World Extents

I'm going to Australia this year, which is a big trip. My travels have been confined to Europe only so far, I did not leave the country until I was 30!

So the extents of my travels are:

1. North - Northampton UK
2. East - Milan Italy
3. South - Milan Italy
4. West - St Austell UK

CES No Microsoft

The past few years I would watch the Steve Ballmer keynote at CES. With Microsoft pretending to be a consumer device company. Last year was the last one, they were replaced by Qualcomm - really a hardware supplier into such consumer devices, but who probably think they can make their own impact as a device manufacturer.

But Ballmer put in an appearance!, to show off Windows 8 on touch devices. It has got off to a slow start - but maybe it will pick up. Also with Apple clearly at their peak of innovation and now reduced product line - maybe Microsoft will make some inroads into this market.

Film: Shaolin directed by Benny Chan

An interesting film about feuding warlords in China, with a fair amount of martial arts and fighting scenes - but still with a reasonable story.

My favorite scene was the meditation poles the temple worshipers would stand on with one foot - an argument ensues but this then causes one of them to leave his state of mindfulness and fall off his pole.

But a light moment in a more serious film - and there are others like that.

Book read: Secrets of the Conqueror by Stuar Prebble

An interesting read of the operations of the SSN HMS Conqueror pre and post Falklands war. Also describing the inept political covering up that followed over who took the decision to sink Belgrano outside of the 200 mile TEZ.

Pre/Post Falklands is revealed as an operation to capture Russian towed array sonar to gain information on their capability. It is conjectured that this is the true operation that was wanted to be kept quiet during the subsequent loss of ships logs.

The subsequent political fall out from this meant that a crew member Narendra Sethia was accused of stealing the logs and supplying a Labour politician with the information needed to question the government (he had in fact just kept a diary that he provided to a trusted person with a view to publishing).

A sub-story is his winning of a libel case against the main papers - something that cannot easily be undertaken if you do not have the financial backing.

Sethia went on to meet survivors of Belgrano in 2000:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/oct/18/argentina.falklands

Artic Convoy Medals

The long campaign has paid off, there will be a medal associated with the WWII arctic convoys:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20783362

I could never understand how it had taken so long, I have heard only a few descriptions of what conditions were like - these were volunteers whose efforts were conveniently forgotten post war.

Film: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey directed by Peter Jackson

I went to see this latest Tolkein middle earth adventure - a little apprehensive about it being another three parter for what was a single book.

It was an enjoyable film, that holds the attention well - and the revolutionary 48 frames per second is impressive.

Martin Freeman plays the central character of Baggins really well - and the film centres around him. The effects and battle scenes are impressive, the storyline is long but much simpler than Lord of the Rings.

Patrick Moore RIP

Really sad news about Patrick Moore today, I watched this months Sky at Night a programme I have watched since around 2004 when I got my first PVR.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10525469

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/9732840/Sir-Patrick-Moore.html

A truly inspirational and dedicated man. I can remember him judging a model contest when I was growing up, and he loved my brothers Airfix model of Apollo 11!

For people who watch the show, they've gradually seen him become more frail over the last few years - still a shock to hear the news though.