So we had a thunderstorm this morning and it fried the Ethernet card in my regular computer.

I’m typing this on a laptop that I just bought today to tide me over until I can build a new box. The best thing I can say about it is that is was cheap. It doesn’t have the worst keyboard I’ve ever used, the ASR Teletypes that were standard in the military and early mini-computers will always have that place, but it is nothing a typist wants to live with for long.

I’m using strange software until I have time to do some downloading and the individual who created the touch-pad on this machine has obviously never used a keyboard, given that it is located exactly where you want to rest your wrists.

I may or may not get into the bank accidentally destroying my ATM card, and then having their ‘card printer’ commit suicide when they tried to replace it, but it has been that kind of week.

I may or may not be around.

The BBC reports on the police response … to David Cameron:

But Sir Hugh [Orde, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers] – who is seen as a leading contender to become the next Met Police commissioner – told the BBC on Thursday that the subsequent restoration of calm on Tuesday night had not been down to political intervention.

“The fact that politicians chose to come back [from holiday] is an irrelevance in terms of the tactics that were by then developing,” he told BBC Two’s Newsnight.

“The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference; they were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics.”

Hmm, ‘irrelevance” and “political interference”, I don’t think Mr. Cameron should count on police officers to vote for him.

Burning Eyes

Turn down the lights!

[Editor: This re-run of Excise is brought to you by my eye doctor who dilated my pupils today. I’m sitting in the room with the lights off and the windows blocked. The screen brightness is at its lowest level and I’m wearing sunglasses. I see extremely well at night, so this procedure is very painful for me and taking pictures outside isn’t going to happen.]

Friday Ark