• Although you are well known for being able to be in the here-a… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• Is it that hard to beat Stoke? for Arsenal, so far it could be answered yes! but it should be answered with a hard cold noooooooooo! #
• HD is nice but I am waiting for a great film to watch on HD TV, oh and need a really nice new HDTV to watch on as only got 780p right now! #
• Fucking hate when Arsenal play like !@*£&^ $&&% *$&%*% planks. Will we win anything this year & will our big stars stay if we don't? A: NO! #
• @JulieRussell Accepted and placed on the pile of self pity that I have been building for years! meh, oh well, never mind, live is going on! in reply to JulieRussell #
• I hate typo's! I really do, its bloody hard work being dyslexic lol, and y such a hard thing to spell for ppl that cant spell?!?!?! #
• There are only a few films that touch me, Batteries not included gets me, such a great film! they don't make them like they used too! #
• I don't mean with out Batteries either! Really love the classics, I think I might dig out some other classics! ah, good times. #
• @jamesmills fast and its 50.1meg, not like other crap companies! very fast and the tests where at peak time so very impressed, it downloa… in reply to jamesmills #
• @jamesmills ..ds really fast & iplayer + utube r very stable, well worth it, but if u can,wait till the 100meg comes out in a few months ;-P #
• @jamesmills ah man, I do feel for you, if I lie and tell you its crap, slow and useless will you feel better? ;-P in reply to jamesmills #
• Everything is jumping today and you are not sure whether you l… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• You may think that you have a way with words today that will g… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• you have got to do it! try it: http://tinyurl.com/yfpfjw9 far too funny! I thought I did well apparently not! #
• Friendly Venus is tugging on your heartstrings from individual… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jamesmills buy another wireless router and use it as an access point so it relays the signal but n has 5 times the distance! in reply to jamesmills #
• Got my fastest speed today, http://tinyurl.com/yclkqvz, slow upload but the download of 60meg is crazy lol. Ah good times. #
• @jamesmills Well, thats what they say it can go up2, has 5 areals in total. Connecting it via a cable seems 2 beat the point of wireless ;-P in reply to jamesmills #
• @lazybloke2 I like! I might have to do that myself ;-P I would say your cheap but the touch is alot more money the magic mouse! in reply to lazybloke2 #
• You may go out of your way to demonstrate that you are free fr… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• Your key planet Mars is opposite the Sun now, but Mars is curr… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jordanharper similar to America's pedestrian lights where it counts down, letting you know long till you are going to die! in reply to jordanharper #
• @lazybloke2 Pixies that carry it away to pixy land. in reply to lazybloke2 #
• You may believe that you can power your way through just about… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jamesmills happy birthday, have a good one! in reply to jamesmills #
• Tax return = boring! I hate this shit! it aint worth the effort I am sure of it! almost done, just have to done check it all now! #
• Nice. ! RT Google to end support for IE6, every web developers dream – http://bit.ly/bChhEm (via @nine_toes) what great news, top stuff #

I would like to thank South-eastern for the new year time table which makes nearly all trains run late.

I am sure the targets that they are given will still be met this year even though they clear are not meeting them targets. Oh and if they dont, it was the cold weather and snow days that did it, not the normal, every day before and after the snow that the trains are late.

I get sick of their crappy excuses as well! if its not snow, wind, rain, leaves its congestion at London Bridge! they have the same amount of trains every day, its not like the M25 where any old bugger can get in his car / train and get in the que!

I know its usually down to a broken signal but don’t apologies in the station saying “We are sorry for the delay this morning into Cannon Street, this was due to congestion at London Bridge.”, no, no its not, its due to a broken signal, don’t bloody lie to me, its not that an extra 50 trains turned up today, its just that poor faulty not upgraded equipment keep breaking. In fact most days there are cancelled services due to train or driver shortage so they should be flying down the lines not getting bogged down.

Then there is the trains that used to run from Dartford now start at Gravesend, they have that extra bit to go! simple, it leaves earlier, no it seems that they are always 3 to 4 minutes late, so that means, leave 3 to 4 minutes earlier and if needed spend more time at each station to slow down or go slower between stations, but for god sake sort it out.

Well that’s vented and now the pain in my arse called slow, poorly serviced, shabby south-eastern trains is out in the open and free.

It will still upset me when I go home but hey, for the few hours between now and then I am happy happy happy, well, not really, but smiles, big big smiles, Smiley Smiley Carol Smiley

• Your hopes for success were likely revived last year as bounti… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• It's not easy to keep your feet planted on the ground today, f… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• How ironic that google gears does not work with google chrome! Think they learnt that little trick from Microsoft. Come on guys sort it out. #
• @jordanharper @andyhawkes @CraigGrannell & that Kraft are hugely in debt! but when Kraft offer silly money to share holders, would u refuse? in reply to jordanharper #
• It may be difficult for you to get motivated today because you… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• oh boy,days like this I just want 2 give up programming & turn 2 the drink! life always looks & feels better at the end of the bottle right? #
• "Fools rush in" and so do you, especially when the Moon return… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jordanharper to much information me thinks ;-P in reply to jordanharper #
• Its official, as of 02:02 21st of January 2009 I have built the hardest & most important part of my very lovely super easy nested sets mysql #
• @jamesmills its like that most mornings for me, why can i not enjoy waking up, every day i am not happy until around 11am, y not b4? #why #
• #southeastern have managed to make everyone of my trains late and now this one is late and not moving, great timetable change guys. #
• May be only geeks like me enjoy this but i love having a real fucking hard puzzle as solving it at 2am is an incredible rush, ah pure geeek #
• @jamie_oliver what will be this years most popular grow your own fruit and veg, what should be in my patch? #askJamie #
• @jamesmills u provide a convincing argument, but still, if I wake 2 early Im like bear with sore head, never used to be like that in teens! in reply to jamesmills #
• This my friends is 1 of the best things on the planet right now! http://tinyurl.com/yfh2mt8 (via @jamesmills) ||totally agree, big smile ;-P #
• You may be quite enthused about accomplishing your goals today… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jamesmills yes I think so using a mysql connector?!? it must be because you have special Microsoft OBDC drivers for connecting to MYSQL4web in reply to jamesmills #
• @jamesmills please tell me Linedin is not another social media site ;-P in reply to jamesmills #
• @jamie_oliver I was expecting a bloody mess, lucky for you health and safety got to that school before you did! ;-P in reply to jamie_oliver #
• Just bored, merging, testing, fixing, working out what file I lost in the merge, then finding where my merge change stuff wrongly…. #meh #
• Friday feeling is overwhelming… started early today and no lunch don't help. Bah, Virgin tomorrow installing 50meg BB, ah sooo excited ;-P #
• @jamesmills I know, It also comes with 100 free prints each month and unlimited v-stuff online storage, ah inner geek is having party. in reply to jamesmills #
• @jamesmills go4it, mention on signup Alex Akass & we both get £30 4 the name drop. Will let you know what its like Sunday, simple pleasures! in reply to jamesmills #
• Why do scumbag neighbours insist on having kids? just argued with them cos they let an 8 year old out in the dark and out of site! oh but… #
• when out front they decide that it might be fun to throw stones at my windows! kept calm this time but next time I might just call old bill. #
• There could be many different things going on within your mind… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• Instead of trying to make changes to your schedule or rushing … More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• Not long till Virgin installer arrives! hope all goes well other wise see you in a few days 50 Meg BB. 50meg BB, dah nah nah nah….. #
• too much signal but thats fine, still have other line for BB so until he ports it over I BB, will this send of not! #
• 50.1meg broadband! with 100meg coming out in two weeks!!! me thinks I might be upgrading again lol, very impressed so far! #
• crazy #

After thinking about the poor broadband speed, the s!@£^y equipment and the poor customer service Sky provided me when the equipment with known issues and faults being used 24hrs a day decided to break. I have to give them credit, the energy monitor and discounted plan helped me get over initial anger but inside I was hurting

I always change, monitor, upgrade, service my own IT equipment as I can do that, if the router breaks, I pick up the spare one, plug it in and then get a new one to replace the backup! not with sky, they use their own routers with their own software leaving me with sod all I can do to get back on line. I waited only a day luckily but could have been up to 5 days without internet at home they reckoned. So the fact that I can not get myself back on track means, me and my business have to go else where! Its unfortunate as the nicely lady on the phone when I was leaving started offering me a good deal and was talking about having all my issues sorted, new router, high priority support team support and basically helping me out in order to stay!

50 MEG BROADBAND!!!!!!!!

Thats the reason I am leaving, well that and the other features. I have gone for it, almost the top package but not quite, top package is so expensive and I dont love watching sport enough any more to be able to dedicate my time to it and get my moneys worth. So what did I get then?

1. 50 Meg unlimited broadband.
2. 100 free prints per month via snap-fish
3. Free wireless N router and dongle
4. V-Stuff unlimited online storage
5. HD V+ box
6. Virgins XL tv package
7. Virgins phone package

So all of this is being sorted for me this weekend, ah boy this weekend the inner geek will be going mad, will be back online with another post reviewing my install and telling you just why you should be jealous or if you have Virgin TV, phone and broadband just stating the obvious! oh and my posts will be written just as slow but  when submitting them they will be about 6 times faster.

Monday was officially my first day as a slice host virtual server customer. I have done alot of the set up already but I am going to add a post about what I am doing and how I did it. Not sure if I will actually get the tutorials code and paste it into my blog or just reference on what to follow and where. I suppose its down to my progress with other bits and bobs this weekend.

I have already started the post so will try and finish it very soon, well at-least add a part one! should have done it as I went along but I got excited

• @jordanharper just when you get settled and are happy the neighbours know how to fuck it all up! I am looking into to bomb making! in reply to jordanharper #
• #uksnow 8/10 DA1 its bloody typical, just when it looks safe 2 go out side, its starts 2 snow all over again, trains messed up?me thinks so! #
• Last night my road melted by 6/7pm then it was snowed in by 11pm! thats proper snow fall but boy it was fun getting to work! #
• BTW, I am not really looking into bomb making, so any watch lists I have now got myself onto should be revised #
• @WiredUK @cimex @andyhawkes also on the web: http://tinyurl.com/yfjduwa #
• @nckkss tweeting that is gonna make them want to hire you??? bloody hell, if I saw that I would tell you the wrong address! in reply to nckkss #
• You have a pretty good handle on your goals now, but could be … More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @nckkss no but unless you set it not to be public you don't have to have a twitter account to see it! #
• love Tevez, that 34 points was needed & has got me a 44-17 points lead in the cup, bring on the next round me hopes! #fantasy #premierleague #
• @nckkss get on skype mate, want to chat to you, will be on till later. in reply to nckkss #
• #uksnow DA1 6/10 bloody hell, its still snowing, its mad. whats funny is that its settling but is very small, snow, please go! #
• You know that you have work responsibilities that really shoul… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @jordanharper longer than a minibus, in some countries in the region a mini bus is about 6ft long and you hang out of it not impressed! in reply to jordanharper #
• flash using Javascript (flash player not needed) http://bit.ly/76BpAC Anyone know about this? (via: @mikos) (via @jamesmills) V Interesting #
• This could be an important day for you professionally, but it … More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• @andyhawkes tell me bout it! also want so much more stuff after christmas as I mis the presents part!its just a tease,I miss eating loads 2! in reply to andyhawkes #
• How does #southern gas think that I could have used 120,006.48kwh of gas in 2 days? thats 60,003 in 24hrs, thats 2500kwh an hour? err no! #
• So according 2 http://tinyurl.com/y9wchwf thats 8 years of Gas in just 2days of changing over???

  Any 1 smell Gas? no thats a big lot of BS! #

• Next part, I am now from 2125 at 8409units in the space of 3 months I have used 16 years of gas! mmmm luckily I have let em know! #
• When moving gas supplier make sure you give them the reading, they will mess it up! in my case:24yrs of gas used since Oct 09 till today #
• @JulieRussell Its the industrial machinery I am running in 2 bed semi! Cant move @ its bloody hot as hell, I am the cause of global warming! in reply to JulieRussell #
• Big thanks #southern, my gas bill is now online and correct! Now #britishgas please send me the final bill! only three months ago I left #
• @andyhawkes I would make it next year lol, its over rated and it don't pay enough lol. Chasing money is the worst aspect mate, it sucks in reply to andyhawkes #
• Acting with authority doesn't mean that you should boss people… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• My bin men did not take the recycling because of one item that Gemma put in that cant be recycled! now its all the non-recycling cos it will #
• get to full by the time they return in two weeks! that has made me mad, I hope that they are pleased with their shit jobs, arggggghhhhh. #
• oh and by the way, I really hate my brain, it cant write normally but when mad it gets worse! my English is shocking, mash keys, mash em. #
• Is watching come dine with me back to back for hours a bad thing? I am watching it on 4od, I do think some thing is wrong with me but….. #
• I need a bottle of wine, could some one get me a bottle of rose?? a nice one, in fact right now, rose champagne would be so sweet. #
• #britishgas just sorted my final gas bill and my refund is on its way! takes around three weeks to get it but I will get it! #drama = over. #
• @JulieRussell perfect & thank you, some days just really need to be finished off with a nice glass, this Friday is 1 of them! in reply to JulieRussell #
• @lazybloke2 yeh and hard at it, hence why the need to drink! oh and come dine with me is on the laptop, its more listened too than watched! in reply to lazybloke2 #
• @lazybloke2 your not my boss, so fuck off and stop tweeting, god some ppl, just cos ur developers are all off playing with babies! in reply to lazybloke2 #
• @lazybloke2 oh, Im sorry for aggression, Dustbin men have really annoyed me, then @andyhawkes with IE7 issue he pointed out, which I made! in reply to lazybloke2 #
• @lazybloke2 oops, sorry, I am no good with these rules, they are really hard to follow! Usually I break em and don't get caught! oops again! in reply to lazybloke2 #
• Did not know but Berk is short for Berkeley or Berkshire Hunt rhyming slang for C..T. Now that I am shocked at! http://tinyurl.com/ydg4mcz #
• You may be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is for you to g… More for Aries http://twittascope.com/twittascope/?sign=1 #
• Fixtures have changed! in FPL I played with my team to get most points! now, well, thats all up the wall! oh well, always next year #

Well this is more a tail of how 1 digit in a meter reading makes all the difference. Last year around August, Southern Electric and Gas decided to pull me away from British Gas, I had some crap times and large bills with them so I thought that when the guy knocked at the door, offered me a better rate that I was going to be laughing to the bank. I was wrong, after the guy signed me up, he submitted a reading for me.

It meant that in two days I went from 8000 odd units to 2000 units and then when I submitted the readings this week I am back to 8000 odd. So intotal I used 25years of gas in just 3 months. This is all based on the average 2 bed semi! I can not for the life of me work out how I could use that lol, thats like my roads whole usage being dumped on me for those three months, infact I think it would include the road next to me, as I think that would add up to 100 2 bed houses.

I love some good stats and maths and had never worked out my gas usage and how changing a few digits could matter so much! trust me it does.

So make sure you submit your readings and not only that, you double check them and try to do them often online as that way little things like this wont come up, hopefully.

Just before I went away on holiday I invested in a lovely DAB radio and iPod docking station. The Hitachi Vertical DAB Micro with iPod Docking station was my chosen product due to having some great little features for a good price. Its currently retails on Argos at £120 (at time of writing) but I paid alot less than that and it was a real bargain. Thats not to say its perfect, it does have some minor issues which sound petty but hey, I would like better from this product in these areas but would not stop my recommending it at all.

Specs

• 2 x 10 watts RMS.
• 40 station presets (20 DAB plus 20FM).
• MP3 playback.
• USB port.
• 1 CD tray.
• Digital tuner.
• CD-R/CD-RW playback.
• 60 tracks CD / MP3 programmable.
• Play/pause, stop, skip/search-up, repeat, intro, skip/search-down, random function.
• 5 equalizers (Flat/Rock/Classic/Jazz/Pop).
• LCD display.
• ID3 tag.
• Clock/sleep timer.
• 2 way speakers.
• 1 x earphone, 1 x video out and 2 x speaker out sockets.
• Made for iPod.
• External AC-DC switching power adaptor supports various voltages, 100V-240V, line in function.
• Headphone socket.
• Remote control requires 2 x AAA batteries (not supplied).
• Size of main unit (H)40.0, (W)15.4, (D)21.1cm.
• Size of speaker (H)16.0, (W)15.4 (D)21.1cm.

Con’s

So the cons first, start with a low and finish on a high.

1. When turning it on for the first time, it picks up your stations, sets the time and works quite nicely. But as a radio I want it to turn on and work straight off without any user interaction, so that it can be used as a security measure, as a deterant! but thats not the case. Its comes on and goes to stand-by! bloody hate stand-by functions on things like this, once turned on, turn on proper and go onto stand by if I tell you too.
2. The next thing for me is the shabby remote you get. For £100 you expect the remote to be of good quality and by not doing so you get annoyed by pressing so hard it feels like it might break. Then actually finding the right part for the infa red signal is hard work too. I often dont know if I am not hitting the spot or the botton is not working right.
3. Lastly is the annoyingly short areal, digital signal is so hard to get in certain areas of the country right now, which means you need a good areal or atleast an easy way to add another areal or use and extension lead / areal on the the end of the one supplied. I had to add a coat hanger for now till I get a long lead to hide under my table or along the floor out of sight to actually get all the DAB stations I want.

Pro’s

Lots of them so lets keep the detail short….

1. Good price for features.
2. Looks great, not to big but big enough to look like a proper docking station and DAB radio.
3. Has both digital and analoge radio.
4. Input options are great, the fact you can use usb, sd card, ipod and cd sources is fantastic.
5. The slide left and right of the door on the ipod holder and the cd player is nice and slick ( does need some space to the left to open fully)
6. The Ipod control is far greater than I thought, it charges the ipod while allowing you to move through tracks, stop, play, fast forward and all the other functions you need via the remote ( when it works ), this was really nice and made me consider using it all the time, I used to listen to it via the mixer I use for DJing.
7. Blue screen lcd display looks very nice and modern.
8. Packaged well, if not a little bit to well packaged.
9. Speakers look good with or without their covers.
10. Speakers are very good for sound quality and can be enhanced with extra speakers via the other output port for headphones. Currently it has two mono outputs, one each side, an improvement would be having them together at the back to join up a sound system using stero leads, without having to play about splitting the lead to reach either side.

Overall I would recommend this and would possibly give it a 8/10, may be 7/10, I think its around that point. I would have possibly spent a bit more money to get a better system but it does what I wanted so inactual fact the price you pay for what you get is really really good value.

Now go buy one…..

Rain is here, snow is gone and the blog post a day is out the window!!! feck, feck and double feck……..

I have started a review I will post later, I promise! a sentance an hour, so about 10pm lets make it a paragraph and get a bot more content in them.

I know this is very late, But this was meant to be the post to mark all of 2010’s new posts with a firm resolution that I would stick to. Thats to tweet and blog every day or as close as I could with interesting and not so interesting blog posts for both me and the Fish. I am going to kick it off today and see how it goes.

I have never been one for writing so may be thats why I have found it harder than taking to Twitter and Facebook. Dyslexia is a real bugger and hurts the type type tying alot. But the more you write and the more you read the easier it gets. If your dyslexic and fall upon my site and wish to chat about what helps to improve your English skills then please do, I got a grade C in English GCSE and 1st class degree in  hard degree with lots of writing so its very possible to do well with this disability.

So what is coming up, well my holiday pics and videos need to be uploaded with a little blog post about my holiday, so thats the first big task! In between that I think some garden news and some reviews will be hitting my blog and I will be launching the new site using Word-press in late 2010 so ideas and thoughts behind that very soon.

Other resolutions this year will include picking up my diet plan which I started towards the end of last year and I am going to reduce my web costs. I am currently spending to much money on hosting else where, so with Virgin installing 50 meg this month and a newish dell ubuntu server, I will be hosting my svn repositories and my development webserver at home. From there I can continue with my resellers account till the point I am happy enough with my skills to step up to the next level. Once there I will transfer all of my hosted sites to a virtual private server supplier, most likely Slicehost and only use what I need and upgrade as I go.  Realistically its going to be around  2011 that a full move over from the reseller account. The one thing I wont do is rush,  it will be at my own speed as I dont want to mess it up!

Another big resolution, is more time for other people in my life, plus the house DIY tasks must be fitted in too. 2007 till 2009 was so manic that my holiday to Florida is the only thing that slowed me down and has really settled me back down on planet earth. I was so stressed that 2009 was a shit year in some ways but 2010 has started alot happier and in a much better way.

I can happily say that I am a stress head that has aggression issues which I am very proud of??? I am planning my next holiday which is for Gemma’s 30th in-order to give me something to aim for and to again ground me when things get on top of me. 2010 brings controlled limits on Freelance work and that should kick in very soon, these are limits on time spent on freelance when I should be doing some me time or something just as important if not more so.

So thats 2010, it has resolutions but I dont like thinking that resolutions are limited to once a year, in a few months I might want to resolute my resolutions and try a different direction, thats just how I roll….