Yesterday was another slow day. On an internet speed test it took 445ms to do a ping, about 2 mins to complete the test, but it showed the transfer rate was as it normally is!!
And, after no meaningful work, I’m now up to 8g … in 2 days! Meanwhile the router is telling us that it is on top speed (but it is ‘in house’ reporting). This makes me think it’s not our connection to the tower that is the problem, but another bit of equipment after that. When my uploads slow to nothing, the internet light on the router is blinking very fast, this is what is consuming my data transfer allowance.
It’s not the end server, because it is everything that I’m doing on the net, not just uploading one file.
It’s not my computer, I have a lap top and desk top computer, and both slow at the same time. I can move my lap top in close to the router, and it makes no difference.
I haven’t been game to turn the computer on today. But I have now, it seems okay … wish me luck!
Bigpond/Telstra say they will reply to technical support emails within 2 business days. I sent it Sunday morning. One business day to go.
Impossible usage for 1 day - click here to see the whole picture
We had a little bit of heavy rain today. After that I tried to upload a 94mb movie. It was slow, so I left it while I cooked and ate dinner. When I came back to it, it had only uploaded 30mb and was happening so slowly that I stopped it. A short while later I started it again. It was still so slow that I got a timer out to measure the kb per minute. While I was measuring it the speed picked up and the file then uploaded in about 10 or 15 minutes.
By the way, today is the 4th (well it’s after midnight now, so yesterday … ) and the 4th is our monthly reset date for internet usage.
You can imagine my surprise when I got an email this evening saying that I had used nearly half my monthly allowance … which by the way is $129.95 a month. I thought I was paying $79 and thought that was a lot!!! silly me!
This means, that because the nearby wireless tower was adversely affected by some rain, my upload was slow and I have to pay Bigpond for the privilege!
I can understand that the upload could have used that much data because it was at least 1 and 1/2 hours that it was trying to send the data … little packets that say: can I send this data now, and a message comes back saying no it’s still not working … over and over and over and over … until 4660mb have been gobbled up!
Of course I will ring Bigpond and complain, and insist they reset my 10gig. But imagine how this is happening to everybody every where. What a profit they must make when their equipment slows down! Probably not in such a large amount as this, it’s too obvious, but little bits everywhere to everyone … what an incredible disincentive to keep equipment working efficiently.
I have been putting sound tracks onto movies that my hubby has made in x-plane. I particularly like this movie.
The plane is called Taz and was made by an x-planer called Brett Sumpter. The pilot is by Paul Jones aka dad. This is a low tech plane, but I have a page and half of technical information! Here’s a bit of it:
Engine – Rotax 912ULS, 100 hp
26′ main rotor, 7′ fixed pitch prop
…. basic tractor autogyro but with a modern lightweight engine – long travel landing gear + low speeds & lots of power mean you can go almost anywhere that doesn’t require vertical takeoff.
I wonder what the collective noun for firewood is? A tangle of firewood. Certainly felt like it with this load.
Just another chore out of the way, and a little exercise thrown in for good measure. And now we have plenty of wood for the remaining cold nights that we might get this year. There’s a little more fallen wood in the front paddock, if we get that it will be a good start for winter next year.
We went into town today to pick up the aerial I bought from Telstra. I think it has made a difference, I will know tomorrow when I talk with XuNi on Skype. On our way back through the front paddock we saw this lizard by the side of the road. Today is the last day of winter, it was quite a warm day and I suppose he was enjoying the sun like the rest of us. He watched me photograph him, but wasn’t worried, and didn’t move. He wasn’t very big, about 40cm or 16in. These fellows are pretty common. We sometimes see one sitting very still on top of a fence post with its nose in the air. I guess it’s waiting for a bird to land on it ….
This photo shows what I assume are 2 phone towers. I believe they are both owned by Testra, Australia’s national phone company (used to be a monopoly owned by the people, whoops I mean the government).
These towers are about 1.6km from our place, and this is the view we have of them. I would call this view something like line of sight.
Why then is the signal so weak? I rang to complain, but was told it wasn’t a weak signal. It’s not possible to argue these technical issues, it’s clearly a subjective opinion. Anyway I asked about an external aerial, there is such a thing, but it will cost a hundred and something dollars. Let’s hope that makes a difference.
My benchmark is talking on Skype. If I can understand what the other person is saying, than I would say I have a reasonable connection. If I can’t understand them, I might as well be using dial-up. Heck, I could usually understand phone callers! That was pre-computer dial-up technology!
… you know, I love my camera as much as I love all these crazy creatures who live around here. I used to spend a lot of time in a dark room, and a lot of money on coloured slides and prints, and then there are the many boxes of terrible photos that still fill our house!
Now I can take a million photos, pick out the good one and publish it to the world!!!!
This little chappy was just a tad bemused by a shiny camera lens being stuffed up his nose, but he didn’t complain, and afterwards just ran off to get on with whatever he was up to.
The detail in this photo reminds me of how disappointed I was as a young child when I was given a magnifying lens. I rushed outside to look at the creatures all over the grass just as it demonstrated on the box .. there was nothing there, just bigger blades of grass!
Under normal circumstances we don’t collect old fallen wood because there’s too much life living in it. But this tree fell across our fence. We have already burnt most of it to keep warm, but this bit was too magestic. We like putting interesting things in the garden … as high rise apartments for garden residents … and especially when they make reference in themselves to other interesting things. We will plant some climbing ivy near this and it will become a real secret garden for a whole lot of creatures.
Try to guess what famous New York landmark it looks like first, then click on the picture.
Teenage crested pigeon, just resting in the lush grass.
These beautiful creatures just keep hanging around. I can’t help it if they’re so photogenic! This is the junior of the family, he just sits around all day and still gets fed by his parents! They, meanwhile are sitting on the nest again. I’m quite surprised that the raptors haven’t eaten him, he really isn’t too frightened by anything.
After what feels like 25 years of drought, this lush grass is also a novelty for us. We’ve had a week of cloudy, windy and wet weather but only a total of 17mm of rain. It looks lush on the surface, but I don’t think there is enough water to get deep into the soil.
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