Hutton Inquiry Report

BBC NEWS | Politics | BBC chairman quits over Hutton

So the BBC gets a great deal of criticism - on the evidence I heard this seems to be largely justified

But the lack of criticism of the government seems rather strange. Maybe Hutton didn't feel there was enough proof to make any particular recommendations.

Still it seems to me that the Government was able to influence outcomes, without leaving enough material to allow proper scrutiny.

I hope Lord Hutton is right in his conclusions, since there is a risk that certain undesirable behaviours may be reinforced by this outcome.

Plus the timoing of the release of this report may have influenced an important educatiuonal bill, and drawn attention away from what I feel is a fundamental constitutional problem, namely the confusion of UK representation versus England & Wales level statutes - how can we have such a muddle ?

Atom Ant

Well, I have just switched on syndication ! What fun!

Python's poplib

With the aid of the ever useful Python Cookbook I had a play at downloading e-mails from a POP server, using poplib. Thanks to Xavier Defrang for the base recipe.

A nice easy to use and common sense interface. Allows me to stay focussed on the overall application.

People and process: the right perspective

Here is a guy who seems to have the right view on software development: Why I don't care what Gerold Keefer Thinks

Do what works. Of course, it may be that in other environments then other processes work.

At work, we are looking at different culture for the small teams doing individual components, and leaving the larger level co-ordinating processes in a mor command and control frame of mind. Not that another culture at the higher level wouldn't work a priori, but that we have far less chance of getting that cultural change pushed through.

Good things that happened today

• Fixed garage door fairly easily
  
• Beautiful day to walk the dog
  
• Many members of the wider family came round for dinner
  
• My daughter first dance show went very well (and she didn't break her violin)
  

Pilates

Having hurt my back before Xmas, my physio has persuaded me to have a go at Pilates. Have had a couple of goes, but I can't say it has grabbed me as much as I thought it would. For instance, it seems rather unnatural by comparison with the simple yoga I have tired.

Still this could be just because it is a bit different - will keep persevering.

BlogThis! again

This is a slippery one - keeps moving about, but here it is: BLOGGER - Knowledge Base: What is BlogThis!

Works with Firebird

Back to Blogger

After a brief love in with Radio under WINE on Linux, looks like I'm back to Blogger. I liked Radio ( for instance, where are the style pull downs for Blogger ?) but a newer version of WINE broke Radio.

But it is also nice to be reminded of some of Blogger advantages - for instance, it works on any platform, I can get to it from which ever ( internet connected) computer I'm using, can use it behind a firewall ( eg from work) and the premium service is FREE!

It's pretty good to be back !!