Mutual Blogging
A reader of this blog, who used to be an old Artemis professional, is currently working on a large project, where there are a large number of sub-contractors and a difficult public relations problem with those, who live locally to the project.
They asked me, if a blog could solve some of his problems.
So here goes!
I would suggest, he starts a simple blog, probably using WordPress, as it is generally easily managed by an individual with average computer skills.
- Only a tight group of individuals would be allowed to add posts to the blog.
- Posts would be limited to so many a week.
- Anybody would be allowed to comment, but under a set of behavioural rules and moderation, If the project is controversial, you don’t want the blog to become the focus of discontent.
- I believe that with a difficult project, it could be a place for constructive discussion.
- Hopefully, each post would generate comments and discussion, that improved the original post.
- The blog would also point on its home page to useful sites concerned with the subject of the blog.
- There would be a contact form.
If you were having a blog like this for say a public infrastructure project like Crossrail, it could be public, but a project like perhaps trialling a new treatment for a controversial-to-some illness like HIV-Aids, might be password-protected.
I think on balance most project blogs would be public.
If a system like WordPress is used, all of what I said is possible. And a lot more too!
North of me, they are electrifying the Gospel Oak to Barking Line and there has been a bit of controversy over noisy piling in the middle of the night.
A simple post apologising for the noise and giving locations may have eased the problems. You might even get comments to the blog from those overlooking the piling, which show the details of the engineering and the generated noise.
You can never be sure, the way that such a blog will develop.
But I’m sure it will work, to improve the smooth running of a project.
Illegal Football Watching Melted My Internet
I should say, that I swapped my Internet use from the Vista system that I liked with Office 2007 to the current Windows 7 and Office 2010, which I don’t like about eighteen months ago, when the older machine became unreliable.
I made one mistake in the transfer, in that I didn’t write down the passwords for my smtp and mail connections. They are stored on my old machine, which is totally dead.
It has worked successfully since then, but yesterday at four o’clock, when the vArsenal match started the Internet went into a curious meltdown.
So many people wanted to watch the Arsenal match on Sky, through broadband, that the connection seemed to melt down in a curious way.
Displaying a page on the Internet was extremely slow, but my e-mail program couldn’t get through the mess and kept asking me for a new smtp password, which I hadn’t written down.
So I just hit return. But it was doing it every ten seconds or so.
And so I must have typed in something, in all this chaos and now as I haven’t got the right password, I can’t connect.
As I was trying to send an e-mail, when this happened, Outlook won’t let me do anything without putting in the correct password first.
I can’t even shut Outlook without forcing it.
I’m pretty certain, there’s a high proportion of boxes, that watch football illegally in this area, which probably caused the problem.
Starting To Program Again!
I have had, this idea for a mobile phone app and as before my stroke, I was a more than capable hack programmer, I think I might program it myself.
I notice there are systems that allow the creation of apps, that work on all platforms, so feel that this would be the way to go, as if it’s one thing I hate it’s having anything to do with Apples and their alien money-grabbing ideas.
I don’t even like the fruit!
Any help would be appreciated!
I Can’t Display My Galleries
WordPress have done their usual and updated the software without testing it.
I can’t look at any galleries.
I’m using Windows 7. But it works fine on an old xP machine.
If you can see them properly or can’t please add a comment.
WordPress Is Total Crap At The Moment
My galleries don’t display and it is completely f**cked.
They must put the last version back and stop fiddling.
Apologies to all my readers!
If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It!
Formula One has just proven the title of this post, with their new qualifying system.
The qualifying yesterday was a joke, as it didn’t build up to the crescendo like it used to do.
Why do people have this desire to tinker with formats and rules?
If you change something in a system, you must make sure you don’t alienate your users or audience.
When I updated Artemis, I made sure that nothing was ever deleted, as I didn’t know how every one of our thousands of customers used the system.
So many versions of updated software is a retrograde step to many people.
For instance, I would be like to buy a new computer with Windows Vista and Office 2003.
That may be a bit unusual, but then if I find something that suits my lifestyle, I don’t change it!
- I was with my wife for forty years.
- I had my last car; a Lotus Elan for, twenty-five years.
- My briefcase is well over thirty-five years old.
- My smart jacket is nearly thirty and still smart.
- I first saw Ipswich play in 1961.
Why change?
Sadly, as in the case of my wife, you have to occasionally.
Do I Have The Worst Broadband In Central London?
I doubt it, but I’ve decided to keep a proper log of all the problems.
March 15th, 2016 – 06:00 – I woke up to no broadband and only now at 07:15 can I write this.
March 16th, 2016 – 07:00 – Broadband dropped out for an hour.
March 18th, 2016 – 16:30– Broadband dropped out for an hour.
March 21st, 2016 – 16:30– Broadband dropped out for an hour.
March 22nd, 2016 – 19:30 – Broadband dropped out for a period.
March 23rd, 2016 – 08:00 – Intermittent service
March 23rd, 2016 – 13:30 – Intermittent service
March 23rd, 2016 – 16:00 – Intermittent service
March 23rd, 2016 – 17:00 – Intermittent service
March 24th, 2016 – 06:00 – Intermittent service
March 24th, 2016 – 11:00 – Broadband dropped out for an hour.
April 1st, 2016 – 17:30 – Broadband dropped out for an hour.
April 7th, 2016 – 19:30 – Intermittent service
What I would like is fibre-optic, but BT have said, that I’m too close to the exchange.
Stopping Your Computer Upgrading To Windows 10
I never upgrade my computers to the new version of an operating system, unless it is absolutely necessary.
No-one has convinced me of a valid reason yet! And I doubt anyone will!
They are my computers, so I decide when to upgrade, not some idiot who might vote for Donald Trump and believes in the right to bare arms and the death penalty. Not you Bill, but can you vouch for all your employees?
But I have been pointed to this little program entitled GWX Control Panel, that immunises your computer against unwanted junk from Micros**t!
A Curious Problem With My Credit Cards
A few months ago, I tried to order some goods from IKEA for my kitchen. They weren’t delivered and my credit card wasn’t debited, so the only harm done was I waited in for a whole day for a non-delivery.
Over the next couple of months, I tried several times to repeat the order, but in no cases was it ever completed. Immediately, When I entered the details of either of my credit cards, the order disappeared.
To solve the problem, I took a bus to IKEA in Tottenham and placed the order personally, paying with my American Express card at the check-out. I also got the direct e-mail address of the Kitchen Department and sent them a couple of e-mails to assure them, that if they didn’t deliver, they’d be deep in the doodah.
The goods were eventually delivered on the day, but the driver’s sat-nav got him lost in the mews at the back of my house.
I put it down to some form of problem with the delivery system, that checks the credit rating of the purchaser. But as Experian have confirmed, my credit rating is good and the only problem, is that I’m not correctly on the Electoral Roll. And that’s not for dint of trying, but for some reason they seem incapable to get it right!
However, today I needed to buy a coach ticket from National Express for the Ipswich-QPR match on Boxing Day.
So I entered my details to buy the ticket and tried to pay by credit czrds. Both were rejected.
I phoned both credit card suppliers and there was no problem with either card.
As a last resort, I phoned National Express direct and bought the ticket traditionally from the Call Centre at the cost of a long phone call and a booking fee.
But it wasn’t without trouble.
Both my credit cards were rejected by the system used by the very patient Colin in the Call Centre, as was my debit card.
Their system knew about me from my previous four failed attempts to buy tickets on-line and I wondered if it was rejecting them because of my address, which was on some sort of blacklist.
I’ve often thought this, as my house was tenanted for several years before I bought it and the tenants did runners leaving piles of debts to several companies.
In the end, Colin and I felt this was all rather silly, so I thought about trying an alternative e-mail address, as this was probably the key used to access my address on their computer.
It worked and I got my ticket.
Intriguingly in both cases, I got my goods or tickets, when I broke the link between debit/credit card address and the address for the card.
In IKEA, this was by putting the AMEX card through a till and with National Express, it was by giving them an e-mail address for which they had no physical address details.
I am drawn to the inevitable conclusion, that software checks my address against County Court Judgements. And I think there could be a lot of them, due to the history of the property!
Surely, if I can’t purchase on-line, because of the debts of previous owners or their tenants, who lived here, before I bought the house, then that is illegal!
The only way to lose them, would be the same way to get rid of bindweed from your garden. Move!
Unless of course, someone reading this knows better?
The Anonymous Widower 