Getting Ink

Moving from Virgin (back) to BT

In March of this year, I blogged about the problems I had moving from BT to Virgin. After I blogged about my frustrations, a very nice man from Virgin Media got in touch and did some magic that created my new account, and my broadband was soon up and working. I had three routers, for some reason, but I didn't dwell on it.

The only downside of the intervention was that somehow Mr Nice had created a whole new account for me, and I was paying a direct debit onto the first account I'd created. For some reason, Virgin couldn't get its head around this. So somewhere around June, my phone was cut off because Virgin hadn't collected a payment for three months. I called, paid the bill in full, provided the bank details again. 

Cut to November. A letter arrives from Virgin, saying they're sorry I'm cancelling my service. What?? I log in to my account and discover - again - no payment has been taken for three months. I pay the outstanding balance online and called Virgin on the 10th.

"Well, the thing is you're showing as a former customer, so I can't activate your account."

"Er, okay, well, just tell me what I need to do to get my broadband back."

"Well, it's very complicated."

"Right. So do I need to pay more? Set up a new account?"

"Well, I can't tell you. I'm not sure how long it might take if you did. It's not my department." 

"So, would it be quicker for me to just set up a new BT account and leave this one closed?"

"Well, I don't know. Maybe."

I said thanks, put the phone down, went to BT.com and ordered a new broadband account in five minutes flat. I was given an email address and password there and then, with an activation date of the 16th - six days later.  

I'm pretty happy. BT's broadband, in my experience at least, is faster and far more reliable than Virgin, and I'm now paying £20 a month or so for a service that used to cost me more than £120 last time I was with BT. And I get free WiFi in Caffe Nero and Starbucks again, which is no bad thing.

The real stinger in the tail, though, was a letter I got from Virgin the day after my last conversation with them. They wanted me to pay the £11 for broadband and phone service in November - which would usually fall due on November 30th. "If you do not make this payment IMMEDIATELY we will instruct a debt collection agency, who may take legal action against you..."

Blimey, guys, way to make a parting gesture.

I've got your number

My name is Sally, and I’m a stats addict.

I can’t help it. Blog and website stats simultaneously satisfy my nosy instincts while also feeding the complex mix of insecurity and ego that propels most journalists into the business.

It started small. I looked at my Typepad stats once or twice a week, and saw how many page views I got. Then I started to look at ‘average daily’ stats, and referral pages, and it was a download slope from there.

Before long, the Typepad stats weren’t enough to keep me going. I had to install Google Analytics. Now I could see search terms that drove visitors to the site, how many people looked at each specific page, and how many times. I could even identify the network location of visitors, and got a thrill if I saw someone from the BBC or News International was on the blog, while comparing which PR agencies and publishing companies were regular visitors.

For a while, it was enough. I’d have a look at Analytics once or twice a week. Everything was cool. Under control.

But a little voice in my head demanded to know more. So I knew that three people using a certain ISP visited the blog on a specific day, but who were they? What did they want? When someone arrived at the blog after searching for “Sally Whittle blog” I’d immediately wonder why they wanted to know about my blog. Maybe it was a potential client, or maybe it was someone who secretly wanted to sue me for something. Or I suppose it could just be someone, like, reading the blog. But how could I know for sure?

So perhaps it was inevitable I’d end up with Statcounter then Sitemeter. It’s free and it tells you just about everything you never needed to know about every single visitor to a site, short of their shoe size. Individual IP addresses, locations, time and date of visit, exit and entry points, referring pages – the whole shebang. And of course, as all fellow paranoid freaks know (even if you pretend not to), a quick examination of an email from someone reveals their IP address.

So now I know who hits the site, when, how often and for how long.

Obviously this knowledge makes me no happier or more content than the blind ignorance of the early years. Because now I’m forever thinking: “Why did that person  view that page 50 times??” or “They only stayed for 10 seconds. Harumph. You can’t possibly appreciate the subtle humour of that post in ten seconds. Loser. I never liked him.”

I’m going to bet 50 quid I’m not the only one, though. I think we should have a support group or something. With rich tea biscuits and big urns of tea, a safe place where we can share confessions of how we’ve set up Google alerts and reverse-engineered IP addresses. It’s a disease, you know.

Movie Project: what film always cheers you up?

As you may have noticed, blogging has been a bit light in recent months.

True to form, the moment my work settled into a nice, predictable pattern, the universe decided to turn everything else in my life upside down – just to keep me on my toes.

So while I’ve been dealing with broken cars, friends in crisis, a crumbling house, a complicated love life  and the sheer, unadulterated joy that is finding a decent primary school, my movie project has stumbled a bit. After a long day of drama, the last thing you feel like is sitting down to a sub-titled exploration of existential angst.

So, here's what I'd like to know: what movie do you watch after a rubbish day, when you want your faith in life and people restored, or you want to at least laugh until your sides ache? For me, the movies I watch on those days tend to be things like Big, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Princess Bride and (of course) Breakfast at Tiffany's.

What are your recommendations?

For those who are interested, here's my 2009 movie list so far:

The "movies that are totally worth your hard-earned cash" list:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Slumdog Millionaire
Coraline 3D
Persepolis ( thanks to Anne W for this one)
Spellbound
Lords of Dogtown
Best in Show ( thanks to Jess for that one)
Man on Wire
Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Zoolander
Star Trek (the JJ Abrams one, especially when I spotted Meghan's cameo)
The Beat that My Heart Skipped
Che Part I and II
Milk (thanks Alexandra W)
The Wrestler
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Let The Right One In
I’ve Loved You So Long ( thanks Joanne Mallon, I cried for about two hours)
Napoleon Dynamite (thanks Emily W)
Duck Soup (thanks Dom W for a GREAT recommendation!)
Run Lola Run (this one came from Lynn, I think)

The “movies that are really good but not great if you’re depressed” list:

No Country for Old Men
Fargo
Changeling
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Nil by Mouth (thanks Kate H)
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning ( thanks Crawford)

The “not everything I hoped it might be” list:

Taxi Driver
Complete History of My Sexual Failures
Inconvenient Truth
No Way Home
Moonstruck
March of the Penguins
Il Divo
Monsoon Wedding
Run Fat Boy Run (sorry Yeelim)
Wall E (Yes, Natalie, I BLAME YOU)

The “guilty pleasure” list:

Twilight
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
17 Again
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
The Boat That Rocked
Son of Rambow

The “Oh Dear, I think my soul just died a little” list:

Mamma Mia
Knowing
Monsters Inc
Night at the Museum

Let's do away with Monday morning blues

Over recent weeks, I've been playing around and looks at various online music services including last.fm, Spotify and Pandora. I must admit, I love Spotify so much I've virtually stopped using iTunes in the office.

One neat feature of Spotify is the ability to create and share playlists. So on Friday afternoon Katie Moffat was looking for recommendations of new songs, and I was able to share my playlist over Twitter. In return, Adam at RealWire shared his excellent playlist with us.

Seeing Adam's recommendations reminded me of some old favourite tracks I hadn't listened to for ages, as well as some new ideas. So here's my thought: what's your ideal Friday playlist? Here's mine, and I'd love recommendations for next Friday and I'm tagging Louise, Jed, Chris and Anne if they're up for the challenge? 25 tracks for a Friday afternoon.

For those of you without Spotify, my playlist looks like this:

1. Sex on Fire, Kings of Leon
2. Supermassive Black Hole, Muse,
3. Under the Bridge , Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. Lithium, Nirvana
5. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) , Green Day
6. Here Comes Your Man, Pixies
7. It's the End of the World as we Know it , REM
8. Lullaby, the Cure
9. Blasphemous Rumours, Depeche Mode 
10. Enola Gay, OMD
11. Pretty in Pink, Psychedelic Furs
12. You and Me Song, the Wannadies
13. Days Like These, Van Morrison
14. Catch the Wind, Donovan
15. Stop This Train, John Mayer
16. Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell
17. Alive, Pearl Jam
18. Creep, Radiohead
19. Love Breaks Down, Prefab Sprout
20. Forgetful, Frazier Chorus
21. Free Fallin', John Mayer
22. Cross Your Fingers, Laura Marling
23. Baby, You're My Light, Richard Hawley
24. Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley
25. Will's Lullaby, Joshua Radin

Movie Project - Update

I’m making some progress on my 100 movies project. It stalled a little this week, as I realised that a) I need to actually put in some billable hours sometime soon or deal with homelessness and b) I have not made great progress on the whole work/life balance thing lately, and I should probably put some thought into it before I’m 65 and too old to have a life.

That said, I’ve been making some progress on your recommendations.

Thanks to Joanne, I watched I’ve Loved You So Long, and thought it was one of the best films I’ve seen in a really, really long time. Completely absorbing, very moving and the acting was just first class. Thanks to Jess, I saw La Vie en Rose, which I also loved – really fascinating. My French movie trio was rounded out with The Beat My Heart Skipped, which was breathtakingly good.

On Sky, I caught Moonstruck, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Taxi Driver (not the cheeriest film ever, is it?). Thanks to the miracle of Lovefilm, I’ve also seen Into the Wild, An Inconvenient Truth, The March of the Penguins, Spellbound, Lord of Dogtown and No Country for Old Men. Sorry to say I got a bit bored by the penguins, but the others all rocked.

At the cinema I’ve seen Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Confessions of a Shopaholic (yeah, so shoot me) and Twilight. I live in Lancashire, they’re not big on independent film in these parts.

So I’m about 15 down, with another 85 to go. Any recommendations not yet listed?

In return, I think your lives could only be improved by seeing Into the Wild, I’ve Loved You So Long and The Beat My Heart Skipped. Oh, and then download the Eddie Vedder soundtrack to Into the Wild – it is utterly awesome.

Just one more reason to love Twitter

I posted a little comment of outrage on Twitter a week or so back when I heard the X-Factor winner would be releasing a version of Hallelujah, the classic Cohen/Buckley track. I got a few responses back from people who all feel, like me, it's just not really on.

Strictly Come Celebrity X-Factor on Ice nonsense has taken over weekend TV with its manufactured drama and disposable pop puppets - but I don't care. I don't watch ITV, I don't generally watch weekend TV, and the whole thing pretty much passes me by. But messing with my musical memories? That's something else entirely. Why can't they cover Westlife, or Barry Manilow, or some other nonsense? It's not like any of those X-Factor watching muppets actually cares about music, is it? So why go out of your way to offend those of us who do?

Of course, raging at 11pm on a Saturday night (while simultaneously trying to compare different methods of calculating risk on investment portfolios) is deeply unsatisfying. But I was saved by Twitter, which is positively boiling over with rage at the producers' choice of X Factor single.

Praise be for the Twitter tweeps and especially Emma, Anne, Jed, Badger and all those urging us to go and download Buckley's version repeatedly to keep X-Factor off the Christmas number 1 spot. I feel vindicated.

Hey, idiot: just cos it's online, doesn't mean it's free.

Am pretty fired up this morning.

I spent a year or so working on a project for a particular company - retaining copyright of the content. This morning found that some moron has ripped off virtually the entire site. Have spent the last hour printing and saving copies of the site before they change it, and letting the lawyers know that I'm totally up for a fight.

Seriously, why do people think that just because something's online, they can just nick it? If I invest my time and expertise in creating something, you don't just get to take it. Well, you can but I'll be on to the lawyers before you can say "plagiarism".

Also found a useful site for those who think their copy might be ripped off by robbing idiots. Go to www.copyscape.com and enter a website address - the search engine then looks for pages on the Internet that have replicated or plagiarised your copy.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

I just deleted 23,695 emails. I could swear my computer feels lighter already.

That's all.

Q: When is a blog post not a blog post?

A: When it's a temporary post, of course!

RSS feeds are great for many reasons, but especially when they tell you someone posted something which was later deleted. For example, Chris Green has been virtually slapping PR agencies that displease him again:

My RSS reader tells me a  post on his blog begins:  3 Monkeys, or should that be 3 Cowboys? It's been a very, very frustrating day - I've been trying for a while now to pull together some information on the new Skypephone (due for release in the next few days) and ideally get a review handset for IT PRO. Unfortunately, 3's PR company is giving me the runaround. 3 Monkeys - the PR company...

Click to read more, and it says the post no longer exists.

It's funny, because I've known Chris professionally for 10 years, he's a great guy and I don't think he's a bully. But deleting a critical blog post makes the journalist look as though he was using the blog to get attention and force the PR agency's hand, rather than to make a point to his readers. And I'm not sure whether this is fair - because in most cases, it's a one-sided fight, and the PR agency can't really defend itself.

Would it be better to leave the post up there and update it to say the issue has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction? Or should journalists not be allowed to bitch-slap? (Sidenote: I really liked Morgan McLintic's comment here about how journo blogs slating PRs are poor practice, but if all you have to hand is a hammer, every PR starts to look like a nail.) 

Sally gets a promotion

So it seems I'm a "social media maven" these days. Or at least, I am according to this post from Kare Anderson at MovingFromMetoWe.

I hope this doesn't mean I need to start using Plurk. Because from what I can tell at the moment, social media just means downloading more stuff that actually? DOES NOT WORK.

I seem to spend increasing amounts of time getting 'bad request' messages from the likes of Facebook, Friendfeed and the Filter. And let's just not even talk about Twitter and Twitterific. Hard to be maven-like when you can't even refresh without someone telling you the server's down.