• Advanced Task Killer
• Aldiko eBook
• AllShare
• AndroidIRC
• Asphalt5
• autosquare
• Barrage Lite
• BBC News
• Bet calculator
• Betfair – http://iphone.betfair.com
• BigOven
• Bites
• Brightkite
• Bubble
• Bump
• cab4me
• calculator
• Calendar
• Camera
• Car locator
• Chess
• Comminity Fix
• Currency converter
• Daily Briefing
• Depth of Field Calculator
• Digger Free
• Dos Whistler
• doubleTwist
• Droid Auctions for eBay
• Earth
• Email
• Epicurious
• Evernote
• eWallet Viewer
• F1 Racing
• Facebook S!
• Fishin’ 2 Go (Lite)
• FM Radio
• Foursquare
• fring
• Gallery
• GamerCardroid for Xbox 360 Live
• Glympse
• Goggles
• Google Mail
• Google Sky Map
• Google Translate
• Gowalla
• Guitar hero 5 Demo
• Healthy Recipes
• IBM Seer
• IG Index – http://www.igindex.co.uk/dealing/lt/home.htm?locale=en_GB&webSiteId=igi
• iMapMyRun
• IMDb
• iMediaShare
• Internet
• Kayak
• Labryingh Lite
• Last.fm
• Layer
• LevelMatchCity
• Linked
• London City
• London Tube Live
• London tube Status
• Maps
• Market
• Memo
• Mini Diary
• MixZing
• MotoGP Pocket 2010
• Movies
• mSpot
• Music Player
• My Files
• myPlayer
• Navigation
• Network Discovery
• NewsRob
• No to 08
• Ocado
• Orange Wednesdays
• Pinball
• Pkt Auctions eBay
• Places Directory
• Qik
• Qype
• Remote RDP Lite
• Ringdroid
• Robo Defence FREE
• Rummble
• Runkeeper
• Samsung Apps
• SAP Note viewer
• SCVNGR
• Settings
• Shazam
• Shopper
• ShopSavvy
• SIM Toolkit
• Simple Last.fm Scrobbler
• Sky News
• Sky Remote Record
• Social Hub
• Speed Hud
• Speed Test
• Spotify
• Springpad
• Sar Wars Sounds and Ringtones
• Stock Alert
• Stocks
• TagReader
• Talk
• TED Mobile
• Tennis
• The Schwartz Unsheathed
• The Weather Channel
• TheWeather info
• ThinkFree Office
• ToonWarz Lite
• Trapster
• TripIt
• TTS Service Extended
• TubeStatus
• TV-Guide
• Tweetcaster Premium
• Twitter
• UK TV Droid
• Urbanspoon
• Ustream Broadcaster
• Ustream Viewer beta
• Video Player
• Vingo Voice
• Vodaphone McLaren
• Voice Dialler
• Voice Recorder
• Voice Search
• Waze
• WeatherBug
• Where’s My Droid
• WiFi Mapper
• WiFinder
• Wimbledon Tennis Feeds
• World Cup 2010
• World War
• WorldWideTime
• Write and Go
• XDA
• Yelp
• YouTube

I am a power-user when it comes to technology (as shown in my education and career choices) and I always want the best tech. So when it came to choosing a mobile phone I wanted one that offered a lot of functionality. After some some thinking I decided to get an Android based phone. The problem I had was the HTC EVO 4G that I had been lusting after for months wasn’t going to be available in the UK. Fortunately Samsung came to the rescue by bringing out their Galaxy S.

The 2 main things about this phone attracted me are the hardware and Software (of course!):

Hardware

Its technical specifications are the best of any phone in Europe right now. I will caveat that and say that the technical specifications are the best of any phone in Europe right now – for what I want. Other phones do have better features in one or more of the following categories:

• Longer battery life
• Better camera
• Better protection (i.e. scratch/water/fire/shock/drop proof)
• Better audio
• Better data or wLAN network

but this Samsung has the best all-round package for what I want. I’m not going to do a Samsung Galaxy S vs iPhone 4 hardware comparison in this post – maybe later. If you are interested you can easily compare them yourself.

Software

The software can be broadly broken down into 3 categories: Operating System, Applications and Development of Applications.

Operating System

I am a big fan of Android – even more so now that I have used it for a few weeks.

First of all – yes I know, it is a rip-off of the Apple iPhone interface. But I’m a consumer – so I don’t care, I just want what is best for me. Anyway, the IOS4 software (and OSX) is based on LINUX, it just has a wizzy UI – that’s a fact – get over it!

Secondly – I really do believe that Android is the best OS available right now. It has a nice look and feel, its memory management is really good (and it works), all of the applications (including core applications) can be superseded by custom applications (this is very powerful).

• Watch Androidology 1-3 for an overview of the OS
• Watch Android – Apps are created equal and  Android – Apps without borders for an example of how applications can embed or superseded other applications

Applications

Over the past few years, it has become very apparent that hardware alone does not make a good phone, it is actually the applications and the user experience that drive people to pick up and use their phone.

I was a little concerned before I bought my Samsung because I had heard that the Android applications were not as polished as those on the iPhone. However as soon as I saw them on my phone I was relieved – they look every bit as good as their iPhone counterparts.

In terms of finding applications, I have been very impressed with the number and quality of apps available on the Android Marketplace. I now have literally 50+ apps on my phone (including having deleted some) and all have been very good – and free!

• So far I have only bought 1 app (Tweetcaster). I went 3 weeks without buying it (the only limitation was a small advert at the bottom of the screen) and decided to purchase it after having tried some other Twitter clients and decided that it was the best for me. The order process was very quick and easy. The process was:
• Un-install the old app (would be nice if I didn’t have to as it meant I had to re-enter my configuration, but the instructions told me to do this)
• Find the Tweetcast premium app in the Android Marketplace (easy – this can be done by text input or by voice)
• The app was $4.99 (it would be nice if it converted it to £ for me)
• Selected ‘Buy’
• It then uses Google Checkout to buy the app. the Android marketplace is already linked to my Google account, so as I have used Google Checkout before (on my PC), it knew my credit card details. I just had to confirm payment. Once done I was able to install the application.

Development of Applications

I would really like to develop some applications – mainly to tie into the GetMeCooking website. I haven’t really coded Java since University, but after a bit of reading and watching videos on the Android Developers website and a few other websites, I was able to understand the concepts and write my first program (a list of items which when selected, launched the web browser at a target URL). Pretty good!

This year a lot of ‘high-profile’ Apple developers have defected over to Android, mainly because the Apple environment is too restricted. I won’t write about this now – maybe later

My Summary of the Features that Samsung mention in the Advert on their Website:

• Smart Alarm – Pointless. All it does is wake me up 5 minutes early
• Daily Briefing – Useless as its features are too limited
• Integrated Calendar – Excellent. It is integrated with Google Calendar
• Car Mode – Really good. It seems to pre-cache everything so as long as you stay on-track you don’t need a data signal. This also means that you can download the journey via wLAN to save any mobile data costs/usage. The disadvantage is that if you do veer off-track, you will need a data signal (not usually a problem in the UK, but too costly to use abroad)
• Layer Reality Browser – Really good, although really slow to load (should be significantly faster with Android 2.2…?)
• Wireless Tethering – I haven’t had a need to use this yet, but it is good to know that it is available. It did come in handy on occasion on my Windows phone
• Camera – Fast and responsive. Anti-shake seems to work well. I have also found the video (and audio) to work very well
• Social Hub – Good feature, but I don’t use it. I keep up-to-date with all the social networks anyway
• 4″ Super AMOLED screen – is really nice. Can bes seen from all angles, very good response rate and vibrant colours. Is better in sunlight than other phones I have owned. Plus it is extremely sensitive to touch
• SWYPE text input – Superb. You really have to use it to understand just how good it is! Well worth going through the tutorial to understand all of the features and get the most out of it
• ThinkFree – I haven’t actually used this yet, but I will. I was impressed to see that an PDF reader is built in – plus it is good so I haven’t bothered to install Adobe’s reader
• Internet browser – Is very good. Web pages appear very quickly and I haven’t had any issues at all with it
• TV remote Controller – I haven’t got a compatible TV (needs to be Samsung 2010 or later) and I’m not sure I would use a phone as a remote control anyway – but it’s there if I want it…
• DLNA with Multi Codec Support - This is excellent. With no configuration, I am able to play videos/music/photographs from my Windows PC or Windows Home Server over my wLAN
• Android Market - Not as nice to brows around as the Apple one, however it has a basic but functional search facility. I have been very impressed with the number and quality of the apps on the store. As there is no validation of apps on the store there are some instances where there are many apps that have been written by the same person (basically the same app but with different titles) – but this is quite rare. I have read that the app store will be improved soon
• Desk Mount - I haven’t got it and I won’t bother getting it

Niggles

The only real niggles I have with the phone at the moment are:

• Connectivity to the PC – It uses a program called Kies. When I first installed it, it worked well but since a patch came out recently it doesn’t always detect the phone. I have read in forums that they are aware of the issue and are looking to resolve it
• Google Sat-nav – It is great, except a recent patch came out and stopped it from working! It knows where I am on the map, but says that it can’t find the GPS! I have read that this will be fixed soon
• Soft Case – It didn’t come with one (this is mean!)
• Earphones – Good that they are noise isolating (I hate being able to hear peoples music even when they are 3 desks away), although they are not very good quality. They will do for now but I might replace them in the future

Some Blog Posts I Intend to Write in the Future Are:

• A list of all the apps I have installed to-date
• Reviews of some apps
• Things I like about Android

Let me know if you have any specific questions – I will be happy to answer them

It came out yesterday so I walked into my local Vodafone shop (in Milton Keynes) but they didn’t have one in stock – and didn’t know when they would (useless!).

Tonight I called O2 and got my PAC code (was painless – but taking a while to arrive…). I’ll be ending my contract 5 weeks early – I’ll have to pay for the remainder of the contract.

I have been working out the best deals for the phone. I don’t care about minutes or texts. All of these tariffs have at least 100 minutes (plenty for me) and at least 1GB data included, except for the £15 plan which has 500MB’s.

The £15 plan is the cheapest overall (it’s a 24 month plan but cheaper than the 18 month plans). However I am going to go for the £25 month plan, then I’ll downgrade to the £15 month plan as soon as I can in the contract. 500MB’s is actually plenty of data for a mobile phone as I am often near WiFi anyway. If I need to, I can step up to the £25 plan again at any time.

Plus if I order through Quidco, I will save an additional £50.

Some notes:

• http://www.best-mobile-contracts.co.uk is a good site for quick tariff comparisons
• I have used Mobiles.co.uk  a few times before and their rebate deals sound good, but they make purposefully tricky to get your money back. I haven’t ever got the full money back.

Android

I am a big fan of Android because it is open source, not tied to a single handset, comes with some really great software (including satellite navigation), some new and innovative software (such as Google Goggles and Google Layers) and has a very good user interface. Plus it is JAVA based so easy to develop for and has a very strong developer community.

The only problem is that there are no handsets that I want at the moment. The best one available in the UK is the HTC Desire, but that doesn’t have a front facing camera (neither will the HTC Desire 2). The best (most fully-featured) Android based phone in the world at the moment is the HTC Evo 4G, but this is only available on the Sprint network in America (plus it has really bad battery life). The DELL Streak is nice, but at 152.99mm is really too long for what I want.

There will be a lot of good Android based phones coming out this year – but I don’t know when (and when I am lusting after a new gadget, I don’t like waiting!).

Windows Phone 7

Previous versions of Windows mobile have been out for years and although pretty good, they have always been a bit buggy. I have owned several Windows based phones and have always had problems with all of them (6.1 has given me far fewer issues than previous versions – but it has been far from perfect).

Windows Mobile has always had an okay developer community and you can get most types of applications for it for free with no adverts.

The Windows Phone 7 operating system is due out later this year and it looks promising. All applications for Windows 7 will need to be written in Silverlight and all games will need to be written in XNA. I am a big fan of both Silverlight and XNA.

It doesn’t have Zune incorporated into it, rather a facsimile of it (so basically the same) – this is a very good thing.

The Windows Phone 7 interface as a whole looks very good – I like the concept as they are really making the phones interface personalised to the user.

However I don’t think they are doing enough. While the music interface will be good, I think the mobile interface will end up being clunky and slow to navigate around.

Microsoft do make some really fantastic software, but they suck at promoting it. For example, compare their official Windows Phone 7 website (which was hard to find via a Google search by the way!) to the official iPhone 4 website – if you didn’t know anything about the phones and just saw those 2 websites side by site, the clear winner would be Apple.

Apple iPhone 4

I am not a big fan of Apple. They keep bringing out devices with low-spec hardware – and software missing features that competitors have had for several years. Plus as people spend lots of money on apps, they then feel obliged/trapped into sticking with Apple so that they can retain those apps (with Microsoft or Android, if you buy an App you can then use it on any hardware with that operating system, not just a single device).

I see the Apple iPhone 4 as being a good smartphone for the mainstream, unlike Android which although is gaining on market share, I think is still being bought more by the technical community.

The iPhone 4 was announced this week and it does have some very good features – noticeably:

• A really good quality screen (although small in size compared with other phones)
• Very good battery life
• 802.11n WiFi
• Physically small phone
• The resolution of the iPhones and iPad screens are proportional, meaning that applications can be scaled to run on any of them (although they are better if they are custom-developed for each device)
• Gyroscope

The bad points of the iPhone 4 are:

• Small screen
• Non-standard screen resolution, so it not true 720p (this is because it is 4x the resolution of the previous iPhones – so that applications can be scaled to run on it).
• No kick-stand (so you have to hold it if you want to watch videos, etc.)
• Glass on the back (I think this will be reflective and annoying when it is on your desk)
• No FM Radio (I use the FM radio on my Windows phone every day when I walk into town to get my lunch!)
• CPU is likely to be under-clocked (as per previous versions of the iPhone) in order to improve battery life
• Only 32GB’s (max) internal storage
• No expandable memory (e.g. Micro SD card slot)
• The main camera has a small diameter lens
• Main camera is only 5mp (other mobiles have 8mp)
• Only single LED flash on the main camera
• Only a VGA quality front facing camera
• Video chat is iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only (this is likely to change in 2011)
• Video chat is only possible over WiFi (this is likely to change in 2011)
• Currently no video Skype support (this is likely to change soon)
• No standard USB connection (this is a big deal when you go to a friend’s house and want to charge your phone!)
• No HDMI output port
• No free satellite navigation software (this is a big deal for me as I use it a lot on my current phone). You can purchase TomTom for £60 – but I would much prefer Google maps
• Not true multi-tasking
• The App Store encourages developers to make all apps either paid for, or to include advertising (many Android and Windows Mobile applications are free with no adverts)

Many applications are being written for Android and Windows first, then the iPhone. This is because the iPhone is:

• Harder and slower to code for
• Many applications are banned on the App Store which are allowed on other devices (this has resulted in some high-profile developers moving from Apple to Android)
• You can develop Apple apps on PC’s, but you need additional software to do this (more hassle) – Apple are not making it easy to do this. There are many more PC’s out there than macs, therefore there are many more PC and JAVA based developers out there than Apple ones.

Summary

The Android and Windows operating systems are more open, have cloud based technologies (this is becoming increasingly important) and have better hardware, but the Apple iPhone 4 is a nice phone (albeit with some serious limitations) and does have a good range of apps.

My personal preference right now would be the Android operating system with HTC hardware (but with the iPhone screen technology – only bigger).

If there was a decent handset for Android I would get that. I am half-tempted by the iPhone – but only half-tempted. I really want Android, but I think I’m going to have to wait a few months for some decent hardware to come out. Then again, I don’t like to wait. So I’ll make my decision once the iPhone comes out.

The idea spawns content, design, usability and interaction.

Once I have an idea in my head, I brainstorm content and features in OneNote.

Then comes usability.

Then comes basic design.

Then comes the coding.

Then comes iteration of all of the above and lots of sleepless nights

Currently I am developing:

http://www.moorespeed.co.uk

http://www.getmecooking.com

I have started:

http://www.baconaholic.com – a fun site about bacon

but I have been too busy with the above websites to spend any time on it. I will get round to it someday.

I created these StackExchange sites:

http://london.stackexchange.com/ – Q&A site about London

http://sapbasis.stackexchange.com/ – Q&A site about SAP BASIS

http://www.starbase24.com/ – Q&A site about the Star Trek Online MMORPG

But they didn’t get off the ground. The feedback I was getting from the Star Trek gaming community was that they didn’t understand the concept of the site, so just stuck with forums and sites with FAQ pages. This is a real shame as forums and FAQ pages are really terrible ways of getting information to questions and the StackExchange sites are excellent.

and then there is:

http://www.performit.co.uk – I updated it recently, but it needs a decent design (currently looks rubbish)

http://www.performit.co.uk/network/ – I haven’t updated this in years and I’m not planning to

http://www.techboy.co.uk – haven’t updated this is ages. Lots I would like to add (in particular results of races) but other things take priority. I haven’t got much incentive to work on this

http://blog.techboy.co.uk – I would like to tweak the design (it is currently quite hard to read) and add my own logo. maybe change the entire template. Any ideas? I would also like to add more content, but I haven’t really got much incentive to do so

What more proof do I need that their visit and marketing regarding ‘Operation Confidence’ is just PR (hot air). I have no confidence in them…

Hello,

Last night I was visited by someone (I think she was a Community Safety Warden) who asked me a few questions and gave me a leaflet which led me to your website http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/yournh-tvp-pol-area-N338. From that site I have seen http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/yournh-tvp-pol-area-nh-newsitem?id=116225&nh=New%20Bradwell%20/%20Stantonbury which I assume is why I got the visit.

I would just like to give you some brief feedback on this:

• This is the first time in 7 years of living at my address (Bancroft Park) than I have been visited by someone from the police force. I think that it is a really good idea and would like everyone to be visited at least once a year
• It would have been far better if her visit was announced (by e-mail or post). That way I could have thought about her questions in advance and given better answers, ensured I was in, not having dinner at the time, etc.
• I would suggest that questionnaire itself was far too basic and therefore of no practical use, so I believe it to be just a PR exercise (or at the very least poorly thought out). It would have been far better to post the questionnaire to residents in advance, or have it on a website and completed in advance. The officer could then have collated the results in advance spoken to residents about the top issues. Plus if the officer must ask the residents questions, it should preferably be entered directly onto a PDA and not onto paper (faster and more efficient)
• I think most people when handed a leaflet will not look at the website, especially as the leaflet did not have a direct link to the URL http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/yournh-tvp-pol-area-N338 – it took some navigation to actually find that URL. Plus the site/scheme is misleading because it mentions the New Bradwell and Stantonbury neighbourhoods and I live in Bancroft Park, so at a first glance it would appear to not apply to me
• The website does not state if it is possible to report non-urgent crimes (such as people without car insurance, drug usage, noisy neighbours, etc.) via e-mail. I would rather send a quick e-mail or complete a form than spend time on the phone. For example 2 issues that I would like to report are:

<I have removed this from my blog post – I don’t want the offending neighbours to read it>

• The leaflet said that victims of crime will be informed of the results of when a criminal is punished. 2-3 years ago a wheel was stolen from my car (Alfa Romeo, registration: <hidden from blog post>) from a public car park, near the MK police station. I reported the crime, then later found the 2 people who stole the wheel (who were in a stolen car). So I called 999 and the police came and retrieved the car, stolen vehicle and later my wheel. I was informed that one of the people was let off, but one was prosecuted. I was not told of the final outcome – i.e. was the person who was prosecuted, punished (prison, fine, etc.)? It would be nice to know because I have been a victim of several crimes and have not had a good result on any of them, which means that I am less inclined to report them because it has been is a waste of time
• The A4 document that I was given last night contained a number of typographical errors

The leaflet also asked for feedback from residents on how offenders should be penalised in terms of community service. I don’t think that is a deterrent. So as well as the standard community service I would like offenders who commit crimes such as theft, drugs, etc. plus more serious crimes:

• Made to have a tour of MK prison and to meet some prisoners
• Shamed by being made to stand in the MK shopping centre, dressed in orange shirts and trousers (I doubt the council would approve this but I would like to see it!)

Please feel free to reply with any comments, etc.

Regards.

Paul Richardson

We pre-booked a table and arrived on time. At the entrance were 3 25+ stone bouncers – which was a bit odd and not very welcoming. We were immediately greeted by a waitress who took us upstairs to our table.

The restaurant itself looks okay – nothing ‘special’, but nice.

Once we were seated, we were given menus. After a few minutes, a waiter took our drinks order and shortly returned with our drinks (he had forgotten who ordered which drink, so we had to remind him).

Then we ordered the food. I ordered French Onion soup as a starter, a venison pie (a ‘chef’s plate’ speciality dish – made with local ingredients) as a main meal and mashed potato as a side dish.

The 4 starters we ordered were brought by 4 waiters, which was unusual, but kind of good I guess. They had to ask who had ordered which starter…

The French Onion Soup I had was basically:

• A bowl full of cut up onion (by the even cuttings it was obvious that the onions were cut by a machine and not by hand). There was a lot of onion in there – excessive if anything
• A liquid substance that was supposed to be soup but had virtually no flavour
• 4 squares of bread (larger than croutons) with melted cheese on top

Once we had finished, our plates were cleared and the main meal was delivered in a good time-frame. The main meal was brought by just 2 waiters this time instead of 4 (and they managed okay). Again we were asked who had ordered what (and a waiter gave my dish to my mother before I corrected him).

The Venison Pie:

• The pastry was very thin, plain, looked ready-made and just not great
• The pie filling was pretty flavourless and the consistency was too runny
• It only came with runner beans – and nothing else

I’m not a trained chef and I’ve only ever made 1 pie before, but my chicken and mushroom pie was a hundred times better than theirs.

The Mashed Potato:

• Was very small for the price
• It was smooth (which is a good thing)
• I could taste that it was buttery, but it was plain and boring. How about adding some herbs to make I a bit more interesting? Plus it needed some seasoning (I doubt it had any salt in it, let alone pepper)

The food that my parents and my brother had were all just as disappointing, with the possible exception of my brothers cheeseburger which was apparently quite nice.

Once they took away the main courses, they simply handed us the dessert menu’s. We had a quick look but we didn’t want to experience any more food there, so we decided to pop over to Sainsbury’s on the way home and get something from there instead.

Other things to note are:

Some of the meals were very over-priced. For example, my brother had the Teriyaki chicken Skewers with a Satay sauce for a starter. This was £5.95 and comprised of just 3 thin strips of chicken, a small pot of satay sauce and a small portion of greens. This was a rip off!

The music throughout the night was loud, making it difficult to talk to the person opposite. At around 8.30pm/9pm they had a pianist play the piano and sing. This was even louder than the recorded music, the audio equipment used was of poor quality so the sound was slightly distorted and sounded bad and he was downstairs (so people eating couldn’t see him) and in the corner (so most people in the bar downstairs couldn’t see him either!).

On the way out we again had to squeeze part the three 25+ stone bouncers – which made it feel like a nightclub, not an up-market bar/restaurant.

Summary:

• Poor service (in terms of they had to ask which of us had ordered which dish at every course)
• Very poor quality food
• Overpriced food
• Noisy atmosphere (and poor quality audio equipment for the pianist)
• Intimidating bouncers

I will not be going back.

My 2 favourite restaurants in the Hub, Milton Keynes remain as:

• Ha Ha Bar and Grill
• Las Iguanas

I have worked in Milton Keynes for 4 years now and have paid (I think) £235 per year to park my car in a public car park outside of my office. This year it has gone up to £270 (more if you live outside of Milton Keynes). For that I am not guaranteed a parking place and there have been times where I have not been able to get one within a 5 minute walk of my office.

I have been fined £30 on each of these occasions:

• They wrote my car registration wrong on my ticket (got 2 letters the wrong way around). This was not noticed for 6 months, then one day I got fined
  • I wrote 2 letters of complaint but did not hear anything back by post/e-mail/telephone (is it illegal to ignore challenges to appeals?)
• I took my car in to get serviced and had a hire car. Out of habit I walked from my hire car to the office without paying for a parking ticket
  • I wrote them a letter and they replied to say ‘tough’
• I have twice forgotten to renew (they don’t send reminders). My fault I know, but I think they should give a reminder or warning first (with 5 days to pay)
  • I appealed once but they said ‘tough’

The really bad things are:

• The parking ticket does not say that you can pay on-line, but you can
• They do not always reply to letters or e-mails
• You can’t order a new parking permit on-line
• You can order a parking permit via the post, but it takes up to 10 days – and they still have to phone you for the credit card payment
• To get a parking permit quickly, you have to visit their office in Central Milton Keynes (which is only open from 0900 – 1700) and in the past it has generally taken 1 hour (queueing)

So tomorrow I will have to:

• Pay for a parking ticket so that I can park outside my office. I will have to do this by mobile phone as I haven’t got change available
• Walk to the council office and buy a 1 year parking permit at £270…

Next time you see a car parking attendant, ask them: What are you? Some bottom-feeding, scum sucking algae eater?

As in most societies, there are nice trolls and naughty trolls. Plus there is a hierarchy of trolls – and trolls have jobs.

The nice trolls like: Flowers, cleanliness, toys and ice-cream.

The naughty trolls like: To misbehave, create disorder, chaos and are messy. The really naughty ones have to be locked up.

I flew from England to Pennadomo, Italy in the hope that I could catch sight of a troll in its natural habitat. I was hoping to meet a nice troll (although they are very shy) and to avoid an encounter with a nasty troll. Even the local Italian villagers rarely see them, although they sometimes hear them scuttle around at night.

Pennadomo  is in the foothills of a mountainous region of Abruzzio, Italy and is a long way from any large town.

The Pennadomo mountainous trolls are not large like most trolls, in fact they are only around 4-5 feet tall and mostly come out in the evenings and early mornings – not in the middle of the night (unless there is a lot of ambient light, e.g. moonlight) and not in the day. It is believed that this is because they are shy and do not like contact with humans.

Also unlike most trolls, they have developed a taste for cats – which is why you do not see many around the area.

Upon first entering the village of Pennadomo, everything seemed normal. The people looked friendly:

People walking in the village of Pennadomo, Italy

Work was being done:

Construction in Pennadomo, Italy

The area was clean and tidy. The residents were obviously religious:

Religious statue in Pennadomo, Italy

However I quickly came across a troll signalling device – their version of a French Horn. So I blew into it with as much air as my lungs could give. This was necessary in order to make them aware that I would be looking for them. You don’t want to surprise a troll – Trolls don’t like surprises (this is partly why they eat cats):

Blowing a troll horn in Pennadomo, Italy

Blowing a troll horn in Pennadomo, Italy

Trolls don’t eat chickens, although in July-August they do like to collect their eggs to make blueberry pancakes:

A chicken - trolls don't eat them

As I walked further up the mountain, into the village; more ‘troll signs’ appeared, such as umbrellas, well-kept plants:

Troll signs - umbrellas and well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Troll signs - umbrellas and well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Troll signs - well-kept plants

Also water bottles and water sources:

Troll signs - water bottles

Troll signs - water sources

Troll signs - water sources

Then I found a troll house:

Troll house

As it was day-time, the door was locked. I noticed the lollypop stick (top left of the door) that had been left there before the troll went inside to sleep.

Troll house

There was a faint zzZZZZzzz noise coming from inside. I didn’t attempt to open the door because:

a) There was a big lock on it

b) It isn’t a good idea to disturb a sleeping troll. Even the nice ones can be aggressive if you interrupt them while sleeping (or eating)

So I kept walking until I came upon another entrance to a troll residence. Note the hole at the bottom of the door:

Troll house

I had a close look and behind the hole was a large piece of cheese. The cheese was resting on top of a large mouse-trap with a rusty spring. As the trolls eat the cats, there are a lot of mice around. Trolls like to skewer mice and roast them in front of an open fire.

Further on (and higher up the mountain) I found the doorway to the house of a naughty troll:

House of a naughty troll

You can see that a naughty troll lives here by the cigarette ends in the doorway.

Half-way up the mountain, near the top of the village I could see the trolls handy-work. Lots of well-kept plants, often in make-up pots, such as paint-pots:

Pot-plants maintained by trolls

Then as I walked I found something a little odd – an entrance to a troll-house with a metal door:

Troll house

Within it I could see a troll’s scooter. They use scooters to get around the twisty streets of villages such as Pennadomo, Italy because they don’t have an engine so are silent.

Troll house and scooter

I opened the door a little and had a quick look in there. I couldn’t see or hear a troll, but I didn’t want to risk disturbing one, so I left.

Then I made my way up a steep part of the mountain, towards the very top of the village where I looked up and saw a troll’s house up high, with a balcony which surrounded with metal bars. This was obviously the home of a level 2 troll:

A level 2 troll's house

A level 2 troll is a senior troll who commands and organises worker trolls. The metal bars of this and the previous houses I had seen gave me the impression that I was in the part of the village where the naughty trolls lived. Lucky for me, it was still day time so I was (relatively) safe – as long as I snuck by quietly without disturbing any trolls.

Onwards and upwards I went – my legs were getting quite tired from all the walking, but I didn’t want to stop (not in naughty troll territory).

Village of Pennadomo, Italy

Then I found something quite disturbing – a troll entrance that had been boarded up and large stones placed against it. This was obviously the dwellings of a very nasty troll who had to be kept under lock and key:

Naughty troll's boarded up house

This was the troll’s rear door:

Naughty troll's boarded up rear door

Then I went just around the corner and stumbled upon something interesting – a troll shrine. Notice all the well-kept plants that the trolls have been looking after:

Troll shrine

Religious troll candles

This is a troll prayer:

A troll prayer

And this was clearly a troll sign:

A troll sign - directing to something

I wasn’t sure what it was leading me to, but I had come all this way so was urged to investigate! So on I went…

Cautiously through the tunnel (trolls often jump out at you and demand payment of a toll if you try to walk through them):

A tunnel

Luckily though there were no trolls to be seen.

As you can see, I was now high above the village of Pennadomo:

Village of Pennadomo, Italy from above

Far in the distance was lake Lago di Bomba which is where trolls like to go at weekends to play and take a relaxing swim (trolls are deceptively good swimmers, learning to swim 25 metres at the age of 4):

Lake Lago di Bomba, near Pennadomo, Italy

Lake Lago di Bomba, near Pennadomo, Italy

Then, after following the troll signs for a while, I discovered a rare sight – and not one I was expecting to see. I actually saw a real-life Italian troll! It looked friendly enough, but was placed behind a series of rusty bars.

An Italian troll

I didn’t know if the bars were to protect me from it, or it from me, so I decided to keep my distance, politely wave back and then make my way all the way back down to the car. That was enough excitement for one day!

Hi,

I started trading in shares late 2007. Last year I cashed in about £5.5k (I gained about 7k and lost about £1.5k). I am currently about £1,800 up with the shares I have and I have around £15,000 invested (including the £1,800). Plus that’s all tax free. There is a limit above which you have to pay tax – I don’t know what it is or how much tax, but I know I’m no-where near it yet.

So for me it has worked out really well so far. Certainly much better than just leaving the money in the bank! However last year was a very up and down year so I think I was quite lucky.

Trading shares is actually very easy on a basic level. You just choose how many shares you want to buy (or how much you want to spend and the website will tell you how many shares that will buy you), plus you pay a commission each time you buy and each time you sell shares.

I use https://www.foolsharedealing.co.uk/_mem_bin/formslogin.asp simply because when I looked they were the cheapest. Their online applications aren’t fantastic, but they are okay. I have tried a few companies and haven’t found a nicer site yet.

They offer 3 types of service. I use:

The Motley Fool Share Dealing Account: an execution only account that allows you to trade for a flat rate. £10 per trade for UK stocks and £17.50 per trade for International stocks.

Most of last year I traded in UK stocks. Mainly Barclays PLC, Heritage Oil Limited, Interserve plc and also a few others (Glaxo Smith Klyne, Renold). There were times when I was up 2k and times when I was down £2k. I made about 4k during the year. In October I had to sell and made a £700 loss on some shares. I had to sell in order to pay off a credit card (the 0% interest on purchases offer was expiring) – if I had sold a few weeks before I would have made £1k.

Right now I am investing in what I know – technology and I’m up £1.8k. I have shares in Apple, Google and Microsoft. I just sold some shares in Yahoo (made £200) to invest in Apple.

Basically, buying and selling shares is easy. I can’t remember how long it takes to open an account – might be a week. I think you start the application online and usually they send you something to sign and return by post, but I can’t remember if fool did that so it might only take a few days with them.

Once you have an account, you basically choose a company and you can do one of the following:

• Buy stock straight away in real time
• Set an order e.g. buy AAPL when it reaches 211.52
• Set an order to sell e.g. buy AAPL when it reaches 216.12
• Set an order to repeatedly buy and sell (e.g. keep buying at 211.52 and selling at 216.12) – Barclays shares go up and down a lot, but I haven’t done this type of trade yet
• Set a stop loss (sell if the price goes below a set amount)
• Set a tracked stop loss (sell if the price goes down by current price – 2.00). This might be good if you know stock will go up a lot then you want to sell if it goes down by 2p at any time

But beware of automated selling – it has caught me out. The markets often close high and then open the next day at a very low value (then rise quickly to the previous days value). I believe this is often intentional to catch people out. Because of this people warn against using automated selling.

That is the basics of standard share dealing. Obviously buying when low and selling when high is the tricky part!

Some things on my mind right now:

• Apple announcement on the 26th Jan. I think it is more likely to be an eBook reader, not a tablet. Amazon have the eBook market right now with the Kindle reader. On xmas day Amazon sold more eBooks than paper books. I do think that electronic media is going to be huge (I purchased ‘Crush It’ from http://www.vook.com recently – not an ebook but similar. Plus I have seen some really interesting eBook reader design concepts. Also the magazine and newspaper industries are continuing to be hit hard, especially with more companies moving to electronic media for advertising (better ROI). Whatever Apple bring out on the 26th, it’s not an update to an existing product line, it is going to be something new – and lots of iFan boys will be out there to buy it, so stock prices should go up (even if the device is a lemon). If it is an eBook Reader, I’m sure they will sell a lot via the iTunes store – and draw people away from Amazon at the same time. I would expect this device to come out in June/July, along with a new iPhone (with 5MP camera)
• 3D TV, films and gaming is going to be huge in 2010 and the next few years. So good investments might be in the manufacturers (Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, LG, etc.) but a better investment might be in the providers such as bSkyb who have been pioneering the technology – recording live football games in 3D for the past couple of years. Or as you know, many TV manufacturers all share the same components so it might be worth finding out which components they share and get shares in that company?
• OLED is getting a lot cheaper to manufacturer and will become even cheaper once more people start buying TV’s and portable devices with it. So investment in that area would be good
• Yahoo is very cheap right now. They are basically out of the search engine business, but very much into online marketing and other things. A few months ago they made a deal with Microsoft, which will benefit Yahoo 80/20, probably starting late next year
• Microsoft have lots of cool tech coming out, plus Windows 7 is selling very well. Project Netal is going to be huge (Xbox and PC), Azure (cloud based computing) is going to be mega
• Google now have their own mobile phone and the Android OS is taking off. Plus they have lots of other things too. They already have Augmented Reality and free Sat Nav with voice activation out on their Android OS for mobile phones

You can also make money when shares go down – it’s called Spreadbetting. I’ve dabbled in this but not seriously. I’d advise that you stick with standard share dealing at first.

Also, if you buy shares in USA companies, you also have to consider fluctuations in the the exchange rate. the $ has been getting stronger against the £.

I don’t usually invest less than £3k at a time because a UK buy+sell = £20, USA buy+sell = £34 so you need to make enough to cover that before you make any profit. I usually trade over short time periods – a few weeks to 6 months. However if you can invest over a long period of time, investing a lesser amount can be ok. Also, if you want to regularly invest in stock each month, you can do that for £1.50 per trade instead of £10. So £50-100 per month would be fine.

I use Google Finance (http://www.google.com/finance) for keeping track of my stocks. It’s not great but is ok.

Another thing I do is I keep taking out credit cards with long periods (9-12 months) of 0% interest on purchases. Then I use that card for everything and instead of paying it off, I put the money into shares. I have been doing that for about 9 years now and have around 18 credit cards from various banks. I’ve check my credit rating every so often and it’s very good, so having a large amount of bank accounts and cards doesn’t harm it at all – even if sometimes I forget to make payments.

Sorry for the long e-mail, I get carried away when talking about investments

I really would recommend it. There is a lot that I haven’t discussed here, so let me know if you have any questions

Regards.

Paul