Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Bright idea mobile phone manufactures

I would love to know what wise ar*se at the mobile phone companies, thought it would be a great idea to enable mobile phones to play music on a loud speaker, so that irritating little teenagers and Japanese tourists, could share their lovely taste in music with whole train or bus loads of passengers. I mean why wouldn't you want to hear "Baby hit me one more time" on the pesky little loud speaker of a Motorola Razor phone 20 times. The whole idea of the word personal stereo system or personal music system, means just that...its personal! It means you listen to it through headphones so that nobody else has to. It doesn't mean I'll share what I'm listening to with everyone around me because they just love what I listen to. We know you think your choice in music is just the best in the world and we will take your word for it! 

posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:23:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Monday, May 28, 2007
Joost Me!

I finally got around to using the Joost invite my friend Owen sent me a while ago. To be honest I couldn't understand what all the fuss was until I finally signed up and saw what TV was on offer.

Its not half bad for an IPTV platform, in fact its bloody amazing. All the channels are delivered incredibly fast and it allows you to watch shows when you want to watch them. This platform is literally quite awesome and I only hope it really takes off in a far bigger way with much larger titles. I spent my time watching past episodes of Lexx and browsing through a few music videos stations. If this is the way for IPTV then I am fully onboard for the revolution! I have seen other IPTV providers such as BT Vision and was not too impressed they seemed to be lacking the content while at least Joost does have some nice content although slightly older content its still makes good viewing.

It would be nice if you could now pickup a dedicated IPTV box for Joost to plug into your TV. At the moment I plug it into my TV via my laptops RGB port. I am looking forward to some more content and wonder what the payment structure for Joost will be once its out of beta. Will you need to subscribe to it for a monthly fee or will the content be paid for using the small and not too long adverts they had during the shows?

posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 1:10:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

Time for government to be accountable to the people

Its about time government became more accountable to the people, so often government has made decisions with out consulting the local population with some often tragic consequences. Government ministers getaway with so much now a days and we the British public seem to do nothing to stop it or have had any method of doing anything about it removed.

Take a simple issue such as only emptying our bins once every 2 weeks. Who in their right mind thought that, that was going to reduce the amount of rubbish? All they've gone and done is delay the amount of time it will take for the rubbish to get to the tip, its almost like saying well if we don't collect the rubbish the problem will go away. Its still there! What you will probably find happening is more illegal dumping will take place than ever before, their will be an increase in the rodent population and eventually disease. In countries such as Spain they collect the rubbish more than once a week to stop such a problem taking place, as our climate gets warmer we will start to suffer the same problems with stinking bins outside our homes. No matter how much you recycle you are still going to get dreadful smells from rubbish left more than a week, its a fact of life.

Join the localist revolution started by Daniel Hannan of the Daily Mail, start making local councils responsible to the people again, they are here to serve us not the other way around.

posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 11:24:41 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Sunday, May 27, 2007
This is not a photograph

Wow I am still having a hard time believing this is not a photograph!

Have a look here to see how it was done

posted on Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:47:53 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

BT Vision vs Tiscali

When I first heard of BT Vision I thought to myself what a good idea! You can finally get TV over your broadband from one of the top broadband providers in the country right?

Well not quite exactly. BT Vision advertises that you can get all the free view channels over their set top box plus TV on demand. Ok sounds good, but when you look into it further you actually need to be in an area that can receive Freeview by aerial so basically the BT Vision box has a built in free view decoder and you don't get these channels over broadband. However the box does allow you to record, pause and rewind live TV a bit like the Sky Plus box does except this is for Freeview channels fare enough its a worth while service (they're not the first). So I decided to look at what  was available from the on demand bit of it, the main reason you are basically getting this box and why you need a broadband connection for it to work.

Now if the website is anything to go by you get precious little in variety in comparison to the likes of  Tiscali's newly acquired service which used to be called Home Choice which offers 1000's of movies to watch on demand. Maybe BT Vision has a lot of content to choose from but if they do, they don't advertise it very well. Tiscali are also offering a service called Sky By Wire which gives you access to Sky Movies and Sports Channels it doesn't however give you access to Sky One which appears to get hold of all those top shows such as Battle Star Galactica, Star Gate, Nip Tuck and 24. What I find the most amusing is what a monopoly Sky has on content, they don't have the best delivery mechanism for their content but they pull people into their platform because of what a hold they have on people who want to watch their channels. Sky One used to be available over other services such as Virgin Digital (formerly NTL Telewest) but I am gathering that Sky wants to keep this little gem of a channel very close to its chest. Virgin Digital also offers a great delivery mechanism with loads of channels available to watch on demand, Sky are only just catching up with on demand TV and if you've got a Sky Plus box you may have noticed the Sky Anytime option available on your set top box now. Its a paltry selection of on demand TV delivered to your set top box at night, which doesn't begin to compare to what's available from the other providers out there such as Tiscali and Virgin Digital.

posted on Sunday, May 27, 2007 10:57:27 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

Madeleine McCann

I have found it so heart warming how so many organizations, celebrities and every day people have gone out of their way to help find this little girl. Even huge organizations like Microsoft have made an appeal on their web site to help find her. Even when I went on holiday to Ireland all the check in desks had pictures of Madeleine.

With the amount of publicity out there right now someone must know something and I really hope that they come forward with information to help find her.

posted on Sunday, May 27, 2007 12:19:03 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Friday, May 25, 2007
How safe is the food in your supermarket?

Having watched a BBC 1 documentary on Whistle blower about undercover reporters getting themselves jobs at Tesco and Sainsburys meat, deli and fish counters I was literally quite shocked by what they uncovered. All of a sudden I saw these counters in my super market in a whole different light. At the stores they uncovered  the selling of meat and fish products past their sell by dates, cutting off of bad sections of meat and placing them back on the counter, mincing cooked and uncooked meat and selling it as fresh mince and the list goes on...

What I think was more shocking is that not much more has been made about this documentary and that these large super markets will probably get away with it. All of this was caused by super markets cutting corners to make greater profits, but no matter how evident the documentary was none of the super markets will suffer for it. People will still blindly shop at these super markets because it is what we have always done, others will not even have heard about it and some will not even be bothered.

I think what is the most shocking is that a lot of food poisoning people could have suffered may not have been their own fault, but that of their local super market.

posted on Friday, May 25, 2007 7:46:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Why do you SPAM?

To all those spammers out there, do you have any morals? Does it not worry you that you are cursed everyday by thousands of readers of your spamming emails? What do you hope to achieve by entering adverts for fake Viagra sites into blogs when 99% of people on the Internet will just delete them?

posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 9:44:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Is WiFi bad for you?

Having watched the BBC program Panorma about the dangers of WiFI I have suddenly become very paranoid about my own two WiFI routers in my house. I wasn't aware until I watched the program that several countries have banned the use of WiFi transmitters in schools if even one child feels ill. If  people are sensitive to radiation from WiFI and cell phone masts they get grants for anti radiation paint to shield their homes or have the antennas removed

You could understand what a massive loss on investment it would be if new legislation suddenly came out over night saying that no Cell phone or WiFi antennae's could be located anywhere nears residents who may be affected by it, or schools where children are more susceptible to it.

The radiation from WiFi antennas could have some pretty adverse effects in the long term on human beings, it could even be responsible for:

  • DNA breaking up
  • Increase risks of cancer
  • Headaches and nausea

As a precaution I have made sure I turn off all my WiFi transmitters at night. As I see it, its probably better to be safe than sorry right?

If you've been suffering headaches for no apparent reason, try turning off your WiFi connection for a week and see if it helps, and if it does I would be interested to hear from you. All of a sudden cable running around my house doesn't sound like a bad idea.

posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 8:00:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Monday, May 21, 2007
I'm back!

I've been away for a few days in Ireland for a friends wedding it was a truly wonderful event set in the lovely county of Carlow in the sleepy little town of Tullow situated an hour and a half drive from Dublin.We stayed in a large 5 bedroom cottage on the grounds of the Mount Wolseley Hotel, the houses in this part of Ireland are pretty large our own cottage was huge by comparison to the little house we have here in Surrey.  One of our friends commented that the living room was so spacious it looked like a bowling alley with its shiny wooden floors.

We managed to a get a great deal that cost us £327.72 which we spread among 5 friends worked out to be very good value for money for a weekend. Why not take a look at their website if you are planning a mini break away?

posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 8:27:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

 Monday, May 14, 2007
Making money off your credit card

No this isn't another scam, its something I have read on the Fool.co.uk and have done myself for quite a long time.

Basically there are many 0% interest free credit cards out there trying to lure people who ring up large credit card bills over to them. If you are clever you can make the most out of this introductory rate, as long as your are strict with your finances.

Here's one example of what I do.

  • Get yourself a good credit card with a 0% interest free rate on purchases and balance transfers for a year or more (if you can get it)
  • If like me, your work pays for your travel expenses, start putting all of your travel expenses on your credit card.
  • When your work pays back your expenses, place these in a separate high interest savings account or a cash ISA.
  • When your 0% interest rate ends, pay off the balance in full and keep the interest you have earned and if you want, start the whole thing over again.

Now the above works really well as long as you:

  • Are not tempted to use your card for any other expense. This card is only for expenses nothing else!
  • Make a note of when your 0% interest rate ends so you are not suddenly stung for interest payments. If you use Outlook or some other email organizing program you can put a date reminder in here so you don't forget.

Good luck and if you have any similar tips I would love to hear from you!

posted on Monday, May 14, 2007 8:57:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [1]