Day Jar View

A chap wanted to use “Lloyds is pants” as his banking security password, but a member of staff at the bank changed it to “no its not”. That’s guerilla staff loyalty at it’s finest, surely.

For some reason, Lloyds say the member of staff responsible no longer works at the bank. I would have thought they should be running it by now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/hereford/worcs/7585098.stm

Benjamin Franklin said: “Beer is living proof that God exists, and that he wants us to be happy.”

In and around the coastal towns of West Wales this week, I think that the happiest people in the UK must live here. I haven’t seen one chain pub, but instead of these soulless behemoths, there are literally dozens of independent pubs lining the streets, all presumably making enough to keep going.

It may be that the culture of these towns is centred around the pub, so they keep them afloat, or it may be that the pubs themselves keep the towns together, acting as the hub for all the gossip and socialising. Every so often a politician or other bleats about the demise of the Post Office, and I seem to remember it was Prince Charles who said something about the demise of the country pub.

Now, flower-talking notwithstanding, I think he had a point. It makes for a nicer visit, and if I was a local, given the choice of either 5 smaller pubs with different beers, characters and banter, or one giant brewery with euro-lagers and big TVs – I’d go for a mini-crawl every time.

Just spent 25 mins in a sauna at an indicated 70 degrees. Felt pretty hot when I came out which is no surprise.

Compared to the world champ of the other week, though, I’m an amateur: they managed 18 mins at 110 degrees.

Wonder if there was anything left?

I suppose it is Bank Holiday Monday after all, so we should expect a 70′s disaster flick.

I was surprised to switch over and see The Towering Inferno though. I know it’s 7 years since 9/11, but the sight of Hollywood’s finest inside a blazing skyscraper is probably still too close to the bone for some. But hats off to Channel Five for showing it.

Perhaps more perplexing is how on earth they managed to get that many actors in the same place at the same time. Must have cost them a fortune.

Worth every penny I’d say.

Just watching this bilge that is masquerading as a live broadcast of the GB athletes getting off the plane from Beijing.

I think they did a great job, but I’m sure that the last thing they need (or viewers want) is to see a dolly “interviewing” each of them with such bon mots as “how does it feel to be home?”.

Such insight gives ammunition to those who talk of scrapping the licence fee.

I know how much wholesale gas and electricity prices have gone up this past year, so this isn’t a criticism of the energy companies, as I’m not some Liberal sandal-wearer (although I do own some nice sandals) who thinks that companies who make profits are the devil’s work.

However, when you hear that the owners of the holiday complex that we are staying in might have to close their pool and spa complex next year because of rising bills, it starts to hit home how these 30% hikes can affect people.

My business won’t be directly affected by fuel price rises, nor will we have to wear extra jumpers at home, as there’s plenty that can go before we do that. But when your fuel bill goes from £8000 one year to already £12000 so far this year, you are looking at your profits disappearing fast.

He said he can’t charge customers extra as they are paying more themselves at home too, but I for one would happily pay a bit more if it meant they could keep it going. Because to be honest, if they hadn’t had the pool complex, we would have gone somewhere that did have one.

I hope they manage to keep it.

I’ve watched most of the Olympic coverage on the BBC this time around. From 8am to 6pm, then the highlights show at 7pm, I’ve been pretty much glued to the screen. Of course this hasn’t always gone down well with the missus, but then plus ca change eh?

A comment by Michael Johnson, the best visiting pundit on the BBC, made me aware of one of the most important reasons why I enjoy the spectacle so much.

For the past 20 years, my life is punctuated with key memories, which meld into one another with the passage of time, and don’t usually conjoin with a particular news event in my head. With the Olympics, however, it seems to be different.

What is it about sport that makes me remember watching Ben Johnson’s astonishing 9.79 in the 100m in Seoul 1988 on a 4″ black and white TV in my dorm room, under the duvet so that we wouldn’t wake anyone; Chris Boardman’s triumph on the track in 1992 as my girlfriend and I sat cross-leggged on the grass outside our tent on our first holiday away together; Michael Johnson’s 200m World Record in Atlanta whilst at our family home in France with my Dad and younger Brother; Steve Redgrave’s 5th Gold on the radio whilst in my bedroom in 2000; Kelly Holmes’ first gold in 2004 cooking in the kitchen.

I’ve watched so much of this Games, and seen all of the highlights, but I think I will remember the pool hall in Guildford where I saw Usain Bolt’s embarrassment of his fellow runners in the 100m, and Rebecca Adlington’s unadulterated joy at winning her first whilst I was busy helping change the worktops in our kitchen.

Who knows, in 20 years’ time, something else might flash in there, but that’s the beauty of memories; they are at once fluid and fleeting.

I’m well pleased with my new Sony Bravia KDL-26T3000 LCD television. I previously had a 17″ DMTech with built in DVD, but this failed early on (although predictably just after the guarantee had expired), so I couldn’t use the internal DVD player.

This time round, to go with the new kitchen breakfast bar, we splashed out on a 26″ LCD to go with the separate DVD player, and chased the cables into the wall. I can now work with a whacking great TV to my immediate left and watch the women’s beach volleyball. Heaven.

The launch of the new iPhone has seen a predictably hysterical reaction in the more media-friendly press. It promises much of the same as the original version launched last year, with the addition of 3G promising fast internet access, and a GPS receiver, allowing navigation software to run on the unit.

The software glitches that have blighted the launch of the new unit have been the focus this week, but I wanted to point out something that I think makes the whole thing more of a fashion accessory, rather than a useful tool.

It’s called the iPhone but, in reality, from the very beginning the phone seems to have been included almost as an afterthought, in order that it can be marketed as a genuine catch-all alternative to the already ubiquitous and ground-breaking iPod and your current handset.

I say this because the keyboard of the iPhone is still a problem in my eyes. The problem with most phones is that the keyboard does not lend itself very well to typing, simply due to its physical size. Compound that with the touchscreen technology, and you have a keyboard on the iPhone that is considerably slower and more error-prone than those with conventional keys.

In their haste to produce a thing of beauty (and in that respect, incidentally, I think they have succeeded), they have taken the iPhone down a cul-de-sac that has hamstrung its desirability as a useful communication tool.

Sure, it looks great, will play music and apparently even makes phone calls, but try and use it to email, blog or compose a document, and you will find yourself yearning for an old-school keyboard that not only collects dust and crumbs, but means you can work faster. Surely that should be the point of these things?

No doubt Apple will shift orchard-sized piles of these things, in spite of my nit-picking, and good luck to them. But I will be sticking with the decidedly and resolutely old-school keyboard of my BlackBerry Curve, in all its crumby, dusty glory.

Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7501321.stm

Over the past few years, I have experimented periodically with trying to reduce my amount of exposure to all things electronic. I include under electronic basically anything with a chip – tv, laptop, PC, PDA etc.

The driver for this was never a fear of potential damage to my innards from stray electromagentic radiation, but a desire to try and avoid a potentially far more damaging end result – my ability to concentrate.

I find that trying to concentrate on any one thing – whether it be a book, an article, a quote or composing an email, is becoming increasingly harder the more devices and websites are running around me. The urge to check email on my tabbed browser or PDA is so strong that the only thing to do is to turn them off, and go and sit in the next room. But then when it isn’t close at hand, you spend probably every other paragraph thinking about what you might be missing. Sound familiar?

I’ve read about some people only reading emails between certain times of the day, or having one day a week off everything, so maybe I should try that. But I think unless someone physically removes the PDA, PC or tv from my immediate vicinity and then straps me down to the chair, I have a feeling I might struggle to stick to the new regime.

Check out – http://tinyurl.com/6zdzcf