Phil Bradley's weblog

Who tweeted it first?

First Tweet - Who Said It First on Twitter is a nice tool which makes it really easy to find out who first used a particular word or phrase on Twitter. You could always do this by going to Topsy and running an 'all time' search and resort according to oldest first. A few examples...

The first mention of 'CILIP' was from @davinagifford back in Jun 2007, and the first use of #CILIP wasn't until @lisaburscheidt used it in February 2009. #Savelibraries first got mentioned by @WildWildSound in June 2009.

It's a fun little tool and one of those Friday afternoon 'Oh, I'll just try one more word' resources. However, it's got a serious useful side if you're researching a particular event or company for example.

Blocking nuisance calls with technology

I don't often write about hardware, let alone non-internet related hardware, but since I've found a really good gadget that has already made a big difference to me, I thought I'd share it. I've been getting a lot of those annoying phonecalls - 'we're not selling anything', 'we just want you to take part in a survey' or 'did you know about the government scheme?', to say nothing of the 'We're Windows technical support' rubbish. The Telephone Preference Service is about as much use as a wet Wednesday on a weekend so I looked around to see if I could find something that was a bit more helpful, and there is. It's a phone produced by BT called the 8500 which blocks up to 100% of nuisance calls.

The way that it works is that you put in a list of your VIP numbers - those friends and colleagues who ring you on a regular basis, or who you are happy to get a phone call from. You can have up to 200 listed if you're really popular. They just come straight through, and your phone rings, just as normal. However, what you can then do is to also bar numbers - such as international calls, and these always get blocked. (With the exception of your VIP list I think). You don't even hear the phone ring; the caller just gets a message saying that they have been blocked. You could also do the same thing for witheld numbers, or from a particular region and so on. For everyone else, you set up a message to say 'Before you get put through, you need to be announced' and the caller has to say who they are. The phone then rings, and you get to hear the name. You can then let them through always or just once, or you can block their number or send them to voicemail.

I have to say that it's a really nice service, and I'm delighted with it so far. You can get 1-4 handsets and they all update from the main phone. I'm sure that there are other devices out there that do a similar job, but this is the solution that I found, and I love it.

(Disclaimer: as with all of my other posts, this is not an advert, nor have I been paid to blog about it, and I'm just a happy customer of the product.)

The Tagged social network; not a good idea

I spend quite a bit of time trying out new resources as you know - I blog the good stuff, ignore the rubbish but seldom remark on it. However, I'm making an exception for www.tagged.com which states on its opening screen "Millions of people are having fun and making new friends on Tagged every day. You can too!" Always interested in trying out a new social network, so I signed up for it. What I didn't expect was a bunch of emails from them that sounded exactly like a a dating site. For example: "Phil, open this email for 12 people you should meet :)" and "Phil, these people clicked YES on you in Meet Me! :)" Oddly enough, lots of them seem to be very attractive nubile young ladies, and to be honest - I have my doubts!

Waste of time and space. Don't touch it with a bargepole.

Demon Internet - how to lose a customer in 3 easy days

This is partly a rant, partly a discussion of appalling customer service. I've been with Demon Internet Services, an ISP since 1992, right from when it was an independant company through to it being owned by Vodaphone. They've always offered a good service, which is why I have stayed with them. Now, some of you may know that I had an operation recently which meant a lot of time sitting doing nothing, which leads to me spending a lot of time watching catchup TV and watching YouTube (as you do).

Next thing that I know is that I get a threatening email from Demon entitled 'Demon Broadband Fair Usage Policy - Warning Email' It explains that I am close to (not at, not exceeded, but close to) a capped limit of 60GB over a monthly rolling period. The threat is that if I exceed my 60GB then my service will be capped at 128kbps between the hours of 9am and 11pm which basically means that it would be close to unuseable. I have been getting these emails every day for the last three days - they're automatically generated, so it's not surprising. I did a bit of digging around and eventually wound up talking to a very nice chap by the name of Alan. It transpires that the contract that I'm on is an old one, and there's a newer, cheaper one available - well thanks for telling me! However, it's not close to the price or speed of something like BT Infinity, which is where I'm going to next.

I really didn't want to move - mainly because of inertia but also because I've had good experiences with Demon. However, any company that treats its customers in a threatening and harrassing manner really doesn't deserve my loyalty. I did try - my requests were simple - stop sending me harrassing emails, and put my usage back to zero, so we can carry on. Apparently that's not possible - I would need to go onto a new contract with a 12 or 24 month agreement, and that's just not going to happen at all. Alan was apologetic, but said that there was nothing that could be done, which is of course nonsense, because they're not going to have a system that they can't play around with and reset.

So well done Demon! In three days you've managed to turn a loyal customer into one who is going to be leaving you as soon as possible. The moral of the story is that (as we all know) companies don't care about customers, they're not interested in loyalty, and they seem to think they can threaten, bully and harrass people with no comeback. We're not back in the 90s - there are plenty of choices available to customers - it's just a shame that not all companies understand that.

Spotify for literature

We generally tend to think of Spotify as a resource that streams music - and of course that's its primary goal, but it's worth knowing that as well as music, Spotify provides other things - such as sounds of nature (great if you want to get off to sleep listening to the sounds of rain or jungles or wotnot), but there's also a lot of spoken text as well. If you're a fan of Robert Frost the great American poet, there's some great recordings of him reading his own work, and it sends a real thrill down the spine to be able to hear him. If poetry isn't your style, how about listening to Sherlock Holmes, read by Basil Rathbone or Sir John Gielgud? While we're on Mr Holmes, how about listening to Mr Cumberbatch reading late night tales?

Can I tempt you to Jane Austen novels, or The Scarlet Pimpernel? How about Anthony Valentine reading The Count of Monte Cristo? If you fancy something a bit chilling, there's a collection of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James or the Best of Edgar Allen Poe?

Whatever your tastes, you're almost certain to find something that's interesting.