Disqus - Latest Comments for barneyc

Re: Is this the most trivial ‘news’ story ever?

barneyc — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 06:20:08 -0000

Without doubt the most trivial blog post EVER. Reporting on the reporting on the dull.

Re: Engadget UK Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy S III courtesy of Expansys!

barneyc — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 02:58:56 -0000

Awesome phone, would love one

Re: Samsung Introduces Drive Link, An App To Simplify Smartphone Use In The Car

barneyc — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:17:45 -0000

Er.. surely the story here is that the phone is i) in London and ii) running on LTE - even with O2 trials that's news.

Re: Three launch a ‘Home Signal’ Femtocell

barneyc — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:31:28 -0000

Hey Mike. No doubt everyone has their coverage issues - Three are probably amongst the most reliable just not at all where we live (just outise M25). I am also certain the Three fCell is alive and working just wonderfully. But unless it's actually available to customers then it means squat.

I spoke to the sales team early (still offshore) and they basically said they can't order them only the engineering team can and that is still only for existing customers.

So Three aren't going to attract many new rural customers unless they can get these units out there.

As ever with comms products the rural community tends to suffer. Three have a solution but as yet don't want to use it. Shame.

Technically the shit is sorted. Commercially, ah not so much.

Re: Three launch a ‘Home Signal’ Femtocell

barneyc — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:14:45 -0000

The very fact that Three have the ability to use the Home Signal as a customer acquisition tool is a real shame. I know where we live has no signal (AT ALL) but where we go during the day does.

Retaining customers is great and all but right now I'm up for renewals and Three will have to lose out again to Vodafone because they do have their femtocell shit sorted out.

Re: Special needs 'used as a cover for poor parenting'

barneyc — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:31:55 -0000

Can you imagine the fun we're having then hundreds of pages into the statementing process and about to move a child from one LEA to another mid-way?

Re: Special needs 'used as a cover for poor parenting'

barneyc — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:27:59 -0000

The common S-E-N meaning Special Educational Needs is correct and widely used. I use it as well, it's convenient as an ancronym and as you point out is the official usage of SEN.

In education circles SEN (as above) is commonly an even more (lazy) abbrevietion of a Statement of SEN - which could be SSEN but hey. Why I don't know but when talking to authorities, teachers and such they often refer interchangeably to a SEN or Statement.

Re: Special needs 'used as a cover for poor parenting'

barneyc — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:09:55 -0000

Karen "SEN" is a widely used and conflated term which correctly has two meanings;

The first being the "SEN" (in caps as you say) is for a Statement of Educational Needs. It's a pain in the butt to get for far too many people, it's looking to being phased out and to be honest in a sensible, well supported, funded and adjusted educational system shouldn't be needed. For reference we are in that process.

The other use of the letters "s-e-n" for special eduaction needs is also correct and follows the wide public usage of the phrase. It does not infer that the SEN process is in place or has been followed merely that the child has special educational needs.

ALL kids have special needs. Every kid is different and requires a subtly different set of teaching, levels and such.

Kids from deprived homes probably do have s.e.n - maybe they don't get extra parental help. That doesn't mean they need a SEN however.

Willz - Karen's therefore in the main correct on the use of SEN, but not s-e-n.

Re: expōnere: What's in a Name, Starbucks?

barneyc — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:16:38 -0000

I agree it's not ONLY for the card customers, but I am one and it was a notification by email sent to card holding peeps. So that's hardly flawed.

My local Starbucks is in the Bluewater Shopping centre which has around 28 million visitors a year. On any given day the store is ram packed with in excess of one hundred customers.

The odds of being able to remember a customer's name from one visit to the next are, I suspect, tiny UNLESS you happened to be there everyday at the same time with the same barista on the desk.

There's no doubt in smaller stores, and independents that personal greeting works well. There are even card schemes (in the US) where when you walk into a store your phone notifies the staff your there so they can greet you. Hell, in my local cafe in NZ when I walked in I could go to a table and my coffee magically arrived within seconds along with a chat and payment was dealt with later. That's how to do personal service.

In a big multi-national corporate with huge footfall and staff rotation the system being employed just won't deliver the results they want.

Re: Are parents really that naive?

barneyc — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:38:23 -0000

Hahaha. We had one years ago for J. It is a bucket but with a few subtle differences. The edge is a roll-top unlike most buckets so it's not all scratchy and sharp. The construction is solid as, more akin to a proper cement bucket (but clear) so there is no cheap 99p shop flex. It's also tapped so narrows towards the bottom which I think is supposed to stop baby slipping down. AND THE FRICKIN THING IS CLEAR!

Re: Will the new iPad show ‘Fake 4G’ in the UK?

barneyc — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:18:54 -0000

"at speeds as low as 14.4Mbps" oh if only my fixed line broadband was even half of that.

Re: TheTrainLine.com & CashGenie Up to No Good With Privacy

barneyc — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:06:02 -0000

Dougie,

I believe at best we are looking at a breach of the CAP guidelines. Since 2003 marketers in the UK have been obliged to follow the CAP Code as set out by the ASA. Specifically the Code states that the EXPLICIT consent of consumers is required before:

"marketing by e-mail or SMS text transmission, save that marketers may market their similar products to their existing customers without explicit consent so long as an opportunity to object to further such marketing is given on each occasion."

Given that i) I had explicitly declined such 3rd party messages from TheTrainLine's partners on my profile page and ii) had utilised the SMS based mechanism afforded by TheTrainLine to opt out of further SMS campaigns it is apparent my consent to receive the message from Cash Genie was not sought or given.

Whilst, as you say, this was the result of a "technical glitch" the facts simply are that I received multiple unsolicited adverts for a third unrelated party at financial cost to myself.

I refer you to just two rulings by the ASA; the first ASA vs New Technology Jan 2004 (http://www.out-law.com/page... and the second being ASA vs Mason Chase Oct 2010 (http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-a....

In both these cases the ASA had found there to be a breach of the Code in very similar circumstances. These are but two of a great many such rulings.

Further, whilst my mobile number is only now on the Telephone Preference Service, the Information Commissioner has declared that unsolicited SMS advertising is also a breach of the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999 Act.

I am also seeking advice on which parts, if any, of UK and EU Data Protection Legislation may have been breached.

So whilst at this point TheTrainLine may not believe there has been any breach of the ASA guidelines I again ask for details of the third party SMS handler in question such that I know with whom to take up this issue.

Barney

Re: TheTrainLine.com & CashGenie Up to No Good With Privacy

barneyc — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:30:48 -0000

Dougie.

Super it's great to hear that no data breach occured although most definately the unsolicited texts constitute a privacy breach (invasion of) and are still in breach of ASA guidelines.

To that effect I request the details of the SMS provider and any documentation supporting such that I can file a complaint with the ASA.

Further Vodafone have confirmed that the costs incurred by me in sending the STOP requests are set by the SMS provider and are billed as premium rate messages. Whilst this may only amount to seventy pence there is loss.

To whom would you recommend directing my invoice to recover this loss and associated costs, being my time?

Thanks

Barney

Re: kiphakes.com: It's your kids, Marty, something has gotta be done about your kids

barneyc — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:48:18 -0000

Okey dokey I'm breaking cover.

In essence I get where you are coming from, and certainly when I was in my early mid twenties I would have been in total agreement; why would I want to know, why would I care about little Johnnies latest swimming badge or his ever bowl movement.

But that was because at that age I had no commonality, no frame of reference. Parenthood was an alien world that meant little or nothing to me.

I connect with Kip in many different spaces. On Twitter it's primarily work or tech related. On Xbox it's surprisingly gaming related and to hurl abuse at his fat little fingers making him an insufferable prick in Modern Warfare. Facebook is different though.

On FB it's not about work, or at least not for me, it's more about the whole of a person, their lives, likes, interests even family.

I'm not going to dissect Kip's wall other than to say that in the last year it's contained wedding, swimming lessons, theme parks, work, games, more wedding, trips away and even a smattering of kid related stuff.

Do I mind, no. Why? Well it's painting a more colourful picture of Kip and his life. And that matters to me.

If I don't want to read his latest blog on baby scans, I don't. I won't complain he's written and published it. Just because it doesn't matter or interest me it will to others, say his Mum or Sister.

It's kinda similar to why I can't abide the moaning Daily Mail readers that complain about a single scene in an hour long programme at eleven o'clock at night rather than simply outstretching their fat arms and changing the channel, or god forbid turning the TV off.

Kip talks about the separation of "kids" into alternative streams / pages / accounts but why. My kids aren't on FB but they do occasionally feature in my streams as they are part of my life. But they feature in considerably varying amounts in say Twitter vs Facebook.

The best analogy I can offer is this;

If you go to the pub with some work mates for a swift half you are likely to be bitching about the boss or last night's game. That is the type of social interaction expected of the event, the context.

BUT if you go to a dinner party with friends the nature of the conversation with be strikingly different I suggest. Here a good moan about Doreen from accounts likely has no part but what you as a family have been upto last weekend may well.

In other words context matters.

For me, Facebook is a place where the context is most assuredly set around a more full and social picture of the self. I have friends worldwide, many of whom I don't meet very often. FB affords a space where we can have the virtual dinner party conversation, share pictures and experiences.

After all it's that sharing that is what makes us human.

------------------

Footnote; I, of course, reserve the right to relentlessly rib Kip about his inevitable witterings post birth of Kip Jnr and his complete lack of ability to manage sleepless nights.

Re: CarrierIQ spyware now found on iOS, Android, Blackberry and Symbian – only Windows Phone not implicated so far

barneyc — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:32:50 -0000

Confirmed by Nokia PR that CarrierIQ is not installed on their phones https://twitter.com/#!/Mark...

Re: Asus Eee Pad Transformer: Android 3.2 and power drain fix promised

barneyc — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:01:59 -0000

Amazing isn't it how Asus are happy enough to make statements on FB and Twitter but they almost never respond to questions, like "where on Earth are the spare charge cables?"

Re: Asus Eee Pad Transformer packing 3G gets priced

barneyc — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:47:18 -0000

No accessories, no purchase. Already have a non-3G version and it's great except the charging cable is woefully short and it is impossible to buy spares (or any other accessories) as for some reason Asus just haven't grasped the concept of either i) using standard bits of kit or ii) giving the consumer what they want/need.

Re: #Lex2011TweetUp: Legal Networking at its Best

barneyc — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:39:08 -0000

Hey hey fella. Lovely to chat and looking forward to your next trip South

Re: 4chan founder: Mark Zuckerberg is “totally wrong” about online identity

barneyc — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:39:31 -0000

Neither party are really right. A person really only has a single identity - which is actually an amalgamation of many different roles each of which may have an identifier. So Chris Poole (an identifier for his registered person) is a role, he may be Christopher to his mum and any number of differing names online. The amalgam of which is his identity.

Re: Chris Reed on ‘Transparency or bust”

barneyc — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:30:19 -0000

I defer to Lessig and his talk on the importance of independence http://bit.ly/gC85IG

Re: Belgium Operator Mobistar gets punk’d (well, the Belgian equivalent)

barneyc — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:52:15 -0000

Best ten minutes of my day. Shame sending a container to 3's CS would be so damn expensive.

Re: Win a Sony Ericsson LiveView!

barneyc — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:12:40 -0000

Er.... Don't Let Go

Re: Printer Ink DRM

barneyc — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:42:06 -0000

The cold reset is if memory serves something slightly different. It is
supposed to "fix" or reset all funny error codes and make things work again.
Unfortunately the reprogramme is based on the serial number I believe (they
generate a hash for the unlock) and so I never bothered writing it down.
Sorry

Re: Printer Ink DRM

barneyc — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 04:12:13 -0000

There are instructions on the net but I actually rang HP UK and they
talked me through a rather long winded process. It worked but now the
HP 6180 has died with the 15sec reset problem.

Shame as I have a pile of ink sitting around.

Re: Breville UK fail the customer service test

barneyc — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:41:07 -0000

Sure. What's the project and will it be online?