Comic Sans Must Die

Comic Sans must die. I say this, not in passing reference to Romeo Must Die, because it must. It has the power to convert a professional message into an inane message that I don’t want to pay any attention to. I honestly thought that Comic Sans was only used by school children to emulate their own writing. How wrong was I?! Very. It seems that reputable companies use Comic Sans. Naming no names – they’re a few clients and suppliers of ours that use the cursed font.

Ban it, kill it, anything, just get rid of it. 

Death by Buffet Food

For the past few weeks I have been attending a few networking events due to work. While I don’t mind the events, I feel that I could die a slow and rather boring death on buffet food.

At the first event, an IBM event that had a lot of free stuff I could potentially set up my own computer related store, I thought that the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels were a nice accompaniment to the beef and horseradish Yorkshire puddings and cheese and tomato sandwiches.

At the second event, a luncheon (so said the invitation) to meet NHS Professionals, a similar buffet was served – in that the bagels and Yorkshire puddings were replaced by sandwiches. I thought that, being Central London, the same caterers had been used.

At the third event, an event not even in London but in Woking, similar fillings were again served. I’m not a fan of Salmon as it is – anyone who knows me well knows that I hate river fish – but food is food. After all, there’s only so much horseradish I can consume before I start feeling queasy, and Tomato and Cheese is a standard and rather dull addition to my plate.

The only food stuffs that altered drastically at the events were the desserts. At the first event I avoided the funny looking jellied custard dessert and concentrated on grapes. At the second they didn’t even provide desserts! At the third, I had a delightful carrot cake – by far the best catered dessert.

Desserts aside, I would like some diversification in the savoury line-up of the next buffeted event I attend. My staple diet must consist of more than Salmon, Beef and Cheese if only for the sake of my poor palette. 

Office for National Statistics - frustrating beyond belief

As a fairly frequent user of the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) website I was excited when they announced a new website for the service. In reality, however, the website is worse than the original. It is no longer navigable and any search for data usually results in a head attempting to go through a desk.

I'm not a web designer and thus have no constructive suggestions concerning the navigation of the website. But the new website does come with its own user manual!

In regards to the datasets I have a huge problem. They are not uniform and thus don't make sense, not to me and probably not to anyone else other than the person who created them. I've been advised to use American sites for UK economic data. Good advice, except I require detailed statistics beyond GDP, CPI, RPI, etc. I need the Labour Force Survey and Consumer Trends Survey.

The variables, especially in the Consumer Trends Survey, are jumbled. Seasonally adjusted variables are mixed up with non-seasonally adjusted variables. Sectors are seemingly grouped together until you find financial services lumped with pet food right at the end. When dealing with variables numbering more than 1000 it's frustrating. Nay, it is infuriating!

In regards to time-series, records for some things (according to ONS) begin in 1948. For the majority the data begins in the 1990s. As a past user of historical data I know for a fact that most of the data which supposedly starts in the 1990s actually begins before 1948.

Access to historical data is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. The Universities who hold the data are becoming more and more tight fisted in who accesses it. As a proponent of open government and transparency, my task of monitoring long term trends is hindered. I cannot, therefore, hold governments to account based on comparative data due to dwindling access. When the coalition government announced that they were opening the data vaults I rejoiced. However, I foresee that they will fail in this because their statistical service is not all that open or easily accessed.

If the government is to pursue its policy of open government it must first overhaul the ONS. Make the website navigable and, for pity's sake, make the datasets uniform.

RWC11 Predictions

Looking at the statistics of past world cups, I have come up with a prediction for the Rugby World Cup.

QF1 France v England
QF2 Australia v Wales
QF3 New Zealand v Scotland
QF4 South Africa v Ireland

Winners of the Quarter Finals: France, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

SF1 France v Australia
SF2 New Zealand v South Africa

Winners of the Semi Finals: Australia and South Africa

Final: Australia v South Africa
Winner: Australia

Play-off France v New Zealand
Winner: New Zealand