Archive for March, 2007:

Just a quick post to bring to your attention this recent article on bit-tech.net - written by their Editor, Wil Harris.

I couldn’t agree more with his comments and have found Vista to be a great new operating system, with hardly any niggles.

Read more on my thoughts of Vista!

It’s here already - within a week of Version 6.0 going live, I’ve uploaded the theme for Version 6.1!

You’ll notice a few differences compared to my original blog, along with a few similarities with Version 5 of the main site.

I’m pleased with how it’s all turned out though - it has been hand-coded to be valid XHTML 1.1. I’ve still got to add content to the pages themselves and whip up a few more headers in Photoshop, but apart from that it’s fully functional.

Let me know if anything should be changed immediately, otherwise it’ll remain like so for a good few weeks/months until I feel the urge to update it again.

I was having a few issues with the rotate PHP script and Firefox, but they have sorted themselves out now…

As I have recently transferred my entire website over to WordPress, I decided to do the same with work’s website - www.cgpartnership.com

It’s basically the same layout as before, but everything is powered by WordPress, which means all the staff members can contribute to News items, update pages and add content.

The whole process has taken 3 days on/off in-between teaching, but I think it is suited quite well to the WordPress platform.

I’ve noticed recently that a lot of websites are moving over to WordPress as their CMS - even though it originally started as a pure blogging platform, many have found its simplicity to be ideal for end users.

I’ll be working on V6.0 of slickhouse.com over the coming months, transferring old content over, but also editing the theme as much as possible. It looks like from here on I’ll be using WP as the backend to many client web projects. Stay tuned!

Dear Orange,

Bollocks, complete bollocks. I know you say not to reply to this address, but there’s no way I’m ringing you up to explain - as you’ll be taking money from me via a phone bill.

Sure, yes, my broadband account, great. You’ve taken a £5 fee for it? Good. But how the fuck can you take £5 if you don’t know my details???

There’s also one slight problem in your stunning email:

I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING ORANGE BROADBAND ACCOUNT!!!

Work that one out sherlock. In future, refer to customers using their name at the start of an email. I’ve taken the courtesy to put your name at the beginning, but you simply wrote ‘Hello’. Surely you’ve got my name on your database? As you’ve apparently got my ‘incorrect’ account details.

If you’re a phishing scam artist, then you’ve missed one feature of phishing scams - a link for me to actually click on and be re-directed to your website, to enter my account details. Simply putting a link in plain-text format doesn’t really work I’m afraid.

So, take all this into your tiny little head and realise that I don’t have any connections with Orange (apart from the odd fruit I purchase from Tesco) and never will.

Yours Sincerely,

Matthew Juffs (there’s my name for you to use in future communications)

——————————————————————————–
From: account.services@orange-confirmation.com [mailto:account.services@orange-confirmation.com]
Sent: 14 March 2007 10:01
To: me
Subject: Your Orange Broadband - payment required

Hello

You broadband account no: 3633268

We’re having trouble taking payment for your broadband account using the details you provided and have taken a £5 late payment fee from your account. It’s probably something simple like your credit card’s expired or bank account details aren’t quite right.

It’s easy to fix, just go to https://www.orange.co.uk/membercentre/youraccount/ to change your details online, or give us a call on 0870 010 2462* or 0870 1900 672* if you’re on our Broadband Starter package between 7am and 11pm, any day of the week.

Please do this quickly, otherwise your broadband service will be suspended and you won’t be able to get online.

Get in touch and we’ll sort things out as quickly as possible.

Thanks.

Customer Support

* Your call will cost up to 7p/min from a BT line, or 4p/min via Wireless & Talk. Charges from other networks may vary and calls might be recorded.

Please don’t reply to this email. You can call us on the number above instead, or write to us at: Customer Support PO
Box 486, Rotherham, S63 5ZX

Orange Personal Communications Services Limited, Registered in England,
Company No.: 2178917, Registered Office: St James Court, Great Park Road,
Almondsbury Park, Bradley Stoke, Bristol BS32 4QJ

Orange Home UK plc - Verulam Point, Station Way, St Albans, AL1 5HE.
Company Registration No: 03014367

OHCS II - Serviços de Internet, LDA
Rua de São Francisco No 3, 2 Andar; 9000-050 Funchal; Madeira; Portugal

–
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/721 - Release Date: 13/03/2007 16:51

Regular readers will remember me mentioning that my clutch had failed, when I returned to the UK from a holiday in Tunisia, a fortnight or so ago.

Unfortunately, last Tuesday I went to drive home from work - to find that my exhaust was making a much louder sound than usual. But, the louder tone proved to be entertaining for the following few journeys to and from work, until I decided to get it repaired.

I only managed to get round to getting it fixed yesterday evening, following a huge hangover from Friday night. A few phone-calls later and I had ascertained that Kwik-Fit were still open - so I drove round and dropped my Fiat Punto off, 5 minutes before they closed - catching a lift back home with Adamskii. They rang me today whilst I was in Nottingham, to say that all 3 sections of the exhaust had been repaired for only £145 - much cheaper than the £300 clutch.

Thinking about it, I could have gone all boy-racer and had them fit a huge twin exhaust system, which would have been louder than the broken original. But I have a reputation to keep intact.