I left the group almost 6 years ago, and they hired me back as a freelance contractor nearly 4 years ago. The trial extends to shops and businesses in the area around the towers. Pomodoro allows payment via PingPing for example. But yes - the trials are centred around Belgacom staff at the moment.
I'm surprised this story is even news, I've had an RFID sticker on my phone for some time now. It is pre-paid and I can opt to receive a text message whenever I use it, so if it's used without authorization I would know immediately: PingPing
There are also other ways I can pay with my cellphone.
I hope that UK teenagers don't do that, because with the crazy laws the UK now has, they will be up on paedophile (pedophile) charges and get a criminal record.... even if they are married to each other but under 18. It's not like there have never been cases taken to court over this law.
I think you need to make sure you're aware of the specifics before you say such things - the English law specifically makes an exception for people who are married. See the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - Section 45.
The Nexus One is an example. In the UK I can walk into a Vodafone retail store and buy one now.
I tried that a few weeks ago when I was in the UK for a day, they had them in stock, but refused to sell me one without a contract (which I did not want).
I nearly bought one online from the Google shop, but I couldn't justify the price (+import tax, +VAT, etc) when coupled with the hassle of having it shipped to a UK address, and then arranging to pick it up or getting it forwarded on.
Or you could just get yourself a little NAS solution from Synology...
A Diskstation 1010+ coupled with a DX510 will give you up to 20TB of storage, and not be very obtrusive.
The Synology boxes also have a ton of tricks up their sleeves, and Synology continuously update their firmware, so the boxes just get better and better...for free!:)
It takes longer, it takes 3 hours just to get to Brussels
Actually Brussels to London is only two hours (well 1h51 according to this). It can seem like three hours in one direction on the schedule though because of time zone differences (and the opposite direction looks to be only one hour for the same reason).
switch to azerty. it is similar enough to be really irritating. Then, switch back. Hilarity ensues.
I,oved to Belgiu, &à yeqrs qgo ) qnd these dqys I hqve no proble, szitching betzeen AZERTY qnd QWERTY in,y heqd ) in fqct I use QWERTY qt zork qnd AZERTY qt ho,e; qnd szitching betzeen the, is seq,less.
Yeah, because it isn't like the jet stream would allow a plane to make the reverse trip with tens of thousands of pounds less fuel, right?
I'm sorry, I didn't make myself clear - if I had been flying the reverse route B->A and then A->B then I would have had a 32Kg allowance in BOTH directions. But flying A->B and B->A I only had a 23Kg allowance in each direction. Hence my comment that there's no technical reason why they should not accept 1 bag of 27Kg.
I was actually asked if my flight was a return portion or an outward portion, and they stated that if it had been a return portion then I would have been allowed to check the bag.
I flew internationally with a baggage allowance of 2 checked in items of luggage at 23Kg each. I dared to bring just 1 piece of luggage that weighed 27Kg. They refused to check my case, so I had the choice of paying an excess luggage fee, or buying a new (overpriced) case in the airport and transferring some items across.
I bought the extra case, I wasn't giving that airline an extra cent for such a ridiculous policy. They also mentioned to me that if I had been flying in the opposite direction I would have had an allowance of 32Kg per case, so there was no technical reason for the weight limit.
Oh, and then when I was finally allowed to check-in with my two cases, the check-in staff raised an eyebrow at my 2 cases with a combined 30Kg weight. In retrospect it would have been great if I bought lots of bottles of water to take my second case up to the maximum 23Kg too - let them bear the extra cost due to their stupidity.
Take your laptop, the freedom to transfer your photos locally, and ready internet access with wifi will make it worthwhile. There are internet cafes around, but it'll be more fuss to find one and time out of your vacation, rather than just packing a power convertor and changing your wifi settings.
Other things you might want to do in London could include:
Umm. Allow cookies from google. Go to Search Settings. Set your language preferences. They stick.
That's how I haven't seen Finnish version of Google except when browser sometimes decides to delete all cookies.
Sure it sticks for the search page, unless your go to it from an iPhone, and it doesn't stick for some of their other pages...like the dashboard. I have had it set for a long time, but it really isn't used sometimes.
Belgium must be a particularly strange example...do the Walloons get Dutch too?
I have no idea what the Walloons get, but I actually live in Brussels, which is as multi-lingual as it gets, with both French and Dutch as official languages, but with a population that is statistically more likely to understand someone speaking English than any other language. And still Google thinks that Dutch (the minority language) is the best choice to use.
Well that's annoying...one thing Google doesn't do intelligently is languages. I am logged into my account, they KNOW I speak English as a preferred language, but when I go to my iGoogle page on my iPhone whilst I'm in Belgium it insists on displaying everything in Dutch.
That was annoying enough...but now the dashboard is doing the same, even when I visit the page from my laptop.
Google, you KNOW I speak English, stop overriding my account setting for my language with demographic data based on my IP address. When I'm traveling it doesn't make me fluent in the local language...
*slaps the company on the nose with a rolled up newspaper* Bad Google, bad bad portal!
You don't use 600 SMS messages in 3 mos. I can hit 500 (mostly incoming from friends, calendar reminders, etc...) in 1/2 month and I consider my usage low.
It's worth noting that in Europe we don't count incoming SMS messages, only outgoing messages are paid for/deducted from our message allowance.
Also, banks should be on the lookout for things like "he used his ATM card at home yesterday, he's in Eastern Europe today" and react accordingly.
This is what my bank does, and it annoys the hell out of me. I do a lot of foreign travel, and I also mainly live outside the country where my bank is based.
If my bank sees overseas transactions (including internet transactions with a source IP outside the bank's country), then they block the transaction and the card, until I call them to have the block removed. The block is then removed for all transactions for 30 days.
This is quite embarrassing as almost (unless within the 30 days) every time I try to use my card to pay a hotel bill, book a flight, or buy something moderately expensive then I need to call the bank because the transaction fails.
Due to my situation I asked the bank to remove this "security feature" from my account, but they refuse. The inconvenience reached such a level that I now have a credit card with another bank that I use when possible instead...
Hmm, I am from the UK but I spend almost all my time living in Brussels. I maintain a UK cellphone for the times when I am back though. If possible it might be cool to get one of these and plug into my Belgian broadband. A local access point without the international roaming charges.
If this were the case, the entire moon's surface-particles floating above the planet 6 days each month, we would have already seen it. If not with naked eyes then with telescopes. We can see localized dust storms on Mars, I can only imagine what a planet-wide de-surfacing would look like. Ridiculous.
Not only that - but moon-dust would be worn against itself, and would not be so abrasive, friction would have done it's work on the particles...
Which of the following would you be most willing to do without in your home?
Fridge
Oven/microwave
Washing machine
Computer
Well I personally only have a computer, fridge, and oven from that list. I don't need/have a microwave, and I wash my clothes in the local laundrette - which I am actually finding more convinient than using my own washing machine.
I can take a week or two worth of laundry down in one go, sort it into different washing machines, clean it all at the same time (whilst I go and do other stuff for 30 mins), and then use their industrial dryers to dry the clothes quickly too. All my laundry is done and folded within an hour - even if there are 4 different loads. Parellel processing FTW!
Ahh yes - I forgot that you can't meta-mod the over/under rated. As for meta-moderating, it's not an option for me normally as I flagged myself as not willing to moderate (I really don't have time to do regular moderating correctly these days, so I'd rather not have the mod points). Now and again moderators annoy me enough to make the effort though.
Don't buy a ThinkPad X4x -- they use the cheesy iPod-style 1.8" hard drives.
Yeah - got bitten by that myself, I bought an X40 nearly three years ago, and love it to bits. I completely missed the fact that it had a 1.8" drive though, and when 40GB started feeling a bit tight I decided to upgrade - almost bought a new drive twice, then figured that maybe I should check that it was a standard 2.5" drive before doing anything. Was quite shocked to see the tiny 1.8" drive, and was even more shocked to see the prices for upgrades/replacements if I wanted one.
These days I generally lug around 1 or 2 USB drives for data, and keep the minimum amount of crap on the system disk, 40GB is nearly nothing these days for what is effectively my main computer. The Thinkpads are awesome machines though, and I will almost certainly replace the X40 with another ultraportable Thinkpad in the future. Pretty damned tough too.
Well I personally don't do TV, but if I check the Belgacom website, then I see I can get decent (capped) ADSL, a TV subscription and a mobile phone subscription for 58.50 Euros/month.
Belgium has bandwidth caps, (10G-30G depending on what you pay) and look at them complaining.
That's funny - I just came into this article to comment on the Belgian system. I have my ADSL via Belgacom, and with my "Belgacom ADSL Go" package, I have 12Gb/month included. Sure, when I exceed this I have my line throttled to 64kbps or something, but I also have the option of buying an additional 5Gb pack for 5 Euros, which seems fair enough to me - and as far as I know there is no limit to the number of packs I can buy.
It's a great situation, they don't lie to customers by selling an "unlimited" package, they make the limits clear, and if you exceed them then you have the choice of having your bandwidth severely throttled for the rest of the month, or paying a little extra for an additional allowance. Heavy users pay more in proportion to the amount they use - you can't say fairer than that!
Even better, the volume packs carry over, so if you only use 1Gb of a volume pack, then you still have 4Gb left to use for the next time you go over your limit.
Slashdot Mirror
I left the group almost 6 years ago, and they hired me back as a freelance contractor nearly 4 years ago. The trial extends to shops and businesses in the area around the towers. Pomodoro allows payment via PingPing for example. But yes - the trials are centred around Belgacom staff at the moment.
-- Pete.
I'm surprised this story is even news, I've had an RFID sticker on my phone for some time now. It is pre-paid and I can opt to receive a text message whenever I use it, so if it's used without authorization I would know immediately: PingPing
There are also other ways I can pay with my cellphone.
-- Pete.
I think you need to make sure you're aware of the specifics before you say such things - the English law specifically makes an exception for people who are married. See the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - Section 45.
-- Pete.
I tried that a few weeks ago when I was in the UK for a day, they had them in stock, but refused to sell me one without a contract (which I did not want).
I nearly bought one online from the Google shop, but I couldn't justify the price (+import tax, +VAT, etc) when coupled with the hassle of having it shipped to a UK address, and then arranging to pick it up or getting it forwarded on.
-- Pete.
Or you could just get yourself a little NAS solution from Synology...
A Diskstation 1010+ coupled with a DX510 will give you up to 20TB of storage, and not be very obtrusive.
The Synology boxes also have a ton of tricks up their sleeves, and Synology continuously update their firmware, so the boxes just get better and better...for free! :)
-- Pete.
Actually Brussels to London is only two hours (well 1h51 according to this). It can seem like three hours in one direction on the schedule though because of time zone differences (and the opposite direction looks to be only one hour for the same reason).
-- Pete.
I ,oved to Belgiu, &à yeqrs qgo ) qnd these dqys I hqve no proble, szitching betzeen AZERTY qnd QWERTY in ,y heqd ) in fqct I use QWERTY qt zork qnd AZERTY qt ho,e; qnd szitching betzeen the, is seq,less.
-- Pete.
I'm sorry, I didn't make myself clear - if I had been flying the reverse route B->A and then A->B then I would have had a 32Kg allowance in BOTH directions. But flying A->B and B->A I only had a 23Kg allowance in each direction. Hence my comment that there's no technical reason why they should not accept 1 bag of 27Kg.
I was actually asked if my flight was a return portion or an outward portion, and they stated that if it had been a return portion then I would have been allowed to check the bag.
-- Pete.
It's not about space or weight, it's about money.
I flew internationally with a baggage allowance of 2 checked in items of luggage at 23Kg each. I dared to bring just 1 piece of luggage that weighed 27Kg. They refused to check my case, so I had the choice of paying an excess luggage fee, or buying a new (overpriced) case in the airport and transferring some items across.
I bought the extra case, I wasn't giving that airline an extra cent for such a ridiculous policy. They also mentioned to me that if I had been flying in the opposite direction I would have had an allowance of 32Kg per case, so there was no technical reason for the weight limit.
Oh, and then when I was finally allowed to check-in with my two cases, the check-in staff raised an eyebrow at my 2 cases with a combined 30Kg weight. In retrospect it would have been great if I bought lots of bottles of water to take my second case up to the maximum 23Kg too - let them bear the extra cost due to their stupidity.
-- Pete.
Oh, the airline was TAP for anyone wondering.
Take your laptop, the freedom to transfer your photos locally, and ready internet access with wifi will make it worthwhile. There are internet cafes around, but it'll be more fuss to find one and time out of your vacation, rather than just packing a power convertor and changing your wifi settings.
Other things you might want to do in London could include:
Of course, there are many other things too as people will list below, London is a big place with lots to see and do, enjoy your trip!
-- Pete.
Sure it sticks for the search page, unless your go to it from an iPhone, and it doesn't stick for some of their other pages...like the dashboard. I have had it set for a long time, but it really isn't used sometimes.
-- Pete.
I have no idea what the Walloons get, but I actually live in Brussels, which is as multi-lingual as it gets, with both French and Dutch as official languages, but with a population that is statistically more likely to understand someone speaking English than any other language. And still Google thinks that Dutch (the minority language) is the best choice to use.
-- Pete.
Well that's annoying...one thing Google doesn't do intelligently is languages. I am logged into my account, they KNOW I speak English as a preferred language, but when I go to my iGoogle page on my iPhone whilst I'm in Belgium it insists on displaying everything in Dutch.
That was annoying enough...but now the dashboard is doing the same, even when I visit the page from my laptop.
Google, you KNOW I speak English, stop overriding my account setting for my language with demographic data based on my IP address. When I'm traveling it doesn't make me fluent in the local language...
*slaps the company on the nose with a rolled up newspaper* Bad Google, bad bad portal!
-- Pete.
I think you'll find they're significantly less...
-- Pete.
It's worth noting that in Europe we don't count incoming SMS messages, only outgoing messages are paid for/deducted from our message allowance.
-- Pete.
This is what my bank does, and it annoys the hell out of me. I do a lot of foreign travel, and I also mainly live outside the country where my bank is based.
If my bank sees overseas transactions (including internet transactions with a source IP outside the bank's country), then they block the transaction and the card, until I call them to have the block removed. The block is then removed for all transactions for 30 days.
This is quite embarrassing as almost (unless within the 30 days) every time I try to use my card to pay a hotel bill, book a flight, or buy something moderately expensive then I need to call the bank because the transaction fails.
Due to my situation I asked the bank to remove this "security feature" from my account, but they refuse. The inconvenience reached such a level that I now have a credit card with another bank that I use when possible instead...
-- Pete.
Wow, I never realised that vacation time in the US was so bad as to make 25 paid leave days per year sound so incredulous...
It's really not uncommon in Europe to have that much annual leave...and yes, every year.
-- Pete.
Hmm, I am from the UK but I spend almost all my time living in Brussels. I maintain a UK cellphone for the times when I am back though. If possible it might be cool to get one of these and plug into my Belgian broadband. A local access point without the international roaming charges.
That could be sweet!
-- Pete.
Not only that - but moon-dust would be worn against itself, and would not be so abrasive, friction would have done it's work on the particles...
-- Pete.
Well I personally only have a computer, fridge, and oven from that list. I don't need/have a microwave, and I wash my clothes in the local laundrette - which I am actually finding more convinient than using my own washing machine.
I can take a week or two worth of laundry down in one go, sort it into different washing machines, clean it all at the same time (whilst I go and do other stuff for 30 mins), and then use their industrial dryers to dry the clothes quickly too. All my laundry is done and folded within an hour - even if there are 4 different loads. Parellel processing FTW!
-- Pete.
Ahh yes - I forgot that you can't meta-mod the over/under rated. As for meta-moderating, it's not an option for me normally as I flagged myself as not willing to moderate (I really don't have time to do regular moderating correctly these days, so I'd rather not have the mod points). Now and again moderators annoy me enough to make the effort though.
-- Pete.
Gah - I guess this means I should start meta-moderating again...
-- Pete.
Yeah - got bitten by that myself, I bought an X40 nearly three years ago, and love it to bits. I completely missed the fact that it had a 1.8" drive though, and when 40GB started feeling a bit tight I decided to upgrade - almost bought a new drive twice, then figured that maybe I should check that it was a standard 2.5" drive before doing anything. Was quite shocked to see the tiny 1.8" drive, and was even more shocked to see the prices for upgrades/replacements if I wanted one.
These days I generally lug around 1 or 2 USB drives for data, and keep the minimum amount of crap on the system disk, 40GB is nearly nothing these days for what is effectively my main computer. The Thinkpads are awesome machines though, and I will almost certainly replace the X40 with another ultraportable Thinkpad in the future. Pretty damned tough too.
-- Pete.
Well I personally don't do TV, but if I check the Belgacom website, then I see I can get decent (capped) ADSL, a TV subscription and a mobile phone subscription for 58.50 Euros/month.
-- Pete.
That's funny - I just came into this article to comment on the Belgian system. I have my ADSL via Belgacom, and with my "Belgacom ADSL Go" package, I have 12Gb/month included. Sure, when I exceed this I have my line throttled to 64kbps or something, but I also have the option of buying an additional 5Gb pack for 5 Euros, which seems fair enough to me - and as far as I know there is no limit to the number of packs I can buy.
It's a great situation, they don't lie to customers by selling an "unlimited" package, they make the limits clear, and if you exceed them then you have the choice of having your bandwidth severely throttled for the rest of the month, or paying a little extra for an additional allowance. Heavy users pay more in proportion to the amount they use - you can't say fairer than that!
Even better, the volume packs carry over, so if you only use 1Gb of a volume pack, then you still have 4Gb left to use for the next time you go over your limit.
-- Pete.