The MogBlog

My rather bleak history of previous mobile phones!

Feb 03

MoggyMe, Mobile Phones, Technology, iPhone/iPod touch 2602 Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2010/02/03/my-rather-bleak-history-of-previous-mobile-phones/My+rather+bleak+history+of+previous+mobile+phones%212010-02-03+15%3A49%3A00Moggy

In this post, I want to summarise the phones that I have had over the past few years. It’s amazing to see how things change over time!

Nokia 6100

This was my first ever phone. I was so excited! It was a hand-me-down from my mother, and after slipping in a cheap T-Mobile (just after they had changed from one2one!) pay as you go sim card – I was on my way! The phone was pretty decent too – colour screen, games, endless ringtones, etc. I was in love… until it dropped into a water bucket, and died.

Nokia 5140 (blue)

After my incident with the 6100, I decided to get the 5140. It had just been released, and was really popular because of it’s really durable body and strength. It was also marketed out at people who enjoyed outdoor activities (which, incidentally, I was at the time…). In terms of features, it had basically everything the 6100 had, but with a camera. I could only get the phone on the Orange network, so I got a new PASG sim from them.

Sony Ericsson K750i (silver)

After a good few years at Orange, we switched to Vodafone because they had a great business plan deal on that would suit the whole family – incidentally, we are still on the same contract today. Because of the new contract, we could pick virtually any phone, and naturally, I went for the best at the time – the 750i. I was mostly lured in my the insane 2MP camera (the best in 2005!), but about half way through the 18 month contract, the phone turned from being the best thing in the world, to the worst. Everything, and I mean… everything, just stopped working correctly – and I had to put up with this for at least another 8 months!

Nokia N95

This was the phone someone would dream about… and after becoming sick of Sony Ericsson’s dire reliability, I went back to Nokia and got wowed by the flippy screened N95. The specs and details with the phone simply were awesome – but it was just simply too big. It was actually a brick, the same materials used to build houses… I had an 18 month contract with the phone, but got so irritated half way through, I shoved the SIM card into my at-the-time girlfriends old phone, which I think was a Nokia 6000 series phone, similar to the 6100 and 5140 – but a bit weird looking!

Samsung Tocco

The third phone I got with Vodafone on the same contract was the Samsung Tocco.  This thing was pretty nice – although it was a pity that the touchscreen wasn’t as responsive as I had hoped. This was my first touchscreen phone, and I was amazed by the concept… but let down a little. I had this little over a year, and just two weeks out of warranty, accidentally took it with me in my wetsuit when I went surfing. Not good!

Vodafone 521 (white)

Phone-less on holiday was becoming hell, so I had to buy myself a new handset quickly, and preferably cheap! I owned an iPod touch at the same time, and didn’t need any other functions other than the ability to send messages and make phone calls! The cheapest phone Vodafone had in their shop, was this, the 527 – a Sagem phone branded ‘Vodafone’ to match the network. It was all of £25. Why so cheap? Well, I’ll just put it out there for you – THIS IS THE WORST PHONE IN THE WORLD, EVER.

And that concludes my phone history. Until a few weeks time, when I’ll be getting an…

Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB (White)

The most epic phone ever. But my question is this – now that I’ll be switching to the iPhone, will I ever move away to another phone company? Or will I be iPhone outed for the rest of my life!?

15+ of the best “outlandish statement” Facebook groups…

Jan 16

MoggyFacebook, Me, Random 242No Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2010/01/16/15-of-the-best-outlandish-statement-facebook-groups%e2%80%a6/15%2B+of+the+best+%22outlandish+statement%22+Facebook+groups%E2%80%A6+2010-01-16+21%3A02%3A19Moggy

In no particular order, here is a list of my favourite Facebook groups (not pages!) to date:

View all of my groups I have joined over the years… Enjoy!

A day of iPod madness…

Jan 11

MoggyApple, Me, Software, iPhone/iPod touch 240No Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2010/01/11/a-day-of-ipod-madness/A+day+of+iPod+madness...2010-01-11+23%3A08%3A29Moggy

Today was mostly spent trying to simply… work… my iPod touch. It’s a year old now, I’ll give it that, and it has been through a lot… but it should still work fine.

Firstly, it died while I was listening to a great tune on my new bad ass headphones. The iPod then decided to rid itself of the volume controls… and the speaker wasn’t working. No music at all. Turns out it thought it was connected to an iPod dock and trying to work likewise. Plugging it into a computer then did something… shock, it worked, only to find it didn’t every time I unplugged it. I managed to fix the problem by tricking it when restarting the device, unplugging it in the process.

So I’m on my way home, and the next problem occurs. Volume. The device is down in my pocket, and I reach down to press the exterior button for up-volume, only to find it goes up… way up. It maxes out, and every time I tried to pull down the volume down it just went back up again. Rather irritated, I rebooted it again.. for about the 5th time today.

When I’m actually at home, something bizzare happens. Turns out after and during all of this, the speaker built into the device wasn’t working. Not just in the music functions, everything, all the apps. After a bit of wondering, it turns out something was wrong with the headphone socket… it was trying to tell me headphones were plugged in all the time, even when it had the headphones unplugged.

Numerous reboots, syncs, charges and restores later… it stayed completely the same. FML.

At this point, I gave up and upgraded the iPod software. Turns out it had 3.0 and 3.1.2 was available.. which I’ve now upgraded to… and surprise surprise, everything now works!

This post is not a ‘FML’ post, nor a dig at Apple or the product… but I am actually offended when the iPod, a lifeless inanimate object tries to tell me I’m doing something wrong.. like that theirs a dock connected. Or my headphones are plugged in. NO, they are not. Now, fuck off and get working again.

So hang about, where do I actually stand politically?

Oct 30

MoggyMe, Media, Politics 2131 Commenthttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2009/10/30/so-hang-about-where-do-i-actually-stand-politically/So+hang+about%2C+where+do+I+actually+stand+politically%3F2009-10-30+21%3A35%3A32Moggy

By next June, when the next general election is to be held (or before then), I will have not reached my 18th birthday, and as a result will not be able to vote… I’ll be 17 years and 11 months. Great. Thankfully, I’ll not have to worry about who I would vote for next year… but it makes me wonder who I would vote for if coincidentally, my parents timed their night in just a month or two earlier.

More

Turns out I survived having Swine Flu!

Sep 01

MoggyLife, Me, Random 982 Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2009/09/01/turns-out-i-survived-having-swine-flu/Turns+out+I+survived+having+Swine+Flu%212009-09-01+14%3A10%3A27Moggy

Taking a break from my normal technology or design related posts, I thought I would share my experience of Swine Flu.

Turns out that I caught the virus on the week of the 16th August, and I suffered from it on the Thursday to Sunday. I have to say – it was nasty. I had a killer headache, a massive fever, frequent chills, muscle pains and a rather upset stomach (mind you, I wasn’t sick, which I was happy about…).

Initially, I dismissed the idea that it was actually Swine Flu since I knew absolutely no one else with the virus, and even bigger give away was that I had suffered no such ‘cold like’ symptoms; such as coughing, sneezing, runny noses, runny eyes, etc.

However, a few days after falling ill, and getting better, it turns out I had passed the illness onto my mother – who, suffered a lot worse (probably because she’s a women and can’t deal with pain as well!). It was then we gave it the thought that we could both have had Swine Flu.

After ringing up the rather unhelpful Swine Flu Pandemic Service (England only), it turns out that there are strains of Swine Flu that are less serious – without the cold symptoms. We didn’t get sent Tamiflu, since we had both got better rather quickly.

To be honest, it wasn’t that bad – for me at least.

Blog Changes; now on Wordpress… and more posts to come!

Aug 19

MoggyMe, Update, Web Design, Website 36No Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2009/08/19/blog-changes-now-on-wordpress-and-more-posts-to-come/Blog+Changes%3B+now+on+Wordpress...+and+more+posts+to+come%212009-08-19+19%3A37%3A09Moggy

Hi everyone,

I’ve spent the day flipping around my whole website. Homepage, blog, domains, hosting… everything. I’ve still got a long way to go, so if you’re reading this, don’t expect anything special to happen until around the beginning of September. After then, expect more and more frequent posts about interesting stuff!!

This blog is now hosted on Wordpress. I used to use Blogger, though found it restricting and annoying. I have since transferred all my previous posts over to here, and been making the UI look a little nicer.

Today, I also switched domain hosting. I was previously using alastairmogford.co.uk, though switched to alastairmogford.com after realizing that GoDaddy (whom I had just purchased hosting off), couldn’t transfer .co.uk domains. Therefore you’ll find I’m starting all over on the .com hosting, along with a fancy new subdomain. Nice!

Later everyone!

Moggy?

Nov 05

MoggyMe, Random 18No Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2008/11/05/moggy/Moggy%3F2008-11-05+19%3A59%3A00Moggy

For all those wondering, my nickname ‘Moggy’ obviously comes from my surname ‘Mogford’. I have been called Moggy ever since the age of about 7 or 8, although it really started at the age of 7 when I was called ‘Mogman’ by my primary school teacher. It evolved into Moggy very quickly and thats been my nickname ever since. Today, all my personal friends know me as Moggy, while the large majority of teachers stick with Alastair, although thats now changing. 

In 3 Days my Laptop will become inexistent.

Oct 11

MoggyApple, Computer, Keynote Event, Life, Mac, Me 132 Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2008/10/11/in-3-days-my-laptop-will-become-inexistent/In+3+Days+my+Laptop+will+become+inexistent.2008-10-11+11%3A44%3A00Moggy

With 3 days to go until Apple’s Notebook Media event on Tuesday in San Francisco – we are all so hyped up about getting these new laptops, but has nobody thought about their current MacBook’s? 

My Likes and Dislikes.

Oct 08

MoggyFamous People, Life, Me, Random 122 Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2008/10/08/my-likes-and-dislikes/My+Likes+and+Dislikes.2008-10-08+14%3A34%3A00Moggy

Likes

Gunna get a new iPod?

Sep 15

MoggyApple, Me, Poll, Technology, iPod 9No Commentshttp://blog.alastairmogford.com/2008/09/15/gunna-get-a-new-ipod/Gunna+get+a+new+iPod%3F2008-09-15+15%3A26%3A00Moggy

Well, will you get one of the newly released iPod’s?