Life of Wiley

Just before I came out to Chicago I bought an iPhone 3G. In the UK this is on the O2 network and in the US the iPhone operates on the AT&T network. However, when the 3G signal from AT&T gets sufficiently weak it seems that the iPhone loses the signal and then will reconnect to the T-Mobile network. This is what happened to me on Tuesday when I noticed that the phone was rebooting almost every minute. I tried all sorts to get fix it including doing a complete factory reset, thus wiping out all my contacts and music that I’d carefully prepared before coming away:-(

It turns out that I needn’t have bothered with any of this. The workaround is to simply turn off the 3G mode which is fine if you’re roaming out of the UK as the network data charges are astronomical (£6/MB). Turning off 3G and then doing a manual search for network provider usually allows you to connect back to AT&T. Just remember to re-enable 3G when you’re back in the UK.

Update: Forgot to include the link where I found the workaround:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1671274&tstart=465

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Over the last two years I’ve become a fan of Wired magazine as it provides excellent reading material for longhaul flights. So much so I’ve become a subscriber (though they don’t seem to be very reliable at sending the magazines to the UK:-(  Consequently on my recent trip to Montreal I bought a copy at Heathrow and was shocked to find that their inside backcover feature called Found: Artefacts from the Future was not there. It’s always the first part of the magazine I turn to. I scanned through the whole magazine twice looking for it, thinking perhaps they’d moved it, but it just wasn’t there. Ho hum.

Move forward to my return flight, I dropped into the newsagent at Montreal airport as I’d not only read through the aforementioned copy of Wired I’d also finished the book I’d brought along. I was pleased to see that in the week and a half I’d been in Canada a new issue of Wired had been published so I got it. I was even more pleased to see that I was not the only person upset at the omission of Found as there were several rants about it in the Rants feature. Apparently, the Editors say, the feature had just been “on a sabbatical”. Yeah right! I expect some advertiser insisted they had both pages of the inside back so they couldn’t fit it in. Glad to see it back though. Now just need them to sort out their international distribution problems!

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Lately the choice of films on BA flights has been a bit poor. There was nothing remotely interesting to watch on the flight to Montreal last month and there was little choice this time around too. I opted to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall as I quite enjoy listening to Russell Brand. What a mistake! This film has about 2 scenes featuring Brand that are worthy of a slight titter, the film is one of the worst I’ve seen. Really, don’t waste any time on this film.

I got more entertainment watching fellow passengers trying to figure out how to open the toilet doors! Why is it people can’t figure this out? It clearly says push on a large flat hand-sized panel indicating where and what you need to do to open the door but people always seem to want to try and pull something to get it open.

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A few weeks ago Louise and I had the opportunity to have an evening out that we spent at The Stables restaurant in Rickmansworth. We did have a bit of a shock then when, as can be seen in the photo below, it appears that the restaurant is endorsing a drink that may be a little out of the ordinary!

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I’m in the middle of what could well be my last visit to Montreal. At the end of next week I leave Ericsson to start working with a small Chicago-based company called 29west. It’s a complete departure for me as I’m moving out of telecommunications having spent the last 9 years in the industry beginning at a time when it was still in the midst of the dot-com boom. Now sadly telecomms is an industry that is facing increasing pressure in terms of commoditization of services, especially in the mature markets of Europe and North America. Unfortunately 29west are a software vendor working in the financial services sector; which is not enjoying the best of health at the moment (the financial sector, not 29west)! Still I’m really looking forward to the challenge of working for a small company again and in a new market sector.

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No not nitrous oxide, but a very funny video involving gas.

Thanks Dave for the link.

Technorati links:funny, video, youtube, mythbusters

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Our efforts to get Eva to ride her bike without stabilizers has paid off as you can see from this photo.

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Ever been stuck on an airplane in economy where the person in front has the temerity to recline their seat back? It’s especially infuriating when you’re trying to eat the stuff they call food! Well, this video might offer a solution!

How To Keep Motherfu#%s From Putting Their Seats Back from fi5e on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: travel

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This post from Wired’s Geekdad blog is very timely as we are just getting Eva to ride her bike without stabilizers. She’s been out twice in Cassiobury Park at the bottom of our road and has done very well both times.

We’ve been using the final method mainly, running with the child on the driveway, but also a little bit of hill training.

I’ll be subscribing to the feed from Geekdad from now on, so what other pearls it’s got to offer.

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Got back from a great bank holiday trip up to Sheffield to visit my mum and pick up the kids. Unusually for a British bank holiday the weather wasn’t too bad; sunny on both the Saturday and Sunday.

We spent most of the weekend up at Cannon Hall Farm near Barnsley. There’s an open farm with a great play area for the children and plenty of animals for the kids to feed. The neighbouring farm also creates a maize maze for you to get lost in, as well as some terrific ice cream!

[Show as slideshow]

As it had been my mum’s birthday recently we took her to a Latin American restaurant in Sheffield called Las Iguanas. We were a bit unsure how the kids would get on with it but in fact it was great for the kids. They have a children’s menu from which they tried and liked the chicken chimichangas. The food, atmosphere and service were all excellent. We will be definitely going there again and would recommend it to anyone.

On the Sunday we went to Wisewood Methodist Church where a baptism took place. After the service the whole congregation were treated by the family to a lovely meal of traditional Ghanian and Gambian food.

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