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Posts in the ‘Tech & Web’ Category

Free WiFi Woes

Now, I know there is free WiFi in London. Londonist has their lovely free WiFi map. And though the places can be few and far between in some areas, there are some places people always seem to be going for a free connection.

Well, first I tried Leon on Brompton and had no luck whatsoever finding a connection. Then I tried at the Coach & Horses on Friday — at a social media event — and had no luck, though everyone seemed to be having the issue for at least some of the time. And now, to top it off, today I went to 5th View on the 5th floor of Waterstone’s on Piccadilly, and had zero luck again. My friend James had some trouble getting online, but was eventually able to find the connection after a few minutes. I tried over and over and had no luck getting anything. I also tried a Vodaphone attachment, but my computer wouldn’t accept it.

Is it a problem with one of my settings? I could see the network and it said I had full signal strength. Or could it be a Mac-PC difference (James had a PC)? I would just really appreciate being able to use my computer away from the comfort of my apartment every once and a while, and 5th View would be the closest supposedly free place — if I can figure out how to connect.

At least I had some company today, and I got to learn about SpinVox and its voice-to-text software and voicemail-as-text message options as well as other mobile phone things. Seems to be my theme of the week. I feel like I should get a new phone and finally start using that mobile internet thing.

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March 11th, 2008 - Tech & Web

5th View, free WiFi, London, MacBook, mobile phone, SpinVox, technical issues, voice-to-text, Waterstone's

Social Media Club and QR Codes

Today I got myself out of the house for almost the entire day by going to the Social Media Club/Tuttle Club. Now a weekly event every Friday starting at 10 a.m. at Norman’s Coach and Horses on Greek Street in Soho, the group is a lively confluence of professional marketers, bloggers, developers and social media types.

Though I tend to be nervous walking into a room of strangers — or almost all strangers, since I did know a couple of people — I felt welcomed immediately and sat down to have a cup of tea and a croissant with some newfound friends. It was nice to chat about writing, blogging, marketing and to hear about people’s startups. And I ended up staying for the QR code lunch as well.

I only learned about QR codes a few weeks ago — they’re not really used in the U.S. yet — so I felt like I should learn a bit more. Basically, they’re square-shaped bar codes that sort of look like TV fuzz that can encode urls, text information, v-cards (virtual business cards) and more. These codes are then used as shortcuts for mobile phones — the user takes a photo scan of the code and it displays the encoded information or takes them to a specific website.

The QR pros today were from i-nigma and Squiggly Square, and they had some interesting uses of the tech to talk about — both ones that had been done and some theoretical applications. Basically, it gave me a good deal to think about, and I learned some new things.

And, of course, I had to create code that’ll get you to my portfolio site (above). If anyone checking this out has a bar code reader on their phone, let me know if it works.

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March 7th, 2008 - London, Tech & Web

bloggers Meetup, Coach and Horses, London, pub, QR Code, Social Media Cafe, Tuttle Club

New Articles on Entrepreneur.com and Hitched

Two more articles up this week: One on Entrepreneur.com about new billing/payment trends, which ended up being much more interesting than it sounds. Well, at least the interviews were. I got to talk to people at four different alternative billing companies — Bill Me Later, eBillme, Revolution Money and BSG Clearing Solutions — and hear about the new ways they’re letting customers pay retailers. It was a great education in shopping carts and alternative credit systems that I never expected to get. I wish I could have written more about each of the companies. If you’re interested, check out “New Ways to Pay.”

The Hitched article is one Valentine’s Day — what happens when one partner is more into the holiday than the other. I interviewed NYC-based psychologist Diana Kirschner, and was helped out by a connection from the Entrepreneur.com payment article — Bill Me Later had just done a survey on Valentine’s day spending and disputes. If you’re interested in this one, check out “Valentine’s Day Dispute.”

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February 8th, 2008 - Tech & Web, Writing

Entrepreneur.com, Hitched magazine, Valentine's Day, writing clips

Is That Ringing in My Ears?

I’ve been having a problem with what I’ve been calling “the beep.” Basically, it’s someone’s fax machine that has been calling the apartment over and over and over again. It started late last week. I must have received 30 calls in an hour or so — and I left the phone plugged in because I was trying to get the problem fixed with the doorman/building manager. It ended up with me unplugging the phone.

The next day, I plugged it in and had a bunch of beep messages and started receiving more calls. I unplugged again. We didn’t get any calls on the weekend, but come Monday morning at 9:08, it started again. It beeped Tuesday and Wednesday, too. Both times I unplugged, and plugged back in to get plenty of messages.

I felt like I was being tortured. I couldn’t make it stop. The building people couldn’t make it stop. BT couldn’t make it stop. And it just kept ringing. Oh, and this phone has a very loud, jarring ring, too. And the fax didn’t have a traceable number. I thought I may lose my mind.

Today I haven’t gotten any calls. Let’s hope this is over.

Update, Feb 1: The beep is back. Rang 5 times already. And Mario isn’t around to help. Not cool, fax machine.

Update, still Feb 1: Unplugged after at least 8 rings (I lots count, actually), but was asked to plug it back in so BT could potentially fix the problem. While they were supposedly fiddling, I got at least 6 more calls, and I had 7 on my voice mail. Mario has been super nice trying to get everything straightened out and it sounds like he’s really getting the runaround from all the people he’s been calling to stop these infernal calls. He even offered to let us switch apartments, though ours is a bit nicer than the alternative, so we’re staying put. The phone shall remain unplugged until they can change the number or figure something else out.

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January 31st, 2008 - Tech & Web

beep, phone, ringing, technical issues

New Posts, New Pictures

After 2+ days of being unable to post, the hosting issues are sorted out (apparently a PHP upgrade caused the problem — thanks, John, for helping me out with that).

I’ve finally been able to add the images I wanted to posts from the past week, which are all from my sketchbook. Check them out:

Now back to posting regularly. Well, except that I won’t be posting this weekend: France is going to France! (Sorry. Do you know how long I’ve waitd to say that?)

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January 18th, 2008 - London, Sketches & Projects, Tech & Web

drawing, London, Photos, technical issues

Lunchtime at Leon

Leon Cafe Today, I went on a bit of a walk down to Leon by Harrods (which I have yet to go into). The place had some funky decor, mostly consisting of images of oranges and bulls, and it had customer response postcards with photos of Leon them and a mailbox by the door to drop them into, which I actually thought was a cute idea.

The cafe is known for simple, fresh fast food, though in my opinion it was a little too fast — I would have appreciated getting a salad that wasn’t premade, and though the juices are supposed to be fresh squeezed, when they’re already in cups and you can see the pulpy bits separating, they stop looking as appetizing.

I ordered the superfoods salad, which was devoid of lettuce, though otherwise incredibly green, with peas, avocado, cucumber and broccoli. It also had some feta cheese and a lemony dressing, which was nice and light. I felt healthier for having eaten it, though while eating in would have liked to eat off a plate and not out of a box.

Leon The restaurant is supposed to have free WiFi, and I brought my computer along, but didn’t find out how to log on. I should have asked, though I decided to occupy my time with a bit of drawing. I do need to figure out where I can work with some free WiFi, though. It would be nice to get out a bit more while still feeling productive.

I’ll post my latest drawings as soon as I can get them photographed and uploaded. My camera is having a battery issue right now: It takes double-A’s, but my rechargeable batteries don’t seem to hold a charge anymore. I was able to take the photos, but my batteries didn’t last long enough to transfer the photos to my computer. Very frustrating. At least I took a photo on my cell phone so you can see what Leon looked like.

Update (1/18/08): The sketch is posted, though the photo didn’t turn out that great. The page didn’t lie flat, so that’s why the perspective is all weird.

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January 15th, 2008 - Dining & Drinks, London, Tech & Web

avocados, batteries, camera, Dining & Drinks, food, free WiFi, Harrod's, London, Photos, salad, technical issues, vegetarian