Great Quote

This from PopBitch

"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as
intolerant encourages violence" - Pakistan Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.

Says it all

Mooching around

For some time now I've had a problem with shelves, particularly with reference to books.
They get full up - books are too cheap but I can't throw them away so what has happened is every now and then I've stuck one in the post to an old school friend in Bristol.

Now I've an alternative for books I think Kevin won't want BookMooch
It's free - you add the books you no longer want and get credits (of books) in return.

I've just had my first taker for the books I've offered up (Les tells me it's arrived) for ipod therefore I am - I'll hopefully get something interesting, we'll see. perhaps the model works for Videos/DVDs.

Home exhibition

We went to excel (London-ish trade show venue) on Sunday for property show -Bulgaria seems to be the hot spot to buy investment properties and there were plenty of people drifting around the show but for me no spark.

My Week

eating outUsually I'm positive about restaurants I visit but Friday was one of the slowest meals for a long time (poor service) - I suppose we have now been exposed to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Hells' (or whatever it's called) and think we could do better - in the case almost certainly could it's a slow Thai eatery.You can see what others thought here.

film
Went to see the Black Dahlia (film), it was quite a ‘dense’ film but nonetheless an engaging experience and a film which I managed to stay awake through.

out of town
Yesterday when I went to get the morning paper I saw a friend of mine from University who lives locally, he took voluntary redundancy this spring and has decided to leave London, he and his girlfriend are going to build an ecological house somewhere in the country
They have their plot of land with planning permission accepted and have now got to sell their current property and start the project - the idea is to go the whole hog with producing electricity and collecting water. It’s certainly a change of lifestyle for them both.

Media week

Telegraph

the last few weeks have seen some interesting activity in traditional media amongst which is the re-invention of the good old torygraph.

Newspapers are looking to leverage their brand and as the Guardian noted on Thursday the economics of free and online are looking distinctly appealing, as economists report there's a benefit from offering a variety of cost models particularly where it's possible to get extra revenue from purchasers who are less cost conscious.

The Telegraph more than most UK newspapers faces a distinctly challenging future as its readers move into their twilight years - an online presence offers salvation and the deal with ITN looks good for both parties. ITN can offer the advantages of video and new media and the telegraph gives ITN a way out of its declining deal with ITV.

Great Video

If you need a laugh take a look - it's a scream

Progress(ive)

Nearly a year ago I was interviewed for a contract position at Eutelsat in Paris, ever since then I've been trying to get the expenses paid - Eutelsat seemed happy to pay but needed the recruitment company to invoice them- for some reason (perhaps 'cos i didn't take the job?) they seemed unable to do this.

Yesterday I had a job description from their UK operation and told them of my problem -seems it might be sorted out. So the moral is deal with UK operation not the French one.

Selling Stuff

Interesting to actually manage to sell a couple of items on ebay - not sure I'll try again- boxing things up, replying to questions - it's unlikely to make me rich but on the plus side a bit over £80.00 and it makes more sense than filling up cupboards or the local tip.

Media week

Unbox from Amazon

While Mac movies speculation has been spreading like wildfire Amazon have come up on the outside with a spectacular launch of movies that will include content from BBC Worldwide

BBC and MySpace Clone
In an unrelated (ish) development BBC Worldwide is rumoured to be on the outlook for a My Space clone – interesting that the talk is of Worldwide doing this – presumably no requirement then for the BBC board to run a public value test ?

EX BAA for ITV?
Few names in the to be itv’s new boss frame, frontrunner now looks to be Clasper but someone with a more rounded Media background could still win out.

Watch your power

What a disaster! When I got home on Monday evening I found we'd had a power outage which had knocked out the PC (bugger).

Obviously I tried to fix it but no luck, next day at work did a bit of research and that evening again tried to fix it but feared the worst (dead power supply).

The next day ordered a replacement from these folks and that evening took the old power supply out.

The next day (today) new psu arrive and PC appears to work. although this psu is 350wattes versus old one at 250 watts it is worryingly light and cost about £5 plus about the same for delivery- we'll see how long it lasts.

Conclusions
1) Too reliant on a PC.
2) Delivery amazing
3) Get a surge protector

great song FAME

I was ploughing into YouTube and thought how well this song has stood up to the test of time. A collaboration between Bowie and Lennon but another key contributor is the guitarist Carlos Alomar who supplied the riff.
It sounds like neither Bowie nor Lennon is over enthusiastic about Fame and certainly Lennon paid a high price for his.
Carlos has a Myspace page

New Phone and selling old stuff

Phones
I'm impressed with Carphone Warehouse, what they've said would happen has happened, my phone arrived ands my new contract. Seems that the move away from landlines is likely to continue, I'm a bit of a dinosaur in terms of making a phone call but many people do not feel restricted and want to use a 'proper' phone.

So what does this mean?
From my point of view I've got more minutes for less time and a more sophisticated phone - I suppose call costs will move towards being free and that Video calls will become the norm - here's a company that's (hopefully) involved in making things like this happen.

Ebay
I've launched myself on Ebay (not literally), I did say at the beginning of the year I'd try to get rid of things when I bought new ones and I've got a super new Satellite TV receiver (again) company selling was quite good. Putting the entries on Ebay seemed quite straightforward, time will tell if anyone wants the devices.
(any ideas for an old v635 Motorola phone?)