Monthly Archives: June 2006

Dropping Belkin

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Got hold of an Orinoco card from ebay which should be with me in about a week (I hope – it’s coming from NZ) so with the Linksys I can be free from Belkin. While clearing the garage I found the previous (overheating and failing) Belkin I had which I was meant to return when they sent me the new (now overheating and failing) Belkin. So I owe them a router. Given that they owed me reliability I’m not wasting the postage.

This was a random 6 minutes from Netstumbler. The router is cool. I don’t know about the tallness of the green but I’m pretty damn sure I shouldn’t have gaps.

In other news, Tropical Twist tic tacs are really rather good :)

Just do what you say

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That post below about Misco. It’s about them not doing what they say.
Winston has had a lot of treatment from the vet over the last couple of months and it cost on exces of £400 which we didn’t just have lying around. The vet sent off the insurance (PetPlan) and assured us we would get a cheque fairly soon. After a week J rang and they said it was in the post. 3 days later – they would put it in the post that day. 3 days after that – it was being processed. J pointed our their policy terms and what PetPlan said they would do in their literature. She had to tell them where to look – their staff did not even know their own company policy. In the end, J got the cheque. Winston’s insurance has been moved to another company and PetPlan have had a furious letter written to them. And all because someone didn’t say the truth.
Had the system at Misco said “It’s Friday. We can’t get it to you until Monday at the earliest which will cost £9 or you could rely on the normal post, which would you prefer” then I – the customer – could have made an informed choice. Fact is their website does not say that clearly – it is there for my benefit I assume – and neither do their staff as I had cause to speak to them yesterday too. It comes down to this – do I want to buy from them again? No. They did not do as they said. I should not be forced into reading the small print when competitors do a better job.

Virtually all the battles we have had with companies are because people were not honest.
Be honest. I can cope with that. Tell me how it is, apologise if that is appropriate and then deliver to your word. Do that and I’ll be back. I’ll be happy, I’ll trust you. Do it often enough and I’ll forgive the odd slip. But screw around the first time and you’ve blown it. Why should I believe anything the second time?

It is not the next day

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Misco. £3 for regular delivery where they will drop it in the post that evening. £9 for Next Day delivery where they drop it in a truck that evening. Did their system throw a note at me saying “Hey, it’s Friday – you can’t have it til Monday” ? Did it bollocks. They may not work Saturdays but City Link do. It’s been in their warehouse since 4:47 this morning. Can I have it? Not a chance. For most of City Link it’s just a regular day and their staff will be on shifts – so why in hell can’t Misco say “Hey, we are complete scammers and are out to rip you for a few quid because we can”. This ‘working day’ IS a piece of crap. We probably only keep it because if the Govt tried to drop that label the TUC would throw a pink fit, the GWB would threaten to pull their funds and Len Murray would spin in his grave. Saturday IS a working day – that’s why shops are open, why call centres are open and why pretty much everywhere is open – except banks but they deserve a special thrashing in another post.
It seems to me that Misco are either using a system so basic it can’t do a Day of the Week note for customers or that they really are scamming.

Misco – we deliver. Eventually.
Idiots.

The light does go off!

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You know how when you shut the fridge you wonder if the light really does go off? And that you know there is the button that the door squashes and you’ve pressed it to check it works? But you maybe still aren’t really really sure?
It does you know. That little bulb does go out.
From the National Grid:

The power surges are mainly down to people making cups of tea, switching on lights and getting drinks from fridges during breaks in the action.

Now if the light was on, opening the fridge wouldn’t matter would it? So it must be off! That’s another of life’s little mysteries solved while glancing through the BBC.

Spoilsports.

onetribe.nu – flawless

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I blogged last Sunday that I had ordered these crazy agate plugs from http://onetribe.nu. From the US to central UK in 5 days from order placing and me wearing them. That alone is good. But these plugs….

Of all the plugs / tunnels I seen or worn these rise way above them. They are perfect. Perfectly carved, perfectly finished, gorgeous patterns and colours which show that care and attention has gone into them from the start – they cannot be identical but they are most certainly from the same chunk of agate given a certain patch of colouring / pattern. They feel fabulous to to touch, they are fabulous just to look at and when worn they look damn fantastic as well.

These are the sort of plugs it’s worth stretching your ears for. Nothing is even on the same scale. These are ‘wooooow’ grade material. And for only $45.00

http://onetribe.nu – fabulous.

Leaning candles

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Router is almost certainly dodgy. Fan on full and router is cool. Took me ~20 minutes to get the router to connect. It said it was connected and I could open Bon Echo to 192.168.2.1 but it would not let me ping anywhere. Hard reset again. While redoing the details I was get instant content to the router (less than a second) or I’d wait up to 10 seconds. I played with the channel used and got the same behaviour over some but slower over others. So I’m blaming the router. But can I find someone that takes paypal? Hell no. Not yet. I have time to look today though…..

Bon Echo – I know it’s alpha and I’m not complaining but it’s bugging out on me loads in the last week. I’ll have to go through the extensions and see which were the last two or three I added. Scrolling marques screw it every time It will also start as a process and just sit there consuming 23mb but doing nothing visible. Three fingers – stop – restart sometimes works..

And Thunderbird can do the multiple ID’s that I need – excellent.

J’s at a friend’s all day. P is at school. D might be going out – would you believe I had to show her how to use the washing machine? She’s 15! Genetics should have kicked in by now ;) – so the place is mine. All mine :) – Actually, I’ve taken advantage already of J being out. A while ago she put a low curved bowl along from me and the computer. Had 3 chunky candles in and some smooth glass chunks / stone things. It was – from my pov – acceptable. Not great, but I could tolerate it. One of the candles moved and would not stay straight up. I tried to get it back but could not and succeeded instead to move another candle. Damn. Could I get them back? No damn way. Empty bowl. Stand candles in – doesn’t work because it’s curved. Crap. Put a few stones in, try the balance thing – no. Sling it all together and try one last time to get the candles to stand straight up. No dice. Pick the whole thing up. Move to another room. Place bowl, stones and candles on top of a high bookcase. Out of sight, out of mind. Fill now empty space with ‘male paraphernalia’. Relax :)

Irritating noises

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For YEARS people have scrunched up crisp packets, biscuit wrappers, sweet wrappers and they have NEVER YET SUCCEEDED IN MAKING IT SMALLER. It ALWAYS springs back to size, and they ALWAYS try again. and again. and again. (Except those idiots who squash crisp packets into little lumps and they are just as bad.)
FFS people – engage brain. LEARN.
STOP it.
Remove wrapper.
LEAVE IT ALONE.
Scrunching it up achieves NOTHING but raising my blood pressure and my anger at you.

Router recommendations

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I’ve phoned Zen enough, hard reset the damn thing often enough, changed MTU’s, changed another registry setting I’ve forgotten the name of and I still get deadness, timeouts and connection problems. So if it’s not the machine, the ISP or the line, it’s the (Belkin) router. That’ll be the one that gets very very hot despite having a lot of free space around it . Time for a new one. So I’m after recommendations.
I’m going to buy an Orinico card because that will ‘just work’ and should I decide to dip my digits into the world of Linux it’ll ‘just work’ there too. But a router. Linksys / Netgear are what appear to be good. Which should I get and what model? I know I could go to forums and websites but personal recs are so much better :)
(My first place I’ll start looking to buy will be ebay so while price is important hopefully I’ll save a few £ getting it from there).

Update: www.misco.co.uk take Paypal so a Linksys package is now heading my way.