Personal Musings from Simon Jones

Today I feel like an electric shaver whose battery is about to die, but the recharge light is holding off for another day or two. It’s sluggish, you have to drag it across your face painfully to work, but the key thing is that it’s just about still going!

Wikipedia’s so called black out is a bit of a damp squib for techies… rather than bringing the site down, they’ve added a little bit of javascript to popup a blackout screen.

You can either try the refresh/stop trick on each page. When you see their black screen, hit F5 on your keyboard (Apple+R for Mac), and then the Esc key. If the black screen comes back, you were too slow. A white screen means you were too quick.

Alternatively, follow these for your browser. Disabling Javascript should only really be done for this purpose and re-enabled afterwards as many popular sites rely on javascript to run properly.

To bring back Wikipedia in Chrome:

Click the spanner top right, and click options.
Click ‘Under the bonnet’ on the left,
Click ‘Content Settings’ next to Privacy
Next to Javascript, click ‘Manage Exceptions’
Type ‘Wikipedia’ and choose block.

Close and browse Wikipedia just as you would have.

To bring back Wikipedia in Firefox:

Unfortunately in Firefox you need to disable Javascript completely for Wikipedia and re-enable it for other sites.

Click Tools -> Options
Click the content tab
untick ‘Enable Javascript’ (or tick to re-enable)
Click Ok and browse Wikipedia

To bring back Wikipedia in Safari

Safari, like Firefox is a blanket block/enable.

Click the Spanner and click ‘Preferences’
Click the Security tab
Untick/Tick Display Javascript (not Java)
Click ok and browse. 

To bring back Wikipedia in Internet Explorer

A slightly more complicated one. Again it’s global or nothing.

Click Tools -> Internet Options
Click Security tab
Click ‘Custom Level’ button
Scroll through the list until you find ‘Scripting’
Tick ‘Disable’ or ‘Prompt’ underneath ‘Active Scripting’

Summary

Chrome is by far the easiest to configure as you can set permissions by site whereas on the other browsers, it’s all or nothing. One option is to download a second browser with Javascript disabled so you can continue to access the wealth of information that is Wikipedia.

They may have done it this way to keep their Google rankings, as they’re displaying different content to Google than to a user, they are however technically violating Google’s T&Cs… 

Today a cruise ship ran aground off the Italian coast, and all newspapers are talking about how many Brits were injured or killed. One says the number only goes into the tens.

So that’s ok right?

It takes a while before we find that the ship was carrying over 4000 people, 4000 human beings! That brings it’s capacity in line with the Titanic! So far all but three people survived, but this could have been catastrophic!

Never mind what race these people are, if 4000 nearly died, then 4000 people nearly died.

I’m glad that most did make it, and the families of the three fatalities (so far) I wish them all the best.

I welcome any tips on this. Being the dog lover I am, I have two gorgeous dogs, a Yorkie and a Doberman cross Collie and I want to make sure they have adequate nutrition in a perfectly balanced diet. Unfortunately whenever I buy the top quality, expensive dog foods, noses get turned up. The Yorkie is fine, she’ll eat anything, but the Dobie is underweight and needs a little bulk. He won’t starve himself to death and he still has all his energy and bounce, but he keeps losing weight. I found mixing a little human dinner (carefully selected) sometimes makes him eat half the bowl, but often he’ll just lick it off and leave the dry kibble. Tomorrow that may not work. I take up the bowls as a matter of course no matter how much or little he’s eaten, this has improved things slightly and he’s eating more than he did, but it’s still not enough. Now my favourite dog food is probably Burns; it is good value, reasonably good quality dog food. This will not get eaten alone… ever. Gelert has been better, especially with a decent mixer. Royal Canin gets a very confused look… the list goes on.

There is one way I can get him to eat every bite with ease…

By feeding Bakers Complete.

I hate Bakers Complete. The price is reasonable and it looks pretty, it’s also easy to get hold of, store and feed, but the ingredients are very low quality, it’s full of additives and colourings and causes severe flatulence in these monsters… but he eats the whole bowl!

What do Bakers do to their food to make it so desirable? Is there something they use that I can add to a higher quality food to get the same reaction?

The way I see it now is that he’s made his choice. Quality nutrition is useless if he’s not eating it! Bakers may be low quality, but if he’s eating, he’s getting more nutrition than from something he’s not.

Unless someone comes up with a better idea which works, I’m thinking of buying a 15kg bag of Bakers complete, filling him out a little on that, and then I can happily watch him not eat knowing he’s a good weight. Perhaps mixing two bags, one bakers, one higher quality… I don’t know. All suggestions welcome.

After many problems with T-Mobile customer services, I’ve decided to pay off my whole contract and leave. The reasons why aren’t particularly important but I’ve just had enough.

One the phone last Friday, I asked for my PAC code so I could transfer my number away from T-mobile and move it to another provider. I was told that I would need to pay my whole contract cost up front before they could issue it.

According to OFCOM Under the heading ‘Can I be refused a PAC’, it reads:

  “Your provider cannot refuse to issue a PAC if you have any outstanding bills or charges to pay. These charges should be included in your final bill after the port has taken place. You should then settle them as agreed in your contract.”

I gave up on the phone and decided to do it by email. I emailed customer services hoping to speak to people with better advice… 2 days later I receive an email saying it had been received, and the following day a missed call. I sent a further message saying I want all communication in writing from now on as I’ve been given unlawful advice… 5 further missed calls from T-mobile UK.

I contacted them on Twitter and after telling me that PAC requests can’t be taken by Twitter, I received this response:

TMobileUKHelp:150 option 2-2 and speak to the loyalty team they’ll be able to help you out and issue the PAC.

Simon: I called Fri and was told they couldn’t issue PAC until I’d paid - not getting anywhere by email, and you can’t help by Twitter… what next

TMobileUKHelp: Hi Simon, I suggest calling 150 option 2-2, paying the termination fee and they will issue the PAC code

So now, in a phone call I’m told unlawful advice, but in writing, verbatim, they have shown to be going against OFCOM regulations.

They should issue my PAC code within 2 days of the request. I asked for it on Friday, now it’s the end of Tuesday…

I will never go back to T-Mobile UK, and would advise anyone else against it! This isn’t just a case of questionable customer service, they are proving to be giving unlawful advice contrary to OFCOM regulations, and if they think the law doesn’t apply to them, they have another thing coming!

(I should stress, this is with T-Mobile UK, I believe while name, branding and top management is shared with other companies, they have different customer service departments, different regulatory bodies (ofcom is UK only) and hopefully different policies)

Update 11/01/2012: Today they’ve refused to give me a PAC code again unless I call their 0845 number and speak to a specific person. I am not going to humiliate myself by calling yet again and trying to deal with their pig headed customer services team. The only valid refusal reason which could apply is that they’re not convinced I am the account holder. I’ve emailed back with my customer services password and full personal details and requested that if a further refusal is made, the reasons for that refusal!… let’s see what happens next…

15:00 - PAC received 5 days after the initial request. Not quick enough for OFCOM, but could have been worse. Googling ‘T-Mobile PAC codes’ brings up similar incidents, one person complaining that T-Mobile are trying to charge up front for the PAC code.

The moral of this story is; as a consumer, know your rights. Don’t expect other people to protect them for you, they are yours to protect. Regulation or no regulation, even big companies are able to fleece it’s customers.

Now to sort out my whopping early termination fee (remaining contract) but at least sorting that out will mean I never have to speak to their customer services team again! Woohoo!

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said it would be a “huge mistake” for President Barack Obama to reject the 1,700-mile, Canada-to-Texas pipeline. Obama faces a Feb. 21 deadline to decide whether the $7 billion pipeline is in the national interest.

“Clearly, the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest,” Gerard said at the trade association’s annual “State of American Energy” event. “A determination to decide anything less than that I believe will have huge political consequences.”

If that’s not a threat from a group of rich corporations to the ‘leader’ of the US, I don’t know what is.

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