The great broadband con

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you can't have failed to see every second advert on tv and in the press encouraging you to join the super super information highway.

Promises of up to 24 meg speeds (most people are probably currently either on 1 or 2 meg) simply by joining up. Bulldog, Be, Wanadoo, even BT.

Well, there's a catch.

Apparently, put simply, the various BT exchanges aren't ready for the onslaught. And so there's a huge backlog of orders from people who signed up with various ISPs and are still waiting to be upgraded. To get greater than 8 meg, it seems Tiscali needs to install some equipment in your exchange. If it hasn't been done - or won't be done due to low demand - you're out of luck. No speeds greater than 8 meg.

And if you are one of the lucky ones who is on an exchange that BT have done something to so it can cope with up to 8 meg (and it is "up to" - 8 meg is not guaranteed) you just have to wait for them to then connect you to it, it seems. Join the queue.

To make matters worse, their bulk upgrade tool has been found to have a bug in it so ISPs can't use it at the moment.

So the promise of super fast speeds is just another example of the marketing guys over hyping something and getting carried away before the technical and customer service guys are certain that it can be delivered. Be warned.

I signed up for Plusnet recently. But it wasn't just for the promise of 8 meg at some point, which I have checked with BT that I can get on my line. It was because Pipex were ripping me off - charging me £33.99 for 2 meg broadband. Now I pay only £21.99 and it will remain the same when I eventually get 8 meg.

Pipex were a decent ISP, no complaints. But their price was ridiculous and they seemed to favour new rather than existing customers. So far Plus Net seem ok - reliable connections and a very good set of forums on their web site.

And one day I'll get 8 meg........ one day.

Why I live in London

I might have said this before but one of the main reasons I live in London is for the range of opportunities available on the work front. Jobs that I doubt there would be many, if any, of back home.

This article says it all, really.

And then this link is another example of why I love living in London. An opportunity to work with people in places I doubt I'd ever get to from Australia. And do a job I would probably never get a chance to do if I lived there at the moment.

One day I will definitely go back, that's for certain. So I intend to make the most of the job opportunities that come my way while I am living here - I suspect that once I go back, my work will be very different.

Probably working for my dad , wherever Smeaton Grange is :-)

A great place to work

Last week, I had the pleasure of arranging a forum for around 50 work colleagues. Now, in many places, the options for a venue would probably include the local hall, a breakout room at the office and maybe some place no more than an hour's bus or train ride away.

But in London, the choices are amazing. Last time we held this forum, we were able to hire Shakespeare's Globe. A really nice venue, and it included a back stage tour.

This time, our options included Tate Modern, Vinopolis (a wine museum), the Energy Clinic and the one we chose, HMS Belfast.

HMS Belfast turned out to be a good choice. The day we held the forum happened to be the hottest day in London so far this year. Around 26 degrees. And we had a lovely venue right on the Thames, sunshine on the decks and veterans to conduct guided tours for us.

There are probably not that many cities in the world that offer such venue choices for conferences and meetings. One more great thing about London.