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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

There’s a General Election taking place this week. Come Friday morning we could quite likely have a brand new leader.

But who to vote for?

Labour. They’ve been in power for the last 13 years, and the country is, I think we’ll all agree, not in a good way. But we’re on the road to recovery. Should we change the government and risk putting us back a bit? Or would a change do us good?

Conservative. On the surface I like David Cameron. He’s young(er), energetic and seems to say the right things. But he resembles a life insurance salesman. He’ll say all the right things to get a sale, but read the small print and you’ll realise you’ve been swindled.

The Lib Dems are probably my favourite. But there’s something about Nick Clegg. He seems like a nice bloke and all, but I have a feeling they’re not quite as well prepared, the sums might just not add up. He’s like a school supply teacher, would be a nice change but in the long run won’t do us any good.

And the SNP. Well where to start. I like most of their policies. Except their main one. Independence for Scotland? I don’t see them dropping that one in a hurry. No thanks.

Who to vote for? Can’t make up my mind. Thankfully I don’t have to decide. I stupidly didn’t get my name on the electoral register in time.

Women threw themselves in front of race horses for the right to vote. Countries are fighting because they don’t have the option to vote. And I foolishly didn’t put my forms in the free post envelope in time. I’m ashamed with myself, really I am.


Sunday, April 11th, 2010

I enjoy reading newspapers and blogs far more than I enjoy reading books. Now I’m going to start sharing some of the articles I have enjoyed in a weekly blog post. It’s an idea I’ve nicked straight from James Cridland’s blog. Clicking on any link should open it up in a new window or tab, so get clicking.

The Digital Economy Bill was quickly passed through during the week with seemingly little thought put towards it. I often wonder if Peter Mandelson has ever used the internet?  If you’d like a quick run through of what this all means, Robert Andrews of paidContent:UK has given us this “Quick Guide To All 45 Measures“.

I don’t think any of us have escaped the news that this week the Queen dissolved parliament and Gordon announced a General Election.  This election will be the first proper social media election, and spreading like wildfire through Twitter this week were images from the website mydavidcameron.com, Photoshopping at it’s best.

In the week that Apple announced their latest update for the iPhone, Os4, Gizmodo report “How The iPhone Could End Up In Second Place“.  It’s a worthwhile article for any company that’s thinking about developing solely for the iPhone platform.

The Guardian is one of my most visited websites. It quite often holds the crown of being my web browsers homepage.

Their article “Spare a Flickr of sympathy for professional photographers” makes interesting reading.  In it it states that the popular photo sharing site now features billions of pictures by amateurs and squeezing income out of the photographic industry. I suppose I fall under the category of the photographer who owes everything to the easy shoot digital camera. But like every industry, times are a changing, and professional photographers need to get with the them.

It could be an interesting year for Bebo users. AOL want to either shutdown or sell the Social Networking site.  For me Bebo, in 2005, was the first site of it’s type which had proper mainstream appeal.  But it lost out to Facebook. Feature wise, privacy wise, and design wise, it was way out of the league of Facebook. I deleted my Bebo profile a long time ago. Most people I know now use Facebook.

What I’ve learned this week.  If you have the opportunity to name a ship, don’t name it Titanic. Surely that one was obvious? And if you are going to put your old redundant suitcases to a charity shop, check inside them before you let them go. And 2000 years after he rose from the dead, Jesus has decided to come back in a piece of chewing gum.  That story particularly got my goat.

If like me your a radio presenter who every now and again needs content for a quick link, the Daily Telegraph’s “How About That” section is an excellent resource.  And speaking of local radio presenters, back to the Guardian, “What I’m really thinking: The local radio presenter“. It’s all true.

The excellent Flight Level 390 blog continues to keep me longing to leave radio and become an airline pilot, while GERT on Blipfoto.com continues to keep me longing to leave radio, skip the idea of an airline pilot and get a job on the high seas instead.

So much reading, so little time. Thankfully Google Reader keeps it all in one place for me. Same time, same place, next week for more.