We got to go to the Mac Expo in London at the end of last week and saw some pretty interesting stuff. Last year we were mostly looking at the various printers that were available because Lori needed information for her degree, this year it was more gadgets and software.
Category: Personal
NTL bill double for broadband
Ok, it’s not quite as bad as the title makes out.. well actually, yes, I guess it is.
Just had the NTL bill through for this month and it’s about 50% more than normal – the reason for this is that they’ve decided to go from billing 1 month in arrears for broadband to 1 month in advance the same as the phoneline rental. I can see there’s a certain logic to this, but doing it without any warning (that I saw anyway) and charging both months in the one bill is a bit much. It would have been better, although perhaps a little more complicated at their end, if they’d split the extra months payment across two months, going 2 weeks in advance the first month and then the full month in advance after that.
Stock images for free
Just found a link to http://sxc.hu/ – stock.xchng – whilst trying to find some stuff on CSS and layouts. Also another site that I’ll be looking into is http://www.sitepoint.com/ which has a fair bit about CSS layout. Not sure I’ll buy the book that’s on there, but maybe I’ll get a different book from Amazon or somewhere since I’ve not bought a book for a month or so.
Interesting use of Google maps
Looking for a new house? Check out On One Map – very clever. Thanks to Andy for the link.
Geek or not?
Found Graeme‘s nerd test score in the Planet NottsLUG archive from back at the start of September. Took it (click the button below for your chance) and sorry Graeme, you’re not as big a geek as me (but is that something to be proud of?)
iPod waking up on its own
Sitting here in front of the laptop the last couple of nights I’ve noticed that for no apparent reason my iPod wakes up and the screen goes bright for a few seconds before going back to sleep again. At first I thought there was something on the clickwheel but it’s been propped up on the desk with nothing anywhere near it. The wheel was even locked so in theory it shouldn’t have mattered anyway!
I suspected it last night but tonight it did the same thing again – I found that it happens as the clock changes over from 23:59 to 00:00 each night. I don’t have any idea why it does that though, very strange.
Thinking of changing my email address
It’s a shame it’s so much hassle to change my email address and scrap inbound email to one of my older addresses. Things like having to let all my friends know the new one and adjusting mailing list subscriptions etc. I’ve got several legacy addresses that seem to be the primary sources of spam arriving in my mailbox but I just can’t deal with scrapping them. The effort of deleting spam doesn’t yet outweigh the effort of figuring out who’s still using that address to send me email.
Do people really click on links in junk email about viagra, cialis, online pharmacies, texas hold em, casinos and online gambling and betting? I guess they must otherwise these spammers wouldn’t carry on spamming.
Pogosticks
Pogosticks aren’t just for kids! Got sent this link tonight, well it was the link to the movie but I had to go digging on the site for more info afterwards.
http://www.yoyoguy.com/unicycle/#FB1200
Check out the Flybar 1200 at the url above. The video (quicktime format) linked to is quite amazing to watch. I don’t think I’ll be getting one though.
Phone contacts update
Here’s an update to the previous entry regarding losing my phone addressbook. In the Apple Address Book application (in OSX) if you select all the names in the Name column you can right click and export all the vCards in a single file. You can also use the bluetooth option “Send File” to send the .vcf file to the Nokia 6822 and the phone then sees it as a business card that has just arrived and offers to add it to the addressbook.
Unfortunately it only adds the first entry in the file to the addressbook and where the “is a company” option has been ticked in Apple Address Book, it imports the record with an empty name value.
5..4..3..2..1.. Phone contacts are go.. err, gone!
MY 6822 died yesterday, it powered on and then just as it establishes a connection with the Orange network locks up with a message “Contact service”. Yes, that’s right. My fairly new phone.. the Nokia 6822 I’d only had since June. With it went all my phone numbers, text messages and preferences.
I phoned Orange thinking perhaps it had been blocked or there was some kind of technical hiccup at their end and was told it would have to be returned to be fixed. I don’t have their phone insurance scheme as all my previous phones have worked for ages but the customer service guy I spoke to said that they’d replace it under some sales regulations or other, I guess because I’ve only had it a few months.