It’s Friday, September 3, this is ToN, and Stephen Hawking has killed God!

That may be a little dramatic, read on for more details.

Stuff worth typing about

O2 have announced, somewhat patronisingly, that most users are paying too much for their broadband package.

Most broadband users would probably agree.

What O2 mean, however, is that customers generally choose a basic package that is far more broadband than they actually need for their usage habits. For example, 77%, when asked, said that they mainly use their broadband Internet connection for email, this being overkill in the extreme as email requires minimal bandwidth… unless you regularly receive large attachments.

O2′s findings indicated that, while most people would be more suited with an 8mbs connection, those people are generally paying for a 20mbs connection. It’s worth pointing out that O2 don’t seem to have counted the fact that a number of ISP’s upgraded their 8mb packages to 20mb packages at no cost to the user, and in those cases, it is unlikely the customer will ring to complain over their ISP doubling their perceived speed without asking them.

And their we reach the crux of this story; perceived speed. Customers may be paying for up to 20mbs, but that does not, indeed, very rarely means that they receive 20mbs. And with not always transparent network management policies in place, even when you get 20mbs, it is not always sufficient for some task, say, streaming a 1mbps video.

The interesting thing to me about this story is the fact that O2 are set to roll out new broadband packages with a different pricing strategy. Yes, it is convenient that O2′s little survey coincides with the new broadband pricing plans. The plans have been likened to the digital television model; where you pay for basic television and add your movies, sports, etc to it, paying extra. O2′s basic package will be fine for email and general surfing, whereas their top package, called; The Works, will handle video downloads and online gaming.

O2′s legal team will probably have written a short novel’s worth of small print to cover themselves on this one, but my immediate thought was that this could backfire on O2. ISP’s have gotten away with effectively screwing their customers by using ‘up to,’ meaning that, while they advertise 20mbps, they can give you any speed below that, and usually do. You would have thought, however, that if I pay O2 for the broadband package that is suitable for video download, I would be able to download video! If O2 start telling customers paying for their top package that they are using too much data, it will be interesting to see if anyone gets sued.

Moving on from that topic, finally. BSkyB, the company that runs Sky’s television service, have reached 3 million subscribers to their HD service. This makes sense to me. I don’t have any actual numbers, but I imagine that the percentage of TV watching Briton’s that own a HD ready TV is quite high. Anyone who has bought a TV in the last 2-3 years is 95% likely to have bought a HD TV, simply because there are so few non-HD televisions out there.

A lot of these people don’t have HD content going into their TV (HD Channels, Blu-ray player, etc). According to figures, HD subscription got a massive boost during the World Cup, but has slowed again. I can see subscriptions rising as the economy improves; HD television is not so widespread that people take it for granted yet, and I imagine people beginning to feel like they have wasted money on an expensive HD TV if they are not getting HD channels.

Stephen Hawking’s new book claims it was not necessary for God to ‘start’ the universe, claiming that the Big Bang was a natural consequence of things like the law of gravity.

I have read a couple of Stephen Hawking’s books (I understood some of what I read) and, as far as I know, Hawking has never openly refuted God’s existence (as far as I know!) so I wasn’t expecting this story when I first heard it. It should be said that, while I have not read the book, I assume that Hawking is not refuting God’s existence here, only stating that God didn’t need to be around for the Big Bang to happen.

As an atheist, I like it when science can find explanations for these kinds of things, because, as Richard Dawkins’ points out in his book, the God Delusion, religion tends to insert God into anywhere science can’t explain. If we don’t know how clouds are formed; God made them. We don’t know where dinosaur bones came from; God put them there. Naturally, religious figures were more than happy to insert God into the Big Bang theory; scientists had a good idea of what happened at the start of the universe, but not how it happened, and so God was inserted to explain the how.

I don’t want to turn this post into a religion rant, so I’ll leave it there, I just liked that story.

Some other stuff

Samsung have announced that their 2010 sales are looking likely to be far higher than they had originally expected, largely down to the popularity of the Galaxy S Android phone. Good for you, Samsung.

Microsoft have announced a new mouse that will be coming out this December, called the Arc Mouse. The mouse looks a piece of IKEA furniture painted black, but it’s nice to see them trying something new. I reserve judgement on this mouse until I have had chance to play with it, however.

Microsoft have also been making random advances in the game controller market. The new Xbox 360 controller will have an improved D-Pad. It will still operate as a disc, allowing flowing movement from one direction to the other, but now it can twist, raising the plus shape in the D, and allowing for more accurate Up, Down, Left, Right button presses. Small, random, but nice touch, Microsoft.

Well that’s all the news for today. As I said, ToN will be a Monday to Friday thing, now, so check back on Monday for another dose of opinionated news.

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