
User Interface Problems?
Of the PEBCAK variety, perchance?
508 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Nov 2007
by having a long e-mail address which is punctuated with underscores. Each of the words is in the dictionary, but together they make an easily-remembered phrase.
e.g. (7-letter word)_(2-letter word)_(3-letter word)_(4-letter word)@somewhere.com
I get nada that ain't invited, and I can't believe it's down to wonderful filters.(It's Hotmail ferkrissakes....!)
NOTE TO REG STAFFERS WHO CAN SEE IT: THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION TO GIVE MY ADDRESS TO THE LADS FROM LAGOS!!!
First off, the main reason that a LOT of people don't know more than one network is quite simple - they go to CPW, P4U or similar, and get sold a "deal" - e.g.
Sales Drone: "We can do you the WeRGrdy tariff for £75 a month, half price with cashback, shiny new phone, unlimited calls and texts (subject to FUP and Ts&Cs and a 5-year contract, cashback by redemption) - how does that sound?"
Clueless Punter: "Yeah yeah yeah, I get me a new shiny thing! Woo-hoo! Where do I sign?"
Rarely, in these establishments, do I see the Sales Drones saying anything about the network side, as the Clueless Punter doesn't "need" to know, and generally isn't that interested anyway. I remember seeing a CP in the O2 store who just didn't get that if they bought a phone there it wouldn't be on Orange.
Anyhoo. Re Charges for receiving. The fact that we don't have these in Europe is why we have a mobile market so much in advance of that in the US where this is in place. Paying only to make calls means that there was a much bigger take-up, especially in the late 90's when digital started becoming more widely available when Orange and 121 joined the fun with digital-only offers targeted more at consumers than the Cellnet / Voda digital equivalents which were more business-oriented at the time. If we had had to pay to receive calls, less people (those who paid the bills themselves, anyway) would have got one, because it would have been massively more expensive for them to use - many of those users who DID get one would have kept it switched off aside from when they wanted to make a call. This would have reduced usage enormously, and the market wouldn't have expanded as quickly as it did - which was mainly down to consumer-targeted deals driven by the new market players who upset the Cellnet / Voda applecart with things like per-second-billing and inclusive call allowances, which saw prices tumble - up to this point, you could be paying 80ppm off peak to call a landline (the old Cellnet "Peace of Mind" tariff intended for low users).
Many mobile phones at the moment are in the hands of kids, who, when they have used all their credit up, are still reachable by concerned parents - that's a major factor in buying a PAYG phone for a child. It doesn't matter that they piss away all their credit on ringtones within a day of getting it, because they're still reachable for incoming calls. If paying to receive is introduced, that entire section of the market will dump their phones (in terms of usage, not necessarily by physically getting rid) as that advantage to having them is removed. Would you still buy your child a phone when you're constantly having to put credit on it just so that you can phone them, and you KNOW they'll piss it away? You HAVE to keep putting more on in order to keep them reachable, despite the fact that you know it'll go in days rather than the month it's supposed to last.
Bad OFCOM. Bad! No cookies for you!
And it hasn't been since the rest of the originals left and their slots have been filled by whichever session musicians are hungry & desperate enough to put up with his Axl's tantrums for a few days at a time.
<- The one with cherished vinyl copies of Appetite and Lies in the pockets.
Yep, I'd agree that defending Kuwait was the right thing to do. That was nearly 20 years ago, right? And we're still there, with no sign of leaving. There are people working at my company who don't remember when we first went into Iraq because they're too young - we've had our lads out there for nearly five times the length of the entire First World War. Doesn't that kinda put it into perspective?
What I was referring to, with the US governments and the state of the UK having no right to criticise, is that we are doing exactly what Russia is doing, further away from our own borders, on a flimsier pretext. If that ain't the pot calling the kettle black, I can't imagine what is.
"The claim that Georgian army had committed genocide was patently false, as was Putins explanation for invading Georgia and all his action since."
Let's look at that again.
"The claim that Iraqi army had 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' was patently false, as was Bush's explanation for invading Iraq and all his action since."
So I guess we can say, quite safely, that the Americans, and the British, governments have absolutely no right at all to criticise what the Russians are doing. I'm used to politicians being hypocritical, but ferchrissakes, this is just silly. I don't support Putin, but if Bush says Putin is wrong.... I have trouble not believing the Russians to be in the right!
(I grew up in pre-Glasnost Canada in the 70's, complete with instructions on what to do if the balloon went up as part of my schooling from the age of 5, and, like Destroy All Monsters and Mike Smith, have no wish to see my kids growing up with the constant fear of nuclear obliteration. Just so that's clear. Between Putin and McCain, I think it's actually a real possibility.)
Every so often (usually when the gf is insisting on watching Sex and the City, *shudder*) I play Guild Wars. The talkiness I see is just too weird for words, even though it's filtered worse than Disney.
It puts me off ever playing a subscription-based MMORPG, as, regardless of the fact that I wouldn't play often enough to make it worth the money in terms of time, the concept of playing a game where I have to interact with people whose idea of conversation is "look @ teh KITTEH!!!!" is just too scary for me.
Paris would be more interesting to play with...
I'm a NatWest customer. Great.
So I phone customer services, who give me the number for the press office. Who tell me that I need to speak to customer relations, and put me through. Mildly incompetent start, promising. At least I wasn't on hold for long.
Conversation Synopsis (phrasing is mine from notes jotted down, content / substance has been preserved):
Q: "Can you tell me whether my data has been compromised?"
A: "We don't know, there's an investigation ongoing."
Q: "Will customers whose data has been compromised be proactively contacted by NatWest / RBS to let them know this is the case?"
A: "We don't know, there's an investigation ongoing."
Q: "Will customers be compensated for the fact that NatWest have allowed their customer's confidential information into the public domain?"
A: "We don't know, there's an investigation ongoing."
Q: "Have you been given any statement for customers who may have been affected by this issue?"
A: "No, I know about as much as you do at the moment, we haven't been given any information beyond what is available in the newspapers."
Q: "Can you advise what course of action customers should take if they believe they may have been affected by this data breach?"
A: "We would advise customers to continue to check their statements carefully, and immediately report any suspicious transactions to us. We will of course refund any transactions that have been made fraudulently."
Q: "Have you been given any timescales for being able to give more definitive answers regards my earlier questions?"
A: "No, we haven't. There is an investigation ongoing at the moment, and we would expect to have further information available in the near future."
In other words, they don't know shit at the moment. But I ain't gonna take it out on the phone-drones, cos they're being treated just as much like mushrooms as the customer base.
as a practicing, and vocal, martial artist* to distance myself from these idiots. I'm sure most genuine martial artists out there will do the same. They cause us nothing but problems with the Daily Heil readership types, in the same way as some kid going berserk then blaming GTA4 gets bad press for the entire gaming community. It was this kind of idiot that got throwing stars banned in the UK.
Unfortunately, these types seldom get hit by Darwin's Laws, and never seem to hit their own eyeballs with an arrow. Assholes.
*See? THAT'S how to use commas.
Our servers are down today, so nothing useful can be accomplished. Cue starting Paint for very bad "artwork".
(though possibly the servers are down BECAUSE of this? Our local BOFHs might be sitting down with felt tips as I type!)
The helicopters don't need no steenking road signs...!
Please tell me that was a made-up figure inserted by a bored Reg hack. Please, for the love of all that is holy, reassure me that the average person in this country is not REALLY watching the goggletube for over a full day out of every week (218*7 = 1526 mins, 25.43hrs). That's over 55 days a year sat on the couch with one's hand in one's pants!! WTF is happening with the people who make up for those like me, who might watch a 15-mins news broadcast per day?*
*(I look around myself in the street, and the glazed expressions on passers-by answers that question about those who watch my other 203 minutes/day....)
Sheee-ehhh. No wonder the uk.gov are able to pull the stunts they do when everyone's more bothered about the latest happening on HomeNeighbourEastOaks Street instead of what's out their front door.
I defy anyone to find me 25 hours' worth of TV in a week that I would be able to watch without clawing my eyes out (leaving aside the entire question of "would I actually sit still and watch it rather than going to the gym/walking the dog/going to the pub/having a, wait for it, **CONVERSATION**?")
And OFCOM are PROUD of this???????
(There's an alien explanation. There has to be.)
Or you might end up saying shit like Dominic Grieve has and looking just as much of a twat!
Seriously - he's gotta be on hallucinogenics of some form to think that this is a good idea. The Tories are ramming Labour in the polls, so he says "you know these things you hate about Labour? Well, we're gonna do them more!! "
Twat. Bring Back DD!!!!
No offence taken. Because you're working in marketing, and having a grown-up conversation on the topic, rather than what we normally see from the industry, it makes a nice change.
I accept that marketers "don't care about me" - I get that, and I'm quite happy with the concept! The less people are trying to sell me stuff, the happier I am. I know I am the exception, in not being very materialistic, and not having the "new & shiny" syndrome, from the majority of Western Europeans and North Americans. Only my ex-girlfriends and some sparring partners would describe me as "psychopathic"....
Regards your comments on "research" though - I don't do mine through "official" channels, such as the companies involved. Any company can make a great website and give me all the information I could possibly want, and more. I generally go for things like independent reviewers, both of the company and the product. An example would be when my phone conked completely last week (8 days out of warranty. Figures.) - I had a choice between 2 models of replacement, both Nokia. I didn't do my research to decide between them at Nokia.com and Carphone Warehouse.... I was looking through independent review sites, and forums where people ask for assistance with problems. One model came up with quite a few issues, the other with very few. I chose the one with few problems, as in this case, reliability is more important than bells & whistles. Nokia has no impact on this research, aside from making the product I chose reliable. This approach is becoming more common, thanks to the internet, and more people are basing purchase decisions on information not controlled by the sellers of the goods concerned.
If making a good product is marketing - I'm all for that type!
(PS You mean those $97 ebooks don't work? Dammit!!!!!)
Maybe... maybe not. I think it does vary depending upon the person in question.
Personally, I hate advertising on principle. On the odd occasions I watch TV, I go for a piss / refill my glass / go play with the dog (NOT A EUPHENISM, PEOPLE!!!) when the ads come on. I run AdBlock Plus and NoScript. I skip adverts in newspapers / magazines. Any e-mail advert gets deleted (are you listening, Dell?).
Why do I do this? Because I don't want to spend my time being told how wonderful Product X is, especially when Products Y & Z are telling me exactly the same. Advertising IS all the same, and every product is selling the same "message". e.g. EVERY washing powder is telling us how great it is - so there's no actual difference in the message, regardless of the product. So what's the point in paying any attention to these messages?
I also have a complete lack of interest in "new & shiny". I ran a Nokia 6111 into the ground, and replaced it with a new 2670 for the princely sum of £10.89 (pre-pay) when it died - neither of these, at time of purchase, can remotely be described as "new & shiny" products. I played Guitar Hero 3 at a friend's and loved it, but I would not, EVER, spend £70 on a game (current Wii price), no matter how good it is - I have better things to spend my cash on - mainly CDs, DVDs and books (most of which are not "mainstream", BTW, and thus tend not to be advertised much, if at all).
If I want something, I will research it myself, and make decisions based on things other than advertising. Advertising has turned me away from some products, because I find them so damned annoying - when I was looking for a change of banks, I wouldn't even consider the Halifax, for example, because I find their singing adverts that murder songs painful.
Be it in the "limbic system" or not, if you advertise it, they will not necessarily come. And if they want to steal my personal data to target that advertising at me, I guarantee that I will lock the doors and stay at home...
"Every washing machine ever made already has this feature. Put two socks in, run a cycle - short or long, doesn't matter - look inside tub and only one sock is visible."
Doesn't work that way here. I put in one pair of socks, I get out 2 socks - each from completely different pairs. I blame the extra-dimensional portal in the back of my washer, but take solace in knowing that a version of myself in another dimension is having the same trouble...
PS Invisibility is easy. Every time my boss comes towards me carrying a piece of paper, I disappear from sight immediately...
Sorry, but I disagree. I find Lewis one of the more entertaining writers, and (generally) find myself at least sniggering, often LOLing (LingOL?), throughout, due to his use of language and writing style. Very evocative. Reminiscent of an early *************** (censored to prevent rabid flames from fanbois of the writer in question), in some respects.
I may not always agree with what he says (only Sarah gets that, and that's only because I'm too scared to do otherwise!!) but I definitely enjoy reading LP articles regardless.
PS: you think you should ever *care* about an article subtitled "Windscreen-licking Belgians barely escape GPS of Doom"??????
You, sir, are a fool and a charlatan. I would respectfully suggest that you stop whining like a big bitch and just do your fucking job. Which, in case you may have forgotten, is to *educate* - to improve the level of knowledge of your students. It is NOT to lower the standards further so that sub-literate morons are able to attain a certification which was, once upon a time, an achievement.
Kind Regards,
The English-speaking nations.
"I'm with Sky broadband, and I'm happy to admit the speeds are disappointing and the uptime is poor. But I'm paying £5/month for basically unlimited downloads. I can't complain!"
Likewise with TalkTalk. Connection speed can be a bit variable at peak times, but generally, outages are very rare, 40GB/month download limit - and it's free with a TalkTalk landline which works out cheaper than BT (OK, it's by about 2p/month cheaper, but it's still cheaper...)
I wouldn't want to rely on it for business, but for general home use with email, surfing, downloading and online gaming, it's fine.
And compared to Orange (my sis was with Freeserve, which became Orange via Wanadoo and has always been too lazy to shift) - TalkTalk is a True Consumer Champion. Now there's a scary sentence...!
Orange. Dead as the proverbial avian nailed to its perch and pining for the fjords. Beautiful plumage...
"Aha! This film has been classified 12A! I can take my 11yo daughter, even though I know it's not suitable for her, expose her to potential trauma and unsuitable material, and then rant about it afterwards! And I'll be on teevee!! And I might get mentioned in the Guardian again! I can be outraged! Hurrah!"
Not that I'm cynical about the man, or anything.....!
"it seems only a matter of time before researchers, campaigners or plain old forgers start trying to get them through borders. And in the case of the latter, if they succeed, how will we tell?"
On behalf of the Ministry of Truth:
There is nothing to tell. It is not, as you suggest "a matter of time" before a compromise will occur, due to the stringent security measures in place. The UK government takes data protection and security very seriously, and has ensured that, by initiating a cross-comparison lookup biometric database, which will remain offline and therefore secure, and will only be used in exceptional circumstances, that 100% security will be maintained at all times by being tough on ensuring the validity of customers of UK Borders and Immigration and their safety.
Next question.
NEXT QUESTION!!!!
A lot of places have waaaay more strict policies. They use a "whitelist" of permitted sites (e.g. the company site, BBC etc) with no others permitted - many don't even allow webmail. To use a "blacklist" allows access to the majority of tubes, and the employer is perfectly entitled to say "no" to pretty much anything, as long as they can justify it, and they are even-handed. E.g. regards the "witchcraft" part - yes, they can block it on the grounds that a lot of Wicca-based sites have "artwork" that could be classed as porn (even though it's generally about as titillating as Page 3) rather than on any religious grounds, as they would then have to block the Co$ sites, which you can guarantee would end up involving a lawsuit...
Anyway, it's their internet, they can do what they like. If employees want to look at stuff that they can't see at work, they'll just have to do it at home. Like I do with my hardcore donkey-porn. Erm... I mean... oops. Coat please....
At the moment, they're far too expensive for the additional benefit they deliver, compared to DVD - for the vast majority of users.
Yes, there is an improvement in quality - but most punters "just want to watch the damned film" and won't notice / don't care enough about the difference to splash out extra for the player, and again on every film they buy.
Add broadband speed limits into the mix, and it gets worse for Blu-Ray. How many domestic connections can download an HD film in a reasonable time, compared to a DVD-quality movie? Especially with "Fair Use" limits imposed by their ISP?
Yes, by 2012, prices will (should!) drop, and domestic connections will improve to make it less of a PITA to download them, but I can't see these happening fast enough and going far enough to make it likely that we'll see a 3:2 outsell of DVD. Maybe they'll prove me wrong. I doubt I'll remember to check...
<- it's Friday. I'm happy.
My first employment after leaving high school was in a call centre for a telephone banking service I won't name. But it was in 1993, so I'm sure you can guess as there was only one about at the time...
I had a call monitored, where it lasted 40 minutes, and I had sold a caller our current account, saving account and credit card, as we aced his current packages in pretty much every way. He went away happy, I was pleased, as I'd got a good rapport going with him,and we got commission on sales.
Then my team leader informed me that she had monitored the call, and that I was facing a Stage 1 Disciplinary for it. My crime? I used the word "certainly" 8 times throughout, and was therefore being "repetitive and tedious". (I make that about once every 5 minutes)
I quit that day (best move I ever made). Maybe, just maybe, now he's been called on it, this minister will do the same? *crosses fingers and wishes*
(black helios cos they WERE out to get me there!)
"BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide insisted at a press confernece: "We are going to do our best to facilitate the foreign media to do their reporting work through the internet. I would remind you that Falun Gong is an evil fake religion which has been banned by the Chinese government."
Later today, Prime Minister Brown insisted at a press conference that "I would remind you that thinking for yourself is an evil, fake concept, which has been banned by the British Government."
I dread to think what they'd be link on the Stella, then....! Maybe that's the next US military project? Increase shrew aggression with a few cans of "Old Partner Beater" and send them on their way to Iraq to take it out on "teh terrywrists*"?
*ie whoever they find. That's the description these days, right?
I love the irony of advertisers / marketing departments being the ones who are automatically opted in, for once, after decades of automatically opting us in to every type of junk mailing and ad-annoyance known to man.
But then I feel bad for the small-margin businesses who are being financially hit by Google. Damn.
Perhaps Google could limit the automatic opt-in just to larger businesses which have a dedicated marketing department? Especially Apple, they deserve it just for those "I'm a Mac!!" ads. I suggest keywords such as "jam", "juice" and "sauce".
"As any manager knows, if they're sleeping on the job now then within six months they'll be coming in at 3pm and urinating at their desks. Long before that they'll have started whining about training days and being allowed to drink alcohol and masturbate at their desks."
There are places where you're not allowed to do that???
A pathetic piece of writing, not worthy of the word "journalism". I guess maybe the writer fell for a 419 or penis enlargement pill? Or is just a worthless tosser who gets his jollies by causing outrage.
Although the spammer's death is of no great loss to the human gene pool, the method by which he chose to exit it, taking his wife and child with him and grievously wounding another child, makes this an incident to mourn, not celebrate. At no time, ever, should the death of a child be treated in such a manner - even more so when the murderer is the one person in the world who should be protecting the child with his own life.
Nice to see, for once, that the comments here so far (though perhaps due to moderation) maintain a veneer of decency.
Are Mike and Stef, who both built their own high-end systems (according to their posts) in order to ensure the hardware was able to handle Vista.
Which is great for them, but not for the less proficient user who buys an off-the-shelf desktop from PC World brand new, and doesn't know/care how to upgrade it and change all the settings to make it more efficient, which is the primary home market.
From a more technical-user side, you can call me a luddite if you like - XP & Ubuntu work well for what I require, and I have no compulsion to spend the money on extra kit, and the time putting it together, just to get frustrated at the lousy file manipulation and endless succession of dialogs that get in my way, no matter how "pretty" it is, and no matter how much MS tell me that I only think it's shite because of their poor marketing.