Philip Nicosia

Well I am pleased to say that I have finally left TalkTalk Broadband and I definitely won’t be going back to them anytime soon. I could have got my broadband for free with them but I’d rather pay for something and get a good service that I can rely on.

Talking to TalkTalk support has been a waste of time and money and the people I have got to speak to either don’t know what they are doing, don’t understand their own systems or simply don’t care. Even yesterday when I called them to say my broadband wasn’t working they couldn’t tell me whether or not I was still connected to them  and suggested I report it as a fault.

It turns out I had been disconnected and BT hadn’t emailed PlusNet to tell them my migration had gone through. Entering my new login details to my router got me connected straight away.

The first thing I noticed is the speed. Although I have still to get an increase of my connection from 1Mb to 8Mb the whole internet just seems to have come back to life. Surfing the internet is so much faster with PlusNet even at these low speeds and I can’t wait to see the further improvements when I’m on 8Mb.

I chose PlusNet over others as I noticed they had topped the customer satisfaction charts at uSwitch with 92% and they didn’t tie you into any long term contracts. Who wants to be stuck into 18 month contract with anyone?

Any company who is also prepared to do a no cost 30 day trial have to be confident of their own services too and that was the point that finally clinched the deal. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

If you’re fed up with your broadband provider then check out PlusNet for yourself. They do up to 8Mb connections from only £9.99 a month. Although there are free deals around, the saying “You get what you pay for” springs to mind.

Just when you thought ringtones couldn’t get any more ridiculous than the pesky Crazy Frog, enter the silent ringtones.

A silent ringtone has been invented that produces a sound outside of the hearing range of most adults. Kids can now have a silent ringtone on their mobiles that they can use at school to alert them of a call or text message without the teachers hearing it.

Silent ringtones also know as ultrasonic ringtones or the Mosquito ringtone are constructed of sounds above a certain frequency usually 16kHz but go as high as 18kHz. The idea being that kids should choose the highest frequency they can hear as they are less likely to be detected by adults.

The other option for them was to have their phones on vibrate but when your phone vibrates it makes a noise that everyone can hear.

Can you hear it? Try it here.

Now I can’t hear the silent ringtone, I guess I’m too old and whilst I don’t agree with kids having mobile phones in classrooms the silent ringtone could go a long way to solving the noise pollution of other annoying ringtones that they may have on their phones instead.

So I for one am all for silent ringtones so all you kids out there, go get one now!

Rabbits are the 3rd most popular pet in the UK but unfortunately every year 33,000 Rabbits are handed over to rescue centres and many more are re-homed privately. The sale of rabbits in pet shops make it too easy for people to buy them without giving too much thought to what having a rabbit entails and their care.

Too many rabbits are often housed in inadequate accommodation and are forgotten about by children who have lost interest in them and their parents no longer want to care for them either.

We decided to adopt two rabbits and contacted the local RSPCA which we found through Rabbit Rehome, a site setup with the goal of finding homes for unwanted rabbits.

What I particularly liked about the RSPCA is their commitment to the rabbits in finding suitable homes where they can be sure the rabbits will be cared for and making sure that potential new owners fully understand the responsibility which goes with offering a new home to a pet. They even do home visits to discuss everything you need to know and to make sure the rabbits have suitable accommodation.

Yesterday I’m pleased to say we brought two rabbits home and they are settling in nicely to their new environment.

Phoenix (pictured below) and Georgia were both left abandoned in boxes in a park.

Despite their ordeal they seem really very happy now and are so friendly especially at feeding time and it makes you wonder why anyone could give them up.

If you are ever thinking about getting a pet rabbit I would urge you not to buy one from a Pet Shop but first contact your local RSPCA and enquire about adoption.

So you’ve created your first podcast and now you want to start promoting it. First you go a podcast directory and the first thing they ask you for is the link to your podcast feed.

Now for a lot of webmasters especially newbie’s and non-technical types the first that springs to mind is “What is a podcast feed?”.

A podcast feed is basically an rss xml file which describes your podcast, any episodes you may have and the location of the files.

In order to simplify the process I have launched a free podcast feed generator on my site Podcastblaster.com. Once you setup an account you only need to fill in the simple forms and the feed will be generated for you. When you add new episodes you can come back to the site and enter the details and re-generate your feed.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the road works contractors gave as much thought to the publics safety as they do there own?

It’s bad enough when they pack up for night and leave the signs up when there aren’t any road works being carried (The boy that cried wolf?) but when you are working on a busy main road with a 60mph speed limit in a dip wouldn’t it make sense to put signs up before the dip in the road?

Imagine you are driving down the road at 60mph and you go over the brow of a hill only to find a queue of traffic stopped at the temporary traffic lights 50m in front you? Well that happened to me yesterday and although I was able to stop in time I sat in the car for what felt like an eternity waiting for the traffic to move before someone came haring up over the hill behind me and crashed into the back of my car.

Now I know the contractors have probably put the signs out exactly how they are supposed to which is fine if you are on a straight road with clear line of sight but don’t you think a little bit of common sense should be used and give people at least a chance to slow down a bit knowing there could be a problem in front of them on a piece of road they cannot see?