Chris’s IntaWeb Log Blog Dooffa

Recently purchased a camera from pixmania.co.uk and personally I’m going to avoid them like the plague. Their backend systems are just crazy slow … and I mean crazzzyy slow. I’ve ordered from them in the past and received my items next day so I thought I’d get the same treatment. Well apparently not -

1. Item ordered July 1st at about 11am.
2. By 5pm on the same day their site was showing no progress at all. Thinking there might be a payment issue I called them. Sounds like an India call as I could hardly understand what the lady was saying when I spoke to her. Turns out that there is nothing wrong but I should call back tomorrow as the “Validation” part takes 24 hours.
3. July 2nd they appeared to do nothing at all.
4. July 3rd it showed as validated and all the way through the ordering process.
5. July 4th they bothered to ship the item.

What on earth took them 4 working days to ship something they had in stock !!! Either someone messed up somewhere or that’s just the way they do business. I’ll assume it’s the norm for them as they didn’t communicate an issue at any time.

So I defiantly wont be buying from them again anytime soon. You’ve lost me as a customer.

Well our company is doing well and it’s time to find some more customers. To do that we need to sort our marketing out. First stop the website: www.glo-networks.com, get the design finished and started up a blog.

Previously we’ve found the blog to be a handy way of communicating our technical abilities without having to clutter the website up. So here it comes again.

Read this over the weekend. It’s basically a new potential to SatNav. A system on the roads reports to the SatNav what the speed should be is and the SatNav yells at you to slow down if needed. On top of that they want the SatNav to actually make the car stick to the speed limits and not let you break them. Great idea really, get on it !

But think about it a second, it’s just like speed cameras or safety cameras or whatever they try to call them to make us like them ! These systems are only effective on one type of person, that’s the insurance paying, road tax paying and car registering public. So by following the law and being good you can get in more trouble. Fair enough some say. So what happens to those that don’t have insurance or those that don’t pay their road tax or those that don’t even register their cars, bikes etc ! Well if they ever get caught they get a ban and or a small fine. Why not pour the research into catching that lot and actually deterring them from being baddies in the first place ?

Yes I know that if they don’t pay their road tax their cars get crushed or if they don’t have insurance they get a ban. These type of people really don’t care about bans or crushed bangers. As if they did there’d be none of them left. Put in proper punishments that will make these people think again. Or better put some tech in place to remove them completely from society.

Rant over

So the Tefal QuickCup isn’t really as great as I first thought. After a few months of using it here’s a few issues -
a) Very noisy when in use.
b) Leaking filter / hole in the bottom - a puddle appears under the device
c) Just wont switch on sometimes. No matter how much the power button is pressed or how many times it gets reset sometimes it just wont power up at all. Leave it unplugged a few hours and suddenly it will be fine again.
d) Power use, because the power wont always come on we’ve started to leave it connected over use. Expecting it to not use any power when not in use but in the morning the top appears to be warm to the touch which is weird. So on went the power meter and it appears that over night it uses 0.01 kwH.
e) It moves around the kitchen top when it’s not got enough water in it. Not good as you normally leave it to fill the cup … great to come back with it having traveled across the counter and dumped a load of water elsewhere.
f) Nowhere near boiling water out of it really.
It so feels like a generation 1 product. Having said that we’re still using it.

How on earth is this bloke still hanging around ! I heard his “Big Show” hah, on the radio the other day. What’s big about it and why on earth is it exactly the same as the show he did like 15 years ago on Radio 1 ? And why are their a bunch of idiots in the background all the time clapping and yelping ?

Time for him to move on me thinks.

A bit of a werid post for my site but none the less here it comes :). I work from home most days and thus get through about 7 or more cups of tea a day. Each cup requires a 2 or 3 minute boil of the kettle and at 3kW that’s an interesting hidden cost of a cuppa. Well looking to somehow cut our electric bill I’m using energy meters everywhere. In that process the kettle keeps coming up trumps as the big spender :). So I spotted the Tefal QuickCup on the gadget show a few months ago and wondered if it was out yet. Well apparently it is and a quick check with Argos and 2 days later it’s here.

Simple review as it’s a simple product … it does exactly what it says on the tin. Very hot water out the top from cold in seconds. It holds about 6 good cup fulls and is easy to fill. Has a filter on it though I don’t really care about that and wonder if it will work without it, I assume it does.

It does however make a bit of a noise (sounds just like the hot water maker thingys in cafe’s) and it spits and splashes a little. The noise was a little off putting at first but then the ease of use and potentail energy savings speek for itself. 1 day in and you kinda don’t notice the noise anymore.

There should really even be a trade in of your old kettle to this new one under a potential “green” badge … marketing people you listening ? I hearby predict that the old kettle’s days are numbered. There’s completely no point in waiting for hot drinking water any more.

It appears that the mess that was left as iFinda Group has now been recreated as Number 4 Life and What’s Local. Read about this on another site and then spotted this comment. I know one thing, they wont get a penny out of me ! I wonder if it has anything to do with Mr Dan Corby again ?

Of course if someone wants to point out that this is super wrong or whatever then let me know and I’ll remove / ammend it right away.

Life = lack of news / posts.

Lots going on in my existance, new company, 2 new members of the family (one by birth, one by marrage), facebook, World of Warcraft, new Laptop, new phone, new internet providors, new phone lines, new servers and potential new pet on route. See loads going on.

Not that anyone really cares though :), but back to the normal junk appearing on here shortly I hope.

There is a company called New Brand Vision that created and sold a service called the “Microsoft Supplier Showcase”. They raked in several thousand pounds per exhibitor but it completely hasn’t worked ! During the sales process the name NBV was never spoken of or even on any paperwork. It was all about the “Microsoft” Supplier Showcase and how it was generate leads. Having spoken to many exhibitors it appears that not a single person has ever received a lead. More over this blog gets more hits per week that the supplier showcase does ! !

Interestingly I’ve just requested a quote from someone and one hour later there’s no request in their inbox !

Maybe this is outright fraud, as NBV where never in the picture when the sales process for this service was going on. Maybe NBV never even expected it to work but came up with a way to charge customers through the nose for something that they never expected to work ! Maybe they’ve projected the same program next year, in which case the company will be sorely down on their expectations.

So personally I’d say that the Supplier Showcase was a complete farce tantamount to fraud.

Watched Sunshine last night … AMAZING. Was like nothing I’ve seen before. It was werid in that the plot had wholes all over it but that entirely wasn’t the point. It was almost as if the film was just supposed to be there for you to awe at. The effects were great and I loved the sets and the score. The music playing towards the end scenes (and I’m not talk about the credits music junk) is great, very M83 like, totaly fitting.

Only thing I’d change is the gore as it just felt out of place. I feel sorry for the people that didn’t get it and are asking questions about the plot. Gutted it didn’t do well in the cinema.

So pleased to have watched it, gonna watch it again shortly. Can’t wait to see it in 720p or 1080i :).

Easy 9/10 … loved it.