Gears of war
I think I can safely say that this ad for Gears of War on the Xbox360 is the best on television at the moment.
And I usually hate advertising.
[youtube]IUctJsh174A[/youtube]
hintofsarcasm
am i still ill?Archive for Comment
Pennies turn into pounds
I was thinking about something to post the whole journey into work this morning, but could come up with nothing.
However, reading a BBC News report has given me some inspiration.
BBC News | Business | Your Reporter: Unauthorised overdraft fees
A very good and fair report on a subject that can sometimes be very close to home.
I have a very small overdraft, purposely, because I don’t want to be always living within it, as I’m sure you can all appreciate.
However, there have been ocassions when, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, I’ve slightly miscalculated a direct debit or card payment and it has taken my account, albeit ever so slightly, over my agreed overdraft limit.
I bank with an internet bank that is part of the HSBC group.
Being internet and telephone only, historically their interest rates have been good (high for savings, low for borrowing), however, they recoup their money in other, more covert ways.
Unauthorised overdraft penalties are higher than average highstreet banks, £30 for going over and then an additional £35 if you are still over when your monthly statement is generated.
I have, as I’m sure a lot of other people have too, been hit by these charges, for exceeding my overdraft, even just for 24 hours by the smallest, most trivial amounts.
One example that jumps to mind is the 98p that I went over by, around about a year ago.
For there trouble, of letting me have an extra 98p for a day I was charged £30.
(For American readers to appreciate the level of extortion, thats $1.81 dollars over my limit and charged a fee of $55)
Now, we come to the purpose of this post.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has commented on the matter, claiming that,
Charges, “should only reflect the administrative costs of dealing with the default”
In January of this year, a consumer group, named The Bank Action Group (BAG) was formed “as a self-help organisation showing consumers how they can go about legally claiming back bank charges.”
According to them, if the bank in question is challeneged, rather than going through the courts, where the judgement would most likely be in the claimants favour, the banks and building societies will simply pay back the charges.
Dave Smith of BAG gives this advice on how a consumer should go about attempting to reclaim excess overdraft fees;
“First they ask their bank or building society to detail all bank charges going back six years,” he says. “They have to provide this information under the terms of the Data Protection Act.
“The consumer then writes stating their intention to sue in the county court for return of the charges.
“Under breach of contract law, penalty charges - such as those imposed for exceeding an overdraft limit - are unlawful. The banks know this.”
So, as a test case, this is what I shall attempt to do.
I want to find out how many of my charges I can recoup from my bank.
More to follow…
Update 05/05/06
I have requested, under the Data Protection Act 1998 that the bank send me a statement of all my charges since I have been with them. They have complied and will be with me in a few days.
What happened to ULTra?
In 2001 Cardiff County Council announced their plans to develop alternative methods of transportation. Where other cities had built tram and metro networks, Cardiffs answer was ‘ULTra’, Urban Light Transportation. A press release went out almost 5 years ago, in June 2001 announcing that work had begun on building the test track and that “the trials would last for about a year before the first routes would be started in Cardiff Bay.”
In fact, in the April 2002 Comittee of the Council, the minutes include the following exchange of words between then council leader Russell Goodway and present council leader Rodney Berman;
Berman:
Do you not agree that it is now time for this Council to drop its pursuance of such a highly experimental transport system as the ULTra, which is unlikely to significantly address the real and pressing transport needs of this City, and instead pursue the option of a more tried and tested, and potentially cheaper, mass-transit system?
Do you not agree that it is now time for this Council to drop its pursuance of such a highly experimental transport system as the ULTra, which is unlikely to significantly address the real and pressing transport needs of this City, and instead pursue the option of a more tried and tested, and potentially cheaper, mass-transit system?
Goodway:
I’ll make this prediction:
ULTra will succeed.
Not only that - it will mark Cardiff out among European Capitals.
And then - and only then the Leader of the Opposition and his party will say it’s a brilliant idea.
But will they give credit to the Council?
Of course, they won’t.
Of course, as usual Russell Goodway used the topic to make a political thrash at the opposition leader whilst Berman stayed professional, but, that is neither here nor there.
We all know Goodway is an incomptent oaf anyway, this has just re-affirmed that.
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| ULTra test track site Before building started, early 2001 |
ULTra test track site After building completed, around 2002 |
During 2002 there was much talk about it, it was brought up numerous times in council meetings and was highly publicised in both council and publically controlled media with articles being run in all news sources relevant to South Wales.
The Capital Times, the free newspaper produced by Cardiff council speculated in 2002 that the first phases of the operation could go live as early as 2003 and BBC News reported that “If the tests are judged to be a success, funding would be sought for a £45m project linking the city centre, the civic centre at Cathays Park and Cardiff Bay starting in 2004.”
However, four years later, the plan is barely closer to realisation than it was then.
A test track was built at a cost of £3m and showcases were held for councillors and Welsh Assembly government officials at said test track, but since then, we have heard nothing.
Focus appears to have shifted to BAA and Heathrow airport who have expressed an interest in running the ULTra service too.
The ULTra website is currently awash with press releases regarding their involvement with Heathrow airport, but the last mention of Cardiff was in 2003 which was when they announced that the passenger trials were completed.
Being the inquisitive sort, I have decided to start my own investigation, to find out just how the ULTra project is doing and how long it’s going to be before the travelling public will be able to get a ride in one of these futuristic pods, if ever.
To do this, I plan to do the following things:
- Get a comment from Advanced Transport Systems Ltd, the company behind ULTra regarding the progress in Cardiff.
- Get a comment from the Welsh Assembly government to find out what they know of the progress of the project.
- Get a comment from Cardiff County council regarding the progress of the project.
I have already done the following things:
- Written to Council leader Rodney Berman
- Written to my local councillor, Gavin Cox
Hopefully we can get a result on this as it seems a lot of money for the Welsh Assembly government to be simply wasting, or just handing to a private company to build a test track that they will be using to make profit selling their idea to other interested parties, parties like Heathrow Airport that obviously aren’t even in Wales.
Watch this space.
Not the best day to be a New Yorker
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has called a strike, effectively halting all bus and subway transit throughout New York and neighbouring areas (Queens, Brooklyn, etc.).
The whole system carries over 7million people a day, the city is going to be totally gridlocked.
People won’t be able to get to work, others wont be able to make appointments, tourists will find it hard getting around, it will be absolutely terrible. I could not imagine being unable to use the subway whilst I was there. Both Laura & I were totally dependent on it, the subway is the easiest and cheapest way to get around, as anyone who has been to New York, or any other city with a subway or metro system will know.
A familiar sight around NYC today
Originally uploaded by beemo.
Mayor Bloomberg had this to say,
Tonight, Roger Toussaint and the TWU have taken the illegal and morally reprehensible action of ordering a citywide strike of our mass transit system.
So it sounds as though he isn’t so pleased about it.
Reuters also points out;
As dawn approached, police set up checkpoints as part of a plan to ban cars carrying fewer than four people from midtown Manhattan. The city has contingency plans such as strict car pool rules to help avoid gridlock.
Yep. Minimum 4 persons per car in Manhattan. That’s quite a bitch, but, nonetheless necessary.
Manhattan gets pretty gridlocked on a normal day, can you imagine what is going to happen on a day where 7million people have been forced onto the streets in cars and taxis? Yeesh.
As I write this, rush hour will be preparing to start in the big apple, it’s 6:30am.
Good luck to all you New Yorkers, have a great day regardless.
Cheers Tessa!
Well, today is the day. Judgement day, if you will.
Today is the day that society begins a fast descent into unmitigated decline.
Don’t expect anybody to turn up to work tomorrow.
Doctors, Nurses, Politicians or Bus Drivers, all will resign their posts in favour of being at the pub.
Or so the Daily Mail would have you think.
Yes, that’s right, as of today, we, as Brits can buy booze any time of day or night.
Pubs & Clubs, licenses permitting, can open longer, some even 24-hours if they like.
Selected supermarkets, mainly Tesco, which already have large amounts of 24-hour stores, will be able to sell you a bottle of whatever tickles your fancy at any time.
I for one will welcome the change in the law.
So much so that I and my friends will be out tonight celebrating the fact we can now drink with less barriers to overcome, actually being able to go out on a weekday night without being forcibly removed from our seats by burly bouncers at 11pm sharp will be a welcome change.
Contrary to popular belief, there are people out there, many people in fact that enjoy a drink, like to go out and do not cause trouble.
I have been drinking in Cardiff city centre no less than two nights a week for almost 5 years now.
In that time, I have never had to speak to a police officer1, never been in a fight, never robbed anybody, not stolen a car, not even indecently exposed myself.
OK, I’ve been a little loud at times. But who cares when you’re walking down a street that is 100% shops and thus, there is nobody there to hear you?
I stand firm. The new licensing act is a very good idea and, as with anything, it is the minority that spoil it.
1Except for one time that my mate Ricky & I got stopped and searched by the police whilst walking home from a house party, simply for the fact that ‘two guys walking down a street at 5:30am is a bit odd’
Are you going to do it Rhodri?
Jamies School Dinners. Never watched it, but it seems as though it is making some difference. How much? Well it’s left to be seen.
The government has pledged, in England, £280m to improve school meals. Now, we all know what school meals are like, we all had them, we all did our best to make it look as though we had eaten more than we actually had by putting the mashed potato in your pocket and as many peas as possible underneath a slice of bread.
But, was I surprised to see in a BBC News report that Cardiff council spend the least in Wales, per pupil, than anywhere else in Wales? No.
A whopping 40p per child per meal.
On the high street today, what can you buy for 40p?
A mars bar, just about..
A packet of crisps, with 5p change.
Just what do they make these meals out of is what I would like to know.
Also, will the Welsh Assembly follow suit in driving to give the children of Wales the nutrition they need in these days of Big Mac’s and Coca-Cola by the bucket?
After all, school is a place of learning, why can health not be a part of that education in the classroom and at break times?
do they know more than we?
The Aussies are at it again with their future telling madness.
“Parker Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8″ says todays Sydney Morning Herald.
After reading it however, I think they may have formatted their sentance a little wrongly. Or, I could go to the betting shop and place a £5,000 bet now and bank on them being right?
