Coleman Web - Anthony Coleman’s Personal Website

Well it’s certainly got colder around here over the last week. I was in Manchester during the week and it was cold but now I’m spending the weekend in Southport it seems worse. The frost never seems to have lifted this since I arrived on Thursday. Somebody told me it was -5 oC yesterday but I don’t think it was that cold myself. Almost wishing for the summer heatwave I experienced in summer in Toronto (although then I was wishing for coldness like this). I’m moaning about the weather. How British of me!

The last few weeks have been busy and I’ve spent nowhere near the normal hours I spend on the internet normally. Probably a good thing as I’m good at spending to much time on the net. I’ve started a part-time job to help my finances which are stretched to the limit as per normal. I’m working 15 hours a week which at first threw me off my studies but I think I’m getting the hang of juggling the hours around. I’d prefer not to work during term time but I’ve got no choice. The job is working out great and the people are friendly and the hours pass quickly (most of the time).

I’ve managed to miss Serenity at the cinema which is annoying. I still see reviews in the newspapers but none of the local cinemas seem to be showing it. I saw the new Wallace and Gromit film which was very good and I’d recommend it to everybody. I’ll be going to see the new Harry Potter film as soon as I work out when I can fit it into my day. I might wait a few weeks until term ends at uni as I’m sure it will be out for a while.

I’ve finished the latest Harry Potter book about four or five weeks ago. I started reading it quite a while ago and could not get into it. Then one day I picked it up and read the bulk of the book in about 6 hours flat out. I was actually a little upset at the end of the book regarding the death of one of the characters. I’ve still not made my mind up about whether I liked the book or not though. Sounds strange as overall the book fits into the overall story quite well, I’m just not sure that the book on it’s own stands well. Now even I’m confused about what I’m thinking about this!

Anthony

I thought it might be a good idea to link to the results of Speed tests that I do on my ISP PlusNet. I am subscribed to their Pay As You Go 2MB service on a BT network contention of 20:1 (and on their end 30:1!). The service has seemed a little off at times recently, and I’ve not been happy with some of their actions over the previous months. PlusNet used to get my 100% recommendation but I’d had to say that has fallen to about 80% for now.

ADSLguide Speed Test results for today.

To see all other speed test results click here.

Anthony

More Open Source news! OpenOffice.org 2 has (finally!) been released. This is the free to use office suite includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator and a database program.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 is an open, feature-rich multi-platform office productivity suite. The user interface and the functionality is very similar to other products in the market like Microsoft Office or Lotus SmartSuite, but in contrast to these commercial products OpenOffice.org is absolutely free.

(From the OpenOffice.org website.)

If you decide to download, use the OpenOffice.org BitTorrent service so as to help with distribution.

ADSLguide is a website that I regally use. It features the latest news in the UK broadband market, has reviews of related consumer hardware and a UK internet service provider comparison service which lets you quickly compare various offerings. The site also has a popular message board service, with forums for a wide range of related subjects (some not related to UK ADSL) and individual forums for a wide range of UK ISPs.

Also on the website is a ‘Beginners Guide’ to ADSL, ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section and a very useful ‘Speed Test’ service.

Anthony