Spring.

Despite all of the current doom and gloom in the press and elsewhere, at least some things can cheer people up. I took the photo above (click on it for a larger view) during the week; spring is well under way, as you can see from the blossom on the trees. The area around Erith Pier is due for renovation soon; the works may well be delayed by the current lock down though. As you can see in the photo, the flood barrier at the entrance to the pier is closed - indeed it has been closed for several weeks, and at the time of writing I do not know why. If you have any inside information, please Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com in confidence. 

Residents across the borough are being asked to think of others and to not light bonfires during the current Coronavirus pandemic lock down. The effects of bonfires at this time are likely to be much more serious and have a bigger impact. The Coronavirus is known to cause serious respiratory problems, which could be made much worse if the sufferer is exposed to smoke from bonfires. It is important to be especially considerate at this time, when people are confined to their home and unable to escape unpleasant fumes. Bonfires can also become out of control or cause accidents, creating extra pressure on the already busy emergency services. It is understood that the changes to collection services and the closure of the refuse and recycling centres may create a storage issue for some residents. The council request - "Please think of others, compost your garden waste where possible, and stack or bag up rubbish for disposal when the current emergency is over, rather than burn it. Bexley Council will take enforcement action against any persistent offenders where bonfires cause an impact on neighbours. Bonfires can be reported via the Council's website".

If you have an Android smart phone, use a Chromebook like mine (click on the image above for a larger view), have a car with an onboard infotainment system, surf the web, or have a smart TV, or use social media, then without knowing it, you have used the Linux operating system. Linux is used by NASA, The London and New York stock exchanges, it controls The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, it is the operating system of choice of 497 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, and is the backbone of Netflix - and pretty much both the Internet and the World Wide Web which is built on top of it. This hugely scalable and reliable operating system pretty much runs the modern world, and for the most part most people are completely unaware of it. Microsoft Windows may dominate the desktop and laptop computers of ordinary people, but outside of this area Linux is by far the more widely used computer operating system. The very first version of Linux was released to the world in 1991, but this week marks the start of the development of it in the Spring of 1990 by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds precisely thirty years ago. I have been using Linux since back in 1997, when it was very much the purview of IT professionals; it was lacking features, incompatible with a lot of hardware (getting online with Linux back in the day was an exercise in frustration – even very common hardware such as the then ubiquitous U.S Robotics 56K modem could be an utter bugger to get working).  I recall the hours I spent trying to get my Red Hat 5.1 Linux installation to do what it should do. Back then Linux was far more stable than Windows 98SE or the utter car crash that was Windows ME (oh the horror!) but conversely you had to be a real guru to get things done. I think this is where the negative image of Linux being unsuitable for the desktop came from. Nowadays things are far better – device support is superb – in many cases better than Windows and Linux now “just works”.  Very few people ever install a computer operating system from scratch – they buy a machine with a preinstalled OS and it stays on the machine for its life. Tinkerers like me do OS installs on a regular basis. It really is straightforward whether you are talking Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux or Apple OS X. You just follow the onscreen prompts and it pretty much does it for you. Personally I think that Linux has made far more of an impact in ways that few people realise – Google, FaceBook, Gmail, Netflix and Amazon all run on a version of Linux; it would be true to say that the Internet runs on Linux. If you have a smartphone that is not made by Apple, or a flat screen television, a set top box, whether it be a Sky satellite TV receiver, Virgin cable box or a Freeview receiver, they all run embedded Linux – it is the only operating system that powers devices from a toaster to a supercomputer with everything in between. Android, as used in smart phones and tablets is actually Linux with a whizzy interface suitable for touch operation. You can see from this that whilst Windows has for decades dominated the computer desktop, it has had little influence on the infrastructure and underlying technology of the modern world. As society moves away from large desktop PC’s, (and to a lesser extent away from the traditional laptop) and relies for online connectivity from smart phones and tablet devices, the underlying operating system has less significance than the applications that users wish to run – indeed, many applications are nowadays run online in a browser window – sites such as FaceBook, Instagram, Flickr and Twitter don't require a locally installed application, just a browser with connection to the web. Google grasped this early on with their excellent Google GSuite application suite and its close integration with both Gmail and Google Drive storage. The Google Chromebook range of computers embraces this – they are cheap, relatively low powered laptops that just run a the Chrome web browser and enable cloud based storage. Indeed the Maggot Sandwich is currently written and published solely using a Chromebook - a Linux device. 

Transport for London have issued the following announcement:- "Following a successful trial, from Monday 20 April, buses in London will temporarily become middle-door only boarding as part of Transport for London’s (TfL’s) efforts to help combat Coronavirus. This means the front doors will no longer be in use across the bus network. Please only use the middle doors to board the bus and allow others to exit the bus first before boarding. There is currently no need to touch in. The vast majority of people have followed the instructions of the Mayor and Government and have stopped travelling. The number of people using buses has plummeted by around 85%. This is essential to stop the spread of coronavirus. It is essential that everyone continues not to travel and does not return to the transport network". I have concerns over this, as I feel that it may well invoke the law of unintended consequences. When the public realise that from tomorrow, until some yet to be determined point, that London buses can be used for free, will it increase the number of people using them, and thus increase the risk of infection? Only time will tell. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Not many local people are aware that the Erith / Belvedere area was once subject to one of the largest non – nuclear explosions in history. You can see a contemporary newspaper account above - click on it for a larger view. Back in 1864 there were two local commercial gunpowder factories – that of John Hall and Son and the Elterwater and Lowood Gunpowder company situated on the marsh land that at that time existed parallel to the River Thames between Slade Green in the East and Plumstead in the West. Both factories were physically isolated from residential areas, and many precautions were taken to prevent any kind of fire; workers had to wear felt slippers, and all equipment was made of wood, or lined with copper to prevent sparks; understandably smoking was strictly prohibited. At about 6.40 am on Saturday the first of October 1864 all these precautions proved worthless, when there was a massive explosion which totally destroyed both gunpowder factories, their store magazines and a couple of barges that were being loaded with barrels of gunpowder at the time. No contemporary account exists of exactly what caused the accident, as the eyewitnesses were instantly vapourised. The explosion was heard as far away as Cambridge, and the shock wave was so intense that people in central London were convinced that there had been an earthquake. One report at the time said that as rescuers hurried to the site they found a massive crater and absolutely no signs of any buildings were left “it was if the place had been swept clean by a broom”. Surprisingly there were only around twenty casualties, as though the explosion was huge, the remote location prevented greater loss of life. Witnesses said that a huge pall of black smoke, shaped like a mushroom hung in the air for an hour afterwards. Five of the victims were classed as “missing” as nothing remained of them to bury. Others whose bodies remained intact to some degree or other were taken to the Belvedere Hotel in Picardy Road, which was converted into a temporary morgue. The injured were taken to Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge, where some then succumbed to their injuries. The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times (the story made world headlines) also curiously reported that a man escaped serious injury, but did have “his right whisker blown off, and he has not been seen since”. The unknown reporter then comments “The damage done to property extends to a radius of over twenty miles; the effect upon domestic animals is said to have been very remarkable. Thousands of pets succumbed with fright – the mortality to Canaries being particularly great”. The army was called from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to assist with emergency repairs to the river wall, which had been destroyed to a length of three hundred yards from the epicentre of the blast. Fortunately the tide was low at the time, and the Royal Engineers assisted by civilian navvies and some volunteers barely managed to temporarily block the gap before the tide rose. Had they not, much of Lower Belvedere would have been flooded as later happened in 1953. Considering the size of the explosion – it is estimated that something between 45 and 100 tons of gunpowder were detonated, the long term damage was pretty light, though the superintendent of Crossness Sewage Works did put in a grumpy claim for £150 for plate glass that had been damaged by the blast – this sounds like some very creative accounting on his part, as the works was still being constructed at the time, and did not actually go into operation until nearly a year later. I am of the opinion that this was an early example of insurance fraud. 

The advert above dates back to 1901, so the "20th Century Cycle co." would have been an extremely futuristic brand at the time. I think it strange that it does not give an address for callers though. An eye catching design, nevertheless.

Thirty five years ago, Dire Straits released their fifth album, “Brothers in Arms". It went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, it revolutionised the music industry. For the first time, an album sold more on compact disc than on vinyl, and passed the one million units sold  mark. Three years after the first silver discs had appeared in record shops,”Brothers in Arms” was the symbolic milestone that marked the true beginning of the CD era. “Brothers in Arms was the first flag in the ground that made the industry and the wider public aware of the CD’s potential,” says the British Phonographic Industry spokesperson Gennaro Castaldo, who began a long career in retail that year. “It was clear this was a format whose time had come.” CD sales overtook vinyl in 1988 and cassettes in 1991. The 12 centimetre optical disc became the biggest money-spinner the music industry had ever seen, or will ever be likely to see. In 1974, 28-year-old electronic engineer Kees Schouhamer Immink was assigned to the Optics Group of Philips Research in Eindhoven, Holland. His team’s task was to create a 30 centimetre videodisc called Laservision (Laserdisk in Europe), but that flopped (the quality was pretty poor, and the disks were notorious for skipping and stopping dead for no apparent reason) and the focus shifted to designing a smaller audio-only disc. “There were 101 problems to be solved,” Immink says. Meanwhile, in Japan, Sony engineers were working on a similar project. In 1979, Sony and Philips made an unprecedented agreement to pool resources. For example, Sony engineers perfected the error correction code, CIRC, while Immink himself developed the channel code, EFM, which struck a workable balance between reliability and playing time. “We never had people from other companies in our experimental premises,” Immink says. “It was unheard of. Usually you become foes, but in this case we really became good friends, and we're still friends after so many years. It was remarkable, actually.” In June 1980, after complicated negotiations in Tokyo and Eindhoven, the so-called Red Book set standard specifications for the compact disc digital audio format. The story goes that the size (12 cm) and length (74 minutes, 33 seconds) were changed at the eleventh hour when Sony’s executive vice president Norio Ohga insisted that the disc should have enough space for the longest recorded performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, his wife’s favourite piece of music, but I and others suspect that is an urban myth. There were so many technical and financial considerations that it is unlikely such a key decision came down to one woman’s love of Beethoven – there were simply too many other factors.  The CD was introduced to the British public in a 1981 episode of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, in which Kieran Prendeville famously mauled a test disc of the Bee Gees’ Living Eyes to demonstrate the format’s alleged indestructibility – the spreading of jam on the test disc is something that has passed into popular legend.  It caught the public imagination, but Immink found the claim puzzling and embarrassing because it was clearly untrue. “We should not put emphasis on the fact it will last for ever because it will not last forever,” he says. “We should put emphasis on the quality of sound and ease of handling.” (I read an article recently where Paul McCartney recalled the first time George Martin showed him a CD. George said, ‘This will change the world.’ He told us it was indestructible, you can’t smash it. Look! And – whack – it broke in half.”) Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler was an early convert (the second track on Pure, Perfect Sound Forever, the promotional 1982 compilation that came free with early CD players, was Dire Straits’ Once Upon a Time in the West). Knopfler insisted on recording Brothers in Arms on state-of-the-art digital equipment, so a promotional partnership was a natural fit. Philips sponsored Dire Straits’ world tour and featured the band in TV commercials with the slogan, attributed to Knopfler: “I want the best. How about you?” Brothers in Arms was an iconic release, the CD came to symbolise the so-called yuppie generation, representing new material success and aspiration. If you owned a CD player it showed you were upwardly mobile. Its significance seemed to go beyond music to a lifestyle statement. CD’s still sell nowadays, but the emphasis on convenience and ease of use of digital download services such as Apple’s ITunes have reduced the demand for physical recordings – it was It was the 2001 launch of the iPod, an aspirational premium product which made MP3s portable, that turned the tide. Before that the MP3 was an inferior good; Once you had the iPod, the CD was an inferior good. It could get cracked or lost, whereas MP3 files lasted.  Not pure, not perfect, but sound for ever. It is just a pity that unless recorded at very high bit rates, MP3 files sound inferior to CD, and way worse that vinyl – my own format of choice to this day. What do you think? Are CD’s on the way out for you? Do you still have a much loved collection of vinyl? Please make a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Belvedere ward, as there is no report from Barmehurst this week:-"On Bank Holiday Easter Monday at approx. 11am two men on a black motorcycle were seen stealing number plates from a Ford Transit In Alsike Rd. One had a white helmet and the other a black one. They were too far away to get a reg number. We have been getting more and more reports of neighbour disputes across the ward. It is a difficult time at the moment with the lockdown in place. We are all a little frazzled and fed up with the situation while stuck indoors. However, that does not mean we all have to be anti-social, play loud music, be noisy in general and be a pain to our neighbours. We all have a part to play and, when this is all over, we still have to live in our communities. Please try and be patient with each other and don't be a nuisance. There was a motorbike stolen overnight on the Monday 13/04/2020 from Ambrook Road. The bike was black and orange in colour and has been seen being ridden around the Lesnes Abbey wooded area recently. Please keep an eye out and phone police if seen. We have been having to move more people on this week from public spaces and on the streets. If you don't need to go out THEN DON'T. Stay indoors. The gym equipment in parks have been taped off for a reason, stop using them. Stay Safe, Stay Inside". Bexleyheath ward - no report received. Crayford ward - no report received. Erith ward:- "Crimes of note from this last week - attempted Burglary in Pembroke Road where the front window was smashed in the night there has been a slight increase in shop lifting reports from Iceland, Morrison's and Farm foods. We have been patrolling Erith high street daily as well as the rest of the ward. We are also questioning people we see asking their reasons for being out, we are keeping this friendly and if the reasons are genuine there is no problem at all, but we are telling people with non-genuine reasons to go home, if they are seen again more questions will be asked. We know this is a hard time for all of us, we just need to follow the government's guidelines. By all means enjoy this lovely weather we are having at the moment but enjoy it from your garden". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Great news this week no Burglaries or theft reports. The team have been receiving reports of drug dealing across the ward. We are completing patrols around these hotspot areas .This has been organised by a local unit to assist. Stop and searches have been completed in the alleys ways of Belmont Road , Bexley Road & Hurst Road . One male was found to be in possession of drugs . Patrols have also been completed in Northumberland Recreational Ground where a group of youths were dispersed. Officers obtained details and have contacted parents. Please see our tweets on @MPSNorthHeath where your see good stories, advice & information on COVID-19 also scam warning advice. I must remind everyone you should only leave home for essentials such as food or medicine, or to exercise".

Slade Green and Northend ward:- "An attempted burglary took place in the early hours of Wednesday 15/04 in Forest Road. Barking dogs woke the victim who then noticed some damage to their front door. 4 vehicle crimes to report in this last week. A car was stolen from Fern Close on Saturday 10/04, A bank card was taken from a vehicle in Frobisher Road on Monday 12/04, and 2 vehicles had locks damaged on Tuesday 14/04 in Rodeo Close and Crescent Road. All of these crimes took place overnight. As usual, we ask that no valuables are left in the car at anytime, hidden or not. Our officers are continuing patrols of the ward with regular checks of all park areas and open spaces to ensure there are no gatherings etc. Please remember to stay indoors as much as possible. Exercise is permitted for 1 hour a day, you are permitted to travel to and from work and also allowed to go shopping for essential items only". Thamesmead East ward:- "On Thursday 09/04/20 between the hours of 12:00 and 9:30 pm a door and window along with cash was taken from a shared property in ST. Martin's Close. On Tuesday 14/04/20 a sofa was stolen from a property in Mangold Way between the hours of 1;30am and 9;00am. Motor Vehicle Crimes. On the Saturday 11/04/20 on Kale Road between the hours of 10:00 pm and 1:19 am the drivers side window smashed and an untidy search unknown what items were taken. Also in Kale Road between the hours of 6;30pm and 7;30pm on Sunday 12/04/20 a windscreen was smashed. In Alsike Road between the hours of 5;30pm on Thursday 9/04/20 and 09:30 pm Monday 13/04/20 a vehicle was broken into , a torch and face masks were stolen. At 10;35am The front and rear number plates were stolen from a vehicle parked in Alsike Road on Monday 13/04/20. From 4;00pm on the Tuesday 14/04/20 and 3;00pm of the 15/04/20 the bonnet and some of the framework was stolen from a vehicle parked in Fairway Drive. Good News The team were given information about two vehicles which were reported stolen in October 2019 and 1/4/20 vehicles have now been recovered by both registered keepers. On 15/4/20 PC Nana found and arrested a high risk missing person who was wanted on an international extradition warrant in Lithuanian the male is now currently in police custody being processed by the special extradition unit. PCSO's Buckley and Hobbs were on patrol on the ward when they came across 4 young boys playing football when they were asked where they lived, 3 of the boys lived at different addresses. Apparently the first boy was out playing on his own when he was joined by the other 3 boys. Please adhere to the government guidelines. Anyone not in the same household should not be together. All four boys were sent to their respective homes". West Heath ward:- "Another week with no reported burglaries or motor vehicle crime. The team were on duty over the Easter period enjoying the sunshine but sadly having to ask people to move away from park benches, picnicking and sunbathing. Unfortunately, we are dealing with a number of minor neighbour dispute across the ward which appear to have escalated during the lockdown period. We are speaking to all parties concerned and requesting that they be a little more tolerant of each other during these difficult times".

The end video this week features a chap walking the first section of the London loop, which starts at Erith, and runs to Bexley Station. See what you think, and send comments to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Erith Fun Day.

Yesterday was the first Erith Fun Day; the event was held at Erith Riverside Gardens, and it was a great success. There were stalls from charitable groups like Thames 21, the Alzheimers Society, St. John Ambulance and other not for profit groups like FORGE (Friends Of Riverside Gardens Erith), Erith Town Forum, Bexley Afro Caribbean Community Association, the Rotary Club of Erith, Bexley College, and the Port of London Authority. Also present were commercial organisations such as the Nemesis Gym, and various stalls selling novelties and other items. There was also face painting, a mobile sweet shop, a fortune teller and an ice cream van. 

The photo above shows the Mayor of Bexley, Councillor Howard Marriner, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, Dianne Marriner, and Councillor Edward Boateng. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Mayor is a regular Maggot Sandwich reader!

The photo above shows MP for Erith and Thamesmead, Teresa Pearce, along with "Alexander Selkirk" (who was looking remarkably fit and healthy for a chap who has not long celebrated his 338th birthday!) along with a representative from the Rotary Club of Erith. The centre piece for the Fun Day was the unveiling of a signpost, commemorating the coming ashore at Erith of Alexander Selkirk in 1711 after having been cast away on a desert island for eight years; Selkirk was the factual inspiration for the fictional character of Robinson Crusoe - one of the most popular characters in literary history.

The photo above (click for a larger view) shows Teresa Pearce MP unveiling the new signpost in Erith Riverside Gardens; the post can clearly be seen from the road. She was accompanied by a piper, whose playing was certainly enthusiastic. There are even further local connections; the sign was constructed by Erith based sign company WDS Signs, whose works are located less than one hundred metres from the Riverside Gardens.

Over the recent months there have been a steady stream of people throwing themselves into the River Thames at both Lower Belvedere and Erith. As I have previously mentioned, the rip tides and undercurrents on this stretch of the river make it the most dangerous sections of open waterway in the United Kingdom. Even in good weather the average survival time for anyone entering the river is something like eleven minutes. The River Police and the RNLI do an excellent job of keeping people safe on the River Thames, but bearing in mind that the nearest RNLI bases are at London Bridge and Gravesend, that still leaves a very long stretch of the river to be patrolled; it would seem to me that an extra base somewhere in the middle would be a very good idea. The former Erith River Police station building has been converted to office use, and is shared between marine engineering company Kort Propulsion, and the Erith Rowing Club. One alternative would be for the RNLI to renovate and occupy the former Port Of London Authority hut at the top of the jetty on the Riverside Gardens. I understand that the building has electricity and water and is fully plumbed in. The building is not very large, but I think it would be sufficient for a small team of three or four volunteers, and it would have the added advantage of being as physically close to the river as is possible to enable the quick launch of their rescue boat. What do you think? Does the Erith and Belvedere stretch of the River Thames need a lifeboat sub – station, or is the existing service good enough? You can leave a comment below, or email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com

The London Borough of Bexley stands out in a number of ways; we have the cheapest housing in Greater London, as was illustrated in the last Maggot Sandwich update, when I highlighted a large, modern two bedroomed apartment right on the river front at Erith. Such a riverside property would sell for a million pounds or more if it was located in Greenwich or in Canary Wharf, let alone somewhere in West London like Putney. The Erith post code means that the flat is offered for £180,000, which seems a relative bargain. One reason that may factor into the low property prices is that average wages in the borough are commensurately low; around one third of Bexley residents earn less than £8.80 per hour – the current London Living Wage. Bearing in mind the high cost of public transportation and the spiralling cost of rent compared with outright property purchase, this means that a large number of local people are being incredibly financially squeezed at present. The level of unemployment may be relatively low, but many of the jobs that are available don't pay very much. Historically Bexley has been a dormitory area for people working in London. One possible positive factor in the current low wage environment is that an increasingly large number of people are going self employed. These people don't show up on the low wage statistics, and they may well be a very positive contributor to the local economy over the forthcoming years. Traditionally small start-up companies run by sole traders are operated from home, or out of the back of a van.  Meeting with clients in a business environment can be challenging for such individuals – one of the ways in which the Cross Keys Centre will benefit local traders. Amongst the services it will shortly be offering is the use of private meeting rooms, hot desking / touchdown space and areas for networking and other formal and informal meetings. It is anticipated that small businesses that don’t have / need a full time office will be able to rent space by the day or even the hour when they require it. This kind of flexibility is something that should be a real benefit to the increasing number of self employed traders in the local area.

Every day when I walk to Erith Station, I pass by the piece of overgrown wasteland behind the new Bexley College campus. Bexley Council have undertaken to clear the land once the final phase of construction of the college have been completed. This can only be a good thing, as the area is absolutely teeming with rats. They often come out of the undergrowth and run along the path, and they seem unafraid of people. I realise that destroying their habitat next to the college will only move the vermin elsewhere, but if they are not dealt with, I could see a situation with the new college getting rat infested within days of opening, which would be awful. I was reading an article on the BBC News website earlier in the week which got me thinking. People in Cambodia and Vietnam regularly catch rats to be eaten – indeed there is a thriving cottage industry to supply the demand for rat meat. You can read the story here.  Bearing in mind the profusion of rats locally, could an ecologically sound solution to the problem be to trap and kill the rats and then sell the meat on to the various fast food places in the area? It is most definitely organic and free range, after all? People already eat Grey Squirrel, which is also defined as vermin, yet they are treated as a minor delicacy – and what is a squirrel? A rat with better P.R. I reckon that once seasoned , battered and deep fried, most people would not realise what they were eating was anything other than poultry – Kentucky Fried Rat, anyone? Rat Vindaloo? Shish Rat kebab with chilli sauce, salad and a pitta bread? The options are endless. Bearing in mind that it is said that you are never more than four metres away from a rat when you are in Greater London, it does seem that we could be on the verge of both a culinary and pest control revolution. Do leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com

The advert above dates back to 1901, so the "20th Century Cycle co." would have been an extremely futuristic brand at the time. I think it strange that it does not give an address for callers though. An eye catching design, nevertheless.

I don't think I have ever mentioned that I got a joke I wrote used on BBC Radio 4's excellent "The Now Show" some years ago. I was in the audience for the recording of an episode and I was asked to complete a questionnaire - and this is the result. Let me know what you think.

This week marks the twenty third birthday of the free and open source Linux operating system. I have been using Linux since back in 1997, when it was very much the purview of IT professionals; it was lacking features, incompatible with a lot of hardware (getting online with Linux back in the day was an exercise in frustration – even very common hardware such as the then ubiquitous U.S Robotics 56K modem could be an utter bugger to get working).  I recall the hours I spent trying to get my Red Hat 5.1 Linux installation to do what it should do. Back then Linux was far more stable than Windows 98SE or Windows ME (oh the horror!) but conversely you had to be a real guru to get things done. I think this is where the negative image of Linux being unsuitable for the desktop came from. Nowadays things are far better – device support is superb – in many cases better than Windows and Linux now “just works”.  Very few people ever install a computer operating system from scratch – they buy a machine with a preinstalled OS and it stays on the machine for its life. Tinkerers like me do OS installs on a regular basis. It really is straightforward whether you are talking Windows 7, Ubuntu or Apple OS X. You just follow the onscreen prompts and it pretty much does it for you. Personally I think that Linux has made far more of an impact in ways that few people realise – Google, FaceBook, Gmail and 497 out of the 500 most powerful computers in the world all run a version of Linux; it would be true to say that the Internet runs on Linux. If you have a smartphone that is not made by Apple, or a flat screen television, a set top box, whether it be a Sky satellite TV receiver, Virgin cable box or a Freeview receiver, they all run embedded Linux – it is the only operating system that powers devices from a toaster to a supercomputer with everything in between. Android, as used in smart phones and tablets is actually Linux with a whizzy interface suitable for touch operation. You can see from this that whilst Windows has for decades dominated the computer desktop, it has had little influence on the infrastructure and underlying technology of the modern world. As society moves away from large desktop PC’s, (and to a lesser extent away from the traditional laptop) and relies for online connectivity from smart phones and tablet devices, the underlying operating system has less significance than the applications that users wish to run – indeed, many applications are nowadays run online in a browser window – sites such as FaceBook, Instagram, Flickr and Twitter don't require a locally installed application, just a browser with connection to the web. Google grasped this early on with their excellent Google Docs application suite and its close integration with both Gmail and Google Drive storage. The Google Chromebook range of computers embraces this – they are cheap, relatively low powered laptops that just run a the Chrome web browser and enable cloud based storage. I have heard many arguments saying that web based storage is no good without a web connection. Chromebooks are clever in this respect. I can give a recent example. Last Saturday I was in my favourite corner of The Robin Hood and Little John pub in Lion Road, Bexleyheath (by far the best pub in the area by a very long chalk). I was sending a few Emails and writing some content for the Maggot Sandwich on my Samsung Chromebook. The pub had an electrical fault, and the power cut on four separate occasions in the space of an hour or so; this had the unfortunate result of resetting the pubs’ Wifi router. Each time the power died, I lost my web connection. In the end I gave up and powered the device down. When I got home I switched it back on; it detected the Pewty Acres Wifi and connected automatically. It had cached all of the content I had created and it automagically uploaded it all into the cloud as if there had been no interruption at all. I lost nothing whatsoever. All very clever stuff. Google Chrome OS is another iteration of Linux, by the way – you cannot get away from it.

Not many local people are aware that the Erith / Belvedere area was once subject to one of the largest non – nuclear explosions in history You can see a contemporary account above - click for a larger view. Back in 1864 there were two commercial gunpowder factories – that of John Hall and Son and the Elterwater and Lowood Gunpowder company situated on the marsh land that at that time existed parallel to the River Thames between Slade Green in the East and Plumstead in the West. Both factories were physically isolated from residential areas, and many precautions were taken to prevent any kind of fire; workers had to wear felt slippers, and all equipment was made of wood, or lined with copper to prevent sparks; understandably smoking was strictly prohibited. At about 6.40 am on Saturday the first of October 1864 all these precautions proved worthless, when there was a massive explosion which totally destroyed both gunpowder factories, their store magazines and a couple of barges that were being loaded with barrels of gunpowder at the time. No contemporary account exists of exactly what caused the accident, as the eyewitnesses were instantly vapourised. The explosion was heard as far away as Cambridge, and the shock wave was so intense that people in central London were convinced that there had been an earthquake. One report at the time said that as rescuers hurried to the site they found a massive crater and absolutely no signs of any buildings were left “it was if the place had been swept clean by a broom”. Surprisingly there were only around twenty casualties, as though the explosion was huge, the remote location prevented greater loss of life. Witnesses said that a huge pall of black smoke, shaped like a mushroom hung in the air for an hour afterwards. Five of the victims were classed as “missing” as nothing remained of them to bury. Others whose bodies remained intact to some degree or other were taken to the Belvedere Hotel in Picardy Road, which was converted into a temporary morgue. The injured were taken to Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge, where some then succumbed to their injuries. The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times (the story made world headlines) also curiously reported that a man escaped serious injury, but did have “his right whisker blown off, and he has not been seen since”. The unknown reporter then comments “The damage done to property extends to a radius of over twenty miles; the effect upon domestic animals is said to have been very remarkable. Thousands of pets succumbed with fright – the mortality to Canaries being particularly great”. The army was called from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to assist with emergency repairs to the river wall, which had been destroyed to a length of three hundred yards from the epicentre of the blast. Fortunately the tide was low at the time, and the Royal Engineers assisted by civilian navvies and some volunteers barely managed to temporarily block the gap before the tide rose. Had they not, much of Lower Belvedere would have been flooded as later happened in 1953. Considering the size of the explosion – it is estimated that something between 45 and 100 tons of gunpowder were detonated, the long term damage was pretty light, though the superintendent of Crossness Sewage Works did put in a grumpy claim for £150 for plate glass that had been damaged by the blast – this sounds like some very creative accounting on his part, as the works was still being constructed at the time, and did not actually go into operation until nearly a year later.

Have you noticed how movies seem to appear on video on demand services like Netflix and iTunes almost as soon as they are released at the cinema? Indeed there have been cases where films have actually been released to video on demand before they have had a theatrical release. The general marketing format of a Hollywood movie is to release to cinemas, then video on demand, then sold or rented on DVD or Blu – Ray, then to satellite or cable like Sky / Virgin, then finally sold to conventional broadcast television. Now that very few Hollywood movies are shot on 35mm cine film, nearly everything is made digitally. This saves a fortune on film stock and duplication, and also enables much easier compositing of special effects – and also means that the cinema projectionist can just download the movie from the film company website. You would have thought that this would mean the big studios would be raking in even more cash than ever, but quite the reverse is actually the case. In recent years the main studios have concentrated on what they term “tent pole” movies – mega budget films filled with special effects, and generally aimed at teenagers. The release of these films at certain times of the year, such as Christmas and the Summer holiday period drives the studios’ entire schedule. In 2013 the major Hollywood studios took a terrible drubbing – they lost a total of eleven billion dollars; the reason for this was a series of mega budget “tentpole” films that were meant to be blockbusters, but which turned out to be turkeys. White House Down, The Lone Ranger, After Earth and a handful of other movies tanked at the box office, virtually bankrupting their producers. Studio bosses got so cautious and conservative in relation to the films that they commissioned in the light of these financial disasters that even when Steven Spielberg, the most respected and commercially successful film director of modern times pitched “Lincoln” at the studios he initially got turned down; the reasons being that the protagonist dies at the end, and as such there is no possibility of a sequel (!) Hollywood seems to be shying away from adult, thought provoking movies in favour of noisy movies featuring superheroes and franchises that offer seemingly endless sequels – such as the Fast and Furious series, or the Expendables. In 2012 Nineteen were based on some other property, eight were sequels, four were comic-book franchises, two were remakes, two were prequels, and seven were originals. Films such as “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” tend to be made by European studios such as Canal Plus with far smaller budgets, but arguably making far more interesting motion pictures. What is interesting is how conversely America is producing some excellent, very high quality shows, but they are for television rather than the big screen. The U.S remake of “The House of Cards” is a prime example – not only did stage and screen actor Kevin Spacey make the transition to the small screen, the entire run of the show was first broadcast via Netflix. This model seems to be becoming the norm – fewer adults want to sit in a cinema surrounded by noisy kids chatting with their mates during the film; with the advent of big screen televisions, HD and shortly 4K resolution there is no longer a compelling reason to get in the car or on the bus to go and see a movie, when nowadays you can actually get a superior experience in the comfort of your own home. Nowadays the content is the king, not the delivery method. I foresee that the studios will continue to make “blockbuster” type films – the type that tend to catch the headlines, but more attention will go to the creation of multi episode dramas with a high quality cast, script and production values – as the audience vote with their feet and stay watching paid for content on their own big screens. The art of cinema will not die – but the way it is delivered to their audience will change markedly.

Prospective new Blackfen micro publican Andy Wheeler of The Broken Drum dropped me a line this week; this is what he had to say:- Hi, my name is Andy Wheeler; I have submitted planning and licensing applications to open a micropub or a traditional ale house or micropub (as is more commonly known) in the Blackfen area, at 308 Westwood Lane, opposite the COOP entrance. There are many micropubs opening in and around the Kent area and the rest of the country, they mainly sell cask conditioned ale (real ale) and encourage conversation. A good definition of a micropub can be found by clicking here. I’m an active member of the Bexley CAMRA, the CAMpaign for Real Ale and I have found the best real ale being served is from micropubs, and I want to emulate that and the culture of micropubs. The London Borough of Bexley already has a micro pub called The Door Hinge in Welling run by Ray Hurley. He has been a great help and an inspiration to me. Another ale house has received planning approval in Crayford, and will be opening soon. My pub is to be called ‘The Broken Drum’. If you want to know why I chose that name then come and ask me when I opened, (someone people know or may have guessed). I propose to sell real ale, a small amount of wine and real cider, traditional locally resourced pub food (pork pies, scotch eggs, crisps and alike). I won’t be selling lager, alcohol pops or spirits. There will be no music, fruit machines or arcade games, and the use of mobile phones is discouraged. Excellent stuff; I will be covering The Broken Drum in the future - watch this space.

You may well have heard about a scam that has been going on for seemingly years. It astonishes me that it still seems to work, as by now you would have thought that enough people would be aware of it to deter the fraudsters, but for whatever reason, it would appear not. The scam involves a phone call from a person purporting to be working either for Microsoft, or a Microsoft affiliate company. The person tells the victim that their PC has been infected by a number of viruses, and that they can talk them through fixing the problem. If the victim is unconvinced, the scammer talks the victim through opening a Windows command line prompt and inputting a series of text commands. The commands produce a series of error messages and a long code string which the scammer tells the victim are proof that their PC is infected; in reality this is not the case – the codes produced are generated by the Windows activity monitor, and actually show perfectly benign computer operations that are normally run in the background, unbeknownst to the average user. After this the scammer tells the victim that they can take remote assistance of their PC to remove the “viruses”. If the victim gives control, the scammer opens a web browser session and asks the victim to input their Pay Pal details to pay for the virus cleaning service. If the victim does this, their account details are stolen and their account is later hoovered clean of cash. If the victim refuses, perhaps after realising the whole operation is a con, the scammer will delete personal files and configuration folders if the remote connection is not terminated by the victim. Over the last six or so year, thousands of people have been targeted by gangs posing as legitimate companies – usually working out of India or South Africa in “boiler room” operations. I would advise anyone receiving a phone call of this nature to just put the phone down – arguing with them is pointless, and they will just move onto a new victim. I had such a call a few years ago; I realised pretty much straight away exactly what was going on, and thought I would play dumb and go along with things for a laugh – also, the longer I tied up the scammer, the less time he would have to hit another innocent victim. After the person asked me to log into my computer and open a command prompt and input a series of Windows specific commands. When I answered that I was not getting the responses he described, he got increasingly annoyed, asking “what version of Windows are you using?” to which I replied “I am using Solaris 9 Unix on a Sun Ultra 60 workstation” he then realised he was the one who had been had – Sun (now Oracle) kit is generally only used by those in the IT trade, as it is very powerful, but not very user friendly. Not much of a victory in the greater scheme of things, but it made me feel better. You can read about the scam in more detail by clicking here.

The end video is something I mentioned a couple of weeks ago; it is a new TV commercial for the Royal British Legion entitled "Every Man Remembered". It was shot recently in a number of locations in Erith, Thamesmead and Upper Belvedere - see how many places you can identify. A very worthwhile cause, and I think the area can be proud to have been part of it.

Mother's Pride and Radio 390.

It is amazing how Erith changes with the weather; when overcast and rainy, the town seems to metaphorically sink into the gloom, but conversely when the sun shines, the place perks up considerably. I noticed this last weekend when I went out with my camera to get some photos of the town centre and the Bexley College new campus on Walnut Tree Road. As you can see in the shot above, the building is steadily taking shape, ready for opening in September, at the start of the 2014 / 2015 academic year. I have been invited for a guided tour around the new college, and will be reporting back, complete with photographs once I have had a good old nose around next Thursday. I cannot help but feel concerned that the old Erith Library, which as you can see above is located directly opposite the new college campus, is still left unused and locked up. It is an excellent building, and to my mind in every way far superior to the soulless and anodyne new library, which is located opposite Erith Health Centre in Erith High Street. The old library building was gifted to the town by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. I really wish it could be put to some use, as I think otherwise the building could end up being demolished to make way for yet more flats. Erith is under a lot of development pressure at present; the overheated property market all over Greater London has meant that developers have been snapping up  affordable land all over the place. Erith has a reputation as a town that has (relatively) affordable housing that is in easy reach of central London. One can get from Erith to London Bridge or Cannon Street in around forty minutes by overland train, and the forthcoming Crossrail link to Abbey Wood will mean easier access to places in West London and Heathrow, again making the local area more desirable for the commuter looking for a convenient place to live. The downside of this is that currently it feels like every scrap of land is either built on, or about to be built on. The apartment block that is sandwiched between the KFC Drive Through and Morrison’s petrol station on the old Erith Trades and Social Club site is taking rapid shape; the Erith Park development, currently the largest housing development in Europe is proceeding apace, and the huge area of brown field land on what was the old gravel pit located between Bexley Road and Fraser Road has been earmarked as the potential location for a thousand residential properties. This is over and above innumerable smaller scale developments that are springing up all around the town. Erith is undergoing building growth unlike anything I can recall, and in many ways it will bring opportunities to the area; my concern is that I have seen little activity in respect of improving water supply, drainage and other essential amenities, and how schools and social services will cope with the influx of new people, especially in this current harsh economic climate – things may be getting better in the City, but in the less trendy suburbs, there has been little evidence of new employment and financial recovery.  What Erith needs is a new employer on the scale of Morrison’s or ADM Oils – two huge organisations with resources that really make a difference to the local economy.  Tesco have opened a delivery depot in the area, but compared with some of their other sites, it is relatively small scale, and as warehouses are largely automated nowadays, they do not provide the number of jobs one would have seen historically.

One local company based in the Manford Industrial Estate on Manor Road may not be the largest employer, or the most prosperous, but they do have a couple of important things going in their favour; they have a very specialised field, and they have a great sense of humour. Cat Flaps South East are a dedicated supplier of cat flaps ranging from the most simple mechanical flaps to the most sophisticated micro chip reading cat flaps which will only admit your own cat and not half the moggies from the neighbourhood. You can see a short promotional video about them below. I wish them every success.

I am not a great party goer; unless the person holding the party is well known to me, I must admit that I tend to decline invitations. The reasons are various, but one of the main ones is that when I invariably get talking to someone, and they ask what I do for a living and they find out I work in IT, the reaction is like that of a moth to a flame. The party goer will almost without exception then regale me with tales of computer problems and a tedious list of issues that they cannot resolve. Almost as night follows day they will then ask me to “take a look” at their PC. What this infers is that they then expect me to fix their computer woes for free. The fact is, I have not got my hands dirty fixing hardware issues or resolving software bugs on personal computers for years; my day job involves massive corporate databases and applications which may span over multiple servers and thousands of desktops around Europe, the Middle East and India. I employ resources from various technical specialisations to actually carry out the remedial work “on the coal face”.  All this is lost on the person wanting my individual help. When I tell them I am not really the person they need, they tend to counter this with “I can pay you your going rate”.  What they don’t realise is that my corporate charge rate is nearly £500 per hour (please note this bears absolutely no relation to my actual wages – it is what my employer charges clients, and how they make shed loads of money – believe me, the consultancy business is extremely lucrative for the large corporate professional service providers). On top of this, my knowledge of Windows is minimal at best – I think it more than likely that they know more about Windows than I do (I run a Mac and various Linux boxes myself, and only use Windows when I am being paid to – my background is in Linux and Unix). You can get a good idea of what I am talking about by clicking here. I have even gone to the extent of, when asked at a party, saying that I am an undertaker – it certainly kills the conversation stone dead, if nothing else. You would not get a party goes expecting a landscape gardener or plumber to do work for free, so why expect someone with an IT background to do so? Do please feel free to comment below, or Email me directly to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The News Shopper did not really do justice to local (Dartford) chap Nicky Boardman, and his excellent blog “tooupbeatforcancer.com” which covers his struggle with a rare form of terminal abdominal cancer. I feel that he should publish the blog as a book; it is excellently written – both upsetting and blackly humorous in turn. You will find yourself both disturbed by his plight, whilst also laughing at his turn of phrase, for example Chapter One of the blog is fetchingly entitled “The Day My Bum Fell Out”. Nicky Boardman writes unflinchingly about his situation and the experiences he has gone through; the blog can be harrowing, but his prose is beautifully crafted, and often very funny indeed. Unfortunately I doubt that there is going to be a happy ending to Nicky’s story, but his online writing may help bring greater attention to this horrible, invisible killer. Highly recommended.

I received some very pleasing news from one of my anonymous sources on Wednesday. As long time readers will be aware, I am keen to preserve and promote community pubs, and to ensure that they are run to the benefit of locals. There is one notable exception to this – an establishment called the Phoenix, which was located in Lower Hythe Street, Dartford (photo above copyright David Anstiss). I am delighted to be able to announce that the place has recently been bulldozed flat. Back in November 2009 I wrote a scathing report on the place, which got me a lot of enemies for a while – you can read the piece here. A small (ancient and rather smelly) unrepresentative sector of Dartford’s biker community took umbrage to what I said, all of which was true; the pub allowed smoking inside, served very underage drinkers, and had posters on the walls promoting extreme racist hate organisations. On top of that, there was an elderly motorbike in a side room which was in the final stages of disintegration, and reeked of raw petrol. With all of the smoking going on, I was surprised that the whole festering morass did not go up like a Molotov Cocktail. Patrons were seen urinating up the pubs’ exterior walls, and the place was covered by a barely suppressed aura of menace. Some readers thought that I was exaggerating for effect, but actually nothing could have been further from the truth. After my piece and a few challenging comments, it all then went quiet for a while, then in January 2011, the following story broke, initially in the local papers, but soon after in the national tabloids. The Dartford Messenger reported: “Police found guns, ammunition, and knives when they raided The Phoenix, in Lower Hythe Street. Officers executing a firearms warrant at the pub found a loaded handgun in a cabinet, a cloth-covered .22 rifle in a cupboard, a dart gun, a Taser-style stun gun, and a large amount of ammunition, including rifle rounds. They also discovered shotgun cartridges, a clear sealed bag containing three white bullets, and a small bag of Class B drug amphetamine". According to the report from North Kent Police's licensing department, search teams found knives and "an assortment of other weapons throughout the bedroom and the rest of the living quarters at the pub”. To which I then commented “The place has been a threat to civilised society for some time, it being the base of a group of racist thugs and drug dealers - the place would not look out of place in a Guy Ritchie gangster movie. The thugs call themselves bikers, but the bikers I have known for years would be offended to be associated with this lot. The Phoenix should be bulldozed and the hole concreted over. As Ellen Ripley once said "Take off and nuke them from space - it's the only way to be sure". Well, my wish has now been granted. The Phoenix is now no more. It will not be missed by many.

One of the most important and heavily used main roads in Erith is being closed for extensive improvement and remodelling. Manor Road will be closed for a period of ten weeks from the 16th June to allow it to be completely rebuilt. The road has had attention in the recent past. It was resurfaced in 2009, and again in 2011, but in both cases the new surface started disintegrating within months of being laid; not something you would wish for when one considers the cost of the special road noise reducing tarmac formula is somewhat over £1 million per mile to the council tax payer, this is not good news. This time a far more dramatic set of repairs are planned. The road is being constructed pretty much from scratch, something that really should have been done before. The crumbling road foundations are being dug out to a depth of several feet and replaced with new material being installed. The work will be carried out in phases, so that access to homes and businesses will be kept, albeit with some fairly dramatic diversions – if you look at the graphic above, it will give you a good idea of the drastic route changes both buses and private vehicles will be subject to for the duration of the rebuilding project. Personally I feel that it will be a lot of short term pain for a lot of long term gain. Finally the council and their contractors are doing what they really should have done back in 2009. Hopefully by the end of the summer Erith will have a road to be proud of. I will be documenting the work over the forthcoming weeks, and will post any interesting developments – watch this space.

Every so often I like to highlight something that locals may not be aware of; Thamesmead has had a food bank for quite some time, and recently one has also been set up in Erith. I asked Reverend Julie Conalty of Christ Church Erith to be a guest writer this week to explain exactly how the food bank works, and what they do. I have also found out that they are planning a credit union as a secure and far more affordable source of credit compared with the pay day loan companies that proliferate and charge thousands of percent in interest. More on this in future editions. 

Bexley Foodbank – Erith Distribution Centre

Like the esteemed author of this blog, prior to moving to Erith I too supported the Greenwich Foodbank in Thamesmead. When I became vicar at Christ Church Erith, it seemed evident to me that Erith was also in need of a Foodbank Distribution Centre. From the leafy vicarage it is hard to tell, but our parish is the 4th most deprived in the Rochester Diocese. Recent changes in benefits regulations have undoubtedly made things even tougher. Fortunately my fellow ministers at St John’s Erith and Queen Street Baptist Church agreed that in addition to praying for our local community, our churches should follow Christ’s command that we quite literally feed the hungry. Avery Hill Christian Fellowship had already set up a Trussell Trust Foodbank for Bexley Borough but at that point were only distributing from Sidcup, so we teamed up with them to set up the Erith Distribution Centre based at Queen Street. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning from 10am until 1pm at Queen Street Baptist Church Hall our volunteers distribute food to local people who have been sent by the JobCentre, Citizens Advice Bureau or other recognized referral agency (a ticket is needed from a referrer who knows more about the circumstances of the individual claimant). The food bank cannot provide a long term solution to poverty – it is designed to plug gaps and address crises - but at the moment we can’t keep up with demand. In Erith we are distributing food faster than it comes in. Morrisons in Erith have come on board to support us (you may have seen the trolley for donations down there) and many churches in the borough now collect food for Bexley Foodbank, but we still don’t have enough. If you want to find out more then go to www.bexleyfoodbank.org.uk. You can deliver food donations direct to the Erith Distribution Centre during opening hours or drop food off in the box in porch at Christ Church from 8.30am to 11.30am any Sunday morning. Finally I need to say that there really is something very wrong with a society that seems to be removing the safety nets that protect vulnerable individuals and families from poverty and deprivation. As I write this there are media reports about how the UK targets to reduce child poverty will be missed – even the most optimistic projections for wage and employment growth suggest that absolute poverty is still forecast to be a full 16% above target by 2020. Volunteers and donors are stepping in, but we must not lose sight of scandal of people going hungry in the UK. So don’t just give food (or time or money) to the Foodbank, raise your voice in protest.

The Revd Julie Conalty, Vicar of Christ Church

I have found out a strong link between a local company and a short lived, but incredibly popular 1960’s offshore radio station (which were erroneously labelled “pirates” by the popular press, but were in fact no such thing, as they operated outside of British territorial waters, and at least until the 1967 Marine Offences Act, were outside of the law). As I have previously written, Erith based Grooms “The Hygienic Baker”, who began in a shop in West Street in Victorian times, became extremely successful, and later moved into dedicated premises in Belmont Road, Northumberland Heath. This massive bakery also featured stables for the horses that pulled their vans, along with a tack room and even a forge for their dedicated Farrier. The bakery is still there nowadays, though it is now owned by British Bakeries, and the stables are long gone. What I have uncovered this week is that in the mid 1960’s, Rank Hovis McDougall (the company who took over and absorbed Grooms prior to the advent of British Bakeries) were a major sponsor and commercial partner with offshore radio station Radio 390. Radio 390 was located on the abandoned Red Sands sea fort, off the coast of Whitstable. The station was the third enterprise to broadcast from the fort – previously it had been used by Radio Invicta from June 1964 until February 1965, followed by KING Radio from March to September 1965. Both these earlier stations were amateurish affairs, and used a relatively low powered one kilowatt AM transmitter feeding into a rather inefficient antenna system. This meant that their signal was not heard over a wide area, and they struggled to gain a decent audience, and consequently they were largely ignored by advertisers. All this changed with the advent of Radio 390, which was a far more slick and professional, and had both a rather more powerful ten Kilowatt medium wave transmitter (which they told people was actually thirty five Kilowatts, but it wasn't), and a huge and very efficient 297 foot tall vertical antenna mean that the signal of Radio 390 was audible all over London and the South East – the most lucrative market in the UK as far as advertising revenue was concerned. The format of the station was also a complete contrast to that played by the ship based offshore giants – Radio London and Radio Caroline; they both played non – stop pop music. Instead, Radio 390 was firmly targeted at housewives. When regular broadcasts began on the 25th September 1965 at 4pm on a wavelength of 388 Metres (773KHz) the musical format was easy listening, smooth classical and big bands – the first track played was “Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller. While other offshore stations had shows lasting two or three hours, Radio 390's schedule contained a number of short programmes. This was more like a BBC schedule than an offshore one. And, although slightly more warm and informal, the presenters had an almost BBC-ish style too, even to the extent that at the end of each show one of the presenters would give a credit (“South Of The Border was introduced by....”) in the manner of a continuity announcer. As Radio 390 grew, other programmes were added to the mix. There was a daily drama serial, “Doctor Paul”, imported from Australia, and bravely scheduled opposite the BBC Light Programme's long-established Mrs. Dale's Diary; and there were shows devoted to musicals, blues, country and light classical music. After only three weeks on the air, the station was receiving some five hundred fan letters a day. By May 1966 National Opinion Polls estimated the station's audience as 2.6 million listeners, a majority of whom were women. This was an absolute goldmine for the advertisers, who flocked to the station in droves. Back in the sixties, it was less common for women, especially once they were married to go out to work; many stayed at home and looked after the children. They had almost complete control over domestic purchases such as brands of food and cleaning materials. The fact that Radio 390 very cleverly targeted this audience meant that advertisers were prepared to pay high rates to get their commercials broadcast; companies that took out ambitious and successful campaigns on Radio 390 included The News of the World, and the magazine Reveille, along with a host of smaller companies, but the biggest of the lot was for Mother’s Pride bread, which was produced by Rank Hovis McDougall in the Northumberland Heath bakery. There is some evidence to suggest that the advertising campaign and programme sponsorship on Radio 390 was so extensive that the baker became an investor and business partner in the radio station during the summer of 1966, though as the Government began to take action to stop the offshore stations, and prepared to introduce the Marine Offences Act, many investors decided to distance themselves from offshore broadcasting altogether. In September 1966, Radio 390 was taken to court for the first in a series of cases where they were accused of broadcasting from within British territorial limits. The cases were fought, and one by one they were lost by the station, they appealed, then lost the appeal; by the summer of 1967 the Marine Offences Act passed into law, and all offshore stations with the exception of Radio Caroline had ceased broadcasting. Radio 390 was also such a casualty. The station is largely forgotten now, but in 1966 it was one of the biggest radio hits in the UK, and had a real connection with the local area, thanks to the power of Mother’s Pride and the Northumberland Heath former Groom's bakery!

I came across this weeks' end video somewhat by accident. It has been made by a local person who wants to illustrate how much Erith has improved over the last few years; it is mostly a slide show featuring locally taken photographs. I noticed with some amusement that roughly half of the photographs are actually mine, and have been copied from my Flickr photo site here. I am rather flattered - though it would have been nice to have been asked before they used them! See what you think anyway, and feel free to leave a comment below. 

Potion commotion.

The photo above was taken by me on Wednesday afternoon on Erith Pier. It shows the bulk carrier ship the M.V Willeke moored up as she so often does. The Willeke is one of the most regular visitors to Erith Pier, and normally spends around three days of any seven day week period on the pier. What was quite unusual this time was that she was in cargo. She was loaded with what appeared to be raw talc - as used in talcum powder, or nowadays more likely used as a thickening agent in the production of non - drip paints. Normally when bulk carriers like the Willeke moor alongside the pier it is when they are in ballast and awaiting a cargo. so seeing it loaded was quite a novelty. None of the crew was around, though the ships' generator was on, and people were definitely aboard her. The crew like to visit Morrison's to stock up on provisions prior to their voyages, and it is not uncommon to see one or two of the junior crew members pushing a shopping trolley full of groceries along the pier and onto the ship. I would not be surprised if Morrison's is the only supermarket in the UK where commercial ships can stop off for shopping visits. Let me know what you think - comments are welcomed below.

One of my local informants has recently contacted me with some information to follow up a story I featured six weeks ago on my update entitled "Kebabs and College". I wrote about how B and Q in Lower Belvedere were displaying parking warning notices that were illegal - you can read my post about the subject by clicking here. Anyway, it would appear that the notices have now been removed and replaced with new ones. Whether I, or my contact had any influence over the situation I really cannot say, but the coincidence is noticeable anyway. What my contact also reported upon entering the store was the following, in his words: "I popped into the shop this morning for a small electrical accessory needed in a hurry. Checkouts are now four customer operated terminals and one traditional checkout - which was unstaffed. There was a small queue for the customer operated terminals so even that small advantage (no queue) has gone. B and Q Belvedere deserves to fail". This echoes my own thoughts on self service checkouts to a tee. I simply won't use them anywhere for any reason whatsoever. It has been proved that they are purely there to save the shop money and sod the shopper. As I have said before, why have a dog and bark yourself? The checkouts have been proven to take longer to use than a traditional one; they are purely a tool for reducing staff headcount. This can itself be a false economy, as shop lifting has been shown to increase in stores with self service checkouts. It may seem a good idea to reduce the number of checkout staff, but when the store then has to hire more security staff (who earn a higher hourly rate than the checkout staff) it can actually end up costing more money overall. 

There are echoes today of the controversy that arose some years ago when Erith Sports Centre opened. There was a competition to select a suitable name for the impressive new facility, and several local papers featured the story. The whole thing turned into a bit of a farce when, after much solemn consideration the name selected was, er, Erith Sports Centre. It would have not been so bad had not the national tabloid papers got hold of the story, and much merriment and ridicule was heaped on the choice of name. A similar total lack of imagination has struck the developers who are currently in the process of demolishing the old Larner Road housing estate. The name that has been selected for the new housing development to replace Larner Road is "Erith Park". Ahem. I can fully understand the desire to not tarnish the new development with a name associated with the dubious past of Larner Road, but surely something a bit less anodyne could have been chosen? When you spend the thick end of £100 million on a cutting edge combined commercial and social housing development with the latest energy saving green technology, you would have thought that a more forward thinking and dynamic name could have been selected – something along the lines of “Selkirk Heights” for example. (You may already be aware that Alexander Selkirk – the inspiration for the fictional character of “Robinson Crusoe” landed back in England at Erith after his experiences of being shipwrecked and left to survive for four years alone on a desert island – I would have though this hardy and resourceful individual would have been a great inspiration for local residents). There has been much going on regarding the Larner Road redevelopment over the last couple of weeks; I hope that sooner or later I will be in a position to write about it, as I am sure many readers would find the story of interest, but unfortunately now is not the time.

You may recall that I have mentioned the butchering to the exterior fascia of the former White Hart pub that now houses the seedy and disreputable drug den that is Potion bar. The owners of Potion illegally ripped out the preserved Victorian salt glazed tile and acid etched glass frontage, and replaced it with plate glass, even though it was specifically prohibited from doing so by Bexley Council Planning Department.  Not only is the building listed, but the whole of the Eastern end of Erith High Street is a architectural conservation zone, and no major architectural changes are permitted. The council forced Potion to get an architect to draw up plans to return the appearance of the exterior of the building to something fairly closely resembling its’ original look. Since then precisely nothing has happened, and after some research, I have discovered that the council have now dropped the entire case, probably as the owners of Potion are claiming poverty. It would seem that we will be stuck with the anachronistic and ugly glass frontage for good now. As previously mentioned, one of the down sides of the large plate glass front windows now in place is that they afford a very clear view of the establishment’s regulars inside, and it is not a pretty sight. If you recall the cantina scene in the original “Star Wars”, then this is loosely what you see occupying Potion, though possibly with fewer blasters and a bit more cocaine. I have heard an unconfirmed rumour which I heartily hope is true. One of my confidential sources tells me that Potion may not be around for very much longer. A combination of repeated Police raids due to a combination of public drunkenness and a reputation as the local drugs supermarket may now have take their toll on the unscrupulous owners of the dive. The rumour is that Potion is shortly going to be put up for sale, and that an investor is interested in turning it into an Indian restaurant. So far there is nothing on the Bexley Council planning application website, so I can only take the story with a pinch of salt at this point, but I would not be surprised if there was not at least some truth in the story. For much of the time Potion is largely devoid of the knuckle draggers and coke heads that lurk in the place on Friday and Saturday nights. I doubt it breaks even, let alone make any semblance of a profit for the owners. I think they have caught a cold on this enterprise. Their other Potion Bar is in Fitzrovia, and is a rather different, more up – market affair, which seems to specialise in cocktails – whereas the only likely mix of drinks in the Erith outlet would be  a half of strong cider and a half of noxious and gassy lager to make a snakebite. Hopefully more information will come to light about the precise fate of the unloved by many bar in the very near future.

I am happy to report that Welling born Kate Bush has now been appointed CBE in the last round of honours. Personally I would have like to see Kate given the full Damehood (one grade above a CBE and the equivalent of a Knighthood). She's done so much for the British music industry on both a business and a creative front; she's also inspired many other musicians - I doubt that Tori Amos or Florence and the Machine would have existed in anything like their current form if it was not for our Kate. Very few musicians inspire the level of devoted following that Kate has; the only band that spring to mind who have an equivalent dedicated band of fans who follow them around the world are Marillion, a band that many have not heard about since around 1985, when they were responsible for many parents naming their daughters Kayleigh after the hit song of the same name. Marillion are still going strong, albeit in an unusual, semi underground manner. The band were the very first group in the world to dispense with a record label and publisher, instead doing it all online - they were very early to grasp the power of the web, and the democratising of communications between band and fans. Their revolutionary business model is now taught at Harvard Business School as part of their highly prestigious MBA programme.

Here is the latest "Simon's Cat" video. Whenever a new one is released, they never fail to make me laugh. See what you think below.

Most ordinary, non technical people know about the Windows operating system, and may have seen an Apple iMac or two in their travels, but as far as the third major desktop computer operating system is concerned, most have not heard of it, and probably would not care if they had. Linux has been around for ages - 1991 was the year of its' birth, and I first started dipping my toes in it back in 1997. Back then it was very difficult to use, had little hardware or driver support, and was really only suitable for hardcore tech savvy people like me to use as a desktop operating system for my computer (I dual booted with Windows XP back in 2001). Much has changed over the years; the free and open source nature of Linux means that improvements and updates to the operating system are made collaboratively - a new hardware driver, for example, could just as readily be developed by a blue chip company, or someone sitting in their bedroom. For all that, the updates go through the same high level of peer review and checking, to ensure a consistently high quality level of coding. This is one prime area why open source software tends to have good quality programming code - the code is open to any programmer to see, comment and improve on, unlike in confidential, closed code that makes up Windows and OS X, where you just have to take the creator's word that the code is up to scratch. The end result for years has been curious - Linux is used in huge mainframe and supercomputers almost to the exclusion of other operating systems. it also is used in embedded systems - anything from a Sky+ HD or Virgin Media set top box, through to industrial equipment such as computer controlled machine tools; the internet is powered by Linux - almost every network switch, domain controller and firewall runs it in one form or another, and the very largest web based organisations like Google, FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter all are powered by giant distributed server farms running Linux. On top of this, the recently released Google ChromeBook range of laptops, and the famous educational computer, the Raspberry Pi runs it too. Did you know that the Android operating system, so beloved of many smart phone and tablet computer users, is actually Linux with a whizzy graphical touch screen interface layer grafted on top by Google? I think it fair to say that if you stopped a random ten people in the street and asked them if they had ever heard of Linux maybe one or two might have vaguely come across the name, but I doubt any would realise that they use it every day. Well, after this shameless plug for my favourite operating system, I guess you are wondering where this is all going. Well, after year upon year of Linux being out in the wilderness as far as being a popular desktop / laptop OS is concerned, the tide may be finally changing. High end gaming PC specialists Alienware have released a series of gaming PC's running the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, which is partnered by Valve Softwares' extremely successful Steam online game repository. Not all Windows versions of Steam games have yet been ported to Linux, but more are becoming available, week on week. Bearing in mind that Alienware are actually a hardware division of Dell Computers, and Dell already sell a small number of desktop workstations and specialist laptops running Ubuntu Linux, it is looking quite rosy for the operating system to finally get a foot hold in the living room in something other than the guts of a smart television or HD recorder. Time will tell, but it should be an interesting journey. 

The somewhat controversial Erith wind turbine has now settled down to become merely the latest landmark for the area; Personally I find it a very useful aid in assessing the local weather conditions. It tells you if there is low cloud (the tops of the turbine blades get hidden as they turn), it gives you an idea of the wind speed and direction (the speed of the blade rotation and the direction the turbine head is facing) and it also warns you of poor visibility (when you cannot see it). On top of this, it is a local landmark, which pinpoints the Manor Road Industrial Estate from afar. So all in all it has a multitude of benefits to the area. I wonder if anyone will set up a society for wind turbine enthusiasts? You may well mock, but there is an active and enthusiastic group of people who enjoy spotting electricity pylons – they have even published pylon spotting guide books! You can read more about pylon spotting and how to become a pylon spotter by clicking here.

Science fiction death rays have been promised in a real world environment by researchers and military suppliers since at least the mid 1960’s. Until now they have never got beyond the testing stage, mainly mounted on experimental aircraft. It has been the generally accepted wisdom that a military laser does not actually have to work; they have been so big and heavy that all you needed to do was drop the thing on the enemy to effectively wipe them out. This is all about to change. The U.S Navy now has a weaponised laser capable of destroying an enemy aircraft or fast attack boat (the kind of vessel used by Al Qaeda to attack NATO ships in the past). The laser system, which will be experimentally deployed on U.S ship, the unfortunately named U.S.S Ponce, will be used to test the defensive system in the field – in this case, in the seas around the Middle East; it would be likely that its’ main area of operation will be the Persian Gulf – where Iran operates small surveillance drones, and is also known for swarming and harassing U.S Navy warships with small and very mobile high speed gunboats. The laser, which is solid state, is said to work like an invisible blowtorch on targets; the $35 million development budget (actually tiny in defence procurement terms) will be offset by the $1 per shot cost of powering the system. A video released by the Navy shows the laser lock onto a slow-moving target, in this case an unmanned drone, which bursts aflame in mid-flight. The drone soon catches fire and crashes into the sea below. Laser weapons do have drawbacks – they are badly affected by rain, fog and sea spray, which drastically reduce the transmitted power of the laser beam, and the laser installed on the USS Ponce will not be able to target fast moving objects like fighter jets or incoming anti ship missiles, but the rumours are that version with this extended capability are only a few more months away. It will be interesting to see if Iran’s small fast-boat navy experience some unexpected fires when shadowing the American fleet. We are heading for interesting times.

Although I am not very active on the bands, I have been a radio amateur since 1997, and hold an advanced class radio licence. On the 18th April, World Amateur Radio Day celebrates the forming of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) on 18th April 1925. This year the theme is "Entering its Second Century of Disaster Communications". This commemorates the first known use of amateur radio in a disaster situation when, in March 1913, the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio flooded its banks, killing more than 100 people. According to local newspapers, Herbert Akerberg, a 15-year-old from Hilltop, Ohio used his home radio transmitter to send SOS calls via Morse code for nearly 72 hours. His actions were highly commended by the city authorities and his achievement widely heralded over the country as a new contribution to the comparatively new science of radio.

The video this week is from an American TV show that has not been transmitted in the UK - yet. It is called Food Tech, and is all about the science and engineering that goes into producing some commonly eaten food products. The episode features the humble cheeseburger and chips - the staple of so many fast food joints. Before you dismiss this as a programme about junk food, it is actually far more than that. It explains the production of each ingredient, even going back to showing how the seeds that are used to grow the onions in the burger garnish are grown, separated and refined before being sold to the farmer to grow the actual onion for consumption. It explains why processed rather than "real" cheese is used, and how the fries are produced so that they are uniform in size, and how iceberg lettuce goes from the field to the restaurant table in less than 48 hours. The amount of engineering skill and management organisation that goes into many of these systems and processes was a real eye opener to me, and it certainly made for very informative viewing, whatever you think of the end product food itself.  Do give it a watch and let me know what you think.