Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: Special Economy-Size Explanatory Edition ...

16 January 2006

Special Economy-Size Explanatory Edition ...

Before the buzz begins gettting about the net that the This Old Brit may have packed up his old kit-bag - and his keyboard - and buggered off to a far better place -- here's what's really been happening.

"Blogger" has lately been becoming more and more unreliable and unstable.

As other bloggers elsewhere have reported recently, whole posts have been suddenly disapperaring without warning into cyber space -- whatever or wherever that is.

Not for the first time, a complete blogger- cock-up occured yesterday.

However, Richard wrestled sucessfully with his initial inclination to either ignite his complete computer caboodle [perhaps even fanning the flames which would have followed] or to quite simply throw it all straight through the window -- whether or not it was open or closed.

Maybe more importantly he managed to restrain This Old brit, without actually resorting to binding & gagging or administering any anaesthetic. Because, and you'd better bloomin' believe it -- This Old Brit was truly bloody blazing himself. In fact, he was all for doing something even more drastic than demolishing Dell's [fairly decent] hardware, along with considerable chunks of his own cozy little house & home.

But because both of us old boys belong to the bulldog breed, thankfully we finally thought better. We will not be beaten by 'blogger'.


So stay tuned. Since we're now gonna work on getting together whole darned lost post, all over.

'Bye for now from both of us. We'll be back later today.



** IMPORTANT UPDATE: The missing post mentioned can now be found below this one. Simply scroll down.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am relieved to read that it is technical difficulties I was wondering if you, the missus or Helen were poorly! I look forward to your next entry whenever it appears.

4:23 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Hi Richard did you see this?

The hostage no one knew was missing

A BRITISH reporter kidnapped in Iraq described yesterday how his captors threatened to behead him before he was freed by chance when US soldiers raided the farmhouse where he was being held.


Phil Sands, of the Dubai-based newspaper Emirates Today, was rescued on New Year’s Eve after being held for five days on the outskirts of Baghdad. He had not been reported missing and his family was unaware of his plight. … …

Mr Sands, now in Poole with his family, said: “One of the things I am most glad about is that my parents did not know that I had been kidnapped. It was a weird phone call, to say the least. Dad picked up the phone and was amazed that I had bothered to call. They are always complaining that I do not get in touch enough.”


He has no immediate plans to return to Iraq, but when he does it will be as an embedded reporter with the military. He said: “I feel fine. I was lucky. I’m definitely taking a stiff upper-lip approach. I don’t feel traumatised, just humbled.” Full Article Here

Related topic - The collection for Allan Enwiya's widow is growing nicely. He was Jill Carrol's translator and was murdered the day she was kidnapped. Fayrouz is organising a collection for her. I've blogged about it here including a description of what it's like to be widowed in Iraq.

5:20 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Well well well..... richard, I don't normally paste the full text of an article but in this case I think you'll excuse the exception.

Blair may drop 40-year bar on tapping MPs' telephones
By George Jones, Political Editor
(Filed: 16/01/2006)

Tony Blair is considering lifting a general ban on the tapping of MPs' telephones, John Reid, the Defence Secretary, confirmed yesterday.



The secret surveillance has been banned for 40 years under a convention known as the Wilson Doctrine, brought in by the former prime minister Harold Wilson.

Mr Reid told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme that the lifting of the ban had been suggested by Sir Swinton Thomas, the interception of communications commissioner.

The Prime Minister is understood to favour an end to the ban but faces opposition from colleagues, including Mr Reid, whose opposition provoked a row in the Cabinet.

An announcement on the issue, which comes under an expansion of MI5 powers since the London bombings, is expected within weeks.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said that MPs were entitled to protection from the monitoring of telephone calls.

"In a democracy it is extremely important that members of Parliament can operate without the suspicion that what they say on the telephone can be collected by the security services and relayed to the Government," he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House.

"And there can be no guarantee if MPs are subject to phone-tapping that they won't have information passed on for political reasons to the government of the day."

The Wilson Doctrine was named after the Labour prime minister who established the rule in 1966.

He gave MPs a pledge that their telephones would not be tapped and subsequent prime ministers have regularly confirmed that it remains in effect.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/16/ntap16.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/16/ixnewstop.html

8:31 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are we surprised at any of this?

10:39 pm  
Blogger enigma4ever said...

Hey there- E4e here...Blogger has been having some difficulties- if you want you can email offline ( enigma4ever@earthlink.net) and I will be happy to send you some names and addresses of other choices....( you are not the only one that has been having difficulty)....I think they are overloaded- personally...or go to Help Blogger and write to Jason- he is very helpful...weekends the traffic and people updating has been HIGH volume...also go to Cspan or Raw Story and see Al Gore's Speech today- he kicked the King's effin ass..FINALLY..let's see if it spurs something bigger...thanks for your words and your support...I am still here- fighting back...It's OUR country....and the world is at stake...we ALL matter...on all sides of the pond...much love...

11:51 pm  
Blogger enigma4ever said...

e4e here again- I posted a note over on Brass Alliance for folks to come give you a Geek hand....Others have been having blogger trouble too...

2:23 am  
Blogger J.UL1R4 said...

Blogger has been having some difficulties for me on and off since Condi Neocon Rice came to Europe to promote her torture programme. That night was really bad, I couldn't post at all. Coincidence ? I hope so. Although reading about how blogger Kurt Nimmo has been silenced by death threats against his family there are apparently people out there very worried by blogs.

3:34 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

AOL aren't to be trusted as ISPs - especially 'in your line of business' Old Brit.

They could be putting more than two penneth of problems your way as well.

3:05 pm  
Blogger markfromireland said...

AOL aren't a great ISP but I wouldn't be inclined to read anything sinister into difficulties with blogger. Blogger runs a very hefty database app on underpowered servers. Moreover they're constantly fiddling with the code. Weekends are a particularly busy time - with lots of people both accessing and updating blogs.

Where AOL may be to blame is in their browser (if that's the one you use) it uses an old version of the internet explorer rendering engine to which has been added lots and lots of AOL specific add ons and modules. What's worth trying is using either a the standard version of internet Explorer or better yet firefox.

8:31 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

I just posted on the previous blog entry to thank one & all for the continuing valued comments, extra info, links, etc.

Email alerts to tell me whenever new comments are made are still NOT getting through to my mailbox -- for whatever reason. Meantime, as & when I remember that fact and when I have the time, I check the last 2 or 3 editions manually. So please realise that if I dont respond to every person's individual post - individually - it's not for any reason other than the one mentioned.

11:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

jRSHyq The best blog you have!

7:31 am  

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