Week of 9th November, 2002

Last Week

Monday, 9th November

I should be working today, but I've still got 5 days leave left. I can carry over 3 days, if I use them early in the year, but no more, and the only two days when I can take leave are today and tomorrow. So I did.

I've ordered my new mobile 'phone, as an upgrade to the contract. It's a Nokia (I like Nokias) 6310i - triband GSM (it'll work wherever there's a GSM service that I have roaming rights on) 17 days standby time before charging, infrared, cable or Bluetooth connectivity to a PC or PDA at my end, GPRS for fast (relatively - 40kbit/sec) data access to the internet, WAP, and of course voice and SMS text messaging. It should be here Wednesday morning, together with the SIM card - new SIM suggested, since the latest SIMs support more functions - then I 'phone them and get the new SIM activated. Then Katy steals the Nokia 8210 I currently use. And finally, I pay the upgrade charge on my next bill. There'll probably be a new contract needing signed, but I have no problem with that.

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Tuesday, 10th November

Katy's Motorola V50 mobile, that she bought in late October, has gone faulty. It's supposed to last 115 hours on standby, but only just manages a day. Obviously something is not kosher. She bought it from the Carphone Warehouse shop in Brent Cross, but that's a bit far away, so I'll try the local branch, which has just reopened after rebuilding works required after the Ealing bomb in September last year.

So I did, but they had suffered a power failure - where? All the lights were on... I gave up. Tomorrow. While I was in the shopping street, I picked up a copy of Paint Shop Pro 5, in a bundle with a how-to-use-it magazine and a clip-art CD, all for UKP7.99. This will be a good upgrade from version 4.14, which I currently use. There are some other goodies there as well, but I think they're all time-limited trial versions.


All the frozen hamper stuff arrived today - 9 boxes in all, 4 for us, 4 for Jane's Mum, and one for Ale, her sister-in-law. Jane being busy childminding, I was deputed to deliver Mum's boxes. And had to defrost the freezer first, before packing everything in. It's a big chest freezer, and it's now two-thirds full.

Then back home to unpack our boxes. Our freezer is slightly smaller, and is full, especially since Ale couldn't collect her box of goodies, so that's in our freezer as well.

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Wednesday, 11th November

I tried again to get Katy's Motorola 'phone exchanged. The shop was open, but they only exchange faulty 'phones within 14 days of purchase (this is 6 weeks old) After that you get it repaired. The repair centre is at another branch, 2 miles away. So off I went, handed the 'phone in for repair, and found that turnaround on repairs is currently about 2 days - which is remarkable, considering that Katy's Sagem took as many weeks when it needed repair.

And now I find that Katy doesn't want it any more - that's about UKP100 of her money down the drain. Luckily, it was bought SIM-free, without a connection, and hence not network-locked, so we could use it for anyone who requires a 'phone (given a usable SIM, of course)

Then I dumped all the hamper goodie boxes, plus some other cardboard that's been lurking in the garden for a while.


My new 'phone arrived this afternoon, about 4 p.m. (so much for morning!) just before Katy got home. And when she saw it, she said, "Ugh, ugly. It's too big. Can I have the 8210, now?"

Answer, NO - not until I get the new SIM activated. The Customer Service hotline is busy, and the queue dumps you out after a few seconds - no explanation, just music cuts to silence, then number unobtainable tone. 3 times that happened. So I waited a while, meanwhile charging my new toy. Talking of which, the new charger looks different, although the manual says old-style chargers can be used, which is good, because we have old-style chargers coming out of our ears, including my car charger and USB charger.

While this was happening, there was much bustle, as everyone got ready for the school Carol Service. Eventually, I got through to the Customer Service line, and told them the new SIM number (16 digits, no less!) They said that it should be activated within the hour. Result.

Now to get the new 'phone manager software installed on Antbear. An install CD comes in the box with the 'phone, but I'd already downloaded the appropriate version from Nokia (choose "Support" from the menu and then choose your handset model from a dropdown list. Be warned, it's a 27.5MB download - not a good idea if you pay by the minute.

I tried the CD first. It autoruns - very aggressively, even if you use TweakUI to disable "data CD runs automatically" and insists on playing a Flash animation at you, followed by crappy music as you browse the menus, and even while the chosen installer runs. This, of course, doesn't work - the music gets broken up while the installer loads. It's difficult to escape from, too. But I finally succeeded, and tried the downloaded installer, which ran blessedly silently, and installed a lot of software. I've yet to learn what it all does, and how to drive it, but at first glance I don't need most of it (a ringtone composer? For me? I should co-co) Things will probably change, especially when I get a GPRS data connection activated, so that I can get my e-mail while on the road.

One application extracted my list of contact numbers from the 8210, and then wrote it back to the 6310i - saved a lot of typing, did that. Then I tried to get the 6310 modem set up. Nokia have a downloadable setup programme, which I tried to get from the CD first, and crashed Antbear trying to avoid the crappy animations and music. Then I downloaded it (2MB) and ran it. As far as I could see, all it did was install a Nokia conrol panel applet, before crashing. Oh, it did add the necessary .inf file. While I was doing that, Vodafone killed my old SIM, and enabled the new one.

So now I have a working GSM modem, which will become GPRS when I activate that service. I can get that for no monthly fee, and UKP0.70/MB of data - tolerable for occasional e-mail.

Net summary of this bustle and movement - I'm on the new 'phone, I have IRDA-connected GSM fax modem, and the 8210 is clean, ready for Katy to use - she claims "Only to get used to the keypad before I buy a 6510, later." We shall see. Her present Nokia 3330 then becomes a spare, as will the Motorola V50, once repaired.

One lesson - DO NOT use the supplied CD, it is likely to seriously affect your PC's health, and your sanity.


I've also (finally!) installed V3 Call Center, free edition, for fax and voicemail (if your modem supports it). The install was painless, most of the aggro came from trying to get the Xircom CM33 PCMCIA modem installed. It was a bit of '2 steps forward, 1 step back', but I finally succeeded. Not tested yet, but I have hopes. No voicemail, just Class 1 and 2 fax.

I have the ideal application to test this - one of my pension providers didn't propagate the Direct Debit for my personal pension. It's their cock-up, their computer sent me a letter saying, "These are the new details we have for you. If they are correct, you need do nothing." They were, so I did nothing. BUT, this happened 5 days after the computer failed to collect a payment (from the old account, closed 4 days before) This set a 'don't try again' flag, I think, and despite another part of the computer knowing about the change, the new details weren't inserted into the active payments queue. For FOUR months. This despite the fact that a Whole Life insurance policy with the same company propagated correctly - payable on the same day, yet.

Eventually, I smelt a rat, and 'phoned up to complain. And now, of course, because of their error, I have to fill in a form, to tell them to restart contibutions. I'm sure nothing would have happened, if I hadn't got a bit abusive with the 'phone slave, and told him to do something or I'd pick up my marbles (and money) and go elsewhere.

They did, but I have to fax proof of earnings to them before they can reactivate the payment - why? Probably something in 6 point type in an appendix to an appendix to the Act of Parliamant that governs this situation.

11 p.m. I had a brainstorm - the connector on the bottom of the Nokia 6310 resembles the accessory connector on the 5110 'phone I used to have. It's 7 contacts, with a locking notch at either end - the connector makes pressure contact, held in place by a spigot at each end that engage with the locking notches. I still have the headset adaptor - Nokia special connector one side, standard 2.5mm mini-jack on the other - so I tried it. The Ora earplug handsfree kit (with accessory answer/call button (and a 4 pole plug) comes back "Accessory not supported". But the Plantronics M120 headset, which doesn't have the button, works - at least the 'phone recognises the presence of the headset (probably by sensing the current drain of the electret microphone inside) and I can hear bleeps and tones when I play with the keypad.

I also still have the 5110 data cable, which should also work - a bit redundant since the IR is already up and running, but extra ways to connect are always a good thing.

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Thursday, 12th November

Much bustle and movement today, preparatory to my leaving for Wales. Some last minute shopping and fill up Jane's car with petrol (and idiot me forgot his plastic money cards when filling the car, so had to walk home, collect cards and return to garage to pay) sort out some things that we will take to Sarah in Bangor next week, finish my computing chores, and then away to Wales.

Barring some heavy traffic, and associated stop/go driving, around Slough and Reading, it was an easy trip - in the dark, of course, this being nearly the Solstice.

In among all that lot, we got the 'phone call - Katy's Motorola 'phone is repaired, come and collect it. So I did, complete with new battery.

My Mum is still painfully thin, but she claims to have not lost any more weight, so that's a good thing. She seems to get smaller every time I visit, which is a bit worrying.

She is coming with us for our timeshare exchange week in mid-Wales, and then back to London for Christmas. We leave for the timeshare on Saturday morning. Check-in is at 2 p.m., and when we know whether there's a freezer in the cottage, I am under orders to 'phone Jane to tell her. If there is, she will bring frozen food with her. Else we will buy locally.

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Friday, 13th November

To Mumbles today, so that Mum could get her hair done, then lunch and last minute shopping, ready for departure tomorrow. Mum also exchanged presents with her friends, since this is her last day in Mumbles before Christmas.

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Saturday, 14th November

The trip to the timeshare today. We left about 10.45 a.m., expecting the trip to last about 3 hours, based on experience last summer. It didn't - it took about 2 hours. I'd forgotten that the trip was a lot longer in the summer - 90 miles, insteadof only 60. So we stopped in Llanwrtyd Wells, at the Cambrian Woollen Mill, for lunch (their all-day breakfast - 2 rashers of bacon, egg, sausage, baked beans, tomato, fried bread, toast and hot drink (tea or coffee, to choice)) Heartily recommended, at UKP3.45 each for a plateful of well-cooked food.

We killed a bit more time looking at the woollen goodies on display, and then continued, finally arriving at about 1.45 p.m. - a little early for check-in, but no problem. The apartment is a conversion of an old farm building, done in period style, and very well done. It promises to be comfortable.

All our plans were built around having good mobile connectivity - but the resort is just over a mile up a steep-sided valley, and signal strengths are none too good at the end of the valley - inside there's virtually nothing, unless you stand in exactly the right place...

Eventually Jane arrived, about 9 p.m. with Hopalong full to the brim with kit, including some stuff that will travel on the Bangor when we go to visit Sarah next week.

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Sunday, 16th November

The bed is too hard for my taste, I ended up with backache this morning, but otherwise we will be very comfortable here - barring Katy who is already feeling withdrawal symptoms from lack of texting capability. And she's got her new 'phone, a Nokia 3410 - more money than sense. Either that or she's obsessed with the latest "'phone as status symbol", I'm not sure which.

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Next Week