Having problems activating my new SIM card from 4GEE. My problem persist after more than a week being charged for a service that I am not having.

Contacted customer services and few times already somebody told me that my problem will be sorted in X days and after that period no signs of anybody doing anything at EE, no updates or anything. Everytime they apologise and tell me to leave the problem with them, that they will sort it out.

I am fed up of lies and bad customer service!!

Now I am waiting for a new sim card to arrive, also promissed that will arrive two days ago. Phoned again to know if the SIM is shipped, and they just can guess that is in process cos in the their systems it doesn’t show it clearly, no tracking number or anything. I just need to wait, pray, phone back again, and enter again and again into the same loop. This is a pure joke.

On top of that they just told me that my new SIM card was shipped 2nd class and will take 3-5 days to arrive. How can they be saving money on shipping the card after all the trouble I have been through? Well, it clearly shows how little they care about the customers, if they are happy or not, we are just numbers!

Now I am building an email list from CEO to other high position people at orange, t-mobile and EE to email them and see what they think about their company.
 

Javier

I did manage to setup OpenVPN on my Hosting Server.

Already using it to:

- Connect to internet in a private and secure way from any computer anywhere .

- Bypass my mobile phone internet provider blockage of applications like Skype. Now I’m connected to Skype all the time on 3G without restrictions.

- Accessing files on my home computer from my phone anywhere. Able to share files easily from two computers in different locations.

Plans to use the VPN:

- Play games with friends from anywhere like being in a local network.

- Looking for web based applications for voice calls and/or video calls.

- Looking for applications popular being used over a local network.

If anybody want to try my VPN connection, send me an email, the process is very simple and quick, just two three clicks and you will be in.

Javier

The best way to avoid censorship, avoid blocked internet services and be anonymous while using an internet connection is using a VPN, this method is called tunnelling.

What is VPN? VPN is the abbreviation of Virtual Private Network. It consists in connecting via your Internet Services Provider (ISP) using encrypted data to access to a machine that will provide you a fresh connection to the internet.

User machine -> ISP -> VPN  -> Internet

The data sent and received between the user and the VPN is encrypted using a file called key. That key is, lets say, a dictionary that transform the data to make it not readable for all the way from the user to the VPN, so the ISP just see estrange symbols.

In that way the Internet see the information sent and received from the VPN, so it doesn’t see the user. The only one knowing will be the VPN.

You can hire a server in internet and setup your own VPN. But probably the easiest way is to hire a VPN service already setup. There is many companies that offer VPN services and keep your data private, here I put some of the recommended ones:

- AirVPN. They offer paid account and free accounts (4-6 pound/month). Use OpenVPN. Is safe and dont store logs.
- CryptoCloud. It cost about £13 /month, but it will be cheaper if you pay few months in advance. Uses OpenVPN.
- SwissVPN. Around £4 /month. Use OpenVPN y PPTP. They have testing accounts, just to visit their web and check that you can configure your computer without having to register.
- Vpntunnel. £4 /month. Use OpenVPN. Dont store logs.
- PublicVPN. It cost around £4 /month.
- UltraVPN. Free service.
- Security Kiss. They have a free version with 300MB a day.Uses OpenVPN, and you can choose among 15 different servers. Only windows store logs of IP/connection permanently.

Beneficts of using a VPN service:

Bypass Blocking, Filtering and Monitoring

• Access blocked websites from your office (YouTube, Flickr, gambling, blog sites, ICQ, email, chat)
• Unrestricted access to TV streams, Radio streams and others
• Use Skype and other VoIP even if it is blocked or distorted by your Internet Provider
• Avoid being identified by anyone including governments
• Access all content privately without censorship
• Unblock all ports with no configuration
• Unrestricted access for international users blocked by government control

Full Anonymity

• Protect your identity online by hiding your real IP address
• Assign your computer a new European IP address
• Hide your online activities from your boss, children and spouse

No need to use a proxy any more

Traffic compression guarantees high-speed access to any site or service

Support for all applications on your computer – they are not aware of the tunnel

Here is a link provided by my friend David in Malaga who is following the nuclear crisis in Japan now days:

http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870

Somebody in facebook uploaded a very old photo from the early school days. Wonderful times!

Email sent from a New Yorker advising about what to do in a trip to New York. I thought that it can be helpful to post it here. Any add-ons or suggestions are welcome!

First off, one of the best things about new york is that there is always something happening; but how to find out about the special events going on?  In a word, the internet.  Check out the following resources a day or two before you fly over here:

The Village Voice is the main free weekly newspaper. You’ll find them all over the city, but you can check it out ahead of time online at:
http://www.villagevoice.com/

If you are looking for the NY equivalent of the place that I met you at, it’s probably a bar called Lit Lounge in the east village.  Very scuzzy place (much more so than Dalston Jazz Bar) but has some pretty fun energy.  There is a hot dirty basement which is where most of the dancing tends to take place.  This place is only good late at night (say, after midnight).   Other similar places (you can google them for more info) include K&M Bar (Williamsburg), 169 Bar (East Chinatown/Deep Lower East Side), Darkroom (Lower East Side),

In general, if you want to walk around to a string of bars that will be very busy/lively on a weekend (Thursday-Sunday), you should go to the Lower East Side.  Ludlow St. in particular, between Houston (pronounced How-ston, not Hee-u-ston like the city) St. and Delancey St.  You’ll also find quite a lot on Orchard St. and Essex St., which are parallel to Ludlow, and on the two main cross streets: rivington and stanton.  There are more bars in this area than worth mentioning!  If you want dark and loud, go to Motor City.  If you want an incredible list of beers and some decent food, go to Spitzer’s.  If you want a bar with bright lights, go to Max Fish.  Piano’s is also an okay place, and often has live music (note that there is an upstairs space at Piano’s, to get there you need to go to the staircase at the back of the main room. It’s often quieter up there.)   Basically, you can just walk around this area and you’ll find something to occupy you.  That said, I’m not crazy about it – it gets way too packed with tourists and people from other parts of the city just looking to get wasted… (That can be fun when you’re just visiting NY!  But when you live here, it gets a bit tiring…)

If you want really well made cocktails, there are tons of places to get them in NY.  One place I like in Manhattan is called Little Branch (20 7th ave at Leroy St., in the basement. Look for the unmarked door with a bouncer standing on the corner.)  In Williamsburg, the place to go is Dram (177 S. 4th St. near Driggs Ave.)

I love to take visitors to the Brooklyn Flea Market on Saturdays and Sundays. 10am-6pm in an old bank (address = One Hanson Place, Brooklyn).  This is in a neighbourhood called Fort Greene.  It’s really easy to get to by train. The bank itself is quite beautiful (be sure to go to the basement and check out the vault, where there are some tasty food vendors – and the vault itself is cool to check out, it’s amazing how thick its doors are!)

Then there’s the classic things that visitors like to do: Central Park (though you should consider visiting Prospect Park in Brooklyn instead, which I think is nicer!), shopping in Soho, shopping on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, going to Broadway shows (go to TKTS discount booths for last minute savings), going for brunch (have a bloody mary with your breakfast!), eating NY bagels (cream cheese and lox, if you’re into it), eating NY pizza (the most classic place for a traditional slice is Joe’s at 7 Carmine St. in the West Village, but there is lots of good pizza in NY), going to the museums (i love the MoMA), checking out art galleries in Chelsea…