It’s been a while…

Ok, as it has been over a two months since I have written a real post, I thought I’d try and get back into the swing of things. On the list of things I have done in the last couple of months is:

• Secured a third year placement (A Job)
• Secured accomodation for the year (Moved house)
• Passed all but one of my exams (retake tomorrow!! :Z )
• Got paid… twice! Woo!
• Spent more money than I have
• Saved money for the first time in years
• Taken out an ISA
• Taken out a Credit Card
• Worked out my Student Loan Debt

And of course, various other happenings also.

So where do I begin?

Preparations for the Coming (Academic) Year

Warning – Really long update post ahead. This last week has been a pivotal and successful week for me. I have been busy sorting out all the arrangements toward having a flat and a job for next year, as well as tying up loose ends from this year. In the last week I have spent about £400 on sorting out accommodation (my rent needed paying for this month and then up came the deposit for the new house) and then about £50 getting food sorted; the cupboards were bare, so I needed to stock up a little.

Not only has this been an expensive week, it has also been an athletic one. In the space of 3 days I’ve probably covered about 4-5 square miles and walked about 8. On the map below, I had to walk the black route 3 times, each yellow route once and the blue route are bus routes.

Progress

Today marks progress in a number of ways. The first is finally completing my review yesterday of the Nokia N800, which I used for a two week trial. The review took a lot longer to write than I thought it would – I’ve not gone into as much detail as I wanted, as it would have taken me ’til Easter or longer to complete it

Next on the list is the progress with my BT problems. I received my refund cheque through the post yesterday morning (three days early, which makes a nice change). It took a lot of pointless and cut-off phone calls to get there, but I finally have my money back. I’ve probably said this before, but now both my direct debits to BT are cancelled and my money will stay with me, until I decide to pay my bills. Fair enough If they were going to tell me in advance that they were going to unnecessarily and incorrectly increase the direct debit from £30 to £178.50, but they didn’t. BT and direct debits – don’t do it. It may save you a couple a quid a month, but it’ll save you the hassle of them making you go overdrawn >: ( If you want to moan at BT accounts yourself, the number is 08000223089 for GB accounts. Others are via 0800800150.

Today is my third day without my XBox – decided to give it up for lent, because I had no idea what else I could. So far it has been easy and I don’t expect it to get that much harder, but it will probably get annoying by next month, especially if an awesome new game comes out that I can’t play

My job at Phones 4U, or chances of having it back are slightly hindered. Apparently all xmas temps have their details and such deleted from the system, and my name is alphabetically high on the list, so it was one of the first. I’ve re-applied online, but the jobs listed are all full-time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to explain my position to the human resources people and get my job back.

I’ve got one minor step further in my 3rd year placement application. I received an e-mail from StepStone to tell me that my application has progressed and that they will be presenting my application to Microsoft in the coming week. There are still no guarantees of a placement, but it’s been good to get this far. Hopefully they’ll be happy with my application, see what they’re looking for and advance me through to the final assessment stage.

January Sure Has Flown By

The past month has been a good one. New Year’s Eve was a lot of fun, and the following week gave me a good chance to relax. The Wednesday after the New Year, gave me and many of my good friends from Sixth Form a chance to catch up, while scoring kills on each other in bouts of Halo 3. That was a lot of fun

I was back to work at Phones 4U at the end of the week, finishing the last few days of my Christmas contract, which ended on the 13th. Last day went pretty poorly to be honest – apparently, sales don’t really pick up until March for PAYG phones. I did get a good seeing off though, so the day ended well. Still waiting to hear if I be re-contracted, but even if I don’t, it was a good experience. Although it does mean finding something new.

Went to see my parents and sister the week before my birthday, to see them for that and finally deliver my Dad’s Christmas present. He was throroughly pleased with his brand spanking new Xbox 360 and it happily complemented his new HDTV and surround sound system. Xbox 360 + full HD = mindblow So when I visit now, I’ll be sure to take home a few games to see them in all their glory!

I bought myself a nice new 24″ monitor for my birthday, a long wanted update to my humble 19″ of the past. The monitor is Samsung SM(Syncmaster)245b and is a real plus, in a number of ways. The first is the extra space on the screen to do things. I can be typing something out, while reading from a website, both on the same screen. The next is the colour on my screen is now properly calibrated, so their aren’t any washed out colours and everything is bright and beautiful Finally, is the increased resolution (max 1900×1200) and of course, the ability (in conjunction with my uber 8800gt graphics card) to play pc games in “HD” quality and at decent framerates. I can still manage to play Crysis on high (no AA) with a playable framerate. I should really write a review for this too… maybe some other time.

Christmas and New Year Update

Christmas and New Year

Ok, I’ve been quiet for over a month now, and this has been primarily down to the increase in my working hours before Christmas day.

It’s been a busy month and, having a job in the retail sector, you realise just how much it is. My job is going really well and I’m generally having a good time – it can get boring now and again, but it’s expected. Last month I sold 105 phones making myself a nice commission bonus, which will act as a nice birthday present when I get my January payslip. I’m currently waiting to hear from my manager, as to whether the head office, or human resources department have decided to keep myself and my pay as you go colleague, Rita, in the job. What happens is, firstly, our manager fills out reports about us, stating that we are recommended to stay working in our store. The reports are then sent off, and they will come back with a thumbs up or thumbs down. I’ll find out the result of their decision this Saturday, but if it were down to my manager, we’d both be good to stay

Now, back to Christmas. I had a really good Christmas this year, even though it started about 7pm Christmas Eve when my parents picked me up from work. I felt that Christmas went pretty successfully, leaving everyone happy and geared up for the New Year. My Mum was very happy with her present, an 8gb iPod Nano, which my Sister, her boyfriend and I had laser engraved to say Happy Christmas all year round My Dad is still, unfortunately, waiting for his, due to the Parcelforce being clever, mis-sorting the package and sending it to Newcastle. Good going Parcelforce. I have collected it, but now I just need to work out how to get it home He was happy with his replacement present – a well written IOU that had him giggling away. My Sister was also happy with her present, a nice set of desktop speakers for her iPod.

New Year came and went – I managed to shift around my hours to allow me to stay a few days longer, so I could be with the family. I had a good New Year’s Eve out with all my friends from sixth form, which was a good laugh, as all the photos showed. The good times rolled on, when I invited them over to my parent’s house for a day of XBox 360 gaming- possibly the first time any of them have visited since I’ve lived there, as usually, gatherings are in Wootton Bassett or Swindon, so it made a change for people to be heading over my way

Once they arrived, we hooked up two XBox 360’s and had a manic and fun-filled day of screaming and shouting at the TV’s when we won or lost in multiple battles on Halo 3. I did pretty well, coming about 2nd or 3rd, which made a nice change from when we used to play on the first XBox’s and Halo 2 was the first console-based first person shooter I had ever played

N95 8GB

My last post, primarily about my new N95 8GB, brought me some popularity today, as I was featured on http://www.womworld.com – “a Nokia™ sponsored resource providing latest news, comment and feedback on all things about the Nokia Nseries from the world of social media and beyond.” I took a look today and it seems like a good resource if you have a Nokia N-Series device. I also took the opportunity to contact them about their trialling program, whom one of their members, Rich, dropped me a comment about. Now, after receiving this publicity, I thought I’d follow up my review, with a second mini-review.

I’ve used my N95-8GB for over a month now, and the quality of this phone is outstanding. I have recently updated the phone to it’s latest firmware, after unlocking and debranding it, to allow me the extra freedom to use the phone how I please. It has been a quite lengthy process, and I lost a little data by not backing up properly, but I didn’t lose anything important. I did note that, after installing the firmware updates, I had lost my applications. However, after re-installing them, I could not access them. I found out that this was because traces of the applications were left in the phones memory, but, after much trial and error, I worked out that the easiest way to fix the problem, was to backup my contacts, images, music and videos (by directly transferring them off the device) and formatting the phone and memory card. I also performed a reset on the phone, just to be sure (by holding the 3, call and star buttons, when turning on the device).

This does erase your phone settings and everything that isn’t standard (including non-SIM contacts), but there was nothing that couldn’t be easily fixed. Note that transferring videos and music off the device may take over an hour and a half (due to the size capability of this phone).

After the latest firmware update is installed, expect to see improved phone switch on times, faster response times, flash video (flv) support built into the web browser, as well as a few other minor tweaks. I did note, however, that the messaging application is slower, but that might be down to me switching the messaging app’s memory to the flash memory, instead of the phone. (Just confimed this – using the mass memory, instead of phone memory, slows the messaging application’s start-up time.

Just like to thank WOM World again for being featured, it’s nice to have a little publicity

Where am I?

Yup, it’s been a while since I last posted. If my time isn’t sucked up by work, it’s disappearing into the midst of assignment work.

Work is going well, I started my 4th day in store today, selling another 7 phones and bringing me up to a total of 21, which I think is pretty reasonable for a new employee. Learning all the different processes has been a bit of a task – Each phone needing to be connected up in different ways. As well as that, there’s learning all the best features of the 20-30 or so phones that are being sold on PAYG – This being a lot harder.

All in all though, things are progressing nicely and I’m picking up things quite quickly, having to ask the odd question or so every now and again to keep me on track. I think the hardest thing is working out the several hundred different ways of opening a phone, slotting in the SIM card and memory card, if there is one. Each phone manufacturer does it differently, and even after that, each phone often has a different way too.

Uni’s going well too – nearing the end of term soon (14th Wooh!). This means I’ll have a bit more time on my hands, but today I quite oddly and too freely offered it to my employers, saying that I would be able to do some more hours if they needed, which they undoubtedly will nearing the Christmas period.

I have my second interview for Web Host Directory on Wednesday. I have been requested to come in with a portfolio of my work to show them what I can do. Hopefully I will be able to Wow them with my web-based handiwork. I’m looking forward to it somewhat, as I don’t usually get to show off what I do in that field.

Apart from that, I don’t have much to report. What I am up to at the moment is a mix of work, uni, assignments, some gaming (really don’t have time for it ), repeat

I’m looking forward to Christmas, it’s getting close already. I’m mostly prepared for it, but there will always be something to catch you by surprise – like a random silly postal strike D: I’m also looking forward to Christmas Eve as that means I will get some holiday, before having to be back at work, attempting to earn what I’ve spent over Christmas (he he). Don’t worry parents, I’m watching my spending

Busy Busy Busy

As you may know, I have been a Pay as You Go Consultant for Phones 4 U Bournemouth for about a week now, and tomorrow will be my third day on the shop floor. Overall, it’s going well so far and I have done pretty well. I have sold about 7 phones in the last two days, and numerous top-ups.

The process of selling a phone can be either relatively easy or hard, depending on a number of factors. There are many customers that are “Just looking”, but there are a few occasions when “Just looking”, is really a potential sale and it is my job to find them. Both today and yesterday I have had a nice couple looking for presents and have sold them a phone (two in one case) and they were very happy – Something that makes a sale a lot more rewarding.

The job can be quite tough on the legs, as I am pretty much on my feet the whole day. The bus is £1.50 return, which I have had to make good use of the last two days, as it has been harder to get up than first thought :/ Unfortunately, it eats away at any free time I have at weekends, which is a bit of a pain, but it’s what I was expecting, so I’m not surprised.

I received my new contract phone today. It’s the Sony Ericsson K850i and is a pretty nifty little phone. It features a 5 megapixel camera, with flash, multiple ISO settings, panoramic shots (takes three shots and merges them, multiple scene settings (landscape, sports, portrait, beach/snow, document, etc), macro mode, infinite focus mode, auto focus, flash and red-eye reduction, exposure settings, self-timer, white balance, effects and numerous other settings, such as picture quality and stabilizer. So that’s just the camera ; it also features the usuals, such as an mp3 player, upgradeable memory (came with free 512mb micro-SD card), radio, alarm clock, etc. etc.

The price of this comes to £16 per month with 500 mins and unlimited texts, which for someone that mostly texts, should be sufficient All other phones would have the same price, so after comparing 3 or 4 phones, I chose this one, primarily for the camera quality compared to others available, but overall, I do like the layout, setup and things. Mobile Sift give the K850i a review score of 8.2, which I agree with.

I thought about the LG Viewty at one point, but after comparing it myself, I wasn’t overly impressed and the fact I had an iPod touch meant there was little point to it. I looked at a Nokia 6500 Slide, which I liked, but it wasn’t as powerful as the K850i.

Here is a lovely photo I took with my phone of my desk. It is night, so pic quality may not be it’s best, but it seemed to turn out ok. I’m pleased anyway ^_^

Speeeeedy PC!

Yesterday I received all the rest of my new PC parts from Komplett. I got home about 14:30 or so, and took the package upstairs and started to unwrap with joy, like a child with a chocolate bar ^_^

As I looked through each mini-package inside, there is that happy feeling where you know that what you have purchased is going to be awesome. After leaving packages strewn across my bedroom, I plunged in and took the side panel off my case. I then proceeded to take out all my old components; memory, hard drives, wi-fi card, tv card, graphics card and motherboard. I then proceeded to retrieve my motherboard from the box it has resided in for the past week and place it on the floor in front of me. The first thing to be installed was the Intel Q6600 CPU. I took it out looked at it and thought, “Er, which way does it go in?”

Usually, I am good with building a pc, but I have never actually had the joy of using an Intel CPU, so that was the first trip to the manual set. Fastening in the CPU, it was now time for the heatsink-fan (HSF). I bought a Thermaltake Blue Orb II and crikey is this thing big!! It’s about twice the size of my old CPU heatsink (that was a zalman custom fan). I dolloped a sufficient amount of thermal paste on the cpu, and then proceeded to attempt to fit the fan onto the cpu. I had to install two brackets (Which I put on the opposite way, so that was the first reason I thought it wouldn’t fit on), then attach the HSF to those brackets. This was the tricky part. The first time, the fan power cable was unknowingly getting in the way. This was another reason for me to believe it wouldn’t fit. Finally, my motherboard has very large copper heatsinks surrounding the CPU, which made it slightly more difficult than I expected to attach the HSF. I did, finally, manage to attach it, but it took more force than I’d usually like to apply.

Next I plugged in the memory, fairly straight forward – just a matter of plugging them in and fastening them – and they look great. I never thought memory could be so stylish. I have 2GB of Corsair PC2-6400 C4 PRO installed – they each have a heatsink, fitted with activity LED’s for each memory bank.

After I had attached these, I continued to place the motherboard inside the case itself. There were no problems here and it fitted well. Using the bundled sound card from ASUS, I installed that and then installed my XFX 8800gt graphics card. Now I had already heard about the ridiculous length of the 8800 series cards, but, even though mine was a GT, it was still surprisingly long (about 10 inches). I was surprised to see the graphics card’s length span the whole motherboard, and was thankful there was nothing to get in the way.

Now I had all the main components fitted, I screwed in my new hard drive into the HDD cage and then went around plugging all the components into the board and the power supply. This took about 5-10 minutes (Had a small problem with the sata cable on my hard drive. I had plugged it in, not realising it was the wrong way round : /)

Happy with the overall ease of installation of all the components, I then powered up the PC. It booted, which is the best sign and I went to the BIOS screen. The BIOS itself is brilliant – probably the best I have seen or used for a long time, and the numerous options leave nothing out to be configured. There is even an alarm you can set that runs a music cd from your cd drive!!

Installing Vista was a breeze and took less than 10 minutes. Once into the OS, everything was running smoothly, just as I expected. Updates were done, drivers were installed, and in about an hour overall, things are back to the way they are… with a bonus. Vista score sits at 5.0, with the memory taking the 5.0 spot, and everything else (Hard Drive, CPU, 3d Graphic, etc) scoring a nice 5.9.

Games – Now here’s the good part. With the power of the 8800gt I bought, I can run any Valve Source game (Half-Life 2, CS:S, Ep. 1, Ep. 2 and Portal, etc. – Only ones I have tested at the moment) at my max resolution of 1280×1024 and crank up every graphics setting to high. That means 16x Anti-aliasing, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, High quality textures, shadows and models!! HDR is on, Colour Correction is on – Everything!! And, what’s best is that I can still achieve 100+ frames per second So as you can tell, I am immensely pleased.

In EVE news, the new expansion pack comes out, offering a bundle of new ships and items, as well as the new graphical overhaul and, I assume, DirectX10 support I’m also back up to 5 million ISK, and skill training goes well.

For Uni, I have just completed the first assignment and had it handed in on Tuesday. I have four left, each due in at a different date over the coming months.

Went into Phones4U today to sort out my personal details so they can properly add me to the employee payroll. I also sorted out my working hours (I’ll start tomorrow to catch up some hours) which are all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I am contracted at a minimum 21 hours a week, but nearing the Christmas sales period, this will most likely increase.