Paul Smith's Blog

Here's the images from the HTC Touch Pro unboxing... Hoping to have the full review done in a couple of weeks.

What a joke. I've had to endure these stupid headlines and TV programs for the last couple of years now. Yes you guessed it about the Large Hadron Collider. The BBC led the pack with a false premise that a black hole could form and destroy the Earth - despite the fact that one of the scientists on the very program said that would not happen - but we'll just ignore what the expert says and make up our own BS....

So I've finally got around to doing something a bit more fancy than just my garden with Photosynth, since we were out in Norton sub Hamdon today doing a bit of research into the family history I thought I'd use the opportunity to make a synth out of St. Mary The Virgin Church. It is embedded below, or you can go to it directly here. Yes you will need the Photosynth plugin....

Look for an extra £60 in September, and another £10 a month for the next six months in your take home pay. This is part of the chancellor's plans to help those that lost out under the abolition of the 10p rate, but it won't only benefit them. It will help another 15 million or so other people, including ones who benefited when the basic rate was lowered from 22p to 20p....

The BBC asks. The answer is yes. It also needs to reassess its ties with the United States. One American reader on the BBC websites writes: The contempt and dislike for America by Europeans continues to amaze me. So go right ahead and give Russia what it wants. First, S Ossetia and Abkhazia, then the Crimea. The population of the Crimea is mosty Russian, and if they were to demonstrate their desire to rejoin Russia, then they should have our support....

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 has been released. First impressions: this is a solid release, I've been using Beta 1 as my primary browser since it was released earlier this year. Not had any issues with Beta 2 over the last hour or so, plus it fixes a few of the annoying bugs in Beta 1 and adds bucket loads of new features. Go grab it from here. Read up on the new announced features here....

Looks like Mr Miliband has caved completely to the interests of US imperialism, not surprising, but at least he's made it official - if it wasn't already. From the Press Association: Britain branded Russian recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions "unjustifiable and unacceptable" as the diplomatic row intensified. Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused Russian President Dmitri Medvedev of "inflaming" the crisis by insisting that South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be independent....

The signatures are on the paper, the ceasefire has been signed by both sides now. But something is clear, Saakashvili has issues. This guy makes Condoleezza Rice look sane. I'm sure even she was embarrassed by some of the crap this guy came out with at their joint press conference earlier: I have to specify, this is a ceasefire agreement. This is not a final settlement. We are under Russian invasion and Russian occupation right now....

After Russian forces halted actions against Georgian forces yesterday, citing that South Ossetia had been secured and that (to quote Russian President Medvedev) the "aggressor has been punished and their armed forces have suffered significant loses", Georgia has finally accepted the Russian-French plan for ending the conflict in South Ossetia. The plan consists of: 1) Non-use of force. 2) Stop all military action. 3) Free access to humanitarian aid. 4) Georgian troops return to their previous positions before the conflict....

Yesterday you may remember the BBC using footage of a crying woman and a child, describing the attack that she witnessed, she was portrayed in the report as being Georgian. The same woman was also shown on Russian television - what the BBC didn't bother to show you was what she said after "thank you Russia for coming and saving us". This kind of thing has happened too much, pictures on news websites on the internet show Georgian artillery, which are labeled as Russian artillery firing into Georgia....