Beyond 1.5Mbps/256kbps
Well well well … After Telstra opened-up the dam and allowed 8Mbps ADSL all the wholesalers jumped on it fairly quickly. As for my own provider, Westnet, they were planning a closed public test of their ADSL2 system but they now say that internal testing has shown major deficiencies that they’re going to hold-off for now on the public testing. -sigh-
That said, I immediately signed-up for their 8Mbps plan which now gives me 8Mbps/384kbps.
The plan is supposed to go into effect on the first of January 2007 and I’ve pretty much left it at that until I stumbled across a thread in Whirlpool about people who’ve gotten it activated early. I fiddled around with my router until I figured out that I was indeed already on the 8/384 plan.
But my speed doesn’t seem to reflect that?
A reboot here and there and then a firmware upgrade and … well, look at that, Oz Broadband Speed Test (how I miss Speakeasy’s speed test site at the first hop … ) said I was at 4Mpbs! W00t!
And this here was how I wasted my afternoon trying to figure out why my ports were inaccessible from the outside world. I checked and re-checked that the firewall on the router was disabled and that my firewall server didn’t just suddenly die on me. About an hour or two later it dawned on me that leaving the firewall open meant nothing if I didn’t configure port-forwarding …
And I get paid to do this kind of thing. Sheeesh.
Needless to say, I’m a happy camper. 384kbps is really about rock-bottom for me. I’ve always thought of “high speed” and “DSL” upstream as 384kbps and upward. Anything below that, to me, was not a “proper” high-speed connection. When I first subscribed to DSL in the US my speed was 768kbps/384kbps and looks like I’m about where I started, which is allright, especially since the downstream has jumped up from 1.5mbps to 8mbps.
That said, I am really considering switching to Internode’s ADSL2+ with Annex M which allows for a theoretical maximum of 3.5Mbps upstream. (Downstream is set at 24Mbps.) I can get back to running my own servers for testing and all that. According to the theoretical speed calculator, I’m about 1086 meters away from the Exchange and that I can expect nearly maxing the downstream at about 22Mbps.
Tempting …
Fresh made pasta for lunch
The food options at the Deutsche Place building courtyard over at 126 Phillip St. has finally maxed itself out with one owner giving us a choice of a sandwhich shop, a coffee shop, and an Italian restaurant. Yay!
(That was sarcasm if you didn’t figure it out.)
I wasn’t too crazy about the sandwhich shop the few times I tried it out and I have not returned since. As for coffee, I prefer the coffee shop at the Colonial Centre food hall, the one run by the Greek family. Surprisingly, I’m quite impressed with the Italian restaurant that opened-up a few months ago, replacing a bare, unfinished spot with a nice little restaurant.
Despite its proximity to my workplace I have not had a chance to try this out as my lunch buddy always requests Japanese and refuses to eat carbs for lunch, much less pasta. So it wasn’t until about two weeks ago that I got to try out this place and I was pleasantly surprised
On my first visit I had the lobster ravioli with bisque sauce and upon its arrival onto my table, my first reaction was how small the portion looked for A$25. “This better be good” I thought to myself when I first took a sip of the bisque sauce.
Amazing.
The rich flavor took me back instantly to the Lobster Bisque served at the Palm Restaurant back in the Westin Hotel in Back Bay, Boston. Probably one of the pricier destinations for lunch but was always well worth it.
The ravioli did not have that cookie-cutter look and I wondered if it were freshly made, especially given the flavor and texture (yes, they’re freshly made).
But the portion was definitely on the small side as I left still somewhat hungry. I also think A$25 for it is a bit pricey. If I were to have it again, I’d definitely have something else to go along with it.
And just last week I visited the place again with a colleague and this time I wanted something simple so I chose their lasagna with beef while my lunch companion chose the spinach gnocchi.
Again the size looked a tad small to my eyes but I was more than full by the time I had finished my lasagna. Freshly-made pasta with flavorful beef and sauce … or, as I put it to my lunch companion, “You really have to work hard to fuck-up lasagna.”
I had a taste of the spinach gnocchi and while I found the gnocchi to be very tasty, as much as I loved spinach it was at the end too spinachy for me.
No wonder they’re often packed during lunch hours. Will definitely return again and again. Would like to try their pizzas next time.
Word of caution though: I tried their take-away option and found it to be highly unappetizing. The Penne arrabbiata was about as bad as it could get with bland flavor, under-cooked pasta, and way, way watered down sauce. For A$10, it came-off more like some A$3 pasta take-away. Not at all recommended.
Dolce Ristorante
Shop 1 – Deutsche Bank Place
126 Phillip St.
Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: +61 2 9232 1306
www.dolce.com.au
Sydney SUCKS!
Friday night last night, or more accurately, Saturday morning, 01:30, I found myself walking home from work because there were no taxis available in the CBD. This is the second fucking time I’ve had to walk home during that hour. Two weeks ago I was also working late Friday night and ended up walking home at 00:30 Saturday morning.
Now, the walk at this hour is really not that bad, especially after I get to William St. with all the bright lights and the number of people that are on it. It’s the walk from the CBD to William St. that puts me into ultra-alert mode considering the sober/drunk people ratio in this area at this hour of the day tends to drop fucking close to zero.
Sure, I can make my way toward Elizabeth St. and head to William St. from there but holy schlamoly, that would add-up time to what should be a mere 20 min. walk!
Now, why don’t I fucking drive into the city you may ask? Well, aside from the fact that I don’t have a car, we only have one, yes, ONE, UNO–ONE FUCKING PARKING SPOT in our building and it’s reserved for one of the higher-ups. The fact that it’s been reserved is not at all an issue with me. What I really can’t stand is that the fucking enlightened government of Sydney has decreed that each building is allowed only a certain number of parking spots in order to cut fucking traffic and pollution.
(And you bet the rule for allocation is in a book thicker than all the AD&D player guides combined.)
On the surface, it is a very enlightened law and I wouldn’t have a problem with it if only these fucking idiot neanderthal rednecks fucking knew how to design, run, and fucking maintain a public transportation system! Between the bus drivers who’d fucking run you over when you cross the street even though you’re at a pedestrian zone, to the trains that can’t fucking run on time …
Oh Albert, if the public sector fails, then why don’t you rely on that good’ol capitalism and take a taxi?
Which word in “there were no taxis available in the CBD” do you not fucking understand? Sure, you can even book a fucking taxi online. Now let’s see if a taxi actually come to pick you up!
Look, in Singapore I took public transportation where I could unless it really was more convenient to pay for a taxi.
Tokyo? Holy hell, the only time I took a taxi was after a night out when I passed out at the bar that my colleague had to put me into a taxi (during which I faked my way through a conversation with the driver) to get back to the hotel. Sure, trying to figure out your way around the station can be difficult, but the system worked just fine.
These two cities know how to run and maintain a public transportation system.
Sydney? This city needs a fucking reality check. For all the beautiful weather, the fireworks that go off from the vicinity of the Sydney Harbour every other day or so (there have been two huge ones tonight), and the beaches, it needs to remember that one fucking opera house with a unique design does not make it into paradise. If you’re going to restrict people’s mobility, then make sure you have a fucking replacement that actually fucking works!
Maybe then they won’t need to put-up posters in the train station that tries to discourage people from violently expressing their frustration with the public transportation system against said system’s employees.
I have had it with the snobs who think Sydney’s at the top of the world, the snobs who think they’re the savior of the human race, and worst of all, the same fucking snobby dickwad assholes who actually get to run the fucking city.
And don’t get me started on Australia’s wonderfully shitty free health-care either.
Back in my own domain again!
Sweet! WordPress finally allows its users to map their own domain names to their wordpress.com blogs.
