Keiron’s daily take on life, the internet and the world around us!

Most people that know me know that I love my mobile phone, and it has to be a good one – simply because I run the business from it!

I rang Orange the other day to enquire what was currently on offer, and as usual they don’t have a single phone that interests me… The HTC Touch Pro 2 I did fancy is available, but not as an upgrade. I’m not convinced I want an iPhone as I’ve got my iPod Touch and it really does lack a keyboard that I need. Even if they had got a phone I’m not sure I’d upgrade because every contract is 18 or 24 months – what happened to 12 month contracts?

Locking in for 24 months on a contract seems ridiculous to me, Orange did tell me that I’d had my current phone for nearly 2 years! I had to ask them what phone they thought I’d got, they were wrong – that one has been in a box for at least a year! Technology changes so quickly that I want a bit more freedom than a 24 month contract.

So I’m in deep discussions with them at the moment about moving to a low contract Business SIM-only probably with 30 day rolling contract for £15 and a huge data bolt-on, from there I can always upgrade with them at any point I choose…

However, to make sure I have a phone I want I’ve gone SIM Free and ordered the Motorola DROID (yes, I know – for those that know me they’ll know I’ve only just left the company!). So here it is…

More posts to follow on this subject I’m sure…

I don’t like the stuff – I make no secret about that… OK I do – but only for photo’s, everything else about it I thoroughly dislike!

We’ve had almost a week of it now and I have some observations…

1. This country will never, ever, be prepared for this. Even people from countries that are used to digging their cars out of four feet of snow say it’s difficult in this country because we are just SO unprepared.
2. By law in many countries you have to clear your path and pavement in front of your home and business, doing this would reduce the risk of people slipping on pavements (they don’t grit them, so if you’ve driven to work on wonderfully gritted roads you fall over getting out of your car!).
3. Weathermen either don’t know how to react when reporting a high of –1, so they either act sarcastic or smug! Neither are appropriate – where’s that “Barbecue Summer” you promised?
4. Stockpiling helps nobody (except yourselves!) and if it thaws you’ll go out again and it will all go out of date – what a waste of money!
5. Britain does still have a sense of community and combined whinging seems to get neighbours talking!

Rant over – I’ll leave you with a photo of an igloo I found on my way home the other morning…

New Yorkers (and visitors to the area who had the foresight to carry things around that irritate them!) have said goodbye to their bad memories from 2009 in a public shredding ceremony in Times Square.

photo credit: Ben Brown

Items that got shredded included:

• Letters from ex-lovers,
• Photos of ex-lovers,
• Redundancy letters,
• and newspaper clippings of bad days for people’s favourite sports teams!

This is the third event of it’s kind!

One “shredder” placed a piece of paper into the shredder that simply said “Writer’s Block” – she hopes to write a musical this year.

For items that could not be shredded, the Times Square Alliance were most helpful in providing a sledgehammer and a large waste-container.

What would we have in the UK, maybe the “Pointless Kitchen Gadgets Destruction Day?” – Let me know in the comments!

TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW

In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT

In a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

In an office:
AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING – BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park:
ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN’T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a farmer’s field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.

Message on a leaflet:
IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS

On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR – THE BELL DOESN’T WORK)

I’ve had a really busy week this week, so busy that I didn’t notice it was the Business Startup show at Olympia yesterday and today, I debated getting on the road early this morning and coming back early but as I have family here for the weekend it seemed a little silly.. So a little blue yesterday I browsed the web for some startup information to make up for it.

That’s when I came across 24 Hour Startup, where a group of people from Nonsense have decided to build a web-based startup and launch it all in 24 hours.. I love this idea!!

At midday yesterday they didn’t even know what they would be building, as of this morning it has a name, a logo, code, and it’s own blog, AND it will launch in just 3 hours time! This is an amazing achievement and if Neil Cocker’s estimates are anything to go buy it could make a lot of money (hey why aren’t I doing this?!).

Now as I was feeling blue yesterday and they’ve brightened my day, I’m hoping they’ll let me have the Blue gift for writing this blog post and putting it out on Twitter! Plus I think was @dr_hue’s second friend!?