The guys from EDF are working into the evening (pictured above) to get
us back on, and hopefully we won't have to all work from our homes
again tomorrow.
Phones are being redirected, or call our mobiles (mine is 07947 124359)
As a customer with a tracker mortgage I'll benefit, yet the bank did
not action the 0.5% drop last month in time for this months mortgage
payment, which means this months rate drop will not take effect till
January.
The result, less money to spend during the Christmas period, less
money buying goods and services, less demand, more job cuts.
The need? A firework up the backside of the bank that has been quick
to process an interest rate increase and painfully slow to process a
decrease. There is no point in giving a cut unless banks are forced to
process it quickly.
What happens next? I predict a further cut of 1.0% next month, and
that won't be enough. Banks are greedy.
Surprised to read this a quick search of the Internet Graham Crowden
(an excellent talent) is very much still with us, with an active career.
G.O.L.D. Check your facts before writing false information..
With our work at BAFTA with GeoArt yesterday this all fits very nicely.
The last two days in Salford have been great. Cleveratom have been
tasked as project managers for the BBC Blast Truck redesign. Hal and I
have enjoyed working with the team to find out what works, needs
improvement and we are now working to redesign the truck and its
associated spaces to fit with learning needs. Youth panel next!
Great fun.
This evening I clicked the link to unsubscribe and was bemused to read
that a further email would be sent to confirm that I had been
unsubscribed when a simple message on the page telling me I'd been
removed is all that was needed.
Here is some free business ideas and advice to both Ryanair and Easyjet.
Ryanair have announced that it will soon be possible to make mobile
telephone calls in flight, Ryanair making money by providing the
connection. Ryanair have finally seen the opportunity to tap into
having a plane full of customers to sell other products and services
(other than tea and Pringles) to on the flight so the could....
Put in screens on seat headrests with access to 30 minute tv shows for
a small fee per show.
Offer on the screens access to the Argos catalogue (and other stores)
so people can order goods while in flight (Ryanair get a cut of the
sale).
Offer me a free flight paid for by advertisers putting targeted
interactive adverts on the screen in front of me.
And finally ... Make it possible for a passenger to book a hotel and
travel while in flight (and take a cut of that transaction). ... TV
screens in headrests don't have to be only about delivering
entertainment.
Why are o2 allowing these messages (which I assume are sent in volume
to lots of their customers) to get through, let me guess, they make
money out of them too even though they cause frustration (and for
some, financial missery) for their customers.
I'm sick of an increased amount of text message spam and spam phone
calls to my mobile.
I was just about to buy an item from dabs.com but am put off by a
review by a previous customer review of the item published on the
dabs.com product page.
Honesty of a previous customer has informed me of a poor levels if
customer service I might have to experience if my product goes wrong.
What amazes me is that dabs.com have obviously not vetted this post
(with a resolution for the customer included in that process) and have
now scared me off to amazon.co.uk to spend my money.
Why is this?
Sent from my iPhone
The messages are blank.
Other correctly dated messages are marked as unknown too.
Each time I attempt to delete the 1970's messages they come back, it
us very annoying.
Anyone else have this and know what I should do?
24 hours ago Justina and I were watching the 2004 Christmas specials
of 'The Office' to try and stay awake before leaving for the airport
at 4am.
We arrived at Gatwick Airport Carpark at around 5am and were checked
in at 6am. At 7am we spent '18 on breakfast in Wetherspoon's, shocking
prices.
Our flight was slightly delayed and we took off around 10am.
Just over 9 hours later we arrived at Sandford airport, Orlando.
Thomas Cook had been our airline for this trip, and were pretty good.
Once through immigration Justina and I were challenged by a huge
queue for 'Dollar Car Rental'. Over an hour later
and some big time moaning by me we managed to secure a Dodge Charger
rather than a budget car, at no extra cost. What made me mosy cross
about 'Dollar' (other than the lack of staff to deal with a queue of
over 50 customers) included their need for our already paid insurance
to be upgraded in order to allow us to crash the car and be covered.
Dollar have hidden costs, beware.
We drove to Walmart, and bought clothing and toiletries, as we had
packed very very little stuff.
Then we headed to our villa, which is great, four bedrooms and a
pool.... It is too big for us, but really nice.
This evening we ate Taco Bell, and are now off to bed, I only managed
20 minutes sleep on the plane and am now shattered.
Why have Apple chosen not to support charging through third party
chargers that work with the iPod range and the previous model of iPhone?
What about my car charger? Will that still work?
This is so un-apple!
The only application I don't use much is the 'clock'.... Any
suggestions on a useful application that is useful and deserve to
replace 'clock' on the front screen?
Anyway, back to the point....
One thing that really annoyed me about my old iPhone (Justina's new
phone) is that when I wanted to send photographs by email I could only
include one photo per email, and only add another photo to a new email
and send it once the previous email had sent. I disliked this for two
reasons; firstly, if I want to share say five photo's to one person
sending five seperate emails to them is annoying, secondly; I hate the
fact that I can't start a fresh email till the last mail has sent,
this is stupid.
I understand that Apple are probably trying to help o2 by reducing
traffic on the network by making the sending of multiple photo's
awkward, but I'll still send multiple photo's.... So what is the point?
Because my old iPhone ran on 'Edge' and the new one runs on the much
much faster '3G' I expected the photo restriction to be lifted on my
new phone, but it had not (see above image which shows the greyed out
button stopping me from creating a new message till the previous
message had sent).
Come on Apple, this is so unlike you.... let users send multiple
images in one email.
Eight tabs is not enough.
Suggestion: Alert brings up all eight open tabs at once allowing a
quick visual closing of tabs session, then allows opening of page
required.
Looking on Facebook a lot of people I know were there too, although
chances of bumping into someone you know are pretty slim considering
the size of the venue and volume of people.
John Bardon had a stroke in real life in June last year. He returned
to EastEnders as Jim last night for a one off special to help raise
awareness of what a stroke actually is and means. He was supurb.
I'll be amazed if John Bardon and June Brown (Dot) don't get an award
for the way they acted out a difficult, sensitive and important
storyline. Watch it.
As a former Tesco staff member for five years while at College and
University I remember one very boring training session (over ten years
ago) where we were told that a customer has ten interactions with
staff members during a shopping trip, from trolleyboy right through to
cashier. We were all encouraged to interact with the customers,
smiling and saying hello wherever possible.
These days I can walk into Tesco as a customer and avoid any human
contact with any of their staff by using the brilliant self service
checkouts. It's not that I'm looking to be unsociable, but when I am
in a hurry I want to go in, shop quickly and get out fast.... self
serve is therefore a great asset for people in a hurry.
Both Asda and B&Q have also invested in self service and face the same
issues Tesco do, so I guess what I've written here counts for all of
them.
Tesco Chelmsford was always a nightmare at lunchtime prior to self
service, massive queues at the traditional tills meant annoying
waiting times and often customers who had just a couple of items would
abandon them and walk out. I used to walk in at lunchtime and judge
if I was going to shop depending on the till queues, if they were bad
I'd walk straight out.
Then along came four self service tills with one Tesco staff member
watching over them, and all of a sudden the massive lunchtime queues
were reduced by customers serving themselves, and my custom could be
guaranteed if I walked onto the store.
Of course, when the tills were first introduced there were a few
problems and a couple were always out of action, but over a year
later, I think they finally have them all working well.
The issues are nolonger with the technology, the issues are now with
the abilities of the people who use them.
So.... I have a few ideas on how the whole experience could be made
even better to speed up the queue for people like me who want to get
out the shop as fast as possible. Here goes.....
1) Instead of having 4 tills, install 8 and have two staff members
looking after them between them.
2) Split the 8 tills into two banks of 4 tills.
3) For the first bank of four - make these tills exclusive for people
that know how to use them and can use them quickly. Make two 'cash
only'.
4) For the second bank of four - make these exclusive for those that
need help, are not in a hurry or have never used self service tills
before. These people really mess up the tills, I know they don't mean
to but having them in the same queue as people in a hurry gets really
frustrating.
5) When the shop gets busy I notice that the staff member who looks
after the self service tills often ends up working on a traditional
till, collecting baskets or running off to support other staff in
need. When they do this the self service tills mess up and there is
nobody to fix them, the queues get even worse while customers stand
like lemons while for no reason the till repeats 'please wait for
assistance' (and nobody comes). Leave the staff member to look after
the self service tills.
6) Stop idiots who cant read 'baskets only' and shop with trolleys
from using the self service tills. Consider giving them life bans
from the store if they even look at those tills.
7) Paint a Q line on the floor.
....and that's all I have to say about that.
Last time I blogged about BBC iPlayer with suggestions someone from
the BBC came back with feedback, I wonder if Tesco, Asda or B&Q will
too?
Above is a picture of the river Brain joining the river Blackwater at
7.30 this morning.
Last month the 'Cheese Panani', last week it was 'Tesco Temptations
Nuts with Chocolate' and now it is the 500ml size 'Tesco Freshly
Squeezed Orange Juice'.
Every little helps.
Clearly sales of box sets and rerun orders by international
broadcasters for the classic TV show have been drying up so 20th
Century Fox orders a new film to generate interest in the old show
knowing that a whole new generation of viewers will have to buy up a
back catalogue to find out how all this came about.
First, the negative points. The film has no aliens in it, yet the
title, which is also on Mulders famous spaceship poster, made me
believe I was going to watch a programme about weird alien stuff, of
which there was none. Second, mention of Mulders sister, what was that
all about? Usually when a charecter is mentioned they eventually
become part of the plot, but no. Then there was the child in his sick
bed that was in the care of Scully, what happened to him in the end?
And the Catholic priest charecter, what was that all about? Why did
he have those powers? And in the snow storm why was Scully not
blocked in by the broken down snow truck?
The whole film seemed rushed, lacked special effects and as far as I
could see was weak in the objective I consider it was made for, to
generate interest in that back catalogue.
On the more positive side the acting was good, the plot (although
rushed and weird) kinda came together and it was well shot.
Worth going to see, I gave it 6/10. Justina gave it 7/10.
Hais turned up in a Santa hat which drew attention from the friendly
restaurant staff who then provided us all with crackers and served us
well. We were told we were the first Christmas Party this year, to
which we pointed out this was our 2007 celebration.
Hais, Hal, Kara, Nick, Tomi, Alex, Nicki, Justina and I had a great
evening, toasted 19 months of successful business and remembered some
great achievements by a company that is still so very young.
Imagine being one of two learners sharing the desk in the photo.
Neither learner is able to sit comfortable as the seats don't fit
under the desk. The whole classroom has this issue with whoever
placed the order not taking into account the actual space needed for
learners to work in comfort.
Apparently these desks and chairs have been in use for five years and
one learner commented that his back hurts when using this classroom as
he is tall and has to bend to use the table when sitting next to
someone.
Before you ask, no we won't be painting the walls those tester colours.
Wandering round a bootsale a few weeks back I came across a box full
of the track and trains for 50p, and quickly parted with the cash.
In the picture my brother Andrew had great fun nearly 20 years after
he last played with the set.
Great fun.
The sports hall and student bar is now demolished and I'm guess once
the rubble is cleared Ultralab's North Block will be next.
I never owned a Dreamcast, but have heard so many times over the years
that they were an under valued console that was excellent, just badly
marketed and overpriced.
Jus (surprise surprise) had a Dreamcast when she was younger and
requested (on the phone) at the time of purchase that some 'Tomb
Raider' titles were bought too, she has been playing them this
evening. I've been playing 'Crazy Taxi' on the good advice of Hais.
The Dreamcast sits alongside the Megadrive we bought two weeks ago,
and I'm impressed by the graphics, the sound quality and the condition
it is in. First time we turned it on it asked for todays date,
starting at 1998 as default, where have the last ten years gone? They
flew by.
The air condition works, the train is quiet and I've been welcomed
aboard. The trolley cart running through the train was a lot less
expensive in comparison to National Express who charge £1.30 for
breakfast bars that only cost 40p in the shops.
All I need now is free wifi and plugs at my seat and I'd be even more
impressed.
Its clear to me that people are being careful about what they are
spending, but because the price of petrol, living cost bills going up
and spending therefore going down that shops like this are
suffering.... as us customers think twice about the impulse buys
supermarkets have traditionally thrown at us as we wander around
picking up.
Last year it was held in Norfolk at Easton College, which we enjoyed
exhibiting at. We are delighted to be invited to this years conference
to exhibit and run the podcasting sessions.
Our SMS wall is also on display and in use for delegates throughout
the day to text in thoughts, ideas and comments.
This morning I am catching the (surprise surprise, late running) 7.07
from Witham to Norwich and might miss my connection for the last part
of my journey to Great Yarmouth.
Anyway, booking the tickets for the trip yesterday from
thetrainline.com it was more cost effective for me to travel First
Class on the way up, and Standard on the way back.
The ticket I have for this trip (which National Express will nodoubt
check the usual four times they seem to inspect) cost £16 First Class
as opposed to over £20 Standard Class purchased at the station (no
standard tickets were available for this train on thetrainline.com, I
guess the few limited discount tickets had already sold.
The return journey standard ticket has cost me £6.00, bargain.
This is the first time I have used thetrainline.com for a long time
after it became virtually impossible to explain a ticketing error to
various representatives in a thetrainline.com oversees call centre by
phone. Thetrainline.com might be a cost effective way to buy train
tickets cheap, so long as you make no changes to plans and stick to
the strict schedule you agree to at time of purchase.
The First Class carriage is almost empty, a National Express employee
is busy on a laptop near by and a dew seats ahead a young lady has
just joined the train at Manningtree.
About a month or so ago, colleague Hal MacLean and I travelled
standard class from Kings Cross to Doncaster. The seats were
comfortable, carriage was clean, bright and modern and there was free
wireless Internet and power plugs at every seat. Yet here on the
train I'm on at the moment I'm in First Class with none of that, and
the train is opperated by the same company, National Express.
Although the seat I'm sitting in right now is roomy, its not very
comfortable, but atleast it is quiet (I somehow usually end up in the
carriage with the screaming toddler).
I also tried booking some tickets through raileasy.com and won't be
using them again.
In May last year colleagues from Cleveratom and myself engaged with
the Rugroom project to help select and embed the right learning
technology into a new space being designed for students with ASD, by
students with ASD. To read about how the project was founded, and
launched officially earlier this year, click here.
I'm on the train back from Rugroom as I write this, it is nearly 7.30
in the evening and I thought I'd take some time to begin reflecting on
the last year, the learning, achievements, next steps and outcomes
from this whole process so far.
My battery is getting low, so I'll leave this blog entry for now by
reflecting on the photograph and return to writing it from my desk
tomorrow.
In the photo we can see Tim constructing an areoplane in some great
free Lego building software. To his right Alex is learning how to
navigate a flight simulator, working out the best angle for take off.
Over the desk Cara is building a comic and out of site Gemma is
putting together a website, Katy has just built an animated GIF using
Photoshop and Flash and Kirsty is uploading to Youtube a movie she has
been making.
Quite simply the technical ability, creative thinking and desire to
achieve by these particular students is nothing short of exceptional.
More tomorrow.
