December 2010 onwards Virgin is to roll out a whopping 100Mb service.  At those speeds you can download a music album in five seconds, a TV show in 30 seconds and a high definition movie in approximately seven minutes!

The UK’s average broadband speed is 5.2Mb, according to Ofcom’s Broadband Speed report.

100 Mb is your typical local network speed.  So to get an idea of how quick 100Mb  is; think about the speed at which you can move files over your home or business network.

The eager amongst you will note that 100Mb is 12.5 Mega bytes a second.  2285 times faster than the old 56K modem.

The new service will range from £35 to £45 per month.  Virgin states that almost 13 million residential users will potentially have access to this new 100Mb speed as the coverage of their network continues to extend over 2011.

Yorkshire, London and the south-east are the first three areas to receive coverage, with roll out of the same expected to be completed by July 2012.

By the way I must add, I’m a Virgin Broadband Customer and look forward to this new service!  Also I think you should know that according to the research conducted by Top10.com, the slowest broadband in the UK is Canterbury street in Kent with an average speed of just 0.13Mb.

The BBC’s Dragon Den has seen its fair share of entrepreneurs and inventors in its time. If there has been one person that stands out from the crowd in my opinion – it has to be Sharon Wright-a single mother from Skunthorpe.

Sharon came to the Dragons Den seeking £50,000 investment for 15% share of her business; for her first invention the Magnamole from James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne; which she wanted to launch to the world wide market.
 

Right from the outset Sharon delivers an excellent sales pitch as she explains the background to her invention.

Sharon first realised that threading cables and wires through cavity walls and void spaces was an issue when she had a BT and a Cable Engineer out to her newly built home; who resorted to using a clothes hanger as a means to thread cables.

With obvious health and safety issues at hand and needing to assist the Engineers’ Sharon had her eureka moment. The Magnamole is tube like and relies on magnets for its safe operation to thread cables of various diameters.

Once Sharon had invented Magnamole she contacted BT who liked the concept and the prototype but wanted Sharon to prove the products viability.

Magnamole worked in all threading scenarios and saved £6.5m in downtime per year for BT!

That’s not all:

o          A two year contract with BT to supply all Engineers in the UK.

o          A two year distribution order with Schneider in the UK

o          Distribution relationship in the USA to supply all 50 states in America and Canada.

o          A letter of intent for 1 million units.

o          Magnamole costs £1 to produce and is sold for £5

o          36,000 units sold and invoiced and paid for.

o          11,500 units awaiting call off from BT.

o          UK granted patent, and international patent.

A brief summary of what the Dragons made of Sharon:

James: “I think it is ingenious”

Duncan: “A bit taken aback” “too good to be true”.

Theo: “I’d like to say you’re fabulous” “I’m about to write a cheque for £50 from my children’s hard earned inheritance”

Peter: “I think you’ve done amazingly well I really do”

(Sharon actually disagrees with Peter. Peter remarks that if the Magnamole broke occasionally, then this type of product will be purchased more than once. Sharon replies by saying that she is aiming for longevity as her next invention will require the consumer to have already purchased the Magnamole.)

Debra: “I’ve got to say you’re great”.

Sharon explains that she is at Dragons’ Den needing the expertise of the Dragons namely James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne to take her company to the next level.

For the first time ever the Dragons James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne go to the back of the room to discuss what offer to make to Sharon! Sharon sure turned the table on the dragons!
 

James and Duncan offered £80,000 for 25% equity. Sharon negotiated and reduced the final equity figure to 22.5% equity share of her company.

What an amazing woman!

The Bugatti Veyron is the fastest and indeed the most expensive road-legal car in the world with an original top speed of 267.85mph which has been deliberately electronically capped to 253.52mph and boasts a £1m price tag to match!

The Bugatti Veyron bearing the Ettore Bugatti symbol, has been developed by the German Volkswagen Group and produced by Bugatti Automobiles at their Headquarters in Chateau St. Jean in Molsheim (Alsace, France).

The car has been named after French racing Driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939, whilst racing for the original Bugatti Company. It has been named Car of The Decade 2000 – 2009 by BBC’s Top Gear.

The Car is a masterpiece of sheer excellence from the inside-out with it’s jaw-dropping specifications and technical genius. The Veyron houses an 8.0 litre W16 engine, with 16 Cylinders in four banks of four, equivalent to two narrow-angle V8 engines, mated in a W configuration. The engine is fed by 4 Turbo-Chargers and it has 10 Radiators.

The transmission is a dual-clutch direct-shift gearbox computer-controlled automatic with seven gear ratios, with magnesium paddles behind the steering wheel and a shift time of less than 150 milliseconds, built by Ricardo of England rather than Borg-Warner, who designed the six speed DSG used in the mainstream Volkswagen Group marques. The Veyron can be driven in either semi- or fully-automatic mode.

It also has permanent four wheel drive using the Haldex Traction system. It uses special Michelin PAX run flat tyres, designed specifically to accommodate the Veyron’s top speed, which reportedly cost £11,000 per set.

The Veyron produces 1,001 and metric brake horse power and a devised aerodynamic package. It was publicly showcased at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August 2010.

Bugatti’s official test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel piloted the Super Sport edition and was clocked at an average of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) on the same track, taking the title of the fastest production vehicle of all time. The 431.072 km/h mark was reached by averaging the Super Sport’s two test runs, the first topping out at 427.93 km/h (265.90 mph) and the second at 434.20 km/h (269.80 mph). The record run was certified by the German Government and the Guinness Book of World Records.

The car’s everyday top speed is listed at 350 km/h (220 mph). When the car reaches 220 km/h (140 mph), hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 9 cm (3.5 in). At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. This is the handling mode, in which the wing helps provide 3,425 newtons (770 lbf) of downforce, holding the car to the road.[9] The driver must, using a special key (the top speed key), toggle the lock to the left of his seat in order to attain the maximum (average) speed of 407 km/h (253 mph). The key functions only when the vehicle is at a stop, when a checklist then establishes whether the car and its driver are ready to enable top speed mode. If all systems are go, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut and the ground clearance, normally 12.5 cm (4.9 in), drops to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).

The Veyron’s brakes use cross drilled, radially vented carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have a much greater resistance to brake fade when compared with conventional cast iron discs. The lightweight aluminium alloy monobloc brake calipers are made by AP Racing; the fronts have eight[9] titanium pistons and the rear calipers have six pistons. Bugatti claims maximum deceleration of 1.3 g on road tires. As an added safety feature, in the event of brake failure, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) has also been installed on the handbrake.

Prototypes have been subjected to repeated 1.0 g braking from 312 km/h (194 mph) to 80 km/h (50 mph) without fade. With the car’s acceleration from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 312 km/h (194 mph), that test can be performed every 22 seconds. At speeds above 200 km/h (120 mph), the rear wing also acts as an airbrake, snapping to a 55° angle in 0.4 seconds once brakes are applied, providing an additional 0.68 g (6.66 m/s2) of deceleration (equivalent to the stopping power of an ordinary hatchback)

The Bugatti will go from 0 to 60mph in 2.4 seconds and will brake from 400 km/h (250 mph) to a standstill in less than 10 seconds, which means this Sueprcar can decelerate quicker than it can accelerate.

Jeremy Clarkson declared the Veyron “the greatest piece of engineering ever. No, I’m sorry, this is the greatest car ever made and the greatest car we will ever see in our lifetime.” James May proclaimed that the Veyron is “our Concorde moment”. To review the car, Clarkson drove from Alba, northern Italy to London whilst racing James May and Richard Hammond who were travelling in a Cessna 182 aeroplane.

A few episodes later, James May drove the Veyron at the VW test track and took it to its top speed of 407.16 km/h (253.00 mph). During the second episode of the 13th series, Richard Hammond raced the Veyron against the McLaren F1 driven by The Stig in a one mile drag race in Abu Dhabi, commenting on Bugatti’s “amazing technical achievement” versus the “non gizmo” racing purity of the F1. While the F1 was quicker off the line and remained ahead until both cars were travelling at approximately 200 km/h, the Bugatti overtook its competitor from 200 to 300 km/h, and emerged the victor.

When a road car is put in a race against an RAF Euro-fighter Typhoon with twin engines each delivering 20,000 of thrust and a top speed of over 1500mph, at 67m a pot…it quite frankly says it all.