Why Can’t I Just Make My Phone Go “Ring-Ring”?

My first mobile phone was a People’s Phone PP800, and it was brilliant.  Its 1996 styling, even by today’s standards, is still quite modern and it exists today, even though it no longer works.  My children use it to bash each other about the head with.

Back in 1996, when Vodafone purchased People’s Phone for £77m as they strengthened their grip on the mobile phone market, text messaging wasn’t a thought-about form of communication and, in the event that you had a friend who actually knew your mobile number, all it emitted was a shrill, electronic ringing sound.

Since then, of course, the mobile phone market has bloomed and the PP800 shares about as much DNA with the Sony Ericsson W980 that I use today as a BBC Micro does with the laptop I’m using to write this blog on and, naturally, companies have made a fortune from offering add-on services to meet the needs of every user’s mobile perversions.

Standard ringtones gave way to polyphone ringtones which, in turn, gave way to phones that allow you to use MP3 music as your call alert of choice.  That, unfortunately, gave rise to the Crazy Frog and yesterday a customer’s phone rang in the bar, blaring out Lily Allen’s “F*** You!”

Now, I’m not going to say I haven’t fallen foul of the odd jokey ringtone myself – I have!  My phone used to play the theme to Star Wars, sound like a Ferrari Formula One car and, my personal favourite, whenever a text message arrived it was known to speak like Homer Simpson and say “ooh, the mail’s arrived!”

Some of it was because I found it amusing, and some of it was because I worked in an office with thirty other people and the only way to guarantee it was your phone that was ringing was to put a stupid ringtone on it.  Unfortunately, that just led to a cacophony of polyphonic noise, most sounding like Kevin “Bloody” Wilson or that damned infernal frog.

Today, I don’t work in an office and find amusing ringtones irritating.  I just want my phone to go ‘ring-ring’; retro, I know.  Unfortunately, however, the W980 that I use, despite being fitted with the latest Sony Walkman MP3 player and 8gb of space to put whatever noise on it I want, doesn’t have a standard ringtone that sounds like an ordinary phone.  Or even a shrill version much like my old PP800.

Instead, it comes pre-loaded with a choice of musical tones, all of which serve to do nothing other than make me miss a call while I try to figure out what that stupid noise is.

Why can’t a manufacturer just put a normal ringtone on the phone for those of us who are turning into cantankerous old gits?  I’ve tried visiting the Sony Ericsson ringtone section, but there’s no default sound on there other than their company warble.  A site called Jamster wants to charge me £4.50 A WEEK for one tone and on there the closest I can get to a ringing sound is the voice of somebody who’s just inhaled helium saying “Ring Ring!”  (I’ll admit it did make me smile.)

All I want is for my phone to ring like a phone should ring.  In these days of the Internet and access to just about anything you want, is that too much to ask?

--

This blog can also be found at http://blog.markjdaniels.com/

Messages stuck in Outlook Outbox even though they are received.....

Spent some time looking at a rather bizarre problem for somebody today. Messages in Outlook 2003 did not leave the Outlook and enter Sent Items, even though the recipient actually received the item. Only happened with sizable attachments (1 MB+) and as you can imagine, this is a bit painful when you end up sending the same attachment 20 times to some poor unsuspecting subject.

After the generic troubleshooting and machine health checks, the finger ended up pointing in the direction of Trend Micro's Internet Security 2010. For some reasons it is unable to deal with sending large attachments. I turned off the outgoing SMTP scanning and all was well. Having spent a bit more time on it afterwards I found the following:

http://esupport.trendmicro.com/Pages/Emails-with-attachments-over-1MB-in-size-remain-in-my-Outbox-even-thou.aspx

Quite why they can't fix this properly I don't know, but there you go, hope it saves you the two hours it took me to find the root cause.

Modern Warfare 2: How to make friends and Influence people ??!?!?

This week, I turn my thoughts to gaming. Most people know me as an avid gamer and recently I have been following with interest the Modern Warfare 2 launch shenanigans.

It must be said right from the outset that there is no doubt in my mind as to how successful MW2 is going to be. Given the fact that MW1 is still a top favourite on peoples lists. Infinity Ward surpassed themselves with the first game, so again, quality and "WOW" factor wont be an issue. I havent played the game myself yet so dont read the below expecting a review of the game. What I will say is that if you like shooters, you probably wont hate this game :)

The below constitutes my thoughts on the game developement and hype over the past year. Issues I personally have, observations made, comments read etc.

Initially, there was the price increase. Activision decided that as a "premium game", there was justification for charging premium prices. Personally, I don't subscribe to that model and it instantly moved the game from a "must have on launch" title to "will get it when its cheaper". Much to my amusement, the RRP in the UK does not reflect the costs that Retailers and Online Retailers are charging. Click Here for some great deals on MW2. Thanks Jenny @ Moneysavings expert forums for the breakdown.

Next up is the announcement from Infinity Ward that Dedicated Server support will NOT be in the PC release of the game. Read This for a simple understanding of Dedicated Server gaming. Instead, they will use an online matchmaking system similar to the 360 and PS3. I don't actively play online that much anymore, but I can see the frustration from the point of many PC gamers. They have communities built up around their Dedicated Server gaming and its a bit of a slap in the face to remove that functionality. One of the many online petitions set up to ask for reconsideration has over 200000 signatures at the time of writing this so I am hoping for the sake of PC Gamers that Infinity Ward sit up and take notice and maybe include this functionality in a later patch release for those people. ( I am no programmer BTW, so cannot comment on how difficult or easy it is to do). Please note, I am not trying to spark a debate on PC vs Console gaming.. I am lucky to have both.

Next up is the launch timings. With the release date of the game being the 10th November and lots of outlets opening at Midnight on said date to let gamers get their hands on copies, why is it then that those people who have prepurchased and preloaded the game from Steam via Digital Download have to wait until the 12th for the game to "Unlock" and allow them to play. The additional kicker is that if you bought the Boxed PC version, you still have to activate it via Steam .. BUT it activates fine and you can play from the 10th instead of having to wait. No answers forthcoming as of yet.

Finally there is the "controversy" level which no doubt will appear in the media over the coming months. SPOILER ALERT: At a certain stage in the game, YOU as an undercover agent, have to take a reluctant part in a terrorist attack in an airport. END SPOILER ALERT.
Whilst I am sure the "reluctant" portrayal of the agent will come across in the story, I know that once the hounds ( anti gaming journos, lawyers and parents)get their teeth into it, there will be lots of controversy about encouragement of terrorism, mindless killing etc.. So I ask "Why even bother in the fist place ?" @ Infinity Ward. Sure there has to be a story, but given the controversy of violence in gaming, should the above scenario really be included.. was there no other way to avoid putting this in ? Yes its Tom Clancy fiction, but it wont matter to those who don't read or understand what he is about .. They will just zero in on the controversial subject matter. Read Charlie Brookers review and comments in the Guardian for more information on the above. Clicky

Despite all the above, Game of the Year, Golden Joystick, Games Industry Awards will be forthcoming.. as, at the end of the day, its a very good GAME !!!