Posted on

Yes to AV

Today’s the day we find out of Britain is the sensible country it believes it to be, or one controlled by unbelievable scare stories. Yes, it’s a referendum, this one about the “Alternative Vote” voting (AV) over the “First past the Post” voting (FPTP).

I’ll be voting yes for AV today because whatever way you look at it, it is Better than the current system. It’s not about which party wants AV or which person doesn’t want FPTP it’s about making the voting system in this country fairer, avoiding wasted votes and voting for the people you want. Continue reading “Yes to AV”

Posted on

PhpGedView, SourceForge and the US Government

I originally installed PhpGedView back in 2007. It’s an open source and free web program for managing family trees and based on the universal Gedcom file format commonly used in many genealogical websites and applications. I’ve been using it on and off for several years very successfully – all credit to the open source programmers – with very few problems. However its been on my TODO list to upgrade since maybe 2008. I finally got around to updating it.

Screenshot of the webtrees homepage.

Continue reading “PhpGedView, SourceForge and the US Government”

Posted on

The Own Art scheme

turning

Here’s a really nice way to buy some prised pieces of art – be it anything from paintings to pottery.

It’s a scheme run by the Arts Council in England (And therefore only available in England – sorry world.) They provide you with an interest free loan from £100 to £2000 which you pay off in 10 monthly installments.

You can buy whatever you like, and it’s as simple as going to one of the many local arts galleries that are taking part. (There’s a searchable list of participants here).

Take a look at the arts councils website here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ownart/

I just need to decide what to buy now…

Posted on

Response to Turing e-petition

I’m actually quite impressed by the Prime Minister’s response to the Turing e-petition. Quite often it’s just the normal government spiel.

Alan Turing was one of the key men in the second world War and a great mathematician (and one of the first computer programmers) but he was treated with contempt just a few years after he helped break German codes at Bletchly Park – it’s good to see that, on behalf of the government, Gordan Brown recognised his achievements and apologised for his shocking treatment.

The full script is available here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/#detail

I was also impressed that they added the link to Bletchy Park asking for donations. Nice touch.