Mark Dicker

Proposed telephone tax

June 20, 2009 on 11:21 pm | In pet peeves, society | Comments Off

I was disgusted to hear of the governments plans to tax fixed land lines so that more people could have access to high speed internet. Not because i’m opposed to people getting online, far from it. But if the government simply forced BT to allow ADSL without paying for a fixed telephone, that many people don’t use, then people would be £150 a year better off and they could fund their own broadband line.

I never use my fixed line to call out. I either use the inclusive minutes on my mobile contract or my VOIP line. If VOIP providers can give me a local telephone number, allow outgoing calls to other landline and mobile numbers, at a lower call cost and with NO line rental then why can’t BT?

If you think about it, BT are getting £150 a year out of everyone for doing virtually nothing. The telephone cable in my house is the same one that was installed 30 years ago. This is probably true of most of the houses on my estate. There are well over 100 houses on my estate but i’m going to assume that at least 100 have a BT line. So that’s £150,000 a year before they even connect a call. That’s a whopping £1.5million over that last 10 years. Now multiply that by the number of estates in Britain and you can see why I think BT should seperate telephone line rental and ADSL broadband. Thus making high speed internet affordable to all.

Bolton’s new market place - what a joke!

September 22, 2008 on 4:37 pm | In pet peeves, society | Comments Off

I had to go into Bolton today and whilst there I thought i’d take a look at the newly opened market place. I can tell you, i’m appalled that as a tax payer i’ve paid for what is essentially a white elephant. There is nothing in the new shops that I can’t get at the Trafford Centre, where theres plenty of parking and it’s free. Today I spent 23 minutes in town and it cost me £1.20.

Bolton’s market hall was built in the victoria era most notable for it’s huge cast iron support columns. Originally it was a typical market layout with row and rows of little stands where you could you get just about anything. It was redeveloped once before and was a successful marriage of the old victorian market and our modern lifestyles. Now all the victoriana is gone and the new scheme just doesn’t sit well in its old surroundings.

What is most annoying is that 60,000 people ( about 20% of Bolton’s population ) signed a petition to stop this going ahead. The council took that to mean 80% were in favour when in fact it just means that 80% where not able to sign the petition or just don’t use Bolton anyway. The upshot is the carbunkle we now have. I wonder in 12 months will the designer shops renew their lease’s? If not are we going to be left with the same situation as the Ellesmere centre in Walkden where shops are just left empty. What a waste that will be.

I don’t want to be the soothsayer of doom but I think the new marketplace will struggle against the shopping centres in the town surrounding Bolton. Especially come the busy holiday shopping season.

Keep your stem lubed.

February 5, 2008 on 4:40 pm | In warnings, car | No Comments

I just thought i’d post a warning to anyone who has pressure sensing valves on their car. DO NOT use aluminium dustcaps without using something like vaseline to prevent them from sticking. I have just learned the hard (expensive) way that the dust caps effectively weld themselves to the valve stems which then snap when you try to remove the cap. One snapped at the garage which meant changing the wheel on the forecourt, the other 2 snapped at home whilst i tried to work them loose. Only 1 didn’t fail.

So not only did I have to by 3 new valves but I also needed to get them fitted. With 1 flat you can put on the spare and drive down to your local tyre fitter, but 3 flats! I’ve had to get them repaired 1 by 1, moving the spare around the car whilst each wheel is repaired. Fortunately we have another car, unfortunately I found that my car wheels do not fit in the boot and required the back seat to be folded down.

So if you’ve got those type of valves on your car either use some vaseline and lube up your stem or stick a rubber cap on it for protection.

Well done Lewis

October 22, 2007 on 2:09 pm | In society | No Comments

We’ve done it again. As a nation we have an annoying habit of building up our sporting talent, beyond their capabillities some times, and then knocking them for six when they don’t match our expectations.

Take Lewis Hamilton as an example. Instead of concentrating on the fact that he’s become the No. 2 F1 driver in the world (a position David Coultard and Jenson Button would both love to achieve) and the fact that he’s done it in his first year as a F1 driver, we’ve adopted our usual stance of ripping him to shreds because he missed out by 1 point.

When will we realise that this approach just deters people from trying to achieve anything. The sooner we start to appreciate what UK talent can achieve the sooner they will strive to achieve more.

So well done Lewis. I’ll say it even if no-one else will.

Are you smarter than a ten year old?

October 8, 2007 on 9:12 pm | In society | No Comments

I watched this show for the first time on Sunday and it proved both interesting and alarming. It was interesting to see what actually passed as prime time enterntainment these days. But alarmingly it highlighted what seemed to be flaws in the national curriculum.

Whilst the kids were able to recount nursery rhymes with laser like precision (something i’ve often needed in meetings) and they could deduce that Milan is further north than Marseille (handy for long distance lorry drivers) they couldn’t spell simple words like thistle. Thats what alarmed me most.

If these kids were the best of the best then it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the nations children. I really hope i’m wrong on this otherwise in ten years were in deep effluent.

ID3TAG your it!

August 13, 2007 on 5:37 pm | In podcast, MP3, internet, pet peeves | No Comments

I’ve just upgraded my MP3 player to a Creative Zen Vision:M. It’s a lovely piece of kit but i’ve come across a problem. My old MP3 player used folders to organise the tracks. The Zen allows sorting by ID3TAG only. Now that’s quite handy because I can choose to listen to a particular artist or album, but therein lies the rub.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and seems podcasters don’t set the ID3 tags correctly. They’re differerent between tracks even in episodes of the the same podcast. I don’t know if this is because the software they use cannot handle ID3 tags or they don’t know how or just can’t be bothered. However, it’s a big issue for people like me that can only sort via ID3 tags.

Fortunately I found a piece of software called MP3TAG that allowed me to change them en-mass. But i’ll probably end up doing this everytime I update my feeds.

So i’m asking nicely, please, pretty please can you set the ID3 tags consistently in your podcasts. If your software doesn’t allow you, get MP3TAG and use that to do it. Yes it adds a few minutes to your workflow but you’ll gain appreciation, and subscribers, from a whole load more people.

Minneapolis I35W bridge collapse

August 3, 2007 on 1:58 pm | In society | No Comments

I was concerned to hear about the I35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, not just because of the disaster itself but also because I have familly that live in Bloomington and because I am fairly certain i’ve travelled across that bridge. I believe that my family is safe and were unaffected.

It’s fairly close to the Metrodome and on my first visit to the ’states I attended a baseball game there (the Twins lost to the NY Mets.) I35W is the easiest route from Bloomington to the ‘dome.

What is all the more amazing is that more people were not killed. I realise the death toll is still set to rise but when you look at the pictures of the twisted remains you have to wonder why not more.

So i’d like to send a pat on the back to the rescue services and express my condolonces to those who’ve lost loved ones and friends.

Shiny Dashboards

July 22, 2007 on 11:14 pm | In pet peeves | No Comments

As you know from my previous post i’ve just changed my car. As in previous car changes i’ve fallen foul of shiny dash syndrome, you know, that silicone stuff that makes your dash shiny. Whenever it’s sunny all I can see in the windscreen is a reflection of the dash, grrrr.

Why do they do it? A friend tells me that it’s to give a clean look, but, i’d have been happy with it just being dust free. After all it’s not a brand new car. Which brings me to another point.

New cars don’t have the shiny crap all over the dash so is the dealer trying to tell me they’re not clean? Do they care less about new cars? I think not so why use it on second hand cars? What are they trying to hide?

So if there are any car dealers or valeters reading this why not ask the customer what they want. If they don’t want it, don’t use it. You’ll use less cans of the stuff, output less ozone to polute the atmosphere and we’ll all be happy.

Through the looking glass … roof

July 19, 2007 on 6:04 pm | In pet peeves | No Comments

I’ve just recently bought myself a new car. It’s quite nice but comes with a glass roof. Now I was nearly put off by this, thoughts of a sunburnt scalp came to mind, but it had an electric blind that obscured it so I bought the car.

I know we don’t get much sun in the UK but today has been reasonably warm and the glass roof has acted like a giant radiator. My A/C had to go into warp drive just to cool the car down (in actual fact it failed to cool the car in the time my journey took.)

So my question is this. Who decided a glass roof should be fitted to modern cars? It seems more and more models are getting them. Would a glass roof put you off buying a car? Some of the models don’t look to have any kind of cover, it’s akin to driving a greenhouse.

My car was second hand and so I have to have what the car was ordered with, but for my model you cannot buy it without a glass roof. Why? As my brother pointed out to me a steel roof would be cheaper and I wouldn’t need the extra 2 airbags to stop me getting covered in glass in an accident.