Author: Mike

Sam Knows the best independent Broadband resource on the Internet, has recently released its first ISP Performance Monitoring report.

The full report produced in collaboration with Broadband Buyer covers a lot of ground and as result is quite large. But it’s worth a download from here.

Another good month on my ISP speed, mostly above 5MB, but with one blip when the power went out in my road and it took over one hour for speed to come back up after the power was restored.

I wonder if I will ever get a better speed that I have now. It seems that the Reading South Exchange has had a number of upgrades carried out over the past few months, perhaps they are going to move on to other exchanges now.

I had to go up to Norwich by train (see the revamped Train Line Web Site)  last week and on the way back had a chance to see how the building of the London Olympics Stadium was progressing.

Very glad to see some of the steel rim structure now beginning to rise from the base. I did not have time to take a snap of the progress, however I did find out that there is now a live webcam located near the site that can be viewed to see the daily progress.

I’m off to Norwich again in the next few weeks and will see if there is a chance to take a picture then.

I was looking into the cost increases of my Gas and Electricity use last week and came across this site which has calculated typical uses for various devices that are used around the average home.

I’ve also been using an electricity monitor over the past six months, this has certainly focused the attention on just how much electricity is used, for example when you turn on your dishwasher you can see visibly just how much it is costing.

I would recommend one of these devices to anyone who wants to start and cut their electricity use.

Another steady month of connection with no drop outs at all for the second month in a row and a steady speed of 4.5 MB for downloads.

It seems that the upgrades that have been going on at the Reading South Exchange are making a real change to stability and constantly higher speed levels.

On a different tack, it seems that many UK users are exceeding their Broadband download limits. I suppose as now so many UK TV companies are following the BBC’s phenomenal lead off (BBCiplayer) with their own TV ‘catch-up’ download channels – ITVCatchp, 4oD, DemandFive to name a few of the UK legal download sources, there are going to be some people that will exceed whatever has been set as their limits.

To me that shows that there is still a very big need to get the UK broadband delivery infrastructure upgraded as soon as possible so that the ISP’s don’t have to impose limits. Will that happen? Here’s the latest suggestions.

As our money flows out to save the UK banking system, it seems that a number of the banks Chief Executives are destined for the job queue!

Well perhaps not, as all of them will be receiving various payments for their excellent stewardship of their part of our financial system.

Will they every face the wrath of the ordinary person in the street? I expect not and I suppose they will all pop up again in another City job as their friends and colleagues sort out how best to get their greedy hands on the public bail out cash.

So we see a return to UK Politics for Peter Mandelson. It’s amazing how much effrontery is used by politicians when organising ‘jobs for the boys’.

Again Mandelson, is at the receiving end of astonishing amounts of money, this time to come back to help Gordon Brown with his range of problems.

Not an elected MP? No worries, just make him a Lord – I thought the Labour Party wanted the end of the Lords – and he can waltz right in to a top job.

With the latest news that Blair did influence the F1 tobacco advertising  relief, is it any wonder that many people have no faith in politicians and in Labour in particular.

Had a few days in France for a well earned rest. I think that I’ve been going to  France for either business or holidays for over forty years and yes it has changed over that time, as has the UK, but somehow it seems to have still retained a slower pace of life compared to the UK.

We (my wife and I) decided to visit another of Frances’ cities that we had not been to before on our way to friends in the Rhone valley, this time stopping over at Auxerre.

What a beautiful city, the French seem to have been able to retain much of their many medieval city’s in their original form yet still seem able to cope with the modern day demands. Such as this automatic Pizza vending machine! Just like a bank ATM, but dishing out dough based products of another kind!

Of course with many French Cities and Towns, there is always a fantastic Cathedral/Church, far too many to describe or add  photographs of each that we found on our trip in this post. But Auxerre had three fantastic examples as did Moulins where we stayed on our way back up across central France.

One of the main things I wanted to do on this trip to France was to visit the new (relatively for me) Millau Bridge. Designed by Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster and built in a very unique way by sliding the new bridge out over the 150/250M high piers from both sides to meet in the middle! It has turned out to be an impressive sight that certainly lives up to the pictures I saw in the documentary about its construction. Many pictures have been taken of this bridge, but here is my panoramic effort of the bridge and the city below on a fairly dull/misty day.

With its many different regions, France still has a hold that will take me back there on many more trips to further enjoy the Scenery, Wine and Food.

I nearly forgot here’s some of the pictures of the churches I mentioned above.

We’ve all heard about Wikipedia and its vast collection of information. Here’s another similar site Wikileaks, though this time its about Whistle Blowers and Information Leaks.

There’s even a page covering leaks specifically focused on the UK. It’s a fascinating site that can probably keep you very busy as you trawl through the various leaks.

Of course, it’s also a place where you can place your own leaks if you have any.

The UK Government is looking for ideas from YOU about better ways of creating public Information.

What does that mean? Well it might mean finding out about crime statistics in the area in which you live or finding out whose getting what Farm Subsidy, it might be a bout being able to report some graffiti that needs cleaning up.

If you can come up with a new idea, you could be up for a prize of £20,000!

Here is the background info about the completion which closes at the end of  September. How many people have already entered? See some of their examples here.