A happy ending!

BA's useless web site was driving me to distraction again. I tried to book some flights but everytime I pressed the "pay" button -- after typing in loads of family details which are not stored in a cookie until payment is confirmed -- the system hung up so I was eventually driven to phone them. I was only on hold for about 20 minutes this time, and the woman I spoke was at east efficient. But if you book on the phone they make you pay extra so I complained and -- ta da! -- I got a refund on the telephone surchage. A minor victory, but worth broadcasting.

I finally, after all of this messing around, and after spending god knows what on their 0870 number which wasn't reimbursed -- I know, I've broken my resolution to refuse to do business with companies without an 800 number -- I look back in to manage my booking, sort out the seats, type in contact number, press the button to print the boarding passes and get

I don't think BA is having much luck with IT. It's as if they've outsourced it to the people make tax credit systems for the government and that sort of thing. On a very long and dull flight to Singapore yesterday, I was heartened when I turned on the in-flight entertainment to find that it was a new video-on-demand system with loads of movies and TV programmes. Great. I went to the menu. There was a brief flash of something about welcome to Windows Media or something and then... it didn't work, naturally. In fact, it didn't work so badl that the cabin director who was dealing with with the complains from hundreds of extremely bored passengers came on the intercom to explain that (in true Windows fashion) his control console had crashed as well, so he couldn't anything. Still, I'm sure version 3 will be serviceable.

Lucky I had my iPod, and even luckier that I had the audio cable with it because in my room at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore they have a great innovation. The desk that I'm typing at has a VGA connector so you can project your laptop screen on to the big TV in the room as well as audio inputs so you can listen to your laptop, iPod or whatever through the speakers in the room, even in the shower. Brilliant.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: moaning, technology, travel

Gadgetfest

Two new gadgets that I can't help talking about. First of all, I picked up my new Nokia N95 the day before I left for the States. Those kind people at O2 gave it to me for nothing -- well, when I say nothing I mean "extending my contract for another year" -- and it arrived bang on time. I could even read the manual on the plane, which is ideal for a nerd like me, so by the time we touched down I had already configured it the way I wanted. It's an outstanding piece of kit. The good points:

• I love the 2-way slide: open it one way and it's a phone, open it the other way and it's a media player.
• Nice clear screen, bright and easy to read even for my ageing eyes.
• It's pretty convenient having satnav built in. The first time I used it -- getting lost in Austin, Texas -- it worked perfectly guiding me to my destination.
• Good web browser.
• Mail client works, and it has an Exchange client as well (not tested yet).

The bad points, which it would be remiss of me not to mention:

• The GPS takes a long time to lock, so if you're in the car and you're lost, you have to pull over and wait a few minutes for it to get a fix. Incidentally, if you want to avoid crippling data charges when using the satnav, you need to download the relevant maps to the memory card in advance. This will quickly mean using up the 1Gb on the microSD card enclosed, so I'd order a 4Gb ASAP.
• Wifi doesn't work properly. There's a bug which means that some WPA connections don't work.
• The USB cable does not charge the phone, unlike on my old K800i, which means you need to take the charger with you.
• It's not really a criticism, but be aware that if you switch on wifi, bluetooth, GPS and 3G, you will need to remember to plug it in for recharging every night!

So will the N95 replace both my old K800i, Palm and iPod. It has already replaced my K800i and Palm, but it's not going to replace the iPod. The iPod just works, beautifully, and the N95 is nowhere near as simple to use. And the Nokia iTunes integration is hopeless on my MacBook Pro. It worked once, but hasn't worked since. So 7/10, must try harder.

The second gadget is US satellite radio. The car I rented has an XM satellite radio. It's wonderful. For anyone who has ever driven down a freeway in the U.S., constantly fiddling with the radio to switch between local FM stations or desperately poor (both in audio quality and content) AM stations, this will be a revelation. You scan first by genres -- comedy, rock, news, whatever -- and then scan for channels within the genre. The reception is excellent, it has been crystal clear throughout the whole trip here: I can't recommend it highly enough.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: technology, travel

London street scenes no.97

I was wandering across Waterloo Bridge and had a horrible moment of panic when I thought that -- Dr. Who style -- metal men from outer space had invaded...

In the last few days, I've noticed more of them appearing on the tops of buildings around the South Bank. Curiosity drove me to google them, and I found a few other blog postings from other people who had noticed them, but I couldn't find any obvious explanation of what they are. This leads me to suspect that I am in some way paying for them, but if anyone knows any different I'd love to hear more.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: moaning, travel

Holiday season

I've started my holiday reading for 2007 using my now traditional strategy. Each time I see an interesting review of a book, I add it to my Amazon wishlist. Then, when I order something from Amazon that is less than £15 I go to the wishlist and pick something -- almost at random -- to top up the order so I get the free shipping. I think this is an excellent way to buy books, since it retain serendipity as well as surprise: when an Amazon parcel arrives (which is just about every week in our house) I can never remember exactly what it has in it. That makes it very enjoyable to open to the package. Anyway, when it gets to holiday time then I head over to the wishlist and order half-a-dozen titles from it. The package arrived a couple of days ago. I picked up the first book in the pile and I couldn't put it down: I was up until 1am last night finishing it.

"Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone" (Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, Andrew Thomson)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Not only is it extremely well-writen, but it is structured in a very clever way. It intertwines three very personal stories to keep a mounting sense of, well, horror I guess. Yet the narrative is driving and the content fascinating. At the end of the book I felt slightly sick, but I also felt educated and informed, a little more knowledgeable about the world and, unfortunately, its inhabitants. I won't give anything away by saying that the book tells the story of UN personnel and a journey from a sort of idealism and hope (and parties and per-diems) at the beginning in Cambodia (trying to rebuild the country after the "killing fields"), to the UN standing by and allowing genocide in Rwanda (where the scale of the unmechanised slaughter of hundreds of thousands with clubs and machetes is simply mind-boggling) and Bosnia, to the Nigerian UN "peacekeepers" who traded food for sex with children before raping, beheading and sexually mutilating nine year-old girls in Liberia. If there is a central lesson to be learned from the book it is, as one of the writers notes (and many reviewers -- eg, in Samizdata -- picked up), "if blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers arrive and tell you that they are going to protect you, run".

Technorati Tags: books

Serviski industries

Travelling the highways and byways of England recently, I stopped a few times at motorway service stations. Every time I stopped, I was served by people who appear to be Polish, or least Eastern European of some description. I'm not saying this to complain about it, far from it, but you can't help noticing that the vigorous growth of our service industries seems to be fuelled wholly by imported labour. When I last went to Scotland, every single person who provided any kind of service -- from the hotel porter to the waitress at the Mexican restaurant -- appeared to be Polish. I'm not sure if the metropolitan elite, who are used to the cosmopolitan nature of the capital, understand the magnitude of this transformation in the rest of country.

I'm not bringing this up in order to pass judgement one way or the other, but I was moved to comment on this because the postman called yesterday morning to deliver a parcel and when I answered the door, she was Polish too. I wonder what happened to the previous Seikh gentleman?

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: travel

Help, help, I'm being repressed

My youngest son gave his first ever music recital last week. It was only a few notes as part of an ensemble, but as every parent knows, that's not the point. Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of this wonderful occasion nor a video clip to show Grandma and Grandad. As I stood up to capture the treasured moment for posterity, I was promptly assailed by an official and told that I was not allowed to photograph my own child at a public performance because the performance was in a school and that it was "County policy" that I was not allowed to take either still pictures or a video clip. I asked her if it was an intelligence-led decision (what do you think -- from Surrey County Council?) on the basis that a known pervert was in the audience and if so, under "Reid's Law" if we shouldn't have been informed, but my wife told me to shut up.

Clearly, my behaviour was, to Surrey County Council, beyond the pale. By contrast, some of the behaviour considered perfectly acceptable was allowing your child to spend the entire recital playing on a Gameboy, only pausing for a moment when (I presume) a sibling was centre stage, as well as talking while the children were playing and -- something that particularly annoys me -- leaving as soon as your child has finished their piece. Outright rudeness and a flamboyant lack of respect for other people: no problem. Wanting to record an important event in your child's life: totally unacceptable.

There was a guy in the row in front of me who had a video camera on his lap and was filming surreptitiously when any of his kids were playing. Should I have shopped him? Let's hope the government's plan to have CCTV cameras everywhere, all the time, will put an end to such agonising moral dilemmas.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: moaning, kids

My life in politics

I was very flattered to be asked along to a Conservative party think tank about future technology policy. I was sure they had me mixed up with something else, but I wasn't going to miss a chance to hang out with the big nobs, so to speak. Unfortunately, I couldn't go. I wrote a letter instead and I thought it might be fun to show it here...

Dear XXX,

I received an invitation last week from Mr. XXXX YYYY concerning a Conservative Party event on Xth March. Much as I would love to contribute I'm afraid it clashes with [an important event that] I will be attending. I imagine that the invitation stems from our previous conversation about XXXXX?

Incidentally, I read in the Saturday Telegraph a story concerning House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee chairman John Whittingdale. The story claims that he is a Tory and that he responded positively to an approach from Mr. Edward Clarke, a sometime member of the popular beat combo Motorhead, concerning the extension of copyright for song composers.

I mention this not merely because I am an infinitely bigger fan of Motorhead than Mr. Whittingdale claims to be -- as my good lady wife will testify, because I took her to see Motorhead on our first date -- and not because I have anything against Mr. Clarke personally (in fact, I am second to none in my admiration for "Fast Eddie" Clarke's lead guitar playing), but because I was wondering if this is the sort of topic that your Forum might be discussing?

If so, could you please ask them from me my why on Earth it is Conservative Party policy to extend copyright? I realise that the blandishments of producer interest groups are seductive -- and that the glamour of the pop world might temporarily blind MPs to economic first principles -- but if you are to have a policy on this topic it should be to reduce copyright significantly to the great benefit of everyone else in society apart from [pop stars].

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Dave.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: moaning, technology