Rambling on a Sunday afternoon.

The sun is shining here in England. It's Sunday afternoon and the one day when I can go for a drive and that's what I should be doing. but I enjoy writing and I'm trying to get understand this new Google beta blogging. I like the template and I think I've just enabled the advertising with adsense. I was emailing my blogs in and then I tried to delete one and deleted several. I told not long ago by a computer professional that I was too advanced for the computer books that I had on my bookself and didn't find too helpful I don't feel advanced! I feel like i'm being left behind in the technological race. But I do know many more people who are way behind me. At the least I'm not typing with one finger! I worry though, I don't have my usual spell checker and grammar chacker to help me and i do tend to be a little dyslexic when using a keyboard!

I'm still learning website design and trying form a community of people like myself who can do a website but aren't very good. I have helped another webmaster this week and received help in return and so my "community" idea is basically good. Communities appear to be very popular on the Internet just lately. They are popular because most people are basically lonely. The number of people looking for "love" on the Internet is really a sad reflection on society. My website in case you haven't visited is http://www.mike10613.talktalk.net . TalkTalk is my ISP. they are signing up around 100,000 people a month here in the UK to their phone service - with a free broadband offer. It is popular, but doesn't always go according to plan. having a call centre overseas doesn't help. I had a call earier from a overseas call centre - telling something about winning five thousand pounds. I knew the company, and so I was firm but polite and said no thanks you and goodbye. Of course, the company has to keep costs down, but they should have a UK number for people who have problems. It's difficult when you have a problem and you have someone on the other end of the phone line who doesn't have a good command of English and an accent you find hard to understand. The deal with TalkTalk is free phone calls to all UK landlines, with a geographical code and free broadband of up to 8 Mbs. I signed up when they were offering Talk3 International with free broadband. So I get international calls to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union countries too. So it is a good deal, the price is certainly good. But the service isn't always great. I pay much less than other people on a similar service with other companies. The 8 Mbs won't be available on ADSL until next year. I'm lucky to get 1.1 Mbs. But viral marketing is set to sweep the world with more and more companies giving something away to get the hooked. I expect much more of it. My local supmarket send me a voucher for £30 to spend if I spent £75. So I spent about £75 and paid only £45. £30 is around $50 if you're outside the UK. I think Voice over IP will become more popular too. You can speak to friends you have made on the internet by plugging a VOIP phone in to the USB2 port on your computer and then use Skype or an Instand messenging service. I like the a USB2 keyboard with a VOIP phone buit in. That appears to be at the top of this page now! I wanted it in position! But at least you can see it. I've made a lot of friends on the Internet and chatting to them by text is fine - but voice would be good sometimes. I can't eat at the same time with voice though and those struggling with English may find it more difficult.

I think people are getting so use to advertisements that they ignore them. Google is going to do video advertisements - but that is fine with high speed broadband - but frustrating when the streaming video keeps stopping. I had a program that downloaded video whenever the computer was idle - that was a good idea. But many people have a download limit, mine is 40 Gb - but some ISPs put a limit on of only 2 Gb. That will be fairly useless if video becomes more popular on the Internet.I do look at advertisements and sometimes find them more interesting than the content!

That is my ramble for this Sunday afternoon. Please, visit my website and leave a message in the guest book - have a good look around. People often go to the Home Page and then no further and I don't know why! There is lots to explore and even some of the advertising is interesting. Some of the Google links are to news and Google video - I've seen some interesting Google video. If what I do interests you or you just want to email a romantic Englishman - my email address is on every page at the bottom. The music is good too and if you read the instructions on the Home Page you can download those MP3s.

Best Wishes from England,

Mike10613