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Thursday, February 22, 2007

New Zealand’s monopoly ISP, Xtra, owned by Telecom New Zealand, is going to credit 60,000 customers after completing an internal review of itself last week and finding that there was an error with its traffic management policy on their Go Large plan.

The 60,000 customers, less than 10% of Telecom’s subscribers, who subscribed to Go Large, which boasts full speeds and no data cap, since December 8, 2006 till late February, 2007 will receive up to NZ$160 in credit. Telecom has temporarily stopped either new or existing customers from signing up to the new plan, and will also ask existing customers in the next couple of weeks if they wish to change plans, stay on the same plan with a changed traffic management policy, or cancel their service.

The credit, automatically applied to the affected customers monthly bill, will cost Telecom itself around $7.5-$8.5 million.

Kevin Bowler, general manager of Telecom’s consumer marketing, said that the traffic management policy process was found to be not what they had originally intended it to do. The fault applied to all forms of Internet use, instead of certain applications, like large music, or movie downloading. “Clearly it is not an ideal situation and therefore we are crediting Go Large customers for plan charges incurred during this period.”

“In this instance with the Go Large plan our internal technical review showed we had made an error and we believe that we are doing the right thing by crediting customers,” Mr Bowler said.

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has been investigating complaints by customers who say that they are not receiving what Xtra promised since the same time when Xtra initiated its traffic management policy, December. Deborah Battell, fair trading director, said that the Commerce Commission is pleased Telecom is crediting customers for its error. “However, the Commission is concerned that Telecom’s actions may not address the full extent of the problems. The Commission will continue its investigation into whether the promotion breached the Fair Trading Act. In particular, the Commission is considering whether Telecom’s initial representation that Go Large gave customers unlimited access was misleading, as the company’s reasonable use policy in effect placed limits on use.”

The reasonable use policy meant subscribers could not download BitTorrents, or use other peer-to-peer services without giving priority Internet access to other subscribers.

Ernie Newman, chief executive of the Telecommunications User Association of New Zealand (TUANZ), said that it is good that Telecom is to repay its subscribers for their own error, but says that it will diminish their trust in Telecom, and other phone companies. “We applaud their openness. But sadly it is another episode in a chain of events where customers have signed up for broadband services that were advertised as offering attractive speeds or data limits, but in reality have delivered a whole lot less.”

“Something in Telecom needs to change. There have been too many disappointments, too much over-promising and under-delivering. This simply adds to the concern of many people that when it comes to the impact of broadband on customers lives and businesses, Telecom has not yet got the message,” Mr Newman said.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will partner up with the Microsoft-Nortel Innovative communications alliance (ICA) team to sell Unified Communications and VoIP products.

The announcement on Tuesday the 16th of October 2007 includes Dell selling VoIP, data and wireless networking products from Nortel and the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and other unified communications products.

The partnership with both manufacturers should allow Dell to provide a pre-integrated solution.

In March 2007, competitors IBM and Cisco announced they would join in the competition for developing unified communications applications and the development of open technologies around the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) client platform an application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime.

“We want to make it simple for our customers to deploy unified communications so their end users can get access to all their messages in one place – whether its e-mail, phone or mobile device. This will pave the way for more business-ready productivity tools,” said vice president of solutions, Dell Product Group, Rick Becker.

• Customers have four options:
  • Core Office Communication Server 2007 – provides instant messaging and on-premise Microsoft Live Meeting.
  • Office Communication Server: Telephony – enables call routing tracking and management, VoIP gateway and public branch exchange (PBX) integration.
  • Audio and Video Conferencing – allows point-to-point conference, video conference and VoIP audio conference.
  • Exchange Unified Messaging – provides voicemail, e-mail and fax in Microsoft Outlook, and anywhere access of Microsoft Outlook Inbox and Calendar.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Despite the passage of a 700 billion USD bill by the United States House of Representatives on Friday and the Senate on Wednesday, two U.S. states may need loans totaling over 14 billion dollars.

California and Massachusetts are seeking at least 7 billion dollars each from the federal government as loans. Officials and lawmakers in both states say that the loans would be temporary.

According to Massachusetts’ state treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill, the state was unable to borrow money last week on a short term loan. He also states that the state can afford to pay its bills and debts for the next few weeks, but not beyond that without a short-term loan from the government. Cahill has asked the federal government for a loan similar to the recent one passed by Congress and the Senate.

“That’s all we would ask them to do: Treat us like the investment banks,” said Cahill to the Associated Press.

Officials in California say they need an emergency loan, or they will run out of money by the end of October. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state is “not out of the woods” and needs a short term loan from the government.

“California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal treasury for short-term financing,” said Schwarzenegger in a letter to the Treasury Department, which is taking the letter under consideration.

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representative voted to pass a revised bailout bill which included raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000, a move designed to please progressives. However, the $110 billion in tax breaks, earmarks and what has been called pork barrel spending is not offset by any increases in revenues and has added opposition to the bill from some Representatives in the House. Earmarks added into the bailout bill included $192 million in tax rebates for the Virgin Islands rum industry, $148 million in tax cuts for the wool industry, $100 million tax cuts to the auto racing industry, and $48 million in Hollywood tax incentives, among others.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Yesterday, former Hull City football-club manager Marco Silva joined Watford as the head coach, penning a two-year-contract. Via their official website, Hull City announced Marco Silva had decided to leave the club on Thursday.

39-year-old Portuguese Silva succeeded Walter Mazzarri by the contract with Watford. Silva enjoyed a successful spell in Portugal and Greece before he came to England. Silva led Estoril to first division promotion in the Portuguese league before joining Sporting CP.

In 2014, Sporting CP won their first Portuguese Cup since 2008 under Silva’s management. In 2015–16, Silva won the Greek Super League with Olympiacos FC — the club’s 43rd league title. Olyampiacos defeated Arsenal in a Group Stage match at Arsenal’s home ground Emirates Stadium but, finishing third in the group table, they were sent to the Europa League. Arsenal defeated Olyampiacos in the away fixture 3–0 as the Gunners booked a spot in the Last 16 round.

Sliva managed Hull City for the last eighteen Premier League games last season, winning six of them, but could not save the club from relegation. Watford finished 17th in the Premier League table, one place above the relegation zone. On Thursday, Silva expressed his desire to leave Hull City. Along with the Portuguese, other Hull City staff including Assistant Head Coach Joao Pedro Sousa, First Team Coach Goncalo Pedro and Goalkeeping Coach Hugo Oliveira left the club.

After Silva signed the contract with Watford, Watford’s CEO Scott Duxbury said, “Marco was one of the most sought after Head Coaches in the Premier League. His pedigree and promise speaks for itself with his achievements in top divisions elsewhere across Europe, as well as his work at Hull City last season. We are delighted to have secured his services and to be welcoming a Head Coach of his profile and potential”.

Sunday, May 7, 2006 File:The Sultans Elephant spraying water.JPG

The Sultan’s Elephant, a giant piece of street theatre by French group Royal de Luxe, has been entertaining Londoners over the course of this weekend. The show started on Thursday, when a ‘crashed rocket’ was in place at Victoria Place. On Friday, an oversized marionette of a young girl emerged from the rocket and met with the giant mechanised elephant. Over the course of the weekend, these two giant puppets have been parading around London streets, closed especially for the event.

Whilst Friday remained hot and sunny, the weekend turned wetter, but the rain didn’t seem to put off the crowds, some of who received a second soaking from the elephant’s trunk! The elephant stopped at Trafalger Square over lunchtime on the Saturday, before parading to Horse Guard’s Parade, where seating had been specially erected around a giant stage. File:Giant puppet girl licks lolly.jpg

Over ten puppeteers operate the elephant, made mostly of wood, using a complex arrangement of hydraulics and motors. The elephant moves its feet, wags its tails, waves and squirts water from its trunk, flaps its ears, blinks, and can even open its mouth to reveal a moving tongue. The girl marionette is held on a big frame, and was given a ride on the elephant’s trunk using a crane. The girl has been seen licking a giant lollipop, and even do a wee on the road.

The spectacle will end on Sunday with a grand finale.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Halifax, a bank in the United Kingdom, has announced that house prices in the country rose 0.6% during the month of July 2010, according to a survey of house prices made by the mortgage provider. House prices fell 0.6% over the course of June 2010.

Halifax economist Martin Ellis commented: “House prices increased by 0.6 percent in July, reversing the fall in June.” He also stated: “Overall, there has been little change in prices during 2010 so far. The mixed pattern of monthly rises and falls over the first seven months of the year is consistent with a slowing market. It is also in line with our view that house prices will be broadly unchanged over 2010 as a whole.”

Statistics from Halifax also reveal that the average price of a house in the UK is currently £167,425 (US$266,366, €201,849, A$291,950, C$273,044). This figure is 16% less than the summit witnessed in August 2007.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

London – A few hundred England fans weren’t watching the 2006 FIFA World Cup match against Sweden last night in a pub or at home, but instead had ventured out to their local cinema to see the game on the big screen. A number of Odeon cinemas nationwide have been using digital projection technology to screen the matches live with a high definition (HD) picture. HD broadcasts contain a greater level of detail than traditional TV broadcasts, meaning a sharper picture and better sound quality.

In the darkened auditorium of the cinema in Covent Garden, the audience (or should that be crowd?) were behaving almost as if they were at the stadium, singing along to the national anthem, cheering at the England goals and groaning at the Sweden chances. At times, chants being sung by the England crowd at the match were even picked up and sung along to by those watching the cinema screen like some kind of football karaoke contest.

Trailers before the match were replaced by a soundtrack of England anthems, both the successful and not-so-successful ones, and the traditional movie treat of popcorn was replaced by trays of beer (in plastic cups) being brought in by the punters. The cinema had cheekily listed the screening as being ‘directed by Sven-Göran Eriksson’ and as ‘starring Wayne Rooney (hopefully)’.

Despite a disappointing 2-2 draw, the audience seemed impressed with the experience. “I’m a bit short and so wanted to make sure I had good view without having to jostle around for position,” Amanda, from London, explained to me. “I also liked that it was non-smoking, and there was a fabulous atmosphere”. Sian, Caio and Laura, who lived locally, said they wanted to see the match on the big screen and commented on the excellent picture quality.

Other events that have been broadcast by the cinema chain include concerts by Robbie Williams and Elton John. Odeon Marketing Director Luke Vetere said “offering films is just one part of the cinema experience – our ambition is to offer guests the chance to watch other events they feel passionate about”. Watching football in the cinema is not a brand new event though, during previous World Cups such as in 1966, film footage from the matches was broadcast in cinemas after the event, providing a way for people to see the games in colour when TV broadcasts were in black and white.

Cinema screenings aren’t the only way that fans can watch the World Cup games in high-definition this year though, as both Sky TV and Telewest have been broadcasting the games in HD to viewers with a special set-top box. There have been trials with HD on the growing Freeview platform too, with a pilot group of a few hundred viewers in London. However, as any move to roll out HD on Freeview would use up extra space on the broadcast spectrum and would require viewers to buy a new set-top box, it seems unlikely that this will happen any time soon.