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The end of a dream

Many years ago, Keith Rodgers sat on top of Shirley hills in Croydon, trying to tune in to a pirate radio ship while it was being jammed, by the British government on his Transistor radio.

He had no luck listening to that station, but as he tuned around on that fateful Sunday, he found something amazing, Radio Jackie.. it had real people playing great music using their real personalities , and sounded like a fun thing to listen to. It took him a while of listening and several trips to the Lion gates of bushy park to visit and see the group of youths in the pub that, were Radio people, to get the courage to approach the bar staff and ask, who were the Radio Jackie crowd.

Gathering all his teen wit, he approached one of them and was invited to sit with them, after a few weeks of visiting this crowd on a Sunday, he went to the curry house with them and had a meal with them.

Somehow, he got invited to site and after several weeks walking for what seemed miles over soggy muddy fields and carrying car batteries to the sites, he started asking to do a show,for several weeks, no was the answer, but the time went by and one day he was invited to Mike Knights's bedroom , in the corner was a pair of record decks and an old rectangular microphone, with cardboard slipmats, his first radio show was made there.

It didn't get on air, after a few weeks of going and making shows, one somehow got to be on air, I think one of the other tapes ( cassette) snapped and they needed to have an extra show. More of his shows went out, starting out under the name of Keith Rodgers and eventually changing his name to John Preston, his shows went out on a regular basis.After some time went by and several visits to local Police stations, under escort, he decided it was time to stay away, but Radio Jackie continued without him.

Later,he was invited to the radio Jackie shop in Morden and invited to do a live show And briefly got paid for a few weeks, several months passed and he was sacked for the first time,he cant remember why.

He applied to every station in the uk for a year, over and over and never got even one interview

It turns out that, he wasn’t that bad as a presenter, but had been ignored because some radio stations had black listed radio Jackie staff.

One day He tuned into the station and found they were saying, we are closing down, he was there on the last day and a short excerpt of him speaking appears on the radio Jackie LP.
 

Years later, he received an email from Dave and was invited to come and chat, Thames radio was being run by Radio Jackie staff and was about to change its name to Radio Jackie.

He was put on air that day and as the months went past, regular shows ensued, one day after a chat with Dave about taking up to the vocals , he was told, he was not really local and he decided to take a two week holiday.

After the holiday, he went back to the station and was told by the presenter that he no longer had a show.

To this day He still tunes into Radio Jackie and these day does not like what he hears, the personality has mostly gone out of the presenters only a very few sound enthusiastic .

His dream to be a professional radio Presenter was never fully fulfilled and he is sad when he listens to a station that could be great, but has lost in his mind at least, its will to be Fun.

Good luck to all who sail in Radio Jackie, I think you will need it.

Our road trip to the States

Acer Liquid metal

My thoughts so far are that the internal memory is a bit small and very soon after getting it it was complaining that I was low on space, this is mainly because quite a lot of Android apps don't let you move them to the SD card, it seems fast and responsive and playing most games is no problem.

The screen is reasonable resolution and I can see it ok in bright sunlight.

I do worry about how robust it might be, but I have sat on it in my back pocket and dropped it on carpet in my living room, and so far It survived with no issues.

One tiny issue is that the back cover of the phone does not quite seem to fit exactly and as its curved, sit a tiny bit proud of the back of the phone.

It hasn't caused any issues, so far.

There is a warning in the instructions about getting it wet, basically it tells you it cannot get wet and will fail if it does, so, I will be avoiding using it in the rain.

I paid, including shipping: £196.97 from

eXpansys plc

As I type this is no longer in stock, but just after I bough it it was reduced to 

£170, So Im guessing they sold hundreds of them very fast. 

Overall, Im fairly happy with it, But gadgets are never perfect in every ascpect.

I feel that, they make them with deficiencys  so that you come back and buy another when they launch a new model.

Otherwise the mobile phone market would have been saturated some time ago

Virgin Mobile Internet settings for andriod

Virgin don't really seem to be keeping up their website, in some places its states  Data on PAYG  is 30p a day in others is 50p , I see I am paying 50p.

They don't list generic  settings but these are taken from several android phone settings and seem to work ok for me on mine. Please dont sue me or blame me if they don't work for you..

Contact Virgin direct and see if you can get any sense out of them.. I couldn't.

You probably will want to make all these settings fit into one Profile or APN, thats what I did.


Virgin 3G settings :   

Setting up the Device

 On the device, tap the Menu icon (or Applications > Menu).

Select Settings > Wireless & networks (or Wireless Controls) > Mobile networks > Access Point Names.

    Press the Menu key and select New APN.

    Select Name, enter Virgin Enhanced and tap OK.

    Select APN, enter goto.virginmobile.uk and tap OK.

    Select Proxy, enter 193.30.166.4 and tap OK.

    Select Port, enter 8080 and tap OK.

    Enter the user name and password listed below. If no value is listed, leave the field blank.

        Username: user

        Password:

    Select APN type, enter default and tap OK.

    Press the Menu key and select Save.

    If necessary, tap Access Point Names then tap the radio button next to Virgin Enhanced to set the profile as default.

    Return to the home screen and launch the browser.

    Press the Menu key and select More > Settings > Set home page.

    Tap Set home page and enter http://www.virgin.com/mobile/wap/, then tap OK.

The settings are saved and the service is ready for use.

Setting details

Below are the details of your settings

Name:          Virgin 3G

IP Address:          193.30.166.4

Username:          (none)

Password:          (none)

Homepage:          Virgin Mobile Bites

Server Address:          http://www.virgin.com/mobile/wap/

Picture Messaging settings    

Setting up the Device

    On the device, tap the Menu icon (or Applications > Menu)

    Select Settings > Wireless & networks (or Wireless Controls) > Mobile networks > Access Point Names.

    Press the Menu key and tap New APN.

    Select Name, enter Virgin MMS and tap OK.

    Select APN, enter goto.virginmobile.uk and tap OK.

    Enter the user name and password listed below. If no value is listed, leave the field blank.

        User name:

        Password:

    Select MMSC, enter http://mms.virginmobile.co.uk:8002 and tap OK.

    Select MMS proxy, enter 193.30.166.2 and tap OK.

    Select MMS port, enter 8080 and tap OK.

    If available, select Authentication type then select PAP

    Select APN type, enter mms and tap OK.

    Press the Menu key and select Save

The settings are saved and the service is ready for use.

Setting details

Below are the details of your settings

Name:          Virgin MMS

IP Address:          193.30.166.2

Username:          (none)

Password:          (none)

Homepage:          http://mms.virginmobile.co.uk:8002

Server Address:          goto.virginmobile.uk

Time for change: Looting is not the answer

The makers and retailers of high price tag electronics should have some responsibility for ensuring that kids learn how to acquire these desirable items. 

I feel that some of the huge profits posted by the likes of Apple ( Ipod/Iphone), Microsoft (xbox, windows mobile) and so many others, should be used to educate the potential owners of these items.

In all the adverts for these type of items, have no mention of how you can afford to aquire them, how about some ethics.

For example:

Get a great education, we will sponsor you to get a great degree, help you get a well paid job and then buy our £600 phones or £1000 computers or £400 games consoles or £2000 plasma TVs.. isnt it the only way to move forward, dont expect the government to educate people or the schools .

Take some responsibility for your own wealth. Apple, Sony, LG,Microsoft,Panasonic and so on.


 When I was a kid at school these things were not available , a flash car was my desire, when i asked about how you get a  great car, the answer was to earn it.. you know what , I never thought of stealing one, where is the pride in that?

Come on you wealth makers get some ethical adverts running, help get the money to buy your expensive goods, or maybe you like them being stolen/looted




 

Phone Hacking is Phone Tapping

It seems that some one you dont know, reading your email and listening to your voice mails is ok now, maybe it always was , but we didn't know about it.

Its safe to say that.. now you know.. if you are in the UK its ok for any newspaper to tap your phone, email , heck, open your personal surface mail and use the information for any reason they so desire
Story

And the police dont care. are not interested and wont do anything about it..

TURN off you voice mail.. do not store messages in it, think that is the answer?

No.. it isnt.. how do you secure your voice mail.. the simple answer is you cant, because a call to your mobile phone operator and they will reset your voice mail pin number.. test this get a friend to phone them and pretend to be you.

 You will be amazed how easy it is to be hacked