May 30th, 2008
Yep. I called it in the last post at half-time of game four of the Western Conference finals. I already knew that the Lakers were going to win games 4 and 5 and voila! We are back in the NBA Finals. Finally, I don’t have to hear any more about the Spurs.
As for who the Lakers will face? I personally think it would be an easier match up against the Celtics just because even though they got the ‘supposed’ Big 3; they choke. Only when they are playing at their best, they are really good and quite a scary team. However, their inability to win on the road in the first two rounds gives me assurance that the Lakers can win easily in a NBA Finals match up with them.
The Pistons offer a more difficult series because of their style of play, the been there and battle tested... Continue Reading...
Tags: Celtics, Finals, lakers, nba, Pistons
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May 27th, 2008
Its halftime, the score is 53-47 with the Lakers up by 6. Kobe just made a jumper over Ginobili. One thing is for sure, the Spurs are one of the most annoying teams. Just watching a single half; I cannot stand the team. They are too sheltered by the media where all the broadcasters just seem to love the Spurs. All game long, all the analysts and commentators talk about how poised these Spurs are, how Parker is unstoppable, how Ginobili is due for a great game because he is a competitor and how Duncan has been bored in the regular season and needs a challenge that comes with the playoffs. Screw that! The Spurs are just protected by the referees and the NBA organization.
I mean, I watched game 3 on Sunday when Ginobili miraculously started draining 3′s. Three pointers... Continue Reading...
Tags: 2008, bowen, conference finals, dirty, kobe, lakers, nba, referees, spurs
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May 25th, 2008
Having more bandwidth is costly, having a lot of bandwidth is expensive! For this one week event, I brought in a 6 mbps link through Covad Wireless for $3,000. The $3,000 gives me this 6 mbps ethernet drop off with a full Class-C of IP’s for one month. What type of speeds did I actually get?
I did a bunch of tests and under the best scenario, I got about 8 mbps download and 5 mbps. Blazing speeds compared to the usual T-1 lines at 1.5 mbps. How did this bandwidth fare for the 400 wireless users? I believe there was more than 400 people, and they were not using this bandwidth to do some general browsing. The entire bandwidth spectrum was eaten up and used up. However, the network held up with good signal provided through 20 wireless access points. Sure, the bandwidth... Continue Reading...
Tags: bandwidth, circuit, covad wireless, ds3, mbps, uplink
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May 25th, 2008
I was fortunate to get an inside look at the annual ICRA event, known as the International Conference on Robotics and Automation. It is a gathering of about 1200 engineers, about 98% male is the demographic, who spend an entire week listening in on intense workshops based on published essays, a couple nice lunches and dinners combined with a student party and a gravel pit where you have robots perform on the terrain. I was a bit let down because the robots at the conference were more about education or the Mar’s rover type of robotic vehicle. I was hoping for more artificial intelligence robots like the Honda Asimo of sorts.
Nonetheless, there was a couple cool things that I did see. Such as the supposed robot from the YouTube hit, KeepOn.
The highlight would be this robot... Continue Reading...
Tags: 2008, automation, conference, ICRA 2008, IEEE, pasadena, robotics
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May 24th, 2008
For about $60 to $80 per month, you are able to get high speed internet access at home via DSL, cable or now FIOS through Verizon (limited to certain areas). To the right, you can see a speed test I conducted on a DSL connection at home. Sure it is a decent download speed but the upload is a bit slow. That’s the problem with most home connections, the download is fast but upload is slow. Even with typical cable providers of internet access, you have this as well. I think most DSL and cable access have download speeds of about 5-6 mbps and upload speeds up to 1 mbps.
Now let us compare that to true T-1 lines as I see at work. As a service provider, we get T-1 lines from AT&T, MCI, Qwest, Verizon, etc. A single T-1 line gives you exactly 1.544 mbps download and upload... Continue Reading...
Tags: bandwidth, covad, ds3, internet, nxt1, speed, t1
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