Top Gear 2016 - Episode 1 - Matt LeBlanc, and, Chris Evans

Well I had to write a review of the first episode of the "new" Top Gear.  I can sum it up as follows:

- Boring - I kept looking at the clock to see how much longer I had to endure the programme for;
- Tedious - My view is that all the features were not really relevant;
- Not enough women - My limited mathematics counted one woman in the whole show;
- Old hat - A new team, but the same format, surely with all the money the BBC ploughed in to the programme it could have been more creative.

So for a quick overview of the programme.

It started out with the two hosts Chris Evans, and, Matt LeBlanc introducing themselves with the studio audience.

Next we headed to a US Air Base in Nevada to test the Dodge Viper ACR, and, the Corvette Z06.  Here Evans is joined by co-host Sabine Schmitz (the only woman featured in the entire programme).  To help out with the absolute tedious final part of the feature which involved trying to shoot the other hosts car, they were joined by two male US airmen.

The next part of the programme involved a challenge.  Travelling to Blackpool in two fibreglass Reliant Robins painted in the colours of the UK, and, USA flags.  This feature went on far too long, and, involved the obligatory hitting of each others cars.

Back to the studio now with two stars in rally cross car (oh, this must be the creative innovative part).  The stars were Gordon Ramsey, and, Jesse Eisenberg, who were surprisingly both male.

Now to another feature involving LeBlanc, and, the off road Ariel Nomad, which amazingly called on the assistance of another three male paparazzi photographers.

So to end the show it was back to the Blackpool challenge, featuring a Willys Jeep, and, a Series one Landrover. To aid the hosts two Blackpool Council Officials were enlisted, the Fylde Vandals Rugby team, the Lancashire Wolverines American Football team, two men in drag, a power lifter called Nick Best, and Alistair, and, Jonny Brownlee. All males, albeit two dressed as women to address the gender balance.

A quick count reveals 12 individual males, two male teams, two males dressed as women, and, one woman.  It's a good job the BBC said that they were changing the format so it was less "blokey".

I suppose the good thing is that from such a low base things can only get better.  They also need to cut out the "beeped" swearing.  It adds nothing apart from a lack of imagination.  The programme is aired far too early to have to incorporate beeping.

A special mention has to go to the BBC 3 Extra Gear programme.  Now this show I did find entertaining.  Unfortunately it was nearly all male again, but it flowed, the features were more entertaining, and, it was interesting.  I did not know the two presenters, but I imagine they are not paid as highly as Evans, or, LeBlanc. This is what the BBC should be all about promoting new talent.  For some reason it feels that all the public are interested in are the same "stars" in the same formats.

---

---

Company Profit Warnings: The power of threes?

The power of threes?  Is there a psychological association with this number?  In this post I am going to talk about it in relation to profit warnings for companies.  I’m sure I’ve heard the phrase that warnings always come in threes. I was recently analysing a company for a potential investment, at a share price that in all honesty looked very enticing given the next two financial years forecasts.  The one thing that has held me back however, was that the share price had suffered a 30% drop two months ago due to a profit warning, which related to a slowdown in European orders, coupled with a restructuring exercise that is taking longer to complete than expected, which when implemented will only deliver half of the savings originally envisaged.

This started me wondering as to why profit warnings in threes could be true, so I came up with the following musings to try and explain the situation.  You should be aware that everything written below is from my own mind, and, is not based on any research work undertaken by me or anybody else.

Profit warning one – I am assuming this situation arises out of the blue for the Directors.  I presume they are so overly confident and optimistic about their ability to run a company that they cannot envisage the scenario of profits ever falling.  It would be interesting at this point if the Directors revealed exactly what their contingency plan is (i.e. that is already in existence before it happened, as part of their normal duties) to deal with the situation.  The usual format of communicating this to the market is by a statement saying that profits are expected to be at the lower end of forecasts.  I’ve got to say this sort of statement is absolute garbage.  For many smaller investors they are probably not even aware of the company forecasts.  At the very least the company should restate the profit and loss account, and, balance sheet, so it is transparent to all investors as to what to expect.  I believe this would certainly focus the Directors minds, rather than issuing a form of words.  It would also be beneficial if the Directors also reduced their salaries and share options to an absolute minimum level, both to increase profitability through reduced costs, and, provide an incentive to management to achieve the specified target.

Profit warning two – At this point the Directors have presumably tried to undertake some form of corrective action, but realise that companies are like oil tankers and cannot be turned around in a short period of time, along with the fact that the environment has turned out to be far worse than they envisaged, and, at this stage the company is looking to report profits far lower than forecast, if at all.  Again a statement will be issued stating this, with further wording suggesting the business environment has changed to such an extent that could not have been foreseen by any sane commentators.

Profit warning three – As the reality of the situation bites, all hope is lost as previous efforts to restore profitability have failed.  The statement to the market will consist of an outline that the company is undertaking a full strategic review of its business model, usually with the help of a team of third party consultants.  This always puzzles me.  Surely the Directors should have instigated this review at profit warning one, and, in my humble opinion should be undertaken by internal company staff.  It just shows you that it is not only investors who cling on to the hope a company will recover, but the Directors do as well.  Throughout the warning phases it feels like the company have never really accepted the issues, or, the market changes that first caused the problems in the first place.  The whole warning process should also highlight the role of the non executive Directors as their role throughout is to hold the management of the company to account.

As always I welcome any comment you may have.

---

---

Blogger Right Sidebar Appearing at Bottom of Blog

After composing a relatively lengthy blog regarding the problems I was having with my guttering overflowing, and, a blocked pipe to the soakaway, which you can read about by clicking here, I was distraught to see that the normal right sidebar was now appearing at the bottom of the blog.  On Googling the problem the general consensus was that one of my blog posts contained some erroneous HTML code.

To ascertain which post was causing the trouble I reverted my most recent post to draft form and viewed the blog again.  This time all was well with the right sidebar appearing where it should do.  This obviously meant that the most recent post was the problem.  Unfortunately this post was quite complicated as it combined pictures within the post etc., and, so the html code looked quite involved.  I copied the code in to word, and, then began the process of inserting the various sections into a draft blog post to try and isolate the problem.

My initial thought was that it would be something to do with the images I had inserted, but I was surprised when it occurred with the text I had inserted next to a picture in the second paragraph.  I fixed this in the draft by highlighting all the text in the compose menu, and applied the font (arial in my case), and, the font size (normal).  After applying this, the sidebar was again on the right.  Having discovered this fix, I then went to the original post on the guttering overflow problems, and, highlighted all the text in the post, and, applied the font style, and, font size.  To my relief this fixed the problem and the right sidebar appeared in its rightful (pun intended) place.

I hope this simple method works for you too.

---

---

SKY+ Box Problems: No picture on the television screen: Blue Screen of Death

This morning a disaster struck me in that I woke up to my Sky system refusing to show a picture on the television screen.  All I could view was a blue screen.  My Sky box is plugged in to the HDMI1 socket of the television.

My immediate reaction was of sheer panic.  It is amazing how you think your life will end when your Sky box fails.  The first thing I did was to switch the box on and off, but this failed to work.

I then googled the problem which suggested trying to re-download the software.  You achieve this by turning off the Sky box, pressing and holding down the backup button on the top of the box, whilst turning the box back on, keeping the backup button held down until all four lights come on at the front of the box.  The good news is the lights duly came on, and, after around ten minutes went off again, as they should do.  Unfortunately there was still no picture on the television screen.

The next thing I tried was to plug a scart cable in to my Sky box and the television, and, select the AV1 input channel on the television.  Good news a picture appeared.  This was a relief.  I checked the planner and everything was in order.  What I was very surprised at was the quality of the picture through the scart lead.  It’s amazing the difference in quality the HDMI connection makes.

The final thing I thought I would do is plug the HDMI cable into the HDMI2 socket on my television, and, select the HDMI2 input channel.  Low and behold, and, much to my surprise it worked, so I am now back in business with a full HD picture.  It appears as if the HDMI1 socket has failed on the television.

This is the second time I have been faced with a blue screen of death.  The first was when the Windows operating system failed on my computer, see my previous post for details of that escapade by clicking here.

---

---

Zoella: Girl Online. Let us celebrate the positives and improve ourselves.

Although we all moan, and, this blog more than most, I feel I have to come to the assistance of Zoella, who has recently been reported in the media as earning around £50,000 a month.  For those of you who are not familiar with the name, this is a young lady who originally developed a blog, and, then moved on to producing videos on youtube about her daily lifestyle including beauty, and, cooking advice.  Her output became so successful, that she attracted millions of readers/viewers, and, has since started utilising advertising, product endorsements, a subsequent book deal, etc., all of the associated peripherals that popularity (celebrity) attracts.

What has made me sad is that since this news broke, there appears to have been a backlash about the size of the income she is generating for what people perceive to be an easy job!  I mean for starters no one knows what is involved in her daily working life.  For me just writing this article alone involves a lot of effort.  The output that Zoella generates far exceeds my meagre labours.  Then there is all of the business side to her enterprise, I’ve no doubt that this in itself becomes time consuming and tedious.

The story just brought home to me how quickly people are to jump on the negativity band wagon to try and bring you down, and, criticise.  Why not celebrate all the positives?  Zoella brings happiness to her millions of followers.  I cannot imagine they listen to her to get depressed.  Think of all these people who start the day with a spring in their step, full of inspiration, wanting to push the boundaries of their own lives.  Then there is the amount she pays to the exchequer.  A salary of around £600k will generate over £300k in tax and national insurance, which will certainly help towards funding for instance the National Health Service.  In addition to this she no doubt buys in various goods and services to support her business activities, thus helping to stimulate employment within the economy.

I think the crux of the problem probably boils down to jealousy.  People look at what she is doing and realise that they too could have probably done the same thing (something that may be said about many entrepreneurs).  The issue here though is that they didn’t.  Zoella had the belief, getup and go, and, drive to see the project through and make it successful.  We should therefore celebrate this fact.  I myself have a resentment for Martin Lewis of “moneysavingexpert” fame.  Being interested in financial affairs, I wish I had set up such a website back in the day, but alas I didn’t, and, hence he is sat being a multi millionaire, whilst I live in poverty.  I have to admire him for seizing the opportunity, whilst the rest of us have to suffer, and, use these comparison websites, just to be able to afford our daily life.

And so to conclude let us celebrate when people do well, and, use it as inspiration to spur us on to improve our own daily lives.  Well done Zoella.

---

---

Glam vidz 85878 refund: Charging without Subscription: How to Reclaim a Refund of your Money: Premium Rate Messages

I am a bit worried writing about this subject, because being paranoid I am still fearful of reprisals.  It concerns my experience with so called premium rate text messages received on my mobile phone.
I first started receiving these about five months ago.  They were from the number 85878 and concerned something known as “Glam vidz”.  The messages started with the words “Freemsg” – giving the somewhat misleading impression that there would not be a charge to receive the message.  At first I didn’t pay any attention, and, just kind of resigned myself that my number had been obtained and I would be plagued with them, but foolishly thought that if I ignored them they may go away.  The messages did end with the phrase text “stop” to the number should I wish to opt out.  I didn’t do this as I thought this would just validate my number and open myself up to further such messages.

The next major milestone occurred about two months later when I received a message which was annoyingly occurring about every week.  What caught my attention this time was the fact that the text contained the words I had subscribed, and, was being charged £3.00.  I did not recall previous messages stating anything about a fee, but could not check as I had already deleted them.  At this point alarm bells started to ring, and, I rang my mobile operator who is T-mobile (EE) to check if this was true.  As I waited for an operator to answer I was mildly optimistic that I would not have been charged.  Imagine my horror when I was told that in fact the charges had been added to my bill on a weekly basis, and, totalled over £30.  In fact my previous direct debit had already paid for over half of these, which I had not noticed as I do not check my bank statements on such a regular basis.  Something I will now be doing!  I was absolutely devastated to hear this.  I couldn’t believe it had happened, and, felt like I had been robbed in broad daylight.  My mobile operator said that it couldn’t refund the charges but gave me a number to contact to stop the messages and apply for a refund.  I ranted on about how this could happen, and, stated that I did not want any other charge on my mobile bill other than my agreed monthly fee.  Eventually the operator said they would stop the messages and charges by putting a block on fees for any third party services.  I did not know of this facility, which in my opinion should always be activated on your mobile account, unless you opt out.

The name of the company was Global Awareness, based in London.  I rang them from a landline about the issues.  I stated that I did not subscribe to the service and asked them to tell me exactly how and on what date I had done so.  They could not provide this information but asked for my mobile number to put a stop on the messages.  They stated that I must have clicked a link on a mobile advert that would have subscribed me for the phone number.  I then asked them for a refund covering the charges they had already billed me for.  They said someone from the refund department would have to call me back within 24 working hours to action this.  In order to process the refund I was also asked the following questions:-

1. What network are you on?
2. Is your contract pay as you go or monthly?
3. What type of phone did I have?
4. My name
5. My address

I refused to give an answer to question 2 and 5, and, was told that without my address they would not be able to process a refund as it would be sent by cheque.  I stated that I wanted the refund paid into a Paypal account, and, gave the email address.  Before I made the call to the company I had created a new email address and Paypal account as I did not know what I was dealing with, and, expected them to be hacked, or be inundated with spam email.  Let’s face it I already felt like I had been robbed.

The next day I was phoned by the refund department.  They stated that I needed to provide my address so that I could be refunded by cheque.  I told them that I wanted the refund by Paypal, and, gave them the email address.  I did not provide my address.  I asked when I could expect the refund and was told it would be between 2 to 4 weeks, but they would try to process it as soon as possible.  I must admit after the end of the call my heart sank, and, I did not hold out much hope of receiving the refund.

You can imagine my surprise when four working days later I received a full refund to my Paypal account, and, so far no spam email.  I also have to add that the telephone calls with the company were courteous at all times.

You may wonder why if I had such a happy ending I have told the story in my blog.  Well firstly it may help others who are in the same situation, but secondly it just highlights the vulnerability of gadgets these days.  It all seems too easy how my details were obtained, and, used to charge me.  Surely there should be more controls then just clicking on a link, and, then being charged.  The other issue is that when something like this happens you do not know who to turn to.  I had to piece everything together through research online.

Since stopping the messages I have only had one other message from “Nick” which again started with “Freemsg”, and, then went on to say “Guess who I f**ked last night?” along with a website link.  I mean how can companies get away with sending such explicit unsolicited messages?  There must be some law against this.

I have recently considered quitting my mobile and the internet because all of a sudden it is starting to feel like more trouble than it is worth, but so far have not done so.