I was shocked last night to hear about Michael Jackson’s death.
In my opinion he was the greatest recording artist to have ever lived. His Thriller album is the biggest selling album of all time.
He was undeniably a troubled man, and may he rest in peace. My thoughts are with his family.
Just launched a new site focussing on my recent problems with Yell Ltd.
You can find it here: yellscam.org.
It was an enjoyably easy process! I use Media Temple as my hosting service, and they offer a 1-click wordpress install! Fantastic. It’s not the latest version, but once installed, it’s a 1-click upgrade process, and a 1-click template install process! Couldn’t be simpler.
From buying the domain, to having a live working site was less than 20 minutes in total!
Once up and running, I checked some search terms - it was ranking first for yellscam.org, yell scam, yell advertising scam within 2 days!
I’m pleased to see that other terms such as Yell CEO are also ranking in the top ten already!
If you know someone that advertises on yell.com - you might want to tell tham about this issue.
I took out an advertising program on yell.com in November 2008 that cost me roughly £1750 exc VAT for 1 year.
The basis of that program was that my ad would appear in their search results under certain search criteria. They show 10 results per page, so my ad would be on the 1st page roughly 10/total advertisers on a random basis. IE, if there were 100 advertisers i would appear roughly 10/100=10% of the time.
Earlier this year, they changed their systems to offer what they call ‘heavyweight’ listings and normal ‘mediumweight’ listings. All listings are mediumweight, unless you pay an additional fee to become a heavyweight listing.
The search results still show 10 results per page, but now show up to 6 heavyweight listings at the top, followed by 4 or more mediumweight listings. Therefore, by chances of appearing on the front page have been reduced from 10/total to only 4/total; or, if there are 100 advertisers, from 10% to 4%.
I called to enquire about this change on the 20th April 2009. I was unsure as to whether this was a breach of contract, so I had asked for someone to point me to the relevant section of their T&Cs. I was called back 15 days later, on the 5th May 2009 and directed to their terms and conditions.
Point 10 states:
we may modify Yell.com or any of the Services from time to time without prior notice but in so doing we will try not to diminish the value and utility of the Services to any material degree. If we consider, acting reasonably, that such modification is likely to have a serious detrimental effect on your financial position, we will notify you of such modification and you shall have the option to:
1. agree to the modification and continue to receive the Services; or
2. terminate the Services and you will be entitled to a refund of that part of any Charges you have already paid to us and which relates to a period after the date that the Services have terminated.
Fundamentally, I believe this to seriously diminish the value and utility of my advertising program and was not offered either of these options when the new system was introduced. I voiced my opinion to the person on the phone and asked for my payments from the date of introduction to be refunded. I was told they would not be.
I then asked if yell.com believe this change could seriously diminish the value and utility of the service offered, I was told it did not. I then asked for that statement in writing - specifically, that a drop of up to 60% in adverts appearing on the front page was not a serious decline in value and utility. I was told that I could not have that information in writing by the person I was dealing with. However, they did offer to consult with the legal team to have a statement prepared and would get back to me when it was completed.
I would like to point out that it was at this point that my wild sense of humour kicked in and I asked when they thought that might be. As it had taken 15 days for them to reply the first time, would it take another 15 days? Would it take 2 years? Or would it take 60% longer than the first time - if so, I might consider that to be a serious drop in value and utility of their customer service! I also asked the representative if they knew if the letter would be written in full, or if i’d only get 40% of the words on the page. I was told that they did not know how to answer that question!
As of time of writing, I am waiting to find out what the response from their legal team will be, although the personal oppinion of their representative was that I would not have my payments refunded. I am waiting with baited breath.
I read about this in the Metro this morning…and reckon it’s definitely worth 5 minutes of your day!
Danny MacAskill riding around Edinburgh.
There are a couple of great articles which thoroughly explore how to remove the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification popups that appear, including this one.
However, i couldn’t find anything to help you remove the wgasetup file, the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Installer when it has been downloaded but not installed.
To do so, follow these steps:
Please note this post is not intended to help people copy Microsoft software and this website does not support such behaviour. 
I’m looking to buy 1 or 2 new computer systems for the office and would really love to find a company that is a suitable alternative to Dell.
Due to my problems with my previous order, i’m very keen to not to do business with Dell again. My requirements are:
If you, or anyone you know, knows a company that can offer this and more…comments would be much appreciated.
Google street view has been hitting the news recently, not because it is offering something new, but mainly because it’s by Google. The service offers the ability to view images of towns from street level, allowing the user to move along roads in a ‘virtual’ world. It’s an interesting service, and it certainly poses some powerful questions about privacy, although that’s not the subject of this post.
I have recently used Google maps, combined with street view, to find businesses, hotels or restuarants in parts of the world that i’ve never been to. I found an electronics retailer in Pottsville, Australia, i found a hotel and a Japanese restaurant in Manchester - all thanks to these services. Now this technology is not new, you have been able to search online directories for nearly as long as the internet has been around, but street view definitely adds another level.
I was called by someone who was not sure where they were going, they knew what street they were on, but not which way to go. Pull up street view, check it against Google maps and hey presto…”you should see a cafe on your left, walk past that then take the next right”. It is a truly revolutionary step. The ability to step inside the map and actually see the streets, see the shops and read the signposts makes the task so much easier.
Formula 1 has only been with the BBC for 2 days, and already there’s some disappointment.
Firstly, they did not show the Friday practice session on TV, only radio. ITV used to show all 3 days, but due to rule changes in recent years the Friday session changed from a qualifying session to a practice session. However, it didn’t stop ITV giving full TV coverage of the days events.
Secondly, Formula 1 action is not available on the iPlayer! Apparently due to ‘rights’ issues. This is perhaps the most disappointing part of it. I was looking forward to being able to watch the action any time - and what a fantastic facility that would be.
It’s not surprising that it’s not available, it’s inline with Bernie Ecclestone’s tight-fisted grip on the sport. Personally, i’m a fan of allowing unlimited access to generate awareness and involvement in the sport, and then generate revenue through that user base.
It’s also fairly obvious that McLaren are not coping well with the recent car design changes - is this a co-incidence? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but i’ve never seen Ecclestone say a good word about McLaren or Lewis Hamilton. In fact, in his rookie year when he was a race away from victory, Ecclestone very boldy and camly stated that he would not win the championship - almost as if he knew before hand!
EDIT: the race is available on the iPlayer for 7 days. I’m not sure why qualifying was not - perhaps it will be next week.
FeedMyTorrents is a crafty way to stay up-to-date with your favourite TV shows latest torrent offerings…without all the hassle of searching for each one individually!
I’ve been using Google Apps to manage both my personal and business email for quite a while, and Gmail for a few years before that. I noticed a few months ago that there were lots of new features being tried out in Gmail under the Google Labs project, but was disappointed that they weren’t availalbe for Apps users.
Today, however, I’ve just signed into my account, and alongwith a makeover, Google Labs are now available in Google Apps - I love it! There are cool pretty useful features in there…such as a forgotten attachment reminder.