Web 2.0 - Robust as a thing which isnt very robust

Isnt it worrying how something as big and sacred as Wikipedia can actually be so financially strapped.

This article over at 901am demonstrates how fragile the new web ventures are. Firstly Wikipedia is HUGE and extremely important, everybody pretty much uses it and we've all come to accept it as everyday web life.. much like Google.

So the concept that it might not be there anymore in 4 months time is pretty worrying. Of course somebody will step in and fund, bound to just for the publicity that they could be the money behind Wikipedia, and some strange satanic handshake in the background. It'll be interesting to see if their "no advert" rule goes away and they end up with commercial sponsorship.

I wonder how many of the big web ventures are close to the edge like this? Although... most allow advertising to generate revenue so probably not that many...

Veg weekend

Ahhh a weekend of nothing.

Up late after daft lay in, open email, sigh heavily when I realise that I still have a mountain of things to do, then give up and watch the rugby.

What an utterly depressing match, despite England winning against Italy 20-7, it wasnt a match that went well. Ireland in 2 weeks time will not go down well if England play like that again. Especially as I've been sat here watching it with a person from Irishland. Can't lose against them it would be extremely humiliating, again, and I'd never hear the last of it.

I intend to do yet more nothing tonight...

It's still really weird not having a passport....

I cant feel my legs..

Today was an interesting one. Big day.. crunch day in fact.

The company has decided, in their divine wisdom in my role of "Global Solutions Director" (oooh), that I should really be doing it from the USA. Which most people already know, but this is only possible if I have a US Visa. So today was my day with the US Embassy begging to be let into their country.

For a start the lead up to this was frighteningly stressful, the paper work from our US Attorney's handling my application only arrived at 7pm last night, giving me just enough time to get everything photocopied at the office, and get my photo taken.

Left stupidly early because I was paranoid, travelling from Bedfordish to London, this would normally take me 3 hours, and my appointment was at 11am, so leaving at 7:30 was still cutting it far too fine for my liking. Oddly there was NO traffic, and I arrived in London at 9;30. Just enough time to get a cup of coffee and panic a bit more.

Without going into the whole process in too much detail it took me almost 4 hours at the Embassy, but 3:45 of that was just standing around in line or waiting.

Upside is, I'm all stamped through, approved and just waiting for my passport back.

On the whole it's been very emotional and very scary... also it's very weird not having a passport

For the love of1 (&$*(@)#*@

Right, I've really had it now. Lost temper, tantrum time... I got back to the states to find my dad had forgotten the golden rule with my beloved Porsche 911... always start it and run it once a week... Unfortunately, he forgot, and then didnt use the key in the ignition, so not only did the car commit suicide but the battery is completely dead.

This now appears to be a common problem with 911's from around my year (1998), put simply, I just need to charge the battery. But the boot and bonnet release are both electronic. Meaning I cant actually get to the battery to change it.. Numerous suggestions and routes have been, and are being explored. First up was a jump start device that works between the cigar lighters of two cars.. idea being is to supply enough charge to the batter from a donor car to allow my car to start... that didnt work. Second route is currently in progress, which involved handing over a moderate sum of cash to Porsche in exchange for a trickle charger/charger which plugs into the cigar lighter, and other end into the mains socket. Slowly it's supposed to feed power to the battery.. it's showing that the charger unit is on, but not showing any current going to the battery. Porsche said to give it an hour, so fingers crossed!

If this doesn't work, the third route is to dismantle the bonnet release lever mechanism.. which will require the purchasing of Allen keys and lord knows what else just to be able to undo the whole thing.

All this just to charge a battery!?!??! Sheeeeeesh...

An absence of humanity..

This is probably going to end up on my other work in progress travel blog when I finally get a name for it.. but here's another joy of being overseas and trying to make simple things work.

Despite having used my mobile several times this morning, about 2 hours ago it completely died on me, and refused to believe that any cellphone networks existed in the UK. So, after much resetting, swapping of SIM cards and confirming that everything's okay with the phone and it's just the SIM that's messed up, I caved and called T-Mobile USA customer service...

First of all I get a stupid automated voice system, that doesnt understand any variation of "my phone is f*cked". The conversation went much like this:

T-Mobile woman: "Tell me what service you'd like?"

Me: "My cell phone wont connect to a network"

T-Mobile woman: "I'm sorry, I didnt understand that, tell me what service you'd like?"

Me: "Network problems"

T-Mobile: "I'm sorry I cant give out billing details through this system, is there another service you'd like?"

Me: (sigh) "My cell phone wont connect"

T-Mobile: "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you, please tell me what service you'd like, for example, how many minutes do I have left"

Me: (sobbing) "there's no network... please help..."

T-Mobile: "I'm sorry I'm having so much trouble understanding you, let me pass you onto an operator"

Me: (still sobbing)

Eventually an operator comes on, I give her my account details, and she goes through the system.. then says "what can I help you with today". I explain im in the UK and roaming, that I cant connect to a network, I explain that I've tried manually selecting a network, swapping the sim with a different phone and so far nothing's worked. So, for the sake of process she asks me to just try a manual network selection again, at which point I pick up my phone to find out whilst I've been screaming at a voicemail system it's fixed itself, and is happily telling me it has 4 bars of service on the O2 network, and that I have voicemail. B*stards.

I'm convinced there's some guy in bangladesh or some obscure country laughing his arse off over the whole thing. Just like all those times I've been asking for phone numbers from automated systems where "PC Warehouse" sounds like "George's El-Paco farm". Bah.

It's not just the customer service angle either, even in my own company I'm not free of it.. yesterday I wanted to connect to the internal wireless network but I'd lost the document with the config in.. so I called the helpdesk, sure enough I get some woman in Budapest with an accent thick as syrup, that takes a staggering 5 times to get my last name spelled correctly. Then she ignores what my problem is, logs a call and insists that somebody at the local Milton Keynes office physically comes to look at my PC and configure it for me.. ignoring me sobbing quietly in the back ground saying "I just want you to email me the document... please?!". Thing is, I know for a fact that as soon as she escalated it to a desk visit, rather than listening to what the problem was, that cost us almost $350 as a company, whereas some kind of knowledge base and a new email from her with the attached document would have eliminated most of that expense.

So I'm wondering now.. with all this overseas helpdesk activity, and offshoring, nearshoring and rightshoring, whatever you want to call it, has it actually resulted in a genuine cost saving, because I seem to now have to spend 3 times as much time with the helpdesk than usual!

Just dont ask okay....

To far flung friends, please resist the urge to ask if I had a good christmas, or indeed a happy new year (which is a few days away still). I'm having issues, or rather my company did. Due to not filing a tax return for me in the USA there have been worries about successful completion of the immigration process on the visa side.. so despite nothing having gone wrong, the lawyers have decided to do the best thing which is to avoid the "yet" part involved in nothing having gone wrong.. so, I'm back in the UK.

For at least six weeks.

Oh happy happy me... having missed christmas with friends and loved ones, the only consolation I have is that it's been nice seeing dad again, and at least it gives me a chance to sort things out packing and storage wise. I guess we'll find out what happens next.

Anyway, I'm extremely upset, fed up, and not exactly full of Christmas cheer.. especially as my Porsche battery is flat and the thing commits suicide as soon as it's been left alone for more than 7 days.. so I have to speak to a nice man my dad knows about getting the battery hooked up.

Biggest issue with things right now is that there's no instant hot water, instant heat or any network connection at my dads. So I'm missing shower, warmth and general connectivity to loved ones and far flung friends.

All is not well in Leeland.. evil storms loom.

Uneventful Events

I've spent most of this week at an event in downtown Seattle which has been utterly pointless.. three days of Sales and Marketing for no reason because it's either recycled content or could have been delivered via a webcast or even just a simple recorded livemeeting.

On the plus side I've had the opportunity to catch up with work colleagues from elsewhere in the world, our Security expert was in town from the Netherlands.. terribly clever chap, spent most of the time explaining Morphic Resonance to our bewildered looking marketing VP who'd travelled all the way up here from Texas. Sometimes these events can be an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends in the industry.. this time I've made a new friend in the form of Tania, who's all the way from Aussie land but works for one of our competitors, but we wont hold that against her!

In other news of what's been going on with me this week, im irritated because my dad still hasnt bothered to get his passport sorted, and he's supposed to be coming over here for Crimble! I'm annoyed because the company forgot to pay my cost of living allowance towards my rent for December, so that made things VERY expensive this month.. not good with it being the season to be jolly and all..