Youview

A while ago I wondered why Alan Sugar never got into the Freeview PVR market a few years back. But he has seem to have got involved with this project, an IPTV system backed by the non-Sky major broadcasters.

On paper it is interesting, the proposition is that there is still a market for buying the box upfront and not getting involved with any contract or subscription. But it is running late, and is probably missing its window (it would have picked up sales during the digital switchover). Also now internet enabled TV's are becoming more common place, really nothing more than a custom portal on iPlayer type services - there is stiff competition to buying yet another box.

There do seem to be concerns about this consortium overstepping the BBC remit to public service broadcaster (you could argue that catch up services like iPlayer have already done that). I kind of agree, but unless it turns into a success that's not a major problem.

Book read: Sea Harrier Over The Falklands by Commander "Sharkey" Ward

A very interesting account of the Sea Harriers operated from HMS Invincible during the Falklands war. Ward gives a very good account with plenty of technical detail, the threats they faced and gives a taste of the danger involved in the operation.

Ward also gives a good description of the tensions between Invincible and Hermes squadrons. It is his perception that a lot of Flag orders were not well thought through when it came to over tasking the Harriers on Invincible. Also his account implies that the squadron on HMS Hermes just were not as capable or comfortable with operating the Harrier effectively. This is pretty astounding, and is the first time I've heard of such a split - but his account is so compelling it is hard to discount.

He also has no time for the RAF, stating that the Vulcan raids were vastly expensive and achieved little but provide the RAF with a token gesture during the war. He feels the Fleet Air Arm were the forgotten ones, as it is they who provided the only realistic air cover.

He also feels the Navy just did not do enough to promote their role in getting the operation off to a successful start - without the landings there would have been no recovery. It is thought provoking stuff, since the Navy now is probably the service that is suffering most and is most unbalanced in capability in the defence cuts.

The one other thing is that you come away with a sense of admiration for these pilots, they were asked to do a lot and perhaps were not best remembered for it.

The man himself has a blog, and talks about our current hopeless defence procurement:

Portsmouth Relegated

Well the inevitable has now been confirmed, Portsmouth are relegated from the Championship after a 2-1 defeat by Derby at home today. Relegated by their 10 point deduction for going into administration.

This means they will play in division 1 next year. It will probably do them some good, in their current shape they need to rebuild and be run as a better business. Successive owners have all proved unsuitable and have not had the best interests of the club at heart.

The naming of the divisions has been abused in recent years, what it really looks like is:

Division 1 - Premiership Division 2 - The Championship Division 3 - Division 1 Division 4 - Division 2

Quite absurd really, so in old money Portsmouth are now in division 3.

As a footnote Portsmouth bowed out of the division with a 2-0 defeat away at Nottingham Forest (managed by ex Portsmouth boss Steve Cotterill). Southampton on the other hand finished second in the division to earn promotion with a 4-0 win over Coventry.

Ceefax

With the analogue switch over happening in the UK, the analogue text service Ceefax will soon disappear. Introduced in 1976, it is a system that I grew up with. In the days before internet and 24 hour news it was the place to get up to the minute sports results or news stories. The page numbers would be ingrained in your mind.

But it has had it's time, more immediate forms of finding things out have dominated the last 15 years. It is the end of an era though, but will the internet suffer a similar fate to one day be replaced by something more convenient and more suited to the task? It is more likely to evolve into that thing rather than be replaced by it - unless excessive regulation or government controls come in to stifle it.

Book read: One Hundred Days by Admiral Sandy Woodward

I had resisted reading this book previously as it had some luke warm reviews on Amazon. But I bought the re-released 2012 edition and have just finished reading it. Overall a very good account of the naval aspects of the 1982 conflict, and putting into good context the decisions that had to be made with the constraints that were faced at the time.

Looking back at decisions with hindsight can always lead to unfair criticism and Woodward does a good job of describing of thought process and tries to put you back at the point of the decision. So the controversial Belgrano sinking was from a genuine fear of a pincer movement on the British fleet and a potential air attack from planes from the carrier. Woodward wastes no time in saying that the submarine command from London was a farce, and he should have had more control over their order and zones of patrol. It was a genuine advantage the British had at sea, and it was still very effective even though it was clearly hard to manage.

Performing the landings with the air power still a factor is also described in great detail. The navy sacrificed ships to get the landings underway - but what a price to pay.

The book is very much about the direct experiences he had, and only a little is spend on the actual land war - as it is something he would only have second hand knowledge of anyway.

An interesting read, and a good description of what it is like to have to make operational decisions.

Walk: Brownsea Island

A rare return of my walk blogs. We went to Brownsea island which is in Poole bay via a short boat trip. It is National Trust owned and is run mainly as a nature reserve. There were many walks you could do, but we walked around the coast and back across the middle of the island, about two and a half miles.

It was a nice trip, but you have to factor in island entry costs £6 and a boat trip of around £10.

Also we saw the star island attraction the red squirrels - long since forced off the mainland by the grey.

Equitable Life

My first pension scheme was with my first serious employer, a small computer consultancy who proclaimed they were "The Future of Computing Technology". A nice company, but if this was the future then computing had no future.

They did not contribute much to their pension scheme I think 1-2% so I resolved to put some money in myself over the 2.5 years I was there. I very conscientiously read all the literature and worked out the predictions and thought it was not a bad investment if it worked out.

Of course this was slighty before 2000, when Equitable were closed to new business because they are insolvent due to promises made to guarantee annuities rates to certain 1960s investors. When they withdrew this they were taken to court by policy holders and lost, which it turn caused the collapse of the society.

What followed was a 10 year farce where the government wriggled and squirmed to avoid paying out any compensation, as the FSA were clearly not on top of the finanical position of the society. For me the high point of this was the statement in the House of Commons by Ruth Kelly (a Labour MP who rose quickly through the Blair ranks) who said there "was no evidence whatsoever of any failure on the part of the FSA".

Well she is in the Lords now for some reason, and today I received my compensation of £400 (scaled back from £1600 to be affordable). I really feel for the people who had an entire working life of pension contributions with these guys.

A Level Reform

This is a question that comes up every year, what to do about A levels:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17595345

The proposal this time is to let University academics give the curriculum content. At the moment it is set by exam boards, who because they are in competition with each other have been seen to pride themselves on being the "easier" board. This has led to a drop in standards.

But the other problem is that letting Universities set the curriculum might end up making the courses even narrower, and a criticism today is that the subjects should broaden or to allow students to study more subjects. Universities would see the A level of "their" subject as being the feeder for their degrees and not aimed at someone who will stop studying the subject at that level and who needs a broader base.

The first year of degree courses is increasingly being used to provide a "what you should know by now" phase to the degree. This is unfortunate and must be disheartening for students who have already invested two years since school. Maybe two years is too long, the first year should be the broader base, and the second year is used to focus on the subjects the student then knows they want to study.