The installation technician arrived at approximately 10:45 AM, with, as promised, a co-worker in tow. An hour and fifteen minutes later, with still no progress, reinforcements arrived. The original extra co-worker departed, and two more technicians joined. This would lead to there being a total of five different installation technicians which have worked on wiring us up to the new fiber connection. The lead tech from the reinforcements had the wiring issues diagnosed relatively quickly, showed the assigned tech where he had screwed up, and they proceeded to punch down the wiring in to its proper locations. By one o'clock, we had phone and data coming over the fiber. Sweet. Then I set to the task of dumping the free D-Link router provided for my Netgear WGT624 router, since it sports 802.11b and g wireless connectivity. Verizon FiOS, like a lot of DSL service, uses PPPoE. I made the necessary changes to the Netgear router, but still couldn't connect to the Web, or check e-mail, on the PowerBook. I had the Network preferences set to Automatic, and apparently PPPoE doesn't like this. I had earlier set up a network location called Home-Wired VZ, and was able to connect on the new fiber connection with the PowerBook plugged in via Ethernet. So I duplicated that location, renamed it to Home-Wireless VZ, and changed the connection from Ethernet to Airport. Voila! Connected to the fiber wirelessly. C'est bon! Michael urged me to test the speed. On the Upload Speed Test, I selected the Largest file size, and got the following results: + connection rating is 5 stars, the highest + upload speed was 1528 Kbps + the file uploaded at 187 kB/s + Testmy.net's TruSPEED: 1635 Kbps + the connection, via Airport Extreme, is running 27 times faster than 56k and can upload 1 megabyte in 5.48 seconds Then came the Download Speed Test, again, with the Largest file selected: + connection rating is, again, 5 stars + download speed is 3906 Kbps + connection downloaded the file at 477 kB/s + TRuSPEED 4179 Kbps + the connection, again via Airport Extreme, is running 70 times faster than 56K and can download a 1 MB file in 2.15 seconds How do you like them apples, Lee?

Installation of our new Verizon FiOS service was to take place today (Thursday, the 7th) between the hours of 1 and 5 P.M. When the hour of three o'clock arrived, and not a word had I heard with regard to the tardiness of the installation technician, I inquired as to his whereabouts with the Verizon FiOS customer service department. According to the English-is-my-second-language representative I spoke with, there was a "hold" on our account. Our installation order also failed to show that we were getting the voice service alongside the data service, despite the written verification of this we had received the week before. The English-is-my-second-language representative declared he would have to escalate this to his supervisor, and they would call me back with a new installation date. Also, he was unable to tell me why a "hold" was placed on the installation order. Needless to say, I was not happy. At 4:37 PM, I received a call from the installation technician, whom also speaks English as a second language, stating he would be on our doorstep momentarily. He did just that at approximately 4:50 PM. Installation then commenced. By 9:45 PM, installation was still not successful. The phones were working, but a data signal could not be detected by the free D-Link router provided with our order. Knowing that I would be dumping the D-Link for the Netgear wired/wireless router already in use with the Comcast cable connection, I tried it on the newly installed line, and it failed to register a signal as well. Signal detection did occur at the outside box on the side of the house. Signal was being lost somewhere between this newly-installed fiber optic connection box, the OnQ junction box in the house, and the newly-wired dual plate in the study. The dual plate sports both a RJ-11 and RJ-45 connection. It was finally determined by the two technicians--yes, he had called for reinforcements in the past five hours--that there was some sort of wiring transposition going on. In other words, the already-in-place wiring they were dealing with was different from the Verizon-standard wiring they were used to, and they would have to determine where the changes were so they could make all the wiring play nice with one another and let me get to online life at five times the speed to which I have become accustomed. They asked if they could come back tomorrow. With the supervisor in tow. Apparently, he has deeper experience, especially with "odd" wiring arrangements. I expect them first thing Friday morning. Stop smiling, Lee.

This past Wednesday, a pair of Verizon FiOS line crews were at the house, physically laying the line from the switch at the street up to a new connection box they installed on the garage side of the house. The guys in the crew were super-nice, answering my questions and indulging my curiosity. I got a "tour" of the street-side box from the tech who was knee-deep in it, so my inner geek was satisfied. They did an above-average job on keeping the disturbance to my yard to a minimum. We should go live with our new fiber optic connection on the 7th!

It is confirmed: a Verizon technician will be out on the afternoon of Thursday, the 7th of July, to install the required components for high-speed, fiber optic, broadband usage. We are going with the 15Mbps down/2Mbps up package, and we are cutting the cord with the regional ILEC, switching our local phone coverage to Verizon as well. We get to keep the same number, and will save a few bucks. I know some people will wonder why we're even keeping local, wired phone service, and the answer is simple: TiVo/DirecTV. It's the only way to currently get service updates, etc., sent to the box. That, and our families still seem to call us at home, rather than on our mobiles, where a lot of the time, the calls would be free for either one or both parties. Go figure.

Robert X. Cringely:

So Apple takes over video and movies while Yahoo threatens with a low-priced music subscription service and Google threatens to take control of, well, everything.

And Microsoft? Microsoft kicks the dog. [Via Jon.]

The Monster Blog:

...[T]alk about treading in murky waters, here’s one from the reality-trumps-fiction workplace annals: Two entrepreneurs have launched a plan to buy a used cruise ship, park it about three miles off the Los Angeles shoreline, hire 600 programmers from around the world and have them crank out code day and night.

I have to concur with John Gruber's comments regarding the Longhorn beta screenshots. I never thought I'd say this, but if I had to use a PC, at this stage, I would stick with Windows XP. Let us hope Microsoft will do something to clean up the interface, because right now, it looks like a major step back.

Don't let the name fool you. This is the yacht to buy when you hit the jackpot. Just hope the jackpot's big enough for you to hire a crew as well.

If anyone out there figures out how to pair a BlackBerry 7100t with a Sony Ericsson Akono Bluetooth headset, please [let me know how](mailto:retrophisch@retrophisch.com?subject=BlackBerry/Akono pairing) you did it. So far, my attempts to get this to work for my wife have failed. The CrackBerry refuses to see the Akono set. It sees every other Bluetooth-enabled device in the house, but won't see the headset sitting right next to it.

Intel is responsible for the northernmost wi-fi spot known, with placement approximately 130 kilometers from the North Pole.

No, nothing to do with that wonderful phenomenon in northern night skies, but rather with Alienware's Star Wars special edition Aurora PCs. While no new PC is in our household's buying forecast, the artwork on these things is absolutely incredible. Now, if anyone wanted to generously donate a box to our home for the sole reason of playing Star Wars-related games, I prefer the Dark Side...