Stuart Pinfold

"Due to Technical Problems..." - My blog

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The views expressed throughout this blog are my personal views, and not those of any organisation I work for, quote or reference in blog posts. No payment or payment in kind is accepted for blog posts.

Happy New Year!

31 December 2009 at 17:05

Loving this video from the 32 languages of the BBC World Service.

Happy new year!

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Ba-da ba ba baaa, they're jammin' it...

22 December 2009 at 16:35

My first full day at BBC Persian TV yesterday. The channel, normally on-air for eight hours from 13:30 GMT (17:00 in Tehran), was extended in order to cover the news of the death of Hosein-Ali Montezari, a Grand Ayotallah who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution and has since been an outspoken critic of the republic's policies, and an advocate of human and women's rights.

Following a late call for the shift (called at 10:00 for an 11:30 start), combined with the ongoing failures with First Capital Connect, I eventually arrived just 10 minutes before transmission of the specially-extended news bulletin.

The newsroom, studio and gallery were more hectic than normal as we covered the news and preparations for the funeral and as a result of starting an hour early.

However, it was possibly mostly in vain: reports have surfaced that the satellite signal is once again being jammed, meaning viewers in the region are unable to view the channel.

This has happened before, during the elections and subsequent protests in Iran during July 2009, when it was blamed on "heavy electronic jamming" from inside Iran itself.

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FCC Delay Repay: Take Your Pick

27 November 2009 at 16:01

As you may have heard, my train operator First Capital Connect is operating a reduced timetable at the moment due to a lack of staff volunteering to work overtime. This, apparently, equates to around 50% of services being cancelled (Really? Who the bloody hell runs a company relying on 50% of their staff volunteering to work overtime having already been on duty for 10 hours?)

Anyway, I've been through the revised timetable and the 'proper' timetable (.pdf), and picked out the trains on which you can - or potentially can - claim, under FCC's "Delay Repay" scheme, half or all of the cost of your ticket back.

Click here for the document (.doc, 24Kb, in new window)

I encourage everyone to claim for any train that is delayed for 30 minutes or more: at the very least, it will inconvenience First Capital Connect by having to do the admin work for each claim.

For the moment it only contains affected services between Bedford and St Pancras. St Albans/Luton services to St Pancras shouldn't be affected because of the extra trains running from there, although there may be cases where you will be delayed travelling to London stations other than St Pancras (particularly London Bridge and West Hampstead). If you spot any of these, are able to look through the London to Brighton/Sutton/Wimbledon/Kent services, or any other service which could go onto the list, please let me know and I'll update it, re-upload it and give you credit (if you wish).

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