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Posts tagged RHUL
UK Broadband service
May 7th
So, I’ve been in the UK for nearly a year now, and I thought I would share my thoughts on UK broadband.
Why now? Well, I was listening to Spotify, and heard a Virgin Media Broadband ad. Then Alex bugged me yesterday trying to explain why Virgin Media is crap, etc. etc.
So, as it stands, there are 2 technologies available in the UK to the consumer. Cable or ADSL.
So, I have the Broadband XL package from Virgin Media, which gives me 20Mbit/s down and 768kbit/s up on the paper. About 3 months ago, I would’ve said that I would go with ADSL any time. However, since the launch of Virgin’s DOCSIS3.0 Network, the DOCSIS1.0 network became usable. I am now always getting the speeds (90-100%) I should get on paper.
Now, I heard people complain about the traffic caps. Now, being on Broadband XL, and consuming a reasonably high amount of traffic, I often exceed the limits. Basically, they cap your speed to 25% if you exceed 6GB from 10am – 3pm and 3GB from 4pm-9pm.
In all fairness though, 25% of 20Mbit/s is still 5Mbit/s, which is about the same as you can get on ADSL here in Egham.
So do I like Virgin Media? Hell no. It’s the worst internet access I have ever used! But there isn’t any better offer on the market. Yes, the speedcap is annoying, but it’s still better than ADSL.
The thing that’s missing here are alternative ISPs that provide FiOS on their own infrastructure. What about Virtual ISPs on the fibre? That would allow them to have their own routing and peering, however Fibre accross most of the UK? It’s been done on ADSL for a long time. There has to be an alternative to Virgin Media, and ADSL on BTs horrible infrastructure!
It’s the lesser of two evil.
A St. Patricks Day Story
Mar 16th
So, yesterday evening we celebrated St. Patricks Day (somewhat in advance) here at Royal Holloway. That meant that we had big 250 years Guiness hats, and a lot of Guiness on tap.
Living in the UK, the thing I have noticed is, that parties / nightclubs close at the time where all the rest of the world normally gets started. So at 2:30 (yes, I know, WTF!) the DJ stopped playing music, the house lights were switched on, and security was trying to kick everyone out.
So I quickly got my coat, that I had stashed away behind a sofa in Medicine (the Nightclub). Kneeling down on the Sofa to get the coat, a cute girl that was sitting there asked me if I was Florian. Me, being very surprised, ofcourse answered “yea”. Turns out, that she is studying Management and International Business, and that she stumbled upon my presentation for a Management Workshop that I published here. So we had a short conversation before getting kicked out by security.
That was 1/3.
Next up, standing outside waiting for the Non-Res Bus, I saw my favourite Bartender (the only good Bartender in Xlands), standing there in a happy mood (slightly alcoholized :p ) with his girlfriend and the Ex-President of the Korean Society. We cracked a few jokes, asking ourselves who is the one person that got Excellent in both Machine Fundamentals and Databases, and then parted different ways.
And now, 3/3.
Still waiting for the Non-Res bus, I noticed 2 girls sitting on the side. Walking over there and starting a conversation, turns out, one of them actually studies Computer Science too (although with Maths … euuuuw … Maths!). I was surprised, because I would’ve never guessed that she had a decent musical taste, but she had. If I would atleast remember her name?!
So yeah, a good night. Lots of nice people 
So when’s the next night out?
Booty Luv live at Royal Holloway’s SU
Dec 12th
Last Wednesday was an SU night unlike the others. It started off with 1h30m waiting in line for tickets in front of the SU in the freezing cold. The queue wasn’t as long as it was for the Malibu night, which was surprising as the SU announced to have a live performance by Booty Luv. After nearly freezing to death, the SU openend 30 minutes late. It takes time to find out how to turn up the master volume 
For once, the DJ wasn’t too bad, he atleast tried to mix unlike some other people playing music there.
Around midnight we hear a short announcement that Booty Luv were about to start. What can I say? Everyone ran over to the podium, squishing everything in the way. The funny thing was, after 10 minutes, it was over. Booty Luv was gone.
I must say, that was the shortest performance I have ever seen. Unbelievable. How cheap is the SU?
To round this post off, here’s a small video of the shortest performance ever. Sorry for the crappy footage.
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
The Weihnachtsmarkt invades the UK
Dec 11th
About a week ago, the RHUL German Society went to a ‘Weihnachtsmarkt’ in Kingswood.
We quickly realized that this was a joke. It had nothing to do with a real German Christmas Market. It only consisted of a few huts, and it was difficult to find german stuff.
However, apparantly there are some Christmas Markets in the UK that are closer to a real German Christmas Market. This aired yesterday in the German News, so I had to put this in. I’m sorry that this is a German Video, but I just can’t be arsed to write subtitles.
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
OpenRadio & OpenEvents
Nov 1st
Hey guys,
work has started on the first two OpenUni services: OpenRadio and OpenEvents.
OpenRadio will give the students a place to host their own show, without any censorship and control by the SU. More on OpenRadio as soon as we launch for Beta.
OpenEvents is the second project of OpenUni. OpenEvents will organize different events across the Campusses.
Here’s a small preview of the OpenEvents page, created by OpenUni Co-Founder Alex.
OpenEvents
I’ll post some updates here, as soon as we know more.
Moving to London
Sep 5th
I’m back! The last 3 days, I spent wandering around Egham, a small town in greater London looking at a place to live. Finally I have found a nice place to probably live the next 3 years at.
The thing that sold me on that house, it has Fibre Optic Internet!! This is like a dream come true if you have lived in Belgium the last 19 years.
So to finish this off, here’s a small picture of the house.
A busy vacation
Aug 16th
Hey guys,
Mahdia
like some of you might know, I’m currently on vacation in Tunesia. Great hotel, great weather, great people. But I never had a busier vacation. I got accepted into University, so I’ve been trying to get in touch with home to get the paperwork e-mailed to me here, so I can complete it.
So in short, the next 3 years, I’ll probably be spending in London at Royal Holloway, University of London.
And now, back to the sun and beach.
