apple juice

Qwest finally got its act together in my neighborhood, and we’re enjoying some decent speeds. (12mbps) As nice as it is to have two options for broadband instead of one, we seriously lag our european counterparts when it comes to broadband access.

Not only that, but the Verizons, Comcasts and Qwests would have you believe that “we’re number one, U.S.A., U.S.A!”

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Not only do we lag in broadband adoption, the speeds of “broadband” lag significantly, and we pay more for it.

Typically, the lowest price for broadband in the United States, not counting promotions and bundled deals, costs an average of $35 a month for a measly 1 megabit per second connection. Twice this speed is available in Denmark and Canada for lower prices; more strikingly, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Sweden have broadband available for under $20 a month. Additionally, the fastest speeds in the United States are comparatively slow. The common top speed available for residential services in the Unites States is 50 Mbps (and costs $145 a month), while several nations have speeds available that are up to four times faster, for less than $60 a month.

Our best chance is to support the idea net-neutrality and the National Broadband Plan. Of course this plan isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t go nearly far enough in ensuring that Americans will have the same types of access enjoyed by other nations, but it is a start.

Check out this slate article for more info: Denial of Service

are you there?

it’s me.

A.J.

in fact, I love abba so much, I purchased SingStar Abba edition for 9.99 at GameStop.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting as much lately, let’s just say that she’s been keeping us busy:

(she’s running away from me, back towards the street. there is danger and excitement in the street!)

In the last few weeks, she’s really becoming independent. She may look innocent here, but there is trouble written all over that face.

I recently posted to my facebook status: “my real life is getting in the way of my digital one,” and that’s not such a bad thing. So much is new since I last posted. It may be the longest gap in blog posting since apple juice’s inception back in the early oughts. Let me bring you up to date on one area of my life.

One of the original themes of the blog was my car, a beloved 2003 Golf TDI. Dear friends, Bogey is no longer with us. Yes, sadly on the commute to work two weeks ago, I was in a car accident. Luckily, I am fine. Bogey didn’t fare so well. I rear-ended a pickup and his bumper became entangled with my engine. (No, I was not on my phone, fiddling with the radio, picking my nose, etc. I checked my blind spot to change lanes and when I looked back, traffic was coming to a complete and utter stop in front of me.)

The car was declared a total loss by my insurance. Thus, the search began. I’d love to have just walked into the VW dealer and bought a new 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI. They are looking quite nice. However, it is a bit more money than I had to spend.

After driving a few gasoline fulled 1.8T Jetta Wagons, I decided that I simply had to find a diesel. I find explaining diesel cars like explaining Macintosh computers to people in the late 90s. Until you drive one, you just won’t understand.

Nothing was showing up in Minnesota, so I widened the search. Other metro areas were canvassed, the eastern seaboard was searched (thanks, Jean!). I was ready to hop on a plane to Denver to investigate one potential vehicle when I found a 2005 Jetta Wagon TDI in neighboring Iowa.

I have the car back in Mpls now, and I’m hoping this one picks up where my Golf left off. It has a slightly more powerful 100HP engine (whoa, triple digits!), and I’m guessing slightly lower highway mileage. It only 87,000 miles, and like my Golf, I’m hoping to achieve at least 200,000 miles with this car. I’ll get a picture up soon. It’s beige, but not in a bad way. Manual transmission, heated seats (key in Minnesota).

It’s so silly to become attached to things, I have to remind myself of that. However, cars become such a part of our lives, (what car did I drive wife and daughter home from the hospital in? The Golf) and you can’t help but weave their stories into yours. I’m hoping this new (old) Jetta weaves a few new stories into our lives.

Sidenote: If you know me at all, you know the nerd inside of me. I just signed up for a new site called Fuelly, that helps track your fuel usage. They have a simple mobile site accessible from your iPhones, Blackberries, Nokias, etc. Enter the odometer and fuel amount when you fill up. Easy as pie. See neato badge to the right. Join and we can be fuelly friends. Seriously, it’s like the new twitter and facebook rolled into one.

I love a break from work. It is a chance to sit, reflect and think about things.

One thing I’ve been meaning to do is donate to the wikimedia foundation. Just a little bit, (but every little bit counts).

Wikipedia has become a part of my daily life, I can’t think of a day that goes by where I don’t look something up on wikipedia. I want this kind of access to knowledge available to my kids, my students, and people around the world.

By the way, this was the past few days of wikipedia:

Yinz (A second person plural pronoun regional to Pittsburg)

Lady Gaga (I admit it, I like her music)

Scallion (Same as a green onion)

Two things to know – 330 million people read the wikipedia each month, and they are a non-profit with 35 employees.

Think about how much you use the wikipedia and consider a donation as well.

just wanted to share with the 2 people that follow me… i love abba.