Category Archives: Entertainment

Eurovision – Live Blogging

TV

23:13 FIX – The Serbian Hiro was in the bottom half of my votes. Oh well, see you next year.

21:47 My top three: Ukraine, Russia and Sweden

21:43 Moldova – More leather 7/10
21:38 Armenia – More beer is needed! 4/10
21:35 Turkey – I suppose he’s ok 7/10
21:30 Bulgaria – ee! 3/10
21:26 Romania – Oh no 4/10
21:24 United Kingdom – Ouch my ears hurt, but better than most 7/10
21:22 Just realised my Stella has been imported from the Ukraine. Does the shop around the corner know something about the contest?
21:18 Ukraine – ai lyu lyu? 9/10
21:14 Serbia – Is that a Serbian Hiro? 5/10
21:11 Germany – German crooning – not good 6/10
21:07 Russia – Definitely no moustaches 8/10
21:03 Latvia – Not keen on the hats, can sing, but just not Eurovision 6/10
21:00 France – Are they French or English? 7/10
20:59 Back from getting beer and chocolate 🙂
20:53 Sweden – Finally something that is alright 7/10
20:50 Georgia – Dancers are the best bit of this one 5/10
20:45 Greece – A London Enrique 6/10
20:43 Lithuania – Looks like Gorillaz are in the band 5/10
20:39 Hungary – Did nothing for me 4/10
20:36 Need beer and chocolates, but have neither 🙁
20:34 Slovenia – hmmm 3/10
20:30 FYR Macedonia – Nice 6/10
20:26 Finland – Best so far, but not that hard 6/10
20:22 Ireland – Very Irish, but can’t understand her 4/10
20:19 Worried I might run out of negative words
20:18 Belarus – Not bad 6/10
20:12 Spain – zzzzzz 3/10
20:08 Bosnia and Herzegovina – Nothing exciting 4/10

Chip and Pin Scam

Tech

Chip-and-WoofToday the BBC report about a credit card skimming scam that has been found in Hull.
Now whilst I haven’t blogged about this before I’ve been saying it’s possible since the new machines arrived.

The scam is quite easy.
Step One, get a card reader like the ones at Tescos which is attached to the till screen. These readers are two-in-one it reads both the magnetic strip and the chip.
Step Two, add the classic skimming device to the top of your slider.
Step Three, place a camera or get someone to look at the PIN being entered.
Step Four, clone the card onto a Tesco Clubcard
Step Five, wander into the High Street to an old cash-point (one that won’t read any chips) and enter the PIN you’ve stolen.
Step Six, take the cash and run.

To be truthful this may not work, it’s not exactly like I’ve tried to test it. However there are steps you can take to ensure it never happens to you.

Never let your card out of your hand. With the new chip-and-pin machines only you should need to handle the card. Don’t give it to the till staff at the supermarket, nor give it to the waitress at the restaurant. Make sure you place it in the machine and that you take it out. Chip-and-pin machines are shallow and can’t read the magnetic strip data.
Never let anyone see your PIN. Place your hand over the top and move your body to ensure no-one behind you can see.
Finally if you do spot anything odd on your bank statement phone your bank straight away.

Bloke and Bird split up

TV

A Bloke and A BirdMy morning routine generally involves a quick look at my phone to flick through the overnight emails and a read through the BBC News stories.
This allows me to work out if there might be anything exciting on the morning news.
At 7am today, it looked like the headlines would most likely be about the Bourbon Dolphin, so I stayed in bed for a bit.
Getting down for about 7.45 I put on BBC Breakfast and watched Newswatch. It was then followed by the headlines. The top story, Young Unmarried Couple Split Up, looking at my phone, I was sent the story via Breaking News by 7.15.
If that wasn’t bad enough I went to the gym which had the same story on loop.
Finally getting home I put on Radio 4 and listened again to the Now Show. Then proper news came on, none of this magazine style BBC One type news. But guess what was the top story, 47 dead in Iraq? Nope, that couple again.
Please BBC, if I see this as the lead story by 22.10 tonight I want my license fee back!

Didn’t she do well

TV

I’ve got to say that I’m very pleased with Freema Agyeman. Possibly because she’s the sort of companion I would hope to be like (except for the being a girl and flirting with the Doctor). And whilst Billie was alright, I never thought of her as great.
Now with the online trailers, and the rather long montage at the end of Who Confidential, I’m sure we’ve now seen most of the next 10 episodes. Let’s just hope that they don’t let us down.

Trident Gum

TV

Just read through this weeks Advertising Standards Authority adjudications I found this one about Cadburys.
Their campaign for Trident Gum, has been found to be racist. Whilst I felt the adverts were rubbish and I’m pleased that if I do end up watching Commercial TV that I won’t see them again, I really don’t think they were racist.

TomTom 6.021

Mobiles

Looks like TomTom have released an update to TomTom Navigator 6 for UIQ3 (P990/M600/W950). This update can be found by plugging your phone into your PC whilst TomTom Home is running. Unfortunately it looks like TomTom Home is actually unable to install the update though.
So here’s my step by step guide.

  1. Plug your phone in to you PC in File Transfer Mode and run TomTom Home.
  2. Download the update.
  3. Unplug your phone.
  4. Uninstall TomTom from your phone.
  5. Find the cab file which would have been downloaded on to your PC (should be My Documents / TomTom / HOME / Downloads / ttn.symbian.UIQ3.6021.8120.cab)
  6. Use Unzip software to unpack the cab file.
  7. Plug phone back in to PC in File Transfer Mode.
  8. Via MyComputer open the Memory Card.
  9. Drag-and-drop the 4 folders and install.bif file on to your Memory Card (say yes to any Replace prompts).
  10. Unplug your phone, wait a short while and follow the prompt to install TomTom.

To be truthful the only difference I can see is the option to switch between Left and Right hand modes, and I’m guessing better memory handling, but not much else.