neville's Comments

NevilleHobson.com : Huge disappointment with Lloyds TSB

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:59:08 +0000

The whole thing stinks, imo. It amazes me, too, although that's the deal - pay $350 million and everyone quietly moves on. Makes a mockery of the bank's code of business conduct.

NevilleHobson.com : No genius at O2

Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:46:24 +0000

Which is clearly my mistake - I saw the iPhone as an Apple product but O2 as the go-to place for service issues, especially a warranty issue. Traditional thinking; must learn to unthink :)

NevilleHobson.com : No genius at O2

Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:17:09 +0000

So what I'm getting from all your comments is two things: 1. If I'd gone to an Apple Genius bar rather than to an O2 store, I might well have left with a replacement iPhone. Instead, after a visit to O2, I'm sitting here with no iPhone and about another week of waiting still to go before I see one again. 2. A seriously increased feeling of being aggrieved about O2. As for the Twitter contacts from @O2UKOfficial, I'm a little nonplussed. I think the PR folk are trying to see how they can engage with people in the Twitter environment. That is terrific. Yet engagement in this medium more likely than not means addressing customer service issues. And I mean addressing. PR isn't the best avenue - unless the PR person can make things happen. No indicator of that so far.

NevilleHobson.com : FIR Cut: Blubrry lifeline for Podango customers, introduces Powerpress plugin

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:31:47 +0000

Thanks for that clarification, Rob.

NevilleHobson.com : O2: phone service awful, store service great

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:30:33 +0000

It would have been totally awesome if the O2 store had been able to swap out the phone there and then. But I guess warranty claims aren't so easy to enable that without going through all sorts of procedures. And I noticed from the printout I have that all the data the O2 employees input was on an Apple site, not O2, and the new iPhone goes to the store in Reading, not direct to me, and I have to go in to pick it up. Not the simplest or quickest of procedures from the customer viewpoint but I'm ok with it. What would really have impressed the hell out of me would have been if the employees had been able to say "Can we provide you with a temporary phone while you wait for your replacement iPhone to arrive?"

NevilleHobson.com : Wikio top 30 UK tech blogs for Jan 2009

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:24:55 +0000

Thanks everyone. That's a good point re Google Friend Connect, Bernie. I'm still not wholly sure what the real value is of this service but the growth in community is impressive.

NevilleHobson.com : Starting the fifth year of the FIR podcasts

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:22:49 +0000

Thanks, everyone, I really appreciate your comments.

NevilleHobson.com : Reflections on 2008

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 10:34:11 +0000

Great videos, Bryan! And audio. You, too: keep up the tinkering :)

NevilleHobson.com : Reflections on 2008

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 10:31:52 +0000

Hmm, wonder why this reply to Mark's comment is out of sequence - I made the comment after Mark;'s so it should appear as a link to his comment, below. IntenseDebate bug.

NevilleHobson.com : Reflections on 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:03:52 +0000

Lol, Mark, thanks. Terrific bingo! Hope we continue connecting in 09. Love to hear more on FIR from those students of yours, too! Happy New Year to you.

NevilleHobson.com : More confidence needed in IntenseDebate

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:30:08 +0000

Good point re plugins, Dave, I'd forgotten to mention that in my post. There are four plugins I used before installing IntenseDebate that don't work with ID installed: seesmic Comment Quicktags Reloaded Friendfeed comments Subscribe to comments Of them, seesmic is the crucial one for me; it's bitterly disappointing that it no longer works. For visitors, I've had 2 ask me re subscribe to comments. Decision time approaching whether I continue with ID or kill it. An influencing factor will be my theme: once it supports comment threading, I'll have less desire for ID.

NevilleHobson.com : Powerpress: A viable alternative to Podpress

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:08:51 +0000

Thanks, guys, appreciate your comments. I think you have a winner with Powerpress, especially as it enables Podpress users to easily migrate. Angelo, that conversion feature you mention looks very interesting indeed and I look forward to more news when you have it.

NevilleHobson.com : Twitority fires a first shot at authority search on Twitter

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:45:10 +0000

Thanks for that link, Chris. Keeping up with the depth of opinion about Twitter and all things related is becoming more difficulty by the day.

NevilleHobson.com : Twitority fires a first shot at authority search on Twitter

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:43:45 +0000

Heh, thanks for that! Retweetradar looks a different tool to me, though: it finds re-tweets only. No matter, another tool :)

NevilleHobson.com : Twitority fires a first shot at authority search on Twitter

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:42:43 +0000

Maybe we just realize that Twitter is a simple tool that isn't designed to do all or many of the things so many people talk about wishing it did do. Unless someone, somewhere, evolves it somehow to do those things. Or get close to it. That's what I think Twitority is right now. No one says anyone has to use it.

NevilleHobson.com : Twitority fires a first shot at authority search on Twitter

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:54:15 +0000

That's a possibility. Also a possibility that the online discussion that's ongoing won't cease and there will certainly be no agreement on the value or otherwise of authority search for Twitter, never mind a definition of 'authority' itself. I wonder if searching Twitority for 'twitority' would overload their servers...

NevilleHobson.com : A Twitter half dozen

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:05:22 +0000

A good link to add, thanks. While we're at adding links, let me include OMG, We're Not BFFs Anymore? Getting 'U..., a Wall Street Journal feature published on Christmas Eve. Timely for many!

NevilleHobson.com : Reporting from the front line at Tesco

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:11:42 +0000

The podcasting plugin now on this blog is Blubrry Powerpress. I switched to that about a month ago to replace Podpress which is, basically, useless with the latest version of WordPress.

NevilleHobson.com : Reporting from the front line at Tesco

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:33:42 +0000

Usually I'd do the conversion from AIFF to WAV with Adobe Audition 3. But instead I used a nifty and quick app called Switch Audio File Converter. Free, runs on Windows. Long time since I used Audacity but, from recollection, it does open AIFF files which you can then save in other formats, eg WAV. As to why do the conversion at all (in case you were wondering), the reason was that Levelator only supports WAV files.

NevilleHobson.com : Christmas cheer 2008

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:27:54 +0000

Just reading your post, Ellee. I'm sure we'll meet up soon in the New Year, no doubt at one of those social media events in London. Meanwhile there is Twitter! Have a great Christmas.