I believe that my reputation of being a miserable sod is well enough established and so, it being Christmas, still, sort of, I feel I have been a paragon of restraint thus far. But enough is enough already. It’s time for a rant. You would be justified in asking ‘what sort of a sad bastard updates his internet security software over Christmas?’, well the short answer is me and in mitigation I would point out that Trend Micro offered me a deal that expired 31st December which I wanted to take up, which I did last weekend. And now, a week later, I have finally, after a multitude of emails (no use whatsoever) and online chats (somewhat better) got it to function properly. I have used Trend products for about the last four years and find that they have minimal footprint, decent scan times, flexible user settings and offer a good range of functions, anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, data protection etc but support has been patchy in the past and this latest installation sucked big style.

Not unreasonably I think, when I renewed my subscription I downloaded the latest software, Internet Security 2008, and tried to install, during this process it asked me if I wanted to uninstall the 2007 version I was running at the time; well of course I did. So after stoppages to install a Microsoft update to MS Installer and numerous reboots I found I was still running 2007 version?? So tried to uninstall it manually, only to be told I needed to complete a pending installation, tried to complete it, more reboots later still working on 2007. I check the website and find that IS 2007 is supplied with a big stick tool called PCCtools which will rip out the 2007 installation whatever the circumstances, so off we go and out comes IS 2007 but IS 2008 still not running in it’s place. Redo the 2008 installation and, many reboots later and after removing the firewall booster, downloading Ad-Aware 2007 so that I can install it and then uninstall it, because there was no uninstaller for Ad-Aware on my machine and apparently it’s incompatible with IS 2008, I get through to the end of the installation and it will not let me do a single thing online! Fuuuuuuck!!!! It seems not to like a Logitech file that came with the webcam and blocked all internet access? So this prompted the first of the online support chats, the upshot of which was to rip it out using the big stick that came with IS 2008, called TISSuprt, which I do and redo the 2008 installation. It completes but won’t let me do a single thing as it claims that my subscription has expired?!?! So I do a system restore back to the time before any of this shit-storm and I’m back with IS 2007, but this time 2007 shows the correct licence expiry date of 2010 and so, once again not unreasonably I believe, I redo the 2008 installation and guess what, it still thinks my subscription has expired and whilst I am, at least, online I have no firewall protection! This is when I start wasting time on a futile exchange of emails, which has yet to provide any meaningful result and so I go off to the online chat again after checking my Trend account online to confirm that it is still showing licence expired. After waiting for about an hour I get to speak to someone and after going through all the problems I’ve been having I get him to check my account to confirm that it still shows as expired only for him to tell me that the new 2010 expiry is now showing?! Can this be a coincidence, does it really take a week to update? So I have to take out IS 2008 again and reinstall as the licence data can only be updated through the installation process?!? And all I have to do now is install it on my daughter’s machine, oh joy.

when I get up to an Inbox full of emails telling me how much various retailers have reduced the items I bought only a few days previously. Must be getting old when I find myself reasonably content with getting a pair of slippers as a present. Must be getting selfish and something of a mono-maniac because I’m ticked off that there’s no live sport on the telly, no NFL, no Ice Hockey, no football, no motorsport still mustn’t deny these multi-millionaires the opportunity to go to church and give thanks for their good fortune, for surely this is what they’ll be doing?

But how bad can it be; I’m not at work but still getting paid! Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday in whatever fashion they’ve chosen.

The above mentioned committed what must surely rank as one of the most heinous of crimes in the National Hockey League on Saturday night when he used his skate in a blatant and premeditated attempt to injure an opponent. I heard about this incident first in Don Cherry’s, Coach’s Corner section of Hockey Night in Canada, Cherry refused to have the clip shown in his segment, it was shown later and I can see why he wouldn’t have it shown in his part of the show as I suspect Cherry’s head might have exploded, which probably wouldn’t have made for good TV. I only saw the clip once so I don’t deny the possibility that I could be overreacting but from what I saw Jarkko Ruutu of the Penguins was on his knees, facing the boards, one of the referees or linesmen behind him, with his leg along the ice and between the legs of the referee/linesman. Completely unable to defend himself and unaware of what was going on behind him, Simon stepped on the lower leg of Ruutu with the blade of his skate. WTF? I know hockey players wear a great deal of protection, though not too much on the back of the calf and the skate would come up over the Achilles tendon, but I also know hockey players wear fearsomely sharp skates.
Simon has been banned for the remainder of a season before, but that was much nearer the end of the season, and I hope he receives similar punishment for this season. There can be no mitigation for such an act, there can be no clemency and there is no place in the NHL for anyone capable of such an act. Welcome to a very select club Mr Simon, let me introduce you to the only other member; say hello to Mr Todd Bertuzzi.

So much time, so much money, so much junk, so little substance. Whatever it’s genesis, and it seems to be something that was mainly driven by media wailing and gnashing of teeth and an astounding lack of concern from baseball fans, the Mitchell Report was never going to achieve anything resembling closure on the, so called, Steroids Era in baseball but even measured against this vanishingly small level of expectation it falls short of any meaningful impact. Even conservative estimates put the cost at $100,000 per page of the 400 or so page report and in a time when baseball revenue has exceeded $6bn for the first time this is money that could have been far better spent addressing the real world, here and now issue of combating the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport instead of regurgitating matters of existing public record, the history of indifference to drug use in MLB as witnessed by previous agreements between the owners, via the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, and the players, via MLB Players Association and repeating a screed of uncorroborated hearsay.

I don’t doubt that Mitchell’s motives were well intentioned but junk is junk whatever the motivation behind it and I have to ask why he continued to spend MLB money when it must have become apparent at an early stage, probably around the time that the MLB PA made it abundantly clear that they were going to be completely uncooperative and advise their members to do the same, that he was going to be unable to produce anything of substance. Clearly unwilling to admit his impotence in the face of MLB PA intransigence and running up against federal legislation in other aspects of his enquiries he continued to put together hundreds of pages of rag-tag and bobtail in an ultimately futile search for validation of the huge expense incurred, yet all that was achieved was further expenditure. The bulk of the accusations forthcoming were from two individuals of dubious credibility, a fact that requires no further bolstering that that given by Mitchell himself in his conclusion that the players named should not face any punishment as it is evident that the accusations will not stand up to scrutiny at an MLB PA instigated appeal, let alone a Court of Law.

Have performance enhancing drugs been used by players in MLB in the past and does it continue to this day? Yes. Is this news? No. Does hypocrisy abound in MLB in this regard? Yes. Is this news? No. Do the owners and the MLB PA need to take their collective heads out their arses in order to address this issue? Yes. Will they do so when it’s such a comfortable and warm contortion in which they find themselves, with more $’s going into all pockets than has ever been seen before? No.

The disconnect between the vast majority of fans, on one side and the media and The Mitchell Report, on the other side remains cavernous and provides more than adequate space for MLB to vacillate and for an MLB PA, led by the likes of Orza and Fehr, to fiddle whilst their members bodies burn. I hope I am wrong in concluding that the only trigger for cleaning up the sport will come about from the early deaths of ex-players who are known to have been long term users of steroids, HGH, HCG etc and it will then be apparent that wealth is meaningless if you’re not around to enjoy it. It won’t signal the end of performance enhancing drugs in MLB or any other sport but no one uses drugs in a vacuum and such individuals are far less likely to benefit from the culture of ‘turning a blind eye’ that has been, and remains, despite this half baked report, prevalent.

So the sweet F.A. are now the proud owners of a top notch Italian coach, or six. OK, I don’t have a problem with that, just who do you want, Sam Allerdyce, Harry Redknapp, Paul Jewell, Steve Bruce? I rest my case. That there should be more capable and deserving Englishmen coming into consideration is a fact I don’t deny and some blame that there aren’t may well rest with the F.A. to some degree but the fact remains that there aren’t and the F.A. have to deal with the situation as they find it right now, do we really want Stuart Pearce or Steve Copell learning on the job; I don’t think so. Putting aside the extent to which the F.A. is culpable for the limited credentials of prospective Englishmen for the job, where is the ambition to broaden their experience and CV amongst the names above? The last two successful English managers were Terry Venables and Bobby Robson, both were successful here and then extended their horizons and coached abroad and then came back to be successful in the role of an international manager. It looks to me that that all those above are comfortable in their present Premiership positions, taking their wedge of the Premiership cake, fighting off relegation or bumbling around mid-table and that’s fair enough if that’s the extent of ambition but don’t be disappointed when no one mentions you as credible candidates for the England job. It could well be that Capello’s commitment is to a pay cheque and not the badge on the shirt but he still looks like he brings more to the table on his way to his next monthly chunk of change than any of the time servers mentioned above who may have more passion for the three lions but significantly less managerial nous.

Capello seems to be his own man and has little time for egos and fools, so it should prove an interesting relationship with the players and press, and would manage in the way I would set out my stall, i.e. I’m going to be the first in the firing line so you’ll play My Way or I’ll find someone else who will and only time will tell if ‘My Way’ is successful. I’ll worry about conflict of interest when we are lining up against Italy in a championship final and as we know that’s not going to be coming about before 2010, thanks again for that Mr Minardi.

It seems that as someone who has used the East Coast Mainline in the past and was registered on GNER’s website, I’ve been invited to re-register on the new operator’s web site, only it’s crashed. Which leads me to speculate; could this new operator, National Express, be the same National Express which operates, thanks to our wonderful government, shite bus services all over the country? Could it, possibly? I’m sure it’s futile to remind them that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

It’s not been a good day, which I won’t go into here, but someone who reads this blog who I care for very much has had a very bad day and maybe that’s making me even more curmudgeonly than usual, but National Express must have got my email address from GNER yet I still have to re-register so presumably they do not have my details. So why is it OK for GNER to hand over my email address but no other detail? I regard my email address as being as important as my home address, telephone number etc, most of which can be obtained from the internet with little effort should someone so desire but I do not want my primary email address being handed around without a by-your-leave.

I can exclusively reveal, well when I say exclusively what I actually mean is I read it on The A’s website, that ‘The Athletics came away from the winter meetings in Nashville with the roster in tact’!! Well that’s just wonderful; the forty or so stiffs that stunk it up last season are in pole position to do the same for us again in ‘08, and this is supposed to be a measure of success? Looking at the headlines from the meetings I have tentatively reached the conclusion that Mr Beane has considerable influence over the website content with such thrilling morsels as ‘Beane playing it cool at meetings’ and ‘A’s lay in wait on meetings first day’ and what was the upshot of all this? We managed to sign a barely warm body through the Rule 5 draft, great, clearly you’re worth every penny Mr Beane. There is still plenty of time before spring training but there are major issues to address on the roster, we’re nowhere near a 20 game winner or 100 RBI man and no one in these categories is going to be walking through the front door anytime soon so even if Beane isn’t going to blow the whole thing up there are still multiple moves that need to be made to make up for the absence of such stellar numbers. And yet nothing is happening. It seems that both Haren and Blanton are ‘in play’ yet both are still on the roster, I have no problem with that as long as it’s Beane’s intention that they start the next season for us and, certainly in the case of Haren, move him on mid-season as his ERA starts to head south, have another look at where Rich Harden is and if it’s another shit fest, blow it up at or just before the trade deadline. Even if Beane likes to play his cards close to his chest I hope that he has shared whatever his strategy is with Bob Geren and the rest of the coaching staff so that if they are going to have to play substantially the same hand they had last season then they are ready to do a major coaching stint to get competitive team out on the park every day.

For the last few days, something viral no doubt. So feeling like crap, how fortunate it was that I had ‘House; Series 3’ to watch with it’s usual collection of needles in eyeballs, bone marrow biopsies, 30 foot tape worms etc. Generally up to the program’s usual high standards, though I thought there were a couple of clunkers but every episode is a joy on one level or another, if all else fails then just for the snippet of Teardrop by Massive Attack in the intro, an utterly fascinating piece of music. The internet is a very useful tool, when House first started I would have struggled to find out what this piece of music was, even though it was a top ten single in 1998 I don’t recall ever hearing it before but the internet soon took care of that. However, beyond identifying the track the internet then started to show it’s limitations, but possibly added to the intriguing nature of this evocative and melancholy piece of music. There seem to be quite a few takes on the lyric, about the only thing that’s agreed up on is that it was written by Elizabeth Fraser, (most say that it’s her unusual vocalisation on the track although I have seen a differing opinion on this also) though even the motivation is uncertain; loss, futility of life, relationship break down, a friend reported missing and that’s before the arguments start about the specifics of the obscure lyric. There does not seem to be anything on the Massive Attack website and another site claiming to have the ‘official’ lyric has the last line as ‘Stumbling a little’, which it patently isn’t, so how can the rest of the lyric, as reported by them, be relied up on? But none of this detracts in even the smallest part from this sumptuous composition.