Project Management – NuLabor Style
When I read stories like this, I get very angry.
The new fire control centres didn’t benefit anybody and cost everybody in the UK ten pounds.
I hope the idiots who put this forward were fired. But I suppose if they were, they probably got a gold-plated pension.
I also hope that the company who didn’t deliver the computer system, don’t get another government contract! But they always do!
That Was Quick!
Yesterday at 16:26 I ordered a new laptop battery from Amazon. Just before 12:00 this morning, the door-bell rang and on checking through the window, I saw a courier with a box marked Amazon. The check was because I’d seen some Jehovah’s Wasters walking up and down the road and thought it was my turn to be annoyed. I get them usually once a week. We need a preference service where you can register to stop calls from these people.
The box contained the new battery and it’s now up and running and being used for this post.
Would anybody complain about that very speedy service?
BT Vision
I have just installed BT Vision.
It seems to work well and I’m just watching the cricket on Sky Sports 1.
Technically, I like the concept of watching most things free through Freeview and getting other things from broadband or by unlocking channels on Freeview. I think it is a concept that will grow like Topsy.
I know too, that I’m paying a lot less than I did for a poor service from Virgin.
A few points of comparison.
- I have Freeview television in my bedroom, so now I have the same channel numbers in my living room and my bedroom. I didn’t with Sky or with Virgin.
- Picture quality is good, but I have just fitted a new aerial.
- All the features like stop the picture and then contunue are there. Virgin may have had them, but I never found out how to use them. The designer of the Virgin box, was probably a games-optimised person, who didn’t understand logical system design for those who don’t and never will play games.
I’ll add to this list as time goes on. But I’m not regretting moving away from Virgin.
Was It The Cat?
UBS has discovered some unauthorised trading according to this report.
I’ve heard some interesting stories.
In one a trader typed in the value he wanted to trade. He then went home and left the computer switched on, with the value still there. The cleaner then dusted his desk and accidentally did the trade.
Or that’s what they think happened. Luckily the guy who sorted it out made a profit on the deal.
In another incident, it was the cat that stepped on the keyboard. Or that was the explanation to explain the loss!
In both cases though the software should have picked up the inactivity and shut the computer down.
Is It Worth Keeping An Old Laser Printer?
I don’t print much these days and if I want something in colour, I have an expensive HP Laser I could connect to my network.
For general printing I’ve used an HP 3390 mono laser printer, that has worked well in the past few years, but it died on Monday. I obviously won’t fix it and it’ll go in a skip.
Checking prices for a new mono printer, that I can have in my living room, I found a wi-fi driven HP for £99.99 in Currys. So in other words, I bought one printer for the price of two 3390 catridges. Admittedly the new printer doesn’t copy, but the big colour one does that!
Soon they’ll give you a new printer for just walking in the shop and smiling nicely! Well not quite! But you get my drift.
A Series of Strange E-Mails
I have received several e-mails like this today.
A quick one time public service announcement about Lung cancer (no further emails will be sent).
Lung cancer is the cancer responsible for the most deaths in both men and women. Over 85% of lung cancers are related to smoking. More than half of the people who are newly diagnosed with lung cancer are former smokers.
Women are also affected greatly by breast and colorectal cancers. Reduce your risk of cancers by not smoking, eating a healthy diet, using sunscreen and getting regular cancer screenings. Take care.
This one had a title of “Info concerning maintaining fitness”.
They don’t appear to be promoting a web site, selling anything or even have any links to other sites. And even the information is sensible.
But why?
All I can think of is that someone is testing some new e-mail software.
Student Finance Agreement
I’ve just recieved an e-mail with the above heading and this message.
Dear Student,
Student Finance Application Year 2011/12-Information RequiredTo assess your application, your student finance agreement needs to be signed and returned back to us . This can be done through “MY ACCOUNT” session of your online account .
Failure to sign and return this to us would mean your next student loan payment and maintenance grant will be delayed.
Thanks for your co-operation.SIGN ON HERE
Yours sincerely,
Student Loan Finance England.
As it points to a web site in the United States with no contact address, it’s a scam. It also came to one of my trap e-mails, which seem to be passed around by spammers.
The Facebook Two
Two men have been given substantial prison sentences for trying to organise a riot in Chester by using Facebook. as the BBC reports here. But they must have been two of worst riot organisers in history as no-one turned up.
Perhaps, the good people of Cheshire, have more morals, than these two have common sense.
You don’t send people to prison for this type of crime, especially when it would appear that nothing got damaged and no-one got hurt.
What they need is some form of creative community punishment. Perhaps, there is a derelict site that could be converted into a garden! Or some coal that needs painting white!
One is certainly appealing, and I’ll be very surprised if the sentence stands.
Bye-Bye Virgin
I’ve now been without my landline for a couple of weeks now. Although, I didn’t realise it for some days, as I was away and also because most of my friends phone me on my mobile number.
So on Friday, I did what I should have done when I moved in; I signed up with BT.
Today after a very long phone call, I cancelled Virgin. I did eventually get someone sensible, but as I had to ring on my mobile and I phoned them for perhaps twenty minutes, I suspect it wasn’t cheap.
It did however cost me over seventy pounds to get rid of them.
Hackney council today wrote to me saying that I could get rid of five heavy items a year by just giving them a call. If disposing of Virgin and their useless service were so easy.
Incidentally, all of their cabinets round here have had their doors stolen.
A Typical Virgin Cabinet in Hackney
In my experience, electrical equipment doesn’t like working in exposed conditions.
I shall now be using BT for phone and broadband, Freeview for television and the pub for watching football on Sky.
How Not To Contact Your Phone, Broadband, Energy or Media Supplier
My Virgin Media service is terrible, so I want to cancel. As an example, I haven’t had a landline for about 10 days now. Every time I try to get through to service, I end up on hold listening to terrible music. It’s probably cost me several pounds on my mobile. In one case they tried to see me more services. If I want more crap, there are many much better places to buy it, where I get some service.
As an aside here, could my terrible Virgin service, be due to the fact that their connection cabinets round here have no doors and are open to the elements.
I didn’t have the phone number to hand, so I did the obvious and typed “Virgin Media Phone Number” into Google.
After the adverts trying to sell me more Virgin services, there are some helpful companies that can connect you. I obvious don’t want more crap, so I ignored the adverts and as the helpful companies looked a bit dubious, I read about them first.
They are call referral services with expensive numbers and cost 10p a minute from a BT Landline and considerably more from a mobile. As I’ve only got my trusty Nokia 6310i, I didn’t even think about ringing them.
Virgin Media were the fifth in the list and there were about 10 of these call referral services.
By the way the number to ring for Virgin Media is 0845 454 1111.
The Anonymous Widower 