Bloody Virgin

I was prompted to check out Virgin Media's broadband offering by their response to a BT announcement of a new 40Mb service (not yet available). They said more or less why are BT wasting their time with this, when we can do 100Mb?

I have a long history with Virgin and its predecessor companies ( Videotron/C&W/NTL ) not being able to deliver what they market.

I signed up for analog cable TV fairly early on and was reasonably happy.

I then moved and carried on with the service. I made enquiries about upgrading to digital cable and getting cable broadband. No dice. Because I lived in a flat it wasn't available.

I moved again, and still couldn't get digital TV or broadband so I switched to Sky for TV and BT Homehighway for internet and more or less gave up on Virgin.

I have since moved again an stayed with Sky and ADSL broadband over a BT line (although not from BT).

After the latest nonsense from Virin's marketing department, I went to their site and put in my postcode. Guess what? I'm not in a fibre optic area so the best they can offer me is broadband over a phone line. No better than I currently have.

All the places I have mentioned above are in Lambeth, which is central(ish) London and hardly a rural idyll. If Virgin can't provide their flagship services here, where can they?

Reading List: Jingo by Terry Pratchett

A fairly ordinary Diskworld novel. Funny, but no real depth and kind of falls apart at the end.

Rating: ***

New Online Scottish newspaper - Caledonian Mercury.

A new online-only Scottish newspaper has launched. At first reading it seems to be light on hard news, with most of the content being lightweight features or opinion pieces.

I shall keep an eye on it and hope it does well.

Reading List: First Among Sequels by Jasper Ford.

A belated fifth Thursday Next book. Not as good as the main quartet, or perhaps I just missed the jokes. A couple of laugh out load moments - a character called Isambard Kingdom Bunuel; and a good joke about a serial killer.

Rating: ***