02 November
2008
I can smell a Kinnock
On the night of the General Election of April 1992 David Dimbleby opened the BBC coverage with 'The BBC is predicting a Labour victory with a 10% swing' by 1am it was clear that this was the worst straw poll prediction ever and the Conservatives stayed in Government.
There's something called the Bradley effect in the US, that people will respond to pollsters in one way and then vote another when confronted with the actual choice on the day.
In the UK it was Labour and possibly the triumphalism of Kinnock that the voters rejected but you'd have been hard pressed to get people to admit that they wouldn't vote Labour ahead of time.
So the softness of the lead that Obama has shouldn't be underestimated and it need not be a race issue. Certainly for some they may be uncomfortable with the idea of Obama's alien background but anyone overtly racist is going to be obvious.
If there is a sudden change at the poll (and there is the expected high turnout), then the reasons will be much more complex. Will voters believe that Obama can represent all or will they suddenly convince themselves that the country will become divided against itself.
I don't seriously think that most people voting for the Presidency consider the Vice President at all. There have been idiot VPs in the past and not just ones that couldn't spell potatoes. So for those voters that are conflicted when they meet the many weird methods that Americans use to vote will the comparison between Biden and Palin matter?
Probably not, whatever voter effect that either was brought on to achieve has already happened. The result of this election again is in the hands of the uncommitted not the dedicated. So, will the undecided vote with the zeitgeist or will they vote for the familiar? The recognisable image of a US President for most people (whatever their background), is a middle aged to old white man with military service.
Just hope his heart keeps going for the next four years...
Posted by
theSliver at
13:01
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No more to Leiden
No more to Leiden will I travel.
No more the KLM commute from BHX to AMS.
No more the mangling of Dutch directions
To Taxi drivers in torrential rain.
No more the 45 to Schipolwek.
The coffee grinder is back home.
The Italian leather bag is beneath the bed.
All the gaily coloured mugs are now
In one single kitchen cupboard, resting.
The passport sleeps under the knickers.
No more Skyping and cajoling.
No more meetings of indefinable intent.
No more joyous carousing to all
Hours, celebrating the birth of new
Soft children being battered each second.
Continue reading "No more to Leiden"
Posted by
theSliver at
13:17
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12 November
2008
Anathem, Neal Stephenson's latest magnum opus
for Itas, Avouts and Saeculors everywhere
I finished Anathem last night, and magnum opus it is. I was just a little daunted by the size at first, even if the print is elderly eyes friendly and it took me a while to get going.
In previous novels Stephenson has taken the relatively familiar world and tweaked it in small ways, in Anathem he creates an almost entirely unfamiliar world and makes it familiar.
Its a world of mathematical puzzles and the separation of academic thought from a secular society that makes do and mend. In the hands of anyone else the maths, geometry and physics would become heavy and leaden, Stephenson combines them with a narrative which somehow combines a driving plot and a leisurely narrative from a young monk like figure.
The inside jokes, puns and giggly nurdiness under the surface are all there and part of Stephenson's trademark and although this isn't going to become a Snow Crash I think some of the neolgisms are going to insinuate their way into the language.
I quite like the idea of being an Ita and I share his disdain of jeejahs. Read the book.
Posted by
theSliver at
08:52
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Comments (2)
13 November
2008
Vista Gadget for Joost
Joost has just released the embed code for the Joost Flash player and I've been waiting for that so that I can show people the example Vista Gadget that I've been running for the past month.
Its a very simple Gadget if not entirely crude but it does demonstrate how to use the Joost API to get information about what people are playing and then play it using the embedded Joost player.
The current Gadget will pick up my (SimonL's) friend's playing of shows and display the most recent one, click the text and the player will fly out; click the (link) and it will open the Joost site at that show.
I'll post a Gadget later with a settings form so the list can be changed along with some commentary as to how to amend it.
Download Joost Gadget
If you have enabled the Sidebar then you should get an installation from just downloading the .gadget, which is just a zip file of the whole set of files.
Posted by
theSliver at
17:00
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Comments (4)
16 November
2008
Weekend reading and listening
I've finally started Un Lun Dun by China Miéville which is another in the I suppose fashionable genre of fantasy for children that adults like to read.
And after the weighty length of Anathem I skipped through Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book which I guess really is a kind of Jungle Book, though I must admit it didn't really strike me that way. But it did remind me of Pratchett's Johnny and the Dead if only for showing how accepting children are of whatever their environment gives them.
Which precipitates the nasty thought that Baby 'P' probably loved his tormentors and only wanted to please them, which I guess he did in the end.
First of my downloads for the month from emusic.com is Skeletal Lamping by Of Montreal, which is gloriously anarchic, Zappaish and weirdly Todd Rundgren in the liking for Beach Boys harmonies.
Continue reading "Weekend reading and listening"
Posted by
theSliver at
13:18
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20 November
2008
Incarnation #3
G30 Consultants
The first company that I ever started was called Support pc Ltd (cool name I know), but that really only lasted a year of consultancy as the business plan it was meant to carry out didn't get any financial support.
The second was Objective 2000 Ltd after I'd been Objective Software as a sole trader for the longest time and that was only dissolved last year as all my time was occupied with Joost.
So now I have the third and it was the simplest of all of them to start as I didn't do anything except choose an accountant to do it for me and take over all of the mess of running a company. I'm really very very bad at filling in forms and doing stuff like that on time so I was always in bad odour with some official body or other.
I inherit the name with picking one up off the shelf but its not a bad name, probably better than Satis Superque Merce anyhow.
I didn't even have to set up a bank account it was already done. Now I just have to send off copies of my id. As they've been so efficient at advising me and sorting it all out here's a free link to them Bailey and Associates
I've bought the domain G30consultants.com but that's all so far.
Posted by
theSliver at
12:11
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27 November
2008
Peevishness
* Moderated comments is back on as I was bored with deleting all the spam.
* The tone of Robert Peston's voice, if there was any good news it would sound as if it were the last bright flash of a doomed civilisation.
* A delivery that should have arrived is now never going to arrive. (Bright spot, I shall save £17 VAT by reordering after December 1st).
* The weather. It was warm all night, flung off quilt the works, its got steadily colder and greyer all day.
* The cat threw up on a bed sheet whilst said sheet was still on the bed. He waited till I could watch him do it, I'm sure of that.
Posted by
theSliver at
14:36
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