Web 2.0 on 1.0 broadband?

It's very interesting to see all the exciting developments in the web 2.0 world, especially now journalists can classify apps and services in this way. How amusing that the Internet is just like the music world, if you can pigeon hole something to a genre or style you get happy journalists.

Anyway, I digress (unsurprisingly), amongst all the excitement has anyone taken a bit of time to think how "cloud computing" affects users who have to live with broadband that is more of a trickle than a torrent?

In relative terms I live in a broadband poor area, not unusual for rural Wales and yes it's my choice to live here. Our only option for broadband connectivity is a BT Wholesale based ADSL service. SDSL? Nope. Any LLU? Nope. BT have a target date of Q3 2011....excuse me while I am underwhelmed.

I was very excited to hear about the Wales Fibrespeed project as it's stated aim is to bring High Speed Backhaul at city prices to rural areas like mine. Great, it gives the more entrepreneurial minded of us a shot at leapfrogging BT and getting real broadband to businesses in our area. Oh wait, I forgot...we don't vote Labour round these parts so....no fibrespeed for us, not just in phase one either...not ever.

I'm not BT bashing, it's too easy and how do I beat them at their own game if I tell them how they're screwing up? BT are a commercial entity and can't justify the expense on a small exchange like ours, totally understandable.

I'm not a money grabber after another handout either, I really don't believe in our seemingly ingrained "Grant culture". Invest in basic infrastructure to drive change and growth, the folks with imagination and drive will do the rest. Just give us a chance otherwise the Internet will grow beyond our means to utilise it.

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Pay thousands for a new Logo? NO!

I still can't believe that local graphic design shops think it's ok to charge many hundreds or even thousands of pounds to create a new logo.

Wired magazine have a great article about the online options available for these services. I have personally used the winner of their group test The Logo Company and they deserved the win.

The service was great, $150 for a shiny new logo, very fast turnaround, great work, everything you need. For just $50 more they will also include all the stationary design.

If you have a bit more budget for a logo then I would definitely recommend Crowdspring . You post a project, logo, website design etc and the "crowd" of freelance graphic designers pitch their ideas. You have to deposit the value of the project from the get-go but if you receive less than 25 submissions you get a full refund. The quality of the submissions is of an extremely high standard I will definitely be using the site for future projects.

Yet another reason why "I love the Internet"

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Thanks Darling!! You've totally f*cked christmas.

It seems a pre-budget report is actually a mini-budget so we should really find a different name for being totally reamed by our erstwhile Chancellor.

Pre christmas dry ass-f*ck?
Yuletide back door Surprise?

I am reminded of an old gem we used regularly in a our selling bunker many years ago. "BOHICA" ....Bend Over, Here it Comes Again. It seems awfully apt as in less than an hour on Monday Darling turned everyone's end of month sales forecast paperwork to recycling.

Why? Simple....If you have a customer due to place an order for £250k this week and they can't claim the VAT back (The NHS can't) why on earth would they place the order now? Waiting a week saves them £6,250. Result, that's £243,750.00 we won't see till the 2nd week of January.

The knock on effects of this are commission lost for sales people, cashflow issues for us as a business and it serves only to further diminish spending power at christmas.

Thankyou Darling.

PS: What the hell is going on with those eyebrows? He looks extremely shifty.

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