I’ve been offline for a good deal of time since coming back from the baby brother’s house, mostly because our DSL broadband connection has been out more often than its been on.

DSL Download Speed Test

Our house is right at the maximum distance one can be and still have a working DSL connection, and this has always meant that even in the best of times, our network speeds have been far less than the stated average for such a connection. This, combine with the number of times within the last year that poor telephone lines in the area have killed our connection for days at a time have contributed to my looking into alternatives.

Fortunately, we do have cable broadband available in our area, and we just received the equipment today to be able to connect.

Cable Download Speed Test

Obviously there’s a large difference in speed, and stability in our connectivity. The only downside, of course, are the blocks cable broadband providers have towards running email and web servers through your connection, something that I’m currently looking into, with the possibility of moving them off-site again.

The Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban teaser trailer is now available online.

Several weeks of dread over recent casualties over in the Iraq region were wiped out, at least temporarily, this last weekend as the baby brother Nick, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot for the 101st Airborne, arrived in the States for his two weeks R&R.

This actually marks the first time our complete family has been together in one place in the last three years, and the above picture actually means far more to us than it might seem, as we were given a brief moment in a time free of uncertainty over the safety of family members scattered across the world, a time to reflect, celebrate and even just relax with our family which has been separated for such a long time.

The weekend was filled with the family members, myself included, making numerous connections by plane and car to come together for this last weekend in my brother’s place down in Kentucky. We celebrated an impromptu Christmas, as well as my brother’s birthday, which will pass as his last two have, in the middle of a combat zone.

I was sad to step onto the little jet that would speed me away from the family, just as the others who had to leave at the end of the weekend, but I was still happy for that bubble of time we got to spend together.

Now this little device, available from Xoxide.com is a near-perfect description of the term “overkill” when it comes to cooling your computer’s video card.

… which, of course, means I want one.

If you think your ISP service is bad, take a read through this poor consumer’s complaint letter.