I had the choice of keeping the copper. I told them to take it out since there was so much static that the voice line was unusable anyway. The tech told me if I ever wanted to go back to copper all they had to do was come out and run a new line from the pole to the house.
That being said, voice calls over the fiber line are now crystal clear. Probably never would want to go back to the crappy copper anyway. Paying $29.95 a month for 5Mbs service, 3 time the speed of the DSL service I dropped for exactly the same price. For me, 5 Mbs is enough bandwidth as I just web surf and do e-mail, not much downloading. I could have gone up to 15 Mbs for only $10 more. I would expect Verizon to offer higher speeds at the same price in the future, this is the strategy they had with their DSL service. The data connection is way more reliable then the DSL (which I had to reboot at least 3 times a week), no drops at all for the 4 months I have had the service.
They are going to offer TV over the fiber in the next few months in my town, from what I understand they have enough bandwidth to offer hundreds of HDTV channels. I have Cablevision now and they seem to be stuck at around 15 HDTV channels, when I called to ask why they didn't have more (like Discovery HD) that just said that they are out of capacity.
The free Dlink router is OK. Been running 4 months without a reboot. Keeps up with the full speed of the fiber connection with no problems.
Man, I'm getting sick you you Mac guys going on about how much easier/faster everything is. I just plugged my USB flash drive into my old Windows 2000 machine and it mounted in less then a second. To unmount it just takes 2 clicks (same as the Mac).:)
There was some discussion that the FAA might bump up the wieght limit so the Cessna 150 would fit into the sport catagory, I guess they didn't.
Yeah, flying is ridiculously expensive. I have my PPL and got my instrument rating last year. Since then I've only flown about 10 hours in the last year. Want to go for my commercial license, but that means another 50 hours of training. With the commercial license you have to do some time in "complex" aircraft (higher horsepower, retractable landing gear, constant speed prop). Those planes general rent for around $140/hr, way too much for me right now.
I've also been toying with the idea of buying a 172, but I probably couldn't afford the insurance and tie down fees.
yeah, just bought a laptop at Compusa yesterday. They were selling for around $100 less then everyone else, so they try to make up the loss by selling me a $200 service plan. The sale person lied to me by telling me it only came with a 90 day warranty (It actually comes with a full 1 year warranty on parts and labor). When I refused to buy the service plan he pulls this attitude like he doesn't even want to sell me the computer anymore. I basically told him to f#$k off and just sell me the damn computer. I then really pissed him off by also asking for the free "PC Starter Kit" (wireless hub and a bunch of software) which cost them another $140 off their profit. Man, I thought he was going to explode! Now that I'm thinking about it I should have complained to the store manager about this guy.
I've tried changing my driving habits around town the last couple of weeks (easy on the acceleration and coasting a bit more then I usally do to red lights). I've found that this has given me a couple of MPG more in the city driving. I give a try on the cruise control for the highway and see what happens.
Even though the fuel milage isn't that great it is certainly cheaper for me to keep this car for a couple of more years then to dish out at least $25K for something newer that gets a bit better MPG. Also, outside the problem I've had with the tranmission, the car has been pretty reliable.
I have the same car, 1996 Thunderbird LX with the 4.6 liter. Get 20 MPG in the city and 25 on the highway (average speed around 75 MPH).
Love the car except for the fact that I had to have the transmission rebuilt aftr only 60,000 miles.
Try holding you cell phone within a couple of feet of the VOR/ILS, GPS, or ADF antennas on your plane one day. The transmit power of the cell phone will overwhelm the front end of your navigation radios and cause all sorts of strange indications. (Actually it's probably not a good idea to do this, you might damage the nav radios)
Remember, the navigation radios are designed to amplify and receive radio signals in the microvolt range. A cell phone can blast out a couple of watts (especially if it drops into analog mode).
Same for most consumer electronics, the RF shielding in these devices does almost nothing to prevent spurious emissions. Try putting your laptop near a AM/FM radio one day and hear how much interference it will cause. I doubt this will ever change, your laptop would probably weigh 20 lbs. with the proper amount of shielding:)
Do you really want if the smallest chance of a problem with your ILS while on final with a 300 ft. ceiling and hills on both side you?
Oh, I'm an intrument rated pilot and also an amateur radio operator.
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I had the choice of keeping the copper. I told them to take it out since there was so much static that the voice line was unusable anyway. The tech told me if I ever wanted to go back to copper all they had to do was come out and run a new line from the pole to the house. That being said, voice calls over the fiber line are now crystal clear. Probably never would want to go back to the crappy copper anyway. Paying $29.95 a month for 5Mbs service, 3 time the speed of the DSL service I dropped for exactly the same price. For me, 5 Mbs is enough bandwidth as I just web surf and do e-mail, not much downloading. I could have gone up to 15 Mbs for only $10 more. I would expect Verizon to offer higher speeds at the same price in the future, this is the strategy they had with their DSL service. The data connection is way more reliable then the DSL (which I had to reboot at least 3 times a week), no drops at all for the 4 months I have had the service. They are going to offer TV over the fiber in the next few months in my town, from what I understand they have enough bandwidth to offer hundreds of HDTV channels. I have Cablevision now and they seem to be stuck at around 15 HDTV channels, when I called to ask why they didn't have more (like Discovery HD) that just said that they are out of capacity. The free Dlink router is OK. Been running 4 months without a reboot. Keeps up with the full speed of the fiber connection with no problems.
I was thinking exactly the same thing, but you beat me too it. I still don't have a shoe phone yet either.
Man, I'm getting sick you you Mac guys going on about how much easier/faster everything is. I just plugged my USB flash drive into my old Windows 2000 machine and it mounted in less then a second. To unmount it just takes 2 clicks (same as the Mac). :)
There was some discussion that the FAA might bump up the wieght limit so the Cessna 150 would fit into the sport catagory, I guess they didn't. Yeah, flying is ridiculously expensive. I have my PPL and got my instrument rating last year. Since then I've only flown about 10 hours in the last year. Want to go for my commercial license, but that means another 50 hours of training. With the commercial license you have to do some time in "complex" aircraft (higher horsepower, retractable landing gear, constant speed prop). Those planes general rent for around $140/hr, way too much for me right now. I've also been toying with the idea of buying a 172, but I probably couldn't afford the insurance and tie down fees.
From the articles I've read planes like the Piper J3 Cub, Cessna 150, and Taylorcraft should fall under these rules. Also tons of kit planes.
yeah, just bought a laptop at Compusa yesterday. They were selling for around $100 less then everyone else, so they try to make up the loss by selling me a $200 service plan. The sale person lied to me by telling me it only came with a 90 day warranty (It actually comes with a full 1 year warranty on parts and labor). When I refused to buy the service plan he pulls this attitude like he doesn't even want to sell me the computer anymore. I basically told him to f#$k off and just sell me the damn computer. I then really pissed him off by also asking for the free "PC Starter Kit" (wireless hub and a bunch of software) which cost them another $140 off their profit. Man, I thought he was going to explode! Now that I'm thinking about it I should have complained to the store manager about this guy.
I've tried changing my driving habits around town the last couple of weeks (easy on the acceleration and coasting a bit more then I usally do to red lights). I've found that this has given me a couple of MPG more in the city driving. I give a try on the cruise control for the highway and see what happens. Even though the fuel milage isn't that great it is certainly cheaper for me to keep this car for a couple of more years then to dish out at least $25K for something newer that gets a bit better MPG. Also, outside the problem I've had with the tranmission, the car has been pretty reliable.
I have the same car, 1996 Thunderbird LX with the 4.6 liter. Get 20 MPG in the city and 25 on the highway (average speed around 75 MPH). Love the car except for the fact that I had to have the transmission rebuilt aftr only 60,000 miles.
Try holding you cell phone within a couple of feet of the VOR/ILS, GPS, or ADF antennas on your plane one day. The transmit power of the cell phone will overwhelm the front end of your navigation radios and cause all sorts of strange indications. (Actually it's probably not a good idea to do this, you might damage the nav radios) Remember, the navigation radios are designed to amplify and receive radio signals in the microvolt range. A cell phone can blast out a couple of watts (especially if it drops into analog mode). Same for most consumer electronics, the RF shielding in these devices does almost nothing to prevent spurious emissions. Try putting your laptop near a AM/FM radio one day and hear how much interference it will cause. I doubt this will ever change, your laptop would probably weigh 20 lbs. with the proper amount of shielding :)
Do you really want if the smallest chance of a problem with your ILS while on final with a 300 ft. ceiling and hills on both side you?
Oh, I'm an intrument rated pilot and also an amateur radio operator.