Nespresso Kazaar

Looking forward to trying this coffee in my Nespresso!

James Last - Voodoo Party / Well Kept Secret

Bought from HMV a remastered release of 2 of James Last's classic albums, on 1 CD - Voodoo Party & Well Kept Secret. Whilst it is great that these 2 albums have been released on CD, it is a shame that it is not James Last's record label Universal Music / Polydor that released the CD, rather a UK record company called Vocalion, who licensed the recordings from Universal.

It is a great shame that Universal Music / Polydor no longer have in James Last's catalogue of current releases any of his original albums, apart from those released in the 21st century, which is a shame as I think some of his classic albums should be released on CD, perhaps where possible as a 2 LP on 1 CD compilation, to maximise the use of the space on a CD.

I believe that the time has come for Universal and James Last to work together with the fans to release some of James Last's best albums on CD - I do not believe it is practical to release all of them on CD, as  there are over 100+ albums in James Last's back catalogue - due to the fact that James Last released in his heyday 3 or 4 albums year, but even if a few were released it would be better than the compilation albums that currently get released with the same popular songs.

My thinking is that these re-releases could include a box set of the Beach Party CD's, a best of Non Stop Dancing, on maybe 4 CD's as Volume 1 - '65 to '69, Volume 2 '70 to '74, Volume 3 '75 to '79 and Volume 4 '80 to '85. Also the his very first album Non Stop Dancing '65 should be released in full on CD.  Other releases that could make it to CD are Games That Lovers Play, James Last Live (from 1974), Western Party & Square Dance, and maybe a box set of the A GoGo albums.

BBC F1 Deal

Looks I like won't be watching all of F1 on television next year. As many of you will know, the BBC did a deal with Sky to show F1 next year, resulting in the BBC only showing 10 races live. Even though I am living with my parents at the moment, who have a subscription to Sky and Sky Sports, I will not be watching F1 on Sky in protest at this deal.
My understanding of the deal is that the BBC did this to save on cost. However in doing this deal they have not listened to the fans of F1 who are not happy with this deal, as they loose the chance to watch a great sport on TV. I believe that if the BBC could not afford to show all F1 races live next year, then they should have given way to another free to air broadcaster (to allow all the British F1 fans to have the chance to watch F1), and from what I have read on-line I understand that Channel 4 was interested in showing the F1 season. I think that Channel 4 should have been given the rights to broadcast F1, rather than the BBC / Sky, in order to keep all the races on free to air television - something which I understand is a priority for Bernie Ecclestone. I suspect that one of the reasons the BBC decided to try and keep F1 on their channels is because of the really good viewing figures this year.
Hopefully rather than a highlights package next year, for the races that the BBC is not covering live, they show a full re-run of the race, as watching highlights is not the same as a full race - in a full race you get to see the strategies unfold etc. I understand that a Government committee might be looking at the deal. Hopefully if they do decide to look at the deal they will decide that the deal is not in the best interests of UK TV Licence Fee payers, and that every F1 race should be live on free to air television. Perhaps it's time that F1 was added to the list of sporting events that have to be shown live on TV. Eventually though, I suppose the time will come when F1 is not shown live at all on Free To Air TV, as I suspect if Sky does well with F1 coverage it will want to show it exclusively, and when the contract comes up for renwal, try and make sure that no Free To Air broadcaster is allowed to show it as well.

Nespresso Dhjana

 New limited edition coffee from Nespresso. Had one today and it makes a good tasting coffee. Shame it is only a limited edition.

CoffeeDuck

Interesting accessory for the Nespresso -a re-usable capsule. Makes it great to be able to use your own favourite brand of coffee in your Nespresso machine. Have made 3 Lavazza coffees's using Coffeeduck - Tierra, Decfinato and a Cappucino using Lavazza Espresso and the coffee came out fine.

I had read reports online that the capsules did not make good coffee, but I suspect that is down to people not using the correct blend etc. as I had no problems, once I got the correct amount of coffee in to the Coffeeduck. All in all Coffeeduck is worth having as it enables you to use your favourite espresso blend in your Nespresso, plus makes it cheaper per cup.

Nespresso

Bought myself a new coffee machine the other day - I plumped for a Nespresso having had a demonstration in a local cookware shop. Whilst the Tassimo I already own can make teas and hot chocolates as well I decided that I wanted a machine that made proper strong coffee with a good crema layer - the Crema layer on a Tassimo is no so good, and on many coffee's comes out with "holes" in it revealing the coffee underneath, and thus allowing the flavours etc to escape.

What I like about the Nespresso is the small footprint of the machine, and the choices available, I purchased the new Pixie model and this machine features the ability to make 2 coffee sizes at the touch of a button - Espresso and Lungo, and gives you the chance to customise the size as well, so that the coffee coming out of the machine fits your cup perfectly. There is also storage in the machine for 10 used capsules.

There is a great choice of coffee for the machine - the standard range features 16 Grand Cru's - 7 Espresso Blends, 3 Pure Origin Espressos 3 Lungos (larger coffee) and 3 Decaffeinated blends - 2 Espresso and 1 Lungo, thankfully to help you decide which blends you like, you 1 capsule of each blend with the machine, along with a guide to each blend, giving a description and strength guide. Also I have been told that throughout the year limited edition coffee's are produced as well - be interesting to see what comes out this year.

Getting capsules for the Nespresso is different to other coffee machines, as you can only order capsules online or purchase them from a Nespresso Boutique (to give the machine more class I guess) - the nearest boutique to where I live is in London, and I have a choice of going to boutiques in the top London department stores Harrods, Selfridges or the stand alone boutique in Knightsbridge, where I also have the chance to buy accessories for the machine. However if you live in France you can purchase L'Or capsules from a French supermarket. L'Or being a brand of coffee made by Maison Du Cafe, rather than Nespresso, so I am looking forward to getting some of those when I next go to France, as I'm told it works out cheaper to purchase these rather than Nespresso capsules.

All in all I'm really pleased I bought the machine and am looking forward to enjoying the pleasure of drinking coffee even more.

Hava Naglia - Andre Rieu - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (HD)

A friend suggested that, since I like James Last, I might enjoy listening to Andre Rieu, and he was right. This is a really enjoyable video, from what looks like a great concert. I for one will be listening to Andre Rieu's music in future, perhaps even purchasing some of his CD's.

life.contacts

Downloaded an interesting widget for my phone the other day - life.contacts by Sony Ericsson. This widget is designed to make contacting the people you call and text simple, jut by tapping on their photo. What makes this widget really useful is that it learns who you contact the most, and constantly updates the contacts on the widget to reflect this. Facebook support is also included in the widget, so that the most recent photo on the contacts Facebook page is displayed

What would make life.contacts even better, is that when you tap on a photo, you are able not only to see options for interacting with that contact, such as call / SMS / email etc, but also see their latest Twitter and Facebook status as well.

Unwanted Mobile Apps

Got a great Andoird Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 but there is one problem with it. My network operator 3 has installed programs on it I don't want to use - Spotify n Facebook to name but 2. However I cannot uninstall them! I think the time has come when you should be given the choice by your network operator if you wish to uninstall what they have placed on the phone, or if you are not allowed to uninstall it, have the option to disable the program from running on startup, so that it does not waste memory.

Having an Android phone I am suprised that no one in the Android community has come up with a simple way of uninstalling unwanted applications. It would be great if this changed in the future.

I think when I get my next phone, I will be thinking very carefully about which phone and network I choose, so that I get a phone that does not have a lot of unwanted items on it.

Unwanted Mobile Apps

Got a great Andoird Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 but there is one problem with it. My network operator 3 has installed programs on it I don't want to use - Spotify n Facebook to name but 2. However I cannot uninstall them! I think the time has come when you should be given the choice by your network operator if you wish to uninstall what they have placed on the phone, or if you are not allowed to uninstall it, have the option to disable the program from running on startup, so that it does not waste memory.

Having an Android phone I am suprised that no one in the Android community has come up with a simple way of uninstalling unwanted applications. It would be great if this changed in the future.

Oscar The Grouch's Oscar Picks

Oscar makes some interesting picks, though I would choose The King's Speech for best picture.

Chicken Soup vs Boney M.

A catchy number from DJ Doug Laurent. Great follow up to his Barbra Streisand (The Most Wanted Women).

James Last - Traditional English Songs Medley

This track is a medley of some traditional English songs performed by James Last and his Orchestra. Songs, in order as played, are:
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
Down At The Old Bull And Bush
My Old Man Said Follow The Van
Land Of Hope And Glory

This is a great James Last arrangement of these songs, recorded at The Royal Albert Hall, during James Last's UK tour in 1979. It's good to hear James Last playing music from around the world, and to my mind shows how good he is at engaging with his audience by including songs specific to a particular country at concerts in that country - another "English" song he played during this concert was the Floral Dance from Cornwall. Currently when James Last is performing in the UK at the Albert Hall, he plays Land Of Hope And Glory - a track that's not played at any other concert venue in the UK or overseas again showcasing how he tailor makes the music of the concert, to the country he is playing in.

Changes

Made a change tonight to my personal website, changed the layout of the About Me page, adding a link to my blog at Blogger and removed all the rest of the pages, making my site much better, and easier to update, as from now my blog will be her on Blogger at also at the My Opera community (to allow those on a mobile etc to see my site in an easy to view way).

I'm hoping this year to increase my blog postings to at least once a month including topics that interest me, posting videos I like and other things, in the past I have not got round to posting to my blog, but this year I'm gonna try and make the time to do it!

Mobile App Stores

Have been looking at mobile apps from some of the websites I visit, and find it really annoying that in almost 95% of the sites I visit, they have made an App for the iPhone but not for any other smartphone. I find this strange since Nokia, Blackberry and Android smartphones as I understand it have just as good a market share as the iPhone.

This led me to wondering whether big businesses who create apps for a particular smartphone should be expected to make an app for all major smartphones - perhaps smartphone operating systems developers could help get apps out from big business for their smartphones. I for one would like to be able to have a Starbucks and Thames Clippers app on my phone, but can't as I don't have an iPhone, only an Android, which doesn't have any of these apps. However I did mange to find an App for Subway stores, but that wasn't made by Subway - another Android software developer made it as Subway had only made an iPhone app.

I read somewhere that in the USA developers will be required to make their apps work on all the major smartphone brands, although I cannot find the page I read it on. However I think this is a good idea, as it means that no matter what smartphone you use, if a major business such as Starbucks has made an app for smartphones, it will work on ur phone.

Timescape

Recently I purchased a new Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 mobile phone, to replace my old phone a ZTE Racer with a hard to use resistive touch screen. On my new Xperia there is a great app called Timescape that integrates with your contact list, thus enabling you to click on a contact and not only see the text messages they have sent you, along with a call log, you also see their Facebook and Twitter updates as well all in one nice timeline - something that other Android phone manufacturers should look at integrating - on my ZTE Racer I had to look a different apps to see Twitter and Facebook posts etc.

Timescape is a great addition to the Android OS, but has one drawback that I feel needs addressing by Sony Ericsson - it's good having a widget that shows the latest text message, Facebook and Twitter status messages from your contacts and people you follow on Twitter or are friends with on Facebook, but I think the widget and Timescape could be improved by allowing you to speicify for example to only show posts from those in your contact list etc.

It would also be useful if Sony Ericsson provided more plugins for Timescape, I use Google Buzz and it would be good to be able to see Google Buzz messages and post to Google Buzz via Timescape, and also have access to Sony Ericsson's rival to BlackBerry Messenger Hanashi - http://www.hanashi.se

Social Networking

I have been thinking about my Social Networking use recently - having purchased a new Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 and begun to use the Timescape app, which displays all your notificiations (Twitter, Facebook, missed calls, SMS etc), I've noticed that I have a large amount of friends on Facebook I hardly know such as work colleagues and old school friends, and was thinking do I really want to see messages posted from them on my message timeline as the message is probably not relevant to me.

Perhaps the time has come to look at my friend list and prune it, after all if I posted a message to Facebook in the future (I don't post at the moment, as I'm not sure I would want everyone on my friend list to know what I have been upto or am currently doing). Makes me wonder if people who have 500+ friends on Facebook really know everyone in their friend list, or are they just trying to get a big a list as possible.

Social networking is great in some respects as you get to know what your friends are up to, especially if you have been really busy and not had time to catch up with them, but really I suppose nothing beats catching up with a friend either face to face or via the phone. Perhaps though social networking is no so great in other ways as it takes out the personal contact between friends.