Keyboard disaster - missing letters untraced. BT cleared...

This posting is the property of Guy Kewney and was taken without the owner's consent

Recently, my friend Roo lost the letter "y" off his laptop. Ever time he tped a word with that letter, he had to reach for his "Alt" key (which involved Numlock first) and tr to work out what the code was.

It reminds me of the time I lost the letter "r" - which was a complete disaste, and I went to the bothe of buying a new keycap - which, I thought, I had stuck down - but no! As soon as I tuned the keyboad ove, it fell onto the floo and unde the same cupboad that the fist one went unde...

Fortunately, I have it now. But at the time I was in a panic: I couldn't see a thing under that dresser! So I felt around on the floor, hoping to pick at least one of them up. Instead I found three CDs from MSDN and an awful lot of fluff from the dog; more rubber hair-bands than I owned when I had a pony-tail - and no keycaps AT ALL.

In short, I couldn't find my "r"s with both hands...

New Tory hope for off-shore prisons

When the Conservatives first announced their policy of solving prison overcrowding by sending inmates to friendly low-wage economies to take care of them, Labour challenged their shadow Home Secretary to name one such.

It now appears that with the new Australian government's decison to close the immigrant detention centre set up by the previous administration on Nauru, a ready-made facility has become available. ;-)

e-Crime Crackdown

Silicon.com reports that "Britain is in the grip of the growing cyber crime menace, with e-crime now estimated to be worth $105bn worldwide - more than the illegal drugs trade."

"Police, businesses and politicians say Britain is ill equipped to deal with the growing threat and have been demanding a dedicated e-crime police unit since the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was absorbed into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in 2006."

(There is no mention of e-crime on the Agency's home web page.)

"The Home Office is expected to announce this month whether it will provide £1.3m in start-up funding for the Policing Central E-Crime Unit (PCEU), which would co-ordinate and collate reports of cyber crime nationwide.

Previous comprehensive spending reviews by this government have made no mention of e-crime or of the PCEU unit proposed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Extraordinary by-election result

Generally, there is no point in publishing our council by-election wins, unless they occur in Wales. Truth be told, we have had losses too. The same is true of the other parties. In spite of what the media-commissioned opinion research says, actual votes in actual ballot-boxes show that the parties nationally are treading water.

However, when the party defending a seat increases its majority from 43 to nearly 400, and this occurs in Greater London where the forthcoming mayoral contest is supposed to be between Labour Kooky Ken and Conservative Batty Boris, it's worth recording:

London Borough of Brent, Queen's Park ward

Sharar Ali (Green) 239
Lesley Daisley (Labour) 851
Durmaj Dhillon (Con) 292
Simon Green (Lib Dem) 1242

It's also good news for Sarah Teather, LibDem MP for Brent East.

Cadoxton attack

There is still no news of an arrest in the case of the young woman attacked by St Catwg's church last Saturday night. As residents have commented in the press, the attack is out of character for this quiet, picturesque part of Neath.

People who don't know the area have made assumptions about the nature of the path the young woman took, and criticised her for walking through a graveyard late at night. In fact, the route is a natural connection between footways along a main road, cutting off a bend in the road, and is no more than 30 metres (at a guess) at its furthest point from that road.

Ironically, there is a famous tombstone in the churchyard commemorating a young woman of earlier times who was not so fortunate in escaping from an attacker.

Two sad losses for the arts in Wales

Alun Hoddinott today and John Chilvers on Monday both passed away.

Hoddinott was the last of the great Welsh triumvirate of composers with Daniel Jones and William Matthias, and probably wrote the most approachable music of the three. He was certainly assiduous in writing to commission and his contribution to Welsh music in general was marked this time last year, when it was announced that the recording space and performance hall of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, at Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre, was to be named BBC Hoddinott Hall.

There are many theatre-goers in Swansea (as I was in younger days) and theatre groups in the area who owe a great debt of gratitude to John Chilvers.

Of course Cardiff should compete in the UEFA cup

It's as English as Birmingham or Liverpool; witness its vote in the devolution ballot.

Greenwash Budget

My prediction of the headline description in tomorrow's press.

The Chancellor spent the first 30 minutes of his speech covering up the cracks in the economy. I don't have the benefit of the Red Book in front of me, but I had the distinct impression that Darling was careful in his use of start and end dates in presenting his rosy view of UK performance under Labour, and in the careful selection of actual and inflation-adjusted cash figures.

Even the "green" announcements, which Darling no doubt hopes will attract most attention, consisted mainly of more targets (with no action to back them up). There will be no tax on plastic bags (which the Republic of Ireland has had for years), merely the threat of one if the supermarkets don't put a satisfactory spin on their voluntary schemes.

Some good strikes by David Cameron, but he was shooting into an open goal. (There, a trite metaphor to match the ones he delivered today, no doubt prepared in advance.)

Nick Clegg's response was more low-key, but concentrated on the real impact of the budget on actual people, especially those on low incomes. (I have a particular gripe about the overdue, and inadequate, increase in the winter fuel allowance.)

The two budget responses were complementary, almost as if the two opposition leaders' research teams had conspired beforehand. ;-)

There were some notable omissions from Darling's overview; what will be the impact on future spending of the national identity database? of military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan?

More importantly for us in Wales, and for the Scots, there was no acknowledgement that the devolved budget settlement, the Barnett formula, is bust and needs to be replaced.

[Later] The increases in alcohol duty were clearly signalled when the PR attack on binge drinking was launched earlier this year. The fact that Darling hasn't targeted the most offending drinks, or shown any sign of curbing the supermarkets, through whom he derives the bulk of excise duty on booze, shows that this was purely a tax-raising measure.