Posted via email from @natmandu

Taken recently when trying to do something else.

A short while ago I decided not to be trapped any more. I bought the phone I wanted, and over the last six months I have moved between the four main networks trying them all out to find the one that gave me halfway decent data and voice coverage at my desk, decent voice coverage at home, and maybe even some coverage on the commute between. Starting with T-Mobile (useless), I moved to O2 and found them OK for a while, but web access at my desk was patchy, so I left O2 for Vodafone. This turned out to be a huge mistake – Vodafone’s 3G coverage was dire in my office, and voice calls sounded like they were being made through a vat of washing up liquid. So I tried Orange, and found that while coverage appeared to be OK and the 3G symbol lit up on my phone, the actual speed of downloads was pathetic. So I’m back to @O2 and, having moved desks, am happily streaming music on @Spotify.

I’m not recommending O2 above the other networks at all – I’m recommending them for me, sat in this specific chair in the office, living where I do, travelling where I do. That’s all. And if I move desk or move house and they turn out to be useless, I’ll sack them off for whichever network suits that desk or that house. And that’s the beauty of not committing yourself to months on end, which I will never do again. If you want that handset so much, just buy it, and if enough people free themselves from absurd long-term contracts and just walk away from crappy network operators, maybe just maybe they’ll up their game.

One of the Elephant Parade London entries, at More London, SE1.

Internet porn? How was that causing child abuse in the 1960′s unless Catholic priests had some special time-warp Internet porn all to themselves?

And what about all of the, you know, non-priest people who manage to absorb all that eroticism on TV and Internet porn and somehow manage not to rape children?

Ah well, if it’s not TV or porn, it’s gays or the kids themselves. And don’t mention the Jews. Always someone else’s fault.

Has any priest yet actually held up their hands and made any heartfelt apologies or requests for forgiveness, admitted that it was just their fault? Maybe, just maybe, Pope Benedict could take responsibility for threatening to excommunicate anyone who reported abuse cases to the authorities. Or, heck, all that other stuff like condoms increasing your risk of contracting HIV.

With that in mind I have a song dedication for Joseph Ratzinger:

Led Zeppelin -- Nobody’s Fault But Mine

And a reminder of the other things the Catholic Church needs to take responsibility for:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcNmzX3gSqs

via residentadvisor.net

I’ve been enjoying the Resident Advisor podcast since being introduced to it by @discusster, and the new one from Thomas Fehlmann is currently a perfect soundtrack for study.

Also well worth a look is The Cinematic Orchestra’s Late Night Tales – an ongoing series of mixes for late-night listening, this is an absolute belter, and it’s only £4.99 on Tunetribe.

Posted via web from Natmandu’s Posterous

Nice.

Get your API key and set your site up here.

£600,000 on Labour propaganda masquerading as a newspaper every year? That’s disgraceful.

Good job I had this leaflet to tell me. Well this leaflet and the dozens of others the Lib Dems have dropped through my door recently. Seriously, I’ve had more dead trees from the Lib Dems than the local takeaways lately. But at least they’re not pretending to be newspapers.

Oh.

Yeah, another travel blog. Woo.

In 2005 I took a trip around the world, and blogged the whole way. The experience changed my life. You may or may not be interested. I went to India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Easter Island, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia.

Having arsed about with the blog over the past few years I have given it a new home here and hope to sort out the broken photos and the like when I have time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAYVY2eLMck

This is awesome.

Off That -- a not half-bad hip-hop rationalist anthem, brilliantly animated, for Geek Pop.