Google Chrome OS

I think CHROME OS will be a run away success on net-books low end laptops and smart TV hybrid devices that need a little more grunt than an Android device.

Most of us that will read this site Need our Computers and Applications there is no doubt of that, BUT look around your own circle of friends and family..... how many of them are not connected, through technophobia, cost, age, unemployment - whatever the number its TOO MANY.

When I got my first IBM PC I knew computing was for geeks it was hard, Gem Windows in every iteration piled on the learning curve and hey presto - Windows 7 comes along and computing is still for geeks.

Where Google will win big time with CHROME OS is buying for this group will be a no brainer. The Devices will be Dirt Cheap - the OS free and there will be thousands of applications from the Android Store that will be surely available

My Mom wants to get online at 75 - perfect

The kids need a cheap safe way to surf - If they loose it - so what - Log on with a new device change your Google Password to be safe - and all your stuff is back with a few mouse clicks.

Try doing that with Windows 7

I have friends on disability benefits or unemployed that cant afford a new PC or have the skills to get "into computing" or see the need for online stuff. Its this group that could benifit the most getting advice support information and job searches. These are the NEW POOR!

Google Chrome OS could be the the very solution for Information Poverty - Lets wipe it out.

Microsoft & Intel have had things pretty much to themselves in the Education field but why do we still not have a computer on every school desk 30 years after we were introduced to the "Personal Computer" ?

Chrome OS could be the perfect solution - The "Thin Client" comes of age.

Go Google show us your best

Cost of Nexavar

NICE said the cost of Nexavar (Manufactured by BAYER HEALTHCARE for Liver Cancer is about £3,000 a month - was "simply too high".

Well at last the Government has had the balls to tell the Drugs Industry It wont pay Sky High prices for monopoly drugs. The NHS Drug Bill is like supporting our own Space Exploration programme.

BAYER has effectively lost the UK market - Their only option now is reduce the price and quickly or licence the drug to another company that can re brand it and take a longer view and sell it much cheaper in the long run recouping development costs over a longer period.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
If you are taking any drugs - check if they are manufactured by BAYER - If they are ask your GP to move you to a similar drug by another manufacturer and ideally cheaper alternative.

An Undecided Voter

I really dont get it that the Financial Hole is Labours doing Admittedly they were on watch when it all came tumbling down - But its a global problem caused by the banking investment sectors - Gambling effectively Gordon Brown came up with a solution that could - If implemented worldwide Might just stop a banking collapse and a full on depression we have not seen in living memory - If he could bring on board all the leading economy's and bail out (nationalise) the banks - Then a very different outcome was possible. Thankfully a new president was in the oval office and while the world changed before our eyes Gordon Browns plan was put in place. The opposition crowed about blame but failed completely to offer an alternate solution. Today while unemployment is rising and few country's expecting much in the way of growth this year - the catastrophe that could have befallen us has not materialised. Sure after the next election whoever is in power has to grapple with how we deal with a new national debt but lets remember the UK only recently paid off the debt of World War ll - we are kind of used to dealing with debt and there is little public or political desire for doing it too quickly with all the pain that would bring. The traditional monitrist (read Thatcherist) response typically would have let the banks like RBS to bust while they fluffed around listening to advisor's (Bankers). By now there might have been mass unemployment and cunts in government spending beyond our worse nightmares. We have Gordon Brown to thank for that and in some senses when history rembers him he may be listed as one of the most important prime ministers since Churchill. The only thing that should concern us now as voters is who has the best plan to build us out of this hole - My personal view is that Labour should be allowed to try - they have shown superb stewardship during the biggest meltdown in history Last time we had a major downturn (winter of discontent) On Callahans Labour watch - it paved the way for Thatcher to dominate for 18 years. Mor a vast number of people it brought pain closed entirely mining - unions - a massive sell of of our crown jewels and created hundreds of private companies that act as virtual monopoly's. Tried getting Water Gas Electricity Telephone calls cheaper over the years? Yet the poor are still struggling on minimum wage (torys would abolish it) the cuts in public services will hit them harder - and guess who will bear the brunt of most of the job cuts will come from? I really don't want to live through firemen nurses strikes - civil unrest and police firing tear gas on the British streets again. When the Election is called the whole debate MUST rise above the the current level of thinking or we are fucked. An Undecided Voter

The shame of wearing hearing aids

Just read this BBC Blog site titled - The shame of wearing hearing aids

Im 54 and self taught myself to Lipread until it was discovered at the age of 10 i was severely hard of hearing.

A loud family and a quiet boy put in a class behind my year and then put at the back of the class so the noisy kids were up front near the teacher.
I started wearing hearing aids at age 10 and hated them with a vengeance, people treated me like I was a "simpleton" as my grandfather called it.

When behind the ear aids became available I was one of the first kids in the country to get them and the NHS supplied an amplivox aid. It was years later before I was allowed to have two. At last I had aids that were cool and I zoomed up a year at school - allowed to sit at the front and scraped by with an O level or two.
Careers advisor's assured me that getting a supermarket job was ideal and to expect any more was just being silly.

I stopped wearing hearing aids for 30 years.

Sheer bloody determination and a laser like path into the technology of Film Television Theatre Lighting beaconed and I had a brilliant career in Theatre Cinema Advertising - running my own Laser Display company - and teaching Computer Graphics at Thames Valley University.
As co founder of The Terrence Higgins Trust I appeared on many interviews and always managed to convince myself that nobody could guess I was deaf. Or was it simply the fact that I am allergic to hearing aid pink. ?

My local audiologist listened to my story and suggested Clear Aids yep the body of the aid is transparent - the circuitry in gold is seen through the plastic - fantastic. Im the envy of every bluetooth mobile tech gadget freak in town - So ok im a 55 year old big kid with a new toy - but I have enjoyed wearing these aids over the past two years.
Now I looped the TV audio (My neighbours are so grateful) and im enjoying others company more than ever.

Im encouraged when I see Eastenders that have two young cast members wearing hearing aids and I wish we had more examples. Perhaps a hard of hearing detective that miss hears a conversation but gets the clue. If your deaf you will know what I mean ;)

Gordon Brown recognising the “appalling” way Alan Turing was treated for being gay.

Alan Turing may have turned the tide for the allies in WW2, and was without a doubt one of our great British heroes, he happened to be gay in a time when it was forbidden.

He faced ruin, imprisonment, ridicule and even castration for his sins. At last he gets the recognition he so richly deserves.

Read the statement - 10 Downing St.

2009 has been a year of deep reflection - a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists, historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ - in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence - and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.

Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more lived in fear of conviction.

I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.

But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate - by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices - that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.

So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.

Gordon Brown

Time for a Deaf Phone Tariff

Nine million people in the UK (15% of the population) suffer from permanent, disabling hearing loss.

The estimated demographic figure has ranged from 22 million deaf and hard of hearing to as high as 36 million deaf and hard of hearing worldwide. Of these, only a few million are considered "deaf" and the remainder are hard of hearing but cannot use a phone.

for 30 years this group has had to PAY for Unused "Call Time" and I for one is sick of it.

Surely for a majority of us that really dislike phones wishes a network would provide a worldwide backbone for these data only services.

A revolution is taking place in the mobile device market - Smart phones like the HTC HERO and other Google / ANDROID phones will be introduced later in the year are truly open source - this means the software is free - and thousands of developers are busy creating useful applications that would truly enrich our lives - live email - instant messengers - Live Subtitles - video on demand ....

I want to hear from DEAF Users - (especially the angry ones that are fed up with the way DEAF users are treated) by phone networks. Call centres - paying out every month for hundreds of so called "FREE TALK TIME".

Well I have had enough of 25 years of FREE TALK TIME I CANNOT USE.

I have put out calls to the Google ANDROID developers to see if they can provide as real time as possible SUBTITLES to speech. - yep on a hand-held -
Switch on the app and anything heard by microphone could be sent to a server for voice to text and squirted back to the phone. C

So All you can eat Data Plan - Pay for calls as you go. a Lovely Android Phone and best of all IF your a network it could add millions of LOYAL customers and their mothers and brothers.

Please call or write to your network - ask them if they would consider a DEAF TARIFF - it might actually be very good for business.

* Update 24th August 2009

RNID?: Yes I have written to the RNID however when it comes to technological issues the RNID seems stuck in the mid 70's

I also take issue with the Teletype service in the UK - its time it was abandoned completely. If you proposed a network for the deaf tomorrow and it required the sort of hardware available over a dial up line that only really served the deaf community and was not available to talk or communicate with external devices you would be laughed off the blogisphere.

I have also written to all the networks and virtual networks - apart from some standard reply about their commitment to equal opportunities few even acknowledged they saw the problem. You can rest assured I keep the pressure on.

None saw the vast business opportunity.

Number 10 has a petition, and every MP in the country has been petitioned many writing in to offer support.

I have also asked the ANDROID development community to consider DEAF applications for the 20 or so Android phones coming to market by year end.
Suggestions so far would offer Live Subtitles for a conversation, Lip readers could just glance at their screens rather than saying - "sorry what did you say?" - That alone could transform some peoples lives.

Im also often told text packages are cheap - and be grateful for X thousands a month.
TEXT is YESTERDAYS tech - The world communicates via social networking - Facebook - Email - Forums Instant - Messenger - Twitter, they are universal and not device dependant.

Google Android on an open network offers free software - very low cost applications and a vast range of manufacturers producing devices at all price points. So the Time Is Right!

Some people have asked why a phone at all - use an ipod touch type of device on wifi?
Well its a myth Deaf people cant use a phone - for one someone in my circle might need to make a call or in some circumstances I can reply to a message with a call- Like telling your lift the concert has finished and pick me up outside the theatre. Calling emergency services do not require you to hear the operator as long as you keep repeating there is a fire at 555 High Street and a baby needs to be rescued.

"Going HIGH DEFINITION"

FREESAT was set up to make sure that everyone has the best of free digital TV, no matter where they live in the UK as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV.
Their site boasts "We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy free digital TV, plus free HD programmes, with no contract and no subscription, just a one-off payment."

A vast costs allegedly involved in R & D and costs of software and freedoms of the market, choice and always the needs to show a profit. I could not agree more with many of those points and would encourage far more action from those involved than words

Times have changed for the consumer, when money is tight, they are bewildered by format wars of one kind or another and at the end of the day being offered a lousy deal in the High Street.

And almost every TV salesman I have talked to on a recent shopping expedition was being downright dishonest to get a sale. (Pointing to a supermarket 720p set with "Freeview", - That TV there sir has the same screen as that £3,000 model over there, but its our own brand. ( Bargain then! ).

Putting FREEVIEW on a High Definition TV, even on entry level models is like a Windows 3 user putting "Go Faster" lights on his PC,
In the brocure it looks great to add FREEVIEW as a plus - its free - and is true plug and play.

FREESAT however which carrys and controlls fantastic HD content we have allready paid for with our TV licences is nowhere to be seen, Or only at a hefty premium above an equivalent model without the tuner.

Sure some TV manufacturers are coughing up for a Freesat Licence but at what coist to us the consumer?
I simply dont understand why any 1080 set is sold with "built in" FREEVIEW" when the world has moved on.

Whatever the excuses from Freesat, The BBC, The Regulators, retailers, Manufacturers or some Euro Quango - Sort It Out!

TV BUYERS If you can hold out on going "HIGH DEFINITION" wait, let these shelves full of "Almost High Definition Televisions" gather dust and choke the supply lines, In a short time ALL but the very low end bargain bucket TVs in the high street will have FREESAT built in.

Twitter Picture Uploads

I Tried to upload a small picture to a Twitter profile in CHROME - Firefox - and Internet Exploder - SURELY TO GOD someone can add these 2 lines to the UPLOAD PAGE



** Sorry we are experiencing some problems with picture Uploading **

If your having trouble please try later - or clickH ERE for more help.

(Feel free to cut and paste it twitter folk)

Then perhaps you will save us the trouble of trying with GIF PNG JPG versions at different sixes and different browsers dammit - LIFE IS TOO SHORT WHEN YOU GOT CANCER!

/breathes

Snapdragon specifications really rock, this demo on this prototypes are to wet the lips of decision makers, Sanadragon specs LINK Snapdragon clearly open the possibility of a netbook that will run at speeds without thinking you had just booted up in 1980. Now if there was a convertible tablet with a keyboard flip at around 12 inches loaded up with Google Android and Google Crome put me down for the first 10,000 of one that has the look of some of todays Zune glamour shots.

The Digital Divide - Vote Labour ?

The Digital Divide - The Poor, The Disabled, The Deaf , The Unemployed, The Retired in the UK all pay more for a second rate Internet access - Universal discrimination -

For a socialist government not to have used its influence to ensure a universal access to information and communications and education to all its people will be looked upon in future years as a shameful neglect on the growth and enrichment of everyone's lives.

Today a £200 netbook with can stuffed with free stuff ... ANDROID - Google Applications -Mail - Chrome - Calender - Docs - Spreadsheets - Video- Chat - Voice & Video Messaging, Search - Maps - Links to medical Employment - encyclopedias - direct.gov.uk News And you could transform the lives of a a generation of users that have never previously had access.

There are enough wireless transmitters already available unused in the UK with a vast amount of radio spectrum and dark fibre running the length of the country to offer a basic free universal data service to everyone in the UK within months of legislation being past by whatever government is in power..

The UK Network has been built, paid for buy all of us that voted for free enterprise to enable the private sector to deliver pretty much what we already had in the GPO It could be argued that privatisation freed up the vast amounts it took to create and improve our existing networks but while the technology is there our high streets have armies of resellers trying to sell us more of the same to people that cant afford it that are the very people that need it most.

And of all of our so called electronic evangelists I really cant yet see the guys with the vision and political will to bring it all together.

Deafness discrimination is an issue close to heart,and I feel passionately that it cannot be right that a deaf consumer is forced to buy "voice or talk time" every month just to be able to use email and instant messaging, over the years of a mobile contract a deaf consumer is forced to spend thousands of pounds on completely unused or unwanted "Call Time" package.

There are 119,000 tariffs on the "free market "not one of which offers our 9 million deaf or hard of hearing citizens the perfect package.

My 70 year old mother - yes she's a silver surfer (though she would swear its "Ash Blondie" is fortunate to have 24 hour access but she's still got to drive through the city at 8.00 am to get to a doctors surgery to be told the doctor is away today sorry and no locum is standing in. A live web page would not only saved a difficult journey at a peak time of day but could have have allowed her to to book an appointment, re order prescriptions - find health education links - Even ask her GPs questions but no we are provided with an out of date business card that and told to use to telephone lines that are never answered.

So called third world countries are years ahead of the UK when it comes to Universal Access - We should not condemn a generation for our short-sightedness-

Vote Labour ? Twitter for all!

A November Election - PLEASE!

Im getting fed up of people and the media winging on about MPs expenses he rules have allowed them to do this - indeed the whole point of the expenses was to stop an MPs revolt in the first place

MPs weather you agree or not deserve to be paid more than some backwater comprehensive

I don't see many MPs actually breaking any laws - the ones that did it for a tax fiddle on sold homes etc. should be slapped hard and pay it back

Now lets move fucking on - there's a country to run.

Interestingly all this shit has actually caused the Torys a lot of percentage points in the popularity stakes - Labour could not be much lower - but then that's par for the course if you been in power this length of time. Go on Gordon - here's your opportunity - A November election - announce it now before the Euros. you may not get a better opportunity.

Heathrow Runway Three

Lets face it its no place to bring up kids - this runway is already 20 tears overdue - with prommised fast rail links to the Midlands - Wales and beyond - it cant come quick enough - the villagers - while shedding tears - remember they are the tears of people that will be able to afford very lovely luxury homes anywhere in the country they like - with a few bob over for the inconvenience.  

Plus lets not forget that ANYONE that's moved into the area in the past 30 years have been aware that a 3rd Runway was in the planning - They only bought there knowing one day their houses would have to be purchased by the Airport - £££  

Look at the Map - These people are alreadt living on a runway sandwiched between perimeter roads, M4 and Airport buildings. now - this way they we ALL gain - Win Win -  

We now return you to news reports of the sobbing villagers ...............