If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

There was a very eerie silence when I opened the window this morning. No cars. No people. Just birds singing. Clearly England was playing football. It had all the hallmarks of being a good day to travel. And it was, too… more or less. The trains were only half full, and even the tube was comfortable.

What I hadn’t allowed for was line problems in Bethnal Green that held me up for almost an hour. I felt sorry for those fellow travellers who had to make sheepish phone calls to their offices and convince bosses they really were on a delayed train and that it wasn’t just an excuse for staying at home watching the game.

We drew, apparently. People who know about football say this is a ‘good thing’.

If it means more quiet mornings on the trains I’m inclined to agree.

Learnt some very interesting things about digital radio during a very long meeting at lunchtime. Apparently the broadcast spectrum is split into different sections, which causes kit manufacturers no end of problems. Most UK digital radios are apparently only set up to received Band-III, which our broadcasters are currently using. In France, though, this is reserved for military use, while in Germany it’s where most of the local stations sit, while the national services use the much higher frequency L-Band.

Implication? If you buy a digital radio in the UK there’s a good chance it won’t work abroad.

Poo.

Why is everything in technology so complicated?

Of course, manufacturers could build sets that would receive all three bands (and the IBOC system - In Band On Channel - used in America where the existing FM frequencies of 88 - 108MHz are used, with supplementary, highly compressed versions of each station added to the outer edges of its existing FM frequency), but that would cost a lot more money, and in an emerging market like digital radio low prices are key.

In other news, my free ticket to see Spiderman on Monday arrived this morning. Let’s hope it’s better than the Superman films.

Over the last two days I have received eight emails from a company desperate to sell me one of the 650 knock down desks and chairs. Did I ever say I was interested in desks and chairs? I think not. Particularly irritating was the disclaimer on the bottom that they only send three emails a year to anyone on their mailing lists and if you want to be removed all you have to do is let them know and they’ll sort it out.

Finally, this morning, I flipped, and I called the number on the email to complain. Rather conveniently, the guy sending the emails was out of the office all morning.

Me: Then how did he manage to send me an email three minutes ago.

Them: Oh, I don’t know.

Another copy arrived ten minutes later, so I called again, this time pretending I was interested. Imagine my lack of surprise to find him not only in the office, but available to talk… until I explained to him the recently ratified European Directive on Spam. He explained that he was not concerned with laws concerning marketing practices, told me not to be rude and slammed down the phone.

Two minutes later. Another email arrives. This one will be put safely onto the back burner until I can decide what would be done.

What a ratty day.

More delays on the train home saw me sitting in sidings for twenty minutes surrounded by Standard-reading commuters. The front page headline was particularly vitriolic: ‘Yes! England through, Argentina crashes out’.

If the ‘yes’ was to do with the fact that Argentina is a good team an as they’ve crashed out we won’t have to face them in a future match then all well and good. Sadly, I suspect it has more to do with hatred of the team. Or, worse, the country.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 12th, 2002 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.