Directory reform ‘cost consumers’

I noticed today a press release from Brian Cotter about the 118 service.
Personally I believe that deregulation was needed. If I phoned 192 on my landline I spoke to BT, if I phoned 192 on my Orange Mobile, I spoke to Orange, if I called from a NTL line, I spoke to NTL.
These were three companies offering the same service, but only available via one route, and if you only had one phone you could only speak to that one company.
With the new system, OK we have a 100 different operators, however, pick only one (based on either price or ability to remember the number). If they provide a good service, continue to use them, if they provide a poor service, never use them again.
For the people who say they can’t remember the new numbers, didn’t they see the massive advertising campaign for 118 118.
Finally, before I get the comments, I can’t remember the last time I actually phoned one of these companies. I normally use Yell.com or Google via my mobile for business numbers, and I never need to get a personal number.

9 thoughts on “Directory reform ‘cost consumers’

  1. Man, I really like your mods to this haloscan page.

    I like the way you have linked backed to the original post, I want to do the same thing, but make my image a hyperlink back to it. I monitor all my comments from the Halo-scan comment management page, and a lot of times I see comments, but cant figure out which thread they are in.

    I also like the way you have incorporated commenting aids.

    I dont know anything about java scripting, but can these modifications you have done be accomplished with blogspot hosting my blog, and thus me being unable to upload javascript to thier servers.

  2. I don’t think it’ll be possible to link back to the comments just yet, without another webhost, however with the new Atom API, I’m sure either Jeevan or myself will try to knock something up in the future.

    As for the other stuff, first you’ll need to upgrade your HaloScan account (if you haven’t already), so that you can modify the HTML template.
    Then follow these forum threads for each mod
    Post Length Counter
    Smilies on the page
    Bold, Italic, Quote and Link code

  3. Characters left till the maximum allowed….dude, your a genius.

    Damn the would have came in handy before the limit got raised.

    BTW, have you noticed when the page is maximized, this input box is too wide, and even extends beyond the borders of the page to the right.

  4. Well, I dont seem to happen till I start typing. Before I start it looks fine.

    I followed those links, and it sounds pretty straight forward, I will try to install them tonight. Thanks.

    BTW, I noticed the last commenter on the “smilies” forum thread, was having problems with the images being displayed, is that because you code is pointing to images saved on your particular server, and will I need to modify that to point to where I store them (Photo-bucket).

    Also I assume I can relocate the “characters remaining” box, from where you have yours to above the input box. Let me play with this stuff tonight, and I will check back with you later to tell you how it went.

    BTW, I can image a scenario where a built in spell-checker Icon would be cool too.

    Thanks Again.

  5. You shouldn’t have a problem with the images, as they are already stored on the Haloscan servers.
    You can move any of the items, anywhere on your comments page, I just happened to dump my Text Length Counter at the bottom, and never moved it.

  6. Well, I have installed the clickable smilies code, and the automated tags code, and they seem to work flawlessly, thanks.

    But my clickable smilies are in this huge table or box, that takes up a lot of real estate. Could you please explain how I can eleminate this box, and just have a single row of smilies like you do?

  7. BTW, I did reduce the “table width” from 97% to 38%, and deleted the “allowed tags” verbiage, and now it looks a lot better. That got rid of a lot of blank space inside the table box. 8)

  8. BTW2, I figured out how you had the smilies stacked 3 wide & 3 tall, and deleted those tags, and by reducing padding from 4 to 3 got them all to lay down in a single row, thus virually eleminating all the wasted real estate inside the table. It is still in a table, but I really am perfectly happy with the way it looks now, so please disregard my request for breaking out of the table…..its perfect now.

    Thanks again Ryan….you the man.

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