I am in the unfortunate position of having tom deal directly with our staff, it's something I have written about here before.  This is last weeks most outstanding call.  While most of our staff are pleasant, knowledgeable, and frequently humorous too, there ate exceptions.  Sometimes it is difficult to maintain politeness when dealing with these people. So a a call landed on my to do list where a guy said he could not log on. He was being asked for a pin number that he had never set up.   I checked his Windows account, and he hadn't yet messed up his password enough times to lock himself out, nor had his password expired, so I called him and then connected remotely to his computer. From the very wordy and irate tirade he came off with it was very difficult to understand, or even get him to demonstrate the problem, but since he was logged onto Windows properly it obviously wasn't what I had first thought of from his emailed description.  He had the err...

This one is important, but only if you live in the UK. There is a mechanism in the UK Parliament where citizens can submit petitions on issues of concern to Parliament.  As you can see, if 100,000 people sign up to the petition, it is debated.  This petition has obviously already met that criteria, but will receive more weight and consideration if yet more people sign it.  Unfortunately, these things are not publicised, you have to go looking for them, so, if you know a UK citizen who might like to ad their name to it, please send them this link:   Urgently fulfil humanitarian obligations to Gaza - Petitions Personally, i would have liked to see the petition go further and demand the immediate stop of all armaments deliveries to Israel, along with parts for military use.  I would also like, as the Republic of Ireland has done, and as France did today, for the UK to recognise the Palestinian state.  But at least this is a start. I only found it because ...

 What is euphemistically referred to as 'The Marching Season' is upon us in this often sad little enclave called Northern Ireland.  This when the 'Loyalists' march, with pseudo military bands, and as much triumphalism as you could reasonably shake a stick at.  Roads and town centres are closed , becoming almost a no go area for the saner part of the population here.  It's not like these bands don't march at other times of the year, just that most of it is compressed into the summer months, particularly July. According to 'Loyalist' lore, this is to celebrate Protestant culture, and its association the the Battle of the Boyne (supposedly a defeat for Catholicism).  King William is presented as a Protestant hero, sent to rescue the poor, repressed protestant population here.  No mention is made that he was actually a gay Dutchman, or that the battles here were merely a tiny part of a European war, or that King William was supported both financially and wit...

 So, a couple of weeks ago a protest group called 'Palestine Action' broke into RAF Brize Norton.  That in itself was surprizing enough; the RAF security on that base must have been rubbish.  I would love to read their explanation of how someone managed to get through their fence, ride a scooter up to parked planes, spray paint them, and then escape again without anyone noticing! What I do find amazing has been the government's reaction to this incident.  There is a case to be made that the perpetrators of this action should have been thanked.  After all, had this been done by actual terrorists it is likely that the planes would have been destroyed, with perhaps RAF personnel killed, of even weapons stolen, fuel ignited etc.  OK, Palestine Action have admitted to using crowbars to, in their words, "decommission" the planes, but the actions of real terrorists would have been much, much worse than what actually happened.  Embarrassing as the incident was...

Just a little bit of publicity for one of the internets oldest still existing web sites, Project Guttenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73756), and hopefully too for Grandad's blog (Link in the sidebar), which has now been taken over by his daughter Kate.  A warning though, if you read old books, don't expect them to be politically correct in todays terms!!   I've been reading this 1923 collection of short stories and thought those of you who who like a good horror tale might like this.  Enjoy.  :-) DERRICK’S RETURN   BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS   From _Cosmopolitan_     Derrick dreamed that Indians had captured him and had laid him face down in their camp fire and were slowly burning his head off. As a matter of fact a surgeon was working out a difficult problem in the back of Derrick’s throat, and for a little while, toward the end of the operation, anesthesia had not been complete.   The operation was a succes...