I believe the clinical definition of my behavior would be an "addict".
I lasted 2 days in the challenge, only because I was so busy that I didn't even have time to log in to my laptop.

Then when I got some free time, I couldn't resist the calling. My online game is what probably got me. I had to check to see what has happened while I was gone.

Now that I’m down here in AZ visiting my mom, I am truly having issues. First of all there is no sun, for a desert they have gotten more rain the past couple of days than SD has gotten in the past three months. Something is just not right about that. The rain is giving me plenty of free time.

Then, the Internet connection I am on is 1000 times slower than Xstream from Midco. It is a little faster than dial up.  Watching the pages load is painful, very painful, but time spent with my parents is still time well spent. While I don't have sunburn, I won't have to eat for a month when I get home. Ahh, how moms like to spoil their sons, well that and the Cheesecake Factory isn’t helping things.
 

This is a crazy busy time of the year for me, 15 performances in a months’ time span. Four last weekend, another tonight, one on Thursday, two on Saturday, three on Sunday, sigh, crazy busy. My tuba is going to get a workout since I’m in about four community music groups.

Then again, everyone is crazy busy around the holidays. But that’s beside the point. Today, I wanted to tell you about how the picture above relates to something I am very excited about.

Above you’ll see my TV, and I am very excited about the future of TV media. Sony plans on introducing IP TV which basically turns their PS3 into an Internet powered cable box. No longer will we need traditional TV, just the Internet.

I will be able to watch my favorite shows when I want. But in order to pull this all off, a fast Internet connection like Xstream is going to be needed.

1. www.google.com    -     Search Engines
   The most important website of all time is the search engine website. Way back when there was Gopher—an application you ran on your PC that allowed you to search for web sites—there was no frills, no search logic, just a straight text search. I was almost impossible to find anything. With Google’s logic, finding something on the Internet is now possible, most the time it’s even pretty easy.
    
2. www.engadget.com, gizmodo.com    -     Technology Websites
   I’m always looking into new technology and news websites. Being in the computer industry, I have to always keep up to date on changing technology. These sites report on new technology and the latest trends.
    
3. www.foxnews.com, www.cnn.com    -    News Websites
   The ability to get news online is probably one of the greatest benefits ever. No longer are you limited to the local media. Now you can choose what spin you would like with the news. I have fun reading about the same event on multiple news sites just to see how each site put their own spin on the news. There is the truth, and then there is what the media wants you to believe. If the Internet offers anything it is an infinite number of perspectives!
    
4. www.hyvee.com, www.bestbuy.com    -    Online Ads for shopping
   The Sunday paper used to be the greatest thing, mostly for the ads. I can pretty much guarantee you that everyone has sat down on Thanksgiving to go through the Black Friday ads.  Now that stores have put their ads out online, there’s no more fighting over the Sunday paper.
    
5. Application Interface Websites
   Many applications are now written for the web and a lot of administration can be done of applications through the web. That has helped my job immensely. No longer do we need to roll out an application to thousands of desktops. Instead, the users now access that application via a web page. It will be very interesting to see how Microsoft’s new Office product will fare as a web application, instead of an application that needs to be installed on the desktop.

South Dakota’s largest shopping center, the Empire Mall, is just like Midcontinent, South Dakota’s fastest home Internet provider.

In a way, the Internet is a lot like the mall: lots of places to go, lots of people coming and going, and you can never remember where you parked – just like you can never remember that cool website you found!
 

• My gaming laptop: playing Everquest II
• My desktop system: streaming the movie Ronin in HD – it’s a movie with Robert De Nero and Jean Reno. Good suspense/action movie. Put it on your “To Watch” list.
• My little laptop: downloading Microsoft patches and using the most bandwidth of all the computers. Microsoft Patches are the bane of all Windows users because they can take forever to download. That was part of the comic relief.
• My work system: VPN to access the work network.

Ok, here is where the nerd comes out in me. When it comes to technology, I have a soft spot. Take a look at all the Internet-enabled devices in my home.

Computers: I have a main media server for other devices on my network. I also have my work computer that I use when I work from home.

Laptops:  I have two laptops that are very different sizes. The Dell Mini 9 is the computer I take on vacation and business. It fits in pretty much any bag and is easy to carry. It’s a netbook, the predecessor of tablets like the iPad. The 17” HP laptop is my main computer system now and my gaming system. With a SSD drive and a Core i7 processor, it can easily keep up with most any gaming system.

PS3: I suppose I could have taken a picture of the PS3 by itself, but what fun would that have been? The PS3 can play media from the Internet as well as the media server. HD Video looks awesome on my 73” TV. Surprisingly though, I don’t play games on the PS3, I just use it for its media capabilities.

Dell Zino: This is the latest addition to my collection of electronics devices. It is a small form media PC that can stream media from the Internet as well as my media server. I’ve only had it for a few days so I’m still in the process of playing with it to see how best I can use it.

Western Digital TV Live Plus: is another media streaming device that runs Netflix and other streaming services in addition to playing media off my media server. The Internet provides the media content and the various devices allow playback in all my rooms, from my main living room to my bedroom. Even the guest room can get in on the action.

I have a few items on my wish list, but the top item is an iPad or an Android tablet to replace my Dell Mini. I plan on going to Europe again next year and a tablet would make the 11 hour plane ride go by much faster.

So there you have it, all of my Internet connected devices. It may seem kind of excessive for a single guy, but when you are a geek, why not?

Can you top my geekyness? If you’re up to the challenge tell me about your Internet-connected devices in the comment section below.

On my first few uses I’m sorry to say, I really didn’t notice any differences. Previously, I had a 30 Mbps connection which the majority of the websites I visit could not saturate. On paper, going from 30 to 100 Mbps should be increase speed three times over, however, in reality that correlation doesn’t work out. The limiting speed is not in my connection, but the connection of the websites I am visiting. There are a few sites that the download speed was twice what I saw before, but I would say that would only be about 5% of the sites I visit. As far as imagining if I would go back, after seeing the $100 price tag, I will be going back to my previous connection after my trial is over.

This picture above is of my Lincoln MKX. It’s a nice vehicle and hauls a lot. It is a pretty good analogy for MidcoNet Xstream. Previously, I had a Ford Edge, then I stepped up to the MKX. The MKX is the same as the Edge— same body style, same drive train, same engine— the only difference is the MKX has more features and gadgets. It’s much like going from 30 to 100Mb, the websites come up at the same speed, games play at the same speed, Netflix works the same, everything is pretty much the same, except for a couple of websites where the downloads are faster. Both are nice vehicles and take care of my needs. Let me tell you, it’s tough to find a vehicle that can hold a tuba and golf clubs!

Pop-ups
Before the age of pop-up blockers, pop-up ads drove me crazy. You know the ones. The annoying pop-up windows that literally painted the whole screen with bogus ads selling prescription drugs from countries I had never even heard of. Yeah those. Some pages would be filled with hundreds of them causing cause my computer to come to a halt.  My only defense, Alt-F4.

Busy Signal
Back in the very old days of using dial up, downloading 800KB (The size of the old 3.5” disk) used to take two hours at 2400 baud. My parents couldn’t decide which was worse, a teenage daughter on the phone with her friends all the time, or a teenage son on the Internet all the time.

Viruses and Spyware 
This is an ongoing Internet annoyance. I am fairly good at defending my computers, but friends and families are not as diligent.  I have spent many hours trying to get rid of viruses, especially the Antivirus20XX one. Everyone always thinks removing a virus should be a 10 minutes job, WRONG.

Poor Website Bandwidth
Websites with poor bandwidth frustrate me. Just because I have a fast connection, doesn’t mean the sites I am connecting to have a fast connection. If the site only has a 256K connection, then 50 Mbps is wasted. It’s frustrating to pay for a high speed connection only to sit, wait and watch the page load bit by bit.

Information Overload
Today, my biggest online frustration is finding good, correct information. Type in pretty much any search into Google and it comes back with spam and advertisements. Sorting out legitimate sites from the spam gets tiresome. 

Maybe I should just give in and start taking those drugs from countries I have never heard of. Or I could start minimizing my frustration with MidcoNet Xstream® Wideband. Yeah, that sounds like a safer solution.