I found this stunning video on inkblot earth’s blog, which in turn I found thanks to MyBlogLog (which provides the Recent Readers panel on the right). It shows an amazing design for a door which opens to the approximate size of whatever is passing through it. It really is visually impressive. I want one! Its distributer seems to be here.
After my previous post about Google losing its battle for the right to use the name “Gmail” in the UK and Germany, the European trademark office has now ruled that Google cannot register the trademark across Europe. Google however is standing firm and says it will continue to use the name Gmail in Europe (outside UK and Germany) as before.
Looking at the number of searches for gmail uk that comes to my blog looking at how to register a “gmail” address in the UK, there is plenty of confusion out there. Is it too late now for Google to rebrand gmail entirely? Everyone I know in the UK still refers to it as gmail..
If you are in the UK you can get a googlemail.com email address by going here - you may even be able to get a gmail address if you pretend you are outside the UK. No you cannot seem to get a gmail address by pretending to be outside the UK anymore.
Amazon are famous for their emails - people always open them and read them. Or so the theory goes. In the past year I have not been too impressed with Amazon’s supposedly relevant emails. I wondered whether this was down to them not trying any more or me having confused them 
So it was with great interest I got several emails from Amazon which made me open them.
The first was an email from an author I have read consistently (Conn Iggulden) and as you can see on the right am in the process of reading another of his books. He is releasing a new book and Amazon thought it would be useful to draw my attention to it. Sure enough it made me open the email and look into it further.
The second may have been more luck than judgement due to its mainstream popularity - the launch of the 7th Harry Potter book. Having read all the previous ones it is a natural one to email me about. I think I can say I have bought all of them from Amazon in the past. I wonder however if they actually took the decision to send it to everyone? I doubt I will ever be able to find out if everyone received this email or a “select few”.
Finally not even an hour after the Harry Potter email I received another email from Amazon, this time about electronics. This was an awful email with lots of random products obviously hoping one would stick. I was emailed it because having recently bought a product from computer accessories, I might want to know about their computer peripherals range. I have already bought items from their peripheral section.. but maybe they do not have this information? in any case this email was poorly targeted from both a content and frequency perspective. The previous two emails (which were not even a week apart) along with this one meant I was beginning to get Amazon fatigue.
So did I unsubscribe? Not yet - clicking the opt out link takes you to their customer communications page which allows you to choose what you do or do not want to receive. Unfortunately this is not broken down by product type - I would ideally just like to receive book emails. Despite this I do love amazon - I remember in 2005(?) them having problems with deliveries near christmas. Last christmas having ordered a whole bunch of books, I wondered what would happen. They had obviously sorted things out as I got them delivered early. There is nothing like having something arrive early to make you feel positive towards a company. Doing the unexpected is definitely a plus!
Barcamp London 2 is this weekend - annoyingly I am no longer able to attend but having attended the first one it is definitely worth trying to get to.
Amazingly there are still tickets available last I heard! Was this the wrong time of year to hold the event or was the extra space, space too far? Either way I am disappointed not to be going. It is sponsored by BT and a short walk from my flat so I think I can only hope for such ideal conditions next time!!!
Absolutely amazing. I just had O2 call me asking me what network I am currently on. Now I am already on O2 so it was with some amusement that I enlightened him. Even more amazing is this didn’t seem to phase him at all - he proceeded to want more information, my contract type and then further going on to request my personal information to update his system!
O2 really should know their own customers - you would think wouldn’t you?
Unless of course maybe it wasn’t O2? The gentleman in question claimed to be calling from their Belfast calling centre. I have no idea whether that was the truth or not 
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 by William Dalrymple
