Blair is to appear before the Chilcot Iraq inquiry this week. His other cabinet members have already appeared. A Jack Straw who had all his angles well covered, a Geoff Hoon who might as well not have been defence secretary given his complete lack of decision involvement. Gordon Brown yet to appear but will do before the election.

But now Blair, I hope he gets the grilling he needs to remind him what an unpopular choice he made and also shamed enough in the underhand way he convinced parliament to go to war.

I accept he was in a difficult position, but I think he lacked backbone and just went along with the US. A tough decision and we'll never know the state of Iraq had we let things be.

Portsmouth Collapse Close?

Well the debts are still unpaid, owing the taxman, other clubs on previous transfer fees and worst of all now Sol Campbell!

I cannot see how they are going to get out of this, it is just dragging on too long - if they had the money they would have paid up.

A sad end to a relatively succesful last 10 years.

Film: Der Untergang (Downfall) by Oliver Hirschbiegel

A really vivid and detailed film about the final days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, that is crumbling as the Russians close in on Berlin in 1945.

Told through the eyes of his young secretary Traudl Junge. Hitler is stoic, defeated, yet defiant with many rants and rages at the failure of his military machine to protect Berlin. Hitler sometimes sees a brighter future, talking of rebuilding the air force, or of some general mobilising his forces to save Berlin. Of course those around him and in the high command knew the game was up, but no one could quite come to tell Hitler this fact (he too must have known).

Determined to stay in Berlin, noble in itself - but cowardly hiding behind the German people insisting they should die too because they should have been stronger.

What I found difficult to reconcile was the unshakeable belief of the Germans in the leader or the absolute surprise after the war of some of the tyranny. It has to be that the crimes were known or suspected, but what can a single individual do in such a regime? The population by and large let it happen, and this allowed the regime to thrive.

Traudl Junge herself is interviewed at the end, and does say her youth was not an excuse, and she was not a willing Nazi.

A well shot film, leaves the thought in your mind of how you would react if your country became ruled by such a powerful and evil movement.

9/10

CES Keynote

Another year another CES with Steve Ballmer giving the keynote for Microsoft. Always interesting presentations, fingers in so many pies and some good pointers for future technology in general.

Highlights for this year:

1. Bing: Mentioned a lot, context driven search not blind search. Microsoft at last has a competing search technology. 11 million users, not a bad start.

2. Windows 7: It could not be worse than Vista, and it has exceeded expectations. Microsoft needed this badly to secure other interests (Windows 7 running from the desktop, nettop, device near the TV). 300 million PCs so far sold with Windows 7, 800000 new apps, 250000 supported peripherals since Beta.

3. Xbox: This is doing really well, Xbox Live. The gesture control Natal looked a bit naff. Also promising VOD Like portal is ominous for the TV industry but still feels like they are a way from hitting it big with content providers. 39 million consoles out there, 500 million titles sold.

4. Great new device types coming up. The tablet PC may have failed, but maybe the Slate with the interest in e-books will succeed where it failed.

5. Touch screen could be a real innovation area for Microsoft, with Windows 7 and the device market stranglehold they could be the only platform for a while that "gets it right".

6. The usual plugs for Zune and mobile, Zune maybe getting rave reviews but I do not seeing it displacing anyone soon.

Quite impressive overall, Microsoft may have come through it's difficult time - and Ballmer maybe shaking off his captain of the Titanic image.

PM Coup Attempt

I am sure Gordon Brown must have been a bit worried by the request for a "secret ballot" of MPs to see if there should be a leadership challenge. Probably breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Geoff Hoon was behind it - hardly any threat really and all quickly dismissed.

There must be enough rumblings in the party that this sort of thing will keep on happening but never with enough conviction to do the job of replacing the hapless Brown.

Meanwhile we have to wait a few months to get a new government, it cannot come too soon.

Google Chrome Billboard

At the railway station today I saw a Google Chrome browser advert. An advert for a browser, I think the first one I have ever seen in such mainstream advertising.

Part of this is the IE stranglehold, and also the death of any competition with any budget. Firefox has become popular as an alternative but that was more word of mouth.

It did remind me of the time IBM tried to advertise an OS/2 warp - whatever that was, on the side of buses, god knows what people were thinking when they read that.

Still I am not sure of the effect of such general advertising, maybe it is just cheap at the moment during the recession.

Continuous Health Screening

A good article this weekend about improvements in health monitoring and making medicine have more of a preventative sign stage.

The example I always think of is the dentist, we all go for 6 monthly checkups. Yet teeth are the one thing that have a pretty good early warning system. Not so with the rest of us, we turn up to the doctor when we think something is up.

There is an expense to all this, and whether the initial outlay is possible I think the long term returns must be worth it.

Dangers too I suppose, imagine your blood pressure being linked to your NI contributions.

Film: Avatar by James Cameron

Went to see this film at a 3D screening. It had had mixed reviews, but had heard lots about it. So I was keen to see if Cameron had pulled off something special or blown the big budget.

I'm pleased to say it was a great film to watch. Very immersive and a reasonably good plot. It felt like a cross between Aliens, Titanic, and Wall Street.

In some ways it is a film within a film, with the Na'vi creatures, scenery and then the back at base shots distinct. The final scenes bring the two together well.

The 3D effects are great too, but do not take over the film which shows they have been used just right.

9/10

TV Wishlist

I bought an unbadged LCD TV about four years ago, along with a Topfield freeview STB. Both have served me pretty well, but the TV has a fault with the sound which gradually fades when watching. I'm ok for the moment as I can play the Topfield audio through my stereo, just a bit inconvenient.

This has got me thinking what I would get next for my TV setup. I really like the Panasonic TV's I have seen, HDTV is coming to freeview, so ideally I'd like:

• HDTV capable freeview decoder in a Panasonic (at last the HD ready would mean something!)
• PVR type functionality in the TV, series/recommendations support.
• USB support for external drives for recording or SD cards.

All that would make me pretty happy. If it can be done right then I do not mind having all that in a single device (save on plugs, cables, and hopefully expense).

Cameron Policy Speech

A little initiative grabbing by the Conservatives, laying out some of the ideas that the next election will be fought on.

It was not too bad, formation of a cross party war cabinet seemed interesting to stop politics dominating the decision making.

I'm not convinced Cameron thinks he can win it, and it is possible for there to be two elections this year the first resulting in a hung parliament.

The question of funding two campaigns also needs to be thought about, the quote so far is £18 million for upcoming election - it will be difficult to raise that sort of cash twice in a year.

Film: The Usual Suspects by Bryan Singer

A film about a group of criminals who are rounded up as the usual suspects for a crime. They decide to get their revenge by planning a further job together, but it turns out they are all in the shadow of a master criminal Keyser Soze who wants payback for their previous misdemeanours.

Plenty of twists in this film that keeps you guessing on the identity of Keyser Soze until the end.

Well worth watching but you have to keep up with the jumps in time and the twisting plot.

8/10