Thank you Shell…

…for the bounty that I know have in my house.

I went with the somewhat popular option of blowing the money on things, rather than sensible stuff for the new en-suite bathroom.

So, I started with a new DAB clock radio. I’ve wanted one of these for ages, but was quite picky (surprise, surprise) as to what I wanted.

Not only doe this have two speakers (essential), but it also has a CD player meaning I can get rid of the old stereo in the bedroom, it also has four different alarms meaning that I can have my R4 Today wake up during the week and then Planet Rock on the weekends. The DAB reception is really good and Evan Davies sounded resplendent in stereo DAB this morning.

Then I bought a new DVD player for the bedroom. I’d previously used a PS2 and it was fiddly to say the least.

So now I can watch a DVD without having to fiddle on the stupid PS2 controller for ages first. It is only a cheap player, but that is all I need for upstairs.

Finally, I got a wireless Audio/Video sender kit that allows me to see the Sky TV channel from downstairs on the bedroom TV and change the Sky+ box by way of the remote control so that I can browse all the channels from upstairs. Much cheaper than Sky Multiroom and at £38 a month I do think I am giving Mr Murdoch enough of my money anyway.

So now when feeling like watching a film or TV show in bed, I can

Professional porn

I had to take part in a conference call this afternoon. Sometimes it is easier to get people together on the phone for a discussion rather than schedule diaries for a meeting. Whilst a phone call doesn’t allow you to read people’s expressions and reactions, it does mean you can decide whether a meeting is worthwhile.

Back in January / February I did some work for a company and put together a technical specification regarding a new service they wanted to bring to market. As is often the case, these things then go a little quiet and then all of a sudden deadlines change and things pick up pace.

So, I find myself on a phone and web conference this afternoon, where the host has the ability to share what they see on their own desktop with the other participants. After about 40 minutes talking about merchant service accounts, HTTP interfaces and all manner of clever things to make quite a good service even better, I was given the ability talk through a Visio diagram (drawn by yours truly) that the host had on his own desktop.

As he was then trying to find something else, he was flicking through the various programs he had open at the time. Bear in mind there was myself representing my business and his web developer / pseudo distributor for this product and all three of us could see what was going on on his computer.

He then flicked through his open programs to Internet Explorer, which had a somewhat graphic porn site on display. Suddenly my web conference had gone from Visio diagram to hard core porn.

The sound of this guy backtracking and making excuses reverberated down the phone, and I swear that for about 10 seconds, time stood still and a tumble weed rolled through my office.

Tomorrow I am putting his price up. Somehow I think he’ll be good for it.

The evolution of the walkman and the return of the BGW

Many many years ago I fondly remember receiving my first cassette walkman. I must only have been eight or nine and I marvelled in my new found world of musical entertainment. It wasn’t really a walkman, rather a version made by Boots. I clearly remember that it was quite bulky, had buttons for play, fast forward and stop. Once you’d listened to one side of your cassette you had to take it out and turn it round. It also had headphones with orange foam on them.

Over time I progressed to a much smaller cassette walkman, then one that you didn’t need to take the cassette out when the side you were listening to was finished as well as having a reverse button!

I marvelled at my first CD walkman, yet now laugh at the sheer bulk of it along with the huge quantity of batteries that it consumed.

It might therefore come as a bit of a surprise to hear that the first MP3 player I got was a hand me down, from of all people - my father, about 8 months ago. He had bought an iPod and therefore his Creative Micro was no longer needed. The one time an MP3 player came in handy was when out walking the dog, without some music my head just churns and my mind goes off on incredible tangents. I also used the albums that I listened to as a guide for the distance I was walking. For example, Ryan Adams - Gold, is a 2 1/2 mile walk. A few weeks ago the inherited MP3 player lost its ability to hold a battery charge, which rendered it pretty much unusable. However I had a fair chunk of Amazon vouchers and found that they had some great deals on MP3 players.

On Monday I pressed the button and ordered this. An 8GB player is more than enough for me and it will force me to change my music around every couple of weeks. Ironically, it was cheaper to get it on next day delivery rather than normal first class post. I also bought a batch of CD’s to rip for use on the new player at the same time. After a quick charge and some time spent loading songs on during the day, it was suddenly walk time on Tuesday evening.

We walked and walked, then walked some more and then walked a little more. After about 6 miles the dog stopped and looked at me with a look that told me she’d really had enough, so we headed back home. She promptly flomped down on the sofa and fell asleep, snoring loudly for several hours.

The big giant walk (BGW) is back. The dog is now dead tired at night and I’m enjoying being out for long music filled walks once more. Every time I change the music I’m going to pick an obscure album that I haven’t listened to in a long time and listen to it, I have some CD’s that I haven’t listened to for ten years I’d say.