Nov

9

Small Victory for Civil Rights

Filed Under Polemics & Politics on November 9, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I was heartened today to see Blair’s draconian plan to allow terror suspects be detained for 90 days without charge defeated in the House of Commons. It was reduced to 28 days which is still a long time that the police can hold you without providing any evidence to anyone but it is dramatically better than 90! It’s great to see British MPs being smart enough not to over-react to the London bombings in the same way as American lawmakers did to 9-11 by agreeing to Bush’s truly medieval Patriot Act.

Nov

7

Fire in the sky – keep an eye out!

Filed Under Science & Astronomy on November 7, 2005 | Leave a Comment

This time of the year astronomers know to expect the Taurid meteor shower. It is usually a rather bland affair with a peak rate of about 10 shooting stars per-hour but this year is proving to be quite different. In the late 90s Dr. David Asher from Armagh Observatory predicted that in 2005 there would be a fireball storm from the Taurids. Turns out he was right!

I’ve only done a little observing over the past few nights because of bad weather but in a total of about an hours observing time I’ve seen 4 very bright Taurids and one fireball about as bright as the full moon. Basically, keep an eye out over the next few days if you’re outside at night, you could get the show of your life!

Nov

4

Even more spectacular Rainbow

Filed Under 42 (Life the Universe & Everything) on November 4, 2005 | Leave a Comment

Just saw an even more spectacular Rainbow today than the one I observed last weekend. This time I could clearly see the complete secondary bow and Alexander’s dark region between the primary and secondary bows. The secondary bow was also far brighter than last time so the reversal of the colours was even more obvious. I also noticed a number of supernumerary bows which I’d never noticed before.

Tagged with: •

Nov

3

Could this be a glimpse of a bright future?

Filed Under Computers & Tech on November 3, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I read an article in Yahoo News today from MacCentral that was about a MacMini clone (called the MiniPC) by the Taiwanese computer manufacturer AOpen. At first I thought it was just anther rip off of a good idea by Apple (which it is, the new machine is almost identical to the MacMini in both spec and appearance) but something else caught my eye, honest and transparent pricing!

There are two versions of this tiny PC which have identical hardware but a dramatic difference in price, a Linux version ($399) and a WinXP version ($499). This gives consumers and accurate idea of how much of the price of their PC goes to Microsoft (20% in this case).

In my experience, your average consumer just assumes that Windows ‘comes free’ with their computer because many manufacturers will not sell you a machine without Windows (I have personal experience of both Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens refusing to sell me a PC without Windows). With pricing like that of the new MiniPC that illusion will be shattered and when you combine that with Microsoft’s efforts to make life hard for those using pirated versions of Windows, I think there will be many more people pushed away from Windows.

Hopefully this is the start of a bright new future rather than just a blip on the radar. If other manufacturers start to follow suit ordinary people will, for the first time, start to genuinely consider Linux as a real alternative to Windows.

Tagged with:

« go back