Archive for June, 2009
Filed under: Hmmm
I keep seeing the commercials for the different internet choices, cable, DSL, SDSL providers, even things like Dish. Still think I like cable. The reason is, at least here anyway, the others may have cheaper prices or better rates but from what I’ve seen you only get those by taking a cut in download speed. I have not done an in depth look but every time I see the commercials for the different services I have yet to see one that would match what I am currently getting. They look like great deals and would save me money but they would also drastically drop my available bandwidth. That would not be good.
Even though the different terms can be confusing for internet speed, things like kilostream, megabytes or bits, fiber and phone line you get used to a certain speed and it hurts when you drop down. That’s why a lot of people like their work connection, it is faster than home. I think I have been pretty lucky in that recently, home is faster than work, although if you are working at home does it still work out that way? I really don’t use a whole lot of bandwidth, other than for work so I guess I probably wouldn’t know it if my isp cut my bandwidth by a bit. If they did a lot I would certainly notice. I don’t play online games or download big files a lot so I probably wouldn’t notice. Might be nice if they did though, wouldn’t that be breach of contract since I am paying for a specific speed? I know there are sites and places you can go to test your speed and see what you actually have but I really haven’t found the need to do that. Hopefully I never do, although curiosity might get the best of me here sooner or later and get me to check into it. Has anybody else checked their internet speed?
Tags: bandwidth, download, Internet, speed
Filed under: Hmmm
Back to the overseas real estate thoughts, and yes I am a bit closer to actually doing it than I was a couple of days ago. Not by a lot, but still. I was thinking about taking a look at sites in the Philippines, mainly because I have some friends from there and they have told me that some areas are very nice, and cheap. I also came across some site or other that was talking about something to do with the country and all together it made me think about looking for property for sale Philippines. I haven’t found much that appeals to me there, but figured I would look as I was pretty sure it would be somewhat cheap. Of course, most places are either cheap now or getting cheaper.
Even considering real estate again, it is not all properties I am looking at when I browse the different sites on properties overseas. I tend to wander off into various sites. I find myself in everything from a travel blog to National Geographic. Yes, as you probably already figured out, I do tend to wander a bit sometimes. Especially when surfing the internet.
There really are a lot of places I would still like to visit, towns I haven’t seen and people I haven’t met. Most importantly, though, there are a lot of local foods in different localities that I have yet to try. It is sometimes tough on my stomach but it is often worth it, just to try different things. After tasting a couple of foods that make you wish you didn’t have to eat, that one new delicious delicacy tastes all the better for the bad that you tried before. I think food is an important part of the cultural experience when you travel and should also be a big consideration if you are going to buy a place overseas.
Tags: cuisine, food, international, property
Filed under: Hmmm
Those of you who have been around for a bit know that I am looking forward to getting a new phone, and you most likely know that I am really interested in the iPhone. Well, I have good news! Apple is releasing a 3GS on the 19th of this month! It is supposedly a faster phone with more features and it starts at 16GB! I am excited. It even gets better! They dropped the price of their 8GB 3G to $99! There are all sorts of features that will be available soon, plus with the improved speed of the new 3GS I am, as I said, excited about it. You may be asking why I am excited? The timing is good, really good, because I am due for an upgrade on my phone on the 14th. I may just sell my mobile, the current one anyway. On the other hand I may keep it. I have yet to decide I am just happy that the new stuff is coming out now.
I have been looking at a lot of mobile phone reviews from different sites, well the ones that apply to the iPhone anyway. I know there are some up and comers in new phones that are attempting to rival it. They may already do so, but the problem in going with them is the app support. They don’t have the applications that the iPhone does and they don’t have the developers that it does either. I have looked at the style of some of them but to be honest the iPhone style appeals to me more. I have a couple of close friends who have one and I get to play with it occasionally and I have really enjoyed using it. My friend swears by the Google map and the music. They are both looking forward to the 3.0 OS update on the 17th.
Tags: apple, content, iphone, new apps
Filed under: Hmmm
I know you don’t need like SDSL internet for newsgroups, but it probably wouldn’t hurt for anything else. I am a big fan of more bandwidth is better. So I would go for whatever you can get in your area. I would love to have fiber, but it is not available here. (I am sure I have complained, ok, whined about that before). I bring up the newsgroups because I am currently thinking about seeing if there are any still around. I was a bit worried about it as when I put newsgroups in and did a search online I found a lot of people complaining about their downfall. I thought that would be great, especially after I finally got around to being interested in them. (Yes, that was sarcasm).
I think blogs and twitter may be cutting into the user base of news groups, but there are still several news readers available and charging so I am going to assume that there are probably still several good newsgroups still active and out there. I hope so as I want to see what they are like. There are a few subjects I am interested in and I was curious to see if newsgroups would be interesting as or even more interesting than blogs and forums. There are a lot of different news sites out there, like broadband news and cnet’s news, that cater to technology information and I am sure there are lots of other sites specific to whatever subject you want, but as I understand it those types of sites are different than newsgroups. Blogs and forums are close but not the same, from what I have heard. I still want to check them out and see what they might have to offer. Hopefully there are still lots of people who use them.
Tags: Internet, newsgroups, NNTP, SDSL
Filed under: Hmmm
One of my smaller dreams has been to pick up overseas investment property. I am not there yet but I am certainly, like you, doing my best and working toward the goal. I used to watch the realtor show on tv, when I had cable, and it was really fun to see when they started the international spin off. They had properties in all sorts of places. It wasn’t really properties they were trying to show so much as taking us along as a person looked at possible options for a house. They would normally narrow it down to three properties that they would the person actually looking for a place, and of course we would get to see the properties right along with them. I think it is still on, I ever get cable again I will be watching it again.
If you are looking at property internationally there are things like overseas property guides that can help you find what you are after. I kind of browse every once in a while just to see what might be available. There are also a lot of web sites out there that are dedicated to overseas properties. Most of the good sites will also have pictures of the property along with the descriptions. There are a lot of places to choose from but I would definitely keep in mind just how secure your rights as a property owner will be in whichever country or countries you are interested in. I’ve looked at several different places but have not done an in depth search in to the laws in each country that apply to foreign property owners. I would definitely look into that first, but then I am not quite ready to be purchasing anything yet so I still limit myself to just browsing and dreaming.
Tags: houses, international estates, overseas, property
Filed under: Hmmm
I am thinking I need a new phone. Ok, not thinking I am sure I need a new phone. My old one tripped a couple of times and still feels its pains. I was looking at what is available, even thinking of a VoIP phone system but I really want to stick with a cell system. I probably need to phones one for work and one to replace my old one. Luckily, almost like I planned it, I am just about eligible for the upgrade discount. Probably not as exciting to you as it is to me, but I am somewhat hyped about it.
If you’ve been keeping track you probably know I am a fan of the iPhone, and want to get one for myself as soon as I can. I know they are coming out with a 3.0 for their OS and I am looking forward to seeing what that might bring. Plus, I just recently saw that they might, maybe, possibly, be announcing something new soon. The new generation of iPhone? I guess they have a reputation for being ahead of the curve and I am really looking forward to seeing if they remain there. If they announce something good and it is coming soon then I will probably just coax my current phone along and wait until they release the new thing. After talking about the bookstore you won’t be surprised to hear I am a bit excited about the iPhone’s connection to Kindle and Amazon. That is just like a bonus. Between the phone and my laptop I could wander around everywhere and still remain pretty much connected. Which means I would be able to bother everyone with my thoughts that much easier. How nice is that? More free opinions for you, it’s almost like Christmas isn’t it. Yes, I do amuse myself. Thank you. Off to go check on phones some more.
Tags: apps, gadgets, iphone, new
Filed under: Hmmm
Talking about the stuff a minute ago made me think of what was important. Having cable ADSL, SDSL or better fiber. That is what a lot of peoples work currently depends on. I know it is something that a lot of people seriously consider when looking for a service provider for home or work. You are have to make doubly sure of things when your work is at your home and your connection is what allows you to conduct business.
It reminds me of what I had to deal with in setting up my home service. After looking at the available options in the area I had chosen one that I thought was the better deal and would save me some money. Well, I waited patiently, more or less, for them to set things up so I could get to work and I finally received a call saying things should be up and I could plug in and go. They had previously sent me the box for a self set up thing. I plugged in and didn’t go. Needless to say I was unhappy about that. I called and was told sorry they didn’t have something finished so it would take longer but by the next morning things would be up and running. I had high hopes. Next morning though there is still no connectivity, so I call again and am on hold for a while and then discussing things back and forth with different people only to find out that they had been mistaken and it was going to take about two weeks to get my service up. I was irate by that point and after more discussion and calls I got it down to a week, but by then I was figuring that if this was the type of service I could look forward to and the type of trouble I would have to deal with if there was ever an actual problem after the service was up then it might be worth paying more for the other service. So I told the service I was dealing with that if they couldn’t have it up in two days I wanted to cancel before I started and I would send their box back. I sent their box back. The good news, though is that the other service had a guy out the afternoon of the morning I called and I was up and running a few minutes after he got there.
Tags: ADSL, cable, SDSL, web
Filed under: Hmmm
There are a lot of dangers in the current economy, outside of the regular physical dangers people have to deal with day to day. If a person loses their job what do they do? How do they cope when they are in danger of house repossession? I hadn’t given it as much thought as I probably should have, but after talking to some friends who are seriously worried about it I began wondering what I would do.
The current recession hits a wide variety of job markets but I think your current situation still really depends on your job market and your skills. I have always been a very firm believe in the fact that the more skills and abilities you have the more options you will have available to you. It is why, although it took me ten years, I finally picked up my degree. I love learning, other than in school, and feel that as long as a person is willing to continually learn and be open to opportunities that things will work out one way or the other. It is of course also better not to have too much debt, but that is a given. Another thing I noticed a while ago was that friends who were willing to relocate had a better chance of picking up a job, when they started looking all over instead of just in the area close around them they tended to pick up a job faster than those friends who did not want to move.
Dealing with things always seems to come down to a question of how flexible a person is willing to be or how flexible they can be. I would hate to have a family to support right now, but I can say in complete honesty that if I did I would have already made absolutely sure that I had more than one income stream coming in. I don’t mean having a wife or partner that works but me personally making sure I had money coming in from more than just one place so that if one went south there was still some to pay the bills and keep things afloat while looking for a replacement for the one that went down. Hindsight is 20/20 though, isn’t it.
Tags: economy, house loss, job loss, reposession
Filed under: Hmmm
I found myself in a huge bookstore today. This was a good thing even if I didn’t recognize it at first. I spent some time wandering around while my friend found the section she wanted and pretty much camped out there, which left me to my own devices. I was somewhat wary at first, trying to do a quick browse and be done because there didn’t seem to be much there to catch my eye. I was seriously mistaken.
I left my friend to browse her section and went to locate a specific book which took me a bit as I couldn’t see it for some reason. I did finally find it and that’s when I started to notice that the prices in the bookstore were much cheaper than in others. I started to sweat. I love information and even though the internet is great for that I still love a good or just plain interesting book. After taking the book I’d finally located and meandering back to see if my friend was done it started to dawn on me that this place was huge. There were separate floors for different sections, the store took up more than one city block.
My friend was happily reading whatever she had found and I was starting to sweat, thinking maybe I should be finding a quiet corner somewhere and sew my wallet shut. Instead I wandered off to browse some more and to get lost amongst the tall aisles of books. Trust me, I am serious when I say lost. I did, but I enjoyed it. I found all sorts of research books I had been looking for and spent most of my time in the non-fiction section. I was afraid to go in the fiction section. I had already found way to many that I wanted to pick up for reference or general information and figured if I went to the fiction section I might as well just camp out. It was good I didn’t go, but I do wish I had sewn my wallet together. Well, maybe not. I plan on going back as soon as I can and as soon as my wallet recovers.
Tags: books, browse, search, store
Filed under: Hmmm
I thought I would continue from yesterday and previously with more talk on time and procrastination, see if I can get my thoughts together on them. Wrap my mind around them in such a way that I can successfully pair them and create that solution of productivity. You may be wondering how we go about that, well me too, but that is why I am putting my thoughts down on it. I figure that if I focus on techniques and ideas for making procrastination a fading part of my past that it will soon truly become that way.
I have found that I tend to cycles with it, although each cycle seems to be getting shorter. This is a good thing and has cheered me already. See! Writing this stuff down does help us see things we might not otherwise see. Just by writing I noticed that my actual up cycles of productivity are getting closer together and the down cycles of procrastination shorter and less intense. I have even found myself immediately picking up on the fact that I am procrastinating. Before I might kind of slip in to some other activity than the one I want or need to finish and only recognize later that I neglected what I really needed to accomplish and had initially set out to do. However, recently I have found myself noticing my actions as I start them. Doing that allows me the opportunity to change the action back to something that is helping me be productive and accomplish my set goals.
I know there must be other things that can be done besides goal setting, things that will also help in overcoming procrastination but I am having trouble thinking of them at the moment. I am going to sit down and think about it and if I come up with some I will share them later. Hopefully though, you don’t have to deal with procrastination or better yet, hopefully you have already beaten or tamed it.
Tags: again not doing it, lazy, still procrastinating
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