I've had Tiscali broadband since broadband first became available in my area. As I live on the edge of the city and connect to the city centre exchange I'd always been limited to 512kb. I only got that after BT's Milton Keynes trials enabled up to 512kb over longer distances.

Then, back in January I got a letter from Tiscali saying that BT were doing some work at my exchange and I would soon be able to upgrade my broadband speed to 2mb. I waited for the day of the work to arrive, checked my broadband upgrade options at Tiscali and hey presto! 2mb was now available as an upgrade option, and at the same price I was paying for my 512kb connection. I upgraded without hesitation, and then the problems began.

The first issue was the activation of the speed upgrade... The order confirmation quoted "up to 4 working days" - 9 working days and 3 phone calls to Tiscali support later and it was finally active. Sort of. Since upgrading to 2mb back in January my broadband connection has been all over the place - slow download speeds (some slower than back when I had 512k!), constant disconnects from MSN Messenger, 3 or sometimes 4 attempts required to get to web sites... When it worked it was fantastic, but when it played up it was crap... and it played up pretty much every evening and weekend. I had a look around on the Tiscali support forums and it appears I wasn't alone... lots of people seemed to be experiencing the same issues in the same timeframes... peak time (6pm - 11pm) for a lot of people seemed to cause a lot of connection issues.

A couple of weeks ago I got fed up of the crap connection and decided to look at moving provider. I eventually settled for Sky Broadband as I have Sky tv anyway, and their "up to 8mb" package was going to cost me a fiver - a third of what I was paying for Tiscali. I'd read some dodgy reviews of Sky, but as the service I was getting from Tiscali wasn't exactly first rate I decided to take the plunge and go for it anyway... if crap service was the order of the day, then at least I'd be paying less for it...

I phoned Tiscali last Monday for my MAC code and the bloke I spoke to was actually very helpful for once - where was he when I was waiting for my speed upgrade! - and I had my MAC code emailed to me within an hour of the phone call. I ordered my Sky broadband and then waited. My free wireless router (a Sky branded Netgear DG834GT) arrived on Tuesday, along with my welcome letter that said my broadband would be switched and activated today. And it is...

I now have 3mb broadband (the most my line will support, "distance from the exchange" strikes again) for £5 a month... that's a third faster for a third of the price, and so far it's working beautifully...

I just hope it continues this way.

Labels: broadband, tech

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Today was the first day of British Summer Time... the clocks went forward an hour last night and as usual it completely messed with Miranda's head. I changed all the kitchen clocks (central heating, oven, microwave) before I went to bed last night, and pretty much all the other clocks / devices with clocks on update automatically.

When Mi woke up this morning, the alarm clock showed 7:30, and the Bug also showed 7:30. Not realising that these both have radio time signal stuff (technical term there!) she assumed that it was 7:30 GMT, so therefore 8:30BST and got up not realising it was really 7:30BST (6:30GMT!). Her supposition was confirmed - so she thought - when she got downstairs and the Bug in the living room and all the kitchen clocks also said 7:30...

It was only when I surfaced at around 9:30(BST!) that she realised she'd got up quite so stupidly early for a sunday.

After that initially bad start, the day did improve... We went into Nottingham for a bit of shopping and then met up with Marc, Tasha and Rob and went for a rather delicious sunday lunch at the Lakeside restaurant near Nottingham. The food was gorgeous, and all in all it was a very pleasant way to spend a sunny sunday afternoon.

In fact we've only just got back from Sunday Lunch (albeit via a stop at Marc's house on the way home for a beer / cup of tea) and I despite the fact that the clock change always screws me up for a few days (Miranda for a few weeks usually!) I now know why I like it so much...

7:30pm and it's still bright and sunny out there. Read Full Post...

The BBC weather forecast was for sunny intervals and light winds, so when I got up this morning to dark clouds I was a little worried. Breakfast eaten, I set off to Middleton Top where I was meeting Tim for a variation on the High Peak Trail. As I headed north into Derbyshire the sky brightened up and the sun came out.

Unfortunately the wind picked up too - I could feel some really strong gusts catching the bike on the back of the car as I came onto the A6 towards Cromford.

Since I was last there in November, a new link route has been opened as part of National Cycle Route 54, which links the Pennine Bridleway / High Peak trail with the Tissington Trail on the other side of the valley - I've added this to my bike routes page as the green route.

The new link drops down into the valley just south of Gotham along a gravel track has a steep left turn at the end... it took some stopping on the gravel after bombing down the track to take the turn. After joining Minninglow Lane the route crosses Parwich Lane and starts to climb. The ascent was a hard one - steep, loose stone surface and into the wind, but once up and on the level the ride got easier despite the strong winds. After joining Cardlemere Lane and crossing the A515 onto Main Street towards Biggin the route joins the Tissington trail just before the railway bridge. From there we followed the Tissington Trail north through Hartington and up to Parsley Hay.
After a stop at Parsley Hay for a rest and a bit of food we set off south again, this time down the left hand High Peak trail and with the wind behind us for the first time all day. The trail was a lot drier that last time I was here in November and much easier going, so we were soon heading back past Gotham and Minninglow Hill where we branched off earlier to head across to the Tissington Trail.

Hopton Incline is always hard work on the way north - over half a mile of 1 in 14 incline, usually riding into the wind. On the way back south with the wind behind us it was much more fun...

Gravity and some hard pedalling saw me reach a top speed of just under 31 miles per hour - the fastest I've recorded so far while out and about on the bike.

Distance	23.9 miles
Time	2 hours 20 minutes
Max Speed	30.8mph
Average Speed	10.3mph

Labels: biking

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The brakes on my bike have been getting a bit grindy on recent rides, despite fairly regular cleaning, so last Sunday I decided to take them off an check them.

Despite being nowhere near the indicated "wear line" they had what looked like flecks of metal coming through the compound which is what seemed to be grinding. They were also filthy and the grooves that were also clogged up completely with crud.

One trip to the shops and £13 later I had two new sets of brake blocks ready to fit, but no daylight left to fit them.

As I am off up to the High Peak trail again with Tim tomorrow and I wanted the new brakes fitted before I went I got up early this morning and went to collect my bike on the way to work. I fitted the new brake blocks at lunchtime and got some slightly odd looks off some of my work colleagues as I'd set up my bike stand in the car park and had an array of tools and bits of bike strewn around me while I did the work. Twenty minutes and some very dirty hands later and bike bike now stops beautifully.

Bring on those steep bits on the High Peak tomorrow...

Labels: biking

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Happy St Davids Day to everybody from Wales. Read Full Post...