Saturday, October 18, 2014

Error 404

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Me and My Girl


Monday, October 14, 2013

The future is bright...

Just sent this to Orange - hope I get a reply soon!

Dear sir/madam,

I'd like to know what is going on with my order/upgrade dated 1/10/2013
My mobile number is 07*********
Account no.: ********

You have taken the money, and the phone service is stating my next upgrade is due on 1/10/2015 - so the order must have gone through - but when I rang 150 from my mobile device to check on my order I had the following problems;

* The first time, I requested an email confirmation of my order, but was told that there is no process for this. I was told that I could receive a text confirmation, but only after my new handset had arrived (even though the handset would be confirmation enough, surely! I wanted confirmation before that!)
* I was then passed on to another assistant who did not seem to be able to find my upgrade order! She then found something saying I had upgraded to an iPhone 4S, but that was 2 years ago on my last upgrade. I said I had ordered an iPhone 5S and she said that was only available on EE, despite that not being mentioned at all during my order, and the orange website displaying iPhone 5S plans. Needless to say, I was starting to get worried, confused and dissatisfied. As an orange customer of almost a decade, I'm not feeling that my custom is being respected.
* I was then passed on to a member of EE customer services who couldn't find my information, so wrote down my name with a PENCIL to try and find my order. He had my mobile, and - I thought - my account details but still didn't seem to have any record. We we're cut off, and I had no call back. Rather than go through all that again, with the waiting and constant verification of who I am, I hoped I might get a clearer answer via email.
Also, I am aware it may take up to 30 days to receive my phone.

I would like;
* confirmation, as soon as possible, of my order either vie email, via text or via mail.
* if possible an update on my order
* my order reference numbers, if they are not attached to the order confirmation
* the ability to check the status of my order online, so as not to waste your customer service agents time anymore

One more thing - as a former customer service agent for a major international company (Office Depot UK) I am fully aware of what should be expected from large, successful companies like yours who rely on customer retention. I don't think, in my experience, enough is being done to serve your customers. I'm not saying I want a courier to bring my phone today, or any free stuff, I just want simple questions answered and to feel like I am respected as a paying, long time customer.

Kind regards,
Benjamin L. Harris

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Bad Science in Star Trek Into Darkness

I’m sure this isn’t the only bad science, and bad science doesn’t necessarily mean a bad movie, but I had to get this off my chest;

The Co-ordinates that Khan gives to Kirk lead Scotty to Jupiter. Here’s the problem - co-ordinates refer to a fixed point in space. The Federation is not an intergalactic organisation, so these co-ordinates must use EITHER the centre of the galaxy as a reference point, or possible the solar system (they are an interstellar organisation after all, so must organise based on Stars, not planets). Now, it takes Jupiter a hella long time to orbit the sun (over a hundred years, right?) and moves very fast - it covers an extraordinary area. My issue is this - how could Federation coordinates possible track a moving Jupiter? Jupiter - in the scheme of things - is ridiculously tiny.

Admittedly, Khan could calculate for Jupiter’s changing location within our solar system (itself moving around our stellar neighbourhood, itself moving around the galaxy) - its only maths after all - but he could only do that if he knew precisely when Kirk was going to visit… Which he didn’t.

WHY THE CO-ORDINATES!?!?

Also, The Enterprise warps away from Quo’nos (not Kronos) and is eventually shot out of Warp by The Vengeance. They end up about a quarter million kilometres from Earth. That’s within the orbit of the Moon! They went from an alien world to almost earth in a matter of minutes? How close is Quo’nos?! Lets look at the (very basic) Maths. The nearest star to ours is Proxima Centauri, in the Alpha Centauri System. Four light years away. It takes light (a starships speed at Warp One) four years to get there. Quo’nos is significantly farther than our nearest star - otherwise, they’d be in Federation space right? So then it would take tens, hundreds, thousands of years, more, for light to get from there to here. The Enterprise makes it in a few minutes (okay, so they’re travelling from the Neutral zone and not Quo’nos but the point still remains). This means they’re going significantly faster than the speed of light. Hundreds of thousands of times faster. More?

Light takes about nine minutes to get from the Sun to Earth - about four seconds to get from the Moon to Earth. If they’re going thousands of times the speed of light, divide that four seconds by respective thousands. If they had been shot out of warp a THOUSANDTH OF A SECOND LATER they would have overshot the Earth. Sulu wasn’t even reaching for the ‘throttle’ of the Enterprise!!! Imagine the quickest he could reach up and pull back was two seconds - they’d have overshot the solar system completely!

WHAT IS GOING ON? WHY THE SPEED?! It makes more sense in Spaceballs when the go to Ludicrous Speed!

Finally, Kirk dies for, like, minutes without being frozen (not even sure cryogenics would preserve brain function). Even magic Tribble Saving Khan Blood - IF it could bring back the dead (is Khan immortal?) - could not restore a brains function, especially if memory and consciousness are electrical impulses as they are theorized to be. Kirk would be brought back as a vegetable or a giant newborn baby.

WHY THE JESUS?

- Regards,
Ben

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Avengers UK Commentary

God Damn You, Disney! And God Damn You Tesco!

It seems that the UK release of The Avengers (I'm not calling it by that shitty other title) on DVD and Blu-Ray don't have the Joss Whedon commentary track. Apparently it was recorded too late to include on our discs. So why does Tesco have it down as including the track? Because they're useless c*nts. They got it wrong, and no one there apparently has the ability to EDIT A WEB PAGE!!!

And big companies wonder why people illegally download. Okay, it's usually greed and criminality, but in some cases its to get a sense of fairness. Well, I shall be attempting to get hold of the commentary without paying extra for it, and I hope I do not have to resort to illegal means.

Ben

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Seal Clubbing

A picture of Seal Clubbing.