Mazda MX-5 mk.1 headlight bulb replacement guide

By Liam | Published: 7th November 2012

It’s remarkably dangerous to drive with one headlight out—not necessarily because it reduces your vision, but because it reduces your visibility to other road users. It’s all too easy to look like a motorcyclist, and hence a much narrower hazard, to a tired driver, with potentially lethal results.

It’s therefore wise to get a blown headlamp bulb changed as quickly as possible. On the Mark 1 Mazda MX-5 (Miata in the USA, Eunos Roadster in Japan), while it’s not as straightforward as on some cars, it’s nevertheless not a difficult procedure, as the following guide will show. I’d recommend the purchase of the Veloce Mazda MX-5 1.8i enthusiast’s manual (if you have the 1.6i, this version of the manual is preferable), which assisted me along the way. As for the replacement bulb itself, you need a 12V 60/55W bulb, such as this Lucas LLB472 bulb. I obtained one from my trusty local mechanic (thanks Gary!), who was even kind enough to drop it off at my house.

  1. Turn the lights off, and raise the headlights using the centre console switch.
  2. Remove the four screws, two on each side, on the sides of the headlight. These hold the plastic headlight surround in place. Be careful when removing them, since they each have two small washers on them.

    One side of the headlight assembly


    Mazda MX-5 headlight

    The other side of the headlight assembly


    One of the four screws to be removed. Beware of losing the two washers on each screw

  3. Lift the headlight surround away.

    Remove surround

  4. The screws that hold the headlight unit should now be visible. Be careful: there are three that hold the headlight in place, and two others that merely adjust the headlight beam. Don’t touch the latter, and be careful with the others, as I’ll explain.

    The screws to be removed are highlighted by green circles. Don’t touch the two screws marked with red crosses.

  5. You need to loosen, not remove, the three that are spaced roughly 120 degrees apart. When I first did this, I didn’t realise that I didn’t need to remove them, and indeed it’s quite tricky to remove them all, due to their positions. Just loosen them enough to allow the shiny headlight retention ring to rotate slightly, causing the screws to line up with the larger holes in the ring. Have WD-40 at the ready to lubricate them.

    One of the three screws to be slackened, in the locked position


    With the screw slackened, the ring can be rotated to this position.

  6. Rotate the retention ring and remove it. In my case, it had become stuck to the headlight unit, so I ended up removing the unit at the same time, as described in the next step.

    Remove retaining ring

  7. Carefully start to remove the headlight unit.

    Remove unit carefully

  8. The wiring loom will be connected to the back of the unit: disconnect it to release and remove the unit completely.

    The connector


    Disconnect connector

  9. Pull the dust boot off. Note any damage: if it’s no longer sitting snugly over the assembly, you’ll need to replace it soon.

    Remove dust boot

  10. Undo the bulb clip.

    Clip holding the bulb


    Unclip bulb

  11. Remove the bulb carefully.

    Remove bulb

  12. Install the replacement bulb, making sure you don’t touch the bulb with bare fingers—this can leave a residue on the bulb that leads to the bulb’s premature destruction. Clip the bulb in.

    Insert new bulb

  13. Reassemble carefully.

With your new headlamp bulb thus installed, you’ll be all set to get safely back on the road.

Posted in Cars, Mazda MX-5 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Responses

Intoxicated With The Spirit: Keep Calm And Carry On Mankading

By Liam | Published: 31st August 2012

Newsflash: Sports player plays sport by rules of the sport. Cue massive outrage and moral indignation.

Anyone who’s been watching county cricket in the last 24 hours will instantly recognise the situation described. Stripped down to its bare bones, the Kartik-Barrow incident in the Somerset CCC vs Surrey CCC match looks comical. What’s all the fuss about?

In fact, it gets even more ridiculous. Since the bowler had delivered a prior warning, the newsflash becomes: Sports player plays sport by rules, after giving opponent bonus chance to play fairly. And it gets worse: Sports team captain apologises for playing by the rules.

So why the vehemence? By and large, it’s that old chestnut being invoked: the Spirit of the Game.

The Spirit of the Game is an essential part of the game of Cricket, officially codified in 2000, and is a key factor in setting cricket apart as special. It outlines the general attitudes that should rule the game and guide the way it is played.

The Spirit is meant to fill in in areas where the Laws may be unclear, or where there may be room for interpretation. Think of the Laws as rules, and the Spirit as a guiding principle.

The central idea is that of “fair play”. Players, and their captains, must be seen to be acting in a gentlemanly, sportsmanlike, and fair way to their opponents. They must not act in any way that brings the game into disrepute.

There is no problem with this. Indeed, it’s a most valuable standard to have available in a world where sports scandals seem to occur on a daily basis, be they accusations of drug taking (cycling), match throwing (badminton), or spot-fixing (cricket).

Within the power of the Spirit of Cricket lies a weakness, though. When some subset of the cricket-watching community dislike a particular action, it’s all too eay to call it “unsporting” and “against the Spirit of the Game”. Despite not having solid grounds for such forthright statements, the vague appeal to the Spirit nevertheless whips up popular feeling. All too often the media jumps on the bandwagon – even if the majority of viewers don’t think there’s been a breach.

When the banner of the “Spirit of Cricket” is hijacked by non-existent problems, it counter-productively diminishes respect for the Spirit.

So was there a breach of the Spirit in this case? It’s already been established that there was no breach of the Laws themselves (the MCC Laws taken together with the ECB Playing Conditions). Yet the media coverage, by and large, sought to suggest an ungentlemanly undercurrent, representing the Surrey captain as “contrite”.

The Preamble to the Laws, that seeks to capture the Spirit in words, is in fact very short. The key sections here are:

  • The Spirit of the Game involves respect for your opponents and the game’s traditional values. (Section 4)
  • It is against the Spirit of the Game to indulge in cheating or any sharp practice. (Section 5)
  • Each player must also avoid behaving in a manner which might bring the game into disrepute. (Section 1)

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Respect for opponents and traditional values

Traditionally, Mankading has been seen as ungentlemanly, if delivered without warning. It should be stressed that this is simply a matter of tradition: the Laws do not consider this to be an instance of unfair play. Nevertheless, tradition holds that a warning should be given first. If such a warning is given, the bowler has given the batsman a fair chance, fair signal of intent, and therefore is not acting in an unsportsmanlike fashion.

Furthermore, tradition is always a slippery concept to appeal to. Admittedly Mankading may be rare in first-class cricket, but does that automatically make it unfair? Being out “obstructing the field” is rare. That doesn’t make it unfair to appeal when a batsman is guilty of deliberate obstruction. Alternatively, imagine that over the next seventy years, being out LBW becomes extremely rare. Would it be unfair to claim such a wicket in 2082, simply because it had fallen out of tradition?

The Preamble asks players to respect the game’s traditional values, not its traditions. There is a significant difference. Traditions may change, but values should stay the same. Mankading may be non-traditional – just as switch-hitting, Twenty20, and Dilscooping are non-traditional – but it does not necessarily conflict with the game’s traditional values of sportsmanship and fair play, especially when delivered with a warning.

Cheating and sharp practice

Mankading is clearly not cheating, since the Laws expressly allow for it. Is it sharp practice? Clearly not, when it is compared with the examples of cheating and sharp practice listed by the Laws: appealing when knowing the batsman is not out, advancing on the umpire, and trying to distract an opponent. Mankading gets a clean bill here.

Bringing the game into disrepute

To accuse an action of bringing the game into disrepute is a weighty and serious claim. For it to hold any water, though, such an accusation needs to be backed up with clear reasoning. For instance, the spot fixing of Amir, Asif, and Butt clearly brought the game into disrepute. The image of cricket was sullied, as the public was no longer able to trust the contests they witnessed would be genuine battles.

So how does a Mankad bring the game into disrepute? It seems ridiculous to place Kartik’s Mankading on a similar plane to spot fixing. How can Mankading affect the public’s view of cricket? Here’s a challenge: find a member of the public, present the opening “newsflash” from the beginning of the article, and see if he/she sees anything untoward in the situation. If anything, trying to explain the situation risks lending credence to the view of many that the game of cricket is insufferably stuffy and literally ridiculous, through its suffocating insistence on pointless minutiae, and totally unsuited to the modern world of sport.

Once investigated, the grand claims of “failing to uphold the Spirit of Cricket” shrink and collapse to a feeble “but I didn’t like what he did.”

It’s a sad thought that by attempting to drag the Spirit of Cricket in where it isn’t being violated, that very attempt can contribute to a lessening of respect for that Spirit. Spectators, supporters, and the media all have a responsibility to not abuse the Spirit of the Game, and play fairly with players who are playing fairly. Captains should not be bullied into believing they have committed an error, simply because a vocal section have expressed their displeasure.

So Mankading must stay. Batsmen should be kept honest (to recycle a cliché in a different context). And both players and onlookers, in their respective ways, must respect the Spirit of the Game.

Posted in Cricket | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Responses

Report: West Indians recall that winning feeling

By Liam | Published: 15th June 2012

West Indians (335-4, 50.0) beat Middlesex CCC (107-9 all out, 31.0) by 228 runs

Wednesday 15th June 2012
By Liam Cromar at Lord’s

Gayle may grab the headlines, but it was Dwayne Smith and Darren Bravo who made the strongest cases for selection, as the touring West Indians crushed an inexperienced Middlesex side by upwards of 200 runs. Of late, the sensation of completely dominating a match has been rare for this side, but today everything clicked into place. Even the English weather smiled upon the West Indians.

It’s probably fair to say that the most anticipated innings of the day was Chris Gayle’s first back in West Indian colours. He quickly showed himself to be in fine form, reserving especial punishment for Murtagh, who toiled away from the Media Centre End, only to watch Gayle dispatching him for leg-side boundaries with typical lazy disdain. For all the early fireworks, though, he did not last as long as would have been hoped, holing out to deep mid-wicket for a relatively modest 38. Perhaps the IPL dial needs to yet be turned down a notch or two.


The real work of the innings, therefore, fell upon nos. 3 and 4, Darren Bravo and Dwayne Smith. With the pitch appearing totally innocuous, batting was simply a matter of not getting too excited and making silly errors. Smith and Bravo hardly offered a single chance in their century stand. As the innings progressed into early afternoon, the foot was increasingly pressed down on the accelerator, as the pair, already progressing at a healthy 4- or 5- an over, launched the West Indians towards a mammoth total. Smith, when only four from a century, finally made an error, driving straight at mid-on; he nonetheless received a standing ovation from the Pavilion. Pollard, in at 5, made 18 quickly, but didn’t last long, leaving the two Bravos to complete the final touches. Not that they were delicate touches: Dwayne Bravo raced to 40*, while Darren Bravo (112*) reached his century and then completed the innings with a flurry of sixes, including one off the last ball, leading his team to an imposing 335-4.

Middlesex’s reply, by contrast, started badly and got worse. Stumbling to 15-2 in 7 overs, they continued to lose wickets, and at 38-4, were already out of it. Davey (24*), together with Smith (16), put up a little resistance, avoiding Middlesex the ignominy of a double-figure total, but Smith fell in Gayle’s first over. Having somehow got away with apparently reverse-sweeping Gayle straight to slip – Sammy injected some humour into the dispute by signalling for a TV replay – Gayle sent the next ball through his defences, bowling him to provide a certain moral justice. Gayle also went on to remove the new batsman in the same over, showing rare animation in his celebrations. The double strike left Gayle with impressive bowling figures on his return – a double-wicket maiden.

To be fair to Middlesex, their side was certainly not a first-string XI, having chosen to field several youngsters in preparation for the T20 tournament, and not having their England stars Morgan and Finn available for selection. They would, nonetheless, have hoped to resist better; Stirling, for instance, after his CB40 122-ball 119 on Sunday, would have hoped for better than 1, although his bowling figures were exemplary (7-0-26-1). Murtagh, also, after his call-up to the Ireland squad, would not have been happy with his ten expensive overs (10-0-75-1). The worst moment, was, sadly, when their young bowler Robbie Williams dived onto his shoulder for a catch and had to be helped off the field, suffering a broken collarbone. Middlesex will hope he is able to recover quickly from his unfortunate injury.

A group of West Indian children in the Compton Stand, having been chanting “Bra-vo” during the Bravo-Bravo partnership, apparently heard my companion’s muttered injunction to ‘at least be specific’, and switched to a chant of “D, M, Bra-vo”. Sterner tests will be ahead, but they, the Bravos, the rest of the West Indian supporters, and the West Indian team themselves, will take heart from this fine performance.

Posted in Cricket, Middlesex CCC | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Report: Young sets up comfortable Gloucestershire victory

By Liam | Published: 13th May 2012

Middlesex Panthers (157-8, 26.0) lost by 5 wickets to Gloucestershire Gladiators (161-5, 22.2)

Monday 7th May 2012
By Liam Cromar at Lord’s

Middlesex’s start to the CB40 season proved less auspicious than their positive County Championship opening, as their total of 157-8 proved insufficient against a Gloucestershire side keen to make amends for their 1-run defeat against the Netherlands.

Riding high after the previous day’s Championship win over Worcestershire, Middlesex made four changes. The two England players Strauss and Finn made way for two other internationally-capped players, Stirling of Ireland and Collymore of the West Indies.

The start was delayed by rain arriving later than anticipated, and with the match reduced to a near-T20 26-over thrash, the Gloucestershire captain inserted Middlesex in moist and cloudy conditions. Denly and Malan struggled against the opening pair of Saxelby and Gidman, only scoring 21 runs in the 5 overs of the first Powerplay, but started to cut loose against the change bowlers. Both openers survived sharp chances, however, Denly edging through the hands of slip for a streaky boundary, and Malan’s jab back to McCarter not being taken cleanly. Denly soon departed, as he, after crunching McCarter’s first ball through the off-side for four, found his stumps rearranged the next ball.

Young, bowling from the Media Centre end, proved the most incisive weapon of the Gladiators, severely restraining the Panthers’ ability to score in the middle overs, setting back the Panthers with three key wickets. Malan was the first to fall, slicing to mid-off. Dexter never looked entirely at ease, and was lucky to survive a top-edge off Young, as he attempted a premeditated slog-sweep to leg from a ball far too far outside off for the shot. He failed to capitalise on his escape, succumbing shortly thereafter to Young for 9. Stirling consolidated with a useful 25, but looked disappointed with a tickle to the keeper. Young was chosen to deliver 6 overs, as opposed to the 5 permitted to the others, and finished with excellent figures of 6-0-26-3.

Middlesex batsman hits a ball into the off side

Late runs for Middlesex

Rebuilding from 90-5, Berg (23) and Simpson (29) averted total collapse, joining forces to see Middlesex to an average 157-8. With bowling the Middlesex strong suit, however, 158 would not be an entirely straightforward chase for the Gladiators.

As it turned out, though, despite the first-over wicket of Dent, who was trapped LBW by a Murtagh delivery that straightened back into the left-hander, Gloucestershire got off to a flier. Howell and the New Zealand international Hamish Marshall put on 53 in partnership, in just 5.2 overs. After Marshall was dismissed, there was scarcely any letup as Gloucestershire raced to 89-2 in just 10 overs, with Middlesex looking powerless to stem the flow of runs. While Rayner and Crook both struck in their opening overs, Gloucestershire, in reality, were never in trouble. The initial onslaught had reduced the required run rate to an easy 4 or 5 an over, and continually improved.

The latter part of the innings meandered on in a markedly different fashion to the beginning: although the big hitters Marshall (33), Gidman (26) and Williamson (9) had all departed, the run rate was such that singles were all that were needed, Gloucestershire finally crossing the finishing line against the bowling of Denly. The number 3 Howell was still present, remaining unbeaten on 45.

While only a limited number of findings can legitimately be extrapolated from a 26-over game, Gloucestershire leave Lord’s with no obvious weaknesses, aside from perhaps an odd propensity to falling LBW, particularly in the first over of a new bowler’s spell. Middlesex have rather more to work on, in particular their middle-order batting, and their opening-over economy rate.

Posted in Cricket, Middlesex CCC | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sony Vegas 8.0 and mp4v files may conflict with QuickTime 7.6.8

By Liam | Published: 30th November 2010

Sony Vegas 8.0 projects that use mp4v files may not display the video properly, presenting only audio with a black screen. It appears that QuickTime 7.6.8 causes the problems. In my case, the .mov files, which originated from a camera phone, would play fine in VLC, but not in Windows Media Player.

The solution is to uninstall QuickTime 7.6.8 and install QuickTime 7.6. Unfortunately, this does mean you lose the updated security features of 7.6.8; one hopes Apple rectifies the situation in a future release.

Posted in Computing, Software, Sony Vegas, Video Editing | Leave a comment

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 conflicts with ATI Sideport RAM

By Liam | Published: 18th June 2010

Adobe Flash Player 10.1′s HD hardware acceleration feature can cause a green-screen error when attempting to play online high-definition (and even some standard-definition) video, such as on Youtube and Vimeo. It appears that it conflicts with the Sideport memory found on some motherboard with integrated ATI graphics, such as the Asus M4A785TD-V EVO with its ATI HD 4200 chip.

The "Enable hardware acceleration" checkboxThere are two workarounds, neither ideal. The simplest is to right-click the video, choose “Settings”, and uncheck the “Enable hardware acceleration box” found under the “Display” tab. This, of course, means that the whole point of the Flash 10.1 update—HD hardware acceleration—is disabled.

The other option, and in my mind the preferable one, is to disable Sideport memory in the BIOS. In the AMI BIOS for the above-mentioned Asus board, the relevant options are found under Advanced → Chipset → Internal Graphics → Internal Graphics Mode → UMA. Of course, this ‘solution’ is also irritating: the Sideport memory then becomes another feature paid-for-but-disused.

The best option, is, of course, dependent on Adobe/ATI (whether the problem lies with Flash or with the ATI drivers isn’t clear) updating their software to fix the clash. Here’s hoping they actually do fix it, otherwise the users—as so often happens—will be left feeling shortchanged.

Posted in Hardware | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Response

Running the L140 DVD-ROM from the hard disk

By Liam | Published: 21st February 2010

If, like me, you’re on the Open University course L140 En rumbo: intermediate Spanish, you may have been irritated by the fact that, despite the installer claiming to install to the hard disk, you’re still required to have the DVD in the drive when you want to perform the activites. Quite apart from the fact that it’s somewhat inconvenient to find and insert it every time, it’s also a major source of noise if you have a louder-than-average DVD drive. Since the DVD holds the audio files for the activities, this translated to significant whirring every time you’re trying to listen to, for instance, Spanish pronunciation…which is less than ideal!

You’ll be glad to know, however, that’s it’s possible to manually do what the OU should have done in the first place, and that is to have all the files on the hard disk, therebuy cutting out the need for the DVD-ROM. This should also benefit netbook users, who could then potentially dispense with carrying an external DVD drive.

A little technical knowledge would be helpful, though not essential. Advanced users will see that there are some quicker-but-less-easy-to-document ways of accomplishing some of the steps I’ve described. The usual disclaimers apply.

  1. Make sure you’ve previously installed the L140 activities as per the OU guidelines.
  2. Insert your DVD-ROM and open it to browse in Windows Explorer (it normally appears as your D:\ drive)
  3. The DVD-ROM should contain a folder called “assets”. You need to copy this folder (right-click and click Copy).
  4. Now browse to where the L140 files are installed. This may vary from computer to computer; on my Windows 7 system, the folder was C:\Users\Liam\AppData\Roaming\L140 DVD-ROM. I can’t say for sure what it is on Windows XP, but try looking in C:\Documents and Settings\Liam\Application Data.
  5. Paste the “assets” folder inside the “L140 DVD-ROM” folder you found in step 4. There are between 2 and 3 GB of small files to copy over, so this may take a while.
  6. For safety, you may like to backup the LocalVariables.js file (you may not see the .js part) in the “code” folder inside the “L140 DVD-ROM” folder.
  7. Open this in Notepad. To do so, open Notepad (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad) and browse to the “code” folder inside the “L140 DVD-ROM” folder you’ve been looking at. (On my system, this folder is C:\Users\Liam\AppData\Roaming\L140 DVD-ROM\code.) In the drop-down menu “Files of type” click “All Files”. You should now see that this folder should contain a file called LocalVariables.js (you may not see the .js part). Double-click on it to open it.
  8. The second line of this file should start “var pathToDVD”. You need to alter it to be identical in every way to the line that starts var pathToRoot, except that it should start var pathToDVD. For instance, in my case, after alteration, the second line looked like this: var pathToDVD = 'C:\\Users\\Liam\\AppData\\Roaming\\L140 DVD-ROM\\';
  9. Save the file and close Notepad.
  10. You’re done. You should now be able to run the activities without the DVD being in the drive: in particular, the audio and video clips should play without problem.

Advanced users probably have already realised that the “assets” folder could actually be anywhere, so long as the LocalVariables.js file is altered to point to it. You could put it in your Documents folder or even on a USB drive instead.

Hasta luego!

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Dynamic RAM Preview max can cripple Sony Vegas rendering

By Liam | Published: 18th January 2010

Bizarrely, rendering performance in Sony Vegas Pro 8 suffers by a factor of 3 if the Dynamic RAM Preview is set to use 0MB. Increasing it to 1MB results in a 200% performance boost.

Dynamic RAM Preview normally allows you to render a small selected portion of your project to preview it smoothly. This is especially useful if you have a portion of your project that includes many transitions and effects: without this facility, you may be unable to preview it at a usable frame rate. You can increase the amount of RAM reserved for this task, which increases the length of clip that you can preview. Mike J has a good explanation on the Digital Media Net forums.

However, if you don’t use this feature, the recommendation is to reduce the RAM kept aside for it, allowing it to be used elsewhere. I hardly ever use it, so I reduced it to 0MB—a mistake, as I found out.

John Cline over on the Sony Creative Software forums has produced a handy “benchmark” file, rendertest-hdv.veg to compare the rendering performance of different systems. For instance, in 32-bit Vegas, a stock Core i7 920 could chomp through the rendering in about 1 minute 50 seconds. A lesser Core 2 Quad Q9400 could manage in about 2 minutes 10 seconds. By comparison, at first I was clocking in at over 10 minutes! Something wasn’t right. I downloaded Vegas Pro 8.1, which is the 64-bit version, and the file rendered in under 2 minutes 40 seconds.

I realised, after some playing around, that the Dynamic RAM preview setting was to blame. Strangely, if I increased it to 1MB, the rendering time improved tremendously, dropping to around the 2 minutes 55 seconds mark.

Simple then—if you’re using Vegas Pro 8.0c or 8.1, don’t set the “Dynamic RAM Preview max (MB)” setting to 0MB. A rather silly bug; it would have been good if Sony had picked up on it.

Posted in Software, Sony Vegas, Video Editing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tesco website(s): major usability failure(s)

By Liam | Published: 1st December 2009

Rant warning. I’ve just spent a deeply unsatisfying 45 minutes trying to redeem a Clubcard voucher that was due to expire tonight. Not only are Tesco’s sites a horrible mishmash of differing designs with no clear consistent elements, their hyperlinking is confusing, misleading, and ultimately disappointing.

Take a look at this screenshot:

Clubcard website screenshot

Clubcard website screenshot

That picture on the left of the screenshot, just above the “CDs” label, is a link to Tesco Entertainment. Brilliant, thought I. I can grab a cheap Springsteen CD or something. Having eventually settled on The Rising, I went to checkout, only to be nonplussed by the registration. I entered my details to sign up: the system told me I was already registered. Huh? Oh, it must be thinking of my Tesco Groceries account – even though the two websites have little in common, and are not even on the same domain. Look at these two screenshots. Compare. Do you see much evidence of consistency?

Tesco Entertainment login screen

Tesco Entertainment login screen

Tesco.com login screen

Tesco.com login screen

Here I refer to Nielsen’s heuristics:

Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong, having the same login details for all parts of the Tesco site is a Very Good Thing. But obscuring this great feature by inconsistent interface design is just stupidity on a plate.

Moving on, I wondered where to enter the Clubcard voucher. There was nowhere clear to redeem Clubcard vouchers. I tried the promotional code box. Didn’t work. Went further on to the payment page to see if I could enter it there. No dice. The help page was useless. No mention of redeeming Clubcard vouchers. Where next?

Tesco Entertainment's help page

Tesco Entertainment's help page

Google, in the end. Suspecting Tesco might, unsurprisingly, have made a mess of communicating with their users, I Googled “tesco clubcard entertainment” and finally found another help page for Tesco Entertainment. Note the complete lack of design consistency with the site it’s supposed to be helping with, Tesco Entertainment. Nor is it clear why there need to be two separate help pages.

A different Tesco Entertainment help page

A different Tesco Entertainment help page

There it was. Under “How do I use my Clubcard Vouchers online?” it said the following: “We are very sorry, Clubcard Vouchers cannot be used to buy CDs, DVDs and Games on Tesco Entertainment.” Then why on earth does it link to Tesco Entertainment on the Clubcard website?

Fantastic. Thanks for wasting my time. Tesco, you managed to fail in all these ways, by:

  • using woefully inconsistent designs across your different websites, especially for login screens;
  • implying Clubcard holders can redeem vouchers where they cannot, in reality; and
  • maintaining two separate help pages for the same site, one of which has to be found and accessed externally by Google.

Clubcard is supposed to be a loyalty scheme. I certainly don’t feel very loyal to Tesco after tonight.

As a bonus, as a further example of Tesco’s complete inability to even maintain consistency on the same sub-site, compare these two screenshots from the Clubcard website:

Navigation bar for Tesco Clubcard home page

Navigation bar for Tesco Clubcard home page

Click on the “Clubcard rewards” navigation bar link and you get this:

Navigation bar for Tesco Clubcard Rewards page

Navigation bar for Tesco Clubcard Rewards page

As you can see, it’s exactly the same, apart from everything. Not the slightest bit confusing, of course.

Posted in Interaction Design | Tagged , , , | 2 Responses

Dell will provide free Vista x64 disks for customers with Vista x32

By Liam | Published: 27th November 2009

It seems that if you’ve bought a computer from Dell with Windows Vista 32-bit, they’ll provide, upon request, disks of Vista 64-bit.

It can be a bit of a struggle, though. The key, it seems is to quote the following document to them: DSN Document ID: 158098 (Operating System Changes and Operating System Swaps – Dell Global Policy).

When I asked back in April 2009, my Dell Chat online support conversation went something like this:

Liam: “I need a copy of Vista Ultimate 64-bit to replace Vista Ultimate 32-bit.”
Agent: “Can you tell me which particular Windows came with your system?”
Liam Cromar: “Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit.”
Agent: “The cd or dvd installers we have are the ones that came with the system.”
Agent: “We can only send the Vista Ultimate 32 bit.”
Liam: “Thanks. I understand, however, that Dell Global Policy specifies that the customer is to be provided, on request, with two copies of the 64-bit versions as well. This is according to DSN Document ID: 158098 (Operating System Changes and Operating System Swaps – Dell Global Policy).”
Agent: “Thanks let me check if we can provide you.”
Agent: “Let’s check if your system is capable of having 64 bit. Click Start, click Run, type MSinfo32, and click Enter Look under the system type and see what it is listed.”
Liam: “X86-based PC.”
Agent: “This computer is not compatible with 64 bit OS. For Dell computers when you checked the system type and it list X86-based PC, it is only for 32 bit OS. For computers compatible with 64 bit, you will see X64-based PC.”
Liam: “With all due respect, I am an IT consultant and I know perfectly well that this machine IS compatible with a 64-bit OS. What appears in the System Information utility only refers to what OS is CURRENTLY installed on the computer. Since it CURRENTLY has a 32-bit OS on it, it says X86-based PC. To find out whether it could support a 64-bit OS you have to check the underlying hardware, in particular the motherboard and processor.”
Agent: “Thanks for additional information. Please give me a minute.”
Agent: “All indications point to 32 bit compatibility only. I have double check this and I got the same answer.”
Liam: “What indications?”
Agent: “We have reference where we can check compatibility with a certain system. No 64 bit OS is listed as compatible.”
Liam: “It has a Core 2 Quad processor, definitely 64-bit compatible. Please tell me exactly what is claimed not to be 64-bit compatible.”
Agent: “Let me check your processor information.”
Liam Cromar: “Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600.”
Agent: “Please give me a few minutes again thank you.”
Agent: “Thank you for waiting. Your request was approved. Since the warranty is active, I can send you a Vista 64 bit OS. I apologize for the delay in approving your request.”

Note the amusing attempt to try and persuade me that 64-bit Vista would not be compatible. All’s well that ends well, however; the disk arrived quickly.

Note also that I have no idea whether this policy is still in force, or whether it has been changed. If you want to try this, don’t leave it too long.

Much credit and thanks go to the moderator Chris M on the Dell forums who explained the necessary document to refer to on the Technet forums.

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