Long Island City
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Since the beginning of the new year, I upgraded our broadband from a copper wire service, specifically Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner, to a fiber optic connection from Verizon. Immediately, we more than doubled the downstream throughput: from an average 11 Mbps to more than 25 Mbps. The biggest difference, however, came in the upstream. Whereas our upstream was about 500 kbps with the copper wire cable, it is now about 25 Mbps with fiber optic. Theoretically, I can now upload files at about 50 times the speed. None of this, however, should come as a surprise. Not only is fiber more capacious than copper wire, the Verizon 25/25 service is also more expensive than Road Runner’s 10/0.5 service.
Independently, we also signed up for SamKnows broadband monitoring, which is how the FCC is measuring the nation’s broadband capabilities. Each month, SamKnows sends a summary of our broadband connection.
Here is our downstream…
…and our upstream.
As you can see, the connection is pretty stable. It is consistently around the advertised 25 Mbps, which is good. Uploading and downloading files always seems zippy, and when we stream video, it always looks very sharp. I never notice any buffering delays or any sudden pixelation in the picture.
However, two other very important metrics have been off. Our latency and our packet loss, which should be low, have been inordinately high.
Even with good throughput, latency can slow down broadband by delaying the connection with a remote host. Similarly, packet loss can cause errors that will result in either a “dropped” connection or requiring redundant, duplicate connection.
As you can see, it looks like those two metrics have dropped significantly around March 24. I wonder if there was an equipment upgrade on that date that might have improved the “fidelity” of our broadband connection.
From a purely observational perspective, I haven’t noticed any improvements in our connection. In fact, I thought our connection had been getting slower over the last week, but, of course, these kinds of observations can be deceiving.
(Via SamKnows.)
Our friend Ellen Schneiderman staged a significant show of her paintings at the Jeffrey Leder Gallery, a beautiful two-story brownstone in Long Island City. She paints some very beautiful shades with a mix of intricate layers. She already sold a number of paintings so I recommend visiting the gallery soon if you want to get yours.
In honor of Ellen’s big show, Sarah and I hosted a brunch at our place. About a dozen folks came to wish Ellen well, and then we headed to the gallery where scores of friends, family, and art lovers gathered to celebrate her work and the work of Brandon Friend, who also opened a show that day on the gallery’s second floor.
The show of both artists is on view until April 8, 2012. The Jeffrey Leder Gallery is at 21-37 45th Road in Long Island City.
Every winter, the 7 train closes all stations west of Queensboro Plaza. For 2012, the work is expected to last eleven weekends. Here’s a worker on the 23rd Street viaduct at 44th Drive in Long Island City.
The first significant snowfall since late October brought a relatively minor amount of accumulation, but here in the city, the snow went through an accelerated pace through its usual steps. First it snowed, leaving a thin blanket of powder, which was quickly turned to slush. Now, it looks like it snowed three days ago and the grey sidewalk slush is going to make crossing streets an adventure.
Winter is here. Groundhog Day is about two weeks away. But for now, we got slush.
As I walked around Long Island City this afternoon, I noticed that the building housing the former Jackson Avenue Steakhouse has made a little change to its exterior. The first story of the building, including the new sports bar and even newer Caribbean restaurant, is now blue. I guess they chose that scheme to clash, as much as possible, with the red awning. Or figuring that since so many flags use the red-white-and-blue combination and are pretty successful, it should work just as well for a sports bar.
I haven’t been to this spot since the old Steakhouse was temporarily closed for health violations, then abandoned its $8 “burger and brew” special, and then changed its name to Al’s Steakhouse. I noticed that it had reopened as a sports bar some months ago, but I never felt compelled to go in. Take a guess if I’ll be going there anytime soon.
The marathon has come to New York City again, and shortly after they reach the halfway point, the runners come to Long Island City and Vernon Boulevard.
As we’ve done for the last few years, we stood outside among the crowd and enjoyed a beautiful day outside, and I snapped off about 1,000 photos. After hours of reviewing, I posted about 100 of the better shots to my photo gallery.
While I shot photo after photo, Sarah made a snarky sign, reading “It’s Not Going to Run Itself,” in response to my “Get the lead out!” and “Finish Already!” jeers. Julia screamed more encouraging words into her megaphone, and Nicole cheered throughout the whole thing. It’s always good when they come to watch the marathon, otherwise I’d just stay in bed and sleep too much.
I’m looking forward to spectating again next year.
This Tuesday, the students from my History of Film class from Fordham University, Lincoln Center visited the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. I haven’t been there since the museum underwent a major renovation about two years ago. I was concerned that many of the best parts of the museum were gone, but that concern was for naught. They were all there. Since I have an obsession with old electronics, especially those preserved and presented at museums, I had a blast shooting photos of all these objects.
The tour also complemented a great deal of material that we covered throughout the semester, especially in the beginning. We saw the usual pre-cinema toys and devices, such as the magic lantern, the thaumatrope, and the zoetrope. There were of course more contemporary objects that we cover in recent classes, such as a Vitaphone disk and projector, Technicolor camera.
I’d judge the class trip as a success. A couple of students seemed enthusiastic about seeing in person a lot of the objets that I’ve described in painstaking detail. One student in particular wrote an email to thank me for arranging the trip. And one student, who I judged to be a regular at the museum, was very enthusiastic about the screenings there.
This is the earliest I have seen had snowfall in New York City, and possibly only the fourth time since the Civil War when it has snowed before Halloween. That’s pretty significant because only two years ago, it was Halloween, on a Saturday, and it was warm.
Not this year, it turns out.
It was nice to see that our favorite local watering hole was open yesterday while we anticipated the arrival of Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene. Thanks to Leo and the rest of the crew for staying open and keeping us entertained last night.
With the weather reaching 100° last week, people complained and pined for winter. That attitude has always made me laugh a bit because I remember these same people fondly anticipating warmer weather, even a summer heat wave. Well, here it is!
As an outdoor guy, I have a strong preference for the summer since we can’t really play softball or go for a long bike ride when there’s a foot of snow on the ground, now can we?
