Rumbelows and Fine Fare

As I'm surgically connected to the internet, it disappoints me that I've only recently realised just how much time you can waste looking at completely pointless yet remarkably endearing articles on Wikipedia. Reading a few articles ahead of Sunday's Carling Cup Final, I was amused to find the only time Manchester United has previously won the competition was one of the years it was sponsored by Rumbelows. Being an inquisitive kind of guy, I decided to find out - via Wikipedia of course - just what had happened to this beloved chain. An asset of the monstrous and also now defunct ThornEMI, it was sold off in the mid-1990s to a company that went bust. I then found this wonderful page, giving a complete run-down of company names that no longer exist. It's a fantastic page and I was pleased to see Acorn Computers, a former DannyG favourite, high on the list. From the info about ThornEMI, another mystery was solved. Racal never moved out of my favourite Reading building (the curvy one next to the station), it simply changed its name to Thales.
Initially I was disappointed that Fine Fare and International - previous stalwarts of the high street in my home town of Wellington, Somerset - were not there. Both were since sucked into Somerfield. Relief was complete, though, when I found mention of both on this page. Aaah.

Drive and dial

It's only when you read down this story from Kentucky that you realise
what the cause of this unfortunate accident. But what was in the
severed arm?
http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4449021

Yes, really.

Apparently, the cheapest rail fares are 'hard to find'. You don't say? The Beeb has put together a list of how you can get cheaper fares - see the useful tips here.

New voice kit from Linksys

Linksys will launch its new VoIP handsets in the UK 'in a few months'. Connecting directly to VoIP over your WLAN? Yes please. Could this see Linksys partner Skype move into SIP services? I guess we'll wait and see...
here.