Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Today I became a happy owner of PrimeTel PrimeHome installation, also known as Triple Play. Triple Play is this new way of bundling together loads of television channels, ADSL Internet connection, and really cheap telephony. It’s said to cost only 25 CYP month, but I got lucky and received a promotion offer of free installation and 3 month of service free of charge as well.

I didn’t have any time to play with it just yet, but it looks quite good. Here are the things that I’ve noticed during my short experience:

• Television has an electronic TV guide with a time schedule for all programs for all channels. This is very handy.
• Internet connection was way to easy to install. Just plugged the Ethernet cable straight into my laptop and I was done.
• Sound quality in the telephone is a bit less than CYTA’s. There is some minor background noise all the time. But it’s not as bad as it can sound.
• Switching channels on TV is a lot slower than before. This will need some getting used to. But it’s a fair trade for not having to configure any of the channels, crispy clear quality of image and sound, TV guide, and the selection of channels.

I’ll probably post more about it later, when I’d played more with it, but don’t hold your breath on that one.

P.S.: I might be somewhat biased being an employee of PrimeTel Ltd., and having received the package free of charge (installation + 3 month). Take my words with a grain of salt. And pepper.

I am starting to fall for television. First there was (and still is, by the way) Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. And now this - The IT Crowd, new comedy show on Channel 4… Boy, am I waiting for those times when my TV will be able to connect to souces like this, no matter where I live. I’m willing to pay for this today. In three years I’ll be desperate.

Anyway, I managed to see one of the episodes, thanks to a certain someone. It’s hilarious. It’s as funny as I could imagine, and even a bit more so. By the way, all episodes are online, it’s just they are for UK audience only. If you know how to become a UK audience - there’s all you need.

And let me tell you something - don’t let the name of the show stop you from watching it. There’s not that much of IT in it anyway. At least not in the episode that I’ve watched. It’s more of an office humor. If you’ve spent more than half an hour in any corporate or startup office recently - you’ll dig all the humor in the show.

I’ve mentioned the professional level of Cyprus television in a very recent post, and here I am, got hit with a deja vu. It’s Friday night, and I am at home, after taking a long walk, trying to avoid all pubs and restaurants. Watching Capital channel, which has a 1984 classic - “Starman” with Jeff Bridges.

About 40 minutes into the film, it suddenly restarts. No advertising, no breaking news. Just starts showing from the very beginning all over again. Instant rewind to the opening credits. It’s been going now for at least 15 minutes…

I am not going to watch it once again. Especially when there are no guarantees that they won’t rewind it again a couple of times.

Off to bed.

I don’t care that much for television. Even less I care for advertisements. And even les than that I care about advertisement on television. You can easily say that I don’t care about them at all.

But that didn’t stop me from seeing one of the funniest things that I’ve seen on TV ever - The Big Ad for Carlton Draught (It doesn’t look that as good in the tiny window as it does on a large TV screen, but at least you’ll have an idea of what I am talking about here.). That was something!

It turns out I am by far not alone. A lot of people enjoyed it. There is even a Wikipedia page for it.

(singing)It’s a big add. Expensive ad! …

The other day I mentioned that I am watching “Oz“. Well, I sure did. I have watched the last episode today.

I am very surprised as to how addicting it was. I have seen a total of 56 episodes (each one is about 1 hour long) from all 6 seasons that I got my hands on. And it took me less than two weeks to go through all of them.

As usual with series, the quality suffers towards the end. The first 4 seasons or so were the best of all. But the degradation wasn’t as bad as it may sound. It’s just the intencity was gone. Actually, it was gone from most episodes, but not all. Some had it at maximum level. Like that one with Cyril’s execution, which I had to pause about five times so that I wouldn’t burst into tears. So dramatic…

Overall, not only it was entertaining to watch, but very educational and thought provoking. I’ve learned a lot about prison life and confirmed my suspecion that I don’t ever ever want to go into one of these places. I am alo thinking a lot of about many subjects brought up in the episodes - crime and punishment, law and ethics, family, friendship, survival of the fittest, love, and stuff like that.

I’m also planning to get the complete series on DVD. I will watch some of the episodes again. And I also have a few people interested in watching the whole thing.