Internet Explorer Always Disappoints Eventually

AS you know I have been a great fan of IE9 which seemed to have the right balance of speed, functionality and looks.

But alas it always seems to turn to tears in the long run with MS IE.  Of late I have found, for absolutely no apparent reason, that there is a most vexing situation where IE9 won’t render videos correctly, throwing them off axis to the left and unable to be controlled and filling up the left hand side of the screen with rapidly flashing ads that appear when the mouse is scrolled.  After much deep thought and empirical analysis I discovered that there is a fundamental incompatibility between IE9 and the Flash Player v10.3 but only on my laptop.  The other computers in the house (three) are all fine.

Totally unable to rectify the problem with the usual system restores, uninstalls and reinstalls I have given IE9 away and gone to Firefox 4.0.1 which seems to have done the trick.  Chrome lacks the functionality I want although it is quick and Opera is utterly incomprehensible!

I had used the Beta version of FF 4 but that had all sorts of problems (as one would expect with a beta build – doh!).  The release version seems [so far] to work fine, is compatible with Adobe Flash 10.3 and solves all the problems.

You can download it here

What is it with Microsoft?  Why can’t they have stable products resistant to the vagaries of ghosts in the machine?

BBC News - Ratko Mladic declared fit to face Hague tribunal

Why does the BBC persist in honouring Ratko Mladic by continuing to call him General.

BBC News - Ratko Mladic declared fit to face Hague tribunal

Mladic is simply a thug and does not deserve the title.

Two Down, Lots to Go

Its been a good month for tracking down the evil people of the world.  First Osama bin Laden and now Ratko Mladic who is currently being extradited to the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

The killing of Bin Laden, in circumstances which only those who were present know, denied the full course of justice but did have the effect of removing  a dreadful terrorist, responsible for thousands of innocent deaths.

The capture of Mladic, the Bosnian Serb architect of the massacre of 7,500 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica  will enable justice to be done and be seen to be done.

Unfortunately there are many others in many countries still at large and perpetrating their own brands of evil

Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Hybrid Helo

 

 

How’s this?  Like having your own mini MV-22 Osprey without having to tilt the wings.  Is that cool or is that cool?

PistonHeads Headlines - Chrysler Engines For Maserati Saloons?

For all the gory details see:

PistonHeads Headlines - Chrysler Engines For Maserati Saloons?

A Maserati with a Chrysler engine…surely not!  (calling it a cinquestella doesn’t fool anyone Mr Mopar). But wait it’s worse…a Maserati with a diesel ?  Could this really be the end of civilisation as we know it?  Not so much Stealing Beauty but rather Flushing Beauty Down the Toilet.

Musical Robots

 

What can you say?

Where else than California!

World Migratory Bird Day

 

 

Today is World Migratory Bird Day

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/747

It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you talk

 

Owen Barder, the development economist and Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development in DC (whom I had the pleasure of working with in DFID), has just produced a witty and surgically precise piece about the scions of the the “ruling class” trying to actually do things. 

Read the piece at Owen’s interesting and informative blog.  It’s worth the read.  Summons up the world of Nancy Mitford.

Gadget to Die For

 

 

Are you a gadget freak?  Have you got them all?  If so this one’s for you.

Pioneer's Discussion Table .  Soon you won’t be able to live without it or the $37,000 USD you paid for it (plus the shipping charges).  But hey think of all the fun you’ll have figuring out what to do with it.

Mercedes-Benz showcases SLS AMG ambulance concept at emergency vehicle expo — Autoblog

So where do you put the stretchers?

Mercedes-Benz showcases SLS AMG ambulance concept at emergency vehicle expo — Autoblog

BBC News - Taliban resistance 'under-estimated' by Britain

 

 

This is a Western affliction for which the evidence is strong:

• The Romans at Teutoburg Forest in 9BC
• Britain and the settlers in the American War of Independence
• Britain and the Zulu in 1862
• Britain and the Afghans 1839-1842
• Britain and the Boers in 1880-1881
• Britain and the Japanese in 1940
• The US in Vietnam
• The Russians in Afghanistan
• The US and Britain in Afghanistan

(and there are probably lots of others)

Why is this so?  Do we really believe we are better than the opposition or do our intelligence people simply not know what’s going on?  And why, in the face of this sort of evidence, do we fail to learn?

As Sun Tzu said 2,500 years ago Know yourself and your enemy and you need not fear the results of a thousand battles.

Clearly we ain’t got a clue.  And they teach military history at Sandhurst!  Maybe the cadets can’t be bothered listening.

BBC News - Taliban resistance 'under-estimated' by Britain