I’ve just tried to watch 2 clips of events at the Bejing Olympic’s through the Flash based version of BBC’s iPlayer on my PowerBook. Each time I did I heard my BT HomeHub click to say it’s restarting. The first time it did I just assumed it was just a random crash. The second time I thought something was definitely up as I’ve never had the HomeHub crash twice so quickly, it’s been rock solid for the past 10 months. I can’t believe a Flash based piece of software could actually crash my HomeHub but it does seem that way. I’ve watched BBC content via the BTVision box before (while it was free!) and not had a problem?

As promised a few weeks back here’s my short review of the Dell UltraSharp 2009WFP monitor I recently purchased.

The first thing I noticed after switching it on for the first time was how much brighter it was compared to my old 19″ CRT. I hadn’t realised how bad my old monitor had become over the years. The monitor has 4 built in USB 2.0 ports which are a nice touch, makes plugging in memory sticks a bit easier when your PC is under the desk like mine. It comes with a height adjustable stand which was a major selling point for me personally. Due to the height adjustable stand the monitor can also be rotated 90 degrees, while it makes reading a long document slightly easier I haven’t really used it at all and I don’t see me doing so any time soon.

The resolution is an excellent 1680 x 1050 which is more than adequate for my needs. I had been looking at 22″ & 24″ monitors originally but the UltraSharp versions of these weren’t in my price range and now I’ve decided I’d rather have 2 of these monitors sat on my desk. It has both DVI & VGA connections allowing me to plug both my PC’s into it which is very handy. It also comes with Dell’s 3-year Premium Panel Exchange service which gives you peace of mind when it comes to dead pixels.

Overall I’m very impressed with my new purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new monitor.

Last week I was told by someone in work that the Nokia N96 should be available via Vodafone UK by mid October. With all the negative feedback I’ve been seeing on Twitter about the iPhone’s battery life & 3G quality I’m looking around at other options at the moment.

I’ve been really impressed with my Nokia N95 so far and it re-awakened my interest in the Symbian platform. The only things the N95 lacks when compared to the iPhone is a bigger screen, a touch screen and oooh factor in terms of looks. In terms of technology the N95 is far superior, quite surprising when you consider it’s been available for over 18 months. 

With the recent news that Nokia is going to acquire the rest of Symbian and open source the platform makes a Symbian based phone even more appealing to me. The N96 is looking like the best alternative to the iPhone, improving on the excellent N95.

Think I’ll wait to see if the N96 does come out in October and if Apple do anything about the issues affecting the iPhone 3G before I rush out to get one.

I finally got round to upgrading the blog to WordPress 2.6.1 last night and it seemed to go without a hitch. It was my first upgrade of WordPress so I checked their site for upgrade instructions before I went through the process, and to my surprise the page had already been upgraded for 2.6.1. The documentation for WordPress is fantastic and proof that an open source project can do it just as well as a commercial offering.

Time for my review of the San Francisco 49ers off-season. I suppose I’ve got to start with the fact that we’ve still got Mike Nolan at the helm AND Alex Smith at QB, at the end of last season I didn’t expect to be able to say that. I thought one or even both of them would have been moved on. With Nolan declaring an open QB competition this year it worries me that Alex Smith is no longer the QB of the future for the 49ers and we don’t seem to have a backup plan. Apart from a few glimpses when Norv Turner was the OC I’m yet to see Alex Smith play like the No. 1 overall pick he is.

However this brings me nicely onto possibly the most interesting acquisition during the off-season…. Mike Martz. He’s known as an offensive genius that was partly responsible for the “Greatest Show on Turf” in St. Louis and while the Detriot Lions didn’t make much of an impact with him at OC he did improve the production of their offense. Maybe Martz can get the best out of Alex Smith who, to be fair, has now had a fair few OC’s in his short NFL career. Hopefully Martz won’t do the same as in Detriot, improve the passing game but at the expense of the running game. Our running game has been the one bright spot of the offense the past 2 years and with the addition of Deshaun Foster we have a very capable backup/alternative to Frank Gore. I’m hoping Martz will use Gore like he did with Marshall Faulk in St. Louis as a pass catching RB, Gore definitely showed this was a part of his game last year.

We also acquired Justin Smith, the DE from Cincinnati and signed him to a big contract. I’ve not seen that much of him really so I’m hoping he lives up to the contract we’ve given him. Hopefully he’ll provide an upgrade to our pass rushing ability. The most recent addition is Takeo Spikes at LB, who seems like a good fit for us. He should hopefully take some of the pressure off Patrick Willis, last years NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Last year the defense performed quite well overall, it was just the offense couldn’t produce the goods when they had the ball. I’m hoping for an an even better year from the defense with the additions we’ve made. Any improvement from the offense this year would be very welcome!

I’m not expecting a run into the playoffs this year but I’m looking for some sign the team’s moving in the right direction.

I watched my first live game of the new season at the weekend, Everton v PSV Eindhoven. It was the last pre-season game for Everton and they played pretty well overall, I was suitably impressed with our performance considering PSV are the current Dutch champions and will be playing in the Champions League this season. It also wasn’t a full strength team we put out, there were quite a few home grown players on show. Jack Rodwell impressed me the most, he had a solid game considering his age and looks like he could be a long term replacement for Lee Carsley.

The rest of our results in pre-season have been pretty poor really but I don’t pay much attention to pre-season results as I see the games as a chance to give the whole squad a run out and to try a few different formations.

Pre-season off the pitch hasn’t exactly gone to plan though. We’ve let quite a few players go and not brought anyone new in, while I was quite happy to let AJ go for the right money it looks like we didn’t get as much for him due to a previous injury. Our CEO resigned in mysterious circumstances, David Moyes still hasn’t signed a new contract yet and our plans for a new stadium have been called-in by the government. Quite an eventful few weeks. At the moment I’m worried there is something going on behind the scenes at the club and that worries me more than anything else!

Having said that I’m still optimistic about the new season. There is still time to bring in a few new players before the transfer deadline to help us solidify our position as a top 6 six team this year and hopefully all these off the field issues sort themselves out.

Roll on another 9 months of football!

The time has come to retire my Hyundai ImageQuest Q910 and join the world of flat panel monitors! I ordered a Dell UltraSharp 2009WFP monitor yesterday while Dell are offering a 25% discount plus free delivery. The offer runs out on the 30th July so tomorrow is your last chance if your in the market for a new monitor. According to the very weird call I received this afternoon it should arrive tomorrow! It’s kind of a birthday present to myself.

I’ll post a mini review once it’s been used for a while. If anyone (in the North Wales area as it’s bloody heavy) wants my old monitor leave a comment.

On Monday the local branch of my bank called regarding my account. They queried a direct debit due to go out of my account on Tuesday, my first thought was that there’s something wrong with the direct debit. They asked if the payment was for a credit card, which it was. Pretty obvious really as the name on the direct debit is of a very well known credit card company. I was then told that due to the bank account I have I’m guaranteed a credit card and at the moment they are offering a 12 months interest free period on balance transfers. I then asked a few questions about the card such as what the fee was on a balance transfer etc. The woman on the phone was unable to answer any of my questions. She only knew that a. I was entitled to a credit card and b. it has a 12 months interest free period on balance transfers! After being put on hold for a while I finally got some answers. I quickly ended the call at this point as I didn’t see much point in it.

A while after the call it occurred to me they must have looked through my account to see what direct debits I have so they knew what services to cross-sell, in this instance it was a credit card. To be honest I’m bit annoyed about this, I feel like my privacy has been invaded. I’m aware that the staff in my local branch have full access to my bank account, they need to, to be able to provide me with customer service. However I don’t expect this access to be used to find out what services they may have a better chance in cross-selling to me! Are they allowed to do this? As it seems to me to be an unfair advantage?

Having said that I doubt the bank is going to get very far if their staff don’t know anything about the services they are trying to cross-sell!

All of this is on top of the constant badgering I get whenever I go into my local branch about home insurance, financial reviews etc. It’s got so far that I actually dislike going into my branch now! I think it’s time to start looking for an Internet only bank!

There are rumours that Wigan & Sunderland are interested in buying Andy Johnson from Everton for about £10 million. If we could get around £12 million for him then I’d be very tempted to sell him. He had a great first year with us but last year was interrupted by injuries however we didn’t really miss him with the Yak, Jimmy & Vic all playing well. I also like Timmy playing up front so I don’t think we’d miss him and £12 million seems like a good deal for a player we paid for £8.6 million for 2 years ago.

While Moyes has said he’s not interested in selling I have a feeling he won’t be with Everton by the time the season starts.