Many people have bought new digital TVs over the last few years and have now switched over to digital. Some people who may have a nearly new TV might have bought a digital set top box so the can watch digital TV on their analogue Television.

Whatever situation you are in it is worth taking note that from lunchtime tomorrow you will need to re-tune your digital television service to pick up new channels and to receive channels whose frequency is changing.
The digital service needs to move channels around to make room for freeview HD channels. This could mean problems for people who do not know how to retune their boxes and some viewers boxes may no longer work completely. We will wait for Friday afternoon to find out.

The youth of today could be forgiven at not knowing who Chas and Dave are. The enigmatic pair recorded a number of catchy (or some say annoying) songs during the 1970’s and 80’s and have influenced many budding artists over the years. Songs such as Snooker Loopy, Rabbit and the Sideboard Song elevated them to stardom. But, sad news reaches us that the pair have decided to call it a day after 35 years together. They had eight top 40 singles over the years but pianist Chas Hodges will now go it alone under the name ‘Chas and his Band’. Dave Peacock will retire from the music business after the death of his wife Sue from Cancer. One of their last major performances was at the Glastonbury festival in 2005.

The Renault Formula 1 team have decided not to contest the charges brought against them concerning the alleged race fixing furore surrounding Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash at the Singapore Grand Prix last year.

Piquet Jr was sacked by the team earlier in the season and had since suggested that Renault asked him to crash to further the chances of team mate Fernando Alonso.

As a result of the allegations Renault were asked to answer charges with regard to the incident in question. As a result, the two men that Piquet Jr testified had instructed him to crash the car, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, have now left the team.

Renault had previously stated that Piquet Jr had made false allegations and would be taking legal action against him. It now seems likely that this will not happen and the removal of the two men by Renault themselves could be read as an admission of guilt by Renault.

What punishment they will receive is yet to be seen, but it is not a good day for Formula 1.

The always effervescent and sometimes tipsy Keith Floyd has died of a heart attack aged 65. The TV chef enjoyed many years of success in the 1980’s with brilliant TV shows that he mainly presented with wine glass in hand.

His unplanned and often chaotic style of presentation won the hearts of many viewers and the shows are still re-run today. Former manager Stan green commented it was the:

“end of an era for many of us”

Floyd wrote over 20 books with most of them topping the best sellers list and his autobiography is scheduled to be released next month.

It is quite common to bit a little disappointed when your internet service provider says they are providing you with a certain internet speed and they are actually not. Download and upload speeds can vary and your provider will often use the age old excuse of you being too far from the exchange to get full usage.

A South African IT company that has had problems with internet speeds has finally found the solution – pigeon power. The company attached a 4GB memory stick to the pigeon’s leg and timed how long it took the bird to travel from one office in Howick to another in Durban. The bird took only two hours whereas the ASDL line the company used had only managed to send 4% of the same data in that time.

So, if you thought the internet was getting bigger all the time, think again, there is still a lot to be said for pigeon post.

We all know when we are supposed to dial 999, or do we? A recent report states that the British public seem to be calling the emergency number for the most bizarre of reasons. Greater Manchester has a huge population and the emergency number is dialled around 6,500 times every day by people that need either the Police, Ambulance or Fire service. But, sometimes these calls are bogus or even for purposes we can only stand back and be astonished about.

The Greater Manchester Police force has just released recordings of some of the weird and downright stupid reasons people have called the number. One man angry about the cash amount he received for his win on a bet called 999 because he wanted to complain, whilst a woman called 999 just because she had no credit on her phone and needed to call someone.

A police spokesman stated:

“999 Day has been launched to appeal to the public to only ring 999 in a real emergency as tying up the lines unnecessarily puts people’s lives at risk and could delay someone in need of urgent help getting through.”