Having now had 22Mbps internet access (well 19.6Mbps) we’ve come to a conclusion. The internet is too slow. Not our connection, but the internet (well the upstream of most web servers anyway).

There are currently 4 people in the flat. All using the internet, we can download stuff together and browse the web without it feeling noticeably slow… it just doesnt feel any faster than it did with 8Mbps…

Download accelerators let us download at about 2MB per second…. which is good An entire CD in 5 mins… a far cry from when I had a 28.8 Modem….

It’s probably wrong to think of a computer as anything other than a pile of circuits, however they always seem to develop “personalities” and idiosyncrasies unique to the machine. This post is mainly for my own reference to remember the date to be honest, but this is the last ever post from my 15″ 1.5GHz PowerBook known as hyperion… which is now off to do better things with it’s new owner.

And i’ll be confined to a 12″ display for the next couple of weeks….

As many of you will know I’m redeveloping the JustMac site, and building into it a rather complex customer portal. I’m interested in using the so-called AJAX technologies to make this feel more application-like to end users rather than just a series of web pages… So I search for a decent framework using PHP / JS and I find about 20!.

So i’m now looking at the prototype library on script.aculo.us, Sajax AJAX toolkit (which looks very promising) and Rico which achieves some REALLY nice effects with just JavaScript and XHTML…

Oh, and MOST of the site validates now so me happy

Finally, my ADSL service is restored. The little light stopped blinking at about mid-day today at long last. I now have an internet connection that’s faster than 56Kbps and doesnt tie up the phone line for hours on end. Yay!

Now I might get around to everything else I’m working on…

(why does “Can I condemn this man to slavery, Pretend I do not feel his agony” come to mind immediately when typing this post?)

I recieved this as an image by bluetooth to “hyperion” from someone in the St. Andrews Student Union, I dont know who - but it proves there’s fun to be had with bluetooth… much better than the people that send carbie.sis to every series 60 phone in sight!

“Most websites are designed to be looked at on computer screens, and when printed either don’t fit properly on the page, are cluttered with adverts, navigation or just otherwise don’t look right.

We realise that the information on our site may at times be helpful on paper, especially when comparing prices or specifications. That’s why every page on that JustMac website is designed to print perfectly, without you having to do anything.”

An extract from the Guide to the new JustMac site which I have recently rebuilt.

Many people print webpages, this can be seen by the “printable version” links that appear everywhere these days on everything from tutorials and news sites to individual’s blogs. There is clearly a demand for nicely formatted printed pages.

There’s a far easier way of doing this however. Find out at Pretty In Print - CSS Styles for Printing

Shameless self promotion again, the new JustMac website is now live at http://www.justmac.co.uk/ with all sorts of nice bells and whistles. You might also like to have a look at what’s in the works for future versions of the site.

Again, anyone who has any useful feedback or comments PLEASE eMail me

Well it would appear I have Glandular Fever. How Fun. No doubt I have 200 other things wrong with me that I don’t know about as well… but this is the most obvious one right now. Particularly since someone told me today I sound like Barry White!

Line Sync, that little green DSL light, there’s so many names for it but I wish it would stop flashing. For more than 2 months now I’ve had no ADSL service… Normally I like UK Online particularly since they offer an incredible 22Mpbs broadband. However, this is beyond a joke.

They do appear to be being quite helpful about trying to fix it … but not actually fixing it … I’m imagining it’s more BT’s fault than Easynet’s to be honest. There will no doubt be a full write-up of my problems experiences at some time in the near future….

That’s the message that Strathclyde Police are trying to promote just now… with bumper stickers, livery on cars, and all over the Citrac signs around Glasgow’s M8. Rather ironic recently that I saw a police car on Great Western Road (or Inverquhomery Rd if you want to believe Google Maps and Multimap!) speeding (45mph ish) along at 3am when it finds itself behind a slower vehicle at lights in the outside lane. After following it for some time, gradually getting faster, the police car then apparently considered undertaking it (illegal), but as it approached the second set of lights it swerved back behind this vehicle, stuck on some blue beacons and pulled it to the side of the road, presumably for speeding.

The irony being that the only reason that this car was speeding (as far as I can tell) was that the police car was “2 CLOSE” and the driver felt intimidated by it’s presence. As it’s only choice was to speed up or move into a bus lane to allow the (police) car to pass, it speeded up.

Reminds me of June when I was told “a technique that is commonly used by the police” is to sit close to a vehicle in front to “force it out the way”. When I raised the concern that the stopping distance would surely be inadequate and that if I were to drive like that and the police observed such behaviour they responded with “of course we wouldnt expect you to drive like that. You’re not a police officer” and “our drivers are professionally trained and drive performance cars”.

Oh, and the police car on Great Western Rd was missing a brake light… so it wasn’t road legal either…