Jobcentre
So over the last month, I've had the misfortune of being made redundant, which of course complicates paying bills, etc. However, I live with my parents, which is very helpful, and so I don't have to worry as much as maybe the next person.
So anyway, I registered online to receive Jobseekers Allowance, after a few days (more than the specified time) I received a call from a Jobcentre adviser to discuss my application in further detail, including current jobs, old jobs, savings, etc etc. Suffice to say, the entire process takes roughly 25-30 minutes and is rather tedious. So the kind lady booked my appointment for the 9th of September at the local job centre in Guiseley for 11:40am. This was a brilliant time, as I'm currently doing some temporary work for a company, and I expected it to be finished by then.
Moving on to roughly a week later, I'm still doing the work for the company in question, and as a result I've had to phone the jobcentre to re-arrange my first appointment. This is where my problems started.
I had been given a number by the original lady I spoke to, to phone the local jobcentre in the event of an appointment cancellation, or re-arrangement. The number I was given was: 0845 604 3719. So I took my mobile (as I'm currently at work) and decided to make the phone call to ask to re-arrange my appointment. So I ring the number with the 0 on the front, and get a message saying, "This number has been blocked by your network, and you are not able to make calls to this number". So I figure, that's fair enough, I imagine it's just a little issue with it being an expensive 0845 number (from mobiles anyway). So I take the 0 off the beginning of the number and ring: 845 604 3719 instead. That worked! So I thought, fantastic, I've got through, this should be pretty easy. Carrying on the waiting on the phone, I sit through a rather long message about registering on their website for fastrack so that I get straight through to someone (baring in mind, there was not yet any mention of the jobcentre, I was working on the assumption that this number was given to me by a jobcentre adviser, so it'd be correct). Anyway, after a loooong, probably 3 to 4 minutes of the automated voice babbling on about absolute crap, I decided to hang up and check I had the right number. So I did a quick Google search on my phone for the Guiseley job centre number. The number above was reported on many websites too, so I thought, it must be right, I'll just have to ring it again and sit through the annoying speech at the beginning of the call (wasting valuable money in the process). So I rang back the number, waited for a bit longer this time, then got to the main menu. The main menu then consisted of a woman talking about brokerage schemes, and how my money won't be affected blah blah. So I instantly thought, okay, this is obviously not the right number. So I do another search on Google, I get the original jobcentre number for Guiseley, a local call 01943 number. So I ring that, and get the following message: "Sorry, this number is no longer in use, please ring 0845 604 3719". So by this time, I'm absolutely fuming, as I was clearly given the wrong number AGAIN by the automated service. So I look back on the webpage where I got the number and saw: 0113 230 9000, and decided to ring that. That's a local Leeds number, so I rang them, and had a Scottish guy pick-up. He didn't make an awful lot of sense, but I eventually managed to get put through to the Guiseley job centre (what number that is, I still at this point, don't know). So an adviser picks up and wahey I'm through. So I try to hide my frustration and continue in a respectful way.
She asks me for my details, so I give her my national insurance number, my name, and my date of birth. She searches..... Lady: "Sorry sir, you're not on the system". So I give her my details again, Lady: "No, sorry sir, you're definitely not on the system". So I say to her (fuming at this point) : Me: "I have to be, I had an adviser book an appointment, and I'm booked in to see 'Name of person'." So she does yet another search, Lady: "Oh, I'm sorry sir, I misheard you and typed something wrong". Okay, okay, fair enough, mistakes happen. So we swiftly move on. Lady: "Why are you not able to attend your appointment?". I reply with, "Well, I've been doing some temporary work for a company, and I'm afraid I have to work tomorrow, so I cannot attend." Lady: "Okay, you'll have to sign off for that period", Me: "I haven't signed on yet though, this is literally my first appointment". Lady: "Okay, well I've cancelled your appointment, what you'll need to do is re-register for JSA once you've completed this job." Me: "Hang on a second, you mean I have to fill out yet ANOTHER online application form, and then wait another 3 or 4 days for an adviser to call me to speak for ANOTHER 30 odd minutes?". Lady: "Yes sir, I'm afraid that's what you'll have to do".
So naturally, I'm completely infuriated by this point, as they are completely useless, and also completely incapable of providing some sort of helpful service. So anyway, I continue, Me: "Okay then, so can you please give me the CORRECT number to contact yourselves." Lady: "Yes, the number is 0845 604 .." Me: "That's the wrong number, it's the one I already have." Lady: "Oh yes, of course it is, we'll have to pass this on to Balfour Beatty to sort out." Me: "Okay, so what number can I ring you on?" Lady: "Sorry, that's the only number we have on our system".
I've missed a few bits out where I actually had to convince her that the number was in fact wrong, by telling her about other stories on the internet / my own. FFS.
So all in all, after all that, I've wasted God knows how much effort / money / time on ringing the incorrect number. Only to find out I have to RE-BOOK an appointment to get my JSA. Isn't the government in England just wonderful? You pay tax for services like this, but no-one ever seems to give a crap, and they always seem so unhelpful / not bothered.
In conclusion, I'm not a happy bunny, but I hope this blog post enlightens others to the struggle with the jobcenter, and also NOT to ring that number above. If I get a correct number for them, I'll post it soon.
Social etiquette in the Internet age
These days, almost anyone with access to the internet has at one time been asked to, or has joined a social network. For instance, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or Google's Orkut. Things have changed dramatically in the last 10 years with how people communicate with each other, and keep in touch.
The question I wish to put forward to you all is, how do you think social networks are influencing people's attitudes towards each other and their respect for each other?
Let's examine this in some further detail. I am one of the 150+ million people who use Facebook on a regular basis, and keep in touch with friends by using Facebook. From my own personal experience judging by what people place on Facebook, it's becoming all too clear to me that people see social networking as an opportunity to express themselves in often very disrespectful and sometimes vulgar ways. I think this is down to the sense of security people feel by being sat at a keyboard rather than face to face.
I find that quite a few people are very quick to argue on Facebook, probably quicker than they are in reality. Sometimes jumping into threads with vulgar language, or a very 'to the point' type of statement. I've had this personally happen to me a couple of times now. In these instances, people have openly used very offensive statements, even swear words. For me, this is a problem, not only because I don't feel it's entirely appropriate, but also because I have family & friends on my Facebook who don't wish to see such vulgarity.
With the above in mind, I'd like you to think about how social networking is affecting (or not as the case may be) mankind's communication skills, respect for each other, and overall respect for themselves. Would a person having a conversation in public simply swear at the other for disagreeing with their view point, or would they try and address the person more respectfully with a more constructive viewpoint?
In conclusion, I dare say that social networking is adversely affecting the ability of people to communicate with each other, least of all respectively. I personally find this quite sad, as respect for other people is something I strive to maintain and expect in return. How could we change this?
Spotify Linux – Beta Preview – (Natively on Fedora 13 / CentOS)
Spotify have released the beta preview version of Spotify for Ubuntu/Debian, however they haven't for Fedora/CentOS.
As a result I've decided to convert the 'DEB' package file to an RPM. I'll attach the 2 RPM files you need to install.
Please do the following:
1) Download the files, here and here.
2) rpm -ivh spotify-client-gnome-support-0.4.6.73.ga662380-2.noarch.rpm
3) rpm -ivh --nodeps spotify-client-qt-0.4.6.73.ga662380-2.i386.rpm
This installs Spotify and places it under the 'Sound and Video' category in your 'Applications' menu.
Note: This version is still very buggy. Everyone has problems accessing the 'preferences' menu, and some people have issues with choppy audio. If you have a fix for the choppy audio, then please post on my blog, and let us know.
Spotify – A brief look at criticisms
I was looking through the Spotify page on Wikipedia today and was surprised to read what I did.
Despite its popularity, the service has recently come under fire for failing to compensate independent artists fairly. Helienne Lindvall of The Guardian reported that "indie labels... as opposed to the majors and Merlin members, receive no advance, receive no minimum per stream and only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis." [49] Swedish musician Magnus Uggla - who is on major label Sony Music - wanted to pull his music from the site, stating that after six months he'd only earned "what a mediocre busker could earn in a day".[50] Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet recently reported that record label Junior Racing had only earned NOK 19 ($3.00 USD) after their artists had been streamed over 55,100 times.[51]
Luke Lewis of NME points to problems with the Spotify business model, saying he was "convinced the 'free' aspect of Spotify is unsustainable" and that if "Spotify is to have a future, it needs to be a viable business".[52]
It is very disappointing to read the above comments from people, especially artists. Spotify has taken what is a very difficult task of trying to stop people downloading music / pirating it, and create a service that offers people unlimited free listening of music by having them listen to an advert every 20 minutes. Unless of course you pay for the premium version (£9.99), then you don't have to listen to the adverts.
The artists above (or their representatives) have stated that they have not received very much money from Spotify in royalties, and that they have been considering, and in some cases actually getting Spotify to remove their music from the site. This in turn means that anyone who once listened to this music on Spotify now either has to go out and buy the music, or they will simply download it. Admittedly, Spotify are not giving the artists as much in royalties as they should, but unlike money hungry record companies, I can only assume that they are keeping any profit in order to maintain the service they offer their customers, which believe it or not actually has a beneficial effect to the artist, even if they don't receive money straight away. Listening on Spotify can indeed lead a person to go see a gig of the artist in question, or maybe even buy a CD.
If artists decide to take their music off Spotify for whatever reason, all that will ultimately happen is that the Spotify service will end up with less and less music, and as a result they will probably end up going down the drain. Which would be a really big shame, don't you think? As ultimately, the more popular they get, the less likely people are to download music illegally, and the more likely artists are going to be to get their money. It won't happen overnight though, that's for sure. With that in mind, I really feel that artists should try stick behind Spotify, back them up, help promote them at gigs, offer special content through Spotify etc, and build a fan base for Spotify. Then as more and more people join, the artists will ultimately earn more money, and of course end up with more people buying their merchandise, coming to their gigs, etc, etc.
Record label 'Junior Racing', have only earned $3 (USD) in royalties from Spotify having streamed tracks of their bands 55,000+ times, but as small as that is, it's stopping or at least decreased the amount of people who download those tracks illegally, and re-distribute. Thus minimising ultimate damage to an artist, whilst their music still retaining popularity with the general public, surely that's a good thing? And something that record companies and artists should embrace and latch on to! Don't you think!?
Whilst Luke Lewis of NME says that Spotify doesn't have a strong enough business model to maintain the 'free music' approach. Ultimately, that may be true, but only if Spotify are left to go it alone. As I said earlier, I think if artists and record companies rally behind free music services like Spotify. Things can and will get better, and it will save what could be a 'legal music revolution' from going down the drain, all because in the short term, people are more interested in money than the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is giving people a reason to stop downloading music, and move on to a legal music site where the artists best interests are at heart.
I'd like to hear your opinions on the matter, so please do comment.
Manually Updating HTC Desire to 1.21.405.2
Update: 19/06/2010 - HTC appear to have taken down the link from their website. I've uploaded the local copy I've got instead, and it's already renamed as update.zip.
Changes in this release (from XDA):
It seems that the update is only available for the EU unbranded roms.
Changes reported:
- Updates bootloader to 0.80.
- New radio image.
- New youtube app with HQ option (1.6.20E).
- Fixed htc's weather widget (integrated into clock&weather widget) not knowing where you are (1.15.xxx just said the name of the country in some countries).
- SMS issue (from non-numerical senders) is resolved.
- fixed random contact showing when receiving operator SMS.
- fixes the voicemail bug for the French carrier SFR (short voicemail number used to call 911/emergency).
- Messages app now shows a count on the number of messages in the SMS inbox.
- calendar/contacts bug - unable to store contact's birthday - has been fixed.
- Long click on the menu button when in home screen now doesnt pop up the keyboard, like it uselessly did before.
- SMS reader does not show the little smiley androids any more - just the mere types.
- Exchange Company Address Book is now properly working. Was unable to use before the update.
- They have disabled the snooze function on the Optical trackpad for calendar events. This means that it is now possible to have the phone in your pocket without accidentally snoozing the alarms.
Please note: It's been reported that Orange Debranded Users have issues with this update breaking Wi-Fi. Please take this into consideration when updating, and be careful.
Update procedure:
1. Download the official firmware update here.
2. Copy the file to your microSD card and name it update.zip (not update.zip.zip).
3. Power off your phone.
4. Hold down the VOLUME DOWN button and power it back on.
5. The phone will now search for files like PB00IMG.zip, etc. This is normal. It may take a few seconds. Scroll down to recovery and press the POWER button.
6. When you see the /!\ symbol, press the POWER button and the Volume Up button at the same time. You should be presented with a menu and one of the options should be "Apply sdcard:update.zip".
7. Use the volume keys to navigate to "apply sdcard:update.zip" and select it using the power button.
8. When you see "Install from sdcard complete", select "reboot system now".
That's it!
Please note: I'm not responsible for any damage to your phone as a result of you manually applying this update. Whilst it is unusual for a manual update using an official image to break your phone, I still felt it wise to warn you.
Cleverhosting’s blog has gone live!
I thought that in order to help drive more traffic to my webhosting site, along with talk about something interesting and useful for people to read. I should create a blog for my Cleverhosting site that people can read up on the latest developments within Cleverhosting, along with developments in the Web Hosting industry.
Please see the link below, and I hope that you find it useful / interesting in some way.
Cleverhosting Forums now live!
The Cleverhosting forums are now live! - I might be changing the theme sometime soon, but the whole idea is there and in motion!
You don't have to have hosting with Cleverhosting in order to use the forums, so please join and get posting. The forum is there to help people exchange ideas, help eachother out, and put forward their own experiences with Cleverhosting's hosting packages.
Check out the forums: "http://www.cleverhosting.co.uk/smf/index.php"
Local Videographer
A friend of mine has started up a business as a videographer. His speciality is Wedding Videography, and has very competitive prices. He is based in the Leeds area.
Please check out his website where there is more information detailing what he does, and also showcasing some of his works. There you can find his prices too!
Local Photographer
A friend of mine has recently started his own photography website, specialising in bands portraits and weddings.
He's based locally in the Leeds area, and has a website demonstrating his works. Please check it out and consider him for your wedding photography needs!
MegaRAID SCSI 320-1LP Ultra 320 SCSI Raid Controller
I'm selling a MegaRAID SCSI 320-1LP Ultra 320 SCSI Raid Controller on eBay. As I've decided to sell my SCSI stuff and get a decent SATA drive. As I can get a lot more space for my money!
If you fancy checking out this link on eBay, then please do, and bid! It's in perfect working order, and will be sent to you securely.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120539168797&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT