Bill G. Bennett

Some Thoughts on the Woolwich Attack

2013-05-22T21:26:00.001+01:00

As you will have seen in the news tonight, a man was hacked into pieces by two assailants earlier today in the London borough of Woolwich, with much news coverage focused on the incident, and many opinions raising to the surface about various offshoots of the incident.

With these bubbling opinions in mind, I've decided to weigh in on a few of them.

It's the government's fault for not restricting immigration - not true by simple logic. If the assailants were British born and raised, it's a British resident who's committed the crime, and no immigration policy could change that. If, on the other hand, they weren't British citizens, no immigration policy would stop them from going to visit London on holiday for the week, carrying out a spot of shopping, taking in the sights, and still having an afternoon free to go and behead a local.

It's the Muslim community's fault for advocating terrorism - that's just too silly for words. If the Muslim community was advocating this kind of behaviour, not only would it be happening more often, but we'd see a lot more propaganda and material encouraging people to commit these kind of acts. The simple fact that the wide majority (like, 99.99% majority) of Muslims surveyed condemn actions like this, proves that the community does not advocate it.

The UK should kick out everyone who isn't white - now, that would be exactly what the BNP would like people to think. But, in the nicest way possible, a lot of black people have absolutely nothing in common with each other. There is no uniform "black person policy", let alone one that uniformly advocates going around chopping people's limbs off. Equally, crazy stuff gets done by people of any colour - just cast your mind back to the case of Raoul Moat a few years back.

In short, there is no one answer, no one "quick fix", and if there was, you can assure yourself that the guys and girls over at MI6 would have done it in 30 seconds flat.

YouTube Confidential?

2013-05-09T21:47:00.001+01:00

So this is an odd one. I've just been searching for some stuff on YouTube, and the following showed up... (click to enlarge)

A big red banner above my search results saying "Experiment: There may be confidential content in your search results. Please do not share outside Google.". Very strange. I'm wondering what this confidential content is, especially confidential content related to me searching "Sultana sports"...

I'm guessing that this experiment was supposed to be ringfenced to Google internal IPs, maybe only people who's using a 1e100.net-based IP, but it looks like my BT Broadband connection made the cut. I suspect someone getting happy with asterisks somewhere in their IP-blocking code :-)

Google Glass - Is It Just Too Heavy?

2013-05-06T22:48:00.001+01:00

As many of you will know, I'm an avid follower of the whole Google Glass thing - in fact I'm sure I'll be front of the line to get one on launch day. Now that the "Explorer" program has launched, and people have had their headsets for a couple of weeks, videos are starting to filter down onto YouTube of various people wearing theirs, and trying them out.

However, there seems to be one common trend among everyone wearing them. See if you can spot it...

Yes, they're wonky as hell. Now, it's obvious why - there's a hunk of tech on one side, and next to nothing on the other. But surely something could be done about that? Would it make more sense to have the battery on the other side? Or maybe weight the non-business side so that they sit more flat on the user's face?

Oddly, though, all the models in the official press shots seem to be able to keep their pairs on straight...

With Glass supposedly being released sometime before the end of this year, Google might have some serious work to do if they're to convince people that wearing cyborg glasses is cool, let alone wearing wonky cyborg glasses...

How Waterproof is the Motorola Defy Mini?

2013-04-30T13:01:00.002+01:00

I recently got a Motorola Defy Mini as a spare phone for when I go away, and don't want to take my Note II.

It claims to be IP67-rated, which means it should be OK submerged in a metre of water for half an hour. I've decided to test these claims - so let's see what happens when I give it a dunking...

Coke Zero Ad - Putting Lives At Risk?

2013-04-28T21:53:00.001+01:00

Coca-Cola are running a TV ad at the moment, where a cinema-full of people are tricked into drinking Coke Zero in the guise of regular Coke. They are all given a Coke, then later revealed before the film that they've in fact been drinking the sugar-free Zero version.

The ad is obviously trying to make the point that Coke Zero tastes the same as regular Coke, but without the sugar. However, as you may know, Coke Zero instead has aspartame, an artificial sweetener. There's debate as to whether aspartame is safe or not, but for some people like myself, it's definitely not. I'm allergic to it - I had a quite severe reaction a few years back after taking one small sip of a mis-served drink in a Pizza Express in my hometown.

So... what if I went to the cinema, asked for a regular Coke, and was sneakily given a Zero instead? What happens when I take a gulp of that, and quite possibly die a slow, painful death? Who's responsible?

A press release from Coca-Cola says that "The only actor involved was the barman, who was aware of the experiment" - so they're admitting to having served up an aspartame-laden drink to those who haven't chosen to consume it. Now, aspartame allergy may be rare, but it's akin to someone ordering a "nut-free flapjack", then giving them a flapjack with nuts in it because "it tastes the same".

Even if Coca-Cola as a company doesn't implicitly suggest performing a switcheroo on the public, just think of what could go wrong. It just takes one bar-owner to run out of regular Coke syrup, and start selling Zero to people asking for "Coke", because they think it's the same. Or maybe the price of Coke Zero syrup is on special offer at the cash-and-carry one week, and a premises owner switches what they're serving so they can make a little extra profit.

The Coca-Cola Company needs to be very careful. At best, advocating this kind of trick could be fraud and deception, but at worst, it could be negligence and manslaughter.

Oddly, the Australian version of this ad carries the following warning...

So, hang on a minute? How come Australia needs to be warned that the whole thing "must not be replicated in any other circumstances"? Why not in the UK? Has someone down under already fallen foul of some disguised aspartame?

I've reached out to Coke's PR department for some answers to the following questions:

Is Coca-Cola advocating swapping people's Coke orders without their knowledge or consent?
Assuming they do not advocate this swap, does Coca-Cola have a plan to educate vendors of their product as to how and why swapping of drinks is unacceptable and even dangerous, to prevent "maverick swapping" on grounds of stock availability and/or profit margin?
Why does the Coca-Cola Company find it necessary to warn consumers in Australia that the "swap" should not be performed in real life, whereas no such warning or advisory is felt to be necessary in the UK?

...and I'll update here as and when I hear anything.

UPDATE: In the spirit of giving a Right to Reply, a spokeswoman for Coca Cola got in touch with the following statement in reply to my questions.

This advert brings to life, through its creative, that Coca-Cola Zero has the great Coca-Cola taste, with zero sugar.

We ensured that all of the cinema-goers involved in the filming were aware that something would be happening with Coca-Cola but not what the exact activity would be. All participants confirmed that they were happy to take part and that they did not have any dietary restrictions, including the consumption of any sweeteners. The health of our consumers is of utmost importance to us and we would never knowingly put someone's health at risk.

The advert is currently being shown across Europe and we believe that our consumers understand that the film is designed to tell the Coke Zero brand story in an entertaining and engaging way.

I'm not sure that the Coke spokeswoman's statement actually answers any of my questions though.

Motorola Defy Mini - Review and Test Photos

2013-04-25T12:14:00.001+01:00

The Motorola Defy Mini is a handset that's not the newest, but has a unique selling point in the form of being IP67-rated (well, almost unique, as its' predecessor the Defy was too, along with the recent Sony Xperia Z). This means that it is supposed to work after being dunked up to a meter underwater for up to half an hour.

It's been priced around the £150 level SIM-free, but recently has seen the price drop to around the £60 mark. I picked one up to take on holiday, as I'd rather take a cheaper handset than my Galaxy Note 2, and I've learnt the perils of taking a fragile phone to the beach after getting sand inside my old Sony Ericsson K610i.

The Defy Mini is a nice little handset. The one I've got comes in a black and tangerine design, quite industrial in appearance. I've got to admit, I've not had the nerve to test it in the shower yet, or go dropping it from great heights, but you'll find plenty of these kind of tests on YouTube.

This review centres on the normal workings of the phone, a couple of things it does really well, and a couple of things that might be possible deal breakers.

I've got to praise the Defy Mini's screen. It's clear - obviously not an HD screen, but doesn't suffer the pixellation that some other smaller screens can. Next, the battery life - it seems to keep going and going. And the processor too, even though only 600 MHz, it feels quite fluid when playing with the stock apps.

So that's the good - on to the bad. The first thing is that it only has about 110MB of onboard memory after the stock apps which you can't remove. Then, it wants to update a load of these apps (and will keep nagging you if you don't). Once you've done these updates, you're down to about 70MB. This is silly, especially given that gumph like QuickOffice Lite comes preinstalled (and isn't removable), and takes up 19MB of that valuable space before you've even started.

Load up Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, and you're already down to about 25MB of free space.

Next, the camera. Not the quality of the snapper itself - it's a 3MP camera with a flash, and I've put some test shots below, but the noise! It makes quite possibly the worst, loudest, most grainy shutter sound every time you take a picture, with no way of shutting it off. Even the majority of "silent camera" apps won't shut it up. In fact, the only app I've found that helps is "Camera Silencer", which seems to turn the volume down by about 80%. Of course, it's worth pointing out that it's not just pervs that want silent cameras - it's always embarrassing being "that guy" who's making camera noises when you're trying to take photos in a meeting or family gathering, for example.

Here's those test shots (click each one to enlarge)...

As you can see, the shots aren't too bad overall. For a £60 smartphone, definitely acceptable, and good enough for uploading to Facebook and so on.

A note on uploading to Facebook - it's possible to upload through the web browser at http://m.facebook.com, so if you want to save some of that storage space on the phone, you could put a MicroSD card in to hold your photos, then forgo actually installing and using the Facebook app, in favour of the web-based version.

So there you have it. The pros and cons of the Motorola Defy Mini. Would I buy it again at the £60 level? Yes. Would I recommend it as a main phone for someone wanting their first smartphone? Possibly. Would I have bought one at the original asking price of £150? Hell no.

Google Drive... Driving Me Nuts!

2013-04-22T22:12:00.000+01:00

First there was the floppy disk, then the CD-ROM, followed by the USB stick. Recently though, things have moved to cloud storage. It's a market still held strong by early entrant Dropbox, and followed by Skydrive and - more recently - Google Drive.

Google Drive is a fantastic product, don't get me wrong. It combines the ease of access that comes with cloud storage (such as being able to get at your files from any computer or smartphone), along with what Google does best... search.

Seriously, Google Drive's search capabilities are awesome. Not only will it search a file's name, but it'll also search inside a file. If that weren't enough, it also analyses your files to work out what they're all about - so if you upload a photo of the Eiffel Tower (even if it's only called "DSC00002.JPG"), and then you search for "Paris" in your Drive, it'll still find it. Impressive stuff.

So why is Google Drive sending me insane? Simple. It's buggy. If I want to sync my Drive contents with my computer, I have to install their software. That in itself isn't an issue, except for that every few days it logs me out. When I log into it again, it decides it wants to download all 11GB of my data again from scratch... which takes 24 hours or so.

This just isn't feasible. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, changing my credentials, going through the debugging steps on their website, and nothing has worked. On top of that, once it has downloaded all my 11GB of stuff (a total of about 55000 files), there's always about 50 files that are marked as "unsyncable". Which ones, it doesn't want to say for all of them - only some. And even for the ones I do know about, it doesn't tell me whether it's that it couldn't download them, or whether it's a local file that wouldn't upload. There's no way of me isolating the inaccuracy to backup and sync those rogue files manually.

The kick in the teeth is that I'm paying about £2 a month for it. Well, not any more. It's back to USB sticks for me.

PS Sorry to anyone who found this article while searching for ways to fix various Google Drive errors, but there's no help here for you I'm afraid. And trust me, I've wasted many hours and late nights trying... Just give up. There's no hope.

How To... Protect Your Nectar Points Against Theft

2013-04-20T19:33:00.001+01:00

You've probably got a Nectar card. It's the UK's largest loyalty scheme, and with a multitude of places you can collect points, there's a good chance you've built up quite a stash. Personally, I have about £120 worth of Nectar sitting on my card. But how secure is it?

Unlike a debit card, there's no ID verification when you come to spend your points. You simply hand over your card, and ask to use them as payment. No PIN to enter, no receipt to sign. This is all very well and good if you lose your card (or get it stolen) and someone clears your account of the £2.50 sitting in it - but what if you've got a sizeable balance?

The thing is, you don't have to physically have your card stolen in order to be robbed. All Nectar card numbers follow the same format - they begin with 98263000, followed by the 8 digit account number, the 2 digit card number (more on those 2 digits in a minute), and a check digit allocated with the Luhn algorithm. Therefore, that snotty-nosed oik behind Sainsbury's checkout just needs to remember your 8-digit account number and 2-digit card number in order to know your entire card number. From that, he can make a barcode online, stick it on his smartphone, and have it scanned to redeem your points for his own gain.

But wait! You can have multiple cards on one Nectar account, so that everyone in the household can collect points together, and you can select who is allowed to redeem points, as opposed to only being able to collect.

The master collector's card can't be restricted to "collect-only" status. Therefore, the simple workaround is to head to www.nectar.com, log into your account, and order a supplementary card in your own name. Select to have this new card (which will have a new 2-digit card number) restricted to "collect-only". When this arrives, carry this card for your day-to-day collecting, and leave your full-power original card (complete with its' spending privileges) at home, only to take it with you when you actually want to spend.

That way, if someone finds (or remembers) your Nectar card and its' number, they'll have to plough through up to 99 invalid (or "collect-only") card numbers in order to hit upon the one number that will let them spend your points... and that's after they've calculated 100 Luhn check-digits and aroused a lot of suspicion by asking to try 100 different barcodes at the checkout in the pricess.

Not completely foolproof, but makes it a lot harder for the casual crim.

ZOMG It's AOL 4.0!!!!!!!!!

2013-04-16T18:02:00.001+01:00

Please, contain your excitement. I was going through my one of my Mother-in-Law's drawers today, and among multiple packs of playing cards and airline headphone adapters was this 15-year-old gem...

The most disappointing bit is that on reading the leaflet further, it turns out that AOL 4.0 was only available at the time in the States - whereas us mere mortals in Canada and the UK had to make do with AOL 3.0.

But look, there's a HUNDRED hours free... SIGN ON NOW!!!

Want Some Free Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream? Here's How

2013-04-08T19:21:00.000+01:00

Every year, Ben & Jerry's does an event, called Free Cone Day. As you can probably guess, it's where you turn up to one of their scoop shops and get, uh... a free cone.

Not just a free cone though... they fill it to the brim with their tastiest ice cream, also for free!

In previous years, it has been limited to high street Ben & Jerry's stores, but now it includes concessions too - and yes, that means the ice cream stand inside the Taunton Odeon cinema.

All you need to do is turn up on Tuesday 9th April, between noon and 8pm, tell them you're there for Free Cone Day, and you'll get your free ice cream! Best bit is you're allowed to rejoin the queue and do it as many times as you like!

More details here.

The Hell of Sky TV Billing

2013-04-08T17:08:00.001+01:00

I normally pride myself on being quite money-savvy, and being able to work out the best deals and spot when something's not quite right.

But even I'm struggling with working out my Sky TV bill this month...

It feels like the Mensa exam all over again.

So... if the subscription is discounted by £16.50, but also by £5.25, but the latter only lasts for 9 days, and runs concurrently with the former discount, along with five other credits and two other subscription payments, how much a month do I pay? (Argh)

Is Labour Right on Payday Loans? Maybe, But...

2013-04-08T11:06:00.001+01:00

"Agree with me!"

Labour leader Ed Miliband is telling the press that he believes the UK's high streets are becoming blighted by the scourge of bookmakers, pawnbrokers, and payday loan companies, saying that they damage the community and feed off the financially vulnerable.

Now, on the face of it, I have to agree with him. Our town centres are getting filled up with the likes of The Money Shop, Cash Converters, and other such companies. But equally, nobody is being forced at gunpoint to use their services - and that is exactly what it is - a service. Any company can provide a product or service, and it's up to the individual consumer to decide whether becoming a customer of said company is right for them.

Miliband's suggestion of giving councils the power to banish payday loan shops from their areas is ludicrous. In a world seen through rose-tinted glasses, yes, it would make the world a lovely, sparkly place, where local people open local independent shops, employment and cashflow is plentiful, and everything runs in harmony.

"We don't need no high street shop..."

Of course, back in the real world, stopping a payday loan provider from opening a location in a town is simply going to deprive the town of the half-dozen or so jobs that it would bring to staff it. People in financial dire straits (along with people who are just plain stupid) are still going to get themselves a payday loan by hell or high water, most likely from a provider like Wonga or QuickQuid, whose flashy TV ads promise to get hundreds of pounds into a ~~victim's~~ customer's bank account within 15 minutes.

Ultimately, Ed Miliband seems to be stooping to the most simplistic form of opposition propaganda - coming up with a rough concept that the general population will agree with (the concept that payday loan companies are evil, but could be equally substituted for "drugs are bad" or "kittens are cute"), followed by about five minutes of unintelligible mumbling and rambling designed to cause anyone listening to lose track of what the point was in the first place, then rounded off with "...and so that's why you should vote for us!"

What are your thoughts? Would kicking these legal loan sharks off the street create an urban utopia, or is it a futile attempt at vote-gaining with no substance? Click below to leave a comment...

Nationwide FlexPlus Account - A Review

2013-04-06T21:08:00.001+01:00

Premium bank accounts are a funny beast - it's impossible to rate one on its' own, as it's all about deciding if one works individually for you. They tend to run between £8 and £25 a month, and come with different ranges of "benefits", but the same account might be an awesome value for one person, but equally a bum deal for the next.

Nationwide recently launched the FlexPlus account - their first foray into packaged accounts - and it doesn't actually look that bad.

The account costs £10 per month, however this fee only applies once even if you set it up as a joint account, which means that both account holders get the features for one fee.

The first nice feature is that it pays 3% interest on credit balances up to £2500 - this means that you could see £6.25 interest (that's £5 after basic tax) heading back into the account each month if you keep the balance constantly at or above £2500. Even if you don't, it still pays 3% on what you do have. If you ever head into the red, so long as you set up the overdraft in advance, going overdrawn by under £100 won't cost you.

On top of this, its' debit card allows account holders to withdraw cash from ATMs abroad without any commission charges. It's worth noting that this doesn't extend to overseas purchases - which still incur fees.

Next, onto those "benefits". First up is worldwide travel insurance. The main points are that it covers your whole immediate family - even if you're the sole account holder. It includes winter sports cover, but excludes any pre-existing medical conditions.

After that comes mobile phone insurance. It covers against loss and theft, but unlike some policies and accounts on the market, it covers all the phones you own... and all the phones your family owns too. This is great if, like me, you have about 10 phones, and there's another half dozen in your household! You just need to make sure you keep all those proofs of purchase.

Breakdown cover comes next - and it's a good'un. It's run by Britannia Rescue, a network of independents with good reviews, and it covers the account holder(s) in any car, but also covers any random person that you let drive your car. Brilliant for sending your friends out to get takeaways in your car, while you stay in the warmth of your house.

Extended warranty protection is quite cool. So long as you buy something from a quite extensive list, (think laptops, white goods, appliances, TVs, cameras and so on), that has a 1 or 2 year warranty, and your FlexPlus account will add another year onto the end of the warranty. The only terms seem to be that you have to buy it on a card in your name (even a card that isn't a Nationwide one), and you can't have bought it more than a year before you opened the account. Yes - that means that laptop you bought 9 months ago could still get the extra cover.

Finally, the red herring of the deal in my opinion. "Identity Theft and Worldwide Card Protection". I'm not quite sure what it does, but a quick read of the bumph seems to infer that if you get your identity or your credit cards stolen, you can phone them up and they'll console you and tell you that everything will probably be OK. (Since writing this article, Nationwide has reached out to me to explain that "if a customer’s cards are lost or stolen, one call to Nationwide and we will notify all issuers and order replacement cards", and that the card protection service provides "access to a dedicated helpline which provides assistance on how to stop yourself being a victim of fraud. If customers identity is stolen, a dedicated caseworker will help the customer restore their identity.")

FlexPlus customers also qualify to apply for their Select credit card. This offers commission free usage abroad, so when combined with the FlexPlus account, customers can get commission free usage on purchases and cash withdrawals.

All in all, I've got to conclude that for the money, it seems like a very good account. Of course, to get the maximum usage from the account, you'll be a pair of account holders who carry a reasonably-sized balance in the account, have expensive mobile phones, drive, travel, and buy household appliances. If you're a non-driver who goes overdrawn frequently, doesn't travel much, has a cheapie pay-as-you-go mobile, and never buys electrical kit, it's probably not the best buy for you - it'll probably end up being a waste of £120 a year.

However, if you're the ideal match for the account, it looks like it could bring a lot of customers into Nationwide's branches.

(Note: I mention "premium bank accounts", and yes I know, Nationwide is a building society not a bank. They seem to like mentioning this in their adverts...)

So... What Is Facebook Home?

2013-04-04T21:00:00.002+01:00

Today, Facebook has announced its' new app - Facebook Home. But what is it?

Facebook already has an app. It's called Facebook. You open it, and it shows you your friends' status updates and photos. It lets you message people. It lets you update your own status and upload your own photos too. To stop you from having to open the app every ten seconds, it'll ping notifications to your phone when something happens that you might want to see.

That's all about to change. No longer will you need to open the Facebook app to see what's going on. But is that a good thing?

Gone will be the Facebook Messenger app - where you open it to read your messages. In its' place is Chat Heads - where messages will pop up on top of whatever you were doing at the time. Browsing the web? If you get a message, it'll dump it on the front of your screen, above what you were reading. Playing a game? That message will get dumped on top of your game screen, and you'll have to push it off the screen yourself to dismiss it. It'll be like the postman coming into your bedroom in the morning, and slapping you in the face with your mail, rather than you picking it up from the doormat when you're ready.

Another feature is the Facebook Homescreen. This is basically a screen that goes over the top of your lock screen, constantly showing the contents of your news feed. This means that if you have a 100% saturation of sensible people as your friends, you'll probably have a nice run of photos. As it is, it actually means your homescreen is going to be permanently taken over by photos of your friends' babies, mixed in with "Someecards" pictures and (un)"funny" slogans.

Facebook has posted the following promo video, but it seems to focus 90% on shots of smiling photogenic people, and only actually about 10% on looking at the actual product...

Of course, we'll have to wait until April 12th to see what it's actually like - that's when it can be downloaded for selected phones - but it's a safe bet that Facebook has a reason for making this app, which is mostly likely to be using it to spam more ads directly to your phone (the announcement has pushed Facebook stock up by $1 a share) and therefore it'll probably become a mandatory update for everyone who's got the app installed at the moment.

We shall see...

Update: A spokesperson for Facebook Inc. has confirmed that installing Facebook Home on your phone will definitely bring ads, just not immediately at launch. They'll come later.

The Recession - Is It Too Late?

2013-04-02T14:30:00.001+01:00

Hardly a day goes by without a news report that we're in a recession, or a "double-dip recession", or even a "triple-dip recession". Ignoring the fact that a "triple-dip recession" sounds like some sort of jiggery-pokery that a porn star might be proficient in, maybe it's time for the nation to look at whether things will ever actually recover.

Consider it like this. The recession-based situation we're in now as a country has been caused by prices going up, because costs of other things go up, and so on - having to "pass on the cost" from elsewhere, which ultimately stops with the consumer, who pays more.

Let's say that petrol company X was charging £1 a litre for fuel previously. Now, they're charging nearer to £1.35 for that same litre, and blaming it on increased costs. What happens when those costs relax and come down again? Are they going to reduce their price back to £1? Of course not - because quite simply, they'll have conditioned their customers to a £1.35 (or higher still) price. Sure, gimmicky offers will float around, but if you were the boss of petrol company X, would you slash your profits?

The exact same scenario will exist for every necessary commodity out there - groceries, finance, gas and electricity - the list goes on. Cutting prices just doesn't make business sense in most circumstances - so it won't happen.

Now think forward through the years. As businesses have to run leaner to afford to pay their increased costs coming from the companies who aren't passing on their savings, they're going to have to lay people off. This is going to have two effects. Firstly, it's going to push up the state bill for benefits and welfare, meaning that those who still have jobs are going to be taxed harder.

An unemployed person in the future

Secondly, those on benefits are going to struggle more and more, to the point where they'll do anything just to feed their families. By "anything", of course, I don't mean "finding another job", no. I mean stealing from supermarkets, rifling for half-eaten burgers from McDonald's bins after hours, and breaking into their neighbours' homes to use their shower.

Basically, the forecast is for some kind of post-apocylptic nightmare world, where the dwindling few who are still working are watching their backs and struggling to afford basic essentials in life, and the unemployed majority are like a pack of still-alive zombies, roaming the streets not in search of brains, but in search of mobile phone chargers and highlighters. Luckily though, assuming that unlike zombies, these hordes can successfully operate the shower in whichever house they choose to break into, at least they will smell a lot fresher than their undead counterparts.

BlackBerry Z10 Interactive Ad Fail

2013-03-31T22:13:00.001+01:00

RIM launched the new BlackBerry Z10 recently, and have been spending money left, right, and centre on getting the word out.

One of the ways that they've done this is by having interactive "Typing Challenge" ads, to show how you're supposed to be able to text quicker on a Z10. One of these ads popped up to me on YouTube, so I couldn't resist giving it a go.

First of all, it challenges you, and gives you a QR code to scan on your existing phone, which syncs your phone to the video of someone texting on a BlackBerry. Then, you're presented with the phrase, and you must type it while the ad shows how much faster than you the Z10 user is.

As you can see from the screenshot on the right (from my Galaxy Note 2), I was presented with the generic standard for typing tests - the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".

Unfortunately for the BlackBerry marketeers, it ends up backfiring on them, because it's all very well and good, unless you play, and on your first go, you beat it hands down...

Better luck next time, BlackBerry. You lose.

The Train WiFi Prank

2013-03-13T19:00:00.001Z

So, I'm sat on a train, bored. There's no actual WiFi on board, and I've turned off my phone's data connection to save my battery for later in the evening.

There are, however, a load of businesspeople anxiously trying to get a little bit of signal so they can send various emails or whatever it is that businesspeople do on their various gadgetry on the way home.

So, I decided to switch my WiFi hotspot on, call it "Free WiFi", and put a password on it. Of course, nobody manages to connect. People are wanting their connections though - after a couple of minutes, someone's asking one of the members of staff what the WiFi password is. Of course, the train staff have no idea, because they don't do free WiFi.

Next, I remove the security from the hotspot. Of course, nobody's going to get any actual use, because I've got no data connection active - it's an empty hotspot.

I also change the name to "_The Cloud". This means that anyone who has previously connected to one of The Cloud's thousands of free hotspots will automatically connect - and also reprioritise itself over any 3G data or dongle they might be using.

Resulting, of course, in major mass panic from one woman in particular, who can't send any email anymore.

Oh no!

The Facebook Birthday Experiment

2013-03-03T17:24:00.000Z

As some of you may know, it's my birthday today. As you also may know, recently I've been toning down my use of Facebook.

How are the two relevant? Well, I shall explain.

I've not closed down my Facebook account entirely, for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted a route for people to be able to contact me if needs be, and secondly because I wanted my posts and content to be visible to people who aren't necessarily using Twitter and/or Google+ yet.

As part of my reigning-in of Facebook, I removed most of my personal data - including my birth date, and also locked down my wall, so that only commenting on my posts is allowed, and not posting anything new (to combat application spam).

As we all know, Facebook makes it super-easy to wish someone a happy birthday. It lists "It's Bob Smith's birthday" in the corner, and provides a link to "Wish Bob a happy birthday". This is not only super-easy, but super-impersonal too. Even if you don't care that much about someone, you still end up wishing them a happy birthday, because Facebook told you to.

The number of "Happy birthday" messages I've had through Facebook has increased year-on-year.

As you can see on the right, 5 years ago, only 8 people posted - through until gradually by last year, that number had increased nearly six-fold.

This year, however, it's just not been possible. Facebook isn't dishing out news of it being my birthday to anyone - and even if it was, nobody can post on my wall. Facebook isn't a part of my birthday anymore.

This means that anyone who wants to wish me a happy birthday has to actually know it's my birthday, either having written it in their diary, or through word-of-mouth (the way it used to be). In addition, they need to care enough to actually say it to my face, or take the minute necessary to send me a message.

Last year, 46 people posted on my Facebook wall to wish me a happy birthday.

This year, two people said it to my face, 7 sent a card in the post, 5 sent me a text message, and yes, one person sent me a Facebook private message. A total of 15 greetings.

Does the knowledge that my quotient of greetings has decreased by two thirds? No.

Do I feel more loved knowing that 15 people actually took the time to think of me and let me know about it, with more than an automated click of a mouse? Hell yes :-)

How To Be The Laughing Stock Of Facebook

2013-02-28T19:29:00.001Z

Let's be honest from the start. For many, Facebook is just a fun way to pass time and post random stuff, and that's fine. But equally, for every person who posts something stupid, repetitive, or annoying, hundreds of people who have to endure it in their news feeds are thinking what an idiot the person who posted it.

So, with that in mind, who do you know that's guilty of one (or more) of these Facebook deadly sins...?

Inventing Stupid Middle Names

One of the main points of Facebook is to connect people who actually know each other in real life. To do this, you normally search someone by name.

Now, I'm willing to bet that the parents of the guy on the left did not christen him with the middle name "Thugnificent".I also doubt that anyone actually calls him that.

The only thing that his newly-acquired moniker serves to do, apart from the obvious side-effect of making him look like a bit of a tool, is to make anything he says about as plausible as, well, something not very plausible at all.

Using Facebook as a Soapbox

We can change the world! Sign this petition! Vote for change! Like and share this image for World [Something] Week!... We all know someone who constantly posts petitions, images promoting various causes and pictures of needy children/animals/etc, when all you actually want is for them to post a one-liner about what they're actually doing themselves!

Now, I can understand if it's a once-in-a-while post, maybe sharing something relevant to them or their community ("Sponsor me to run this marathon" or "Sign the local petition not to build a new sewage dump in our town centre" for example), but a deluge of constant campaigning just makes all the messages drown each other out, until nobody cares about anything anymore.

Representing Yourself With A Stupid Profile Picture

The point of a profile picture is to remind people who you actually are. The number one way of doing this - remember you're dealing with a small square image next to your posts - is to have a clear, recognisable headshot of yourself as your profile picture.

Some people, however, find it necessary to use their 80 square pixels of fame unwisely - any of the people on the right might as well be preceding anything they post with "I might well be a fake profile, and if I'm real, I don't quite get the point anyway".

Reposting [un]Funny Sayings and Quotes as Images

We've all seen them... twenty times over. Just because someone agrees with the textual content of one of these images, doesn't make it alright to reshare the whole image, to clog up everyone else's news feeds with.

Reposting it simply tells everyone that you're not witty enough to come up with it yourself. At least retype it as a text status - it'll take up less room, and people reading it might actually think you possess a wit, as opposed to just the ability to moronically click the "Share" button.

Playing Spamware Games

If there's one thing that shouts "I don't have a life!!!", it's social gaming. There are people who occasionally dip into these games, and that's not too bad. The problem comes when these games, which ultimately want your money, hold your gameplay to ransom until you do one of two things - either pay a few pounds here and there to advance by purchasing new in-game content (coins, tokens, or whatever), or alternatively to spam your friends with requests to "help you out".

By doing the latter, not only are you publicly admitting that you have nothing better to do with your time than cultivate a virtual farm (or cafe, or school, or fishtank), but also that you don't give enough of a crap about your friends and will happily sell them out for a virtual sack of mushrooms.

So... how many of your friends are guilty of being Facebook laughing stocks? Or, having read this, are you one yourself?

How To Gauge Someone By Their Bank Card

2013-02-24T18:31:00.002Z

You know the situation. You're at the bar. You're standing next to someone you like the look of, and you're considering striking up a conversation - but you're not sure what they might be like.

Now, thanks to this handy "cut-out-and-keep" guide, you can work out what someone is like as soon as they open their wallet. Go ahead, try and find yourself or someone you know, and you'll see how freakishly accurate it is...

Halifax Electron Card	My credit is awful, the staff in Cash Converters know me by name. I read The Sun and think it's actually real news.
Lloyds TSB Premier (Black Card)	I'm quite gullible. I got screwed over in an "account review", and I'll probably believe anything you tell me.
Metro Bank Card	I'm up for trying new things, but I don't ask much.
First Direct Card	I want the world on a stick, but I think of myself as down to earth. I'm incapable of just ordering something from a restaurant menu, I always want to add or remove something.
NatWest Card	I bank with them, my Dad banked with them, his Dad banked with them... basically, it's not that I don't like change, just that I can't really be bothered.
Any Gold Card	I'm a douchebag. Plain and simple.
Debenhams Storecard	I'm a (probably female) douchebag who has nothing better to do than spend my husband's paychecks on gaudy junk (except when i'm buying more gaudy junk on Bid TV), and i like having my ego massaged by being called a "valued customer" every 3 seconds.
Cater Allen Debit Card	I'm too posh to bank with Santander, but, oh wait... Crap. (Note: Cater Allen is a brand name of Santander)
Any Prepaid Card (Bread/Cashplus etc)	Even Halifax won't give me an Electron card. I live on Wonga loans.
American Express Chargecard	I'm a bit of a masochist. I like paying £100+ for having a card, but I don't know why I do it.
Vanquis Credit Card	I did something really stupid before, and I used to be really bad with money. I still don't actually have any, but I'm trying to be more careful now.
Argos Storecard	I'm doing something really stupid now, which I'll be paying for later - probably with my kidneys.
Barclaycard with "Founder Member" under the name	I'm bitter, but it's hidden behind a fake smile. Basically, I used to be with Egg/Marbles/MSDW and life was peachy, now BC have taken over the account and while I smile on the outside, the fact has filled me with rage on the inside. If you refer to me as a "Barclaycard customer" I will rip your arms off.
One Account Debit Card	More than likely, I have a goatee. I also own a lava lamp and stripy slippers, and I point at people, walk away from them, and shout "Let's do lunch!" over my shoulder.
ThinkBanking Card	Every day I'm deluding myself into thinking I have a real bank account, and I hit myself over the head with a brick to try and erase the part of my memory that says I'm actually stumping up £14.50 a month for something the majority of the population is getting for free. I probably did something really bad in a previous life.
Coutts Card	I own 9 houses. And a boat with a house in it... but I'm still really tight.
Amex Blue Sky Card	I'm quite superficial - I'm attracted by shiny things. I applied for the card because it was seethrough, and can't bear to let it go.
Capital One Credit Card with the "Cute Pig" or "Cute Puppy" on	I'm a jeremy kyle reject. I'm probably in my mid-40s, wearing a pink velour tracksuit, and pushing a pram with both my kids and my grandkids in.
Any card with a custom picture of one's kids	I want you to know that my kids are better than your kids. Look at them. LOOK AT THEM!!! I also clean my kitchen worktops 7 times a day, and subscribe to Good Housekeeping, not because I actually read it myself, but just because I want you to see it on the coffee table.

So there you have it. Next time you're evaluating someone you're just meeting for the first time, see if you can pigeonhole them into one of the categories above!

Google Glass: Tech Specs Leaked?

2013-02-23T12:00:00.001Z

This week, Google formally announced that it would be allowing 8000 regular people to test their new Glass headset in the wild, through a contest known as "#ifihadglass".

Our Google Mole

Since then, questions have been flying around the web, trying to find out more about the technology behind (or rather, inside) the kit. Speculation has been rife, and many have resorted to guessing, theorising, and poring through FCC filings to deduce what's coming. Luckily, we have a mole inside Google who has been able to give us the low-down on what we can expect.

Storage

While later versions are expected to use Google Drive to store the user's data, the first version released to the consumer market will store photos, videos, and so on entirely on 3.5" floppy disks. These will be inserted into a slot on the top-centre of the Glass unit, and sit conveniently on the front of the user's face while in use. When not in use, an optional disk-belt will be available, to store up to 8 floppy disks around the user's waist.

Sound

Rumours have mooted bone-induction as a possible method for getting sound into the user's head. This is not true. The actual Glass unit will have a 3.5mm audio jack, for plugging a pair of headphones into. However, for copy-protection reasons, only earphones manufactured by Poundland house-brand "Signalex" will be compatible, and even then only when one of the earbuds has been chopped off, and resoldered with a Furby in its' place.

Connectivity

Obviously, an internet-connected device such as this will require an always-on data source. This has been taken care of through the addition of a USB slot above the left ear. This slot will be intended for the user to plug a mobile broadband dongle into.

Power

One thing many people have wondered is how Glass will be powered, given its' small space. Not a problem - it will be powered by a solar panel, connected to Glass by cable, and mounted on a flat cap (included in the box) which can be worn by the user.

Overall, Glass has been kept quite quiet, even though a few limited press shots were released recently. However, our mole has managed to provide us with a photo of a user wearing the final released product:

We can tell you're excited already.

What's Happening to Taunton?

2013-02-20T21:37:00.004Z

Taunton, Somerset's county town, seems to be having a bit of a problem at the moment. As anyone from the area will know, over the last few years, the Town Centre Company has been championing the improvement of the town centre with the aim of making it a real competitor for Exeter and Bristol.

But hang on... something's gone seriously wrong. Let's do a roll call.

The High Street was supposed to be a new central point for people to shop. Nice idea, except for that someone decided to rip out all the nice trees, replace the classic wooden benches with horrible stainless steel ones, and still no new shops have turned up there. Nobody walks up High Street to visit Iceland and Burger King, or to walk past the closed remnants of Que Pasa (AKA Toad).
Talking of Que Pasa, what happened to renovating it? It's an empty nightclub that's been closed for years. Nightlife in High Street is dead, especially with Perfect 5th (Cafe Mamba) having disappeared, and Yates's being turned into a Tesco Express.
High Street isn't the only nightlife-related casualty either. Bliss (AKA Life / Shout / Chicago Rock Cafe) has shut down too at the top of East Reach, after breaching the lease terms for its' building.
Nightclub-style nights out not your thing? Until today, you could have gone for a night out at the Brewhouse Theatre instead, for some more intellectual entertainment. Not any more - they've shut down, gone into administration, and made all their staff redundant. Maybe that'll turn into a Tesco Express as well.
HMV have announced today too that their Taunton store is for the chop over the next month or so. It's going to join Comet, Moben Kitchens, D2, Dorothy Perkins, Gamestation, Blockbuster, Game, Whittard, and others in the long list of shops that have buggered off.
It's not just holes where shops and nightclubs were that are causing Taunton problems. Pretty much all the "regeneration zones" are just total embarrassments. The town spent millions on the area in front of the museum - and it's not the promised "meeting and lunching area", it's just turned into a free car park. Seeing as it was a pay-and-display car park before, the whole operation was just a waste of money. And that's before we've even mentioned Firepool. You know, that big shopping centre and hotel complex opposite Morrisons? Yes, that's the one. The barren wasteland of mud and sewage that everyone has given up on because someone screwed up and ran out of money.

So, what's the answer?

Simple. Someone needs to admit that they ballsed up.

Of course, nobody will do that. All the people involved in this massive cock-up have two choices. They can do the honorable thing, say that they made a mistake, and try to formulate a plan to turn Taunton around. Or, they can continue skimming money left, right, and centre, churning out PR to make everyone think it's getting better, and delaying the inevitable end where they all get fired by as many years as possible, and collecting as many pay packets as they can.

As it stands, Taunton town centre is dying fast. Nobody wants to shop there anymore. Nobody wants to go for a night out there anymore. Nobody wants to relax, meet, or work there anymore. Ultimately, this means that less and less money is flowing into the town, and more and more people are heading out to Bristol and Exeter.

A Supermarket-y Blast From The Past

2013-02-10T19:47:00.001Z

Some of my blog articles are very deep and meaningful, with hours of thought, research, and journalistic excellence going into writing them.

This one, on the other hand, not so much.

For you see, I just wanted to write to say that I just discovered that my Morrisons Miles card (for collecting points when buying petrol) still carries a note on the back saying that it is valid "at Morrisons and Safeway petrol stations".

Given that I've only been driving about 6 years, long after Safeway was obliterated in the Morrisons takeover, this got me thinking.

Is there still a Safeway petrol station out there? Maybe one so isolated, that it never got the memo telling it that its' parent company was exiting the UK, and still exists to this day, selling fuel under the Safeway name as if nothing ever happened?

My Waitrose and QuickCheck: A Review

2013-02-03T16:42:00.000Z

"Remember me...?"

Years and years ago, Safeway (remember them?) were pioneering new technology in the form of Shop & Go, a handheld scanner-based system where you scanned and bagged your own groceries as you shopped, and carried a loyalty card in the form of their "ABC", or "Added Bonus Card".

Now, around a decade later, upmarket supermarket Waitrose has reintroduced pretty much the same kind of thing, and done a remarkably good job of it.

Like Safeway's offering, it comes in two portions - the scanners, and the loyalty card.

The "QuickCheck" scanners are remarkably simple to use. Once you've registered, you're away. The registration is a process with a flash of genius built in - you don't need to carry a separate card around, as all your data is tied to your bank's debit card number. So long as you've got your bank card with you (so always, then), you can swipe in at the entrance and pick up a scanner.

"...well, I'm back!"

Then, you simply scan stuff as you buy it, the device gives you a running total on screen, as well as alerting you to any multi-buy offers you might have missed. Once done, you head to a QuickCheck desk, hand over the scanner, and pay the amount you owe. You can even bag your stuff as you go, saving time at the checkout. The other benefit is that most of Waitrose's clientele seems to prefer not to use the system, so even though everyone else is stuck in a queue five people long, QuickCheck customers seem to be able to skip all of these. In fact, I've never had to queue up to pay after scanning my shopping myself.

The second part of the offering comes in the form of a My Waitrose card. It looks like a loyalty card, tastes like a loyalty card, but isn't one in the conventional sense. Yes, it ties up your purchasing data to your personal data for profiling purposes, but you don't collect points. Instead, it gives you a few benefits around the store. First, you get a free copy of a newspaper with your shopping. Next, "essential" products like bread, milk, and so on get an automatic 10% discount for cardholders. And finally, you can have a free cup of tea or coffee from the store café on the way out... even if you didn't actually buy anything in store.

For now, you can't use the loyalty card to pick up a scanner, and you can't use your debit card to get your free cup of tea, so to make the most of the scheme you need to carry both cards, but I'm sure consolidation of the two will come in time. All in all, a very good system, that is well worth registering for and using.

Are Amazon Doing Themselves Over?

2013-02-01T21:14:00.000Z

As a fan of the Tomb Raider series of games, I've had a pre-order for the new Xbox game of the same name ordered at Amazon.co.uk for a while now - in fact, pretty much since the game was first released.

The Amazon price when I first ordered was £37.99, and as of now, has dropped to £37.94. When I first ordered, this was the best price going. Combined with Amazon's great level of service and delivery speed, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Now, however, I'm wondering if my loyalties were misplaced. For, you see, the game is now available much cheaper elsewhere. Zavvi.com have it for £35.99, and SimplyGames.com have the current best price of £34.85 - around 10% cheaper than I'm due to pay.

Assuming that SimplyGames will be making a profit on the title at that price, one would assume that Amazon would do too. However, on chatting to one of their customer service reps, it appears that they're unwilling to price-match their competitor. Now, surely, the only possible thing that will happen if they don't match it, is that I'll cancel my Amazon order, and buy from the cheaper store instead - thus meaning that Amazon won't see one penny from me. They must be smart enough to realise that they won't be cutting into their profit margin - seeing as I've been proactive enough to ask them to lower their price, I'll more than likely be proactive to take my custom elsewhere.

However, no, even after pointing this out to them, they still flatly refuse to match the price, and as a loyal customer since 2003, I'm wondering if Amazon are beginning to lose their shine.

Face is truly in palm.