York Inspiration Cross Trainer from Argos is crap! So is Argos.

Bought this online from Argos. Two spacers missing for the foot pads. Called York support. They didn't want to know. Said to return it to the retailer. Yeah right.

Okay in use. Squeaks rather loudly. Handle bars are a little bit too wide and after a few months of moderate use, they start to wobble. Then 12 months and 1 week later (one week outside of the manufacturer's warranty), one of the legs snapped at the joint to the handlebar. My son who was on it at the time took a tumble but fortunately was only bruised.

Called York support. They said "Out of warranty. Please call the retailer." Called Argos. Passed from one person to the next. Got cut off. Tried again. "Please hold." Got cut off again. Tried again, and the same result, after the second person.

Now the contraption is in the skip. Beware! Never buy crappy York equipment.

Hungarian Stomp (Badly)

Some people shouldn't play the violin... :-)

The guy who designed PC Line's ink cartridge recycling envelope is an idiot!

Went to PC World today. Bought a PC Line branded replacement HP 337 ink cartridge. Inside the packaging was a recycling envelope with a Freepost address. All looks fine until you seal the envelope up:

Open.


Seal.

What an idiot!

Windows Mobile 6.1 for I-Mate PDA2K

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=383980

However, Notes don't synchronize with Outlook. Bummer.

HTC Tytn II - A Pile of Crap!

This is quite possibly the most hatingly infuriating piece of crap I have ever had the misfortune to use. Crashes all the time. Display is as slow as hell. Drops calls. Needs hard reset once a month. Bluetooth hardware is dead within 4 months. Brain-dead battery management sfotware keeps switch the device on to tell you to switch off and charge the dying battery! The bundled "Free" TomTom GPS navigation software only has one city map and then they hit you with an over-price uprade for the full set. HTC never replied to a single one of my emails. The will be the last HTC device I ever buy. iPhone 2...

Muzzy Mandarin from Early Advantage

Just bought the Muzzy Mandarin Chinese programme from Early Advantage http://www.early-advantage.co.uk/product/detail/muzzymandarinchineselevelidvd308.aspx . It's rubbish!

The animation is early 70s and the audio quality is like a copy of a copy of a VHS tape. Come to think of it, that's what the video quality looks like.

So what do you get for your £143? A flimsy plastic box (broken on arrival). 2 very short Muzzy DVDs dubbed in Mandarin. 1 Mandarin vocab DVD. 2 undubbed English Muzzy DVDs (Why?) and a audio CD containing the soundtrack to the 2 Mandarin DVDs (Why?) and a couple of inconsequential booklets. And, oh, a very tacky and small Muzzy soft toy. It's close to being a complete rip-off.

My 4-year-old lost interest within 5 minutes. The older ones just sniggered and walked off. When I first showed it to a native Mandarin speaker, his first reaction was uncontrolled laughter.

Avoid like the plague.

Rubbish Hotdogs

Just had the misfortune of having a hotdog from the hotdog stand outside B&Q in Muklow Hill. It was rubbish. Tasteless, soggy pitifully characterless.