Andy Fletcher

Widget Linkbaiting

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

An interesting topic was posted yesterday by the self proclaimed World's Greatest SEO aka Darren Slatten on Widgets as linkbait. Matt Cutts said some interesting stuff in the interview with Eric Enge, but as usual the answers were, when analyzed, rather bland and really what he was saying was go back and read Google's webmaster guidelines. Save yourself even more time by simply following the only really important Google suggestion on this topic:

"Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

I love the elegance, simplicity and yet huge capacity for failing in this. Google is saying we should really KNOW whether what we are doing is ethical, and perhaps most of us do. It's not possible, however, to accurately measure your own standards of ethics next to Google's of course!

Plastic bags - environmental problem...solved!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Fed up of hearing about having to pay 5p for a plastic bag? Worried plastic bags will be banned and you'll actually have to bring a bag to Tesco's? Unlike Global Warming, the plastic bag problem has always been an environmental issue I actually believed was happening. Well now it's solved, and seemingly completely and forever! Perhaps (I'm not holding my breath here) some other important environmental issues might get some attention now this one is sorted.

XP Service Pack 3

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:08:00 +0000

Microsoft have released it, so I duly scampered over to the update site out curiosity as to what this service pack would do before it automatically got installed on all the machines at work and everything fell to bits.

Pleasantly surprised. It didn't take all that long, required a rebbot (fair enough really) and presto the machine is running just fine. The only change I notice is that CD/DVD autorun, which had stopped running on my Laptop ages ago is working again. Funnily enough, I hadn't missed it though.

More man made Global Warming nonesense

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:07:00 +0000

The Register ran an interesting story today. Basically (surprise surprise) there seems to some confusion as to whether or not the planet is actually getting any warmer, much to the chagrin of the anti carbon crowd who are being made to look less and less credible on a near hourly basis.

The problem seems to be that the UK Meteorological Office's Hadley Center for Climate Studies are saying temperatures have been dropping since 1998. NASA say they have risen.

The best part of the Register's article is the suggestion that, if the world is cooling, we might halt the coming Ice Age by burning MORE fossil fuel, thereby releasing the needed CO2 to raise the planet's temperature.

The basic point being of course, that there isn't so far any actual proof, of any kind, that Carbon Dioxide actually has a measurable impact on the greenhouse at all, and in all likelihood isn't really doing anything much at all. Apart from making life possible on the planet, but let's not worry about that eh?

It's about time this was put to bed. This planet is facing some huge man made environmental issues which are on the back burner (if they are even treated with any importance at all) such as over population, food shortages, deforestation etc. Did you know for instance, in the last 200 years humans have removed HALF of the world's trees? Now THAT I can believe will have a dramatic effect on the planets' entire ecosystem. Forget buying a Golf Bluemotion (and in the process allowing your old car to go into landfill and poison the planet some more). Plant some trees.

Last week my uncle suggested I read what Bjorn Lomborg has to say about how best to preserve this planet as a habitable place for humans. In a nutshell, the amount we plan to spend pointlessly controlling carbon emissions is more than enough to solve some real problems - like the shortage of fresh water supplies, Malaria and HIV. Popping out for the book now. After planting a tree.

Andy Fletcher meets... Andy Fletcher!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:42:00 +0000

It had to happen eventually, given that in this wonderful creation we live in (the universe!) every particle doesn't simply follow one path, it follows ALL possible paths. At least according to Quantum Mechanics they do.

Andy Fletcher met Andy Fletcher in a rare quantum event on the 24th April 2008 at one of Andy's seminars. There was, of course, some trepidation that two identical particles occupying the same space and time might result in a spontaneous mutual annihilation, but fortunately the laws of physics saw fit to look the other way for the evening and the Universe, Andy and myself survived the evening unscathed.

Andy's talk was, I'm very pleased to say, exactly what I was hoping it would be. A lot of extremely complicated science presented in a lighthearted, intriguing and, most importantly understandable way (especially for a dunderhead like myself).

I got my copy of "Life, the Universe and Everything: Investigating God and the New Physics" signed with, and a rather fetching T-Shirt was also mine. You can't really qualify as a geek without a T-Shirt that's got a joke about Quantum Mechanics on it (black of course!) and the icing on the cake is it has "Andy Fletcher" written on it to boot.

Andy will of course, expect I suggest to anyone reading this that his book is not only a great read, but will add kudos to any bookshelf, so here's where to get it. Get it!

Playstation 60GB

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:53:00 +0000

I finlly decided I would cough up and get a PS3. It's a lot of money, but unlike the general populace I know just how powerful this thing is, and not surprised it's a lot more than a Nintendo console since they just use cheap out of date technology.
Unfortunately, it turns out Sony have stopped supplying the more expensive 60GB version that has backwards compatibility with PS1 & PS2 games for the European (PAL) market. I can't bring myself to buy a 40GB version that has been "crippled" to make it a few pounds cheaper. I'm certainly not keeping a PS2 connected to my TV alongside a PS3, and there's NO WAY I am throwing away my PS2 games - they're far too good for that!
Sony, for heavens sake, backwards compatibility (as I understand it) is done in software on the PS3 so since you've coded it already, add it to the console! You do WANT to sell me one surely?

***UPDATE***

Just realised this post needs the following added:

I crumbled and bought the 40GB version. Turns out the 60GB was withdrawn from sale due to a rather embarrassingly high failure rate. I was concerned that the backwards compatibility was missing, and still am although I really don't understand what the problem is, and why backwards compatibility with the PS2 needed to be done through hardware. Here's what I think. The PS2 was powered by a 300MHz RISC processor (a single core). The PS3 is powered by the cell - a multi core (there are 7 cores) processor that runs at 3.2 GHz. Now I'm crap at mathematics, but if you could squeeze the miracles that the PS2 achieved with ONE 300MHz CPU, you really ought to be able to create a stable emulator if you have SEVEN 3.2 GHz CPU's available purely in software, or am I missing something? The sneaky suspicion of course is that Sony don't want me (as a PS3 owner) having access to a huge catalogue of cheap PS2 games.

As a footnote, Call of Duty 4 is without doubt the best FPS I've ever seen, but I can't play it because Activision/Infinity/Sony saw fit to not bother including mouse support. I angry as a hornet about that, and may well end up buying this.

GT5 Prologue is just so damn impressive and enjoyable I set up a new GT5 Blog just to talk about it.

Man made global warming - rubbish!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:15:00 +0000

This week I was horrified to discover that man made global warming is now part of the national curriculum here in the UK and my children are being spoon fed this nonsense as part of their education. How on Earth an unproven media scare can be classified as science amazes me.

Here are a few problems with the "theory of man made global warming" which from what I read are not in dispute:

1. Global temperatures fell between 1945 and 1975, just when the post war economic boom was creating ever more man made carbon emissions. Solar activity was lower during this period (as anyone with any common sense knows, it is the sun which ultimately drives climate change).

2. Ice core samples, going back millions of years show a higher level of carbon in the atmosphere are as a result of temperature change. Not the other way around. Al Gore didn't feel this was important enough to mention.

3. Human CO2 production is MINISCULE compared to the natural sources.

I honestly do not understand why this farce is continuing. The theory that it is being used to stifle economic growth in the developing world is an interesting conspiracy theory. The idea that political activists have joined the ecological activists and are using ecological issues to attack governments is easily believable.

I'd love to see some SCIENTIFIC evidence that can convince me that what we are told is happening is really happening. I never will of course - there is no evidence!

Sony Picture Package VCD maker

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:16:00 +0000

I'm asked if I can transfer some video footage from a Sony Handycam DCR-HC35. Sounds simple enough so I happily install Sony's software package "Sony Picture Package VCD Maker".

Problem 1. After the install routine has completed I try hooking up the camera. A warning flashes up that I should have installed Macromedia Flash Player. This'll sound odd perhaps, but I don't need Flash on my machine, so I've never installed it. If webmasters are daft enough to craft websites using Flash that's their lookout and their loss.

Problem 2. I bite the bullet and install Flash (having a feeling I will be rolling back the machine with a system restore or maybe formatting the whole drive again to clean this mess up...) and guess what? The Sony software doesn't recognize my DVDRW drive. The real stinger is my computer is a Sony Vaio - they don't support their OWN HARDWARE.

Then it occurred to me that I'd been going about it the wrong way. I already have Nero and the "Nero Vision" part of the suite does video capture. Now Nero DOES recognize my DVDRW drive so I thought I'd be onto a winner. Unfortunately, it CAN'T recognize the Sony Camcorder!

The only thing left to try would be to re-install the copy of Adobe Premiere that came with the laptop originally but I'm loathe to do that due to a complete lack of faith that it will actually work, and my undying hatred of Adobe in general.

Next attempt will involve some actual video capture hardware. Let's face it, there must be a way to get this to work.

RIAA wins court case

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:38:00 +0000

Shockingly, the RIAA have successfully won the case against Jammie Thomas and been awarded damages of $222000 for her UNPROVEN "sharing" of 17 MP3 songs that she didn't own the copyright to.

She could have broken into the houses of 17 people and stolen a CD and got much less of a fine. In fact she could probably have gone on a nationwide crime spree and got a smaller punishment. Of course, if she had committed any "normal" kind of crime, the prosecutors would have been forced to produce evidence, rather than conjecture.

I'm glad I live in the UK. I don't use filesharing sites, but that doesn't seem to matter as the RIAA can sue you regardless of whether they can prove you were sharing files at all. They have in the past filed cases against people who don't own a computer or an internet connection.

Manners maketh man

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:18:00 +0000

What is the problem with people? I'm stuck today behind a car that's stopped right in the middle of the road. While I'm sat there wonder what on earth they are doing, the back door opens and this old lady climbs out. The car drives away. Since it's obvious she got out on the wrong side and wants to get to the other side of the road, I check my mirrors for any approaching motorbikes or cyclists coming up behind me, so as it's clear I smile politely and indicate to her she can cross - I won't run her over.

Now, when someone does me a favour, particularly someone I'm keeping waiting I'd have the decency to smile a thank you. The look this lady gives me could be translated as "I should think so young man" or more likely "Sod you, I'd have crossed anyway. Do you know who I am?".

Old people...one day I'm going to be one. Maybe I am one already and that's how I should behave.

BBC iPlayer BETA

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:04:00 +0000

Read a few random blogs yesterday complaining the new BBC iPlayer Beta wasn't up to much and didn't actually work. Well, for me it does and it's quite frankly brilliant. You can watch the last weeks BBC programmes free on your PC. Of course, if you're really smart, you have a wireless media connection to your TV and can watch it on there using your laptop as a browser.

Cool!

Senseless waste of time

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:24:00 +0000

So I get asked why one of the guys can't view a flash demonstration he wants to look at on the web and please sort it out now.
Now, I don't by default grant administrative rights to users. They don't really need them and it stops them from installing all kinds of dangerous rubbish on their machines. This guy was set as a power user and for some reason MS Server & XP Pro doesn't want Flash Player installed without admin rights. After 15 minutes of sodding about I give up and grant the user admin rights, and Flash is his to behold.
I tell him he should be good to go now, and out of interest what exactly was it (ie the URL of the page) that he was so interested in looking at...
Can you guess what happens next?
He doesn't remember. He knows the keyphrase he gave Google to find it, but there are 74.6 trillion results and which one he was looking at is (after 15 mins) a distant memory. Now I could at that point showed him how to use his browser history (ie a fairly basic operation with any web browser I would have thought) but he seemed to have lost interest in the whole idea at that point. I certainly had.
Anyhows, now he has admin priviledges, so the scope for cocking things up on the network multiplies about 20 fold. Looking forward to tomorrow! With a bit of luck someone will ask me how to find file>print. I'm not joking.

Traffic lights

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:41:00 +0000

So I'm sat at the traffic lights, and the lady next to me had been driving in front of me really slowly as we approached the lights. So I think to myself, take off quickly when they go green and I'll be able to get home a bit quicker.

Oh no. This lady decides it' a matter of honor for her not to be "beaten" at the lights and takes off, tyres screeching when we get green. Fair enough - I wasn't about to do anything dangerous, so I let her go ahead. Low and behold, having secured her prized pole position, she immediately starts driving at 28mph or so - on a 40mph limit.

I honestly wonder what this type of idiotic driving achieves. Writing a blog post about it might give the impression that I'm seething over the episode. Not so. If people want to behave like idiots on the road, that's their lookout. I just feel sorry for the cyclists. I used to be one, but there's only so many times of getting knocked off before you give up on that option if you are able to, which I have.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Andy Fletcher

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:08:00 +0000

Investigating God and the New Physics

Most book reviews end with either a recommendation or otherwise as to whether you should read/buy the book in question. I'm going to open up by recommending you DO at least read, and (from the authors point of view of course - no, I'm not him) ideally buy a copy.

I started reading with a slight sense of dread, that maybe the book (the author is American) would have an overbearing pro Christian theme and that I'd struggle with the points and conclusions. It doesn't. Anyone can read this book regardless of their personal beliefs and take something useful from it - I know I have.

Andy is evidently an accomplished mathematician, and no stranger to science (although he is quite modest about his prowess when it comes to science). He presents some fascinating facts about the universe we live in. Here's a few things you get to read about:

Relativity. One of my favourite subjects. Many books read on this subject, will never truly understand it though.
Quantum Mechanics. But in a way even I understood, and from an angle I hadn't considered.
Chaos Theory. This one will drive you nuts. Includes some interesting conclusions about:
The Second Law of thermodynamics. Entropy always increases with time. Andy doesn't actually mention Eden, but the implication of this law is that for there to be any order in the universe today (which obviously there is - you're reading this for instance!) then the initial conditions at the beginning of time must have been perfect. Absolute order. Eden.
Complexity. A group of "brainless" larvae arranging themselves to imitate another creature. If that sounds incredible, read the book and see what they do next!

Throughout the book I was reading stuff which I felt I simply wasn't even qualified to have an opinion on (particularly the maths!).

Here's Andy's website. To get a copy of the book, I'd recommend ordering via the net. Waterstones and WH Smith don't appear to stock it, although I am sure either could order it for you if requested. I got my copy through Amazon.
As a footnote, I've had an e-mail from Andy who should be in the UK later this year. I'm very much hoping I'll get the opportunity to meet him (and get my copy of his book signed!).

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:07:00 +0000

Just recently, MySpace changed the way they handle outbound links. So now, my MySpace page "effectively" doesn't link back to my website anymore. they've taken this action in response to spammers abusing MySpace popularity with Google to manipulate SERPS.

Looks to me like it was too little too late! Google appears to have penalized MySpace pages. My own MySpace page came number two (occaisionally No1!) for the keyphrase "internet idiocy". Today, Google doesn't even list it. I'm not talking page one, I'm talking list AT ALL. My MySpace page has been de-indexed before you ask, no I don't care - in fact I am pleased, the average MySpace page is the WORST kind of content on the net and certainly doesn't deserve high placement.

I don't wish MySpace any ill will, just that there is ZERO interesting content on it, and it appears Google have recognised this fact and taken some kind of "appropriate" action.

Of course, some (and I'm not saying I'm not one of them) people may take the stance that Google is penalizing a "competitor". Orkut anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:36:00 +0000

Letter received in the post today reads simply:

Telemessage

(My name & address here...)

Private and Confidential

URGENT

Dear Mr Fletcher,

Please contact us immediately on 08700100563 quoting reference 05011600063223816

Lines are open between 9.00am and 9.00pm Monday-Thursday and between 9.00am and 8pm Friday.

What's truly bizarre is the footer of the letter. It says:

Registered office - 81 Newgate Street, LONDON EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England No. 1800000.
British Telecommunications PLC has no responsibility for the contents of this message or for the decision to send it.

I'll bet they bloody don't! Now if (and I don't belive it can be) this is a communication from BT, they've lost the plot.

If (more likely) this is from some idiot mass mailing people from a database he found somewhere in order to get them to call his national rate number so he can make a couple of pounds out of the general publics' inbuilt gullibility I wonder how much he'll make.

Are the British public REALLY this stupid?

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 23 May 2007 23:41:00 +0000

Is it just me, or does anyone else find Q3's PB won't update by itself and "pbweb.exe" is the only way to update? And for the love of *insert deity of choice* why does it need updating so often? Honestly, this is the worst thing ever. If I'm on a server and someones cheating, I leave. No flames, no rhetoric, just go find someone else who ACTUALLY wants to play. PB is simply a waste of my time

As a side note, don't know what "Q3" and "pb" are? Just go. Google something and leave. Finding out will not help you.

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Mon, 21 May 2007 01:11:00 +0000

Today I was confronted by an exhibition of blind, unwavering faith that I found quite alarming. My brother in law told my son (James - he has a keen interest in dinosaurs) that according to the Bible, not only did man once co-exist with dinosaurs, but that some dinosaurs were present on Noahs' Ark.
My son, who is quite well read on the scientific points of evolution, quickly pointed out how absurd this was based on the geological records' clear indication that the last dinosaurs died 65 million years ago, whereas modern humans only appeared 10 thousand or so years ago.
My own reading (in particular Stephen Hawkings' "Brief History of Time") has cast serious doubts on my own faith. The uncertainty principle of quatum mechanics would, from a mathematical viewpoint, appear to be a veritable disproval of the existance of a God who cared to take any active role in the development of creation. Quantum mechnics implies that if there is a God, He created the Universe and left it to run under a strict set of laws set at the moment of creation. The "big" point being that if this is the case, He chose to have no further dealings with the development of the Universe and "free will" (for instance, the ability to choose between following a religion, or not following one) does not even exist. The particles that make up our bodies, the life around us, our planet, everything are simply following paths set at the moment of creation (the Big Bang).
So, as a father, what do I tell my son? To believe, blindly, in the Bible, or to believe what he can see (and what science can "prove" is real).
The belief in a God precludes the need for proof. Proof of a God would deny the existance of such a being by removing the need for belief.
If there is a "God" and a "Heaven", what is the real purpose of this existance? Simply to make God know we believe and then to get the ultimate prize of immortality? Sounds like a cheap way to get what we all really crave - and if life has taught me anything, nothing cheap is really worthwhile. Why would God treat humans any differently from all the other myriad ilfeforms on this sphere (including the Moselms, Jews, Hindus you name it).
I'm sorry, but this is the worst kind of false hope imaginable. Am I really to believe that all the people who lived prior to Christs birth are condemned to eternal damnation, or just cold death, whereas thos born after Him, and follow his faith can be "saved" and rewarded withh eternal life? It's gotta be bollocks. I'm sticking with Jediism for now.

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:40:00 +0000

So a glass of wine gets spilled on my Belkin wireless router and it dies. Hurrah! Time for a new, and hopefully better wireless router. The options are seemingly endless these days, and they are cheap too. There was, however, only one choice. Once you've seen the Linksys WTR54GS you'll fall in love with it. It's absolutely tiny, and yet the PSU is integrated so no unsightly power brick (this is one of the aspects of the NEC 93v 19" monitor I have at work that I really like). The underside of my computer desk is awash with power bricks, so losing one is great.

Oddly, I didn't want it because I want to use it away from home (although the option is now a practical one if I do). I just wanted to save space and boy does this ever fit the bill. Looks cool too. Get one.

One word of caution - doesn't work well with VPN - still working on that.

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:14:00 +0000

This I find interesting. You can see on the right (hopefully) the link to my MySpace page using the anchor text "internet idiocy". Just checked it an low & behold, my MySpace page comes up number 2 on Google for that search keyword. That's "achieved" (and bare in mind I don't give a monkeys wheer my awful MySpace page is in SERPS) a number two result for what I don't think is an unreasonable serach query. The only thing that's beating it is the internetidiocy.com domain and I don't fancy trying to beat that - a lot of work and no real benefit.

Some people have suggested anchor text isn't as important as it once was. Here's the proof of the pudding - I can tell you the destination page doesn't contain either word, so that ONE link using that anchor text achieved the page one Google result all by itself. This whole SEO thing is starting to get interesting (at least, I think so). Check my previous post on a page one result (nothing to do with anchor text) here:

http://www.tomcatuk.net/2007/04/ive-never-really-believed-use-of-h1-tag.html

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:38:00 +0000

Er, seems the CSS I used for the blog interferes with Google a bit. Click on the "cached" link on any Google result I come up for and the graphics I'm using for borders overlays all the Google data. A bit annoying as I'd like to see when Googlebot last visited. He's a fareweather friend at best!

If you want to try this out, you ought to get a page one Google result for the tomcatuk.net domain with my name - "Andy Fletcher". Click the "cached" link beneath the result.

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:30:00 +0000

Bought a Sumavision (no, I've never heard of them either) hard disk caddy that includes a digital video player chip and can plug right into the TV for playing AVI's & ripped DVDs. Stuffed a spare hard disk in it, copied a load of AVI files that have been eating away at the hard disk space on my PC and pluddeg it into the telly.

Works an absolute treat. No mre burning DVDs just to have Nero chirpily tell me "burn process failed at 98%". Oh no. Just plug it into the PC, copy the file(s), plug back into the TV and away you go. The kids aren't hassling me to watch something they like that I happen to have downloaded anymore.

I'm going to get another one very soon!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:15:00 +0000

My beloved Logitech MX1000 finally died. Some wouldcurse and suggest that it can't have been so great a quality mouse, but I know the amount of abuse it got and the pleasure it was to use for two years represented value for money. As luck would have it, one of my wifes' friends managed to spill an entire glass of wine over my keyboard on the same weekend the MX1000 finally gave up the ghost, so it was time to replace both.

We all make mistakes, but I've never made a mistake by buying something with a Logitech badge on it. Until now....

Enter the MX3200 keyboard & mouse combo. It looked like an ideal choice and I was desperate enough not to have the patience and buy mail order/internet to save money and rushed right down to PC World to pick one up.

Firstly, the mouse. It's good, although nothing like as good as the MX1000. Works fine but feels a bit cheap.

THE KEYBOARD. My God, the keyboard. The keys feel like something you'd expect on a $5 purchase. I could forgive that, but Logitech have (as far as I'm concerned) made a fatal design flaw in this keyboard. You cannot press down the "W", "A" and spacebar keys simultaneously. This will mean nothing to some, but for anyone playing FPS games (Quake for me) it renders the keyboard useless. A total waste of money. Sadly I've read some reviews of this keyboard and hardware sites are "recommending" it, including recommending it to gamers. Don't be fooled - it's rubbish!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:10:00 +0000

The Inquirer is running an interesting story today on a 15 year old boy who fooled YouTube into taking down videos for alleged copyright infringement. The laughable part being that the copyright holder not only knew YouTube were hosting some of their content, but was actually pleased to have it there as it gave them free exposure.

This, for me at least, highlights a worrying possibility. It seems almost anyone, regardless of their ability to prove who they are, can have content removed from major sites. Today it's videos on YouTube. Tomorrow it'll be some kid in Romania getting your site barred from Google using similar tactics. It would have to be the ultimate SEO tactic. Just get all your competition delisted.

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:54:00 +0000

LOST - despite the dropping ratings I'm still one of the ones following Lost and obviously since the first episode I've been trying to understand what the blazes is going on. This weeks episode (I believe) has exposed the core "truth". This weeks episode answered so many questions that I'm now just waiting for my conclusions to be confirmed.

The "others" are a collection of scientists (this won't surprise anyone watching). My conclusion is that they're working on the idea of a utopian dream on the Island with a view that OFF the Island mankind is doomed (for whatever reason - I damn well hope it's not going to be carbon emissions since that particular debacle has been shown for the fallacy it is). They've been trying to understand the Island's seemingly magical properties, but ran into a major snag when it turned out the Island won't allow conception of children to take place within It's boundaries. Hence the need for Juliana to join them to "fix" the conception issue. They "replaced" the Dharma corporation who left the island having "run out of money" (more support for capitalism).

The "others" have been stealing children as a reaction to the fact they cannot conceive safely (or more importantly, effectively).

The "others" cannot tolerate the plane crash victims because they are not "perfect". IE the plane crash crowd contains psychotics, killers, criminals, conmen etc. In a brave new world these characters are removed from society, hence the "others" intolerence of them. The "irony" being that the "others" by necessicty have to become killers themselves in order to protect their dream of utopia and in that process become that which they most despise.

The conclusion is going to be a pretty good endorsement of capitalism. The utopian dream will fail (utopia is not part of the ideals of capitalism - capitalism is about the few controlling the many, whereas in a Utopia democracy really exists - despite what the supporters of capitalism may say - a capitalist, like the "others" will tell you what they want you to hear). Not only that, but the opposer's of the dream will also fail. The winner will be the company that funds the scientists on the island. Corporate power is shown to be the true and lasting strength in the modern world (let's not forget ABC is a corporation!). In the end we will be given a typical "American" response extolling the virtues of "Freedom" and "Tolerance" whereby the likes of James (the conman), Kate (the murderer) and Said (the torturer) are shown to have a good side and ultimately the ability to contribute to Society. The tongue in cheek aspect being that the corporations that control America outwardly support such ideals, while in practise have little or no interest in them.

Just as a footnote, no, I am not a Communist. I'm certainly not a Capitalist. If you understand the term Socialist as being someone who believes we all make society the way it is, and have a responsibility to understand that our own actions to affect the lives of others, then by all means label me as such.