13.21 Gbps    OC-255
10 Gbps       OC-192
4.976 Gbps    OC-96
2.488 Gbps    OC-48, STS-48
1.866 Gbps    OC-36
1.244 Gbps    OC-24
933.12 Mbps   OC-18
622.08 Mbps   OC-12, STS-12
466.56 Mbps   OC-9
155.52 Mbps   OC-3, STS-3
100 Mbps      CDDI, FDDI, Fast Ethernet, Category 5 cable
51.84 Mbps    OC-1, STS-1
44.736 Mbps   T-3, DS-3 North America
34.368 Mbps   E-3 Europe
20 Mbps       Category 4 cable
16 Mbps       Fast Token Ring LANs
10 Mbps       Thin Ethernet, category 3 cable, cable modem
8.448 Mbps    E-2 Europe
6.312 Mbps    T-2, DS-2 North America
6.144 Mbps    Standard ADSL downstream
4 Mbps        Token Ring LANs
3.152 Mbps    DS-1c
2.048 Mbps    E-1, DS-1 Europe
1.544 Mbps    ADSL, T-1, DS-1 North America
128 Kbps      ISDN
64 Kbps       DS-0, pulse code modulation
56 Kbps       56flex, U.S. Robotics x2 modems,
33.6 Kbps     56flex, x2 modem communications rate
28.8 Kbps     V.34, Rockwell V.Fast Class modems
20 Kbps       Level 1 cable, minimum cable data speed
14.4 Kbps     V.32bis modem, V.17 fax
9600 bps      modem speed circa early 1990s
2400 bps      modem speed circa 1980s  

Units of Measurement
bit   = smallest unit of digital information, i.e. ones & zeros
byte  = a set of bits
bps   = bits per second
Kbps  = kilobits per second =1000 bits per second
Mbps  = Million bits per second =1,000,000 bits per second
Gbps  = Gigabits per second = 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bits per second
Tbps  = Terabits per second = 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) bits per second
(Network speed is mesured in 1000 units, memory and storage space in 1024 units)

This is a list of different internet access connection speeds over a variety of different types of material. OC stands for Optical Carrier or in other words fiber connections. The method for communicating over fiber is called SONET (Synchronous optical networking). The connections listed above that do not start with OC are over traditional copper, twisted pair (Cat5) ethernet or coaxial cabeling.

I just sold Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz for the Wii on Amazon, only to discover that Amazon was taking a 23.5% commission on the sale. Oh how nice of them. I took out the personal information but here is part of the email that they sent me.

Here are the details of your completed Amazon Marketplace sale:

Order #:
Listings: 1
Total Item Count: 1
Listing 1: Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz [CD-ROM] [Nintendo Wii]
SKU:
Quantity: 1
Buyer’s Price: $27.50

(Please note Media Mail should only be used for standard shipping on Books, Music, Videos, DVDs, Computer Games, Video Games, and Computer Software.)

Amazon commission: ($6.47)
Additional shipping credit: $3.99
———
Your earnings (in your Payments account): $25.02

Is it just me or does a $6.50 commission on a $27 dollar sale seem a little outrageous. I am going to sell my stuff on ebay / half.com again even thou Amazon is easier, this is ridiculous.

1. Go to Flickr.com

   

2. Do you have a previous Flickr account or yahoo email address? If so, click on the Sign In link in the upper right part of the page. You may also click here to goto the sign in page. Skip to step 4 in these directions.
3. If you do not have a Flickr account or Yahoo email address, click on the pink Sign up! button on the right.
   
   You may also click here to goto the sign up page.

a. On the “Sign in to Yahoo!” page click the “Sign Up” link in the lower right part of the page


b. Fill in all the form fields, choosing a Yahoo ID!

c. Click the I agree button after “reading” their Terms of Service. If you entered an Alternate Email, be sure to check that email account and click on the link to verify the alternate email address.

d. Click the Continue to Yahoo! Flickr Button. If you don’t want spam from Yahoo you might also click “Edit Marketing Preferences” and uncheck all the boxes.

e. If there is a security warning, click continue

f. Click the “CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT” button after choosing a Flickr screen name

g. Click the Flickr Logo or the Explore Flickr Link.

4. Now that you are logged into Flickr, you can add people as a contacts.  Under the Contacts menu there is a link for “People Search”.
   

   Another way to add people is if they send you a link to their account. For instance, if you want to add me, go here:

   http://www.flickr.com/people/llbbl/relationship/

   If I am a friend or family you can check the boxes, otherwise click the Ok button.

5. That is all there is to it. If you added me as a contact I will be notified and all you have to do is wait for me to reciprocate.

I compiled a list of the best free software currently available. I am open to suggestions, let me know your thoughts on my selections.

The Mac programs like iChat and Mail aren’t exactly free because you pay for the operating system when you buy a new Mac, but they are included with the operating system, so assuming you paid for OSX you will have them. Also it is interesting to note that wikipedia has a good comparison of text editors.

The best antivirus software out there is called Active Virus Shield. It is a repackaged version of Kaspersky Antivirus which is one of the best antivirus software that you can buy. It is tons better than Norton or McAffee because it takes up less RAM and does a better overall job at protecting you. The thing that I like the most is that it is free!

NOD32 is known for not taking up much memory and having the best proactive scanning/detection. I have recommended people buy it in the past, until I found out about active virus shield. I hate that Norton and McAfee take up so much RAM, NOD32 solved that for me.

If your currently using AVAST or AVG the free version I highly recommend you use Active Virus Shield instead. It is a lot easier to use than AVG and does a much better job than either of those.

In my research for links that compared different antivirus I came across a 2nd, very highly rated free antivirus. I haven’t tested it but it is worth mentioning. It is made by a German company of the same name, AVIRA.

Antivirus Software Compared
———————————-
Top Ten Reviews
AV-Comparatives On Demand (pdf)
AV-Comparatives Proactive (pdf)
ESET’s NOD32 Compared
Kaspersky Compared

The EFF, ACLU and Center for Democracy and Technology are defending Enzyte in court because the FTC and the FBI didn’t obtain a warrant to access the creator of Enzyte’s email, which was stored on servers belonging to Yahoo and other companies.

This could mean that Fed could be allowed to look at your email, no questions asked. They are already listening to your phone calls and keeping track of your phone records despite the 4th amendment, so this news is not surprising.

Source: Arstechnica

There was a 100-extension test back in February that inspired some people at Cybernetnews.com to see if they could top that. They installed 200 Firefox extensions to see what it would do. There is barely any room to left for the web page. It took 6 minutes for Firefox to load and took only 200 MB of RAM. Take a look at the tools menu and the list of possible sidebars that he is able to display!

I have been using Tadalists by 37signals to keep track of stuff that I need to do with various things. It is free to use and quite useful. They did a good job as usual implementing AJAX and RSS into their webtool.

The stuff that I need to do I find to be personal. I doubt most people are interested and there are probably some whom are that I would rather they didn’t. Tadalists allow you to selectively allow people to access a list or available to anyone.

Meet the MySpace of Todo lists. I happen to come across 43things and 43places the other day and today I signed up to check it out. 43things is social todo list where people to try to collectively come up with their life’s aspirations. 43places is similar and has to do with where you live and places you want to visit.

So I thought it would be funny to add this to 43things, “Make a list of things I want to do with my life without actually doing any of them” since I think this website is a big timewaster like MySpace rather of an actual productive tool used by professionals.

If you have an account on 43 things make sure you add “Make a list of things I want to do with my life without actually doing any of them” to your list because it would be hilarious if that was the most popular thing on their website!

CSS Tab Designer works for WinXP. It will greatly help the aspiring web developers in their efforts at creating CSS tabs. It comes with a number of examples that you can customize to look like your own.

Scoble Interviews the Google Reader Team. I have been using google reader recently because my Sage firefox extension doesn’t work very well with the Yahoo Del.icio.us Firefox extension. Flock works pretty good as a RSS reader also.

Overfishing is a serious problem. Scientists said that there “will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study”. With an estimated 50 years of fish and 50-100 years of Oil and Gas it is going to be very interesting for our children. Will there have anything left?

Now on to some lighter news. All the hockey fans will be happy to know they now can watch every NHL hockey game will be available online at google video.

Music fans will be happy to know that Napster is giving away a free download every day via their website. Read more about it at lifehacker.