sjdean on the blog

I have been boring people to death with thoughts about buying a new car. I am unfortunately not one of those people who can simple say "I want that one". Ten years ago, maybe, when Nissan were reliable. However newer cars have so much more fangled gubbins to go wrong - and that's mainly with the diesel engines, from diesel particulate filters that require a certain way of driving (eg 60km/h for 20 minutes) to re-generate, dual mass flywheels, injectors, timing belts vs virtually indestructable timing chains, egr valves, even service intervals. My Primera, do an oil and filter change at 6000 miles and the car continues. However my car is now smoking at start up, so it's nearly dead. On top of the diesel problems, and each manufacturer has their own unique design and way of doing things, some belts last longer than others, some injectors are better, some engine designs are more robust, others disintegrate, Ford Mondeo legendarily reliable in 2007+, but econo...

I've seen various delays in my area from BT OpenReach with enabling Fibre to the Cabinet, or FTTC as it is known. Let it be known this is a major project and there will be delays and problems. However as an IT professional, it is the way in which those issues are handled, progressed and conveyed which to me gives the most contention as the handling is poor, progression is slow, and the lack of information to the general public is virtually none existant. There are many people in similar situations to myself where BT have given excuse after excuse as to why their cabinet has been delayed in the roll out and each one has been proven wrong. My particular situation for the CMSPR Exchange for Hall Green and Springfield, saw a typical roll out. The cabinets were installed and connected to fibre and the first ten cabinets activated for fibre really quickly at the beginning of September. A month later, start of October, and we have ten more cabinets enabled. However my cabinet is o...

It is fundamentally disgraceful to sell off the Royal Mail. The government says it is a way to bring in fresh revenue. If someone really does have £3bn to purchase the Royal Mail, how on earth are they going to be able to afford to pump more money into it to upgrade facilities? Either prices go up, or costs go down. But hey, we can't afford everything, people want their benefits and taxes to go down - but we don't want to pay for it. It is a mistake to sell off the Royal Mail, but it's a mistake for us as the electorate to expect something for nothing.

I recently went to see Kick Ass 2 at the Odeon Broadway Plaza cinema. I usually use CineWorld at Broad Street as that is a wonderful cinema. Odeon however had the film I wanted to see. There was no obvious notice from outside that the cinema was actually open. I had to tentatively scout for an open door. Very uninviting. I collected my tickets from the machine and was seen by an "usher" or ticket inspector who validated my ticket and asked me to fill out a survey. My sensors were up. The male toilets downstairs were filthy. Missing soap dispensers of which only two were available, and only one had soap. Even that fell off the wall while using it. A cubicle had grafiti and the ceiling was filthy. I purchased a drink, popcorn and hotdog. I was not told about a lift which would have helped. It's difficult enough to get that up the stairs without assistance and it was worse for me with my vertigo. I managed one flight of stairs to the landing and saw the next flight of...

When I heard that BT was going to roll out Fibre to my local telephone exchange the CMSPR "Springfield" exchange, I was absolutely delighted. I don't like Virgin cable, and quite frankly being the second city, the fibre rollout by BT has been appalling. Other more rural locations were getting it before us.  But first the Exchange became marked as a Future Exchange and I remained patient. It then rolled over to a "Coming Soon" exchange and would be enabled by the end of September 2013. Brilliant News. I can finally move away from ADSL2+ and with BeThere being sold off to Sky, it's a good change to migrate to a new service. Far be it from me to be ignorant of how they install fibre, I've read up on how other people get their cabinets installed. Sometimes a contractor plonks a cabinet on the ground then come back weeks later to dig up and install power, trunking to BT man holes for routing cable then weeks and months later, possibly fibre. ...

Here's a picture of the house from the Central Television Production of the Upper Hand. The house is already on the internet in several forms in video, so I have no issue with posting this as proof I found it. But I will respect privacy and not publish the location for now.

Im a great fan of The Upper Hand TV show. It was filmed by Central Independent Television in Nottingham using the scripts of the American sitcom, Who's the Boss as a basis. Im a fan of regional television, Central in particular being my local region and wish it would return. But I've always been curious to find the Upper Hand House. I have now found the house. I found it on Google Maps and Street View and visited the area on Sunday and took my own photographs. For security and privacy reasons, I cannot divulge the location, but once I've suitably blurred out any identifying details, I may post a picture of the house - the decision will be based on the fact that pictures of the house are available on a DVD. I would love to share with you the area, as we could have fan days and visit the local pub, but I have been advised there is a restriction on posting pictures of the house for security purposes. I don't think this is true, and nothing in UK Law stops me from d...

I've been a little dismayed to see that Kick Ass 2 hasn't been quite as successful at the box office as it's predecessor. It is true that nothing can hold a candle to Kick Ass, but Kick Ass 2 is still a great movie in its own right. If the UK is anything to go by, I think the problem has been a complete lack of advertising. Nobody I know actually knew the thing had been released. I wasn't even aware of the first Kick Ass until my brother showed it to me to be frank. When I talked about Kick Ass 2, the reaction has been "when's that out?". I've had to say it's been out three weeks! As far as I can see, apart from Jim Carrey and a huge poster on a relatively quiet road, there's been virtually no advertising. No wonder it's performing poorly. Looks like it's near the end of it's run, so go see it people. Simon

I've been hearing a lot about bangernomics recently - which essentially about finding the hidden gems of automobiles, cheap, high mileage, well looked after, used cars, not necessarily all three, loving them for as little as possible and then running them into the ground without worrying about high cost repairs. This I think comes from the idea that when people looking to change their current car, should check to see how much the current car costs in terms of how much it costs monthly to fix, vs loan repayments and then only changing it when the monthly cost increases. I believe this is somewhat of a false economy. First off the simple premise, you don't get anything for free. So even the banger has to be bought from somewhere, and even though you're not spending wild amounts of money, still has a cost to it. So it is a case of minimising that cost. Now most will buy their banger with an MOT, use it for a year, sell it on. But, my car cost me £3000, I've had ...

Im thinking of using a little money to follow my vocation. First step, is to purchase a new bass guitar. For many years, I've had a Vintage V900 (Vintage - a brand name of John Hornby Skewes). It is a reliable bass, but I've had problems with it over the years. Take the back plate off to change the battery and you're left with a mish mash of wires and what looks like a possibly second hand Active Bass electronics. The wiring is substandard and brittle and I've had to resolder things several times. There's no electro magnetic shielding in the battery and electronic compartment and this could explain the hideous humming you get when waving the bass near anything electrical such as a monitor. The action was too low causing hideous fret buzz, and the tuners kept detuning, poor poor parts, and needed to be replaced. Very poor in my opinion. But it has been my reliable steed. However the pots are now disintegrating and unusable. So Im considering a Fender ...

Before I get going, let me just point out that the staff are fabulous, PALS are fabulous. It is obvious they are working under difficult situations and making the best of it. This gripe is about the "system". I've been due to have my gallbladder out. They called for me last Tuesday to advise the operation had been cancelled as they had run out of space due to Norovirus doing the rounds and the other hospitals closed. Although I failed to get the message, they did however leave one, and they have been busy with other issues since Norovirus. No problem there. The biggest gripe I have is that neither reception, or the nurses said my operation had been cancelled. They just said there was a problem and left me waiting in the waiting room for two and a half hours. They eventually got back in yesterday. Nil by mouth again since midnight, hanging around waiting, waiting, no feedback. Just patient waiting. I was there from 8am and the doctor finally saw me at 2.30pm to say t...

I hear many debates about the privatisation of the NHS, some make arguments that it would be good, others bad. It is hard to know where to tread in this minefield. However, I am conscious, that any private company exists, mainly and solely to make a profit - unless of course it is a truly philanthropic company, but given that most companies have shareholders, and shareholders by and large care about making a few quid through the stock market, then to me the idea of private companies running parts of the NHS is an absolutely abhorrent idea to me. Competition is the thing that is lauded. Competition is good. Is is. But in this captitalist and greedy culture we live in, that competition will seek to cut corners. It will either save costs through mergers, or cutting back of non-essential services. Employees, namely doctors (and most likely nurses) will have to work longer hours, more oncall hours, perhaps less pay reviews, less benefits, less investment in equipment. The only way ...

It almost amazes me when some downtrodden fetishist group declares the Church has lost touch with Society and that the Church needs to reflect society. How can we ask Gay Bishops to be celibate? The Church has clearly lost its way. Gay bishops, Celibacy, right or wrong, Im not here to debate that point. Im here to debate the principle that the Church is expected to almost follow mainstream society. What is good for society, is good for the Church. Er, if that was the case, we should be tolerating alcoholism, recreational drug use, casual and promiscuous sex, divorce, consumerism, materialism etc. The Church may be an outdated concept, but I believe the Church and its leaders have a position to be the last vestige of moral ethics, a beacon, a guiding light in the decaying fabric of society. Instead of wanton permissiveness and selfish greed, we strive we something more, something better, purpose, meaning, self-respect. Our greed and permissiveness can be seen in marriage and div...

I don't know if it's some kind of hidden human trait, but just when you think we're becoming a more enlightened society, more caring and compassionate, we somehow completely regress ourselves. As an example of our regression, take a look at onesies! It is the ultimate, I want to look like a baby, motif. Comfortable is one thing, but do you have to borrow clothese from your kids? What next, nappies? Oh wait, some people already do that. Can't we invent something going forward that is actually a bit more adult? What's wrong with looking like Barney Stinson? Unfortunately though, this is just an indication for me about larger issues in society. Ironically Im posting on Blogger, and Im actually becoming largely against electronic communication in favouring a more human response. The problem I see is echoed by the recent tragedy in America with the shooting of all those children. While it is easy to look at the surface and talk about banning guns, tighter con...

Ick. Blogger has a new look, which just goes to show how long I've been away from here. Wow. What a mad year. Weddings (not my own), House Moves, my trip to the monastery, starting a band, leaving the band, wanting to join a new band, singing lessons, norovirus, Samsung Galaxy S3, and constantly rolling depression. Lack of money, lack of hair, lack of inspiration. It's had its highs and lows. Today I want to talk about the monastery. I visited Mucknell Abbey and I had a great time. I went for a retreat to try to determine my path in life, what I should do. I heard a voice tell me that I should be a Christian in the world and just do what makes me happy. I've somewhat failed to do that, confined as I am by the trappings of modern day life. There's a certain question about whether to be foolish and do something risky against what society wants, or trusting in God if he really is telling me to get on with my music career! Well I can't do music without money...

For my birthday on 28th May, I would like you to somehow expedite my order with Expansys and bring me my new Samsung Galaxy S3 as quickly as possible. That'd be a swell present. What do you say? Please please please please please.

They are both quad core processors, the Samsung at 1.4 Ghz and the HTC at 1.5 Ghz, they have the same ROM and the same ICS. The thing that swings it for the Samsung Galaxy S3 in my opinion is its raft of additional features. Super AMOLED screen. The screen was pretty amazing on the original Galaxy S and even better on the Galaxy S2. Samsung without a doubt know their screens. HTC One X Problems. OK, Samsung could have problems on launch, but still several months into the release of the HTC One X, we still hear stories of screen issues when playing things back on YouTube, or screens that go Yellow or badly fitting on the left hand side so you press lightly and you get screen discolouration like you would on an LCD monitor. Mmm, no thanks. Memory Card Slot. The HTC doesn't have one, but the Samsung does. Samsung Features. Amazing features - S Voice allowing you to talk to your phone much like Siri, there sharing features, the ability to put the phone to your ear and have it ...

What a disastrous night in politics last night. Have people forgotten what Labour left us with? Labour spent money like it was going out of fashion, they spent with little regards to cost, in the vein hope that creating jobs would lead to spending to boost the economy. The only way we could make money, is to actually make things, but under Labours watch, many of our industries were shut down and went abroad as the steadily increasing costs forced people out. We spent on PFI initiatives which give shiny new facilities but cost us more in the long run. We spent time making things look nice instead of tackling the issues. The billions spent on ID cards, security, political correctness and the Electronic Staff Record on the NHS defies belief. Everything was so much more inefficient as we needed to justify the extra levels of staffing with bureaucracy. If we take heath as an example, there are still no sports physios on the NHS as far as I can see, and they'd much rather dir...

Im well and truly sick of the lack of any information from Samsung. All we hear are rumours and speculations, nothing concrete, nothing from their mouths. Put it like this, the HTC One-X looks stunning, and it's real and with us now. If Samsung continue to pull and twist and not give a firm date, I may well end up going down the HTC One-X route. It's Sense integrates nicely into Ice Cream Sandwich, so I hear, and being HTC, they're likely to give better and faster updates. Should I feel the need for a newer phone on my birthday, or should my phone start giving more problems, I'll be going with the HTC One-X unless Samsung can confirm that the Galaxy S3 will be released on date "X".

Just in the past week, fuel prices have shifted from 1.37 to 1.44 per litre in some places. I have been considering for a while getting a new car, but it's a case of finding something economical, and equivalent to my Nissan Primera in terms of reliability. This rules out pretty much all Petrol Engined cars and I'd go with a Diesel. I had my eye on the Toyota Avensis D-4D 2.0 and 2.2 litre cars, but they have such staggering problems with Head Gaskets blowing, heads warping, water pumps dying. It's crazy. There is some degree of warranty, but Im not being left with a £3k repair bill of a lump in 3 years outside of the warranty. However right now based on fuel economy, with a diesel, I could save £100 on tax and insurance per year, followed by a further £400 to £800 depending on economy. At only 5mpg difference in fuel economy, every time fuel increases by 5p, I save £12 a year. If fuel went up 20p over 2 years, by year three, Im saving £48 a year. The savings kee...