In less than 24 hours i've managed to type 2903 words, do a loads of screen shots and even go though and check the document ive been working on.

For me thats great, in other assignments where ive had to do 3000 words i must have spent well over a month researching, struggling to understand what i'm supposed to be doing, deleting stuff ive done or simply just re wording half of it and generally feel like ive wasted a lot of time.

Wouldnt it be nice if it was possible to work at that speed all the time? that would mean the majority of essays ive had this year would be out the way in less than a week leaving months to work on my final year peoject.

Maybe im just a slow worker? the majority of the time i just find it hard to work at a decent speed.

Then again I a look at guides and tutorials I have done for Digiex like the How to hack a 250gb sata drive to work in the 360 guide and realise i typed 1400+ words and did loads of screenshots and made the post presentable in less than an hour. Going at that rate I could produce an essay worth 50% of a module in 2 hours... but yet it takes me weeks!

I don't really know the point of the blog post, buy hey i've not done one for quite a while now so figured I would post what I was randomly thinking.

So i have not done a blog post for a long time! I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to share a photo of the Digiex Mug and Tshirt i got this Christmas from Curlysteve and Nimrod.

Nothing like a good cup of tea in the Digiex mug when i wake up on a morning

As ive not blogged for a long while here we go!

After 6 years of been with o2 pay and go I’m finally making the switch to a different network, overall I have no complaints with o2. They were the first network to offer 300 free txt messages and 1mb of internet to pay and go customers just for topping up £10 a month. Back then all other networks gave you nothing extra for topping up.

Since then other network have introduced various other freebies such as free weekend calls if you spend £5 or £10 during the week, none which have really beat o2’s offer for what I use the phone for. The only real complaint I’ve ever had with o2 is 1mb of free internet is nothing, I thaught over the year they might increase it but after 6 years nothing has changed, after you go over that 1mb your charged at £3 per mb! You can buy an unlimited internet bolt on for £7.50 a month, however that has a “fair use” policy of less than 250mb... so its not really unlimited and everything such as MSN, Skype and other mobile programs are blocked anyway.

Three’s new pay and go offer seems really decent, I still get the same 300 free txts, well actually 600 as it gets doubled if you top-up online which ive always done anyway, plus you get unlimited free calls to anyone one the same network as you as long with free MSN Messenger, Skype and 150mb of internet use.

Your free stuff also lasts for 90 days compared to the 30 days with o2.

Anyway I’ve got my PAC code from o2 which is needed to port my existing mobile number, given this to three and my mobile number will be moved across this Tuesday.

With pay and go deals like that I sometimes wonder why people bother with contracts.

I actually found this by clicking on a Digiex advert

Three, a mobile phone network in the UK have some pretty nice deals for pay and go customers.

Every time you top up £10 you will get 300 free txts (600 if you do it online!) 150mb of internet usage and free use of Windows Live Messenger and Skype. If that’s not good enough they also say your txt and internet usage allowance will reset as soon as you top up and not in 30 days time.

In on o2 pay and go at the moment and spend £10 a month with that i get 300 free txts and 1mb (yes 1mb) of internet usage after I use that 1mb I’m charged £3 per mb. I also can’t use Windows Live or Skype with o2 even if I wanted to as its blocked!

I’m really thinking about switching to three, as ill get double the texts and would actually be able to use the internet / windows live on my phone when im not in an area with Wifi.





Just thought I would post this up anyway as it puts most pay and go tariffs in the UK to shame.

Also a little rant at o2: I’ve been with o2 since the start of 2003 (they were the best back then) but they really are in the dark ages when it comes to internet usage, with them unlimited internet access @ £7.50 a month has a fair usage policy of 250mb, not really unlimited is it?

If you pay for the £7.50 internet deal everything like Msn, Skype and so on is still blocked anyway!

Link to get 2x Three simcards (totally free)

You also get £10 free credit for transferring your existing number to three.

As some of you might have read Europe has had versions of Windows since XP that have features removed such as Windows Media Player because the EU consider it a violation of European antitrust law.

Microsoft originally wanted to call the version of XP Windows XP: Reduced Media Edition however it ended up been called Windows XP N Edition, the same with Vista we have Vista Home Premium and Business “N” Editions which basically just have Media Player stripped out.

Until now it’s not really bothered me as the normal editions of Windows the rest of the world get have always been on sale over here and no one has really bothered with the “N” versions of Windows anyway.

However if you read the CNET article published yesterday http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10...?tag=mncol;txt it appears we are only going to get reduced versions of Windows, either with Media Player and Internet Explorer ripped out or just Internet Explorer ripped out.

I’m sure some people will be quite happy about this, however I think shipping an OS without a web browser in this day and age is just stupid, say you didn’t have Google Chrome / IE or Firefox saved away some where you have a bit of a problem... although I’m sure you could easily obtain a web browser your average computer user most likely thinks the web browser is the internet and wouldn’t have a clue how to go about getting online.

The thing that concerns me is what component in Windows is going to be the next problem

Windows Defender
Windows Media Centre
Windows Firewall
Remote Desktop

You could argue all of the above shouldn’t be included with Windows for the same reasons Media Player and IE have got removed. A lot of alternatives to the above list exist.

Although it appears Microsoft made its own decision to avoid been forced to bundle other browsers with windows, what are the EU going to have...