Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Monday, January 02, 2012
An Open Letter to Virgin Media
FAO Virgin Media Accounts and/or Customer Service Team:
Hello,
I am once again emailing with regard to a Virgin Media account which I have tried to transfer for 18 months now:
Account Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When I left the residence in June 2010, I asked on at least 2 occasions for the account to be transferred to the tenants who wanted to keep the service. On both occasions, I was assured the account had been moved. I contacted this email address once more having been hassled repeatedly by Virgin Media to pay bills or handle correspondence regarding this supposedly transferred account. Again, I was assured the matter had been resolved and that I would not be further contacted about the account.
I have now been contacted by tenants of the property, whose Virgin Media service has not been functional for some time. Virgin are supposedly unable to discuss the matter, without a password from the account holder, which supposedly is still myself. As I have been assured at least 3 times that I am no longer the account holder, and have not been at the property for over a year and a half, I no longer have such a password to hand.
Due to a complete absence of a contact email address or direct phone number on the Virgin Media site (I have been presented with many tempting opportunities to discuss this ridiculous affair with members of the "Community Forum" - but not the actual organisation involved) I have no idea what sort of information I can provide to allow Virgin Media to actually discuss the matter with the residents of the property involved. I am hereby giving full authorisation of the account to those at the property above. I have copied in (name removed), who originally got in touch with me about this situation. Please can a member of the Virgin Media accounts team liase with her to resolve the problems with her service, and to transfer the responsibility of the account from my name.
Urgency and effective resolution of the problems would be very much appreciated. I have thus far received neither from Virgin Media during my many discussions with their Customer Services, and frankly am insulted that I still have to deal with their mess 18 months later.
Best,
Alan Sharp
Hello,
I am once again emailing with regard to a Virgin Media account which I have tried to transfer for 18 months now:
Account Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When I left the residence in June 2010, I asked on at least 2 occasions for the account to be transferred to the tenants who wanted to keep the service. On both occasions, I was assured the account had been moved. I contacted this email address once more having been hassled repeatedly by Virgin Media to pay bills or handle correspondence regarding this supposedly transferred account. Again, I was assured the matter had been resolved and that I would not be further contacted about the account.
I have now been contacted by tenants of the property, whose Virgin Media service has not been functional for some time. Virgin are supposedly unable to discuss the matter, without a password from the account holder, which supposedly is still myself. As I have been assured at least 3 times that I am no longer the account holder, and have not been at the property for over a year and a half, I no longer have such a password to hand.
Due to a complete absence of a contact email address or direct phone number on the Virgin Media site (I have been presented with many tempting opportunities to discuss this ridiculous affair with members of the "Community Forum" - but not the actual organisation involved) I have no idea what sort of information I can provide to allow Virgin Media to actually discuss the matter with the residents of the property involved. I am hereby giving full authorisation of the account to those at the property above. I have copied in (name removed), who originally got in touch with me about this situation. Please can a member of the Virgin Media accounts team liase with her to resolve the problems with her service, and to transfer the responsibility of the account from my name.
Urgency and effective resolution of the problems would be very much appreciated. I have thus far received neither from Virgin Media during my many discussions with their Customer Services, and frankly am insulted that I still have to deal with their mess 18 months later.
Best,
Alan Sharp
Juxtaposition
Been meaning to take this for months, since I found an amusing arrangement of disgusting takeaways and signage between my flat and the train station...
Sunday, December 04, 2011
De-Beard-ification!
So, I was lazy during October and November so I ended up growing a beard. When I eventually decided to remove it, I of course *had* to take "progress report" photos along the way. Enjoy its ridiculousness...
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft
At work I do an unfortunately significant amount of development for Microsoft products. This usually results in building solutions in Visual Studio, which is their preferred manner of building solutions, since it is of course their own product.
Today, I had to work out how to build a solution for SharePoint, and I was presented with the most glaringly obvious example of how Microsoft are lost in their own mess of products.
To break it down, here is what I was trying to do:
Develop using Microsoft Visual Studio
Develop in Microsoft Windows 7
Develop for Microsoft SharePoint
Now, bearing in mind that VS 2010 comes PRE-LOADED with a SharePoint development environment, how hard can it be? After all, everything here is MS; no 3rd parties, where I could see integration being a problem.
However, I cannot actually start a project without SharePoint installed. OK, I'll install SharePoint. But I'm not allowed to install SharePoint without running Windows Server as my OS. Some might think "fair enough, it's a server-based application", but others, like me, thought "how many developers log into a LIVE server to develop on a different machine??". Or "insanity!" for short.
What made the whole situation amusing, was this: a step-by-step guide, written by Microsoft themselves on how to essentially fool Microsoft SharePoint into thinking you have Microsoft Windows Server instead of Microsoft Windows 7 so you can use Microsoft Visual Studio. It involved installing lots of Windows "hotfixes". The whole thing sounded like one guy at MS, tutting to himself going "nice work guys, none of these work together... and who has to save the public? Muggins here...".
Of course, even though I have everything I need locally, I can't actually connect to our external server to read data, nor can I deploy any solutions directly to the server.
The indication to me is that Microsoft, so large following their success in the 90s, have too many teams, too many products, and too little help. Huge ranges of products may provide businesses with out-of-the box solutions; but they definitely lack a "uniformed interfacing" approach when it comes to development. After all, how can any developer be expected to integrate Microsoft systems with their business, when Microsoft can't even integrate their own systems without their own special brand of "hotfix glue"...?
Today, I had to work out how to build a solution for SharePoint, and I was presented with the most glaringly obvious example of how Microsoft are lost in their own mess of products.
To break it down, here is what I was trying to do:
Develop using Microsoft Visual Studio
Develop in Microsoft Windows 7
Develop for Microsoft SharePoint
Now, bearing in mind that VS 2010 comes PRE-LOADED with a SharePoint development environment, how hard can it be? After all, everything here is MS; no 3rd parties, where I could see integration being a problem.
However, I cannot actually start a project without SharePoint installed. OK, I'll install SharePoint. But I'm not allowed to install SharePoint without running Windows Server as my OS. Some might think "fair enough, it's a server-based application", but others, like me, thought "how many developers log into a LIVE server to develop on a different machine??". Or "insanity!" for short.
What made the whole situation amusing, was this: a step-by-step guide, written by Microsoft themselves on how to essentially fool Microsoft SharePoint into thinking you have Microsoft Windows Server instead of Microsoft Windows 7 so you can use Microsoft Visual Studio. It involved installing lots of Windows "hotfixes". The whole thing sounded like one guy at MS, tutting to himself going "nice work guys, none of these work together... and who has to save the public? Muggins here...".
Of course, even though I have everything I need locally, I can't actually connect to our external server to read data, nor can I deploy any solutions directly to the server.
The indication to me is that Microsoft, so large following their success in the 90s, have too many teams, too many products, and too little help. Huge ranges of products may provide businesses with out-of-the box solutions; but they definitely lack a "uniformed interfacing" approach when it comes to development. After all, how can any developer be expected to integrate Microsoft systems with their business, when Microsoft can't even integrate their own systems without their own special brand of "hotfix glue"...?
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Relax Before The Rush
Right before I rushed off on holiday (more on that later - I really need to catch up!) we were taken on a little treat at work...
I say rushed off. I mean it: by the time we finished for the night I had 3hrs before a taxi to the train station! So I tried the best I could to enjoy the peaceful surroundings and amenities of Babington House, in Somerset.
It's reportedly popular with the celebs for a bit of getaway; we took the entire company (minus one, who was there in spirit as well as cardboard cut-out form..) and rented out the place. And then had a sports day! How nostalgic!
But of course, when the sack races, egg-and-spoon races, and well-throwing was done, we got to enjoy the heated pool, the free bar (FREE BAR!), a delightful meal, and one great party! I was remarkably tired, and with a plane to catch, I was a little disappointed I couldn't enjoy my amazing room for a lot longer!
See the whole set here.
I say rushed off. I mean it: by the time we finished for the night I had 3hrs before a taxi to the train station! So I tried the best I could to enjoy the peaceful surroundings and amenities of Babington House, in Somerset.
It's reportedly popular with the celebs for a bit of getaway; we took the entire company (minus one, who was there in spirit as well as cardboard cut-out form..) and rented out the place. And then had a sports day! How nostalgic!
But of course, when the sack races, egg-and-spoon races, and well-throwing was done, we got to enjoy the heated pool, the free bar (FREE BAR!), a delightful meal, and one great party! I was remarkably tired, and with a plane to catch, I was a little disappointed I couldn't enjoy my amazing room for a lot longer!
See the whole set here.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
10 Years Ago
It seemed apt to post some thoughts today, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. I don't want it to be cheesy, or disrespectful, or anything like that. So no pictures.
I remember the day well; it's hard not to remember "where you were" when you first turned the TV on. I was hanging about at home, with no job as I was preparing to head off to University for the first time a couple of weeks later. I was talking to friends online, who suddenly went quiet except for demands that everyone should turn the news on, right now. I remember looking at the twin towers, one on fire. I didn't think too much of it; fires happen all the time, right? Then I saw the replay of a plane flying into it... That set the whole air of disbelief for the entire day. The other plane, news of attacks on the Pentagon and other planes coming down, until the towers themselves came down. It somehow never seemed quite real; you couldn't really get your head around the scale of what was happening.
In fact, I never could quite comprehend, even from all the news cameras and amateur footage, the size of the buildings as they were toppling - never mind the amount of people they would contain. I had never been to New York, nor had I been to any city even remotely as "tall" as New York. Only once I visited New York for business last year, did I try to get my head around the size of what happened. I went to Ground Zero; not deliberately (I was merely playing tourist around South Manhattan); and it was looking up that made me realise that something so huge was so very missing, in a sudden wide open space.
Our New York office has now moved into the new WTC 7 building - I've seen the view from pictures, across the site of the original towers and the memorial pools in the old footprints. A few of the colleagues I have there; even those not from New York, and mostly unpolitical; reluctant to get into any debate on "conspiracies" or "the war on terror"; have said they find it hard to take in. I think I'll find it difficult if I'm ever there, looking over the site and still remembering so much from 10 years ago.
I remember the day well; it's hard not to remember "where you were" when you first turned the TV on. I was hanging about at home, with no job as I was preparing to head off to University for the first time a couple of weeks later. I was talking to friends online, who suddenly went quiet except for demands that everyone should turn the news on, right now. I remember looking at the twin towers, one on fire. I didn't think too much of it; fires happen all the time, right? Then I saw the replay of a plane flying into it... That set the whole air of disbelief for the entire day. The other plane, news of attacks on the Pentagon and other planes coming down, until the towers themselves came down. It somehow never seemed quite real; you couldn't really get your head around the scale of what was happening.
In fact, I never could quite comprehend, even from all the news cameras and amateur footage, the size of the buildings as they were toppling - never mind the amount of people they would contain. I had never been to New York, nor had I been to any city even remotely as "tall" as New York. Only once I visited New York for business last year, did I try to get my head around the size of what happened. I went to Ground Zero; not deliberately (I was merely playing tourist around South Manhattan); and it was looking up that made me realise that something so huge was so very missing, in a sudden wide open space.
Our New York office has now moved into the new WTC 7 building - I've seen the view from pictures, across the site of the original towers and the memorial pools in the old footprints. A few of the colleagues I have there; even those not from New York, and mostly unpolitical; reluctant to get into any debate on "conspiracies" or "the war on terror"; have said they find it hard to take in. I think I'll find it difficult if I'm ever there, looking over the site and still remembering so much from 10 years ago.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Glastonbury Festival #6
This summer, like every summer since 2005 (except from the year it wasn't on), I went to Glastonbury Festival. It's a yearly occurrence giving a good group of friends the chance to catch up, sleep rough, drink cider, and see bands. Here was this year's "crew":
If you enjoy music festivals, I can't recommend Glasto enough. Once you go, you will be comparing every other festival to it for the rest of your festival-ling days! So many good places to eat, a great atmosphere, a sea of tents (as modelled by myself below)
...and of course, the music. We weren't too thrilled about the lineup this year, but there was still a decent amount to see. My particular favourites were Eels, Queens of the Stone Age, and a long-term favourite of mine, who I'd been waiting at least a decade to see, Pulp!
Ah, Jarvis... your banter, your "moves", and your songs are still tremendous.
The mud and rain were quite horrible at times, especially as it took 6 drenched hours to get into the site, but we battled through. As always, it was worth it. We will have to think of something else for our "Glasto friends" group to do next year, as they're having another off. But I certainly won't rule out a return in 2013... or 14...
Check out the full set of pics here!
If you enjoy music festivals, I can't recommend Glasto enough. Once you go, you will be comparing every other festival to it for the rest of your festival-ling days! So many good places to eat, a great atmosphere, a sea of tents (as modelled by myself below)
...and of course, the music. We weren't too thrilled about the lineup this year, but there was still a decent amount to see. My particular favourites were Eels, Queens of the Stone Age, and a long-term favourite of mine, who I'd been waiting at least a decade to see, Pulp!
Ah, Jarvis... your banter, your "moves", and your songs are still tremendous.
The mud and rain were quite horrible at times, especially as it took 6 drenched hours to get into the site, but we battled through. As always, it was worth it. We will have to think of something else for our "Glasto friends" group to do next year, as they're having another off. But I certainly won't rule out a return in 2013... or 14...
Check out the full set of pics here!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Let's Play Catch-up
I've been busy! I've been on holiday, and have loads to post about, but before that, I need to catch up with some smaller things that have happened.
Let's start at the end of May, when we went to see Belle & Sebastian at The Roundhouse. I bought the tickets as a Valentine's Day gift, so it was a long wait for the actual romantic night out! They're one of L's favourite bands, so they made a perfect gift; and this was my 3rd gig in the venue, which I really do like.
Next up, a trip to the zoo. Late! In the summer they open the doors in the evening to adults only, allowing you to spend the end of the day looking at animals, with a drink and a bite to eat. Talking of eating, I think the burger I had was the best part of the evening. The zoo started closing the animal houses and sectioning off the park way earlier than I would have expected, so I was rather disappointed to be ushered away from areas before I had even seen half of the zoo. Still, they had a cool penguin area, and who doesn't love marching penguins?
We then had a small workmate gathering one weekend to say "cheerio" to one of our team. David (middle of the below pic), headed back to Spain a few weeks ago now - a thoroughly nice guy who could never quite work out my Scottish accent. We headed to "Queen's Skate and Bowl", where you can, clearly, do both of those things. And also drink, eat, and partake in karaoke. Interesting venue! We didn't sing, but did try and regain our skating legs.
There was one final catch-up before the holiday, where I headed to the homeland to catch-up with my Dad. I hadn't seen him since November, which is very sad. But he has a new job, which is happy news! I'm quite proud of him really; laid off from his engineering job which he's had or changed for at least a couple of decades, he decided to go back to college and finish his career in an area really enjoys: nature! And what better way to illustrate this than post a picture of him crawling after a blackbird?
Whilst up there, we took a trip to his "office" - Kailzie Gardens in the Scottish Borders! It's most famous for having a live feed to a family of nesting ospreys out in the woods. Dad's the project head of "KLAWED", where he's aiming to attract both more wildlife and visitors to the area. He's really excited about it, and so am I! It's a very pretty place, even in the rain.
So, now I'm pretty much caught up... except for the two summer trips: Glastonbury Festival and the big ol' jaunt to the USA. More to follow, promise!
Let's start at the end of May, when we went to see Belle & Sebastian at The Roundhouse. I bought the tickets as a Valentine's Day gift, so it was a long wait for the actual romantic night out! They're one of L's favourite bands, so they made a perfect gift; and this was my 3rd gig in the venue, which I really do like.
Next up, a trip to the zoo. Late! In the summer they open the doors in the evening to adults only, allowing you to spend the end of the day looking at animals, with a drink and a bite to eat. Talking of eating, I think the burger I had was the best part of the evening. The zoo started closing the animal houses and sectioning off the park way earlier than I would have expected, so I was rather disappointed to be ushered away from areas before I had even seen half of the zoo. Still, they had a cool penguin area, and who doesn't love marching penguins?
We then had a small workmate gathering one weekend to say "cheerio" to one of our team. David (middle of the below pic), headed back to Spain a few weeks ago now - a thoroughly nice guy who could never quite work out my Scottish accent. We headed to "Queen's Skate and Bowl", where you can, clearly, do both of those things. And also drink, eat, and partake in karaoke. Interesting venue! We didn't sing, but did try and regain our skating legs.
There was one final catch-up before the holiday, where I headed to the homeland to catch-up with my Dad. I hadn't seen him since November, which is very sad. But he has a new job, which is happy news! I'm quite proud of him really; laid off from his engineering job which he's had or changed for at least a couple of decades, he decided to go back to college and finish his career in an area really enjoys: nature! And what better way to illustrate this than post a picture of him crawling after a blackbird?
Whilst up there, we took a trip to his "office" - Kailzie Gardens in the Scottish Borders! It's most famous for having a live feed to a family of nesting ospreys out in the woods. Dad's the project head of "KLAWED", where he's aiming to attract both more wildlife and visitors to the area. He's really excited about it, and so am I! It's a very pretty place, even in the rain.
So, now I'm pretty much caught up... except for the two summer trips: Glastonbury Festival and the big ol' jaunt to the USA. More to follow, promise!
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Lovely Construction
Our office is high up. Really high up. For London anyway. We moved in back in September after a massive amount of growth; both in reputation and in staff numbers. Almost immidiately, we realised we would need a new space; so we've taken the shell next door.
The view is equally amazing in both. To our wonderful sights across the Thames, towards St Pauls, the Eye and beyond, ie this:
we are adding this:
The office starts as an empty shell, so we have to kit it out. It started out just like this:
We did an amazing job in the first room; with glass meeting rooms; a tonne of flat-screen TVs showing the states of our systems; and modern, spacious desks. This one will be no exception; though it is to be catered towards the Engineers (like me!). This means more screens. Ridiculously large, flat screens from Samsung:
Seriously; these things are soooo sexy. 55 inch screen, 1 inch thick. We have a series of smaller screens too, though constructing their wall-mounts seems to be causing our Infrastructure guys some headaches:
We also have entire wall, floor-to-ceiling whiteboards. Essentially walls with special paint which you can draw on with whiteboard markers, and it washes right off. Pretty nifty! Oh, and we'll also have an arcade. Yes. An arcade. With at least 9 proper retro 80s machines, fresh from bidding wars on eBay. These ones were moved into the room whilst we carpeted the arcade room and painted it black.
It's nearly finished, but I'm off on holiday! So I will post the results up in a few weeks; hopefully everything will be fully constructed, and super-sexy. Then it's on to building the new New York City office...
The view is equally amazing in both. To our wonderful sights across the Thames, towards St Pauls, the Eye and beyond, ie this:
we are adding this:
The office starts as an empty shell, so we have to kit it out. It started out just like this:
We did an amazing job in the first room; with glass meeting rooms; a tonne of flat-screen TVs showing the states of our systems; and modern, spacious desks. This one will be no exception; though it is to be catered towards the Engineers (like me!). This means more screens. Ridiculously large, flat screens from Samsung:
Seriously; these things are soooo sexy. 55 inch screen, 1 inch thick. We have a series of smaller screens too, though constructing their wall-mounts seems to be causing our Infrastructure guys some headaches:
We also have entire wall, floor-to-ceiling whiteboards. Essentially walls with special paint which you can draw on with whiteboard markers, and it washes right off. Pretty nifty! Oh, and we'll also have an arcade. Yes. An arcade. With at least 9 proper retro 80s machines, fresh from bidding wars on eBay. These ones were moved into the room whilst we carpeted the arcade room and painted it black.
It's nearly finished, but I'm off on holiday! So I will post the results up in a few weeks; hopefully everything will be fully constructed, and super-sexy. Then it's on to building the new New York City office...
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