The answer: Sound Converter. A really simple to use program that can be installed via Ubuntu Software Centre (or Add/Remove Programs on older Ubuntu versions).

I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to do this by searching Google, only to find loads of forum answers of people saying how to do it on the command line, when this obviously named quick and easy program was there all along. Hopefully this post will make its way into the Google results for “convert wav to mp3 ubuntu” and a few people will be saved from unnecessary command line fiddling at the suggestion of the uber-geeks.

What surprised me about the announcement was his mention of their estimate that the project will take 40 years to pay for itself. To me its a breath of fresh air for a government to be thinking about the long term future in this way, and commiting to investment that will pay off in the long term rather than only thinking as far as the next election.

When it comes to booking a holiday (summer or winter) the websites of most package operators are just not geared up to offer anything but flights. After a huge amount of scouring the net I found a couple of operators (Thomson and Crystal) offering ski holidays to the Alps by train, but their availability is far from obvious. To find them you have to start your booking as if you’re flying and select St Pancras as your “Departure Airport”. When it comes to summer holidays the number of rail packages appears to be zero.
Most people probably don’t even consider that there might be alternatives, but then I guess I’m not most people. While looking into doing 2 different trips recently I discovered that in both cases there were realistic alternatives in terms of convenience, but they were not necessarily sensibly priced or particularly easy to find or book.

Here are the two trips I looked into:
1 - Snowboarding holiday - Anywhere with snow
Alps by train last week of January: Train/accomodation/lift pass £550
Apls by train February half term: Train/accommodation/lift pass around £1,000
Going in January the price is actually pretty good, but unfortunately Rail Europe have cancelled their London to the Alps direct sleeper train this year, which leaves you with Eurostar who do have an overnight service but its seat only (no sleeper)

2 - Long stag weekend - Barcelona
Flight: £100
Train: £260 (inc sleeper)
This is a pretty good example of a destination that is fairly easy to get to by train from the UK (Eurostar London to Paris, Sleeper Paris to Barcelona) but the price difference means that for most people the decision to fly is a no brainer.

Here are some facts:

1 - They don’t actually give out phone numbers.
If someone phones 118800 to find you, and you’re listed, you’ll get a call from the operator telling you the name of the person calling asking if you want them to be put through. If you don’t answer they can leave a voicemail. If someone searches for you on the website you’ll get a text with their details, then its up to you if you want to make contact.

2 - They only have your mobile number if you consented to it being passed around.
Their listings come from marketing companies and companies who sell lists of numbers, so they will only have your details if you signed up for something and ticked the “please pass my details on to other companies” box or similar.

3 - They won’t sell your details
I guess you’ll have to take their word for that, but it doesn’t make much difference if they do, because if they have your details, they must be available to buy from somewhere already.

4 - There’s no deadline for having your details removed.

Unfortunately for Connectivity who run the service they seem to have no idea how to manage their own PR, so the information is not currently available on their website because they’ve taken the whole thing offline. Also the BBC and Guardian articles’ explanation of how the service works are as clear as mud, adding legitimacy to the email that’s doing the rounds.

Thanks to Google you can see the explanation from their wesbite here.
Also you can read a statement by the company in their defence here

Now on version 3.0 the plugin supports Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007.

Click the link below to download the plugin from Sun
Download

To me the solution is simple: instead of paying expenses for accomodation, provide them with state-owned accommodation in London for when they are attending parliament and pay their travel expenses for travelling between London and their constituency.

When looking into what expenses MPs are allowed to claim, I also noticed their basic salary is £63,291 which seems excessive.

26th Oct: Reported in the Mail on Sunday
27th Oct: 1,585 complaints
28th Oct: 4,772 complaints
29th Oct: 18,000 complaints
30th Oct: 30,500 complaints

There’s obviously a lot of people around who have nothing better to do and need to get a sense of humour, however Russell Brand is possibly the most annoying person on TV, a title which he won from Alan Carr.

I thought it would be funny to complain to the BBC to tell them I was fed up of hearing about how many complaints they’d received, so I did. I’m easily amused.

The main failing as far as I can see is the lack of a single easy to use booking system. If you want to book online, the site you need to use depends on where you’re going. Rail Europe is not bad, but it doesn’t give results on many long distance searches, particularly ones that involve more than a certain number of changes. It also only has the larger stations in its database. For example London to Malaga which you wouldn’t think was too demanding gives no results, and directs you to phone the call centre. Looking up Paris to Malaga reveals that there is a handy overnight train on this route that you can get with a cabin for as little as £59, but if you wanted to go from London or Bristol, you probably wouldn’t have typed that in.
I’ve found the best sites for looking up long distance Euro rail travel are the German and Belgian national rail sites, which seem to allow searches between pretty much any UK/European station and another. The problem with these sites is that although they give routes and times they are unable to give prices for any journey that doesn’t begin or end in the site’s home country.

I’m trying to avoid flying these days, but the companies who provide the alternatives don’t make it easy for you.