I see PC World are flogging a 350gb external hard-drive for £74.00.
Apparently it's in a sale as well. They also have a 750gb for £84.49. A tenner more for twice the capacity.
A no brainer unless you are on the pricing committee at PC World it appears.
You can get a Seagate 750gb for less than £55 on eBay including post and packing.
AND it's not a nightmare getting your money back if it does not work.
PC World are a typical High Street retailer;
"That's our price and that's how much you pay. We don't care if we lose trade to a few eBay visitors, there are plenty of mugs out there who will shop at our stores and pay through the nose."
Ditto Dixons, Comet, Curries and Maplins. All pissing in the same pot it seems.

I thought driving whilst using a mobile was against the law?
I know a lot of people believe they are invincible and beyond the law, that nothing will ever happen to them, but twice this morning I was sort of involved with idiots on mobiles. In the fullness of time, something WILL happen to these people, unfortunately it will probably involve hurting someone else, a hit and run maybe, possibly a manslaughter charge.
First was a shaven headed white-transit-van driver, indicating right along a dual carriageway, where there was no right turn, then he turned left at a roundabout still indicating right, a car behind him gave him the beep and the obligatory single dirty finger came out of the drivers window, when I was alongside him at the roundabout (by God he was an ugly bastard) I saw he was on his mobile so he must have switched his mobile into the other hand to make a gesture that the driver who honked him could not see......thick bastard!
Later I slowed down and stopped at a zebra crossing to let a woman with pram cross, meanwhile on the other side of the road a young girl in a grey Corsa with blond hair tied tight behind her head, flew straight through, mobile in hand, stupid grin on face, chatting away, oblivious to the fact she was one second away from killing a mother and child in one fell swoop. One second away from detroying a whole family, just because she couldn't wait to talk to her precious friend. A friend who would not want to know her when she was released from prison for manslaughter.
What is wrong with these people?
Idiots.

Tim Leunig (pronounced LOONY) is the effeminate, vocally challenged dildo who is head of a "think tank" that thinks all northerners should uproot and migrate down south to enhance their chances of a better life.
He's got to be joking. We have nice clean air up here in the north. We have hill and mountain streams, spate rivers, waterfalls, stone walls, heather, sheep, cattle and diverse regional dialects. We have some good jobs as well and it only takes 20 minutes to get to work and not 3 hours. There is a lot of investment in modern industry as well. Oh, by the way, there are no steelworks, coalmines and satanic mills anymore. It's nice and clean. And new.

Why would anyone want to move into the already overcrowded and polluted south east. London in particular is an overcrowded toilet at best. He said one benefit was, it was nearer France, fucking hell, he's a bright twat isn't he, he must have been reading Collins Junior World Atlas in torchlight under the bedclothes at night instead of Mayfair! That's two reasons NOT to move down south: France and bright twats like him.
The south east of England, London in effect, has high employment apparently. It also has high crime, high number of stabbings, high air pollution, high population density, drinking water that 12 people have bathed in before you drink it, a hideous dialect, about 17 cows, a hundred million tonnes of concrete blocks with people in them, 2 million people who can't speak a word of English, horrendous urban congestion and a peculiar smell which is attributed to the extremely high carbon monoxide levels in the air. London is a very overpopulated metropolis, the south east is heavily populated, the rest of the country is less populated and it makes no sense to add to overpopulation. What a blinkered mentality. 4 cities I visit frequently have changing skylines, millions and millions of pounds are being invested into the rejuvenation of Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Maybe Tim nice but Dim Leunig and his schoolchums might want to waste some more taxpayers money on another stupid think tank to re-evaluate the bollocks they've just come out with.

Now a message to Tim Leunig.....grow up, get real and something else..........mmmm, what was it...oh yes.....FUCK OFF back under your blanket with your atlas until you can think of something to do that might actually benefit the country. Stop wasting our money on this shit and get a proper job. You are far too young and far too stupid to be spouting your mouth off about something like this. Come back again when you have grown up and become more responsible, logical and when your voice has broken properly.
I'll stay up north mate if just to avoid wankers like you.

Isn't the Olympics exciting? No, oh, okay then whatever....I watched some diving, fell asleep, watched some hockey, fell asleep then managed to fall asleep during some rowing....incredible, don't know why, with all that scintilating excitement.
If we're going to have puffy tennis and Federer, whimpy football & Ronaldinho in the Olympics, give us a break, why not go the full hog and have International Hop Scotch, Olympic Hide and Seek and World Series Tiggy-Off-The-Ground?
Hold on a smig, why draw the line at sports that only require no balls or at most one ball...?
We could have motor racing, better still, lets have stockcar and banger car racing in the Olympics.
It'd liven it up a bit thats for sure. Sue Barker would be wetting herself with excitement.

I bought a 750gb Seagate External hardrive today. It's spot on except for one thing: the stupid adaptor plug is the wrong way around which means it takes up the space of THREE plugs on my surge protector trailing socket.
WHY oh WHY can't these stupid fucking nerds who make these products realise this very simple, very basic error is causing people like me to want to kill them by sticking hot spikes in their eyes until they get the message!!! Grrrrrrrrr!
See previous thread on this subject with diagrams.
http://zepplin.blog.co.uk/2008/06/24/sockets-and-wires-and-4359412

A middle lane driver will surely die soon. Unfortunately it will take a terrible accident to change some people's driving habits. In this case, the sooner the better to avoid more carnage on the motorway. Enormous 41 tonne lorries are having to slow down and break purely because these inconsiderate, ignorant and uneducated bastards persist in driving in one lane only. What the fuck is up with them? Do they WANT to die? Really?
Now I'm not racist and I'm not colour prejudiced but take a look at these fuckwits when you pass them, how many are Indian or Pakistanis? Then look at the shiny faced reps in their BMW's, cruise control set to 80 mph. I followed one down the M74 and M6 for miles, overtook him a few times and he annoyingly kept coming back at me like a wasp. Never more than 80 never less, and never out of the sacred middle lane. Twat!
IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE RULES ABOUT DRIVING, THEN GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD.....
Oh, and there is the pinhead blond in her Silver Ford Ka blocking all the fast lane up from Leeds to Sheffield.
Then there is 6 tonne lorry man, smoke billowing out, attempting to overtake an artic at the start of a hill and fucks it up all the way to the top for everyone else on the road.
And so ad infinitum....

We arrived at the check at Leeds/Bradford airport bang on time at the check-in with our visitor. No thanks to the horrendous traffic in Leeds (a vast northern toilet with unco-ordinated traffic lights). Then he queued 20 minutes before he actually got to the to check in, so technically he was immediately 20 minutes too late to check in! You see, they've got a new sleek check in procedure: no matter which airline you are with, you get in the queue and shuffle between nice poles with plastic red and white roadworks chittling between them. Then you wait for a free check-in number to be announced. Ever been in Argos or Matalan...well it's a slower version of that, same annoying voice though.
Our visitor was then informed by the check-in bird that he was 10 minutes late for the departure lounge. Whose fucking fault was that then? He'd been waiting 20 minutes courtesy of Leeds/Bradford airport! If he was too late, then why did they bother to check him in? I'll tell you why, because the nice, sleek check-in procedure is a load of bollocks, the staff know it does not work so they have no choice but to check everyone in regardless.
THEN he got to the departures, clucking bell....massive queues again. What has gone wrong at this place, it used to be an "ok" sort of airport! Now it's a pile of shit!
So lets work this out: we arrive bang on time and now due to Leeds/Bradford airport's flawed procedures he is 20 minutes late in total (and 10 minutes late for the departure lounge, apparently). Now we have another queue. 40 minutes later, he's through the passport control but only one customs gate is open (300 people in queue by now at least) so he has another short wait. His plane should have left at 18.00hrs but it left at 18.10. He was not the last on either, a Canadian couple and their kids were last on. What do they tell their friends about Leeds/Bradford airport? "Don't go there" probably. Meanwhile, outside we were wondering, do we go, do we stay, do we pay the car park ticket? I decide to drive out, at a cost of £4 and wait for a phonecall. I come back in again for the free 10 minute pick up, wait for 8 minutes, get out for free, come in again, wait 8 minutes, get out for free...I did this 4 times...ha ha. All the time it is pissing it down outside, people are losing their rag inside then beyond belief, there is a false fire alarm and all the shops shutters go down. Can they do ANYTHING right at this poxy little airport. They've had the car park dug up for 6 months now, and a bit like the roadworks on the M1 and M90, I've never ever seen any bugger working on it. I don't know why they are bothering anyway. Anymore fuck ups like today and there will be nobody coming to this airport so they won't need a carpark.
So lets take another look. We arrive on time and Leeds/Bradford airport make our visitor 1 hour and 10 minutes late....during which, by no fault of his own, he nearly misses his flight. What about all the other hundreds of people waiting for a plane and being delayed by the airport? How many missed their flights because of the ineptitude and negligence of Leeds/Bradford airport management and administration? If our guest had been forced to miss his flight would Leeds/Bradford have acknowledged it was due to their amateurish attempt at running what they mistakenly call an "International" airport? Don't think so.
The general demeanour of the staff was blasé, sort of "Oooh, yawwwwn....we've Zzzzz...seen it all before...Zzzzz, why should we give a Zzzz...fuck?"
Well strangely enough, thats how we feel about Leeds/Bradford International Toilet.

I had a £5000 gas bill from Eon. How cool is that. The best bit is, the idiots at Eon couldn't understand what I was complaining about. I told them I'd need to be running a fucking steelworks in my back garden to get a bill like that.
After 3 months of phone calls, reading my meter for them once and refusing to do it again, it was resolved today.
£51.27...........now that is a bit different I'd say. "Er, when we put the new meter in we used the old reading and assumed it had gone round the clock". HA! Very professional...NOT. Wankers!
AND, when it was revaluated, it transpired they owed me £55 as well so I got a month free.
Next move is to check out cheaper options who offer a more competitive rate and don't play stupid when there is a problem.
Right what next...oh, the insurance claim for our water damaged floor. At least they are paying out but all the costs have to be submitted to the insurer first and if they say no, then it's back to square one.
Life is soooo exciting.
I have such fun with these "providers".

Found the mouse, it was behind the was basin pedestal after all. It had just died where it lay.
Cats can be bastards. Poor little mouse. But it did pen and ink though....

Nice post for a change.
We have two pussy cats. I like them.
One brought a mouse in and promptly lost it. For days the cat was looking behind the wash basin pedestal but there was nothing there, but it must have got behind the skirting board in the bathroom and by the smell of it, it has died.
Short of taking all the farmhouse style wood cladding off the walls, that took me ages to cut, plane, treat and paint, we look like weathering the smell until it dries up and gets eaten by insects.
Sometimes I like cats.