Please God no; teach them anything you like - thinking rationally, the uses and misuses of data, what data is and what it's not - but leave the...
@Jack,
> Works really well for thieves....
Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally irrelevant, even it were...
Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport.
I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...
Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...
Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly?
I thought perhaps it was something to do with...
Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...
"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...
Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...
And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick...
Kubuntu is late.
Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions.
cf.:...
@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...
Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...
Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...
"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system."
Point truly missed. Both use a...
whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article.
I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...
If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...
I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....
How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...
@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...
The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel.
The first bug that I found was applying the median...
Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...
Talkback
Does that mean the others will follow suit?
They'll have to won't they? I know what I will do if faced with the choice between AOL and 2MBps at £29.99 and 24 MBps for £24.00...no contest.....!
I for one welcome BeThere & their 24Mbit service to the UK market. Many of my friends from Stockholm have been making me green with envy at having this level of price/performance service for years. It is high time some new operators shook up the UK market; too many white elephants have left us artificially behind the technology curve.
I think Easynet are an excellent company; but everyone needs competition. BeThere are the same people who delivered the Stockholm 24Mbit service, so for my money actually have a stronger track-record than Easynet in walking the walk rather than talking the talk. Spin-doctors have a way of taking their downsides and turning into what sounds like upsides :)
Having said that, we use Easynet as corporate ISP, and are happy with them there. At home, I am hoping to migrate off the damn Bulldog 'service' to BeThere as soon as the LLU migration plans have been worked out. I really don't want to have to install a BT phone line again just to get off Bulldog!!
Talking of white elephants, that is an artificial barrier to consumers choice of provider. With the technology evolving so fast in VoIP these days I really don't see much point in paying BT or anyone else for POTS service. Sure; I'll pay for the copper-line (as an embedded part of the DSL cost), but don't make me pay a monthly 'service-fee' for something I don't want! As part of LLU, I would welcome regulatory pressure to let consumers make such choices. In practise today this isn't possible - to my knowledge you can't get ADSL from anyone without having a current POTS line. I believe the french (for once) are ahead of us in that respect.
I do understand why the POTS number is used - it is the easiest way for normal punters to identify the line going to their residence. However, I'm sure BT must have another way of identifying the actual copper-line pair going to our residences (probably something like exchange-number combined with line-pair number); surely this identifier could be exposed to the world at large? If BT were to be split up like British Gas were; the phone-line equivalent of Transco would be providing this service.
Closing remark: my mother, who lives in the sticks in Denmark, is about to have fiber optic cable pulled past her front-door. She lives in a small community of 150-200 people; 10km from nearest town. Small-town councils have obviously identified knowledge-workers as worth investing to retain as tax income sources.
I signed up for BeThere back in September when they were having their promotion. I was informed on their website that my exchange would only be ready in November, but upon further correspondence was told that it might be ready by mid-October, so I was quite happy to wait a few weeks.
However, according to them, BT screwed up, and I my area will probably only get service by the end of November, just as they officially promised. I'm frustrated at not having internet for 2 months, but I'm not angry as I fully aware of all the facts. Anyways, I have a few friends who are using Be at the moment, with mixed results. Apparently you'll only get a fast connection if you live close to their local exchange, so its best to give them a ring to find out where their exchanges are located.
Anyways, what they don't tell you on the signup form is that if you enter a member's email address as a referrer, you get the first month free. So if you don't know any members yet, you're welcome to use my email address: boon.koh***@***imperial.ac.uk (remove the ***'s)
i am signed up to bethere broadband and they have finally sorted out their issues....i have had a good conection for 2 weeks now.so if anyone is thinking of signing up to be at their website bethere.co.uk or over the phone use me as a referee to get yourselves 1 month free connection.my mail address is teddy***seyoum***@msn.com..(remove asterix)...
I signed up with Be and it only took them a little over a week to send me out the modem. However, it hadn't been properly configured and I had to keep going out to an internet cafe to download templates which then were to be uploaded to the modem by ftp. I took over a week trying to do this with the help of the support team. Finally one of them realised that it probably was because of my firewall that the templates weren't uploading. Once I turned that off the templates uploaded and I got connected. They won't call you back, insisting that you call them, and even on local rate I spent over £10 in calls till it was resolved. I do think that checking if it was the firewall that was preventing the upload of the templates should have been one of the first things that was tried. Then even though in their terms and conditions they say that if you are without service for 5 days or more they will credit your account for those 5 days, when I asked, because I had given the e-mail of a customer as referrer and got my first month for free, this was used as an excuse not to give me the credit. Never mind getting credited for what I had spent on phonecall. Anyway, I get 17 meg DL and 1.3meg UL and considering that I'm just about 1Km from the exchange I think that this is about the best most people could expect. It's still a good download speed for the price. Should any of you want to go for it here's my e-mail to use as referrer when signing up. <davey***.***baird***@googlemail.com>(just leave out the asterisks).
hi you can see the distance to speed ratio at internode,
it shows that if your within 2km of the exchange then you should get good speed, 80-90% of 24mb your never gonna get more than that unless your living in the exchange. ;o]
Ive just signed up for be broadband, so far so good 18mb down and 1.3 up and im 1.4 km away, pretty good for £24 a month and no annual tie in. Please feel free to use my email danielsussex@gmail.com as a referrer if your signing up as we both get a free months broadband. nice
https://www.bethere.co.uk/
I have now been using be broadband for 3 months and during this period there has been an awful lot of downtime. The time the service has been down has ranged from 2hours to 23hrs.
To compound this the technical service help line is appaling with an average time to wait to speak to somebody of about 45 minutes. At this point we are normally told there is a problem with the card in the exchange and it will be rebooted. We have also been told that the system will be upgraded but the problems still persist.
After having spent 3hours on hold to be in the last 24hrs i have now decided to cancel my contract with them. Unfortunatly i have now found out that they will not provide a migration code and am therefore going to be without a broadband service for about 7 days.
I am sure the technology will be great once the bugs are ironed out but at the moment i am not convinced. I am therefore returning back to BT who were reliable.
I would advise anyone who plans to join Be to think very carefully about their choice and not be blinded by the 24mbps promise. (We didnt actually notice a huge improvement over 2mbps)
I cant see the dates on these threads here...today is April 13th, anyone out there with broadband can tell me if they had problems with getting the service up and running? Im not concerned about it once im connected, its the broken promoises of waiting and things going wrong as experienced with bulldog. Do you think it worth it if Im 1.8km from the exchange?
Hi people, just signed up to 24mb Bethere broadband, wow is all i can say. I am recieving 18mb dowload and 1.3 upload, alot faster than my 1mb with Pipex for £23.99, they have lost my custom. Please use my email: nazooom@hotmail.com as a referrel to recieve a free months subscription for you and me.
I am with BE Broadband (www.bethere.co.uk). Fast, reliable, no bandwidth cap, splendid connection 24/7 and about 14Meg of download speeds overall(as I am a bit far from the exchange). Support doesn't cost me a penny because they have a local 0121 number for support and if you're receiving free national call credit on your phone package like meself it's absolutely free. I would rate them over 90% on all departments so far.
And if you decide to sign up with them, why not why not save £54 or more? See below...
1) Sign up through Quidco to receive £24 cashback
2) Use promotional code EXCHANGE100 before the 26th of May06 and pay only £20 a month for life and receive free connection.
You can still use STUFF, POWERBE, VIVAREV OR VIVABE to receive a full month free should this not work.
3) Use my email address 24MEG@HUSH.COM as the referrer to receive £10 in cash by Personal Cheque, Bank transfer, Nochex or Moneybookers
hi all, just an update on how Be are doing.
problems with provision have improved greatly and those having trouble with connection and speed have largely been resolved quickly by Be and with help from the very active forum.
Be are due to change their customer services from India for Bulgaria soon, which ive been told is a great improvent from the poor service and terrible line quality offered in India.
The latest codes for free activation and reduced monthly fee are as follows,
NEWBEMANCHESTER
EXCHANGE100
STUDENT-REVOLUTION
FASTERTODAY
ALCONE
MONKEY
WICKED
VIVABE
FAST
some of the codes are time limited and offer different things but it all works out the same in the end. Just keep tring untill one works.
and of course use my email address during the sign- up process and we both recieve an extra free months broadband, nice. danielsussex@gmail.com
If you email me, i will give you the latest and best promo code.
Lots of members getting only 5meg and close to exchange crap service BEWARE of BETHERE