Telecoms, Technology and other Tidbits

Have you ever signed up to a new phone package at an unbeatable price only to find that when the first phone bill drops onto the mat, the price is simply not anywhere near what you thought you were going to be paying? Welcome to the world of bill shock. Who is Bill Shock? No it's not a late night comedian. Far from it. Bill shock is traditionally associated with hundreds of pounds worth roaming charges being applied to your mobile bill when you return home from your family trip to Florida (Fortunately that’s less likely to happen now with the new EU roaming regulations where the concept of roaming has been essentially eradicated). However, a different kind of bill shock is the one where we get suckered into the headline rate of a phone deal, only to find the price on the bill is higher (It's never lower is it? Funny that). Unlimited internet, calls, money and hugs for 99p per month for life We’ve all seen them. And we always buy into them. However, the devil is in t...

There's a new thing called Cloud Repatriation in the computing world. I suppose it's the opposite of expatriation which officially means 'to withdraw oneself from residence in one's native country'. In this context however, the term refers to repatriating your servers and computing power into your office and getting it off the cloud. In simple terms, take all that effort you spent shoving your stuff into the cloud - and reverse it. 'But why!?' I hear you cry. Or perhaps you’re not, since by asking that very question you probably already know full well why. But in case you are still asking 'But why!?', let me jog your memory. Go Cloud, go go go! The concept of shoving all of your worldly digital belongings onto someone else’s kit was all the rage some years ago. It was 'safe', 'fast', 'cheaper' and 'convenient'. It seemed like a good idea, for only a few quid per month, I could have the latest version o...