Author Archive
Flying Face-To-Face: The New Economy Class
Flying Face-To-Face: The New Economy Class: “
I’ll say this right now, this is bonkers. If this illustration is anything to go by will the unfortunates in the window seats pay less for not having a padded seat back?
Note to airlines thinking about this, count me out.
If you can’t give me a proper seat, facing the front, with a backrest and an armrest, you’re not having my money.
Unbelievable nonsense.
Muffins!: Teen Girls Accused Of “Food Contamination” After Squeezing Muffins
Muffins!: Teen Girls Accused Of “Food Contamination” After Squeezing Muffins: “
Some of the comments under this post are obviously from morons with no conceptions of basic food hygiene.
You do not touch foodstuffs openly on display in shops. Period.
Grow up.
TV schedules. A bit of a rant
Someone mentioned video recorders to me the other night when I complained about overlapping TV shows. You know, when there is something interesting on one of the plethora of minority cable and satellite channels that clashes with something else reasonably worthwhile on the Beeb. And what is worse, some of these minority channels schedule programs to start 10 or 15 minutes past the hour. What’s all that about? You finish watching something, look for something else and find it started 20 minutes ago.
Anyway video recorders. How quaint I said, I think we have one of those gathering dust somewhere. I’ve even got a DVD player that dear old Allen got for me, gathering fly droppings in the conservatory, where there isn’t even television these days.
What with iPlayer and 4more or whatever it’s called, not forgetting whatever the ITV one is called, plus all the plus channels that repeat everything one hour later, what do I need a VCR for? I’ve got a hard drive full of movies and some TV series to watch (trying to get the wife interested in Battlestar Galactica without much success), so if the evening schedule is just plain rubbish I don’t really mind.
But I watched Wuthering Heights last night, It’s rare to find anything remotely good or interesting on ITV never mind in HD but this is really good. Get to the end of the show, wait to hear when the final part is going out, only to be told, nothing, nada, not a bloody sausage as to when we can see the concluding part.
I see from tvguide.co.uk it’s on tonight, but it clashes with Wallander on BBC4 and I don’t know if that will be on the iPlayer, it’s foreign for a start, and you only get one shot with HD stuff on ITV. The playitagain is SD only. ITV’s HD output is dismal compared to the BBC, it’s mostly bloody football and who’s interested in that these days?
By the way if anyone is interested in Vampires, and i can, surprisingly, recommend Twilight as a movie worth watching, you might want to catch Moonlight on Virgin 1. It’s a damn shame they didn’t commission a second season, what with the aforementioned Twilight reinvigorating the genre.
Costa Rica Rain! – The itchy foot & wheely case
Costa Rica Rain! – The itchy foot & wheely case
Another chapter in the travels of an almost 30 something with itchy feet and a thirst for adventure.
This time she’s in Costa Rica on a volunteer project building houses.
See also The Write Site professional writer with words for sale.
Local police advocate breaking the law to thwart criminals?
Local police are advising South Holland car owners to be more careful when leaving cars parked. Don’t leave any valuables in the car. Remove handbags,briefcases,wallets and sat navs.
They then go on to advise removing the tax disc as well.
“Crime reduction officer Pete Tyrrel, of Spalding Police, is warning people not to leave their keys in the car – even if it’s just for a minute or two.
He said: “People have lost their keys and then a couple of weeks later their car is taken.
“Don’t leave anything in the car that thieves might want, such as sat navs, handbags, wallets, tax discs and CDs.”
Now, as I understand it, it is a legal requirement to display a current tax disc on the windscreen of all vehicles.
Are Spalding Police advising motorists to break the law in order to thwart the law breakers?
Warning issued after spate of vehicle thefts – Spalding Today
The lexicon of computing is buggering up our language.
This is a quick note. I came across the phrase on-premise this morning. On-premise? Grammatically incorrect of course, it should be on-premises, but hijacked a long time ago by the geeks. It refers to software applications installed on local machines rather than on remote servers, or “in the cloud” which is the current buzz phrase for remote storage etc.
It got me thinking about all the other odd words and phrases conjured up by the tech industry. WYSIWYG is usually the first one that comes to mind, an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out, could well describe the same thing.
So here I am inputting data into a blog using a sophisticated piece of software that translates keystrokes into words using a complex algorithm based on something called ASCII. My keyboard is connected to my computer by something called Bluetooth. I will then upload this to my web server using a modem connected to my PC via WiFi, by pointing an on-screen cursor at a button with no button holes with the aid of a mouse and the odd bit of drag ‘n drop.
Hopefully someone will read this on my Dotcom domain having downloaded it into their browser. This is not a complete FAQ on the latest computer jargon, if you want that I suggest you google for it.
Laser cure for old-age blindness
Certainly one of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to lose one of your major senses. And the loss of sight is especially devastating to anyone of advancing years. I have seen this with my own mother losing her sight to Macular Degeneration. This is the major cause of blindness in over 60’s in the western world.
I’m encouraged by news of a possible laser surgery technique developed by Professor John Marshall of Kings College London. The technique works by clearing away the natural waste products that build up in the membrane at the back of the eye. This waste material, produced by the light sensitive cells, clouds the vision. In younger healthier eyes it’s dispersed naturally.
The painless “short pulse” laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see.
Unfortunately it cannot restore the sight to people that have already been affected by Macular Degeneration, but it could be of benefit to those in the early stages for whom there is currently no effective treatment
Mindless, shirtless and wandering a street in your town?
This recent spell of hot weather has brought out the good, the bad and especially the ugly, to our streets and shops. You’ve all seen it. The topless bloke who quite clearly doesn’t have any mirrors at home. The one who thinks the tattoos make the rolls of hairy lard look like muscle. The long shorts that could do with a good wash, and oh those scruffy black trainers look so un-cool on the ends of those hairy white legs.
Or you get the skinny dude with big black shades and a pearl white torso that any dead man would be proud of. Matchstick legs poking out of baggy long shorts that cling desperately to bony hips, above which is the elastic waste band of his underpants.
Classy? No. It’s up against the wall and get shot by the fashion police.
They have an image of themselves based on some beefcake they’ve seen in a magazine or newspaper. Perhaps their favourite footballer or actor. I have news for them, you look stupid. Your fashion icon has taken far better care of his body than you have yours.
On a beach somewhere, in the park or round the swimming pool, all this is acceptable. But I really don’t want to see it wandering along the street, and I especially don’t want to see it in the supermarket or any other public place.
The worst of it is these men are often accompanied by women. You have to assume wives or girlfriends who are also blind to the awfulness of the image. And here I have to say that we must be grateful some of these women don’t choose to similarly disport themselves in public.
I’m sorry love but you’re not built for shorts and a low cut T shirt. Have you seen yourself from behind?