The following information is taken from the official World Health Organisation statistics and the UK Government Statistics on Mortality Statistics 2005 (PDF - see page 136).

Population of the UK : 60,943,912
Population of the UK who died from influenza & pneumonia in 2005 : 31487
Population of the UK who contracted swine flu in 2009 : 6,538
Population of the UK who died from swine flu in 2009 : 3

0.052% of the UK population died from influenza & pneumonia in 2005.
0.01% of the UK population contracted swine flu in 2009.
0.000005% of the UK population died from swine flu in 2009.

All fatal swine flu cases were suffering from underlying health problems.

According to the “news“, up to 100,000 people a day could be contracting swine flu by the end of August, affecting up to 50% of the population.

It will be interesting to see how those predictions pan out. I’m not saying swine flu is not an important issue, just trying to help you assess the risk based on the currently available facts, rather than opinions from the media about what “could” happen.

Update: BBC are now reporting 4 deaths now, stating that it “cannot now be contained” and to “avoid panic buying ‘counterfeit’ anti-swine flu drugs online”.

In my experience, people only tend to panic-buy when you tell them not to.

Even though it was a dream, I woke up feeling immensely relieved and lucky to have him as my dad.

He puts up with my (sometimes) neurotic ways and is always there to help me talk things through or lend a hand. He can turn his hand to most things including electrical, plumbing, decorating and most DIY tasks, and is usually my first port of call when I have a problem or am just unsure about something.

He’ll help anyone though, not just me, including family, friends, neighbours and even strangers.

He’s also the most logical and methodical person I know, and is pretty calm in an emergency too. I like to think I’ve inherited some of those good qualities. I try to, anyway, but I also got some panic genes from my mum.

What I’m trying to say is that I couldn’t ask for a better role model.

I guess I probably don’t tell him often enough how much I appreciate him, but this is just my way of doing that.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

Lauren wanted a Mac, but couldn’t afford one, and was forced to go for a cheaper “uncool” PC instead.

Apple Response : Elimination

Microsoft are trying to make the point that Windows PC’s are better value for money, but ask anyone who has used both, and see if they agree with you.

My response:

Firstly, the statement “it costs $30,000 dollars to fill an iPod” is slightly deceptive, given that iPods range from 1GB to 160GB. Ok, I nailed them on a technicality, but seriously who buys 120GB of music online? I’m not being funny, but with few exceptions, people with that amount of music didn’t buy it all legally.

Secondly, why would it cost that if you already own enough music to warrant buying such a large model? I have an 80GB model, and it certainly didn’t cost me $20,000 to fill. I want a player that works seamlessly with my desktop client, that’s why I use iPod & iTunes (and occasionally the iTunes Store).

Thirdly, it is a spurious argument. It’s like saying it would cost $30,000 to fill a set of CD shelves. So what?

I know someone who has 2000 cds and 1000 vinyl lps. Assuming an average of £10 (UKP) per item, a price he says is realistic, that’s about £30,000 ($45,951 USD). People who do spend that amount of money on music are passionate enough that they don’t want to just rent it, they want to own it. And guess what, they’re tastes are usually eclectic enough that the music they like can’t be found on the Zune store anyway.

So really, Microsoft, what exactly is your point?

All you’ve really succeeded in doing is reminding everyone how overpriced music really is and why so many turn to piracy. Having said that, anyone who “rents” their music is even more of a sucker than those who buy it legally.

Update:

Quoting Engadget:

P.S. If Wes looks familiar it’s because he was a contestant on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. He was fired.

Microsoft’s ad campaigns crack me, so consistently, up (and not in a good way).

Ten books which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. All have the power to change your life, or at least your outlook on their chosen topic.

I’m With The Brand : The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We are by Rob Walker

The Spy In The Coffee Machine : The End Of Privacy As We Know It By Rob Walker

Did You Spot The Gorilla : How To Recognise The Hidden Opportunities In Your Life by Richard Wiseman

Fast Food Nation : What The All-American Meal Is Doing To The World by Eric Schlosser

Why Men Don’t Listen (And Women Can’t Read Maps) By Allan Pease & Barbara Pease

The Luck Factor : The Scientific Study Of the Lucky Mind by Richard Wiseman

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Big Bang : The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About it by Simon Singh

Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland

Update: Yes, I say “pimped up” instead of “pimped out”. That’s just how I roll, mofo.

David Earls is creator of Typographer.org, author of Designing Typefaces, keen photographer, professional graphic designer and a Mac user of over 20 years.

David, thanks for taking the time to talk us through your desktop. First off, tell us a little about your hardware setup.

My setup, well, this is a MacBook Pro, not the fancy new unibody one, but a 2gb RAM, 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo one. It is the machine I use at home - the Mac at work is rather more special!

And, one by one, from left to right, can you talk us through the apps on your dock?

Finder - Er, duh. I have a license for Leap, but I never really got into it as an alternative to Finder :)

Apple Mail - I like its clean interface, it just works well for me, and works better than other alternatives, such as Thunderbird, that I have tried.

Address Book - does what it says on the tin, and as a MobileMe user, it makes sense for me to use it as everything syncs up nicely without faffing about. I don’t really use this app apart from updating contacts - I tend to use my phone to look up contact details.

iCal - Again, like Address Book, this is very much an editing application - my phone does the calender thing for me.

Preview - I prefer this to Adobe Acrobat Reader - it loads quicker, renders nicer, and has less visual interface clutter.

iTunes - again, Apple’s attention to detail wins out.

Twitteriffic - I am on Twitter, all the cool kids are, right? I prefer running this as a “real” app in the dock rather than its dockless default. Clicking an icon to get to the Quit command is weird.

Safari 4 - My primary browser, mainly because of how minimal it looks - I dont like browsers that get in the way, and Safari doesn’t.

Adium - I use multiple protocols because, dammit, people insist on using different services. This works on the ones I use regularly, and Facebook, which is important as lots of people now join that and NOT any of the traditional services. Again, I have faffed with the interface to make it all match the dock.

iChat - for video conferencing, screen sharing. Used rarely.

iPhoto - again, Apple’s interface and details swing it for me.

Adobe Photoshop Elements - I can’t really justify the full version just for faffing with my photos, and Elements does basically everything I ever use the fully grown brother in work anyhow, so why spend money I dont have on the professional sibling?

Macromedia Freehand - I should crossgrade to Illustrator CS4 at some point, but I am comfortable using it, and the multi-page facilities in Freehand still wee all over Illustrator, despite not being updated now for donkey’s years. I have come to accept that this app probably won’t live into Snow Leopard.

Fontlab - my font editor. Most expensive software purchase, especially as I dont use t that often. I need to open it far more often. I hate it’s icon.

SoundStudio - I’ve been a fan of this waveform sound editor for a long time, though this version’s interface is messy and crappy - quite why they have decided to ruin it with cheesy icons I dont know. Still, its easy to use and does everything I want of it, which isn’t that much. It is pretty cheap too!

GraphicConverter - handy, and will open stuff that virtually nothing else will. Nasty interface, but you live with it because it can open annnyything. Apart from my soul.

Pages 08, Keynote 08, Numbers 08 - lovely apps, much nice interface, quicker to load, nimble, beautifully designed, and they are full of features but don’t get in your way by endlessly second-guessing you. A bit of a bargain really.

OpenOffice.org - for compatibility with Office stuff in a pinch. hey, its free.

FileZilla - laziness prevents me from changing this, even though I dont like it. I used to use CyberDuck, and I might swap back. Hey, it’s FTP.

FlickrUploadr - Makes it easier for me to apply Tags to multiple images in one big go than the web interface, and as a desktop client its faster too.

PhotoBooth - dunno why this is in my dock. I should remove it really!

Terminal - because everyone likes dong the odd traceroute, right?

Dictionary - looks pretty, and I like checking words :)

TextWrangler - BBEdit’s little brother, it has the ability to search and replace over multiple text documents at once. I use this for HTML bashing, and it is free.

TextEdit - Again, I think I should remove this. There, it’s gone.

Parallels - for virtualisaton geekery. Windows 7, Ubuntu, Fedora, all that sort of stuff. It is a toy, and it was on special offer. I’d probably go for VMWare Fusion if money wasn’t an option.

MenuCalendarClock - a fab little utility that puts a popup calendar in the menubar, integrated with iCal so you can see appointments etc. Quicker, more space efficient and less resource intensive than using iCal.

FontBook - for font management at its basic level. I dont deal with enough freelance work to warrant a professional font manager.

Grab - I use this when using my external (PC) keyboard, as for some reason the standard hotkeys dont work for grabbing things.

DVD Player - guess what that does. I am sure VLC would do it too, but why bother when Apple hath provided bounty?

Mobile Connect - Custom icon - I hate the one that comes with it. It is the software that is used to manage a usb stick modem connection. No alternative available, and came with the stick.

Firefox - for when things dont work in Safari.

Spotify - for tracks I am not ready to buy yet, and to explore new music, something I need to do more of really.

iWeb - just starting to play around with this. I usually code by hand or use a simple free editor like Kompozer, but I felt that this might be ok for quick and dirty jobs.

Divider

Exercise log, a Number document. I like to write it all down.

Documents folder - set to a standard list view, as its nicer like that. I dont want to have to turn my head to see a list of filenames, no matter how cutsey. Also note how this and the Downlaods folder do not stack icons on top of another. I dislike that intently.

Downloads - guess what this does?

Trash - where I put stuff I dont want anymore :)

Any other software we can’t see? (preference panes, servers, etc)

Hazel - sits around waiting for me to delete stuff like applications (which I do alot). Hazel searches for supporting waste files, like prefs, that sort of thing, lets me know about them automatically, and lets me delete them instantly. Bloody great thing, is Hazel.

And your wallpaper?

The wallpaper is a photo I took on Brighton Beach, about 100 yards from Aegir’s place. I tend to use my own photos for wallpapers - only I look at them after all :)

Anything else you can share with us?

My dock has been modded - I like the reflective surface of the default, but I found that the reflecton distracted me and I spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to ensure the reflections aligned with icons, other wndows, etc. Clearly not productive. I used a hack to set up the dock into what you see, fitting nicely in with my Twitter and IM client - I think of them as secondary “desktop” apps, so it makes sense for them to be unified in look yet contrasting to main apps,

That’s great. Thanks again for your time!

You’re welcome!

Comments and feedback from others can be useful, and Flickr does provide me with a way to expose my photos to a wider audience, but is that what I really want?

I joined Flickr for a way to share photos with friends, but ever since photography went from a passing interest to a passion, Flickr also doubled up as my portfolio and in the process became less fun somehow.

I’ve taken a number of photos in recent months with my iPhone that I wanted to share but which I didn’t feel were “good enough” to go on Flickr. Flickr has gone from being a joy, to being a pain.

Consequently, I’ve setup a new portfolio site to showcase some of my favourite photos for those who are interested at http://adamjones.net, but I’m not quite sure what to do with my Flickr account for now.

Actually that’s not all. There’s also

• 5th Gen iPod 80GB
• iPod Nano 8GB
• DAB Pure One Radio
• Netgear DG834GT
• XBox 360

The Amen Break