No broadband because of Virgin Media!
December 22, 2008
For the past two years now I have been getting in touch with Virgin Media trying to get them to install Fibre Optic broadband into my house, and early last month I got back in touch with them and to my supprise I had a Sales guy called Lee ring me up and told me the words I had been waiting along time for….”Mr Rhodes, Im pleased to tell you, you can recieve and we can install Virgin Media Fibre Optic Broadband into your house”
A sales Manager than called around and went through everything I wanted, me being me decided the best thing for me was XL Broadband (soon to be XXL 50MB) XL TV and XL Phone. Nicely all for £66 a month - and with that is sports, setanta sports, movies and the HD channels (limited to one at the mo I believe) Still better than what Sky were offering me though, and that is with a V+ box and a normal box for the multiroom.
The installation was meant to take place on Saturday 20th a week after I signed up, so I had all my cancellations taking place to end of that date, in some cases even bought out of the contracts so it will be finished in time for Virgin Services to take place. Then DISASTER! on Friday 19th December had a couple of guys come around and tell me it wasnt going to take place due to a problem with the council! BOOM I thought SHIT so got straight onto the blower to Virgin Installation Department and asked what was going on, they told me “They need to get permission from the council to put the T junction into the ground”. Bollocks so I had been waiting and trying to get Virgin for two years they said they can come and install on the 3rd Jan 2009 - so fingers crossed this will happen. Then on the Saturday 20th Dec a couple of guys knocked on my door on and said can we move our car they have come to put the external cabling in and the T junction - I was now confused, the guys put the T junction in and used a grinder to go down my drive way, and were going to pull the cable down to the house, so yet again onto the blower to Virgin Media at 8am who informed me the letter had come from the council they could install, hmmm.
Then later got told they didn’t have permission to dig up the street where they need to pull the cable from, seems to me that Virgin Media should get there act together and get permission before they can get you to sign upto anything. Virgin Media have already taken the £30 installation charge which I find abit disgusting as they havent even installed, I will be wanting a full refund on the installation.
I’m Back…
December 22, 2008
First post I have made in a long time, but this time I am back, with more geeky stuff and just random rubbish on different things! No more information on the iPhone now, this is due to the fact I sold my iPhone about a month ago. I now have the T-Mobile G1 which I can honestly say I love more than the iPhone.
I thought I would miss the iPhone so much but it turns out I dont even think about it anymore, not since the day I sold it, bought for £490 when they first came out sold for £150 to a mate, dear o dear the loss I made.
Work out Net Carbs
November 15, 2008
When starting out on the low carb way of life there is a lot of confusion about carbohyrdrate levels and how to measure them. I hope that the following information will help clarify the issues for those living in the UK.
Carbohydrates in Labelled Food
Food regulations in the UK mean that all manufactured foods are labelled with their contents, calories and the breakdown of these into protein, carbohydrate, and fat, usually per 100g.
Some labels give the amount of carbohydrate that comes from sugar whilst others break the fat down into saturated, mono-saturated and polysaturated. Labels may also contain a value for fibre and sodium.
A typical label looks like this:
Nutrition Information
Typical Values per 100g
Energy - kcal
Protein -
Carbohydrate -
…….of which sugars
Fat -
………. of which saturates
……………..monosaturates
……………..polyunsaturates
Fibre -
Sodium -
The amount of carbohydrate given on the label is the effective carbohydrate content (ECC) of the food per 100g. The fibre value on the label is not connected to the carbohydrate value and therefore, unlike in the US, should not be deducted from the carbohydrate value. What you see on the label for carbohydrate is what you get.
Carbohydrates in Fresh Produce
Many fresh vegetables and fruit are not labelled and so information on their carbohydrate content is not readily available. I have found that the best source of this information is the supermarket online shopping websites. You do need to register, but you can find the information without having to order food. Links are given for:
Sainsbury’s
Tesco
Again, the carbohydrate value given is the ECC, so do not deduct the fibre value.
FoneJacker Lovers….
October 27, 2008
New toy…
October 27, 2008
The other day I ordered a 1080P camcorder from Japan…the wonders of eBay.
A few boring details of the Spec..
| Features & Specifications | |
| Resolution | Fine 8.0 Mega Pixels |
| 3,264 x 2,448 (8.0 Mega Pixels) interpolation, 2,592 x 1,944 (5.0 mega pixels) or 2048 x 1536 (3MP) | |
| Full HD - High Definition Video Recording, Sound Available | |
| Video & Movie Playback, Sound Available | |
| Image Sensor | 1/2.5″ 5.0M Cmos sensor |
| Lens |
Optical Zoom Lens Wide: F/3.2, f=6.26mm Tele: F/6.8, f=30.75mm |
| Video Resolution | 1080P HD - High Definition 1920 x 1080 , 16:9 Wide Screen |
| EIS | Advanced Electronic Image Stabilization Technology Compensation |
| Focusing Range |
Normal: 45cm ~ Infinity Macro mode: 5cm ~ 45 cm |
| Optical Zoom |
20 X Super Zoom; 5 x Optical Zoom, 4 x Digital Zoom For Video and Camera |
| Dual Flash Light |
Auto / On / Off Flash Light : for Camera Mode LED Light on : for Video Mode |
| LCD Display | 3.0″ True Colour TFT LCD Display, Swivel Screen (270 degree rotation) |
| Effect | 3 modes ( Colour / B & W / Sepia ) |
| White Balance | Auto |
| Manual: Sunny / Cloudy / Tungsten / Fluorescent | |
| EV Compensation | Manual: -2.0EV adjust ~ +2.0EV (In 0.5 EV Steps) |
| Shutter | Mechanical and Electronic Shutter, 1~1/2000 sec. |
| Night Mode | Night Mode Shooting |
| Storage Media | Built-in 32MB Flash Memory |
| Support SD / SDHC or MMC Memory Card up to 8GB (Card not included) | |
| Shooting Modes | Still Image: JPEG (DPOF & EXIF), Direct Print Function |
| Video Image: MOV H.264 Full HD 1080P (1920 x 1080) / HD 720P (1280 x 720) / WVGA (720×480) | |
| Film Rate | Max. 60 fps (film per second) |
| Self-timer Mode | Off, 5, 10 seconds options |
| Power Saving Mode | Off, 1, 5 minutes options |
| Voice Record | Yes |
| Built-in Speaker | Yes |
| PMP (Portable Movie Player) | Yes |
| Playback Function | Single Image / Slide Show |
| PC Interface | USB Port, USB 2.0 High Speed |
| TV Connection | HD High Definition Component Video Cable or AV Cable Out |
| TV-Output Format | NTSC / PAL |
| Built-in | Microphone, Speaker |
| Menu Language | English / Japanese / Deutsch / Français / Español / Italiano / Português / Dutch / Turkish / Chinese / Korean / Arabic / Russian |
| Power Source | 1 x Rechargeable Li-ion Battery NP120 |
| Dimensions | 57(W) x 70(H) x 129(D) mm |
| Weight | 297g |
| Operation OS Required |
Windows 98 / SE / ME / 2000 / Win XP or Windows Vista |
| Software Included |
Presto Video Works Presto Mr. Photo |
Time being….
October 27, 2008
For the time being - due to “not enough time” I am going to continue using this site rather than my “development site” I am working on it abit each day but never have some solid time to work on it.
Anyone fancy creating me a custom logo for the site?? anyone??
new rhodzy.co.uk
September 2, 2008
change on plan….im thinking of scrapping my web hosting and hosting locally….
my hosting company….not very reliable…not compatiable with what i am going to be running…
going to try MAMP - same basis as LAMP for Linux.
Problems unsuspending virtual machine
September 1, 2008
OK, there is vmware for windows, and also vmware fusion for Mac OS X - I am using vmware fusion and have come across a really anoying issue. I cant find a fix on the net anywhere what so ever, and I am reluctant to delete my virtual machine. The virtual machine is Windows XP - I shutdown my MAC after putting the virtual machine into suspend mode and now it just tried loading the machine and freezes up and then I have to force quit vmware fusion.
anyone got any solutions! I wont give up until i find out why.
Stats are improving!
August 28, 2008
rhodzy.co.uk has nearly received 900 visits this month! Up 100 from last month.
My target is for 1000 visits by the end of next month.
rhodzy.co.uk refurb
August 28, 2008
The work has finally started on the new rhodzy.co.uk site 
Its going to take me at least a month to get it to how i want it, having to learn to use a whole new system, that seems very complicated and trying to find time to get it up and running.
some of the new sites features:
- forums
- gallery
- user registration
- polls
Im not going to let this new site get messy, also need to figure out how to export all my posts from this site and import into a totally different web application…im thinking google maybe coming in handy!
