This blog will remain here as an archive but will not be updated anymore. My plan is to change Roy.Herrod.co.uk to be a more formal, personal and simple CV style page rather than one of my primary places on the web.

Bye bye!

We are always on the look out for new sponsors for contests, so if you’re interested in sponsoring a contest email Sponsors@TrickOrTweat.net.

If you’d just like to have a look, participate and maybe win a prize then check out the website and twitter page for more information!

I have however started a Twitter account and regularly tweet about random links I find and other interesting stuff. I dont know why exactly but I much prefer the restriction of just 140 characters per post/tweet as opposed to the ‘unlimited’ space for a blog post, I think it’s down to people expecting much more from a post than a quick tweet!

Therefore untill I decide otherwise I’m going to leave this site/page as is, anyone interested is encouraged to join Twitter and follow me! – www.Twitter.com/Roybott

I have to say I’m really impressed by how well, and quickly, my phone picks up the tag and directs me to the desired site (or other task). It seems to work really well on tags of all sizes, clarity and even on tags shown briefly in videos running on my pc! Obviously I had to try creating my own tag to try it out, so here it is…

But all is not lost! after a bit (more than I expected) of time searching around on the internet I found out that new styles can be added through the use of .XSL files and then eventually I found that someone had made one for the Harvard system (or at least an interpretation of it which happily matches the requirements of my University)

so if you need to use citations and references in Word 2007 and also need to use the Harvard style of references then simply go to the following site, download the files and place them where it tells you to

http://www.codeplex.com/bibliography/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=15852

Thank you Yves!

– and also thanks to the site that directed me there (Burela’s house-o-blog)

Check out the following link for a very simple step by step video on how to do it: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/creating-a-gantt-chart-using-excel.html

However as my hosting was due for renewal within 10 days the cancelation wasn’t completed before Streamline’s deadline of 14 days prior to the renewal date. This was unfortunate but ultimately I guess my own fault/problem. Sadly this was brought to my attention in a shambled way which meant that I transferred my domain away from Streamline and spent a fair amount of time ensuring I had all my FTPs backed up, before Streamline eventually said:

“Please see the renewal term,s you agreed to upon sign up;

REBILLING (RENEWAL) POLICY FOR SHARED HOSTING ACCOUNTS:

When ordering an account with Streamline.Net, If the account is a ‘Yearly’ account Streamline.Net will rebill the customer’s account (unless the account has been cancelled within the yearly period) up to 7 days prior to the 1 year period expiring. If the account is a ‘2 Yearly’ account Streamline.Net will rebill the customer’s account (unless the account has been cancelled within the 2 yearly period) 14 days prior to the 2 year period expiring.

We shall proceed with the cancellation of the account but will not be making any refunds as the account was not cancelled in line with the terms and conditions you agreed to.”

They appeared to be correct, but as with most things if a company points me at their terms and conditions to try to prevent me from doing something I give the T&Cs a read in the hope that I can find something to help me. That’s just what I did and then replied with:

“The Terms and Conditions also state that:

Recurring Web Hosting (rebilling) payment policy
If a customer is renewed (rebilled) for a service and does not use the service after the renewal (rebilling) payment is taken within a 28 day period then we can offer them a refund minus any of Streamline.Net’s costs (domain registration fee etc). If a customer has used the service (FTP, Email, Matrixstats, etc) then no refund can be given.

(http://www.streamline.net/retac.php)

I have not made use of my hosting and it is within 28 days of the renewal so therefore I would like a refund based on the above conditions.”

Streamlines response to this was frankly a little annoying as they (in my opinion) decided to miss-read their own T&C’s, below is an abridged version of the back and forth emails between myself and streamline which followed my above reply:

Streamline:

“This only applies if the account has never been used in the term of the contract, and unfortunately this is not the case, therefore no refund will be issued.”

Me:

“The Terms explicitly say "…does not use the service after the renewal " and I have not used the service since before the renewal date. Which part of this is apparently not the case?”

Streamline:

“The service has been used before renewal took place, therefore, no refund will be made, it only applies if you had never used the service and were renewed, then yes a refund may have been applicable.”

Me:

“There seems to be a misinterpretation of the Terms, you are saying "…The service has been used BEFORE renewal took place," (emphasis added) which im not disputing but the Terms explicitly say "…does not use the service AFTER the renewal " (emphasis added) to which I am saying I have NOT used the service AFTER the renewal, therefore I should qualify for a refund based on those Terms and Conditions.”

Streamline:

“Unfortunately we will not be issuiong a refund under this account as clearly stated on several occassions. If you did not wish to have your account renewed, then the cancellation terms and conditions should have been adhered to.”

Me:

“I do not understand why you will not honour your own Terms and Conditions. In regards to refunds, the Terms and Conditions clearly state that if I have NOT used the service AFTER the renewal then within 28 days a refund can be given.

Please can you clearly state what I have to done to fall foul of the Refund Terms and Conditions, including (if relevant) any apparent login Dates/Times with the corresponding part of the service to which I logged in.”

Streamline:

“We have advised the reasons for not issuing a refund on more than one occasion, therefore will not be doing so.”

Me:

“To the best of my knowledge I have adhered to the ‘Refund Terms and Conditions’ as stated on your website, as such I will be seeking legal advice to pursue this matter further.”

So that was essentially how it ended, feel free to draw your own conclusions from the above communications as to whether you think I or Streamline were in the right. I for one sure know that I wont be renewing my hosting with Streamline, or recommending it to anyone, it’s just a shame I have to put up with them for 2 more years

Below is a less than flattering photo of Steve Ballmer taken by me during his keynote and Q&A session, unfortunately as I was using the camera on my phone the majority of my photos came out poorly due to light so this is really the only one in which you can make him out:

The day consisted of 5 talks including the Steve Ballmer keynote/Q&A, the others were; ‘Lessons from starting a software company’ by Andy McLoughlin (from Huddle.net), ‘Science behind Live Search’ by Jay Girotto, ‘MS Research talk on CS inside Halo 3 True Ranking system’ by Thore Graepel and ‘Future User Experience Technologies’ by Paolo Barone.

We were told that the full video of the days talks would be available online soon after, so I’ll add a link here when they are.

Retrofitting tags probably isn’t the best idea but at least now I wont have a period where my tag cloud (now added to the side bar on the left ) has only 2 things in it.

Anyway everything is back online now and I’m back at University for my final year!