Fun with flags

The Big Bang Theory hasn’t been quite the same since the geeks started to pair off with girlfriends (since half the humour was about them failing spectacularly in their endeavours with the opposite sex), but Sheldon’s recent video podcast ‘Fun with flags’ was rather splendid.

Micro Men

BBC3 and BBC4 often have some interesting programmes that are easily missed. I remembered to record Micro Men, a dramatisation of the work of Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry who produced the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro respectively. It was good fun, although Sinclair didn’t come across as a particularly likeable character, which I found disappointing since he was always something of a hero for me as a child. Acorn lives on with its ARM processor powering most of the world’s mobile phones and Sinclair continues to invent things, although with somewhat less success than the ZX Spectrum. Anyway, Micro Men is available to watch on BBC iPlayer for a while.

No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos

Iraq doesn't get in the news much currently, with natural disasters and global financial problems overtaking it in the headlines. But a quick search of Google News shows plenty of people are still dying there. So 'No End In Sight' is still as relevant now as it was when it came out. And a quick précis of the file would be the US (and the UK of course) did one thing right, getting rid of Saddam, then screwed up everything possible after that. It doesn't bother to delve too deeply into the lies that led up to the war but looks at the aftermath instead. First there was no plan, then the plan that was hatched was insanely stupid and it's no surprise that the carnage carried on for so long. Get rid of the army to leave 500,000 soldiers with no work and with a grudge? Brilliant...

The director, Charles Ferguson, has made an unusual change of career. He started out in software, running the company that created FrontPage (and writing an entertaining book about it). Nice to see him put his millions to good use.

Absolutely

It's odd that I watched pretty much every episode of Absolutely when it was on and yet I'd completely forgotten about its existence until I came across an article about it in an obscure South London listings magazine. Perhaps not surprising since it being on telly coincided with my time at university when I was mostly drunk. Anyway, all 4 series are now available on DVD. Go and buy it now.

In defence of geeks

There's an ad for BT on the telly currently in which a mother talks to her partner about her worries for her daughter who's spending lots of time on the internet. She pauses for dramatic effect, as we are left to think of the terrible things that could be happening to the kid. So what is she concerned about? Some sexual predator grooming her child? Oh no, it's much much worse than that... She's worried that her daughter is turning into a geek.

Yeah OK, it's all light-hearted enough, but it misses an important point. If it weren't for geeks, there'd be no internet, no eBay, Amazon, Facebook and all the other crap that we can pass the time with. There'd be no computers for that matter, or iPods or mobile phones or CDs or any other electrical gadgets. I'm sure it was geeks (before they were called that) who developed cars, electrical power generation and the telephone.

So let's all the hail the geek, for producing all this stuff to make our lives so much richer (there is a hint of sarcasm there...)

The last CRT

Some time ago our TV died, trying to switch it on led to a light coming on for a few seconds, then it turned itself off. My guess was the power supply had died or the screen itself had died (for a few days the picture displayed hadn't been the right size).I did think for a second about getting it fixed but then thought it would be as cheap to buy a new TV. After all, the price of TVs has been dropping for a while. And my brother would no doubt be able to fix it, so the TV wouldn't go to waste. But then I actually had a look for a TV and was unable to find any CRT TVs anywhere. I did find some LCD TVs that were pretty cheap but there were a few problems.

• Most of them were too big to fit into our living room without removing shelving. Not everybody wants a 32"+ screen.
• Call me a Luddite but the picture quality of LCD screens doesn't seem that good. OK, when high definition TV becomes ubiquitous, the picture quality may be pretty good, but for a 28" screen I don't really need high definition TV.
• Most LCD screens seem very fragile. They look like they can get knocked over very easily. Having a five year old wandering around with an LCD screen in the room is asking for trouble.

I know I'm not really getting into the new technology here but I think CRT TVs are great. The picture quality, even on very cheap models, is pretty damn good. The technology is proven. The prices are now great, if you can actually find one. Finally I discovered probably the last CRT TV available, from Argos.

Some of you may be thinking "it's analogue, you won't be able to receive anything on it in a couple of years", which is a fair point*. But we have a DVR with FreeView so that's not an issue for us. Also, there is a digital version available for a few quid more. Funnily enough, delivery on this TV took a very long time. Apparently the demand for it is pretty high, so perhaps I'm not the only person who thinks CRT TVs are actually pretty good.

* Digital TV itself seems something of a con. OK, there are more (mostly crap) channels available, although chances are you'll need a better aerial to receive them but why turn off the analogue signal?  Obvious really, it forces everybody to upgrade their kit so equipment manufacturers get some additional income and the government can sell of the old analogue bandwidth to get some extra revenue. Everybody's a winner, except the public. Expect a switch to HD only channels in a few years time.

The Road To Guantanamo

I've always followed the career of film director Michael Winterbottom since he went to the same school as me. He directed the great '24 Hour Party People', chronicling the coolest record label of my teeenage years. He also did '9 Songs', the most sexually explicit film to get a certificate in this country, a record that I'm sure will be highlighted in the school's old boys' magazine... Anyway, I saw his latest, 'The Road To Guantanamo', last night and it was great, in a horrendously depressing kind of way. Yes, the 11th of September attacks were horrific but can that excuse the kind of treatment that was handed out to these people (and is still being handed out to the 500 people still there). We protect our democracy by ignoring all the rights that democracy confers on people? Of course it can be said that the film isn't entirely objective, based as it is on the accounts of the inmates. But since the US doesn't seem too keen on letting anybody else in there to see what's really going on, it's all we've got. Required viewing for anybody who still thinks Bush's war on trrrr is worthwhile.

The IT Crowd

Written by the same bloke who wrote 'Father Ted', starring Chris Morris and being about IT people, how could 'The IT Crowd' fail to deliver? Well it was reasonably amusing but was never quite the sum of its parts. I think the basic problem was that to hit the mark it would need to make techy jokes that would be lost on the general population. So the fact it is about IT people is kind of irrelevant, it's just another bunch of misfits in an on office sitcom. Saying that, I watched every episode, which is unusual since I don't really watch the telly anymore (unless you count CBeebies). The ending suggested there'll be another series, so perhaps that will allow the characters to grow somewhat.