hifranc

So close...

2009-10-10T21:15:56Z

A couple of weeks ago I applied for a job. On the Monday I got a call for a screening interview with the agency who was dealing with it. I had that the next day. I was then informed, a couple of days later, that there would be an interview with the company the following Wednesday (i.e. the one just gone).

The interview itself was a bit of an anti-climax but I found out yesterday that I didn't get the job. I kind of expected that as I was promised feedback one way or another within a day or so and, consequently, it seemed to take a long time.

I was disappointed yesterday but, today, I made quite a few applications. I'm feeling positive because, I may not have got the job but, in the current job climate getting to interview stage (especially after a screening interview) is good going.

New printer

2009-07-12T08:13:39Z

I found printing my CV out a pain with my deskjet printer because it often smudged letters. The annoying thing was that, when it happened, it was usually only 1 or 2 letters. However, that's enough to ruin a CV.

As it was only 1 or 2 letters I knew it wasn't the printer cartridge. If it needed cleaning, or was low on ink, more than than 1 letter would have been affected.

A quick bit of research online shows that it was a known issue with deskjet (aka inkjet or bubble jet) printers. I found a cheap laser printer was on offer by several shops so I went to town and bought one. I tested it last night and it's a major improvement.

I'll probably use the deskjet to print out job adverts as replacement toners cost almost as much as the printer itself.

Advertising TV advertising

2009-06-29T22:57:14Z

Among my many podcasts are 4 media programmes. Two of them are produced in the UK (Media Show from the BBC and Media Talk from The Guardian). From all of them there is clearly a few changes (some having more impact in the UK than in other countries):

There are several trends (not good if you're a commercially funded TV station):

1) With digital switchover (i.e. the ending of the analogue TV transmissions to be replaced with digital TV): The coming of more channels means that the number of viewers for each channel as the viewers get dispersed among the various offerings. This means that each TV channel finds it harder to sell advertising space as some of their viewers are watching other channels.

2) The rise of the web: As the web is free, is accessible any time (not just when the programme coordinator thinks you should watch it) and, due to the nature of the web, advertisers only have to pay for adverts that are seen[1], advertisers have been moving their adverts from TV (which is very expensive for the notion that lots of people may see your advert) to the web.

3) Ad skipping technology: For the past few years new recorders (e.g. the TiVo and some high end VCRs) have the ability to record programmes without recording the ads. Furthermore, others give the user the ability to skip the commercial breaks quickly. That makes TV a less attractive medium for advertisers.[2]

And, finally,

4) The economic downturn: One of the first things that gets cut in a recession is marketing budgets. Given 1), 2) and 3) that means the decline in ad sales for TV, which was already a trend, is accelerated.

These trends have already led Ofcom to conclude that it would be unfair to hold ITV to its Public Service Broadcasting commitments. What are these, you may ask? In the old days (when we just had BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) one of the conditions of getting a licence to broadcast was that, due to the how valuable the airwaves were then, all channels had to enter Public Service Broadcasting commitments. The exact nature varied from channel to channel but, broadly speaking, they all had to make programmes that were not commercially viable for the public good (e.g. ITV had to produce a certain amount of local news). Ofcom has already agreed that, in today's world, the airwaves are not so valuable so has loosened the requirements on ITV (and I think Channel 4 and 5 but I'm not sure about them).

Furthermore, Ofcom is openly discussing "top slicing" the licence fee. Basically it means that, instead of being there to support the BBC, some of the money we pay in out TV Licence should go to support Channel 4, and other broadcasters. What I'm trying to say here is that TV companies are losing a lot of money because advertisers no longer see TV advertising as effective as it used to be.

Two or three weeks ago I noticed a new advert on TV. It was TV's fight back:

Thinkbox's Ad. The point it's trying to make is that TV advertising is so effective it becomes part of our culture. It features a man remembering adverts that most of the audience would remember. However, I think that the adverts it has picked are its biggest weakness. I shall illustrate:

Cornetto's Ad (starts 7mins 40 secs into video). As far as I can remember that's from the 80s.

I couldn't find a video but Wiki states:

The Honey Monster was first seen on TV in 1976 in an advertisement created by John Webster of the advertising agency BMP.[1] The ad focused around a nutritional message which was illustrated by a "mother" (played by Henry McGee) and "child" (the Honey Monster) relationship. The mother was responsible for what the child was eating. The child wanted honey and would cry "Tell them about the honey, mummy!".

"You'll Go Monster-Mad For The Honey!!": In the late 1980s, "Sugar Puffs" adverts featured the slogan "You-ll Go Monster-Mad For The Honey".

In other words we're talking late 70s to early 80s.

I confess I don't recognise the chocolate hazelnut advert.

Fairy Liquid has been running for years and is still running.

I confess that I don't recognise the ad with "Wazzah!" in.

Yellow Pages. However, the Yellow Pages website shows how old that advert is.

R Whites Leomonade. From Wiki we find the start date is 1973. The end date is not stated but I think it was the late 80s or early 90s.

Bodyform. As far as I recall it was broadcast in the 90s and the early 2000s but I may be wrong there.

Milk Marketing Board. A quick check of sites shows that it started in the late 80s. As far as I recall, I can't remember it being shown in the last 5 years (and probably not in the last 10).

So why have I talked about the history of each one? The point I'm trying to make is that, if Thinkbox is trying to prove that it's important and relevant, why did they choose adverts that emphasise how much TV advertising glory days were in its past?

Ps.
For those who read my previous post: If you're really interested, the bit I researched was finding all the links. The first part is done from memory but, as it's discussed almost every week in media podcasts, I would feel embarrassed if I got any of that wrong.

[1] As the server only has to offer adverts when the page is requested, you can count the number of pages that have been viewed that had that advert in.
[2] It also hits the web because it's easy to get ad blocking software for your computer.

{edited 30th June 2009 @ 08:38 to include new point 3.}

{edited 11th July 2009 @ 08:52 to correct spelling of Thinkbox.}

Productive day

2009-06-29T21:36:21Z

Last week I was just feeling tired and unmotivated. Luckily my brother was visiting my parents the weekend just gone so I went down to take a break from everything and see my brother as well as my parents. I did miss Julie, though.

Today I left my CV with several employment agencies and I was interviewed on the spot with one. Others asked me to e-mail my CV to them. I've done that now.

After that I did my weekly shop and made myself something to eat. As I have achieved my targets for the day I'm going to indulge a little. The next item is something I started preparing before I went down to Lincoln (i.e. I researched it). Now I'm going to play media pundit...

Time

2009-06-19T16:55:47Z

I've noticed something: Before I was given gardening leave, I felt that time was tight but since I have had whole days to myself, I feel that time is tighter? What is the reason for this paradox?

Well, it's quite simple, when I was at work I only did as much job hunting as I could reasonably afford. Now that I've got all the time in the world, I'm looking to get more done.

Anyway, I'm taking a couple of days off -- not from everything just from job hunting. I've been cleaning and tidying my flat today. I'll carry on tomorrow. Now why, you might ask, does it take two days to clean and tidy when it normally takes one? The answer is that I'm taking the opportunity to sort out my paper work (i.e. shred all the bills and pay slips that are too old to be of any use to anyone). I'm doing that because it'll create more space and it'll help keep me positive for when I restart my job hunting.

Redundancy News

2009-06-18T08:53:13Z

I found out, when I went in to work on Tuesday, that all of those being made redundant were being offered gardening leave to conduct their job hunting. I accepted and I've been at home all this week. I've made a few applications.

I'm now going to create some Excel spreadsheets and put those scripts I wrote into them. After all that's one of the reasons I bought the laptop. Next week I'll go around the employment agencies and show them the scripts in action.

I made a discovery at the start of my job search: the monster site doesn't work on Apple Macs. It does, however, work on Windows so I applied for a couple of jobs via that site last night.

Decision

2009-06-13T22:04:54Z

I've decided that I am going to buy a laptop. This would have 2 benefits:

I would be able to demonstrate my Excel scripts to employers and employment agencies, and
I would be able to submit word documents by e-mail (some employers allow applicants to fill in a word version of their application forms and e-mail them in) without having to borrow Julie's laptop.

If it was just the second reason I would agree with those who would say that it's just a waste of money.

Now I have to decide which laptop I'm going to have. The choice is between the Acer D150B or the Compaq Mini 702.

I've already ordered a mouse as I find laptop controls awkward.

The Compaq has a larger keyboard and HP are well known. On the down side it has less than 1/3 of the hard drive space the Acer has.

Acer has been recommended to me by a colleague. However, I hadn't heard of them before and reviews of the model state the track pad has sensitivity and stiffness problems (I know I'm getting a mouse but it might be indicative of the general build quality).

I've googled reliability reports for both brands and both are mixed (with a lot more praise for Acer).

Does anybody know anything about either brand?

Boiler news

2009-06-04T07:26:45Z

I had a plumber out on Monday. He confirmed that the boiler needed to be replaced. He gave me quotes for that. I've made appointments with other plumbers to come out and give me quotes for replacing my boiler.

Redundancy

2009-05-29T05:27:18Z

I found out yesterday that I'm going to be made redundant. I've just got to work my notice period then...

It was all a bit too much to take in yesterday but I'm starting to think of a job hunting plan.

MySpace Blog Entry

2009-04-25T20:13:27Z

Again, I will be deleting my MySpace account and wanted to rescue a couple of things. This is a blog entry I wanted to rescue:

Blog Entry:

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Terrorism and democracy
Current mood: worried
Category: News and Politics
First of all, I know (and feel) that I'm more likely to be run over by a drunk driver when crossing the road than I am of being killed by a terrorist. So anyone who is looking over their shoulder for the next terrorist, bear that in mind.

Another fact for you: most murder victims know their murderers personally. You're more likely to be killed by your friends and family than a complete stranger.

What I'm trying to say is stop being paranoid and have a sense of perspective.

Having said that one thing on my mind is the suspension of the normal rules of evidence and proof when it comes to trying suspected terrorism. Remember this: the easier you make it to convict, the more innocent people will end up behind bars! Not only is that unjust (which is terrible in its own right) but that leads to three things:
1) somoene who is guilty may get away because the search is called off,
2) the anger that the friends and family of the victim of the miscarriage of justice may be more sympathetic to the terrorist group (not to mention the victim of miscarriage themselves), and
3) any country the professes democracy and suspends rights legitimately earns the reputation of being hypocritical.

What I want to say is this: If we truly want to preserve our way of life we should go about doing things with the standards we profess and not give them up because things have got a little rough.

In the unlikely event that I fall victim to a terrorist attack, I would still want suspects to under go the proper due process and retain their rights. Only that way can we be sure that we have the right people and that the evidence does prove they did it. Furthermore, I would still oppose any attempt by Government to restrict our right to privacy (e.g. super databases, tracking people without reasonable suspicion of wrong doing, etc). If you want to impose a surveillance society and/or one where suspects don't have rights DO NOT PRETEND YOU ARE DOING IT IN MY NAME!

MySpace Post

2009-04-25T20:10:28Z

I've decided to delete my MySpace account. I'll do that in about a week. I wanted to pass on a couple of things that I didn't want lost.

Originally Posted 31st March 2006:

At the end of February I took a trial lesson at my local flying school:

I've long played flight simulators (including a 747 one on the old BBC Micro). In recent years Flight Unlimited II on a low power Win 98 box and X-Plane V8 on OS X.

I have a confession: I'm scared of heights. I'm OK in heavy metal planes but light aircraft I'm not sure about.

As the weather isn't perfect at that time of year I was asked to phone before travelling. They tuned into ATIS and decided that it was 50/50 and up to me if I went there. I decided to go.

When I got there it was raining. The instructor said that he was willing to wait and see if the weather would improve so I went next door for a bite to eat.

When I next saw the instructor he was just about to check the weather reports -- news came back bad at moment but clearing from the north so we were on.

My first surprise was the amount of room in the cockpit (or should I say the lack of it).[1] I also found out why people complain about access to Pipers.[2]

We went through the checklist and the instructor advised me to use the windscreen rather than instruments. He let me taxi and I found myself rather underconfident there[3] and stood on the brakes a lot.

As I was confident of taking off, I'd told him I'd simmed a lot, he let me do that. As I rotated I got a shock -- the ground fell away! Yes, I know I was in a plane (and a voice in my head made much the same comment) but that's one thing you don't get in sims -- you only see sky (unless you use the hat switch to look to the sides). I panicked for a second and let the instructor take over. The instructor turned us north to Morpeth.

I took control of my fear and followed the directions I was given. He showed me how to set the elevator trim and got me to use it. At one point it did seem that the bank was a little steep but the instructor was perfectly relaxed. The instructor talked me through a balanced turn demonstated a non-balanced turn.

I was getting the hang of things and starting to feel confident. Yes, the fear was there but kept in check by a calm satisfaction. During the pre-flight brief the instructor had told me how speed, and the prop slipstream, affected the way the controls felt. He got me to reduce the speed and feel how the controls responded. He then got me to bring the engine to idle to feel how the rudder and elevators responded. I followed his instructions but having the engine at idle did scare me.

We entered the pattern at right base and by the turn to final he had fully taken over (but asked me to follow his movements).

How did it compare to the sim? You can make out ground details a lot easier in reality. You can't feel G-forces in sims. You can't pause if you feel unsure of something. The real plane felt easier to fly -- my sim seems to be unsure what position is zero on the joystick and the workload, in reality, is spread between your feet and your hands rather than trying to do everying with virtually one hand.

Another thing I noticed was the speed at which the pressure changed on journey. The pressure dropped noticably during the flight.

That night I couldn't sleep from the high I was on. I definitely want to learn to fly -- I just need the money now.

[1] I was in a Piper Warrior.
[2] Using sims you tend to like them as they are usually faster than the other planes so you can get from A to B quicker.
[3] Unless you know your way round an airport you are not advised to taxi in X-Plane -- there are no maps and that part of ATC is not well handled (even the company admits that).

Sight Village and boiler

2009-04-21T20:39:00Z

The good news is that I'll soon (within the next couple of months) have the money to have my boiler repaired/replaced. The bad news is that I won't have enough money to go to Sight Village this July so I've cancelled the holidays I had booked and used those days for other bookings.

Media Talk

2009-04-19T20:28:06Z

I commented on the blog to last week's Media Talk. It was mentioned in this week's Media Talk.

Missed restaurant appointment

2009-04-19T13:54:20Z

I feel a bit silly but something embarrassing happened to me on Friday night. I got an early finish (taking time back)[1] on Friday. Julie and I had arranged to meet up to go out for a meal. Julie needed to go home to get something sorted out so she asked me to go home and that we'd meet close to mine.

I usually finish at/after 7 (when the metros are reduced and, in any case, it's easier to catch a bus all the way home than to get to the metro then catch a metro). That meant that, when a metro came, I got on it. I was listening to Clark Boyd's World Technology Podcast (from PRI) so missed an announcement (it came earlier than I expected one). I was just annoyed that I had to turn up the volume of my podcast to hear it.

I realised after the metro set off again that that announcement may have been important. I even worked out what it may have said: Could it have been asking everybody to get off as the metro would now be going to the depot? Yes, it may have been that... (embarrassed look).

I phoned Julie and left a message on her voicemail stating that I may be a bit delayed as I was at the Metro Depot. At that point I was more embarrassed than anything. However, I tried to ring metro control and it just gave me the engaged tone. I was starting to panic. I had visions of me being stuck on the metro all night without access to food or a toilet.

Julie called at that point wanting an explanation of my message. I told her that I couldn't talk at that moment and hung up. I checked the number for Metro Control, realised that I had dialled the wrong number, dialled the right number and was rescued.

Julie got in touch with me about an hour later and explained that, as I was busy on the metro, she had had a meal with her parents so, whilst she would pay for me to eat, it would not be in a restaurant.

[1] That's where you've had to do unpaid overtime so you are allowed to shorten a shift to make up for it.

Blueline Taxis

2009-04-19T13:27:43Z

Some of you may know that, as she is blind, Julie gets taxis to and from work. Anyway, Julie's been teasing me in her blog. Just because I got a taxi to work on Thursday, she's stated, untruthfully, that I get taxis all the time. Methinks someone is projecting[1]... ;-)

I posted a correction (isn't mobile internet great?) via her comments and promised her that, if she went to/from work via a non-taxi method, I'd post an entry here.[2] On Friday her dad drove her home so she didn't Blue!

So the Bluie Queen didn't Blue!

There is a story of how she became known as the Bluie Queen. A couple of years go (well July 2007), Julie was booking her taxis for the week. One of her aunts heard her and called her the Bluie Queen.

I also have a text, on an old sim card that is still in my possession, where she admitted to being the Bluie Queen (hee hee hee).

So how does it feel not to Blue?

[1] "Projecting" is a term used in psychology (perhaps pop psychology?). It means that when somebody has a characteristic that they don't like (e.g. being grumpy) the claim that they don't have that characteristic but other people do.
[2] After all the fact that she feels it's worth commenting on when I do get a taxi, proves that I don't Blue[3] that often. However, the fact that I feel it's worth commenting on when she doesn't Blue shows how much she does Blue!
[3] As both of us tend to use Blueline taxis we just refer to it as "Bluing".

The Woman in the Cellar Part 2

2009-03-11T21:42:43Z

I've posted the second part of my story The Woman in the Cellar. It's at:

http://hifrancfiction.wordpress.com/

Shall I leave the country?

2009-03-09T08:49:12Z

With the Government taking away more and more of our Rights and Freedoms, I'm seriously thinking of emigrating. If you have any doubts then I suggest you read this article by Henry Porter. In short I'm not sure how long Britain is going to remain a democracy.

I've been thinking about this for years but I think it is coming time to actually do something about it.

Julie has family in Canada and it does score highly on Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. However, technically, it does still have ties to the British legal system and holiday allowances are not as generous as European countries. There is also Sweden, an EU member that has a high rating from Reporters Without Borders and the inventor of the concept of Freedom of Information.

I keep changing my mind which I prefer but both are acceptable.

{edit}One of things I've just heard in a podcast is that reporter Daniel Leblanc of the Globe and Mail in Canada is being taken to court to reveal his sources and the judge is expected to ask him to do that. I recall hearing/reading somewhere that Sweden has laws to protect reporters from having to reveal their sources. However, Sweden is part of the EU and the UK is campaigning, at a European level, to have some of the intrusive databases that it's setting up, to be set up Europe wide.

One of those: Hey what??? moments

2009-03-06T21:27:25Z

I heard something on one of my podcasts that shocked me (even though I thought I was unshockable). Two judges in Pennsylvania are serving sentences for taking bribes from two juvenile prisons to keep them full. What's really surprising is how blatant it was. See:

Transcript of article on Australia's ABC Radio National's 'Law Report'.

Story

2009-03-02T19:59:01Z

Last night I had a dream that had a lot of potential to be turned into a a story, so I did:

Francisco's story blog

Lemsip Max is my best friend

2009-02-28T21:25:09Z

I've a cold. I felt the beginnings of it on Thursday and I've gone through about 20 handkerchiefs today (no exaggeration). I've been drinking a lot of Lemsip Max together with taking two different brands of lozenges (I've checked, they use different ingredients). I'm off to bed soon.

I'll be visiting Julie tomorrow.

Holiday bookings

2009-02-17T21:09:47Z

I requested a few days off for next year's holiday quotas today. I requested Julie's birthday off and a few days off so that I could take Julie to Sight Village. Sight Village is an annual event where manufacturers of aids for blind and partially sighted people show case their latest offerings.

Orange resolved?

2009-02-16T11:35:05Z

I just realised that the number for their Correspondence Department should be on my last bill (arrived late last week) so I checked it and found it and called them. Spoke to my contact who has promised to cancel my phone today and send out a bag. Part of me is still suspicious but I am happy that seems to be resolved.

Tomorrow

2009-02-13T09:06:46Z

I'm looking forward to having a romantic dinner with my Tickly tomorrow evening.

Another review

2009-02-13T08:41:45Z

I've written another review of my new phone. They've changed the punctuation a little. On checking other reviews (which also don't have some of the punctuation I used in my review) I suspect that those characters are reserved as instructions to the script of the page.

{edit}
Since I wrote that review I've discovered how to solve the voice dialling problem: I just needed to switch it from US English to British English.

Should have known it was too good to be true?

2009-02-07T14:17:01Z

The person who agreed to cancel my contract promised to call to confirm before the date (i.e. today) to confirm that I still wanted to leave Orange. They were going to send me a pack to send my phone back in. That pack has not arrived so I cannot send my phone back.

Admittedly I did something stupid the other week: I reset my phone to get rid of all personal information. That meant that I lost the number for their Correspondence Department and was assured, when I called Orange the other day, that meant that there was no way I could get in touch with them.

I'm still connected to their system and without that pack I don't know if I'm going to be disconnected. I just phoned them again and the agent I spoke to said that there were no notes on the system but if I called on Monday (and went through a certain set of options) that department could transfer me to the Correspondence Department.

However, that would mean waiting until Monday (which means being billed another month) and there's no guarantee that things would get sorted out. After this I just don't trust them at all.