Car Trouble and work

cartrouble

Well, I’m back to running on only three cylinders (or less).  I have what appears to be an air leak of types near the distributor coil. A quick surf of the web found one or two people with air leak issues, one of whom had a leak in the exact same area. This of course is good news, so when I go out to the car shortly, I’ll be able to check if it is the exact same place – if so, it’s a simple cheap fix.
The loss of power is staggering and I like a little power, but Ironically I bought this wreck because I didn’t want too much power as I have a habit of driving a little, errrr, quickly?

PalletlineLast nights work was fairly quick, that said it didn’t turn out that quick as walking across the yard these days can take too long as I end up having to have a conversation with nearly everyone! The crazy thing about this is that for the most part, I can’t stand talking to people – I’m just not that sociable! There are a handful of folks I enjoy talking too, but either rarely see, or get the chance. Oddly though, last night I did see an old agency work colleague who I rarely see these days. As I have not thought up a name for him, I’ll refer to him as the ‘Bass Player’, the reason is simple, he looks like the stereo typical bass player with shiny head and beard. Living over at Lyme Regis and just around the corner from Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, it was good to see Bass Player again because I don’t think I’ve seen him for months, actually it could have been February when we were racing against each other in the early hours to Davidstow.
He reads this blog and has for some time, and said he’d been reading recently to see what work I’d been doing…  Well if he’s working tonight, I’ll be sure to have a proper chat and catch up.
Tonight however, is the last night I’m doing this run, so unless something comes up tomorrow night, then I might just get the first real weekend off in what seem like an age.

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Published in: on 31 July, 2009 at 16:19  Comments (1)  
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Interesting Way To Sell Cars – Video

I got this from Funny or Die. Adults only

more about “Sex To Sell Cars – Video“, posted with vodpod

 

 

Published in: on 30 July, 2009 at 18:09  Comments (1)  

Politicians out of touch? No…… never! & The worse phrase of the year.

Who could possibly believe politicians are forever out of touch?! LOLtwitter
Could a point that they always are, be put across any better than the fact the British Government has now produced a guide on what, the understanding of and how to use twitter for politicians in an aim to extend the political use of twitter and how ministers should provide an “informal” and “human” voice to the masses (something they must be so good at – ??).
“We are looking at technology that is only a couple of years old, that people are still coming to terms with and finding the best way to use it,” said a Cabinet spokesman.
PortCullisAnd that statement right there is exactly what is wrong with politics; either there thinking is years out of date, or they use knee jerk reactions to media raised points.
I’m not talking about any particular party here, because what is needed is forward planning, not until the next election – but for the next 100 years. That’s right, it should be a requirement of any government to have a vision of where a country should be in 100 years from now and as such, should be enveloped in the web based cultural technology from the outset.

The worse phrase of the year?

We’re now a good 9 years into this the 21st Century, and yet there is one thing I keep hearing and its beginning tSwitcho annoy and grind on me somewhat.
“Huh, computers – I wouldn’t know how to switch one on!”
Try the ‘On’ button perhaps?! It’s a little like a small light-switch, yet it also the single biggest switch on the mactelhine!
Funnily enough, the creators of such technology thought about such issues many years ago. As such, all modern TV’s are effectively a mointor with a computer built in, your washing machine, microwave, dvd player, even your radio, kettle, toaster and alarm clock – not to mention your telephone – are all computers, heck, most cars can’t run with out them!
You don’t need to know what happens with your car and engine to turn that on and everything has, over the years, been developed to help ordinary people in the street get what they want from there computers and the internet with ease.

To use the phrase “I wouldn’t know how to switch one on!” is not clever, it says much more about your aptitude than you would believe – not to mention your personality.
Just the other day when I was paying for petrol, the woman at the counter said it – while using a computerised till!!

I think, therefore I am: this means you’re intelligent.Stupity
“I wouldn’t know how to switch one on!”  could mean that this is not the case.
“We have one, but I don’t use it and I have no intension to” Could this translate to; I’m frightened, I don’t like socializing with friends in other countries, I believe what the newspapers say and I don’t want to save money via internet shopping?
Could this mean you are as stubborn, un-informed (that would be : ignorant) having limited understanding and anti-social? 
But if so, would this in turn relate to being, well, not the brightest spark in the box?

So, you think I’m being harsh? I don’t, because I know some people who work in the IT world who simply refuse to have a computer in theOn_switchre homes and that I respect.

But really:
“I wouldn’t know how to switch one on!”
Use the On button like the rest of humanity.

Next year I propose the ‘upping of the anti’ on this subject with a simple short sharp slap to anyone who uses it. Unfortunately, all the people I’d like to do this to, already use computers – there’s just no justice… lol

 

Slap

 

;-)

Published in: on 30 July, 2009 at 17:16  Comments (1)  
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The Schumacher Returns

Michael_Schumacher

As the shock of the injury suffered by Felipe Massa settles, all eyes turned to Schuey with questions of who will take over the driving.

While not yet confirmed by Ferrari – news agencies are now reporting that the biggest single shock to the F1 world might indeed be about to happen; The return of 7 times world champion Micheal Schumacher to Formula 1.

Published in: on 29 July, 2009 at 18:22  Comments (1)  
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Shopping – a tired ramble

 hate-shoppingAs a guy, I must admit a certain disdain for shopping… That is of course – unless it’s for tools.
Oddly, I have no problem at all shopping for gifts etc, but when it comes to myself, it’s really not good.
You see, I know something will go wrong if I start browsing! For this reason alone, the internet is a wonderful thing.
Yesterday the trusty £350 wreck I call my car was the grateful recipient of a new rear exhaust (tail pipe). However, once all the recent noises were silenced again, I could hear just how bad the engine was running, or more apparent was number of cylinders the engine wasn’t using.
So I went for a little drive around the local area and stopped in a lay-by near Honiton show ground. I had a fettle around the engine and pulled each lead of the sparkplugs and to my horror found that someone had at some point in the cars life, decided to coat the connecwd40-main_Fulltions with some form of grease. I assume this was to seal out moisture, the problem is that grease is conductive!.
You know, a lot of money was spent developing WD40 for the nuclear weapons programme days of yester-year and frankly, it’s so darn inexpensive – why didn’t they just use that?
This is where my story turns to shopping, no not a new car (though my friends would dearly wish I parked further from their houses with my wreck). I needed some WD40, so I thought I would nip to the local supermarket (Tesco) with the idea of doing a little food shopping too.
Well I trawled the isles for the stuff and eventually went and asked where it was. I was told it was over in the petrol station – but you see, the mistake had already been made…. I had browsed!!Tesco honiton
With my shopping basket in hand I went to a self service checkout and literally as I put the very last thing through, it went wrong! It rang an alarm and said to wait for assistance. So I waited, and waited a little more while the queue behind me just kept getting longer and people were getting unhappy. No one came, no one was around at all! So after nearly ten minutes I just left my shopping where it was and left the store!
Just a point to note; the Honiton Tesco is about the worst Tesco I have ever been to – they’re nothing short of useless at the very best of times.

Oddly, after acquiring the WD40 from elsewhere and after cleaning all the bits on the engine – it now runs on all 4 cylinders – a result!!!!

Anyway, when I finished work this morning and was going home, I suddenly remembered that I still needed a few basics – so almost in the middle of turning left at a junction, I turned right to nip into the Cullompton Tesco’s. As I did so, I could have sworn I saw some lights flash, but wasn’t sure what it was – so carried on.

However, I had no trouble at all at the Cullompton Tesco. I was in and out in minutes! I did however forget 75% of the things I needed.

Getting home and climbing into the paradise I call my bed, it wasn’t long before the phone was ringing to tell me I would be doing the same work all week. This, while nice – means that not buying all the things I needed, would mean I have to return to the shops… I pondered the fortune that landed me living on the ground floor and not several floors up (i.e. the ability to step off a high ledge) and drifted back off to sleep.

P.S. yes, I saw you, WKD missileoh person of the red missile that flashes lights – not bad, considering how tired I was. Good morning to you too.

Published in: on 29 July, 2009 at 17:18  Comments (1)  
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Windows 7 has been released

Win7b

Microsoft has shipped out Windows 7 to OEM’s, with MS Partners etc (I’m one of those) will be able to acquire the completed operating system as of August 6th.
The public will still have to wait for the official launch date of October 22nd, but the fact Microsoft has reached RTM (that’s when they sign off on the code and the finished product) is most welcome.

Windows 7 will not just be coming with Internet Explorer 8, no, it will carry all the main browsers from Firefox through to Safari and even Google Chrome and will be an option at point of initial OS installation.

Basically, Vista users will not see much difference, because for the most part – it is Vista. However, it will be a completely different ‘file system’ and as such concern over whether of not older software will work is not a great concern due to backward compatibility emulators as also found in Vista.Windows_7_Boxes

Now before people start complaining about the amount of RAM this OS will use, try not to forget that in the days of Windows 98, 256mb of ram was a lot, when we jumped to Windows Xp, we really needed around 1 gig of ram to make things run smoothly. Vista really needs a minimum of 2 gig and lord only know what the best ram requirement will be for Win7.

Now, many people complained about Vista and there was a thousand reasons for this. Most came down to either antiquated hardware, or poor installation. The other things were the A.I. learning the way YOU use your machine – and most still don’t realise that some of the perpetual question asking pop-up windows can be switched off.
Yet when I purchased this Dell Inspiron, it came with Xp Professional on it. It was highly unstable and the machine would shut down every now and again. I installed Vista Ultimate on it two years ago and even though this laptop has been abused to death (even pulling out the hard drive and shoving it back in with the system live), it has never skipped a heartbeat!

So, Windows 7, it’s now a true reality and one that both you need to get used to and should actually want to….

Win7a

Published in: on 28 July, 2009 at 12:59  Comments (1)  
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Service time

burnWith the news that Who’s Who, Cozmic’s laptop went up in smoke the other day, and after some research into the matter – I decided it was time to service my laptop properly.
Oddly, as some of you may be surprised to know, I’m actually qualified in such matters of system design, build, repair and service of all things to do with computers, servers, networks and just about anything you attach to them – I’ve even designed the odd data center.

This however, would be no where near the surprise I received when I totally disassembled my Inside my DellDell Inspiron 6400!!

While I regularly take a vacuum cleaner to the vents on this thing, nothing prepared me for the dirt inside. There were huge wads of what looked like padding – but were certainly not!!Wad of Fluff
The fan blades were dirty as expected – well, dirty was an understatement!
A few cotton buds later and use of needle and thread to clean between the heat exchanger fins – and all was good!

Now with the wMy Dell Servicedhole lot back together and while I normally spend hours cooking my thighs with this laptop while the fan spends hours whining away, I’m sat here with only the mildest of warm thigh and a fan that cuts in for a around 30 seconds at a time keeping everything as cool as possible.

Why I didn’t do this before amazes me, but sadly for Cozmic, any advice I could have offered has long since past and he would have needed it months ago.

Sorry mate.

Published in: on 27 July, 2009 at 20:03  Comments (2)  
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The Dukes deploy to Afghanistan – well a few of them do

yorkspng

Over a year later than was first thought and not as battalion deployment, but finally they’re going.
According to the BBC News website a company or less is to deploy in short order. There is speculation that this tenacious  bunch of fighting men don’t actually need to deploy in full to be that effective, but sadly the reality is that the rest of the battalion (for some reason called 3Bn Yorkshire Regiment) is doing some pretty serious work at Warminster in future combat techniques.
After the setting a record of the fastest armoured deployment in history under their belts at the beginning of the Iraq war (4 days from initial notification) I’m sure the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment will rise to any role or situation that arises.

Good luck lads, and bring all your bits back with you.

Dukes combined badge

Virtutis Fortuna Comes

Published in: on 27 July, 2009 at 11:34  Leave a Comment  
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Sarky Sarkozy – crashes out…

Sarky SARKOZYToday, late in the morning, while he was jogging in the park at the Chateau of Versailles, the president of Fr**ce felt unwell. This episode, which came after 45 minutes of intense physical activity, was not accompanied by a loss of consciousness,” the palace statement said.

Sarkozy, an avid jogger and cyclist, was forced to interrupt his run and “lie down with the help of an aide,” the statement said. A presidential doctor who is with Sarkozy at all times snurseounded the alert and administered initial treatment.

I’m only guessing here, but if you need help to lie down, what does that actually say? So, there’s this ‘presidential’ doctor giving treatment(?) what, for feeling tired? or for the lack of PMA to finish the run? Or to help him get his face on the floor?

Oddly, it was no ‘biggy’ and Sarkozy gets to have a nice sleep in hospital surrounded by nurses…. You gotta love the Fr**ch!       (or, not!)

french_frog

Published in: on 27 July, 2009 at 04:02  Leave a Comment  
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Short day but hard work.

6:30PM and I’m back in the bosom of my home. Well, I say bosom, but it’s more like a butt cheek  – (sigh).
laptop-fireAs I wrote previously, I wasn’t looking forward to today’s work at all. I did however look on the bright side, as some of this company’s routes are alright. On top of this, Cozmic who does security for this particular company, I say security…  I digress. Cozmic emailed to tell me he wasn’t working today and he’d been out of communication as his laptop decided to sit there and burst into flames!! Now, while I really don’t want to know what he was doing at the time this happened, I hope for his sake, he didn’t burn anything too precious.

So, I get to work and find that while I had been looking on the bright side of the possibilities that today could bring, I learned instantly it was all in vain! I was given one of the crappiest runs I think they have.  Bideford, Barnstable and Ilfracombe in north Devon.

I promptly screwed up, by pulling out of Wellington and going northbound on the M5 Motorway instead of south! This is because (what I’m about to say here basically translates to; “it’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it”) I normally drive from a little place called Cullompton and nearly the whole world seems to exist north of the place and certainly coming from there I’d have indeed gone on the northbound.

After turning around at Taunton, I head back in the right direction and started my journey up the North Devon link-The Moltonsroad. I go past Tiverton and start heading on towards Bishops Nympton and South Molton. Now until I found out the WKD and her hubby were actually sheep farmers, I hadn’t really noticed sheep in the fields as the area is predominantly dairy herds, but as I passed Tiverton I started noticing fields and fields full of sheep! So I’m sat there dodging holidays makers thinking about why I had never noticed them before.
The trouble when you get into this pondering mood, is that you start to notice more things and starting thinking about these also.  Like the fact a Bishop Nympton festival sign was still up, though the festival was last week and the fact that as I got close to South Molton, I noticed a sign for North Molton – I’ve been down this road a hundred times and it never occurred to me there might be a north one too. This of course lead to me wondering if indeed there is an east and west Molton.

A quick turn around at Bideford with very minimal conversation and on to Barnstable… I’ve only been to this store once, it’s a pig to get into and the lady who was there last time was nothing short of horrid!
I reversed in over a pavement and the remnants of a wall and was back out of there in 20 mins flat.

By now it was raining and I was already wet through to the skin. So now it was off to the part of the run I hate – Ilfracombe!ilfracombe
Ilfracombe is so small and tight, it is simply not conducive to trucks and certainly not 60 ft ones. However, the driving part is actually fun, none more so than when you see the look of shear terror on the faces of car drivers.
The reason I hate this ‘tip’ so much is that while it is a large store, it’s loading bay is actually a lay-by. In turn, this lay-by is not only on a tight road, but it’s also on a hill – and with heavy cages to deliver, it’s not good.

However, while it was hard work and rained throughout, I was cheered up no end by the store manager Roxanne. Roxanne hails by birth from the island of St. Kitts way over there in the Caribbean and now lives in Ilfracombe by way of St.KittsHigh Wycombe.
So today, I can only thank Roxanne for cheering me up with a slightly sweet coffee and a good chat while the delivery was carried out.

I was still soaked to the skin and to make it worse – sweating. But a quick race back to the depot (while keeping weary eye out for fast moving red mini type road bourne projectiles) got be back for an official finish of 17:30 and the whole job done in 8 hrs flat.

Home, shower, finding of one huge T-Shirt and clean undies, coffee, large slice of Peanut Butter on toast, write this and now I’m ready to watch Top Gear.

Basic, straight forward and the day was a result…

Published in: on 26 July, 2009 at 19:57  Comments (6)  
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What did I say about the weekend?

 Agency driverYer know, it’s almost totally predictable now: Agency driver = no weekends, ever!
Yes, from mentioning only yesterday that I had no work all week, the phone has been ringing and it’s back to odd jobs and no weekend LOL
I’m not really complaining because everything I want to do, or should I say that up to a couple of years ago (or, was used to doing), has all pretty much gone by these days. On top of that, it all costs time and money anyway.
This of course, leads to the  feeling of being perpetually trapped at the moment, something I’Southern Englnd and walesm very keen to shake off.

So tomorrow I’m working for the Co-Op out of Wellington. They have literally thousands of shops all over the place and I could end up anywhere from Lands End, the Welsh Valleys, Thames Valley, the south coast, in fact anywhere right across southern England/Wales to Brighton!
The job means a return to moving ‘cages’ often to places that have no loading bays and are awkward to get to.
Actually what the job really requires is a mindset of ‘attacking’ it.

You don’t have to read very far on this blog to realise I thoroughly enjoy doing the Milk work, but at the end of the day, none of thiOCClogos stuff is really what I do.

I did, at this point, write a long piece about an annoying if not odd recruitment proposal from back in 2001 to work at CERN from OCC Computer Personnel, however (and while I have just done it) thought it was too ‘name dropping’, so have removed it.
I’m now going over to the Chip shop to buy a take-out and have a word with the owner Dave, about if or not he really wants me to quote for gutting and rebuilding the adjoining property he has just bought.

battenburg1Then I’ll come back and probably surf the net until such time as I fall asleep – what a great Saturday night! Though to be fair, I did think about having sex… ‘Sex’ being the purchase of a Battenburg Cake and the enlightening of the nerves within my taste buds while eating it. ‘Thinking about’ would have been in direct reference to whether or not I could be bothered to get in the car and go buy the said item!

Published in: on 25 July, 2009 at 23:34  Leave a Comment  
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Carpool at it’s best – Professor Brian Cox

When Robert Llewellyn interviewed Charlotte Reather – I was gobsmaked at how he captured this ladies spirit. Then an awesome Carpool from Tesla last week that answered just so many questions about electric cars and in turn – there impact. This week, Robert has not only an outstanding guest, but does what I believe is one of the best Carpools yet.

Enjoy!

Published in: on 25 July, 2009 at 01:47  Comments (2)  
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Grumble…

I’m sure i’ll remove this but I’m sat in Michael Wood Services on the Northbound M5 at 23:00 (11pm) in another Mercedes..

What can I say… Friday night and whinging about a german truck.

It’s official, I have a sad life… LOL

I’ll probably post again around 2am

Published in: on 24 July, 2009 at 23:03  Comments (1)  
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Week done?

sugar

It’s been a strange week, but only in so much that the phone hasn’t been ringing for work. This is strange considering the number of people who should be either on holiday or off with Swine Flu.
It is also frustrating because if it was possible to know that I was to have all  this time off, I might have finished my cursed redecocompassmap1ration of the shack I call home (or…not what I call it at all) or gone off to Gloucestershire, then over to Oxfordshire to see family, Cambridge to kick up a storm, London to trawl Denmark St and chill with Dave Bones in the 12bar Cafe. Oh, I also need to see a company in Leyland with reference to the promotionOldGlobalMap-al items I want made.
Typically, as I write this, I bet the phone does ring – and screws up the weekend. lol

My hit list for travelling is now getting excessive, I have far too many people to visit and a trip around the world just to catch up with them is becoming more needed now than ever.

I received a replacement mug the other day (for the one I dropped) and while it’s exactly the same siznewmuge as the old one, does anyone understand what I mean when I say ‘the lip action’ isn’t right? I also had it printed with the TWB logo via sublimation and I’m not impressed with how the red of the flag looks – it’s almost pink.

Published in: on 24 July, 2009 at 13:09  Comments (2)  
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The new NHS Flu-Pandemic website

Finally the NHS is doing what it should be doing, serving the nation (to a point).

With news that the UK pandemic is truly kicking in with over 100,000 new case this week alone, it is no surprise that the new Flu website recieved over 9,300,000 hits within the first hour of operation. Click on the photo to be taken to the site

Flu Website

Published in: on 23 July, 2009 at 20:01  Leave a Comment  
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Privacy…. Because this is now going too far!

cctv

In the UK we have CCTV cameras just about everywhere. Further to this, years ago we were told that they would never be used as a ‘Big Brother’ tool. But now it’s going far too far.
The reality is this, there are no greater number of prosecutions of serious criminal or violent crimes, there is no real effect against terror at all. But what it is doing is violating our private lives!
Recently the Greater Manchester Police showed off a new camera car, it  was a ‘Smart car’ that is just parked at the side of the road during rush hour. In turn, it has a telescopic mast with a very small camera that videos what you’re doing inside your car during your commute. They then take this back to the station and watch the video for you doing things that they feel you shouldn’t be doing – as the officer said ‘like fixing or playing with your hair’. ThCCTV1ey then issue you a fixed penalty!

Driving trucks is now the most legally scrutinized occupation in the UK, not only is there so much law around it all, but both the police and transport authorities don’t actually know or understand the rules themselves – heck, no one does! VOSA (the authority with goods vehicles) are very welknown for simply making the rules up as they go along and often even threaten companies with prosecutions when no single law exists to back them up!!
As such, if you get stopped – you will be caught for something! Police speed checks are not done by radar camera so much these days, a pressure line or pad in the road surface gives detail of your speed to Police quite some distance away. There are even ‘in road’ weight systems connected to a national control centre watching out for truck weighCCTV_x_6_bts etc.

Like wise there are the infamous and money grabbing ‘Mobile Safety Vans’ – in other words, mobile speed camera vans that are not there to improve safety, but to be hidden in a manner that will guarantee a conviction for speeding even if only the odd mile an hour over the speed limit.
I say money grabbinsafety-camera-vang because they are rarely placed (if ever) where they may in fact improve the safety of a dangerous stretch of road – they just increase revenue. They are certainly NOT marked up as they’re supposed to be,  like the one in this picture!

But the reality of all this CCTV and/or camera for everything this is simply like having someone sitting down next to cctv2you and just staring at everything you do. If that isn’t enough to make paranoid – then I don’t know what is… But that is the Great Britain of today.

more about “BBC NEWS | UK | UK ‘most watched nati…“, posted with vodpod
Published in: on 23 July, 2009 at 19:29  Leave a Comment  
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Hacking the Planet? – it’s RocketBoom

Published in: on 23 July, 2009 at 17:21  Leave a Comment  
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War – it’s like that, it’s the way it is

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You know, the recent shouting about the lack of British troops, kit and support makes me (and I’m only guessing here) and just about everyone who has served in the British forces, both laugh and want to scream in anger!!

Look, it’s sad, but when you start fighting – people are gonna die. So far our dead are few, very few. In fact, the numbers are so low, I think they’re almost unheard of. In return, very few returning soldiers have come home without killing several Taliban. For the most part, while the job is hard, the death toll of the enemy is staggering! Reports of weapons getting so hot from firing that they ah64seize are not uncommon at all. But war is expensive, very expensive in every way possible – especially in human term!

When the Brits went into Afghanistan, they replaced 9000 US troops with only 3000 British troops!! We laughed… We could not believe the oversight by our penny pinching leaders and the highly indoctrinated officers who went out there to do a Recce first.

Here is the truth; This war is Winnable! But understand this, it will take everything we have Challenger-2Eand more to do so. We are either ‘In’ or ‘Out’, whatever that decision is, it must made now and must be made clear. I watched a re-run of the BBC’s question time the other day on iPlayer – and was disgusted!! People so ready to westland-eh-101-merlingive up on the first sign that we losing troops in larger numbers – it was sickening. You see I’m British, giving up is not in our doctrine. This is the stuff a soldier lives for and if they need a hand out there, give me a weapon!

I disagreed whole heartedly with the Iraq war, it was and will prove to be the most ill thought out waste of life and money, with zero benefits for those involved and history will prove this the case. Afghanistan is a different beast and needs treating as such.

The UK armed forces are in a terrible state, the numbers are dwindling and when a situation arises where by the MoD employs more civil servants that it has soldiers in the army – there is something very seriously wrong!!dwr cap badge1

Un-amalgamate the regiments, reinstall regimental training depots and lets get back to how an armed force should look like. Stop p**sing about with NATO, it does not work!
Lets get the rest of the thousands tanks and armour we need, the rest of the helicopters, plus the other aircraft  and Warrior3equipment - and make sure we never give rise to the question that we do, or do not have enough kit!!  Even slightest hint of such a question is living proof of every type of known failure in leadership, planning and budgeting.
The ony things any military needs is an abundance of equipment, stores and manpower and we have none – that’s the way it is, get over it, take on board, do something about it and move on.

If you need it in simpler terms, can this country protect itself form and invading army? That is the basis of which our military strenglth should be.

Published in: on 22 July, 2009 at 18:24  Leave a Comment  
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The fight against Swine & other types of Flu

H5 N1

Taiwanese scientists said Tuesday they had developed an organic compound which could help control the global swine flu epidemic as the worldwide death toll from the disease passed 700.

The compound, which the researchers call NTU-VirusBom, can destroy viruses such as A(H1N1) swine flu and avian influenza and stop the spread of bacteria including those responsible for staph infections.
It could be used widely in hygiene products, detergents and air filters, as well as face-masks and protective gear, the researchers from National Taiwan University said.
Researchers said the invention was of special significance amid signs that swine flu had started to develop resistance to Tamiflu, the world’s major anti-viral flu drug.

Nice one, now lets get it out here and working!!

Published in: on 21 July, 2009 at 23:28  Leave a Comment  
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TECH NEWS: Intel did first and aren’t hanging about…

intel SSD

Intel has done it and is moving at speed to a more advanced, 34 nanometer manufacturing process for its NAND flash-based Solid State Drive (SSD) products, which are an alternative to a computer’s hard drive. The move to 34nm will help lower prices of the SSDs up to 60 percent for PC and laptop makers and consumers who buy them due to the reduced die size and advanced engineering design.

The multi-level cell (MLC) Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD is aimed at laptop and desktop PCs and available in 80 Gigabyte (GB) and 160GB versions. SSDs are data storage devices found inside computers. Because SSDs have no moving parts they offer faster performance and greater energy efficiency and durability than traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). A draw for gamers, media creators and technology enthusiasts, SSDs have also played a key role in the emergence of ultra-thin and light notebook PCs that are becoming increasingly popular due to their design, size and longer battery life.

New channel prices for the X25-M 80GB are $225 for quantities up to 1,000 units (a 60 percent reduction from the original introduction price of $595 a year ago). The 160GB version is $440 (down from $945 at introduction) for quantities up to 1,000 units. The X25-M comes in a standard 2.5-inch form factor. The X18-M, in a 1.8-inch form factor, will begin shipping on 34nm later in the quarter.

Drop-in compatible with SATA-based HDDs and all operating systems, the X25-M will also support Microsoft Windows 7 when it becomes available. At that time, Intel plans to deliver a firmware update to allow support of the Windows 7 Trim command, along with an end user tool, to allow users to optimize the performance of their SSD on Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

Published in: on 21 July, 2009 at 23:17  Leave a Comment  
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