Tottenham Hotspur, Title Contenders?

So far so good for Tottenham this year, after the highs of last year’s Champions League were followed by the lows of failure to qualify it looked like our progress of late may have run aground, this season however has seen Tottenham seriously mentioned as a title contender for the first time since I can remember (I Started to support them in 1991) and it is definitely the first time I can remember them being level with points with Man Utd the business side of Christmas.

Unfortunately I have still been a spurs team throughout the 90’s and the 00’s so I am still slightly reluctant to believe that it isn’t all going to go wrong (Just too many false dawns.) this may all change however in the next six weeks as we enter our “Hell” period:

22nd January Man City (A)
31st January Wigan (H)
6th February Liverpool (A)
11th February Newcastle (H)
26th February Arsenal (A)
3rd March Man Utd (H)

Yes in 6 weeks will meet 5 of the top seven including trips to the City of Manchester, Anfield and the Emirates, this next 6 weeks should tell us if we are title challengers or just a footnote on a future sky sports premier league years programme. If we can arrive at the evening of the 3rd March in the top four then I will feel quite confidant of a top 4 finish (as I think we have a very easy run in) If we can actually win 3 or 4 of those encounters then I see no reason why we should not be considered title contenders. Personally I will happy with a draw against Manchester City and Arsenal. Think we should be able to beat Man Utd and Newcastle at the lane and would hope we can get a result from Anfield, but no matter how good we have been this year part of me will still be suspecting that we may lose all of them and be faced at the start of March with a tough road to re-qualify for the Europa League, either way these next few weeks will decide our season.

New Phone Review - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Well I finally managed to get my hands on my new handset 6 months after first looking around, The new handset is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which at the time of writing is the only phone to be featuring Android 4.0 (AKA Ice Cream Sandwich)


Initially I did not think I would be able to have this phone as it is not on sale with T-Mobile in the UK and I did not want to lose my unlimited internet so I had started to resign myself to the release of the two new HTC Quad Core Devices due for release Q2 of this year however after being offered the Nexus on Three with unlimited internet for £41 a month I decided it may well be time to switch from
the network I had been with since I got my first mobile back in the 90’s. I called T-Mobile to ask for a PAC-Code and instead they told me I could actually get the handset from Carphone Warehouse, not just that but they would give me a £20 a month reduction (to £25 a month) and I could keep my unlimited internet. So I picked up my phone Saturday morning at 10am and it took until about 10:35 until I was hooked.

Looks wise when I first saw the handset in the shop my first thought was “Massive” but strangely enough as soon as I got it in my hand it didn’t occur to me, If I place it next to my old Desire again I am shocked by how big it is but whenever it is back in my hand it just seems to fit, perhaps this is just that I have big hands, but it feels a good size. The Shape of the phone also helps with a very thin top side 6mm with a much wider base (11mm) this has the effect of the phone feeling light but with a substantial weight where you are holding it which gives it a good feeling of quality. The most noticeable thing on first glance is that there is a complete lack of any buttons on the front (In fact there are only two buttons on the phone (On and Volume)) this is likely to become the Ice Cream Sandwich standard as the new Android features on screen standard buttons (Home, Back and Multi-tasking)

Ice Cream Sandwich features a few interesting features many of which are more fun than reliable but show the way things are going to go:

Face Lock: Alongside the standard Android unlock options (Pin or Pattern) ICS features a face unlock option, simply look at the screen and it opens, now whilst this is a fun feature it can be slightly temperamental in less than perfect light and makes people think you are using your phone as a mirror, so you may seem a little vain, you can always bypass the face lock to access a pattern or pin
unlock instead.

People: The people app has had an update since my last Android Device (Running FroYo) particularly the ability to link in more accounts so I can link in my Googlemail contacts, Twitter Contacts, G+ Contacts and Linkedin Contacts. Now I am sure you may have noticed the obvious omission from there in that I did not include Facebook; unfortunately the ongoing disputes between Google and Facebook mean that people does not feature native support of facebook contacts. Obviously as I can not be bothered to come up with pictures of all my friends this was a bit annoying, luckily there is a way around it via a third party application, there are a few available but I personally selected HaxSync as it had been highly recommended – it set me back 62p but as soon as I had that and facebook app installed I could link my contacts to my facebook friends. Another good feature of people is the ability to “Star” your favourite contacts meaning that you can split off the people you
use most often who are displayed in a simple to use grid.

Voice Type: The voice typing feature is now a standard on all areas where you can type and seems remarkably responsive, I have dictated quite long text messages with so far no issue whatsoever.

Multitasking: One of the three buttons that exists on the bottom of the screen is for multitasking and selecting it will open up all of the open apps which you can return to with just a tap, or shut down with a quick swipe. A very similar interface is used for notifications where you can swipe to dismiss or touch to select.

There are plenty of upgraded experiences as well, such as the Apps menu which just feels nicer to navigate than a long list and contains all of your widgets as well, also the Google search bar is now a permanent feature at the top of the phone, and the long awaited arrival of the folders for your apps allowing you to better organise your apps so you can really take advantage of the 14GB of internal memory. Everything combines to make the phone feel both cutting edge and simple & intuitive.

If I was pushed for a downside I would have to say that the lack of an external memory card is a little disappointing but with 14GB internal memory I doubt it will cause me too much of an issue between now and next June when I’m next up for renewal.

Social-Capitalism

I have been thinking a lot lately about the idea of responsible capitalism personally I think from Westminster at the moment it is a lot of “Sound Biting” and an attempt to appease people with words they know but do not understand the meaning of, That said my ideal system would be what I would call the social-capitalist system where instead of kicking the free market with its size 90 boots the government could instead operate benevolent companies in the market place (For Example the BBC in Media, Northern Rock (had they not taken a massive loss to sell them) in banking, British Energy (Again had they not been sold) in the utilities) These companies which would by law have to strive to be profit making and would not be allowed to receive tax funding could then be used to provide a socialist element in a capitalist system.

This could include taking the unemployed on to provide skills and work experience (At
the same time making them work for their benefits) They could also ensure that price
fixing would be impossible as they would always look to lower end consumer prices whilst ensuring that there was still a level of profit to be made (Otherwise people would stop running businesses) and finally each company would provide a decent amount of money into the exchequer to remove a lot of the tax burden from the private sector. This way the government can manipulate the market rather than trying unsuccessfully to control it.

The important fact that seems to be lost of the protesters at St Paul’s is that unlike socialism and communism which try and control the way people behave to reach an ideological result capitalism is actually looking at things the other way as it does not try and change the way people behave but rather tries to explain the way people have behaved since society began, There is no way to abandon capitalism as it is our default setting and every attempt to move away from capitalism soon reverts to a close proximity to capitalism as people look to return to their natural behaviour, the challenge therefore is not to remove capitalism but to use it
to achieve the required aims, manipulate not devastate.

Not Been Around For A While

If I had any regular readers I am sure you would have noticed that my blog has not been active in the last few months, My mother was taken unwell with cancer back in July and to be honest I really couldn’t be bothered with much other than trying to spend as much time with her as possible. Unfortunately despite all of her efforts my Mum lost the battle two days before Christmas and so has now gone on to whatever adventure lay ahead of us all.

I would therefore like to take a few seconds of blog silence to remember my Mum a lady who was to me without equal and in life someone who touched the hearts of everyone she met.

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Good bye Mum, you will never be forgotten.