raphy

I am trying to fill in an application form on said website. The company offers five graduate schemes including one for IS. Which probably menas Information Science?? Registering is easy, logging in as well. They tell you to read the help available, but there is none available or I maybe I haven’t found it yet.

Filling in the form is easy too. There is a save button every now and then, which lets you save the form so that you can take breaks and then come back and continue filling it in.  Next to the save button is a “printer friendly” button which should call a pdf generator to generate a printer friendly pdf. But not much seems to happen. This could be for a variety of reasons, I am using Firefox on Linux. Not that it should play a role as the pdf is generated on the server.  Switching to Windows and Firefox has similar results. The pdf cannot be generated. Nothing happens. Internet Explorer 6 should solve the problem, but no, it won’t work either.

When trying to leave the application form I am looking for a logout button/link. But none is available and  it is necessary to click another link or close the window.  Upon logging in again it is possible to go back to the application form or generate a html or pdf version. PDF versions do not work on any browser/OS combination tested. Generation of the html form results in broken html in firefox. It is a mess and cannot be used for printing. Explorer is better at handling the broken html and I was finally able to print the application form out.

This experience makes me think that the company is short of web designers and usability engineers. There might be a job open for me.

The Organic Food Festival is taking place in Glasgow this weekend.

The Organic Food Festival is the first to take place away from the Soil Association’s home city of Bristol. Split between two Glasgow venues, the Old Fruitmarket and Glasgow Metropolitan College, the event is a celebration of all things organic. It includes a marketplace of over 50 stalls selling and promoting food, drink, textiles and skincare. You’ll be able to get lots of information about organic food and why it’s better for you, as well as picking up some fantastic bargains.

For 2 pounds entry fee you get access to a whole range of organic foods sold on over 50 stalls. A lot of them offer free tasters and it is possible to skip a meal by just trying everything. I bought cheese from the Connage Highland Dairy and the Summer Isle Foods company who specialise in smoded fish and cheese. It was also very hard to resist buying some beers from the Black Isle Brewery and I ended up getting one each of Red Kite, Yellowhammer, Blonde, Scotch Ale, Porter and Wheat Beer. Ardna Mushrooms were selling mushrooms:

The newly formed company of Ardnamushrooms in Strontian grows organic, gourmet edible fungi on woody substrates in a climate controlled container and sells to hotels and restaurants, primarily in Lochaber. Currently the business is in the stage of setting up the infrastructure and starting to establish links with hoteliers and chefs in the region.

Ardnamushrooms uses a recently-developed system for growing saprophytic fungi. The system was developed by Richard Edwards of Humungus Fungus and is being used to grow shiitake mushrooms in Skye and Mull. Mr. Edwards is providing both technical support and the inoculated grain.

Oak shavings (60%) and hardwood chips (34%)are mixed with organic bran (5%) and agricultural gypsum (1%), put into polythene bags, sterilized in an autoclave (a large pressure cooker), mixed with inoculated grain, incubated for a few weeks and then placed in a growing room where the fungi grow out of the ‘blocks’.

that tasted really nice. Interesting idea.

Primus tel offeriert gratis telefongespraeche am Abend und an den Wochenenden, falls man sie preselect nimmt.

Das ist gut. Also haben wir mitte July uebers Internt www.uswitch.com  geswitcht. Nix passiert, also im August mal anrufen. Aha, es hat nicht geklappt. Nochmals probieren. Es klappt, wir bekommen einen Account bei Primustel, direct debit ist aufgesetzt. Nach ein paar Wochen wo wir immer noch mit british telecom telefonieren rufe ich mal an. Nur noed so gsprengt heisst es am andere Ende, das koenne gut 6-8 Wochen dauern. Also weiter gewartet.

Heute wieder mal angerufen nach mehr als 10 Wochen.  Telefon nummer angegeben: nicht im System.  Postleitzahl: nicht im System und es wurde mir gesagt ich sei nicht Kunde.  Da musste ich aber widersprechen und habe meine Acccount number angegeben. Kurze Pause und die Bestaetigung dass ich Kunde bin, dass sie aber das verschlampt haben und unsere Nummer nie in ihr System aufgenommen haben. Les idiots. In einer Woche sollte jetzt dann ein Brief von BT kommen und dann 10-14 Tage spater die Aufschaltung.

Daumen druecken.

As I’ve written yesterday, paying your phone bill is no easy feat . The guys from BT contacted me today on the phone and tried to sort out my problem.  A guy tried to make the payment happen, but it wouldn’t work so he transferred me to the next person. She told me that my credit card couldn’t be found on the system and asked for the company issuing the card. And that’s a bank in Switzerland, which is why my credit card doesn’t show up in their system. Clever eh. Asking in the credit department confired that BT only accepts credit cards issued in the UK. The reason for this is simply that their system is not up to date and cannot handle credit cards from other countries.

Guess I’ll have to use other means to pay my phone bills in the future.

Or how come the big companies talk about globalisation and consider themselves global player but then do not let you pay their bills using a credit card from a different country. Was trying to pay my bt phone bill today. Payment over the web asks me for the post code of the billing address of my credit card. And rejects it as not a valid entry. Yes stupid, it is not a postcode in the UK. Trying to make the payment over the phone heads off to a good start. The phone line is free if called over a BT landline. I then enter all the numbers, only to be told at the very end that they cannot accept my credit card and would I please use a different one. Very annoying. Somebody at BT hasn’t done his homework.

Halloween war die erste Frostnacht hier in Glasgow. Heute ist ein schöner sonniger Morgen, aber bitterkalt. BBC 24h forecast fuer Glasgow hat mehr Informationen. Kein Wunder war es letzte Nacht kalt im Haus. Am Morgen gibts sehr viel Kondensationswasser an den Fenstern und schon bald wird es wohl vom Schimmel wimmeln. Sollte man eigentlich das Kondensationswasser abwischen?

Die ma ist endlich abgeschickt und abgehandelt. Diesmal kommts gut, habe ein gutes Gefühl und sie ist auch viel besser. Jetzt gehts aber schlafmützen.

Danke an alle die mich während der doch nicht immer leichten Zeit unterstützt haben!

Raphael