Terrible Credit Card Reporting
Because I had a couple of my cards cloned, if I’m at home, I usually check them every morning.
As someone, who made millions by writing good reports for computer users, only one of my cards and banks has a proper reporting system, that you can use however you want.
And that is American Express!
For a start, when you look at recent transactions, they are shown by default on AMEX with the last transaction first. However all my other cards and statements are shown with the most recent last. So as one card is used a lot for small transactions, I have to scroll down to the bottom to check the transactions.
Also on AMEX, you can change the order to what you want, so perhaps if you want to locate a transaction at say Virgin Trains, you can put the descriptions in order and then scroll to V.
Why do Banks and Credit Csrd companies treat us with such contempt?
Some are a total disgrace!
If AMEX can do it, why can’t the others?
Because they don’t care about customers!
So if you’re thinking about changing your bank, make sure you have a run through the reporting of the new bank first.
In my experience most are total crap!
Suffering From Short-And-Alone Syndrome
It is amazing how many jobs around the house are difficult for someone living alone, who is short in stature.
My new bathroom, has a problem. I suspect that the electrician who installed the six spot-lights in the ceiling, bought a dodgy batch of LED bulbs, as one-by-one over the last few months, they have died. Having a bath in the dark or lit by candles may be fun for couples, but this sixty-seven-year-old doesn’t find it the tiny bit interesting at all.
So I bought some new bulbs and got my step-ladder out, but found that the builder had gummed up the holders with paint, so working with my head about twenty centimetres below the fitting and my arms at full stretch, I can’t get the dmn things out of the ceiling, as I don’t have a third hand to hold the torch.
So now, I’ll have to get someone in at great expense and time, to do a job that if I was ten centimetres taller and had a third hand handy, I’d have done myself.
I think there’s a moral in this story for everyone. If you’re going to have these ridiculous spot-lights, make sure that they are fittings like I have elsewhere in the house, that have lugs so you can easily turn them to change the bulb.
In fact, I could design a light and a special tool, that would enable the bulb to be changed by a person of very limited height standing on the floor.
It’s Not Just An Elderly, White Male Prejudice
I find the pink, plastic interiors of British Rails Class 315, 317 and 319 trains not too my taste but I’ve always thought it was to do with being elderly, white and male.
The Pink Interior Of A Class 315 Train
But after a trip on a Class 315 train today, where I took this picture, I think there are others who think that the colour choice was that of a fifth-rate designer, who had some rather unusual preferences. An Asian lady in her twenties saw me take the picture and when I told her why, she wholeheartedly agreed with my opinion.
It is interesting to note, that all refurbishments of these trains in recent years have removed the pink plastic.
Boring Architecture
I passed the site of the old Middlesex hospital, where two of my children were born today.
The building except for the chapel and the Nassau Street fontage could be anywhere in the world and it doesn’t really do the site justice.
I don’t like it, one bit!
Removing One Hundred And Seventy Years Of Inadequate Design
The Manchester to Preston railway is san important line in the North-West of England, that was completed in 1841.
To say that is not fit for purpose is a total understatement, as it is not electrified and has a speed limit of just seventy-five miles per hour.
Finally, the line is being electrified and the speed limit will be raised to a hundred. From December 2016, hopefully refurbished Class 319 trains will be speeding from Manchester via Bolton and Preston to Blackpool and possibly Windermere.
The major problem on the line are the twin tunnels at Farnworth. They have a history of make-do-and-mend and are too small to take the overhead wires and Network Rail have come up with a practical solution, that should last several hundred years at least. This Google Earth image shows the ends of the tunnels with respect to the location of Farnworth station and the A666.
Farnworth Station And Tunnels
The smaller of the two tunnels will be refurbished and given a concrete lining, so that during the works, there will always be one track for trains. They will then bore out the larger tunnel, so that it is big enough to take two tracks and the overhead lines.
This will require that between May and October this year, there will be significant disruption to rail passengers. The whole project is described in this article in the Bolton News. It may cause a lot of disruption, but the passengers seem philosophical, as these paragraphs from the article show..
Jeff Davies, part of the newly formed Bolton Rail Users Group, said: “The station closures are the bad news, but there is good news here actually.
“It is the beginning of big investment which could take us out of the present problems and the companies have been at great pains to minimise inconvenience and ensure that Bolton people who work in Manchester will still be able to get there.
Perhaps this is because Network Rail have done their public relations well, if this YouTube video entitled Rebuilding the Farnworth Tunnel is anything to go by.
It all goes to prove that politicians should have sorted out the mess that are the railways of the North many years ago.
A Design Crime – Crap Station Design In Kassel
Some parts of Kassel’s urban tram system might well have been good, but these images of some of the stations, show the crap level of some of the design.
One thing that surprised me was the crudeness of some of the stations I visited, which just had steep steps and no lifts. This certainly wouldn’t be acceptable in the UK for a new station and I’m surprised that German disability rules allowed such a station design.
I nominate their stations as a Design Crime.
Would Anybody Like This Pre-Loved Expedit Storage Unit?
Because IKEA has changed from Expedit to a new form called Kallax.
I use a lot in my house, as it means I can use the same inserts everywhere.
This 4 x 2 in brown-black is a bit tatty, but with a bit of glue and perhaps some other work, it would be ideal for a lot of places.
I live in the Dalston area close to the Islington border, so if anybody would like it, let me know. I may have some others in the future, as some will have to be replaced to fit with the new style.
Doesn’t it get annoying that IKEA have discontinued the old design. Hence the reason for the Bad Design tag.
Islington’s Eyesore
Archway is once of those places on the London tube map, which unless you know someone who lives there or has unfortunately found themselves in the local hospital, has nothing iconic to be worth visiting.
I went to have a drink with a friend, who lives within five hundred metres of the Underground station and took these pictures.
I should say that Archway suffers from the same problem that afflicts the bus station at London Bridge station because of the station’s proximity to The Shard. Lots of wind and today, that was cold wind, that makes walking around the area challenging.
I met my friend in the Gate cafe in the middle of the roundabout and that was a pleasant oasis in one of the bleakest areas of London. Archway even makes the old Elephant and Castle and Vauxhall Cross roundabouts, look to be award-winning architecture.
If ever a traffic intersection, was designed by a team of sadists with all the design flair of one of the North Korean dictators, it is this one.
I would like to see the following happen.
1. Archway Tower should be taken down, as it creates too much wind. Incidentally, the Wikipedia entry for the building doesn’t name an architect for the 1963 building. I can’t find one anywhere on the Internet.Perhaps, he was too ashamed of his creation and wanted to save his reputation, by not having it on his record.
Sadly, if it can’t be taken down, then clever engineers at somewhere like Farnborough or a top class university, should be given a brief to sort out the dodgy aerodynamics of the tower.
2. I crossed from the tube station, after arriving by bus, to the middle island where the Archway Tavern sits and it was a long walk round over three separate sets of pedestrian lights. There should be a subway, but my friend told me that was closed some time ago.
3. The traffic patterns must be sorted out, as it was always a bad area for driving.
4. The disused cinema that my friend says has graced the area for forty-four years, should be used as rubble elsewhere!
It will be impossible that when the improvement scheme is completed, that a vast improvement will not have been achieved.
A Design Crime – How Not To Design Platform Edge Doors
I took these pictures on Metro Line 1, which has some stations with platform edge doors.
Unlike all others I’ve seen, they are only half height and the thick pillars partially obscure the view of the station from inside the train. As there is no station display inside the train, which can be seen from most seats, these doors meant that I missed my stop.
I Have Issues With My Electrical Goods
Or should I say my washing machine and television?
Yesterday, I decided to wash a few towels. But in walking to the Bosch machine in my garage, one escaped my grip and after switching the machine on, on return I noticed the errant towel on the floor. So I went back to the machine with the idea of pausing it, so I could add the towel to the load. But this machine has no simple pause, so I could add to the load, unlike the old top-loading Hotpoint machines, we used for about thirty years. So now I will have to run another wash, just to get just one towel clean.
How eco-friendly is that?
And then there’s my really annoying Samsung television!
When I switch the Sony in my bedroom back on, it remembers where it was last time and connects to the last channel. As generally, I only watch or listen to two channels; BBC 1 and Radio 5 Live, it’s then a simple matter of keying in 1 or 705.
But not so my Samsung. On startup it insists of giving me a choice of umpteen useless channels I never watch and I have to press another button to get the last channel I watched.
That is just one button too many!
During the day, this is particularly annoying, as I generally have Radio 5 on in the background and when I come in, I usually want to get the latest news or sport.
It is also extremely verbose, when I use the on-board BBC iPlayer, as I have to scroll through endless features, I never use.
If I had designed this interface, all of those other features like players for ITV and Channel4, would be buried under a More button, until the television had discovered my pattern of usage. As the BBC iPlayer is the only thing in this area that I use, why isn’t the television adjusting its choices to my behaviour.
The television also has the annoying habit of switching itself off, when it deems I’ve watched too much television. As it’s probably been on silent and Radio 5 for a lot of that time, does it matter?
I suspect the idiot, who designed it, is as stupid as the television itself.
I’ve just heard that there is a new kettle coming out, that requires you to key-in a four-character code before you can boil the water. Apparently, there’s a new EU safety rule coming in.
There’s also the clock, that requires that it be adjusted to the correct time, at least once a day.
Why can’t we have simple design?
The Anonymous Widower 