Notes on a Galaxy Note

I have had a Samsung Galaxy II smartphone for a while now, and more recently, a Google Nexus tablet.  My wife has been enviously eyeing my Kindle app, the games, the stereo remote control, the pocket torch and all the other gizmos that you can get with Android.  But she doesn't want to carry two devices around, so she decided to get herself a Samsung Galaxy Note II, its intermediate size being neither too big to be a phone nor too small to be a book reader.   The stylus and handwriting recognition is a plus too.  This post is the story of its purchase and commission.

Why now?

Anita has had a very old (non-smart) mobile phone for a while, on a pay-as-you-go contract from Carrefour, a supermarket chain.  She never used it much; it was mostly for emergencies, and, if I'm honest, it was often out of earshot, or had a flat battery, or was left at home, or there was some other reason why just at that particular moment, it wasn't actually useful for anything.   However, it had "minutes" available to spend, if needs be.

Recently, Anita found that her spare minutes of credit had disappeared.   On going to the Carrefour website, she learned that the contract had been taken over by Orange, and in doing so, her accumulated credits had been zeroed.   Not happy; no text messages of warning, no announcement, or letter received, nothing.   But, with a 70 euro voucher if she bought a Galaxy Note before 1st December, perhaps now was the time to indulge.

Why Orange lost the deal.

Orange operate the network for my mobile phone, and they also provide the internet ADSL line to the house, so they are well-placed for additional business.  Also, when I bought the phone a couple of years ago, I walked into the Orange shop in Laval, and walked out a while later, somewhat poorer, but with a fully-working phone.   This might sound trivial, but it can be hard to achieve in France.

The bottom line for Orange is that they didn't do any low-usage, low-cost mobile phone deals.  Nor did they offer any kind of all-in-one internet-plus-two-phones deal that might have made them attractive.  They do do a complicated business package that, since we run a gîte, we could have gone for, but I run the WiFi service for gîte customers down the same line, I manage the firewall and security, and these require some specific settings in the ADSL router.  I have encountered Orange tech support before, and I simply don't trust that shower to install a new "Livebox" (internet router, Ethernet switch, and generally useful gadget) to my satisfaction, and to get it running without at least a week of stress and probably no internet connection for at least the same period of time.

In the end, I tend to hold that if they can't be bothered to meet the needs of their existing customers, I can't be bothered to deal with them.

Why Free didn't get the deal

We therefore walked into the Free shop in Laval when they opened after lunch on Tuesday afternoon.  We only had to wait until 2:30.   Now I like Free as an outfit.  I read somewhere that France is the most profitable country in all of Europe for mobile phone operators.  I wonder how that happens?  Free is the upstart, the newcomer, and you could tell that they were offering something the public wanted and that the cozy cartel didn't like, by they way the mainstream media attacked them when they had some teething troubles arising from the enormous takeup when they launched.

Free has also been attacking the "all-in-one" phone-plus-connection deals offered by the other operators, on the basis that it includes a hidden phone hire-purchase agreement, and should therefore publish interest rates, etc.  An interesting argument; they have a point, it will be interesting to see how that pans out.  In the mean time, Free will do you a credit deal on a Galaxy Note, and then sell you the data+voice connection that you want.

A notice on the door advertising an urgently-needed sales assistant didn't promise a speedy service, but we were second in the shop so we only had to hang about for about 15 minutes to get served.

Anita had been to the Free website, according to which, to keep her old phone number she needed something called a “relevé d'identité d'operateur” or RIO.   She called the appropriate number and got this code from Carrefour.  So, armed with credit card, old phone, RIO code and personal ID (French driver's licence), we were hoping for a "one-stop" transaction.

Well, Free didn't have the Galaxy Note in stock, but you can order one.   To order one, you must have a Free mobile phone contract.  Well, OK.   But the sales guy couldn't make the RIO work, and therefore wanted to charge 10€ to to open a new line.  At this point, since everything (SIM and phone) was going to be sent by post anyway, and the phone was not particularly cheap from Free, she decided to just buy it all over the internet.

We walk out of the Free shop without a phone.  The queue behind us waiting to be served was, by this time, enormous.

****Interlude*****   Getting the RIO to work.

The RIO was apparently not valid because Carrefour's mobile operation had been transferred to Orange, which meant that the RIO number had been changed.   Guided by the Carrefour website, Anita sent an email to to request a valid RIO.   After no response in 24 hrs, she eventually she found a phone number to call, who referred her to another Orange service that she then called, who gave her a new RIO that worked.  One email, 2 website visits, two phone calls. Then two different RIOs arrived two days later by text and email, only one of which corresponded to the one given over the phone.

How Bouygues won it

The buying process has been reset to zero at this point, so she might as well look around to make sure she is going for the best offer.  Amazon were doing the best price on the Galaxy Note (50€ cheaper than Free), so she ordered it from them, paying a bit extra for fast delivery to be sure that the 70€ discount voucher would still be valid.

Bouygues telecom are advertising heavily their "B&You" services.  Their website is friendly and the offers are competitive.  So they get the deal.  SIM and phone are now ordered, SIM scheduled to arrive by the 4th December.

Getting it to work

It so happened that both the SIM and the phone arrived on Friday 30th November.  Top marks to Bouygues for exceeding customer expectations, and a "satisfactory" rating to Amazon for meeting them.  It's also all here in time for getting the 70€ discount from Samsung.  Things are looking up.

You can't use the phone until the battery is charged, which is a frustrating wait, but unavoidable.  Meanwhile she visits the Bouygues website to "unlock" the SIM.   They promise to send an SMS with the code.  (Where to??)  Bouygues say the old number can't be transferred until Monday but a few hours later send an email giving a temporary number to use until then.  It works!  Test calls are made to and from the shiny new device.

Now to connect it to the home WiFi.  Problem.  Once the WiFi security is set up, the phone fails to connect to it.  It just sits in an endless loop: Scan for networks-->request IP address--> turn off WiFi-->turn on WiFi-->scan for networks.   An internet search tells me that other people have experienced this problem, and it's not just something wrong with our network.  Besides we have four other devices using the WiFi without a problem.

Samsung tech support

Telephone call to Samsung tech support.  I happen to have the number to hand following a problem with my galaxy SII a while back.  Top marks to Samsung tech support for being available at 4PM on a Saturday, despite having a complicated automatic call routing system to navigate before reaching a live person.  Once Anita has persuaded the girl that the problem is not our network, the proposed action is to install Kies on her computer and use this to bring the phone's firmware up to date.

Kies is Samsungs's software for managing synchronisation of files with your home PC, and it also serves to update the firmware of your devices.   Anita downloads the Kies software and installs it (A few hours).  Once installed, however, it fails to achieve a connection between her PC and the Note, even though we leave it connected for a couple of hours while we go out.  When we get back later that evening, I try the same thing with my more poweful laptop.  A connection is eventually achieved and I leave the firmware update running overnight.

The next morning, the firmware is updated, but the phone still does the same thing.  At last, after looking around on the net a bit more, I solve the problem by changing the WiFi channel used by the router from 6 to 5 (a random choice after a couple of posts suggested trying changing the channel, or using one numbered less than 11).  I really shouldn't have to do that.  How many people know how to change their router's WiFi channel?

The Samsung discount

So now to the Samsung website to register the voucher and claim the discount.  The November offer has been superseded by an equivalent December one, so it takes a while to find the right website page but, as promised, this can still be done until 15/12.  But clicking on the link to fill in the online form, takes you to an account setup page first, then you have to wait for an email with a confirmation link to click.   This takes about an hour to arrive.   

Now the online form can be completed, which offers 5 unexplained versions of the grey phone - is it a Galaxy Note II BOG, or XEP, or SFR,  etc?  We chose BOG since it's a bog-standard phone.  I hope Samsung are not hoping for good results from a detailed sales analysis.

When it comes to entering the company we bought it from, the site does not accept the 4 digit Luxembourg postcode of Amazon EU, the holding company for Amazon.fr, who sent us the bill.  We fudge this by adding a zero so the form can be printed and sent off, together with a RIB bank form for the reimbursement to the bank, a copy of the bill AND the product bar code sticker.   This sticker does not come off without tearing - why not if they want it back?  Not a satisfactory experience.  Fingers crossed for the discount.

Summary

As of Sunday morning, Anita is venting her frustrations by bombing the crap out of some green pigs,  (Star Wars version - fun, and with a great sense of humour) and it seems that, barring actually getting her old number back, and the inevitable hassles of setting up new apps for Facebook, Kindle, etc. everything is finally as it should be.

But this was way too hard.

Robins

I've been working in the garden, taking the turf off an area that is to become part of an enlarged flower bed.  Worms love to live just under the roots of grass, so the resulting wormfest delighted the local robins.  These two came to a face off.  I somehow doubt that they argued on the basis of who was there earliest, and therefore entitled to the worms.

Pics

Just a few pics today. This first one is one of a set of four, intended to show the view through different windows, of trees in Autumn colours against clear blue sky. Well, they didn't really work out, but I thought that his one kind of stands on its own.

This one at least shows the colours I was trying to capture.  As in the Wizard of Oz, please pay absolutely no attention to the cars, lamp post or my shadow.

And finally, a quick snap as I was on my way out.  The leaves of this tree Lupin seem to explode like a green starry firework from the flower bed.  It will die back over Winter, but I hope that it will burst into white, scented flower at least one more time before its seedlings have to take over.

Rule 1

When you install a solar-powered, movement-activated light right at the apex of your roof.....

... first, check that it works.

Fields and bureaucrats

The house and gîte here are enclosed by fields on three sides and by a small road on the remaining one.  On the other side of the road is a field of a couple of acres that is also part of the property, but, being apart from it, is not constrained to integrate with the garden.  It can form a space of its own, separate, but part of the whole.

I don't really have a strong idea of what to do with it, except that it would be nice to have some trees there.   With this in mind, I organised, with help, a meeting with a person from the région engaged in management of the site classé that surrounds the property, and a landscape gardener available to the local community.   The purpose was to get some outline ideas on what might be a sympathetic and attractive way of managing the space to best fit in with local scenery and aesthetic values.  Null points.  Those august personages seemed to engage in a power struggle, and did nothing but argue about what might be permitted.    I think the best idea that came up was an orchard.  "How many apples do you think my customers are going to eat?"   So I'm doing what I feel like.

Last year I mowed the field once in the Autumn, taking care to avoid the yearling walnut trees that had sprouted, in the hope that they will get their roots deep enough to survive the inevitable weeks of Summer drought.   They still seem to be there, although they're not much taller than I remember them.   I have not mowed the field this year; I understand that tall grass helps to shield young trees in their early years as they establish, so it's staying.

However, I have decided to give Nature a helping hand.   I have cleared a strip of grass parallel to the road, a few metres into the field, to transplant some Hazelnut saplings that had self-seeded in the garden.  I figure that once they grow they will help hide the inner area of the field from prying eyes of passers-by, and give me a bit more freedom as to what to do there.  There are nine small trees of various sizes, 5 paces apart, along the mowed track.  Fingers crossed.

Journée calendrier

A cold, damp and misty start to the day, with rain forecast: not a promising start to our day of flogging calendars in aid of the Harmonie (I mean, giving calendars away and asking for a donation) in Ste Suzanne.  But, as it happens, we managed to be the first organisation to be doing the rounds this year, beating the firemen and postal workers to it, so we made a good haul.

Afterwards there is traditionally the totting up of the proceeds, analysis of results and a lunch chez Mamie Suzanne (Granny Suzanne) who is thus named, as far as I can work out, because she is the mother, grand-mother and perhaps great-grandmother of, in all, about half the musicians in the Harmonie.

I have attended the lunch a few times now, so I think I'm qualified to say that it is traditional, at least insofar as it relates to this event.  It runs: munchies, soup, pot-au-feu, cheese, apple tart and coffee.  We were about 28 people who sat down at a big long table.

The munchies were standard supermarket fare, offered on the table in the little plastic pots they are sold in, and eaten by the participants before the meal started, while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

The soup is a vegetable soup (largely cabbage based, I think), thickened either with tapioca or what the French described as Perles de Japon.  There was some debate as to whether Perles de Japon are the same thing as tapioca, but nobody really knew for sure. 

The pot-au-feu is a hot-pot, made by boiling lumps of beef, whole carrots, whole potatoes and quartered savoy cabbage in a vegetable stock, all together in a big pot.  I tried to find out what cut of beef is used, and had it patiently explained to me that you go to the butcher and ask for pot-au-feu, and that is what you get.  The meat was served separately from the vegetables, and both were served drained into bowls, from which you served yourself.  If you wanted, you could add mustard or a vinaigrette, which surprised me.  I had always assumed vinaigrette was just for salads, but this was a chunky one, with finely chopped garlic, shallots, parsley, mustard and other herbs all mixed in.  It worked well with the beef, and you could also just smear it onto the bread, where it worked well too.

Cheese was a Camembert cut into wedges and passed around in the little wooden containers it was bought in (no salad) and was followed by the apple tart, home made, and, well, tart.   Commercially-made tarts and other puddings tend to err on the sweet side, so it was good to eat a proper tart that lived up to its name in the nicest possible way.

And we made a bit over a couple of thousand euros.  Nay bad.

Blowing Wood

The boiler that heats the gîte (and a bit of the house), burns wood chips.  These are delivered here by a lorry which blows them into the wood store using special hoses, via an inlet in the bunker.  The inlet is matched by an outlet that lets the blowing air out, so the roof doesn't lift off.

The height of the inlet determines the maximum height of the wood chips you can blow into the bunker, and for various reasons, largely down to last-minute changes in the bunker design, these allow only for 20 cubic metres of wood to be delivered at a time, when the lorry can carry 30.   The bunker can hold 30 cubic metres, too, but much of the volume is above the height of the inlet.

This is a waste, since the price of a wood delivery is in two parts; a fixed part for the transport, and a variable amount that depends on how much wood you take, so it makes sense to get as much wood delivered each time as you can.   I have been taking deliveries of 20 cubic metres at a time for a while, and I have been applying myself to solving the problem of being able to accept deliveries of 30 cubic metres.

You can't raise the height of the inlet since the lorry driver won't be able to reach it to attach the hose.  The solution is to attach a tube inside the bunker to carry the wood chips higher up, so a greater volume of bunker can be used.  This is what I have been trying to do.  I have bought a hideously expensive length of steel-reinforced polythene tubing designed to cope with the wear & tear of wood chippings blasting through it, and various attachments to mate it to the inlet.

I have tried it on one delivery, and it all worked well for a short while, until the tube blocked with wood chips, whereupon the blower tone changed from a steady roar to an angry whine.  The lorry driver dived for the "off" switch, but too late, and one of his hose fixings gave way, causing a small explosion of wood chips over the car park, and a writhing hose.   I think perhaps I had too tight a curve in the tube, so now I'm changing its path to make it straighter.  Next  delivery attempt in a few weeks.  Watch this space.