Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
How to remove that annoying AVG8 notification window
Open a command prompt box by clicking on Start, then Run and then type cmd (hit Enter)
Copy the following text and then paste into the black box you have on screen and press the Enter key twice.
ren "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgmwdef_us.mht" "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8avgmwdef_us.mht.bak"
ren "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgresf.dll" "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgresf.dll.bak"
Et voila! No more annoying pop-down windows for you to spoil the view.
Copy the following text and then paste into the black box you have on screen and press the Enter key twice.
ren "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgmwdef_us.mht" "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8avgmwdef_us.mht.bak"
ren "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgresf.dll" "C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgresf.dll.bak"
Et voila! No more annoying pop-down windows for you to spoil the view.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Queenborough 3
I've been up to see Mum and Dad's boat today, as it was having a new cratch cover fitted. That's the bit at the front of the narrowboat, for those of you who are unaware what a cratch is....
Had a spot of lunch at the local pub - perfect - and then on to meet up with the people who had travelled down to fit the cratch cover. My back now hurts since I've driven my dad's Clio now for over 200 miles hehe ;-)
Thursday, 4 September 2008
AVG 8 update failing with 'Invalid CTF file error'
Try this method instead:
Click on Start, then Run and copy the following text and paste it into the box:
del "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download\*.ctf"
Try running the update again and it should now complete successfully!!
JB
Click on Start, then Run and copy the following text and paste it into the box:
del "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download\*.ctf"
Try running the update again and it should now complete successfully!!
JB
Monday, 1 September 2008
Back in Blighty
Well, my 6 months was up and I managed to get my ticket booked and sorted within a day or so. All I had to do was go and collect my PlayStation3 from the menders (the 2nd one in as many weeks) and jump on the plane.
My trip was supposed to be with TAM which is a Brazilian airline, and routed through Sao Paulo and onto London. We somehow managed to miss this booking, and got an Iberia flight instead. More expensive, and the initial leg was MVD to Madrid which took nearly 13 hours. In my view that's an enormously long time to be over a vast expanse of water such as the Atlantic!
I arrived after an 11 hour delay and was met by my parents - it was great to see them again. Almost immediately, I was greeted by the sight of all the lovely new motors on the roads, and even saw an Audi S5 in the airport car park. There was a funny moment outside the airport where my Mum and Dad ingratiated themselves with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who was ahtside, havin a faaaag ;-) He's quite a thesp, but rolled back into a rather heavy Irish accent when my Dad made a joke about the situation.
I've already been down to pick my Audi A8 up from Benenden, where it was being stored by a friend. I took Claudia with me, so she could see a bit of the English countryside. Claudia is the sister of Gaby Russo, and she is Uruguayan. She was staying with my parents for a week in order to arrange further accommodation in Kilburn, and my kind parents offered to put her up in the meantime. After seeing virtually no sun all week, Claudia was most happy when Saturday turned into an archetypal English summer's day. It was very pleasant.
My old motor hadn't been started for 6 months, but after a quick hook-up to my sister's Honda Civic Sport and it started first time. Very impressive. Not so impressive was the fact that half of the car looked like it had been resprayed for some reason! I think there are a few questions that need answering on that subject.... Later that afternoon, there was a traditional wedding at St George's Church in Benenden, and we saw a couple of vintage cars namely a Lagonda and an MG.
I'm now splitting my time between Sue and Ian's, and my parents. Sue is the mother of Hannah, and Hannah is my god-daughter.I'm hopefully going to meet up with some more friends this week as I am now officially mobile.
My trip was supposed to be with TAM which is a Brazilian airline, and routed through Sao Paulo and onto London. We somehow managed to miss this booking, and got an Iberia flight instead. More expensive, and the initial leg was MVD to Madrid which took nearly 13 hours. In my view that's an enormously long time to be over a vast expanse of water such as the Atlantic!
I arrived after an 11 hour delay and was met by my parents - it was great to see them again. Almost immediately, I was greeted by the sight of all the lovely new motors on the roads, and even saw an Audi S5 in the airport car park. There was a funny moment outside the airport where my Mum and Dad ingratiated themselves with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who was ahtside, havin a faaaag ;-) He's quite a thesp, but rolled back into a rather heavy Irish accent when my Dad made a joke about the situation.
I've already been down to pick my Audi A8 up from Benenden, where it was being stored by a friend. I took Claudia with me, so she could see a bit of the English countryside. Claudia is the sister of Gaby Russo, and she is Uruguayan. She was staying with my parents for a week in order to arrange further accommodation in Kilburn, and my kind parents offered to put her up in the meantime. After seeing virtually no sun all week, Claudia was most happy when Saturday turned into an archetypal English summer's day. It was very pleasant.
My old motor hadn't been started for 6 months, but after a quick hook-up to my sister's Honda Civic Sport and it started first time. Very impressive. Not so impressive was the fact that half of the car looked like it had been resprayed for some reason! I think there are a few questions that need answering on that subject.... Later that afternoon, there was a traditional wedding at St George's Church in Benenden, and we saw a couple of vintage cars namely a Lagonda and an MG.
I'm now splitting my time between Sue and Ian's, and my parents. Sue is the mother of Hannah, and Hannah is my god-daughter.I'm hopefully going to meet up with some more friends this week as I am now officially mobile.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Golden Brits at the Olympics
I cannot believe how well we have done at this year's Olympic games in Beijing, China.
We've achieved the best medal tally for over 100 years which is certainly something to shout about! We're currently in 3rd place on the medals tables, second only to China and the USA.
UUPDATE at 15:14 (GMT): Christine Ohuruogu has just won another gold for the women's 400m. Stunning run, and she came from nowhere...
Go Britain !!!
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Cats and dogs
I've always wondered why there are so many dogs and so few cats in this city.
Perhaps it's because cats aren't that good at guarding people's property in the way that dogs are supposed to. Mind you, having said that - the amount of barking you hear all day long along with the car alarms reminds me very much of 'Peter and the Wolf' syndrome. You hear so much of it that your mind becomes numb to it all that when you do hear someone's alarm going off, or a dog barking, then you just think it's usual.
Anyway, on to the far more interesting story of cats. Or cat to be precise. Since I have a lot of free time and essentially spend a lot of it looking out of the windows, I've struck up a long distance relationship with a cat. Well, it's about 30 ft to be more precise. As you can see from the photo, there is a black cat that sits watching by the drain on the corner of our street, Luis Lamas. He's obviously waiting for a rat or similar creature to pop its head out so he can have some dinner. I love that cat! Hours of painstaking work. He doesn't move.
And on to the subject of dog walkers. This has always irked me since I fail to understand why the dogs need to be walked in the first place. You buy the dog and you walk the dog. You don't fob it off on to someone else to do. That's called responsibility and it's something inherent with the whole idea of having a dog.
Enough of my social rant. I normally get to hear about the exploits of a local dog walker, who seems to think that taking dogs for a walk (and extracting money from the owners for doing so) doesn't actually involve walking the dogs. What a novel concept! This lazy bleeder arrives at the corner of the street we live on, and then proceeds to tie up all his dogs to the lamp posts. Last time I heard all the dogs barking, I took a picture of them all.
He then sods off down the road for about 15 mins and leaves the dogs barking their tits off. Not only that but with dogs being dogs, one of them started humping one of the others. So not only are the owners being short-changed, one of them is going to be the proud owner of a set of puppies, whether they like it or not. Shameful behaviour.
I've a good mind to follow this clown one day, and after he has dropped the dog at the owner's house and left, I'll knock on the door and show them the pictures of their dog being 'walked'. I don't think I'll need to tell them in Spanish for them to get the whole picture!
Perhaps it's because cats aren't that good at guarding people's property in the way that dogs are supposed to. Mind you, having said that - the amount of barking you hear all day long along with the car alarms reminds me very much of 'Peter and the Wolf' syndrome. You hear so much of it that your mind becomes numb to it all that when you do hear someone's alarm going off, or a dog barking, then you just think it's usual.
Anyway, on to the far more interesting story of cats. Or cat to be precise. Since I have a lot of free time and essentially spend a lot of it looking out of the windows, I've struck up a long distance relationship with a cat. Well, it's about 30 ft to be more precise. As you can see from the photo, there is a black cat that sits watching by the drain on the corner of our street, Luis Lamas. He's obviously waiting for a rat or similar creature to pop its head out so he can have some dinner. I love that cat! Hours of painstaking work. He doesn't move.
And on to the subject of dog walkers. This has always irked me since I fail to understand why the dogs need to be walked in the first place. You buy the dog and you walk the dog. You don't fob it off on to someone else to do. That's called responsibility and it's something inherent with the whole idea of having a dog.
Enough of my social rant. I normally get to hear about the exploits of a local dog walker, who seems to think that taking dogs for a walk (and extracting money from the owners for doing so) doesn't actually involve walking the dogs. What a novel concept! This lazy bleeder arrives at the corner of the street we live on, and then proceeds to tie up all his dogs to the lamp posts. Last time I heard all the dogs barking, I took a picture of them all.
He then sods off down the road for about 15 mins and leaves the dogs barking their tits off. Not only that but with dogs being dogs, one of them started humping one of the others. So not only are the owners being short-changed, one of them is going to be the proud owner of a set of puppies, whether they like it or not. Shameful behaviour.
I've a good mind to follow this clown one day, and after he has dropped the dog at the owner's house and left, I'll knock on the door and show them the pictures of their dog being 'walked'. I don't think I'll need to tell them in Spanish for them to get the whole picture!
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Indian curry King and Queen of Montevideo!
Hello all.
Last night we took part in the curry contest organised by the Montevideo Players society in Acevedo Diaz. Quite a few people turned up, around 30 at my estimate and the competition was fierce - the same as some of the curries!
Entry #1 was some kind of sweet concoction, with pineapple. Rather poor in my opinion.
Entry #2 took my breath away, as it was chilli-ed up with some real bite. Interesting as it contained apple, and even more interesting - bananas. This was the entry from John, the Scot we've met recently.
Entry #3 was typical of a 1980's interpretation of an Indian curry, complete with the requisite sultanas. Quite pleasant, although it reminded me of the Vesta curries my Dad used to have ;-)
Entry #4 was pretty good. Not much to describe, but medium hot.
Entry #5 was our concoction. I'd prepared the onion, garlic and freshly grated ginger. Ale seasoned the chicken with some rogan josh mix and garam masala, then some fresh cream. It all came together well, although we had to reduce it somewhat. In other words, I spent 20 mins continually stirring it until it had thickened to the required consistency.
After much deliberation and the comment by the judges that this year's contest was one of the closest, first prize went to:
John and Ale !!! Yippeeee !!!!
We won a meal for two at a restaurant in Carrasco.
Pictured above right is Ale receiving the mortar and pestle cup, from Jack - the president of the Montevideo Players society. It shall be engraved in due course, although we'll have to think up a name as per previous winners (Nehru/Gandhi etc.)
Monday, 4 August 2008
No sirens but fun all the same
Posted this just so everyone reading the blog can have a laugh at my expense!
The picture taken by my Dad shows the old Bedford CA ambulance we used to have. In the picture, you can see my sister Claire, my brother Mark, me - and in the background, my Mum in the ambulance itself. The dog laying down on the grass is our Pyrenean mountain dog called Belle. Anyone my age will easily remember the legendary children's TV programme "Belle and Sebastian" on BBC2. Hence the dog's name.
My Dad purchased the ambulance from a garage in Clapham (or Clarm if you're posh) and set about converting it by putting in beds etc. One of our major adventures was touring Europe in the early 70's and getting as far as Denmark! How wild and crazy is that? Some of my earliest memories include:
- Sleeping overnight in Antwerp and watching car transporters
- Eating chips with mayonnaise somewhere in Holland
- Meeting up with a friend of Mum's called Elke, in Munster - Germany
- Eating rhubarb with a liberal coating of sucrose somewhere after I complained about the taste, and my Mum duly tipping the sugar bowl all over my red stringy dessert
- Teefing some sugar beet from a local farmer's field ;-)
- And the best - visiting the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark - complete with a trip up in an aeroplane. Very exciting for a young Johnnyboy I can assure you!
We were the local celebrities when we turned up to school in that Bedford. I feel a wave of nostalgic British pride as I look back at that photo to see the Union flag above the windscreen. Ingenious idea by my Dad to replace the previous AMBULANCE lettering!
The picture doesn't show that the Bedford was actually painted two-tone purple and white, very 70's I feel. I loved that vehicle.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Wanton violence in Montevideo
Last night we were the victims of some nutter on a motorbike.
I've always learnt that you should look both ways when pulling out of a side turning, and I look again just to make sure. It's a good habit I picked up from my father a long time ago. I'd spotted a moped coming from our right and warned Ale. I also saw a motorbike at some distance, so after we'd pulled away I said to her that someone was woofing it down the road at a great rate of knots. He was flying.
I didn't think anything more about it until I suddenly became aware of the motorbike rider pulling alongside Ale's window, and he booted the door good and hard. He accelerated away along Jose Ellauri until he got to the traffic lights. At a distinct disadvantage here, I egged Ale on to pull around the waiting cars so we were doubled up at the lights. I managed to get a flash photo of the cretin at the lights and that's when he legged it on his motorbike. I think he thought at that point he'd got away with it, until he got caught at the next set of lights - at which point, I jumped out and shall we say, remonstrated with him [Post censored due to the fact my parents might be reading this]. I don't think he'd seen me as I was wearing a black jacket in the car, and my head literally scrapes the roof of that poxy Chevrolet Celta (Vauxhall Corsa in the UK).
We 'persuaded' him to follow us to the police station, where we gave a statement. Ale didn't think that much would be done about it but the guy was driving with no front head lights. HELLO? If it wasn't for my sharp-eyed reactions in the first place, he could already be one of the accident statistics here.
What a clown. To cap it all, he started getting all airy with the police, who then ushered him away into a back room. Good riddance to Mr 'SEL 861'. If I ever see his bike again at the side of the road, he will mysteriously suffer from a puncture. Or two.
I've always learnt that you should look both ways when pulling out of a side turning, and I look again just to make sure. It's a good habit I picked up from my father a long time ago. I'd spotted a moped coming from our right and warned Ale. I also saw a motorbike at some distance, so after we'd pulled away I said to her that someone was woofing it down the road at a great rate of knots. He was flying.
I didn't think anything more about it until I suddenly became aware of the motorbike rider pulling alongside Ale's window, and he booted the door good and hard. He accelerated away along Jose Ellauri until he got to the traffic lights. At a distinct disadvantage here, I egged Ale on to pull around the waiting cars so we were doubled up at the lights. I managed to get a flash photo of the cretin at the lights and that's when he legged it on his motorbike. I think he thought at that point he'd got away with it, until he got caught at the next set of lights - at which point, I jumped out and shall we say, remonstrated with him [Post censored due to the fact my parents might be reading this]. I don't think he'd seen me as I was wearing a black jacket in the car, and my head literally scrapes the roof of that poxy Chevrolet Celta (Vauxhall Corsa in the UK).
We 'persuaded' him to follow us to the police station, where we gave a statement. Ale didn't think that much would be done about it but the guy was driving with no front head lights. HELLO? If it wasn't for my sharp-eyed reactions in the first place, he could already be one of the accident statistics here.
What a clown. To cap it all, he started getting all airy with the police, who then ushered him away into a back room. Good riddance to Mr 'SEL 861'. If I ever see his bike again at the side of the road, he will mysteriously suffer from a puncture. Or two.
Where is everybody?
I''ll certainly admit that I'm unable to see good old Blighty from here in Montevideo, even on a fine sunny day. Even Buenos Aires isn't within reach. However, I can't see a blinking thing recently, as we seem to have been cursed with fog over the last two days or so.
Dank is one word that springs to mind, and that's a word not often used in the English language.
I sit here awaiting news about a possible job offer, and the weather seems to fit my mood ;-)
At least it seems to deaden the effect of all the noise coming out of the cars, which for some reason over here tend to have blown exhausts 50% of the time. Perhaps the owners need their earwax removed. More than likely, they're simply tone deaf or don't give a flying ....
Grey JB
KDE and Gnome on Ubuntu
For those of you that don't know, these are the names of the two desktops that are primarily in use on Ubuntu. KDE used to be more Windows-like in it's appearance but my view on that has changed a lot since I've installed/tested KDE4.
KDE4 now looks like a toy desktop with oversized icons, and poor response speed. Goodness knows what the developers were thinking when they released this. I've quickly purged all of KDE from my system and I now run exclusively with Gnome, with Compiz enabled.
Compiz allows me to manage my desktop in a rather nice graphical way. For example, I have 4 workspaces available which I can switch to and from, and the transition between different workspaces (or desktops, if you want to call them that) is handled by some rather fancy graphic effects. Mine is set to display a desktop cube, with the four desktops shown on the face of the cube. You can move it up, down, left or right with the mouse or keyboard. It is incredibly useful, and also looks superb.
All the Windows users feel very jealous when I show them what I can do with Ubuntu 64. Who needs Windows in a world without Gates eh?
JB
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Old skool for Winamp
This blog post is made especially for Steve Miller ;-)
I have been going through some of the plugins for Winamp recently and became frustrated at the lack of suitable visualizations, as they like to call them. I remembered having a great spectrum analyser installed way back in the mists of time and just couldn't find it.
I have been going through some of the plugins for Winamp recently and became frustrated at the lack of suitable visualizations, as they like to call them. I remembered having a great spectrum analyser installed way back in the mists of time and just couldn't find it.
I spent a while on the Winamp plugin section of their website, and after much digging - I came up with this legendary plugin by Mike Lynch (from Canada) which of course I downloaded and installed immediately!
As a convenience, I've whacked it on my personal webspace here:
Classic Spectrum Analyzer for Winamp (DOWNLOAD)
Simply double-click on the file once it has downloaded successfully to install. Next, fire up Winamp and do Ctrl-P to access the preferences. The spectrum analyzer should now be listed in the Visualization section, where you can start the plugin, stop it and also change the settings. I quite like having mine set with large bars on the default red/yellow as shown in the screen dump shown above right.
Judging from what this bloke's website says, it would appear that it's not being developed any further, which I think is a shame.
JG
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Montevideo Players anniversary party
We both went to Acevedo Diaz last night for the anniversary party of the Montevideo players. If you've read the blog before, you'll know it's the oldest 'foreign language' amateur dramatic society in Latin America.
We were delayed on the way as Ale's mum called us to visit her, as we hadn't seen her in a long time. We stayed for a while and gave her the invitation to Sofia's 2nd birthday party which is happening this Saturday at Manzana Azul (Blue Apple) on Luis de la Torre.
We eventually turned up at the Montevideo Players around 22:30 to find the usual motley crew assembled. A raffle was held, with top prize being dinner for two at some place in Carrasco, which Ale seemed very interested in. Suffice to say, we won nothing ;-)
We were able to meet up with John and Stephanie again last night, as I needed to get some info about immigration. Stefanie seems to know all the information required as she had dealt with it for her Scottish boyfriend. We were also able to exchange stories about how long things take to arrive from the UK. It would appear that 6 weeks for a package to arrive from the UK is certainly not out of the ordinary!
My time here is running out unless I apply for an extension which hasn't been completed yet. Last time I was out of the country was Buenos Aires back in April, so I need to get cracking with this - with the help of Ale of course.
Just as a footnote, today is a beautiful day here, except for the incessant canine discord. It's a lovely change since we are officially still in the middle of winter!
JB
We were delayed on the way as Ale's mum called us to visit her, as we hadn't seen her in a long time. We stayed for a while and gave her the invitation to Sofia's 2nd birthday party which is happening this Saturday at Manzana Azul (Blue Apple) on Luis de la Torre.
We eventually turned up at the Montevideo Players around 22:30 to find the usual motley crew assembled. A raffle was held, with top prize being dinner for two at some place in Carrasco, which Ale seemed very interested in. Suffice to say, we won nothing ;-)
We were able to meet up with John and Stephanie again last night, as I needed to get some info about immigration. Stefanie seems to know all the information required as she had dealt with it for her Scottish boyfriend. We were also able to exchange stories about how long things take to arrive from the UK. It would appear that 6 weeks for a package to arrive from the UK is certainly not out of the ordinary!
My time here is running out unless I apply for an extension which hasn't been completed yet. Last time I was out of the country was Buenos Aires back in April, so I need to get cracking with this - with the help of Ale of course.
Just as a footnote, today is a beautiful day here, except for the incessant canine discord. It's a lovely change since we are officially still in the middle of winter!
JB
Vero Abella's birthday
We were invited to this event on Saturday, which took place at the Golf Club in Montevideo. Sounded good at the time but then I was told I had to wear a mask. When I discovered that it applied to other people and not just my ugly mug, it seemed like a good idea, much better than some fancy dress lark. If you're sad enough like me to have a Facebook account, then you should be able to track down some of the photos of me.
As usual, Ale looked at her best whilst I did my best English man abroad impression hehe. She danced the night away whilst sipping Diet Coke (or Coca Light as it's called here) whilst I slunk into a corner glugging on the Johnny Walker hehe.
I'm sorry but the music here just doesn't do it for me. Perhaps I'll grow to love it in time. Vero Abella seemed to be enjoying herself, and the night out ended around 4am with a quiet drive back home.
As usual, Ale looked at her best whilst I did my best English man abroad impression hehe. She danced the night away whilst sipping Diet Coke (or Coca Light as it's called here) whilst I slunk into a corner glugging on the Johnny Walker hehe.
I'm sorry but the music here just doesn't do it for me. Perhaps I'll grow to love it in time. Vero Abella seemed to be enjoying herself, and the night out ended around 4am with a quiet drive back home.
Monday, 14 July 2008
Thanks for the mammaries
Well, apologies for the title but I thought it quite apt in the circumstances.
We were browsing at the local shopping centre here in Montevideo, rather stunningly original in its naming convention of 'Montevideo Shopping' when I came across this clothes shop. Apparently, it's like a black-hole where women get sucked in and lose hours of their lives. And come out with nothing useful to show for it.
Obviously something was lost in translation here when the decision was made to name the shop, or worse still, the owners have no idea of the meaning of the word in the English-speaking part of the world. So here it is in all its glory.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Don't cycle in Montevideo
Woke up yesterday to hear a lot of commotion outside, or in other words - lots of emergency sirens. I discovered that there had been an accident involving a cycle and a car, although the car was nowhere to be seen.
It would appear that there were two blokes on one bike, so one was pedalling and he was giving a 'backy' to the other one on the saddle. Not the safest option I grant you, but then again you don't expect to be mown down by a car either.
The aftermath (if you can call it that) was pretty non-eventful with a single police car and two ambulances. Note the rather helpful parking demonstrated by the 2nd ambulance driver.
I think on reflection that cyclists here tend not to have the same importance as the UK to the drivers of Montevideo as you can no doubt see, with the badly mangled front wheel of the bike in front of the police car on the 2nd picture.
JB
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
At long last (PayPal situation)
After 4 months of painful 'correspondence' with PayPal, the clowns have finally unlocked my account. It only took 18 emails, a fax and a 20 minute long international phone call to get it sorted. The 20 minute conversation was pointless by the way, as I was eventually told that they don't discuss security details over the phone. Priceless.
The people involved in this hopeless organisation sit behind a stonewall defence of webforms and the game they like to play most, pass-the-parcel.
One day I am in communication with someone called Aurora, the next and it's someone called Ferizchel. And to use the word communication is probably too strong a term.
And all of this occurred because I simply bid/bought for some memory on Ebay from a PowerSeller in Hong Kong whilst I am here in Uruguay. My Ebay account works fine and so did my PayPal until their systems flagged my IP as 'possible 3rd party activity' on my account.
Their logic is patently flawed and it's caused me a lot of problems. Don't whatever you do pay for anything on your PayPal account in a different country or your account will no doubt get locked like mine did. You will then enter a black hole of miscommunication with the automatons at PayPal. You have been warned ;-)
I am going to vote with my feet and say goodbye to PayPal, and hello Google Checkout!
JG
The people involved in this hopeless organisation sit behind a stonewall defence of webforms and the game they like to play most, pass-the-parcel.
One day I am in communication with someone called Aurora, the next and it's someone called Ferizchel. And to use the word communication is probably too strong a term.
And all of this occurred because I simply bid/bought for some memory on Ebay from a PowerSeller in Hong Kong whilst I am here in Uruguay. My Ebay account works fine and so did my PayPal until their systems flagged my IP as 'possible 3rd party activity' on my account.
Their logic is patently flawed and it's caused me a lot of problems. Don't whatever you do pay for anything on your PayPal account in a different country or your account will no doubt get locked like mine did. You will then enter a black hole of miscommunication with the automatons at PayPal. You have been warned ;-)
I am going to vote with my feet and say goodbye to PayPal, and hello Google Checkout!
JG
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Party party
Ale arrived home from work yesterday to tell me that we were attending a party for one of the daughters of her close friend Caroli, as it was Federica's 15th birthday. Here in Uruguay, it seems to be some sort of custom to have a party when you're 15 years old - normally they wear a more formal dress, and celebrate by cutting the cake, and blowing out the candles. Last night, Federica blew out each candle in turn, giving the candles to people like her sister, parents, godparents and friends which was a lovely symbolic gesture.
I also got to meet up again with Gaby Peralta and her husband, who seems an avid PlayStation man much like myself. He had loads of suggestions and was talking 19 to the dozen in Spanish so you can imagine how funny that was, with me understanding perhaps one word out of every 20 or so! Still, I think a PS3 evening is on the cards very soon providing it gets fixed or replaced.
My last visit to Uruguay finished with Gaby's wedding, and I got hammered on pure whisky, which seems to be the drink of choice here. Now this was over 2 years ago, but I had a great time. The next day wasn't quite so good (translation - I felt like death warmed up) so it was nice to be able to chat to her under more normal circumstances. She suggested that it would be a good thing to get involved with teaching English to people for use in business, and it's something that I may follow up. It could be quite an easy way to make some money here, as I am currently out of work. We'll see what happens.
That's all for now.
JB
I also got to meet up again with Gaby Peralta and her husband, who seems an avid PlayStation man much like myself. He had loads of suggestions and was talking 19 to the dozen in Spanish so you can imagine how funny that was, with me understanding perhaps one word out of every 20 or so! Still, I think a PS3 evening is on the cards very soon providing it gets fixed or replaced.
My last visit to Uruguay finished with Gaby's wedding, and I got hammered on pure whisky, which seems to be the drink of choice here. Now this was over 2 years ago, but I had a great time. The next day wasn't quite so good (translation - I felt like death warmed up) so it was nice to be able to chat to her under more normal circumstances. She suggested that it would be a good thing to get involved with teaching English to people for use in business, and it's something that I may follow up. It could be quite an easy way to make some money here, as I am currently out of work. We'll see what happens.
That's all for now.
JB
PS3 - a ray of hope ;-)
There's a smidgin of good news about my PS3, which is dead. See previous post for details.
After some detective work by my girlfriend Ale, we managed to find the official authorised Sony Repair Centre here in Montevideo. We took the PS3 there last night to find that the place itself looked a bit worse for wear, with just a few bits of old Sony kit on display. Part of the repair centre was co-habited by Abitab, which is a payment centre where people can pay facturas (bills) etc.
Still, I've got my receipt and said goodbye to the magical black box for the next 72 hours, as I've been told it will take them that long to figure out what is wrong with it. I doubt they have that much technical expertise on the PS3 as it is so new here in Latin America, and I'm left wondering if they will simply replace it, or send it to Buenos Aires which is a possibility.
My only concern with the option of replacement is that my PS3 is the 60Gb version, with 4 USB ports and the ability to play older PS2 and even PS1 games. The version available here I believe is either a 20Gb or 40Gb. The hard disk size doesn't matter to me at all since that is easily upgradeable to 160Gb or even 250Gb, so it will all hinge on whether I can get the backward-compatibility or not. Fingers crossed.
However, an alternative option is available to me as I was able to speak to my insurance providers yesterday back in the UK, and they were able to confirm that I was covered. They were willing to provide a new replacement either here in Montevideo, or back in the UK. The UK option would be best for me of course, as they would be able to source the 60Gb version with all the bells and whistles (I hope).
So Wednesday is the big day for me, when we get to hear from the Sony centre what's happening. Fingers crossed.
JB - bored at home.
After some detective work by my girlfriend Ale, we managed to find the official authorised Sony Repair Centre here in Montevideo. We took the PS3 there last night to find that the place itself looked a bit worse for wear, with just a few bits of old Sony kit on display. Part of the repair centre was co-habited by Abitab, which is a payment centre where people can pay facturas (bills) etc.
Still, I've got my receipt and said goodbye to the magical black box for the next 72 hours, as I've been told it will take them that long to figure out what is wrong with it. I doubt they have that much technical expertise on the PS3 as it is so new here in Latin America, and I'm left wondering if they will simply replace it, or send it to Buenos Aires which is a possibility.
My only concern with the option of replacement is that my PS3 is the 60Gb version, with 4 USB ports and the ability to play older PS2 and even PS1 games. The version available here I believe is either a 20Gb or 40Gb. The hard disk size doesn't matter to me at all since that is easily upgradeable to 160Gb or even 250Gb, so it will all hinge on whether I can get the backward-compatibility or not. Fingers crossed.
However, an alternative option is available to me as I was able to speak to my insurance providers yesterday back in the UK, and they were able to confirm that I was covered. They were willing to provide a new replacement either here in Montevideo, or back in the UK. The UK option would be best for me of course, as they would be able to source the 60Gb version with all the bells and whistles (I hope).
So Wednesday is the big day for me, when we get to hear from the Sony centre what's happening. Fingers crossed.
JB - bored at home.
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