I left my voice...

in Old Trafford. And what a sham.
Whether Flitney was out of his area was difficult to tell from where I was and just as difficult for the referee. It was the assistant who gave the decision. Unfortunately the referee who hadn't been able to see the offence committed deemed himself able to tell whether it merited a red card.
It was the wrong decision technically and morally. There are those who will trot out the rebarbative mantra about consistency, but no one was denied a goal-scoring opporunity, even though Flitney was clearly the last man. That makes it a deliberate handball and a yellow card offence. Instead the referee crushed the atmosphere for all the fans and ruined the biggest football game of two players' careers: the goalkeeper Flitney and Louie Soares, who was substituted by the new keeper Scott Tynan without touching the ball.
There may well be some positives to draw. If we'd had eleven men and got stuffed it would have been really embarrassing. At least we scored. The club should now be out of debt. But we spent over £50 each and took the day off work, spending nine hours on a coach for the referee to screw things up; and people taking their family up during half term spent more.
Football is a sport and the professional game should also be about entertainment. Despite what the phone-ins say it's not about conjecture and debate. If I wanted that I'd have stayed at home and watched Question Time.
By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can find out here.
addendum
I have since discovered that losing my voice was due to catching a cold. Flitney has meanwhile had his red card rescinded, which only serves to prove the referee's onanist tendencies.

All I want for Christmas

So he'd send his doting mother up the stairs with the stepladders
To get the Soccer Robot out of the loft
He had all the accessories required for that big match atmosphere
The crowd and the dugout and the floodlights too
You'd always get palmed off with a headless centre forward
And a goalkeeper with no arms and a face like his

Web 2.0, apparently

The analyst firm Gartner has been harping on about "global-class computing" for some time now, telling us how Google and eBay aren't really web sites but platforms and if we want to move to the next generation of the web, business will need to follow a similar model and think outside the enterprise box.
While it suits Gartner and those of us working in web development to think that the next generation of technology is here and that there is a clear threshold we need merely step across in order to attain super-webdom, Gartner's approach has all the symptoms of a futurologist's thinking. Specifically, it is based on technological possibilities rather than real requirements and is devoid of political insight.
While it's true that businesses should not need to host every application under the sun in order to provide a bit of brochure-ware with no idea of return on investment, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to make use of the always on, available from everywhere super fast web. And what's more — get this — it's actually got to work, securely, for people who don't need to be trained but who can make informed choices about their browsing preferences.
Content and interfaces need to be better. When I start up my application even at OS level, if I'm shopping I want the system to find me the cheapest product availabe. If I'm looking for an authoritative answer I don't want to be taken to Wikipedia. And above all I don't want to open up an application and have a couple of hundred offers for penis-stimulating pharmaceuticals.
The thing that gets me most about these predictions however is that they always forget the most important part of the internet: infrastructure. Anyone reading these reports would think that making a request to a web site or mail server and getting a response was some kind of auto-magical process, unworthy of comment.
Without infrastructure the web is nothing and beyond the shores of the developed world that's pretty much what you have. The entire African continent has barely as many internet connections as Manhattan island. Meanwhile there is dispute over who controls the internet's addressing system which, by a quirk of fate, currently resides with the U.S. government. Most states would prefer to see this control ceded to the United Nations, but not George Bush. He sees a danger in allowing countries which may prevent freedom of speech in controlling internet domains, but actually the fear should be that the U.S. will in future be able to simply cut an entire nation out of the internet: email, web access to uncensored content, everything. I guess it's better than dropping bombs on 'em. Meanwhile, what of the people working behind the screens? Will the global-class players act as such? Will Amazon allow trades union representation and remove the glass ceiling that prevents you from reaching management unless you're male and white? Will eBay recognise a duty to the consumer rather than training all its support staff to deny any errors and lay all the blame with whoever has just lost their money when their credit card details are stolen?
Web 2.0 will need to address such issues if it's not going to become yet another method for making capital, irrespective of social responsibility.

The new menace to society

There is a new menace on the streets, terrorising us in these autumnal days:
The umbrella is a scourge, wielded by the incosiderate to strike at eye level. It can be used to buffet passers by and turn a tide of commuters into a maelstrom of madness. Why can't everyone just wear hoodies?
The office may be safe harbour, but it's as quiet as Highbury again this morning.

Time on your hands?

Take a scroll through these images if you have some time on your hands...

The Heat is On

2005 will bethe second or third warmest year on record globally according to the Meteorological Office; the exact place in the charts depending on how Siberia reacts between now and the end of the year.
1998 was the warmest year ever with the four next hottest years being in order 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2001. This is since records began in 1861 and includes both air and water temperature.
I'm not saying this to jump on some politically correct bandwagon, but in a world where the value of the Kyoto protocol is called into question and all the biggest consumers are struggling to cope with an energy deficit, it's often worth considering hard fact.

Wise Counsel

It's easy to harp and criticize, which is why I do it so often. Take an article from this weekend's Observer for example. The strapline began: "Debates about platonic relationships started with When Harry Met Sally ...". So not with Plato then.
On occasion, however, I prefer to relate something practical, so if you live in the U.K. this one's for you. (If you don't live in the U.K. come back soon and I'll have thought of something else.)
Death and taxes may be certainties, but there are always opportunities to reduce the burden of the latter. Fiscal forbearance should always apply and with Council Tax you can check whether you're over-paying very simply via the online valuation list. Simply enter your details and find out if your property is in the same band as your neighbours. If it's not, you can apply straight away to have it reassessed, albeit under a number of set criteria.
I've just done this and had our house dropped a band, saving us probably a hundred-odd quid a year... not sure how much exactly because Barnet council don't publish their rates. Would have been good to say "Here's what you would have paid..." Anyway, it's worth trying for two minutes of your time.

The opposite of fast food?

Just popping out for a Chinese...
I will update this soon with some relevant content when I have time!

Words of the week

Something for the weekend:
Go to google.co.uk.
Enter liar and hit I'm feeling lucky.
Enter failure and hit I'm feeling lucky.

And here's my quote of the week:
"There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq."
Tony Blair, 6/10/05

Guy Fawkes saved!

The government has decided that glorifying terrorism won't become a criminal act after all, which is fortunate given that Bonfire Night is less than a month a way. Wouldn't have fancied ninety days incarcerated without charge for celebrating Guy Fawkes; many people would have had traces of explosive material on their hands.
The home secretary has nevertheless given police the power to close places of worship being used by extremists; Opus Dei and the Alpha Group had better watch out. I wonder if this applies to fanaticism at football matches too?

Rules of the game

I wonder if I'll ever understand commuters' mentality. The insular disposition that people adopt on a tube train is reflected in their complete disregard for what anyone else is doing. I am — admittedly — a demanding person. But why do people fart-arse around so much when they catch the tube? Are they being deliberately obstroperous or does their idiotic selfishness come naturally?
Example: today at King's Cross only one ticket barrier was open on a particular exit; consequence, twenty-odd people in the queue. When it comes to my turn to go through someone barges me out of the way, only to find that he doesn't know how to insert his ticket properly and holds the entire queue up. Was he a wanker or just a plain knob?
Escalators carry a sign saying "stand on the right". It does not add "and take up as much room as possible making sure to elbow or handbag whoever passes you". Nor does it say "stand on the right and dawdle on the left". If you're trotting along really slowly, why force others to go around you? Do you drive at 50 mph in the middle lane on a motorway? Probably. And when you get to the end of the escalator, do you then decide to stand around blocking off anyone else trying to get off it?
On reaching the platform everyone seems to think that the least crowded carriage is the one that's closest to the platform entrance. No need to move along. Unless of course you see a particularly fascinating poster advertising online gambling, which causes you to hover in the centre of the platform forcing anyone who's got past the platform entrance brigade to tightrope walk along the platform edge.
Then try to board the train. Standing by the door is clearly the most comfortable place to be. Don't these dickheads realise that at every stop people will have to clamber over them? Are they just stood there for the cheap thrills, a crafty brush against a frazzled fellow passenger? Or must they stand by the door so that at all costs they're onto the platform first at their stop, to amble up the centre of the corridors and turn the left-hand side of the escalator to treacle once more?
It's all I can do sometimes to hold in all the abuse I want to hurl at these miserable idiots. At least this blog entry was cathartic.

Happy Geek, Sad Geek

Today's links demonstrate what makes geeks happy and what makes them look sad.
Happy Geeks.
Sad Geeks.

Europe Minor

As we watch Austrian politicians promote a case for Turkey joining the EU as second-class citizens in much the same way as some two million Turks currently live in Germany, knowing that Turkey will refuse, the question of what Europe is for raises its head again.
The UK, currently holding EU presidency, has always been in favour of European expansion for two reasons. Firstly because it extends the common market and consequently improves the potential for economic growth and secondly, because expansion is viewed as a means of dilution; it is harder to implement closer political and legal integration when more countries are involved.
Austria conversely has a more nostalgic view of the situation than the Brits. Turkey's entry is not a hindrance to future progress in convergence of the European ideal, but an affront to history: since when did Turkey form part of Europe? It was after all, Asia Minor.
To which I respond, since when did Austria care about such historic details? Should we base today's political decisions on disputes between Greeks and Trojans that elicit a sense of Euro-Asian conflict? If they hadn't kidnapped Helen would we let the Turks into the EU? If the Austrians are so concerned about what constituted Europe historically, then how come the Baltic states and Scandinavians are involved? Were these part of any Roman Empire that defined Europe for a number of centuries? No, but Turkey was... Or are we looking to a later Christian idea of Europe, the Holy Roman Empire? Britain and Ireland weren't in that one either...
You have to question why any of the member states joined Europe. The most recent additions, Rumsfeld's New Europe, were far more keen on ties to the dollar than to the Euro. If the Turks don't join the EU, they may form an economic bloc to the north east instead of north west: Russia and its satellites await. So maybe Europe isn't that important after all, which would be naive of the Europeans given the geographical signifance of a country that borders Iraq and Russia.
The reason for not admitting Turkey to the European club is clearly based on religion. What message does that send to Muslims, or for that matter Jews who have dealt with central European prejudice for so long?
I'm not advocating expansionism for its own sake, but xenophobia can't be the basis for deciding Europe.