The Zenon system may be suitable where the existing infrastructure and economy can support it, but in many places in the third world where clean water is hard to get, it is going to be too expensive to buy, install and maintain. Fortunately, there's another technolgy which has been proven successful in many of the poorest countries in the world. Biosand filters are cheap and simple, as well as effective - qualities that make them appropriate where Zenon may not be. For more details, see The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology: http://www.cawst.org/technology/watertreatment/fil tration-biosand.php/
I've been using Concentric for almost a year. I ended up going with them because at the time my local telco, Ameritech, wasn't offering DSL, and Americast, their cable unit, didn't (and still doesn't) have the infrastructure to offer cable modems. Covad provides the back end unit at the telco, but that's transparent to me.
It took about 6 weeks from first contact to a live connection. The biggest delay was getting Ameritech to bring in a new line to the house, of course. It turned out that so many people in the neighborhood had 2nd or 3rd phone lines that they had to upgrade their hardware to accomodate any more.
I've encountered only one unscheduled outage this whole time, and it lasted just a couple hours on a weekend evening. Scheduled outages come every month or two, usually in the middle of the night for a few minutes. They always send out a warning a few days ahead of time, and they've never caused a problem for me.
Tech support quality? Can't really say since I haven't needed it. When I signed up, they provided straightforward instructions on configuring my system, and it's been very solid ever since.
Cost? Since my employer pays for it, it wasn't a factor in selection, but I pay $89/month for 4 static IP addresses.
I don't own any stock in or work for Concentric, Covad or Ameritech/SBC.
Graffiti vs. Jot Palm vs. Pocket PC. I run Jot on my ancient, primitive Palm Professional. It is an excellent replacement for Graffiti. I installed it after I started to wear out the tiny space under the display screen, and I was getting frustrated with how picky Graffiti was. Jot was easier to learn and much more forgiving of my sloppy penmanship. Jot lets you use the entire display area, which it divides into lower case alpha, numeric and upper case alpha on the "border" between the two. I have to wonder why Palm didn't license Jot as the an upgrade or replacement to be positioned as the "next generation" Grafitti.
I think the Onion was on to something with their selection: Death http://www.theonion.com/onion3546/death.html Death keeps very busy creating the events, both man-made (the Balkans, suburban high schools), and natural (earthquakes, hurricanes, mud slides, etc.) that gives Time a new cover story every week. You'd think they would show some appreciation.
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The Onion doesn't even have to write new material to cover this: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27577
The Zenon system may be suitable where the existing infrastructure and economy can support it, but in many places in the third world where clean water is hard to get, it is going to be too expensive to buy, install and maintain. Fortunately, there's another technolgy which has been proven successful in many of the poorest countries in the world. Biosand filters are cheap and simple, as well as effective - qualities that make them appropriate where Zenon may not be. For more details, see The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology: http://www.cawst.org/technology/watertreatment/fil tration-biosand.php/
I've been using Concentric for almost a year. I ended up going with them because at the time my local telco, Ameritech, wasn't offering DSL, and Americast, their cable unit, didn't (and still doesn't) have the infrastructure to offer cable modems. Covad provides the back end unit at the telco, but that's transparent to me. It took about 6 weeks from first contact to a live connection. The biggest delay was getting Ameritech to bring in a new line to the house, of course. It turned out that so many people in the neighborhood had 2nd or 3rd phone lines that they had to upgrade their hardware to accomodate any more. I've encountered only one unscheduled outage this whole time, and it lasted just a couple hours on a weekend evening. Scheduled outages come every month or two, usually in the middle of the night for a few minutes. They always send out a warning a few days ahead of time, and they've never caused a problem for me. Tech support quality? Can't really say since I haven't needed it. When I signed up, they provided straightforward instructions on configuring my system, and it's been very solid ever since. Cost? Since my employer pays for it, it wasn't a factor in selection, but I pay $89/month for 4 static IP addresses. I don't own any stock in or work for Concentric, Covad or Ameritech/SBC.
Try Amazon - just use the 7 click method if you have a problem with patents on browser buttons. I got my copy 10 days ago. It shipped within 24 hours.
Graffit vs. Jot IS NOT EQUAL TO Palm vs. Pocket PC. (not equal sign lost in posting process)
Graffiti vs. Jot Palm vs. Pocket PC. I run Jot on my ancient, primitive Palm Professional. It is an excellent replacement for Graffiti. I installed it after I started to wear out the tiny space under the display screen, and I was getting frustrated with how picky Graffiti was. Jot was easier to learn and much more forgiving of my sloppy penmanship. Jot lets you use the entire display area, which it divides into lower case alpha, numeric and upper case alpha on the "border" between the two. I have to wonder why Palm didn't license Jot as the an upgrade or replacement to be positioned as the "next generation" Grafitti.
I think the Onion was on to something with their selection: Death http://www.theonion.com/onion3546/death.html Death keeps very busy creating the events, both man-made (the Balkans, suburban high schools), and natural (earthquakes, hurricanes, mud slides, etc.) that gives Time a new cover story every week. You'd think they would show some appreciation.