I do a lot of dog-and-pony public speaking on broadband. I often get asked many questions or statements like:
- My cable modem works fine, why would anyone need more speed?
- What does fiber get me that DSL or Cable HSD does not?
- Just how fast is fiber?
- What can I do with fiber that I can’t do with my current broadband?
- 640K of memory should be enough for anybody.
- Should I have more fiber in my diet?
In addition to discussions around the economic development benefits of broadband, I am often looking for methods to demonstrate the difference between different technologies. I came across a Windows application from some site in the Netherlands (it had a .nl extension) that is sort of what I’m looking for (you can dig around on the Dutch language site and eventually find an English application).
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Sid Boswell Blog, Work Broadband, Cable Modem, DSL, Fiber, Internet
So my birthday is coming up and I’m hoping to get a UMPC/Netbook. I’ve been looking at them for months.
I was torn for a while as I already have an iPhone that handles just about anything I would do on a Netbook with the exception of document editing. The iPhone, though tiny, is very nice for checking e-mail just about anywhere and sending back the short replies that we have become so familiar with since the days of clam shell pagers, Blackberries, and now iPhones (and other small e-mail devices).
Another reason I was torn for a while on the idea of a Netbook is that I have a laptop that I use for business and for business travel I usually lug it around. It’s not an aircraft carrier of a laptop (it’s not a 17 incher) but it’s still large and can’t just be chucked in a suitcase or backpack. I don’t like carrying it on personal weekend trips or even longer personal vacations but often find myself doing it just so I can keep in touch (even if I’m not “technically” going to be working while away from home.
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Sid Boswell Blog, Life, Linux Internet, Linux, Netbook, UMPC, Vacation, Windoze
Tweety
Twitter is all the rage. Is it the next facebook? The next version of social networking? Social network without wiress?
I created a twitter feed. You can follow me here, or you can simply text “follow sidboswell” to 40404. You’ll be requested to respond with a username and you’re off.
Twitter is like a combination of SMS (texting) and facebook. The basic question is “what are you doing now.” That can only get you so far. Do I really need to know that my friends are cooking bacon or driving to work. Is that valueable?
Rather, use clever updates to your twitter feed. Consider it a micro-blog. Follow some others that you find interesting and respond to them (using the @username command). I can think of 100 utilities for twitter, but for now, I’m going to stick with the social side of things. When I’ve mastered that, I may try some utilitiarian tasks in my professional life.
Until then…..
Sid Boswell Blog, Life Internet, Social Networks, tweet, Twitter
Comcast
I’m not sure when this started happening, but I can’t seem to isolate the problem and I’m assuming that Comcast is to blame. I’m running this blog on a PC in my house connected to the interWeb via Comcast residential high speed Internet. I’m keeping DNS humming along using DynDNS even though my “dynamic” IP address (via DHCP) has not changed since the Adelphia to Comcast migration (and hadn’t changed on Adelphia prior to that migration). Even before I was running this blog, I had a wiki using MediaWiki running (it still is).
Here’s what’s happening….I can add a comment or a new wiki page (which is an HTTP POST transaction) from home or remotely (outside of my LAN). However, I’m limited to the size of my comments (or wiki pages) when I’m remote (outside of my LAN). Once I get more than a paragraph or so in a comment (or a wiki page) and hit “send” my browser just hangs. Incidentally, this also happens when creating a blog post while logged in to WordPress.
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Sid Boswell Blog, Life, Linux BoswellWiki, Comcast, Internet, Linux, Ubuntu, Wordpress
Internet radio
Internet radio has come of age. For my birthday this year I asked for a slacker radio and got one from my parents. I have to admit that it’s a pretty cool toy. I haven’t bothered to subscribe as the advertisements aren’t too burdensome. We just leave the slacker player attached to my stereo and sync it every day (or so). It’s nice to have music playing all the time. It’s usually playing jazz or blues on the weekends and something livelier on weekday afternoons and evenings. Every once in a while Stacie or I run into the room where the stereo is and nix a song (Colby Caillet anyone?). It’s that interactive feature which is what’s improving Internet radio beyond the broadcast model which I’ve been listening to for years on iTunes or WinAmp (or even FM in my car….imagine that).
Slacker allows you to “favorite” a song or ban it with the touch of a button on the player or on the web player. A favorite will play more often and a banned song will no longer play on that station (like Colby Caillet). Slacker has over 10,000 stations and the possibilities are endless. Slacker has a good selection of indie stations. The drawback of Slacker is that it contains audio advertisements inserted into the stations, which you can do away with if you buy a subscription.
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Sid Boswell Blog, Life Internet, Music
