28 April 2008

Free WiFi? Fail...

Just back from my local garden centre and stopped for a quick coffee in their Starbucks franchise. I noticed Free Internet signs on every table so tried it out. It is provided by a company called Polkaspots - only problem is they charge £3 for 60 mins use amongst other 'tariffs'. So hardly free.
There is a link for "free internet" but that takes you to the garden centres own website with no ability to navigate away from it.

Lady on the 'information' desk didn't know what I was rambling on about - in fact I doubt if she knew what wi-fi referred to. Maybe a species of succulent?.....

UPDATE:
Called back there for a coffee/eats before going to see "Iron Man" and discovered that you have to ask for a voucher at the counter - they then give you a 30 minutes scratch card and you access the net that way. Looks like any unused minutes are retained in your 'account'.

27 April 2008

Unbearable...

"Eat anything in the mangroves and you risk dancing with the Devil - anything from dysentery to liver failure..."

So, why the f**k are you eating that raw crab?

The new 'survival' series with Bear Grylls is taking the idea of 'TV bushcraft' first pioneered by Ray Mears to the extreme. But it's crap viewing...

Mears at least made interesting viewing but Grylls is just plain annoying...

22 April 2008

Hic...

67%SOCIAL DRINKER

16 April 2008

BSW

12 April 2008

For my other wrist...

A Bell & Ross BR 03 94 Chronograph Carbon Finish, just because I like it.


The price, on the other hand wrist, I'm not so keen on - £3,300...

11 April 2008

10 April 2008

On my iPod:

Loud Louder Stop by The Neil Cowley Trio




09 April 2008

Alpha is omega'd...

Seems like my Arcam Alpha 5 CD Player is giving up the ghost.
The sound is badly distorting while playing a CD and even though I have run a lens cleaner disc through it and used contact cleaner on the interconnects it is still distorting the audio.

I have rigged up a Sony CD Walkman to test the amplifier connections and it is working fine. So I can only assume that it is the end of the road for the Alpha 5.

I have had this for about 13 years and up until recently it was used almost every day. If I can't get a repair done cheaply, I wonder if I will just ditch the Alpha 5 in favour of one of my iPods as a source.

The Delta 290 amplifier has been exhibiting a 'dry' input selector switch for a while now. From reading various forums this 'pot' is sealed as it is motorised and so lubricating it is not an option (this is not the cause of the CD player problem).

Maybe it is time to just replace the whole system...

02 April 2008

Demotivation...

BSW

01 April 2008

April Fool...