All Ping

1. Support

Technical Support is a difficult job, I will give the companies that, however when they do not staff the lines with enough people or do not provide their teams with the right training or tools then they are just being negligent. It is bad enough having to wait on a phone line to get a response when your Internet service is not working, but getting asked simple and silly questions by someone that does not know their job is a crime.

2. Connection Speeds

The wording on Internet service contracts where you are “guaranteed” speeds “up to” a certain maximum. This is pretty much a joke as their calculations are always based on laboratory conditions and never take into account real world factors. You would almost have to live IN your local exchange to actually get the speed that you are paying for!

3. Broadband Deals

Can anyone keep track of the broadband deals that are out there now? Each of the six major telecommunications companies offer different bundles where you can mix and match Broadband service with one or more of their other services (phone, television, mobile) but added to them are the dozens of other companies reselling the networks of the big six. Choosing the right package gets extremely confusing to say the least.

4. Landline Costs

Unless you are a customer with Virgin Media and receiving your Broadband service through cable you are going to be paying for a phone line. This is regardless of whether or not you actually use the phone line for phone service which is just ridiculous and is on top of your monthly Broadband fees too.

5. Bandwidth Throttling

The worst thing about some of those “unlimited” deals is that they really aren’t. When ISPs throttle back your connection based on how much you download based on “fair usage” it’s really not that fair is it?

6. Moving Homes

Moving homes is difficult enough – being without Broadband service for weeks at a time due to the move just adds insult to injury. When you go to the effort of providing the company with all the details that they need including your new address, you would think that they could ensure that when you moved in it would be a simple matter of plugging your router in and having your connection work. Utility providers can do it – why can’t the ISPs?

7. Dead Zones

Having Mobile Broadband service is great; you can roam around and are not tied to your home or office Wi-Fi connection. But considering how much money companies have put into their networks, the fact that you can still only receive a fraction of your expected speeds in some areas and in others no connection at all – this just does not make sense! I’ve used Broadband Genie here to help me find the right companies that while they can’t guarantee a connection everywhere, they at least do have a strong signal in the area’s that I am most likely to be using the service.

8. MAC Codes

Have you ever tried switching providers? One of the key requirements that your new company needs is the MAC code from your previous provider so that they can transfer your service … this simple little code can for some reason take weeks to receive and while it should be an easy matter for your old provider to send it directly to your new provider it seems like this is just one more bottleneck that they throw in to make the move more difficult.

9. Contract Lengths

Being tied into a two year contract when you join with a new company unfortunately means that the “special” 3 month discount on their price for joining is really not worth as much as you would think. The savings are minuscule and that really gets me to the thing I hate most about Broadband.

10. The Price

For a service that is now so ubiquitous how can it cost so much? Countries like Finland are offering Broadband service for free (currently at 1MB/s but soon going up to almost 100MB/s) and there are other countries that offer this service for a fraction of the cost we are being charged. Considering we are in a first world country, why is our Broadband service so third class?

Facebook addiction is one of the most talked-about issues of the moment, and when it comes to teens, the problem is even bigger. But one Boston parent may have found the perfect way to convince his daughter to take a nice long break from the popular social media platform – he’s paying her $200. The enterprising young girl has managed to strike a deal with her father, Paul Baier, that involves him paying her $50 in April and an extra $150 in June, if she respects her part of the agreement. “It was her idea, which I fully support,” Paul told the Daily Dot. “She wants to earn money and also finds Facebook a distraction and a waste of time sometimes.”

Photo: Paul Baier

Initially, the girl came up with a payout of $70 in exchange for a much shorter hiatus from Facebook, but her father countered with the $200 for 5 months offer, which she ultimately accepted. The two even drew up and filled out a Facebook Deactivation Agreement to make it official. It states that Baier can take full control of his daughter’s account by changing the password and deactivating it, to make sure she doesn’t sneak a peak online when he’s not paying attention. She will get access back to her Facebook account on June 26, by which time will have been over.

Paul Baier’s agreement with his young daughter has received mixed reactions. In a comment on his blog, someone goes as far as to call him an “idiot”. ”Why not try something called ‘parenting’. It’s more difficult than bribery but will more beneficial to your daughter in the long run,” the person writes, while another thinks “999 to 1 odds she already has an alternate account and probably more risqué accounts on other sites if she’s already showing this kind of ‘guy will pay me’ mentality. At the same time another reader thinks it’s a “great idea. I just read an online story about it. Perhaps, this will inspire other parents to do the same.”

One thing is for sure, Paul’s daughter isn’t the only one who plans to cut down on Facebook time. A recent study shows one in four US users plan to reduce their time spent on the popular social site this year.

In 2009, shortly after the movie Wall-E was launched, we featured some photos of cool Wall-E computer case mod, but that feat simply pales in comparison to Mike Senna’s awesome achievement.

The robot aficionado spend between 3,200 and 3,800 man hours building his very own version of the adorable Pixar trash-collecting hero. His computer programming skills definitely came in handy, but seeing as there were no Wall-E parts available anywhere on this planet, he had to construct the whole thing from scratch. He worked on it about 25 hours a week, after his day job, but all the hard work certainly paid off.

This isn’t Mike Senna’s first robot, either. In 2003, he created his own version of R2D2, so he’s pretty well-known in select geek circles. His latest creation has started making appearances at various events, putting a smile on children’s faces and getting praised by adult geeks. For detailed “how did he do it” information make sure you check out his blog. There are lot sof cool photos to look at, as well.