Justina wanted a kitten, and here she is…
Molly has been with us since last Wednesday, she is eight weeks old. She runs, jumps, pounces, sleeps, eats and has settled in really really well. She loves her red shoe laces, which she’ll chase, eventually catch and then run off with and chew.
Alex has adopted her twin sister, Ebony…. who is living with Nicki and Alex in Chelmsford…
Here is a Molly video:
Working on the BBC Blast Truck last year was one of the best summers of my life, it meant travelling all over the UK with the truck to create opportunity for young people in film making, animation, art, music, dance, etc etc etc….
BBC Blast is a great thing for young people, and the outreach tour is an amazing experience, if it pulls up in your town, go, it is well worth it.
Last year the main room within the truck had 15 Sony Viao PC laptops on the round tables, which were unreliable and in seldom demand by the facilitators in comparison to the three MacBook’s which sat in the studio. We found more and more of the facilitators working with the young people wanted to use the Mac’s for their workshops…. the PC’s were redundant at most locations while the three Mac’s were in constant use.
One big lesson learned from the 2006 tour was that the truck needed less PC’s and more Mac’s.
I arrived on the first day of the 2007 tour in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, to find the main room within the truck flooded with 12 new MacBook’s plus the three existing from the 2006 tour, there was not a PC in sight. The MacBook’s, which can run Microsoft Windows (dual boot) did not have Window’s installed.
I worked on the truck for three days running a film school with a group of young people, who did exceptionally well and created some excellent short films during their time with me. We worked with Final Cut Pro after an initiation in iMovie.
Last year, under the ‘Ultralab’ flag myself, Hal and Hamish acted in the ‘Lead Facilitator’ role for the duration of the national tour helping all the local facilitators to plan their workshops and deliver the Blast experience. ‘Lead Facilitator’ is a role that does not exist for the 2007 trip around the UK due to changes in the way the tour is being run this year.
It is clear to me that the 2007 tour will be very different to the 2006 tour, and I wish the BBC and the new truck team all the very best of luck in delivering the Blast experience.
Today we received confirmation that we’re officially a supplier to the BBC. Our team have been working in conjunction with the BBC on many projects since 2001. Under our new flag at ‘Cleveratom‘ it is great to continue the work….which begins, for me, tomorrow on the BBC Blast truck on its first stop this year, in Hatfield at the University of Hertfordshire.
I’ve been up to my neck and beyond working alongside Hal on the Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning project.
We’ve been working in the Yorkshire and Humber region filming school leaders and their staff talking about the impact of Virtual Learning Environments on school life… We’ve been working with seven schools. Kris Popat (a former colleague from Ultralab) has been conducting the research report for the project, which will be turned into a booklet… Alex (from our team) is currently looking into the design, Hal is building the DVD structure.
The films I’m currently editing will be distributed by DVD to a further 2500ish schools across the region to help schools understand what VLE’s are, and what schools are doing with them…
Every school in this country is required to have a VLE installed by the end of 2008….we’ve found some great uses, experiments and even failed implementation attempts which should help other schools get on the right track from the start of thier own research, investigation and implementation for their VLE….
The final DVD will be launched by Professor Stephen Heppell in May.
Back to the edit….
Witham Riverwalk is a really nice asset for the town (I’ve written about it before.)
Three things that really wind me up about living in Witham:
Last year I was featured in the Anglia Ruskin University Department of Computing Prospectus as a former student (Business Information Systems 1997 - 2000) working for the University in the Ultralab department. In December 2006 the University closed Ultralab and I left with colleagues to form a new company which went on to continue working in the same field.
In January I was contacted by friends in the Department of Computing to request a re-feature in the prospectus for the new feature….which is distributed to anyone showing an interest in taking up the course…. this is what was printed for 2007 on page 2:
“I completed my degree at Anglia Ruskin University in May 2000. By November, I was back at the University working for ‘Ultralab’.
Ultralab was a world-class learning, technology and research centre, it was respected for its innovative thinking and projects which engaged technology with learning. I worked all over the world with governments, broadcasters, companies and charities on action research based projects to learn from and empower people. I had the time of my life.
In January 2007 I joined some colleagues in the formation of a new company we called ‘Cleveratom Ltd’. Cleveratom builds on the research and skills I developed from my academic career. We’re working with organisations such as the BBC, Apple Computers, British Computer Society and schools internationally to develop online social spaces, design schools of the future and empower learners with the power of digital creativity technologies.
Luck, risk taking and determination have helped me along the way but my degree still remains fundimentally important in helping me get on.”
Matthew Eaves
BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems
Click the following link to go through to the Governments Vehicle Licence Website… it is really quite interesting. The page allows you and me to input details of vehicles to find out if they are taxed or not, and how much the road tax for each vehicle actually is. (Click ‘Vehicle Enquiry’ followed by ‘Next’ to get there).
Thinking outside the box this would mean that I could input details of old vehicles myself and my family have owned as I know the ‘registration plate’ the ‘make’ and the ‘model’ ….. and I can find out if those vehicles are still on the road.
For my first car, a (no jokes please!!) Vauxhall Nova (made in 1990) - no record exists
2nd car was a green Astra (1996 model) - still being taxed each year apparently
3rd car (1998 Astra) - has apparently not been on the road since February of this year
4th car (2000 Accord) - taxed and still on the road… Dread to think what the petrol bill has been for that juicy thing!
And of course, the car I drive a the moment is taxed as you would expect…
But more interestingly, looking back at some of my parents old cars (which are now all off the road) found our old blue Fiat Strada… with ‘go faster’ stripes along the door…. Many happy a time we had travelling in that car on holidays down South…. my brother and I had hardly any leg space as the foot wells were full of bedding and sleeping bags… We both threw up in it too, at exactly the same moment, when we were very young…..
The family sold the vehicle in 1988….
R.I.P Strada (looks like it stopped driving in 1993) ….
Being a new business we not yet had time in our days (and nights) to find or make a software solution that works for us in tracking our projects - so our ‘blue board’ was born.
Basically we keep a track of our workload by ‘moving around’ bits of paper between the various sections of the board…. not ‘cutting edge technology’, I know… but absolutely brilliant for keeping on top of everything we’re up to at any one time.
As a new project or proposal is generated or arrives it joins the board in the form of a ‘post-it note’, getting promoted to ‘printed text on a piece of white paper’ if it is lucky enough (when we get some time)…. right now the ‘post-it notes’ contain the last three weeks of additions.
Sticking in a ‘blue pin’ means we’re ‘on the case’ …. sticking in a ‘red pin’ means ‘action required’….
I’m really proud of our board as a temporary solution and recommend it to any new business as a great way of keeping on top of what you are up to …. till you have the time to turn it electronic….
Rarely do I use this blog to moan about something these days, it would take exceptionally poor service for me to go on a rant…. and never did I ever think it would be ‘Comet’ who could be so bad.
In November we bought a washing machine with a built in tumble dryer for the flat. In Comet a model was on display with a ’scratch on the front’, because of this, a £50 discount was offered, we bought it and took it to the flat. Now back in November we were still ‘doing up the flat’ so had no need to wash clothing…. we installed the washing machine, noting that the instruction booklet was damp and there were further scratches each side of the unit….the unit had obviously been installed before and returned to Comet…. it we had the plumbing working and the water turned on, I’d have tested it there and then….
Three months later….water on, plumbing working… we turned it on …. and set it to wash some clothing. Minutes later the machine was banging loudly and attempting to cross the kitchen floor by jumping forward. Water started pouring out of the flats emergency overflow pipe and the machine turned itself off and then started flashing red lights which in the manual meant ‘call for a service engineer’.
I called for a service engineer, arrangements were made for the ‘next possible visit’ one week later. The service engineer came, could not find a fault, left.
We turned the machine on again….set it to wash…..it jumped forward about half a foot, the liquid draw shot open and poured over the floor. We turned it off. We called the service line again. A service engineer came out, could not find a problem.
Next the Indesit washing machine flooded the kitchen. A phone call to the Chelmsford store to complain receives a rather sharp comment that there is nothing the store can do for us as the machine can only be replaced within 28 days of purchase, beyond 28 days a repair is the only option unless the service engineer writes the machine off.
Another call to Comet Service, this time, lets just say….I’m getting a tad cross now, it has been three weeks. An engineer is booked and visits a couple of days later, he finds there is a problem with the machines module and orders a replacement. He describes the problem with the machine trying to ‘change gear’ from 1st to 5th gear without going through 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Finally, somebody who knows what is wrong with the machine. The part is ordered.
A week later Comet call to say the part has not arrived and they wont be visiting on the agreed date to fit it, they suggest a date a week later. I tell them that I’ll have to check availability and will call them back. By the time I call back an hour later, while Jus has arranged with her employer to have that specific day off….Comet have booked out the engineer to another house and can no longer visit on that date. I moan a lot and eventually Comet agree to send somebody on the date suggested by them in the first place.
By now it is four weeks, three engineers and a washing machine that still has not managed a wash. The service engineer finally arrives, takes the machine apart and then realises that the wrong part has been ordered. Justina tells them we don’t want the machine anymore.
I phone the Chelmsford store and ask to speak with a Manager, explaining the situation we are in, the fact that we’ve had the machine since November and have only been able to use it for the past five weeks…and that it has never worked, four people have been out to see it, not fixed it and ordered the wrong part.
I’m assured that the Manager will call me, they never did… I called again, and again, and again. I was never put through to the Manager each time I called, I was always calm and friendly, the phone answerer was always helpful but deflective.
A week later, in week six a letter arrived to say that we could have a refund or replacement but had to take the letter to the store we bought it from, with the receipt in order to process our return. We drove to Chelmsford and waited ages at the customer service desk till somebody arrived to deal with us. I was told that we could have a brand new machine even though the previous machine had been discounted, but we could not have a discount on any other brand. I suggested that the store might consider we don’t think the brand we had bought was reliable, we’d rather have another brand and we had had by now six weeks of problems, discount another item Comet! Comet stood their ground and I declined the offer from a staff member who, quite frankly, was working to a very low level of customer service. I accepted the refund. The refunder booked the next available slot to collect the machine which was a week later on Sunday. Fantastic, the machine that had caused so many problems was to sit on the landing for another week, in the way, causing obstruction…. till Comet could be available to collect it.
We visited a rival store and used our refund to buy another washing machine with a built in tumble dryer which works perfectly, they even delivered it exactly when they said they would…. The rival store staff member, who was very helpful commented on our situation saying “we get a lot of customers in here who are unhappy with the service they get over there”.
A week later Comet collected their machine, which leaked dirty water and cleaning fluids all down the staircase as the collection representative turned it on its side to carry it down the stairs. Genius. New carpet then Comet? I doubt it.
On the leaflet that came with the receipt Comet print in big letters “With you every step of the way.” I put it to them: ”Where and How?”
I’m surprised by Comet, and I now know where not to come.
