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Friday, July 30, 2010

Inception

I recently saw "Inception"; the latest offering from Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight).

It's a very clever film, which although a little confusing in the opening scenes, quickly establishes itself as gripping thriller / action adventure.

The story is unique in concept, and I'm not going to spoil it for you; except introduce the trailer



They do say that pictures speak a thousand words...

Say no more...

Monday, July 26, 2010

Lewis Hamilton on BBC Top Gear

Last weekend has to be one of the best episodes of Top Gear; ever!!
Yeah! It's a good show; funny, fast and furious; with much tongue-in-cheek reporting.

It wasn't the VW article, not even the Bugatti SuperSport - which went bloomin' fast!!

Nope.  The best bit was the tribute paid to one of the all-time Formula 1 greats - Ayrton Senna.

Lewis Hamilton has always said that his hero was the Brazilian driver, who took driving genius to new heights.  Now he got the chance to drive the very same McLaren MP4-4 once driven by Senna.

This television was worth the licence fee all on its own.

Here's the clip of Lewis driving the car.  You can tell that he is genuinely over the moon to be given this opportunity; almost giddy with excitement; like a kid in a sweetshop!

Thank you BBC

Friday, July 23, 2010

Flipboard Review - A social magazine for the iPad

On Wednesday, a new application made its appearance on the AppStore.

OK - I might be going iPad mad at the moment, but this is free (we like free stuff) and it bills itself as a social magazine.

Imagine the worlds of Twitter and Facebook being presented in magazine format.  It's a clever concept, and once I'd got over the initial hurdle of linking my accounts (due to everyone trying at the same time, and their servers being unable to cope - where have we heard that before!) I found it to be quite beguiling.

I'm not a huge twitterer (or should that be tweeter?) but I do dip in occasionally, to see what's going on.  Indeed, this blog will appear on there, as a means to drive traffic to read it.  I'm also not a massive user of Facebook - I update my status every now and then, but otherwise, I just catch up on what's going on.

So when I heard about Flipboard, I wasn't sure of the relevance to me.  However, I have been quite surprised.  I'm not sure how it can be free, indeed I don't know the business model behind it, but I reckon there'll be adverts popping up soon, which, if handled and presented properly, won't interfere with the overall flow of the application.



When you start it up, you are presented with the 'cover' page.  Flip it across, and you will see 9 boards. In fact, you'll see 6, with space for three more.

The top left ones are free for you to add your Twitter and Facebook accounts.  The rest are populated by Flipboard, and these can be changed as you like.

When you select a board, the page flips over, and presents you with the content.  Twitter, for example, shows updates from the last few minutes, and it is possible to open them further and comment; just as you would reply. You can also see other replies.
Some tweets refer to actual website addresses (urls), and these are presented in full, rather than just the link; with further links to the website.
I like the fact that you can reply to posts, but you can't post directly from the app.  This could be something that is introduced in a later release.  For now, though, I can live without it.

On the Facebook page, again, statuses are presented, and you can 'Like' and comment, just as you would on the website.  You can click on the "Read on the web" button, to take you to the page - although you'll need to sign into Facebook to get the real appreciation.

One great fact is that, if there is a video, it will play directly in Flipboard - I tried it, and it worked beautifully.

If you want my opinion, I like it.  I can see what they're trying to achieve, and since this is the first release, you can forgive some of the missing  'nice to haves'.

If you have an iPad, this is definitely worth downloading.

Have you tried Flipboard?  What do you think?

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Chocolate Wars : Galaxy v Dairy Milk

Chocolate.  The word alone evokes such strong emotions, and from humble beginnings, is now a multi-billion pound industry.
Millions of bars of the brown and white stuff are sold around the world, with a multitude of different fillings.

Two of the biggest sellers are Cadbury Dairy Milk and Galaxy.

Indeed, people have a preference of one over the other.  So, in the interest of research (yeah!) I have decided to submit my taste buds to the two bars.

As someone who will happily eat chocolate from a box, without checking what it is, I may not be the best person to give an opinion.  However, I'll do my best.

Here they are, tempting in the relevant corporate colours, both of them saying "eat me!"

Before I unwrap them, let's just look at the packaging.

The first point to note is that the Galaxy bar, whilst physically bigger, is 125g.
Cadbury actually feels heavier at 140g.

At a glance it's difficult to compare the various calories, sugars etc; mainly because Galaxy show it per piece (4.2g).  Cadbury show it per portion; which they deem to be 3 pieces.

However, per 100g, the numbers are quite remarkable - take a look at these:

                                 Cadbury              Galaxy
Energy kJ                  2200                    2270
kcal                           525                      544
Protein                      7.5g                      6.6g
Carbohydrate            57g                      56.1g
Fat                            29.8g                   32.5g
of which Saturates   18.5g                   19.4g
Fibre                         0.7g                     1.5g
Sodium                     0.09g                   0.11g

On the face of it, Cadburys looks slightly better(!!) for you; although it can't be denied that a little of what you fancy does you no harm.  Both bars are suitable for vegetarians.

So, now to the taste test.

I will start with Galaxy; for no other reason than I don't normally eat it, so this will be a new taste, before the familiar Dairy Milk.

My first thought is that it smells light. Letting one, single, chunk melt in my mouth, I can taste a creamy texture, which is quite soft and delicate.  It's a truly great taste.



Moving on to Cadburys, I have to admit, this is my usual bar of choice.  Some might say that I will be biased because of this, but I will give an honest account.

The individual chunks are larger, by some mile.  It takes an age to melt, but the strong chocolatey taste immediately takes control.  Compared to the Galaxy, this is not as smooth; something that Galaxy actually promote on the wrapping as "Smooth Milk".

If I'm being honest, both bars have a distinct taste, making it impossible to declare a preference either way.

So, will I declare a winner?  Personally, I will stay with Cadbury; however, if I were to be offered a piece of Galaxy, I won't say no!

Monday, July 19, 2010

AFC Bournemouth - The Russians Come Knocking

The new football season is just over 2 weeks away, and AFC Bournemouth have been training hard.

There were rumours that a Russion billionaire wanted to buy them, an approach that was rejected very quickly by chairman Eddie Mitchell.

He was approached by the agent for the Russians, but, as he told BBC Radio Solent "He asked me if I was interested in selling my shares.  I didn't have to think about it and just said No!"

He felt a sale would not be in the best interest of the club, having taken control just over a year ago.

So, the first match, against Charlton, kicks off on 7th August, and Eddie Howe and the guys have been training hard.

At least, before the season gets underway, Bournemouth are at the top of the table!!! Well, I've got my fingers crossed that they will stay there as the season progresses.

Finally, in my last post about AFC Bournemouth, I asked if anyone knew why they are called "The Cherries".

The name came about around 1910, when Mr J E Cooper-Dean granted the club a long lease on some wasteland.  There are two probable reasons.  One is the cherry red striped shirts they wore and, secondly, Dean Court was built next to the Cooper-Dean estate, which included many cherry orchards.

Wherever the name originates, let's hope they start well in a few weeks.

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