I recently changed from O2 to Vodafone.  I’ve had crappy reception in my house with O2 for a while, suffering one-way conversations where the person on the other end couldn’t hear me properly even though I can hear them perfectly, so, I decided to try some other providers.

I have been out of my O2 iPhone contract for a short while (having already changed to a cheaper tariff – note to other iPhone users:  if your contract expires, call your provider, they will always be able to give you a better deal) so I decided to give Vodafone a try first.  Honourably the O2 retentions chap tried asked why I wanted to switch networks so I explained about my reception problems.  He understood that there was nothing he could do about it and so very soon my PAC (Porting Authority Code) was winging its way to me via SMS.

The sign-up process was easy with Vodafone, though the answer to my question “which wireless providers can I use” didn’t get a resoundingly clear answer.  In any case I signed up and all seemed ok.  Ok that is, until I tried using mobile data.  Call reception is largely improved and I can now get signal in some places I previously couldn’t, but sometimes the experience of using the mobile data network, even where I supposedly have full 3G coverage, is utter shite.

Having suffered this for a few weeks I thought I’d jump ship to Orange to give their network a try-out (as I’m out of a long term contract I can opt for 30 day SIM only contracts).  So, this morning I called Orange to check out their offerings.  ”All our tariffs are on our website” the recorded message sounded.  ”They aren’t” I thought, “as I’ve looked and there aren’t any specific SIM only iPhone tariffs listed that include data plans.”  This is also a website, so my experience shows me, that you can’t even browse tariffs on from your iPhone: they have  bastardised version of the site for the iPhone which misses the sections out where you can browse Orange products.  Smart marketing.

Having waited 4 minutes on hold to the sales team (have you ever waited that long for a sales call to be answered?  They are always the quickest calls to be answered…) my call was answered and a lady told me the most sensible tariff for the iPhone.  600 minutes, unlimited texts, free internet and wifi, £25 per month.  Great.

“Who is the wifi partner for Orange?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Which wifi operators can I connect to, you know, BT Openzone, The Cloud etc?”
“The wifi is free, I’m not really sure what you mean….”
“Well, if I go to Starbucks and there is a BT Openzone network available, can I use it for free?”
“Well there might be a charge for that.”
“Ok, so what do you mean by free wifi?”
“Well, you can connect to wifi for free.”
“But I might have to pay….?”
“Hold a moment.”
[A few minutes on hold....]
Ok, so we give you a passcode, which you enter when you connect to a wifi network.  If that code isn’t recognised, then you have to pay.”
“I’m sorry, but that sounds a bit wrong.”
“Ok, let me transfer you to the iPhone team.”
[Several more minutes on hold]
“Hello sir how can I help?”
“Can you please tell me who your wifi partners are, which networks can I use when in public?”
“What is your mobile number sir?”
“No, I don’t have an Orange contract, I’ve just been put through by sales so you can answer this question.”
“Ok sir, please hold.”
[Several minutes on hold]
“I’m sorry sir but I need to transfer you to sales, I’m not allowed to answer your questions as you don’t have a contract with us.”
“No, no, no wait, I’ve just been transferred to you by sales because they don’t know the answer to this simple question, they can’t help me.  You’re telling me you can’t tell me this simple thing?”
“I need to transfer you to sales sir.”
“No, they transferred me to you, they told me they couldn’t answer the question so they were transferring me to the iPhone team.”
“They told you you were being transferred to the iPhone team?  This is customer service.  I’ll transfer you to sales.”
“No no no….  I’m not waiting in line, spending money on this call, only for someone else who doesn’t know the answer to my question to fob me off with some other rubbish.  Unless you can help me now Orange loses this sale.”
“Ok can you hold please sir?”
“No more than 10 seconds, I’ve already had enough this.”
“Ok no more than 10 seconds sir.”
[30 seconds later, I hang up.  Total time on call over 15 minutes]

The moral of the story is, don’t use Orange, they don’t know what the hell is going on, the staff don’t seem well briefed or even well trained – heck, they can’t even transfer a call to the right department, and everybody hates that.

I’m actually thinking of going back to O2, the network has been built to withstand all the iPhone users so the mobile data experience is better, and at least their customer service works.  I’m moving soon, so as long as I can get reception at home and in my new office they’ll do me just fine.

/Rant

Secretly, one of my new year’s ambitions was to get a new job, though it wasn’t on the list as I didn’t want to rock the boat at all at work.  I’ve been growing out of my role at the council for some time, and have wanted to get my teeth into something a lot more hands on.

Having plopped my CV on a few job boards in the new year I was delighted to hear from a company who had decided I might be worth talking to.  This was definitely very exciting.

They seemed perfect – an IT solutions company who have some very diverse, high profile customers working with big technologies.  Their website boasted happy employees, 98% retention, consistent growth, happy customers, ethical working, staff investment, and the engineers get to work for different customers in different environments.  It could not be more aligned with where I want to be.

Brilliantly, two interviews later I was offered a position, and jumped at accepting it.  It’s just the opportunity I’ve been waiting for, and I’m determined to be a success.

So, ladies and gents, please rise for new Tomorrow Communications recruit Tom Bell.  I can’t wait to get started.

On new year’s day I posted my targets for 2010.  Here’s this month’s update:

• Finish repair and decoration of the house - Nope
• Move house - Now decided to rent out our house.  Still looking at new houses
• Achieve CCIP (Cisco Certified Internetworks Expert) certification - No progress
• Become an accomplished CCNA (CC Network Associate) instructor - Have sadly had to abandon this one due to other commitments (more on that later)
• Stay fit - Not doing a massive amount, but am still playing football.  Need to get the running shoes on
• Stop biting my nails - Done
• Run two 5k races and another 10k race (hopefully with my pal Chris) - 10k booked for July, no news from Chris….
• See 6 London shows (at least one every couple of months) - Weekend in London planned for Easter, will definitely take in a show

I’ve not gotten around to the CCIP studying yet which I’m a bit disappointed about, but I have good reason.  It’s no longer practical for me to take the week off work for it, and we’ve spent a fair amount of time in appointments for financial advice and looking at houses on the web.  Plus we had my niece stay recently.  All of this has meant not much free time for studying.  I need to get a shift on unless I want to sit an extra exam (which sadly seems inevitable as it’s a bit of a push to do 3 exams in the time alloted) as Cisco have just revised their routing exam, core to the CCIP.  I’m not certain what this means but likely that my BSCI won’t be valid for the CCIP.

I’ve sadly had to give up the teaching for now because it was taking its toll on me – studying up for it every night of the week and 14 hours out of the house on a Saturday with a 5:30am start was a bit tough.  Hopefully when we live closer to London I’ll be able to give it another shot.

We’ve just been to visit friends this last weekend, and are off to meet some folks from our holiday this coming weekend, when we plan on doing some London tourist type stuff.  Not a show exactly, but a good trip whatever the weather.

On new year’s day I posted my targets for 2010.  Here’s an update:

• Finish repair and decoration of the house - Nope
• Move house – House valued by two different agencies, several houses looked at
• Achieve CCIP (Cisco Certified Internetworks Expert) certification – No progress
• Become an accomplished CCNA (CC Network Associate) instructor – Teaching first course later this month
• Stay fit – Hmmm.  Still playing football….
• Stop biting my nails – Done
• Run two 5k races and another 10k race (hopefully with my pal Chris) - Chris should be booking for March
• See 6 London shows (at least one every couple of months) – Saw comedy, but no shows as yet

As you can see, progress is slow, but I’ll get there.  I plan to take a week off soon so that I can study for the BGP exam for CCIP, and we should be off to see a show later this month for my birthday.  If Chris gets his act together and signs us up for the race I’ll get out running too, and moving house isn’t going to be a quick thing, but we are making strides.

I’ll keep updating until I’ve done everything!

Since I installed Windows 7 on my laptop (which is pretty nifty) I haven’t been able to find a driver to work my built in webcam.  Well, giving it another search this evening popped up this gem, which details a solution to the problem.  I’ve been months without the camera, can’t believe I’ve not tried that before.  Never mind.

Just a note – the solution says to point to the x32 folder (even from a chap running the 64 bit version of Windows 7).  I didn’t, I pointed to the x64 folder, and it still works fine.  Figured I’d probably be better off with the 64 bit version of the driver.

I’ve loved Billy Connolly for years, since I was a little lad.  I love his style of rambling, swinging from one topic to another.  He’s not a joke teller, like Jimmy Carr, but a storyteller.  He carries you along with him whether you like it or not.

So, when I saw that Jimmy Carr had tweeted that he’d just been to see Billy perform (and that he was brilliant) I was immediately excited – I might get the chance to go!  I’ve never seen him live before, so it was a thrill to think that I might get the chance.  I checked with friends if they wanted to come and then set about trying to get my four tickets.

I was immediately disappointed, for the sites which appeared at first glance to have tickets available turned out to be sites with no tickets available.  The bastards.  In a last chance ditch I phoned Ticketmaster, and was told that there were standing tickets left for the show on Tuesday 26th January (though these didn’t appear on their website).  After calling friends to check the revised date, and going through the agony of trying to get through again, and not knowing if the tickets would have gone, I finally had it all confirmed – I was going to see Billy Connolly!

So, last night I saw Billy Connolly live for the first (but hopefully not the last) time, and it was bloody brilliant.  No support act, just straight in with a two hour non-stop show.  A chap in front of us had a brilliant laugh too, and boy did he use it.  Typical Billy style, wistfully meandering through topics, all the time face-achingly funny.

Jimmy said it first, but I’m saying it too.  I bloody love Billy.

When the iPhone came out in 2007 there were a series of ads around that showed off all the new magic that the iPhone brought to us.  At the end of the ad the phone would ring, yet it would ring with a ringtone that was never included with the iPhone.  Well, apparently it is an iLife tune, and is available to download as a ringtone here:

http://www.lifeclever.com/the-missing-iphone-ringtone/

You’re welcome.

On the second of January Mrs Tom and myself set off to London for a bit of a day out.  We had family staying over Christmas and with our holiday being a group tour it felt like a while since we had spent any time together alone doing something for ourselves.

We had a bit of a wander and a nice dinner in a Spaghetti House chain restaurant.  Not amazing but not bad either.  After that we took ourselves off to the Soho Comedy Club which is in “The Comedy” – a pub just off from Leicester Square and near Piccadilly Circus in Oxenden Street, where The Comedy Store is.

It cost £5 to get in (£7 without the flier we had) which is excellent value – The Comedy Store up the road is £20-£25.  The pub is very nice downstairs, but the comedy happens in a room upstairs where around 120 people are crammed into quite a small room, but there is enough room for everyone to sit comfortably – sort of like being in the cinema – people have to move if you want to get up.

A couple of the acts really caught my eye – Joel Dommett and Eric Lampaert.  They were both really funny and pretty original and I really liked them.

So here they both are (Joel’s video is the performance from the 2nd Jan I actually saw):

For the last two days I’ve been working from home as the weather has made it too dangerous to attempt the 45 mile trip to work, some of which is along “non-main” roads.  However, due to limitations on our VPN I’ve not actually been able to do much other than keep on top of emails and other work which doesn’t require access to the resources based in the office.

The reality of this is that there really isn’t much that can be done from home, so I’ve been taken the opportunity to start the spring cleaning in the house.  Following the holiday period when our house is filled with loads of people the place is still yet to get back to its normal order (which is actually not that neat anyway), so it has been a welcome opportunity to clean up a bit.

In line with our desire to move house this year we’ve also began the process of downsizing our estate – getting rid of things that we just don’t need anymore but have hung onto for reasons unknown.  It’s a difficult job for me because I’m a bit of a hoarder but now comes the time to be ruthless – we don’t have the room for the stuff anyway, so it just needs to go.  My problem is that I feel guilty about just slinging stuff out and it ending up in landfill, I want it to go to someone who will use it, or if its broken then recycle it properly.  This does however take a bit of effort.

Freegle is a website which helps you recycle stuff that may be of use to someone else.  It’s built around Yahoo! Groups and if essentially a mailing list – people post stuff to the list and people that want it offer to take it.  You can also post “wanted” notices too.  I’ve used it in the past in its former incarnation of Freecycle (which I still think is a better name) and it has been useful for helping to get rid of things, and also to help others who might actually want the stuff you no longer do.

Having realised through re-reading this that I am turning into Adem, I will now get on with checking work emails and a bit more cleaning up.  Good day.

Hi folks,

I took one video whilst we were away too, which can be found here.  It’s of Vietnamese football fans going mental after their 6-1 victory over Cambodia in the 2009 South East Asia Games.  It was crazy walking through the streets whilst all that was going on; the people couldn’t be happier and yet at the same time it was all brilliantly good natured, not the slightest hint of feeling threatened by it all.  I took this video from the hotel in Ho Chi Minh City where the Americans would do their “five o’clock follies” during the Vietnam/American war, where we were having a wee drink and listening to some old gent crooning away before the band came back on.