Search Results for: DSL

Found 28 search results for DSL (this is page 1 of 3).

Using DSLRs for video

Canon consultant Patrick Reese demonstrates shooting video with a Canon EOS 7D

I went to a conference last weekend that was being video recorded. Instead of the typical DV cameras I’ve come to expect, though, the videographers were moving around the room with DSLRs. Curious that they were doing this with what I thought were still cameras, I went up to ask about their equipment.

It turns out the higher-end DSLRs (also known as HDSLRs) from Canon and Nikon are now being widely used to shoot high-quality HD video, often to the chagrin of more traditional HD camera manufacturers. A DSLR’s relatively small size and its ability to make use of exceptionally high-quality lenses makes it ideal for shooting HD.
Continue reading →

Get AT&T/Bellsouth DSL without the voice service!

It look some major sleuthing – all of my Internets skills, actually – but I finally discovered how to order standalone DSL (that is, DSL without phone service, a.k.a. “naked DSL”) from AT&T/Bellsouth! With this deal you can get high-speed Internet access without paying for a dial tone – redundant for people like my buddy Scott whose only phone is a mobile one.
Continue reading →

Bellsouth $10 DSL up and running

I got my Bellsouth $10 DSL up and running today with relatively little hassle. The “Sprint 660” DSL modem I purchased from Craigslist works just fine, too, in spite of not appearing on Bellsouth’s supported list of equipment.

I spent a little time at first just sorting out where my wiring goes in my house. I’ve got VoIP phones everywhere and so these “virtual” phone lines can be hard to tell apart from the real one. Once I found a good jack to use, I plugged in my DSL filters on my real phone line and cranked up my DSL modem.
Continue reading →

Bellsouth $10 DSL trial run

I signed up Sunday for AT&T’s FastAccess Lite DSL Term, otherwise known as $10 DSL. It requires a 12 month commitment, is only 768 Kbps down and 128 Kbps up, and requires your own DSL modem, but for the price its a deal … especially if AT&T loses money on it, and I have my reasons for, uh, wishing that to happen. While its true that the $10 deal does not appear on the FastAccess page, if you enter your phone number in the availability box the Term option for $10/month does appear which is the one you need.
Continue reading →

AT&T DSL for $10/month!

BoingBoing pointed out the secret deal where one can get DSL service from AT&T for $10/month.

BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow says AT&T is evil and doesn’t deserve your business. I say that’s precisely the reason everyone should sign up. At $10/month, AT&T must surely lose money on every line. Therefore, sign up as many of your friends and family as you can!

The Consumerist: AT&T’s Secret $10 DSL
Bellsouth: Bellsouth FastAccess DSL Term Agreement Plans Available

Cringely Weighs In On FCC DSL Ruling

Robert Cringley looks at the effects of the FCC ruling on DSL that I mentioned in my previous post. Like me, he is doubtful that this is anything but a giveaway to the phone companies.

I believe larger companies are in general too conservative in rolling out new products. This has been especially true with phone companies. Telephone companies missed the broadband boat by 5 years at least. Cable companies aren’t much better. Countries like Korea and Japan are eclipsing us.

In the software industry, the startup comapnies lead the way with inovation (sorry, Bill G.). They do this because they have to, because brains are their biggest weapon against entrenched old-school companies. How many startup phone companes (outside of pure VoIP ones) can you name?

Giving the keys to these larger players will, in my opinion, further accelerate our slide into becoming a broadband backwater.

Let The Mudslinging Begin

Things are cranking up here now that its election time. Jesse Helms is stepping down and Erskine Bowles and Liddy Dole, among others, are vying to take his spot.

I saw my first negative commercial tonight during the news. Dole had a picture of Bowles up there with everyone’s favorite villian, Bill Clinton. I just rolled my eyes and changed the channel.

As long as this country continues with essentially two political parties to choose from, we will always be stuck with voting for the lesser of two evils. At this point in history, it’s easier for politicians to paint the other candidate as a lowdown dirty snake than it is for them to actually formulate their own positions on the issues. “If I can make the other dude look like the devil,” the thinking goes, “I don’t have to choose a side.”

The whole thing has got me fed up on politics. And this is from a guy who has seriously entertained thoughts of running for office some day.

What we’re missing is leadership. It takes leadership to actually state your position on something. I rarely agreed with the positions Jesse Helms took, but I will give the man this: he was always true to his word. When he made up his mind about something, you had better have a mountain of evidence if you want to convince him otherwise. It’s a shame he was often wrong, but you never had to guess where he stood.

Contrast this with the two major candidates vying for his seat. I don’t know much about Erskine Bowles. Very few of us do. But he came back to Charlotte saying he wasn’t interested in Helms’s Senate seat. Then the World Trade Center gets demolished, and somewhere the patriotic fever in him reignites. Can’t make up your mind, Erskine?

He promised at the start of his campaign that he would only be promoting himself, and not resort to the dreaded negative campaigning. Hearing this, I surfed over to his website to see what his platform was. Uh, platform? There was none. Nowhere was there any mention of any of his positions.

Sorry, buddy. We North Carolinians aren’t so dumb as to send someone to the Senate on his good looks alone.

Elizabeth Dole, on the other hand, is completely different … not! She pretends North Carolina is her home in spite of not having lived here since the early 1960’s. No one had even heard of Andy Griffifh back then, for God’s sakes. She is nothing but a carpetbagger in this respect.

She weasled her way into Reagan’s cabinet based on her gender, telling him he needed more “diversity.” She flip-flopped on major issues like gun control. When the Brady Bill was made law, she went on record fully supported the banning of assault weapons.

Liddy has softened up in her old age. Now that the NRA has come calling, she has suddenly become a strong supporter of gun rights. Call me crazy, but that sounds like she’s speaking out of both sides of her mouth. It has been said that her husband Bob Dole, was at the time of his Senate term the biggest friend of PAC’s in Congress, and would change his position at the signing of a check. Looks like Elizabeth has learned well.

Is this the best we can do? Aren’t there any alternatives? Actually, yes. There are third parties, and if enough people learn they don’t have to vote against candidates, but can actually vote for somebody, this country will be in a better place.

As for me, I’m heading for the Libertarian Party. It’s the one party I’ve found that has any sanity.

Highlights of 2020: The Election

One absolutely wonderful thing that happened in 2020 was the U.S. Presidential Election. Elections bookended the pandemic for me. In March 2020, I volunteered to be an inside poll observer for the Wake County Democratic Party. This gave me insight into how elections are carried out. Being one of those rare people who have never missed an election, I was already well-familiar with how the process worked from the public point of view but learning more about the various checks put in place was quite educational.

COVID was a thing in the March primary but not taken as seriously. Spending so long in a school classroom turned polling place, packed with dozens of strangers seems like suicide to me now. The general election was far more strict, with volunteers carefully limiting the number of people indoors.

I was also disappointed to be restricted in my movement during the general election. Chief judges would corral the observers into one area rather than letting us do our jobs. After some cajoling I managed to get this largely fixed. I’m sure part of the issue was the threat of violence that was on everyone’s mind due to heightened tensions.

Without exception, though, the interactions I had with the Republican poll observers I spent time with were positive. We had good chats about the state of the community and the country. In the past I would’ve posed for pictures with them but the pandemic made that unworkable.
Continue reading →

Don’t blame the voter

It’s been about two weeks since the last election and I’m about as tired now of the Monday morning quarterbacking from my fellow Democrats as I was of the campaign mudslinging. I keep hearing “if only so and so group had voted.” “I don’t understand why this group didn’t vote.”

Can I ask a favor? Can we please stop blaming the voter? If a voter wasn’t moved by our message it’s not the voter that needs fixing, it’s the message. We Democrats have to either sell what people are buying or convince them to buy what we’re selling. If our product isn’t compelling then we need to come up with either a better product (a.k.a., candidates or platform) or better marketing (a.k.a. spin).

This really isn’t rocket science. It starts with knowing the voter, knowing what it takes to get her off the couch and into the polling place. If you don’t understand why a particular voter doesn’t vote that sure ain’t the voter’s fault.