Blue-on-Blue(blood)?

I can't link to the source of this, since I'm not sure where it originated from, but I heard something on the TV news this morning which has left me puzzled somewhat.

Apparently there are concerns about Prince William, the heir to the throne, joining the army on security grounds. Surely, being surrounded by soldiers should make the prince about as secure as it's possible for him to be?

Of course, I suppose that there is the possibility of being depolyed on active service, whereupon one could face the risk of being shot at, perhaps by our transatlantic allies, who do have something of a reputation for "blue-on-blue" incidents...

If you knew SuSE like I know SuSE !

My experiments with SuSE Linux are continuing apace and, on the whole, it's very impressive. I seem to have got the PC setup now to do most of what I want it for, and I'm still pleasantly surprised at just how easy it's been. If I had Microsoft shares, I'd maybe start to wonder whether or not they're such a good long term investment...

The Ultimate Service Pack for Windows XP?!

For the last few years I've been intrigued by Linux - the open source alternative PC operating system. However, I've never quite had the courage to try it on a PC of my own, until now...

After crossing my fingers and sacrificing a chicken to placate the malevolent spirits commonly found haunting all computers, I popped the appropriate disk into my main machine's CDROM drive and rebooted. The version I'd chosen to try SuSE Linux 9.1 was the easiest installation of any operating system I've ever performed and I'm now the pround owner of a triple boot - Windows XP/Windows ME/Suse 9.1 machine.

After a few days use, I'm very impressed with SuSE. It's very very stable and coupled with the Mozilla Firefox browser, makes a superb surfing platform - with none of the risks inherent in the use of Windows. This OS deserves to do well...

Think Again, Mr Lucas...

I read the other day that the StarWars Episode III is to be called "Revenge of the Sith". I can't say that I'm very struck with that title at all. This film could be the best of them all and it surely deserves a better name...

Actually, I suspect this one will be difficult to make, never mind to title. The trouble is that if you've seen the other five - as I have on many occasions - then it's not too tricky to fill in the gaps and come up with a likely synopsis of Ep III's plot, raising the question of how to get any surprises into the movie. It seems likely to be a very dark film - I can't see much chance for a happy ending, and the title should convey this "fall of darkness"...

Whatever it's called, though, I'm looking forward to next May, when it'll be released.

Forever Autumn?

After a rather wet start, yesterday ended with a very welcome spell of fine weather. I was a bit taken aback, however, to notice that the sky had turned a little red, presumably because the sun was starting to set.

There's nothing wrong with this aesthetically speaking, but the thing is that it wasn't long past 8:30 in the evening, which seemed a bit on the early side to me. Is summer already on the way out then?

Rhapsody in..Red!

Last night we were treated to a "blue moon". In astronomical terms, this the fairly rare occurence of a second full moon in a single calendar month.

It so happens that I was strolling along the seafont last night and saw the moon not long after it had risen. It was an achingly beautiful sight looking at it beaming out over the English Channel, but Blue Moon it most certainly was not.

In fact, before the moon rose too high and assumed its usual pearly visage, it was a red moon. Presumably this was caused by the same phenomenon as turns the sun red when it rises or sets - whatever the cause it was lovely to behold.