A Donkey on the Edge

Just wanted to register my surprise at the poor quality of BTOpenzone’s wi-fi offering. Apart from the just plain cryptic interface of the wi-fi start page (the page your brower is redirected to when you attempt to browse from a hot-spot) there is the unreliability of the thing.

I foolishly bought a 24-hour coupon figuring I’d use it up in my travels. So far i’ve tried to use it in two hotels and one train station. In every case I struggled to get connected and when I did finally get online the damn router rebooted every five minutes leaving me to struggle to fill in web forms before the next cycle.

Not smart.

So, I’m writing this from the Costas in Waterloo station. My wi-fi menu show BTOpenzone (tried, couldn’t connect), Eurospot and Readytosurf. In the end I’ve bought time with readytosurf.

They’ve got a sensible bit of cross-platform javascript to manage the connection timer and all the back-end redirect stuff is completely seamless. And so far, the router hasn’t cycled.

Lucky thing Costas has wooden tables…

Life just got easier it says. This just has to be a piss-take…

A co-worker just passed this around:

Rather than call an non-geographical 0870x numbers (minimum 7p/minute) use http://www.saynoto0870.com to find the actual number and only pay for a normal call. This has been a public service email.

And in the spirit of lo-fi open source advertising, check this out. Anup Kurian is the director of an independent film showing at the Waterman’s in Brentford. He wrote in asking for help. Read the post, but go see his film (March 11 to March 17 at Watermans, 19 to 20 March at the Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn)

Dear Dug,

I chanced upon your blog - donkeyontheedge.com and read your posting on Google courting Entertainment Marketers.

I am the writer-director of feature film Manasarovar - www.manasarovar.info - (India / English / 90Min).

The film plays in London at Watermans Center - for a week starting March 11 and later at Tricycle Cinema.

Manasarovar, film made for about 20,000 pounds on a 16mm camera bought from EBAY has won many awards and participated/selected in prestigious festivals.

• Aravindan Puraskaram for Best Debut Director in India
• Gollapudi Srinivas National Award for Best Debut Director in India
• Official Selection - London Film Festival 2004 (only feature film from India)
• Opening Film, Indian Panorama, International Film Festival of India, Goa, 2004
• Best Film and Special Jury Prize, International Film Festival of Mumbai, 2005
• Fukuoka International Film Festival, Fukuoka, Japan, 2005

Needless to say we have zero marketing budget.

It would be great if you can mention the film and the screenings in Watermans and Tricycle in your blog. And it would be even great you and your friends can catch the film.

• Watermans Center - March 11 to March 17 - http://www.watermans.org.uk
• Tricycle Cinema - Sat 19th- Sun 20th March

Detailed screenings of the film are available at
http://www.manasarovar.info/where.htm

Here is a recent review of the film

Thanks and regards,
Anup Kurian

I want one of these

Wey hey! Nicki has scored our little familly an all-expenses-paid press junket to the Dutch capital. Nick and Clemmie left earlier today and are currently enjoying that particular kind of Dutch hospitality (brusque?) while I’m flying on a later KLM flight.

(am typing this on a T-mobile hotspot in Heathrow T4 which lets me use my various smtp servers and hasn’t rebooted in two hours use—not bad…)

So that was fun, if utterly exhausting (started my day 06:00 on Friday and got into my hotel bed at 01:30 only to be kicked awake by little girl at 06:30—and it went downhill from there on the sleep front).

So in brief, A’dam with a 2^5/6-year-old:

• trams
• playgyms (very mental)
• hotels
• museums
• and a zoo

OK, back to work…