Category Archives: opinion

Zen Internet – which Silicon Valley is this?

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Zen LogoI have been a customer of Zen Internet ever since I first installed a broadband connection in my home in 2001. They have just moved into a new HQ building in Rochdale. It’s worth watching the short movie they’ve made – the setup is about as US West Coast as you could get in Rochdale. Join Richard Tang, the MD, as he invites you on A Tour of our New Headquarters

I can honestly say that their service is brilliant – I recommend them to anyone who asks my advice about choosing an ISP and to many who don’t! 

 


Parking change needed

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Where do you find six pound coins to pay for parking?

This is the standard charge to leave a car for a day in the Lake District. So where do you find this much change in the middle of nowhere?

Even in Ambleside, where there are dozens of shops, there are signs that warn, No change given for the car park.” So dear Ambleside trader, how am I supposed to park to become a customer in your shop?

Bridge House, Ambleside

I bought sandwiches – offered a £10 note and asked for pound coins for the Pay and Display machine. “Sorry sir, we need our change.”

What’s the matter with you people. Go to the bank. Get a stash of change. Smile. Write a new sign – Change given here for the Car Park.  Offer a service and watch the footfall increase. More footfall – more sales. It’s not rocket science. And anyway I only want to park a car – not a rocket.

Plans ignore cyclists

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Richard George: Plans ignore cyclists | Health and wellbeing | Life and Health
My local supermarket was designed by a driver, for drivers. This, despite the fact I live in Hackney, London, where less than half the population drives and 70% of shopping trips in the borough are made on foot. Nine buses stop outside the supermarket and most of the customers live in nearby flats, but my supermarket would rather everyone drove – and they have designed everything to try and ensure we do.

Richard George is right – planners are making it impossible to use a bike for shopping or commuting. It’s time they brought their green ambitions into line with their aspirations.

Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

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I was very disappointed with this film. Had I been on my own I would have left the cinema part way through I was so disengaged.
No effort was made to create the characters – I felt nothing for any of them. As the film progressed I didn’t care what happened to any of them. Bad things happened to them all – there was no redemption.
The story is about how Ann Boleyn became the second of Henry VIII’s wives. I know it was a bleak era in England’s history – but in this film it was boring too.
Thankfully it was a cheap seats night – so it only cost me £3.50 – and it was cold too.
Perfectly miss-able.

Blasphemy is dead Long live blasphemy | spiked

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Blasphemy is dead Long live blasphemy | spiked

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England’s dusty, archaic and unpopular blasphemy laws look set to be abolished, but Ofcom and others are keeping their censorious spirit alive.

I think Brenden O’Neill has his wires crossed. Companies go to great lengths to protect their brands, challenging what sometimes appear to be only small infringements of the use of their precious “brand properties”. Logos, straplines, positioning statements etc. Just think of the businesses challenged for using the “R Us” gimmick. When these huge conglomerates win their case and force offenders to change the signs on the side of their van or worse rebrand their entire business no one cries “CENSORSHIP” or says that it’s an affront to free speech.
And yet, when Christians protest about the misuse of a phrase or series of words that have been hijacked by the media world you would think the devil himself had stepped up to witness box and won the day. The opposite is of course true. We have ceased the worship of God preferring to honour mammon.
If the phrase “Thy will be done” had not appeared in The Lord’s Prayer the offending splash for GHD Hair Straighteners would have been pointless. If Christ had never been crucified on a cross the symbol in the advert would have been meaningless. The ASA was right to uphold the complaint from the church.
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