Now its no secret that I hate post.
The thought of getting something nasty through the post disturbs me immensely.
It’s mainly due to the fact I seldom get anything good through the ‘snail mail’, just the usual junk, bank stuff, and demands for money (bills).
Only within the week of my birthday do I get interested – for obvious reasons…
Yep – I hate the mail.

So I get a letter from BT.

Reading said letter gives me advanced notification of our telephone line rental being increased by 50p per month.

Now some of you reading this might recall a few articles I posted about the proposed ‘Broadband Tax.‘
For those uninitiated, it was a government tax of 50p per month added to fixed phone lines, and paid to BT, ostensibly to pay for getting broadband to the masses. ← For this read “grossly unfair”

This proposal was dropped by the government.

Now is it coincidence that BT have raised the line rental by the exact same amount?
Personally the cynical side of me thinks not – have BT simply decided that this is a good idea and done it anyway, or is something more sinister going on – that the proposal was not dropped by the government at all…

Sadly the masses won’t even blink at this raise, and BT’s profits will once again exceed the GDP of some countries.

All hail capitalism

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It’s difficult to say this; I’d even go so far as to say that it brings physical tears to my lovely blue peepers – BUT.

It seems that the corporate behemoth that is BT, has paired up with another telecommunication monster, to go head to head with the Con-Dem coalition over the ludicrous ’Digital Economy Act’. BT and TalkTalk challenge Digital Economy Act

They say (quite rightly IMHO ) that the bill was rushed through parliament in the pre-election ‘Wash-up period’, the time just before parliament was dissolved. It was not properly debated, and the implications for enacting this, not properly understood.

Some of you might say “So What!” – and I can see why this would be a valid attitude to have.
But this bill, which is now LAW by the way, places quite a few restrictions on the way that networks are policed and carry data.

Here’s a scenario for you:
Person A (PA) has a wireless network.

It’s quite poorly protected with inadequate security – being a ‘regular’ user of IT, he/she neither knows nor cares about this.
Dodgy Neighbour B (DNB) comes along and realises that the network is in secure and connects – something Person A has no knowledge of.
DNB proceeds to download all sorts of illegal movies, music, games etc. from PA’s network.

Here’s the rub, PA gets into all sorts of legal trouble for something he/she knew nothing about! Up to the point of being cut off from the Internet AND persued through the courts for copyright infringement – potentially costing many £££s in fines.
DNB sits back and enjoys his illegal stuff with a beer…

Expand that to the ‘public’ free wireless networks on trains, in cafés etc. and you can plainly see that these vital business access points will disappear over night with the fear of being abused.

Lets hope that BT and TalkTalk get somewhere and this nasty little law gets revoked as soon as possible; BEFORE the true damage is done and all these regular users of the net end up prosecuted for nothing!
Just another example of our “knee jerk” reactionary government, doing something akin to hitting a walnut with a JCB.

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Another Donkey Award – BT claim the prize this time…

Today was one of those installation moments I like – taking a client from a failing system. into a bright new future :)

Maybe not quite that dramatic, but I like it all the same…

Sadly the client has just signed up to use BT broadband. :)
This is NOT a good idea in my honest opinion – BT broadband itself is quite good, the service that comes with it is not.
Businesses that rely on their broadband, also rely on the service too, after all things do, from time to time, go wrong.
You need to know that there is someone willing to fix the problem should it occur.

Today I had to install an existing broadband connection with a new router – the previous router was not the BT Home Hub supplied, nor was the replacement.
The client has also opted for a change of email system; from a simple POP box on the Internet, to a local Exchange based system.
This necessitated requesting from BT a ‘fixed’ IP address (never mind the technical, it’s a VERY basic thing to ask BT, that’s all the knowledge required). This is something that MOST ISPs will grant you for nothing – no extra dosh required. BT however charge £5 +VAT for the privilege. Why they do this escapes me – it costs them NOTHING to do…!

Anyway, surprise surprise, this didn’t work – call to BT technical.
After the usual geological age on hold we finally got through to a ‘technician’ ← Note the single quote – this woman was about as much a technician as I’m Norwegian.
After being totally unable to help me she finally said “I’ve been told this call is not supported, and that if you wish support, there is a chargeable number to call”
Me: “Why is this suddenly not supported”
Her: “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that” – Now I’m starting to get a little annoyed…
Me: “Why can’t you tell me? This is ridiculous!!”
Her: (agitated) “I cannot tell you that, if you want support it’s chargeable”
Me: “That’s unacceptable - if you can’t help me get someone who can, or at least tell me why this is not supported!”
About 7-10 minutes on hold again, no reason given…
Another person: “Hi what’s the problem” – this guy goes on to fix the problem

My client was sold the wrong package – BT charged £10 to ‘regrade’…

Just another example of why businesses shouldn’t stand for the extremely crap service BT provides.
If you run a business try not to use BT, it’ll save you so much grief in the long run…

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Firstly I must apologise for not posting here for a while – we’ve gained a couple of large projects requiring most of my time. More stress = more requirement for sleep!
For once I’ve actually been getting some
(ooh er missus!)

Thought I’d share a quick rant with you!

“Microsoft is providing the Browser Choice update to comply with a legal settlement with the European Commission. Microsoft is required to inform customers who currently use Internet Explorer as their default browser that there are other web browser choices available.”

That’s the opening shot from the Microsoft website detailing what and why this stupid thing is (read it here)

It goes that the European Commission, those for who it’s important that bananas have a certain straightness, decided that Europeans needed to have enforced choice of how they viewed the Internet.
We were no longer allowed to simply use the installed version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but we had to be offered a choice of which browser to use. Apparently, installing an Internet browser within your own operating system is anti competitive and was an example of Microsoft abusing it’s dominant market position.

I have two points to say…

• Firstly – surely those people who would like to choose their browser HAVE ALREADY DONE SO.
  Downloading Chrome or Firefox wasn’t that difficult for those people who wanted/needed to change was it?
• Secondly – why enforce the choice?
  Surely MOST people don’t actually want to change at all. I NEVER hear clients complaining that their Internet browser is poor quality!

Within my own experience counting the number of clients who have called to ask what this ‘Browser Choice’ thing is, there really was no point to this stupid offering.

I have even experienced some clients accidentally changing browsers when they NEED Internet explorer for some specific business critical software to run.
Admittedly simple to fix but the client has wasted time changing to a different browser, calling us then getting it reset back to where they wanted it in the first place.

Just another pointless waste of European funds – paying idiot bureaucrats €€€€s to make our lives just that little bit more inconvenient.

PLEASE LEAVE THE COMPUTER DECISIONS TO THOSE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!

#Note#
If you would like a quick quiz on some of the stupid rules that the European Commission have passed try this from the BBC

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Broadband tax condemned as ‘unfair’ by MPs

I have posted on this topic a few times now, ranting about the stupidity of this ridiculous charge.

Now it seems that there is a government committee that seems to think this is true too.

All at once I’m in agreement with an aspect of the government!

Taxing those with a fixed telephone line to pay for ‘super fast’ broadband is such a stupid idea, whoever proposed it wants a good kicking.

The people it will effect are the people who WON’T get the benefit. Either they already have broadband or have chosen not to take the plunge (and probably run their houses with steam power )

I do believe, when I was a younger chap, that the government were warned that privatising the telecommunications industry was a bad idea, and that profits would come before quality of service.

This tax has come about because BT and the telecom industry have said they don’t have the money to upgrade the UKs Internet infrastructure.

Maybe they could reinvest some of the £547M toward paying the tax; which experts estimate will only generate £175M- about 32% of BTs profit for the 2008-2009 period (bear in mind that the profits BT announced were down by 45% from the previous period, a whopping £991M)

From these figures, we can ascertain that it would take BT 5-8 years to pay for the upgrade if they were to invest all their profits toward this goal (BT estimate that it’ll cost about £5 Billion to do the job)

All these huge figures all seem a nonsense though – I can’t even imagine £1 Billion

Rant over – bedtime…

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