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Who was the marketing genius who got to associate SEAT with crime, death and drug dealing?

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Crime dramas on ITV1 are currently sponsored by SEAT. But who was the marketing genius who persuaded SEAT to associate their good looking cars with death, crime, missing persons and drug dealing? Take Vera for example. Just before the start of an episode, and at the end of each commercial break, there is an ad which associates a SEAT car with a crime scene. All the ads are shot at nighttime. Some examples I can remember: A woman in white walking in the middle of the road picked out by the SEAT's headlights. A message to a missing mother (really? a missing mother?) on the smartphone (presumably connected to the SEAT's electronics system). A nasty looking package lying in the dark near a white SEAT car. A man who drops something as he closes the boot of his SEAT car, probably a clue after his murder in a few minutes time. Surely they could have come up with something more reassuring. Something which suggests that SEAT cars are solidly reliable and will keep you safe even

Usually the cat doesn't get to sleep in the bedroom

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Usually the cat doesn't get to sleep in the bedroom, but one evening he snuck in and arranged himself on my pillow, near my head. I could hear his purring quite loud. I like gentle sounds when I go to sleep, distant trains, planes, dogs barking, even cars. So I enjoyed listening, in the dark, to his purrs. Then slowly they faded away and all I could hear was him breathing deeply. I'd heard him fall asleep, it was wonderful feeling.

Food: The most important thing is that I don't have to clean up much afterwards.

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I don't mind other people cooking for me, as long as I don't have to clean the messy pans with sticky sauces, congealed cheese etc. Apart from the fact that I dont' eat fish or meat, the most important thing is that I don't have to do much washing up. I've developed a dish which means that I only have a single bowl and a single spoon to clean.  Here are the ingredients: Apart from the vegetables (which you can vary according to what you have on hand) and the beans, there's olive oil, turmeric, cumin seeds and balsamic vinegar. Chop up the vegetables, add the other ingredients and... Yummmmmmy!  (My family have given up and now allow me to eat my salad with spoon.)

Orion over my roof

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A few nights ago I went onto the balcony to have a look at the loverrrly sky to the east: Then I looked behind me, over the roof, to the west. And there was my favourite constellation, Orion. His belt is made of the three stars in an almost horizontal line you can see in the center of the photo: It is not a great photo, but you can see the real thing these days if you live in the northern hemisphere and look east. And the real thing is a real wonder. In the photo Rigel is the star, below the belt, which is almost touching the roof. And Betelgeuse is the one above the belt and in line with Rigel. When you look at the constellation for real you'll be amazed at how these two stars have definite colours, Rigel is blue and Betelgeuse is orange.  Follow the line of the belt leftwards and you'll find Sirius, the Dog star, the brightest star in the sky. In the photo is is near the end of an antenna. Go back to the belt and extrapolate along it to the right, you'll f

It's that time again (code signing certificates)

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As I said in a previous, post code signing annoys me these years like as networks did many years ago. I've just had to renew my Comodo code signing certificate, and as usual K-Software (a Comodo reseller) made it as painless as possible.  The process has not changed, but the graphical interface of Firefox has. So for my own future self and for others in my position now here's how it is done. Once you have ordered the certificate from K-Software, and they have worked their magic in the case of any hiccups with Comodo, your'll get an email from Comodo, something like this: Click on the link in the email and  the next thing you'll see is a web page on the Comodo site which asks you to enter your collection code. If all has worked well the collection code will appear in the web page automatically: Click on the Collect Certificate button and the next screen you see should be like this: The phrase about backing up the private key is a bit misleading if

Xamarin: Finally compiled a C# program and ran it on an emulator

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After about 20 hours of downloading Xamarin and Android SDKs ( see here ) I finally got VS2015 (apparently) able to compile C# code into an Android program. Remember that the native language of Android is Java, so Xamarin cleverly converts from C# to Java. Anyway the download and install carried on apparently without errors and with a condesceding message from the programmer in the dialog box: "Don't worry we've got this. Why not do some tutorials while you wait?" I hate it when programmers talk to the public in that "I'm friendly but I know better than you" tone. Or even like this . Or this .  Despite my cynicism the download and install completed without error. So I could start the tutorial (again). I followed the tutorial. There were a few mis-steps, but I noticed immediately that I felt at home, I knew my way around VS2015, while Android Studio was a new beast. As I saw the fragments of C# my annoyance at the huge Xamarin download began to

How does Xamarin compare to Android Studio? (Something went wrong.)

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Well, for a start, I found the Xamarin versions and options and downloads totally confusing. After a lot of work and a lot of hours uselessly downloading I've understood (maybe I'm wrong) that Xamarin Studio only really exists for the Mac (free). You can use Visual Studio (preferably 2015) with a Xamarin add on to create Xamarin programs. What is called Xamarin Studio for Windows is really "Mono", an open source program. It is hard to find out if it is still maintained and usable. As I say I may be wrong and it took me a long time to garner even this little information. I'm interested in Xamarin for two reasons I know C# so I don't have to learn Java, which I would have do with Android Studio. I know the VS2015 IDE, so I would not have to get used to the Android Studio way of doing things. But what, I hear you say, about targetting Apple products, which is supposed to be the great advantage of using Xamarin? Here are the reasons I don't care