I'm learning to love BT Openzone. In a "I'm starting to really really hate BT Openzone sort of way". Since a BT Openzone hotspot comes "free" with every BT router, there are rather a lot of them dotted around the place, they show up like weeds every time your computer scans for available wireless networks. Leaving aside the fact that fairly regularly my own BT broadband bandwidth isn't exactly up to snuff, I'm not keen on the idea of random strangers helping themselves to what little I sometimes have so I feel I should expect others to feel the reverse.
But that's not my main gripe.
Out and about with my iPhone I do rely on the speed and connectivity of the 3G network. So why, in 3G areas can I not always send and receive mail? Because my iPhone has detected and glommed onto an openzone network, which appears open but in fact requires a log in and credits to actually use. So I can't. Nor can I send any mails until I manually switch wireless off on my iPhone. Which means I have to remember to switch it back on when I get home. And that should I stumble upon one of the dying band or hippies that still believe in open wireless networks I can't use that without remembering to switch wireless back on.
I'm sure there's not a lot to be done about it. BT seems intent on rolling out BT Openzone and the new nano cells will only make things worse. Here's hoping Apple can offer an option to block Openzone networks from clogging up my phone.
Monday 30 November 2009
Saturday 21 November 2009
24 hours @ tescos
My local Tesco store (Cirencester) is open for 24 hours. I wonder what it's like to spend 24 hours in a giant supermarket?
Annual BBC TV charity event Children in Need provided the impetus for me to find out. 24 hours in a 24 hour store. Obviously if I had just asked them, they would have said yes, sit in the corner out of the way, see you same time tomorrow. There's no fun in that and if CiN has taught us anything it's that fun equals donations. So I decided to try to do the 24 hours without telling them. But how to raise money?
The obvious answer was twitter. The whole idea seemed right up twitters street. Easy for people to follow what I was up to, tailor made for updating people on my progress plus the whole hiding out while under surveillance seemed like a good twitter meme. The only real problem would be rising above enough twitter noise to get people to spot what I was up to, which in the days leading up to the event seemed to be a rather big problem. Handily I had a couple of high profile twitterers up my sleeve to help.
So, at 7.45 Friday morning my wife and a couple of doubting kids dropped me off outside the store and I shuffled in. So far so good. I had thought that the first 12 hours should be easy since the store would be full and I would just melt in. Boredom would be the biggest problem, oh and the awful coffee in the cafe.
Tesc staff were also doing their bit for CiN, with a 12 hour treadmill and cross trainer marathon. 12 hours? pah! amateurs. I have to say though they were expending far more energy than I was. I was reading a magazine.
Time to unveil my twitter secret weapon. A couple of tweets from Robert Llewellyn and Dom Joly (both with many many thousands of followers and Macs that I keep humming) and twitter seemd to start to take notice. The mentions and retweets started to come. People were following. Throughout the day tweets from @bobbyllew kept turning up, along with boosts in the followers for me. And donations too. The target was £500.
The whole day was routinely predictable. Coffee, skulk, tweet, retweet, read. Massage aching legs. Rinse and repeat. Gradually it started to get dark.
At 6 my daugter arrived to help out. Together we wheeled a trolley round the store and did a huge Tesco shop. Then we wheeled the trolley round and put it all back in the right places again. Mr Mark Sunner (@marksunner) popped in with a recharge for my flagging iPhone. While there he contacted a few friends and rounded up a load of extra donation. Then the cafe shut. Damn.
I felt that just hiding in the loo would be cheating since I could just curl up with a book and sweat it out. Likewise stepping outside for fresh air but remaining under the canopy. I asked the followers but they wee 50/50 on this so I stayed inside. Going a bit mad.
One follower had a bringht idea. Get me to perform tasks, in exchange for donations. SoI slipped some fruit into a shoppers basket. Priced up various items, hunted down the cheapest socks (£2 for 5 pairs) and the most expensive item in the store (Sony HDTV) which proved to be my undoing.
For 16 hours security had failed to spot me. However a man shuffling round the high value items and fiddling with a phone late at night was too much for them to miss. Although I didn't know it at the time they were now trailing me via camera and strategically placed staff.
By now, really really bored, I went over to the magazines for a read, and tired I slumped down behind the rack and read a nit of BBC Focus magazine. Unknowingly this put me in just about the only place in the store where the cameras could not see me and security found this just too annoying.
The late night security guard wanted to know what I was up do, Damn! Busted! The deal said I had to come clean so I did. She called the manager, who called the staff over who though it was all a thoroughly good laugh. They all agreed that the day staff should have picked up on me. Glad they didn't though. Would have lost me loads of donations.
It's a strange place a night Tesco's is. After 12 hours I both wanted to carry on and so badly wanted to be found. Being in the store so long was strangely depressing. Is it the same if you work there. I really hope not.
This morning, after a bath and scrub I have totted up all my online and offline donations and I'm happy with my just over £1000.
It was a good twitter experiment but it also proved that even a good twitter meme is hard to promote. It was great to have so much support from so many people though and the immediate interactivity with donators made it much more interesting than just having a collection bucket.
Well done everyone. Quick nap now.
Annual BBC TV charity event Children in Need provided the impetus for me to find out. 24 hours in a 24 hour store. Obviously if I had just asked them, they would have said yes, sit in the corner out of the way, see you same time tomorrow. There's no fun in that and if CiN has taught us anything it's that fun equals donations. So I decided to try to do the 24 hours without telling them. But how to raise money?
The obvious answer was twitter. The whole idea seemed right up twitters street. Easy for people to follow what I was up to, tailor made for updating people on my progress plus the whole hiding out while under surveillance seemed like a good twitter meme. The only real problem would be rising above enough twitter noise to get people to spot what I was up to, which in the days leading up to the event seemed to be a rather big problem. Handily I had a couple of high profile twitterers up my sleeve to help.
So, at 7.45 Friday morning my wife and a couple of doubting kids dropped me off outside the store and I shuffled in. So far so good. I had thought that the first 12 hours should be easy since the store would be full and I would just melt in. Boredom would be the biggest problem, oh and the awful coffee in the cafe.
Tesc staff were also doing their bit for CiN, with a 12 hour treadmill and cross trainer marathon. 12 hours? pah! amateurs. I have to say though they were expending far more energy than I was. I was reading a magazine.
Time to unveil my twitter secret weapon. A couple of tweets from Robert Llewellyn and Dom Joly (both with many many thousands of followers and Macs that I keep humming) and twitter seemd to start to take notice. The mentions and retweets started to come. People were following. Throughout the day tweets from @bobbyllew kept turning up, along with boosts in the followers for me. And donations too. The target was £500.
The whole day was routinely predictable. Coffee, skulk, tweet, retweet, read. Massage aching legs. Rinse and repeat. Gradually it started to get dark.
At 6 my daugter arrived to help out. Together we wheeled a trolley round the store and did a huge Tesco shop. Then we wheeled the trolley round and put it all back in the right places again. Mr Mark Sunner (@marksunner) popped in with a recharge for my flagging iPhone. While there he contacted a few friends and rounded up a load of extra donation. Then the cafe shut. Damn.
I felt that just hiding in the loo would be cheating since I could just curl up with a book and sweat it out. Likewise stepping outside for fresh air but remaining under the canopy. I asked the followers but they wee 50/50 on this so I stayed inside. Going a bit mad.
One follower had a bringht idea. Get me to perform tasks, in exchange for donations. SoI slipped some fruit into a shoppers basket. Priced up various items, hunted down the cheapest socks (£2 for 5 pairs) and the most expensive item in the store (Sony HDTV) which proved to be my undoing.
For 16 hours security had failed to spot me. However a man shuffling round the high value items and fiddling with a phone late at night was too much for them to miss. Although I didn't know it at the time they were now trailing me via camera and strategically placed staff.
By now, really really bored, I went over to the magazines for a read, and tired I slumped down behind the rack and read a nit of BBC Focus magazine. Unknowingly this put me in just about the only place in the store where the cameras could not see me and security found this just too annoying.
The late night security guard wanted to know what I was up do, Damn! Busted! The deal said I had to come clean so I did. She called the manager, who called the staff over who though it was all a thoroughly good laugh. They all agreed that the day staff should have picked up on me. Glad they didn't though. Would have lost me loads of donations.
It's a strange place a night Tesco's is. After 12 hours I both wanted to carry on and so badly wanted to be found. Being in the store so long was strangely depressing. Is it the same if you work there. I really hope not.
This morning, after a bath and scrub I have totted up all my online and offline donations and I'm happy with my just over £1000.
It was a good twitter experiment but it also proved that even a good twitter meme is hard to promote. It was great to have so much support from so many people though and the immediate interactivity with donators made it much more interesting than just having a collection bucket.
Well done everyone. Quick nap now.
Saturday 14 November 2009
24 hours in Tesco's
My local Tesco is open for 24 hours so, I thought it might be neat to try to spend a whole 24 hours in the store and to raise some money in the process.
Now, if I asked I'm sure that Tesco would say fine, but that's not fun, so I'm not going to be asking, just staying. If anyone asks me what I'm doing hanging around the store, then that's it, game over.
I'm guessing that during daylight it's not going to be hard to mingle with the crowds so I'm certain a good 12 hours will be easy, but dull. But what happens as the store empties. Will they spot me? Will they care.
I'm planning to update the world at regular intervals via the magic of twitter so anyone can follow along. Just check for @drhappymac on twitter.
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