Dead Man's Musings

Why can't you use an Android mobile to write a post to your blog?

2013-03-19T22:27:00.000+00:00

It would seem that Google, who own Andriod, will not allow an Android smartphone to write anything into the bulk of a post to a Blogger blog, which they also own, by not allowing the virtual keybosrd to come up.

To post this, I am having to email this to my blog.

As more & more people are working out of smartphones, why does this happen? Are they insane or just not capable of keeping up with their own OS?

I leave this to the reader to decide.

O2

2013-03-17T21:17:00.000+00:00

Here is a silly question. If I post to my blog from my my mobile phone & use a MMS rather than an emall, why does O2 take it upon themselves to block it and put up a post that exposes my mobile number to scammers and spear phishers?

Do they realy think they are trying to help?

They must be mad as hatters.

I would love to know the legal position on this in the UK.

Press Regulation

2013-03-17T20:46:00.001+00:00

OK, tomorrow is the vote.
IMHO phone hacking is wrong, but (& a very big but) it can be justified if people are breaking the law or being in power & saying one thing & doing what you condem & you expose them.
It seems that most of the phone hacking scandle was to get celebrity quote or something from a sex/murder.
There needs to be some sort of criminal sanctions to stop this sort of thing happening, otherwise the press will pay the fine (which would never get to £1m in any circumstances) & just go on as before.
The press must be free to expose government, criminals & wrongdoers, but not chase celebrities & the average man in the street who happens to have a few minutes of fame.
There needs to be some sort of US style 'Feedom of the Press' in this action, but no 'I can do as I like' that some of the press seem to want.
Oh, and the lible bill that Cameron seems to have killed (possibly due to press infulence, if you are a conspirancy theorist), as it would have stopped defamation tourists. BRING IT BACK.

Conspiracy Theory - Iran & Nigeria

2012-01-24T02:02:00.000+00:00

Here is a Conspiracy Theory for you.

The USA & Europe are trying to stop people buying Iranian oil. Worst case scenario for the Iranians is the only country buying Iranian oil is China.

In Nigeria a highly fundamentalist group who wants create a Caliphate in the North of Nigeria is causing a lot of bother, lots of bombings & shootings, many dead.

Could Iran be promoting the problems in Nigeria (as Nigeria is a major oil producer) in order to get the markets to increase the price of crude oil (as any problem in an oil exporting country make the markets jumpy)?

Could this, combined with the Iranian threat to close the Straits of Hormuz (sic), be a way to push up the oil price so that Iran doesn't loose a lot of income due to the oil embargo the EU & the US are trying to get going?

Possible aint it?

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T20:30:00.000+00:00

May I wish all my readers a Happy & Prosperous New Year! All The Best!

£100k pa for Bloging?!!

2011-12-26T00:53:00.000+00:00

I've just been given a book with that approximate title. Why because 1 guy can make over £100k a month does some idiot writer thing he can give a prescription so that we ALL can do this! The book is obviously a total rip-off written by a fraud who thinks he can make some money by publishing it!

Transaction Tax

2011-11-08T18:25:00.000+00:00

Here's an idea for a way to make a financial transaction tax palatable to more politions.

¤ Transactions within areas such as the EU & attached areas are not taxed.

¤ Transactions to normal tax areas outside the financial area's 'local zone' should be taxed at 0.1%.

¤ Transactions going to minimal tax areas, such as known tax havens, should be taxed at the equivalent tax rate that would have been raised if the money had stayed within the financial area's taxation jurisdiction.

¤ Transactions bringing funds into the financial jurirdiction that are liable for tax should have any outgoing taxes refunded in full.

Hell, it may just work!

Posted from my mobile via e-mail.

Culling Tax Avoidence

2011-11-04T00:03:00.000+00:00

OK, this is a bit off the wall, and to work it would have to be adopted worldwide, but if multinational companies had to pay tax in the country or contries that their shares where traded in, would this not reduce tax avoidence and help to kick start the global economy?
Now that was a long scentance!
Posted from my mobile via e-mail.

Haloween Greetings

2011-10-31T22:55:00.000+00:00

In his house in R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming! Iä, Iä, Cthulhu fhtagn!
Happy Haloween, Clutists! Wait until the stars are right!

Save Test Cricket!

2011-10-28T19:45:00.000+01:00

There is a campaign starting on Twitter & Facebook to save Test Cricket as attendances outside the UK (& Aus when we play them) are going down.

Please support this campaign if you wish to preserve Test Cricket.

Premier League, Promotion & Relegation

2011-10-17T19:46:00.000+01:00

It would seem that a group of overseas owners of a number of Premier League teams seem to be be looking to stop relegation & promotion.
Who do they think they are!
This is totaly stupid!
These owners need to be taken out, put up against the nearest wall & shot!
I am so furious I can hardley text!

OK, Villa lost their unbeaten record at the weekend, but I would prefer them to go down rather than lose promotion & relegation!!!

Piracy With Violence

2011-10-11T18:12:00.000+01:00

As piracy seems to be becoming a major break on the profitability of world trade, perhaps the crime of Piracy With Violence should be bought back as a capital ofence? Would this act as a deterrent? I'm not in favour of capital punishment, but I could be convinced about this.

Return Of The 'Q' Ship

2011-10-11T17:33:00.000+01:00

The Monsoon is ending in the Indian Ocean, leading to fears that Somali pirates will be back out in force. In fact an Anglo/US force has just liberated a vessel that had been recently hijacked.

To me it appears that the forces arrayed in the Indian Ocean to deal with the pirates are not suited to the job. Destroyers, frigates and the like are not suited to chasing fast skiffs or similar fast motor vessels, they are designed to fight large scale 'formal' wars.

At the start of WWI there was no easy way to engage submarines. This led to the creation of the 'Q' Ship. This was a medium sized merchant vessel, crewed by the navy, armed with a number of consealed quick firing guns. The ship was chosen to be just too small to be worth a torpedo, so the sub would surface to try and capture and scuttle it, or sink it with fire from the sub's deck gun(s), whereupon the 'Q' Ship would engage the sub with its weaponary. It proved moderately successful.

I would think a number of 21st century versions of such 'Q' Ships may prove a major deterrent against Somali pirates who are preying on merchant vessels. Perhaps such things should be deployed.

Via e-mail.

The Defence Secratry

2011-10-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

Dr. Fox.
I was always very baffeled as to why a DJ was made Defence Secratry. Knowledge of cotemporary music should not give someone the ability to run our armed forces!

Joke!

Health Service Reforms

2011-10-09T20:17:00.000+01:00

With the greatest of respect to the Department of Health, we do not want more meaningless 'Choice', we want decent care close to where we live!
The Tory's are trying to reintroduce the market, which will never work in an organisation that is mathematically 'chaotic', back into the NHS as the people who fund them would like it!
I trust my GP to treat me, but GPs are not trained to run the NHS, so they will have to outsource their provisioning to the private sector. Typical free market capitalist thinking!

Health Lottery

2011-10-02T00:02:00.000+01:00

Why does the new Health Lottery have Erico Morricone tune the 'Extacy of Gold' (sometimes refered to as the 'Lust for Gold') from the classic 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly!

It would seem that the people who made that ad are trying to tap into peoples greed!

Could Christiania Happen In The UK?

2011-09-24T21:18:00.000+01:00

I've just been happening to listen to a prog on Radio4 on the Danish comune cum anarcho-capitalist society cum hippy/squatter/leftist dreamer free area in Copenhagen.

I started to think, could a similar society take off in the UK? With the prevailing economic situation (which slightly resembles that which created Christiana) I feel that a social experiment like this may be viable, but would be an amathama to 90% of the political class, thus rendering it impossible as it would be stamped on very hard!

While it may not be possible to engender such a social experiment here in the UK, I would like to see such a thing happening, possibly in a neo-cyberpunk sort of way.

Posted by e-mail via mobile.

Faster Than A Ray Of Light

2011-09-23T15:08:00.000+01:00

CERN researchers are baffled by measurements that appear to show nutrinos traveling in excess of the speed of light. Those of you who are familiar with Einstien's Special Theory of Relativity will realise that this should be impossible.

There are a number of possible explanations for these observations:
a) The distance between CERN and the lab in Italy has been incorrectly measured or calculated.
b) Timing between the labs had been incorrectly synchronised.
c) Other forms of systematic measurement error.
d) Nutrinos do not work like we thought they did.
e) Einstien was slightly off in his theory (but not to the extent a number of sensationalist journo's have suggested, otherwise sat navs and other stuff would have stopped working!)

A, b or c of the above are the most likely explanations. Nutrinos having a different nature to that which we have assumed they have, such as being able to take on a negative rest mass for short periods, would be very interesting. The most intriguing posibility would be that Relativity Theory is not complete & needs to be extended/reworked.

Posted by e-mail from mobile.

Another Villa Draw

2011-09-17T18:50:00.000+01:00

Another Saturday afternoon, another Villa draw. How we managed not to win is beyond me. Newcastle probably had the majority of possession, but Villa had the best chances which we failed to put away. Well, at least we are still unbeaten, but will all of these draws be enough?

At least my Scotish team, Stranraer won!

By e-mail from my mobile.

This Weeks Audience

2011-09-09T15:19:00.000+01:00

This weeks audience:

When Fabio Goes, Who Should Replace Him?

2011-09-07T19:47:00.000+01:00

In about 10 months time Fabio Capello will be standing down as England football manager.

When he goes, who should replace him?

I personally favour giving 'Psycho' (our current U-21 manager) a go, but what do you think?

Stick in a comment below with your pick for the new England manager, even if you favour Roy Hodgson!

Is THIS A Conspiracy Theory? ...

2011-09-07T00:24:00.001+01:00

Is this article in the Jerusalem Post an Conspiracy Theory promulgated by ultra-Zionists, a genuine SNAFU by a (possibly) hungry observer, or a load of rubbish?

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=236772

I will leave it to the readers to make their own minds up!

Have The Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories Been Scotched?

2011-09-07T00:01:00.001+01:00

Have the latest HD photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter finally laid to rest the 'NASA never landed on the Moon' conspiracy theories?

As the people who adhere to this type of theory as are almost Messianic in their beliefs, I think not. For those who have a slightly sceptical attitude towards the Moon landings, these new photos may change their minds.

Personally, I think that some of the early still photos may have been taken down here in order to make people more enthusiastic about the Lunar missions, as NASA were not sure that the astronauts could take decent pictures with the equipment they had under the harsh Lunar conditions, but even this is unlikely.

Austrailian Sheep Farmers Wrong In Persecuting Thylacine.

2011-09-06T14:46:00.001+01:00

The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine), an extinct(?) Australian marsupial predator has been shown to have favoured small agile prey, which probably weighed under 5kg.

Aussie sheep farmers persecuted the poor beast, claiming it was a massive sheep killer, which led to its probable extinction (there are a few, sparse, unconfirmed sightings of the Thylacine floating around).

Shows how being in possession of sharp pointy teeth and a distinctive pelt gets you lynched by farmers wherever you live!

A big thanks to Cryptozoolgy.com for info on this.

Interview Technique (For Creative Types)

2011-09-06T10:51:00.000+01:00

Part 1: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2011-09-05/

Part 2: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2011-09-06/