Bank of Scotland admin - useless

I decided to post my comments on the recent example of garbage admin by my bank in the hope that even if they don't see it, others may and laugh at them.

In my time living outside the UK I have had to cope for years with no access to online banking as I didn't live in the UK. The  fact that I lived in a place with no access to any branch made Internet banking perfect but the Bank of Scotland took years to finally accept this and make it possible for me to do so.
I came here 11 years ago and at the time it was not possible to get access to my UK account funds from an ATM (the Royal Bank has had this feature available for years before) - the reason?  ''No demand''

Havers  - they did tell me that there was one in Torremolinos - that appeared to be the only concession to a Brit abroad. My parents had been to Canada on holiday years before and they could take money out the whole in the wall (Royal Bank of Scotland) - but BoS, in Europe? Nope!

Back to my recent experience....

I transferred a few hundred euros to the BoS account and they sent me a confirmation letter - all printed on paper to confirm my electronic transaction - that is bad enough. They then sent another 15 letters all saying the same thing. In total, 8 to me and 8 to my husband. I can only assume that, as its a joint account, they feel the need to tell both of us (I don't understand that either) but 8 times?
Did this not trigger a question that their system created 16 letters, printed and posted 16 letters to tell me something I already knew? I can access my account via Internet banking, I can see that the funds left my Dutch account and got to the UK account and how many pounds they had become - its a complete waste of time and effort on the banks part to send this confirmation by paper mail - then they do it another 15 times....

They need to rethink their policy of paper confirmations of electronic transactions and while they are at it, they can have a look at the need to send it to both account holders names (we live at the same address) - and lets not forget the extra 15 letters..

The great China trip

Daughter left yesterday to go on a school trip to Beijing. It should be a great experience for her. The last I heard from her was yesterday evening when she phoned home - clearly excited - before she boarded the flight. They have a blog set up which will hopefully let all of us left at home know what on earth they are getting up to. This is the blog - today its empty, what will tomorrow hold?

http://beijingstudiereis2012.blogspot.com/

There was the usual drama before it the trip was all arranged: visa, no visa etc but everything was finally arranged.

Lets see how they get on.

Rowing on the water

In December in a fit of - 'I need to do something to avoid having to run in the cccccold' I bought a Water Rower - rowing machine.  It took 3 weeks to delivered so I have only started using in from Jan 12th but think I can safely say I love it. It looks great, sounds better and is even a lot of fun to use. I had decided that I should get a Concept 2 but was talked out of it in a sports shop, they recommended a water resistance rower. After trying many different kinds of these water resistant rowers I plumped for the wooden Waterrower itself. I don't regret it. I bought the Heart rate monitor extra (which should really come as standard) and its fantastic.

The only thing I don't like is the data screen and the convoluted way it connects to my laptop to monitor what I do. I love all things gadgety and am normally happy to spend hours working things out, but this took me a DAY. I finally got them to talk to each other but on the second monitored row - it crashed...... The entire data collection system seems fragile and given the cost of the machine, I expected better.

I think if they spend some time getting the monitor to be more intuitive and back light the things so I can see it!! it will be a great improvement. I think they should also hire some IT  people to write their own software - Why do I need to be connected to the internet to monitor my rows? I want to record my rows locally  - stroke rate, heartrate, speed  - all in the one locally saved file - possibly also in a form I can export to excel to play with the data.

I blame my education which gave me a love of experimenting and recording my results - I used to do it with a paper chart recorder but would now expect to create a file and watch it all on a tiny screen - so come on Waterrower -get yourselves into the 1990s and record your data locally and simply - don't make us all use the internet.

I have tried the Concept 2 and didn't like the noise it makes or the feeling of the rowing stroke, my waterpower is smooth and fairly quiet apart from the swooshing of the water as it goes round in the tank.

Here is a look at the thing itself - I recommend it.

My Pretty Playbook

Well, I finally did it. After months of pondering I bought a Playbook. Really because the price had come down to something which was more realistic with what I wanted to pay.

First impressions - really well made as with all my previous Blackberry phones - I am a loyal fan of these things. I have a 9900 and love it to bits. I upgraded from my Bold 9000 when the 9900 came out and have not regretted the swap. But I digress, the Playbook is a great machine which feels well built and the OS is intuitive. I am not best please that, as I live in NL, I don't get the Podcast app, but I am sure I will find another one I can use instead. So, for build quality and usability its just what I expected and think its very good.

What I miss? -Apart from the obvious email, calendar and contacts its really the scarcity of apps which I would want to install. I have scoured the Blackberry World system and found very little that appeal. I have no interest in Tetris or Need for Speed - I would be very interested in a Zinio and Kindle app. What about Pocket Informant? Nope not there. The book shop is Kobo - but I like my Kindle books and want to read them on the Playbook too.

Much is promised with the OS upgrade, whenever it gets here, and I  am pleased I didn't buy one when they first came out or I would have had to wait more than a year for the OS upgrade. This should make it the device it should have been when it first launched.

What I get now and really like? - the cameras are great. The forward facing 5MP is wonderful and the video looks great on the excellent screen. The 'facing the user/instant aging' camera is about 3MP and is fine too.  The Kobo bookshop is OK but doesn't have any magazines which is why I am really looking forward to the Zinio app which will hopefully come out with or (cross fingers) even before the OS 2 upgrade.

All in all I really believe this thing has loads of potential,  especially when it finally gets the apps it should have. I am amazed it doesn't have a Webex app - my 9900 does which works really well. This is a designed for business device - where are the business applications? I mentioned the lack of calendar and email - I can see all of this when Bridged to the 9900 - but why should I have to? All is fixed with the OS upgrade so i will just have to wait.

I would like to see note taking, mind mapping, lists, tasks etc but there are not there yet either. There is no photo editing software either - or at least that I can find.

It synced all of my iTunes library so now I don't need to take my Macbook wherever I go - which was the point of the Playbook in the first place - another BIG PLUS.

So in short IMHO - the Playbook is a lovely thing which should have a bright future - as long as it doesn't take too long to get the new OS software roll out.

My new BB 9900

I bought my long awaited new phone this week, the Blackberry 9900, and have been playing with it for a few days now. My initial opinion is that it is a great update over my current Bold 9000.
The OS is intuitive and seems to be very well thought through.

I have been a BB fan since my work gave me a Curve 8320 years ago - it is still going strong and the build quality is clearly fantastic. It has been dropped and (accidentally!) kick along the floor - no harm done. My Bold 9000 fell and acquired a few bashes but again its so well made that it never missed a beat. I have had other phones which died completely after much less abuse.....

The thing I didn't like about the 9000 was the battery life. It didn't take much for it to die. I don't think I am the only one though.

Back to my lovely new phone. I have installed most of the applications I was used to - no Weather app yet but I am sure it will be upgraded for OS 7. I am a heavy user of REX's ToDOMatrix and IdeaMatrix, both of which are now running fine on my 9900.The transfer process was fairly easy although their FAQ section was years out of date. I did finally find the correct help and all went smoothly.

I haven't yet worked out how to edit the RSS feds but that will be this weekends adventures - I try to work it out, and rarely resort to help files. I get a great sense of achievement when it all finally works...

I thought long and hard about moving to an iPhone - I have 2 macs at home and love them - but just couldn't bring myself to move away from the physical keyboard. It is even better now than on either the 8320 or 9000 and RIM have done a great job of fitting loads onto a tidy little package. I saw a 4 inchLG in the shop and can't imagine having to lug that around. I can read everything I need to ( now I have my new Varulux glasses!!) and zooming works fine - no need for so much screen IMHO of course.

I can't recommend it highly enough. Here it is after the unboxing ;-)

Mamma Mia in Glasgow

I have to say I was disappointed this afternoon. I have seen the show 4 times now and this one was much less well presented than before. The sound was very strange. Someone would start to sing and you couldn't hear them until 2 lines in - like someone forgot to turn up their mike. Many of the songs missed their normal magic. The female leads were OK, if a bit shouty in places, but the men were a disappointment. Maybe it was the afternoon show blues but this just missed the point. There was no spark.

Its a shame as this is normally great fun - I did have fun but that was due to the music not the singing.

I hope it's normally better than it was today.

The first version I saw was in Dutch and when I saw the English version (Edinburgh a few years ago) it was just as good. This time wasnt.
Not wanting to be too critical  - but Sky was cardboard and Bill wasn't singing at all - he sounded like he just shouted the words.

Maybe its just me. I wonder what others thought.

Why I hate Novamind 5

A year or so ago I decided that I wanted to get into MindMapping but didnt like what software was offered by work. It was not intuative and too complicated. I tested as many as I could find - Mindjet, Buzan, Brain, etc etc and found them all too much like hard work, until I finally found NovaMind 4!!!

It was fantastic - easy to use, made great coloutful pictures and good images. I downloaded the Mac version for use at home but that was horrible. I loved the Windows version but the mac one seemed odd.

So, as ever, I bought it to use at work and sold my soul to the IT dept to be allowed to install this non standard software on my work PC. I was only about 12 days into my 30 day trial of NovaMind 4 when I bought it. By the time my 30 days trial would have been up they had introduced the free upgrade to NovaMind 5. I questioned if I didnt also get a free upgrade as had I waited till the end of my trial I would have qualified but... - no luck.

So I used my NovaMind 4 version  all year - loving every minute of it. I used it for everything -home work- everywhere.

I was kept up to date with the development of NovaMind 5 described as the biggest advancement ever in mindmapping. So when it was finally launched I upgraded immediately.
WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY.

What I got presented with was SLOOOOOOWW, and no where near as intuative as the v4. The tools which made it colourful were hidden in the million of menus. It is a disaster for me. I have tried to get used to it - I have installed all the updates hoping that one of them will make the things quicker - but, no - its still as slow as treacle and horrible.

I regret upgrading and am going to uninstall it  - what a waste of time.

My advice  - get Mindjets Mindmanager