Matthew Revell

I’ve written before about being a Virgin Media customer.

I recently chose to leave Virgin Media, after receiving the first bill featuring their ridiculous £1 itemisation charge. I did it the quick way: I rang BT, asked to port my Virgin Media number to them.

Next day, Virgin Media called. They didn’t want to lose me. They thought I’d want to stay when I heard their offer. £19.95 per month for broadband, unlimited landline calls and their basic TV. And the best bit? This offer was for 12 months.

Add in the two mobiles I have with them, which would double in cost if I ditched the cable service, and it works out both cheaper and easier to stay with them. So, I agreed.

Today, I got a letter welcoming me to my new 12 month contract. At no stage did I agree to a 12 month contract nor was I warned that it was a condition of the retention deal.

I rang to complain. The guy apologised but could do nothing and the minimum contract applies to all retentions deals. He also let slip that my new deal was actually £20.95 because the £19.95 didn’t include itemisation. I asked, politely, if he was serious. He changed me back to the £19.95.

After telling him that I didn’t and don’t agree to a new 12 month minimum term, I said I’d consider my options.

So, two things:

The deal’s not bad: it gets rid of their rip-off phone tariff and their broadband is, on the whole, reliable. But they hid the truth from me, part of their increasing tendency to treat customers with contempt.

In a comment on Aq’s site, Paul Freeman mentioned the NTL virus. The virus has eaten into the previously excellent Telewest and made a mockery of everything Branson has claimed for the Virgin brand.

Got a question about Launchpad? Want to make a suggestion or complaint? Or perhaps you just wanna say how much you love Launchpad
We’ve got another Launchpad Users Meeting coming up this Wednesday 2nd May. It’s the ideal time to tell the Launchpad team what you think, to ask for help and to make feature requests.

Add your question, comment or suggestion to the agenda and I’ll rally up the relevant members of the Launchpad team to talk to you.

Look forward to seeing you.

Agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaunchpadUserMeeting/2007-05-02

This week is Ubuntu Open Week!

Launchpad is a pretty important part of the Ubuntu ecosystem, so features fairly heavily in Ubuntu Open Week.

We’ve got sessions on each of Launchpad’s tools, as well as two sessions where I introduce the basic concepts of Launchpad and a general Launchpad Q&A session from Kiko. There’s also a great session on Bazaar from Martin Pool.

As with all Ubuntu Open Week sessions, simply join #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

If you can’t make it to a session, logs are available.

And if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about Launchpad, you can always join us in #launchpad on irc.freenode.net or in the Launchpad Users mailing list:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/launchpad-users

This year’s LugRadio Live is going to be the best yet. Everyone knows that

As usual, we have an exhibition space. This year we want the exhibition to be about doing things. So, hardware hacking, video production, ancient games consoles ready to play, crocheting penguins.

We already have some cool ideas lined up. My favourite so far is a green screen vox-pop stand, where people can record their thoughts about the event, complete with comedy background.

So, if you’ve got something cool you want to do in the LRL exhibition space, email show@lugradio.org. If you wanna run a standard exhibition stand, send us the details too!

Best. Newspaper. Story. Evah.

Westmorland Gazette: Chair destroyed.

Wow, we’ve put Launchpad version 1.0 into public beta and it looks great!

Since I joined Canonical, almost all the Launchpad team’s work has been focused on 1.0. The chaps have consistently impressed me with their talent and 1.0 is testament to their vision, high standards and skill.

So, let’s take a look at what’s new.

New interface

The most obvious change in Launchpad 1.0 is the new interface.

Launchpad does a lot. It is made up of five principal tools and has different contexts depending on the project, distribution, team or individual you’re working with at that time. The interface has a lot of work to do to make it intuitive to navigate all that information.

Simpler home page

The previous Launchpad home page was great for people already using Launchpad but I think it was a touch overwhelming for people new to the service.

The new Launchpad home page is clean and its simplicity sets the tone for the rest of interface.

Importantly, it’s now easy to get a feel for what Launchpad is and to see what tools it offers:

You can also jump straight to a project by entering its name in the nice big search box.

Brandability

Many different projects use Launchpad. To make it obvious which project you’re working on, Launchpad displays the project’s logo at the top of each page.

Brandability isn’t just for projects, though. I’ve got my mug on pages associated with me:

Similarly, it’s now easier to identify pages associated with particular Launchpad teams:

Getting around

A drop-down menu, in the top green navigation bar, lets you drill down further into project, team or individual that you’re currently working with:

Nice obvious buttons help contributors dive straight in:

The Actions menu, in the left-hand column, is always a useful place to find out what you can do in that application, in that context. Beneath, expandable boxes have additional information about the project, team or individual.

Seeing what people have done

Launchpad is all about collaboration. Knowing what projects and types of work interests a person is useful if you want to work with them.

User profile pages now have more information about that person’s activity in Launchpad:

Project cloud

Launchpad’s code hosting solves three problems in one go:

The project cloud gives you a quick way to see which projects host their code with Launchpad. The darker the name, the more active the project and the larger the name, the more code they host.

Try it, let us know what you think

Launchpad 1.0 also has loads of new code under the surface, ready for all the new features we have planned for the coming months.

Soon, we’ll be re-opening the private beta again, as we get to work on making free software collaboration even easier. You’re welcome to join the Launchad Beta Testers team.

For now, we can’t wait to hear what you think of the public beta of 1.0.
Visit https://launchpad.net and email feedback@launchpad.net with your comments, questions and suggestions!