Simo's Sagacity

Musings on Broadband

Gary — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:53:53 +0000

Every so often I read news stories about one telecoms provider or another increasing their broadband speeds to N million customers. Just recently I read that one company was increasing its top end speed from 100Mbps to 120Mbps. And I started to think about why would I need 100Mpbs broadband? And if I did need it, why would I need a bump to 120Mbps? First some context, my first “broadband” connection was just 64kbps (that is 0.0625 Mbps in today’s terms). I think the cable company didn’t call it broadband as it wasn’t much higher than the 56kbps modems that existed at the time, but the key was that the connection was permanently on, no more dial up!

64kbps was brilliant, surfing the web became enjoyable and large downloads became a reality (if I let them run over night). Of course at that time (this is back in 1999) there was no YouTube, no streaming of live video webcasts, no iTunes, no NetFlix. Fast forward a decade and a bit and I know have 10Mbps which is 160 times faster than what I had in ’99. Is 10Mbps useful? Yes. Downloads from iTunes would be unrealistic without at least 2Mbps and now with kids in the house there are lots of devices sharing the same connection.

But do I need 100Mbps or even 120Mbps. 100Mbps is 10 times faster than what I have now and 1600 times faster than what I had in 1999. If I buy a movie from iTunes it is normally about 1.5GB in size. My top download speed is about 1MB a second, so to download it takes 25 minutes. Downloading the latest version of Ubuntu Linux takes about 11 minutes. This is quick. If I wanted to watch a film, and it was a “on the spur of the moment” thing, I could start the download, boil the kettle, pop some corn and the film would be downloaded. If I had 100Mbps broadband then it would download in 2.5 minutes. Do I really need to download a whole 2 hour movie that quick? I think the answer is no. Recently a different broadband provider in our area tempted me to change to their service. They offered 50MBps. Did I change? No I didn’t. I like what I have, it is reliable, economical and does exactly what I need.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Quick Password Generator released for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Gary — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:16:39 +0000

Do you ever need to quickly set a password and then your mind goes blank as your try to think of an orignal one?

Are you always using the same old password but need something better?

Have you signed up for a web site that needs numbers as well as letters in the password?

If the answer is YES to any of those question you need the Quick Password Generator.

The QPG app creates five different types of password:

Memorable password (generates passwords from ordinary English words, which makes them easy to remember, but it also substitutes letters like E for 3 or O for 0 and so makes the password more secure but based on an easy to remember word).
Strong password (made from a random combination of letters and numbers).
Ultra strong password (make from a random combination of letters, numbers and symbols).
Web safe password (made from a random combination of letters, numbers and some web safe symbols which don’t include potentially confusing symbols like quotation marks).
Pin number (four random digits).

Download it from here.

Daily Bread New Heart English Bible released for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Gary — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:16:11 +0000

The BibleBase Daily Bread App is a Bible reading schedule based on a 3 year cycle including a built-in copy of the New Heart English Bible. An easy to read and understand Bible in modern English.

You can download it from here.

Joke: Learning foreign language.

Gary — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:14:58 +0000

A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.

"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.

"Excusez-moi, parlez vous Fracais?" he tries. The two continue to stare.

"Parlare Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing.

The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted.

The first American turns to the second and says, "Y’know, maybe we should learn a foreign language." "Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good."

Just rediscovered this picture in my photo library… Romania is stunning!

Gary — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:54:54 +0000

From 2009… Romania is stunning!

SundayWorship V1.3 released

Gary — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:51:48 +0000

The main focus of this release has been adding support for downloading and installing additional Bibles for use with the Scripture picker. We’ve also fixed a few bugs and re-worked the multimedia picker to make it a bit easier to use.

The new version can be download from here. A new version of the getting started guide can be downloaded from here.

New features in SundayWorship 1.3

Download additional Bibles
Added support for typing non-English Bible book names
Display musical keys for songs
Drag and drop for adding content to the content pickers
Added additional keyboard shortcuts for the Projector view
Updated manual

Just used Google’s Street View to get the phone number off a placard for a hotel here in Bran

Gary — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:10:06 +0000

Here in Bran there are lots of hotels and bed & breakfasts. As a
result lots of the people we know are in the tourism business. Anyway
the parents of one of classmates of my boy run a bed and breakfast and
he wanted to go an play around at the boy’s house. We didn’t know
their number to call and see if he could go over, so I used Google’s
Street View to find their house and read their phone number off the
placard of the bed & breakfast!!!!

Sad News: Our dog “Dolly” died over the weekend… We had her for 8 years.

Gary — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:25:36 +0000

Dolly wasn’t a pedigree German Shepherd but we loved her as see was…
She will be missed.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Nova Ball now available for Android devices http://android.garysims.co.uk

Gary — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:21:46 +0000

My third (and final for this batch) app is now live in the Android Market: Nova Ball (Note: This link only works from within your Android device).

Nova Ball is a space/sci-fi accelerometer game. In the game you control the ball by holding your device parallel to the floor and tilting.

The game has three modes: arcade, mayhem and missions. In arcade mode you need to see how fast you clear each level. Mayhem is all about survival; stop the stars reaching critical mass. In mission mode you have to clear each level to progress to the next.

Arcade: This mode is all about speed. Collect the stars to clear the level. The race is against the clock!

Mayhem: Stop the stars reaching critical mass when the star coverage reaches 75% then critical mass will be reached. Not good! On the first level you need to survive for 75 seconds and then with each level you need last
5 seconds longer, e.g. 80 seconds for the 2nd level, 85 for the 3rd and so on.

Mission: Clear each level to progress further and further. There are 50 fun levels to play through.

You can find out more here: http://android.garysims.co.uk

Note: This app isn't free… It is my first Android app which users have to pay for… But it only costs £0.50 which is about $0.78 which is about a third of the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks and loads less than a trip to the cinema…

Your coffee lasts about 15 minutes, a film about 90 minutes… Nova Ball will give you hours of entertainment for a fraction of the cost!

So go on buy it today… You won't regret it!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Second Android app published: BibleBase Daily Bread. See http://android.garysims.co.uk

Gary — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:28:54 +0000

I am on a roll…. I have uploaded a second app to the Android Market: BibleBase Daily Bread

This app is a Bible reading schedule based on a 3 year cycle.

The Old Testament is roughly three times longer than the New Testament, but as the Bible contains 'progressive revelation' it is best to spend equal amounts of time in each Testament. So, in the three year cycle you will read the whole of the Old Testament once, but you will read the New Testament three times.

The reading schedule also has a special order. The books have been linked together in a way which, it is hoped, will reveal the progress and the distinctive message of the Bible.

You can find out more here: http://android.garysims.co.uk

PS. If you are having trouble finding this app in the Android Market, you can download it directly here: Daily Bread.apk