Tomorrow, Verizon is supposed to show up here sometime between 8 AM and 5 PM to install their FiOS Internet Service. The fiber optic link will replace my existing copper ADSL link, which I’ve had since 1998.
Category: TechTalk
Contains posts about technology issues….
Blue, Part II
A few days ago, I did a post about my adventures while installing a Bluetooth® adapter on my PC. Well, I’m glad to report that the Bluetooth interface® to the Motorola RAZR V3rTM phone is now working fine on both my desktop and laptop PCs.
So on to the next adventure…
Blue
My wife has been wanting to upgrade her cell phone to one that has a built-in camera. So I figured I would get her a new phone as an early Christmas present. So, off we went to local purveyor of fine cell phones and returned with a brand new Motorola RAZRTM V3r. The “r” in the V3r denotes the color, which is “Metallic Red.” And since the phone is Bluetooth® compatible, she also got one of those wireless speakers you see hanging on many people’s ears these days.
End of story? Well not quite….
Web 1.5
A few days back, someone asked me why I have declared HR’s halfVAST Blog as “100% Web 1.5 Guaranteed,” rather than “100% Web 2.0 Guaranteed.” Well, the short answer is that because it isn’t Web 2.0.
Here is what halfVAST.com does:
- uses xHTML 1.0 Strict as its markup language
- uses CSS to separate layout from content
- uses <table> tags for tabular data, not for layout
- uses Javascript for some functions
- uses PHP and Mysql for dynamic server-side applications and data management.
And here is what halfVAST.com doesn’t do:
- it does not fully utilize the technologies that are included in most definitions of Web 2.0, such as AJAX.
- it does not implement the Semantic Web model
- It does not have mashups in the true definition of the term.
So I use the term “Web 1.5,” as I like to think halfVAST.com is indeed chasing the Web 2.0 Brass Ring, but still needs to take many more rides on the Carousel!
Many sites are advertised as “Web 2.0” or even “Web 3.0” based on their outward appearance…but as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Sort of reminds me of the Plasma and LCD TV advertisements…some can display true HDTV out-of-the-box while others are “HDTV-Ready” and need an external tuner to provide true HDTV. You typically have to read the fine print to determine which is offered with a particular make and model.
Fantastic Machine
I got this in an email today. If you’ve never seen it, take a look. It is really impressive.
This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machine’s components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft Iowa, yes farm equipment!
It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video, but as you can see it was WELL worth the effort.
It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.
FiOS is Coming
After months of negotiations and haggling, the Town Council and Verizon finally reached agreement on the terms and conditions for deployment of FiOS throughout the town. So, for the past couple of weeks, Verizon has been busy stringing fiber-optic cable around the town.
Verizon’s FiOS offers a bundled package of services (phone, Internet and TV), as does Cox Comunications, who holds the town’s existing Cable TV franchise. It will be interesting to see what pricing structure Verizon will offer to encourage Cox’s existinig customers to switch. Cox has had a monopoly on the Cable TV service for a number of year now. Maybe a little competition will be a good thing.
I’ve had Verizon’s DSL service since February of 1999 and it has been very reliable. I consistently get the best case speeds (3Mbps incoming, 768Kbps outgoing) and outages have been few and far between. Verizon is planning on offering existing DSL subscribers an incentive to switch to FiOS, so I will probably opt to do so. The basic FIOS package offers best case speeds of 5Mbps incoming and 2Mbps outgoing, so I’ll get a llittle performance boost in the process.