April 13, 2007

Vodafone Mobile Connect - 3G Broadband data card

Having spent the day attending a business meeting in London, I had the opportunity to test out a recent purchase, namely a Vodaphone 3G Broadband Data Card. I have to say I’m really impressed with the speeds one can attain using this card - I wish I had bought it sooner! I managed to access the internet at a speed of 1.8mbps from London Victoria Train station and was able to happily surf all the way on the train home. Now I should be able to blog, check e-mails or surf from anywhere in the country. I’m off to France on holiday in a months time so will be interested to see how it works from there.

According to the Vodafone site you can achieve the following with 3G broadband:

Work faster, be more productive, with broadband speeds of up to 1.4Mbps
Rely on seamless coverage with access to Vodafone’s 3G broadband, 3G and GPRS networks
Work abroad as you do at home, with coverage in over 100 countries
Work safer with security options including our simple, highly-secure SSL VPN

The 3g card I’m using is the Huawei E620, according to their site:

Speed is the passport when entering into the 3G magic world. Brand-new HUAWEI E620 data card, not only supports HSDPA packet data service with a maximum transmission rate of 1.8MBPS, but also supports EDGE packet data service with a maximum transmission rate of 236.8kbps. The functions of wireless surfing, SMS, Voice service and Email can be instantly achieved as you wish. Meanwhile, supporting multi-band with HSDPA/WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM, HUAWEI E620 bridges the communications and enables the share of enjoyment

Vodafone offers three Pricing Plans as mentioned below. I’ve opted for the Data 250 plan at this stage and will obviously upgrade if I find that it doesn’t meet my requirements. Fortunately the local Vodafone dealer in Maidstone didn’t charge me anything for the card.

Vodafone Data 250
Card Cost - £84.26
Usage limit (UK) - 250MB
Usage limit (Abroad) - N/A
Additional charge per MB (UK) - £1.00
Monthly cost - £25.00
Vodafone Data Unlimited
Card cost - £41.70
Usage limit (UK) - None
Usage limit (Abroad) - N/A
Additional charge per MB (UK) - N/A
Monthly cost - £45.00
Vodafone Data Travel
Card cost - £41.70
Usage limit (UK) - None
Usage limit (Abroad) - 100MB
Additional charge per MB (UK) - N/A
Monthly cost - £95.00

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March 16, 2007

Daniel James Byrom @ 8 Months

It’s been 8 months since our son Daniel James Byrom was born so I thought it would be appropriate to put together a short blog entry to summarise in words, photos and videos his life and our experiences during the passed 8 months. Certainly it has been a wonderful experience for both Cindy and I but also a challenging one as I’m sure it is for most parents. A couple of days ago, he cracked crawling so now he’s exploring more than ever. In general he’s a very happy baby and fortunately he hasn’t been sick that much. He now weighs 11.10 kg so he’s helping us develop really strong arms - check out his weight chart below which shows him sitting in the 98th percentile for the last 4-5 months (the dots indicate the various intervals at which he was measured and his associated weight, click the diagram to see an enlarged picture).

I’ve created the following collage or life poster using Google Picasa

A summary of photos for the past 8 months

Here’s a video summary for the past 8 months

Daniel James Byrom Cracks Crawling, gets tickled, Learns to Crawl, Plays Ball, Drives, First Christmas, Laughs. My favourite video clip to date shows Daniel getting tickled and I’ve embedded this below, just click and play.

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March 3, 2007

Jubilee Scalextric Grand Prix

Jubilee Church in Maidstone recently held a Scalextric Grand Prix. I went along and managed to win the trophy for Best Driver shown below.

It was an afternoon of good fun for all the participants and hopefully it will become a regular event. I can’t remember the last time I won a trophy so I thought it would be worthwhile documenting this moment in history Scalextrics has certainly moved along since my teenage years with the advent of digital cars and trackside equipment.

I’ve also uploaded a short video clip of a race taking place on the track.