Whilst I’m pro ban of smoking in the work place, and hate the smell of tobacco, does anyone else really believe this will work?

In the days before tobacco advertising was banned in the media, did children really get what the adverts were about?

All I can see happening now at point of sale, is a whole lot of 200 cartons stacked up where the small adverts used to be.

The sixth Harry Potter book will hit the shops on 16 July next year, although Amazon aren’t yet taking pre-orders, I’m sure this link will work soon.

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002J4WNU/artesea-21

I was going to posts these after each day, but forgot.

On Wednesday Heather came down to London, and we went to the Liberal Democrat Christmas Staff Party in the House of Lords.

Chris Rennard was Father Christmas, and after we finished there, we went on to Strangers Bar with several MPs.

Thursday was a bit more quiet, but Heather did get to meet my Nana for the first time.

Friday was Heather’s birthday, and amazingly she help me at work for most of the day. After work, we went off to the London Eye, which if you can manage to get on it during the night, whilst people are still at work, and have a clear sky it is really, really lovely.

On Saturday, we visited my Nana to fix her computer, went shoe shopping in London (which oddly was rather busy). Then in the evening, we went to Walthamstow Dogs, with James, Helen, Chris, Will, Brian, Theo and Dan. Whilst I did lose money overall, I did have some winners.

Then on Sunday, we went to the Wedding of Stuart and Lesley, two Liberal Democrat friends in Hemel Hempstead. The wedding service was lovely, and the reception was held in the beautiful Berkhamsted Old Town Hall.

Finally on Monday, Heather managed to escape, although only after she spent another day helping me in the office.

After my post earlier this month about getting emails read on 6 Music, the office have managed to get on the radio twice this week on Vic McGlynn show.

On Wednesday Seth our intern won CDs for the tedious task, saying the most disappointing Soundtrack CD was Batman, and today James had a go at Guided by Noises, with a guess of Rubberband Girl, which was wrong, but he did manage to sign Vic up to the Party!

The current Chip and PIN ads in the newspapers are giving us this piece of advice:

Keep forgetting you PIN?
It’s easy to change with chip and PIN.
To something more memorable like a birthday or your lucky numbers. You can change your PIN at the cash machine. Easily. Or by simply contacting your card issuer.

Right, so when the thief steals my wallet, the first PIN combination they are going to try is DDMM or MMYY of my birthday, which is on my driving license and they are now also telling us that we can change our PIN by phone!

This poster for Brut is currently on the Tube, the words under “Jingle His Bells” are

Splash it all over this Christmas

Now as any man will tell you.

Ouch!!!

I try to stimulate my tired brain every morning attempting the Metro Puzzle on the way in to work, today seemed to be a simple maths problem, and after attempting to guess the answer, I checked to see if I was correct.
Now not to spoil it for you, I’ve put my answer and their answer in the comments sections.

Was just playing about with some code, when for no reason, I felt like having a look at the Channel 4 BigBrother site. Selecting the low graphics, zero ads news page, which is a lot quick, and often more up to date, I found this

There is another CBB show coming

Day -10, 15:00

Much like the last one – loads of people you thought were dead back on your TV

other “news” stories, seem to be the web editor playing about with the site, as either the links don’t work, or are just cuttings from Reuters.

So it looks like the new Celebrity Big Brother, will have a collection of hasbeens.

Google have added Google Suggest to their labs.
I’ve got to say that it’s pretty fast and impressive.
Helps you narrow down search results, by providing alternative keywords, and can be fun looking at it’s top results.
Just by typing in one letter, you should be getting the most popular word, so A gives Amazon, E gives eBay, Hotmail, Ikea, News, Paris Hilton and Zip Codes.

For some reason I enjoy watching Consumer Affairs programmes, and visiting website like ASA, OfCom and ICSTIS.

Now on Monday night Watchdog were talking briefly about the phone calls which ask you to Press 9 to win a prize, and telling people not to press 9. Yet only on the 30th November, I received an email from ICSTIS saying

£20 per minute and £50 per minute ‘premium rate scam’ warnings

Dear Ryan,

Over the last few days, ICSTIS has received dozens of enquiries about the above ‘scams’, which are being widely publicised by e-mail. To help us put an end to the current spate of enquiries, please pass this information on to all contacts.

In the first case, the apparent ‘deception’ takes place when people receive a recorded message informing them that they have won an all-expenses paid holiday and are asked to press 9 to hear further

details. It is then claimed that callers are connected to a £20.00 per minute premium rate line that will still charge them for a minimum of five minutes even if they disconnect immediately. It is also claimed that, if callers stay connected, the entire message costs £260.00.

In the second case, the apparent ‘deception’ takes place when people receive a missed call from a number beginning 0709. It is then claimed that, if callers dial this number, they are connected to a £50.00 per minute premium rate line.

Please note that these stories are NOT true.

£20.00 per minute and £50.00 per minute premium rate tariffs do not exist – the highest premium rate tariff available is £1.50 per minute. Despite the dozens of enquiries received by ICSTIS about these ‘scams’ (and most people appear to have heard about them second or third-hand), not one person who claims that it has actually happened to them has been able to produce a phone bill to support their story.

ICSTIS urges any individual or organisation that receives an e-mail about these ‘scams’ to delete it immediately. Please do NOT forward it to others.

Now I’m not going to say that people haven’t been receiving calls which tell them to press 9, but by pressing it, you won’t end up connected to a premium rate number, most likely you will be told to phone an 090 number to receive your prize.

It’s just a shame that a programme like Watchdog, doesn’t even bother to contact the relevant regulator to check their facts.