Rather than being a wordpress-managed blog, it’s now got its own hosting (though still running WordPress).

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It’s called VIA (I don’t quite know why)  and you can get it from any Starbucks stores (I got mine from the store in Castle Mall), and currently it comes in two flavours: dark and mild.

Starbucks claim in taste tests that you can’t tell it apart from real coffee. It’s certainly very, very good. I found it tasted a little watery compared to the real thing, but that may well be because I didn’t measure out the required 172ml of water they tell you to.

Regardless, it’s a massive thumbs up from me. I think the individual sachets are about £1.25, or you can buy packs of 12 (as in the picture). They’re brilliant for work. Basically, just go and try them. There are apparently also plans afoot to get them into supermarkets where I think (and hope) they will do really well.

As a final, pro-Starbukian shot: I was also very impressed with their PR department. After I tweeted, they responded instantly. Happy Tom.

http://theroxor.com/2009/10/22/23-brilliant-logos-with-hidden-messages

I especially like the ‘optical illusion’ quality of some of these: never noticed them before, but once they’ve been pointed out, they’re obvious!

I’m in a partnership, and this is the first year we have to file a tax return. Being a technical sort of guy, it was a no-brainer that we did it online (that and the extension to the deadline it affords!).

Nobody I know wants to file a tax return, particularly. So, the designers of any online system to do this are creating a system to be used by people who don’t really want to be there, who have no great benefit or motivation for being there, and would much rather be doing something else.

Given all that, they need to make it as simple, easy, intuitive and helpful to complete as is possible.

For the most part, the individual return part of the self-assessment process isn’t bad. It’s not brilliant, but it could certainly be worse. It’s got things like progress bars, helpful tooltips and suchlike. Some of the validation is a bit mad, but on the whole it’s a nice experience.

However, if you’re a Partnership, you also apparently have to file a return for the Partnership itself, as well as individually. It took us a while to find this, and we nearly didn’t!

This part of the process seems much less intuitive, as if it hasn’t benefited from the same amount of funding, or got left out of the revamping project. We had to fill out a PDF and then submit it via a PDF forms button. Nothing actually happened when we did this, so we did it again. A while later we received a confirmation email, then another.

So far, so good, and the whole process happened with 4 days to spare.

So, I was more than unhappy to find that this morning, we’ve both received £100 penalties for failing to file a Partnership return.

Firstly, the penalty notice. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever on that form to indicate the slightest possibility that HMRC not receiving your return was anything other than a failing on your part. I read all through the “What to do if…” section, and also through the appeals form they’d helpfully included, which includes examples of where they might stoop to grant relief and examples of where they positively wouldn’t. Again, no mention of what to do if you did actually send it a return, but Old Electronic System 1 didn’t talk to New Electronic System 2.

So I phoned. I thought that, given that I had a confirmation number, it would be fairly simple to sort out. After I’d listened to a very patronising automated message about how phoning in to complain about a penalty was a pointless activity, I spoke to someone. She was very helpful, but unfortunately unable to help. You see, if you feel that HMRC, in their wisdom, have wrongly charged you, you’ll have to put it in writing. Oh, and you might as well pay now and we’ll give it back later, so you don’t get interest charges.

So, tomorrow I’ve got to put down £200 and hope that somebody in HMRC feels sympathetic to our cause. Which, given the amount of public service job cuts around at the moment, seems unlikely.

The whole process has left me thoroughly hacked off. And, for the first time in my life I feel that, next time, I would rather fill in the paper form and post it off than use the electronic one. Now, I’m a really techie person: I’m a developer, I wear stupid geeky t-shirts. I put on a CD the iPod in the living room and music comes out the kitchen, I have a rabbit which tells me about the weather and what emails I have. So, for me to prefer to fill out a form on paper rather than online is a big deal.

So, congratulations HMRC. You’ve managed to turn me off technology. And so far, it’s only cost me £100.

</rant>

(you’ve probably already worked this out, but I’m not a lawyer, and you really shouldn’t take anything I’ve written as advice… as you can probably tell!)

I got the geek evolution one and the “I read your email” one.

I’d never heard of Force18 before a colleague sent me the link: all UK prices and free delivery. Even better, and which I didn’t find out until after my order was that my delivery was sent Recorded First Class. For free!

They’ve arrived and I’ll be wearing them with, well not exactly pride…but a happy sense of geekness!

Thank you Force18!

Basically, it’s a toolbar app that you can quickly get to using a keyboard shortcut, and which lets you type some text for your rabbit to speak. All sorts of fun and quirky applications, from play tricks on people to professing your undying love from across the other side of the room, without leaving the computer!

It’s also the first software I’ve ever made with a Donate button it, so we’ll see how that goes! If you like it, please feel free to give something back. Especially if you fancy some more features or functionality.

You can get the latest version from http://rabbittalk4nabaztag.codeplex.com/

I live in Norwich, and I’m fairly sure the Google Car guy is staying at a hotel about 10 mins walk away from me. I often see him getting ready as I walk to work, and packing up again as I walk home. The camera is mounted on top of the car (a black hatchback Seat I think), and folds down with a waterproof cover when it’s not in use. There are magnetic Google plates on the side of the car, but these are removed every night (a shame, I think they’d look good on *my* car!!). Also, I spotted him one day when it was really rainy, driving somewhere, but with all the gear packed up. I guess he was going somewhere and hoping it was going to clear up soon.

This affects many towns and cities across the UK, and is old technology if you go to the US, but it’s exciting for Norwich at least. This is one of those advancements that your parent’s generation, maybe even your generation, would not have thought possible: just because of the sheer scale of the job.

Anyway – here’s a little bit of central Norwich. Enjoy.

Aside: for one reason or another, the only part of central Norwich which is excluded from the roaming eye of the Street Map cameras is the stretch of Thorpe Road from the station to the Rosary Road turn-off. Feel free to expound any number of rumours about why this may be, but I have my own ideas, involving my former employer…

At the beginning of February I started a new job. I no longer work for Moneyfacts, I now work for Pine Solutions.

Pine Solutions happen to be the UK’s largest online furniture retailer. Contrary to their name, they sell not only pine things but also oak stuff, painted stuff and a load of different sorts of things from around the world.

I’ve joined them as a software developer. I already know a few people there from previous jobs, so it’s been easy to fit in.

Anyway, that’s where I am.