Latest Podcast: 26th July 2008 Barack Obama has said that he thinks that the US and UK need stronger Transatlantic links to deal with a wide range of world issues such as climate change, terrorism and the world economy. He also said that he thought his talks with Gordon Brown had been "terrific". He also thanked the British people for their support of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I'm not entirely sure where Obama is coming up with this stuff, but to be honest, if I was a US Citizen, I would be hugely worried about Obama. I mean, I think he is going to walk the election. John McCain is nowhere near as well known worldwide as Obama, and he certainly hasn't made as many column inches. How does this affect the election? Well, there are voters outside the US as well as inside, and unless you keep up with American media, you might not know too much about McCain, but you will have definetly heard of Obama. But back to his comments. He thought his meeting was "terrific"? Was that an attempt to sound British? "What ho old chap? I thought our little constitutional was absolutely terrific". Come on, why bother? Be yourself. Then there is the "support of the Iraq and Afghan war". Ummmm...Barrack, not sure if you noticed, but we have protests about the war reasonably often. We don't support the war. Blair was terrified of the backlash over the war. It's what made him quit, amongst other reasons. A flaw has been discovered using the DNS system of the Internet. For those who don't know what the DNS system does, it basically turns addresses into numbers, which computers can use to connect to servers. Dan Kaminsky who found this flaw in March this year said that not only is this flaw very good, but it is also being "weaponised" in the field. The problem is, and the reason that, according to Kaminsky, we are in so much trouble is that if for example you typed Paypal dot com into your browser, if someone has exploited this flaw in the DNS system then despite typing Paypal dot com into your browser, you could end up at a malicious site designed to steal your Paypal username and password, giving people access to your Paypal account. Fortunately word is out about this, and most large companies will be applying an available patch. But for smaller sites this could be a real problem. Our view is that if the bigger companies, who are going to be the most vulnerable, get off their butts and apply the patch, then this problem isn't going to be so serious, but the longer big companies wait, then the longer people are going to be at risk. And for those thinking that perhaps people might not be so slow in fixing problems like this, perhaps you should visit facebook dot co dot uk. It leads directly to a directory listing. A painter and decorator has been fined £30 for smoking in his own van! Gordon Williams from Ceredigion has been fined for smoking in his van whilst driving to the shops for tea bags. He was pulled over for a routine safety check and when he was found smoking in the van, both he and his passenger who were smoking were issed with £30 fixed penelty notices. He argues that the vehicle is insured for work as well as a private vehicle, and has sent his private insurance documents to the Welsh assembly. He has also argued that he only uses it to get to work, and that he decorates and paints houses, not vans. He has argued that both he and his passenger are smokers, therefore the smoking legistation doesn't affect them, as it is in place to protect non smokers. The council have said that it is there to protect anyone who uses his van, whether he is in the van or not at the time. Now, this story interested us because both members of the Jack's Blog team are smokers. We don't smoke inside, we smoke outside, but technically in a place of work as we could go out onto the street. The thing is, our "place of work" is also a private house, and the gardens are included in both. Here at Jack's Blog, we applaud Mr Williams for appealing his fine, and we really hope he wins his case. It's about time smokers had a victory rather than being pushed further and further towards the fringes of society. Lastly, last night was the launch party of the new look Jack's Blog. We had a barbque, followed by drinks until 6am. During that time we had a lot of dance music on, some rock music, and about an hour of one hit wonders, because both Mike and I are children of the 70s, and therefore love 70s and 80s music. Anyway. At about 4:30am, I saw lights in the road, like torches. Now, being the good citizen I am, I went out to see what it was, and saw two police cars parked outside a friend's house. And about 30 seconds later, said a police woman came up to the bottom of my garden where I was smoking and shone her torch at me. I asked if she was ok, and she said she was looking for someone. I explained what we were doing and she said she wasn't looking for us. Then about an hour later, I went out to relieve myself against my much hated neighbour's fence, and saw the same two cars parked outside my friend's house, this time talking to someone. Now, my friend is a lot shorter than most people (4 foot 11) and I didn't see him go into his house, which make me think that perhaps he went for a little ride with the nice police women. I'm not going to comment hugely on this, except, he does get himself into a lot of trouble, and both Mike and I don't feel hugely sorry for him, because he does have a tendency to attack people when he is drunk. And since yesterday's day had a Y in the name, he was drunk. So, that is the end of our inaugral podcast. Hope you enjoyed it, and we will endevour to bring you another one tomorrow! Download Podcast | Podcast Transcription Comment On This Episode  |
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