A tragic story is unfolding in the North of England with a gunman on the run after killing one person and seriously injuring two more (his ex-girlfriend and a traffic policeman) following his release from prison last Friday. Obviously, the police are doing everything to apprehend Raoul Moat safely without any further loss of life. However, as Moat claims he has ‘lost everything’ and is determined to ‘wage war on the police’, it’s not clear this episode will reach a peaceful conclusion. ...

The British media may have given the impression in recent weeks that we considered the German national tootball team to be a rather workmanlike, efficient, collection of young talent coupled with experienced internationals but lacking in imagination and devoid of much creative talent. Some less respected elements of the British media may have given the impression that England’s recent, comprehensive 4–1 defeat by Germany was somehow a freak result that was purely the result of a refereeing error that denied England an equaliser. ...

[ Working title: Torture on a shoestring ] A couple of weeks ago on a normal, routine Tuesday morning, I did what I do every morning; showered, prepared for work and cleaned my ears out with a cotton wool bud. As I went to leave the bathroom, I swung my arms up and around to put my dressing gown back on for the short trip down the upstairs landing. [ This requirement to be modestly covered up follows an unfortunate incident in April 2009 when my teenage daughter had a sleepover with three friends staying over. Apparently, one poor girl can not even look at a Chipolata sausage ever again. Needless to say, I conducted my own defence and was acquitted. Again. ] ...

I am about to embark on migrating this blog from WordPress to Django-Mingus because I simply can’t stand the WordPress ‘Compose Post’ interface (if you can call it that). This exciting move comes less than two weeks after I spontaneously decided to ditch Habari after the lack of a functional ‘Auto-Save’ plugin caused me to lose 17 minutes work. You may say ‘I’m reading this in my preferred RSS reader so please don’t bother me with such minutiae’. ...

Accidentally. For the last two weeks, I have been savouring the joys of commuting into the City on South West Trains and the London underground network. Like most large, densely populated cities, Transport for London has introduced a Smart Card system, known as Oyster, which allows ticketless travel on trains, tubes and buses. Most modern cities in the developed world have similar smart card technology resulting in a faster, more efficient transport system with cheaper fares for passengers and reduced staffing costs at railway stations. ...

Tuesday 1 June Mr. Capello announces the final squad of 23 players for the World Cup. There was the odd surprise and some devastated players as we say a tearful farewell to Huddza, Johnno, the Scott-Meister, Les (Dawson), Dazza The Bender, Walcottza and the quiet one (I think his name was Leighton Baines). Saturday 5 June Rio and Heskey have a argument over Wii Tennis that carries over into a training match. After winning a defensive header, Rio tells Heskey ‘Dunno why you’re still here. I’ve scored more international goals than you.’ Heskey retaliates by sliding in by the corner flag and sitting on Rio’s left knee. ...

Hi Norman. You and I haven’t spoken before so please excuse the intrusion. However Sandstone Search & Selection are a specialist recruitment consultancy, focused on the Enterprise Software and Consulting markets. I’m keen to find out if you’re open minded about your career please let me know. Rupert Smithers-Jones Hi Rupert. Yes - I am pretty open minded about my career and would consider anything apart from pole dancing. Norman. ...

After weeks of anticipation, the day finally dawned - Thursday 6 May and The National’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve been to the Albert Hall once before when I went to see Cirque de Soleil. On that occasion, I was wearing a jacket and tie (family birthday) and was perched precariously in the upper circle which gave me vertigo. I had some reservations about seeing a proper concert here and had disconcerting images of posh people in dinner jackets, sitting down, politely applauding an acoustic set. Anyway, I got the tube to High St. Kensington, stopped off at the Goat Tavern for a quick drink en route.and then made my way to the famous venue next to Imperial College. ...

Jake Kuramoto from Oracle Apps Lab has a great post about common search terms for the three main search engines and notes that ‘facebook.com’ (and variants thereof) appear in the lists of most frequently used keywords. Recently, I have been observing my wife who is a non-technical (Firefox) user although I must admit to a vested interest here. I am keen to understand any areas where Linux Mint is ‘worse then Windows’. Over the last few weeks, I have noted the following: ...

Short answer - She was in a meeting. I sent a polite email asking why my MP Susan Kramer failed to vote last night on the third reading of the Digital Economy Bill. Dear Mrs Kramer Many thanks for taking the time to send me a long and detailed letter is response to my email inquiry about your stance on the Digital Economy Bill. You’re right - it’s a very complex issue and may yet be subject to refinements before it finally becomes law. ...