Before we review this week a few words on next week: There may not be that many articles written next week as I have to travel to London and Bristol. In addition to that I’m having various home improvements installed, which will no doubt serve to disrupt my office for a while.

Unlike some bloggers I don’t find that I am able to sit down on a Sunday and churn out a week’s worth of articles in an afternoon. I normally progressively write throughout the week; and at times what you see is hot off the keyboard.

Having forewarned you of an impending week of low-output; let’s now review the posts published since the last newsletter of 17th April:

Picture is not of actual build.

On the weekend of 18th and 19th April I embarked upon a project that had been in the pipeline a while, and which I’d brought forward due to circumstances: I built a new computer incorporating an AMD Phenom x 3 2.3GHz CPU and installed Windows 7 beta on it. I decided that you might be interested in looking in on this, so I wrote about it on Monday, including a few pics I took during the build. There are more pics of this on my Flickr pages too: -

Impressions of Win 7 Beta on a New Box

Having had the misfortune to have senselessly taken out 2 extended warranties some years in the past on computers I bought before I began building my own, I thought it would be helpful to do a piece on my view of what amounts to a money-grabbing sales-gimmick: -

Extended Warranties: Are They Worth the Money?

Recently I’ve written a 2-part series about testing a computer power supply. The first part was on simply testing the output to make sure that something is coming out. The second part was on testing the PSU under load; and I told you how to build a simple circuit to load the unit without having to spend a small fortune on proper professional equipment.

Maybe I should have made this article the third part; but I didn’t: -

What Do I Do If My Power Supply’s Voltage Drops Under Load?

- Using some simple elementary calculus we discover exactly what’s going on in that situation, and how to remedy it.

Staying with the theme of supplying DC current; I showed you the very basics of principles of how a power supply turns the high AC mains voltage that it receives into the low-voltage DC current used to run electronic equipment, including your computer: -

How to Change Alternating Current into Direct Current and Supply DC Electronic Circuitry With Power.

- And that’s yer lot: Well, 4 technical articles is, to my mind, quite enough for a week on one site. I’m sure you have other blogs that you read in addition to this one, and I see no point in causing an information overload. – Added to which I do this on my tod and don’t have the time to write reams and reams of text in the form of gazillions of articles at this point in time.

Keep your eyes peeled though; as although content may be a bit scarce this coming week, that doesn’t mean that there’ll be nothing new: Watch this space; or better still, join the mailing list and have notifications of new content delivered to your inbox. – There’s a subscription form or two in the sidebar on the left on every page. – There’s also a bonus for joining too. Take a look for yourself: -

Mailing List Promotion. Click here for details.

Enjoy the weekend. Blessed Be.

Pictured: The UK internet in its uphill battle for improvement.

This particular feather in the cap marries technology and politics: It’s no great discovery and it’s hardly rocket-science: In fact it’s glaringly obvious. However, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The British internet infrastructure is a fiasco. This time I have the backing of Ofcom; the UK telecoms regulator:-

A survey carried out for Ofcom indicated that the average UK customer typically gets only around 45% of the broadband speed advertised by their ISP that they’re paying for: Rip-off Britain in action. What do the ISP’s intend to do about it? As usual as little as possible: As long as the cash is coming in they’ll do their utmost to provide the minimum which they can get away with: i.e. Faster than dialup … Because they can’t possibly get away with anything less.

Researchers did 10 million tests in 1,500 homes in the UK over a period of 30 days. They found, not only that broadband speeds in rural areas were up to 15% less than those in urban environments, but also that the typical internet speed was an average of 3.6 Mb/s (Megabits per second.), despite the fact that the usual broadband speed currently advertised in the UK is 8Mb/s or more.

BT advertise 8Mb/s over their copper-wire telephone network, and Virgin Media advertise 20Mb/s over their fibre-optic network.

I’m a BT customer who lives within a few minutes walk of the BT exchange. A few years ago I was told that my internet speed was being increased from 2Mb/s to 8Mb/s for no extra charge. The 2Mb/s speed barely reached 1.5 Mb/s normally; and proportionally speaking the 8Mb/s service hardly ever gets above 6Mb/s. It’s normally at around 3 Mb/s. In fact, over the Christmas period last year (2008) it dropped to just below 1Mb/s.

That’s rip-off Britain for you: ‘Take all your wealth from you and give you shit in return.

It’s quite abysmal also that Virgin Media’s fibre-optic service; advertised at 20Mb/s, rarely gets up to a paltry 10Mb/s in most areas.

Having said that; when the faster service was first switched on; I clocked speeds of up to 7.3 Mb/s. This was short-lived, though. In addition to that my existing modem provided by BT was unable to cope with the faster internet and kept disconnecting until it eventually no longer worked at all. BT’s partially-English speaking Indian call-centre weren’t having any of it, and the person I had the displeasure of talking with gave me such grief that I ended up testing every bit of cable from my BT socket as well as the socket itself, through to my modem, then the patch lead from my modem to the computer. I then replaced the ADSL filter and still no internet. The Indian fascist on the other end of the phone told me that my computer was faulty and that I’d have to return it to the manufacturer. I informed him that I was the manufacturer, and that the line and modem didn’t work on any of my other computers either. I also informed him that he was a scare-mongering ignorant tele-thug who had no place in a call centre. I demanded to speak to his supervisor, who, it turned out, couldn’t understand a word of English. Eventually, after I managed to get to speak to someone who was a little more fluent, they agreed to send me a modem that was capable of handling the increased speed.

As I said in the past; BT is a rather reliable ISP; but when things do go wrong they’re hell to deal with.

As is the case with myself, millions of other internet customers are getting less than half the broadband speed they are paying for, restricting their ability to download music, film and games. It’s the stupid British people’s fault just as much as the ISP’s: They just grin and bear it; not daring to complain. I’ve complained about it before; but just got myself branded as a trouble-maker by BT and was ignored.

Here’s something: the download speed meter which is part of the BT Online Help software which they give you with their service, along with free Norton Security Centre (An outdated version.) and other useless bloatware, all of which I wouldn’t use even if they offered to pay me to use it, has a few lines of unchanging text underneath it, which says something to the effect of: -

"This speed is judged to be acceptable by BT for your connection, bearing in mind the time of day and the distance of your property from the BT exchange. Although BT do advertise a certain download speed, we are unable to maintain this at all times. Factors that can affect the speed of your connection include the distance of your computer from the telephone socket, the distance of your place of residence from the exchange, as well as the number of users currently using our services."

…And my age, the position of the sun relative to the galactic core, in addition to the effect of Jupiter’s gravitational pull on the Earth no doubt.

This message appears no matter what the download speed: I’d still get exactly the same message if it was 1 byte a year. It’s just another cop-out from BT.

There is something to do with the speeds pertaining to the time of day though: In the tests that were run; speeds were lowest between 5pm and 6pm on Sundays, when internet usage is at its peak. – Can’t you just hear the infrastructure creaking under the weight put upon it? Don’t you smell the stench of melting insulation as the copper wires heat up?!

…And still the politicians are talking about doing something about it in a future tense. UK businesses such as BT are holding back on doing anything about it until they can be sure that they’ll make instant vast profits.

David Cameron, leader of the Opposition, says "Elect the Tories at the next election and we’ll do something about it."

Meanwhile Gordon Brown is still thinking about doing something about it. Perhaps he’ll say: -

"No; elect the Labour Party at the next election and we’ll do even more about it."

…And then have a round of meetings to discuss it for another four years if he gets elected?

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat culture, media and sport spokesman, said:

“This is yet more evidence that broadband providers are ripping off British consumers.”

– Quite obviously not much gets past him!

Jeremy Hunt, – which rhymes with "front", and "runt", – the Shadow Culture Secretary, is expected to voice his criticism today. In a speech to be delivered at Microsoft’s London offices, he will say:-

“The UK has some of the slowest broadband speeds in the developed world, coming 21st out of 30 countries in a survey by the US-based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.” 

- To which Microsoft will probably quite rightly reply "If you can’t maintain your own country that you’re supposed to be looking after; we’re not going to do it for you. Sod off!"

The song lyrics "A little less conversation – A little more action" spring to mind.

One thing is that if we keep talking about it long enough we’ll eventually no doubt be welcomed warmly into the third-world; where we can learn to communicate by means of bongo-drums instead.

"That’s almost up to 30 kilobytes a second so far!"

With Gnomedex going full-pelt in Seattle in the USA I am baffled as to the seeming total lack of interest in, even knowledge of, the Web 2.0 phenomenon in the UK. All this antiquated “stiff upper lip” crap and resistance to change, coupled with general lethargy and a lack of motivation, is a hindrance to progress.

From what I’ve heard the general perception is that the UK is ahead of the USA technologically to a certain extent; in which case why oh why can I get no public wireless signal anywhere along the line on the train travelling from Warminster in Wiltshire to London? Why is it that, when I go to a place called Wilton which used to be the capital of Wessex, I have to stand at a particular point on a particular road to get a GSM 900 signal and GSM 1800 signals are virtually non-existent.

Why the heck do we have 2 different frequencies here? (In USA they all use GSM 1900.) As for Wifi; (In Wilton, as well as in most places outside the city centres – Even in London itself, apart from the City Centre.) unless I am within close proximity of any one of a small number of dwellings, and the owners of those individual properties happen to have their BT Home Hub routers switched on at the time, there is no Wifi signal. As for anywhere rural; forget it: Usually no Wifi at all, and perhaps a fluctuating poor-quality GSM900 3G signal that’s as good as useless for anything other than making an interrupted phone-call on the Vodafone network. Even if I owned a house any distance out of town I’d probably not even be able to use anything other than dial-up or satellite to connect to the internet: That’s not technologically advanced; that’s third-world!

The sad fact is that the UK is or seems to be a third-world country as far as the internet is concerned; and the future of the UK will be affected by that inasmuch as it could well become a third-world country bearing in mind that the future world-economy will depend upon internet communication and usage. Despite boastings from government officials and companies such as Virgin Mobile that they have expanded the internet service and are continually developing it, the truth is that only populated areas close to a telephone exchange, and some other sub-urban areas as far as cable-internet is concerned, are able to get anything on a wired service greater than 5.6K dial-up.

This situation is slowly improving; but at a rate which is far too slow. Honestly in most rural areas I’ve been to I am unable to get any Wifi or mobile telephone signal whatsoever.

As a geek I’m quite ashamed in a way to be British – But the Wifi and 3G signals, or lack thereof, aren’t half of the problem: The attitude, bad attitude, or complacency/lethargy of a lot of the British public, but moreso the “ruling classes”, is a major factor.

Gnomedex in its original format could never happen in the UK. Why? There is nothing even remotely like Gnomedex in the UK outside of private corporate functions that are for internal company personnel only currently, and attitudes are so different here. There seems to be very few in the way of dedicated internet entrepreneurs in the UK. Why? Because the Government does its utmost to make it impossible to be such. Also there appears to be an overall work-ethic-dependency-culture amongst the population. I blame Government yet again: The bullshit that the UK Govt., in association with what the UK media spew forth, is unbelievable and it soaks everybody in crap: The negative deprecating content of it encourages a controlled tiered society; with the masters – the bosses – controlling their highly-paid understudies, who in turn regulate the multi-tiered workforce consisting of managers, Sub-Managers, Assistant Managers, Supervisors, and General Dogsbodies: Like ‘The Victorian age meets Communism’ under a negatively-oriented right-wing political system.

The UK Government provides you with the incentive to stay within this aged, stuffy, culture, by taxing anyone who decides to go it alone extremely heavily: As a “drone” or “worker” subservient to the work-ethic-based culture they tax a person at between 10 and 15%, I think it is, of their gross income. Attempt to break free from the dominant suppression, however, and that person can be taxed anywhere up to 50%. (Yes; half of their gross income!)

For the Owner/Director of a large successful company whose gross (personal) income can be anything up to £1 million pounds a year, it presents no problem whatsoever. For anyone trying to break free from the work-ethic culture, however, it means that essentially they have no option but to stay working at least at a part-time job until their income from self-employment matches up to double their gross earnings from their j-o-b in order for them to be able to maintain the lifestyle that they are used to. – Is it any wonder that people in the UK lack the motivation to go outside of the job-dependency-culture as it would mean leaving their comfort-zone: Something which the average British worker can’t even imagine doing for that very reason: It’s a vicious circle.

So there seemingly can never be true freedom within the political control-society of the UK; and this is one aspect where the USA is truly “The Land of the Free”. There is the other side of the coin though - Health: The British NHS is funded by involuntary contributions from this dominated-work-ethic-culture, and without it there’d be no National Health Service, no free medicine, no healthcare for all. People’s health would be dependant on their ability to pay for healthcare and for medical insurance. There’d also be no state-funded retirement income for the elderly, (SERPS – the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme.) and those too old or too ill to work would have to rely on a private pension scheme or a welfare-handout system such as that currently running in the USA.

It all boils down to the old adage “There is no such thing as a free lunch” : What you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts. The British system has its faults; many of them – But so does the US system. The difference is that the US system is founded upon the concept of personal freedom; whereas the British system is founded upon subservience to State and to the class-system. Both work in their own way; but the US system works best as far as the concept of Web 2.0, co-working, and internet-dependency is concerned.

So what is the solution if there is one? The best I can come up with at present under the UK system is, as I mentioned previously, to stay in a job of some kind under the work-ethic-based system whilst at the same time building up an online enterprise. That solution is more difficult than it might at first sound. It requires twice the work for half the profit initially: One has to hold down a j-o-b and at the same time build an internet business. The j-o-b will pay peanuts (Enough to save you from bankruptcy – exactly as all such employment does.); around the same amount of peanuts as far as consistency is concerned; but nevertheless peanuts. The internet business will slowly take off and eventually equal the income from the j-o-b. (2 x peanuts.) When it does so perhaps it’s time to do the j-o-b part-time so that you can concentrate more on the internet business. Your income may stay static while the workload increases perhaps; but stick at it, as when the income from the internet business doubles you’re making as much as you were previously in your j-o-b. – Go for the gamble at this point: Say goodbye to the job.

You’ve made it: You’re working for yourself and your income no longer depends upon working 9 to 5, 5 days a week – Rather it depends upon your own efforts and actions: You’re now your own boss and your destiny is in your hands. Remember, though, you’re paying up to 50% of your income to the UK Government still.

You now have a choice: Stay in the UK and benefit from “free” healthcare + receive the pittance the state will pay you from SERPS when you reach retirement age AND continue earning from your internet business while paying up to 50% of that to the UK Govt. OR Move to America and become a US Citizen, and continue to control your own destiny.

Freedom at Last!?

What would I do? I’m working on it. When I’ve researched this properly I’ll come up with a proper, stage-by-stage, formula for making a success of Web 2.0 starting in the UK (Maybe even completely in the UK.): It’s a tough one, so I won’t have all the answers tomorrow, next week, maybe not even this year. When I do I’ll publish the final article as a paid-for work:  First as a prospective untested how-to; then, when I’ve done it myself, as a “How I Did It” article, again for a price. Watch this space – or somewhere near it – for more, at some point.

I want to be doing what they’re doing at Gnomedex. I want to make money online; and use some of that wealth to change the world for the better in whatever way I can in tandem with the people from the USA at Gnomedex. I’m going to do it too; but starting from the UK as I will inevitably have to do, I first have to work out a strategy as I stated in the last paragraph; and I’m going to do that too. Then I’m going to share it as I said.

If you have any ideas, insights, opinions, expertise, comments, whatever; then post them below. If you wish to dialogue or have any spontaneous input then I welcome it.

I had a couple of appointments in England’s capital city today.

The weather forecast which I heard yesterday sounded fairly OK: Rain was forecast to hit Southern England by 1PM and would probably get as far east as London by about 4PM, by which time I’d be on the London Underground and wouldn’t get any chance of getting wet until I got home – By which time the rain would have cleared. Perfect.

Having planned the day thus; I expected some heat with rising humidity before the rain, so a thin top and a light cardi were in order, and a cotton skirt was a good idea. It was rather grey and cool when I left home; but that was early in the morning and I expected it to warm up somewhat – Especially in London which of late has always been a degree or two warmer.

I got talking to a girl on the train- Hi if you’re reading this (I won’t mention any name as I didn’t ask for permission to do so anyway.) The PO Box number on the card I gave you is wrong BTW because it’s an old card; I’ve just realised that, but all the other information is current. The correct PO Box number is 2191 if I’m going on a Christmas list . I hope you enjoyed the day more than I did. All the best.

(At this point I think I’ll have a small-print rant regarding a totally unrelated issue to do with completely different people:-

Since that PO Box is Kustom Komputa’s box I’ll just state here that I notice that a few tards from the newsgroups have caused Google to be filled with a load of negative crap in relation to Kustom Komputa by making derogatory comments online whilst using the name “Kustom Komputa”: Listen tards; Kustom Komputa is a small personal enterprise knocking out the odd unique computer to a number of customers. All I get from it is pocket money if I’m lucky, as well as the joy of creating a new computer and making another customer happy. It’s not Microsoft or Dell; and don’t think that you can make yourself look big or better by openly criticising it. OK so some Lintards are better web designers than me: Good for them. End of issue. Also nobody has phoned Kustom Komputa regarding the matter of “AquireCredentialsHandle on Vista”, as stated in some of the Linux forums. (I have absolutely no idea why the author stated that they did.)

To cut a long story short I emerged at Waterloo Station to the same dank and dismal overcast weather as I’d left at home. As the day continued it seemed to start raining every time I emerged into the open and stop every time I went indoors. London seemed to lack that feeling of life in the fast lane today: In fact it seemed dead and uninteresting. I’m not sure if it has something to do with me getting old(er) but the “zing” has gone out of a lot of things and appeared in others which I never used to have much interest in at all.

Eventually I did a bit of window shopping, since I was quite wet anyway, and had to drag myself away by the ear from several items of clothing and jewellery that almost had me reaching for my purse, and probably would have had me reaching for a wardrobe extension and a larger overdraft facility had I purchased them.

So all-in-all the day could have been worse, but it was rather non-descript and it won’t be going down in my personal history record as anything worth going on about. So why am I going on about it here? I’m not. End of story.

—

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