3 July 2000<\/p>\n
First things first: an update on the whole car thing.<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon I had been playing with the idea of hopping on a plane
\nand delivering the winning ticket by hand, but by Monday morning this seemed a
\nbit over the top. So I called Fuji, and asked them what we should do with it.
\nThe ticket itself said that we should take a photocopy and then send the original
\nto Fuji by recorded delivery, but I wanted to hear it from a real person. When I
\nspoke to them, this exactly what they said, but somehow that reassured me.<\/p>\n
Of course, as soon as the envelope left my hand at the post office counter,
\nI immediately had second thoughts. The probability of the envelope getting lost
\nin the mail was surely about the same as of us winning the car in the first place.
\nWhy hadn’t I splashed out on a courier instead? What if the person I’d spoken to
\nat Fuji wasn’t a real representative of their marketing department, but an impostor
\nwho was going to intercept the ticket and use it for himself?<\/p>\n
After an anxious afternoon and night, I called them again the next morning, I thought the day would never happen. Neither did Abi. Even at the best of …But somehow, while I had the loan of my mum’s mobile phone while they were So, thanks to the friendly people at the Will I use the WAP features? Probably not. I bought the phone because it …I’ve been playing way too much Diablo II<\/a>. Not the most sophisticated game -Martin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This seems to be turning into a weekly thing… 3 July 2000 First things first: an update on the whole car thing. On Sunday afternoon I had been playing with the idea of hopping on a plane and delivering the winning ticket by hand, but by Monday morning this seemed a bit over the top. … <\/p>\n
\njust to confirm that it had arrived. It had. (A victory for common sense, or
\na lucky escape? Who knows…) They said they would be back in touch towards
\nthe end of the week once they had verified the claim, and sorted out things with
\nToyota.<\/a> Unfortunately, when they did call
\non Friday, it was to say that the only
\nperson authorized to release a car is off on holiday, and won’t be back until
\nMonday 10th July. I’m sure we can wait, though.<\/p>\nMobile Phonery<\/h3>\n
\ntimes, I hate getting phone calls. Using an answering machine isn’t much better,
\nbecause I don’t like making phone calls either, and when someone leaves you a message,
\nthey generally expect you to call them back. So why would I conceivably want a
\nmobile<\/i> phone, so that I could be reachable all the time<\/i>? The very
\nnotion is absurd.<\/p>\n
\naway on holiday, I sort of got used to having it around. While I still worked
\nfor the bank I used to have a pager, and although it had the same problem as an
\nanswerphone (i.e., you have to call back), it was kind of useful (sometimes)
\nfor keeping in contact with Abi. For meeting up after work, for example.<\/p>\n
\nCarphone Warehouse<\/a>, I now have a
\nstate-of-the art WAP-enabled Nokia 7110<\/a>
\nwith a spring-loaded front cover (like
\nin The Matrix<\/a>).
\nIn the past I’ve been quite disparaging about WAP, mainly
\nbecause it’s being marketed as mobile internet (you know who you are, BT).
\nWhile this claim is true-ish technically, the
\nshortcomings of the WAP protocol itself<\/a>
\nand the size of the screens involved make it a thoroughly silly idea. Mini-services are the
\nway to go, but nowhere but Japan (with the
\ni-mode<\/a>)
\nseems to have got a proper clue yet. And anyone
\nwho seriously thinks that composing an email or text message on a phone’s keypad
\nis somehow clever, or a productive use of their time needs to spend some quality
\ntime in a padded room far from the rest of humanity.<\/p>\n
\nmakes me look cool. Anything else is just a bonus.<\/p>\nAnd Finally…<\/h3>\n
\nin terms of graphics, nor does it have a hugely compelling storyline. But what
\nit lacks in innovation, it makes up in sheer playability. It’s easy to pick up,
\nbut hard to put down. Check out
\nGamecenter<\/a> for their
\ninitial thoughts on the game<\/a>. <\/p>\n