They've done it again!

The, this time 18.15 to Swansea is on platform 10 at Paddington station but without the bridge how do you get to that? Well not many people know, as the train is mostly empty! It's supposed to be on platform 4!

Good job they've done this to me before. Your train is on platform 11. Down the stairs, along the fall width of the station through the ticket gates to platform 10 along the fall lengh of platform 10 past the hapless strangers, which don't know where they are going. through the secret tunnel. With ticket gates now. Which you can't get past as you have already validated your ticket. And then half the length of platform 11 to standard class. Yes i'm on the 18.48.

from Adventure at Paddington Station, London 29 March 2010

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

These days its any excuse!

Members of the RMT union have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action on London Underground in a row over jobs and safety.

The union said 76% of its members voted for strike action.

"We will now use this mandate for action to build up a campaign of industrial, political and public pressure," said RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

The union said a date for the strike had not been agreed.

It said it would begin an extensive consultation with members.

RMT said it would also liaise with sister transport union TSSA - which will announce its own ballot result next week - on the next course of action.

Both unions believe that 800 posts are under threat and more than 140 ticket offices will close, which they say threatens safety.

BBC News

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

This is getting stupid, this was the third time I've been effected by these copper thefts in three months. Once at West Drayton and twice at Tilehurst. These places must be weak points in the track side security, as also there has been multiple trespassing incidents and one fatality.

Network Rail and First Great Western should be congratulated for the speed in which they get things up and running again (to an extent) after an incident, but also shouldn’t the security fences and CCTV be tighter.

Train delays around Reading after copper wire theft

Trains have been hit by delays after vandals stole copper wire from a signal point in Berkshire.

A reduced service is running between Reading, Oxford and Swindon after damage was caused near Tilehurst.

Services that are running are facing 40-minute delays while CrossCountry trains that usually operate in or out of Reading are being diverted.

In a separate incident, a signalling issue means there is a replacement bus service between Aldershot and Ascot.

BBC News

We'll be leaving Demon Broadband then!

We're paying over the going rate because of Demon's high quality of service and unlimited downloads, my peak personal usage is between 18:00ish and 22:30, and mostly HD video streaming and iTunes content, unless Demon start not counting iPlayer and other streaming services as part of your cap, we'll be going to someone else.

Demon Internet has introduced a fair use policy for its small business broadband packages, putting a cap on the previously unlimited data it offered on certain products.

Announced on Thursday, the new policies involve a 200GB cap on Demon's Business 2+ and 2+ Pro packages and a 100GB cap on the Business 2000, 4000 and 8000 packages. The caps only apply between 8am and midnight, leaving unlimited usage available in the early morning.

"We've recently seen quite an increase in the amount of heavy users on our business broadband products, and as a result we can't continue to support completely unlimited use on these services, so we need to introduce a fair usage policy with peak hour usage restrictions," Demon chief Matt Cantwell wrote in a Thursday blog post.

By David Meyer, ZDNet UK, 26 July, 2010 16:41

The Times has lost two thirds of its readers after it started charging web users to view content on its site.

According to web analytics firm Hitwise, in the week after parent company News International enforced the paywall on July 2, visits to The Times website were 66 percent less than before the charge was introduced.

Carrie-Ann Skinner, PC Advisor

This reminds me of the The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible".

Quoted from The Simpsons

A breif scene where Fox has a PBS-style telethon:
Host: "While Fox gets a lot of advertising revenue already, we still find we don't have enough funding to--"
Rupert, angrily, at the phones: "NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!"

ShmankyTube | July 14, 2010
Late Show with David Letterman - Top 10 Signs You've Purchased a Bad iPhone 4 (antenna problem)

With the greater use of large images, video content and a wider centered format, I like the BBC News redesign. Although because its use of larger width and images. I now can't use it on my mobile. Not that is a massive problem, as there is a mobile version.

I use Opera Mini 5.0.19693 on a Sony Ericsson C902 and I like to have about three tabs open at a time, as well as Google Maps running all at once. (I know multi-tasking way before the Apple’s iOS)

The page loads find in its min-width which makes the headlines on my tiny screen to small to read, which was not the case before. And when I switch to another tab Opera says it has cleared the content to save memory and to reload. Not the end of the world I know, but annoying nether the less.

It would have been nice to see a PDA version for those web standards compliant mobile browsers that run on smaller mobile phone sized screens, like Opera Mini 5.

Notes from the Editors

BBC News website redesign (2)

Welcome to the new-look BBC News website. As previewed last week on this blog, we're introducing a number of improvements from today to our design and layout.

The full range of content is still all here - the best of the BBC's journalism in text, video, audio and graphics - but we've set out to make it easier for you to find, use and share. In summary, and to recap on my earlier post which gives more details:

What's new:

• a fresh, updated design, with more space for the main stories of the day
• better use of video and images
• clearer and more prominent labelling and signposting of key stories, whether you are on the front page or a story page
• a better indication of which are the most recent headlines
• easier ways to share stories with others, for those who wish to, on social media networks

As I also mentioned in my earlier post, some important things are staying just the same, for example:

• all the content is still there: the best of the BBC's journalism in text, audio and video
• the latest news headlines will be as quick and comprehensive as ever
• accuracy remains at the core of our editorial values

• we've been careful to keep things simple and easy to use; you have told us how important this is

The BBC News website has always evolved to meet the changing needs of its users and as we studied how people used the site, we saw there were things we could improve. For example: flagging the latest stories, displaying the top news and features better, making local UK news easier to find and providing better ways to get to video content.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

(read more)

Apple must have known that holding the iPhone in a certain way would cause the signal drop problem, as this hardware fault was shown off as well as the iPhone 4 its self. (Steve Jobs asks, no tells the audience to stop using wireless/3G, mean while the iPhone 3GS had already loaded the page). Distractions later Steve Jobs holds the iPhone 4 in a different way.

I think recalling after the fault had became clear in the field would have been less embarrassing, than telling customers they are holding it wrong or saying its a software problem. (By the way Apple, telling the software to lie about how much signal there is won’t fix dropped calls and no Internet).

Apple must think its customers are stupid or something, and that early adopters are so in love with the Great Apple and the word according to Jobs, they will not sue or switch to HTC, Motorola or Sony Ericsson (All on Google Android).

I may even at this rate not upgrade in November to the iPhone 4, I might wait for Sony Ericsson to put out an Android powered Cyber-shot phone.

click here to see the photographic results (I love my Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phones)

p.s. You can't delete this Apple! We're self hosting!

But as you know, Apple's response has been less than consumer-friendly. As we know, there's the infamous, "don't hold it that way" advice. The same statement told users to simply purchase one of many available cases, including one Apple sells.

Next up, the company unveiled a "stunning" software problem that over-inflated signal quality...but shortly thereafter, AppleCare started advising customers that any forthcoming software fixes wouldn't fix the hardware-based antenna problem. And of course, the official customer service script, if this leak is to be believed, advises tech support to tell customers that, in fact, the antenna is awesome, but even so, don't hold it that way, maybe buy a case, and no, AppleCare is not to give out a free case, offer any kind of warranty repair, or deal with the problem in any satisfactory manner at all.

Oh, and now Apple is deleting mentions of the Consumer Report findings on its support forums, as it's wont to do when problems crop up that it doesn't want to acknowledge.

Time for an iPhone 4 recall? by Molly Wood for CNET News

District line services between Dagenham East and Plaistow, and Hammersmith & City line services between Whitechapel and Barking are currently suspended. A fire at Barking Station on Friday destroyed dozens of 50 year old cables - the intense heat melted them. Specialist engineers had to be called in, working round the clock to trace the cable routes and replace them. "A reduced service is operating between Whitechapel and Plaistow and Upminster and Dagenham East on the District line. A bus replacement service is operating between Plaistow and Dagenham East." However, all services on the District line are affected and services on the Circle line are also suffering. Check TfL for updates before you travel. Full service should be restored by Wednesday.

(via Londonist)

Click here for Updates

There is a "bad server certificate" error while communicating with Twitter. This may be a problem with my local Internet connection or with the Twitter server. Please verify that you can connect to http://twitter.com

And please comment if you can!

The City of London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe after monitoring equipment recorded dangerous levels of minute particles for the 36th time this year. Under EU rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 "bad air" days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.

The breaching of the EU levels after just six months will embarrass the government, which was sent a final warning only three weeks ago from the European commission to improve air quality. Many other places in central London are close to the limit and can be expected to break the law within weeks.

(read more via guardian.co.uk)

I've talked to my admin and found out that we are currently capped (a.k.a Crapped) by @DemonBroadband . This shouldn't have happened as we requested an upgrade to the uncapped service on ADSL2+ when it became available. This was in March this year, @DemonBroadband said that our exchange would be upgraded at the end of April, our exchange got upgraded according to SamKnows.com some time at the end of March.

As my blog relies on downloading XML server side from Blogger.com, this currently times out on loading.

I will be moving to WordPress as soon as I've finished building the templates. Hopefully this will resolve the problem.

Video by: ohgodyoudevil via Submit a Kludge!

I don’t know if I should make a quip about the shoddy construction or just be in awe that it worked. – Ms. Fix-It

The 3G network of mobile phone company O2 was out of action in some parts of England for up to 3.5 hours on 17 June.

A spokesperson for the operator said coverage was "patchy" in parts of Hertfordshire, Sussex and London.

Customers complaining about the outage on Twitter also mentioned problems in other regions including Southampton and Warwick.

O2 said the fault, which was caused by planned engineering work, had now been repaired.

(read more)

(via BBC News)

Jobs muses about some of the ways he might take revenge, but stops short of promising any specific action, or offering a timeframe in which action might be expected. The full text of Steve Jobs’ open letter can be seen by clicking the image below.


(read more)

(via Scoopertino)

O2 users are revolting. There's certainly an ugly mood among customers of the UK's largest mobile service provider ever since O2 announced the end of unlimited downloads for smartphone users. Now, the users are fighting back through a Twitter campaign, using the #O2DataDay hashtag. and are proposing a mass download of data on 24 June, hoping that by consuming data all day, the O2 network will come crashing down.

(read more)

(via MacWorld UK)

Dear @o2, I've had no data all day. Why am I paying for the data bolt-on again?

You talk about the speed monk. How about the no service full stop? But i see people streaming video of the world cup. I guess live. On iPhone's. I guess not on o2.

I'll be looking at other networks when I upgrade to the iPhone 4! Unless when I talk to you, you can convice me that you are investing in your network as the iPhone 4 will have video chat. That apple want to put over 3g, when the operators networks are ready.

Vodafone and 3 boast about the work they're doing to upgrade and improve their networks. Maybe i give them a try for 2 years.

James

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

P.S. I've sent this at 18:24 via e-mail when it posted is when you network was fixed.

Google style sheet fail!

A mini heat-wave appears to be having an adverse effect on those lucky people in the UK who ordered Apple iPads early from the US. Recombu.com, a UK-based site about mobile phones, reports iPad users receiving "iPad needs to cool down before you can use it" messages as temperatures soared. Over the weekend, the UK basked in higher temperatures than much of the Mediterranean with many millions out enjoying the hottest day of the year

(read more)

(via MacWorld)

Paul Chambers was not happy when Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield was closed in January because of heavy snow.

So the 26-year-old tweeted to his 600 Twitter followers: "Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week... otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

Mr Chambers' tweet was discovered by the airport a few days later when a manager searched for "Robin Hood Airport" using Twitter's search facility.

And as a result, Mr Chambers was swiftly arrested.

Earlier this month, a court found him guilty of sending a menacing electronic communication, fining him £385.

And he was also sacked from his job as an accountant.

Mr Chambers said he had no idea anyone at Robin Hood Airport would see the tweet, and explained that it had never crossed his mind anyone might take it seriously.

(read more)

(via BBC News)

I just tried to comment on Geek Brief TV about a format issue with Brief 761 | Google I/O: Google TV, Chrome Web Store, Android 2.2, the comment I tried to post was as follows;

Ditto: Sorry but you seem to have broke Apple TV sync again. This video in your Extra Large format is H.260 1280X720 29.97FPS but Apple TV will only handle 24FPS at 720.

and got the following message;

Your comment has been blocked because the blog owner has set their spam filter to not allow comments from users behind proxies.

If you are a regular commenter or you feel that your comment should not have been blocked, please contact the blog owner and ask them to modify this setting.

Please could you change these settings, I won't be the only fan behind a Proxy, and I've had to resort to blogging & tweeting.

I love this podcast, consistently such good quality and delivered with such energy.

(If you aren't Cali reading this, I urge you to watch and be informed by shiny, happy tech news!)

www.geekbrief.tv

With a bit of help from the lovely people at Sony Ericsson support, they pointed me towards the update service pictured to the right, follows instruction of how to get there.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting the Sony Ericsson support centre.


We are sorry to hear of the issues that you are having with your Sony Ericsson C902 handset.

From the issues that you have described we would suggest that you update the Software on your Sony Ericsson handset. This can be done free of charge using our Sony Ericsson Update Service tool. To carry out the update you will need internet access and a USB cable.

It may be the case that user data is lost during this upgrade. We therefore recommend backing up any data to your SIM card, Memory Stick, or PC before upgrading.

Please follow the steps below to download and install the update service software:

1. Go to www.sonyericsson.com/support

2. Select UK

3. Select your model of handset

4. Click on Sony Ericsson Update Service

5. Click the link, and then click Run or Save.

6. Let the Sony Ericsson Update Service install.

Once you have installed the Sony Ericsson Update Service you will need to launch it. Once it opens simply follow the instructions that you will see on screen. The update should then begin.


Kind Regards,

Sony Ercisson (@SonyEricssonUK) have just contacted me on Twitter.

Hopefully it will get this fixed today!

My Sony Ericsson C902 died today, this morning on the train to work. It lost all signal which in it self is not unusual. However when I checked it again in an area I know I have full signal, Reading Station, the bar was still empty. So I did want normally works, turned the phone off, take the battery out and try to turn it on again. It vibrated as usual, to confirm that it was going to start, but nothing. Normally it would straight away ask 'flight mode' or 'normal mode'. But just a black blank screen was presented to me. Dead! I love my Sony Ericsson Camera phones, I've had the following;

Sony Ericsson C902 (Just died! Fixed)

Sony Ericsson K800i (Replaced by C902)

Sony Ericsson K750i (I washed)

most of the photos on this site are from a Sony Ericsson. Go here to see!

Thank you for your e-mail.

The 'Over the Rainbow' trail in 'Doctor Who' should not have played out on Saturday and we apologise to all 'Doctor Who' fans whose enjoyment of the show was disrupted. We recognise the strength of feeling that has been expressed and are taking steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.

Regards

BBC Complaints

Re:

Subject: Advertisement pop up during program

I found the advertisement for the Over the Rainbow show right at the denoument of Doctor Who utterly crass and infuriating. What is the point in producing such a high quality and absorbing piece of entertainment only to ruin it with a particularly tacky advert for a show I have absolutely no interest in seeing?

It thoroughly spoiled the enjoyment of what I *had chosen to watch.

Whoever decided that was a good idea does not deserve a place in the same organisation.