Year: 2012

August 25, 2012
August 24, 2012
Coming back from London, on Wednesday, the train was busy, even though it was past rush hour. At King’s Cross, I walked down towards the end of the train, and came across a set of 6 seats, 3 opposite 3, occupied by two guys. Seated on the same side, one was on the window seat, the other on the aisle, with the seat between them occupied by bags and newspapers, that turned out to be owned by Window Seat Guy. Both guys were stretched out so their legs touched the opposite seats, discouraging anyone else from sitting there.

I initially squeezed past the guy on the aisle and sat in the middle seat opposite them, leaving them their legroom. But seeing there were more people boarding, I moved into the seat opposite Window Seat Guy. As I did, our legs touched, and he tutted and grudgingly moved, but not by much. He still insisted on stretching out, and we ended up with his legs in front of him, and mine either side.

August 23, 2012
Following on from yesterday, about my shopping trip.

Being the size I am, buying clothes can sometimes be a problem. As it happens, shirts – even office shirts – are not really an issue, as I have a couple of places I know that I buy from. Cotton Traders is a particular favourite store of mine – possibly because their shirts are big not because their target customers are fat, but because they started their business selling rugby shirts to broad-shouldered muscle mountains. But they work just as well for me too.

August 22, 2012
… After a very successful shopping trip to London.

Will write more at another time, but one thing I will mention is the hot beef sandwich I foolishly bought in Harrods at lunchtime, which while pleasant enough, was not exactly hot, and left me feeling “meh”.

August 22, 2012
One of my set-top boxes (not the YouView one) does a decent job of playing YouTube over the TV, so on odd occasions, I sit and browse for amusement or inspiration.

I was doing this before heading for bed last night, and came across the video of Seal’s Kiss From A Rose. I have always liked this song, so I followed some of the links that came up when the video ended, and found the following two videos, both wonderful, for two very different reasons.

August 17, 2012
August 12, 2012
The first Youview device launched a few weeks ago, with a fanfare from the BBC and a lot of talk from Lord Sugar; who contrary to rumour, isn’t actually involved in the production of the device, but is a non-executive chairman of the Youview partnership.

Youview is an IPTV service developed and launched jointly by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five; together with BT and TalkTalk. Youview have specified what a Youview box should do, to enable it to bear the name, and various set-top box manufacturers will be launching their own boxes, made to that spec. The highlights of the requirement are that it includes dual Freeview tuners, a hard disk recorder, and hosts all 4 channel’s catchup/on demand services. Furthermore, that this functionality should be fully integrated.

August 12, 2012
A year or so, I was talking about how ebooks were frequently more expensive than the equivalent paperback. It was annoying, but I could kind of understand it, due to eBooks being VATable and real books not. Things have since got better, due to Amazon’s creative use of European VAT regulations.

However, I do not understand this other anomaly. Since buying my new laptop, and realising that it is the first computer I have owned in a long time capable of playing decent games, I have been dabbling with various game demos on Steam, which is a gaming distribution platform. In particular one of the demos I have enjoyed is Hard Reset, and I have been considering buying the whole game.

August 9, 2012
I ended up not blogging anything during my time in Somerset. The cottage I was in not only wasn’t online (which I knew in advance), but I couldn’t even get a reasonable mobile data connection. Even the phone service was very hit and miss.

On reflection, this was not a bad thing. I had a relaxing time in the cottage, going out for days (and getting my email fix in Starbucks or similar) and chilling out in the evening.

July 28, 2012
July 27, 2012
Listening to Radio 4 on the radio today, unsurprisingly heavy with articles about the Olympics. Now, as the Games start, there appears to be a new phraseology being used – that the site of the Games was a “barren wasteland” or an “empty brownfield site”.

This will come as news to the many people who enjoyed the area before the bulldozers came in. For example, the Eastway Cycle Circuit – a 1 mile public cycle circuit, built in the 1970s, and set in parklands, now replaced by the Velodrome. Does this look like a wasteland to you?

July 24, 2012
I had to fly out to the Netherlands last week. It was a last minute thing, so I ended up buying Euros at London City Airport, using my personal VISA Debit card (I would claim back expenses later).

Because it was a Debit card, and not a Credit card, it meant I wouldn’t pay any additional charges outside of exchange rates and commission. Right?