We had an interesting time watching the England vs USA football match on Saturday. A few friends came over to the flat pre-game, to warm up our drinking arms. We moved onto a bar (I think it is called Goal Keeper?), where power cuts meant we missed the American goal, and after the power flicking on and off for a while, we tried to leave the bar and head to the Hotel Radisson (as they were more likely to have a generator). However, the security guards had locked the front doors before we could leave, and were telling people to go back into the bar and wait, as electricity would return. Before we made complete idiots of ourselves with people holding batons, the owner appeared, apologised (I think she realised locals might take that kind of brute force attempt to keep customers, but ex-pats would throw a hissy fit and tell their friends, and therefore she could lose business).
So we left, but getting into our designated driver’s car we noticed someone had forgotten their top. He went back in, I hung around outside to start banging on the doors and windows if they didn’t let him out. This time some locals were caught trying to leave without paying, and the guards were literally throwing them back into the bar. Our friend got out, we went on to the hotel, and although they also had power cuts, they didn’t last as long. Obviously the match ended in a draw (I would have won 16,000 Tenge if England had managed to score one more goal!), but given that we had both Americans and Brits in our group, I suppose it was a fair enough score to keep all parties happy. I’ll leave commentary on the actual football played to other more knowledgeable people.
Jun 15 2010
Enforced Lock In
Jun 19 2008
An Aussie, Two Brits And Some Bangers…
If all goes to plan, then this evening I’ll be enjoying some proper British sausages with ChrisK and Dave. Unless they get called away to last minute meetings, then I’ll be deep frying some chips, breaking out the baked beans, and whipping up some Angel Delight for dessert (thanks to Assel there – your gifts have lasted a long time!)
However, said sausages came from the UK in ChrisK’s luggage, so I think we’ll need to bake them nice and long in the oven, and wash them down with plenty of vodka, just to make sure we kill off any bacteria that formed during the plane journey 🙂 If we were actually in Britain, I’d laugh at the prospect of eating them, but sadly you can’t get ‘proper’ sausages over here, so sod it!
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Sep 19 2007
Hope For UK With Next Gen Broadband?
Other than possibly the worst PR photo§ I have ever seen, a recent BBC article caught my attention.
Although Britain has reasonably good ADSL coverage, it took a long time, and BT (British Telecom) dragged their feet in some areas, a lot. As they previously had a virtual monopoly on the residential telecommunications industry (barring oddities such as Hull which have the Kingston company serving them), BT were loathe to invest a serious amount of money on fibre optics, for example, just to see other companies come in and profit from other’s investment.
This has left Brits lagging behind in post-ADSL technology, meaning even true 8Mbit connections are still rare to find. LLU (local loop unbundling) has gone some way to remedying this situation, but to ensure we are not left behind, something needs to be done soon.
Check out the story, and I’d be especially interested in hearing from readers who come from other countries as to what your local telecoms infrastructure is like.
Just don’t get me started on Kazakhstan. 128 or 256Kbit ? BROADband to the rest of the world!!!
§ I did check before making that comment – although he does seem to have under bite, the majority of his other publicity photos do not accentuate it so badly.
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Aug 15 2007
Tiscali Once More
As I recently mentioned in my Tiscali Begs For Mercy post, ISPs are starting to wail loudly that companies introducing video on demand services are going to require Tiscali et al to improve and expand their current hardware. The Register have published a report along the same lines, over here.
I’m not positive, but I am assuming that when The Register refer to Carphone Warehouse’s involvement in the situation is connected with the company’s TalkTalk scheme? Anyway, check out the comments section as well, to get a feel for how Brits are reacting to Tiscali’s statement.
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Jul 14 2007
BBC Set To Talk Over Open Source Software
For Brits who pay for a TV licence, there will be a service launched at the end of this month that will allow them to watch TV programs from the previous week, and keep them stored for up to 30 days in most instances.
Unfortunately, the initial release will only work on PCs with Windows XP, and some people are claiming this gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. Although the BBC is hoping to bring out a version for Macs soon, it looks as though Vista PCs and mobile devices will have to wait a little longer. I was not able to source any information about plans for Linux based computers.
If the iPlayer application/service was open source, it seems more likely that porting it to other platforms would take less time, though some people fear this would make it easier to bypass the DRM (digital rights management) contained within iPlayer, that stops downloads from working after a set time, and presumably blocks anyone other than the original licence player’s PC from being able to play the videos.
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May 07 2007
Brits Getting Raw Deal With Cars
According to an article on ThisIsLondon’s site, motorists in Britain are near the bottom of the pile, when it comes to anti-skid technology in cars they buy – both as standard kit, and even just as an available ‘extra’.
I’ve only ever had a few accidents at over 5mph, but I certainly wish I could have had a little artificial help when I have hit other objects in the wet or at high speed. I’m still amazed Seb & Con were happy driving with me after a little prang with a car near a petrol station. Better than walking back to Cirencester I guess ;-P
Anyway, it turns out car buyers in Eastern Europe & Scandinavian countries are finding the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) equipment is fitted as standard a lot more frequently than us un-lucky Brits…
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