Broadband

| Richard
I have just moved into a flat in London and had thought I’d use my Vodafone mobile for voice calls and my Vodafone 3G USB stick for Internet access. The thinking behind this was that I am already paying monthly sums for both services, so why pay for a new line and new broadband access? This was reinforced by the download limits contained within many mainstream home broadband providers which are the same as or less than my Vodafone mobile broadband account allowance. It soon became apparent that my bundled call minutes would be insufficient for calling home regularly of an evening, so I decided to arrange for a landline through BT. This was set up and working on Wednesday this week - well done BT - and gives me free evening and weekend calls as I signed up for a year. Now I started to have ‘issues’ with the Vodafone mobile broadband: my account gets billed mid-month, so to track usage, I have to use the full version of their software. Vodafone also compress images whether you want to or not but the full version allows you to modify the extent of this, whilst still having them compressed. I also cannot FTP files to webservers without them being cocked-up by Vodafone en route. In addition to this, one important aspect of my use would be to keep in touch with my kids over Windows Live Messenger but this does not work with the full version of the software. The alternative is to use Vodafone’s “Lite” software. The downside with this is that the compression is worse and not adjustable by the user and the software only tracks usage on a month by month basis and not on my billing basis. So I decided that I would sign up to broadband. BT are overpriced compared with other providers, so I decided on O2. According to their website, broadband is already activated on that line through Be Broadband … who are now part of O2, but because I’m not the customer of record, I would need to contact BT to have the tag removed: O2 blamed BT re-using that number for the cock-up. After an hour and two dropped calls by BT - same old, same old - I was told there definitely isn’t a tag on that line, but according to their broadband checker:
“For Postcode [telephone number, not Postcode, removed] on Exchange BERMONDSEY We’ve just tested your line and can confirm your line supports the UK’s most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband. We estimate your maximum download speed to be 0.5 Mbps (Megabits per second). Download speeds are dependent on a number of factors, such as the distance between your telephone exchange to your house and how many people are using broadband at the same time so whilst your broadband speed can vary, BT Total Broadband will always give you the maximum download speed available based on these factors.”
…which is frankly pathetic! Entering the postcode instead, I get this:
“For Postcode [removed] on Exchange CANARY WHARF We’ve just tested your line and can confirm your line supports the UK’s most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband. We estimate your maximum download speed to be 3.0 Mbps (Megabits per second). Download speeds are dependent on a number of factors, such as the distance between your telephone exchange to your house and how many people are using broadband at the same time so whilst your broadband speed can vary, BT Total Broadband will always give you the maximum download speed available based on these factors.”
So it seems something is wrong somewhere! Anyway, when I went through to O2 to place an order, entering the telephone number tells me this:
“Be broadband is currently activated on this BT landline number. Because Be is part of O2, you can move to O2 Broadband without any penalty and without giving Be your usual three month notice of cancellation. You’ll need to get a MAC key from Be before we can take your order though. So please raise a ticket through Be’s member centre (http://www.bethere.co.uk/memberhome.do), or give them a call on 0808 234 8566.”
It clearly isn’t, and that number seems constantly engaged. Ringing O2, they told me it definitely was so there must be a tag still on that number and that due to Data Protection Act issues, I would have to contact BT to get it removed. So here I am: there isn’t or there is a tag on the line, which is either in Bermondsey or Canary Wharf neither of which will support anything much by way of line speed and which may or may not be in O2’s “Broadband” area - which is actually ADSL2+ - and may or may not be in O2’s “Home Broadband” area which is slower and more expensive. {sigh} Wouldn’t it be good to get the right answer to the question first time?

Sent from my Blackberry

| Richard

I just received a delivery receipt for an e-mail and at the end of the message, before the sender’s contact details it reads “Sent from my Blackberry”.

Who gives a toss?

Maybe I should end all my e-mails with “sent from a computer using Outlook”. Or maybe I should end all my letters with “signed with a ballpoint pen and sent in the post”.

Why am I so disgruntled*? Well apparently my new job brings with it a Blackberry of some sort, so presumably I’ll be telling everyone and their cat that I’m contactable this way all the time too…

The Biggest Threat to our National Security…

| Richard

…is of course our political leaders and the unelected civil servants.

How so? Well this bunch of fools regularly lose CDs containing our personal data, lose laptops with defence secrets on them or leave confidential briefing documents on trains through nothing but their fuckwittery.

And now a Cabinet Minister has had a computer with sensitive documents on it stolen. This is, of course, against the rules on handling sensitive information, but then we can’t expect Labour Ministers to actually follow any rules, can we?

And yet they expect us to have confidence in them!

Obama -v- Clinton

| Richard

So then. All that media coverage about the US Democrats’ candidate for the president.

Who gives a toss?

I mean, it might be different if we were talking about the actual presidential elections because – as eny fule kno – it would be useful to find out what the next leader of the UK is likely to be like and what vested interests are funding the presidency. No, we have all that to look forward to later this year – deep joy!

But it’s like the Americans being bombarded with news about the Conservative Leadship campaign back in 2005. I somehow doubt that they had news coverage lasting six months about that!

What a Tosser!

| Richard

Yes, our glorious leader Gormless Brown has declared that the continuing erosion of our civil liberties helps to ensure my right to live free from crime:

“Gordon Brown has defended the use of CCTV, ID cards and the DNA database – saying they protect civil liberties.

“In a speech to the IPPR think tank, the prime minister said they helped ensure people’s right to live free from crime.”

I see. So by watching me wherever I go, by forcing me to carry an ID card and by taking and keeping samples of my DNA they will guarantee that I will live free from crime? That’s excellent news. I won’t worry about my safety any longer when I’m considering walking around after midnight in the middle of Manchester or South London or wherever thanks to El Gordo and his band of totalitarians.

What utter and complete toss!

Or does he mean that by doing all that I won’t commit any crimes against anyone else? Didn’t the September 11th bombers carry ID cards then?

The Trouble with Macs…

| Richard

So with the move to London happening soon, one of the items I had to sort out was my Internet access. Here at home – working for myself from my office on the side of the house – I have a business broadband package from Demon with fixed IP addresses for all the computers and printers. When I’m out and about, I usually use a 3G USB dongle from Vodafone which is more often that not either a regular 38Kbps service or on occasion nothing more than a pretty white plastic thing for decoration only. Where there is good coverage, it’s supposed to deliver 1.8Mbps with the promise of 7.2Mbps in parts of London though annoyingly Rotherhithe doesn’t appear to be in the Promised Land but just outside – I’ll check when I get there.

So anyway, with 5GB/month I thought that might make it easier: no need to get a phone line and a broadband package, just use my allowance for a change.

But Mrs RHM then suggested I should get a webcam for my laptop so I could help the kids with their homework if need be and also keep in touch with her. Fine, I thought, though alarm bells started ringing: she uses our venerable iMac while the rest of the family have PCs.

So what’s the problem with the iMac?

Well the iMac and OSX Leopard has iChat which promotes its video chat features. To use it to its best, you need to have a .Mac account – which is expensive for what you actually get which is why I abandoned my .Mac account after a couple of years – as does your friend and .Mac is pretty much a waste of time for anyone on a PC. “Never fear”, says Apple, “you can always link up with AIM.” What?

“iChat works with AIM, the largest instant messaging community in the U.S. You and your buddies can be either AIM or .Mac users. Text, audio, and video chat whether your buddies use a Mac or a PC. Sign in with your AIM account, and all your buddies appear in your iChat buddy list.”

Great! No-one in the UK – OK, I exaggerate a tad – uses AIM: AOL Instant Messenger. The client software seems to have issues here on this PC, by the way, which comes as no surprise to me having once used AOL software for testing purposes. Go on: ask any of your connected friends what they use for instant messaging and they’ll say “MSN” (or “Windows Live Messenger“, to give it its proper name).

You can, of course, download the Mac Messenger client, but the ‘usual’ home user version does not support video messaging. Not really a surprise as I think Microsoft doesn’t really bother with Mac users as they’re lost causes as far as “the Beast of Redmond” appears to be concerned.

Maybe this is another reason not to get a Mac? Until Apple comes up with an instant messaging client that supports video messaging with Windows Live users, you’d otherwise be partially cutting yourself off from the majority of computer users, at least here in the UK.

London is drowning and I live by the river

| Richard

I will shortly be starting a new full-time job in London which means that I shall be moving to a flat to live in during the week. Commuting isn’t an option even though living near the far end of the train line means at least I ought to be able to get a seat, £6000 for a second class ticket is money wasted especially when it’s two hours by train each way and another half hour from the rail stations to home and the office. Six hours’ travelling each day isn’t exactly my idea of fun … and that’s when the trains are running to time, but there was a recent issue with a new bridge closing the line outside Liverpool Street and more recently shuttle buses after a power line was brought down by a train.

So I have taken a lease on a flat in Rotherhithe overlooking the Thames.

The landlady insures the property itself and her own contents – it’s being let furnished – but I need to insure my own contents so I got some quotes this morning and will be going with More Than. A number of other insurance companies wouldn’t quote because the property is within 400m of a river, though it would have to be a major catastrophe for the Thames to rise to the degree of it overflowing its banks and water levels reaching a second floor flat, I’d have thought!

Oh and I shall also be adding on cycle cover for the first time: £25 extra to cover a bike, as if I buy one to get around on, it’s more likely to go walkies in London than it is in Norfolk.

The Apprentice

| Richard

…is over for another year. Thank heavens for that: no more hair-gelled, arrogant salesmen alternating between being arrogant yuppie-wannabes and timid lapdogs around Sir Alan Sugar.

In the end, it was good looking but thick sounding salesman Lee McQueen who won this series of The Apprentice. He will now get a job with AMSTRAD in charge of a product selling advertising. Well what a suprise. AMSTRAD are of course famous for … erm … a crappy word-processor thing in the eighties and some sort of hideous phone thing now. Oh and they’re owned by BSkyB now, I think.

Still, at least it means no more people going on and on about the show like it’s some sort of national event. Maybe Chris Moyles will actually play some music on his radio show now? Probably not… (And as if by magic when I went to grab the hyperlink to Chris Moyles’s show, what else was there but a photo of Sir Alan and one of the team. See?)

Anyway, here’s my top tip for next year’s show: don’t bother entering unless you’re a “yes man” salesman with a shiny suit, shiny buckles on your shiny shoes and lots of hair product plastered on your head because that’s all they’re really after. Oh and remember to be obnoxious.