Monthly Archives: June 2002

Shopping Madness

So, I try and buy a new power supply from a computer supplier (let’s say they are called Tell Computers).

Buy online and pay by credit card. They will only ship to credit card billing address. No problem I say, somebody will be there to pick it up and sign for it. Takes so long to arrive that nobody is there anymore. So, I think, I’ll have the courier redeliver to work. They can’t change delivery address without Tell’s permission. OK, I say, somebody will be in on Thursday, please deliver it then. They try and deliver Friday.

No problem, thinks I. I will have them deliver one evening. “We don’t do evening deliveries,” they say. So I say, “I’m in Saturday”. We don’t work weekends”. Huum.

“What about if I collect from your depot?”

“It a delivery centre with no collection point. Try calling Tell to have the address changed.”

“Hello Tell. Here’s my problem”

“Sorry, I’m in billing. Here’s customer service.”

“Hello Customer Service. Here’s my problem.”

“We can change the address. Oh, you bought online. You’ll need to speak to our Internet team”.

“Hello Internet Team. I have a problem and I’ve spoken to many people. I am assured you can help me.”

“No. We can’t change the address because you paid by credit card.”

“But here’s the problem. I am not at home during the day anymore. You don’t deliver evenings, weekend and you don’t have a collection point.”

“Can’t help you. Sorry.”

So I say, “I will have to send it back and have a refund”.

“Certainly Sir, no problem.”

“So, you would rather give me my money back than work with me to arrange delivery. Isn’t that rather short-sighted. Why would I ever shop with you again?”

“Sorry, that’s our policy. Somebody will call within the hour to confirm the refund”.

That was Thursday morning. Nobody has called.

Agggggggggghhhhh

On this day…

2005: links for 2005-06-22
2005: You Make Me Sweat
2004: Online Customer Service Ratings

Not Great

Shit.

England’s World Cup campaign was brought to an abrupt halt as 10-man Brazil triumphed in the quarter-final in Shizuoka.

Holy shit.

Our interactive sky chart and astronomical almanac require that you specify a city and country, but no name, address, or other personal information.

On this day…

2005: A World Of Hate
2003: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
2003: My First PHP
2002: Joy and pain

Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury

And with the news that Glastonbury’s back (and with cutting-edge music from Rod Stewart), I’ll admit I should be in bed.

But before you sleep, you should read this – Rivaldo’s singlet and 48 other reasons why the World Cup is great- (for no real reason whatsoever):

Japanese station cleaners: there with a mop and bucket the moment puke hits platform.

On this day…

2005: Nightlfe
2005: Summertime In London
2004: A Little Update
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Paris in the Summer

Paris in the Summer

I don’Â’t know what to think. I am so tired. I had a business meeting in Paris Monday. Travelled Eurostar. ItÂ’s usually fabulous. Up at 04.30 to make the 06.20 train was OK but the 18:16 return train was delayed by four (count them, 4) hours (sat on the train for 2 of them) and so I wasn’tÂ’ actually back at my house until nearly 1am.

21+ hour day – now thatÂ’s what I call working. And I probably didn’tÂ’ achieve very much 🙂

Paris was baking. I have never been so hot while in meetings – which I think added to the sense of exhaustion by the time my head hit my pillow.

Have you ever thought how the internet is feeling (apparently, it has emotions). Right now, it’s looking The current mood of the Internet at www.imood.com (honest).

On this day…

2005: Nightlfe
2005: Summertime In London
2004: A Little Update
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury

Spiderman and Death by De-Capitation

I found this while doing some work today. Do you know what happens when you cut off your head? Strangely compelling.

How long is the interval of consciousness after the head is severed? In France, in the days of the guillotine, some of the condemned were asked to blink their eyes if they were still conscious after the knife fell. Reportedly, their heads blinked for up to 30 seconds after decapitation. How much of this was voluntary and how much due to reflex nerve action is speculation. Most nations with science sophisticated enough to determine this question have long since abandoned decapitation as a legal tool.

And I saw Spiderman last night. Tobey Maguire rocks and looks fantastic in that suit 🙂

On this day…

2004: Two Years Ago
2004: Yahoo Extra Storage
2003: Shrewsbury Carnival 2003 Mobile Pics

Royal Outrage & People Power

Well, this looked like it was going to be a big story today. Apparently, some minor Royals are living in London Palaces at rents significantly less than you or I would be paying for something much smaller.

But then it went away.

My favourite of today, however, is the shock revelations that Starbucks has finally given up on plans to open up shop in a leafy north London suburb following a fierce campaign by residents.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

Welcome to Musak

And now they say go. My website has been online for a number of years (in fact, my first website was in late 1993 on the backend of the web servers of the company I was working for). Over the years I have kept up various parts of the site, taken others down and generally tended it like you would a garden that you let go “back to nature”. To be honest, I left it alone. Some of the more cringe-worthy stuff may be moved into this new look (but I doubt it) and my site devoted to pictures of satellite dishes has been, forever, lost (and, honestly, I am sad about that).

So it was time for a re-vamp. Time to do something different with my site and that’s when I decided that maintaining a site was hard work and there must have been an easier way. I had been experimenting with various Blogging tools for a year or so and never settled on anything I felt wholly comfortable with. Then, taking a walk down one of the web’s odder byways, I stumbled across Movable Type and decided that, if I was serious about making it easier to maintain my site more often, then this was the tool I was going to use. And so here we are Â…

I have now given myself the power to do this stuff quickly and efficiently. At last, I can update my site easily. But when it comes to the moment of truth I expect the next few entries to be pointless links to (vaguely) interesting stuff until such time as I find my voice again.

On this day…

2003: Leave Fed Alone
2003: Employment Law: Update