I never thought I’d be saying this considering I’ve previously praised the high quality of internet connectivity from this ISP, but I’ve completely had my fill with Bulldog customer services and billing. They are total crap.

This morning Matt received a letter from them asking for money stating we hadn’t payed for this month and threatened to cut us off (remember my last nightmare in this regard?). What is so annoying is two-fold. Firstly they were supposed to sort out the payment issues which prevented money going through last time we had issues with them (see link) but this letter clearly indicates they didn’t. Secondly after the last bout of problems (again, see link) they promised us a month of free service because of the trouble their crapped out billing system had caused us, but clearly we aren’t going to get our free month because if we were then the fact this months payment had failed wouldn’t be a problem.

Bulldog, you suck. I rely on my connectivity for personal and business reasons and although it pains me to say it, you are the only company that when the wire is connected can provide the level and quality of connection that I require. Its just a shame that your billing system believes it should pull the plug on my connection all the time because you screw it up.

Bottom line is that if you pull the plug on us again I’m going to get a leased line for my needs instead and bad-mouth you in every moment of free time that I have. Sure it won’t make a difference to you, sure you won’t care, but I’ll save my friends and colleagues from signing up to the grief associated with your crap billing and customer services and in so doing it’ll make me feel a whole lot better.

Normally I’m quite glad of bank holidays; work is less intense on my websites, there are no lectures so I can catch up on my reading and generally my friends and I are able to go out on one more night than we do in an average week. This time around though its not so great.

I’ve just finished my exams and so I have a huge amount of non-exam stuff to be getting on with. Most of it is code and business stuff but there is also calls to be made, letters to be sent, I need to go to the bank, arrange a few meetings and other things like that. Problem is no sooner have my exams finished thus providing me with the time to do these things, we are slap bang in the middle of a bank holiday which is made worse by the fact the University closes on the Tuesday as well meaning I’m not able to use these few days to do half of the things I need to do because they rely on the presence of another person who won’t be present due to the holiday.

I’m all for taking a break but because I start full time work on Wednesday I really need these 4 days to be as productive as possible and it would help oh so very much if everyone wasn’t out of the office. To be honest I don’t quite know how I’m going to fit everything in I need to do.

Well I’m nearly there. Its been a long hard slog through these Semester 2 exams but I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with only one exam left to go (tomorrow afternoon). I’m not sure why but exams this semester have seemed to drag a whole lot more and revision has seemed so much more of a chore. I think this probably has something to do with how tired I was after the huge deluge of coursework but even so its a little disconcerting.

My graphics exam today was one of the hardest exams, if not the hardest I have taken since arriving at Leeds to do computing and although I feel positive about the paper overall it required a lot of intense focus during the 1 and a half hours the exam ran for and has left me feeling considerably drained.

Still, the positive feeling is a good sign so I can only hope I get a good mark for the paper. I feel almost completely prepared for tomorrows exam already so I think its just a case of getting a good nights sleep and kicking that last exam into touch before hitting the union bar.

Its a truly momentous day in the forum world! After many years (yes years) of waiting there finally exists a downloadable, supported copy of the latest incarnation of phpBB3. The full release announcement is here. This news is hot of the press so have fun watching the currently active users on the phpBB forums go soaring sky high!

I’d like to take this opportunity to say how happy I am that this release has come to fruition and to give HUGE thanks to the phpBB developers and indeed all team members for their hard work. I have been critical before about your progress with the new release (and am glad your release has come soon enough for me not to seriously consider acting on that post!), but I really think it has all been worth it and I look forward to the continued use of your software for many years to come. All the best phpBB, you once again reign supreme in the forum world and I for one am very proud to be using your software.

As for my mods, yes, I will be porting all of them that haven’t been catered for by default in the new version. As for when it will happen, some time over the summer most likely.

Sadly for those at RouterTech, I will not be moving the forums over to the new version. We have a heavily customised system running there and a conversion would most likely involve a lot of extra work for team members, not to mention a delay in our ability to release and support firmware which we know doesn’t sit well with users

Its the end of the week and a great relief it must be said. Its been a hard week of exams and revision and especially with the SY22 exam on Friday which was really stretching so its great to be able to take a small breather before plowing on with revision and exam taking once more.

I watched 28 Days Later with Heather last night and had a relaxed breakfast this morning. Hopefully my currently relaxed and refreshed state of mind will continue until the end of the week when my exams will finally be over.