So, in no particular order…

The Screen

Is fantastically sharp: it’s really nice for looking at photos, and documents, websites etc, all appear that bit crisper than they seem to on a PC. One slight drawback to this is the shinyness, it does ‘glare’ a lot from windows and flourescent lights which can cause issues with viewing the screen (and getting the brightness right so you can read it over the glare, but it isn’t so bright it hurts your eyes is difficult).

It’s also too small – but that’s probably because it’s the 13″ version.

Applications

iWork

This seems basically quite good, it’s intuitive and uncluttered – but basically powerful. Keynote and Numbers particularly seem clever (on a part with office 2007 – which is the last MS Office version I’ve used in anger), Numbers has some particularly nifty features which make organising data a lot neater than Excel – although quite a lot of formulae don’t seem to work quite the same in Numbers – which I guess would be one to watch for acountanty types etc.)

Mail

This is pretty rubbish – going from Outlook to Mail on Mac is a bit like going back to outlook express. It has threaded email which is quite nice (although I believe this is an option in Outlook 2010) – but it’s exchange integration isn’t all that, and it does seem to not be very standards compliant, meaning emails from it can be a touch mangled on other clients (gmail/outlook for example)

VMWare Fusion

This is a pretty smart little app – and means I can still make use of the long list of stuff I use that just doesn’t work natively on Mac, Unity is a nice mode (although seems to batter processing/RAM) which allows use of windows applications from the VM to appear alongside mac applications – making it at least appear as if the windows apps are running on the Mac

Keyboard

Major major bugbear of mine is the non British Standard keyboard – I am a halfarsed touch typist, and once used to a keyboard can make a reasonable stab at typing without looking down all the time, out of the box the mac ruins this by putting a whole bunch of keys in the wrong place. For example ” is over with ‘, not on the 2 as it has been for the entire of my keyboard using life (which goes back to a typewriter), this is really annoying as you start to write emails to people with email addresses like annoyedwith”mac.com – and then swearing at the mac a lot when it doesn’t send.

Hardcore Mac converts like to go ” makes more sense with ‘ – which maybe it does, but unfortunately the BS 101 key keyboard has been around for a very long time and like riding a bike once you can use it properly adapting to a different layout is a steep uphill curve. Offering a British Standard keyboard as an option rather than just turning around and saying ‘get used to it’ would have been a far better attitude from Apple IMO.

It should be said that it is possible to download keymaps (as I have) to put everything back as it should be – and also making my computer very confusing for an uninitiated user as a whole load of keys don’t do what they say on them – it’s just a shame it’s not like this from the off.

The Operating System

Is fine – I find the menu bar which floats outside the app a bit confusing, but that’s just the conversion from Windows/KDE to a different layout and I’m sure it will become native in time. It’s basically a unixy interface, and it more or less intuitive.

Multiple desktops are a definite highlight and I like the way it handles fullscreen apps (effectively allowing you to have multiple and being able to flick between them like with the desktops).

Restoring Windows States

This is extremely irritating, natively the previous window used in an app is reloaded when you restart the app – this seems to me very wasteful as the computer is chugging away loading a document I’m about to close anyway as I didn’t want to read that one. Also the mac prompts me everytime I log out if I want to restore ALL my windows when I log back in. Of course I don’t – anything I want next time I’m more than capable of opening on my own without the computer loading all kinds of other stuff for me. It seems it’s not possible to have this off by default (grrr….!)

Gestures

Initially baffling I’m warming to the ‘trackpad works a bit like a touchscreen’ thing – I found myself using a windows laptop and trying to scroll with 2 fingers on the pad the other day for example. – I don’t use the trackpad a huge amount on laptops normally as I find an external mouse does the job so much better – but for use on trains etc (only time I really use trackpads anyway) – it should make the job easier.

In general I’m still climbing a hill with the mac – there’s a load of stuff to get used to, but I’ve managed to bend the machine to my will a bit, and I’ve also managed to get used to a fair few of it’s foibles – the pros roughly balance the cons – making it exactly on a par with windows in my book. I think the key thing is it is just a laptop: it does the stuff a laptop does, some well – some badly, I’ve not joined the cult, I have no intention of entering a mac store, and I still think Steve Jobs is a bad man……

will that change, will I end up loving or hating this piece of Aluminium – find out in the next thrilling installment.

Related posts:

1. Working for free…
2. Apprentice Episode 1: “If my team loses i’ll blame the project manager, if i’m the project manager – i’ll blame someone else”
3. Student Radio

Apple

So, I am entering a brave new world – my company in its infinite wisdom has decided that it’s time to wave goodbye to good old dependable Dell & Windows and say hello to racier shinier Apple. As a technical type person within the company I’ve found myself being part of the pilot phase (Alpha testing, call it what you will….) – on the way back to sunny Hampshire having received my Macbook it occurred to me that it might be a useful activity (for me as much as you, although good to have you along…!) to record my thoughts/feelings/opinions/experiences. I intend to be entirely honest, as such if use a piece of software or whatever and think that’s great, I shall record it here. If I find myself thinking “I could do this better with Windows/Ubuntu”, then I’ll be jotting that down too.

Firstly (for anyone who’s stumbled across this blog by accident and doesn’t actually know me – a little bit of a background on me):

• I have quite literally been brought up with PCs – and in some ways, was an early adopter – when Windows was at the cutting edge. I had windows 2.0 the first PC I had to myself (an old IBM AT) – and I moved through 3.1, 3.11 before being early to take the big leap to the strange new world of windows 95 with its fantastic new interface.
• I’ve not only used windows, I’m above average on command line Linux, and have tinkered about with Ubuntu’s GUIs (KDE and Gnome flavours, and the new unity) – I’ve used Unix occasionally on Sun and Silicon graphics machines (going back a few years) and my fist computing experiences were in the murky world of acorn and BBC, so I’ve not always done things Bill Gates’ way by any means
• My home desktop PC has ALWAYS been Windows
• I have always used Windows in the workplace (unless you count the odd Redhat Web/File Server and some ubuntu boxes for playing with)
• I am a “power user” – I have in the past looked after active directory infrastructure, software distribution etc. I’m the one that tells you to turn it off and on again, not the one who’s calling up support.
• I’m a fiddler – I’ll mess about with a computer until it does what I want it to, and can take several weeks to give up and ask someone else’s advice (although I will google things)
• I have an iPad (also works) – so am not totally unfamiliar with Apple kit.
• I have certain preconceptions about Mac Hardware/Software and most importantly the sort of people who’d use these devices – which will be the subject of this blog.

So, here we go with my preconceptions (I’m not saying there’s any factual basis in the following – but it’s always been the impressions I’ve had) before I enter the brave new mac world.

Macs are for arty types

You know what I mean; graphic designers, music producers, web designers. They’re machines for the people who make arty stuff, and as such the applications they have for doing this (photoshop, protools etc.) are great on a mac and do the job they do really well. Macs don’t really sit with an accountant or an office it guy – these people belong in the corner typing into MS word on a dull grey box, it’s just the natural order of things.

Macs are style over substance

Even I with my general stubbornness, and complete lack of anything that could be called ‘style’ can’t pretend for a second that the MacBook isn’t pretty. It’s a really nice piece of hardware, which just feels well-built and solid – but that’s next to useless if the software inside the box isn’t up to much, at the end of the day an office PC needs to be functional not pretty – and I’m assessing the usefulness of the Mac in replacing my HP in the office, not the PC at home I use for listening to music/watching videos.

I see having a mic/iPhone/iTouch as being a brand statement, something the cool kids do – and I’ve never been one of the cool kids – and I’ve never been an uber geek. I view having a mac like having to have the right brand of car/trousers/jeans etc… and that’s not just me. I dress comfortably and drive what I’m given – ultimately I’ve never been one to fall into line with any stereotypes, and I don’t intend to now, but I guess we’ll see…

Macs are overpriced

Not really my problem in this case, as the machine is provided by my employer, but given this machine retail price would cost in the region of twice an equivalent spec Dell – I’d really hope it could perform in a way which would justify this (both the hardware & software)

Mac users are a cult

I have no allegiance to Microsoft or Linux in any way, both have pros and cons – and I often flip between the two depending on which is best placed for the task I’m doing. I generally code in Ubuntu – I use windows for media consumption as I’m totally happy with the software environment I use for this. Now I have a mac at my disposal I totally expect it will usurp on of the other platforms for some tasks as I naturally expect it to outperform the other platforms for some applications (see previous point). However mac users aren’t like you and me (unless you are one) – they’re Obsessed, their mac can do no wrong in their eyes – and can perform every application under the sun better than any other computer ever formed, and as soon as a new one comes out you bet they’ll be opening their wallets up and letting Mr Jobs in, “What Mr Farrington – your home PC is 7 years old – ha ha, how can you live with such a dinosaur” – they’ll ask, surely you wanted to buy a new and slightly shinier one a year later because someone told you to. Well actually no, it still does everything I need it to without causing me any frustrations – why would I replace it. I regularly voice my irritation with (particularly) Windows, but also Linux when I can’t do exactly what I want to out of the box, you’ll never hear this from a mac user – if it doesn’t do what they want it to, it must be them that’s in the wrong.

I’ve regularly got into arguments with a couple of quite vocal mac users keen to defend their shiny pieces of metal when I’ve said “but does it do this, can it do this” and start going on about me “being a PC” (I’m not I’m a person) etc…. and being some kind of dinosaur for daring to suggest that the millions of PC users probably aren’t wrong.

Apple are an evil corporation

Microsoft get a lot of stick, and a lot of it is justified for being an evil corporation – but more or less from day 1 Mr Gates and co haven’t prescribed what hardware is required to run their software, nor have they attempted to control what software can be run on their platform in any way, and yes I understand that this leads to some of Windows’ traditional instabilities and leaves it open in some respects to viruses and the like – however it also means that there’s an open market in both hardware and software (yes folks, that’s why PCs are cheaper, as there’s real competition between vendors) the attitude of Apple has always struck me as the opposite of this – I’m always amused when Mac types start going on about “evil microsoft” – as at the end of the day Apple isn’t run by Ben & Jerry’s hippies meditating on bean bags, it’s run by people every bit as ruthless as those on the other side of the silicon fence. If you want socks and sandals – run Linux!

As I’ve said these are just my preconceptions if you’d asked me in 2008 what I thought of macs I’d say all of the above. When I first suggested writing this all up as a blog on the twitter one very vocal mac type I’ve many times baited argued with on the subject, suggested I’d be writing a blog entirely eating my own words. Well above are my own words, and in many way I hope to be eating them over the coming months. I don’t believe I’ll be completely renouncing the PC, and saving up to replace my old dependable Win 7 machine with a shiny box any time soon, the future is multiplatform and I’ll be running windows, linux and the company mac for a good while to come – but who knows, anything can happen!

I plan to do this more or less weekly updating you (and as such me) with the little niggles, and any big issues I come across – who knows you might even be able to give me some tips to help me get along with the new challenge.

I’m set in my ways, and out of my comfort zone – but I managed to write all of this on the Mac without combusting so who knows – I may be just fine.

So:

Edna: wow – is she going to rub someone up the wrong way quickly,  someone really early on said something she didn’t like and she looked like she was about to blow, not to mention the fact she was blatantly making up excuses for things all the way through the episode (she’s my ‘to hate’ candidate so far this year.

Melody: Another errr… strong personality but seems to have some effectiveness along with it there might be a bit of potential here, and after all her plan won!

Jim Eastwood & Gavin Winstanley: both seem like pretty straight guys, and basically competent – actually found myself more or less liking both of these two by the end.

Ellie: There’s definite comedy value here, with the not knowing how to spell vegetable, and the brilliant comment along the lines of “I wouldn’t eat it, but who knows I haven’t been in London that long” or whatever it was, recon she might bethe Baggs of this series, on value alone.

Edward: What an idiot, managed to be both a bad project manager, a useless accountant, and basically a tit – so no surprises for me when he got fired – especially when he took a couple of the more benign members of the team into the boardroom. What a muppet.

As for the others (including Felicity, who I’m backing) er, didn’t see much of you. Any chance you could sort of do something (or at least near a camera), then we might have an idea of who’ll win.

Quote of the week has to be “I’m the youngest, I’m also the shortest” – best way to attempt not to get fired ever, shame it didn’t work.

Related posts:

1. It’s Back… (The Apprentice 2011) #bbcapprentice
2. On This Whole Referendum Thing #yes2av #no2av

Ballot Box

I’ve always made it my policy not to tell people which way I’m going to vote on something (or which way I’ve voted for that matter) as I’m a big fan of not allowing myself to influence other people’s political decisions. I’m going to attempt to examine some of the arguments for tomorrow’s referendum without obviously supporting either camp – I will probably fail as will doubtless become apparent.

Incidentally if you didn’t know there is a referendum tomorrow this probably isn’t the post for you.

So I’ll examine what appear to be the main points being made by both sides based these websites (yes/no) – my basic premise in this analysis is that change is basically a good thing unless there are convincing arguements against it. So here we go….

No to AV

• AV is Costly
  • Apparently AV will cost £250 million, and involve expensive machinery and campaigns. I guess I can see the machinery argument, although it’s totally possible to count votes under AV using piles of ballot papers (I’ve done it) it might become complicated on a constituency scale. As for voter education, “Rank your candidates in order of preference” – there you go, I’ve done it (if anyone wants to pay me £100 million or whatever for this I’m more than happy for you to do this!)
• AV is Complex and Unfair
  • Complex? Really? it works in Student Union elections at Bath – and given the number of sports monkeys involved, this probably means rowers can understand it (I’m being deliberately provocative here, but the basics can be explained on a side of A4 so it really isn’t that hard).
  • Unfair? Well that depends on your analogy, if you compare it with a running race then yes it could be construed as unfair as the first person who crosses the line isn’t necessarily the one who gets the gold medal – but it isn’t a race at the end of the day it’s about representation – if the majority of people have been represented in the result (this isn’t always the case under First Past the Post) then it is fair. AV isn’t perfect but it means more votes count towards the end result.
• AV is a Politicians Fix
  • Well, errr…. so basically this is the “Nick Clegg is a nasty man” point, fundamentally I don’t believe Coalitions are bad things, or Liberal Democrats for that matter and as such I believe this point is just trying to say “Don’t like the coalition and what they’re doing, don’t vote yes”, frankly I think this argument is missing the point, this is a referendum on the future not the present so really this is an attempt to mislead people on what they’re voting on. It’s not a vote of confidence in the coalition, it’s a referendum on the voting system.

Yes to AV

• It makes MP’s work harder
  • So MP’s have to appeal to more than 50% of the electorate – I guess this has pro’s and con’s, it’ll temper some of the harder right/left elements in the middle of the road parties (strong lines on immigration, or nationalisation or whatever), but in turn it also has the potential to decrease the differential between the main parties with them all competing for the middle ground (and it’s already bad enough). I guess this depends on your views, personally I think there needs to be more difference between the main parties than tie colour, but I also don’t find myself agreeing with the more extreme policies of any of the major parties.
• It gives the Voter a bigger say
  • Well this essentially has to be good doesn’t it (you could argue that sometimes the voter doesn’t know what’s good for them – but if so you don’t really believe in democracy, otherwise I find this a hard point to argue against). If you don’t get your favorite, there’s a good chance you’ll get your second choice – this seems a good idea. If I can’t get a Yorkie from the vending machine, I’d rather have a twix than a bloody topic.
• It tackles the ‘Jobs for life’ Culture
  • Well, I guess safe seats can be blamed for a lot of voter apathy – after all why vote if you know candidate X will get in anyway. There’s not an easy argument against this, as the power rests with the electorate anyway, if they want to remove an MP they can by putting them as last choice, if not they can vote for them again (although I guess this is also true with FPTP, but it’s a lot easier to make this happen with AV).

So in summary, as I said at the beginning I’ll decide based on who makes the best arguments (it’s not impossible to work out who I think that is from the above) – but I’ll definitely be voting having made my decision, and whatever you think – I urge you to vote too.

For the record (as a preemptive attack on any provocative comments from either side of the debate):

Politically I describe myself as a ‘liberal conservative who knows his own mind and doesn’t totally align with any specific parties ideology. I think broadly the coalition is doing a reasonable job (although I don’t agree with all their policies, for example I love libraries and believe they have an important place in the modern world) and I think it’s really important to give the public a say directly on major issues such as this. This was also a quick post, so isn’t super-thorough either in writing or research, I don’t think I’ve quoted any facts, but if I have and they’re inaccurate I apologise.

Related posts:

1. On Electoral Reform
2. Brilliant Mash Up
3. Paying for the news

Since the 3rd series I and a few of my friends have ‘backed a candidate’ each based on their photo (and nothing else) – as there’s only 4 of us and we’ve picked ours I thought I’d open the rest up to blog reading types! There’s no prize or anything, but it makes the program more fun as we get a bit competitive (I backed Stella last year who went on to win – and am hoping to repeat my feat this year).

The candidates list as follows:

The Candidates

If you fancy backing one of the others (beware this exposes you to ridicule if your candidate does something particularly stupid during the show) stick a comment below with your choice and twitter ID!

As ever I’ll be tweeting/blogging along to the series (I’ll try not to get too carried away this year… but no promises!)

Related posts:

1. Apprentice Episode 1: “If my team loses i’ll blame the project manager, if i’m the project manager – i’ll blame someone else”
2. On Electoral Reform
3. On This Whole Referendum Thing #yes2av #no2av

Beer Cellar

A while ago I promised Martin Steers a beer related post. At the time I was in the middle of a lent based beer-freeze, which prevented me from consuming a huge amount of the stuff, or visiting any nice pubs.

I’ve since had a chance to attend a few pubs, and also one of my favorite places in the world – an off licence with Ales on tap, which will fill up a vessel of your choice with the beer of your choice. The place I speak of is The Bitter End, just around the corner from my girlfriend’s house in Bromley, London (or Kent depending on your definition). The place is an actual treasure trove of hard-to-come by bottled beers and ciders (including if you’re devoid of the ability to taste a number of exotic lagers) at really quite reasonable prices. The key draw for me though is (as I say) the ability to take home 4 pints in a flagon from the tap. I’ve just polished off my supply of Wadworth’s 6X from my last visit (frustratingly they’d just run out of St Austell Tribute – which is a favorite of mine) in the past I’ve had some really good beers recommended by the proprietor, who’s pretty good at finding you a tipple if you can tell him a few beers you enjoy.

The Grasshopper

Whilst also in this kneck of the woods, I actually bumbled into this place  – The Grasshopper in Westerham (Kent). We only stopped for a coffee, but it’s a really nice pub – an absolutely massive place, which appears to have been a Tudor great hall in a previous life, and practically unchanged since. Lots of beams, and eclectic artwork abound, as well as a log fire if that’s to your taste – the carvery smelt quite excellent, and I’m sure is probably worth a go. Even if you only pop in (as we did) because your in the area and it looks intreguing – worth popping your head around the door if you happen to be passing.

More beer & pubs soon….

Related posts:

1. The Nice Guys of Radio
2. On This Whole Referendum Thing #yes2av #no2av
3. Working for free…

Ballot Box

I’m trying to avoid wittering on about coalitions, or who I think should be in charge (if you’re interested, on this issue I agree with Nick), instead I thought I’d share my limited insight into an issue which is highly likely to form a major part of any deal between the Lib Dems and anyone else, that of electoral reform.

6 years ago, when studying for a politics AS level, I wrote an essay on this subject – at the time coming down on the side of ‘First-past-the-Post’ (our current system) for a number of reasons. My views have varied slightly since, so I’ll try to set out my vision for a political system which ought to work a lot better on the grounds of fairness and transparency – whilst maintaining the simplicity and relative ease of administration of the current system.

Before I start, I’m going to assume a certain level of knowledge here – as for me to write a full essay on the subject here is a bit much. I’m assuming you’re aware that ‘Proportional Representation’ isn’t a thing, it’s a collection of things (see wiki) and that there are also hybrid systems which offer a level of proportionality on a one-seat per constituency basis. I’m also assuming you have a lose knowledge of the British constitution and how westminster is supposed to operate (i.e. one democratically elected house, of which the party with an absolute majority form the government, where no absolute majority is the case the dealings start – also a house of lords which acts as a check/balance on Westminster policies and essentially has a right of veto over policy from the first house).

Now, my strong belief is that any electoral reform has to encompas more than just the Westminster government – for one there’s the ludicrous semi-hereditary, semi-appointed House of Lords, there’s also local Government elections to be considered. I’ll leave European Elections out from this – as they already use a proportional system, which seems to be relatively effective.

The House of Commons

So, voting for the House of Commons is the key area being discussed at the moment. We’ve had first past the post for a long time here in the UK, and it’s been pretty effective, It’s nice and simple to understand, and explain to people (more votes than everyone else in your constituency wins a seat, 50% + 1 of seats makes a government), low on administration to carry out – and difficult to misinterpret the results.

The common criticism is the fact that often on both a local and national level there isn’t a simple correlation between the number of votes and the amount of influence gained. For example in last weeks election the breakdown looks as follows:

• Conservatives 47% of seats for 36% of Votes
• Labour 40% of seats for 29% of votes
• Liberal Democrats 9% of seats for 23% of votes

This is patently not a fair system for the 3 major parties (look at the difference between Labour and Lib Dems on seats v. votes to see how unfair the system is). Essentially for coming second in a large number of constituencies the Lib Dems get nothing.

This seems a pretty powerful argument for something which gives a better proportion of votes to seats, but…. there are also arguments for first-past-the-post. For one, in general proportional representation means big constituencies, or even no constituencies – losing the idea of ‘your local MP’ and alienating politics from any local issues and making them more and more of an American style elite who don’t see much outside their Washington Westminster village. The constituency link is vitally important and it would be wrong to underestimate this in trying to achieve ‘fairness’.

Another argument is that proportional representation ‘lets the nutters in’ – as parties like the BNP would under a fully proportional system stand a far higher chance of achieving some influence within Westminster. I don’t subscribe to this at all – for anyone who was familiar with my role in the proposed ‘no-platform’ policy at the University of Bath will know my belief on minority parties whom appear unsavory to a large number of people loosely echoes the views of a panelist on Sunday’s Politics Show who said “These minority parties should be allowed to firm part of the political system – so they can stand up to democratic scrutiny and ultimately be defeated by an informed electorate, not ghettoised and allowed to grow through allegations of being the discriminated” (this is very much paraphrased).

Anyway, where does that leave my views on Westminster… we’ll for my mind we need a more proportional system – which still give’s MPs an area of responsibility and still gives the electorate a channel for bringing the attention of central government to issues outside London (private members’ bills are often started when an MP is alerted to an issue affecting their constituents)

Ladies and Gentlemen I present compromise, in the form of the Alternative Vote System. In short this is a hybrid system, which it’s really easy to convert to from FPTP (you can even use the same ballot papers, more or less). Which involves ranking candidates in order of preference, first choice votes for candidates move to second, third etc. preference down the paper until a single candidate has an absolute (50% + 1) majority. The best explanation of this system I’ve ever found comes from Bath Impact (AVS was used in student’s union elections at Bath) – unfortunately I can’t find this online, so here’s one from the NUJ.

Whilst the AVS isn’t idea, it will lead to people’s votes mattering far more (as even if your first choice candidate isn’t elected, it may be your second or third who gets in) – it should also do away with wasted votes as the winning candidate in a constituency will be the first, second or third preference of an absolute majority of the electorate – yet we can still maintain the relatively small constituencies which support the constituency link.

I know AVS doesn’t satisfy true advocates of Proportional Representation, but don’t stop reading just yet, my second reform should give you something to think about….

The House of Lords

It’s a bit of a joke isn’t it – all the policies of our democratically elected government are approved by a selection of musty peers and cronies of governments past before becoming law. Bizarre isn’t it.

It’s vital to have a some kind of checks and balance in the law making process, and the electorate themselves rarely act as such (apart from on the 5 yearly terms of parliaments, or in the rare case of a referendum) – the second house is one of these.

A big sticking point on an elected house of lords is the fact that if it were elected in the same way as the commons it’s composition would loosely reflect that of the commons -and thus would be as effective a check/balance as not having any check at all. There’s a simple solution to this though – elect the second chamber with a different (and more proportional) system – this would give us a very different make up of the lords to the commons under FPTP or AVS yet without the issues caused by the potential for no party having absolute power in the house (the stories of hung-parliaments leading to the downfall of the country that some areas of the press like to push). The chanber would hopefully then be able to offer real scrutiny to the executive, as well as being constitutionally divided from the commons (no member of the ‘lords’ would be able to sit as a Minister, to ensure a solid line between the role of legislator and scrutiniser)

All seems kind of logical now… (also on a totally national level, administering Party List is relatively simple Single Transferable Vote is a brain ache, especially as generally the idea of using IT for any government project becomes a massive cock up).

Council Elections

Obvious one for party lists these, as their influence is over a fixed area, everyone lists their preference and those percentages form the basis for making up the Councils.

In conclusion, I hope this has been a relatively informed ramble through proportional representation, and I’ve tried to be analytical rather than partisan with my opinions – naturally you’re welcome to comment with other ideas, or just because you think I’m talking nonsence.

I promise I’ll write a post about something for those who really aren’t interested in this whole politics thing soon…

Related posts:

1. On This Whole Referendum Thing #yes2av #no2av
2. On Local Radio
3. The Nice Guys of Radio

Leaders Debates

For one reason or another I haven’t had much to blog about these last few weeks, or at any rate – nothing which was too long to fit on twitter.

A few quick bits that have passed through my mind though….

• Radio Listening: I’ve been enjoying the excellent ‘Vote Now’ show on Radio 4. A fantastic satire on the election process and the British political system in general – I’ve been lucky enough to attend a couple of these at the recording stage, and they’re even more amusing up close. I’m also genuinely impressed by the production team on this show, who manage to turn the show around in about 4 hours from finishing the recording to airing the programme itself.
• Leaders Debates: These are second only to ‘The Apprentice’ for programmes to follow along with on Twitter (really missing the apprentice so far this year by the way). The debates themselves have proven fantastic in engaging the public with the election – and whilst most of my contributions tend to be childish remarks on what is said by the leaders, I’ll be amazed if these (along with the ‘Hung Parliament’ situation) don’t lead to a record turnout at the polls.
• … and on the above, why has no-one done a decent cut-up of these yet. I’d have hoped cassetteboy would have weighed in (although his One Show efforts are brilliant) – maybe I should have a go myself, what do you recon?
• It was also good to see a relatively high brow interview on breakfast commercial radio this week when Absolute Radio interviewed Professor Brian Cox (who’s series on the Solar System I must watch more of) – I think Absolute got the  balance between educational end entertainment spot on with this (and I was a little bit late to work, because I had to hang on to catch the whole thing). I’ve been listening to absolute a lot since acquiring a DAB radio recently, and whilst it can be a bit blokey and football-focused for me (though what to expect with a world cup on) the experience has been far from unpleasant.
• Other things I’ve learned this week: The radio-mic was invented in 1949, I discovered this after this humble gadget played a big part in this weeks news (dot.Rory being my source).
• Music recommendations this week: Train – Hey, Soul Sister.
• Oh, and a nice little toy from Farrington labs for those interested in Student Radio. Here’s the Student Radio Playlist for this week.

Hopefully I’ll find something to write a proper blog about something interesting soon, promise.

Related posts:

1. The Nice Guys of Radio
2. Student Radio
3. Paying for the news

So, on Tuesday the “one eyed scottish idiot” (Clarkson, 2009) called a general election – as this isn’t really news as most of the word knew the election would be on May 6th, I thought I’d talk about an interesting side effect of the election instead. Gordon also chose my birthday to make the announcement – meaning yet again that story was knocked off the front page!

Anyway, the month running up to the election is known as Purdah, and as well as being a period of no major decisions being made by parliament,  increased regulation on news reporting etc. in the media applies. A further side effect is that the COI (corporate office of mis-information) aren’t allowed to advertise, based on the logic that advertising government initiatives (apart from the election itself) is in part publicity for the sitting government, and thus an unfair advantage.

Now, unlike some – I don’t have a particular problem with COI advertising, despite it occasionally being annoying being told to turn off lights, recycle, do my shoelaces etc (actually I do need the latter) and I should also point out that my present employer, like a lot of the commercial radio industry benefits significantly from COI advertising – yet I do have a problem with a particular advert I’ve heard a lot on the radio these last few weeks.

The advert in question is a Home Office Ad encouraging people to report suspicious behavior to the police – it’s actually quite a clever advert from a script writing point of view, using odd words from the ‘talking heads’ in the ad to make up the overall message – my issue though is with the message itself which seems to be “look out for your neighbors, they might be terrorists”. Ok, so it’s possible that old Mrs Davies at Number 23 is putting together a dirty bomb – and Mr Watson from the corner shop might be plotting to overthrow the government, but both seem unlikely (well the latter possibly not as Mr Watson does have a vote conservative sign in his window – n.b. Mr Watson is  fictional).

My concern is that as soon as you start treating everyone around you with suspicion, you stop treating them like people. I’ve lived in my current block of flats for about 6 months, and have barely shared more than a few words with my neighbors, and I think if I were to try engaging them in more of a conversation than a ‘Hi’ when passing in the car park – they’d probably think I was a bit weird, and start actively avoiding me in future. Worrying isn’t it.

I’m not proud of this fact, but when I get on a tube I’m actually a little nervous if there’s more than a few young asians with tatty rucksacks in the carriage. This is actual insanity on my part as I know full well that in excess of 99.9999999% of people on tube trains are as harmless as I am (if not more harmless) – so why do I react oddly to someone my age, with dark-ish skin and a rucksack like mine. Mostly this is due to the press for making us suspicious of people around us in busy places, but it’s worrying that the government have now jumped on the bandwagon, and are trying to make us suspicious of those who live around us.

There was a time that neighbors all said hello to each other in the street, lent each other sugar and helped others out, that time was gone long before my 90′s upbringing – but we were always civil to those who lived around us, and through a number of fairly complex social connections pretty much everyone on our street was on first name terms (and despite this being Worcestershire, not everyone was whiter than casper) – now it seems we’re supposed to be popping around to Mr Plod if we see ‘er up the road talking to a tall dark stranger, or if that new family by the shop have a car with blacked out windows.

This is stupid, as there are probably innocent explanations for these things – and real terrorists aren’t stupid enough to leave the kind of obvious trail hinted at in the advert. If we actually got to know our neighbors (as I grant you I’ve failed to do) then we’re more likely to spot real signs if something actually suspicious is going on and will feel a lot safer in our homes than the government seem to want us to be.

Right, cheesy ending time – “That’s when good neighbors become good friends”, I’m off now to say hello to one of my neighbors and I don’t care if they think I’m a bit weird!

Related posts:

1. On Electoral Reform
2. Braindump 30/04/2010
3. Student Radio

A Winning Quiz Team (or some of it)

I also had the opportunity to talk to some really interesting, funny and genuinely nice people (not to mention winning the annual pub quiz with Sarah Ghost, Matt Hurst, Martin Steers, Will Jackson & Paul Jackson (who aren’t related).

It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that radio (particularly at a senior level) is a cut-throat business so it was really nice to be reminded that amongst the shouty bosses and demanding talent are some really nice guys. Whilst I’m sure the following is by no means a complete list of everyone from the industry I chatted to, and certainly does not deliberately exclude anyone – I thought I’d just mention a few names who’d reminded me of the fantastic industry radio is to work in – and also how much of a community the industry can feel like when it comes together.

• David Lloyd – Orion Media.
• Lloydie – Trent FM
• Kevin Hughes – Capital (Who is also the best quizmaster a student radio conference has ever had – Leeds 2009)
• Paul Jackson & Mike Cass – Global (Who stuck around for the SRA Quiz and the party which followed, chatting to students and getting involved, in a way senior types generally don’t)
• Neil Sloan – BBC
• Chris North – Wise Buddah
• Mark Crossley – Absolute Radio
• Tim Howlett – Heart 106.2

and finally Bruce Mitchell, Kiss’ Head of Digital – who we bumped into in the Chicken Shop on the way back from the club on the way back, and chatted to in the hotel bar for an hour or so after we got back, despite the fact he had a 6.30 train the following morning (hope you made it Bruce!).

I also talked to some fantastic students – who prove there’s still a huge passion for all areas of radio and some who’ve definitely got the talent and the confidence to go a long way in the industry.

Hopefully I’ll get myself along to next years conference in one capacity or anther – as I had a fantastic time this year, and it’d be great to do it all over again!

Here’s a little streetview of the conference venue if you happen to be interested…

Nottingham NG1 4GH, United Kingdom

Related posts:

1. Student Radio
2. On Local Radio
3. Working for free…