Author: Mike

Another good month with no drop outs, but a bit of an overall slow down in transfer speed, I suspect that they may have been working in the exchange again or had some cable changes between my location and the exchange.

A bit of drop in the monthly averages to 4.41Mb download speed and 372Kb for upload speeds.

Also found some new information about ADSL from a revamped Kitz web site including some very interesting diagrams that explains the background to how Broadband/Internet is all connected together, fascinating.

So the final contest has begun for the USA elections. It still amazes me just how much religion has a say in the USA elections.

Whilst I would agree that the USA is a much more religious country than the UK, I wonder at the wisdom of the closeness of religion and politics.

Here’s an article (along with another of Times great demographic images – I wish I could find similar ones for the UK) from a recent Time magazine that I read about how the USA’s Catholics are up for grabs!

I wonder how long it will be before we see such targeted voter analysis here in the UK, that is if we have not already begun that process.

I was in London a couple of weeks ago and fell right into one of the well known take the Tube vs Walking traps. I was around the corner visiting someone near to Westbourne close and has to meet someone else at Queensway tube station.

Being a bit late I rushed down to Bayswater tube station and spent fifteen minutes on the tube to get to Queensway where I meet up with my contact.

So what I hear you say! It’s not what I said when I came out of  Queensway tube station  and remembered that the Bayswater tube station is just 250 meters up the road from Queensway tube station!

Suddenly I remembered an article I found on the web a few months ago about this and a number of other oddities about the tube.

Here’s a few more…

• Tube Map with Walk Lines
• The London Underground diagrams
• Tube map variations
• How do you say it?

With the latest cock-up over lost data, even the company that is at the forefront of the Government ID Card scheme can’t seem to employ the right sort of people to look after its own involvement in the project.

Surly this must be the final straw, if PA Consulting can’t keep content under guard, then who can we really trust any more?

Some more background info for my ISP figures.

Seems I forgot to post the June figures, another good month with only one glitch when for some reason the exchange went off-line!

But apart from that I saw a steady increase in the speed with averages being 4.29mb download speed and 366 kb upload speed.

July saw a steadying of the  download speed with near perfect close to 5MB with no drop outs at all.  Averages for July were 4.8 mb download, the best averages I have ever had and 377 kb upload speeds.

Plus this month BT reduced my price under a new monthly option 3 price, for me this is now very good value for money.

I saw report this morning that quotes average speeds across the UK, it seems that I may be at the top end of this – though my speed today is down to 4.1mb! Anyway, here is the link to the speed table.

In light of the recent water price rise announcements, I was looking at my water bill and wondered why it can’t be explained more easily, for example how many litres of water do I use in a period and what is the cost per litre of water.

My bill measures water delivered in Cubic Meters (M³). Who can visualise how much that is?  Litres are easier to grasp.

That got me thinking about what all the UK water companies charge, so I went over to the OFWAT site.

Our vision is for a water industry that delivers a world-class service, representing best value to customers now and in the future.

Now you would think that finding out what all the UK water companies charge their customers for water would be straight forward. Say using a link from OFWAT’s home page straight to a table with all the relevant information.

Maybe it’s supposed to be a secret! However, after two phone calls to OFWAT and two of OFWAT’s staff looking in their files, they managed to give me a link location on their web site to… an Excel spreadsheet!!

So I’ve downloaded that file, turned it into HTML (that’s another story) added a column that shows the cost per litre of delivered water.

I think this now gives a good idea of what the cost of water is for the UK companies using something that’s easy to understand – the Litre!

A word about the figures in the Volume columns…

The figure in the m³ column of 120.83p is £1 and 20.83pence. The figure of 0.121p  in the Litre column is .121 of a pence, quite small, but still significant if you use 1,000 litres, which would amount to £1.21, but you need to work out your own cost for your own water bill.

I’m going to update this table a bit more with some further info I’ve obtain in  a day or two.

Finally, as it’s not been published directly on the web in tabular form before that I could find, I suppose I can claim a first!!!

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I’ve been watching the Olympic opening ceremony on my PC TV card. What a fantastic display and story it told of Chinese history (lets leave out any politics for now).

I dearly hope that London is able to put on an equally impressive presentation when 2012 arrives that can match 2008 as well as the epic that Greece put on.

But suddenly I nearly fall of my seat when I see that a Sara Brightman is suddenly on the screen singing at the Chinese Olympics! What the f&^^R%$&*U is she doing there?

She may have a very good voice and she may be very well known in China, but what a massive insult it must be to all the very good Chinese female singers that China has that they cannot field one for their own Olympics.

Who did she *$% to get that gig?

I wonder what we (the UK) would say if the 2012 committee decide to have Britney Spears to sing at the 2012 opening ceremony! Opps! I hope I’ve not planted a bad idea!

On the whole a very good opening ceremony pageant, something the UK will have to work very hard at to follow. But please no Sara Brightman please in 2012!

That’s what I read, as the background to the latest example of government security ineptitude emerges! It seems that the Foreign and Commonwealth  Office (FCO) has no idea of the value of UK Passports on the black market – £1,700 each is what I read.

Even though the stolen passports are of the newer ‘chipped’ version, I bet that the forgers are going to have a field day with these. I wonder how long it will take for these to be used by various undesirables to enter into the EU, maybe some will be caught entering the UK, but as we all know the variation in the way that EU borders are controlled is not universal across all EU countries.

What was the FCO thinking? Transporting these ‘valuable’ ID documents in a non-security van using staff that thought more about their dietary and reading needs than in the security of their cargo. Next we’ll find out that in fact it was TNT that were the shippers!

Instead of spending the reported £20 billion on the new ID card system, the government needs to look inwards again and get a grip on data and document security. It is failing badly.

I see from today’s newspapers that Max is going to pursue more media companies for more compensation.

It really is a strange case, surely he cannot think that by bringing all these additional legal actions he will somehow redeem his character with the public or even with his colleagues in the FIA. I think by now, he must have to resign!

If this had been a case about a Bishop, Judge, Politician or Educationalist, I’m pretty sure they would have just crawled under the nearest rock to hide away

I’m not sure if I should despise him or praise him!

The RSPB has reported an increase of 40% in attacks on Birds of Prey last year. What is wrong with these people that attack and even poison these wonderful birds of Prey.

Over the past 20 years living in Berkshire, it has been a delight to see the gradual increase of pairs of Red Kites flying in the sky.

Granted there are many other birds of Prey, but Red Kites and Sparrow Hawk are just two that I see so often in this part of the UK.

There should be an increase in the penalties for attacking these bird and in severe cases that should include time in prison. There is no reason what so ever to attacked a defenseless bird.