The mighty mighty Rhinos beat the Bradford Bulls once more yesterday in what was possibly the most controversial way for many many years.

In the last few seconds, and after being awarded a rare penalty, Sinfield decided to kick for goal from the half way line. Hitting the post the ball rebounded back into play, which Jordan Tansey, after running for his life, caught and grounded while the final hooter was sounding. I'll admit as a Leeds fan that the Ref, Ganson got it wrong and should have taken the decision to the video ref. But what the Bulls fans seem to have forgotten, is Ganson got many key decision wrong in that game. Ultimately, it was the same ref for both teams. Ganson has since apologised, for that final crucial try.

According to the BBC, Bradford Chairman said "I shall be inviting the Leeds Rhinos to do the right thing again now, for the benefit of their own reputation certainly, but also for the good of the great game of rugby league, to voluntarily hand over to Bradford Bulls what is, as the whole game now acknowledges, rightfully ours - the two points so cruelly taken from us by Mr Ganson's failure to act."

As if!

Top of the league, we're havin' laugh.

Well I was up bright and early this morning, along with numerous friends to tackle the nightmare which is Glastonbury ticket purchasing. I have been visiting festivals for many years now, but Glastonbury has always been the one I want to visit.

So this morning at ten to nine, I sat in front of my PC, with telephone in hand, to attack it from two directions. After two and a half hours, of 'Page Timed Out' and 'This number is not available - Please try again later' All the tickets were sold, and I had none.

I have later found out some more information which has made me very angry. The server Michael Eavis uses for his sales were limiting the amount of concurrent sessions. The makes sure that if you get on the site, you can continue with your purchase without constantly refreshing pages. That's a sensible thing to do. Only problem with that is, each session will last quite a long time... Once people were able to get on the site, then the site would continue to load for quite some time. It appears now that people who got on early enough to buy tickets, were then able to log straight back on, and buy more... in the mean time, there I am 'page timed out'. One lad on the radio said he had got eleven.

The session length should have been set to no more than five minutes, as the timer would restart each page of the application process, but no... the session is clearly a lot longer than that.

I have waisted my morning, and I am not getting to Glastonbury. Brilliant.

---

22nd April 2007

Excellent... Another hour spent on the phone this morning with no luck. Thankfully one of the folk I am going with was successful, so Somerset here we come! Thanks to everyone who we managed to persuade to ring up on our behalf, and of cause many thanks to Rossi who got through!

"This is just a courtesy call to check you have had your upgrade in the last ten months."

Bloody cold callers... Oh right you are ringing from vodafone are you? So what's my name then? Which contract am I on? How long have I been with you?

These irritating companies ring you up pretending to be your mobile company (which is easily assumed from the dialing code) and suggest its time for an upgrade. Then they basically steal your contract from your provider, and tie you in by offering the latest phone or apparent better deals.

I just had one from 02920240069, I urge you to pop it in your mobile, with IGNORE in big letters next to it.

Needless to say, I soon put the phone down.

I am currently moving my hosting. I have brought the site back to the UK, leaving Germany behind. If you are reading this, then you are in good old blighty. This should make things respond a little faster.

I am having a little trouble with email at the mo, there is a chance things may get lost between you and me. Hopefully I can get this sorted pretty soon though.

...well actually I had an idea, whilst trying to get to sleep.

I don't know if you have seen 'Dragons Den' BBC twos invention investment / ridicule programme. I think it's great; perhaps not quite as good as it use to be, but still possibly the best thing on a Wednesday night.

Last weeks programme featured a emergency escape ladder which was permanently fitted to the outside of your home, but it was craftily disguised as a drain pipe. The 'Dragons' pooh-poohed the idea as an invite for robbers, and I agreed. The ever unhappy lady 'Dragon' suggested for the money they wanted, homeowners should invest in a wired smoke detector system.

I have a wired system in my house. It was fitted when the house was built, and therefore did not create any mess, but not everyones home were built only three years ago. People don't like to rewire houses, or have wires exposed, and this is where my idea comes in.

I thought... why not incorporate a smoke detector / alarm into a ceiling rose light fitting. Reducing the amount of devises stuck to the ceiling. Furthermore, you could use the technology of those clever plug-in network devises that use the electric wiring of the home so the roses could communicate with each other, and all sound when one was triggered.

Turns out they already exist and people are selling them on the internet, and probably in good and bad retailers around the country / world. The one I found doesn't have the networking technology, but it does power the light which is connected when it's activated, and will connect to the intruder alarm system as well and turn on the lights if that goes off.

Shame I didn't think of it earlier. It could have been the making of me.

The w's in www have always annoyed me slightly. In the main, they are completely useless. Although they don't take much time up to type, they still take that extra second or so and can lead to unnecessary mistakes. My browser is intelligent enough to know they aren't required, so why are domain administrators too stupid to realise it's a big waste of time?

I have always made my sites available at the top level as well as using the w's (eg. adamwelch.co.uk as well as www.adamwelch.co.uk). Finally I have found a group of like minded people who not only agree with me, but they are trying to put a change to the badly managed websites (for example my local council website gives an error if you attempt to view it by leeds.gov.uk, then there are big companies like argos.co.uk).

I am pleased to announce that I am certified as being a 'Class B' website by the people at no-www.org. 'Class B' is their preferred level of compliance. Although you can access this site with or without the w's, my site automatically deletes the w's to point out they are not necessary. Oddly 'Class A' sites are site which allow both, but don't forward, and 'Class C' sites need the w's and are therefore bad sites.

Lets put a stop to this stupid waste of our time, together.

I am currently having some problems with my galleries. I am working on them and trying to bring them back online. Many thanks to Chris for informing me.

14:26 - All fixed. Blooming hosting companies...

Now I have made it quite clear that I hate doing the weekly shop. Supermarkets are generally horrible places. However, sometimes things happen there which make me smile. Peoples mobile phone conversations can be quite funny, and I once did something with a set of kitchen scales which amused me (although I'm not going to go into that here).

Today, whilst perusing the shelves, I noticed something a little out of place. I was passing the Old El Paso dinner kits, and found an envelope sat on top. At closer inspection, I found the envelope was addressed, to someone I will only refer to here as 'Mrs B' (I have blurred the image too to protect the recipient). However, there was no stamp attached.

First off, I was going to hand it to a member of staff, but I wondered if they might just put it in the bin. So I picked it up and then noticed a senders address on the back as well.

It so happens at this point a friend of mine past looking for honey (which is no where near the Old El Paso dinner kits) and she said hello. I decided at this time that rather than trust a morrsions employee, I would do the decent thing, buy a stamp and pop it in the post. After all, I don't trust anyone quite as much as I trust myself. Nic thought that was a good idea and resumed her honey hunt after arranging a drink on Friday.

I don't know of any post boxes near the supermarket (I'm sure there will be one) so I brought the letter home with me. I decided I would write a little note of my own on the back explaining the story and then placed it in the post box outside my house. So that's my good deed for the day. I do hope it was worth my effort, as the envelope wasn't very thick!

Oh finally, many happy returns for tomorrow Nicola.