Edit: Mat Clarke, from Vodafone Web Relations Team has done an excellent job rounding up my issues and resolving them. I’ll post tomorrow about my upgrade if I manage to get on my brothers computer.

If you have ANY problems with Vodafone, just @VodafoneUK him.

—————————————————————————————

I decided to set this down so I could let people know what I’ve been moaning about on Twitter, and also have something to show Vodafone. If you want to see my main compaint, skip this backstory & jump to break.

I’ve been a Vodafone customer since November 06, over 2 years 7 months. It’s the longest relationship I’ve been in haha! Early last year I decided to leave the trusted Sony Ericsson’s that had done me good service for a year & a half and move up into the “smartphone” market. I’d been interested in Blackberrys for a while and so I decided to get one. At the time I didn’t like the size of the Curve handset so instead settled on the Blackberry Pearl 8100. Yes as I soon realised I had the non Wifi, non video camera version of the popular Pearl but I wasn’t fussed – Push email, apps, better internet on my handset, I was sorted!

Like other smartphones, Blackberrys run on an operating system that is upgraded over time. I think the oldest BB OS in use today is 4.1. The Pearl 8100 comes with OS v4.2. You learn to remember this as when I started looking for more apps, some are only available for OS 4.5 or for certain devices, i.e. the 8100 Pearl doesn’t have GPRS so I couldn’t use any Fire Eagle apps or similar geo -location.

Anyway, I’d seen on the Crackberry.com forums that Vodafone Germany had release the 4.5 OS for the 8100 in August last year but I wasn’t brave enough to see if I could upgrade, I’d wait til the official Vodafone UK 4.5 version came out. I didn’t have to wait too long. I can’t remember exactly when I upgraded to 4.5 but I just found a Get Satisfaction comment I made 6 months ago, citing I had OS 4.5.

A little aside about the upgrade to 4.5. Blackberry smart phones have an accompanying Desktop Manager, this only runs in Windows and as I run the Linux distribution Ubuntu I am unable to install this unless I do it through WINE*. I decided I wouldn’t do this as the only thing I would use it for is to upgrade the OS. My brother has a XP computer so one night I seconded the use of it to this exact task. A few hours later & I was up and running with the new software, happy that I was now running the most up to date software on my handset.

————————————————————————————————————

The Main Complaint:

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, and I started noticing my Blackberry was egg timing occasionally, maybe once a week? Egg timing is a well know phrase to Blackberry users, basically the handset becomes unresponsive or VERY slow, with an egg timer spinning on the screen.

This didn’t bother me until about 2 months ago when it happened more regularly and I finally decided something needed to be done. I called 191, Vodafone UK Customer Service and the guy ther suggested sending my handset away for flashing & possible upgrading the software. I asked if this was covered and he advised as long as I got the phone from Vodafone then yes I was covered.

So Monday 15th June, I went into the Vodafone retail store in Dundee & they sent my phone away for repair. I was advised to come back in a week to collect it and sure enough it was back in a week. I asked what had been done, the lady looked at the accompanying letter, just a software upgrade she said, and something about an internal clean? I thought good, no more egg timing.

I peeled off the screen cover they had applied and the two scars were still on the screen where I’d caught it on a button last summer. Same handset I thought. I turned it over to put back in my SIM (which was a new one as I’d asked them to swap my number to as 2 & a half years can ruin a SIM’s connection plates.) and battery then I noticed how clean the inside was! Maybe they’d given me a new handset, I confirmed this when I noticed the backcover release button was still there (I’d dropped my phone about 2 months after I got it & since then I’d had to jam the cover on as that button had sprung off)..

So a new internal handset with my faceplate over it, that’s pretty decent, obviously it was too much hassle to repair my handset. Over the next few days I set up my phone again, added my essential apps & set up my email addresses. I decided to settle on the Vodafone Today theme rather than the BB Dimension Zen theme I’d used before. I noticed though all I had for internet was the Vodafone today icon, not the usual Blackberry browser icon, I just thought this was due to the theme.

I couldn’t find the blackberry browser on the phone so I decided to call 191 again, they advised they’d resend my service books, (I would’ve done this but I also couldn’t find that link either!) and that should set things right. Alas no, the browser didn’t appear.

I was thinking about my move away from Blackberry to the HTC Magic which I’d talked about a few times on my Twitter feed recently, Vodafone had advised me I could upgrade on 29th August, as that was 70 to the end of my contract. I had a thought heading back from Tesco yesterday that I’d see if I could offer to pay a month to them and see if I could start on the Magic on 29th July as I’m going away for two weeks to rural Perthshire for the annual SEC Youth Weeks and there’s basically no signal there. A mobile with Wifi would be excellent as we have a wireless router set up for the fortnight and I could connect the Magic to that rather than leave my Blackberry redundant for a fornight.

Nothing I could lose I thought as I called 191 to advise that the service book hadn’t worked for getting the browser. The guy I spoke to was excellent, he advised I could download the Blackberry App world and I could get the browser from there. Excellent I thought, simple idea, I didn’t use the app world as I wasn’t fussed with it and to be honest it’s aimed at the US market than the UK. I asked him about my idea for early upgrade, he advised he himself couldn’t do it but thought if I called back around 20th July & spoke to a manager I might be able to as I was a long serving customer who was willing to pay the last month to do it, oh & I’d mentioned I was thinking about getting 24 month contract.

Anyway I agreed I’d call back then and try the App world idea. I didn’t immediately get the App world but for some reason thought, “what OS is this thing running?” I checked.

Then I flipped.WTF.

v 4.2

v 4.2.1.103 to be exact.

Blackberry OS v 4.2

(excuse the image, I had to use my old Logitech webcam and the max image resolution is 352 x 288.)

Permit me to lose it a bit here but software upgrade my ****ing arse! That’s a downgrade, no questions asked. I was fuming, why couldn’t they have told me they’d had to give me a new handset, even that it was running a lower OS than when I’d given it to them and I would have to upgrade.

I called 191 back, and talked to a guy who I have to say wasn’t totally getting what I was saying. He keep saying that maybe when they flashed the software, they put it back to the original setting. Then it was maybe they couldn’t fix my handset so had to give me a new one they was reset to the original settings.

Now let me be clear here, I’m annoyed they gave me the handset back with 4.2, but I’d accept that if they had communicated that to me! I asked him at the start of the conversation what was noted had happened when they “repaired” my handset, he said that phrase again “software upgrade“. I said, giving them my phone with 4.5 and they give me it back with 4.2 on it is like giving your PC for repair with Vista on it and getting it back with XP! (I wouldn’t agree, I prefer Vista but that’s another blog post). He agreed with this fact.

I explained to the guy, that I knew this was a different handset, as explained before, the inside was immaculate, no dust at all, brand new looking and also the backplate release button was the major give away. I explained to him I run Linux etc so it’s an inconvenience for me to upgrade again. My main complaint, I was lied to. Let’s not try to get away from that fact, I was told my handset was repaired & it was upgraded yet I now have a different handset with my faceplate on it and a lower operating system.

I work in a call centre & I know what this guy was experiencing, and it was the reason I had called – a pissed off customer just wanted to call to complain, to register their complaint that they had not been given the service they wanted.

So I thanked the guy for his time and said I just wanted it noted I was unhappy at the inconvenience I had been casued.

I then downloaded the App world and thought, well at least I can have the BB browser until I can get Gordon’s computer for a while. I downloaded it then clicked to launch it.

I couldn’t believe the error I was presented with:

Blackberry App world advising me I didn't have the correct data plan.

If that isn’t clear, what it says is this: Upgrade your service to a plan that includes browsing and discover the possibilities at Blackberry App World. Contact your service provide for mor details.

Now that might be due to the Blackberry settings or something so I decided against calling Vodafone again, instead I ranted on Twitter about it.

@VodafoneUK have replied to one of my tweets on Twitter so I’ll see what they have to say about it.

Rant over//

So the Monday night I was doing the dishes and thinking about a few things techy related but also thinking about students woe’s if they don’t have MS Word on a PC/laptop. This then lead onto me thinking a well worn idea; “if only Google Doc formatted well when downloaded to MS Word, people wouldn’t have to worry – work in Google Docs then download in Uni/college and print off.” This time though I went one step further, let’s take Google Docs out of the equation and bring in my new little friend.

Friends and random readers, meet Dropbox. (Read blog to the end then head over).

From their site:

Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online.

.

Dropbox Logo

[edit] If you are wondering why I’m aiming this at school education, it is purely because at University (and possibly) we have tools which carry about similar functions to Dropbox. At Abertay we have electronic submission or coursework, VPN access etc but if you’re interested in Dropbox then please sign up using to referral link. I’m not sure if you can install the Dropbox folder as I mainly use the web interface and VPN.

When I was at school, we used paper and pencil/pen to do the majority of our homework and class work, Computing related subjects were the only ones to use computers (obviously).

What I’m blogging about, to get back to my original point is this: school pupils are moving to typed documents/essays, more online working, and have free (as in thought) access to computers and technology so why not utilise this in the class room more. What we have right now is this: school pupil does English essay at home on computer, they then do either one of a few things, they print out finished document, they email to get in school or they put it on removable media: USB stick or CD.

Basically my idea is this, each pupil has a Dropbox account. They are at home, they do what they want to said piece of work, they put it the document into a folder on their internet connected computer that is just like any other but this folder is “special” it’s their Dropbox folder. This folder syncs with their Dropbox account, they then go into school and go on the library PC or one in the teacher’s class room and go to the Dropbox website, sign in and there is their document. Or ideally if each pupil has a Windows LAN ID (you use a username and password to get into the computer) and they have a Dropbox folder on their desktop/My Documents folder.

So lets look at the benefits:

• No paper getting ruined in pupils bag (I have personal experience)
• No corrupted Flash drives, USB sticks (again personal experience)
• No wasted CDs: you use a CD-R instead of a CD-RW, wasting 700MB of CD on a couple of KB English essay (again personal experience)
• Possibly if this makes their things easier, reduced forgotten homework? I for one would have had homework and coursework in on time or earlier if I had this in school!
• As you’ll see in the screencat, Dropbox is also a backup, it save file revisions

So the downsides?

• School IT policy restricts access to the website, or they don’t want to allow the installation of any programs they can’t control.
• Pupil forgets to put document in thier dropbox folder.

I can’t think of any others right now. As usual I’ve possibly rambled for a bit, but I think I may be onto something here, espeically after a quick Google search to see if this’s been done before and an encouraging GTalk chat with Mrs Blethers.

One of the few things I find like it are teachers using it for file acces like this post by Mark Warner, a primary teacher. And as he twittered me back

Thanks for the comment. Great idea. Student could also save in a shared area for teacher to access / review before next session.

(I’ll have to have a look into that shared area idea. Not sure if you could have a shared folder without someone thinking it’s “funny” to delete another pupils work!)

Head to the site, view the screencast, have a poke about the Tour as they can explain what Dropbox actually does better than I can without my own screencast. If you want to get an account the please use this link: referral as I’ll get a bit extra storage and I think the deal is you do to!
You get 2GB for free, that’s brilliant! As a comparison I have almost 9000 (well 8968) emails in my GMail, some with attachments or .pdfs, word docs etc and I’m currently only using 578MB, that’s just over 0.5GB!

If people like the idea, I will make up a quick questionnaire on Google Docs and link to it, facebook/twitter it, for pupils to give their feedback on. Can people pass this into teachers, IT admins please? Even it’s to shoot this idea down, I would like people to give it a chance.

[*I actually wanted to be a computer networking engineer until I moved schools in 4th year, dropped my computing grade and went the science route, but that's another blog entry]

[This has been about Facebook a fair bit. I'm not tagging people]

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I always think I’ll be able to do these really fast since lots of things float in my head. They hide when it’s time to getting them on the list.
2. I’m proof being left handed isn’t genetic.
3. I naturally have green eyes.
4. I say “bless you” if I hear anyone sneeze, in class, the street, a shop. I’ll often say it and not realise it.
5. I use at least 2 of my 4 desktops on Ubuntu daily. (my desktops are like “spaces” on a Mac, Windows people, think of each of my desktops as an additional computer!
6. I often run before I can walk. I mean this metaphorically, like I jumped into linux and started doing command line installs ( cd [filename] tar jxvf “filename” && ./configure && make && sudo make install) before I found out about the GUI installers and .debs
7. As seen in the last sentence I can ramble about “geeky” things without realising.
8. I normally talk far too fast when I’m either excited or angry/upset.
9. I understand and can talk about more code than I can actually write. This upsets me, possibly to do with #6 (running before walking).
10. I have this insane desire to find out how things work, understand systems.
11. I haven’t bitten my nails for years, the skin about my nails…. about an hour?
12. Spagetti Cabonara is the only meal I can eat that involves bacon/gammon/ham or the like.
13. I am great at remembering names. I could recite at least half of my P1 class. (I was in P1 1989 – 1990!)
14. I get ID’d more often than the average 18 year old! I’m 24.
15. I used to close off when sad emotion hit, I would be like a blank page. I need to share more.
16. Following on from that last one, I like to think I’m a brilliant listener, people could moan to me all day long but I’d rarely moan to others.
18. If I had a last.fm account between Summer 2002 and Summer 2003 I’d have hit 50,000 listens easily.
19. I love music. I’ve been taught piano, cello and percussion. I’m self taught guitar and bass.
20. P.U.S.H – Pray until something happens. I didn’t used to like this phrase but it’s close to my heart nowadays.
21. I can walk, talk to someone and text at the same time. Not looking at my phone.
22. I am 21 months older than Gordon who is 25 months older than Neil. People have though any two of us are twins before.
23. I’m a geek. I used to think the term geek was negative. It certainly is not. I’ve come to embrace this. It embarrasses me at times when I spout useless knowledge and then realise no one understood what I said.
24. I’ve started 3 degrees. I promised my family I’d finish this one. I can’t wait to keep that.
25. I only say promise now if I can keep it.

UPDATE: (sent 0008 GMT)

At the time of writing I was able to get signed into the Personal Identity Portal (PIP) site.

Though, I still get these two warnings when signing in:

and

I found the Personal Identity Portal by Verisign Labs quite a while back. I love it so much that I have it set as my home page.

(Firefox actually crashed at this point initially when I opened a tab to check out the FAQ of the PIP)

The basic premise of the PIP account is two fold.
1. It provides you with an OpenID.

2. It acts as a safe for lots of common log ons. It’s One Click Sign-in is a great idea. (though it takes more than one click now!)
Many people may recognise the name of Verisign from general internet browsing, as a recognised name in internet security.

And this is the main reason I wrote this post. They failed (in my opinion) at their own job.

I first tweeted this first earlier when I tried to sign in.

I posted a few photos in my Flickr showing what words couldn’t describe.

I’d make this post more coherent but my brain has turned to mush.

After reading a few Lifehacker posts about the upcoming Windows 7, I finally decided to head over to the Windows 7 download site.

Now all seem fine, I read the details, chose 32-bit, hit go, entered my Windows Live ID, redirected, confirmed my email address via link emailed to me to prove that yes I entered my email. Then I got to the download screen. I hit Download Now.

Nothing.

I tried again, nothing.

Then I decided to go through what I would call “the back door”. I hit Ctrl+U in Firefox which brought up the source code for the page. Now I knew the download came in the form of a burnable .iso. So I looked at what the last piece of typed text appeared before the Download Now Image.

It is the link to http://www.mpegla.com/ .

MPEG LA is a firm which licenses patent pools required for use of the MPEG-2,^[1] MPEG-4 Visual (Part 2), IEEE 1394, VC-1, ATSC and AVC/H.264 standards. The firm is also working towards pooled licensing of Blu-Ray intellectual property

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_LA

Anyway, I found this link in the code, went to next line and it almost hit my in the face. A URL starting http://wb.dlservice.microsoft.com/ so I found the .iso at the end. Voila! That my friends is the link to the .iso file.

So I have the link and I want the file. Going the obvious route seemed a deadend, that Download Now button just wasn’t doing anything.

Terminal line here I come.

I open a terminal using GNOME Do type wget and paste the link to the .iso from the source code into the terminal and hit return. Result!

I can’t get the screenshot to load in a new window. Click to see the original file here