Posts by jack

Fasthosts' market leadership claims banned

Market Leaders for sure but what type of market?

Yes, Fasthosts are market leaders. We are a voluntary human rights organisation who found that by their terms and conditions the service we needed they were not willing to provide. We stopped payment for renewal and notified them, admittedly the day after renewal date that we wanted to cancel the service. We were told that they wanted the full annual renewal before they could close the service we didn't want and they did not want to provide. We asked for a cancellation fee. We were told there is no cancellation fee. We asked why we had not received a renewal notice, they said it was their terms and conditions that no renewal notice is issued and the contract "renews automatically" therefore we have to pay the full annual fee. We took the terms and conditions to an expert who said "A brilliant piece of commercial writing but if you are a customer, well let's say you don't have a leg to stand on." So, yes they are market leaders without a shadow of a doubt and now, a voluntary human rights organisations is having to pay a full annual price to cancel a service we can't use, don't want and they can't supply. Don't get me started on "Unlimited bandwidth" how an organisation can plan its future when unlimited bandwidth turns out to be ' just as much as we think is reasonable but we wont tell you exactly when we will pull the plug' I haven't a clue. Our experience with them, dreadful.

Romanian police arrest Pentagon hack suspect

The Masters of the Universe

So the US defence system is penetrated by a hacker in Romania.... when are we actually going to get to the real issue here which is exactly how piss poor the US defence system is on every conceivable level. MackKnnon is about to be extradited to a kangaroo court by an asre licking government and get a possible life in prison simply for breaching National Security. If it can be breached then surely it is not Nationally Secure? Leave MacKinnon alone or give him a medal or at least give the guy in Romania a job showing America what its IT problem is.

MacKinnon needs us now

Look, MacKinnon is about to be shafted bad. Surely it is not beyond the community to organise a mass jamming mail campaign to the White House, 10 Downing Street and all press outlets saying just one message "Leave MacKinnon alone he has suffered enough." They will get the point!

Norway mobilizes against IE 6

Sick to the back teeth and beyond

I sat with a client the other day, she had here sparkly Windows system with IE and I had my laptop with Open Suse and Firefox. I decided that we needed to build our own in house help menu using screen shots. Oh dear. rather than bore you all here is what she said after half an hour: "But this doesn't make sense, you can do all these things so much faster, very easily and everything works for you. I can't seem to do any of these things, it is all so difficult and awkward and I can't get the answers I want. But what really makes me mad is that I paid for all this software and you didn't pay for any of yours. That can't be right!" This was followed by, "And yes,um, yes, I think I understand what you said about our logo not looking so good, it's not that our site is bad it's the browser isn't it....no...that can't be right!" And of course it is not right, it never was right and it never will be right: IE = Intelligence Exhausted

Fasthosts to offshore support staff

FastHosts Complete Waste of Space

In my opinion, after having paid for hosting for one year with FastHosts, their customer service and the actual service, has proven itself over months to be a complete waste of space. That's why we are not renewing our hosting agreement withtem and have made other provisions. The one thing I can say for the shoddy performance we received from FastHosts was that, in my opinion, it appears to be "industry standard". As a small time business we find we get treated with utter contempt by most providers, such as the "promise to reply within 24 hours" which is interpreted as an automated mail with a ticket number. The whole industry needs to get its act together and as for fastHosts interface, in my opinion, woeful. Bye Bye FastHosts, the further away the better, in my opinion (they are very litigious after all)

and and of course......

Up to 38 posts are set to go at Fasthosts' Gloucester HQ as a result. In a statement to The Register today, the firm said the "regrettable" job losses "will further improve customer experience" and enable it "to better serve its hundreds of thousands of customers".

Note the ratio of service they consider ok. Let's assume they only actually have 100,000 clients rather than the "hundreds of thousands of customers" they claim, then that makes a customer service rep for every 2,631 clients. If they are telling the truth about multiples of hundred thousands then it is a wonder anyone got a reply let alone action.

This is my second comment as our web master just sent me the link to the article with the comment "wade in" and i am wading. By good it feels good to get this off my chest!

Unix world braces for geekgasm

Absolutely Brilliant

Apprentice pseudo-Geek as a result of bad influence in our team. Really loved all this and can't believe I spent ten minutes laughing my tits off at the fireworks and the idea that someone would find this exciting. Keep going guys in all the gloom you make the world a sweeter place.

Brown ignores scientists and pushes pot reclassification

Hit them where it hurts

My friend and confirmed pot smoker (who holds down a job Mon to Fri 9 to 5 which is a major responsibility in one of the country's finest institutions) has decided not to drink alcohol as a result of this move by G. Brown. This may actually be the consumer weapon of choice in combating this outrageous political nonsense.

If all the pot smokers stopped buying alcohol the tax implications to the treasury would be devastating. Don't worry, you would only have to do it for one week just to show your own fiscal muscle.

We can all talk on blogs etc., but my friend's idea seems to me to be a bloody good one. "If I can't smoke my spliff then I am not buying their dangerous and tax heavy alcohol"

Nepal fixes Boeing 757 with goat sacrifice

BA BA BA

No, management accountability is the way forward for BA, let's sacrifice a few of their executivesif the queues don't go down and the whole board when they not only loose luggage but fail to get it to you and just auction it off instead!!!

China slaps ban on reincarnation

Taxing concept

The origins of re-incarnation in Tibetan budhism lies in a regal decree that land left without an heir after the death of the legitimate owner became crown property. This meant that the monastaries, nominally owned by the senior monk in residence, would be lost to the crown on his death. naturally the position, 'he's gone but he is coming back' neatly avoids such a consequence. Thus is could be seen that re-incarnation in Tibetan Budhism is an early form of tax avoidance planning.

Jack Adams

London

'Microsoft' to compensate 419 victims

'Microsoft' to compensate 419 victims

Yes, the standard of English is always a giveaway but then I thought....."what were those figures on literacy in the United States, remind me, and if you are looking for a scam victim profile of a high gullibility index, low literacy score and insatiable greed where would you think the best market place lies."