Jonathan Sanderson’s weblog, since 2001.
Jeff Minter’s got a deal to bundle a ‘lightsynth’ with Microsoft’s next console XBox 360?! That’s hilarious. I haven’t seen Psychadelia since… well, Psychadelia on the Commodore 64. Interview at the Guardian; Llamasoft website.
What next? Jet Set Willy for Nintendo DS? Ants3D for PSP? PS3 Elite? All-pervasive streaming Medlo insanity?
A quick update, since I’ve been so quiet of late:
Alan’s published a heart-warming compilation of reaction to the London bombings, which reflects my own attitude. Sure, it’s easy to be blasé when you’re 400 miles away – and I won’t pretend I wasn’t mildly concerned by the pairs of policemen on seemingly every street corner in central Glasgow yesterday – but… put it this way:
In recent history, London has seen not just bombings, but sustained campaigns. When the news was coming in on Thursday, I found myself skimming back through that history, and discovered, to my astonishment, that I’d been living in London right in the middle of that IRA campaign. I suppose I must have been aware of it at the time, and presumably I rationalised the risk as being, say, lower than that inherent in crossing the road or whatever, but – get this – I lived right in the middle of a ‘terror campaign’ and I’d clean forgotten about it.
I’m sure I’d sing a different tune had I been more closely-connected, but I’m still heading towards the conclusion that, by inspection, terrorism plain doesn’t work. I have two caveats to that. Firstly, 9/11 wasn’t the same sort of event at all. If anything, post-London I have even more sympathy for New Yorkers.
My second caveat is more subtle. Another search I was constantly running on Thursday, skimming websites and flipping between broadcast media, was for words like ‘vengeance,’ ‘retribution,’ and ‘retaliation.’ To my surprise, relief, and – bluntly – national pride, I didn’t hear it. Not once.
Until Friday, when I read The Sun. And you know what? Those guys scare me more than al-Qaeda. They’re having more impact on my way of life, and I don’t like it.
Doing my correspondence this morning, I’m paying scant attention to the radio burbling on in the background. I’m not quite convinced who’s the more bonkers – dear dear Johnny Ball, or the lady who’s just casually asserted that elephants are telepathic. Daphne Sheldrick, apparently.
Ah, Midweek. Like Start The Week, but lower in saturated fat.
Bother. I’m finally trying to sort out all my poor hostees over at Deletetheweb.com. In the interests of making things marginally less complex when next there’s a round of updates to roll out, I’m trying to shuffle people around a bit and do it right this time.
Unfortunately, it turns out that my own logs are inaccurate, and in at least one case (Alan), I in fact have not configured address forwarding. With the result that I’ve just spent two whole hours updating the wrong ruddy installation!
ARRRGHHHHH!!!
I’m going to bed. Tomorrow, a fresh start, and doubtless whole new ways of royally screwing everything up. Meanwhile… Conor, I’m sorry, I was away for the weekend. Will call you tomorrow.
Siting the Iter fusion reactor is, once more, close to being agreed. Blimey. To say this is ‘delayed’ is putting it mildly – I first heard about the project in a course of lectures in Sydney, back in… no, I’m not kidding… 1989. Sometimes I wonder if there’s an equivalent of critical mass related to the pace of a project, and one’s enthusiasm for it. Certainly, I’m delighted to work on projects that complete in between six months and three years – anything much longer and I fear I’d get bored. Which is, I recall, one of the main reasons I didn’t take that aeronautics degree, back in… 1990.
Aaanyway, I’m back from probably the best few days’ walking I’ve ever had. Utterly, utterly marvelous. Pictures and stuff to follow. Promise.
This is a concept I dimly recall hearing previously, but only really swam into my consciousness this evening, driving down the M6 while listening to an amusing rant by Philip Pullman to Eddie Mair on PM. The item concerned reports that some schools are pushing pupils to drop English Literature GCSEs in favour of Media Studies, which the establishment casually assumes is a bad thing. Pullman suggests – and he’s not alone – that we shouldn’t be so dismissive, that Media Studies is the natural heir to that pillar of classical education, rhetoric. And I think he may have a point.
We’ve never been so assaulted by materials and publications designed, with considerable skill and application, to drive home some point for a paying customer. Call it advertising, call it publicity, call it propaganda – structurally, it’s all the same. Perhaps understanding the techniques and tools is essential armour for today’s youth? And ironically, if Media Studies can teach skepticism, it’s a lot more use than much of science teaching.
Anyway, I’m in Leeds for a couple of days. Then possibly Cumbria for a couple of hills, weather and accommodations permitting. If I can get GPRS dial-up working via the new phone (replacement seems rock solid, fingers crossed), there might even be pictures. Don’t hold your breath.
While I’m in ranting mood: if anyone else is suffering unwanted direct marketing calls – in my case, mostly from Toucan Telecom – you should make sure you’re registered with the Telephone Preference Service.
If you are, and have been for at least 28 days – say, eleven months or so – Toucan’s complaints procedure is listed on this page (scroll down). Be very firm in demanding to speak to at least a Customer Service Team Leader. First-line Customer Service Advisors are polite but ultimately not effective.
Note that before a complaint can be escalated all the way to the Office of the Telecommunication Ombudsman you must complete all the stages of Toucan’s procedure. I’m one step away.
(Linkage: Otelo’s ‘How to Complain‘ page; crucially, keep a detailed record of your dealings with the company.)
[update, 2-Sep-2006: just to be clear – you’re most likely one of dozens of people a month who arrives at this page having googled for ‘Toucan Telecom’. This is the personal weblog of Jonathan Sanderson, a TV and web media producer. I am not a customer of Toucan; I do not use any of their products, and thus cannot offer an opinion on whether they’re any good or not.
It’s more than a year since I had any contact with them, having had my complaints dealt with by their senior call centre staff. However, the comments below suggest that they continue with the sales techniques that annoyed me so much.
I’ve updated the link to Toucan’s complaints procedure; the other links above appear not to have changed. Particular thanks to those of you who’ve left comments offering helpful suggestions, and to everyone for keeping your comments factual and personal. I’ve not had to censor any… yet. 🙂 ]
Ugh. Hell’s teeth, that’s been a dull morning. You’d think buying insurance would be straightforward, what with so many companies competing for my business and so on. But no, it’s all backwards. One ends up spending hours giving the same details to each company, and asking the same questions. And in every case, some stupid loophole opens up, rendering the entire conversation pointless. For me, the crippling factors are the usual bêtes noires of being self-employed, occasionally working from home, and having a stupidly expensive laptop that I dare to use for work, carry in a car, and so on.
I propose two things for the insurance industry, beyond the obvious eternal damnation in the flaming pits of hell:
Firstly: stop pretending that people like me – ie. self-employed, working in multiple fields and at multiple work sites, at some of which we also live – are unusual. We’re not, most of us just lie because it’s the only way we can get covered. Car insurance is a huge issue here, since getting covered for business use can be nightmarishly hard, as a result of which many people just wing it on an unaltered domestic policy. Which is, of course, illegal. This is plain wrong, and it’s the industry’s problem to deal with it because there are only going to be more freelancers in the future. The banks have got an awful lot better at coping with us in the last ten years: it’s time you did too.
Secondly: stop believing your own hype about being customer-focussed, and take a fresh look at the whole business model. It sucks, and it must be losing you customers through people just not bothering with cover.
Why, for example, is there nothing like an eBay for insurance? A site where prospective customers could list their requirements, and where insurers could bid for that business. Hmm… actually, that’s not a bad idea.
(before anybody bleats in a patronising fashion: yes, my car and video/computer gear are all covered appropriately. Though it wasn’t easy to insure the PowerBook for business use. No, ‘bunging it on your house contents’ doesn’t work, read the policy again.)
I rarely remember my dreams, at least beyond whatever John Humphrys is stropping about at 7:25. But this morning, for some reason, I have a vivid recollection… of teaching maths typesetting in LaTeX to twelve year-olds.
What the hell was that about?