“In order to access the Direct Debit service you will need to be enrolled for the VAT Online Return Service. You access Direct Debit via the ’submit returns’ link on the ‘My Services’ home page. This will take you to the VAT Online Return home page where you will have the option to set up a Direct Debit Instruction (DDI) online.”
Yes, it’s vat return time again - and these are the instructions for setting up a direct debit. There’s two problems:
1 Why not just add a hyperlink to the relevant page?
2 Perhaps because, if you follow these instructions, they don’t take you to a page with a direct debit signup button.
Now, I’m all for preserving the values of civil service bureaucracy, and this is a fine example of transferring old working practices to new media. Please, Mr/Mrs/Ms Civil Servant, Don’t Make Me Think. (it’s a fine book, and an easy read.)
The interwebnetthingy is a transparent place: even banks have to bow down to its power. The Guardian got the HSBC: Facebook story first - and it was their technology team that covered it. When the rest of the press got to the story it seems their education staff covered the story. It’s not an education story: it’s about how online social communities make the web transparent, and change the balance of power between customer and company.
How long before we get a revolt over government services… oh yeah, we had one already 
Sphere: Related Content
I’m so glad that Alan is safe: we both studied english at Dundee University (though I reckon he got to a lot more 9am lectures than I did…)
& following a post to the BBC’s website, they’ve just rung to ask if they can speak to me live on the World Service this evening - I’m delighted to have the chance to welcome him back in public!
Glad that we don’t need this any more…
/update: spoke live to Alan on air: he’s clearly looking forward to getting back to a normal, quiet life.
My very best wishes to Alan and his family.
Sphere: Related Content
June 29, 1888: Handel Oratorio Becomes First Musical Recording
1888: The earliest known musical recording is made. The piece, Georg Friedrich Handel’s Israel in Egypt, is recorded on a paraffin cylinder.
Israel in Egypt, assigned the catalog number HWV 54, is an oratorio, a form in which Handel excelled.
Like his more famous Messiah, Israel in Egypt is composed using biblical passages, mainly from Exodus and the Psalms.
Unlike the Messiah, however, it didn’t enjoy much of a reception when it premiered in 1739. As a result, Handel shortened the work and inserted a few Italian arias to lighten the mood a bit.
Nevertheless, it was selected by Col. George Gourand, Thomas Edison’s foreign sales agent, for the first musical recording. Gourand made his recording in London’s Crystal Palace, using Edison’s yellow paraffin cylinder — candle wax, essentially.
(Source: Stanford University, National Park Service)
Powered by ScribeFire.
Sphere: Related Content
I remember seeing this Perrier ad in Paris circa 1976, with Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder: it’s stuck with me all these years (can’t think why!)
Sphere: Related Content
Nancy Slim’s blog strikes many chords with anybody who’s flying solo [like yours truly].
Senses of freedom & guilt in equal measure, leading to overwork… and pigeon-holing by cubicle-bound colleagues, who assume that every day is spent outdoors, feet up, drinking wine [summer version of by a log fire with a pint of ale in the winter.]
Sphere: Related Content
After the scale (& excess?) of Honda’s global dream, I like the human scale of the partnership between the Homeless World Cup and Hattrick, working together to raise funds for the Afghan HWC team to travel to the Copenhagen finals in August.
Donations of £5, €5, or even $5 will make a difference.
Sphere: Related Content
Apparently now that speeding drivers can view their evidence photos, the number of telephone enquiries has dropped. Evidence of the web’s transparency in action.
Though you do wonder why the photos aren’t simply printed onto the notice letters?
Link: Wiltshire & Swindon Road Safety Camera Partnership.
Sphere: Related Content
remarkable…. inevitable
BBC will offar a tv web player in 2006, with some channels simulcast - starting with BBC1 & 2
Link: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | BBC TV channels to be put on net.
Sphere: Related Content
Latest comments