Keys Corner

Someone in the UK decided to send us an iTunes gift voucher. A nice idea, but unfortunately, it’s not possible to download the gifted CD. The error message in red on the screen shot says: This code is only valid for customers of the iTunes store in Great Britain. As we don’t have a UK credit card, that means that although the CD was bought and paid for in the UK, we can’t download it.

A bit as if the music industry could tell the postal service – we don’t allow UK residents to post CDs to Germany, so please return any that you spot in transit to the sender.

Oh, actually we have seen this sort of behaviour before – it’s called the regional code on DVDs; it stops you sending a DVD purchased in the USA to your friends in Europe. A fine way to treat your customers!

Update (2005-12-23):
In the mean time Apple has confirmed that, indeed, you can not send iTunes gifts internationally:

Ever since we read The Lost Gardens of Heligan, which narrates the story of the rediscovery and restoration of one of the great Victorian gardens of England by Tim Smit, we have been meaning to visit them in Cornwall.

We recently discovered a second reason to visit Cornwall – the Eden Project:

Also a project by Tim Smit, this one is to establish a tropical rain forest and a humid temperate biotope under huge bubble-shaped greenhouses (the largest in the world) in a disused clay pit. The Eden Project houses over 100,000 plants representing 5,000 species. The site was opened for visitors in 2001 and was one of the locations for the Live 8 charity concert earlier this year.

The BBC is planning to offer a download service next year for viewers who have missed a TV program.

The last 7 days of broadcasting will be available. If they don’t tie the service in some way to the UK (for example, by checking the IP address) this would be a great way of receiving the BBC in areas not covered by satellite services, such as Germany, for example.

The British government has funded research at Nottingham University’s school of psychology into work-related accidents.

They conclude that drivers of emergency vehicles and drivers of company cars are most likely to be involved in accidents involving excessive speed. Company car drivers are also more likely to be involved in fatal accidents than other groups of road users:

“Company car drivers had more of their accidents on slippery roads, or while under the influence of alcohol, or while speeding, than would be predicted by chance when compared with drivers of other vehicles used for work purposes.
“Over half the accidents on slippery roads also involved excessive speed, so there appeared to be a huge overlap in these two groups.”

My take on this, is that part of the reason for the increased risk is that if you don’t own something, you are less likely to take care of it – the same applies to other things, like holiday accomodation, rented housing and rental cars.

Marc wrote recently about the British serving chicken frequently when they invite people for a meal. Well, here’s a reason to switch to something else – the BBC reports that over a third of chickens sold in the UK could be infected with E.coli germs resistant to the antibiotic Trimethaprim which is used to treat bladder infections. VRE (Vancomycin Resistant Enteroccci) were in 1 in 25 of samples taken by the BBC and 12 of 147 chickens had antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter. Over half the birds sampled came from outside the UK.

I can’t speak for the first two germs, but from personal experience, Campylobacter is really unpleasant and very easily spread to humans. And the thought that over 8% of the chickens contained an antibiotic-resistant strain is not pleasant at all.

The A-level (advanced level) exam results are due again on Thursday this week. The percentage of students passing them is expected to have risen for the 23rd year running to around 96.5% from 68,2% in 1982. And it will be no surprise if more than one in five get the best grade, an “A”. The think tank Reform has published research showing that an E grade (the lowest pass grade) in maths in 1988 would have been worth a B grade in 2004.

So far, so bad. The system is being devalued. Forty six percent of the UK voters believe the exams have become easier. It wouldn’t seem difficult to correct the trend – the marking or the questions have to become stiffer, but in Britain the consensus seems to be that the exams need to be scrapped and replaced with a baccalaureate-style exam. Now, I understand that the baccalaureate and the German Abitur both cover a wider range of subjects, which in itself may be good thing. But I can’t see how a different syllabus will ensure that the questions and marking don’t continue to get easier each year. Can anyone enlighten me on the thinking behind this proposal?

And one other thought – if the A-levels (which are the basis for getting into university) are getting easier, does this mean that British degrees are also being devalued or made easier to pass?

The free BBC downloads of the 9 Beethoven Symphonies has – as might be expected – caused some aggro with the music industry which has accused the Beeb of “devaluing the perceived value of music”. (Which is a bit much, coming from the managing director of the Naxos label, which itself shook up the music industry some 18 years ago by marketing cut-price classical music CDs)

The BBC is expected to announce the millionth download of the symphonies this week.

This evening I transfered some money, using internet banking, from a Barclays Bank account in the UK to another Barclays Bank account in the UK. Here, in Germany, a funds transfer between different branches of the same bank is normally instantaneous. Imagine my surprise to receive the following message when I hit “confirm”:

Pay a Bill or Someone Step 2b of 4

Barclays to Barclays payments

Because the person you’ve chosen to pay has a Barclays account we need to do some extra checking.

These checks help us to protect your account from potentially fraudulent activity. As a result, your payment will be made on 07/07/2005.

Your current balance shown on your homepage will not be updated until this payment is made.

Good grief, can’t Barclays at location “A” trust Barclays at location “B”? The implication of the third sentence is that other banks are more trustworthy.

Is their computer system so full of security holes that they can’t manage an intrabank transfer without two days worth of checking?

If you live outside the UK, your mental picture of the country is likely to include the view that it rains a lot and it’s not exactly the place to go for a hot dry summer.

Actually, that view seems to be wrong – London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, told Londoners yesterday “if all you have done is take a pee, you don’t need to flush the toilet every time.“. The reason isn’t so much the hot dry summers, however. It is more a case of dry winters, which if they continue, will lead to standpipes being used in London as early as next year. Livingstone wants an immediate ban on using hosepipes and sprinklers, and is also recommending that the Londoners switch from taking baths to having showers to reduce water usage.

The BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary are trying to track down the first use and origin of some 50 words or phrases which have crept into the English langauge without the OED having noticed at the time. So, if you can produce evidence, which can be irrefutably dated, of where to bonk, codswollop, the Old Bill, a ploughman’s lunch or any of the other 46 terms here came from, get in touch with the BBC.