26.point.1

My Email to Sky

// February 25th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // FURY!, Random Stuff

Sky have really annoyed me. So much so that I’ve complained.

—

I have been a Sky subscriber for a couple of years now, and in May last year I upgraded to Sky HD. At the time I was charged what I considered to be an extortionate amount of money for an engineer to essentially come out and plug a new box into my existing cabling.

Since that happened I have only been able to record things intermittently, the Sky planner has only worked for a few hours after the box has been rebooted, and Sky Anytime has been unavailable since pretty much day one. All of these things I put down to only having one input signal - something that I was never told about when I ordered Sky+ HD that I would need. But being in a flat I couldn’t put a second line in and I just lived with the fact that I was getting a degraded service because of this.

Then about 3 weeks ago I returned home to find the message “Your sky card is not made for this box” - with an error code 7. This occurred on the Monday, and like everything else with the Sky service I receive I just presumed if I left it it would come back on. On the Thursday it hadn’t come back on and I gave your customer services people a call.

They had me read my viewing card numbers, software numbers, and other assorted details from the systems page of my Sky box and “sent a signal” which was supposed to pair up my card and box. But this could take 24 hours. I waited.

And then 24 hours later when it was still not working I called up again. And I read out all the numbers again, and was told that a signal was being sent. And it would take up to 24 hours. I waited.

And then 24 hours later when it was still not working I called up again. And I read out all the numbers again, and was told that a signal was being sent. And it would take upto 24 hours. I waited.

The next time I called I was informed that my case needed to be referred to a higher department, and that they would contact me ASAP and definitely get the service working. I waited some more, and then 4 days later I gave customer services another call.

And read out the same numbers again. And the man on the end of the phone talked me through pressing a number of buttons on my set top box, he was polite, knew what he was talking about, and after a 5 minute call my Sky was up and running and working.

However, in the process of making me press these buttons I also noticed that my Sky box was not set to single LNB mode (which I was informed to set it to by the helpful customer services guy) and this has since corrected the issues I had with the planner, with recording, with Anytime.

So my complaint now that everything is working? It turns out that I paid extortionate money for “installation” of my new Sky+ HD box that was never installed correctly AND it seems that most of the staff in your “something is broken” department only know how to take the details of a persons Sky box and press the “send signal” button on their terminal, and if this doesn’t work then they just keep doing the same thing over and over again.

I appreciate that time and time again I was told that money would be removed from my bill for the time I didn’t get Sky, that’s hardly the point though, I pay for a service which could have been restored when I first called up if you had well trained engineers there to answer calls.

As a very minimum I would like my installation fee refunding as it’s clear now that the service was never fully installed, and I have been paying for a service that I have been unable to take advantage of because of this.

At every level of my Sky experience from sales (where I was mis-sold), through to installation (which wasn’t completed), and now customer services in the service (where I was given the run around for over a week) I have to say that I would score you 1/10.

I look forward to your response and hope that in itself it is better than the previous touch points I’ve had with you.

Guns

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Last night while sat drunkenly eating my Chicken sandwich in kaddas, the turkish sarnie shop, a randomer commented on how I could beat him up cos I had big “guns”… How I laughed.

Review and Resolutions

// January 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Diet and Exercise, Money, Quiz, Random Stuff, Reviews, snZero

8/10 & 1920 x 1200 for the laptop, about the same for the Mac on the TV.

2009 has been and gone now, and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I’ve made a load of new friends through taking over the quiz at The Adelphi, Pin and doing one at the Nation of Shopkeepers here in Leeds. I’ve made a fair few new friends through my endeavour to unite the digital folks of Leeds with snZero, which is still getting more than 50 people a month turning up. I even made random friends in the shape of The Salts girls through a drunken night out early in the year. Truth be told that my facebook friend count has gone up quicker and to a greater degree than ever before. And for this I am happy.

That said, work has been a up and down slalom of emotions, busy for 12 months, new clients, demanding decisions, new people, old people, gone people. And for the first time in my life I think I really know what stress is. Even when I used to work 18 hours a day it wasn’t as stressful as the last year has been. If I had hair I think that it would have deserted me by now. But of course it deserted me ages ago.

On the plus side, I went and lost almost 4 stone in the middle of the year. Granted I then went and put a stone of it back on. But hell, only a couple of stone too heavy … and not “obese” any more. So that made me a happy bunny. Not happy enough, but happy enough to fit into a 34″ pair of jeans - and my black Boss suit from years gone by. So yeah, happy.

And on the minus side, I’m still single. And still have no hair. Though I do have  an ace flat. Rough with the smooth eh…

Back at the start of 2009 I made the following guesses for what the year would bring…

• Sort out my tooth-ache.. Yeah, I did this. Not had a toothache since March.
• Cut out 90% of my Coke intake.. Yup, did this too really. Not had more than a can a week really.
• Lose 1/4 of my body weight.. Probably managed 1/5 … ish.
• Become financially viable.. I have a credit score of 900/1000 - which must be good? Still owe almost 20k…
• Blog… Yeah, not really.

So as you can see I managed most of them to a degree of success. 2010 is all about…

• Lose 1/5 of my body weight.. I want to get down to 12 stone… ish.
• Become financially viable.. I want to be down to 10k debt by year end…
• Blog… NO, not really… Though I do want to take a photo a week…

And those are my real resolutions.

Avatar

// December 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Reviews

Last night I went to see Avatar. I saw it in 3D.

From a technological point of view the 3d is simply breathtaking immense, I was expecting something more than the heady days of red and green lenses, but I was not expecting it to be jaw droppingly amazing.

From a movie point of view it’s like going back to being 6 years old and seeing all 3 original star wars movies for the first time, but possibly better.

There are no mere human words to express how much I recommend that you all spend £8.10 on a cinema ticket for the 3D version of this movie – if it was a choice of seeing this film or cancelling Christmas, then I’d cancel Christmas. And shoot Santa.

Three months of snZero

// November 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Reviews, snZero

That’s right it’s been three months since my foolhardy decision to bring to Leeds a new social event aimed at a more broad spectrum audience than GeekUp, Girl Geek Dinner and Open Coffee mornings have traditionally allowed for. And each month seems to bring new things - both good and bad.

Month one was held in the Adelphi pub at the end of September and was a sponsored event (by Hotfoot Recruitment and myself) who generously paid for the bar tab on the night. It was a night which I spent running around much like a deheaded chicken attempted to say Hi to as many people who would chat back. And while lots of Hi’s were said I didn’t actually get to say anything meaty to many people. That said there was lots of very positive twitter feedback after the event and many emails of support from people who’d had a good time - and as my only measurement for success for the night had been to speak to 10 people that I’d never spoken to before the 100 people or so that turned up meant that for myself the event was a success.

Month two was again at the Adelphi pub, but was unsponsored - after getting 8 agencies wanting to sponsor us in month one they all dried up in the space of 30 days. Having already done one event the second was a little less frantic, both for myself and for the bar staff who were presently surprised that in month 2 people actually used words like please and thankyou - something that had apparently been missing when the event had free beer. Month 2 had less people than the first month with probably only around 80 turning up, and without the free beer people came and went throughout the night as opposed to all turning up at 6pm with pint glasses in hand. With month 2 I’d had no real measurement for success, I was just hoping for a good crowd of people and some good feedback - and we got both. And personally I thought it was a better event than the first.

Most agreed, with a few exceptions.

It turned out that people had been expecting more of a format to the event than just come along and talk to people who work in the same industry as you - they wanted things to break the ice, they wanted talking points, they wanted presentations. It was at this point we put together a steering group that consisted of myself, Guy Redwood of Simple Usability fame, Andy Banks of Digital Welly and Andy Hey of Enjoy Digital amongst many things. And on a rainy Wednesday in October we can together and agreed the way that we wanted the event to go - yes to talking points, yes to ice breakers and ways to get people talking, no to sponsorship and definitely no to talks and presentations. And it was with this in mind that we set about event 3.

With new discipline appropriate stickers to scribble on and introduce yourself, with new talking point boards to give people without much to say something to talk about and with no presentations in sight we headed into event 3 - the final snZero of 2009, and in a new venue - the Brewery Tap.

A smaller venue and less people again, we probably only put about 50 people through the doors in November it again had a good buzz and I met some really good people - and actually got to really talk to some cool people too - I had a great conversation with Tero Väänänen for example on photography and how it doesn’t matter what equipment you use, it’s about the final article. And in itself I just now realise it’s a fantastic analogy for snZero as a whole - because for all the stickers and boards that we produced they had a limited effect in my opinion on how much fun people had. And I’d hope, and truly believe that the people who turned up had a good time. Darren Scotland was vocal on how the event has attracted a much wider audience than other similar events he’s been to, and that’s something I’m more than happy to hear given the reasons that I set the event up.

So for 2010? Well, we’ll be back in the Adelphi pub now that it’s been refurbished and hoping that word of mouth will start to spread, that we can get some larger agencies involved (Pi, Swamp, etc) and that I can have some useful, entertaining and interesting chats with people who sit at their desks and make websites everyday - while at the same time having a few pints as well. Will it happen? I don’t know in all honesty - I’m not reading too much into the diminishing numbers at the moment - we’re going towards Christmas and people have less money, and even with 50 people those 50 people were all good people who I could hold a conversation with and have a chuckle with too. So I’m happy. And again I hope and believe that people were too.

I’m proud of snZero, and happy for all the people that I’ve met so far - and so to all those that have attended an snZero in 2009 I would like to say thank you, and for the rest of you I hope to see you in 2010 - because I’ve got a LOT of stickers left.

last night on earth…

// November 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

My god, for the last day on earth as a 32 year old today has been a mixed bag. I’m apparently “impressive” - it doesn’t surprise me at all, would be nice to be impressive more - wish people would let me get a word in edgeways.

And I’m in London and missing the fireworks. I wanted to be “someone’s definite source of entertainment” in Leeds.

But I have a cool new laptop bag I guess. Taking the rough with the smooth.

Well, here’s to 33!

Disgraceful facebook ad… 1

// November 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

I’m all for exploitation, but this seems a little strong… “Single mum? Need cash? GAMBLE”

Hull Digital Live

// October 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

So this past week I went to Hull and East Yorkshire’s first digital and technology conference, Hull Digital Live. The line up was one that looked great on paper, with people from Sapient, The Guardian, TechCrunch, The BBC and GSK amongst others speaking on a variety of subjects - all in all Jon Moss did an absolutely fantastic job of getting them all together in one room, in Hull. No idea how much money he had to bribe some of them.

I sat dutifully through it until the end, hoping to suck up what I hoped would be knowledge which I could pass off as my own in the future - and for the most part failed. It wasn’t through lack of trying, there were very few of the speakers who I dismissed almost out of hand - and I was very interested in what everyone had to say, it’s just that what was said was either a) IMO wrong, b) plain bloody obvious, c) not applicable to me.

For the a’s and b’s were for my liking Rob “the bird” … who young as he seemed is one of the 30 most influential designers in the UK apparently. What he had to say fell into the a and b categories and he was one of the weaker choices of the day for speaker - one of his points being have a good design and don’t worry about how people find  you - they’ll come through word of mouth. Yes that may be true when your “product” is design - and the people that are speaking about you are in design forums. It doesn’t translate well to “my products are mobile phones” where the final product is a million miles removed from what the design of the website is. But not to say too many a bad thing, his visuals and slideshow were truly great and powerpoint they were not.

For the b’s alone, well that has to go to the chap from the BBC who delivered the keynote for the event - which is to say that he walked us through the last 20 years of digital in the UK - complete with rehashings of BBC reports about how digital britain is not. All old news really. And delivered with the passion of a bean-sprout.

Finally, the not really applicable - that would be Jaan from Sweden who was frankly an awesome presenter and his talk had merit - if you were a freelancer or running your own small agency that could accommodate Noding. I work in an agency of 45 people, it’s not feasible.

There were of course absolutely great presentations too - Kai Gai from GSK was not only a brilliant speaker, but what he said made sense and I felt enlightened at the end of the talk about what people in pharma have to deal with when it comes to marketing. Mike from TechCrunch delivered a talk about startups which bordered on inspirational - and delivered it in a way that no one else on the day would dare try to mimic. Charles from The Guardian again delivered words of wisdom on getting yourself noticed by the press. These were all great talks!

The biggest let down of the day? Not the lunch no, it was the chap from Sapient who wowed us with his client list and then told us his 5 trends for the future - and I swear he pulled them all from Wired or .NET magazine - it’s fuckin’ sapient, wow me. And not using Augmented Reality demo’s please.

I actually had a very good day for the most part with the good talks more than making up for the bad ones, I just worry that when the event was being planned there was an inclination to go low-brow with some of the talkers rather than aim for the stars - also there was in my opinion way too much emphasis on Hull and Yorkshire - yes, it’s the regions first conference, but as the TechCrunch guy said - it’s the internet, no one cares if you’re in Hull. So deal with KC once and then let it go. It was a good day, and I’d give it a solid 7/10 - I don’t get to many of these conferences and it provided a certain amount of inspiration and knowledge, but next year I hope that the speakers get vetted a little more - really, don’t invite Yorkshire Forward back.

Oh, and did I mention Karen from AudioBoo … ?

snZero - the first month…

// October 1st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Random Stuff

On September 30th we had the first snZero event, and to say that I spent the day dreading the turn out we would get would be a mild understatement - with events where you give out free tickets you’re never quite sure how many people on the night are just going to decide to go home and wash their dog’s hair instead of actually turning up.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about - having arrived to the venue way later than I’d planned to, having not mentioned to the venue that I’d want people on the bar - and having only 20 minutes to set everything up before the first people arrived (I hoped) I was amazingly surprised when we had about a hundred people turn up…

Only a hundred you say? ;) No really though, the turn out was amazing and I personally got to meet about 20 people who I’d never spoken to before about a whole host of subjects - but mostly for them to say well done and for me to admit that I really hadn’t done much. Needless to say that the free bar that was provided by Hotfoot Recruitment went a huge way towards lubricating lips and ensuring that most people seemed to have a great time!

Now, don’t get me wrong I realised about 30 minutes into the event (somewhat later than I probably should have) that the true test of if snZero will succeed or fail is actually going to be in month 2 (that’s on the 28th of October) - will people come back? Will the word spread? Can we provide something beyond simple meeting random people in your industry that will keep people wanting to leave their loved ones and pets at home while they socialise? Who knows… Though I have had lots of good suggestions on how we can push the boundaries of the event without ruining the one thing that I am determined to be at it’s heart - a place where you can go and talk to who you want about what you want, drinking what you want, and without being preached too… There will never be a “talk” at snZero. Apart of course from my truly awful “welcome” speech that happened at the first months event - someone please remind me that ad-llibbing those things without any prep except 4 bottles of cider is probably a bad idea.

Anyway, hope to see the same number of people next month - if not more, so if you work in the Leeds Digital Industry, then pop along to http://www.snzero.com and book your free ticket… See you there!

t-minus 13 days… Oh poop!

// September 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // snZero

So… it’s coming soon - that is to say social networking zero is happening in a little under two weeks now. I only really clicked to this when a friend told me last night that he’d see me on the 30th, to which my response was “really, what happens then?”… Seems that I’ve let the whole thing get away from me a little.

But yes, with less than two weeks to go it seems like someone should think about the logistics of this thing – how are we going to ensure we don’t cause the floor of the Adelphi to give in (we’re overbooked by about 20%), how do we ensure that people don’t abuse the free drinks, how do we ensure that people leave the event and want to come back again next month…

In all honesty, it’s a little scary. Which is why leaving it until 12 days before the event was probably a bad idea…