20-07-16 Tuesday - Covid-19 Day #127 - Russia Report Day and ISC Shenanigans

So it seems we just don't really care? The government have been briefing for a couple of days now that there was attempted Russian interference in UK politics, and I think that has blunted the release of today's report somewhat. It might be worth reading back issues of Private Eye though; they have thoroughly documented how successive UK governments have sold UK citizenship to the highest bidders, and accepted large donations from Russian oligarchs. 

Why worry about espionage and surreptitious attempts to influence when actually it's being done out in the open? Ah well. Maybe we'll learn from this, maybe we'll have another inquiry. My betting is that nothing will happen, and the "executive" will charge on regardless. 

The report wouldn't have come out so soon, I expect, if Julian Lewis hadn't been elected as chair of the ISC. That was a fun event from last week, and may end up having a longer-lasting impact than the release of the Russia Report. Imagine scheming with the opposition so that Chris Grayling didn't get the shoo-in post he was promised? The fact that Lewis lost the Tory whip obviously gives the lie to the pretence that the appointment of the chair is an independent process. But once I realised who Lewis was, I also realised that there are pretty much none more Tory than him.

I can't really imagine anything guaranteed to be more annoying than a Parliamentary committee conspiring to elect someone else to be the committee chair and that someone else also be a loyal Tory - just not the one that No. 10 had selected. Ah well. Such are the fun events that go on in the House of Commons and its environs. Now that Parliament is about to rise for their summer break, how will we keep ourselves entertained? 
TTFN. 

20-07-01 - Wednesday - Covid-19 Day 107 - New Hardware

It's been a busy few weeks. I should have posted more here, but I haven't. Probably a blessing. 

Now, however, I've bought myself a mini-keyboard for my tablet, so I can type away to my heart's content - and inflict the results on the wider world. I've had my eye on a Samsung book cover keyboard for this S5E tablet I've got, but I couldn't bring myself to spend upwards of £80 on one, which is what they go for on eBay. Someone was auctioning one off with a Buy It Now price of £60 so I submitted a Best Offer of £50 and had it accepted. So here we are, with a new keyboard.

To be brutally honest, I'm not overly impressed. It's nice and all, but for the amount of time that I use a keyboard with my tablet (and I'd like to do it more), I think probably connecting a keyboard over bluetooth might be the way to go. The standard book cover (without the keyboard) is quite handy, and I've been using it happily to hold the tablet. The new cover, with the keyboard, is a bit bulky and not so ergonomic. But then, I guess it is intended to fulfil a different purpose. I'm not sure I can be bothered to try and sell it though - I might keep it and use it "on occasion". 

The other addition to the household has been a new laptop, a Lenovo S540, which I'm quite happy with. The screen is nice, the keyboard is backlit, and the processor is pretty fast (and therefore future-proof, at least for a couple of years). I've not really used it much because I use my chromebook more often. But it's good to have a Windows machine as an option in the house. 

Anyway, that's enough for me for today. 

TTFN.