Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Friday 13 July 2007, 10:17 AM
Customer support? Get lost...
Brilliant story here from the BBC, which reports that US comms giant Sprint Nextel has ditched a thousand customers who committed the heinous crime of calling their customer support line too often.
Sprint claims the average number of calls per month from these customers was between 40 and 50, but the worst cases were apparently calling hundreds of times a month on the same issue - which kind of makes you wonder how bad the not-so-terrible cases were. Exactly how much do you need to hassle a phone company before they drop you?
Thursday 12 July 2007, 5:38 PM
ID cards - compulsory or not?
It's not going to be compulsory to carry around ID cards. Honestly. So said Stephen Harrison, policy director at the ID & Passport Service, when asked today at the Westminster eForum on ID cards, surveillance and data protection.
Further questioning elicited more explanation: no, you won't have to carry it around all the time, only when you want to use public services. Then: it's "not a tool for police to demand your papers", but if you are suspected of committing a crime, police can ask you to prove your identity, as before. Eh? This brings us back to "what's the point then?" - in a system that's supposed to stop terrorism/whatever, there's no benefit to having ID cards unless everyone has to carry them around all the time. Stop Joe Criminal and give him the option of popping along to the police station later to bring in his ID card, and you think he'll show up?
In any case, you'll automatically register for an ID card if you renew or apply for a passport, so pretending that it's not compulsory in any way is frankly a joke. Some honesty on such matters would go a long way to convincing people that the system is not malevolent - if that is indeed the case - and hobbling one of the key bodies that's scrutinising the scheme's introduction is not exactly helping matters.
Oh hang on [looks through notes from today's eForum]... "The government has said it will look at further legislation for compulsory registration in the future" (Harrison again). That's more like it. Call a spade a spade.
Tuesday 10 July 2007, 12:33 PM
Beware the knock-off virtual sex toys
Oh for heaven's sake. If the whole Second Life thing wasn't absurd enough already, now there's a case going on in a real-life court over the intellectual [sic] property issues of virtual sex toys.
Apparently people are having problems telling the difference between the real Eros SexGen Platinum Base Unit and the fake one. OK, let me sit you down here, you squabbling peddlers of objects that don't actually exist: it's sad enough that you're making a living off the so-called sex life of people who'd rather, er, "engage" with virtual partners than real ones, but clogging up the real world's already-overburdened legal system with nonsense cases like this just ain't cool. Alright?
Jeez....
Monday 9 July 2007, 12:55 PM
iPhone probably not discontinued
Amazon UK has already stuck the iPhone on its website, without a price but with several of those "user reviews" from people who have almost certainly not used the product. Amusingly, under "availability", Amazon says that "this item is not in stock or has been discontinued". I know the tech biz moves at lightning speed, but I'll assume the former option stands.
Meanwhile, a quick call to the O2 press office this afternoon reveals nothing more on the "rumours and speculation" that it will be picking up the iPhone, so it could still be up for grabs. We've had "it's definitely Vodafone", then "definitely O2"... anyone else?
Wednesday 4 July 2007, 12:04 PM
UK piracy grasses underpaid
How unfair is this? Snitch on your company's illegal software usage in the UK, and all the Business Software Alliance will give you is up to £10k. Do it in the US, and you get up to $1m!
Honestly, I think UK snitches should unionise to fight this sort of unfair treatment. Some healthy protectionism for the venerable British grass industry is clearly in order...
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