I’ve spent the day in a rather sterile office building in Sheffield and have spent a surprisingly pleasant evening here now. Sheffield reminds me of Birmingham – the centre around where I am staying is lovely and modern with some gorgeous buildings. Arriving at the train station you’re greeted with a lovely fountain. There are a small number of quite nice restaurants and the hotel (the St Paul Mercure) is modern and has a decent selection of whiskey with waiters who seem to know what they’re doing.
However the place is deserted – even for a Wednesday there should be more people about – this is the reason I remember Birmingham – or as long as I can remember Cilla Black’s accent has grated but the centre of Brimingham is lovely at night – except it’s a wasteland – where the hell are all the people?

So first off, this is hilarious. So go ahead and read that.
Secondly I’ve been using this mobile broadband stuff now for 2 weeks and it’s surprisingly useful – finally tried it on the train this morning and while there was the odd drop out and pause, it was quite usable. One thing I’ve noticed is how little data I actually move about unless I download media – in 2 weeks of on and off usage I’ve downloaded 114 mbytes 43 of which was one mp3 file of a radio interview. I notice the speed difference from the 7 odd mbits of DSL access I get at home but aside from that no real restrictions – I doubt I’ll use the full 3Gb of data a month.

The guy who invented the transistor is dead