Marc’s Musings and Random Rants

This is the first D'n'B album I've bought since Roni Size's rather disappointing Return to V but I wouldn't classify Pendulum: Hold Your Colour (Breakbeat Kaos, 2005) in the same league – nor genre… the Scottish trio manage to fuse together big beat, breaks and even trance into fourteen tracks of madness.

The rather philosophical opening track gives the impression that the following 79 minutes are going to be something special – and they don't disappoint. Fasten Your Seatbelt, featuring the Freestylers, opens with what sounds like a Clockwork Orange sample before kicking into what I can only describe as – bear with me here – a mid-1990s Fatboy Slim sound, with a 21st century production. The only downer comes at the start of the title track, but this soon builds up with Rob's vocals that add the (often missing from D'n'B albums) extra layer to his masterfully produced track.

Overall, (I remember being told never to conclude with that word… hey, ho) this much-anticipated album ticks all of the boxes for me, even if by the end you wish that maybe Rob should have delegated the vocals more. If you are just getting into D'n'B then I would say that this is a very accessible album, but don't expect all in this genre to match up to this quality! Time to download to the Zen…

It is encouraging to hear that Bulldog will be increasing the number of customer service centres in response to the pressure from the ISPA after a surge in complaints. Whether the staff training will be up-to-scratch considering this rushed solution is another matter. When I was first having issues with them I asked an advisor why I was on hold for over thirty minutes and he assured me that a significant number of new staff were being trained that weekend and that when I called back during the week, wait time would be no longer than ten minutes… how wrong he was.

Anyway, I got a nice box from them yesterday. Unfortunately it didn't contain the Wireless router they should have sent, but a bog standard modem instead (and a 'why not refer us to a friend flyer': oh, how I laughed). I'm even sure how it got here anyway as half of the address was wrong. Never mind, I'm sure flea-bay will find a use for it…

Part of the reason why Bulldog are trying to sort themselves out maybe because they can see BT and French-owned Wanadoo, amongst others, catching up on the DSL speeds and prices. This week, both companies advised that their entry packages will be (capped) 2Mbps lines and that most existing customers will be upgraded. Additionally, new ADSL2+ LLU outfit Be (warning: pink website) announced that their 24Mbps service will cost less than £30 per month (probably excluding the phone line) – a couple of quid more than my old 1Mbps line! Maybe that's why they skimped on their own Privacy Policy!

Bye bye Longhorn, hello Vista. Some time in 2006 apparently, no doubt with fewer features than originally anticipated, but at least it will have lots of lovely RSS support.

Microsoft also put together a video for yesterday's name launch. They have far too much time (oh, and money) on their hands.

After reading about other people's problems with Bulldog Broadband, I'd thought I'd let you know about the issues I've been having.

For those who don't know, Bulldog (a Cable and Wireless company) recently launched an 8Mbps broadband service to the majority of its LLU exchanges. I was planning on signing up to this deal having found out that the local Bromley exchange was supporting this (currently revolutionary) DSL speed.

Anyway, the story goes that I was going to wait for a decent introductory offer to come up when the line speed was offered at (just?) 4Mbps and signed up to a special deal that happened to be going on in the local shopping centre. It meant that I could get the service at a reduced rate for six months, pay just £1 for connection and get a free wireless router. The only problem was that the sales rep, being a third party agent on commission, didn't process my order correctly and the fun began.

The main issue customers have been having is the difficulty to get through to support. Phone the sales line and you'll be through to a human within seconds. Not so for the other 0800 number. I am not exaggerating when I say that the average length of time I have been on hold for is over 20 minutes. The quickest I think was about 12 minutes, and longest over 35. 35 minutes? I just got into the habit of leaving the phone on speakerphone (lucky I have that facility at home and work otherwise I might have done my neck some damage), going off to the loo or getting a coffee, and coming back in time to speak to one of their support robots. That is if you get to join the queue at all, of which you have no chance weekdays between about 11am and 2pm.

E-mail support is just as bad. I received an e-mail after the original order was put through incorrectly telling me that my free modem was on the way. I replied and said that this was the wrong product and that the order had been cancelled anyway. I received a reply to my reply over two weeks later telling me they had no record of the order or something. I can understand the frustration that many customers have been getting in and can appreciate why Bulldog have, under pressure, removed their 'best consumer ISP' banner.

After being on hold in one particular week for over four hours, trying to sort out the issue with my order, I eventually spoke to a supervisor (called Hope, of all names) and about a week later things were sorted. Only a couple of issues still remain, such as the line dropping off every-so-often and my wireless modem not turning up yet. But I live in hope!

In case you're interested, the supposed 8Mbps is being reported by my router as 5184Kbps downstream and 576Kbps upstream. Don't think I can complain about that upload speed – it's faster than most entry-level broadband download speeds, but the download speed has decreased since I reported problems with the line…

OK, so I've decided to launch the new site a bit earlier than planned as the weekend was quite empty in the end. I have also managed to move the gallery, but that still needs some work to get it all up to scratch.

I hope you like the new design – any feedback would be appreciated!