Mobile Broadband

I've just (well a couple of days ago) bought a mobile broadband pay as you go (PAYG) dongle from O2. Not entirely sure why, as I'm not often out and about that much with my laptop, but I guess it will come in handy for when I am, especially given that the prevalence of wireless hotspots isn't too great in the areas I am most likely to use it).

Clearly there was absolutely no point in me getting a monthly payment one, and the PAYG seemed a decent deal. I'm sure you can argue the toss for other network carriers, but I've been pretty impressed with O2 in the 14 months or so since my switch to them from T-Mobile. Hopefully it should be arriving on Monday, so I'll try it out next week, as I'm due to go for an overnighter to Manchester during the week. Will report back on how it goes.

My moment of glory

As I arrived at the match today, I was collared as we were walking round the stadium by a chap who asked me if I'd be prepared to say a few words to camera about the recent goings on at Cardiff City. Never the shy one, I duly obliged, and now you can see me in all my glory on this WalesOnline video-clip. You need to wait for the Holiday on Ice advertisment to complete, and then it's straight into my clip.

It's not me at my most fluent (but I didn't swear!), but it certainly helped having put some thoughts down on this blog over the last couple of days, as it meant I wasn't speaking completely off the cuff. Could have done with a make up girl around too I think.....

Needless to say they've cut a fair bit out (but I expected that), and they spelt my name wrong - it's Hiscocks not Hiscox, a common and easy mistake to make - he didn't ask me to spell it. Sometimes I just wish my family name was "Smith" or "Brown"!

City 2-1 Doncaster: Another Jekyll & Hyde performance

My God Cardiff City know how to give their fans a roller-coaster ride. Not content with all the goings on off the pitch, when it comes to the football, City are either brilliant or crap.

The 6-0 demolition of Bristol City (away) in the week showed their good side. Today, against Doncaster, we showed that brilliance for about 20 minutes - the time it took for Chopra to score his 16th of the season and miss a few more he'd score with his eyes shut on another day. City had already carved Donny open a few times by then, and Chopra's goal was well deserved. To be honest we should have been out of sight by half time after Chopra squandered several further chances and a McCormack header hit the post, and you just knew we'd regret those missed chances.

Sure enough, Donny battled hard and ended the first half behind, but much showing greater control. The second half was all Doncaster. They played the ball to feet, showed width and movement where City were static and profligate with the ball. It was truly awful stuff from us, as bad as the first 10 minutes had been good, and it was only a matter of time before Doncaster punished us - and they did. Woeful defending, a fierce low shot across Marshall 1-1.

From then on it was one way traffic, and the only likely winner would be the visitors. Jones made changes bringing off Burke, and then Rae and the awful Kennedy for Blake, Taiwo and McNaughton, and the ship steadied a bit. McNaughton looked good, and forced a couple of corners, and crosses. Two minutes into the 3 minutes of added time City managed to force a corner, and from the ensuing melee in the box, Bothroyd scrambled home the winner.

To be fair, joyous though I was, it was harsh for Doncaster who had worked so hard after an abysmal start, and had looked the more likely winners from about 30 minutes in.

Who cares though? Three more points to City, and as a bonus, Notts Forest lost for the first time in ages

Blooobirds!

Chelski here we come...

Well, despite all the grim news around Cardiff City at the moment, on a brighter note Mini & I have got our tickets for the 5th round FA Cup tie at Stamford Bridge. Should be a good day out, and we're looking forward to it.

For one reason or another we rarely get to an away game, though hardly ever miss a home game. Reading the CCFC messageboard tonight though it seems a few people have an issue with people who don't usually travel away getting preference for these Chelsea tickets. In fact there are always disgruntled people when we draw a "big" club containing they can't get tickets.

The bottom line as far as I'm concerned is I usually stump up for my season tickets 6 months or so ahead of each season, so any attempt to say I don't deserve to attend any particular match gets right up my nose. And just because I don't can't get to away games regularly, doesn't make me any less of a worthy fan. We attend all the home FA Cup and Carling Cup matches too, on top of our season ticket costs, and being one of only just over 6,000 who turned out to watch the replay against Bristol City last week, and then be there in a crowd of less than 11,000 who watched City beat Leicester 4 days later in the 4th round, does I think signify our commitment as fans.

Oops, this post started out quite positively, but's become more of a rant the further I've got. Sorry.

Up the City.

By the way, we 'll be there against Doncaster tomorrow as well.

Why can't people tell the truth? Lies, damn lies and football club chairmen

Things are looking pretty grim on the financial side of things for many football clubs at the moment.

City are in the pooh, Crystal Palace have gone into administration, Portsmouth are in dire straits, and even Man Utd are over £700 million in debit (yes, you read that right - seven hundred million) if the news is to be believed.

As well as the commonality of the financial plight that all these clubs are facing, is the complete inability of those in positions of seniority within the clubs to tell the damn truth about the state of affairs and why things are as bad as they are.

All that failure does, is lead to speculation amongst the fans and hand rubbing headlines for the media.

Why won't any of these slick (or is that slimy) chairman cum Del boys just stand up and tell it how it is.

I said in a previous post here, if Peter Ridsdale has said, "Look fella's, we're in the poop, buy your season tickets early, we'll pay off the taxman, and there might be a bit left over for players", I'd have paid up, and respected him for his candour.

Having committed to pay out almost £450 (thank God City aren't charging Premier League prices) in December 09 for 20101/11 season tickets, promises of refunds if we're promoted (Ha!) and the money going to players, I find out it's going to the taxman. Pissed off? I surely am.

All this "seeking investment" nonsense is I'm sure hard graft. You don't just stick an ad in the local press saying "Got £40 million - wanna buy a footie club?", but at least don't lead us to believe a deal is done, or almost done, and start spending the money, until it is.

I was all for giving Peter Ridsdale some respect. I thought when he came in on Sam Hamman's bequest it was a very dodgy scenario for the club, but he does did, appear to be turning the club around. But his blatant untruths in the last few weeks have turned all that on it's head, and any respect I had for him is waning fast, and his credibility has hit rick bottom with most City fans.

He can still turn it round I think, but he needs to do it quickly. It's going to be interesting at CCS on Saturday when Doncaster visit. There are already threats - probably more than threats of a big protest.

It's not so much a chant of "where's the money gone", because we've been in doodoo for a while, but it's definitely a shout of "you can't hide your lyin' eyes...."

Heard the one about....

I don't usually do jokes on this site, but my pal Stabber (don't ask) sent me this via text today. It's one of his cleaner, and more PC one's - most wouldn't get past my vetting. It's of particualr mirthiness to Cardiff City fans.

Dave Jones (Cardiff City manager), Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger all go out for a pint.

Davie gets the first round in, and then Sir Alex coughs up, followed by Rafa and lastly Arsene. As they're draining their last pint, Dave Jones goes up and gets himself another pint, but doesn't buy one for the other lads.

"Oi", says Sir Alex, "where's our pints?"

Dave Jones looks at him, and says "Well it's the fifth round mate, and you're not in it!"

Boom Boom!

Ford update

No-one from Ford (see a couple of posts ago) rang me back. They've had 36 hours to do so. Rang them again today. "Ray's on the phone" I'll get him to phone you back".

He didn't. Getting a bit pissed off by this now.

Apple iPad

So this is what all the hype was about. Everyone else in the world is having their say, so here's mine.

It looks very much like an oversize iPod. Apple call it their third device - something that presumably fits between iPhone/iPod Touch and Macbook/Pro laptops. It certainly didn't blow me away in terms of looks and specs, and many have commented that it's incomplete because it'll be running OS3.2, not an OS4.0 - presumably that will come in time.....I don't think there's anything staggering here in terms of new ides, so it's a little bit of a let down on that front, given the "Wow" that the original iPhone generated.

I can't really get excited by this - yet. My mobile technological need are comfortably met by my iPhone and Macbook Pro. A tablet device would be too big for when I don't need a laptop, and too small for when I do.

The most obvious use, and one which Apple are clearly pushing is it's potential as an e-book reader. Priced where it is, it surely has the Kindle in it's sights. But I'm not an e-book fan, so no point in me getting one for that.

Murray over at Palm-Mac does have a good point though, in that sooner or later you'll be able to watch TV on it, and as a mobile TV device you can pick it up, wander into the conservatory to watch the footie. But you can do it on a laptop too....or if you have a TV in the conservatory anyway.

Hard work

Some times things are harder than they should be.

Before Christmas I took my 3 yr old Mondeo to the local Ford dealer because the car is pulling slightly (sometimes more than slightly) to the left and the steering wheel wasn't centred. When I rang to arrange the appointment, I was grilled to the nth degree about whether I was holding the steering wheel centred which was causing the car to move left. No, it's because it's going left AND the steering wheel isn't centred.

To cut a long story short, took the car in, service couldn't find anything wrong (they don't test drive them these days) and sent it to the bodyshop, where they put it on an Optiflex machine that basically checks the whole alignment of the car. They found some things were out and fixed them (or so they told me when I picked the car up - they hadn't offered to tell me what they'd one).

As I drove away I got the feeling that although the steering wheel was more or less centred, the car was still pulling left. I've been so busy since then haven't had chance to do anything about it, and lately, I'm sure the steering wheel is out even more. If I do hold it exactly centred, I go right, and if I hold it so the car's driving straight it's about 10-20 degrees off horizontal, and the car definitely pulls left. If I let go of the steering wheel (I know, I know, not when there's other cars about), I sometimes go left severely enough to warrant the indicators going on.

Rang again today where I got the third degree again, got bounced to bodyshop very quickly, no-one available, promised a ring back that never materialised. Customer Service - not here matey. Very disappointed as they're usually spot on here.

And yes, before you ask, tracking has been checked - about 3 separate times.

I don't want to be questioned as if I'm some sort of moron. There's something wrong with the bloody car. All they have to do is drive it a hundred yards and they'd see. All I want is to book it in and have someone look at it and preferably fix it. Not much to ask is it?

City fill their boots: Bristol City 0-6 City: Are you watching Chelsea?

This was the third consecutive Tuesday these two sides had met, the previous two occasions being the FA Cup 3rd round and the subsequent replay. Both had proved tight games, 1-1 and City snatching a 1-0 win in the replay.

For the first 18 minutes tonight it looked like following a similar pattern, but Peter Whittingham's scrambled goal on 19 minutes started a rout of the home side, with the last goal, the sixth, coming as early as the 57th minute, before Bristol, shut up shop and concentrated on damage limitation.

Whittingham's opener was followed by McCormack on 23 minutes and Chopra on 24 before an own goal just before half time made it 0-4 at the break. Any other side would reckon "job done", but only a month ago, City squandered a four goal lead at Peterborough, and I bet Dave Jones was reminding the team of that in the dressing room over a orange.

There was to be no repeat. Within a minute City had made it five with Chopra's second of the night, and 12 minutes later McCormack bagged his second to complete the scoring.

This was a comprehensive victory, over a half decent side (though not tonight) and shows what City are capable of if they put their mind to it.

I only hope it doesn't bring a rash of offers for some of the highest scoring players in the division before the January transfer window clangs shut.

Blooobirds!!!!

Wireless woes

My daughter's nagging finally got the better of me over the weekend, and I relented and agreed to move our second, older desktop from the "study" into her bedroom. This leaves the newer desktop for me/my son, though it's mostly him as I spend most of my time on the Macbook Pro now.

So between us we undid all the connections and took it into her bedroom and set it up again, only for me to realise it had been hooked directly to the router via a cable and I didn't have a wireless card/adapter around. Ah, should have seen her little face when she realised she'd have to wait a day until she could hook up to MSN Messenger and all her chums again....even though she'd see them all at school today! (she's 13 this year by the way).

So today I popped into PC World on my way home and bought a Belkin N150 Enhanced Wireless USB Network Adapter (model F6D4050). The box didn't mention Win 7 compatibility (in fact none of the various makes/models did), so assuming everything would work (why sell kit that wouldn't eh?) I stumped up the cash.

When I tried to install it however, it refused point blank to play citing an error message about a missing *.msi file path. I hunted the install CD, and Belkin's support site to no avail, and even downloaded the latest drivers (which I think are the same as those on the install CD. Google suggested very quickly that Win 7 was a bit of an issue unless you installed in XP compatibility mode - not available on my version of Win 7. Somewhat miffed I returned post haste to PCW (which is rather conveniently or dangerously depending on your point of view, only about 5 mins away in the car). Despite my protestations that I knew what I was talking about the chap frowned, muttered and said he's be back in a minute -actually it was nearer 10. He said he'd found a forum where someone had built their own Windows 7 driver (I kid you not) for this device. I suggested to him that that's not really what I should have to do. To be fair though, he went and got all the other flavours of USB wireless adapters and did a quick search and came back to tell me that two of them had Win 7 drivers available as downloads from the manufacturer support site, and the other one from a support forum.

In the end I took the Linksys Rangeplus WUSB100, one he said needed a download from the Linksys site, and which cost £4 more than the Belkin (and looked smarter too - D'oh).

Once I got home, I just installed the thing from CD - first time. No download necessary. Up and running in 2 minutes. Good on you Linksys.

I've had some problems with Belkin kit before, so I think I'll steer clear of it for good now.

One final moan. Why do you need a box the size of a small house to sell what in effect is a thumb size wireless adapter with 1 CD and a couple of bits of paper is beyond me.

TUAW: iPhone 4.0 wants

The Unofficial Apple Weblog or TUAW as it's better known, has recently been publishing a series of open letters to Apple, outlining what users want to see in the next gen iPhone, both at hardware and software levels. This 3rd and final letter in the series concentrates on the iPhones built in apps, and how we users think they need to be improved.
There's nothing much in here to argue about, and plenty to wholeheartedly agree with, including for instance a unified in-box in Mail, or the clock app dynamically showing the time in the same way the calendar app shows the date.

It would be great to think Apple (or any other developer) take notice of these open letters from users, but I'm not sure they do. Anway, we'll just have to wait and see. First ideas might come this week when Apple are supposedly letting everyone know what's coming, with the most hyped thing being the Apply tablet/slate/pad - call it what you will.

Me, I'd settle for all the stuff in the letter in a 4th Gen iPhone, so I can upgrade asap - my contract's up in May and new iPhones have a habit of launching around July....

Blog analytics. Thanks for your custom!

I analyse (only very occasionally) my blog visits using Google analytics. For some bizarre reason, they recently stopped working. A quick flip through the Google Analytics FAQ suggested that a newer version of the analytics code should be being used. I can't rmember being advised of this, so how I was supposed to know is beyond me.

Anyway, they give you instructions to check whether you're running the old or new code, which is basically view the page source code (!). I did so and found that in fact for some reason I was running neither! I can't remember changing or deleting the code, but a while before Christma I changed the theme template, so whether this buggered everything up I'm not sure.

So having found that out I added the new code, and in one day my stats have rocketed +1,600% I'm not quite sure how that figure's arrived at, because in real terms it looks like about 20 people have visited. I've never had that many viewers, apart from my regulars (thanks - you know who you are), but hopefully things will start to pick up.

I never set out with this blog to inform the world, but more keep it as a record of stuff that happens, and see what occurs along the way.

Keep it going, and spread the word!

Thanks for reading

City to take on Chelsea in FA Cup

In the FA Cup, if you're not in the Premier League you want one of three things in a draw.

1. An "easy" tie to progress to the next round (if there's such a thing as an easy tie these days), and preferably
2. A home tie, or failing that,
3. One of the "Big" clubs

Well today, we didn't get 1 or 2, but we did get 3, with a tasty away tie at Stamford Bridge in the fifth round. They don't get any bigger than this, and it's going to be a hell of a day out. Me & Mini will endeavour to get tickets, but it's not yet clear how they'll be allocated.

As an "Ambassador" Season Ticket holder, that is someone foolish enough to pay for season tickets about 6 months in adavance, I should be in with a shout, but City have sold over 14,000 season tickets this year. The other thing in our favour based on the way it's worked historically, is that we attended both the 3rd round replay and yesterday's 4th round win over Leicester. Whether that means anything in the long run, who knows, but here's hoping.

C'mon you Blooobirds!

Will City ever sort their financial problems?

Businessman Ben Steele, a property developer allegedly interested in taking over Cardiff City was supposedly at today's game. Whether it's all rumours or not is hard to say, and there also stories about whether he's really got the necessary money. City are clearly in need of some significant investment, and soon, with another hearing in court over unpaid taxes due in a week or so. Another thing for us City ans to sweat over, but we've been sweating for a long time now.

Wobbly, but Wembley still possible: City 4-2 Leicester

Cardiff City know how to make a supporter suffer.
In the first 15 minutes City played open expansive football and carved Leicester open on two or three occasions. On 17 minutes, a long balled wide was chased down by Chopra who belted a pinpoint cross over for Jay Bothroyd to head home from 6 yards.

City then did what they always do when they get a lead. The stopped playing football, and reverted to hoofing the ball upfield, making sloppy mistakes and inevitably Leicester started playing the better football, and scored a goal from a needless free kick when Morrison, unmarked headed home Just before the half, they made it 2-1 when sloppy defending and indecision from the keeper allowed N'Guessan to prod home.

Dave Jones needed to slap a few people at half time, and perhaps he did. City came out in the second half looking the more likely, though the Foxes were sharp on the break, It looked like 2-1 was going to be good enough for the opposition but Burke's introduction on 61 minutes sparked City, and 10 minutes later Whittingham unexpectedly curled a free kick straight in from wide out to level the scores with 20 mins left. It never looked like this was going to end in a draw, although as we entered 4 minutes of added time, the replay was beginning to loom. But for once, City scored rather than conceded in injury time. Not once, but twice through Burke (92m) and McCormack (94m) to send the Bluebirds faithful into delirium and tomorrow's fifth round draw.

So a win, but hardly convincing, and Leicester may rightly feel hard done by today. They are moaning about a penalty shout but from where I was sat, the player fell over or dived - it certainly wasn't a penalty.

But let's not worry too much? Or should we? There are some significant issues for an old git like me to worry about as a "fan manager".

Mark Kennedy (left back) seems incapable of playing any other ball than a chipped/floated ball forward - Play it on the ground man!

The midfield is generally non-existent. How Leicester (and every other team we've played) haven't scored more goals through the middle this season is beyond me.

Hudosn and Gerrard at centre back lose too many 50-50 balls in the air for my liking, and Marshall, though palpably the best 'keeper we've had for a few years is still too hesistant at times.

But, I can't be too unhappy tonight after City showed some guts in the second half. We're in the last 16 now. Surely it couldn't happen again - could it?

Up the Bluebirds!

Avatar

Mini Stats and I have just got back from seeing Avatar. Girls are away for the night so we had a boys night out!

It's a superb film, I was very impressed on a number of fronts. I'd heard a bit about it, seen snatches of a trailer, but didn't really have a grip on the story before I saw it, which is nice.

It's a bit of everything really - good (Na'vi) v evil (humans - well most of them), technology v simplicity, greed (humans again) v sanctity of life, money (humans....) v nature....you get the picture (sic).

The CGI is (generally) hellishly impressive although the "tree of rope lights" was a bit naff (IMHO), and whilst most of the time the 3D (yes we all wear sunglasses all the way through) isn't at cartoon "in your face" level, it's subtle enough to make a big difference to the viewing experience.

It's a long film too at 162 minutes, but whilst it feels long, it doesn't feel overly lengthy.

Anyhow, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you haven't seen it yet I recommend you do. Just make sure you don't drink too much, and have a wee before you go in.

iNews for iPhone updated

My current favourite iPhone RSS reader iNews, has just been updated.

iNews 2.1.3 offers the ability to scale images to fit screen width in summary view and fixed a few bugs.

Nothing significant, but I guess it improves an already decent RSS newsreader for the iPhone.

Bloody spammers

Not had many comments on the blog of late - not sure anyone's actually rading the darned thing according to my analytics, but I have been getting some spam comments. Loads of posts with chinese type characters in. A right PITA. I've deleted them, but if they persist I might disable comments for a while - and see if I can complain to Google.Blogger and get the perpetrator banned/suspended but I don't hold out much hope there. For the moment I'm going to enable comment moderation so every comment comes to me for approval before it gets posted- Sorry.

We're on our way to Wembley! City 1-0 Bristol City

Ah, the magic of the FA Cup. After last week's snowy 1-1 draw, we met the Wurzels on our own patch for the replay in front of a paltry 6,000 crowd.

It was a strange atmosphere, on this, the 2nd of three consecutive Tuesday night matches against the same opposition, in one of those flukes of fixtures and FA Cup draws.

After Jay Bothroyd had gone on record in the local rag saying effectively we didn't care about the Cup, and that the League match against Bristol next Tuesday was far more important, manager Dave Jones showed some good managerial guile in making Bothroyd skipper for the night!

City had much the better chances, bet never really had that final cutting edge, and many thought we'd be heading for extra time and the excitement of a penalty shoot out, before Chopra, exquisitely set free slid the ball past the keeper, only to see it rebound off the post, straight onto a Bristol City defender and into the net. Frankly, at the moment we'll take them any way they come!

For once in a blue moon, City managed to hold onto the lead, even through 4 minutes of added time.

Next up, Leicester in the 4th round on Saturday. We're on our way to Wembley, our knees have gone all trembley, la, la, la, la.......la, la, la, la