Random Gadget Post

My G1 is great (I sometimes don't notice I've not switched my laptop on all day), though it can get a little slow if many things are running at once (which is occurring due to the large number of awesome apps - imo). I would have liked a way to quickly kill several tasks, maybe like the browser close window view.
Having to open the keyboard is a little annoying, but the keyboard itself is good, as is screen space - optional on-screen keyboard would be nice (and is apparently going to appear in January) although i have now found a browser with on-screen keyboard, so it's there for the web anyhow (browser 'steel')

T-Mobile's network is good in town but gets flaky round the edges
Spent a while at my parent's house with no 3G signal (also no normal phone signal - 'tis in the middle of nowhere in a nearly literal sense for England), but they have a good wireless network and it worked smoothly enough with that :-)

In other news I have 'Friend Connect' working. Not really sure it's useful here, but it was fun to mess around with  :-)

The Boom-Bust Cycle

Thought for today : Is the cycle of Boom and Bust (then followed by Boom again) necessarily a bad thing?

Companies do collapse in the Bust part of the cycle & large numbers of inefficient companies are created in the Boom section, but does this lead to more diversification of technology - like the way evolution is accelerated by mass expansion and disaster periods causing diversification, the boom produces massive variety of new companies and technologies and the bust cuts away the dead wood produced to leave just the useful ones.

So potentially this cycle could drive Technology & companies forward faster than a stable economic state, which could be more stagnant.

Disclaimer : I'm just trying to think of a positive perspective on this - I have no actual economic qualifications (and possibly don't know enough about evolution either) ;-)

Weather

In other news, however, it's bright and sunny outside :-)

Voting is good, but I wish it was Better

The power to vote is what gives you a say in how a country is run. This is an important right, but how good is the implementation ...

In today's electoral systems there are often two parties that are so strong that people are almost forced to pick one of them - if you vote for a minor party (assuming one exists that more closely fits your views) then your vote is of less value as you aren't making a difference to the race for which party wins.

I think there are problems with these systems -
There should be no drive to vote for one of the more major parties (a small party that matches your views should be the best option)
There should be clear explanations about the policies of all parties
There should be strong reasons why the parties will have to implement the policies they represent once they are in power (the party in power should be taking the approach of here are what our policies were and here is how we carried them out & how successful we were, followed by what they are going to do next)

No, I don't have a good solution, though I wish I did :-(
The current approach of ridiculing the opposition and saying how dangerous or ineffective they would be needs to stop.

Randomness

Ok, so i got randomly depressed for a bit there ...

It didn't last long, though i'm not sure exactly what caused it - seems to have been a lot of bit of reality hitting me in the face at once & a momentary failure of my 'it'll be alright' field.
The generators seem to be working again, though. I just need to get round to stuff instead of putting it off, that seems to be a major factor.

--
'my confusion will save me' - me, getting confusion confused with sheer luck

Crab Pig (alternative lyrics to Spider Pig)

crab pig ... crab pig ... does whatever a crab pig does ...
can it spin a web ... no it can't it's a crab ... lookout, here's a crab pig

crab pig ... crab pig ... does whatever a crab pig does ...
can it climb up a wall ... if it tries it's sure to fall ... lookout, here's a crab pig

crab pig ... crab pig ... does whatever a crab pig does ...
can it swim in a lake ... no, it sinks, it's a crab ...

suggestions of other lyrics welcome :)

Snow, there was snow, yay :)
i took a couple of pics. wish i'd got round to taking more, really
here some of them are :)

wonder if that's behaved itself
well here's the album, anyhow