We are most firmly in the interactive digital age now. How do I know? A couple of days ago my digital Freeview tv insisted on telling me via a black box on my screen that there were to be two steps to the digital changeover. To learn more select the blue button, to remove the message select the yellow button. I’m not sure whether this counts as pedantry, but I think it should have said to temporarily remove the message select yellow. As soon as I changed channels the message was back. So I selected blue in the hope that it would register that I was interested in what the tv was trying to tell me and would therefore stop trying to gain my attention.

One lives in hope. If my tv had its own voice it would probably have said ‘I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that’. Funny how one always expects electronic goods of any sort to start channeling HAL when things go wrong. Blue or Yellow made no odds. Change channel, turn off, turn back on, message in black box. So I thought maybe it’s imminent and therefore necessary that I do something right now. So I Googled when the digital switchover was due putting in my postcode and noticed that my house name or number was also requested. A little strange, so I made use of the ‘Why do you need this?’ link only to be told that the results would be a lot more accurate if I input this detail.

Now I’m no expert on public transmitters, digital or otherwise, but I have the sneaking suspicion that, unless you live on a road the length of the M3 the number of your house isn’t going to make that much difference to which transmitter you are getting your signal from. This suspicion was born out when the results came back saying ‘The Rowridge transmitter in the Meridian TV region is your most likely transmitter.’ So much for accuracy.

Expecting the changeover date to be that night because of the insistence of my tv, I was a little surprised to see that it was in March 2012. A horrible thought then dawned on me, what if this was going to happen every time I changed channel or switched on until Spring next year? Fortunately it seemed that there was to be no repeat the following day, or the day after. One cannot help but have the sneaking suspicion that the black box may be appearing again before we are launched into the digital wonderland next March. One last little point to give us all the feeling this will all go fine and dandy is a note on the Digital UK website which says “You won’t see these messages if you already watching digital TV (e.g Sky TV, Freview or another) or if your aerial is pointing at another transmitter that will switch at a different time.” That worked then and nice to know they can spell ‘Freeview’. Details such as they are below.

Yes it’s true. As the 24-hour news stations so tediously put it, Breaking News!!! The Olympic Torch will visit out faire towne on 14th July which is Day 57 of the journey during the Bournemouth to Southampton leg. The list of towns for the day is Bournemouth, Boscombe, Christchurch, Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Lymington, Totland, Yarmouth, Carisbrooke, Newport, East Cowes, Southampton. I have a sneaking suspicion that at some point Lymington will be the starting point for the crossing to the Island where apparently it will take time out to go on the chair lift at the Needles. I can only hope that it won’t have to face the same queues as ordinary punters. I’ve been there and can testify as to how busy it can get in July.

It was announced earlier today that The Torch would travel to within ten miles of 90% of the population during its roughly 8000 mile journey. You have to wonder how they do it, I suspect dark arts, or at least Google Maps. Actually at times they seem to be the same thing. Wonder if Google will sponsor it. They could put a camera in The Torch and update a whole bunch of their spy camera Street View images at the same time. I’ve been expecting a knock on the door any time with them offering untold amounts of dosh for my insightful marketing ideas for a while now. Strange it hasn’t happened yet though…

Anyways, for more information than you probably care for on the subject, the Blessed Beeb have the dope on it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15572381

But if you’re looking for info on whether it’s going to come down your road, don’t hold your breath. At least not unless you can hold it until ‘later in 2012′ which is when the detailed map comes out.

I am reliably informed (via Google) that Arthur C. Clarke once said
 ”Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. So it must be true.

Following on from that, I must have therefore unknowingly recently used the services of a member of the Techie Magic Circle. Now I don’t know for certain that there is such an august body, but a flawed use of logic suggests there has to be. Anyway, Wife wanted a iPod with all the trimmings on a budget, which could be an iPhone without a valid Sim card. As luck would have it, good friend had an iPhone which had a broken Home button, thus rendering it if not unusable, at least the most frustrating bit of tech he owned and had ditched it at upgrade time. If you have an iPhone, just consider how annoying it would be to have to turn it off and on every time you wanted to switch apps. Not nice.

Enter second friend on Facebook who had broken their iPhone screen and had it repaired in short time for reasonable amount of money i.e. not by Apple. Glowing recommendation for something called corePhone which having all lower case before the Phone bit of the name obviously had to be the real deal. Short email conversation and I was off to Whiteley to get said vagrant iPhone sorted for the very reasonable sum of two £20 promissory notes from the Bank of England. Fixed, tested and now returning home with regularity, that counts I think as a result. Should you require similar help, not just with iPhones, take a look at their website corePhone or call them on 07771 868346. I don’t get anything for this, I just happen to think Apple have a tendency to over-charge and corePhone works.

Having recently had an upgrade to a tad over 10Mbits broadband, I wanted more! So having seen BT’s new series of adverts for fibre-optic broadband I went in search of yet higher speeds. No dice. Lymington (01590) isn’t on the horizon yet, let alone in the centre of the great fibre-optic constellation. So what to do? Well if you are on the Lymington exchange and would like to see even faster than ‘up to 20Mbits’ then you need to vote. No, really. Regrettably few have yet, so get your skates on and go to The Race to Infinity. Yes I know it sounds like something from Toy Story, but if up to 40Mbits broadband appeals, you know what to do.