Winter on the allotment and #10 Nature

Winter now very much with us frost today but yesterday managed a few hours down on the allotment, tasks were:

1) Turning compost - advisable to do this every couple of weeks speeds process and chance to see if 'mixture' is too dry or too wet.

2) Picked my last cabbage, and started to dig over that area - Brussels are coming along nicely

3) Planting peas - more peas grown from seed added (see left).

4) Cutting 1st year asparagus back - this is meant to be cut back November-ish to around 50cm.

5) Draining water from butt -all the rain meant water butt was overflowing!

And todays big idea is Number 10 -Nature

Nature is a large term (like History yesterday) -
Nature is allied to denote things that are 'natural' like 'Human nature'.
State of Nature is a concept associated with Thomas Hobbes (him again - he might need more research!).

Currently mention of Nature can trigger thoughts of hills and Blacks Leisure shops - but it's previously been thought of an area of danger away from civilisation it was the romantic movement which led to it's re-evaluation.

Zeebox and #9 History

Last week I visited London's Zeebox offices (think they're looking to expand if you're after a job!) to offer some feedback on their App and see some of the new features that they're looking at rolling out.

The Zeebox boys and girls are currently residing in Covent Garden not far from the old BBC World service premises and have like so many companies an open plan office.
I am not sure how previous developments have been driven but they were interested to get closer to the customer experience and were recording my thoughts and attempts to use the App.
Now I was an early adopter on this and I like it great to find out cast and you can get odd facts by things called Zeetags also when I was at Discovery Anthony Rose (one of may people who have been credited with inventing the BBC's iPlayer) who's one of the brains behind came and spoke to us about the Zeebox TV future that was around the corner.
For those who aren't aware Zeebox is a  TV Guide  (look there are others) on steroids with the added capability to communicate socially (Twitter, Facebook, chat and e-mail) with respect to shared viewing experiences. The use fits well with the rapid penetration of Tablets and the desire to communicate with friends during high profile programmes like the X factor, it also opffers the opportunity to enhance TV experience along with the ability to give extra oomph to commercials.
I was a little surprised that the analysis of users wasn't slick and practiced but was told that I was the first person to provide input - so I gave them my thoughts - in return I got some stickers, badges and 4 drinks mats along with some (cold) food.
Take a look at Zeeebox here if you've not seen it - I expect Facebook will have something similar before too long.

Today's entry -Number 9 History

Yesterday I met my brother (Nick) for lunch at the very impressive Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall at the centre of London's heart.
While we chatted he mentioned that one of his friends had somewhat contentiously remarked there was no such thing as a 'Fact' now I do have some sympathy with the statement but if we are to have a regular conversation sometimes we need to skirt over too many deep thoughts but what is History?
Well in fact  Ian Crofton points out that  Histrory is not just fact and that it is a narrative from a certain PoV (something I noted when I was in Egypt where the 1967 6 day war is seen very differently from how it is by most people in UK).

Lord Macaulay

Earlier Histories were merely records of Kings lineage that showed how they were descended from God/Gods to  justify their position - later history has been used to highlight unerring progress and even by figures like Marx to show a socialist determinism. History (at present) is now providing a more diverse set of views showing the 'common' man/woman along with the big events but this remains a selective account of events.
Lord Macaulay (1800 -59) and  the German  G W F Hegel (1770 -1831) are suggested as figures who played an important part in the development of the subject.




  

Carphone warehouse (not impressed) and #8 Love

Some weeks ago I was prompted by Carphone warehouse that the time was  right for an upgrade (my contract was coming to an end), I'd not been over excited about the phone I had used for the last couple of years (a Samsung) so I went in to see them in Ealing.
I came out with a Nokia Lumia phone and this seemed better for making calls and I anticipated from what I was told that the cost would be around the same.

Now after a few days my old phone was working but new one was not so I made a further visit to the shop and they activated the new phone for me.
About a month later I got a test telling me that the bill was about £45 which was around £30 more than I had expected - thought this might be something to do with switch to the new phone.
Next bill was again much higher than I had expected so called up O2 who told me I was on the wrong tariff and they promptly changed this and advised me that if I wanted a refund that would need to be brought up with Carphone warehouse - with this in mind I wrote to them explaining what had happened.
A few days later I got a letter from them telling me that I should go into the shop where I had contracted  with paperwork and see what they could do.
So I visited the shop..

The assistant I spoke with was most helpful but neither the sales person who I had seen before and selected the phone with (a Nokia Lumia 710) or the shop the manager were present and the assistant did not have the authority to sanction a refund.

The assistant pointed out that I had signed the agreement which clearly showed what was included but I remain unhappy as the phone has been costing me a lot more than my previous arrangement and when I initially followed up on the upgrade offer I had made clear I wanted a replacement not extra features. Although my contract is clear it was not obvious that the default on the phone would mean automatic daily wap.o2.co.uk charges.

I realised that I could  attend at the shop again but did not wish to have a long protracted discussion with out either side being happy.

So I again wrote to Carphone Warehouse explaining that  my additional cost since August has been over 50 pounds, that I have now amended my contract and hope that I d not face such unexpected charges in the future.

I have had a somewhat confusing reply to this but do not think that there is anything like an apology or gesture - so I've written again.

It's instructive to me to find out how badly this query has been handled and how my view of the company (that I had been happy with) has sunk - I would now like to not deal with them again - this is bad from their point of view but they don't realise it - we'll see what happens my view to date is

1) They are wasting their time (which equals money) on my irritating letters.
2) They have lost a customer for the next 10 years and someone who might have recommended them.

All a business like Carphone Warehouse is the brand which is the sales people/service if you can't protect this you are in trouble.

Now a nicer topic.. 

Number 8 Love

We (modern man/woman) probably think of Mills and Boon, Valentine's Day when this is mentioned.
Some feminists have a problem with this Romantic' Love seeing it as a male construct used to enslave them.

Crofton's book lists 3 types:

Affection - (platonic without the passion perhaps)

Sexual - (keeps the human race going - was Plato the first feminist- discuss)

and 

Selfless (also known as Agape)

Plato and the gang considered Love of Wisdom as top love  (and the this is originally what Philosophy meant).

  

Playbook WiFi and #7 Human Nature

As a BT Broadband subscriber  I have registered with BT wifi which provides wireless access away from the home through a series of 'hotspots'.
Yesterday  when I was out and about in Ealing and thought I'd see if I could access from the Ealing Library or Caffé Nero (where I often enjoy one of their great Cappuccino Coffees) sadly I did not come across any signal on the Playbook - while I was in the coffee shop I did use the camera to take a picture (see here), I was amazed at the quality (which you might not see fully here).

Number 7 Human Nature.

Todays' entry from Big Ideas book is Human Nature- seems that there's a battle between the progressives/left and the reactionary right/ religious conservatives (as always).

Words from Hobbes

John Locke

Broadly speaking the battle over Human Nature is 'original' sin writ large while some such as Thomas Hobbes  (1588 to 1679) tended to believe that we're a sorry bunch destined to do bad things to one another unless order is imposed upon us there's an alternative view that we're not born to be rotters  but are more of a blank canvas with great potential (John Locke 1632 to1704 held this view).
You can see some of the arguments from the debate here.

On Vinyl today 18th Avenue by Cat Stevens