Off Topic Thread 3.0

The food in the troc is terrible, but that's not why people go there.

Neil3030 wrote: »

Has anyone ever lived in Cardiff? Where'd be the nicer spots to live, and more importantly, the dodgy spots to avoid?

This map highlights areas you might want to avoid

Neil3030 wrote: »

Too late

But I may be relocating to a different part of this to-be-avoided place.

EDIT: bit harsh on the Shetlands, surely.

Ah I actually quite like Cardiff. Are you going to be there temporarily or will it be permanent/semi-permanent? I've never lived there myself but I know a few who have, but if its temporary you might want to sacrifice location for convenience.

Channelling my inner Jamie Heaslip: replaced my Ford Focus with a VW up! beats Edition. They even throw in 250 quid to spend on some beats headphones. Happy days.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

You also get .ak's explanation on why you shouldn't get Beats for free

And a CD of his remixes too. Actually not a cd, vinyl.

molloyjh wrote: »

Any time I've been in it's been really good, and has been the only reason I've gone there.

Ah the staff are great, I know the manager and a few of the staff there so we generally just go for drinks, but it's actually known as having mediocre food - it's just a has a brilliant atmosphere has an old-school dining club vibe to it, pre-theatre is crazy busy there. You go because the treat you brilliantly there, they really know how to look after the customer.

The food is a 3.5 out of 5 but the ambiance/atmosphere is a 5 out of 5 for me.

It's a place 'celebs' generally go because they get looked after properly and they don't really care about the food.

If you're looking for over the ear headphones steer as far away from Beats as you can. Look at the audio technica ath-m40/50x. I have the 40s and they are brilliant.

errlloyd wrote: »

But if you're not on KBC or Ulster Bank and you really want contactless on an Iphone you can natively use boon from today - which is like a prepaid card you top up and add to your phone.

Been using Android pay since the day it came out, I think it's class. I am also beginning to get less strange looks from shop assistants.

I worked for a company who were involved in developing the NFC protocol and in 2012 they did a test run for its roll out across London. That rollout involved a few major companies coming together to provide infrastructure to stores, and phones, test bank accounts etc to employees and also some Olympic athletes (who were sponsored by companies involved).

I will always remember the first time I paid with my phone, before Android Pay was a thing, was at a Nando's a couple of weeks before the Olympics started, the look of utter horror on the face of the girl behind the counter, she thought I was Dr Who or something. Then she had to get her manager to verify that I'd actually paid, and not done something nefarious. This happened a couple of times but as I'd been given a bank account with some money in it (you couldn't link real accounts to the test) I was happy enough!

Then when the trial was over I called support for the MNO to try to cancel the sim so I could keep the phone, as it was a new smartphone and I was entitled to it as part of the trial. Turned out my account with them had a note on it saying it was an Olympic VIP's phone so I had to resist pimping my fake athletic ability to get a cheap deal out of their retentions team.

awec wrote: »

I'll use it all the time, I still have one of the old Ulster Bank debit cards without the nfc chip in it and entering PIN was pissing me off. Was actually going to ring this week for a replacement but this news makes it even better.

Have an Apple watch too which makes it even easier.

People are gonna freak out when you pay with watch. Should be good to see!

Made me chuckle anyways...