The grumpy thread

[Guest]

I was told today by a girl on my placement that I'd never make it as a journalist because I don't have an iPhone.

 

I didn't know whether to laugh it off or argue in no uncertain terms about Apple kit being depressingly average bilge cleverly marketed. As I was otherwise getting on well with her, I went for the former (OMG WAT IN SOCIAL SKILLZ SHOCKER).

 

Well, the newsroom have their own iPhone, so I'd just use theirs. They also use TDi Golfs as news cars. I'd just drive theirs as and when. No skin off my nose. Anyone spot the similarities or is it just me?

 

It seems that there is also a purpose for Twitter, that I can fathom as well. It's very useful for breaking news feeds. As a result, I now have an account.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Urgh, blinkered Apple lickers - countless phones are just as capable as iPhones.

[Richard]

As far as I can tell pretty much all reported news these days is regurgitated from Twitter. I think it's even superseded Sky's previous tactic of just making everything up.

[brammy777]

Well I work at O2, and the amount of awkward customers who own the iPhone is around 75%, they always seem to have an issue with the warranty if they get a replacement handset. And they seem to think it's waterproof, trust me, any amount of water that turns the indicator paper a different colour on the inside will render the warranty void and you will get hit with a £139 repair quote (optional). Whilst they are good phones (I have one), they aren't the cream of a bad crop anymore, the Samsung ones, and HTC ones are good. Put it this way, HTC phones are so reliable we have to book them in as manufacturer 'other' when they come in for repair, it's that rare.

[Guest]

Depends what sort of journalist you want to be - if you want to be the sort of tosser who rewrites press releases and talks about viral Internet trends, I'm sure a "smart" phone of some description makes the job easier.

 

If you want to be a proper journalist, you won't need one of them as you'll be too busy doing proper investigative work - talking to people, sneaking around places, gaining information. Priorities for your phone would more likely be aimed towards reception and battery life, not reading some dumbass Twitter comments. I wouldn't mind being an investigative journalist, I've certainly got enough leads to go off.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Substitute 3 Mobile Internet for Tesco and you have the same problems. From being seriously good at customer help and nothing being a problem Tesco have been sodding awful the last few years. Every bloody time the internet disconnects (and trust me we're talking countless times a day mostly) they have a different excuse.

 

I try to avoid buying anything Tesco. While there are companies out there that are less ethical, Tesco has grown so big that it has the entire UK economy by the balls. A friend works in their HQ and she said they are planning to open even more stores...watch out for your house becoming a bloody Tesco Express!

 

Plus their supermarkets are usually filled with mouthbreathers lusting over OMG PLAZMA TELLY- shopping at Aldi or even Morrisons is bliss in comparison.

 

What's even worse is that my (Orange) SIM seems to be a bit buggered and the call quality is awful, so I can't even call 3 to tell them just how shit their connection is.

 

Depends what sort of journalist you want to be - if you want to be the sort of tosser who rewrites press releases and talks about viral Internet trends, I'm sure a "smart" phone of some description makes the job easier.

 

That'll be 99% of journalists then, and (probably) not because 99% of journalists are lazy twats- it's just the nature of the job these days.

[brammy777]

To anyone with a 3G phone suffering from web issues and call dropping, it may be worth checking to see if you SIM card is a 3G one, because if not, they can really struggle. Free to get a replacement, with the same number too.

[myglaren]

Looks like I need to look for a landline provider and ISP- good luck finding one who doesn't want to tie you into a 393743297 year-long contract.

Post office?

 

3G wise, If you've got one of those old Huawei E220 modems, crack it apart and pop a proper antennae on it. Costs about a quid and made mine into a relatively stable connection whilst we waited for line+DSL in this place.

 

Take a look at Plusnet.

I have no grounds for recommending it but they come across quite convincingly.

 

You may have to move to Yorkshire of course but that can be seen as a bonus

[myglaren]

OOPs

Just looked at the blurb and it would seem that you have to have a 12 month contract, which is not what they were previously advertising. They had a sort of PAYG scheme.

[M'coli]

It seems that there is also a purpose for Twitter, that I can fathom as well. It's very useful for breaking news feeds. As a result, I now have an account.

Have you broken any news feeds?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Looks like I need to look for a landline provider and ISP- good luck finding one who doesn't want to tie you into a 393743297 year-long contract.

Post office?

 

3G wise, If you've got one of those old Huawei E220 modems, crack it apart and pop a proper antennae on it. Costs about a quid and made mine into a relatively stable connection whilst we waited for line+DSL in this place.

 

Take a look at Plusnet.

I have no grounds for recommending it but they come across quite convincingly.

 

You may have to move to Yorkshire of course but that can be seen as a bonus

 

My modem is a ZTE MF (how appropriate) 112, reasonably modern design. If anyone knows of any antenna-related mods, I'd be happy to do them because I really don't need a landline (I have a VOIP-in number for receiving calls, my sim-only contract includes unlimited landline calls, and my internet usage isn't much heavier than the 7GB allowed by 3 for £25).

 

Post Office sounds good- I was with them before, and they were quite pleasant to deal with so I guess that they'd be the best option if I had to get a landline, as long as they still allow the use of other ISPs.

 

I am in Yorkshire, and, in spite of the fact I only know a handful of people round here, a friend of a friend was involved in some questionable financial dealings in Plusnet a few years ago!

[CreepingJesus]

I'll +1 on the 3 thing. They've really gone downhill in the last few years. Remember when the 'Free Stuff' included Angry Kid? Not any more, the free stuff, they couldn't pay me to take. There used to be a free forum called Kink, which was top stuff. Not any more.

I've actually stopped calling the call centre now, because every pathetic excuse for the signal (phone and data) dropout, is blown out of the water, by one simple fact. I can see their mast from my living room window.

To be fair, it's much worse during the day, when the local area is busy. So that's a clue. Doesn't explain why it drops off at about 2-3 am, when there's no-one around. Wonder what happened there? They're still better than T-Mobile (previous supplier, and lying bastards), so I'll stick for now.

I have a collection of Huawei modems! Apart from the aerial mod (yet to get round to on mine), the best thing to do is get them unlocked, and load in the Huawei software. It pisses all over 3's connection centre.

[Cavcraft]

Who there, hang on a minute: Is this the same '3' who started with mobile 'phones a few years back? The same '3' who made it virtually impossible to use said 'phones because the only bleeding shop that stocked top up cards was on the Isle of Skye and only opened between 00.00 and 00.01? And the same '3' that even if you ever managed to put credit on their crap 'phones made communications slightly worse than 200 miles of damp string and two plastic cups?

If so I'm utterly asatounded they lasted more than about three weeks in business.

[Richard]

This is what Station had to say about 3 a while back. Still makes me laugh.

 

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

giffgaff, FTW. http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/mrbungle

 

Not very good for internet on devices other than your 'phone though, they don't allow tethering.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Who there, hang on a minute: Is this the same '3' who started with mobile 'phones a few years back? The same '3' who made it virtually impossible to use said 'phones because the only bleeding shop that stocked top up cards was on the Isle of Skye and only opened between 00.00 and 00.01? And the same '3' that even if you ever managed to put credit on their crap 'phones made communications slightly worse than 200 miles of damp string and two plastic cups?

If so I'm utterly asatounded they lasted more than about three weeks in business.

 

They're owned by a seriously loaded tycoon from Hong Kong, so no problems lasting even if they don't really make any money.

Their phone service has always been pants, but the mobile internet used to be the dog's bollocks until about 2009, and it's just bollocks nowadays.

[Pillock]

3 customer service once advised me to clean my SIM with a soft cloth when I phoned in to report that one of the buttons on my phone wasn't working - it didn't click, it didn't register. It was a broken button. They refused to assist any further till I wiped the SIM contacts.

[Guest]

It seems that there is also a purpose for Twitter, that I can fathom as well. It's very useful for breaking news feeds. As a result, I now have an account.

Have you broken any news feeds?

 

No, but I've managed to piss off several thousand Man U fans.

[CreepingJesus]

3 is a sort of 'arms length' part of Hutchison Whampoa, Whampoa being the tycoon referred to. They are/were more commonly known as Orange in the UK. What's going on with the whole thing, I know not.

All I know is that the phones were, and always have been good up here, and as far south as the M62 (which is usually as far as work takes me) line. It's always been good in the common dead spots in the A69 corridor, Borders, Highlands and Aberdeenshire.

The mobile broadband coverage used to be pretty much as good, even in 1.3G mode: now it's just rubbish.

Funnily enough, it started to go south ( ) when the 'improvement map' showed them getting round to London and the S.East. Given the number of 'server not found' messages I get, I reckon they stuck a load of masts up, but didn't really up the servers at the same time. Still, as far as the web is concerned, I'm in Bolton...

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

3 is a sort of 'arms length' part of Hutchison Whampoa, Whampoa being the tycoon referred to. They are/were more commonly known as Orange in the UK.

 

Isn't Orange part of France Telecom, or did they decide to sell the whole thing off in a bid to stop employee suicides?

[CreepingJesus]

^I don't honestly know! In the start, 3 was a result of Hutchison splurging loads of cash on a spare 3rd Gen license, presumably with the intention of growing it, and selling for a tidy profit. Since then, the spider's web of investments/takeovers has passed me by. Does seem unreasonably complex, tho'.

[Pillock]

Orange is now part of Everything Everywhere, which includes T-Mobile. Eventually Orange and Magenta will merge and you'll get that weird grey that you get when you mix all the colours of plasticene together.

It does mean I can roam for free onto Orange though which is nice.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I don't understand why governments (even the most ostensibly 'market-loving' ones) have to restrict mobile phone licences any more than they have to restrict burger van licences. Do they do it to make more money from the auction process etc, or is there a physical reason for it too?

[CreepingJesus]

Orange is now part of Everything Everywhere, which includes T-Mobile. Eventually Orange and Magenta will merge and you'll get that weird grey that you get when you mix all the colours of plasticene together.

That was part of my confusion. That and 'Everything Everywhere' resuming chasing me for a debt of £64 to T-Mobile, which they were told at the time, they could go whistle for. It was for the service I didn't get, which caused me to leave them, btw.

At primary school, a few friends and I tried to invent a new colour. That's what we got. We called it 'Ghoulash', 'cos Stuart said it looked like something his mum had made for tea, once.

And yes, the UK government's made a packet out of licensing phones. Every time a new format becomes viable, the whole merry-go-round starts anew.

[trigger]

3 is a sort of 'arms length' part of Hutchison Whampoa

 

Hutchison also own the Port of Felixstowe, So technically i work for Hutchison, the whole phone network at work is powered by 3 and is pretty useless, and as a employee of Hutchinson I'm entailed to large discounts on there mobile services, no one bothers those as they are shit and those who did take up the offer have left them now anyway.

[CreepingJesus]

While I'm sure that a diverse portfolio, which can be cross-fertilised is a must for any mega-corp; I had no idea Hutchison owned Felixstowe! You learn something every day, they say. The day's less than 10 mins old, and I've learned something. I'm gonna spend the rest of the day being bloody ignorant. Sorted.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I think the tycoon's name is Li Ka-shing, which is quite appropriate. Asian conglomerates, be they Indian or Chinese, seem to be much better than the Europeans and Americans at operating in a number of different sectors, which makes quite a mockery of the fact that a lot of Asians go to the US, the UK and the rest of Europe for their management education.

[trigger]

I'm glad you feel learned CJ! Hutchison own several ports across the world, in Britain alone they own Felixstowe, Harwich and Thames Port, Their yearly turnover must be billions.

[ashmicro]

I'm glad you feel learned CJ! Hutchison own several ports across the world, in Britain alone they own Felixstowe, Harwich and Thames Port, Their yearly turnover must be billions.

 

 

We should get 3 Minis, a Land Rover from AlbertRoss and a coach, go to Triggers work, and do "The Autoshite Job". We'd get caught when the Minis broke down..... I could do the computer-thing like Benny Hill. As some of you know my surname really IS Hill! We could have Pete-M to look intimidating, and Cavette to tell us to "c-c-calm down, eh?" when it all gets a bit busy. See? I have thought about this.

[autofive]

ggrrrrrr

 

i went to local market this morning and spotted a lovely lathe, complete with tools and 3-phase convertor, i checked it over and agreed a price.

Went to the ATM about 500 yards away and when i returned with the cash someone was loading it in a van, having offered more money than me