*** Update… George at Geomoto contacted me a week after and we worked it out, they’ve put on a new disc and break pads for me at no cost and everythings good so far. Nice one Geomoto, my faith is restored. ***

This may be a bit off topic but just wanted to put his out there to warn others in the North London area thinking of buying a motorbike or scooter to stear well clear of a shop called Geomoto in Finchley. After buying 3 bikes from them and spending untold in servicing over the years I’ve just received such appaling customer service that I’ll never be using them again.

I dropped my bike in for a full service last October asking them to fix everything they could find wrong with it, and it cost a fair few quid. Ever since I got it back there’s been a nasty metal on metal sound from the front wheel that I’d *never ever* heard before, although I forgot all about it as the bikes been sitting unridden from November till last week. Another machanic took a look a few days ago and told me the front pad had been wearing through the disc and they would both need replacing at a cost of several hundred pounds. So I went back to Geomoto today to find out what they were willing to do to put right a problem that was obviously either caused by them in the service, or a result of them not doing a proper service and changint the pads (I have no idea which as I’m no mechanic). Their answer… nothing, I’d have to pay for it all to be fixed?! Well I’m afraid that’s just not good enough, I’m not the type to have an argument in the shop but I hope this post and the money they will be loosing from all my future purchases somwhere else hurts them in some small way.

Customer service is not an option, and if you don’t get it the best thing you can do is vote with your feet and let everyone else know how you feel.

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To hopefully help others find this post through Google I’m just reiterating that I’m talking about the Geomoto bike shop in Finchley, North London, N3 1JL. They also sell Vespa, Piaggio & Motorbikes. PLEASE DON’T SHOP THERE!!!

This wikipedia entry tickled my funnybone…

The term “bogon” stems from hacker jargon, where it is defined as the quantum of “bogosity” (i.e the smallest indivisible units of bogus-ness). This then leads on to the theory of Quantum bogodynamics

…an Open Source solution for controlling Flash via Wiimote(s).

The site’s been up a few weeks, and you may have seen some of the videos if you are on the Papervision3D list, but I just realised I’d not announced it to the wider community.

Currently there is a very first beta available for download from the site (although it works fine the solution is kinda clunky and Windows only), and a couple of quick tutorials on getting it all up and running. If you have a Wiimote and fancy a play feel free to grab the files and let me know what you think.

Over the next couple of weeks I’m hopefully going to be working alongside Pete Hobson (who already has a much better OSX solution running than me) to rip out all the extra junk & make one slick, cross platform solution. Keep ‘em peeled…

FWiidom.org

Well that’s it, the final straw. Lik-Sang have been shut down by Sony, what a bunch of tossers (Sony that is!). I never even used them personally, but I know a lot of people that did, including (as pointed out by Lik-Sang’s announcement) a few that work or worked at Sony. How’s that for hypocrisy?

In the past year I’ve probably spent over £3k on Sony products, I sit here writing this on a Sony laptop with a Sony phone next to me and a Sony camera and PSP in my pocket. I’ve even got a brand new Sony w850i arriving in a day or two. But no more, fuck ‘em, if I can send the phone back I will, and from here on in I’ll be actively avoiding buying any Sony products. Ever.

For a long time Sony’s level of customer contempt has been pretty obvious, but this has tipped the boat into actually directly putting people out of business simply to make a few more dollars. Quite simply (if it’s not immediately obvious) Sony aren’t doing this for any customer relations reasons, they are doing this simply to prevent someone else making a fair and legal profit in a gap left by their stupidity, incompetence and greed. If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em. Makes me sick, and they have just lost a customer. I invite you to join me.

Looking at the Google Zeitgeist is always interesting, if only to confirm all your national stereotypes, for instance in Feb. 2006…

• In the UK we’re a buch of chavs obsessed with ‘the national lottery’, ‘eastenders’, ‘cheap flights’, ‘chantelle’ & ‘katie price’; although we did pull it back with ‘dictionary’ in a respectable 3rd place.
• Brazil were rather obviously searching for ‘carnaval’ & ‘futebol’, but deserve a good pasting for ‘crazy frog’ at no.9
• Candians were rather quaintly searching for ‘love’…ahhh
• Indians were into ‘cricket’ & ‘Harry Potter’ but still rather worried about ‘tsunami’s & ‘bird flu’
• Italians were reving up for Valentines day with ’san valentino’ at no.1 spot
• Polish were looking for ‘maps of poland’ and ‘Chuck Norris’ videos….hmmmm scary!
• Russians were doing rather well, with ‘holiday’, ‘auto insurance’, ’snowboard’, ‘real estate agency’, ‘corporate party’ and even ‘building of a sauna’ in there!
• …while the South Africans are searching for a ‘job’ (when they’re not over here dossing!)