http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/ A steadily expanding web of political and philosophical writing by Christopher G. D. Tipper from past and present. (c) Copyright 2008 Christopher G. D. Tipper chris.tipper@hotmail.co.uk chris.tipper@hotmail.co.uk Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:06 +01:00 en-GB http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/images/e-conomist-micro.png http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/ 144 22 e-conomist -- The analytical focus on the wired world http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/autumn-2007-roundup.shtml Owing to other commitments e-conomist will be taking an indefinite break. These are just some of the highlights from previous years that are still of some interest and that I am particularly proud of... Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-june-2007.shtml#moore On BBC Newsnight 24th October 2007 Michael Moore was interviewed about his new film "Sicko". Michael Moore is a shameless self-promoter who should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. On the question of life-expectancy I was moved to... Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-june-2007.shtml#cd-sales The recent article "The CD turns 25" wasn't badly written, but I wonder why you IT journalists all have the same opinion about the CD? ... Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-june-2007.shtml#dyson If this article from the New York Review of Books were written by anyone other than Freeman Dyson, gadfly of particle physics, I doubt anyone would pay any attention. It is so speculative, morally dubious and naïve that I doubt... Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-june-2007.shtml#charter In "A major concession" by Mark Mardell, BBC Europe Correspondent, 14 Jun 07, 04:36 PM, wrote: Just seen a copy of a report by the Germans to national governments about the new treaty... Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/tb-legacy.shtml Tony Blair is set to announce his resignation today, after ten years in office. It seems appropriate to look over the last ten years and review his achievements... Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-february-2007.shtml#ferguson This was a book dense with ideas, packed with analysis and rich in research. It tells the story of the 20th century from the 1904 Sino-Japanese war through to the century's denouement with the genocide in Bosnia and the economic... Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-february-2007.shtml#convergence The big theme of the January 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was "Convergence". Convergence refers to the dream of computer and consumer electronics manufacturers to provide home entertainment over a network seamlessly from any device to any device... Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-february-2007.shtml#climate_change I think when we look back on this period in say 50 years' time we will look at early 21st Century climate change politics and reflect how utterly naïve we all were... Sun, 11 Feb 2007 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/wonky-compass.shtml Compass, the Left think-tank produced a report entitled "A New Political Economy" that presents a manifesto for Labour's fourth-term. It would not be notable except that it drove the Daily Express to publish a front page article, "62% Tax Raid... Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-december-2006.shtml#study_group The Economist wrote ("Don't do it", Dec 7th 2006, subscription required):... Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blog-december-2006.shtml#e-commerce As I see it bricks-and-mortar stores serve three purposes:... Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/state-of-world.shtml It is always difficult to gauge the tides of history from the present vantage point. I will just list some features of the contemporary world and hope that an interpretation presents itself at some juncture... Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/dawkins-the-god.shtml First a disclaimer: I have not read Richard Dawkins' new book "The God Delusion" and will not be doing so unless it becomes freely available over the Internet. To those curious about its arguments I refer the reader to this... Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/why-free.shtml I have been tracking a podcast recently run by a bunch of guys who've observed the computer industry for many years. These self-styled geeks have set out to report the developments in technology as they happen and provide commentary that... Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/patten-diplomat.shtml Chris Patten is well-known in this country as a former member of Margaret Thatcher's and later John Major's government in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is probably best known in the United States as the last Governor of... Sat, 15 Apr 2006 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/open-source-delusions.shtml I've been fooling around with various open source packages for several years. I would say that by and large if you are not a software developer you should steer well clear of this particular software ecosystem. The problem is that... Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/spin-nation.shtml The constipated euphemisms of public discourse in the UK have long frustrated me, after spending so many years living abroad. Watch any news programme and you will see talking heads earnestly debating pressing issues of the day, and frequently what... Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:00 +00:00 Christopher Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/tonys-defeat.shtml I almost felt sorry for poor old Jeremy Vine this lunchtime on Radio 2. Tony Blair's government has just been defeated on a key clause of the government's latest Anti-Terrorism Bill. The legislation going through Parliament would have extended the... Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/hgi.shtml It has long interested me what makes a great design for an electronic gadget. I have numerous predilections for the sort of electronic device I might like to own and use, but for some reason the device that the market... Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/idiology.shtml I came across a blog yesterday written by James Bartholomew, author of "The Welfare State We're in." I am afraid I was much exercised by a comment he made implying that the majority of those on incapacity benefit suffering from... Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/british-development.shtml There have been several calls recently for the focus of public policy and private enterprise to be put on high-value manufacturing and knowledge-based services. With the collapse of Rover and the recent announcement of layoffs at Marconi, the theory goes... Sat, 09 Jul 2005 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/educational-research.shtml A thought provoking report was broadcast on Newsnight about Britannia Village Primary School on the edge of the Royal Victoria docks in a deprived area of East London. Apparently 30% of its 7-8 year-olds have only just started to read... Sun, 29 May 2005 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/vote2005.shtml The election campaign will finally end this Thursday. Tony Blair will win with a reduced majority, and the opposition parties will have another five years to regroup. The Conservatives will have a chance to develop a real alternative to New... Sat, 30 Apr 2005 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/perspective-readme.shtml "Perspective" is a macro and stylesheet distribution that allows you to publish structured Word documents to web and print. Wd2XML, the embedded Microsoft Word macro produces XML to the Perspective Document Type Definition (DTD). The stylesheets in this distribution allow... Sat, 12 Mar 2005 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/pepsi-challenge.shtml The BBC ran a feature on Newsnight last night where they stopped people in a shopping centre and showed them policy statements made by the Conservative Party and New Labour. The statements were so indistinguishable that most participants picked the... Sun, 20 Feb 2005 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/rule-of-law.shtml The ruling on the 16th December by the United Kingdom's highest court, the House of Lords, that foreign nationals should not be held indefinitely without due process in a court of law should send a strong signal to the world... Fri, 17 Dec 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/pinker-works.shtml I saw Steven Pinker present a more recent book of his last year at Britain's annual Hay Literary Festival, held in June at Hay-on-Wye. A dapper man, with a pre-Raphaelite coiffure, Pinker made a persuasive case for a return of... Sun, 22 Aug 2004 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/local-taxation.shtml I have read with considerable concern the reported Government proposals to make radical changes to the way council taxes are imposed. These appear to be, ostensibly, yet another way of increasing overall tax revenue... Fri, 23 Jul 2004 00:00 +01:00 Christopher Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/emmott-03.shtml Bill Emmott defines the two questions confronting us at the start of the 21st century as follows:... Sat, 13 Mar 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/emmott-02.shtml This continuation of my earlier review covers chapters 3-6 of 20:21 Vision. These chapters follow on from the first chapter's analysis of the American role in the world to cover the other three major blocs, China, Japan and Europe, the... Tue, 02 Mar 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/emmott-01.shtml The second chapter of Emmott, "American Leadership" is slightly disappointing from a personal perspective. There are no surprises, and very much the conventional view of American foreign policy as it was conducted during the 20th Century is laid out. Maybe... Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/hutton.shtml I had a hard time swallowing the conclusions of Lord Hutton in his summing-up for the inquest into Dr David Kelly's death. There have been questions about whether the widespread cynicism following the verdict represented a crisis of authority and... Thu, 05 Feb 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/beagle2.shtml As of writing the British mission to Mars has drawn a blank looking for its plucky little lander. A rendezvous with the orbiter failed to find a trace of the 69kg bundle of electronics, and all the signs are that... Thu, 08 Jan 2004 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/blurred-vision.shtml Apart from disagreeing fundamentally on a number of important issues, I think it brought home to me just how self-assured our Prime Minister can be. This is a man who would be able to follow you through a revolving door... Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/heffer-on-arnold.shtml We have all heard the New Labour mantra about its mission to promote "education, education, education". Simon Heffer points to a more ominous slogan courtesy of Charles Dickens's Mr Gradgrind: "facts, facts, facts". Mr Heffer claims that academic education in... Thu, 03 Jul 2003 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/takeover-review.shtml In 1998 News Corporation paid no net British corporation tax at all, despite having made $1.4 billion profit over the previous ten years. Michael Eisner, head of Disney corporation earned $576 million in 2001, roughly as much as the GDP... Wed, 21 May 2003 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/british-government.shtml When I want to get anything done in modern Britain, I usually have to call a civil servant. I would like to alter my property, so I go through a planning process that can take up to 18 months. I... Sat, 21 Sep 2002 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/lords-reform.shtml Under the government of New Labour, Britain has been attempting the most rapid rate of Constitutional reform in its thousand year history. Regional assemblies have already been created for Scotland and Wales, the former with limited tax-raising powers, and many... Sat, 29 Jun 2002 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/vote2001.shtml Britain's election of 2001 has to go down in history as the most apathetic landslide since 1918. With just 26% of the electorate giving a positive endorsement to Tony Blair's government (a 60% turnout and a 43% Labour count), one... Fri, 08 Jun 2001 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/eu-democracy.shtml A joke doing the rounds on the Internet pokes fun at political economy by using the example of a farmer breeding dairy cattle. Here is a 'definition' of Feudalism, using this methodology. "Feudalism: You have two cows. Your lord takes... Fri, 02 Feb 2001 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/singular.shtml Everyone has heard of Amazon.com, probably thought about buying an air-ticket from easyJet and may even have planned their next holiday by scouring the Internet for hotels, restaurants and car-hire services. Frost & Sullivan, a US tech consultancy, estimates that... Mon, 07 Aug 2000 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/greek-software.shtml Aristotle, the founder of the Lyceum, is generally regarded to be the founder of Logic, the branch of philosophy that is the foundation of mathematics and the cornerstone of high-technology. Alexandrian librarian Eratosthenes, of the 3rd century BC, is considered... Sat, 22 Jul 2000 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/esi-uk.shtml In the meantime, recent events have vindicated my skepticism towards the accounting system that was adopted, and the UK electricity Regulator (Ofgem) is investigating ways to introduce a proper market structure for electricity supply in the UK, the lack of... Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/noteworthy.shtml Television is usually thought of as the defining technology of the modern era. In the States, elections are usually fought and won with rapid-fire 'attack ads' on broadcast and cable TV. In the UK it is usually hard to maintain... Sat, 08 May 1999 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/mp3.shtml I am currently listening to Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue" album on my PC whilst I write this. However, my CD is safely in its jewel case next to the hi-fi in the living room. And the sound that is... Sat, 13 Feb 1999 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/linux.shtml I am now a confirmed Linux Nut, having just passed the Linux equivalent of my "rite of passage" and compiled my first Kernel. Linux is of course a computer Operating System (OS), the plumbing that integrates application software for things... Fri, 18 Dec 1998 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/paperless.shtml Working in Cyberspace in the 21st century? The world will be at our fingertips. Computers will remove the obstacles that have blocked economic development in the past. Barriers of communication will disappear. We will be able to exchange information at... Mon, 02 Dec 1996 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G D Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/democracy.shtml While superficially dictatorship is an attractive idea (Mussolini was famous for 'making the trains run on time'), I believe that in the long run it is a grossly inefficient way of running a country. The arguments are similar for any... Sat, 01 Jun 1996 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/ai.shtml It is common practise to define one's terms in any scientific investigation, and it is quite proper to question what we are assuming when we talk about 'intelligence'. If Einstein is my idol, my guiding light is his spirit that... Fri, 01 Nov 1991 00:00 +00:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper http://www.e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk/utilitarianism.shtml For many people it is no longer satisfactory to rely on the maxims of religious philosophy in order to judge what is right or wrong, and Utilitarianism can be said to have achieved the greatest degree of progress towards forming... Thu, 01 Jun 1989 00:00 +01:00 Christopher G. D. Tipper