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The Horror Of British Telecom
MBCook writes "'Someone, raised amidst the elegant lattice of custom and tradition that serves as the foundation of English society, came up with a very elegant, very British, solution to broadband policy here.
And it absolutely, positively sucks.' So starts an article by Mark Hachman over at ExtremeTech chronicling his odyssey to get broadband in his new flat."
Would you like some red tape with that?
What's that, you need a glass of water? Not without getting for 867-334-B. You get that from the Post Office, but they're only open during office hours. So you'll have to take time off work to go there.
Actually, this started as a piss take, but mentioning the post office just got me riled. I shipped a laptop in January. Parcelfarce (equivalent of USPS parcels service) dropped a fridge or something on it, as it turned up in Ireland utterly mashed (it was in the original apple box, and wrapped in bubblewrap, then in another box.
I filed a claim with them on *checks receipt* January 12th. 3 days ago they called me (first I'd heard from them, 4 months is pretty swift in this country), to tell me that they couldn't pay up because it is an item which is made of or contains glass. I politely explained that the display was made from a polycarbonate composite, and was, in fact, pretty much the only undamaged part of the machine regardless. Trisha, or Trini, or Crystal, or whateverthefuck they call those callcenter peons then politely explained I'd have to enter the disputed claims process. Which has an expected waiting time of... wait for it wait for it.... 200 (two hundred) business days!
This country is so arse about tit it makes me sick. I'm £1500 out of pocket pretty much indefinitely due to the incompetence of some cretinous handler who saw 'fragile' and read it as 'place fridge here', and nobody gives a shit.
Being born and bred british, however having lived around the world (Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Paris, Chicago, New York, Auckland), I can happily say I detest this country. I hate it with a venegance. I spit on the anglo-saxon pig dogs.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why I'm still here. Perhaps because I do enjoy sipping pimms on a riverbank, eating strawberries, wearing a silly hat, and lounging in the sunshine with scantily clad english flowers.
The cons are beginning to heavily outweigh the pros however. Particularly now that we have Labour (a farcical excuse for a government) in power again.
I might secede. Who's with me?
How is it that you people in the UK actually put up with all of the junk I hear about from your government?
- Huge taxation.
- Mandatory, expensive and mediocre health care.
- Cameras everywhere.
- A sensationalistic press that makes Fox look bi-partisan.
- Out of control, bureaucratic utilities (like the article states).
- Television licenses along with warrant-less searches of homes suspected of running an unlicensed television.
- Speed traps everywhere, set to excessively low limits and with giant fines.
- Cameras monitoring every meaningful inch of public space.
Call me crazy but I am a very socially liberal/libertarian US citizen and it shocks me what people in the UK put up with. Sure, you could defend every one of the things I noted above as being beneficial to society but my god, your citizenry sure does take it up the bum as far as personal liberty goes.
No I can't find it.
So fuck if T1 is 5 times the price of cable. If you can afford colocated servers (plural) for personal use, then you can either afford a T1 or you can buy a tape drive.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
FFS.
My original question was: what would you be doing that required > 30Gb a month.
So of course I have no idea what you are doing!! Otherwise I wouldn't ask!!
Un-fucking-believable.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
Me: What would an ordinary person, even a geek, need more than 30Gb a month for
You: To backup large quantities of data from my colo servers
Me: But why would an ordinary person, even a geek, need to do that? And if you're not an ordinary person then you can probably afford something else.
You: I just do, I'm not telling you why, and you're a moron.
Where did you answer my question? I actually couldn't give a fuck what the answer is, but I do want you to admit you didn't answer the question, because you are hiding your oddball requirements. As it is my guess is you run a business, and your pbp.net url bears that out.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.