Sod.

Oh yes, and in the end it looks like the bits we want are going to be from Ikea®. Oh goody – another journey to Brent Cross.

*Sob*

Travelling

Norfolk, Here I come.

Don’t expect much here ’til after Christmas now. The wilds of Norfolk are not known for their internet connectivity…

Happy Happy Day

And that’s it, I’m no longer working in Oldham. Eighteen months, gone not with a bang but a whimper.

House.co.uk

As most readers of d4d™ know, I’m going to be moving house between Christmas and New Year (although a lot of it will be going on through January, but that’s just the way it’s worked out this time) so as part of that I need to close off my account with British Gas (who also supply my electricity). So I thought I’d make my life easier and do it all online at the site British Gas created for this kind of thing www.house.co.uk. Dear Christ, I wish I hadn’t.

The site is bloody awful. Not content with making it so it only truly works with Internet Explorer, the style sheets are so fucked it means that using Opera or Firefox with it is nigh-on impossible – text is superimposed over other text, and it’s basically just a sack of shit. To rub salt in the wounds, they bang on about how accessible the site is.

So I sent a complaint email to them, asking why it couldn’t be used in anything except IE. And the reply I got was – shall we say – complacent.

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the problems you have encountered on our web site when attempting to register impending house move. Please accept my apologies for not being able to give an earlier response to your enquiry.

Unfortunately the web site is only tested for Internet Explorer and at present you would not be able to use Firebox or Opera. When you have moved out of your property if you could take a reading from the meter and contact our Home movers section on 0845 6091133 and they will take the reading from you.

I hope this answers your enquiry

Perhaps rather more incensed by this than I should be, I enquired about how they could justify banging on about accessibility when they blatantly didn’t give a shit about anyone using any other browser than IE.

No, this doesn’t really answer the query. Your site blathers on about being accessible and so on – so why is it only tested on IE? And (from the look of it) designed with only IE in mind?

As someone who works with accessibility issues all the time, I’m interested to know how British Gas justifies their claims against the simple fact that the site isn’t accessible to those who prefer to use a browser with as many known security issues as IE.

Today I got a response from the scrofulous twadgeknockers.

Thank you for your email to house.co.uk, my apologies for any inconvenience caused regarding this matter.

Website designers will build their sites around the Internet browsers they expect their websites customers will be using. However, their expectations can be incorrect.

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.1 and above is the only browser that is fully supported by the House website. This is detailed in the website terms and conditions section under the heading Using the website. Whilst you can access the site using other browsers, the availability of some parts of the site may be limited.

We are constantly updating and upgrading the site to ensure that people using other currently unsupported Internet browsers can access all areas of the site. This is backed up by our commitment that all new areas added to the site should be fully compatible with a wide range of Internet browsers and once this has been achieved, then the compatibility will also be made fully retrospective.

Once again, please accept my apologies that you have experienced regarding this matter

I know there’s going to be another reply (perhaps something about “Well check your CSS layouts then, fuckface”) but maybe that’s slightly aggressive.

Finalé

Yesterday was my final weekend of big train journeys to and from Berkshire. I can’t even begin to describe my feelings about that – I’ve still got some train journeys to do, don’t get me wrong – but the one that’s become a regular fixture over the last six months is no more. That’s quite something – if nothing else it means that I’m not going to be paying Gitboy Branson £200ish per month!

I spent a fair amount of the final journey looking out the windows, watching familiar landmarks go past, wondering when I’ll see them again – and in some cases I wonder if I ever will. One of the things for 2005 will be to pass that bloody driving test, and then the train travel is likely to be a much rarer thing. I’m sure I’ll still do it on occasion, but it’ll be far less common.

I won’t miss the journey that much – there’s going to be a lot of good things happening anyway, and another advantage is that I’ll be getting seven or eight hours per week back simply from not doing this all the time. So far 2005 is looking deeply positive, with many life-changing things going on. I’m currently working on a post about that, and about the changes I’d planned for ’04 and what’s happened with them. That might take some time to write though, so don’t hold your breath.

But in the meantime, life is changing hugely – has already changed hugely. Between now and 04/01/05, I’ve got to do Christmas, move basic stuff between Manchester and Berkshire, sort out things like computers and email, tell loads of people/companies I’ve moved, and start work with a new company. There are bits about Manchester I will miss, and people, but I’ll see them on occasion, and stay in touch. And I’ll be close enough to London that I’ll be able to do most of the stuff that I’ll miss doing in Manchester.

But I won’t miss the bloody train travel.

Faithless

Last weekend I was due to be seeing Faithless in concert at the Manchester Apollo, but because of the interviews that I had down in London and Bracknell (and particularly once I’d discovered I was having a second interview on the Monday) I ended up missing the gig. Absolute bummer, because I’ve seen them several times before, and love their gigs, even when the albums haven’t been superb.

So now I’ve just booked tickets to see them at London’s Alexandra Palace on Saturday 30th April. 8.00pm ’til 2.00 am. It’s going to be blinding.

Waving

So there goes Blunkett, riding off into the sunset. I wonder how many journalists were wanting to use the phrase “Blunkett was shown the door”? I’d love to say I was sorry to see him go, but at the end of the day Blunkett scared me for the simple reason that he actually managed to make Jack Straw look reasonable. An impressive task, but not strictly a positive one.

I wonder what this’ll do to the “need” for identity cards?

Kept Hanging On

No news. Still. Grrr. I hate this stuff, waiting for other people to get their acts together in order to tell me what the shit is going on.

Utterly Fucked

High-Rise

Anyway, while I’m waiting for news, I’m also thinking about next year , where to go, what to see, all that kind of gubbins. And one thing that’s certainly looking like it’ll be on the list is the world’s tallest bridge which was opened this week in France. The highest section is taller than the Eiffel tower. I wonder if it’s got stopping places so you can take photos from it?

Hanging on the Telephone

Today’s a bit of a crunch day. I’m supposed to hear back from both agencies about the jobs I interviewed for on Friday. I can’t deny, I’m nervous and just want to know whether I’ve got something to start work with on 4th January, or if I’m going to continue running round like a mad thing to get work sorted.

In some ways it’s been a frustrating process – loads of applications and CVs without much feedback. I did have a phone interview on Monday as well (just before the 2^nd interview for the 2^nd job) which may prove interesting. But right now I just want to know about the two I interviewed with.

Obviously news will be published here as and when I get any.

Interviewage

Well, both interviews went well – even the travel to London was OK, which was a bit of a shocker. The first one had some techie guff I honestly didn’t know, but I think I made up for it by understanding where I’d gone wrong and so on. Always helps, really.

The second one was interesting too – and I’ve got a second interview with them on Monday! Eek. Talk about time moving in really quickly. Still, I guess that I should be optimistic on that score, and fingers crossed for Monday…

Satanic

I only have one question about this story. Why are the boy’s eyes glowing red as though he’d been satanically possessed in a cheap straight-to-video horror flick?

Scary or what…

Fuck My Luck

Oh God, it’s going to be one of those days. Friday tends to be a “dress-down”, which in some contexts is fine. However, bear in mind that it’s now Winter, the office is like a sweatbox (the thermometer near me is reading 25°C) and Stinky® is on top form.

Coming in through the office’s front door, I took one breath and knew he was in. It’s that bad. And because it’s “dress-down” he’s also opted to wear a wooly jumper. Fuck knows why – I’ve never claimed to understand the mindset of the odiferous.

Thank chuff for Glade® plugins. My section of the office may now start smelling like a Macdonalds shitter, but it’s miles better than the alternative.

World AIDS Day

It’s December 1st, which among other things means it’s World AIDS Day. This year in the UK, it’s about reminding us all that HIV is an issue for everyone.

The 2004 Annual Report from the Health Protection Agency shows that there are now 53,000 adults living with HIV/AIDS in the UK, 27% of whom are unaware they have the virus.

There were 6,606 new infections diagnosed in the UK during 2003, 58% (3801) of these were amongst heterosexuals, with gay and bisexual men accounting for 26% (1735). That’s an 8% rise in cases in one year.

The National AIDS Trust is one place you can donate to help, as is the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Tough

In today’s Guardian there’s a story about a survey that’s been done into Britain’s attitude towards those with Hiv/AIDS. It makes for some disturbing reading.

One fifth of those polled said they felt it was people’s own fault if they got HIV/Aids. Almost a quarter said that drug users who contract the infection through shared needles should not get treatment on the NHS. 26% felt people had the right to know who in their community had HIV/Aids and 17% said they would worry if they knew their doctor had treated patients who were HIV positive.

A large proportion – 41% – thought that asylum seekers should not be allowed to stay if they had HIV/Aids. The survey shows ignorance about the virus – only 64% knew that babies can be infected in the womb, 73% knew you could get it from a blood transfusion, while 11% thought you could get it from kissing and 5% from eating with the same cutlery.

The Rubber Tax

If you do happen to click on the Terrence Higgins Trust site, you might also notice the link to the “Erase Tax on Rubbers” campaign. The THT has joined up with the National Union of Students to call on the government to stop charging VAT on condoms and contraceptives.

The income the Treasury gets from VAT on condoms is tiny compared to the cost of preventable sexual ill-health in the UK. Sexually transmitted infections cost somewhere around �1 billion to treat annually in the UK, and HIV care costs are around �350 million and rising. Wider condom use would save health and money.

Condoms in the UK are some of the most expensive anywhere in the world. They are almost twice as expensive as they are in the US, and more expensive than anywhere else in Europe. In theory condoms are sometimes available free of charge on the NHS; but clinics ration them and they are often hard to ask for, especially if you are young. Please click on the link to email your MP and ask them to write to John Reid, Secretary of State for Health asking him to support the recommendation of the Independent Advisory Group and remove VAT from condoms.