Time for a rant about Sky customer services.

I rang the technical help line about 6 weeks ago to ask what would happen if I source my own (second hand) Sky+ box. They were very helpful and advised that I would need:
1. A twin output LNB because Sky+ has two digital decoders
2. To ring them when it is set up so they can pair my viewing card with the new box.

They confirmed that having a Sky+ box and Sky+ functionality (record, pause live tv etc.) would not actually cost me any more since I sourced the equipment myself. They also agreed that I wouldn't need to change my package.

I bought a Sky+ box and quad LNB on ebay a few weeks ago.

So last night, I got the ladder out, replaced my dish single output LNB with the quad version, laid two extra cables and brought them down into my AV cupboard. Fine.

I plugged everything in and got a much better signal strength (on both of the decoders) than before.

The box worked fine (minus recording etc) as it was, but I rang Sky customer services to get the viewing card switched over anyway. The technical person did this, but transferred my to a call center with a very bad line. I could hardly understand the lady I spoke to because of a combination of her English and a very bad line.

It transpired that to have Sky+ recoding enable, on my existing package, would cost a further £10 per month.... yes per month..!!!! I tried to explain the effort I went to to get to where I was (checking first with Sky and then sourcing and installing the equipment myself) to which she replied "... but Sir, if you want the pleasure of having Sky+ you must pay for it...". I got put on hold and after 15 minutes and then gave up.

I have recording enabled just now - because she just assumed that I would pay "for the pleasure" and enabled it!

I rang Sky later for more information and it turns out that with some packages I would get Sky+ functionality enabled for free, but:
1. I don't want to change packages.
2. Because I got a great deal which isn't up until June - I can't change packages.

What a nightmare and to top it all off I'm already in the process of moving over to Sky broadband - that was a big mistake.

Izabella knows when it's bath time if she sees mums shower cap...



Our rugs get rolled up and Iz follows us around the house now...



She can't get enough of aunty Irena's baking...



Charlie came to see us....


Mylo came round too for a go on the bouncer...


We thought it was quiet - Iz fell asleep on her playmat...

Some long long over due pictures of Izabella - many many thanks to everyone who gave her Christmas presents - she was literally snowed under with wrapping paper on Christmas day!




Our Christmas tree:


I had to put this Picture in... Three Stephens who went to school together and their 3 babies all born in 2006. From left to right Stephen B with Charlotte, Stephen W with Charlie and Me with Izabella:

I was wondering what mobile phone bluetooth kit to buy for the car when I came across this link:

www.pioneer.co.uk -> DEH-P70BT



It would appear that the latest batch of car radios have bluetooth built in, you can pair your phone with your car radio and use the radio as a bluetooth car (phone) kit :-)

It is also possible to:
1. Sync your contacts with the radio so that the name comes up on screen when you get an in coming call.
2. Stream music (over bluetooth) from a PDA or phone.

The good thing about the Pioneer head unit is that I can buy an adapter to enable the built in steering wheel controls on my BMW.

I wrote a while ago (here) about synchronising the calendar on XDA Exec with Outlook. This worked fine.

After a slight accident with Megan's old phone - my fault entrierly! Megan now has a new Nokia 5500 mobile which is waterproof and therefore wont suffer the same death as her old phone.

Reading the 5500 spec I see that it has "Remote over-the-air (OTA) data synchronization with SyncML (calendar, to-do list, phonebook)"... which would suggest it would sync with ScheduleWorld.com

Here are the steps to synchronise a Nokia 5500 with Google Calendar:

1. Set up a ScheduleWorld.com account.
2. Login to ScheduleWorld and click 'Preferenes' here you will find "Standard SyncML Client Configuration" which is what the phone needs to use....
3. Locate the phone's sync settings here: Tools>Connectivity>Sync
4. Select Options>New sync profile and call it ScheduleWorld
5. Select Connection Settings and enter the details from "Standard SyncML Client Configuration" into the phone.
5.1 Server Id = funambol
5.2 Host Address is Server URL: http://sync.scheduleworld.com/funambol/ds
5.3 Username and password are your scheduleworld ones
5.4 Use the defaults for the other settings.
6. Now go back and select Applications>Calendar and:
6.1 Include in sync = yes
6.2 Remote database = cal
6.3 Synchronisation type = Normal
7. Go back and select Tools>Connectivity>Sync>ScheduleWorld>Synchronise - the phone will now sync with your ScheduleWorld account.

That's everything with the phone done!

Now is to log on to the ScheduleWorld.com account and check that the calendar entries from the phone exist on the website.

To sync ScheduleWorld and Google Calendars, select Preferences and check the "Automatically sync with this Google Calendar at the start of a SyncML sync." box. Enter your google calendar user id and click 'Find Calendars' follow the wizards entering your password and you'll soon have your Google Calendar in sync too.

The phone synchronising trigger the Googlee Calendar to be synchronised, so (on the phone) select Tools>Connectivity>Sync>ScheduleWorld>Synchronise and afterwards you'll see that the google calendar is updated too.