riskinit.com » Technology

FIOS 35 Down a not so 35 Up (maybe?)

jriskin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:43:30 +0000

DSL Reports Speedtest

So got my new 35/35 service running and apparently we’re getting close to the maximum upload. Verizon had called me on the upgrade date and told me that I would only get 29mbit upload because the ONT at the house wasn’t capable of more. He offered to send a tech out to replace it, so I said “sure”. The tech came out today and basically said he wasn’t aware of any speed difference on the other ONT’s. He called his boss and he said the guy I talked to was misinformed because the 611/612 ONT’s are all pretty much the same (just different port configuration and MOCA support) and won’t go any faster than my 610.

The second thing he said was they only guarantee 75% of the claimed speed (which is 26.25mbit) so there really isn’t much of an option at this point. I guess I’ll be satisfied for now, but I’m a bit miffed that they said they could fix it and now they can’t or won’t now.

I just wished the sales/service people who called you would actually not make promises they can’t keep. I think they continue to have a shortage of highly qualified guys.
I tried to do some searching for the AFC AccessMax SFH ONT 610X specifications, but I couldn’t find any useful data.

My old gallery of my FIOS Installation in case anyone is interested.

UPDATE 1/22/10:So my wife just reported that Verizon called back and DID claim it was an equipment problem and will be sending techs back on saturday to fix it (shaking head). Big company communication fun, I have no idea, I’ll update again Saturday.

Verizon FIOS The good, the bad and the ugly. Wifi joke…

jriskin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:37:33 +0000

This is FIOS. This is BIG.

The good news is the latest bundles as of 1/17/2010 while not great for everyone, are a good upgrade for me. Something changed last month and my bill was $10 up so it all coincides well for a change of plan. I’ll end up saving a few bucks a month while getting 35/35mbit service (up from 20/20) and a few extra FIOS TV channels. The bad news (and its not new news) is the Wi-fi hotspot joke they claim you get.

“Verizon Wi-Fi is not available for PDAs, phones, desktop PCs or Macs.”
In fact 64-bit Windows need not apply as well. It is ONLY available for 32-bit vista/xp. This is just ridiculous, wifi access is built on all open standards. It’s purely a marketing/business decision to alienate all of the PDAs, phones, Macs, etc…

It amazes me how Verizon can wave the Network Neutrality Flag and yet at the same time not offer any access to all to various devices. So, its network neutrality, as long as you’re the type of device we think deserves it.

The ugly? Well, the $1.99 mysterious fee is still an unknown factor and ETF’s have doubled on both FIOS and Wireless up to $350 and $360 respectively. FIOS prorates at $15/month and wireless is oddly $10/month which will leave a hefty chunk even at the end.

They continue to be my most hated/loved company. FIOS and FIOS TV are unparalleled, the wireless on the other hand? Well, lets just say I won’t be a quad-play subscriber any time soon.

Busy, Delicious, iPhone, Misc…

jriskin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:40:25 +0000

So I’ve been busy updating my programming skills by learning and creating an app for the iPhone. So I’ve not had a lot of time to actually post anything for awhile. But, I have started using del.icio.us as a way to post some interesting links that I don’t have the time to write about or post here…I was thinking of using the ‘press this’ thing here, but, that’s just going to create a bunch of posts and I’d prefer to keep some sort of quality standards.

So for fun random links I find interesting…

http://delicious.com/jriskin

TinEye

jriskin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:00:19 +0000

Tineye.com

I almost didn’t want to share this site with others because it’s so great! I’ve been using it since the early beta and it went public sometime earlier this year. Tineye is a ‘reverse’ image search. So you feed it an image and then it finds that image on other sites. But, its even better, it will still work if the image is cropped, sized etc… I’ll let them describe it…

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.

They have indexed over 1billion images and I’m sure that number is going to grow rapidly.

Example: Here is an image of britney and all the other possible sources.

Uses:

Identification: Can’t figure out who someone is? Often with a few links to other areas, their name will be mentioned, or in the file name, or in the other images.
Validation: Is someone seem too good to be true on that dating site? Suspec that myspace profile is fake?
Copyright: Is someone using your image?
Quality: Need a larger source image for your wallpaper, print project, or artwork? Maybe you just want to see a larger/cleaner image from some blog post that has been reblogged so many times all you can see is the thumbnail.

Go check it out, it’s one of my favorite new sites of 2009.

Top Gear misses the point…

jriskin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:36:34 +0000

Top Gear

Top Gear is by far the best television show about cars ever aired. They can be quite opinionated and occasionally wrong, but they do their best from their perspective. Today’s episode 12×07 unfortunately, in my opinion, they got it wrong. While they loved the performance and looks of the Tesla roadster they made it clear they believe fuel cell powered electric vehicles (FCEV) are superior to battery electric vehicles (BEV).

My Gripes…

1. They implied the fuel for recharging battery electric vehicles is from “dirty” power generation and that the alternative is a small wind powered recharger that would take 600hours to charge it.

They neglected to mention that any hydrogen produced would be powered by the same “dirty” power generation that any electric vehicle would be recharged by. They also neglected to mention that in doing so would require more power and would be less efficient. Meaning more pollution with hydrogen than battery electric.

2. They also implied that owners would be charging their vehicles with a “normal 13 amp” outlet which would take 16 hours (or 600 with the silly windmill).

They neglected to mention the Tesla is designed to be recharged with a much higher output connection included with the vehicle that charges it in 3.5 hours. That’s a massive difference and likely a dealbreaker for many people if they didn’t know the truth. Also, battery technology is improving at an incredible rate at the moment. There are already batteries from several manufacturers that will be able to be recharged in under 15 minutes.

3. They also complained about the price and went on to explain how hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles would NOT cost more than a “normal car” and “possibly less”.

Now with the US exchange rate as it is, the Tesla is overpriced, but the overall implication is that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be cheaper than battery electric vehicles. As far as I know there is no evidence that shows this will happen. Hydrogen fuel cells are still a pipe dream and battery electric vehicles while expensive now are at least available now and very likely could be cheaper than hydrogen fuel cells when they first arrive 5-10 years from now.

4. The most minor gripe was with the range. They mentioned they only got 55 miles on their track vs. the 200mile rated range.

That’s an unrealistic expectation. The Bugatti Veyron holds 26.4 US Gallons and at its rated 14MPG it will go 371 miles. But at top speed it will run out in 12 minutes or 50 miles. But is this fair to say it only goes 50 miles? Obviously, I chose an extreme example but I also believe driving around the Top Gear test track is also an extreme example.

So why do I like BEV more than FCEV? It’s the EFFICIENCY stupid!

Power generation -> Liquid Hydrogen -> Electric Motor = 17%*
Power generation -> Gas Hydrogen -> Electric Motor = 22%*
Power generation -> Battery -> Electric Motor = 66%*
Power generation -> Capacitor -> Electric Motor =79%**

*From a report FROM the European Fuel Cell Forum.
** Assuming 20% better for not losing anything in the batteries.

Even assuming those numbers are a little biased towards BEVs, no matter how you look at it BEVs are at least twice as efficient at a minimum. They both require a power source so you can’t argue about the source of power. But BEVs requires half the power! So that’s twice as good in my opinion.

Tesla Motors

I also don’t like to argue about distribution because both of them require infrastructure upgrades, but in my personal opinion it’s much easier to add high-powered (<15mins) charging stations at existing refilling stations and medium powered (several hours) outlets at homes. Remember you won’t often need a full charge at refilling station. Most of the time if you run low in electric vehicle you probably only need a quick under five-minute charge to get you where you need to go. Normal charging will happen at home. In the rare circumstance of long range driving, you’ll probably actually appreciate a 15 minute recharge every few hundred miles just to stretch your legs out.

The other thing which is great about a 5-15 minute recharge is the economic benefits to the stations. Remember most refilling stations don’t make substantial profits from selling fuel. They make their profits from selling ancillary items such as cigarettes and snacks. If you’re there 5-15 minutes you’re going to buy more on average.

The two points they legitimately make are that
1. Batteries are too expensive at the moment.
2. The batteries in the Tesla make it weigh too much.

I believe both of these problems will be solved with evolutionary (not revolutionary) improvements in battery chemistry. I can only hope someone from Top Gear actually reads this and might be swayed in the right direction…

Updates:
Wired chimes in…
Jalopnik Comments…
Tree Hugger weighs in…

P.S. Before anyone thinks I don’t get Top Gear, I do. It really is one of my favorite programs. They are hardly fair to ANYONE and for an Electric & American *gasp* car they really did give it a positive (for Top Gear) review. But, for some reason or another, I just wish they would have added in a few counter points and then when they oversold the Hydrogen thing…well…that was the final straw!

Energy, Transportation and Why I hate Hydrogen

jriskin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:17:57 +0000

Hydrogen Is Overhyped

There are at least three basic parts to powering a motor vehicle.

1. An energy source
2. An energy carrier
3. A motivation system

Energy Source
A natural resource that we can exploit in order to generate work. Without trying to get too cosmic, all energy sources in the universe that we are aware of are finite and will eventually run out. It is important that we choose our energy sources carefully in order to not pollute the environment (heat, carbon, radiation, etc…) and to not run out.
Examples: solar power, geothermal power, fossil fuels, wind, hydroelectric, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, etc.

Energy Carrier
A method that allows stored energy to be moved from its energy source to its destination where work needs to be done.
Examples: electrochemical conversion (batteries and fuel cells), fossil fuels, flywheel, polonium, the electric grid, etc.

Motivation system
A device that turns energy into kinetic work.
Examples: electric motor, internal combustion engine, pneumatic pump, turbine engine, rocket engine, etc.

Fossil fuels and radioactive materials such as uranium are somewhat unique in that they are both an energy source and an energy carrier. The disadvantage of using these sorts of resources are obvious. They will run out sooner than later (10′s or 100′s of years vs. millions’s of years for other resources), they often cause pollution and they often cause political turmoil because of their geospatial location.

Hydrogen falls into the second category, it is an energy carrier. Many people who are used to dealing with fossil fuels often mistakenly believe Hydrogen is an energy source. Also unfortunately, since fuel cells operate most efficiently with pure hydrogen and because there are virtually no environmental byproducts when using Hydrogen it has been identified and championed as the future energy carrier. But, it’s a really terrible energy carrier. It requires an energy source to produce, energy for transportation to move it locally, and energy and expensive containers to store it.

Hydrogen is the LEAST dense element on the periodic table. There are no other elements with a lower density, why would we choose this as the ultimate way to store energy?

Regardless of which energy source we use, what we need is a technology that can store energy with very little loss, in a compact package, repeatedly, and with low or no environmental impact.

Energy Carrier Candidates

Kinetic energy – flywheels, springs, etc.
Burning liquid fuels – fossil fuels
Burning gaseous fuels – fossil fuels, hydrogen
Electro-chemical conversion:
- Batteries – NiCd, NiMh, LiFePO4, Limn2o4, Licoo2, Lipf6, etc…
- Fuel cells – hydrogen
Radioactive decay – uranium, polonium, etc…
Pure electricity – capacitors

Best Long Term Solution
If we are to pick a technology with the most promise and the most long-term benefits personally I think capacitors are the way to go. Little or no losses, extremely high power (how much energy you can use per unit of time), quick charging (<5mins with the right hookup), virtually unlimited cycles (long lasting), and density on par with 2x modern lithium ion (think 450+ mile range). EEStor claims to have ultra capacitors with the density equivalent to twice lithium-ion batteries. If this is true it is truly game changing.

Best Short Term Solution
If we want to pick a solution for the interim to improve over fossil fuels I’d have to choose batteries. Fuel cells are merely batteries that instead of recharging (storing chemical energy) they re-fuel the cells with additional liquid chemical fuel and the cell is merely a catalyst (hence fuel-cell). Unfortunately, they are not ready for commercial production and sales yet. So it has to be standard chemical batteries for the time being. In the past 5-10 years there have been huge technological improvements in lithium-based batteries. There are at least half a dozen commercially viable lithium-based battery chemistries available today that can charge quickly, last much longer, are much safer, and are cheaper than traditional lithium cobalt.

Additional Considerations
It is more than likely that there will be a mix of technologies used for various modes of transportation for the foreseeable future (hybrids, biodiesel, CNG, ethanol, pure EV’s, etc). Hydrogen is often touted as some sort of panacea energy solution when in fact it’s expensive to produce, difficult to store, and difficult to use. Existing oil companies and automobile manufacturers who have vested interests in the status quo like hydrogen because of these reasons. It favors the usage of fossil fuels for the time being and it also favors the same large companies who will build the large infrastructures needed to support the hydrogen economy.

Elephant in the Refilling Station

jriskin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:08:33 +0000

Energy storage technologies are improving. There is no denying that. Whether it’s batteries, ultra-capacitors, or kinetic energy systems (flywheels) improvements are being made across the board. With that, every few weeks or so someone says “my energy storage will allow electric vehicles to be charged in under X minutes” (Typically 5-10). This is usually followed up with something about how the electrical grid will never be able to handle that and how you could never do that at home.

I also periodically run into someone who starts talking about swapping batteries out of the cars for freshly charged ones. This is obviously being pursued most famously by Shai Agassi’s Better Place. As intriguing as this may sound for some people it is totally unrealistic for the consumer marketplace. Besides all of the obvious possible ways to try and cheat the system for profit, the practical limitations are also overwhelming. Imagine how many batteries a refueling station would need as technology improves with multiple chemistries and vehicles of various sizes need different capacities and voltages. Packaging alone will not allow quick replacement for all vehicles. Thus this technology will ultimately be limited to fleet vehicles.

Does anyone really believe people are all going to want to drive the same vehicle or even the same line of vehicles or even vehicles that can only have batteries exchanged from the same company?

The reality is this, batteries will charge faster, the power for these batteries will come from the grid. Most homes will not be equipped to do fast charging. So where will it come from?

Let’s see, who has the existing real estate, the resources for the necessary equipment, and the economic incentive? Duh… Refilling stations.

We already know the majority of income from existing refilling stations comes from ancillary products (cigarettes, snacks, etc.). Stations will slowly allocate additional space for charging electric vehicles using existing parking areas and other under-utilized space. The local electricity providers will work with them on meeting requirements of both maximum draw and potentially energy returned to the system at peak needs. This could potentially also help offset costs of on-site storage of electric energy. Whether they use Kinetic, Capacitor or Batteries, refilling stations will have the ability to store this energy on site and dispense it to vehicles as needed. They could even have electric signs that say things like “Full charge* in 7 Minutes for $5!” (*and tiny print for 30kw maximum [insert additional legal disclaimers here]) that changes based on their current available energy.

Electric vehicles will not appear all at once out of thin air. Most arguments for electrical grid issues make the assumption that all vehicles will need to charge off the existing grid all at once and today. the reality is, it will take years for the vehicles to get on the roads, years of standards committees working out the system ( charging rates, voltages, connectors, etc.) and years for the filling stations to upgrade. No, they will probably not charge in under five minutes day one, no it won’t be free, and yes you will still be able to charge slower at home.

Electric vehicles are coming, fast charging stations are not going to be free and they will be available at refilling stations. It’s so obvious that no one seems to say it…

Update: A prime example, at least one intelligent commenter pointed out if you charge at home you actually SAVE time because you don’t have to spend time at the gas station.

Update 10/2: According to this study by the US Department of Energy If 84% of the cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs in the US were Plug-in Hybrids they could be supported using the EXISTING generating, transmission, and distribution capacity (if vehicles are charged during the least used hours at night). This would also result in a 27% reduction overall of the total greenhouse gasses in the US.

HTPC Gone Wild

jriskin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:59:14 +0000

HTPC Setup

So I thought it might be a bright idea to illustrate what has to be one of the more over complicated HTPC (Home Theatre PC aka. PVR, Tivo thing, etc…) setups ever, mine… Ok, probably not, I’m sure plenty of people have crazier setups. But, it does surprise me how reliable it has been, even with so many computers involved. So how does it work? Magic! Ok, maybe not but something like this…

SageTV controls most of it. But, after trying numerous 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire) cards I never managed to get Windows XP, the Scientific-Atlanta SA-3250HD STB, and Charter Cable’s crappy signal to get along. Magically (Apple did create the standard for 1394) it just works without anything special on a Mac. So, FireWire is plugged in to the Mac, Sage TV controls it, all HD and digital channels go through the Mac and get recorded to the main media server/raid as raw MPEG-2 TS (transport streams). SD signals get recorded directly to the RAID through a Hauppauge PVR150 in the Windows box. All channels SD and HD are controlled through the 1394 (no infrared blaster silliness).

The great thing about this set is you get pure digital recording and playback all the way to the display. Digital cable -> Firewire digital files -> HDMI TV. The only other systems that work like this are DirectTV TiVo, some dedicated cable/sat. company PVR’s and Cable Card based systems. Unfortunately, after many years of unencrypted goodness, earlier this year Charter turned on 5C encryption on all HD pay channels. Note 5C is the digital encryption for the HDMI not the encryption that protects which channels you get which I believe is DigiCipher 2.

So what does the future hold? FIOS TV and the Hauppauge HD PVR Model 1212 likely. Unfortunately, this may mean losing pure digital recording/playback. But, I would regain recording of all HD channels.

The future is more likely the Internet and Bit Torrent. It’s really too bad for the studios that downloading bit torrent TV shows are often higher quality, more convenient and let you build collections as compared to the ‘legitimate’ offerings (Hulu, NBC online etc… and even recording SD/HD TV from cable/sat). But, this is a rant for another time…

Update: For completeness I added my parents Mac Mini to the full diagram (click the image), it runs Front Row Apple’s not so good PVR software, its slow over the Internet, but I believe that might be something about Samba. She can watch movies via the remote mount to my RAID and I put aliases in her Movies folder in her home directory.

Mega Battery Technology Wrap Up

jriskin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:24:58 +0000

A123 Battery

So, I recently ran into this article called “New Report Card Grades for the 12 Leading Lithium-ion Battery and Ultracapacitor Development Companies in the World”. Yes, I know, ridiculously long title… anyway this particular article was doing something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time which is consolidate all the battery technology advances I’ve been keeping track of in one easy to read blog post. Well, maybe not so easy to read but at least consolidated in one place. This particular article was written purely from a investment standpoint, which isn’t exactly what I had in mind. There are certainly benefits of looking at these companies from a financial perspective but I’m more interested in the technology.

Standard lithium chemistry batteries have some obvious issues. In the past battery technology (lead acid, nickel metal hydride, nickel cadmium, etc.) was too heavy and/or too bulky to be appropriate for modern vehicles. These days the current lithium chemistry that is used in a variety of consumer products is well within the range of powering a wide variety of vehicles. The problem is there are a few drawbacks with the current chemistry:

Limited charge speed
Limited current capacity
Safety
Cost

The good news is that these problems are being handled by advanced new lithium chemistries.

Section 1: Advanced Lithium Chemistries

Valence technologies
http://www.valence.com/
Technology: Lithium Phosphate
Claims: “Safe, rugged and reliable technology with a cycle life 3-4 times that of lithium cobalt” they claim after 1400 cycles at 115f (its maximum operating temperature) it will retain 80% (90% at 73F) of its capacity. They also claim a full charge in roughly 2 hours. This sounds like a solid technology for the average commuter car. Safe, long lasting, and reasonable recharge rate.

7/10

Boston power
http://www.boston-power.com
Technology: Lithium Manganese and softshell aluminum cases
claims: ”

Longer life – up to three years of everyday charging
Faster charging – up to 40% capacity in just 10 minutes, 80% in 30 minutes
Safer to use – multiple, redundant safety features mean better protection for the user
Better for the planet – awarded Nordic Ecolabel for environmental sustainability”

Unfortunately, there are no obvious data sheets on their products on the webpage. So, there is really no way to make a real comparison against the other products are. Again though, they seem to be squarely targeting EV’s. while these potentially have much better recharge time, the lack of real product information makes them lose a point.

6/10

A123 Systems
http://www.a123systems.com/
Technology: Lithium Nanophosphate
Claims: “At A123Systems we have developed breakthrough, patented Nanophosphate(TM) lithium ion battery technology that provides engineers and application developers significantly higher power, an inherently safer chemistry, and an order of magnitude longer life.”

From their data sheets, they claim 80% capacity at 800 cycles at 140f and 95% at 77F! The great news about these guys if they are shipping actual real products today! Both Black & Decker and DeWalt have lines of power tools that use A123 batteries. The world’s fastest” EV powered motorcycle the “kilacycle” is powered by their batteries. The current major downside is cost and lack of large cell availability. They advertise a small kit with 6 26650 cells for $110 each, but this is hardly a scalable solution. On a side note, its apparently cheaper to harvest them from power tool battery backs 3rd parties sell to the public.

7/10

Altair NanoTechnology
: “Nanosafe batteries”
http://www.altairnano.com/”
Technology: Nano-structured lithium titanate spinel oxide (LTO)

Claims:

No operational safety issues
Three times the power of existing batteries
A one-minute recharge
High cycle life–10,000 to 15,000 charges vs. 750 for existing batteries
The capability to operate in extreme temperatures: -22* to 480*F
Low life-cycle costs

While Altair batteries have a specific energy (~95wh/kg) higher than NiMH and similar to that of LiFePO4 batteries (in other words better than NiCad or lead acid but not as good as state of the art lithium-ion), they’ve made significant breakthroughs in specific power (available current). They make some bold claims that if they can deliver on would be fairly disruptive, including 10-100x watts/kg, the fastest recharge time, the most cycle life, the widest range of temperatures, and with total safety. They are closer to ultra capacitors in specifications in any other battery in this group. Pricing? Unclear…

8/10

Toshiba
“Supercharge SCiB”
Toshiba Press Release
Technology: unknown
Claims:

Excellent safety
Current performance equivalent to an electric double layer capacitor
5 minute recharge (to 90%)
3,000 to 5,000 cycles
Low temperature use -30*C

Sounds very familiar doesn’t it? While not exactly as extreme as Altair is claiming, Toshiba is claiming much of the same advances. Which makes me highly suspicious they are either 1. using similar technology or 2. Sourcing technology from Altair.

“According to a report in the Nikkei, Toshiba will begin producing 150,000 batteries a month at a Saku, Nagano Prefecture, factory. It will shift to mass production by 2010 with plans to make 600,000 cells for hybrid and electric vehicles and 400,000 batteries for forklifts and other industrial equipment.”
— green car Congress
Green Car Congress

“Toshiba…19,440 kWh a year…”

“For comparison A123 is likely producing 40,000 in the eye in 2007. Altair is likely doing less than 3,500 kWh in 2007.”

9/10

ElectroVaya
http://www.electrovaya.com
Technology: “Lithium Ion SuperPolymer” (Lithiated Manganese Oxide)
Claims:

40-60 percent higher energy density compared to LiFePO4
Comparable safety characteristics to LiFePO4

This Canadian company was founded in 2000 and makes a variety of lithium-based chemistry batteries. They seem to be going down the lithium manganese path as opposed to the lithium phosphate path. I don’t know a lot about them but I will start keeping my eye on them.
?/10

Generic Chinese LiFePO4
Claims:

Safe
Reasonable density 100wh/kg typical
Decent temperature ranges
Typically claim 1000-4000 cycles
1C-10C of available current

There are at least a dozen chinese companies building and selling LiFePO4 batteries. While most of them are still fairly pricey, a few of them are bringing costs down to the point where real EV’s are possible. I believe this is the most likely way consumers will see electric vehicles in the short-term. Major auto manufacturers will probably drag their feet and ignore these companies until the market pressure forces them to play their hand.

8/10

Section 2: The holy Grail… Ultra capacitors

While batteries store chemical energy and make it available as electricity. The disadvantage of this is that the chemical reactions necessary for rechargeable batteries are limited in the speed at which they can happen, in the number of times the reaction can be repeated and reversed, and in the shelf life of the chemicals. In contrast a capacitor stores its energy by putting electrons between a pair of conductors, there is no chemical reaction. This means they could potentially last forever and they can charge and discharge at very high rates. in the past, the problem with capacitors in general was capacity. Even the last generation of super capacitors were only capable of 1000th the capacity of the lithium-ion battery.

EESTOR
Ultracapacitors
EEStor Wiki
Technology: barium titanate coated with aluminum oxide and glass capacitors
Claims:

Nontoxic and non-hazardous
Non-explosive
For a 52 kWh unit, an initial production price of $3,200, falling to $2,100 with mass production is projected.[6] This is half the price per stored watt-hour as lead-acid batteries, and potentially cheap enough to use to store grid power at off-peak times for on-peak use, and to buffer the output from intermittent power sources such as wind farms.
No degradation from charge/discharge cycles
4-6 minute charge time for a 336 pound (152 kg), 2005 cubic inch (33 L), 52 kilowatt hour (187 MJ), 31 farad, 3500 volt unit, assuming sufficient cooling of the cables.
A self-discharge rate of 0.1% per month

Queue up EESTOR!
Claims to have Capacitors with storage density of 280 wh/kg. typical LiION is 100-200 wh/kg and in 10 times typical lead acid. In real-world terms this means you could build a vehicle that would get 4-500 miles per charge and recharge in roughly 5 minutes.

Secrecy and “adjusted schedules” has caused some concern of vaporware. On the other hand, defense contractor Lockheed-Martin has recently signed and exclusive deal for defense applications. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see consumer applications for awhile simply so that the US Military can get a good multi-year jump on building new technology around such game changing energy systems.

1 point off for my gut telling me its not going to be this cheap, 2 points off for lack of any real products.

7/10

Conclusion:

Pb (lead) – 30wh/kg, 300-500 cycles, can’t be discharged to 0%
NiCd – The past
NiMh – Memory issues, medium density, medium power
LiFePO4 – 100kw/kg, great cycle life, lots of power and reasonable price today, also doesnt have a huge environmental cost compared to NiMh.
LiMn2O4 – Reasonably safe, potential for higher density, wear quickly at high temperature and not as available.
LiCoO2 (“typical” Lithium ION) – NOT safe, best power/weight and very expensive.
Ultracapacitors – Ideal technology but not available yet.

So the winner is LiFePO4. As LiMn2O4 become more available they may have a chance and ultimately if and when EESTOR comes through on its claims, ultra-capacitors will win the long war.

Nice Lithium comparison chart

Misc…

Recent rage of adding some capacitors and batteries together to increase battery life and increase instantaneous current/power.
Technology Review: A Cheaper Battery for Hybrid Cars

Research

Stanford University – 10x lithium with nanowires
High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires

MIT Ultra capacitors
MIT Builds Efficient Nanowire Storage to Replace Car Batteries

iPhone my 2 cents

jriskin — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:38:11 +0000

Everyones new talking point

So as a techie, my biggest complaints on the iPhone (besides the inevitable scratches that will drive everyone nuts to the point of class action lawsuits) are…

1. No 3G high speed network support. EDGE is 2.5G and barely acceptable for the type multimedia this phone is capable of.
2. No expansion. A simple SD card slot would make your 4G unlimited gig…
3. Battery not removable.

So I got to thinking about it and so far no one has said how long the ‘exclusive’ Cingular thing will be. It could be as short as 6 months maybe a year at the most.

The second thing I thought of was, hey this is standard apple operating procedure. Release a product that is amazing in every way but a few, then 6-12months later ‘blow everyone’s mind’ by adding all the missing features and forcing everyone to upgrade =)

So the lack of HSDPA/EVDO is because 6-12 months later they’ll announce ‘iPhone Pro’ with a removable battery and HDSPA and twice the memory or SD card slot or similar. It will also fix the crippling xyz bug that all the first gen owners are inevitably going to complain about (buzzing, hissing, or some other odd glitch that really drives 1% of the users mad).

Anyway, i’ll probably wait for the 2nd gen, cause my Treo700p on EVDO does 95% of the functionality with 1% of the stability and 5% of the fineness.

My 2 cents…

LCD Blown up Round #2

jriskin — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:32:24 +0000

2×2 section of white pixels

So I wasn’t totally satisfied with the magnification I got on my last round of LCD vs. RGB pics. This time instead of using a straight 100MM Macro lens, I used a 35mm normal lens attached to a bellows. Last time I got around 14x magnification, this time its more like 168x =)

RX-7 Still ridiculously fast

jriskin — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 06:57:36 +0000

G-force Graph, click for full run data

While part of me feels like I’m getting old, I know I’m not quite over the hill yet. So I got my car back from the shop after 3 months of engine rebuild. Its not quite running right yet…but in the twisty’s not much is faster. Back in March I made this post about the G-Tech Pro. I never got around to posting any of my runs, so I’ll post this one.

Disclaimer: Pseudo-professional Driver on a Closed Course. (hey it works for the car ads)

While in theory on a closed course I have no fear of crossing the center divider and should have the same cornering room, lets just say I was trying to practice normal style driving, just faster =). Now notice how I’m a total wuss when corning left only getting about 1.0g’s while to the right I peak at 1.34g’s. I know there is more room to run out in case I get in trouble on the rights…

Anyway I just like posting graphs. Enjoy…

High Quality Photo Printers

jriskin — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 05:51:32 +0000

Canon Pixma IP8500 and the Epson R800

This article is a tad old, but its still very relevant. I recently decided that my cheap ass Canon S520 (paid $50 refurb at Frys) is lacking compared to modern printers. I also recently started doing more photography and decided it might be nice to have a nice printer. Tom’s Hardware did a nice review of the 3 current $300-400 range printers from Canon, Epson and HP. Anyway, so sum up…

The Canon and the Epson were very close and better overall than the HP. The Canon IP8500 had the edge in Speed. The Epson R800 has its edge in better Quality and print Longevity (uses pigment based inks instead of dye based). The Epson also had a couple little features I think might be nice the canon doesn’t, roll paper, firewire, and better fine art paper selection. The Canon on the other hand has pictbridge (lets you print from memory cards), duplex printing (double sided) and a user replaceable printhead. The Epson print head is not user replaceable, so if its damaged or clogged and can’t be cleared using self-cleaning it needs to be sent in for repair. Although, I hear in the latest models this is less of a concern, I would use your printer occasionally to keep the heads clean and follow the directions when replacing ink. I’ve also heard one of the caveats of any of Epsons printers is that if you switch print qualities they tend to go crazy about head cleaning and in general they tend to be fussy if you don’t use them often.

I hear the Canon prints can have some color variation compared to the Epson’s when viewed in different lighting conditions, as well as they tend to be a bit exaggerated which can make printing portraits (which have subtle skin tones) a little challenging. On the other hand your average pictures will look brighter and more vibriant.

From pcworld’s review, they both seem to have almost identical photo print costs.

A. So if you need the extra speed and want to sacrifice a very small touch of quality for a nice boost in speed, the Canon is your man.

B. If you demand the highest quality and want fade free water resistant archival quality prints on a variety of papers and follow the directions to keep your heads unclogged the Epson is a winner.

After taking a look at some print samples from both printers, its very very close. I would need to have identical prints to really tell you which one is better, but it does look like the Epson has the edge. Its detail from its 1.5picoliter drop size just seems to edge out the 2picoliter drops on the Canon.

I think for most users the feature list will be the deciding factor since they are so close to each other in quality.

P.S. Ok, I take it back, after reading tons of additional reviews I think the less hassle of the Canon is winning over the archival inks of the Epson. They simply clog too often from user reports than I think is worth it to me. I don’t print every day and I don’t want to waste $10 in ink warming my printer up every couple of weeks.

MiniSD… a tasty treat!

jriskin — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 03:08:26 +0000

100dpi MiniSD w/dime. Click for GIGANTIC size!

So, I was thinking today and it occurred to me that digital photography has changed things a bit. In the past if you took pictures of things that the powers that be didn’t like, they would likely take your camera and smash it and pull out the film and possibly search you for more film and destroy that too.

Well, digital memory can be small, really small! Its also really tough, surviving drops, water, plane crashes, and lots more. So the weird guy that I am I think, hey why not swallow it? My normal SD cards are easily small enough to be swallowed, and MiniSD is even smaller and can be adapted to SD. So you could keep a spare SD card, when they go to take your stuff swap out the card and swallow the important one. Its definitely small enough to pass through, but no guarantees =)

P.S. The image is 90DPI which should be close to real sized on many monitors. 72-100dpi is fairly typical these days. My Dell 20″ is spot on 100DPI.

Nethercomm – Insane yet brilliant.

jriskin — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:24:24 +0000

Erie shot from Netercomm’s site

I’m not the only one hoping you can’t blow up the world via the Internet right?

Broadband over Gas lines?
So the other day I ran in to this press release from Nethercomm. At first I thought to myself, “this can never work”. But I sat down and really thought it through and I’ve decided its brilliant. Although I’m missing the required electrical engineering knowledge to truly say its going to work, on the limited knowledge I do have, I would say its has a much better chance than broadband over Powerlines which has been all the rage and flop for quite some time now.

Think about it, if you can use all the spectrum you want and all the power you want there would certainly be PLENTY of bandwidth. Now there are limits, such as wavelengths that won’t go around corners nicely. Power may be limited by how much leaks out places like your pilot light as well as how much is practical for the home side to transmit (you might think twice about that $30/month service if you also spent $15 in power to transmit a few hundred watt signal 24/7).

But even more likely, this might just work. You have system that is inherently sealed (save pilot lights and gas appliances in use), a medium that is totally homogenous (low pressure natural gas) and nothing else between you and the customer. Unlike power lines, no messy transformers and other such obstacles to a clear signal, no worries about unshielded lines, etc. The only problem I can think of, is areas where plastic lines are in use, and really its only an issue when they aren’t buried below a few feet of dirt and concrete (which they are most of the time).

I will enjoy seeing how Nethercomm (a local Los Angeles, CA company) works out all the kinks.

FIOS Installation Success!

jriskin — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:16:21 +0000

Fiber Connector

Fios Success
Wow, it has been over a month since i’ve posted. The fiber installation went totally smooth. The bandwidth rocks! With my 15000/2000 connection I’m getting 1800Kbytes/sec downloads and 230Kbytes uploads (6-10x faster down and up than the typical 1.5/256k cable). The standard DNS servers they set you up with seem to be a tad overloaded (causing initial page lookups to be slow), but I quickly fixed that using a very fast one that pings about 4ms to me and using riskinit.com as a backup DNS (typically pings less than 30ms). Here is a small gallery of the hookup. The provided D-Link 604 (DL-604) is totally adequate for most setups. I setup some port forwarding for the different computers in the house and everything is running smoothly.

Overall I would say I’m very satisfied. FIOS is only $50/month for a great service. I’ve only experienced very short transient outages of maybe 10-15 seconds once or twice in the last month. The average user wouldn’t ever notice this (it’s only because I use my connection 24/7 that I notice even the smallest glitch).

P.S. Limit, drop me an email!

FIOS Progress!

jriskin — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 21:22:21 +0000

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 Road Race

jriskin — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 02:15:15 +0000

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]

LCD vs. Trinitron

jriskin — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:12:11 +0000

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 Insanity

jriskin — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 07:33:22 +0000

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.

Yet another FIOS Update

jriskin — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 00:22:12 +0000

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.

All I want for christmas is a Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser

jriskin — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:10:49 +0000

MTHEL

My silly christmas list.

Home Defense:
MTHEL Megawatt class laser system
Sure, some people may say a gun is good home defense. But I’d like to see the gun that can shoot down multiple inbound rockets and mortar shells! Its like Command&Conquer, but for real!

TV:
Lightning 35HD Projector
Sure a 120″ TV with 5000-lumens sounds like plenty, but lets think big, really big, $170k big (lens included?). I say if this is what they use to show film at the Oscars and Emmy’s I need one in my living room. So at 16000-ANSI lumens, 3DLP chips at full HD 1920×1080 resolution, and 1600:1 contrast this baby can show movies up to 50feet wide! A little Pythagorean theory tells us thats about 56feet or 670″ diagonal. I think I may need a bigger living room. More good projector specs at Projector Central.

d_image(“lightning35hd.jpg”, “misc”, “image_fr_last”, “Lightning 35HD”);

Display:
T221 Flat Panel Display
It may only be 22 inches diagonally (compared to Apples mammoth 30″ display) but at a resolution of 3840×2400 it has more than 9 million pixels and takes 2 Dual-channel DVI cables and a dual output video card to generate its 200dpi image. In perspective of this list its a bargin, at just shy of $10grand with the video card needed to drive it. Both of these displays are of the ‘must see live to comprehend’ type.

Keeping tabs on the neighbors:
Keyhole-13 10cm resolution Spy Satellite
The Quickbird is the highest resolution commercial imaging satellite up there. With its 61cm resolution you can make out vehicles and other fairly large (or small depending on how you look at it) objects on the surface from orbit. Impressive, but not as impressive as the military. 10cm isn’t enough resolution to read your license plate or see your face, but its enough to say ‘yeah i see the fat guy next to the skinny guy, take the one on the left down’. The rumored KH-13 replaces the KH-12 (also 10cm) and is likely very similar with the exception of being stealth as well. Obviously, there isn’t a lot of available information on it, but the link above should give you a good idea.

d_image(“renaultf1.jpg”, “misc”, “image_fr_last”, “Renault F1 Car”);

Car:
A Ferrari Enzo may cost $650k, have 650HP, go from 0-60MPH in 3.3seconds and have a top speed of 220MPH. But lets think a bit faster. Renault recently approached british car show Top Gear and allowed them to test a real 2004 Formula 1 race car(fresh off the 2004 circuit) on the TopGear test track. That’s pretty impressive since very very few people ever get to drive a modern F1 car besides the drivers themselves (all that secrecy and stuff). But its not nearly as impressive as the TWENTY seconds the F1 car was able to shave off of the Ferrari Enzo’s 1:19 laptime. Granted, the F1 car took 16 engineers and a myriad of computer equipment and specialized gear just get ready for a single lap, but 0:59 is still an impressive time. It did over 183MPH on the straight bits, thats fast.

Ok, just a few tid bits on my list. Feel free to send them me any of them.

New batteries old devices (ipods, ibooks, etc…)

jriskin — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:37:44 +0000

iPod 2100mAh battery

Batteries are getting better. In the last few years manufactures have been able to up the capacity of batteries for portable electronics. Typically manufactures of electronics tend to use up this power by either shrinking their devices (smaller batteries) or adding power sucking features (big color screens, etc…). The good news for you, is 3rd party companies are making new batteries for your old devices.

Have a 1st or 2nd generation iPod? It originally got 10hrs of battery life. Now it gets up to 24hrs (20hrs+) with a NewerTech2100mAh battery for only $39.99! Not bad, they also have a slightly lower power 1800mAh model (15-19hrs) for $29.99 at the same place.

Another example, the iBook 500mhz started with a 3300mAh battery, my wife’s model has a 4000mAh battery and you can get a 4800mAh battery now. So if you have an old laptop with pathetic battery life, look around you may be able to breath new life in to those old laptops with a high capacity battery.

P.S. For the technically challenged, there is a service that will do it for you for $79.99 with 24hr shipping.

Quick Verizon FIOS Fiber Update

jriskin — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:45:49 +0000

So far a dozen or so users from only 2 exchanges have posted speed tests of the new FIOS service, but a user in the Murrieta area is claiming he is up and running. Hopefully we will get the first west coast speed test posted shortly.

Exchanges up and running:
arlington.fios.verizon.net
dllstx.fios.verizon.net

Top speed? 28254/4503
That is some tasty bandwidth!

A Verizon update

jriskin — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 04:09:19 +0000

Last thursday (ok so I’m just getting this new site working and I’m slow) Verizon Fiber officially announced in 6 new states

They are, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
As, obvious from my first post on the topic, we already knew about all these states with the exception of MA. I’ll have to go digging through more forums later and see where in MA they are installing.

For additional reading check out and some pictures of actual installations, check out DSL/BroadbandReports.com. Another interesting site is fios.3v3bizich.com which has forums for people to report sitings of fiber installs.

For more pictures of the same model Optical Network Terminal (ONT) check out the the Fiber Direct PDF links in the last post.

Verizon Rolling out the Fiber

jriskin — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 22:05:22 +0000

I’m currently paying a ridiculous amount for a very pathetic Internet connection. I’m way past the range for DSL and I have been resigned to deal with the fact that I wasn’t going to have a good connection any time in the near future for a reasonable price.

So, for the first couple of months my brain didn’t allow me to even acknowledge the small army of Verizon trucks that started building up in the Canyon (Topanga Canyon). Since I didn’t want to prematurely get excited and become completely preoccupied by it, I just ignored it. Well, between the official Verizon announcements and my wife actually asking the Verizon guys what they were doing, I finally had to come to terms with the reality of the situation.

Box on lines

Box before mounted on lines

Fiber Dogs

Fios (FYE-ose) is coming! FIber OpticSystem? FIberOpticS? FIber OShit! ‘FIber Optic Service’ (thx Zoli).

I’m not really sure what it means, but its good. For those who don’t understand the initial significance, fiber is going to START by giving you about 10 times what you get with a similarly priced DSL/Cable connection. It has the capability of being 100-1000x faster. The FiberDirect system they are using is capable of up to 622Mbits down and 155Mbits up.

That’s fast, very…very fast. That’s faster than your typical computer fast. That’s download a full DVD in a minute fast. Probably faster than you’re computers Ethernet (typically 10-100Mbit) and hard disk (typically 20-50MBytes/sec).

Anyway it isn’t going to be THAT fast out of the box.

It’s noteworthy that Verizon has chosen to pioneer the fiber territory (although SBC has announced in very me too like fashion a hybrid fiber network of their own which may turn out to have better economics). The RBOC’s (Regional Bell Operating Centers aka. Baby-Bells aka Verizon, SBC, BellSouth and US West/Quest) are entering in to a difficult time. Two of their primary sources of income, local and long distance phone calls are being encroached upon or wiped out. The cost of Long distance has fallen to almost nothing recently and IP Telephony only stands to shrink the market even further. The other source, local service, is being encroached upon by cable companies with wired solutions and with cell phone prices lower than ever, the wireless providers are squeezing them as well. Many users coming to the conclusion that their cell phone is all they need. So with cable providing internet, video and expanding in to voice and Wireless companies coming from the other side with slower but more convenient services, the RBOC’s need to find them selves a future.

Fiber patch bay (note garfield pencil box)

Guy outside window! BOO!

Working yet?

The Internet and Video are obvious choices, but the sheer cost of building networks is enormous. Typically with large public companies, you end up in a quagmire of sorts. If you invest large sums of money in to a network with an unknown future and soak up all the profits, share holders tend to cry bloody mercy and run you out with flaming torches. On the other hand, if you hold off too long and don’t invest in new technology, the world will pass you by and before you know it, your industry doesn’t even exist! Kodak is a good example of a company that waited too long and is now paying the price for not embracing digital with all its might early on.

Details

Verizon is going to be spending billion of dollars over the upcoming years on rolling it out to all 35million of its customers. Here is a short list of sightings i’ve compiled, this list is in NO WAY comprehensive nor does it confirm availability. I just trolled through all the forums as of today, so you don’t have to. The only confirmed area to be up and running is Keller, TX. Huntington Beach and Murrieta have been announced but not confirmed.

Huntington Beach, CA
Murrieta, CA
Topanga, CA
Whittier,CA
Hillsborough County, FL
Tampa, FL
Valrico, FL
Lutz, FL
Pasco County, FL
Arlington County, VA
Leesburg, VA
Falls Church, VA
Massapequa, NY
Mineola, NY
Nassau, NY

Irvington, NY
Rockland County, NY
Chester County PA
Valley Forge, PA
Phoenixville, PA
Downingtown, PA
Wilmington, Delaware
Silver Spring MD
Rowlett, TX
Wylie, TX
Keller, TX
Grapevine, TX
Irving, TX
Allen, TX
Southlake,TX

Package pricing:

Up to 5 Mbps/2 Mbps*	Waived	FREE	$39.95/mo
Up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps*	Waived	FREE	$49.95/mo
Up to 30 Mbps/5 Mbps*	Waived	FREE	$199.95/mo

Pirelli Optical Cable, (yes, the same guys who make high performance tires) seem to be providing the cable here. Kimmy was cool enough to get a Verizon guy to give her a piece of fiber to bring home. From this piece and the measurement (~14.6mm) of the cable that was temporarily hanging out side in our front yard I was able to determine that its probably an FusionLink Armored cable.

Installations are being reported as using AFC’s FiberDirect system. More reading can be found here… Fiber Direct Overview PDF and here… Fiber Direct Brochure PDF

Fiber

Fiber lit by laser pointer

Stalking verizon guys

Cable

And if you just can’t get enough, here are plenty more pictures of verizon guys.