Kyle, Brian, I'm talkin' to you... mainly. But if you're reading this and you follow, can you let me know what's up?

Last night at about 2am, my 'net connection shit the bed. I figure it's no different from the 7 other times I've had this same issue since getting Charter in February, so I start the process.

You know - recycle the modem, and if that doesn't work, call Charter and wait on hold for 20 minutes so they can recycle the signal. Well, that didn't work this time.

So this tech has me go to 192.168.100.1 to check on my modem's signal strength. Now, I'm also on a dynamic IP, which I think is why my connection randomly shits the bed and needs a good kick in the... signal.

Well, last night my "Receive Power Level" was pretty happy, hovering around 0 dBmV (apparently -13 to +13 is kosher). However, my "Transmit Power Level" was maxed out at 55 dBmV. Closer to 30 is definitely better. FYI, my modem is a WebSTAR DPC2100R2.

The earliest they can send a tech to check on my wires is May 1st. I don't think it's that because, without touching a thing, I am typing this right now. It's a nice gift to wake up to 'net access, let me tell you.

Currently, my "Transmit Power Level" is 49. A little earlier today it was 47.8. I have already set up to get Charter Business, which will double my 'net bill, but gives me a static IP and a static tech - one go-to guy. Which, so far I'm none too happy about because Eric seems to be clueless about this stuff.

I'm debating on whether I should go ahead as planned and trade my modem today, or buy a real modem. I'm not sure whether it's my connection speed that's the issue, which is 5M by 512K. I could upgrade to 1G by 3M at almost double the already doubled price, which might solve yet more problems... or might not.

So help me out here. What's the real problem?

Via Slashdot...

Remember this image?



Well, the whole "nom" thing has kinda become trademark of me on Twitter, thanks in part to Spin. He noms back at me and makes silly videos with silly spins on geeky video games... =P

But that would be why we get along so well... =D

I <3 Twitter

David, just before he called me from across the room, taken with my Blackberry =)

Also seen in the picture, from left to right, Bonnie (a palm plant), Aristotle (some tropical thing), and Zoey (a bromeliad). The rose stems are fake =P

Now on RGTV News:

Mumbai: Clashes with migrant workers,
UK: Flourishing sex trade,
Argentina: New elicit drug Paco epidemic,
Bolivia: Flood emergency,
Northern Africa: People and Power on the widespread terrorism,
India: Inside Story on organ trafficking racket,
UK: Two teens report on normal bodies vs. models,
Media gold rush for money in mobile technology,
UK: Testing RFID for airport baggage,
Riz Khan on love and sex with robots,
Australia says sorry to Aborigines...

If you didn't already know it, Mozilla just released Firefox 3's newest beta. It promised to be quicker, simpler, easier, and just plain sweeter - and it is! I'm writing about this now because of how astoundingly fast it has been to switch between tabs, load windows, change things around, etc =D

And this is after a full day of browsing already. The other beta release was starting to slow down a bit (after 50+ hours of continued use, usually), but this one is just S-W-I-F-T. Like a fox should be ;D

Here's Ars Technica's review of their coolest features (like moving tabs to different windows!) and here's where you can download it.

Now on RGTV News:

Denmark: Death threat to cartoonist,
Lebanon: No improvement in power cuts,
Chad: Displaced lives,
Afghanistan: Deadly winter,
Kenya: Children orphaned by violence,
UK: Campaign against use of 'mosquitoes' frequency only heard by youth,
Kosovo: One cadet's hopes for their future,
Russia: I knew Boris Yeltsin,
Egypt: Inside Story on Coptic discrimination,
One on One with maverick controversial director,
Afghanistan: Aspiring star gets to finally sing,
Scotland: Opposing a wind farm,
Riz Khan on making technology work,
UK: Cars that avoid collisions,
France: Cars that run on air,
YouTube stops Scientology...

New Word:

Twitter glitch = Twitch

Today, Dubya gave his State of the Union Address, and it looks like just about everyone on my f-list has gone political. Which is awesome =)

I've changed my mind about Obama. And this article is why. That doesn't mean I am going to vote for him, but I wouldn't be too bothered if he won.

Lifehacker has an interesting article on Applying Unix Philosophy to Productivity. Interesting mashup.

Slashdot has a bitty on stripping down Vista to bare bones.

I would've done more with this, but I've been on Twitter all day - which is how I discovered a lot of this stuff. I tell you, human hand-picking is WAY better than RSS.

Wish me luck on the Lifehack.org application =)