Nice idea from the Office 2010 guys!
http://www.office2010themovie.com
33 seconds of fun which give a hint as to what’s to come in the new program.
To be honest I can’t imagine “No Return” “No Undo” and “No Control. Alt. Delete.” So goodness knows what they got in store.
Just been given the heads up on a new tool to make it easy to add a map and directions to a meeting request in Outlook 2007!
The guys at Multimap have built a mapping Add-In to Outlook which, with a few clicks, embeds a map into a calendar meetings, contacts and emails which saves time adding links and generates an “easy to access“ map you can view or print plus find directions and transport links. 
It also let’s you click on the Bird’s Eye view – my favourite feature so you can see exactly where I work!
If you have Office 2007 check it out and let us know what you think!
Oh….and before you ask it works in the US too! 🙂
I’ve just designed a site for the Budleigh Salterton Art Club in Devon!
Me….a web designer?! Who’d have thought?!
I used Office Live to do it and it took about an hour to set up and launch!
You get to register a domain for free for the first year and you get free web hosting, free design tools and templates to create and edit your site and, to cap it all off, you get free support by phone and email – not that I needed it because it was so easy to set up the site!
You can pretty much add in anything you want at a click of a button:
Seeing as it’s an art club I added a photo gallery but you can have a multitude of modules including contact forms, event calendars, stock lists and even a quick fire map & direction section!
The navigation look and feel is very much like Microsoft Office, as you’d expect being called Office Live! But my point is it’s so easy for the web novice to find their way around and get a new half-way decent website up and receiving traffic in just a couple of hours.
Check out the 3 Step Guide on how to get started and see how other companies have got on with the system at their customer gallery!
It may not be as super-pretty as something a professional designer could whack out, but in these cash-strapped times there is a bunch of retired budding Van Gogh’s in deepest, darkest Devon who are very happy with the result!
Having spent so much time over the last few years in the US where food and service tend to be very good, I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with restaurants in the UK which tend to either be too expensive, serve awful food or sufferer from shoddy and indifferent service.
When asked to go out for dinner or trying to arrange a date in London I’ve found it a bit of a lottery. Do we spend a load of cash to have a decent night out? Do we shrug and laugh at the less than attentive waiter or waitress? Do we just accept the food isn’t that fab because, well, that’s just the way it is?
Last night things changed as I was introduced to an oasis in this culinary desert we call our capital.
The Bedford & Strand bar and bistro near Charing Cross is simply delightful.
I turned up there with four mates from school. We get together every 3 months or so to catch up, chew the cud and find out what’s going on in each other’s lives.
We used to just hit a pub and sink several pints but now in our late thirties (did I just admit that?) we prefer a more refined evening of food and wine!
A small door way on Bedford Street hides some pristine stairs which take you down to a bar and restaurant buzzing with media types and folks drinking in the fantastic atmosphere and wine.
A mixture of French and British food, the menu is reasonably priced averaging around £14 for dishes like pork belly, fish cakes, steak tartar and sausage and mash.
The service was excellent, the manager – Kate – was chipper, funny and informative, not batting an eyelid when I simply said I didn’t like the cassoulet I’d ordered.
She just changed it!
The wine was very good and the extensive selection was nicely laid out on the menu by price bracket.
They also have a deli counter which is open all day serving excellent cheeses and meats.
Really it was excellent! It felt like we should have been in a rustic gaff somewhere in the French country side or a faux Euro-bistro somewhere in Manhattan, but we weren’t.
We were in central London, just shy of Covent Garden getting value for money!
As we left, actors from the theatre musical Joseph piled in for a post show beer and included a taller than you’d think Gareth Gates!
With all the wine we’d drunk it was a “long and winding road” home I can tell you!
Not sure whether BA have employed a company to monitor their T5 online reputation recently, but I’ve had a load of referrals, probably 500% more in the last month or so from folks searching for insight into the new terminal and landing on this page.
I’d never had a comment in six months before now and then suddenly, like London buses, 2 come along within days of each other.
Maybe it’s people wondering if all the fuss has died down and seeing if it’s safe to go back there – it sure is fishy though!
Anyway!
I’ve been in and out of T5 twice in the last couple of weeks and have seen a marked improvement in standards and service.
Firstly I learned from a commenter to ask the taxi driver dropping me off to drive to middle of the terminal set-down so walking to security doesn’t take forever.
That worked!
The first flight was a late one – 10.30pm – to Tel Aviv and check-in went smoothly – other than the bunching up and chatting BA employees seem to do when they’re over-staffed.
There were three around my check-in guy all discussing when they were back in the next day – bit annoying when I’m trying to sweet-talk an upgrade! 🙂
Security was very quick!
Having worked at Harrods for six years in a former life, I know that “cashing up” at the end of the day so you can leave “on time” is crucial to ones sanity, but a glance up now and again from folks in the stores wouldn’t have gone amiss as I did a bit of pre-Christmas idea shopping.
The lounges are great too. Nice decor, moody lighting and decent enough food and wine on tap to ease any flying nerves or assist with the desire to sleep through the journey.
My only complaint would be that I was unlucky enough, on both trips, to be held up at the pasta bar by servers probing the meat sauce with a two-foot metal temperature gauge – a little off-putting to say the least.
The second flight was at 2pm on a Sunday to Seattle and the airport was much more awake.
Buying some Prada (dontchaknow!) aftershave from the duty-free shop I was staggered when the assistant pointed out I could get a gift-box for the same price with the same amount off smelly thrown in for free!
Great customer service! Many wouldn’t have bothered…
I timed both return trips from landing, getting through immigration and baggage claim to exiting via customs and neither took more than 22 minutes!
At Terminal 4 I’d have to tell the taxi driver to turn up 45 minutes after the scheduled landing and more often than not it’d take me an hour to get out into fresh air.
All in all it’s been a much improved experience.
BA have pulled out all the stops and passing through Terminal 5 is now more than a pleasant one.
I’m just curious to know how Virgin manage to get such huge advertising spots throughout the terminal.
I shudder to think how much they’re paying for the privilege!
While in Israel for the Rosh Pina Festival I attended a dinner with local Microsoftees and some agency folk.
The only item in the good-bye goody bag was the Microsoft Arc Mouse!
Very often a corporate give-away might consist of a few bits and pieces but as you can see this little gem needed no help padding out the bag, much to the delight of the merry delegates as they made their way back to their hotel rooms.
The Microsoft Arc comes with batteries and a little pouch. 
The USB stick is about the size of a 20p piece and doesn’t get in the way when plugged in.
The Arc Mouse folds up unobtrusively into a tiny ball. The USB stick is attached inside by a powerful magnet so it doesn’t get lost!
It just looks so cool! Also it’s very ergonomic to the touch and is extremely responsive to the slightest movement. The clicking action is silent but accurate and the scroller is very well conditioned.
I’m writing this in Tel Aviv Airport lounge and resting it on the side of a chair and it’s working like a dream!
This one’s set to have gadget-geeks hearts all of a flutter this Christmas!
They’re selling them on Amazon for about £32 so pick one up and I promise you, you’ll never put it down!
Update Nov 2008: Click here for Part 2 of my Heathrow Terminal 5 Review
Flew out of T5 today on a flight to San Francisco. Here are my thoughts on my experience…
Now I might look like I’m jumping on the negative “let’s all bash BA for cocking up” but I’m all for things British and especially fair play, however since they introduced the touch screen video-on-demand service a little over a year ago, I have complained nearly 10 times that mine either hasn’t worked or I have had partial service during a flight.
The last time was on a flight to and from Seattle so when I complained they rung me back and admitted they had had huge problems with the system and gave me 25,000 free airmiles.
We take off today and I spark up my TV…
Guess what?
It doesn’t work! – It’s flashing at me, changing channels at will, and then to cream it off, the volume starts going up and up and up in my noise-cancelling headphones until I’m temporarily deafened and have to throw them off because I can’t turn it down.
The cabin services director comes by and spends about 40 minutes re-setting and even wiping the screen to see if it’ll work. Nothing does!
He gives me a “Sorry your entertainment system isn’t working” form promising me 10k airmiles or £50 off their already overpriced “duty free”!
No thanks mate – I will be having words again with your customer service team again, and again, and again.
Not sure if BA knows that Northwest Airlines are opening up a direct route between London & Seattle. There’s every chance they’ll undercut BA and Microsoft will use them for the thousands of flights we make between the smoke and the mothership every year!
I’ve never understood why it costs £3.5k for a return business class ticket on BA from London to Seattle but only £2k the other way around.
I’m sick of rip-off-British-Airways!!!
Do you think they track their online reputation? Hope so…..
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