Kevin

Wibbling:

I'll be honest, I've never been a big one for the whole New Year thing. It's a somewhat arbitrary date that seems to be used as an excuse for many things. But that said, it's hard not to be reflective at this time of year, so although I don't think I've really done this before, but here's some year changing thoughts.

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Merry Christmas folks!

Interesting article and video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/11/snapshot-special-branch-terror-suspect

The ITN video linked from there is slightly interesting also.

Is there anyone out there running a mail server who doesn't reject mail based purely on an RBL?

At some point before 4am a couple of cats decided to have a sing song out back, where the bedroom is. Now it was hot last night so the window is open, which is why I'm now wide awake. How did it take scientists so long to spot that cats make a noise like a crying baby to get their own way? I woke up simply because I thought the kid next door had fallen out the window or something, not because a couple of cats wanted some tuna.

So after trying to balance noise and temperature by shutting the window in varying degrees I concede defeat and try the front bedroom. Where the open window reveals a car alarm going off.

So I'm up and awake instead.

We don't watch "TV" much. We watch TV on DVD or an On Demand service, but we don't have much TV broadcasting into this house. Which is why I just saw some rare TV trailers. What did I learn?

The good = Reaper returns on Thursday!

The bad = There is someone on Big Brother using the name "Halfwit". And yes I did have to look up from here to check when they said it because I didn't quite believe it.

Apparently the government (and the National Union of Students) are suggesting graduates leave the country, the argument given apparently to avoid the woes of the recession. This puzzles me as the government are also frequently telling me that Britain is coping with the recession very well, better than the majority of the world in fact. If we're doing so well why will these people avoid the worst by moving elsewhere? Surely, if we're doing so well graduates from other countries should be coming to the UK.

Oh wait, if we ignore the government's inability to decide if we're beating the recession or struggling more than average maybe, just maybe, the government want graduates to leave the country because then they won't count towards unemployment figures when they can't find work. Instead, we can have all these people being unemployed elsewhere! "No job prospects? Go bum around Thailand for a few years and make us look like we have an economy!" If we're really lucky these people we're chasing out of the country might even make other countries look like they have even higher unemployment, and we get a double bonus!

Today I undertook a right of passage - I got my very own barbecue! Sure, I've cooked on them before, even had a few disposable ones, but now I have my very own. I am a real man now.

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The problem with the Telegraph's report on MP expenses is two-fold. Firstly, this story is now getting a little tired. We're getting less and less shocked by these claims as the story drags on and soon we won't really care about these abuses. Secondly, like every other story these days, they're trying too hard to grab headlines. The story is big enough by itself, why flog it?

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We're looking at getting a PAYG mobile dongle for back-up 'net access. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts, opinions, warnings, gotchas, recommendations, or such?

O2 seem reasonably cheap I must admit although I don't fully understand the fact the difference in coverage. I mean, I don't care that I can't do video calls but surely "news" means streaming videos on news sites, right?