Finally getting round to sorting out this website. It might take a while though.

More than ever, I’m short of time; with a wife, two kids (one with complicated medical situation), and two businesses. However, I do intend to write occassional posts here.

In the short term, I will be writing stuff about technology and computers, mainly to support my IT consulting (computer repair) business. Later, I might do more posts motor racing as the girls get a little old and I maybe take an interest themselves.

For those that subscribe by RSS (if there are any), thanks for subscribing. For those that don’t, please come back regularly to check for new content.

Thanks,

Colin.

I want to start blogging again, and use this site for my computer services business.  I would like your opinion on what you think is best.  Please reply on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/ColinBowen

Thanks.

Option #1.  Keep my business name as CBits (Colin Bowen IT Services), and have BowenRacing.com/CBits dedicated to computers, phones, and other IT.

Option #2. Change the business name to BowenRacing IT Services (BRITS), and have BowenRacing.com/IT dedicated to computers, phones, and other IT.

Option #3. Change the business name to BowenRacing Computer Services, and have BowenRacing.com/CS dedicated to computers, phones, and other IT.

Thanks for your opinions.

By the way, I am aware that this site is pretty broken at the moment.  It’s on my list to sort out, but family and paid work must take priority at the moment.

Thanks.

A rare post from me.  I don’t plan to post much for at least four months, but this one might help others.

I own a HTC Wildfire, an Android phone.  I added my Google account to it and it all synchronised well.  Although there is an option to add another account, after the entering the details it would say “Signing in”, and:

“Your phone is communicating with Google servers and setting up your account. This may take up to five minutes.” 

Well, it would rarely get to five minutes before reporting:

“Can’t establish a reliable data connection to the server. This could be a temporary problem or your SIM card may not be provisioned for data services. If it continues, call Customer Care.”

I finally found a solution:

Go to the phone’s YouTube app

If you have an account, sign in.  If not, create an account using your Google username and password.

That’s it!  The phone now has the new account.  You will probably want to go to settings, Syncing and Accounts, and set it to sync automatically.  You’ll then get your second or subsequent gMail accounts in the gMail app.

If you found this useful, please let me know with a comment.  I might start posting tech-related stuff again in 2011, but want to know if anyone is interested before I spend time on it.  Thanks.

Hello all. I know I said I wouldn’t start posting again until the end of August, but I’m a little ahead of schedule.

I’ve been looking into a new mobile phone and contract, and mobile phone companies keep telling me that they have ‘unlimited’ internet. Tesco told me this in person last week, and T-Mobile told me this over the phone today. But these ‘Unlimited’ deals are not unlimited. Here’s an example:

Despite the big print saying “£30pm for unlimited calls, texts and browsing”, the small print says “subject to a fair use limit of £500″.  So, it’s not unlimited, it’s limited to £500.

T-Mobile said today that I (currently) have unlimited data allowance on my £15pm SIM cards.  I said “It’s limited to 3GB, so how is it unlimited?” and he replied that if I exceed 3GB, I still have unlimited data but I’ll be charged for anything above the that.  I don’t think he’s right there either, but it does illustrate how these companies are trying to mislead people.

I just sent this email to Tesco Mobile and should receive a reply within 24 hours.

Subject:  Complaint about misleading advertising

Body:  Your advertising states “£30 per month for unlimited calls, texts and browsing”, then in small print states “Unlimited calls, texts and browsing subject to a fait use limit of £500″.  How can it be unlimited, and limited, at the same time.

I’ll let you know what they say.

Don’t expect any new posts until the end of August.

I’m working hard on my two businesses for a few months; my Financial Services clients need even more help in the current climate and my IT (PC) services clients need the best service I can offer. 

It reminds me of when I started business in 1990, there was a recession but I worked hard and built a business I am proud of.  Although I have two stable businesses now, I figure that if I work hard now, my clients and I will benefit more in the future.

So, I’ve decided to focus my time on my businesses for a few months.  As usual, I’m busy with my family (visits and holidays) too.  I miss posting here but it does take more time than I currently want spend on it.  Sometimes you have to focus on the most important things in life.

All this could change though…  I’m considering entering a national karting championship.  Although it will take up time, that sort of activity puts me in effeciency overdrive, so might be a good use of my time.  If I enter, I might be making short, quick posts here, and might start tweeting @BowenRacing.  In any case, I’ll continue tweeting @ColinBowen.

Here’s the way the Constructors’ Championship ended last year.

1st: Ferrari 172
2nd: McLaren-Mercedes 151
3rd: BMW Sauber 135
4th: Renault 80
5th: Toyota 56
6th: Toro Rosso-Ferrari 34
7th: Red Bull-Renault 29
8th: Williams-Toyota 26
9th: Honda 14
10th: Force India-Ferrari 0 (lack of funds meant they couldn’t race after
Spain)

Don’t expect changes overnight, because this is way down the list of priorities (far lower than ‘Spend time with family’ and ‘Earn money’), but I plan to make some changes at BowenRacing.com.

Initially I started the site to tell people about my karting and other racing. Since then it has morphed into a place for me to post all sorts of stuff. Clever people like Nikki Pilkington suggest that a website should be more focussed. So, I’m going to have three websites:

• www.BowenRacing.com will focus on my motor racing, F1, and other car-related stuff
• Another website will be for my IT Consultancy business, with topics that might be of interest to a typical private or business client
• Another website for… there’s no other way of saying this, for the geeky stuff

There are still no plans for a website for my Financial Services business (yes, this is the Colin Bowen from Berry Bowen Financial Services).  Regulatory constraints are one reason, and another is that we only deal with existing clients and new clients by recommendation; that’s just the type of personal-service-based business we are at the moment.

Subscribe to this site’s RSS feed for updates, and I’ll post on this website when the other sites go live.

I’m on Twitter too, with two accounts:

• @BowenRacing is now the account I’ll be using for racing and F1 news
• @ColinBowen is the account I’ll use for tech and general tweets.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a comment.  Thanks!

Introducing, the new MacBook Wheel!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

I’ve just exceeded the number of people I feel I can effectively follow, 60.  Any more than that and I feel that Twitter will become less interesting/useful to me.  I want to stay close to the people I follow, and see a decent proportion of their tweets. 

Already I have come to the conclusion that I can’t read all the tweets, I’ll just dip in and read what I can in the time available.  If I follow more people, it just reduces the number of tweets I see per person.

So, what do I do if someone new follows me now?  My initial thoughts are that if they have something really interesting to say then I’ll follow them, but it’s going to have to be really, really interesting.  If I do follow them, I’ll be looking for someone to un-follow so I keep the numbers effective. 

It’s hard to un-follow people, as I may have a relationship with that person.  I feel bad when someone un-follows me (and always wonder why).  So, should we feel un-follow people?  And if we do, should we feel bad about it?  Should we feel bad when we’re un-followed?

Please leave a comment.  Please include your @username.  Please also say how you found out about this post.  Thanks.

Completely off-topic, but I’ve just read the leaflet that explains the changes to my MBNA credit card, and I noticed a worrying new condition which paves the way for them to increase interest just because there’s a recession. Quoting extracts:

Charges – We have introduced two new paragraphs – 11b and 11c – which explain how we may increase your interest rates.

11c – Examples of reasons why we might increase your interest rates could be one or more of the following:

• [fourth bullet point] changes in external factors, such as…. changes in general economic conditions

So, they can now increase interest rates due to the recession. 

The recession is largely due to the lack of availability of credit.  This means that people who were taking on more and more credit (and spending it) now can’t get more credit, so they have to reduce their spending, and that is one of the causes of the recession.

Because credit card companies (and other lenders) have less money to lend, it’s harder for card holders to switch credit cards and get new 0% deals.  So people are stuck with credit cards that are charging interest.  Now MBNA (and other card companies possibly) can increase their interest rates because of the recession, meaning their customers will have higher repayments, and even less money to spend elsewhere.

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