2009 — 8 July: Wednesday
Even later — somehow it's managed to become 00:54 already. Here's a picture of Christa from January 1980 in Old Windsor; parenthood looming ever nearer, and her constant cheerfulness shining through. We'd just about finished decorating the "nursery" with its Winnie-the-Pooh wallpaper (not that you can see it here):
Definitely time for some sleep, after reading this. Am I just jealous? No, not really; just weary. G'night.
Gosh
"Seeing as how" the computer giant IBM is to close its final salary pension scheme to existing members in the UK, affecting some 25% of its 20,000 employees, and "seeing as how" I heard this gobbet of nasty news on BBC Radio 3 less than two minutes ago (at 08:30), I guess it must be official. (Comments are being posted here.)
Since I've retired I've very consciously tried to put some of the less pleasant aspects of my IBM time firmly behind me. I did, after all, make an almost entirely adequate living there (helped by freelance work) for me and my tiny family for just over 25 years but (as my one-time IBM typewriter repairman next door neighbour here was very quick to tell me, way back in 1981) they did tend to collect on their "pound of flesh". As for trade unions, or any other form of worker representation, well they kept harking back to a survey they'd conducted (in 1977!) that was always deemed to prove such things were totally unnecessary within their marbled halls. When I joined, the average IBM UK salary was around 15% higher than the average ICL salary (and the UK was then the only country where the indigenous computer industry was still larger than the IBM presence). Think Wal-Mart; think Tesco; think doomed corner shop.
Yesterday's link isn't exactly an official source, though it's generally more informative than the official channels — communication to employees1 within IBM by IBM is not renowned for timeliness or excessive detail, except when that fine Corporation is "propagandising"2 its latest ghastly shenanigans (or "spinning" as some would have it) in attempts to get its own way.3 But, hey, what would I know? I was only a lowly peon there. And I made my own decisions about work / life balance long ago (in 1983, in fact) when Christa had her first cancer surgery.
The sun is still shining. Air and rain remain free. Mercy me, it's 11:02 already, and there's a tasteless Michael Jackson front cover on the new issue of Private Eye.
All that glisters...
... isn't necessarily Chrome, I guess. But in what sense does "The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel" constitute a new Operating System? (Source.) Still, I always thought the computer world was crazy not to make more use of ARM chips. Colour me biassed...
Right! Those beeps from downstairs suggest I have a few more seconds before sorting out my (I hope, delicious) lunch. Gotta dash. It's also time for my 13:00 news fix.
Gosh, again
All I wanted to do was check the traffic before I venture out...
I thought the motorway sounded a bit peaceful!
Eno to the rescue
There's an amusing comment to a piece by Brian Eno about the flaws he perceives in our present system of "democracy":
One particularly cynical and patronising MP defended [First Past The Post] saying 'the public understand it and know how to use it to their advantage'. Aside from being pretty insulting,
how do we use it to our advantage? Life would be an endless round of moving house to be in a marginal seat area.
Which is what politicians do.
We could only afford to do that if we were able to submit huge expense claims.
Aside to Christa
After putting the car away following a cuppa and a cake with my main co-pilot at "Hillier's", I've just spent two hours out in the fresh air of the front weed garden slowly diminishing the proportion of weeds (50% of the time) and slowly chipping away at the Koran-backed certainties of my amiable and eminently teasable neighbour (the other 50%). I'm not sure you'd have approved, but I found both activities very relaxing.
Mind you, he makes things so much easier for me when he starts talking about the "scientific theories and facts" described by — wait for it — Dan Brown!4 Or when he sticks the adjective "limited" in front of the phrase "free will". Quite takes me back to the intellectual arrogance of my Sixth Form,5 I tell you. So I've actually worked up a good appetite for tonight's segment of crockpottery. It's already 19:08, too. The rain has been holding off but there are interesting clouds scudding around up there.
It's always interesting to read stuff by people who see the world differently, too. Dan Flynn is one such.