Posts

"The Ranters"

Bee in your bonnet or BYB for short.

or just Grumpy Clive 

Plenty of people are still convinced the moon landings never happened (my missus amongst them ) so maybe there is a more sinister plot or at least great fodder for the conspiracy theorists who will no doubt publish occasional wacky claims for the next 50 years.

Agree about the families though, and also the airline who are near collapse after losing 2 aircraft in 6 months, with the second now confirmed that it was shot down.

According to SEO Roundtable, Google has confirmed the only way for a site that has been affected by it's Penguin algorithm (which checks for low quality and dodgy link practices) is to sit and wait for it to re-run the next Penguin update.

Currently the last one was just over 11 months ago, so any sites that were hot and have cleaned up their act, are now sat patiently waiting.

Rumour of a new Penguin roll out keep circulating, but there is nothing official as yet from Google.

Full story: Recovering From Penguin Requires An Algorithm Refresh - SEO Roundtable

It seems Panda updates seem to get rolled out a lot more frequently, although the last Panda update was last May, so no doubt it's time for a new one!

With the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine and Russia's dismissive view of world opinion, Western Governments are moving from sanctions and stern language to a more aggressive stance.

The NATO Rapid Reaction Force is being re-vamped and updated to deal with the modern worlds crisis, and the UK has pledged to provide 1000 troops of the 4000 force, which will be based initially in the Baltics to show a display of strength and reassure Eastern European NATO member States that any further aggression won't be tolerated.

Apparently the idea is it can be deployed with 48 hours to re-reinforce any Baltic State in the event of aggression, while more forces follow on behind. But it appears NATO won't be getting directly involved in the Ukraine according to news reports, as technically Ukraine isn't a member of NATO.

Britain's Military has continually been drawn down in size since the early 1990's, with huge budget cuts and now a complete dependence on reservists and weekend warriers, yet it is still drawn into conflict after conflict, with lack of adequate equipment and resources.

Maybe it's time to analyse our role in the world and the size of the Armed Forces we need. I'm all for NATO or UN deployments as long as other member states provide the same resources, but it's time we stopped trying to run our military on the pound stretcher model, and for once provided them with adequate resources, kit and pay.

The lack of helicopters in Afghanistan is now well acknowledged as one of the major causes of UK casualties, as troops had to be transported by mine ridden roads. Politicians reacting to negative feedback simple announced more helicopters would be ordered. Which was spin, as they haven't been delivered yet, and the troops are back home.

We were supposed to already have an Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, which has been around for years and the UK contributes a large chunk to.

From the ARRC Web site: 

HQ ARRC is currently on stand-by for short-notice call-up and subsequent rapid deployment (5 days notice to move) in support of any potential NATO Response Force (NRF) mission that may develop during 2013.

An NRF is a coherent, high-readiness, joint, multinational force package of up to 25,000 troops that is technologically advanced, flexible, deployable, interoperable and sustainable. Its role is to act as a stand-alone military force available for rapid deployment as a collective-defence, crisis management or stabilization force, or to act as an initial entry force for a subsequent primary deployment.

Good to see NATO is keeping abreast of the World Situation and is still discussing what will happen in 2003  

So if this NATO force isn't actually to help the Ukraine, does that mean a UN mandate type force should intervene instead? Or is it all just clever political manoeuvring...

NATO can't go into Ukraine, and Russia is unlikely to attack a NATO country, so in the end it's just a show of bluff and bluster, and the Ukraine crisis rolls on...

Soap box put away...

Fingerprint readers are so yesterdays news! Now it seems vein readers are the way forward, and are being pioneered by Barclays and Hiyachi.

Sounds like a great idea, although not sure if it will work on my sausage fingers 

Initially the service will be offered to business customers who will pay for the privilege, but it shouldn't be long before this becomes established, as the technology matures and costs come down, and we see vein readers in our homes and on our laptops.

Anything that mean I don't need to remember any passwords has my vote 

image credit and more info: BBC News

Fantastic Ray 

You can show video on the forum so added it for you.

Will confess to being out of the loop on this one, while I was on my hols

Where has all this Ice Challenge obsession come from and is it for charity or is it just a bit of fun?

Interesting, that pretty much sounds like me  Certainly eat too often, and always feel like I'm starving when I know I shouldn't be. The missus keeps bullying me into drinking more water, but waters boring 

Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseaethe huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! 

Question is, will it trigger the spam filter...

I wonder if Dr Pete imagined that Authorship would disappear completely a few weeks later!

Google Authorship scrapped, mug shots gone, but a silver lining!

Hi Simon, try here:

Skills and Learning - IT Courses - Bournemouth, Dorset, Poole

Agree with Linda, although it is important to master the basics yourself, for speed and efficiency a part time PA/secretary or even VA could be perfect.