Ad Hearing

What are they learning them in the skools theeese dace?

 

This is from a job Advert-

 

"This includes Data Preparation; Ad hearing to templates for each transaction ......."

 

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?NoExpire=1&JobId=40125491

A Quiet Evening out

The place I'm working currently is not famed for its choice of cosmopolitan eateries. In fact it's probably more famous for stabbings and muggings. Last night I decided I was tiring of Marks And Spencer picnics in my room, I'd eaten everything I liked the look of on the Hotel's bar menu several times (I've been stying there for the last 8 months) and I fancied an Italian Meal.

I'd spotted what I thought was a reasonable looking place a while back. I'm not sure if it's a chain or not. It seemed busyish without being too packed. I should have realised straight away that something was wrong when I walked in and a passing waitress averted her eyes and scuttled off as she saw me. No matter, I asked the guy behind the bar for a table for one - he politely showed me to a table. Where I sat and watched the comings and goings of the staff a while. No menu, no drinks offered, nothing. So I decided I'd go elsewhere. After all, I can sit in the bus station or the shopping centre and be ignored, and that's free.

I decided to go down the road to the Italian place where I've eaten before (and had good service). I'd only decided to try the other one from a mixture of curiosity and laziness. On the way, however, I decided to try an Indian Restaurant I hadn't eaten in before.

I was greeted warmly (good start) and invited to sit anywhere. I hadn't noticed before but the place was empty. So I picked a table for two about half way in. When I sat down I noticed the next table had two half finished pints of beer and some unfinished food on it.

My food was speedy and pretty reasonable. After a little while the next table was re-occupied by two very drunk women. Their speech was just about intelligible, although every other word seemed to be "fack" or "cant".

They recounted the evening's events over and over again to the extent that I was tempted to look at my watch in case we'd slipped into some sort of time vortex in a groundhog day stylee. They were, it seems, a lesbian couple, but one had been on the end of unwelcome attention from another woman.

"I thought you were going to knock her out" (I've omitted the facks) "I would've - and would you blame me?" - and so on. They were drunk enough to think that belching loudly and then saying sorry was hilarious (actually it was less offensive than the smell of them or their language). I ate up, paid up and left, wondering what the remainder of the evening had in store for the two of them and the proprietor of the restaurant.

Ho Hum another groovy evening in our beloved capital.

Tonight is late night opening in the shopping centre so I may try my luck there - or possibly I'll take the train out of this dump. I want reasonably healthy food at a sensible price, good (fast) service and quietish place to eat - why is that such a tall order in London?

Drugs

I have never tried any drugs other than alcohol (and maybe caffeine).  I feel a bit left out, actually.  Partly because I have never smoked (never even tried a ciggy), I never tried dope either (I suppose I could've tried it in a cake).  It seems most of the politicians have had a go on it now, but still they think it should be illegal.

 

I am, and have been for some time, in favour of legalising drugs - all of 'em too, not just dope.  It seems utterly hypocritcal to me that alcohol is legal and dope isn't.

Kate Rusby

Is a national treasure. I first came across her in a flim called Heartlands. Since then I've listened to quite a lot of her stuff. There is something about her voice that just rips up something inside me (in a nice way).

And she apparently likes flying about as much as me.

Thanks

To the kind person who handed over the phone I'd stupidly left on the train, whoever you are.

iPod touch Firmware 2.0 and other Apple stories

The world of Apple is supposed to one of benign user-friendliness isn't it?

Mrs Urko has an Ipod touch. She downloaded the latest version of iTunes. This in turn allowed her to download applications - iPint took her fancy. Unfortunately, she could find no way to get iPint from iTunes on to her iPod.

At first, neither could I, but after a bit of Googling it appeared that in order to install applications on her iPod, she needed an upgrade to the 2.0 Firmware, for which Apple wanted £5.99. Apple could have made this a bit clearer, but they obvoiously assume everyone knows their porducts.

She decided to make the purchase through iTunes but we weren't out of the woods yet. Her work lappy uses a VPN connection and wherever iTunes gets it's firmware updates from is blocked by her employers. This manifests itself as the download appearing to start then disappearing. Something that iTunes warns may take 30 minutes took (apparently) 3 seconds. No error message but no firmware update either. Can't really blame Apple for this.

Not being enough of a technical whizz to get around the block (I reckon it should be possible) I opted to use my laptop instead. The thirty minutes turned out to not far off. Connected up the iPod and asked it nicely to sync the firmware at which point it said that it couldn't due to an "unknown error" it then appeared to hang. After waiting a while and resetting the iPod, iTunes reported that a poorly iPod had been connected and a restore would have to be done - OK.

After quite a time, it claimed to have restored factory settings. In fact what it had done was wipe all the music and photos, and in spite of all the confusing messages, had installed the firware upgrade. So in only a few hours and for six quid, she was able to pull a virtual pint on an iPod.

I want to like Apple stuff, but it ain't easy. And my Mum's iBook has decided to fry itself now it's just out of warranty, having had to be retured under warranty once already.

Unhealthy Lifestyles Cost NHS £750 million

Apparently, the NHS is spending £750 million is wouldn't otherwise beacause of "unhealthy lifestyles". Actually, it's probably a lot more than that if you factor in people who drive in a reckless way, engage in physical sports, or sustain injuries in DIY accidents. But those aren't counted. Yet.

No, this is more from the lifestyle police. I don't even accept that there's such a word as lifestyle, however I know I'm in the minority so I'll just go along with it (the word) for now. There is an extremely unpleasant sneering puritanical streak in this kind of study (or at least the political spin that follows it).

It gives people a licence to sneer at fat people, smokers and a whole range of others because of their "lifestyles".

I don't like it a bit - it is mean spirited, and although I'm not a Christian, it strikes me as Unchristian.