Lack of 'Flash' on the iPhone

Time after time I'm not able to view something I want to because
iPhone does not support Flash, why has Apple chosen to not support
Flash on iPhone?

This accessory is not made to work with iPhone charging is not supported

Really annoyingly I've just plugged my new 3G iPhone into a charger I
had bought from Hong Kong and previously used to charge my old iPhone
(Edge).

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!

iPhone default screen

The above picture shows the default (page 1) screen on my iPhone.

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?

Good free iPhone games

I've played a few free games on the iPhone now, the best so far are
Parijump, Tris and Jirbo Match. Anyone got any suggestions of others
to try?

Emailing more than one photo on the iPhone is really annoying

I picked up my free iPhone 3G upgrade from Carphone Warehouse
yesterday, I had no idea as an o2 customer that picking up the upgrade
from there was possible, I thought I had to pick it up from an o2
store, which have been out of stock for weeks.... Apparently Carphone
Warehouse has had the iPhone available for two weeks.... It was only
through calling them that I found out they could manage the upgrade,
and I would still deal with o2 directly when and if an issue happened.
The only issue with CW was the 45 minute wait to be served.

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.

Happy 25th Birthday Justina

Could not open a pop-up because there are too many pages open.

I find this alert message very annoying when using Safari on the iPhone.

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.

V 2008

Justina and I had a great time in Hylands Park at V 2008. Jus really
wanted to see 'The Feeling', who were really good.

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.

Millie first thing this morning

John Bardon EastEnders

I never thought I'd do a blog post about EastEnders but anyone who did
not see it on Monday tune in using BBC iPlayer and watch it.

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.

Tesco Self Service Tills Gould be great if....

This is a bit of a geeky post that only exists because I hate spending
my lunchbreak in a queue at Tesco.

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?

Morning Run

Every morning I go for a run (except for rainy days where Wii Fit
enjoys my company.

Above is a picture of the river Brain joining the river Blackwater at
7.30 this morning.

Tesco annoy me

Why is it that the products I like are usually the ones that get
discontinued?

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.

X-FILES - I want to believe movie film review

Lorraine, Chris, Justina and I headed to Cineworld last night to watch
the new X-FILES movie.

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.

Cleveratom Christmas Party 2007 (held 1 August 2008)

At Cleveratom we've been rubbish at organising our Christmas Party and
finally (thanks to Tomi) held it last night at The Waterfront Place in
Chelmsford, a short walk from our office.

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.

I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand

On the wall today in a school I was working in was a Greek philosopher
quotation I often used twn years ago during university assignments
(but I made sure the marker of the work only saw it once).

More RC Boats

Jus and I bought some very very low cost RC boats in 'Toys R Us' and
raced them around the Maldon Model Boat Lake last night. Mine will
only turn when stationary and Jus's is very noisy.