h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This isn't the best situation to be in for a web development company, but we're currently in at at the day job.

Yes, I have a day job too.

I work for a company that builds websites for charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises. It's a social enterprise itself. And it's been getting very good at this. We've got some very major clients now, and they're generally happy with the work we do, and very happy with the price we charge because we're not in it to make a load of cash. We've grown a lot recently too, and its sustainable growth (I hope). At the start of the year there were five of us. Two directors, one designer, one front end developer and me doing back end development. Now there's nine full time and two part time staff. We've added another front end developer, another designer and another back end developer. And we're still growing. We're currently looking for another two back end developers, and an apprentice. And the work is there for them for at least the next year.

So, the boss decided to switch internet providers because, well, BT were being pretty crap. We'd lose connection at least once a week. The router needed rebooting at least once a day, and they never believed that there was a problem.

So, he ordered a new ISP, the hardware turned up and we waited for BT to switch off their service so that BE could turn theirs own. That was supposed to be last week. BT finally switched theirs off yesterday morning. BE still haven't switched theirs on. So, I'm sat here with my phone hooked into my laptop, which is hooked into a keyboard and mouse and my big monitor trying to code over 3G.

And you know what? The 3G connection I've got is actually better than the service that BT were providing. Thank deities though I don't have a data limit!

Pastey, you are the McGyver of the web. I suspect you could make an internet connection out of a rubber band, a paperclip, and whatever happened to be in your pocket.

For all we know that's a satellite transmitter and receiver

It is actually rare to catch me out and about without at least a netbook and my phone to provide interweb connection.

And on those occasions I can actually use my phone to take remote control of my computer at home. It's painfully slow, but it has allowed me to reboot the Guide a couple of times

Awesome...


I don't use that word lightly, but just think about it. Being able to maintain an international website... from the jeejaw in your pocket.

It's so...Star Trek...

I am seriously impressed by the way this has held together all day though.

I've got a HTC SensationXL running Android Ice Cream Sandwich. It's connected by a usb cable to my old Toshiba Laptop running Windows 7. This, market value these days of probably about £300 for the lot, has kept me online in the office all day, with no problems at all what-so-ever.

One of the bosses went out last night and bought a fancy O2 broadband wifi hotspot thing so that the stupidly expensive Macs in the office could connect to the internet. Every half hour they've been having to reset things, turn things off and on again, change settings, and generally scream and moan. I daredn't think how expensive that lot of kit is, but it ain't working.

Yes, I feel smug. Although it has meant I've been the only one really able to work all day. But it's also meant that I've been able to surf h2g2 all day

There's a moral in there somewhere.

Yes, don't pay over the odds for shiny when it's only shiny you're going to get.