I Tried to Use A Phone-Box
For the first time in many years, I tried to use a phone box, as my Junkberry had run out of charge, after only a couple of hours of use.
A Phone Box That Didn’t Work
It wasn’t a happy experience, as it cost me fifty pence and I never got a dial tone.
A Fitting End For A Junkberry
This kid has the right idea about what to do with a Junkberry.
His was an old one, whereas mine is new and unused, as I can’t work out how to use it.
I think I might find a suitable road-roller.
All The Way To Eastfield for a Loaf and a Moan
This afternoon, as I had nothing better to do, I decided that as I’d failed to get any bread this morning, that a quick trip to Eastfield was in order. Waitrose didn’t have the bread I wanted, but they did have a brown Genius and one of Genius’s excellent fruit loafs. So I bought both and then went into O2 to moan about my Junkberry. It’s not their fault, as they didn’t come up with the crap design. I think to be fair too, the Junkberry bubble has now burst with the share price heading towards Antartica. I’m afraid I don’t buy products from losers, unless the price is absolutely right.
I’ve already had an e-mail from Tonik, saying that my two old Nokia 630i will be back with me soon. In fact, knowing couriers as I do, I suspect that they’ll get my phones from Enfield, quicker than O2 could swap my phone.
I can do without a phone in the interim anyway, as no-one outside of a few people and scammers ever phone me these days. And the things I want to do with the phone, like texting where buses are, it can’t do.
Goodbye to my Junkberry
Despite a lot of help from O2, I’ve decided to chuck my Junkberry. Not sure what I’ll do yet, as a lot depends what happens to my life. I will keep it for a bit as my son is a fan and someone might nick his.
On the other hand, I might strike up a relationship with a gorgeous redhead, who is an absolute expert at the whys and wherefores of a Junkberry and I could have fun learning how to use it. Some hope!
So today, I did the first thing to get it out of my life. I sent the two Nokia 6310i, that I own to those clever refurbishment people at Tonik, to get them as-newed! It’ll cost me a few pounds, that I can well afford.
So what do I find wrong with the Junkberry?
1. It’s Incompatible With My Experience
I’ve been programming for nearly fifty years and using a mobile phone for nearly forty. In fact, I was one of the first people to have a mobile phone in Suffolk. My first problem with the Junkberry, is that it does everything in a different way to my computer and my past experience. It would be like putting me in Moscow and trying to find my way to the Olympic stadium. I actually did the Moscow task incidentally, as I had a map of the city and even in cyrillic some things are understandable. But the Junkberry uses icons, I have no knowledge of. Yesterday, I looked at a Samsung phone, which didn’t break any of the rules of the past.
2. My Left Hand Isn’t Good, But My Right Hand Is Superb
Because my left humerus was broken by a school bully and I’ve had a stroke, my left hand at present is little more than something to hold something with. I do use it whilst typing for the Shift key sometimes, but often, I span the fingers of my right hand and use the thumb on the Shift key and a finger on the other key. I have a feeling, I’ve done this for years and because of that my right hand is extremely agile. It always was very good and I put that down to making Meccano models extensively as a child.
Since, I stopped biting my nails, I’ve also tended to use my mobile phone or an ordinary phone for that matter, by holding it in the palm of my hand and dialling with my thumb, or on a mobile, the thumb nail. On a Junkberry, this means entering numbers is difficult, as it’s either a double keystroke or hold one down and hit another. Try doing the latter with just one hand.
3. I Can’t Send the Bus Text Message With a Junkberry
In London to find out, when the next bus is coming, you just type a five digit code to 87287. I talked about the system here. With my Nokia 6310i, it is a very simple operation, I can do with one hand. With the Junkberry, I’ve not actually been able to do it yet, as the phone tries to be clever and gives me the last of-date message. In other words, it gives me wrong information. That’s all you need at eleven o’clock on a cold, rainy night.
4. I Miss All My Messages and Incoming Phone Calls
Every time I get the phone out, someone has rung it and I’ve missed them. I have to recover the messages by phoning my phone with a land-line and then accessing the mailbox. Not very useful for a mobile phone.
5. I Can Only Send Phone Calls By Dialing The Number In or Selecting a Previously-Called One
This is because, I’ve not found out how to select a number from the address book.
6. The Address Book Doesn’t Work
My son’s phone number is in the phone in two places; under his name and also as the ICE number.
It always picks him up as the ICE number and ignores his name completely.
Obviously, they don’t have serious emergencies in Canada.
7. It Doesn’t Like Weak Signals
Going up to Liverpool today, it didn’t seem to be getting a good signal on the train. Certainly, the Nokia 6310i didn’t drop out as much.
8. Appalling Battery Life
By the time I got to Liverpool, the battery was dead and I charged it overnight. My Nokia 6310i generally lasts at least a week. That is the real problem, in that I expect it to last days from previous experience and it lasts just hours. Imagine buying a new modern car and finding the fuel consumption was much worst than your old one. Would you be pleased? No! You’d be straight round the dealer to tell him where to put his motor.
At least the guy in O2 let me make an urgent phone call. But finding helpful O2 shops every hour or so to make a call isn’t always practical.
I’ll leave it now, but I’ll come back to this topic later.
Hopefully my Nokia 631oi will be back in a few days. I’ve just heard, that Tonik has received the phone and hopefully, it will be back next week.
It’s Only a Phone Box
I took this picture on Whitehall yesterday.
Two tourists were photographing themselves in and outside the box.
It’s Only a Phone Box
I can’t remember the last time I used a public phone, let alone one in a box. Possibly twelve years or so ago. Last time I needed to, when I couldn’t get a signal on my mobile and my car had broken down, a local resident let me use his land-line.
BBC Creates Addictive Viewing
According to the BBC, the amount of viewers of the Olympic Torch Relay has exceeded all expectations. You could argue, that they would say that wouldn’t they. In fact Roger Mosey says it all here.
The coverage is not by satellite, but by mobile phone 3G technology, which gives the odd break in transmission.
Some are saying it’s addictive on Twitter and Facebook. He’s one from Scotland.
Frances Chisholm on Facebook says: ”Kind of addictive” is an understatement. I am enjoying it all so much. Almost late for work this morning! I’m an ordinary working British Citizen, but “torchcam” makes me feel I can be part of it (the olympics) keep up the wonderful work! Will be cheering the flame when it passes through SELKIRK, Scottish Borders.
And I thought the Scots weren’t in favour of the Games.
Rupert Murdoch Drops Himself In It
Rupert Murdoch “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company”, MPs have said. I’m not going to argue with that, as I don’t have the detailed evidence. However, I do know from the personal recollection of a friend of mine, who did a bit of business with Rupert, that he very much takes all the decisions.
So the buck stops with Mr. Murdoch! Unfortunately, there was no system of checks and balances to make sure he took the right decision!
Perhaps we need a rule, that all senior people in public companies are not above a certain age.
Pay-As-You-Go Solar Electricity
This system from Eight19, got a big plug in the Sunday Times today.
I think the company has got something here, as it can provide low-cost lighting to all of those places in the world that are off-grid.
The article shows how in places like Kenya it can be used to provide lighting and mobile-phone charging at a very affordable cost, by combining good solar technology with simple systems based on scratch cards and mobile phones.
But I think it has other applications,where you need a small amount of power in a difficult to get to place. Remember that even in the UK, we have a surprising amount of sunlight most of the time. But of course not now!
A Course In Chugging?
They’ve just had a guy on the radio, who runs a course at South Bank University on charity fundraising. How to chug properly is a substantial part.
Surely, we can think of more worthwhile University courses?
Incidentally, they were chugging for Save The Tiger in Islington last week. It would be better if they did this outside the Chinese Embassy!
After all we’ll only save the tiger, if we convince the Chinese to change their ways. I wonder if the Chinese are keen on saving pandas, is that they have no culinary or medicinal use for them!
There is a big piece in The Telegraph today about how the Local Government Association is getting a bit fed up with them and is calling for a clean up of legislation. A spokesman is quoted as saying.
“Government needs to remove the double standard which means volunteers collecting coins for a local hospice need a licence, but agency workers seeking pledges for national charities do not.”
I would agree as a local hospice is much more important than a big national charity. I think though that methods of donation like Just Giving are better. I regularly see an ad and send a small amount. The trouble is some ads are on the Underground and mobile phones don’t work down there.
Are Blackberries the Cause of the World’s Ills?
I have said that to me, as a very experienced keyboard user, that the Blackberry is a piece of very bad design.
But it is loved by the great and good in politics and business, from Barack Obama downwards.
So if they choose such an obscure device can we trust them to make the proper decisions, that affect us all?
The Anonymous Widower 