I’ve had a new fibre optical broadband and telephone service installed. The BT Openreach vans have been busy in our area for months. The fibre optic cables were laid under the streets and up the telegraph poles, ready for anybody who wants to take advantage of the higher data speeds available with fibre optics, and to future proof homes connectivity. I’ve always had a pretty good service through the copper wires though, and since reliability rather than speed is my most important criteria, I elected to remain with my current sluggish and expensive but very reliable broadband provider. Well I would have done if I could have, but they had been taken over by another company, and then another in turn. So I was left on a legacy system yet again. Finally, BT made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Six months totally free broadband and landline phone usage, including up to £5 worth per month calls to mobiles, no setup fee, no line rental, no charge for the modem, free to opt out again at any time. Supposedly it’s a trial to test the new voice over fibre service. Whatever. I notice Sky TV are offering similar broadband deals so it’s probably more of an enticement, because we all know how powerful the force of inertia can be, once you’ve plumped for one service or another. Fibre Optical Broadband I’m happy to have my house cabled up with fibre optics, all the way to the modem. The old copper wire system is still there, and working as I type, so I have a choice of two broadband connections, luxury. The fibre optic system is about two or three times as fast for downloads and browsing, but more like six or ten times as fast for uploads, which is great when I have a series of half a gigabyte music videos to upload to YouTube for example. Even running in the background, the three or four hour uploads used to degrade the general internet access quality for everybody else on the network, but that’s no longer the case. And I can watch live streaming HD TV channels such as the BBC iPlayer at the same time as uploads and other stuff going on simultaneously. Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogFibre Optical Broadband
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Fibre Optical Broadband
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2012/04/29/fibre-optical-broadband
- Tags:
- best broadband deals
- tools
- internet
- broadband connection
- sky
- BT
- Mobile
- broadband connections
- broadband provider
- bt openreach
- connectivity
- copper wire
- fibre optic cables
- fibre optics
- free broadband
- speed
- telegraph poles
April 29 2012, 6:47am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Nearby Jupiter – Astronomy for Beginers
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/09/22/nearby-jupiter-astronomy-for-beginers
Astronomy for Beginners Alert I looked up last night at the nearly full moon and saw a very bright star nearby which must be a planet. It was Jupiter, which is currently the closest it ever gets to our own planet Earth, an event which happens around every 12 years or so. The spectacle last night was something I’ve never seen before as an amateur astronomer. Unlike a bright star, with the naked eye it was possible to make out Jupiter as a white disc in the sky, like a tiny version of the moon, rather than a twinkling point of light which is how stars appear to me. With an ordinary pair of bird watching binoculars the effect is magnified. The surface of the full moon can be seen in much greater detail, and the planet Jupiter, nearby in the southern sky is very clearly a planet. There’s a slight possibility that an uneven shape caused by rings or even one of Jupiter’s moons may have been perceived but really I think you need a more powerful binoculars or telescope for that.
Jupiter Jupiter and the other large planets make excellent subjects for astronomy for beginners because they can be seen even with the naked eye, and do not need a particular clear out of town sky in order to be clearly visible. They are also interesting to track because the movement of the planets across the night sky follows a different path to that of the star constellations, in a way which brings special rare events into the picture on an irregular basis. The proximity of Jupiter can be observed over the next few nights by looking out to the South East as the full moon rises after about 10.00pm. Jupiter is brighter than any star in the sky so if it isn’t cloudy you can’t really miss it.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogNearby Jupiter – Astronomy for Beginers
Related posts:Astronomy for beginners – the Perseid Meteor Shower Harvest Moon Meteor shower over Wales
- Tags:
- night
- astronomy
- astronomy-for-beginners
- earth
- Cloud
- sky
- astronomer
- Beginers
- planet
- proximity
- spectacle
- telescope
September 22 2010, 2:02am | Comments »
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I posted to flickr.com
Blue Sky
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/4527888058/
AndyRob
Blue Sky
April 17 2010, 3:57am | Comments »
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I posted to flickr.com
Blue Sky Over London - Video
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/4527886826/
AndyRob posted a video:
Blue Sky
April 17 2010, 3:56am | Comments »
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