The Deal

The deal can be broken down as this:

• Free HTC Desire unlocked handset
• Orange 24 month contract
• £12.50 p/m after redemption (details here; £25 p/m without)
• 300 any network minutes
• Unlimited texts
• 500MB data allowance

Which, in my book, is pretty good; especially with an unlocked phone. It seems to me that they receive stock on a weekly basis, though not on consistent days. The HTC Desire is currently out of stock, but they are supposed to receive more stock by the middle of the next week. I ordered mine when it was out of stock at the beginning of the week and it was despatched today after they received stock last Thursday. Go and grab your Desire! (#)

There are other deals on there that you might want to look at but I wanted to stay with Orange, which may screw me over at a later date.

Whether you are wanting to work where you attend university or college or whether you’re travelling home for the summer, the ways to go about getting a job are pretty much identical. The first thing to do is prepare all the things you will need to apply for a job. This means creating your CV. There are plenty of good websites out there that will guide you along the process of creating a good, relevant CV. If you have an academic tutor at your disposal, they are an invaluable source of help for making a subject specific CV.

A couple of weeks before you will be available to start work, it’s a good idea to identify and apply via the post, internet and in person if possible to the places you’re hoping to work it. With these applications the most important pieces of information to include, especially for retail related jobs, are the dates you are available for work, what hours you can work and why you want to work there; all of which can be attached to your CV on a cover sheet.

It’s a real shame but you’ll have to get used to the idea that hearing nothing back usually means no. Most shops and companies will not even let you know if you fail in your attempt to get a job with them. While in my opinion it’s quite disrespectful, it’s common practise and so the only solution is to try until you get an answer. Be persistent.

Within the couple weeks before you go home, or wish to start work, it’s an extremely good idea to sign up to some employment agencies in the area. They can do half the work for you and find you temporary work for over the summer. While this is attractive and I myself have gotten summer work through an agency the past two years, it doesn’t guarantee you work over the entire duration of the summer, if at all, and you can become unemployed at a whim. It also invites the possibility of doing many different things and working long shifts you may not be used to. Experience has taught myself, and people I know, that persistence with agencies is only a good thing and can make the different between getting work and not.

These tips are here are just a guide and are things that have worked for myself and the people I know. Earning extra money during the summer vacation can make the difference to some people between scrimping and saving for a year and enjoying your student life as you should. One thing to remember it to check your payslips if you are in full time education. As a student you do not have to pay income tax on your earnings out of term time. If you are being charged income tax, you need to contact the tax office and request a new tax code, or get them to send you a rebate. Good luck.

Not managing our money properly can lead to terrible decisions that have to be made; Do you buy the food for the week or the cheap beer that’s only on offer today? Do you pay your rent or go out every night in a week? As you’re a student, and because you’re reading this article, you’ve obviously gone weeks without eating and been behind on your rent. On a serious note, this can not only effect your health, well being and state of mind, but also result in you becoming homeless or having legal action taken against you. Not what you want at any point during your university life.

In my experience, living in halls on your campus or private halls elsewhere is the easy option. Payments are, usually, in tune with student loan payments and bills and utility payments are usually included in the price. Your first year is usually one crazy year and one you’ll want to cram lots into. For this you need money. Halls is definitely the way to go here.

A few simple things you can do though, to make the most of your first year and prepare for the second. Firstly, if you do receive a student loan and maintenance grants, put them into a high interest savings account. This will hopefully provide you with a few extra quid through interest. Most student accounts require you to use that current account as your main account, and they do check. So have the funds sent to that account and then transfer them to your high interest savings account. Secondly, set aside a certain amount that you will transfer from your current account to a savings account. This is the easy part, but leaving that fund alone will be the hard part. Usually, opening an e-ISA or other savings account is usually free, requiring an initial £1 deposit but this may vary. Basically, it’s easy so there’s no excuse.

When it comes to your second year at university, you’re probably going to move into privately rented accommodation with your mates. That was my decision, anyway. When you do, do your research. What is the normal weekly cost in your area? What length are the tenancies? Will you get a summer concession during the summer months when you’re probably not even going to be living in the house? There are a few things to consider that your SU can probably help you with. Moving into a house, or flat, is a more complicated experience. Firstly, try and go through websites such as Unipol which will hopefully keep the nasty, evil landlords from your computer screen. See the properties. Ask them about the things listed above. And most of all, ask how you’ll be paying. Some like to be paid monthly, or in instalments. Work out when the money will leave your account, and when any money will be entering it from loans or jobs etc. You don’t want to fall behind on payments; although many landlords are quite forgiving, some are not and missing a single payment, even by a day, can be a breach of contract which can lead to eviction.

A top tip for living privately is to plan how much you have to spend over each period between rent payments. Don’t spend more than you have. It’s not worth the hassle.

Other things you can do to help include getting the best phone contract you can, so downgrading to a cheaper tariff, only turning the heating on in your house for a few hours a day. Those sorts of things go a long way. Not getting Sky, Virgin Media or BT, but sticking to Freeview or better yet, just using your laptops/computers to watch your favourite programs. Looking for the best internet deal for your property and not just sticking to the provider that the previous tenants had. And, don’t use your overdraft if you don’t have to.

So, what have we learnt?

Well, if you’re a student you probably didn’t read all of that. So, here are Sunny Man’s top student finance tips to help you have a money trouble free year at university:

• Transfer your loans/grants into a high interest savings account.
• Put aside £5/£10 a week into a savings account over the year.
• Know when and what you have to pay and to who.
• Try not to use your overdraft, however good it looks.
• Have fun, it’ll be the best years of your life so far…

I’ve been meaning to upgrade my phone to the HTC Desire for, unsurprisingly, about seven weeks now and Orange have been out of stock all this time. A few phone calls to Orange and it turns out they have at least around 5,000 – that’s five thousand – of the HTC Desire in their possession, possibly more, which Orange are testing. The issue is apparently not to do with stock shortage, as they do get regular deliveries, but to do with the number of devices passing Orange’s tests. Apparently, a shipment of around 4,000 devices this last Monday only produced 90 devices that passed. That’s 2.25% that are passing Orange’s tests! A new software update should apparently be implemented soon which should let the Desires flow freely from the test centre and into our hands, but when this is supposed to happen is anyone’s guess. Hopefully in the next couple weeks.

But don’t get too excited as a reservation list apparently has around 15,000 people who are next in line to get their lucky hands on this phone. My advice? Go sim free if you can. Or go to another network. If you’re not prepared to wait that is!

To combat this foretold ending, governments around the world are investing in alternative energy sources that produce less CO2 and all that horribleness. Wind, tidal, wave, geothermal, solar and nuclear are the main power sources currently experiencing a surge.

Now, forgetting all this poison business, let’s look at our main sources of energy. Coal, oil and gas. Mucky stuff. Take one step back and just look at it. We are digging this stuff up, setting it alight and making steam to power turbines. This is all very well, but isn’t it so…. 19th Century? We’re in 2010 and we still get most of our power from black stuff we dig up from and ground and set on fire. We need to change. And change with the times, technology and environment.

Nuclear energy is touted by governments as the magical cure for our energy crisis. No carbon emissions, they say. True, but what about all that nasty nuclear waste and all the dangers associated with nuclear material? They have answers to every question you could ask. Over on TED, there is a small debate on Nuclear energy (embedded below) which is quite interesting and made me rethink my own stance on the issue. Take a look.

The scientists in the above video make some very good points both for and against Nuclear energy. It also points out we’re very uneconomical with the way we’re placing these alternative energy sources in and around our respective countries. What’s your view on Nuclear energy, climate change and alternative energy sources in general?

As a scientist, I think Ahmadinejad has a point buried somewhere deep beneath all that shit he chats. As modern, scientific and progressive nations we shouldn’t be advertising the belief that a sea creature can predict the future. That’s an absurd conclusion to come to. I think what the Iranian president was trying to say is that our belief in luck and believing that we can predict the future is totally unfounded. Yeah, that’s what he was trying to say.

Instead, we obviously should be punishing rape victims, segregating the population by gender because of those insatiable females who can’t control themselves and whom try to corrupt the men. We should be spending money on ‘nuclear power’, or another word is defiance, rather than letting girls learn to read and write and we should definitely be helping out those poor, poor terrorists because they’re just misunderstood and only need a few more missiles to get people to come around to their way of thinking. It all makes sense really.

Mahmoud, to put it in the politest possible words, you are a pillock. You say you and your country aspire to ‘human perfection’ and that we couldn’t possibly do the same because we cheer on a slimy sea creature because it, by chance, happens to choose to eat from one box which we happen to assign to a football team. We know it can’t predict the future. If you want to heckle and denounce something worth your while, and do something honestly decent with your power, stature and your precious time why not speak out against the belief in witchcraft in some African nations that harms children? Or work to help abolish the death penalty in Saudi Arabia for the ludicrous crime of sorcery, for which there is no legal definition.

Why? Simple, you’re a stroppy teenager rebelling against his parents, doing the things they tell you you’re not allowed to do. Pillock.

One item of contention with the Desire is that the battery life is rather disappointing. While this doesn’t deter me, as I’m used to charging my current phone nearly every day, it would deter some power users looking for something more. With this in mind, HTC today put out a press release detailing that the next revision of the HTC Desire, and the global Nexus One (the Google phone), would include a new screen employing Super LCD display (SLCD) technology which offers up to 5 times more power efficiency than the current lineup.

Whilst this is indeed good news, it also means users wanting to upgrade to the HTC Desire have to choose between risking upgrading now for the phone that everyone loves, or waiting until whenever it is HTC decides to unleash the more power efficient SLCD Desire onto the market, which may be as soon as the end of this summer. Or even to wait for the rumoured HTC Desire HD, hitting a shop near you in October apparently.

Beautiful.

The key findings of the research revealed that 14 to 24 year olds amass a collection of around 8,000 tracks on average. If these were all gained illegally, that’s about six to eight thousand of our Great British pounds the music industry has lost, just from one person. My music collection barely tops two thousand tracks so for me this is quite a surprising statistic. On the other hand, the accessibility of illegal music on the internet – forums, torrents etc. – means that huge numbers of tracks can be downloaded over a small period of time.

A multi-million dollar industry

Another result of the study revealed that, although the percentage of people who admitted to illegally downloading music has reduced by 3% on last year, 61% still admitted to it this year. This is not as high as I would have expected but I think you still have to account for those who did not admit to it when answering this question. The real value may be a little or a lot higher than this.

Illegally downloading music, among other media, is a huge issue at the moment and it seems it will continue to be unless the music industry and their customers listen to each other and compromise. People want free music and they want it on demand. This will never change. Some service providers, and even governments, have taken drastic action to stop illegal file sharing but people have found, and always will find, ways to get around the blockades imposed. Have a read of the report and see what you think and whether you agree with the findings.

From SushiPanda, linked above:

Over half of my Chinese-Chinese friends on MSN have put the badge on their contact names, in defiance of all the anti-China bullying that they’re undoubtedly reading about in the Chinese newspapers, watching on the Chinese news, and scouring over on the hundreds of blogs and BBS’s peppering China’s cyberscape and devoted to propping up this country’s national pride.

I’ve no problem with patriotism, within limits of course, but we all know that information is manipulated in an unprecedented way in China and it’s a shame that the people – the good people of China – don’t realise why foreigners do protest. It’s nice to see that Chinese internet users can rally together like this, but just a shame they seem to have a misguided view.

Still going strong and I got a post coming up for you all tomorrow. Thanks to those that read it.

Today, the Daily Mail and several other papers report that British athletes are being forced to give up their right to freedom of speech in order to compete. It honestly makes me sick. I’ve always said we should boycott these Olympics. I still believe this. Why are we supporting China? They’re still a communist dictatorship.

What are your views?

The computer literate will be thinking that the WTF in WTF Magazine stands for a less than polite interruption. Well, it stands for “What’s the Future Magazine”, to put your minds at rest. This new publication is the result of one company having too much money and too much time. For this, I’m actually quite greatful. The well known online electrical retailer eBuyer has created this bi-monthly publication to fill our brains with more news and reviews than you can shake a stick at. There are a few drawbacks which I will go into but so far, it seems a pretty decent and interesting magazine.

WTF is this?

WTF Magazine is a new publication brought to us by that well known UK online retailer eBuyer. It features reviews of hardware such as laptop comparisons, flash drives and what not. At the moment, it also offers a few competitions which some pretty nice prizes although I feel some of the things you have to do to enter have to relevance to technology whatsoever.

It’s a welcome sight to see a full colour technology magazine which is free to subscribe to. Obviously, with this positive comes a few negatives. Even my other favourite technology magazine, .net, is relatively padded with advertisements and this is no different. Also, it’s not as long as some other magazines and there’s no freebies or discounts with it as of yet. But that’s not all you get this stuff for is it?

A Worthwhile Read?

Sure, the magazine is a nice bit of reading but in all honesty, it’s just a catalogue for eBuyer with some articles slipped in on some pages. Granted there’s a bit more detail in the product descriptions than on the e-commerce site and it’s nice to see a catalogue for an online shop.

To sum up, it’s a free technology mag that is worth a read if not to learn a bit more about recent technology and products then to pass some time either on your commute or on the toilet. If that isn’t a enough a reason, then get it for the obligatory photos of the woman wearing a tight plastic jumpsuit.

University is something that wouldn’t have even crossed my mind a couple years ago. I was concentrating on GCSEs and having a good time too much to think that far into the future. I know it’s a cliché but time does fly. By the end of this calendar year, I will have a good idea of which Universities I have been accepted into, conditionally or not. It kind of scares me how fast we’re all thrown into this higher education business. It scares me even more because I’m the first in my family to actually finish school, let alone go to University.

Going into higher education isn’t something you shouldn’t, and I don’t, take lightly. It’s an expensive and hard experience but one that has the potential to reward you with the best three or four years of your life so far. Going into University is something many people have questions about and no matter how many UCAS conferences your school take you to or how many open days you attend, I guarantee there are some questions that can never be answered until you experience it first hand.

Making Choices

You’ve had a minimum of eleven years to decide what you want to pursue (and spend a considerable amount of money on) at University. My own experience has been somewhat tumultuous. For many years I wanted to pursue a career in IT and it seems that fate has made sure I’ve the experience to do so. About a year ago, my attention was grabbed and has since been held by the realm of physics. I love it. Physics has excited me ever since I was taught the ‘good stuff’, as it were. I got full marks on most of my Science modules at GCSE and made sure I achieved a top A* in it as I was only doing Double Science and not Triple Science, something I do regret (but am glad I got an A*, so was worth it).

I’m lucky to go to a school that provides opportunities for students such as myself to expand their knowledge and experience in the field of Science and such opportunities have really fascinated me. I don’t think I find any area of Physics boring (although University may prove me wrong, who knows ). I’m also lucky to have friends that give me opportunities that they themselves have found. There are a few things I would not have done if it were not for them.

What you study should be something you like, something you want to study and make a career out of. You’ve had subjects pushed on you for most of your educational life, this time it’s your choice and your choice only.

There are two choices you have to make; the first is what course you want to study and the other is where you want to study it. In all honesty, the impression I have is this is probably one of the most important decisions you’ll make. This decision can be made much easier by visiting the University and the surrounding towns and cities. You must also consider the reputation and raking of the University for the subject you wish to take. If you like the area, facilities and people – it’s up your street basically – then you can seriously consider it.

My school kindly took me to a UCAS convention as well as an Oxbridge conference where I swagged more prospectuses and freebies than I care to admit as well as find out about what Oxford and Cambridge have to offer. I’d had my heart set on doing a Natural Sciences course at Cambridge because it offered a slice of about everything I wanted to do. My hopes where extinguished after talking to the representative who said the courses I was taking weren’t sufficient. I think that students should seriously research courses before entering Sixth Form so they can make their choices and open a few more doors there and then – at least, that is what I should have done.

Making my decision was made slightly easier when I went to visit universities such as Oxford, Exeter, Imperial College and Queen Mary. Ever since visiting Oxford, I knew I wanted to study Physics there. Their course has a lot more IT in it than others and means I can be taught by the best, learn with the best and have one of the best chances for a good career. A bad, but unfortunately expected, result in my Maths AS means those dreams are also on hold. I was only six marks off the top grade and I don’t trust myself to do exceptionally well in my A2 exams so I’m retaking the two modules I lost those six marks on. Hopefully I can keep the dream alive – god knows I’m trying my hardest.

So, I want to study Physics. After much deliberation between myself and the redwood forest in my UCAS convention carrier bag, I decided on my lucky Universities. Since two weeks ago, this has been the final list although I’m still not sure:

• University of Bristol
• University of Nottingham
• University of Exeter
• Imperial College London
• Oxford University
• University of Warwick

You only get five choices and although that may seem a lot, when it comes to deciding which ones to fill those spaces, it becomes hard – at least, it has been for me.

Counting Down

As I said earlier, time has flown incredibly fast. It seems just yesterday I was receiving my Young Scientist badge at Primary School or that I was in the front row as a year seven in my first whole school assembly. I’m an extremely nostalgic person but I fear that wanting the past back or spending too much time pouring over it makes me miss out on experiences that I could do to have. I haven’t got long until I’m meeting some more new people and living up the first major event of student life, fresher’s week, but I can’t stop hoping for time to rewind. There’s that part of me that wants time to reverse and let me repeat the last eleven years.

A couple years ago, University wasn’t on my mind at all and now it’s all I can think off. I can’t wait to meet new people, maybe start or join a crazy society or two and delve into things that I’ve only scratched the surface of at the moment. I know I want to learn Physics – every part of it fascinates me and although I may not understand it at first, I always make it my priority to get as deep as I can and quench my thirst for knowledge.

When writing this post, I worried that putting my thoughts on my application would damage my chances in some way but I feel that I need my thoughts out there. I need to know other people are thinking the same and hopefully give others confirmation of that as well. I want to study Physics with the best and be taught it by the best and I think any of the Universities I’ve listed will offer me this. I suspect it’s the hope of many students to go to Oxford (or Cambridge) though, above all others. It is my hope. I’m determined to get my Maths up to an A and have the three-of-a-kind hand to put down on the table. If I don’t, I know I’ll have tried my best and that’s all I could have done.

Less than a year. I hope to make more friends than I lose time.

Microsoft recently released a group of their newest applications under the Windows Live brand name, aimed at the general computer user and recreational blogger. This suite includes Microsoft’s successor to Outlook Express, a new version of the popular Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger if you’re not keeping up with the trends), Windows Live OneCare Family Safety and a host of other tools Microsoft seems to think we need/want. I have had some experience with some of the products before, most in beta form, and just wanted to share my voice.

Mail

During my extremely short use of Vista, I used the Windows Live Desktop mail application that was included with it at the time. My experience was less than pleasing and an installation of Thunderbird promptly followed. The new application gives the user the Vista inspired interface (if you’re on XP) and a much needed clean and polish of the user interface that Outlook so desperately needed. I don’t think this application is meant to replace Outlook Express as Windows Live Mail doesn’t provide all the features that some individuals and businesses would require.

Messenger

The next upgrade to the popular Windows Live/MSN Messenger, version 8.5 or version 2008 depending on where you look, is part of the Windows Live family and an option in the pack. This new version seems to improve the speed of the application as I’ve had no conversation freezes or lockups since upgrading to the newest version. Also provided in version 8.5 is an improvement a change to the interface to bring it into line with the rest of the Windows Live theme. It is a nice improvement, I have to admit but only a minor one. Maybe the design team should take some notes from the Yahoo! Messenger team.

Writer

Microsoft’s attempt to make blogging easier has definitely improved since its initial public release – and I’m not just talking about the snazzy splash screen in the newest version. In earlier versions, Windows Live Writer didn’t exactly agree with WordPress in a number of areas. Whether this was because of WordPress or Writer, who knows, but I’ll bet it was Writer who was at fault.

Final Thoughts

There are other products in the Windows Live suite of application but I wont go into them right now; you can check them out for yourselves if you’re curious enough. This re-brand is just Microsoft’s attempt to push their products into the faces of ordinary PC users and given them software that in some cases just isn’t needed by the most inexperienced users.

There are some applications that are essential to most Windows users though. The update to Messenger is recommended for users who want a more stable chat program and for home users who don’t know better, Windows Live Mail is a nice replacement for Outlook Express though I continue to suggest you come out of the stone age and use Mozilla Thunderbird!

Go and download the applications – but watch out for the pre-ticked boxes that install the Live toolbar and set your homepage to something evil – and give is your comments on them! That’s an order.