Diary Of An ADI

While I was looking at The Sun’s website for that UFO story I came across the news that Patrick McGoohan has died at the age of 80.

Patrick McGoohan

He was the star of the cult classic from the 60s: The Prisoner. But he also starred in Danger Man before that, and in films such as The Man In The Iron Mask , Escape From Alcatraz , and Silver Streak .

The Prisoner was something I remember vaguely from my childhood, and it is re-run on satellite every now and again. So I was saddened to hear of Patrick’s death after what is described as ‘a short illness’.

I was always surprised he didn’t appear in more films, although he did get award nominations for his appearances in those American TV pseudo-films (Columbo, etc.). I suppose time catches up with us all – but it’s always especially sad when an icon from the past dies.

The Mac is 25 on 24 January. This is that video everyone raved about when it was shown during the 1984 Superbowl :

You can read more here, but the one quotation I really like is from John C Dvorak in the San Francisco Examiner:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why** out of the equation **” as in “why would I want this?** The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a **˜mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.

I like it when people say things which could so easily blow up in their faces.

Most embarrassing of all has to be how anyone thought the Mac would ever beat the PC.

This is the daft woman who has banned the use of the word ‘school’ to identify her school. I wrote about her a couple of weeks ago.

According to my stats she is still the most popular search term by a mile. I bet if I look at the source of those searches they’d be in a very narrow geographical area. I’m sure those involved with the decision are still anxious to see the stir they’ve created. Maybe they should be teaching – sorry, I mean ‘conveying knowledge’ to their pupils – or would that be ‘recipients of knowledge transfer’?

I have to keep checking to make sure it isn’t April 1st.

As a bit of additional background to the story on the YouTube ban I posted on 2 January, I was reminded of a skiing holiday I went on in France some years ago.

You have to remember that mothers who have just had a kid are not a full shilling. Indeed, some of them remain a few pennies short for much of the rest of their lives. And these days, thanks to successive governments trying to warp nature, a lot of men appear to be more likely to opt for a frontal lobotomy before they start thinking about vasectomies once they get their first kid – in this way they can behave irrationally and inconsiderately in front of everyone else.

At work this doesn’t usually amount to anything other than minor irritations. I suppose the worst is the preamble to the start of any meeting – all the mummies and daddies exchanging details of their sprogs’ latest antics. Then, after a few years, you start getting the ‘paintings’ – swashes of colour stuck up on filing cabinets (“Jake – 3½”) – followed by the coloured egg-boxes and other constructions. Or the framed photos.

But a million times worse than this is the combined result of the genetic (women) and deliberate (new-age men)  stupidifying – I made that word up – when out in public. It doesn’t matter how old someone’s kids are, they allow them to get away with murder – and the parents  are oblivious to the effect it has on everyone else around them.

But anyway, back to that skiing holiday. A bunch of us were in a plush restaurant and we’d just started eating our main course. At the table next to us there was a family with a kid in a high chair (I remember they were eating a raclette). All of a sudden there was the most God-awful smell – you knew immediately what it was the smell of, and I nearly vomited there and then. I said to my friends “I think that baby has crapped itself”.

It had. They went and changed it, but the smell hung around for the rest of the meal.

Why should anyone have to put up with that? Changing a nappy is a lot more involved than cleaning yourself after you’ve been to the loo, so there’s no telling how well people clean themselves after they’ve changed junior. And because of the stupidifying they have undergone, being covered in baby poo is not seen as a problem to most parents…

You just have to hope the restaurant doesn’t use those open salt cellars, or hand the same bread basket around…

Hey, and don’t even think about the salad bar at Pizza Hut…

This is a very old story. A more recent one (January 2015) suggests that scientists have found a way to make the old-style bulb more energy efficient (better than LEDs). I should point out – since the Daily Mail skims over it – that it is only “proof of concept”. Such bulbs are not being manufactured yet, and I would suggest that they are years away – and they may not even make it to market. For one thing, they will still “burn out”, whereas LED bulbs don’t.

Not to be outdone by those Luddites at The Daily Mail , The Sun is giving away energy-efficient light bulbs. This particular story is from 3 January, but in today’s paper copy they’re advertising that tomorrow they’re giving a free one away in partnership with Asda .

Incidentally, I’m getting a lot of hits by people searcing for ‘ Pharox 240v light bulb ‘ or similar. The Pharox appears to be quite difficult to get hold of but you can easily buy equivalent models – take a look here and here.

A variation on the Prog Rock stuff the Beeb has been covering recently. This one features the BBC’s interpretation of what it calls ‘Guitar Heroes’ . It’s live on the BBC4 website at the moment, but you can’t watch it on their iPlayer unfortunately.

Some of the older clips are pretty much OK, but I don’t think I’d lump The Police or U2 in that heading – especially U2’s earlier stuff. It’s all jingly-jangly – OK to listen to, but not in the same class as Carlos Santana .

And missing out guitarists like Rush’s Alex Lifeson in favour of commercial lightweights just goes to show how subjective it all is.

The program is followed by a documentary about Les Paul .