October 9th, 2008 by olstar

I was just browsing the internet - as you do - and i found myself looking for old work collegues on shitbook. I couldnt find any of them, and i figured most of them would of been too old to use things like the internet by now. (Joke, guys!) 

This then led me on a trail of domain name snooping. I always check domain names that i know belong to friends, associates and ex-friends of mine so i can keep my eye on what they are doing.; I noticed at one point a while back a lot of the domain names that we owned whilst working at Ancis were still active, although they mostly led to holding pages or BT Connect error pages.

So i found myself checking a few of them, and digging a bit deeper on a few that we used as the main ones. The description on a whois tool i use was something along the lines of ‘Deleted and available for resgistration’ - so i double checked with 123-reg and sure enough all the domain names we had are now available for regestration. All except one of the .co.uk’s which is still owned by Ian - but has nothing on but a 404 page from 123-reg.

I seem to remember him carrying on the maintenence contract for the I-Centre, so maybe he carried on the ancis name, too? 

I still think that company could of done really well if it haddnt ran before it could walk. They spent too much and didnt think about what they had, and what it could of been used for. If only they had stuck a few windows and linux servers in there and ran some form of web hosting company too - they’d be laffin!

I’d love to hear from some of the guys that worked there, so if when you are searching one day, you stumble upon this blog. Then pop a comment on.

Ancis-FM, Ancis-SW, Ancis-PC, Mansfield

October 2nd, 2008 by olstar

I have had a recent spurt of comments on a post i did about the wheelbase motor project in Nottingham. The comments are from “clients” and employees of the project, and they all seem to completely miss my point of view on the whole subject.

I do understand why these projects exist, and why they work. And i totally agree that school isn’t for for everyone - but you know what? It probably wasn’t right for me either. But i did not smash stuff up or resort to pyromaniacism (is that a word?) i simply got on with it and did what i had to do.

I don’t for 1 minute think projects like this shouldn’t exist - but i feel they should be opened up to all kids at a certain age. When you do your “Options” maybe one of them should be to join a manual labor style placement instead of sitting in a classroom.

I spoke to a friend about the matter, and they told me of a relative of theirs who was a degenerate type, messed about in school and generally caused a nuisance. He was rewarded with day trips, and a trade placement when he was 14. He now earns more then my friend, who is 3 years his senior.

I guess its just another example of how this country favours the doleys and drop outs over the hard workers.

Roll on a fair britain, eh!

October 1st, 2008 by olstar

According to wikipedia - in the first season of prison break, most of the filming was actually done in a de-comissioned prison called Joliet Prison in Chicago.

Lincolns cell was the same cell they used to house a guy called John Wayne Gacy who was labled the “Killer Clown” after raping and murdering 33 young boys and men and dressing up as a clown called “Pogo”

Many of the film crew refused to go in his cell - as they thought it was haunted!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Break

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

I bet you didnt know that, did you!

September 30th, 2008 by olstar

Well, since my last blog post i have managed to bag a BARGAIN on ebay! I have won a unused, 2g iphone for £174!

I know its NOT a 3g one - but i really could not find one for £200 or under that wasn’t broken or something. Anyway, after weighing up the difference between a iphone 2g and a iphone 3g, i decided to opt for the 2g one for now - and if i find im being held up by its lack of 3g-ness then ill upgrade after xmas (when there are lots of unwanted xmas prezzies on eBay )

I’m still waiting for it to be delivered, but i already have the apps, games and hacks bookmarked on my PC!

In other news i am in my final week of slave-labor at the box, i should get a lot of money through for my last week or so, and hopefully ill have enough money to put another £400 in the bank, and have enough left over to spend a bit on the car.

4 more shifts to go!

THANK FUDGE!

September 19th, 2008 by olstar

I have been working hard in a factory as well as for the business for a good few months now, its really starting to affect my knees, my back and although i have lost lots of fat, and turned it into muscle i still ache all the time and generally feel sorry for myself 

But, i have managed to earn enough money to get straight with rent - and that was the main reason for starting there again in the first place. I finish there in two weeks time, and by the end of it i should hopefully of saved up enough money to tax my car too, maybe even MOT it.

And depending on how much overtime i cram in, i may even be able to treat myself and buy myself a little present.

Ive been looking for a new phone on eBay for a while now, and ive looked at everything from blackberrys to nokia N82’s, and more recently the 3g apple iphone.

Now im aware its quite fashionable to have an iphone at the mo, but i want one for the simple fact they are so clever, they are designed so well, and it means i can access the internet and do anything i need at the drop of a hat.

The only problem with fashion, is that it usually causes the price of popular “fashionable” items to rise considerably, and this is bad news for people who actually want it for its functionality, and not for the kudos you’ll get from your mates down the pub.

So here is my guide to finding bargains (not just iphones) on eBay!

Olstars eBay Bargain Hunting Guide

This guide is 100% my own, and is not a guarantee. I have just found that by following this process closely i have found items for really good prices on the jungle that is eBay.

Step 1 - The most important!

Think of a rough (realistic) price that you will pay for the item you want. Once you have this figure, write it on a post-it and stick it on your monitor - and make sure you stick to this price! You are trying to bag a bargain here!

I am looking for a 3g iphone, and i want it for £200 ovno.

Step 2 - Find out what cha’ workin’ wit

Search for the item you want using its name, but dont be too specific. So if you were looking for a 16gb 3g apple iphone, initially just search for “iphone” then narrow your search using the category links on the left hand side.

Browse through the results, and analyse the following

• The current price of the item
• The amount of bids
• The time left
• Item location

Step 3 - Narrow the search

Look for items that are below your price range first, then narrow them down with the specifics of your requirements. In my case i want a 3g one, so all the 2g’s have gone. I don’t want one that is scratched or that has no photos of the actual iphone that is being sold - this is a very important point, if they don’t show you actual photos then its not worth the bid, you may pay £200 for a piece of shit.

I’ve now got a handful of items in my watched list, so i will move onto the more in depth cleansing of the list.

Step 4 - Psychology

If the item has been started at 99p, and is at say £100 with a lot of bids, then get rid of it. People who enter a bidding war tend to stay with it. They lose sight of their price range and end up bidding just becasue they don’t want to lose.

Try and find an item that is already at £100, and has no bids or only 1 or 2. This item is likely not to of been picked up by the all of the people initially looking for this item.

Its also handy to read the description, sometimes people can be very misleading and tell you what you want to hear yet magically miss out or avoid the bad bits. I’ve seen an iphone description said it had small white lines on the screen but they were hardly noticeable. They included photos of said white lines, and the photos were blurry and you could hardly see a thing. What you could see was the very top of a 5mm white line that ran down the screen. Nice try!

Step 5 - The stragglers

One of the best things about eBay, is that some people are morons. And by that, i mean they cant spell, punctuate, and have no concept of how to list a product properly on eBay. This means that if you play about with a few misspellings of name of the item you are looking for, you can find items that have totally slipped under the radar!

I got a pair of limited edition 100% genuine adidas superstar underworlds for £27 once, because the guy was a moron and had no idea what he had, or how to spell!

Step 6 - Stakeout

The last step is to wait, and watch the auctions carefully. If one you are watching is nearing the end of its time and is still below your budget, then stick a cheeky bid in. NEVER bid with more than a few minutes remaining. If you bid and there is a day left then your just bumping the price up and giving someone a whole day to out bid you. You should never leave it too late either. Some people put a max bid on so as soon as you lay yours down, you are outbid straight away. You need to leave a few minutes so you can put 3 or 4 bids in until you are the highest bidder. Only ever bid the minimum amount as well.

If your target figure is breached, then BACK OFF. There must be millions of items listed on eBay every day, and unless your item is rare, then its likely it will come up again soon and you can do this whole process all over again until you reach your goal.

Wish me luck in my quest for a £200 3g iphone - and i hope this may help someone else bag a bargain on eBay!

September 10th, 2008 by olstar

Gemma’s car broke again. It was only about 3 months ago when we had to shell out nearly a grand on a new gearbox, new clutch and a new starter motor. It had never been right since it was done, it never felt like i expected it to feel when it was being used - and it was leaking oil.

We tried to get it sorted once, but the guy we were sent to obviously didnt do a very good job as the leak continued. Anyway it leaked out most of the oil, and now its needed a new clutch - well we hope thats all it needed.

The car is currently being put back together and hopefully Gem will be home tonight some time, as i haven’t seen her properly since Monday morning. She stayed at her mums as its closer for her to get to work.

We are currently going thru a bit of a stressful patch, with money, jobs, and now cars. And this has certainly put pressure on our relationship. Its not until times like this, and more specifically time spent away from loved ones, that you realise how important these people are in your life.

I have been so lonely at home by myself, no one to talk to, no one to cuddle up to on the sofa. And no dog to play with as Bonnie has been at gems mum’s too. I know that may sound quite selfish, but thats how i feel at the mo.

I guess im feeling sorry for myself a bit too, im doing a temporary job i hate and want to jack in straight away, but i cant because i owe my landlord money for rent. I have a business that is being held back becasue i need to sort my personal monies out - see previous sentence. And all this puts pressure on me, which in turn makes me miserable, and that causes friction with everything else.

Anyway, i am starting shift 3 of 4 soon, and need to prepare my things.

I hope i dont have to spend much more time at home alone as i really dont like it.

September 2nd, 2008 by olstar

Well - that long awaited moment has arrived! Prison break has been thrust back onto our screens for the 4th consecutive season. The last season was cut short due to writers strikes, and unfortunately the lost time that they have made up with this double whammy airing of the new season has left me with a slight sourness in my mouth - wait that’s just my drink!

The rest of this article contains spoilers

Read the rest of this entry »

September 1st, 2008 by olstar

Once again, 123-Reg have shone through and have fucked up good and proper. We must have 35/40 domain names in our 123-Reg account, some ours, some are our clients - all important.

Anyone who has visited my blog before may remember the earlier entry about the 123-Reg auto renewal issue that we had. They basically automatically renewed a domain name we didn’t want renewing. If they were gonna automatically do it then why send us emails every week telling us to renew it?

Anyway, following on from that same issue, we basically got our money back from the bank, then it got sent back to them, and then we got it back again. They have now totally shut our 123-Reg account down, we cant access any domain names to make changes, we have two sites we cant publish as we cant edit domain name details.

They even told Dave they had deleted our account!

We are waiting to hear back from the people up high apparently, and the only way to contact them is by email. They are probably on their sun lounger in the Bahamas replying to emails on their blackberry. Tossers.

We’ll update you as things progress!

September 1st, 2008 by olstar

As i have mentioned in a previous blog entry, i think rebecca has done amazingly well and she should be proud of her achievements for the rest of her life. Im sure she has a promising career in sport and on TV etc and i wish her all the luck in the world with it.

What really gets to me (and probably her) is that Mansfield seems to want to ride off the back of her success and rise from the ashes into the spotlight! Im sorry mansfield, but surely thats something Mansfield should achieve by itsself? If Mansfield brought up and trained some great swimmers who all went on to win at something like the olympics, then great - well done mansfield! But that aint the case is it. As far as im aware Becky Adlington didnt even train in Mansfield as the facilities were not good enough - iirc she said she now trains in Nottingham.

I live in Mansfield, i was born here, and have been raised here. We once had things to be proud of, the brewery.. err.. the brewery.. and now all we have to be proud of is a young girl who totally off her own back (with the help of friends and family of course) has trained and gone on to become the most successful female swimmer in great britain. We can only be proud that she was born here though. Not that Mansfield made her the olympian star she has become!

Anyway, rant over - let becky have all the spotlight as she deserves it.

August 19th, 2008 by olstar

A big well done to Rebecca Adlington for winning two gold medals and breaking a world record making her the most successful female swimmer to come out of England in the last 100 years. Its really amazing to see a young girl from Mansfield go so far - and do so well!

Well done Becky!

Its a very reassuring thing for Mansfield, as this area doesn’t exactly have many shiny people in the spotlight who we can be proud of. The last “Celebrity” from Mansfield ended up getting fired from his TV job for snorting coke! So having a young Mansfield girl go to the Beijing Olympics and earn two gold medals is just fantastic!

Big up yourself luv!