FIOS Update!

I think I may have finally broke through the bureaucracy! I made yet another (I can’t accurately say but I would guess like my 10th call) to Verizon today and actually got someone who had a clue! After about 10 minutes of playing with addresses in the computer we came up with the fact that 21870 Nutrir Way was listed as QUALIFIED… For anyone who hasn’t clicked on the image yet…Nutrir way is a small driveway that dead-ends and doesn’t really exist (except on maps). Our property fills in the gap between Corvo/Nutrir and Canon.

So anyway in the Verizon computer we changed our ‘service address’ to 21870 Nutrir and now we can order FIOS. I’m supposed to get a call back tomorrow with the install date! FINALLY!

Crap, now you all know where I live…all I can say is BEWARE OF FIBER DOGS!

UPDATE 3/24/05: Installers will be here April 1st (ok maybe they are kidding me, but I got a confirmation#)!

UPDATE #2 3/27/05: While house sitting for my parents the FIOS installers came HERE to check some stuff out for their installation and noticed the same name, talked to him and helped him with the exact location of our house. He confirmed that now that he knows exactly where it is he would survey it on the way out [of the canyon] and will be there on the 1st!!!

UPDATE #3 3/30/05: The linemen came out today and ran the actual fiber, I took a couple shots of it. Overhead wire connection, extra corning cable and the connector (even bigger version).

UPDATE #4 4/1/05: So Verizon flaked…funny joke…haha I’m really laughing. Damn bastards…rescheduled for Monday. I wish they just would follow their own schedule.

G-Tech Pro Competition Road Race Screen

I love cars, computers, and photography. So anytime I can mix all 3, its a good excuse for a post. Although this news is easily 6 months old, (its practically sacrilegious to post something this old on the net) I only look for this sort of firmware upgrade anually. So it would seem that Tesla Electronics has finally has posted their long promised road-race upgrade to the popular G-Tech Pro Competition performance meter. I haven’t had a chance to review it in action, but the feature list seems decent. It boasts 90mins of data logging at 20 samples/sec and 180mins at 10/sec. This is in contrast to the much higher resolution drag mode where it only stores 300 seconds of runs. Since you can always upload the data later to your PC, this is plenty of storage. They also added other misc. features such as the ability to store setups for up to 4 vehicles and improved documentation.

I love mine, my only major complaint is the display is totally un-viewable at night. The backlight was never very good to begin with and has deteriorated to absolute crap over the years. Mine is an older ‘blue’ backlit model, maybe the newer ‘orange’ models are better.

Anyway, it was another good excuse to take a shot with my macro lens.

[WARNING REALLY BIG IMAGE]

Sony G400 vs. Dell 2001fp

I’m a big fan of macro and micro photography. Alas, my 100MM macro lens is one of my favorites. Once in a while a camera manufacture will make a truly great lens, the Pentax-F 100MM F2.8 lens (and the FA version as well) is one of them. When used on a 2/3rd format digital its equivalent to a 150mm macro. So I was playing with my nifty Pentax *ist DS the other day and took a picture of one of my monitors just for the heck of it. So then I felt compelled to compare it to my LCD. Wow, I knew there was a huge difference (LCD is obviously sharper), but its a huge difference. You can easily make out the Trinitron mask on the Sony G400. The LCD is a Dell 2001fp and the pixels are nice and clear in the picture.

Anyway, I just thought I would share.

FIOS Availability

So I went a little crazy and put in a bunch of my neighbors address in to the Verizon FIOS availability form. Mix in a little Photoshop and you have what is driving me mad. FIOS is available in what appears to be completely random locations.

The picture is a link to a map of my neighborhood. Click it…

Ok, explain that! I’ve thought about it and its either 1. random (maybe to stage the workload?), 2. computer error or 3. the bundles of fiber not hooked up at the CO have no particular order. What ever it is…its driving me a bit insane…

I’ve called and the CSR filled out a engineering report, but I don’t have any high hopes of that changing things.

Inside an FDH

A few new exchanges seem to be up and running, bringing the total now to seven major exchanges servicing different areas. I’m sure Topanga will be considered part of the Los Angeles, CA exchange. There are now plenty of speed tests of everything from 5/2 all the way to 30/5.

Tampa, FL - tampfl.fios.verizon.net
Los Angeles, CA - lsanca.fios.verizon.net
Philadelphia, PA - phlapa.fios.verizon.net
Washington, DC - washdc.fios.verizon.net
New York, NY, - ny325.fios.verizon.net
Dallas, TX - dllstx.fios.verizon.net
Arlington, VA - arlington.fios.verizon.net

Another site has some nice pics of fiber being installed in Redondo Beach

In other news, my father has been offered FIOS and has an install date. So, I’m a bit jealous, but not entirely surprised as he is much closer to the CO. I’ll have pictures and full coverage of the install which I believe is set for around the 22nd of february.

108nm Al

I was recently reading Defense Tech and read a small interesting post that made a big impact. Nano-Explosives…

I hadn’t considered the implications and relative ease for nano-tech in the explosives realm. Unlike many of the far reaching nano-technologies (tiny robots to fix cells, etc…) the structures for nano-explosive are orders of magnitude less complicated. The implications for high-energy radiation free explosives are nothing short of staggering. The blog link points to a news article on Technology Review where they discuss the technology in a bit more detail.

Researchers can greatly increase the power of weapons by adding materials known as superthermites that combine nanometals such as nanoaluminum with metal oxides such as iron oxide, according to Steven Son, a project leader in the Explosives Science and Technology group at Los Alamos.

I’ll summarize a bit, 1000x the chemical reaction time to current high explosives. If you know anything about explosives, you know that its the velocity that counts and this is some serious improvement.

Here is an older but interesting look at the topic from Feb 2, 2002 from Small Times, a look at the Los Alamos Team on the bottom of this link, and some interesting electron microscope shots from Texas Tech.