soundian

I'm not sure why you can't sign up to the option of receiving a declined transaction if you have insufficient funds in your account.

Most bricks-and-mortar shops use offline (or credit) debit transactions, i.e. they don't communicate with the bank at the time of the transaction (except to authorise the PIN I would imagine). This means your card effectively has to guarantee that the bank will pay the retailer, regardless of how much money you actually have. It is, when used in this way, just like a cheque.

I think this is where most people fail with debit cards. They (like I did until I used the mighty googletron) think it works like a glorified hole-in-the-wall card. Treat it like a cheque book and you won't go far wrong.

I was trying to find a Liverpool beach-ball that I could send to a good enemy of mine for Christmas. I didn't find any in the official club shop but I did find where they got the inspiration.

Junior & Baby-

Anyone else got the demo yet?

Loving it so far but the skin's pretty bowf (again). It's not been particularly nice to look at since 07, but I guess that can be fixed as soon as the graphics community get on the case.

I've got a pre-season friendly against the Glenn Hoddle Academy. Mint.

I'm pretty sure I read they were putting on more than 1 skin this time. Even if they just give us a choice between a light and a dark skin that would be an improvement.

a thrilling 1st round tie away to footballing giants such as ... barnet ...

You dream about playing proper league clubs like the Might Barnet. You probably touch yourself at night in anticipation of such an esteemed fixture.

I think if the OF fuck off to England then Scotland's euro co-efficient is going to swiftly drop to the level where representatives of far-east betting syndicates start turning up in Scottish airports clutching brown envelopes stuffed with cash.

Its the impression I got from the O2 football news on my phone. Albeit, their write ups are very inaccurate alot of the time, but reading it again just now, they are giving the impression that the player do have to be under 21. If you are right, then it sounds a little better for all involved.

I've just seen BBC sport saying the same thing, but contradicting other reports on the same website.

I don't believe for one second any EPL side would have voted for only 17 players aged 21 and over in their squad, that's plainly ludicrous.

So, the Premier League is introducing the 25 man squad limit to start next season, where you're only allowed 17 players over the age of 21. The other 8 must be 21 or under and "home-grown". The definition of "home-grown was then explained to be a player that has been trained by an English or Welsh FA academy for 3 or more years. You'd think that the big clubs with their hefty squads will suffer, and the smaller clubs who actually bring their players through the ranks will shine. But, the big clubs are just going to step in and buy these English youngsters for pocket change, to make up the numbers.

The loophole is that the "home-grown" players can still be foreign as long as they have been in a British academy for 3 years, so the big clubs will continue to snatch promising youngsters from here and abroad, like Macheda and Kakuta.

A pointless rule. It's going to cause chaos, and the prospect of injuries mounting up hasn't been taken into consideration either. Rotation is already essential where European football is concerned. The butting in of the African Nations will cause all kinds of stress on Chelsea who have to name a limited squad AND are still unable to bring in new players.

Nothing will change except a whole load of moaning.

I think you've got that slightly wrong.

Homegrown players have to have been registered to a club in england/wales for 3 years between the ages of 16 and 21, regardless of how old they are now.

That means Ryan Giggs qualifies as homegrown.

Any number of under-21s can be added to the 25 man squad.

It's similar to the Chumps League squad rules iirc.

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonK770i/R8BC Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

I was calling for Burley's head before the game on Saturday but the last two performances might be enough to save him. I'm still not convinced but i'm not convinced we can get anyone better. I'd say give him the Euros. Good game tonight, if only Miller had sunk that sitter it would have been different. I thought he was terrible tonight, just no composure at all and he kept getting the ball at his feet and trying to take on 4 players himself instead of holding it up and waiting for support. Infuriating.

I agree with all of this. Individual mistakes, one from a player who wouldn't be in the squad if we didn't have a lot of injuries, and several from a waste of space that did nothing but greet about how shit his team-mates were all night, was all the difference.

Scotland need to get a tad more discipline as well. Too much boo-hooing at the ref when a decision goes against them. I'm sure refs don't appreciate people shouting abuse and waving their arms about EVERY decision that doesn't go their way.

While I'm remembering, what the fuck did Richard Gough look like on the tele on Saturday with his spice boy haircut!?!

It was Richard Gough? Bah! I though David Bowie had switched allegiance.

The knockout stages would also prevent the outsiders from playing flat back tens, in an attempt to finish 3rd so they can co into the Champions League Junior. The little guys need to come into the competition and play it like a cup final, and they don't, so the group stages are poor.

Even if it was group stages but purely just the league champions taking part, therefore allowing big clubs to clash, that would be great. TV completely ruins football.

I don't see how changing from group stages to knockout would change the mentality of smaller teams. They'll all just "do a Rangers" ; aim for a 0-0 and hope to nick a goal somewhere in the 180 minutes. Those were some of the most boring european matches I've ever seen.

It's not TV, it's the cash generated by it. There's not enough leagues in europe to provide anywhere near the current revenue if you allow only champions into the CL.

I like the new 4th round qualification split. With 25% of the champions league teams this season being debutants it's certainly helping the smaller clubs and nations. One thing I'd change though: I noticed all 4 English teams were in pot 1 for the draw. Maybe they shouldn't allow teams from the same country to be in the same pot. That could throw up some cracking groups (e.g. German champs, Spain 2nd, Italy 3rd, England 4th) and give the lesser teams more of a chance of getting through to the knockout stages.

As for managers moaning about too many matches. I bet if you were to ask every manager in the world whether they'd prefer to play 0,6 or 13 CL matches this season 100% of them would say 13.

Perhaps Micro-Subscription (for TV channels) would be a better idea, especially if you could do it really easily, like on phone credit. I can see why TV license is grudged, as 99.99% of TV output is total ding, but I do want to see the BBC protected in some way.

The problem with TV in Britain, from my point of view, is that I can't watch commercial channels without paying for the BBC. Maybe I'd be quite happy paying nothing and have no BBC.

Like you though, I don't think I'd like it without the BBC.

Maybe I just don't like having no (legal) option.

Anyone not making enough money is allowed benefits aren't they? Education to benefit their position is usually free or can be paid using grants

Although there are a certain amount of benefits someone who is employed can claim, these only top up your earnings to subsistence level.

A certain amount of education is usually free FOR THE UNEMPLOYED; usually just enough to get them a low wage job. Someone on a low wage gets nix, nada, zero etc etc. I've spent over 600 re-educating myself in the past year, and there's no frigging jobs in my chosen field at the moment.

You starting to get an idea as to why they call it the poverty trap.

Yes well done, so i missed out a little bit about the personal allowance, everyone makes mistakes eh, should have been ALL money after P.A. Hey well perhaps if they are below the poverty line they should do something about it don't you think? The means and methods to do so are readily available.

Really. Please tell me what these means and methods are. There are millions of people in Britain eagerly awaiting your insight and we're fully prepared for a collective "D'oh!" moment as you explain how stupid we've been to miss something so obvious.

(I couldn't find a picture of an award winning rooster to put here so you'll all just have to use your imagination)

Yep, except nothing for 3rd place finishes. Not keen at all on this setup Results such as Aberdeen or Lech Poznan getting through to the last 32 just aren't going to happen - which means we'll see the same old teams in the last 32 year in year out, exactly what's wrong with the Champions League. Fair enough, it's better than the nonsense system of the last few years, but it's still designed to ensure that crappy teams don't manage to get very far - which seems completely counterproductive given Platini's vision of getting more countries represented.

If you look at some of the 4th round qualifying matches: Arsenal v Celtic, Debrecen v Levski Sofia, FC Zurich v FK Ventspils etc. you'll see that the weaker teams DO have a better chance of CL footie. They split the 4th round into two pots to give some weaker teams the chance of top flight footie and, more importantly, a good dollop of cash from the TV rights.

Looking at the fourth pot in the CL draw, I reckon there's probably a few countries represented there that have never/rarely featured before. that doesn't seem completely counter-productive to me.

Shazaaaaaaaaaaam!

This made my day. The only real cuntrag of a customer at my work is a scouser. He was all mouthy about the Everton score during the Man Poo game.

Even better, another couple of regulars had spurs to win at 2-1 and correct score at 10-1.

Nose. Rub. You can guess the rest.

if there is one team who has ability to shoot themselves in the foot... its Newcastle United.

Fixed that for you.

(MSN if you read this soon)

Delboy will be pleased:

Chairman resigns

Technically speaking they should be forced to if they are going to apply anti-trust laws consistently. But like Le Stu says, people only seem to get upset when you've got a massive market share like Microsoft has.

The one main difference between Apple and Microsoft OSs is that Apple OSs can't be (legally) installed on non-apple devices.

I imagine that's the difference, and I'm sure Microsoft's lawyers have looked into this very carefully.

live/neutral switched

fuse bypassed by nail*

no earth connection

screw missing from earth terminal*

cable grip not on outer sheath

I'm not sure what the 6th one is. The little nick in the live and the messy neutral wire are both sloppy but not dangerous.

EDIT: The live wire is too long, if that pops out it's long enough to reach the ground terminal.

*No prizes for killing people and/or destroying equipment I'm afraid.

bah. It's the lack of screwhead on the earth that's the 6th. D'oh!

Or maybe I just don't hang around with people who have strong dialects? (the poor)

Don't you mean the working class, your lordship?

i've been told you can't put cans of things in the fridge, not that i would anyway. now, i heard that it was because the tin may transfer to the cans contents, and be very bad for you. but then why is it acceptable to put tin foil over things and then put them in?

Tin foil is made from aluminium.

Don't worry Ian, I wouldn't even consider weasel-punching or hamster slapping a guy of your stature.

Anyway, Steve Bruce is coming down to Edinburgh to do sound for us so I'll give you a bell nearer the time n see if you fancy grabbing a cheeky bev with us. It's been too long old chum.

Take it easy.

30th June is it, a Tuesday is it. That's fighting talk round here.

Bah, I normally work Tues night but if there's a chance of a snog from you and Stevie B I'm well up for it. I should be able to wangle (or mangle) the night off so put me on the guestie.

I like the optimism shown with the rider. 3 piece band plus 4 (presumably) crew in a 150 cap venue. Amazing!

I hope they got 6 bottles of warm Kaliber and sandwiches that were just starting to curl.

Doing a hallway, you either need to take of the door frames (and trim them) or get some of the flexible filler that's available. it's pretty impossible to fit otherwise using the normal method of just cutting a bit off the bottom of the doorframe if you have a lot and they go in different directions, I've tried. The mouldings are fine for everything else if you don't want to remove skirtings.

Radiators are easy, drill a hole, cut a V shape up to the edge of the hole

\

( )

/

put the two pieces in and cover them with the wee round radiator things you can buy.

Simples.

Being a hallway, you might want to make sure you get some hard-wearing stuff as well.

Oh yeah, also, glue the mouldings (if you use them) to the skirting board, NOT the laminate.

The floor laying guide on the B&Q website was useful to me so check that out.

The hardest bits are the last ones where you have to trim lengthwise as well, so lay off the beers until the last bits down.

You also might want to consider getting some knee pads.

I found Careers Scotland - For all your career advice needs useful. They gave me a list of local employment agencies and their specialities amongst other things. It might be worth getting in touch with them.

There's lots of letting agents round here, looking out my window I can see signs for ELS (ELS - Edinburgh Letting Solutions - Home) and Murray and Currie.ESPC as someone mentioned as well. There are certain areas to steer clear of though, sighthill, niddry and southside are three that spring to mind immediately, unless you're planning on buying a stab-vest.