Posts by AndrueC

I'm with Zen now. Haven't had a single connection issue since the second the service went live.

That's great and Zen is undoubtedly a better ISP. However unless you've moved from ADSL to FTTC (or vice versa) your physical connection won't have changed so the number of connection issues cannot either.

Zen broadband do offer alternative backhaul providers but all FTTC connections rely on openreach hardware in the cabinet and switching providers does not require any changes in the cabinet. It's just a routing table and/or RADIUS update. In fact your modem will likely remain synchronised throughout the switching process.

If you're still on ADSL it could be a switch to an LLUO's hardware though.

Except that Devon CC rejected BT from the phase II BDUK tenders.

"Back in June 2015 there had been plans for a second phase extension of the original roll-out with Openreach, but hopes of a deal soon faded after the local authorities were unable to agree a mutually acceptable level of coverage and time-scale. At the time CDS said that BT couldn’t commit what was needed or offer “any reassurances that the 95% [coverage] target could be reached” (here)."

openreach was not going to touch those areas with a ten-foot bargepole after that (even assuming they were ever going to do this particular village). Gigaclear and Airband have stepped into the breach. So it's Gigaclear and Airband that the villages need to be petitioning. And/or Devon CC because openreach has already been told that it's not wanted.

Re: 'image persistence' or 'burn-in'

Manual chokes did have one advantage. The first bit of travel only adjusted the idle speed so in slow moving traffic I found I could use the choke to give my right foot a rest.

But the day my Metro's cable failed and would no longer lock in position wasn't fun. I had to negotiate rush hour traffic and keep holding the choke out when I came to a stop. And as I remember it was to the right and below the steering wheel so I had to stay kind of hunched over.

Ah that Metro. It's other memorable moment was when I was caught in a traffic jam on the M6 in the outside lane on a hot summer's day. I watched in horror as the temperature gauge began to climb. Fearing the embarrassment of an expired car in lane 3 I turned the heater on full blast and opened the windows. Still the gauge climbed. As it approached the red line I closed my eyes..and there was a sudden whoooooosh from under the bonnet as the fan kicked in and the gauge dropped straight back down to normal.

Oh how I laughed. Hysterical relief I think :)

I worked for a company once that decided to hand out branded USB sticks and cleverly put our software on them. Unfortunately the marketing department never came to ask us how big our package was (ooh er missus) so when the - several hundred - USB sticks were delivered they were too small(*). Naturally the same order included small flyers that accompanied each stick telling the lucky recipient how to install our software from the stick.

(*)On the plus side it meant we didn't have to address the thorny issue of how we were going to get our software onto the sticks. Another simple matter that, again, the marketing department hadn't seen any need to consult us about.

..or even get in a flap over it.

Re: you said facial...

..no that would be a crap joke.

Re: I ditched BT for Vodafone

You may be right that they're bundling it in but not showing it but at that kind of saving, I don't care much :)

Yeah that's a pretty good deal. What are they like to work with? I use them for my personal mobile service and despise their customer support team with a passion.

Re: Silly Valley

Dayna?

Yeah, she was a highlight of the 3rd series. Kept it going for a bit. It was the fourth series where it all went a bit wrong. Some very weak stories there.

The entire series is now available to watch for free on YouTube (with a questionable funky introduction). The story lines are noticeably weak after Terminus. But for all that it stands the test of time reasonably well. Those of us that watched the original broadcasts (7:10pm Tuesday if I remember correctly) will always have a place for it in our affections :)

Actually I missed the first showing of the Andromeda battle. My parents had me going to confirmation class and I didn't feel it worth the hassle of complaining. Maybe that's why I'm an atheist these days :)

Re: The Apple Connection...

It has always baffled me as to why I can't have unlimited data on my mobile service.

It's a combination of factors:

* There is only so much data that can be carried over a given range of radio frequencies.

* There is a finite range of radio frequencies available to us.

* A lot of other things are using radio frequencies.

* Adjacent transmitters have to avoid each other's frequencies or Bad Things(TM) happen.

What this means is that hundreds (sometimes thousands) of users are all trying to talk to the same mast at the same time and the laws of physics mean there is not enough bandwidth for them. To minimise the problem the operators ration the bandwidth to encourage people not to 'hog the airwaves'. The smaller your allowance the less time you will spend downloading and the more time that leaves for other users.

This is what's known as contention and it can occur at various points of any network. However the problem with wireless communication is that we are up against the laws of physics. If a telephone exchange is congested another fibre can be lit. But the radio bandwidth we have is all we have.

Beam forming is a possible solution because it allows us to only transmit where it's needed. Thus even though you and I might be connecting to the same mast if we're far enough apart our signals don't interfere so there is no contention. It's almost as if we have our own masts.

Re: I don't think openreach cares enough to want to pre-empt faults.

From the replies I've had elsewhere it seems like for once I'm the one unfairly maligning openreach. They do still run nightly tests and their database does attempt to record line length information so they have a pretty good idea of the state of their local loop. That being the case it strengthens my view that the Ofcom figures are more believable than the Shapps' figures. Ofcom will at least get answers from BT and probably won't be lied to (well..not much) whereas it's unclear if Shapps would ever get anything beyond PR material.

So thanks those of you for correcting me. I did indeed learn something interesting.

Re: 960,000,000GB of data per day

Maybe they should go directly to Yottabyte ?

Good data there you have. Important insights it will bring.

Re: VS2017 Community Edition is a POS

I've not personally had any memory issues with 2015 since the second update. If you are seeing them then make sure your version of 2015 is up to date because it absolutely fixes some memory leaks.

Now don't get me wrong. I use it day in and day out and it frequently pisses me off. One day last week I had to swap between two branches several times in one hour so had to sit through the teeth grinding hell of it trying to figure out first how to unload shit then how to reload shit. Sometimes I have to restart VS to get it to correctly rebuild a solution. WTF is that about? Is this the 20th century?

And don't even get me started on why I have to keep the WPF designer hidden. Fair enough there's a lot to be said for working purely in XAML but it shouldn't kill VS just to render my bloody form. And with it hidden after a few hours it will still enter a go slow phase where it keeps pausing for several seconds when I'm typing. Eventually I get so sick of it I have to restart it..and that means another unload/load cycle.

Someone complained that there wasn't a 64 bit version so I provided a link to a blog where a VS developer claimed that it's a deliberate choice because they don't think it's worth the bother. Just for the record at no point have I ever expressed an opinion on the validity of that statement. I merely thought it would be a useful discussion point.

Re: I assume Thinkbroadband are using the "can pay extra for fibre" definition of ("has access to"?

This could mean "most Brits who have a choice between ASDL and FTTC are too tight-arsed to pay the extra £5-£10 per month for FTTC"

And it would be correct. There are plenty of people who can't see any point paying extra for FTTC. And even amongst those who have opted to upgrade most choose the lowest package. The same thing happens with cable. The top tier package has the fewest subscribers. Last I heard even in cable areas BT-based ISPs have the most subscribers. I've not seen figures since 2015 but it says a lot when crappy wet-string copper has more users than coaxial cable where both are available.

The truth is that people who want the fastest possible connection are in the minority. Most people want the cheapest possible connection as long as it's adequate and for most residential properties anything above 30Mb/s is adequate. At the moment.

Re: Love the honestly listed 'features'

I've occasionally thought that abusive versions of error messages might help lighten the programming mood:

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object you stupid idiot".

"The name 'ibble' does not exist in the current context you pillock."

"Cannot implicitly convert type 'string' to an 'int' - have you gone mad?"

"'Fred' is inaccessible due to its protection level. Mind your own business."

"'IZero' does not contain a definition for 'ibble'. Why don't you try reading the documentation or learn to type?"

On seconds thoughts, maybe not :)

And for a real world analogy let's consider cars. I'll pick the Honda Jazz.

'Advertised speed' - up to 118mph (yes, really)

'Connection speed' - up to 70mph (I never break the speed limit)

'Throughput' - 42mph (my daily commute is part rural, part urban).

But of course 'throughput' can be measured in many ways so:

a)No higher than prevailing speed limits along chosen route.

b)42mph daily commute.

c)60mph - driving from home to Dad's house (over 180 miles, mostly motorway and dual carriageway).

d)30mph if M40 J11 is closed during commute (screws up Banbury traffic flow even more than normal).

If you wanted (gawd knows why) to advertise a Honda Jazz based on speed what figure do you choose? And at what point does a Honda Jazz driver have the right to complain to Honda about their car being slow?

Now this analogy actually falls at the first hurdle because a car is a 'good' and an internet connection is a 'service' so different consumer laws apply (the latter doesn't have to be 'fit for the purpose') but I still think it's an interesting thought experiment.

Re: But when no one's watching...

The simulation outputs are for the observers, and they can be comfortably oblivious of 99%+ of anything not observed

Quite. All good programmers realise that the users only know what they tell them.

Re: Really?

Damn' right. My Dad (mid 80s) used to run a community centre having helped build it (his idea of 'retirement' :) ). He's still very active in it and is forever sending emails. His circle of 'oldies' know how to text. Most of them have a smart phone (though not usually the latest model and in my Dad and his partner's case 'smart' is stretching things a bit).

I even remember that he watched iPlayer before I did. In fact I think it was him pointed out to me that a show was available online when I hadn't even thought about that at the time. Sadly he they went on to annoy me by asking how he could connect his laptop to the TV which turned out to be a pain in the arse.

'The elderly' don't spend hour after hour online but then that's just not how their lives work - and they aer probably all the better for it. They prefer to be out and about chatting face to face and enjoying the fresh air. The only real difference I see is that those over 70 seem to see the internet as an occasionally useful tool. Those under 40 see it as an essential part of life. At 50 I feel half way between the two. I don't live my life online but equally it's more than just a tool to use when I have to.