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I just talked to the Comcast guy for my 6 month price renegotiation. He explained the price like this - it will cost $34.95 for the high speed internet and another $10 for the increase in speed. To which I say - “What? I pay an extra $10 to make the high speed internet faster?” Yep. We chatted for a bit and then I finally asked him for some numbers explaining that these relativities were not working for my brain. He then tells me that the extra ten brings the 12-15 MBps internet up to 20-25 MBps. The conversation follows along like this…
Me: I’ve never seen anything of the sort. Are you sure you’re talking about mega BYTES Mark?
Mark: Yes.
Me: Really, are you sure we’re not talking about mega BITS?
Mark: Yes - it’s mega BYTES.
Me: Well if that’s the case, I’ve never seen anything remotely close. I mean not even a quarter of that. What’s going on here?
Mark: Do you use a wireless network? What kind of router do you have?
Blah blah blah, I humored him for a bit. And then this happened:
Mark: You know it’s pretty dry here in Colorado - the static can build up and slow down the internet, what you should do is unplug both the router and modem for awhile and then allow that static charge to go away.
Me (joking tone): Do you think it would help if I poured some water on my router?
Mark: Well I don’t know. What I can tell you is that I’ve got two cats and my friend recommended that I put a humidifier in the room with my router and sure enough the internet speed increased a ton!
Gave me a good chuckle. I love creative physics.
And a little lesson on internet speeds. Comcast does indeed market as Mbps knowing full well that very few people know what that means. Every digital product that consumers use are measured in BYTES not BITS. Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes, etc. For not better reason that to trick the consumer, data speeds are measured in Megabits. So here are a few lines to help you get familiar with understanding how internet speeds are actually marketed:
I guess that just made your internet slower.
The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal/gonad axis. Been working on this doozy for a bit. Couldn’t seem to find a real simple pretty design, so I made my own. Feel free to take it. I’ll probably update as I learn more, but this is a very very solid start.
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That there is a schematic for my bicycle light setup. Three 4w LED’s are wired in parallel to the 12-24v Tung Lin Dynamo. Bright as day while out on the road at night. I’ve got two up front and one in the back.
So go grab yourself some supplies and get to work. This has to be the cheapest, best lighting solution for biking out there. Yes cheapest and BEST. Cost me just around $80 for a total of 1320 Lumens.
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Over the holiday break I broke down some physics with my friend Stephen. Bottom line - on the Tung Lin, scrap the rear tail light port. You get more power/current/voltage from the headlight port. Enough to run 3 of the 4w 12v LED’s I mentioned in the previous article. I wired there up in PARALLEL and the street is brighter than any other bike light I’ve seen. Two in front, one in back for ~$80. I haven’t finalized the lights yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll update the instructions with another post.
Happy riding!
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