Excel Communication - excel in deception

I don’t normally take any notice of cold callers either from phone calls or at the door. Yesterday I got called by an lady with an Asian accent who gave her name a Sarah and said she was calling from T-mobile, who is my network provider.  Instead of a phone number being displayed on my phone when she called I just had the word 'call'.  She asked me to confirm my name which she gave so I did and then asked me to verify who I was by supplying my post code, house number and the make of my phone. I said she should already have these details on the account but she again said she needed them to varify my identity so she could check and see if I was due an upgrade to a better deal and new phone on a business account.  I finally gave her the details. She then asked if my business was Sally Jane Photographic Art, a detail I know T-mobile does not have. I was now very suspicious but she seemed to already have all the information she needed.  She then said I should expect a call back tomorrow with an offer.
I contacted T-mobile and they told me they would never call with details of better offers and if ever they called for any reason their phone number would be displayed.
Today I got a call from a man who said he was calling from T-mobile. the number displayed was 01952211670.  He wanted to offer me an upgrade to a business account that would only cost £15 per month and give me tons more free calls, texts and also voice mail as well as a new handset.  He said it didn't matter that my contract was still fairly new as it was with the same company.  Still suspecting this might be a scam I suggested he e-mailed me the details.  He told me his e-mail was not currently working but if I gave him an e-mail address he would try and do so later tonight.
After the call I phoned the number back and it was answered by an automatic answering service for Excel communications.
Should he e-mail me I shall report him and his company to Trading Standards but I doubt he will, somehow.
I have since checked the Excel-communications web site and they don't even deal with T-mobile in the first place.  

See http://www.webologist.co.uk/2010/05/consumer-warning-excell-communications-and-orange-mobile.html for a review from someone who wasn't so lucky

European Health Insurance Card EHIC

The European Health Insurance Card is required by all UK citizens when travelling through Europe in the event they require emergency medical treatment.  It replaced the E111 form that used to be required.  The cards are valid for 5 years after which they can be renewed either on-line, by phone (tel 0845 6062030) or at a post office.
If you are thinking of renewing or applying for an EHIC on-line my advice to you is don't unless you like wasting money.  If you renew or apply for your card on-line you will be asked to pay nearly £10 for each card when you can get it done for free over the phone or by going into your post office.  Although the fee is made clear on the web site it is not mentioned that it is free if you use the other methods. 
The downside - The only downside is the time it takes to process the application but it's barely worth worrying about.  If you apply on-line and pay the fee you are told to expect the card to take up to 7 days to arrive.  By phone it is between 7 & 10 days so not a lot of difference.  OK, if you go into a post office then it can take up to 21 days but as long as your application is in the system it doesn't matter if your card doesn't arrive on time for your date of travel.  You are given a phone number you can use should you need to in the event you requiring emergency treatment whilst you are abroad.

Volcanic dust over Kent

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day on the ground and as we needed to go to the hangar for a maintenance job we decided to go for a quick evening flight. At only 2,000' we could start to see the murkiness of the volcanic dust cloud above us. OK so it's not unusual to have haze cutting down the visibility, nor is it unusual to have a dark smudge in the sky at the *inversion level especially this close to London, but this did seem excessively grotty for want of a better term, particularly as you don't normally see the inversion layer when looking towards the sun. I know some countries, and even some parts of our country have it far worse than this as we are just on the edge here.

*The inversion is a level in the atmosphere where two masses of air sit on top of each other. The layer below will be warmer air trapped my a layer of colder air on top. You often get a layer of cloud here but on blue cloudless days you can often see a dirty smudge just below this layer when looking away from the sun. This is all the dirt, dust and pollutants that get mixed up in the air and have risen in the warm air to the top of this level just like smoke floating to the ceiling of a room. You don't normally see it looking towards the sun even though it's there due to an optical illusion just like you can't see a rainbow in that direction, but on this flight we could see it in all directions.

Film Scanner

I now have a film scanner which will allow me to work from negatives supplied by clients where I am otherwise unable to take the photographs myself and the client does not have access to a digital camera.  35mm or medium format film only.  All negatives will be returned once scanned.

National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)

NAPP is an association for Photoshop users run by the Photoshop guru Scott Kelby.  It allows members access to a comprehensive range of training videos and tutorials as well as tons of other benefits.  There is a help desk to answer any questions or resolve any problems with Photoshop or Lightroom, members forum, discounts on purchasing hardware and software including Adobe software, a magazine produced 8 times a year and much much more.  It's even recognised by Adobe themselves. Interested?  just click on the image below to find out more.

Sabadell Airport, Ideal for Barcelona GA

After our trip to Futuroscope we flew off in search of some sun.  The only place in Europe that had any decent weather at the time was Barcelona.  Previously when visiting Barcelona we had used the main airport but that is horrendously expensive for general aviation (GA) so we decided to go to a smaller airfield about 12 miles west of Barcelona called Sabadell. 

Sabadell airport turned out to be the perfect choice for GA wishing to visit Barcelona.  Landing fees and parking fees are dirt cheap.  We paid less than 6 Euros for landing and 3 days parking!  Avgas is available and supplied by BP.  There is a restaurant on the airfield and vending machines in the terminal.  A taxi into Barcelona will cost you 35 Euros and take about 20-25 minutes but the railway line runs right next to the airfield with Sadabell Sud station almost touching the fence.  Unfortunately it is on the wrong side of the airfield but a taxi to the station will only cost about 5 Euros and a single ticket into Barcelona just over 4 Euros.  (I'm not sure what a return cost)  The journey by train took about 25 minutes to Catalonia Square which is just at the top of the famous Ramblas in Barcelona.  You can just make out the railway line in these photos although the station isn't quite visible.

Flying to Futuroscope

For anyone who has not been there Futuroscope is similar to the Epcot centre in Florida, USA.  It comprises of numerous IMAX cinemas in 2D, 3D and 4D as well as various rides and an outdoor water park.  The ticket is all inclusive of rides but don't expect that to be the end of your paying out as food, typically, is expensive inside and not very good plus there are loads of boutiques aimed at selling toys to your kids.  To be honest, although some of the attractions were very good I'm not sure they are worth the cost and certainly not worth the long queues.  We went in the last week of February when some schools were on half term admittedly but the weather was not brilliant. Even so, for some attractions we had to wait 45 minutes in a very boring and uncomfortable queue.  Some attractions only had about a 5 minute running time as well.  I would hate to think what the queues would be like in summer! 
The French, being French, are not very helpful when it comes to people who don't speak their language.  There are audio guides available for English and Spanish speakers but you have to ask for them as they are not well advertised.  If you don't get one you won't have a clue what is going on in the attractions.  Much of the safety advice is also announced on these audio sets and although they are images depicting safety information it is far from comprehensive. 
Accommodation around the park is very formulaic.  The hotels vary in price but all appeared much-over-muchness with buffet style restaurants and little atmosphere.

Travelling to Futuroscope - Poitiers Airport

There are many way to get there but typically for us we flew ourselves.  There is an airport at Poitiers open for general aviation which is about 15 minutes drive from Futuroscope however the taxi fare is around 40 Euros.
If you are thinking of flying yourself to Poitiers there are a few things you might like to know.  There is Avgas available but you really need a Total card.  If you don't have one you have to find the refueller who speaks no English and is hard to find.  It is also difficult to pay landing and parking fees, you have to leave your details and they send you a bill.  As yet we have no idea how much this will be.  Exit and entry is via the flying club but they shut at lunchtime for 2 hours on Sunday.  There is a restaurant available in the main terminal.

PG Tips Decaffeinated - Not Such a Good Choice

Some of you will know that I had to give up caffeine about a year ago because I discovered I was sensitive to it and it was the cause of chronic indigestion. Having given it up I thought everything was fine, no more indigestion and I had found some decaf products I was perfectly happy with. That is until someone mentioned to me that certain methods of decaffeination were actually harmful to health. I took this initially with a pinch of salt but decided to research it for myself anyway. Wikipedia was most helpful on this listing all the various ways caffeine could be extracted from tea and coffee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaffeination and true enough there were some very bad ways as well as healthy ways such as the Swiss Water Process.
Next I decided to look at the labels on my products. For instant coffee I use Nescafé Gold Blend Decaf and I was very relieved to see they proudly claim to use the water process for removing the caffeine from their beans. Full marks to Nescafé but I only have one cup a day of that so it wasn't the most important. In the evenings after my main meal I have a cup of ground coffee and for that I use Lavazza Decaffeinated Caffe Espresso. There was nothing on the label about the decaffeination process and nothing on their web site. As there is no e-mail contact information I have had to write to them for details. I'll let you know if they reply.
The most important drink for me however, is tea. I drink 6 mugs of tea a day, two mugs at a time made from 1 bag so 3 tea bags a day. The brand I used was PG Tips Decaf as that had the best flavour, hardly any difference from the non decaf version. Once again there was nothing on the packet to say how the tea was decaffeinated and nothing on their web site. There was a contact form on their web site so I e-mailed them asking about the process. This was the initial response -

Dear Sally,

Thank you for your email.

The solvent extraction process for decaffeination involves the tea leaves being 'washed' in a solvent that removes almost all of the caffeine. The tea leaves are then dried and packed in the ordinary fashion.

If steam treatment is used to remove the caffeine, it is inevitable that some of the other water soluble components will be removed at the same time, notably the water soluble antioxidant flavonoids which contribute to the taste and the leaves' antioxidant activity. We intend that the black tea leaf blend in PG Decaf provides you with a tea infusion that has the taste you would expect to find in cup of standard PG tips tea. Similarly, we intend that PG Decaf continues to give you a brew that is rich in antioxidant flavonoids. While taste is obviously a matter of personal preference, we know we could not make any claim about antioxidant flavonoids if the caffeine had been removed from the leaves using a water based steam treatment.

As I am sure that you will appreciate, the exact process carried out by PG is commercially sensitive but I do hope that this gives you a better understanding of the methodology and our reasoning.

Kind regards,

Zaheed Khan
Careline Advisor

I then e-mailed back asking them which solvent was used in the process and the reply was as follows -

Dear Sally,

Thank you for your continued correspondence.

I can confirm that the the typical solvent of choice for PG tips is Dichloromethane.

If I can be of any further help or assistance, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Christopher Fortune
Careline Advisor

Dichloromethane is a carcinogen. There are loads of references to it so it seems strange that they would use it to remove caffeine on the grounds it saved the anti-oxidants when at the same time it could potentially cause cancer itself. I am now searching for a new brew and would welcome any suggestions. In the mean time I will revert to normal tea and try steeping the bags for 30 seconds to remove the caffeine myself, throwing that water away and re-steeping the bags to make my tea.

In fairness, at least PG were honest and did reply; I've yet to hear from Lavazza.

References...
http://healthmad.com/nutrition/why-buying-decaffeinated-tea-bags-may-not-be-the-best-choice/
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/consumer/faq/decaffeinating-coffee.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylene_chloride
http://teahousekuanyin.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/
http://www-teahousekuanyin-comearl-grey-decaffienated-htmlfeinating-tea/
http://imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/600316.html
http://www.teeccino.com/decaf.aspx
...the list goes on and on.

P.s.
I tried the seeping method as a DIY method for removing caffeine from normal tea at lunchtime today and so far it seems to have worked...no indigestion...yet!

Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - Tetley and Typhoo Decaf Teas
I've been checking around for other brands of decaf tea.  most manufacturers don't say how they process their tea on the packets so it is a matter of contacting the companies concerned and asking them direct.  today I got replies from Tetley and Typho who also both use the same solvent as PG.  Here is their response to my enquiry.

Tetley

Dear Sally

Thanks for your email.  In answer to your query, we decaffeinate our teas using dichloromethane, which is removed by heating the tea leaves to 40°C.  It's checked by our labs and the level of residue left is well below 5 parts per million, the level required by legislation. We believe this method delivers the best tasting decaf blend.

Dichloromethane is still widely used in the food and drink industry because it can so effectively be removed from products due to its volatile nature. Product safety and consumer concerns are a top priority for us at Tetley and we regularly review our methods and look at alternative processes of decaffeination.

Kind regards

Sue
Tetley GB Consumer Services

Typhoo

Dear Ms Turner

I am writing in response to your query regarding the decaffeination method that we use.

Typhoo currently use the widely used method known as Methylene Chloride for decaffeination. During this process the tea is 'washed' with Methylene Chloride, which is highly selective for caffeine, and is therefore thought to give a better flavoured decaffeinated tea than by using some other methods.

The caffeine is dissolved into the solvent. Tea is treated to remove the solvent by gentle heating - Methylene Chloride has a low boiling point of approximately 41 C and is therefore evaporated off and collected separately. Caffeine can be recovered from this solvent and purified for re-use.

All teas are made with hot water (70 C-80 C or more), ensuring that any minute traces of solvent remaining in the decaffeinated tea (normally less than 1 mg per kg of dry tea) will evaporate before the tea is drunk.

Recent research has shown that the healthy antioxidants in tea are not removed during decaffeination using Methylene Chloride.

Kind Regards

Lynsey
Consumer Relations Advisor

N.B. Dichloromethane and Methylene Chloride are the same thing. The references listed above say that this chemical cannot be fully removed from the tea and so will be ingested.

On the plus side I have discovered, but not yet tried, a decaffeinated tea by Taylors of Harrogate who claim their tea is decaffeinated using CO2, perfectly harmless.
I am currently trying Clipper Organic Decaf Tea Having e-mailed them asking about their decaffeination process they informed me they use CO2 aswell. Here is their reply.

Thank you for contacting clipper

It was good to hear that you are interested in our Decaffeinated products and would like to know which process we use to decaffeinate them.

The information is as follows:

How is Clipper tea and coffee decaffeinated?

There are essentially two types of decaffeination process: one that uses solvents such as ethyl acetate, and one that uses harmless carbon dioxide gas and water.  All Clipper decaffeinated products use natural spring water and supercritical Carbon Dioxide (CO2) - the same natural gas used to add bubbles to mineral water, but pressurised.  This method does not use any harmful chemicals and is approved by the Soil Association.

Thank you for contacting us; if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again

Kind regards
Penny Knapman
Customer Relations
Tel: 01308 863344
Fax: 01308 861249

Thursday 4th March - Response from Lavazza Coffee

Lavazza got back to me today to say they use the CO2 method of decaffeination. This response was via a scanned document so instead of attaching the e-mail I've inserted an image of the document sent to me here. Just click on it to see it large.

New Blog

I now have a blog on my web site. It taken me a long time to work out how to do it but I think I've finally got it working. All I need now are some bloggers. Mind you, it's mainly there so visitors to my web site can make comments and suggestions although I think I need to improve links and access as I'm not sure many people will find it. Still, it's a start.

Bl**dy Royal Mail!

I'm not a fan of our postal service as one of my earlier blogs might have let on but now they have dropped to an all time low in my opinion. We have been waiting for a package from the US for over a month now. Such items normally only take 7 - 10 days max but i gusee this got held up in the postal strike. Yesterday I got a card through the door to say I owed the Royal Mail £12.56 in duty. I thought that seemed a bit steep as the product value was only about £40. I went to the sorting office to collect it today and discovered the duty was just £4.56 and the rest was a handling charged levied by the Post Office. "for what purpose?" I asked, and was told it getds levied on all international mail. "funny" I said, "I've never had to pay it before. Surely the cost of postage is the handling charge?" "Well that's what catches people out, you might think you are buying something cheap from abroad but then you have to pay import charges." Of all the cheek, this guy is now making an assumption on the contents of my package and my mentality. I glared at him which resulted in him saying "If you want to know more you'll have to phone this number" while pointing to a telephone number on the label.
I went home and phoned it. I needed to negotiate 6 different switching options before I actually managed to speak to a human who, unfortunately, was very polite and nicely spoken. it's very difficult being annoyed with someone when you really feel like taking him a cup of tea, giving him a hug and saying "There, there I'm sure it will be alright." No doubt that was why he had that job. Anyway this guy informed me that the charge was because the Royal Mail had had to pay Customs the £4.56 out of their own funds and the remaining £8 was a charge to cover that service! SERVICE, you've got to be kidding. I told him that and he at first blamed it on Customs and Excise so I politely pointed out that I was not the least bit concerned about paying the £4.56 duty and they were only doing what was right. Having realised I wasn't going to take that piece of bait he then decided to try and blame it on the banks, after all everyone wants to hang them out to dry these days don't they? Wrong again, I was not having that either, Bank charges might seem excessive in some instances but charging £12.56 for a £4.56 outlay amounts to almost 300% and I don't know any bank that outrageous. In the end all he could say is that was how things were done at the Royal Mail.
I feel like I have been fleeced. After all, it's not as if I had a choice, OK I could have refused to pay it but then the package would have been sent back and we would have lost out completely as the company who sent it would not have been liable to give us a refund on those grounds. At least if it's an upfront postal charge you know what you are paying there and then but this was a totally hidden one. the sooner another company has the right to handle small items of post in competition with the Royal Mail the better. the way things stand at present we are at their mercy and can't do a thing about it.

My Hunting Rant

With the national election fast approaching the pro hunting lobbyists have been raising their voices again like a pack of baying hounds. Apparently the Conservatives have promised to over turn the ban. Great, isn’t there more important things to be fighting this election on? I happen to feel they would be the best party to get this country out of it’s current mess but I’m not in favour of over turning this particular ban. I do agree that it is a pig’s ear of the law and need refining but I see no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. Apparently 75% of the nation agrees.

It’s not that I’m totally anti-hunting. In principle I can’t see much wrong with hunting foxes in this manner to a point. If it was just a matter of chasing foxes caught out in the open and killing them with the hounds then it is little different from any natural predator / prey hunt found in the wild. Where I draw the line is in the digging out of foxes that have gone to ground and the throwing of them to the hounds. Surely once the fox has outwitted the pack they should be left in peace. This is supposed to be a sport after all and digging them out or chasing them out with terriers is not being very sportsman like, is it?

As for the argument that the hunt is providing a service in keeping the fox number down, well that’s a total joke. Far more foxes get killed on the road by cars than any hunt could knock off. Then there are people who go out shooting them. They also take more than the hunts. The hunts response is they only take the weakest as the strongest get away. Well that might be true if they didn’t dig them out.

Foxes are very successful and adaptable animals and like any animal that is clever and successful we human tend to hate them. They are indigenous to the UK and have every right to a life just as much as we do. They pose no serious threat to our survival. Their numbers are high only because there is plenty of food available. Killing a handful of foxes only allows a better opportunity for the next generation to take their place. Foxes actually provide a very useful service as they help to keep the rabbit population down.

Persecuting the fox in the countryside has encouraged them to take up residence in out towns. The hunt can’t get them there and here they have found a much easier and wormer living. We humans are very untidy and leave scraps of food all over the place, especially around fast food joints. All the fox needs to do is to overcome its natural fear of man to get at it. Something it has done very easily. Added to that, raiding gardens of pet rabbits and chickens is easier in towns than chasing them in the open. In the countryside the fox poses little threat but in a town it can be a real pest, although personally I find them quite endearing. Hunting has helped to create this problem and can’t do anything to put it right.

So why do people hunt? Because it’s jolly good fun. There is no other sport that allows such freedom to gallop en-mass over such a variety of private land. There’s the thrill of not knowing where the hunt will take you and what obstacles you and your horse will need to negotiate. Then there is the sheer adrenaline of the chase. Added to that, many humans have a blood lust, a desire to kill. It's a remnant left over from when we were hunter gatherers and no different from the actions of our pet cats when they kill birds they don't eat. I love to ride and would love the opportunity to join in something that exhilarating provided there was no actual living quarry. None of this is ever admitted to as a reason for keeping the hunt going but it is the only true reason.

When the ban was first being brought in the hunting community said it would see hundreds of people out of work and thousands of hounds would have to be destroyed. Well none of that has happened. Hunts can still hunt by drag hunting. The hounds just follow an artificially laid scent. Hunting is now more popular than it was before. The hunt leaders say this is in support of hunting as it was but it could also be that equestrians with an aversion to killing foxes now feel free to join in the fun.

The law as it is needs improving as it is very difficult to bring a conviction if a hunt does break the ban. Hence, few cases get to court. Most laws are refined by case law but that requires cases being prosecuted in court first and then going to appeal. If cases are not being brought in the first place there cannot be any appeals so the law won’t get refined. Something needs to be sorted out here but I don’t see a need to completely throw it out just because a minority of people think it’s wrong.

In a Rut

Now that the evenings are drawing in and weatehr is not always up to much it is easy to get into a rut and let the just days slip away. It's easy to get motivated in spring and summer as the lengthening days almost seem to make us want to do stuff but once the clocks go back it seems to put me in winter mode. This year I decided to change all that. I'm determined to try and make the most of any good days that are offered. Autumn can be glorious if the weather holds. Today was one such day so I packed up my camera, grabbed Brac, and headed off for Knowle Park to watch the Fallow deer.

It's actually a bit late in the season for the rut these Fallow deer were still at it. All was calm until one of these stags suddenly appeared almost from out of nowhere chasing a doe. He stumbled straight into another herd and was instantly challenged.

Next year I want to make a point of going to Richmond Park for the Red deer rut, I still tempted to go this year as even with the rut virtually at an end the stags will still be looking impressive.

The Selfishness of Unions

All the post office workers in the UK went on strike today. They will be on strike again tomorrow and threatening to go on strike on several more days in the near future unless the Post Office agrees to their terms over conditions and pay. We, like the rest of the world are in a recession and there are currently 3 million unemployed in the UK; a number that is growing by the day. These strikers ought to think themselves lucky they still have a job. How selfish can they be? While they are on strike many small businesses are missing out on cheques and deliveries vital for keeping them going. Personally I'm not that effected as yet, touch wood, but as Christmas orders for portraits increase it will no doubt be a different story.
I hope the Post Office and the Government don't give in to the Unions demands because I don't agree with bully techniques and am really annoyed that the Unions state that they are doing it to "protect services for the nation". What a cheek. I wish the Government would legislate to open the postal service up to competition so that we could send our letters via some other company. As it is, if they don't go back to work as normal, I simply won't bother sending any Christmas cards this year...after all, what's the point, they won't get there in time?

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials on You Tube

I am gradually replacing the video tutorials on one of my web sites with better quality ones. These are the tutorial videos I created for using Adobe Photoshop which go with the step-by-step guides you will find on my web site here http://www.sally-jane.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-photoshop.html . The new videos will be uploaded to You Tube and can be seen there at this url http://www.youtube.com/user/SallyTsVideos of viewed as normal embedded into my tutorial pages on my web site as previously listed. I've only done 4 so far dealing with fairly basic stuff but as I get through them they will become more complex. The original videos they replace were silent and relied on viewers downloading the file before they could be viewed. I hope these new videos will be of more use to viewers.
If anyone have any requests for topics to be covered do let me know.

New Web Sites

I now have 3 satellite web sites supporting my main site at www.sally-jane.com One purely for pet portraiture which is http://www.petportraitsbysally-jane.co.uk/index.html, one purely for pet cards here www.petportraitsbysallyjane.co.uk and one for other forms of photography including human portraiture and still life images here www.sally-jane.co.uk
As the new sites were purpose built rather than simply evolved like my main site, I am hoping they will be easier for viewers to navigate. The main web site needs some work to tidy it up as it has turned into a sprawling mass of pages but I don't want to lose any inbound links so weeding out the rubbish won't be easy. Any tip would be welcome.

Sally Jane Photographic Art video

I thought about this long and hard before I finally managed to pluck up the courage to make this video but I was assured by my friend, Mike, of MKlink.com that YouTube ads are a good way to increase sales. Umm, lets hope so. As you will see by the heavy swallowing, I found speaking to a camera felt very strange and unnatural.

When I first spotted this distant poppy filed I was impressed. Normally only part of a filed gets a concentration like this. I had to find the filed to take a closer look. I love poppies. When i got to the filed I was in for a surprise. Rather than these poppies growing up amongst a regular crop the poppies were the crop. Initially I assumed it was a filed that had been left fallow and the poppies had taken over as early colonisers. Even so, that didn't account for such an even spread. The give away was the fact that there were crop lines present where an irrigator had been pulled through the field and also, the poppies were planted in rows. You can see this clearly from this shot below.

How wonderful to be able to see fields like this. I can't imagine there will be a big call for such fields though as the only commercial use I can think of for this crop would be for poppy seeds used for toppings on breads. I must admit, though, I didn't realise they used filed poppies for that. anyway, I hope this is a success for the farmer so that maybe we shall see a repeat in following years.

Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe

I hate it when my PC, or more correctly, software on my PC starts acting erratically. Today I noticed the hard drive seemed to be chugging through something even when nothing other than my browser was open. Added to that my mouse cursor kept flicking between normal and an hour glass symbol. I called up the task manager and in the processes window noticed a program kept popping up and disappearing again on my in time with the hour glass appearing. It was 'Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe'. I quick search in the internet showed me this had something to do with Nokia PC Suite. I looked at my device manager which can be found under My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager. It showed me that there was a problem with a connection to my mobile phone. Of course there would be a problem, it wasn't connected and so no connection was required however Nokia PC Suite seemed to think it should be connected. Nothing I did seemed to be able to sort the problem out. I didn't want to unistall the phone or PC Suite as I do use it regularly but I certainly don't want it running all the time, it doesn't normally. I tried a system restore but that had no effect either. Problem still remained. In the end I decided if you can't beat them, join them so I connected my phone. Initially Windows went through a 'New Hardware Found' routine and returned a fault but that cleared and the phone connected fine. I synchronised it just to make sure it was all working properly and then disconnected it. Hey presto the original problem cleared and everything was working normally again. No more 'Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe' problems...or at least for today. I have no idea why this started and no doubt it will return but at least I now know a way to fix it.

Last week I broke the LCD on my mobile :-( I loved that mobile so I was gutted. I tried making some enquiries about getting it repaired first at my phone dealers and second at a mobile phone spares shop and they wanted shed loads of money to do it. I thought it might have to be consigned to the bin. In a last hope attempt I tried searching on Google for a repair and low and behold I found my saviour on e-bay. Spectrum Mobiles based in Barking, Essex, UK were happy to do it for just £20 including postage. I hurriedly sent it off and 6 days later my phone has been restored. I can't say it's perfect as there is a small amount of flare at the bottom of the screen but I'm more than happy and it comes with a 6 month guarantee so what more can I ask? If any of you suffer a similar problem just drop me a line here and I'll pass on their details to you.

Facebook