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AuthorAdam Owen

When Social goes wrong – the British Gas #AskBG disaster

October 17, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Today, British Gas announced they’d be raising prices by 9.2%.

The same day, some bright spark thought it’d be a great idea to hold a Q&A session using the #AskBG hashtag.

It all started with this rather well-meaning tweet from @BritishGas:

But British Gas customers unhappy with the price increase decided to vent their anger through the hashtag, which resulted in a rather entertaining afternoon for Twitter users (probably not so much for their social media team though..!).

Here are a few of my favourite #AskBG tweets of the afternoon:

https://twitter.com/hullstephen/status/390807693193015296

 

Just when I was thinking “someone should get the sack for this”, someone kindly pointed out – http://gs7.globalsuccessor.com/centrica02/tpl_centrica02.asp?s=4A515F4E5A565B1A&jobid=36882%2C8958347134&key=2586977&c=125454124847&pagestamp=senirrcpypgowoklxa

Yep – they’re looking for a new Senior Social Media Manager! 🙂

What does the inside of a hard drive look like?

October 10, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Ever wondered what the inside of a hard drive looks like?

I recently got the chance to take apart a broken hard drive that I picked up. Rather than letting it get thrown away, I was intrigued to see how it would look inside.

However, before I could even begin I had to buy myself a pack of Torx screwdrivers to unscrew the screws holding the lid on the drive. Once I took the lid off, I could see the inner workings.

This hard drive was manufactured in 1997 and had a storage capacity of just 2.4GB. This hard drive had two disk platters (each approx storing 1.2GB).
I believe that most modern hard drive disk platters can store up to 1TB each, so that’s quite an improvement!

Anyway, if you’re curious (like me!) here are a few pics:

Inside of a 3.5" hard drive Inside of a 3.5" hard drive

National Hamfest 2013

October 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

On Saturday last week I visited the National Hamfest 2013, which is an annual ‘radio rally’ event held at the Newark Showground. One of my granddad’s main hobbies is electronics, so events such as this are useful for picking up supplies, as well as old equipment which can be taken apart and put to good use.

The event had a mixture of commercial stands and ‘car boot’ style traders based both indoors and outdoors. Whilst the event was aimed at ham-radio enthusiasts, there were also a few stands and ‘car booters’ selling computer products.

I picked up a couple of Cisco Catalyst 2950 switches for a bargain price, which I’ll be using to help expand my knowledge of networking equipment.

I also picked up an old (broken) hard drive for just 10p, which I’ll be taking apart to feature in an upcoming blog post about what the inside of a hard drive looks like.

Here are a few pics of the event:

National Hamfest 2013 flea market

 

National Hamfest 2013 exhibition hall

Bloggade 2013 – The Day in Pictures

August 22, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Bloggade 2013 was an event held at Timico’s Newark datacentre aimed at bloggers (primarily those who use WordPress, but also other platforms such as Blogger and Tumblr).

My main event blog has over 1600 words, so is probably a bit too long for many to read.

If you’re more interested in seeing pictures of the event, you’re in luck! Here are a few of the best bits below:

Bloggade 2013 Timico newark

Showing the inside of a WebHostingBuzz HP server Bloggade 2013 Timico

Michael showing the group the inside of a HP server

Timico's Network Operations Centre

Timico’s Network Operations Centre where the status of the datacentre is monitored

Bloggade 2013 Timico newarkMore photos to come!

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