Paul's inane ramblings – Page 2 – This is where I waffle…

A pox on the gambling revolution

Posted on 14/02/2017 by snee

Friday afternoon at work, 3 of us decided (I talked the others into it) to have a bet on the football: Hull to beat Arsenal Spurs to beat Liverpool Burnley to beat Chelsea We all put in £2 each, and with the treble, stood to get £1500 back if all results came in…sadly, none of them did. We laughed and put it down to experience – £2 each was no big deal, we could afford to take the loss. A key point here though, was I had to go into the bookies to place the bet – I refuse to […]

Home media system

Posted on 30/12/2016 by snee

I previously mentioned how the household now relies on content streamed from the office (aka: Paul’s Pit) to WDTV Live SMP players around the house. Nowadays, we have a number of Android TV boxes running the Kodi media centre. This gives us more options when watching TV/Movies – we can stream from the NAS drives, or stream over the internet. The one thing I’ve so far failed to accomplish with Kodi is to have a centrally accessible library whereby I can start watching a show on one box, and continue from the point I left off on another – this bothers […]

The UK’s draconian internet law

Posted on 28/12/2016 by snee

As we approach the end of 2016, there are mixed views – so many celebrity deaths this year, but more importantly, the passing of the ‘Investigatory Powers Act 2016’ here in the UK means the death of freedom on the internet: Broadband ISPs and mobile operators will tonight offer a collective sigh after the Investigatory Powers Bill effectively achieved Royal Asset to become an Act. The new law will force providers into logging a big slice of your Internet activity, irrespective of whether or not you’re even suspected of a crime. At present ISPs need to see a warrant before […]

HTC – the end of their fuckwittery

Posted on 13/07/201614/07/2016 by snee

So, since my last post regarding HTC’s total lack of respect for their paying customers, there has been some movement. The HTC representative (and apparent resident expert) Ian had touched upon me getting my phone back unrepaired with no charges being made – my response was that I wanted this in writing from HTC before I said yes or no. Imagine my (total lack of) surprise on getting an email on 30th June at 16:55: Dear Paul Bennett Device HTC One M9, Serial No. ************, is now awaiting shipment in our warehouse and should be returned to you within a […]

The saga of the HTC One M9 phone…

Posted on 23/06/201623/06/2016 by snee

Following me dropping my phone and the screen breaking 🙁 I decided to go with the manufacturer’s for the repair, so after calling them and initiating the repair, I sent the phone off never once thinking this would turn into the saga it has. Being totally disgruntled with the customer service I have(n’t) received from HTC, I typed up a letter for the HTC UK Executive Director (Lisa then took my letter and made it pretty): Dear Mr Blair May I start by saying that I have been a user of HTC phones since the HTC S710 back in 2008 […]

Work – a four letter word

Posted on 29/05/2016 by snee

So, this week I has mainly been in Italy – Lake Como 🙂 for training on pressure transmitters. There were about 30 of us – ABB sales team, 2 of us office bods, and the alliance partners had sent over some representatives so ~I got to meet people I deal wioth on a day to day basis too. Hard life eh? in the office Monday, then picked up Tuesday at stupid o’clock and off to the airport, arriving at the ABB factory in Ossucio at about 13.30 in time for lunch and then a tour of the factory – very […]

ANOTHER post? so soon?

Posted on 06/05/2016 by snee

It’s Friday people! 🙂 I’ll be finishing early today, then Lisa and I are off to the O2 for the Channel 4 Comedy Gala Spurs need one more win (from 2 remaining games) to confirm second place in the league. Now everyone says second place is just first loser, but all these people support the Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal et al who have all finished lower…this confuses me until I realise it’s all jealousy – jealousy of our players, of our manager, of the team’s fitness levels… 129 days until Mexico…

Alert! alert! new post :O

Posted on 02/05/2016 by snee

Wow, 18 months since my last post…and reading that, things have certainly changed! and all for the better. Firstly, Lisa and I got married – very romantic affair really, it was sold to me that financially it made sense with the properties etc. As such, we got 2 witnesses, Lisa’s dad, and my mum and off to the registry office. We had the Muppet Show theme tune playing during the ceremony, then Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ (the only ‘sensible’ wedding ceremony song), follwed by Foo Fighters ‘Long Road to Ruin’. We left the registry office to the Muppets ‘Manamana’. Lisa […]