By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Gripes moans and whinges, utilities, Broadband, Internet, iPhone, Microsoft, Apple on February 14, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Later this week two of us are driving a few hundred miles to HQ to be shown the new database which will be implemented on April Fools’ Day. A date which is inevitably going to be a joke when it’s something to do with new computers and software, all going live at the same time. Read more
Rated: 100% (3 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in iPod, Broadband, Internet, iPhone on December 26, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Every morning I drive alongside the harbour. It’s not a big port, mainly aggregates and timber but Constable and Turner thought it good enough to visit. When the economy isn’t doing well or rough seas send the fish down deep, the fishing fleet stays behind the lock gates and Carrot’s Café is full. Read more
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Broadband, Internet on October 3, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Broadband speed in Britain is like today’s Formula One qualifying in Suzuka. Over in Japan the F1 cars tried to set ever faster speeds on one of the world’s most demanding circuits. Five drivers have crashed already, one is in hospital with a leg wound and the race hasn’t even started. Read more
Rated: 100% (3 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Broadband, Internet on June 25, 2009 at 10:42 am
According to behavioural scientists, it takes three days for people to settle down after a major event. As we have just returned from beautiful Brittany, three days is a gross under estimation, it takes us about 6 months or until the next holiday. Read more
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in utilities, Broadband, Internet on June 3, 2009 at 9:22 am
The most popular request for inclusion in Transmit is the ability to slow it down, according to ‘Les’ who always answers queries to Panic Inc, Transmit’s developers. Transmit is an excellent FTP program for Mac OS X and winner of many awards. Read more
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in utilities, Broadband, Internet on May 28, 2009 at 10:53 am
We uploaded a gigabyte of files last night, something which has certainly become easier under ADSL2+ 21CN with an uploading speed almost double that which we had under Broadband Max 20CN. What had been a chore to upload so much became much easier under ADSL2+. Better even than burning a DVD and walking round to the Post Office to send it Special Delivery. Cheaper, faster and more reliable as well. Read more
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Broadband on April 27, 2009 at 10:50 am
Week 2 of narrowband hell, living with 21st century broadband lines at 19th century speeds. Read more
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Broadband on April 18, 2009 at 8:35 pm
At last we got the date for entry into faster broadband. Our 8 megabit BT Max line was ready for the 21st Century and we would be downloading at speeds unimaginable when we went on line in 1991. On 16 April we should have been on a 24 megabit link via ADSL2+. Read more
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Video capture, Gripes moans and whinges, Broadband, Internet, Uncategorized on August 21, 2008 at 3:01 pm
iGate took another turn for the worst recently when the BBC announced they were moving streaming services from Akamai to Level 3 Communications. This latest skirmish is just another in the war between the BBC and Internet Service Suppliers.
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Rated: 100% (2 votes)
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By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Broadband, Internet on July 9, 2007 at 11:27 am
The weather forecasters tell us that all the rain we’ve been having recently is due to the Rocky Mountains and a sluggish jetstream. They say that standing waves build up behind the Rockies and if we get a trough hovering over us, it means rain. I can tell them they are wrong.
The reason we have so much rain is my fault. After years of a hose pipe ban I took advantage of a Wickes special offer and installed water butts everywhere in the garden, some even daisy chained together. Obviously it needed a lot of rain the fill them all up, enough to bring a smile to St. Swithin. The people flooded out of Doncaster and Hull will have to hope the weather clears up before ‘his day’ next Sunday. Unless, that is, they don’t stop whinging that us Southerners would get more help than they have, conveniently forgetting their huge rate support grants for a local infrastructure us Southerners fund and look on with envy.
Flooded out
It is pretty similar in the broadband world. With deregulation, loads of small suppliers sprang up in much the same way as happened with bus companies. Our towns were flooded with umpteen buses driving near-identical routes. The broadband market has become deluged by different offers, ‘up-to’ speeds, download limits and local loops unbundled. Eventually the bus companies sorted themselves out, simply by one or two buying up their competitors, almost back to as it used to be before politicians fiddled with things in the first place. The same is about to happen with high-speed Internet suppliers.
British Telecom, from whom the near monopoly rights were whisked away, is slowly grabbing them back, purchasing Plusnet in January and recently the Brightview Group who have operated some of the country’s best-run brands such as Waitrose.com and Madasafish. Pipex, current owners of Freedom 2 Surf, Nildram and Bulldog, hung a for sale sign out in March, soon to be followed by Virgin Media who recently merged with NTL and Telewest. Tiscali are rumoured to have grabbed a large residential customer base.
Five hundred quid of BS
These are all names we have considered or used as broadband and Internet solutions suppliers. Meanwhile Carphone Warehouse quietly gets on with destabilising the market by undercutting everyone and making broadband free if not trouble-free, the latter being a speciality of the likes of Bulldog and the (not) much lamented Business Serve in this office. BS consistently offered no email service then charged us five hundred quid to dump them
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