LeeNukes

Orange, close but no cigar

I recently changed my mobile phone package with Orange as I was paying £35 a month on my contract but my bills including data usage were often over £40.

This is now back down to a more reasonable £10 a month. When I was discussing my contract whilst activating my new SIM card I got talking about the data packages they offer.

Their packages on offer are:

Orange World Access
Mbs per month / cost per month
Unlimited Evening & Weekend Browsing / £ 5.00
30Mbs / £ 8.00
80Mbs / £ 41.13

I thought the Unlimited Evening & Weekend package seemed ideal. I’m unlikely to use it during the day unless its weekend. So I looked into the T’s and C’s. Hmm, not as good as I thought:

From Orange Website

Fair usage policy: To ensure the fair allocation of network resources for all customers the Offer may not be used for: modem access for computers, internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, Instant Messaging, peer to peer file sharing and non Orange internet based video. If such use is detected, notice may be given and Network protection controls may be applied to all services which Orange does not believe constitute WAP or mobile internet browsing. This may result in a reduced speed of transmission, inability to use such services and, at the discretion of Orange, removal of the Offer. The Offer is subject at all times to a fair usage policy of 1000MB each month. Usage above this amount will constitute abuse & Orange may, at its discretion, monitor usage and withdraw the Offer from your account in the event that the fair usage policy is abused.

I was hoping/intending on using it plugged into my EeePC, a cheap way of getting mobile broadband. Or so I thought. So it turns out you can only use the service how they want you to. Come on Orange, at 1GB a month what do you expect people to do??!

I just wish they put it as 1GB, there you go for £5 take it or leave it and do with it as you will. If people use their computers with the service surely they will use the 1GB quicker. So you still win. Honestly.

Elonex Onet+

I’ve finally received my Elonex Onet+ laptop. It was originally going to just be a One laptop but they offered me a free upgrade, so I took it.

It’s specs are pretty basic, something like a 400mhz processor, 1GB storage space.

When I first opened it, the build quality was apparent that it’s less then A class. It feels cheap and light. But, on the other hand, it was cheap, and it is light. Its much lighter then my EeePC.

Another thing that I noticed is that it doesn’t look like it’s intended to be upgraded. So much so that you can’t even eject the battery. It’s just inside a plastic cover with screws over it. I wouldn’t be surprised if inside the RAM is soldered straight onto the motherboard too.

Check out the pictures of it here: Unboxing the Elonex Onet+ PC

It’s all pretty standard. Worth the £110 I paid for it though, even if it is just for accessing the internet.

If you’re anything like me you probably don’t need to use your laptop for a million and one things. You may want it purely for the internet in order to go on social media sites, or to Visit www.o2.co.uk/ or to do research for work. If you’re just accessing the internet then you don’t need something really flash. This laptop is actually perfect for what I need it for at the moment.

EeeManLUG

Yesterday I presented at ManLUG. First time for me, I feel it went alright.

The theme of the presentation was the Asus EeePC. As I own one I thought I would give a run down of its features, specs etc. I am in no way an expert on the EeePC but the presentation was to serve the needs of those who have only heard of it and not had the time or cause to look into it further.

I started just after 2pm and it lasted for about 40-50 minutes including time for questions and discussion throughout the meeting.

The presentation is below for you to view at your will, it was composed using OpenOffice Impress on the various machines I use, my work PC, my home desktop and the EeePC itself.