Matthew Revell

I hate our Freeview digital TV recorder. It’s made by Thompson. Here it is on Amazon. It fails on so many levels.

At first, it seems to work okay: wow, it records two channels at once, it records a whole series with just a couple of clicks. Even the minor quibbles, such as not being able to start watching a recording a specific point, are forgivable. And you can, mostly, get rid of the Top Up TV crap that no one wants.

Then, things start to go wrong but, y’know, it was so cool before that you deny there’s a problem.

Then, when you notice that it has failed to record a few episodes of your favourite programme — and it only tells you that by displaying a message in an obscure menu somewhere — you get angry. “Why? It was going so well! Why are you doing this to me, box?”

Then, you find yourself bargaining with it: “Come on, I don’t mind if you miss Deep Space 9, just make sure you record Wallander.”

When you realise that, despite it offering to automatically record the second half of the film that’s shown after the news, it hasn’t done anything of the sort, then you enter depression.

Finally, you accept that this is actually one of the buggiest, least reliable consumer electronics items you’ve ever come across and you take the bugger back to Argos.

Lily was born at 6.15pm yesterday. We’re still thinking of a middle name

After seeing yet another friend get an iPhone I decided it was time I got hold of a phone that would give me email on the move and something more akin to a usable web browsing experience.

The iPhone wasn’t an option for me: I don’t run Windows or Mac OS, I didn’t want to pay a lump sum up-front and I want to be able to use my phone as a modem for my laptop.

I’ve only ever really been happy with Nokia phones and have heard great things about the N95. For the past six months I’ve been using the Series 60 3rd edition Nokia 6120 and it’s great. Three offered me the N95 — at the £15 I’m paying now each month — so it seemed I’d be getting more of a good thing but for the same price.

So far, I’m quite disappointed with the Nokia N95. It’s slower than the 6120, by a noticeable margin, and it has hung more times in the past day than the 6120 has in the past six months. The screen seems less crisp, the 5 megapixel camera oddly appears to produce fuzzier images than the 6120′s 2 megapixel camera and by Baal is it large.

The interface is clunky in comparison to my hopes, the iPhone and, yes, even my 6120. The battery life seems poor. The wifi support — a major selling point for me — can’t handle DHCP with my Linksys router.

So, the good: the larger screen is welcome and the GPS seems to work (although I haven’t left the house with it yet). There is more but none of which I couldn’t have had with the 6120. Opera Mini, for example, provides a better web browser than the standard S60 browser but I could have had it with the 6120.

Perhaps what I really wanted was unlimited mobile data so I could get email on the move and not a new phone.

I really do want to find more positive to say about the N95 but, having come from the 6120, it hasn’t yet wowed me; I s’ppose I’ve got 18 months to find it.

My favourite Liverpudlian living in Sweden, Patrick Finch, is moving on from Sun Microsystems to look after the European side of Mozilla’s Firefox marketing.

I mention this for two reasons:

• his excellent blog has moved to patrickfinch.com
• it’s the ideal opportunity to remember the classic Silicon.com headline “Peter Fuchs off to TheBrain.com“.

Patrick’s Sun blog was home to insightful and incisive comment on the free software world and I expect his new blog will continue in that way. Congrats on the new job Paddy!

Here’s a post I’ve made to the Wolverhampton Radiophonic Institute blog:

Nerves are jangling here at the Institute. We’re just four days away from the very first episode of the Wolverhampton Radiophonic Institute on 101.8 WCR FM!

So, what do we have planned for this first show? Here’s a taster:

• The Cynic’s Guide to 9/11 Conspiracy Theories: a documentary looking at alternative explanations for what happened on September 11th 2001, the conspiracy theorists behind them and the sceptical response. Features former MOD UFO investigator Nick Pope on the sceptics’ side.
• The Generalist Party: interview and debate with two guys from Grimsby who’ve started a new political party.
• Dan Whitehouse live: local singer-songwriter Dan Whitehouse will be in to play live in the studio and talk about his music.
• Illustrator Sarah Ray: interview with the local illustrator.
• Musician Dan Bryk: interview with and music from the Canadian musician who has released his latest EP under a Creative Commons licence.
• Topical political debate: continuing the best of the Wolverhampton Politics Show, we’ll be discussing the political stories and themes of the day.

Plus there’ll be arts news, a run-down of what’s on in Wolverhampton, general chat and more!

Join us between 7pm and 10pm on 13th June. Tune into WCR FM on 101.8 FM if you live in Wolverhampton or go to wcrfm.com and click Listen Live.

Here’s how to get in touch:

• Email: radiophonic@wcrfm.com
• Text message: 60300 – start your message with “WCR radiophonic “
• Phone: 01902 572257 during the show.

Last night, Wolverhampton’s Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came to an agreement that will see the Tories run the city council with support from the Lib Dems.

Neville Patten – the new leader of the council – gave the details to The Stirrer, where he revealed the following:

• The unpopular and ineffective A449 red route in Fordhouses will be scrapped.
• Kerbside plastic and cardboard recycling will finally come to the city and they’re promising within three months.
• There’ll be a review of youth services with the suggestion of more facilities for teenagers.

That’s on top of their commitment to lower council tax. I’m hoping to interview Neville Patten on tomorrow’s Wolverhampton Politics Show.

I’m sitting on the top floor of Wolverhampton Civic Centre, with my WCR FM co-host Neil Calloway, waiting for the Wolverhampton local election count to get underway.

So far, not a lot’s happening. Blue sky above, refreshments in the corner and a bloke from the Express and Star on the next table.

I’ll be updating this throughout the morning.

09.30: And we’re off. The presiding officer has started the count. Express and Start, BBC WM and national BBC are here.

10.40: St Peter’s declared for Roger Lawrence (Labour). Looks like a slim margin. Didn’t quite hear but sounded like 954 for Labour, 891 Lib Dem and 381 Conservative.

Update: Recording for and live reporting back to WCR FM took over from the blog.

BBC Watchdog – the consumer programme – said tonight during a piece on con artists using a psychic front:

“…because of course there are genuine psychics out there.”

What?! Come on. Surely, even if you’re being kind, this is debatable. I thought Watchdog’s purpose was to help viewers avoid getting ripped off.

Over the past few years, companies and government agencies (but of course) have seen fit to rip us off through 0845 and 0870 numbers.

Inaccurately called “local” and “national” rate respectively, since their introduction the charge for calling these numbers has drifted so far from the actual cost of local and national calls that they are effectively premium rate numbers whose primary purpose is to generate a revenue for the called party.

Ofcom, our industry-friendly communications regulator, almost took action and as of 1 February 2008 a change was due: they were no longer able to generate revenue for the called party. It’s now looking unlikely that the change will take place but, nonetheless, the law of unintended consequences has kicked in and the situation is now worse for us poor fools who have to call customer services departments, GP out of hours services and local councils.

Many of the “national” rate numbers (around 8p per minute) are now turning up as 0871 (10 p per minute) and the 0845 numbers as 0844. The 0844s are interesting: they can be just about any bloody price imaginable and you’ll have a hard time finding out exactly what you’re paying until your phone bill turns up. And, of course, the 0845 and 0870 numbers will more than likely continue to be a rip-off.

There is a way around this, in some cases: SayNoTo0870.com is a superb resource but, and through no fault of the community behind it, incomplete. However, if you have to deal with an organisation that wants to charge you extra for the privilege of calling them – perhaps to complain about a faulty TV they supplied – tell them you’re not happy.

Judging by the DVLA’s response to a freedom of information request (PDF) and the general contempt in which many public services hold tax payers, I hold no hope that any tax-funded service will offer you an alternative. However, that good old magic of capitalism – competition – may just give us some sway with privately held organisations.

For the second time in two years, our main TV has shifted out of focus: headache inducing, eye straining, Mr Magoo out of focus.

TV repair bloke says it’s not worth fixing a second time; apparently it’s well known that Samsungs have dodgy tubes and it’ll only go out of focus again. Might as well put the £50 repair fee towards a new set.

Trouble is, now it’s nigh-on impossible to buy a decent-sized CRT TV. Currys, Comet, Argos all have a few portables but, in-store, I haven’t seen anything I’d consider living room size.

I could, of course, give in and buy an LCD TV; after all, everyone else is. While I wouldn’t go so far as saying that HD is the answer to a question no one asked, I am nonetheless astounded that CRT TVs have disappeared from bricks and mortar shops and that people are happy to believe that standard definition images are anything but awful on the current crop of LCD TVs.

While I stand in Comet and marvel at compression artefacts, pixelation and motion blur, other shoppers – seeing precisely the same image – appear happy to ignore the evidence of their eyes and instead listen to the sales person who tells them they too can be a part of this great leap forward. I know too many people who have congratulated themselves on the replacement of their perfectly good CRT with an LCD set. Either I’m over-fussy, the shops have poorly configured their display TVs (quite likely) or everyone else has found a source of LCD TVs that aren’t entirely shite.

I know, the whole point of these sets is HD. I admit that the HD images on the demo sets have been impressive. Equally, the HD sports broadcasts I saw in the States a couple of months back were an improvement over dodgy old NTSC. Thing is, I have no HD video sources: no PS3 or Xbox 360, no Blueray or even an upscaling DVD player and there just isn’t that much HD TV available, even if you pay Sky’s £10 monthly premium for their HD service. And besides, I’m even a little underwhelmed by the performance of some sets when they’ve got an HD source.

Perhaps standard definition just isn’t the strong point of the software in the LCD sets. After all, software’s pretty much the only differentiator between brands, particularly when one company produces a huge chunk of all the world’s LCD screens. And yes, LCD displays never do particularly well when displaying an image not in their native resolution. But I’m not expecting to watch a 625 line image on a 54 inch. I just want what I have now: a non-pixelated, non-jerky, crisp image on a screen around 30 inches. I’m quite happy to have a CRT, if there really is no way an LCD screen can handle those modest requirements.

So, I’ve bought a 28 inch JVC CRT TV from the Dixons website for £150. The one that’s turned up is buggered – purple strip in the middle of the screen, image pin-cushioned – but, assuming the replacement works, I feel as though I’ve been lucky to grab one of the last opportunities to buy a TV that can actually handle standard definition inputs.