BBC : new website adverts abroad

I was practically addicted to the BBC channel and website, now I couldnt give a damn if the whole thing was scrapped.
The programing has become extremely poor, and it is now just a propaganda tool for the government coupled with an extremely PC and left wing agenda.

Every time I turn the TV on the BBC try telling me how to lead my life, what I should and should not be doing.
I dont want that in a TV station, I want entertainment and facts, strait up facts not bent truths, and dubious statistics to make me act like a model citizen.

I certainly dont wish to be forced to pay for it. Lets hope these adverts are the beginning of the end, or a new beginning of what was once a great TV broadcaster.

Google and Android

Google today anounced an open source mobile phone operating system.
I think it will take quite a while to make its mark, maybe 5 years or more. But I believe this is a great move by google.
It will kill MSFT OS's dead by eventually taking 70% of the market. It will no doubt be ported to the desktop/laptop (or the desktop/laptop market will cease to exist as we know it, morphed into phone tech).

The writing was on the wall 10 years ago for microsoft. IMO, in the future all operating sytems will be unix based, and this is MSFT's last stand.

MSFT do however have one last chance to remain dominant....write a Unix based OS themselves! But redmond are too thick to realize, and will cling on to their proprietary OS till the bitter end, OR until it is too late.

By my rekoning they have about two years to develop something to combat this onslaught, my bet is they dont have the balls to make such a radical change in business plan. = doom hahahahahahaaa

Oh and Apple? they will continue to take the high end 30% of the market, though I do think they may achive higher than this before the google train arrives.
Apple can survive through providing order within chaos. Applications will be much easier to port over from this new GOOG OS than with MSFT, and inter OS comunication will be relatively painless due to the more standards complient nature of the two operating systems that will inherit the earth.

Wikipedia Techno terminology origins

A common misconception is that the use of the word 'techno' has historically described a narrow sub-genre of dance music. Not until roughly 1993 was the sound thoroughly defined in it's modern form, yet the term techno was used for nearly a decade before.
The scene whose music was once known as 'minimalist techno', eventually shrugged off the minimalist part and fully inherited the term 'techno' for itself.
For many years 'techno' was used to describe a much wider generalization of dance music, and is not "commonly confused" in the manor described in Wikipedia.
In-fact the common and fairly modern confusion is that 'trance techno', 'jungle techno', 'minimal techno' etc did not once share the umbrella genre name of techno.
This continued re-writing of history comes from the now fractured and opposing scenes trying adamantly to differentiate themselves in what was once a reasonably unified community of electronic music enthusiasts.
Claims like the above are furiously denied by passion and elitism rather than historical correctness. And to suggest 'hardcore' was not once a direct subgenre of techno is completely ridiculous.

This post is just notes to myself(to be continuously updated)

PHP:

print_r()
$pizzaToppings = array('onion', 'tomato', 'cheese');
or withassociative array $fruits = array('red' => 'apple', 'yellow' => 'banana'); (same as cocoa dictionary)
=== checks with data type also
explode()
sizeof()
with an associative array, the array_keys() and array_values() list of all the keys and values
foreach()
isset()
include() and require()
or die()
file() file_put_contents()
file_get_contents()
func_get_args()
global
public function __construct() {}
public/private
access object properties.. $obj->author

Apple, Analysts and Experts

I like to have a good old moan about Apple analysts because I often find them to be way off the mark (they are getting better admittedly).
It would often seem like very little research is done, but this is what people pay them for. No?
If I had no clue about Apple, and I was interested in investing, I would presume the analyst I entrusted my money with had done his homework. Surely?

I expect someone to have particular flair in his/her work in order to qualify as being called an 'expert' (which is a title I'm presuming these analysts would like to be known as). But what is an expert?
Because I do not consider myself as an expert in anything, I expect an expert in a subject to be someone who is at least as good at his job than myself. 
An expert to me traditionally conjured up notions of infallibility, but I have kind of learnt over the years that there are very few people who live up to the title of being an 'expert' in their chosen profession, and as I learn about each subject, I often find, the people I once revered as experts are often just common garden blaggers hidden behind cloaks of pretense.

I freely admit I know little when it comes to the finer details and number crunching essential in the wider profession of business analyst, but with Apple I think this is your average analysts downfall.
You see I feel that analysts (in general) are oblivious to the larger picture, and in particular they lack the understanding that Apple is not an ordinary company, that fits the 'standard model' they think every company should behave like.

The moral is, to be cautious, especially of those who call themselves experts!

Poor old Fish

An interesting story which doubles as a great example of how easy it is to be manipulated by the media.
I thought Michael Fish's legendary weather forecast screw up actually happened until today...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/10/11/nosplit/ftweather111.xml