The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

Herbert Spencer
English philosopher (1820 – 1903)

Tomorrow is the last working day of 2006 for those of us with no holiday entitlement left. It’s also the chance to reflect on the year past and the changes and blessings that God has provided.

I started 2006 in my 6th year working for NTL, a bit disillusioned but with high hopes for the new input from Virgin group. I finish the year (unless I get sacked tomorrow!) working for Wolseley UK, the biggest supplier of plumbing and heating products on the planet with lots of work to do, things to sort out and generally challenges to get teeth into!

I started 2006 very disgruntled with our church life and some of the leaders that we had over us. We, as a family, start 2007 worshipping with a friendly church overseen by helpful, encouraging and loving leaders. (Hallelujah!)

I started 2006 driving a Mondeo diesel, and I finish 2006 driving a Mondeo diesel. They’re a little different though! And there was a 2-litre Mondeo and a diesel Focus inbetween. Those readers who know me well will understand that four cars in a year is not that rare for me…

I started 2006 with a loving family and a number of great friends. I finish 2006 with the same loving family (although we’ve all grown in different ways!) and a few new ones too, not least the amazing Thomas who one day I will meet!

In 2007 I’m looking forward to Jo’s 3-th birthday, Mal’s 2nd birthday, Spring Harvest at Skeggie, a summer holiday (probably in Dorset), possibly an iPod (what will Uncle Steve announce on 9th Jan?) and who knows what else?

To anyone who reads this, lurker, commenter, friend, family, whatever, I wish a very happy new year. May God grant you your dreams in 2007, just not necessarily in the way you hope!

For a change, something on TV that’s moving and interesting whilst still technically being reality TV!

“The Secret Millionaire”, Channel 4, Wednesday evenings at 9pm (0r 21:00 hours for those who can’t tell am from pm…)

Watch it!

This is very funny.

And so is this, especially the entry for 11th December.

Thanks to Dave and Dave.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xa2wVBza98]

With thanks to Dave for the heads-up!

So, after the Palm Treo and Car Radio what’s next on my list of gadgets that I really like?

Well, Digiguide is.

I’ve used Digiguide for about three years now after realising how much we were spending on weekly copies of Heat/Radio Times/newpaper etc.

It’s a Windows only (boooo…..) program that updates using your internet connection to show the programs on each of the channels that you subscribe to much like a normal paper TV guide. However, it also allows you to pick the channel set as used by your service provider – Sky, NTL Telewest, Freeview or whatever – along with local variations in the various channels.

If you use a Mac or Linux box you can use their MyDigiguide which is web-based and thus cross-platform. It works in browsers other than IE too, which is nice.

This is a crop of a screenshot of the main Digiguide page:
(click the pictures to see a larger version)

Every channel has the correct channel number for your provider, and if you hover your mouse over a program it brings up a popup box with more information. You can search for programs by genre, title, actor etc, scroll ahead weeks at a time, flag particular programs as favourites and get it to pop up a reminder if a program or series you want to watch is on.

Possibly the most bizarre feature is the verbal reminder.

You’re sitting minding your own business with the PC on in the corner of the room. All of a sudden a voice rings out: “Top Gear is starting in 30 minutes on BBC2!”

The first few times it does it feel very disconcerting, but it’s definitely a useful feature.

The best thing about it is that it’s only £8.99 for the whole year! Bargain! If you click the link below you can access a free trial for 30 days at no obligation.

P.S. Apologies for the pictures being less than professional. Frankly, I think it’s quite funny that the banner is too wide for the column, but that’s me!

That’s Comet’s customer service strapline. In our most recent missive to their MD of Operations our letter closes with the above followed by the sentiment that it’s a pity they don’t “live customer service”.

Some of you may remember a throwaway comment at the end of a previous post some time ago mentioning in passing that Comet’s customer service hadn’t been terribly helpful at that point. That was at the end of August.

Unless I’ve missed something (likely) it’s now December and we STILL haven’t been reimbursed for the food that was destroyed in the initial freezer breakdown.

Trust me, you don’t want to know about the rest of the story but suffice to say I will NOT be shopping there again.

And that’s genuinely not like me…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh!

The BBC’s headline says “Motorists ‘must pay for road use’”.

What is road tax? What about all the tax that we pay on fuel? What about the VAT on servicing and repairs? What about council tax? What about the tax paid on buying the car in the first place? What about the congestion zone in London, soon to rolled out elsewhere? What about having to buy a parking permit in certain parts of the country? What about insurance premiums?

And now, in addition to all this Sir Rod Eddington reckons that the only way to avoid gridlock is to charge everybody based on how far they drive and at what time of day.

I can’t believe the b@ll£cks that some people in government talk/think.

Did anyone even ask whether we all want to travel to and from work at the same time every day?

The company I work for operate a green travel policy and you have to live within 20 miles of the office. We get a reserved parking space at the office if we car-share at least three days a week, and anyone who lives within a mile of the office is required to walk/cycle/take the bus unless travelling on company business during the working day.

If other companies did the same it would have a similar effect, and if the government operated school buses like the USA it have a tremendous impact on school run traffic. How much easier is it getting to work during the school holidays?

Methinks that Sir Rod may have been told what to come up with at the very beginning of the ‘investigation’ as what he’s reported as suggesting is to implement a plan that suffers the following potential flaws:

(1) no-one has developed robust technology to track the movements of every vehicle in the UK
(2) no-one knows what it would cost to implement
(3) the potential civil liberty objections to being tracked everywhere you drive ought to be a political ‘hot potato’…

Surely if companies were required to operate car-share schemes, have a limited radius for commuting and national school buses were implemented it would actually have a greater positive impact on congestion at a significantly lower cost?

Or am I alone in thinking all this?

To add insult to injury I heard this while driving back from a course in London. I don’t like driving in London. So why was I, I hear you ask? Because the government’s own transport website (which is very good actually!) couldn’t find a way of getting me from the Midlands to Teddington by 9am on a Friday morning…