Pic courtesy of @owenwarrell (Twitter)

V lokalni rafineriji Chevron je okoli 18.20 prišlo do eksplozije. Poročajo o dveh mrtvih. Iz rafinerije, ki je od mene oddaljena 8 km (po zraku), se vali gost črn dim. Baje smrdi po žveplu.

Problem je tem, da so v bližini še elektrarna na zemeljski plin (še v izgradnji), dva plinska terminala in še ena naftna rafinerija, vse v rangu nekaj km, pa da o številnih tankerjih polnih nafte ali plina ne govorim. Kolegica iz službe živi precej blizu rafinerije in pravi, da je vse tiho, tako da upamo, da je vse pod kontrolo.

Sinoči so poročali o dveh mrtvih, danes zjutraj (3. junija) pa že o štirih. Veliko informacij poročajo na spletni strani lokalnega časopisa Western Telegraph. Do eksplozije naj bi prišlo pri vzdrževanju nekega 730m³ velikega rezervoarja ob 18.22 četrtek zvečer.

Chevron je spomladi 2011 naznanil prodajo te rafinerije podjetju Valero Energy Corporation za 730 milijonov USD. Prodaja naj bi bila zaključena v drugi polovici 2011.

Recently I have had some problems with this website and it seems y hosting provider has had some problems that they are hopefully solving OK.

However I don’t have that many visitors to the website so I don’t think I should really need to inform you.

In fact, why am I writing this.

Still doing it.

Damn. Stupid me.

Wrote all this garbage now, might as well press the Publish button.

After being called out, out of hours, at 8pm and then just after going to bed at midnight I was awoken by the pager at 4:50 this morning. Just as I was calling the call centre my mobile went off. This was a full-on alert. The call centre told me that they received a call from the police that our premises alarm has gone off.

First the panic set in that sort of helped me wake up a bit. I dressed rather hastily (for the second time this night) and rushed still a bit dazed to the car only to be called again by the call centre that they received another call from the police that it was not our alarm that went off but the next door’s.

A few hasty words were spoken but not directed at the person at the other end of the line. She must have heard them but unfortunately she should be considered involved in collateral damage.

I knew this might bite me in the behind if I just go back to sleep. On these occasions you sometimes get called again so I decided to check our premises anyway. Upon my arrival expecting multiple police vehicles and possibly someone from the neighbouring business, I found absolutely no one. Nada. Ziltch.No alarm was going off either. Time for a another few carefully chosen words. Then checked our place and then back home for a simulated couple of hours of sleeping. I say simulated as I actually did none.

Bring on Friday, I guess.

Drugo soboto v maju so imeli v neki dvorani v Pembroke Dock-u (od tu kakšnih 15 min stran) avdicijo za statiste, ki naj bi igrali v junijskemu snemanju filma na lokaciji, kjer prav zdaj poteka snemanje za nekaj prizorov Harrya Potterja.

Mest je bilo samo za nekaj sto, pred dvorano pa se jih je zbralo čez tisoč. Nekateri so bili doma nekaj hiš stran, drugi spet pa so se peljali več ur na avdicijo.

Za kako sekundo ali dve je tudi mene zamikalo, bolj kot ne iz firbca, samo bi si težko vzel dopust v tako kratkem času. Si bom pač moral ogledat film v kinu, tako kot mnogi drugi.

I don’t intend to just mention when companies do bad things. It should also ne noticed when they do some good things as well.

I recently bought an iPhone from O2 so I had to switch my mobile operator from T-Mobile to O2. I explained this to T-Mobile and asked them if they could send me the unlock code for my old Nokia N95 I bought through them so I could use it for other networks.

And guess what, they did it and not only that, they also did it for free. I was sure they were going to wallop me with a huge bill for it but I was amazed when the person at the T-Mobile call centre offered to do it for free. I am really impressed and wouldn’t think twice before returning to them sometime in the future. I managed to unlock my phone last night and use my SiMobil Halo SIM card without any glitches.

See T-Mobile, it does pay off to be the nice guy

Danes (14. marca 2009) se je po TV in časopisju v Veliki Britaniji na dolgo in široko pisalo o najnovejšem načinu, kako bo država opazovala (beri: kontrolirala) še dodaten del našega življenja in sicer potovanje v tujino. Tu seveda Britanci ne bi bili Britanci, če bi se v to smatralo tudi potovanje v druge EU države. Naj spomnim, da Britanija ni nikoli bila in verjetno tudi ne bo nikoli v Šengenu. Nekateri bodo glede slednjega kar zadovoljni.

Sistem se imenuje e-borders in, kot sami opisujejo na svoji spletni strani, bo to zelo Orwellovsko pripomoglo k »greater security, effectiveness, and efficiency«.

Dejansko gre za podoben monitorski sistem, ki so ga uvedli Američani ESTA. Britanci pa seveda kot pridni kužki morajo sledit bivši koloniji in izdelat podoben sistem.

Zbirati nameravajo osebne podatke, kam ste namenjeni (itinerar) in tudi plačilno sredstvo, ki ste ga uporabili za karto ali hotel. Vsaj toliko so vljudni, da sami ne bodo zahtevali teh podatkov od vas temveč so elegantno preložili odgovornost na turistične in letalske družbe, ki morajo pridobiti vse te potrebne informacije.

Aja, informacije pa naj ne bi hranili več kot 10 let. Kako zelo lepo od njih. Tako lahko pričakujem, da mi bodo v roku leta ali dveh let sunili identiteto in ukradli denar iz Matercarda – vsaj sodeč po popolni nesposobnosti britanskih državnih organov o varovanju osebnih podatkov. Za podrobnejše informacije uporabite Google.

Danes zjutraj so na Britanskih TV postajah predvajali video, ki ga je časopisna hiša The Sun posnela z novopečenima otroškima staršema.

Britanija je že sicer znana kot prva v številu mladoletnih nosečnic samo ta primer te pa kar malo zmrazi. Oče je sicer star trenutno 13 let, bil pa je 12, ko je spočel otroka s svojo petnajst-letno punco.

Foto: The Sun

Med intervjujem je voditeljica vprašala, kaj bo delal v s smislu finančne podpore in fant ni vedel, kaj pomeni beseda “finančno” – seveda ne razume, saj je star 13 let!!!

Ob takih trenutkih se spomniš, kaj si ti počel v tej starosti in po pravici povem, da se ne spomnim. Vem, da sem hodil v osnovno šolo, mogoče 6 ali 7 razred in se mi je ravno počasi šajnalo, kaj so punce in da mogoče niso samo objekt mojega nagajanja (sorri punce

Puncheston (slikala Lisa Phillips)

Veliko hecov se je že razvilo na ta račun in ka nekaj sem jih verjetno začel sam. V večini so kar upravičeni in ravno te dni imam to srečo opazovat v praksi, ko v tej državi, v kateri trenutno živim, popadajo v stanje absolutne panike, ko jim pade bela snov iz nebes.

(slikala Lisa Phillips)

Kot prvo ne znajo vozit v snegu. Speljevanje iz druge jim je španska vas. Zimskih gum tu seveda nimajo, ker zimske sezone praktično ni. Največji problem pa je pluženje in soljenje. Nisem mogel verjeti, ko so v ponedeljek zvečer kazali cesto, novinarka pa se je čudila, kako to, da je cesta neprevozna, če pa so prek kratkim solili. Očitno še niso slišali, da je treba sneg najprej splužit in šele potem solit. Halo!!! Soljenje jim namreč še kar gre, samo plugov imajo pa bolj malo. To so kolegi iz službe izkusili na lastni koži. Splužene (in soljene) so bile le res glavne ceste in če nimaš te sreče, da živiš ob njej, si ga malodane najebal. Ostalih cest niti ne povohajo.

Pa jih ne bi stalo preveč, da bi se nekaj vasi zbralo skupaj in našlo kmeta, ki bi bil pripravljen, v primeru snega, na svoj traktor (ki jih je tu okoli res veliko saj živim v precej ruralnem delu Walesa) prišraufati plug in malo počistiti lokalne ceste. Na ta način se to dela po mnogih vaseh v Sloveniji. Če pa jih je škoda denarja, kot jim ga očitno je, naj pa ne tečnarijo, ko izgubljajo miljarde svojih funtov zaradi izostankov iz služb.

Prilagam fotografije, ki jih je posnela kolegica 3. februarja malo pred 12. uro. Vse kar je uspelo voziti po cesti so bili traktorji.

Puncheston (slikala Lisa Phillips)

I had the opportunity to sample a great studio-grade professional foot pedal from a company called Line6. The machine is called a POD XT Live and was lent to me for a few days by a friend. On the website the POD XT Live is described as an »uncomplicated, gig-ready tone machine that’s portable and adaptable to different real world stage and recording environments«.

Well, it is truly impressive and quite complicated to a novice like myself. My first task given to me was to read through the manual which, I must say, is not exactly a pocket edition. OK, it’s not War and peace but it DOES have about 190 pages!! Luckily there is a Quick start guide for those who »don’t need no stinking manual«

It has loads of different connections which I won’t even try to describe in fear of sounding stupid – you pros will know them anyway and if you don’t, see the Line 6 website. It does have standard output/input sockets, Variax socket and even a USB socket to connect the whole thing to a PC. Sorry all Linux users as the software is for Windows and Mac users only. Shame on Line 6, I just hope the Wine will be able to run it successfuly.

Confirming the pro-esness of this machine are the artists that use it. There are: Garbage, U2′s The Edge, Radiohead, Nine inch nails, Keane, Green day, Jamiroquai, Muse, Slipknot, Kaiser chiefs and many more.

Image courtesy of Line6.com

Started off while it was still dark. Plan A was going to ski on Krvavec. No plan B at that time. Just as we left Cerklje there was a suspicious hold-up in the traffic which turned out to be due to the great number of cars – all heading for the same ski resort. My friend and I parked just soon after Cerklje , where the buses usually park. That meant  were were at least a few kilometres aways from the valley cable station. This didn’t sound good and quite surprising as it was a Tuesday and still a working day.

We had to come up with a plan B double time or faced having to return home. Plan B came to be the Vogel ski resort which turned out to be a great idea. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and once we found a parking found no queue to go onto the cable lift.

However once we reached the top cable station we found out how right we were to choose this place. The views of the valley below and the surrounding mountains were stunning and there was also plenty of snow to enjoy – 260 cm (thats 8 and a half feet for my friends back in Wales

The valley cable car station	View towards Triglav from the top cable car station
	View towards the valley and Lake Bohinj
View taken just outside the top cable car station
	In action
	Yo, yo, yo, get down!

After going through the fiasco of Swalec charging me 10x more through the meter reading by adding an extra decimal to my gas usage I have found out thatthe person or persons reading meters in our areas should have a comprehensive educational refresher course in meter reading.

Read the article here…

A few days ago I received my gas bill – the last meter reading was based on an actual reading of the meter. To those who don’t clearly understand this is that a person, hopefully from Swalec, came to my meter and read the numbers of the meter. Cool. But I went and checked the meter anyway and to my surprise saw that the meter reading on the bill was 504 and the numbers on the meter show 495 (495.14 to be precise).

Dear Swalec, how is it possible that the actual meter reading is higher than the one I obviously took after your man/woman read it. Did I turn into a energy supplier and pushed some gas back into the system?? I am sure there is not much natural gas available under Haverfordwest despite all the lngs we have in the area.

I have now managed to send off the container to the manufacturer Aerodyne in Florida. I have just driven back from Swansea where I send off the container through a DHL ServicePoint location in the Parc Tawe Staples shop. Great service, if you ask me, as you don’t have to pay a high price to have your packed shipped and you also choose what boy its going to be sent in – the price of shipment depends on the size of the box, but with a upper weight limit. I sent in a large box which has an upper weight limit of 5kg – even though my container weighed only 3.5 kg. There are currently about 750 ServicePoint locations in the UK.

When the lady in Staples was helping me pack I kept on thinking that I am forgetting to post something, but I could not put my finger on exactly what. Considering I still had an disassembled container this morning I had to move fast so I unintentionally forgot to send the Aerodyne form that should be in the DHL package.

What can I say, ooops for the second time?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Where’s my container? (martinmcdowell.com)
• Ooops, or how I ripped my container on a Cessna 206, part 3 (martinmcdowell.com)

This will be my public consumer awareness post. Just for those who don’t know me, I have not lived in the UK for many years so I had no real idea how much utilities cost. Sure you can compare prices between different companies but its difficult to know, how much you spend.

However I always thought I was paying a bit to much for gas but was delaying the time to actually call up the gas copmany and ask for some help. I also had a guy come in and inspect the gas heater as part of my landlord’s annual obligation.

The company I am with is Swalec and recently they changed their website and, by chance, I received a recent gas bill which was as usual very high. i forgot to mention this company sends bills every trimester, so I did sometimes think that I just felt the bills were so high because of that. Well, the new website enabled you to report gas meter readings on-line. When I did that I noticed there were instructions on how to do that. Although I had reported meter readings on the phone before that I thought it might clarify a few things for me. i ws surprised to see that you were supposed to read the meter only to the decimal point and no more than that. The meter reading I had on my previous bills seem to always include an extra digit after the decimal point!

How could this be possible?

My best answer is – I have no idea. The initial meter reading must have been done by someone from Swalec and although some bills come based on estimated readings some come from actual meter readings and these were all done with an extra digit. First I thought I was mistaken but I re-checked the instructions and there was no doubt – they have been overcharging me (via meter readings) ten times (10x). If you look closer at the bill it says the unit us “cu meters” which is cubic meters or m3. That corresponds to the values before the comma.

I received a delayed re-vised bill where they re-calculated all bills payed after I moved in over a year ago. I had been overcharged by about five hundred pounds.

don’t let this happen to you, check you meter yourself and check the instructions – see how you broadband connection can repay dividends.

Insert from the instructions page:

Read the numbers from left to right, including all ‘zeros’ but ignoring the red number(s) or any number(s) after a decimal point.

So if you think your gas bill is to high it might not be all down to the increasing oil prices. Check.

Ravno se je končala zaključna slovesnost Olimpijskih iger v Pekingu in oči so seveda že zazrte v London, ki bo gostil naslednje OI leta 2012. Tu se mnogi sprašujejo, kako bodo OI uspele Britancem (ker živim v Veliki Britaniji »tu« pomeni v Britaniji in ne v Sloveniji). V primerjavi s Kitajsko VB ni ravno velika država, je pa precej velika v evropskem smislu in ne vidim razloga, zakaj bi imeli z organizacijo hude težave. Je pa edini trn v olimpijski peti ta, da se britanci na dolgo in široko pritožujejo nad samimi OI in da jih ne bi smeli imeti. Večinoma se pritožujejo nad stroški, ki naj bi nastali, na prestiž, ki s tem pride, pa noben noče pomisliti ali pa se jim ne zdi dovolj vredno truda.

Sam sem mnenja, da lahko tu organizirajo gatetrgajoče OI samo skup morajo stopit. Mogoče sedaj, ko je bila olimpijska zastava predana londonskemu županu, se bodo malo zamislili in z večjim zanosom zagrabili to priložnost.

(L-R) Nastia Liukin, He Kexin and Yang Yilin. (Photo from http://en.beijing2008.cn/)

It is possible, at least if the suspicions of a hacker »Stryde Hax« a.k.a. Mike Walker are true. There is a possibility that the Chinese gymanst He Kexin that won the gold medal at the uneven bars at the Beiging olympics in 2008 was born 01-Jan-1994 and not 01-Jan-1992 as the Olympic website now states, making the gymanst 14, which is under the required age of 16.

I first picked up the story on the TechRadar UK website but the suspicions were first raised in July by the New York Times and in fact draws suspicion on another gymanst as well – Jiang Yuyuan. The Chinese officials have produced proof of their age (it being over 16) so this could be down to a simple error in the xls documents Stryde Hax has found.

The NY Times article also refers to the Wikipedia page and at the time of me writing this it has stated He Kexin’s age as 01.01. (year disputed).

But if the rumours turn out to be true it could mean that Beth Tweddle, who qualified as 4^th could get the bronze medal.

Related articles

• Olympics: Gymnastics – Beth Tweddle misses out on medal as Nastia Liukin wins fourth of Games
• Olympics: Gymnastics – Chinese duo He Kexin and Yang Yilin embrolied in age controversy
• He Kexin, Gymnast At Center of Age Scandal, Wins Gold In Uneven Bars

Če izgleda, da bom delal reklamo za WordPress, potem ste prebrali prav. Tale blog, ki ga trenutno gledate (poleti, leta gospodovega 2008), deluje v spletni aplikaciji, ki se ji reče WordPress.

Blog sem začel pisati konec 2006 na Googlovem Bloggerju (a.k.a. Blogspot-u) a mi je bilo dosti omejene funkcionalnosti, ki jo je nudil Google. Kupil sem si majhen kos Bluehost-ovega strežnika in namestil WordPress. Vsekakor priporočam bolj zavzetim in tudi nekoliko manj zavzetim piscem spletnih dnevnikov – slednji postanejo morda celo malo bolj zavzeti, ker je uporaba WordPressa precej zanimiva.

Sama osnovna aplikacija ima ogromno funkcionalnosti, ki pa jih lahko še nadgradite – v mojem primeru imama dodatke, kot so Zemanta, mobilni vmesnik, prikazovalnik Facebook stanja, prikazovanje strani preko medpomnilnika (cache-ja) in še mnogi drugi. Za slednjega sem kar presenečen, da ni že v osnovni različici programa.

Precej dodelan imajo sistem vstavljanja slik in sploh raznih medijev (zvok, slika, film) in to precej bolje, kot je to v Google-u, grafičnih tem za bloge je na stotine in so na voljo preko WordPressa ali pa jih lahko sami poiščete na spletu.

I saw this somewhere on the internet and found it hilarious. I apologise to any US citizen if he/she is offended but this is really good!

In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise.
   Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).
3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of -ize. You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.
4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent.Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.
6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.
8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline)-roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager.South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth – see what it did for them.
12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters.Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
13. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try Rugby – the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us. No more Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Cereal Bowl or Super Bowl. From now on….. get used to the World Cup.
14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.

God save the Queen.

Well, its more of an orthopedic course but this makes a better title Thi splace should be about 3 hours from Haverfordwest but ended up over 4 as there was a car accident in somewelshnamedplacewithlotsoflettersandhardlyanyvowels. This was on the A40 ut before and after the accident this was one of the most enjoyable roads to drive on for speeds about 60-70 mph.

Tomorrow I start the two-day course which will hopefully tell a lot about the principles and tecniques of ortopedic surgery. The hotel I’am staying in is quite nice, and looks clean. My window is on the ground floor and is overlooking the lawn with lots of wild rabbits running around it. Cute.

O, I nearly forgot, for those who don’t know, this is Warwickshire – or Shakespeareland. Stratford-upon-Avon is just down the road.

Oh, yes, and this is my first post written exclusevly for this new blog website.

I was very surprised to hear that the British Queen Elisabeth II. is to visit Slovenia soon.

The official press release can be seen HERE.

The original press release on 26-Jun-2008 read:

Buckingham Palace press releases

ANNOUNCEMENT OF STATE VISITS TO SLOVENIA AND SLOVAKIA

26 June 2008

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will pay State Visits to: Slovenia, at the invitation of President Dr Danilo Tuerk; and Slovakia, at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic, during this Autumn.

Background
This will be the first visit by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to both Slovenia and Slovakia.

The links in the press release were added by myself and are not part of the original press release.

According to a press release on the Slovenian President’s website the visit will take place from 21st to the 23rd of October 2008.

After a long wait and an apparent server crash (link 2)we finally have the much anticipated new browser from Mozilla. You can get a detailed how-to on the product here.

Martin McDowell Firefox 3 download certificate

The “big download” should have commenced at 10 am PDT but was delayed at least an hour an a half. I managed to get it at 19.30 GMT (20.30 CET). I encourage you to get you own here:

http://www.mozilla.com/

Update: as mentioned earlier there have been so many requests for download that the Mozilla servers just crashed under the pressure. At one time there were like 14.000 downloads per minute! With a 7 MB download that is 13 GB/s.

If you want to see the progress fo the download you can se a live counter here:

http://downloadcounter.sj.mozilla.com/