The long wait to record free HD TV in the UK with Freesat+

For years we’ve been promised that Freeviw would be the future. Now of course we have freesat too but more importantly and something I’m hoping will be the future is freesat+
Essentially it’s all the best bits of freesat – the free HD programmes the regular extra free channels and no monthly subscription with the ability to record to a hard disk. All using the EPG and with smart search and pause and chase play etc.
The only people looking to make a freesat+ box are Humax and if they make it like the FoxSat boxes in Australia then they are going to be smart enough to see if y ou have set something to record and it can’t then it will search the EPG for the next showing and set it to record that one instead. Also automatic recording of split (e.g. by the news) programmes. Oh and of course everyones favourite feature from Sky+ the series link or series record option. Allegedly it will also be capable of recording ITV HD Interactive service

My only concern is that we’ve been promised this PVR for so long and now it’s allegedly being release mid November and we are almost there and no further information or specs have come out.

Fighting back against the monopolists

So in my quest to get a Freeview+ box with DVD player/recorder I ended up buying an LG RHT297H which is great in most ways (a few niggles like losing the time and hence recording times when the power cuts) but is forced to only play region 2 DVDs. Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again if I buy a DVD from the US the UK or Australia then it should play on my equipment so obviously I wanted to fix this.

After searching on a few forums here is how to make your LG HDD DVD recorder multiregion.

Switch your player on.

When it’s booted up hold down CLEAR on remote (under the slider) and PROG Down on the front panel of your DVD player simultaneously for about 6 seconds

You will see a list of codes

Change OP6 from ae or af to 8e (move around using the left and right arrows on the remote)

Press Enter and then menu/list on your remote

Your player will reboot or switch off

Turn it on or wait for it to reboot and now your player is multi region.

🙂

best new spam of 2007

Reply To: [email protected]

From: Lady Toreth Hughes
52 Oxford Street, England.

Here writes Lady Toreth Hughes, suffering from cancerous ailment. I am married
to Sir Richard Hughes an nglishman who is dead. My husband was into private
practice all his life before his death. Our life together as man and wife
lasted for three decades without child. My husband died after a protracted
illness. My husband and I made a vow to uplift the
down-trodden and the less-privileged individuals as he had passion for persons
who can not help themselves due to physical disability or financial
predicament. I can adduce this to the fact that he needed a Child from this
relationship, which never came.

When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of 20 Million (20 Million
Great Britain Pounds Sterling which were derived from his vast estates and
investment in capital market) with his bank here in UK. Presently, this money
is still with the Bank.

Recently, my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to the
cancerous problems I am suffering from. Though what bothers me most is the
stroke that I have in addition to the cancer. With this hard reality that has
befallen my family, and me I have decided to donate this fund to you and want
you to use this gift which comes from my husbands
effort to fund the upkeep of widows, widowers, orphans, destitute, the down-
trodden, physically challenged children, barren-women and persons who prove to
be genuinely handicapped financially.

I took this decision because I do not have any child that will inherit this
money and my husband relatives are bourgeois and very wealthy persons and I do
not want my husband’s hard earned money to be misused or invested into ill
perceived ventures. I do not want this money to be misused hence the reason for
taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am
going. I do not need any telephone communication in this regard due to my
deteriorating health and because of
the presence of my husband’s relatives around me. I do not want them to know
about this development.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank in UK.
I will also issue you a Letter of Authority that will empower you as the
original beneficiary of this fund. My happiness is that I lived a life worthy
of emulation. Please assure me that you will act just as I have stated herein.
Hope to hear from you soon.

You can contact me through my personal email address:
[email protected]

Lady Toreth Hughes

ANF gets tough

So it looks like Abercrombie & Fitch are getting tough on counterfeiters. Well according to this report anyway.
One reason for Abercrombie’s move was to reduce the number of poor-quality copies being sold overseas so consumers won’t get a negative impression before the real thing arrives.

Well in which case they could do worse than look at eBay which consistently has ‘Brand New’ A&F clothes in bags! Only problem is of course Abercrombie clothes don’t come packaged in bags. There are so many counterfeit items on eBay I’m suprised they can still allow it without being forced into some sort of legal requirement to guarantee authenticity before selling.
You only need to look at the number of items allegedly from UK but shipping from Hong Kong. If eBay really was against counterfeit goods they would prevent this practise immediately. But of course they make money on every transaction be it listing, transaction or payment. It’s hardly in their interest to prevent it now is it…

The problem with gay men…

I was channel surfing last night when I stumbled upon Simon Fanshare’s documentary looking at the problems with gay men shown on BBC3 entitled The Trouble With… Gay Men. If you missed it then it’s repeated on Saturday 29th April at 2:50am (that’s Friday night essentially) – you might want to set the recorder for that!

The synopsis promised a look at the upsides and downsides to being a gay man in the UK in 2006. It was hardly the UK view though with the programme being based in London. Although there was a brief trip out to London-by-Sea (Brighton) and an even briefer trip out to Peterborough to meet parents of two gay men getting ‘married’.

Fanshare and the programme focussed on problems that are endemic to youth culture regardless of sexuality, such as drug taking, promiscuity and worshipping the young & beautiful. I must admit to some worshipping of the young and beautiful – who doesn’t?

He seemed to be upset that the youth of today felt it owed no obligation to their elders – again something I think is not confined to the gay community. In fact this seemed more a rant about people with different morals, lifestyles and ideas to his own, for instance he condemned entrants to Mr Gay UK, labelling them as vain and naïve. Whilst I agree I also feel that if you have looks and want to parade in front of the general public in nothing more than your designer underpants then who am I to judge? It reminds me of the outcry about Miss World competitions and beauty pageants the world over, again nothing really new here and nothing specific to being gay in the UK.

Then there was the interview (in a sauna) about promiscuity. An extreme example shown of one man claiming that gay men can never be monogamous. Sure some can’t, but then neither can some straight men. How many marriages end because of infidelity by both men and women? Plus if you have the interview in a venue people go to have promiscuous sex you are hardly going to get an unbiased view. I believe wholeheartedly in monogamy.

My favourite part however was when he interviewed a group of young gay men in Brighton. Complaining they had no role models on television because they felt people like Graham Norton were too camp. Did anyone mention that television is for entertainment? They did all manage to agree though that the cute presenter Kristian Digby from daytime TV shows (and previously That Gay Show) was a good role model. Now I have to say I think this was simply worshipping the young and beautiful and this would have been a nice segue between the two subjects. I personally would have said that John Barrowman would have been a better role model and he is 39.

On a brighter note, and outside the normally closeted world of media, the interview with the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Brian Paddick was brilliant, showing that gay men can lead regular lives, even in a ‘dangerous’ environment. I already knew that though – my flatmate dates a copper. I also know many gay men who are builders, firefighters, nurses and office workers. So what does that prove? Oh yeah that being gay is about who you sleep with not what you do for a living.

While I found the programme interesting, I also thought that it served to reinforce the stereotypes that many people have about gay men and women. Proving ultimately that you don’t need to be straight to have gay stereotypes. I disagree with many points that he made, in particular the divisions that have occurred within the ‘community’. I have to say though the ‘community’ is little more than a sham. A few bars and shops on the whole owned by large corporations eager to make money from the ‘pink pound’.

I also thought that some of the statistics were questionable too, in particular, the ‘1 in 5 gay men have tried crystal meth’ statement was misleading – were they asking clubbers in Vauxhall at 4am on a Sunday? I know a lot of gay men in many countries and know no-one who has taken it. Some of them take ‘recreational’ drugs every weekend so I would have thought if it was so prevelant one of them would have tried it.

So I think ‘the problem with gay men’ is they are becoming normal. Being gay is no longer about fighting for rights or any of the other causes that were necessary before we got pretty much equal rights. Many gay men just lead hum drum everyday lives. Many do not cruise for sex on gaydar, are not promiscuous and have never taken crystal meth or other drugs. In fact I don’t think there is a problem with gay men other than an overwhelming need to feel accepted yet different, never a combination that will work well.

Anyway it’s been a while since I’ve had a rant. I’ll step off the soap box now!

onederwear

So David Beckham only wears his undies once. Well if reports are to be believed he buys new Calvin Klein Underwear every month and buys £1k’s worth – I don’t know about you but that’s a lot of money on smalls.

I reckon he just wants a new lucrative sponsorship contract. I’m wondering how long it will be before he is signed to be the new body of CK undies. I prefer Freddie!

David Beckham spends a staggering £1000 per month on his underpants.

The Real Madrid and England star buys his Calvin Klein Pro Stretch underpants from a department store in Madrid every two weeks.

A source told the Sunday Mirror newspaper:” He buys 30 pairs every time and spends between 800 and 900 Euros (£545 to £615). He never buys anything other than Calvin Klein from the Pro Stretch range.”

Beckham‘s extravagance doesn’t stop there- he gets through two pairs a day and throws them out after they’ve been worn only once!
The football star chooses from three different styles in the range: hip briefs, trunks and boxer briefs