Captain Tweed versus the fly - tippers from Hell.

My imaginary crime - fighting alter - ego "Captain Tweed" has had an outing this week. As some long - term readers will know, I run "Erith Watch" - the largest, and one of the most successful Neighbourhood Watch groups in the London Borough of Bexley. The group has had a number of recent successes; unfortunately most of them cannot be recounted here for legal and other reasons. One event that happened back in September 2013 has finally come to fruition, and the story can now be told. One day I was walking from Pewty Acres to do some evening shopping in Morrison's supermarket. As I crossed James Watt Way, I could see a large van parked round the back of the recycling centre in Morrison's car park. A couple of figures were unloading some large wooden pallets - I could not make out exactly what was on the pallets, but the stench was awful - like a cross between strong ammonia and acetone; it was truly stomach churning. I stealthily approached the fly tippers from the blind side of the van - and was able to read and memorise the van's registration number. I saw them continue illegally dumping their stinking cargo, and realised that there was little more that I could do at that time. I quickly made my way to Morrison's and went to the customer services desk, where I got a piece of paper and a pen to write down the registration number before I forgot it. As soon as it got light the next morning I went back round to the recycling centre and took the photo you can see above - which shows two tonnes of rotten bananas on the dumped pallets, with the liquid they released as they decomposed clearly visible in the culvert to the right of the photograph (it had not rained for several days at that point), along with several others that I then passed along to a contact I have with Bexley Council Environmental Crimes Unit. For operational reasons the person is keen for me not to reveal their identity, as I understand that they occasionally undertake undercover surveillance of certain suspects. For a long time, nothing seemed to happen - I did make a statement regarding this incident, and another that occurred some time later involving the same individuals and van. The Environmental Crimes Unit placed a surveillance camera in the area surrounding the recycling facility, and caught the same perpetrators a number of other times, as well as a number of other people illegally dumping waste. I was on standby to attend court in September 2014, but the two individuals absconded and were reported to have returned to Romania. On Tuesday evening I got an Email from my contact, and it made my week, if not my year. You can read the full report on exactly what had transpired on the Erith Watch website here. Do feel free to leave a comment, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. Suffice to say that Erith Watch will continue to covertly patrol the mean streets of Erith, helping the Police and other authorities to keep order, and also to try and foster a stronger sense of community amongst residents.  Neighbourhood Watch can really make a difference; I just wish I was able to tell you some of the other stories; maybe in time.

The changes to the North Kent railway line went into place this week; trains are now no longer running into Charing Cross, and from my understanding this is permanent, not just until 2018 when the works to update and refurbish London Bridge station are complete. The tracks that link London Bridge to Charing Cross are being removed permanently, so travellers from Slade Green, Erith, Belvedere and Abbey Wood will now have to use alternative routes if they wish to travel to the West End by public transport. On top of this, the promised twelve coach trains which were originally designed to compensate for the reduction in frequency of service are now not going to make an appearance. It appears that even though nearly two years of work was undertaken by contractors on behalf of Network Rail to extend the length of the platforms on most of the stations on the North Kent line specifically to allow them to take twelve coach trains, this will actually not be happening; the longest trains on the line will continue to consist of ten coaches. The reasons for this seem unclear and somewhat confused. I have heard two explanations. Firstly that South Eastern have been unable to source sufficient extra rolling stock from other sources, and secondly that they had forgotten that the platform at Woolwich Dockyard station is only long enough for a ten coach train, and cannot be extended due to tunnels at both ends of the station. This sounds like the issue that was discovered when Networker trains were due to replace the old “slam door” coaches. It was all fine and good until the Networkers got to Woolwich Dockyard, but they were too big to go through the tunnel between Woolwich Dockyard and Charlton. The old slam door trains had to be reintroduced whilst time consuming and expensive alterations were made to the tunnel. There are alternatives when only one station on the entire line is incapable of accommodating a full twelve coach train – you can either close the station outright (Woolwich Dockyard is apparently the least busy station between Dartford and Cannon Street) as was done during the Olympics and Paralympics (the cynics at the time said that it was really to prevent international visitors seeing what a dump Woolwich Dockyard was, but I digress). Alternatively they could stop the twelve car trains at Woolwich Dockyard, leaving the front and rear carriages still in the tunnel, and have an announcement that passengers wanting to get off the train would need to walk through to the next carriage. This is done on the Docklands Light Railway, where Cutty Sark for Greenwich station has exactly the same issue. Passengers have to walk along the train to get off – it is a bit confusing, especially for the large number of tourists who use the service, but overall it seems to get by.  I get the feeling that Network Rail and South Eastern are going to have a lot more problems over the next three and a half years whilst the complete reconstruction of London Bridge Station and the associated rail infrastructure is carried out. I am fortunate that much of the time when I have to use the North Kent Line to get into London, I am able to travel outside of the peak busy periods, but those less fortunate have my sincere sympathies.

With all of the terrible news that has come from France in the last week or so, I have overheard conversations where people are wondering if something similar could happen in the UK. Unfortunately the answer is “yes”, and think it is a question of when, rather than if. It is then somewhat disturbing to discover that the current radio communications system that is used by the Police and emergency services is only a short time away from becoming redundant, when the current emergency services system, which uses TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) is switched off. TETRA is halfway between a mobile phone system and a walkie talkie. It is an ancient technology and very poor at mobile data, which runs at 7.2kbs. There is a standard upgrade to boost that to 700kbps but it has never been implemented. Instead the plan is to replace it with 4G. The replacement system should have been implemented back in 2009, but due to (alleged) political interference the project has not been rolled out. The cost of the new technology Airwave contract has spiralled to £1.2 billion at a time when public service budgets are being cut back. Each handset will effectively cost nearly £2,000, even though a decent Android phone handset equipped with nearly identical technology can be bought for less than £100. The plan to move to 4G sounds sensible but the people who actually use emergency communications have deep reservations. While Airwave does support full duplex (two way communication at the same time, as with a mobile phone), one of the most important features the emergency services want is push-to-talk, a walkie-talkie like service. And that is where the focus of making mobile fit for use by the emergency services has been. What is often not appreciated by the mobile community is the issue of latency. Anyone who has used a walkie-talkie knows that the instant you press the button the person at the other end can hear you. There is no delay other than the constraint of the speed of light. Mobile phone push-to-talk systems are rarely like this. You press the button, it switches to the right app, fires it up, makes an IP connection and then starts the communication. This is not instant. Indeed, using such a system where you can see and hear the other person is un-nerving, with a significant delay that is more than an echo. Even a traditional 2G or 3G voice call has a little latency which you can hear if both people are in the same room. Push-to-talk latency isn't a problem in the “it might replace SMS” scenario the mobile industry once envisaged for it, but it is in an emergency. The classic example the Armed Forces give is to imagine a commander who has a team of snipers on a roof pointing at a target. He gives the command: “Don't shoot”. Unfortunately, in a cellular, IP based device, it takes a fraction of a second for the app to fire up and make a connection – a fraction of a second which is just long enough for the word “Don’t” to fail to make it into the message. Obviously this is just not good enough in a critical situation such as a terrorist attack as we have just seen in Paris. The other problem with any emergency communication system using 4G technology is that coverage of the country is patchy and uneven, with some areas having no signal whatsoever. Even if the emergency service personnel can get a 4G signal, you can then add to this the problem that with 4G there are other users on the network: ordinary customers, who, given that they are in the middle of an emergency, will want to call their mum or post a video of the incident to YouTube. There are systems in place to give emergency services priority, but network congestion is still going to affect the ability of the backhaul infrastructure to cope. All in all the situation is a mess, and could not really have come at a worse time. Industry insiders say that as the contract signing for the new 4G system is not scheduled until after the general election, it will probably get "kicked into the long grass", the existing Tetra system will be retained under an extension clause in the contract for at least another three or four years, despite the huge technical limitations to the legacy system. All in all not an ideal situation. 

Erith Town Forum will hold its 100th public meeting on January 28th 2015. The following guest article was written by the chair of the Forum, Doreen Ives. In 1998 the Government introduced “Capital Challenge” an initiative seeking to promote wider community involvement in decision making.  Under this umbrella the Erith Consultative Group run by local residents, was changed into Erith Town Forum In the early days we had some young people from the Ocean Park Estate joining the meeting to let us know what they felt was lacking in Erith and the seeds were sown for the Youth and Family Centre in West Street.  A supermarket in the town was high on the Forum’s agenda and when Morrison decided to build their southern flagship store here, a great cheer was heard, although very few of us knew what Morrison’s stores were like since they were mostly sited in the north of England.  There is no doubt that this was the kick-start for the Town’s regeneration with the refurbished pier taking pride of place. Unfortunately it took a long time and many heated meetings before the rest of the Town was brought back to life.  Much time and effort was put in to ensure the new Health Centre was built but with the loss of the market, a valuable retail attraction, all the remaining shops suffered.  Whilst Forum continued to press for overall regeneration, we looked for smaller benefits too, like better security and things to brighten up the town. We succeeded in getting CCTV, some tree planting, hanging baskets throughout the year and lights and community events at Christmas time.  We even had our own skating rink to brighten one Christmas. The Forum joined in celebrating when the first blow was struck on the concrete car park and Carey’s began their transformation project to produce Riverside Shopping Centre and of course we buried our Time Capsule in the walkway.  We worked with the Shopping Centre’s Public Relations Company in planning the “Jumping for Joy” opening celebrations, with members of the Erith Playhouse representing characters from Erith’s proud history.   When for the first time, fears that Erith Museum might be closed we were there to support the volunteers in their effort to make sure this didn’t happen. Erith has much history and the Town Forum decided that particular buildings should have identifying plaques.  We had the plaques put up and with the help of local historians we compiled a Town Trail leaflet and placed an information board on the Riverside Gardens with a map identifying those special buildings. The information Board was partly funded by Erith Rotary to mark their centenary year.  (The leaflet is available in the library, pick one up and do the walk).  We also ensured that the mural on the old swimming pool was not lost to the town. The need to engage with young people and promote positive behaviour was discussed many times and out of this came the TriForum which was a combination of Erith, Slade Green and Belvedere Forums all wanting to offer free sport and entertainment during school holidays.  Whilst the Council provided us with some funding, we continued to provide these activities free of charge to local children. Addressing ourselves to the older members of the community, Erith Forum organised free Christmas afternoons of entertainment, high tea and bingo for 140 senior citizens. We also joined with the embryo Bexley Accessible Transport scheme to take 40 seniors to the seaside for the day.  Again free of charge.   Sadly once regular funding was withdrawn by Bexley Council all these community activities had to stop. A major role for the Forum is to keep residents informed about new initiatives that will impact on their lives.  Initially this was done by speakers coming to our meetings, and our quarterly newsletter “TOWN AND AROUND” We had a circulation of 4000 copies. With improved communication methods, so the internet is now used to pass on information.  Our close working with Council officers during the early years meant we were part of decisions on  artworks in the town, we are particularly proud of the improvements to the Theatre, the Mural on the White Hart, the Fish, and the repositioning of the Erith Swimming Pool Mural, more recent additions to those previously mentioned. Once the Council funding was withdrawn, we looked towards charities to keep us going and were lucky to get grants from the William Kendall Wax Chandlers and the Awards For All Scheme. However Town and Around finally became unviable and so the internet had to take over. We were fortunate to get funding from the Riverside Shopping Centre on a regular basis which helped pay for our administration and the cost of holding regular meetings and finally for the last three years we have been fortunate to have funding from Cory Environmental.  We helped to promote and support FORGE who have made significant improvements to the Riverside Gardens and the foreshore, demonstrating to Bexley Council how valuable this green area is to our community. We have continued to promote Erith whenever possible with events, mainly using the River front.  We re-enacted the arrival of Alexander Selkirk at Erith Pier to celebrate the 300th anniversary of this event. In 2013 the last Thames Barge Race finish at the Erith causeway was marked by an afternoon of fun and games on the Riverside Gardens.  It was so successful that in 2014 we decided to do it all again. We called it ERITH FUN DAY and invited charities and small businesses to participate.  It was a great success, and Rotary Club Erith have agreed to take primary responsibility for organising this event in 2015.  Of course Erith Forum will take part and help to get in funding for the event.  Our Town and surrounding area has changed beyond all recognition since the first meeting of Erith Town Forum and the makeup of our community is very different. Therefore Erith Town Forum continues to have an important part to play in promoting community cohesion, by providing, an opportunity for the exchange of views, and information about local developments, together with social activities. Thanks Doreen - fascinating stuff. If you wish to become involved with Erith Town Forum, you can get more information from visiting their website here.

It seems that something good may actually come of the recent fatal stabbing of Olamide Fasima in Wolvercote Road, Thamesmead on the 14^th October. The News Shopper have reported that the Metropolitan Police are creating a new dedicated, ten officer strong unit to patrol the whole of Thamesmead. As both I and Malcolm Knight of the Bexley is Bonkers website wrote at the time, the two wards Thamesmead East and West will be no more – instead Thamesmead will become one ward overseen by the new policing team, whose remit will concentrate on drug and gang related violence – often one and the same thing. This is excellent news; I for one could never understand why for policing issues Thamesmead was divided in two, with the Western side falling under the control of Greenwich, and the Eastern half falling under the remit of Bexley Council. This to me always seemed like the worst of all possible worlds, as whenever an issue in respect of policing arose, doubts would spring to mind as to which of the two wards were responsible, and in the event of uncertainty or dispute, inevitably the two boroughs would point the finger at the other. Revising the ward boundaries to make Thamesmead one single, large police district makes eminent sense, and I wonder why it was not done before? With ten officers dedicated to the ward, I think there is a very good chance to fight back against the drug dealers and muggers who up until now have felt that they had free reign over the town. The only fly in the ointment is that it apparently took a murder before the new police squad was set up. Thamesmead has a lot of potential to transform from a rather mixed area of high – rise flats and low rise housing that has been dogged by crime, deprivation and poverty issues for the last forty – odd years into a desirable town with the arrival of Crossrail; juggling the maintenance of affordable accommodation with the inevitable forces of gentrification will be a challenge, but with luck many of the residents of Thamesmead will benefit in the long run. It would seem that the hope that the new housing in Abbey Wood and Thamesmead would be a sustainable mix of affordable social accommodation, alongside properties for outright sale is probably not going to be reflected in reality. A story broke this week, initially in The London Evening Standard, and shortly thereafter in The News Shopper. The Abbey Tower – a part of the forthcoming Close Quarter development which will be adjacent to Abbey Wood Station, is being advertised to investment buyers in Hong Kong. The estate agents who are commissioned with selling the thirty flats in the nine story block are making a special feature of the fact that the development is “a fully private block with no social housing”. They are selling the flats on the basis that in a few  short years the Abbey Wood Crossrail terminus will be open, making the area more attractive to London commuters. There are a number of problems in promoting the Abbey Tower abroad – not least of which is it is likely that a significant number of the flats will be purchased but not lived in – effectively “land banked” by wealthy foreign investors who expect the prices to go up so that they can sell at a profit later. Other apartments in the block will be rented out to wealthy tenants from outside of the area, meaning that locals with more modest means would will not stand a chance. I think that a degree of “gentrification” (a phrase I detest) is inevitable, and in itself not necessarily a bad thing – wealthy new residents need to shop, and some of their money should filter into the local economy. This has however not proved to be the case to much of an extent in the Woolwich Royal Arsenal Development in Woolwich however; very few of the wealthy residents ever venture into Woolwich Town Centre, even though it is only across the road from the gated development. Instead they shop for groceries online, and catch the ferry over to Canary Wharf to do their shopping. It seems to be a sad fact that the wealthy seem not to wish to integrate with normal local people – I presume they worry that they will be mugged or stabbed, or both. Unfortunately recent activity in Abbey Wood / Thamesmead would seem to support this concern. I am sure of one thing though – Bexley Council will encourage as many high net worth people to move into the area as possible – they want the council tax money, and encouraging developers to build high density accommodation in the area is one of the most effective methods of the Council generating extra revenue – this may well be the reason why they did not insist on any social accommodation in the Abbey Tower development. They seem to be keen to turn the area into the most intensive cash - cow possible, to the detriment of the local residents - a good example of this is the closure of the Belvedere Splash Park; sources indicate that Bexley Council will also close Belvedere Library, and the adjacent recreation park in Woolwich Road in order to sell off the land for property development - again so that they can rake in thousands in council tax to feed their supporters in the wealthier South of the borough. You can join the campaign to save Belvedere Splash Park by clicking here.

I am not a fan of Microsoft; whilst they might be a giant of a company, I feel that their products are quite often not as good as some of their smaller competitors. They also have a history of dubious business practices that I will not expand on here – you can always do a web search if you wish to learn more on the subject. Nevertheless they do form a major part of most people’s lives – a majority still use Windows based computers (though now the move is more to accessing content via mobile devices such as tablets and phones). Pretty much anybody who works in an office environment uses Microsoft Office. There has been much controversy in the last couple of years over Microsoft and their apparent inability to listen to their customers. This was epitomised in the row over the user interface for Windows 8. Windows 8 was primarily designed to work in a touch – screen environment, and few if any concessions were made to users who were still using a keyboard and mouse. Many private users, along with businesses complained, but Microsoft did nothing. Online forums and platforms such as Twitter were filled by the moans of dissatisfied techies and ordinary users alike. Microsoft did nothing until the sales figures started coming through – people were “voting with their feet” and buying PC’s with Windows 7; businesses were opting for “downgrade” packages which would enable a Windows 7 installation to replace the Windows 8 build that the machine shipped from the factory with. Eventually and with some pretty bad grace, Microsoft published Windows 8.1 – an update to the operating system which reintroduced most of the keyboard and mouse specific features that consumers and businesses so wanted. So far so good. The trouble has been that Windows 8 / 8.1 has now a tarnished reputation, and the sales have never recovered to the levels that Microsoft expected. Rather than continue digging when already in a hole, Microsoft have to their credit taken a step back and engaged with their customers. The end result of this is that the next version of Windows will not be called Windows 9; in order to underline how not like Windows 8 / 8.1 the next operating system will be, they are skipping the number nine and going directly to Windows 10. Early pre – release builds of Windows 10 have been available to developers and other IT professionals for a little while now – the screen capture above (click for a larger view) shows Windows 10 and the return of the Start menu that so many users wanted back. For those technically minded Maggot Sandwich readers, Windows 10 64 bit Preview Edition is running on my Apple iMac in a virtual PC environment using Oracle VirtualBox – there is no way I would allow any pre – Beta version of an operating system direct access to my hardware by actually installing it – virtualisation means if the OS goes bang, it cannot take any data on my hard disk or backups with it. To be honest, Windows 10 seems like it will be fine – and a big improvement over the last debacle. No doubt time will tell – the final complete version of Windows 10 is due to ship sometime in the Summer of 2015. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week is a bit of fun; it features the Cosmotron - a retro - sci-fi designed car. What is not made clear in the short film is that the chap that owns this one of a kind vehicle lives in Bexleyheath. If you watch closely, you will see them drive it past the rear of the Bexleyheath Broadway Shopping Centre, along Albion Road. Look out for it - I am sure it will appear on the odd occasion.

Captain Tweed versus the mouldy underpants.

The photo above shows the bus halt at the front of Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. It is normally a pretty quiet place, save for the sound of school children larking about on the way to and from lessons. You do get the occasional boy racer coming round the corner way too fast from Erith High Street, and on occasion they have been known to lose control and hit a lamp post or bus shelter (fortunately nobody was there the last time), but usually it is pretty civilised.

Just after I had published last week’s Maggot Sandwich update, I decided to head into town to do some shopping. Matalan is not too bad a place to get clothes for everyday wear, I do however find their stores to be badly ventilated and very stuffy; the Erith shop is particularly bad in this respect. I have pity for the staff who have to work there in a hot summer – last year I recall one occasion during the heat wave that the place was unbearable – I walked in, then straight out again, as the place felt like a furnace. I digress. I was about to cross James Watt Way on my way towards Erith Riverside Shopping Centre when I began to smell acrid smoke. Just as I did so, a fire engine came around the bend at a fair old clip, heading towards the recycling centre behind Morrison’s. It made sense, only the day before I had caught two teenage boys red handed, trying to set light to an old sofa that had been illegally fly – tipped on the site. It looked like someone had been back for another, more successful attempt. I followed the fire engine around to the recycling facility, and got there in time to see the fire fighters very efficiently extinguish the small blaze that had taken hold in a dumped sofa, chairs and a number of soiled and noxious looking old mattresses. Once the blaze was out, I introduced myself to the senior officer, and explained that I ran Erith Watch - the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme. He said that the problem of arson gets worse as the weather improves, and the temperature goes up; the vandals and ne-er  do wells come out from their bedrooms and behind their X-Boxes and start to look around for mischief. He said that this small fire was a classic case. Just as the fire brigade began winding in their hoses and preparing to leave the site, two members of the Erith Safer Neighbourhood Police team turned up. A small child who had witnessed the whole incident then approached the officers and said that he had seen two older boys setting the fire a few minutes earlier. He said that he did not know their names, but the descriptions he gave matched exactly with the two 15-16 year olds I had seen the previous day.  Whilst I was explaining the history of the problems experienced by the recycling facility, and a specific company that had abused the site in the recent past, one of the two officers said “would the company have a large white van with their logo down the side and a registration number of XXX by any chance?” I was surprised, and commented that I was surprised that they would have access to such detailed and accurate records without resorting to checks with the Police National Computer system. The officer grinned – “No, it just parked behind you!” The driver and passenger of the vehicle concerned had turned up unaware of the furore of only a couple of minutes earlier. For some reason they missed the fire engine, which had just driven off, and did not see the two uniformed officers as I chatted with them. The two occupants of the van got out, opened the rear doors and prepared to dump the contents. At this point I thought that I had better let the Police do their stuff, and got out of the way. After a minute or so, the two people and the van drove off, their load un – dumped, after having received an unexpected verbal warning. I will be keeping an eye out for them, as I feel it is more than likely they will return when fewer eyes are around. I hope to be able to report a dramatic new development in the fight against local fly tipping in the near future, but for legal reasons I will have to keep my counsel for now. More on illegal fly tipping later.

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the forthcoming release of an updated version of the classic text only game version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Well, it has now been released, and can be played online here.  It was quite the most mind numbingly difficult text adventure I ever encountered back in the day – and believe me, I played a few in my time. It is very clever, witty and downright evil. When I fired up the online version a couple of days ago, I managed to make 34 moves before getting killed – something that surprised me, as I had not played the game since around 1987. Most players don’t manage more than three or four moves at a first attempt. The game is basically a computer based version of the first radio series / book, with a lot of very clever puzzles, word plays and dreadful new puns thrown in. You start the day as a very hung over Arthur Dent – the main "every man"protagonist of the story. Your first challenge is to get out of bed – something that is far more fraught with difficulties than you might imagine. Do give the game a go – let me know how you get on, and if you get very stuck, I might even give you a hint or two. An outright classic of a radio series that successfully migrated onto the computer screen. It may have helped that Douglas Adams, author of the radio series and subsequent book was also behind all of the text in the computer game, whilst the programming side of things were handled by the masters of the genre, Infocom.

Following my piece on the new central Erith location for the new Bexley College campus, I got several Emails regarding the development. They echoed something that I wrote about before the campus construction even got under way. I found it remarkable that the college did not propose to use the Andrew Carnegie gifted old Erith Library building directly opposite the campus in Walnut Tree Road as the college study centre / library. It is a beautiful, practical building that has stood empty since the library moved into its new, soulless building in Erith High Street a couple of years ago. Several college staff regularly read the Maggot Sandwich, and one of them is in pretty frequent Email contact with me. He tells me that they did look long and hard at the old library building, as it offered a lovely historic setting, literally across the road from the main college campus. The problem was, the Victorian building currently has no provision for disability access, and the cost of modifying it to allow wheelchair access would have been prohibitive. The library would have needed extensive modification to install lifts, ramps and other access tools, and it became evident that it was impractical to viably undertake the changes to the structure, so the idea was abandoned. I just hope that the library gets another use before too long; it is sitting abandoned and unloved, when it would make a great space for many new uses – including as a character office location. Bexley Council for Racial Equality did use a small part of the library for offices for quite a period, but they moved out some time ago, and it is now empty and forlorn. Personally I find it curious that the library did not stay in the Carnegie building. The new library is smaller and has far fewer facilities than the old one, not to mention it is anodyne and lacking in any kind of character. I guess that the new library is a more cost effective solution to ever dwindling library user numbers as it is undoubtedly cheaper to operate that the old building, which must have cost a fortune to heat. It just seems tragic to me that one of the most attractive historic buildings in the London Borough of Bexley is allowed to go empty and unused. Your thoughts and feedback would be welcomed, either by leaving a comment below, or by Emailing me directly at hugh.neal@gmail.com

This week marks yet another thirtieth anniversary in the field of computers and technology. This time the anniversary is unlikely to be celebrated by many in Europe or the USA, for reasons that will shortly become clear.  Back in 1982 Microsoft – who at the time were nothing like the continent bestriding behemoth that they are today – came up with what was then a revolutionary idea, and one that made a lot of sense both then and now. At the time, home computers were all entirely proprietary. You decided which model you wanted to purchase, and once you had done this, you were tied into buying peripherals, and more importantly software that would only work on that make, and usually model of that machine. BBC Micro software only worked on BBC’s, Spectrum software on Spectrums, and so forth. It even was true for early business programs like DBase,  WordStar, Electric Pencil and Visicalc. Not only would a version of the software have to be specially written for each brand of computer, but the files saved by the programs on each computer were not compatible with other systems. If you created a VisiCalc spreadsheet or WordStar document on an Apple II computer, you could not read those files on a Commodore 64 or vice versa. Some enterprising individuals did write conversion routines to enable sharing of documents between computers, but the results were often patchy and unreliable. Microsoft thought that what the computing world needed, was a standard to which computers would follow, which would mean that not only files could be shared between different machines, but programs and hardware peripherals such as disk drives and printers too. At this point the IBM PC was a very much newcomer to the market, and aimed strongly at business users. Microsoft saw a gap in the market for home and small business users which was not being satisfied by another supplier. Microsoft worked in conjunction with the Japanese ASCII Corporation to come up with the hardware and software standard, which they named MSX (Microsoft Extended). It was designed to utilise cheap and easily available off the shelf components and a proven 8-bit Z80 processor, the same as used in the already massively popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This would keep the price down and appeal to programmers already familiar with the Z80 processor assembly language instruction set.  Microsoft created a truly excellent version of the BASIC programming language for MSX – some say that this was actually the best BASIC implementation available at any price at the time. MSX computers reached the UK in March 1984. All looked rosy for this pioneer in computer standardisation, and Microsoft looked about to make a mint. A number of large hardware manufacturers signed up to make and sell machines to the MSX standard. In Japan, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic all released MSX computers that sold very well in their home country , and in Europe Philips produced machines which initially sold well. All was not so good in the USA – a key market for any company wanting to establish an international business (and coincidentally Microsoft’s home market). Since around 1977 the Americans had expected even their home computers to use floppy disc drives – the big seller at the time was by far and away the Apple II. A cassette drive was available for the Apple II, but almost everyone spent the extra for a disk drive. Americans had larger disposable incomes that their European counterparts at the time, and this reflected on their computer choices. The problem was, the MSX standard initially had no provision for floppy disk support, which turned off potential American buyers. By the time the next generation of (still 8-bit) MSX computers with floppy drive support were released in late 1984, the first affordable 16 bit home computers such as the Atari ST range and the Commodore Amiga were on the horizon and almost the same price. The market started to realise that  8 bit was history, and whilst software might be compatible between MSX computers produced by different manufacturers, this was academic when almost no software houses were willing to write software for what they correctly perceived was a dying format. MSX machines continued to sell fairly respectably in Japan, but elsewhere the market collapsed. The subsequent release of a 16 bit MSX2 standard in 1985 was too little, too late. Microsoft and the ASCII Corporation parted company over disagreements relating to policy in the Japanese market – the only place that fully bought into the format, and MSX limped on until 1990, when Sony was the last company left producing MSX computers. By this time the aim of producing computers that were software and hardware compatible had come to pass – but not in the way that Microsoft had predicted at the outset. The IBM PC had unwittingly created a new and open standard, and by 1990 PC clones were commonplace. Microsoft made their mountain of cash by first creating DOS (Disk Operating System) for the PC, and subsequently the various incarnations of Windows and Microsoft Office which runs on top of Windows – the cornerstone of Microsoft’s business from then until the present day. Thus Microsoft snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but in a way that they really had not planned for, or indeed expected.

I think pretty much everyone in the UK gets a lot of unsolicited mail through their letter boxes. It seems to be a curse of modern life. I have whinged at length about this at length in the past, and I am not going to repeat myself now. The worst part of the problem seems to be what is called “letter box stuffing” – the posting of advertising flyers and leaflets through the door from dedicated delivery people. In the last week I have had a handful of leaflets advertising take – away pizzas and kebabs. There is nothing unusual with this, but the problem is, they are for food outlets in Dartford; one is even from a place in the Brent, which is pretty much halfway to Greenhithe, and according to Google Maps, over six miles from Erith. There is no way that these places would deliver a meal over that kind of distance, and there is no way that any sane person would want to – whatever you did order would be a greasy cold and congealed mess by the time it eventually arrived. Rather than just ranting on about the pointlessness and waste of money on the part of the companies that leaflet places way outside of their catchment area, I have decided to do something positive about it. It just happens that two of the places involved in this practice are part of a franchise. I looked up the website of the parent company in each case, found the contact details, and Emailed a complaint to them. I pointed out that it did not make business sense for their outlets to leaflet areas over six miles away – at least twice the maximum delivery distance quoted on the leaflets themselves. It is either local poor management, or the outlets are employing unscrupulous door to door leaflet delivery agents.

The two photos above were sent to me by regular reader, and sometime contributor, the Rev. The upper black and white shot (judging from the cars) looks to have been taken in around 1968, and shows Wilton Road and the old original Abbey Wood Station, complete with level crossing and signal box. I have no idea what the mobile crane in the photo is up to, but not very much later the old station building and signal box were demolished to make way for the current station building, which is in turn scheduled for demolition in the next few months to make way for a much larger terminus for the Eastern end of the Crossrail project. The lower photograph shows the same location, but taken from the opposite side of the road. The photo is also from the late 1960's and does not show the results of the 1953 flood as some people have commented - the cars are all from 1966 onwards, with the exception of the white Jaguar Mk II, which is a 1961 / 62 model, judging by the bumper design. Quite what the Doctor was doing visiting Abbey Wood I do not know - perhaps he had popped into the pub for a swift pint and a game of darts? Either way, the Tardis could end up getting a parking ticket if it stayed too long on the pavement.

The ongoing saga of industrial waste being illegally fly – tipped at the council recycling point behind Erith Morrison’s supermarket took a somewhat surreal turn earlier this week, following the events that happened last weekend that I recounted earlier in this weeks update. On Tuesday evening I popped around there to drop off some cardboard food packaging for recycling, and also to have a quick check on the state of the place, as I suspected that some more fly tipping had taken place; some locals joke that I have a crime fighting alter - ego called Captain Tweed. My suspicions were indeed correct. I found a large number of batched and bound together men’s underpants in piles on the ground. They were all covered in white mould. There must have been close to half a tonne of mouldy underpants! It would appear that one of the local second hand clothing collection / resale companies had collected the pants, graded them, then bound them together with plastic binding tape ready for export sale, and the underpants had then for some reason got attacked by mould, and the unscrupulous clothing dealer decided to offload the noxious knickers on the sly. The lengths that unscrupulous operators will go to in order to avoid commercial waste dumping charges is unbelievable. I know that Bexley Council Environmental Crimes Unit are very much on the case; unfortunately I cannot say anything else on this matter of high local interest at the moment, as there is every chance the miscreants are reading the Maggot Sandwich – suffice to say that actions are being taken and the bad guys will have every cause to regret their illegal and anti social actions in future.

The News Shopper are currently running an article about queuing – or the lack thereof in many places nowadays. When I used the local bus service on a daily basis back when I was visiting my late Dad in his nursing home, I used to witness disgraceful behaviour at bus stops on an almost daily basis. I recall on one particular occasion I was standing in General Gordon Place in Woolwich, preparing to board a 380 bus. As the doors opened, and I got ready to alight, a small hoody wearing Chinese bloke (whom I had earlier seen selling pirate DVD’s)  elbowed me hard in the ribs and pushed in front of me. He most definitely picked the wrong person – I grabbed the hood of his top and physically hauled him off the bus before giving him a good shouting at. I don’t think he spoke much English, but the tone of my raised voice, plus the fact I was twice his size and was wearing my trademark size 13 steel toe capped boots got the message through. I subsequently saw him pushing into bus queues in the future, but he made sure never to get near me again. Lesser versions of this kind of selfish and unthinking behaviour can be seen in public places all of the time. People just seem to have no manners whatsoever.

The end video this week shows a short explanatory film on why the number 42 is just so important; most people already know that 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Captain Tweed and the Ice Terror.

As you will see from the photo above, Wise Furnishings in Erith Riverside Centre has finally bitten the dust; no - one I spoke to could ever fathom why they ever opened a store in Erith in the first place; it is not a destination for big ticket purchases, and in any case, hardly offered the kind of goods most locals would have appreciated. I cannot recall ever seeing a customer in the store - the nearest thing to a visitor they would get would be someone sheltering in their doorway during inclement weather whilst they waited for a bus. I feel sorry for their staff, now out of a job in the middle of a horrendous financial crisis, but I had seen it coming from the very moment they opened their doors.

I have been out and about around Erith this afternoon with my trusty Nikon D300 camera, taking advantage of the unseasonal good weather to take some shots to see a mostly nicer side to the town that is Erith. You can view the results on my Flickr site here.

Captain Tweed has been involved in his biggest and most challenging case to date. The Captain's crime fighting lab has been instrumental once again in assisting the powers of law and order. Suffice to say I am unable to recount the events of the last few days in this very public forum. It is enough for me to confirm that collars have been felt, and some very nasty individuals will not be darkening our streets for quite some time.

The photo below is of one of the courtesy wheel chairs offered by Morrison's supermarket for their customers with personal mobility problems - I saw some buck toothed and unwashed chavs playing around with a wheel chair in the store earlier in the week; it would appear that this is what became of it. Given the chance, I would gladly throw the thieving scrotes into the Thames mud to retrieve the chair; the only thing is, I would make sure they were wrapped in thirty or so feet of boat anchor chain, on an incoming tide...



Two video clips this week; the first is the current TV advertisement commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the creation of Virgin Atlantic airlines. The 90 second commercial is one of the most expensive shot in the UK; apparently the budget was a shade over £6 million. The advert goes back to the launch days of the airline back on the 22nd of June 1984, and the whole thing is a glorious eighties retro - fest. You have got Rubik's cubes, Asteroids, Wimpy, and notably Our Price records (remember them?) All featured. The accompanying music track is also a bit of a curiosity; OK, most people will recognise it as the famously banned by the BBC "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but I doubt that many will realise that it is taken from the New York 12" remix, rather than the original single. Give it a watch and leave a comment below please. Oh, and at 30 seconds into it, check out the young guy outside of the Our Price Records store - he's either got to be a Time Lord, or he's got hold of the Delorean from Back to the Future. You may notice he's holding an LP; it is "Steel Town" by Big Country. Only one slight problem - the album was not released until October 1st 1984. I do these things so you don't have to.



One thing that pleasantly surprised me this week was the updated version of Minder being shown on Channel 5. I did not watch the initial showing, but was bored and waiting for Ian to turn up on Saturday evening, and it was being re-broadcast. I channel hopped and came across it. It was actually not bad at all. Shane Ritchie absolutely channels George Cole, and it is a shameless rip off of the classic original, and has definitely been filmed with the American market in mind, the series is absolutely in love with London, and shows the city in a very positive light.

Here is a trailer giving an idea of how the show compares to the original (actually it is a complete rip - off, but fun anyway).

The 99.

Some photos of the 99 bus which as of yesterday now runs from Woolwich to Bexleyheath via Plumstead, Upper Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green. It used to terminate at Erith, but the bus company and Transport for London in their wisdom have decided to extend it to its' original destination of Bexleyheath Broadway. The top photo above shows a double decker bus stopped outside of the Londis corner shop in Manor Road, Erith, heading towards Slade Green. The shot below is of another 99 bus on its' way towards Woolwich via Erith Town Centre. The bottom three shows two buses having recently passed each other whilst on service. You can see more photos on my Flickr site here.

I was sitting on the aforementioned 99 bus on my way back from Plumstead and my daily Dad visit, when I overheard a conversation going on behind me. A very greasy looking Chavette was telling one of her brood mates that she was sick of having children - after all at the age of 22, six kids was enough for anyone (!) I would not mind, but she really was no oil painting - it looked like her face had caught fire and someone had then put it out with a shovel, and her clothes were well over due for a dip in a vat of industrial degreaser. Travelling in public really does open one's eyes to the pitiable state of a significant portion of the local population. I often complain about my dislike of travelling, and I think having to interact with other people probably forms the core of it.

Why all this bus related information, I hear you ask? Well, I happen to use local public transport on a daily basis, and the 99 bus is a bit of a life line for me. The extension of the service is great for me, as I can pick up a bus heading either for Bexleyheath or Plumstead / Woolwich from literally my doorstep now. Nice. The only downside is that I now get double deckers passing with the upper deck at a level with my bedroom window, and if I am not careful, people will be peering in.



A great victory for Captain Tweed (as seen above - click for a larger version). GC's night club has indeed met its' much anticipated demise. Before Christmas, I took the photo below, showing the shoddy and unlicenced conversion of the former print works - photos which have been viewed by visitors to my site from the News Shopper website.



The large vinyl banner and the sign written panels to each side of the entrance to the dilapidated and underhand establishment set up illegally in the scruffy Fraser Road former warehouse have been quietly removed this week, leaving little clue to the nefarious affairs that had gone on there until the authorities and News Shopper were informed. A bit of common sense has prevailed, and clubbers have been well and truly clubbed.

In March it will be the 25th anniversary of the launch of influential offshore radio station Laser 558 - a station that literally changed the way radio was run in the UK. I remember spending many hours whilst in the sixth form common room at school retuning the communal radio away from Laser and back onto Radio Caroline - not that a strategy of this type ever lasted for long. I found the following short video online that you may find interesting.

The Boat that Rocked.

Above you can see both sides of a flyer published by the nefarious gang running GC's Nightclub on the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, Erith. Captain Tweed's intelligence agent has been hard at work. We now have conclusive proof that the club organisers are intending to blatantly break the Council's rule that the venue can only be used for occasional one off events, not regular activity; the rule states they can open 15 times in 12 months, yet if you read the details on the GC Nightlub Facebook page you will see that they intend to have regular openings on Friday and Saturday nights, hold custom car shows, have foam parties, under 18 nights, Bunny nights (whatever they are) and host live bands. All in a derelict warehouse with no amenities or planning permission on the middle of a hideous and run down industrial estate. They plan on bussing punters in from Gravesend, Dartford and London - not that there is any parking, of course. Still, the evidence is all there on Facebook - the Chav tribal networking site. You can also read further coverage and feedback from local residents on the News Shopper page here.

Well, it seems like off air recordings of me on Radio Caroline are a bit like buses. You wait ages then two turn up. The new one was made available by Steve Martin, formerly of RFM and Caroline. It is much better quality than last weeks' meagre offering. If I can find somewhere to host the 55Mb MP3 file, I will let you hear the results - I was still sounding very young and squeaky. The recording is me hosting an overnight album show, and the first record gets stuck in the groove. All good fun.

It seems like the derelict Erith Swimming Baths are attracting the attention of local low lives who have been firing rockets at the building from parked cars. They are no doubt visualising themselves as a kind of Happy Shopper Al Qaeda. I could not make it up - read more here.

I am not completely au fait with Twitter, but Stephen Fry has one that you can read here.

I was saddened to hear that seminal East London rock music venue the Ruskin Arms closed for good last night. The place was famously the cradle of Iron Maiden, and Colin Ward used to hold Radio Caroline rock road shows there on a regular basis. The pub is being redeveloped as apartments, a surgery and shops. A real loss.

I was climbing the escalator at Euston underground station on Wednesday morning, and I noticed that the familiar roughly A4 sized adverts on the walls of the tunnel has been replaced with mini flat screens displaying videos and commercials. What was especially galling was that they all seemed to be showing the amazingly irritating "I'm a PC" commercial by Microsoft. My irritation turned to mirth when I noticed that roughly half the screens were showing the familiar Windows Blue Screen of Death. I wish I had a camera with me at the time.

Since it changed in use from the Millennium Dome and became to O2 Arena, the venue has become extremely successful. People come from all around London and beyond to visit the place; the exception seems to be residents in South East London. To be honest, I thought until recently, the Arena was on the North side of the Thames - I did not realise that it was only a bus ride from Charlton railway station. This might explain the slight geographic demographic skew of the place. People in the local area just don't know how close the place actually is to them.

And now onto the main feature. The team behind Four Weddings and a Funeral have made a comic drama set on board a fictional offshore radio ship, during the summer of 1966. The film is called "The Boat that Rocked" and stars pretty much all of the usual suspects that Director Richard Curtis normally chooses. I retain an open mind about the whole affair. I will probably go and see it, only to sit in the cinema, picking holes in the accuracy, like the sad old anorak I am!

Below is a trailer for the movie; the ship very much looks the part (though too clean and shiny - there's no rust - unheard of!) The crew look too old; most in reality were early to mid twenties throughout the offshore radio era. Let me not get too caught up over technicalities such as there being no antenna wire strung between the antenna towers, the film is intended for a general audience, and as such I think it may well be a big success. We shall have to wait and see.

Captain Tweed versus the Stella Terror.

Captain Tweed had an encounter with a truly undesirable character that I can only name the "Stella Terror", as I don't know, or indeed wish to know his given monicker. I was on my way back from seeing Shirley down in Chatham, and was sitting on the train reading a copy of Metro that someone had discarded, when from the other end of the carriage I could hear a raised and slurred voice. At first I could not quite make out what was being said, but then shortly the reek of cigarette smoke started to permeate throughout the carriage. A man of about fifty was swigging from an (almost inevitable) can of Stella Artois lager and puffing away at a cigarette. Since both of the activities are illegal as well as being unthinking, selfish and antisocial, it understandably provoked my ire. I thought I would see if the scrote would get off at Northfleet Station, but unfortunately not; he stood, talking loudly to a young bloke who was trying to reason with him to put out the fag. His response was to hammer on the door of the locked toilet. After getting no response (many train loos are locked and out of service due to vandalism) he then threatened to urinate in the waste bin; at this point a woman sitting nearby moved down the carriage towards where I was sitting - she was visibly shaken. At this point I went into full Tweedinator mode (tm). Approaching the drunk and slovenly waste of protoplasm, I firmly told him to put the cigarette out as it was a criminal offence to smoke on public transport and that the consumption of alcohol was also banned. He was not overtly aggressive towards me (this was in my opinion a mix of him being somewhat physically intimidated, and the fact he was unable to string a coherent sentence together). He did manage to jab his fist, complete with attached fag in my direction, just as we pulled into Dartford station.

I got off the train and spoke to a nearby station assistant; she got onto her radio and within only moments two British Transport Police were on hand - a really impressive performance I thought. I explained what had happened to the two coppers and pointed out the offender who was skulking on the carriage, trying to stay out of sight, despite emitting a haze of fag smoke and alcohol. The police hoiked him off the train with one on each side of him; they checked him for weapons and made him stand to one side as an additional PCSO took notes and a mini statement from me. When I gave my home address upon request, the scumbag commented "I know that road - a nice area". I stopped mid sentence to respond "Are you threatening me?" and to the PCSO "Please note that I have just been verbally threatened". I then turned back to the scrote and said "Don't even think about it" or something to that effect. Actually I am pretty sure that he was too addled to remember any details - I don't think he is going to turn up on my doorstep - and if he did, he would regret it. Briefly.

The Transport Police were running a criminal database check on the perpetrator when I had to leave them to catch my connecting train back to Erith station. I was told they would give me an update on the incident some time later this week. I will let you know if anything comes of it, though I am not holding my breath.

On a completely different thread, I was making some notes for future Blog entries the other day; I made a heading of "Heroes" and started listing down names of people who I regard as being a hero in one way or another. The list included: Alan Turing, Freddie Mercury, Leonardo DaVinci and Kenneth Williams.

This week's video clip is possibly the most important one I have ever posted. I strongly urge you to make the clip window full screen (visit the video page here - you have the full screen option which you don't unfortunately get in my embedded video), close the curtains, or switch off the light and turn your computer speakers up loud. The video is a CGI simulation by staff at NASA of what would happen if a large asteroid were to impact onto the Earth today. The visuals are overdubbed with the track "The Great Gig in the Sky" by Pink Floyd. If this does not freak you out I doubt anything will. Please leave comments on the link below.

When Coleslaw Attacks - a Captain Tweed story.

I was in my local Morrison's supermarket on my way home from work; I had picked up a hand basket along with a pair of smoked Haddock fish cakes I intended for my supper this evening. I was walking in a leisurely fashion past the self service salad bar when I heard a commotion slightly behind me - I half turned to encounter a scrawny middle aged and raddled Chav screaming, swearing and gesticulating at an elderly, respectable looking couple who were using the salad bar. Thinking little of this, I made to go on my way when the feckless Chav picked up the nearby container full of Coleslaw and then threw it directly at me!

My brand new, brown herringbone tweed jacket took the brunt of the assault down my left side and arm - immediately I remonstrated, and the festering scrote then charged past me and further into the store. My immediate thoughts were "I have to be careful as this will be on CCTV" so I did not visit vengeance on him via my trusty "Plus Three boots of steel toecapped kickingness" (it helps if you understand Dungeons & Dragons, but I do wear such boots on a regular basis). instead I quickly contacted security and the store's deputy manager.

Once I had done this, An impressive security operation rolled into work. Security guards with the offender's description were placed at the two building exits; the assistant manager contacted a group of half a dozen of the burliest blokes in the store's employ and formed them into what I can only describe as a posse and then deployed them with me as posse leader to hunt down the offender. Unfortunately, despite all of our best efforts we were unable to locate the festering pustule of alleged humanity and after half an hour we had to abandon the chase. it would appear that he must have exited the store immediately after the encounter.

Had we found the scumbag, I would have been more than willing to press charges to the fullest extent of the law - up to and including having him gassed until he stopped twitching. Bastard.