Scargill

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The UK’s longstanding opposition to human spaceflight will be no bar to its citizens becoming astronauts, the European Space Agency (Esa) says.

Officials made it clear at the start of a recruitment drive in London that Britons were very welcome to apply.

Although a major Esa member, the UK currently refuses to fund human spaceflight, believing robotics to be a more worthwhile space activity…

So goes a recent BBC report.

In case anyone outside of the UK is in any doubt – let me be clear – it is ONLY our crappy socialist government that thinks this – the British people were never ONCE asked our opinion on this subject….. or maybe it’s just the BBC who’s record on defending British views isn’t exactly sterling… I’d just like to say that I don’t know ANYONE who’s against human spaceflight…. how many of you remember the various robotic flights other than the ones to MARS? Answer – no-one because we don’t really relate to this – despite timescales MOST of us relate to the guys walking on the moon because they were just frail HUMANs achieving something that no-one has ever done before – walking on another planet.

I get SO annoyed when people speak on my behalf without having the courtesy to ASK me first!! The more British people we get up into space – the more experience and knowledge we get – the better – SOMEDAY when we have a government with VISION, we may just take our OWN leaps into space – in the way that even third world countries are now working towards…

Ok, I KNOW I said Fantastic 4 was the best… but life moves on – Maureen and I just went to see Iron Man and I have to say I was REALLY sceptical – I mean, it looks great in the comics when you’re 3 – but how do you make a man in an iron suit look good in 2008 – well they did – fabulous movie – great special effects, marvelous music – just a shame they couldn’t have squeezed Jessica Alba in there though I appreciate that this probably isn’t a good time…

Want an escape for the weekend…. with nachos? – see IRON MAN.

Ok, so I picked a plasma TV. Why? Well, I went off to Tescos – mainly out of laziness. I could probably have managed a much better deal on the web but then there’s the postage on such a large item – and you have to be in the house to get the delivery etc etc… no, on this occasion I decided to “trade locally” (there’s an LG factory in the region – don’t know if they actually produce TVs there but hey – I’m a consumer – I just want the best for much cheapness…)

I bought an LG 42″ plasma. At first sight, if you stare at all the TVs in the store they all look pretty much the same – but try that from 45 degrees – most, but not all of the LCDs now look ABYSMAL.

So that was that decision – next decision – which plasma…. I’m into contrast – and by far the best contrast was from the TVs with shiny screens (as against the usual matt finish). So then it was down to resolution – and as even SKY doesn’t really transmit at that great a resolution I plumped for 1024 * 768. My only use for the TV other than as a TV is as a media system and that res is fine. The offer was £750 or thereabouts for just that WITH a hard disk to record your TV.

Of course I should have known there’d be a con – there always is. The system features the rather magnificently useless FREEVIEW, a hard drive to record TV – and a ton of inputs – the problem being – yes, you guessed it you can ONLY record from FREEVIEW – one of the reasons that some time ago I spent a tremendous amount of time picking the right PVR so I would not be trapped in this way – and despite all of that – they got me. The reasons of course are simple – recording hi-def SKY takes a lot better hardware than recording crappy old FREEVIEW.

Anyway to cut a long story short, the picture quality of the TV (LG) was that good I conveniently ignored the hard drive issue – and weeks later I’m still impressed.

Part of the reason people get confused by technology – is that half the time the people doing the advertising haven’t a clue what it is they are selling!!

I’m on the lookout for a plasma TV. I’ve chosen plasma despite all the comments suggesting that LCD is better. Why? Well, instead of comparing them straigh on – try comparing plasma and LCD from an angle. You’ll see the difference.

So, plasma TVs tend to have lower resolution than their LCD counterparts – so I went off comparing resolutions. Here’s a prime example of why people get confused…

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/dirresults.html?s=LG-42PG300

In the above advert, you’ll see that this particular model is quoted as having a resolution of 1366 * 768 – and a contrast ratio of 20,000:1

Pretty good – but it gets better. Click on the link – and resulting page shows an overview – this time the very same model has the same resolution – but an astounding 50,000:1 contrast ratio. Amazing at the price, huh!??

Now click on the SPECIFICATION tag and it gets even better!! The resolution is now up to a wopping 1920 * 1080. Pretty special for under a grand, wouldn’t you say.

Except that a competitor’s site states that the resolution is a mere 1024 * 768 !!

I emailed Novatech and the answer….

Dear Customer

It is 1024×768.

So now you know – next time you see something that looks too good to be true – it probably is!!

Sunday: Back home to dark, wet England. Sure enough as reported by friends, our electricity was off. Thank heavens for modern breakers.. I managed to narrow the problem down to one breaker – the one providing power to the “east wing” of the house – i.e. my office and the master bedroom. As I was doing this, Maureen reported that one of the lamps in the bedroom was full of water – and she wasn’t exxagerating!

Monday: After a good night’s sleep I woke up bright and early and decided the first thing I should do was to check the flat roof – for one of those barely discernable openings that you find which let the water creep in – WELL – I found one!!! They say that some some folks have “all the luck” ??

7pm another call from a building company “we can send anyone out until the morning – health and safety.

Saturday: Today we travelled to Seville – which on any other day would have been a wondrous event as the place is lovely – however it rained all day which put the dampers on things a little. Having said that, it was 15-20 degrees for most of the day so still short-sleeve shirt weather.

We visited the Real Al Cazar and then, after an also-ran lunch the Cathedral. Well, it’s big, it has lots of paintings and stuff that should impress, but it’s SO big that after a while it all just goes in one eye and out of the other.

The city itself however is most impressive and definitely warrants another trip when the sun is out!

In common with everywhere else we’ve seen to up to how, the roads in and out are embarrassingly modern (I’m assuming the EU paid for this) – even once you get out into rural areas.

Complete with endless narrow streets full of touristy shops and restaurants, there is, I would imagine, something for everyone in Seville.

Interestingly as we parked in town, what looked like a policeman herded us into an available parking space. As we got out of the car he asked us how long we’d be staying – I said I was not sure – perhaps 4-5 hours. He thought about this and uttered “5 euros” in a friendly manner. Well, I paid him the 5 euros – and off he went to the next person to help them park!!

No receipt, no ticket… clearly there is a learning excercise to be had here. The guide says little on the subject other than to say that the parking wardens are mainly “unofficial” whatever that means and that for a small sum are usually most helpful!!!

On the right you’ll see Maureen at her favourite hobby – shopping!!

First thing in the morning we head off back no doubt to miserable cold weather back in the UK and for me, a repair job no doubt on the email which packed in yesterday. My job for next week – figure out how to make it completely reliable for our next trip to Spain – which will be in the very near future to sign papers and get the ball rolling on our new house.

Friday: A trip to the Mezquita in Cordoba (a temple first built in the Visigoth era) via a wonderful castle called Castillo de Almondovar del Rio.

Thursday: We’re currently staying in Cordoba, near Seville which is 300km away from Galera – Maureen’s after some culture. On the way we’re planning furniture moving, bank acounts and a thousand other things we’ve probably not even thought of yet. Summer home in Spain? Well, sounds better than summer home in Bellingham!

Wednesday: Sunny Galera, a mere 100 miles northeast of Granada, at the top of a mountain, and overlooking the valley etc…. is our new summer home.. and although it looks like a small house, of course most of it is buried in the hill itself, so this small house actually contains 2 bedrooms, large study, laundry room and is spread over 3 floors in total – and more importantly – it’s ours!

Sun’s out, weather is cool but one hell of a lot better than the uk.

Here is the the YouTube video for the new cueva in Galera. http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6386083093557120185&hl=en-GB

Pictures are rubbish here due to limitations of the blog, I’ve put some better ones on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scargill/sets/72157603964755100/

“Thank you for continuing to hold, we value your call…”

Does that sound familiar? Does it make you want to pick up a shotgun and blow the phone to pieces?

I have a broadband account with Pipex – one of their £14.99 accounts. I took this up a year ago and a couple of weeks ago I got a letter from Pipex so say we owed them some money. It turns out the credit card I used had timed out. I went to their website to change the card details last week and while I was there I noticed that they now offer what I’m paying £14.99 for – for £9.99 – I queried this and was told “it’s just a newer offer”. So I suggested that as the account was a year old I’d like to move to the new tariff – NO PROBLEM was the reply (how many times have you heard that?)

Today I received an email to say that they had the new credit card details – thank you very much – and just to confirm I’d be charged £14.99 a month from now on.

Erm, no.

Rather than start another email trail I rang them up today (Saturday morning 2nd Feb) and after a considerable period I finally got through to someone .

I spoke to a lady to explain that the £14.99 charge was NOT what we’d agreed – that I’d asked to be moved to the £9.99 account. She explained that she could change this now no problem – then came back to say the system would not allow her to do this – and gave me a telephone number – 08045 0772537.

I rang that number and once again listened to “we value your call….” this time with a warning that it would take at least 6 minutes to answer the call.

I’m sorry, there IS only one reason for these messages – and it’s not too many customers – it’s TOO FEW STAFF! Like many big companies – they can’t care THAT much!! The call cost I could care less about – I value my TIME!!

When I finally got through, I explained I wanted to transfer to the £9.99 account – no problem, but THEN I was then told that due to technical difficulties they could NOT transfer me to the cheaper number!! I suggested that if they could not do this, I’d like to CANCEL the account, get my MAC number and go somewhere else – there are plenty of options out there.

I was polite through all of this… yet the operator made NO attempt to keep my business.

“No problem – ring 0871 2225550 and press option 4” said he..

Well, actually there was no option 4, it was option 1 THEN option 4…

The automated voice on THAT number told me that in fact if I wanted to cancel the account, I should ring 0845 072 2865.

This I did and I was then told by ANOTHER automated voice that this number was no longer valid and I should ring 0871 222 6366.

The automated voice on THAT number told me that the office is closed and I should ring back on Monday.

Is it possible for a company to get any nearer to gross incompetence than this? At times, Orange come a close second but I think this beats the lot – 6 telephone calls over 3 days only to get NO-WHERE.

I rang them back on Monday and I spoke to a gentleman – sounded mexican – who was very difficult to understand. I explained I wanted a MAC code and to cancel the account. He said I could not do both at once. After a long conversation he told me I’d receive the MAC code via email WITHIN 5 WORKING DAYS (I can’t help thinking it takes seconds to organise). I then have to go to another provider within 30 days and THEN let Pipex know that I no longer need the account.

As he was thanking me and putting the phone down – I asked him if he had space on the record for NOTES. I asked him to make a note to state that at NO time had anyone asked me WHY I was cancelling the account. He said he would make a note (had it been me I’d have asked there and THEN why the customer was leaving – but I guess that’s why I dont’ work in a call centre).

I await my MAC number…. such a shame, they could have sorted this out if they could have been bothered.

Pipex. Just say NO!