Brightkite adds 'via android' to posts.

Great news. Today the uber-cool social networking site Brightkite added the 'via android' marking to photos which have been sent from the Android Brightkite application.
iPhone & recently Blackberry users already had this cool marking at the bottom right of all photos they uploaded from their mobile apps, now the Android crowd can join them.
Thanks Brightkite :)

And then the phone rang....

It was Sunday 28th June 2009 at about 11:22 am when the phone rang. I answered it and was greeted by a loud male voice asking me if I WOULD PARTICIPATE IN SOME MARKET RESEARCH. I said:-

"No I am not interested" to which he replied,
"Wait Sir, I'm not trying to sell you anything", again I said,
"I am still not interested",  then he said,
"Well is there anybody else in the household who I could speak to?"  That's the bit which really got my back up, I said
"No, goodbye" . and I hung up the phone.

Nothing too unusual about that I guess, except that I've not had one of these calls on a Sunday morning for as long as I can remember and secondly our number is registered with the Telephone Preference Scheme. So this got me thinking :)

I rang 1471 and expected it to be a withheld number but no, the number claimed to have come from 02084 336081. I called it back and got a recorded message which said I had received a call from Kantar Operations, a bonafide marketing company and this was not a sales call and that if I wanted to check I could call the "Market Research Society" on 0500396999.

So, guess what, I called them back. I was sure nobody would be there on a Sunday at almost mid-day but sure enough, they answered in 2 rings. I explained I'd had a call from

"Kant...." I was interrupted...
"Oh they are absolutely fine Sir, no problem with them"
"But how did they get my number?" I asked
"They just random dial Sir." Hmmmm I thought...
"Well they should not have called our number as it is registered with the TPS?"
"Ahh but the TPS does not cover marketing calls Sir" (not sure about that I thought)
"Well, I will be looking in to this, thanks goodbye"

So, there seems to be at least two things wrong here:-

Random number dialing, also called random digit dialing, is probably an illegal practice if before dialing they do not check the number against the TPS lists and secondly, the TPS does cover sales and marketing calls, it says:-

What is TPS? The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a central opt out register whereby individuals can register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing telephone calls. It is a legal requirement that companies do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS. The original legislation was introduced in May 1999. It has subsequently been updated and now the relevant legislation is the Privacy and Electronic (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Kantar Operations on the face of it do seem to have a legitamte website but I could not find an address for them, though a phone number is listed Anyway I will now go and fill out a complaints issue against Kantar on the TPS website.

Animation Workshop.

Just got back from an outing with our youngest, Cameron.  I took him to a local arts/cinema venue in Lancaster called The Dukes.
He attended a short stop-motion & animation workshop which was put on by a guy called Bary Skillin who runs a company called Animation Nation.
Basically the kids get to make some figures or whatever they want from Plasticine material and then they can move to an animation table where an Apple Macbook and video camera is setup. From here they can use the iStopmotion software to create a short animated movie. 

These movies are then uploade to Youtube for the kids, their friends and family to see. You can see some of the animations here.

Great value and goof fun for £4.50!

Mini-roundabouts, just like big ones only smaller.

Mini roundabouts are just like large standard roundabouts only on a smaller scale. As far as I know the rules for using these tiny roundabouts are pretty much the same as you would use for their bigger brothers.
The main objective is to approach the roundabout, generally slowing down as you come up to it and then carefully look to your right side to see if any cars are coming on to the roundabout or already progressing round it.
If either of these are true, then the recommended action is to slow down and stop, thus you are giving way to traffic coming from your right. Not exactly rocket science I am sure you will agree.
Now there lies the problem, many people treat them as just some kind of bump in the road, some think perhaps you should slow down a little for this bump and perhaps drive round it slightly, others will just keep going at their normal speed and drive over the top of the roundabout, perhaps seeing if they can get a little thrill as their car quickly rises up as they traverse the bump.
Often they will not even glance to their right to see if you are coming on to the roundabout, no they will just keep looking ahead, perhaps they will have a mobile phone pressed to their ear, or are attempting to light a cigarette which understandably may be distracting them a little.
Anyway the whole point of this blog post is to make you aware that mini-roundabouts are just like big ones and should be treated with the same respect.
The photo above is courtesy of a great min-roundabout resource which I encourage you to visit, http://www.mini-roundabout.com/

Kinda quiet round here today?

Firstly, thanks for visiting this page and taking the time to read this.
Secondly, part of me is telling myself I should not be doing this, it might wreak  of desperation but another part tells me I should and if I don't I will be cutting my nose to spite my face!

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and here I am! I've ran my own business for the past 4 years or so and things have been fine. However just recently, maybe the past month or two, work has taken a nose dive and I'm getting less and less work.

As a result I am looking for some part time work, which I can fit in around my normal work which in essence is fixing computers and other related technical stuff.

So a job of a technical nature would be good but I am fairly flexible. As long as it is not sending out spam emails or breaking captcha's all day and is legal I don't mind.

Preferably something I can do from my office at home in Lancaster would be nice too.
I have computers and Internet access as you would expect.

If you have something in mind please use the contact form by following the link above and get in touch!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks.

Are you considering changing phones?

Perhaps an iPhone to a Palm Pre or an Android- HTC Dream, HTC Magic to a  Symbian phone like the Nokia N95, N96, N97 or maybe a Treo to a Windows Mobile device?

Well I have created a forum which might hopefully help you.

Each time I changed smartphones, most recently from  a Blackberry to an Android G1, I would visit some forums for the phone I was switching to, and ask questions about it and hopefully get answers to how it differs to the phone I presently have.

Now there likes the problem! You see if you visit an Android forum, a Blackberry forum etc you will find it is very biased towards that particular platform. So when you start asking questions like:

"How does the calendar layout on the iPhone differ to the layout on the Blackberry I have now?"

You might get a few sensible answers but you will likely also attract some of the forum trolls and end up in a small flame war of your own. This has happened to me on several occasions. 

So the idea behind my forum is you can hopefully get impartial advice from people who have already made the particular 'phoneswitch' you are considering, or who are also considering switching and may be able to help with your questions.

I'll also be hanging out there and will help wherever I can!

The forum is called "Phone Switchers" and can be found here, http://forum.phoneswitchers.com, please give it a try.

Stuff to do in London?

You might have stumbled on this post following one of my posts to twitter or brightkite. It's simple really, we are going to London soon for a short break; myself, my better half and our two boys aged 9 and 13 - I'm looking for sensible suggestions of things to do.

Hopefully things that won't cost a fortune! I've got a few ideas myself which I am posting below, most of these came from watching a program with Griff Rhys Jones about London.

Some of these I have no idea if it's possible to do at all, please tell me.

If you can think of anything, please add it in the comments, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!!

Some ideas :-

• Old London Stone - Canon St. The Roman centre of London (other centre is horse statue near trafalgar sq) DONE
• Any secret tunnel trips or visit the old telephone exchange underground? 
• 10:26am every day Houses of Parliament staff do a traditional walk? 
• Old Doctor Butlers Head pub, 1662. (Ale Conner's test any new beers?) DONE
• Burlington arcade in Bond St area is worlds first shopping mall? DONE
•  St Pauls Cathederal maybe. DONE
• At 10pm a toilet comes up from underground outside Palace Theatre, right side as looking at front entrance. DONE
•  Tower 42 is tallest building? doubt we can go up this.

And ideas from visitors, thanks! (updated as I get them):-

• The London Dungeons are good for adults and kids alike. http://www.thedungeons.com/en/london-dungeon/index.html
• The Science Museum has a good set of “hands on” exhibits for kids.
• The Cartoon Museum (which costs to get into) is also good if you’re interested in popular art.
• The Lyceum Tavern on the Strand is good for interesting beers. Also try de Hems in Soho for Dutch beers.
• China Town is very interesting to walk around – as are poking in to the shops & restaurants there.
• Go to the official Half Price Ticket Booth (TKTS) in Liecieiseir Square – turn up early to get the best seats.
• There’s an excellent calendar of events athttp://www.ianvisits.co.uk/calendar/events/