Well, having done some major fucking about this evening (And Yes, that is the technical term) we can now send emails from home again.
In the end I’ve set up an SMTP server on one of my hosted sites, and we’re using that rather than screwing around with BT. So we can send email – in addition to the absolute fuck-up BT have made with blocking the emails themselves (and not telling anyone about it) they’ve also changed their perspective on using an external SMTP server. (Up ’til the 12th, I had to send all email via BT’s own mail server – now they’ve fucked about with everything, I can send mail with an external mail server – and of course they didn’t tell anyone that either!)
So for now I’m not going to swap suppliers just yet – probably. The contract is up in June (The anniversary of when we moved in – although they initially told me it was a three-month contract and then I could leave any time, so I detect the possibility/probability of another call to their customer ‘services’ – and of course they’ve broken the contract anyway, with their failure to sort out emails at all) so we’ll be moving supplier in June without a doubt.
At least this way I get to do some more research on which supplier is the best one to replace the smeghead shyster twatbags at BT.
Since March 12th, I haven’t been able to send email from home. BT Broadband have an issue with SMTP servers, and still can’t actually tell me when it’s going to be fixed. (Supposedly it ‘might’ be in the next 24-48 hours, but they can’t guarantee it, and can’t really say what the problem is either.)
So I’m going to be looking at changing my broadband provider. Currently we’re considering either Tiscali or Sky (as we use them for TV service anyway) as the best options for the area. Of course, first I need to get an MAC code from BT Broadband so I can move easily, and tell them where to shove their ‘service’.
Mind you, it does mean it’s likely to cost me less, which is a bonus.
Tonight we’re off to see Dara O’Briain live. We’ve seen him before (almost two years ago – how time flies) which was a fantastic show so I’m hoping that this time will be just as good.
I think we’ll try to be there before the show starts this time though…
Ah, the joys of Hotel Chocolat Easter Eggs. Happy Day.
I don’t eat a lot of chocolate, but when I do I like it to be nice. And Hotel Chocolat makes the best we’ve had. So Easter Day is Happy Day with Hotel Chocolat eggs. *grin*
So yes, we got back from our week in the Lakes just fine. All the predicted rain, snow, sleet, hail, and (possibly) typhoons and hurricanes didn’t appear. Equally, the predicted “nightmare on the roads” didn’t appear (for us, anyway).
In fact, we left Penrith at 8.45 this morning, and got in at 14.30 – which included a diversion due to one horrid jam at Elveden (which we’d expected) and a couple of short stops as well. All told, five-and-three-quarter hours journey time for approximately 320 miles. So an average of about 56mph. Could be better, could be worse.
I’ll write more thoughts about our time away over the coming weekend, but for now suffice it to say that we had a great time, and have come home feeling far more refreshed and energised than when we went up. So it’s been well worth the time and effort.
(via Matt)
This is just fantastic – the Cave of Swallows, a 400m cave in South America. So deep you could hide the Empire State Building in it, and people can BASE jump down into it.
Utterly, utterly mad. And excellent.
At the moment, I’m doing a lot of work on my laptop – the new workplace didn’t have a spare PC, so I’m using my laptop as a work machine on a daily basis. (I use it as a work machine when I’m working from home anyway, but there I still have the option of using the main desktop PC too. It depends more on where I want to sit/work, really)
Anyway because of that, and also because of some of the work I’m doing, it’s a lot easier to do it using a mouse, instead of the laptop’s touchpad. Yes, I can use the touchpad still but well, a mouse is easier.
So I’ve ended up buying a little portable optical micromouse thing , and it’s marvellous. I tend to just leave it in the office at the moment, but I’m truly impressed with how easy (and comfortable) it is to use on a regular basis. I particularly like the way that the receiver stick can be stowed inside the mouse body when it’s not being used, and also the retractable USB-to-miniUSB cable for charging the damn thing – that’s going to get used in a variety of other roles as well, believe me.
All told, very very impressed with the entire thing. And it does make desk-based laptop life a whole hell of a lot.
