I haven’t posted much lately so this post is a catch up to mention several things that have caught my attention lately.

Facebook introduces usernames

Facebook have now introduced usernames.  This doesn’t make a huge difference to the site itself but does mean that if you want to link people to your page you now can have an easy permalink such as www.facebook.com/CharlesBarsley.  It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few months and if the site evolves more.  Get your  username here http://www.facebook.com/username/

TV Licencing

June is going to be an expensive month!  It seems most of my quarterly bills have come through plus my TV licence (which means I have physically lived in my house for a year) and car insurance.

I seriously considered not renewing my TV Licence.  I would not be a license evader I would just not have a TV.  The TV licence only covers live broadcast TV (Source MoneySavingExpert) and not prerecorded TV available on the BBC iPlayer.  I find I very rarely sit down in the lounge and watch TV.  Usually I watch most of my TV on my PC while checking my emails / surfing the net etc.  For example as I write this I am watching last nights “Have I got news for you” on the BBC iPlayer which doesn’t require a TV licence.

The only times I actually watch the TV in my living room are occasionally when I have breakfast / supper, I’ll watch BBC News or something on Dave.

However I will renew my licence for two reasons.

• Reason One – The hassle of trying to convince TV licencing that you don’t have a TV.
• Reason Two – I want a TV in my living room for the Xbox and DVD player which I am sure I use more than the TV channels!

I do like the fact that the BBC are advert free – especially for sports.  But I think it is a little unfair that it doesn’t cover the iPlayer.  Surely it should cover all BBC media outlets or none?

New TV?

On a related note I am soooo tempted by this Samsung TV.  40″ with a stand and 5 year guarantee all for £699.  If it was £599 I would snap it up but £699 is still a great deal for the TV just slightly more than I would want to spend on one.  I may wait and see what happens in the sales.

Competition time

As you may know I run the website www.brawngpnews.co.uk, a Brawn F1 fan site.  I was delighted to be contacted by Vodafone this week to create a competition on the site for it’s readers to win 3 day tickets to the British Grand Prix.  I am giving away a pair of tickets.  Its a fantastic prize and a great year to go with Jenson Button doing so well and the fact it may be / is the last time the race will be held at Silverstone.  Competition closes midday 14th June

Related posts:

1. My Links for July 2nd through August 4th These are my web picks for July 2nd through...