Consumed Consumer . org

Not long after we played around testing our connection here in Canada over broadband (cable) vs iPhone (3G) , Akamai releases its 2009 Q3 report.

I recently had an ISP service interruption at home, leaving me without a working Internet connection for a few hours. I used my iPhone to tether into my 3G connection, did a few speed tests, and wondered how it compared to my regular (cable modem) internet connection. Here are the test results.

After placing the order for my new cable modem it is now time to receive it, unbox it and test it.

For the longest time I've been renting a cable modem from my ISP for about $5-6/month. As DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems (capable of 400Mbps D/l and 108 Mbps U/l) have become widely available I've decided to upgrade my cable modem and also purchase it.

Have you noticed your Internet connection getting sluggish even while your Speed-tests show no slowdown? Are your VoIP conversations breaking up and becoming unintelligible especially when torrent downloading? If your answer is yes, you might benefit from the following tips.

I recently had the opportunity to benchmark two very similar Acer computers, differing mostly in the kind of Intel processor they shared. I found that only Novabench is worth using.

I've heard a lot about the community of iHacks. Apparently, Apple restricts their devices and limits their capabilities. Some people have made it their mission to free their devices and allow them to perform at full potential. Here is how that is accomplished.

Speedtest - how fast are you? : I clocked 2 short of 60 WPM, which is not bad on a laptop keyboard :)

Having briefly discussed how to choose a virtual private server (VPS), we have experimented with a number of (hosting?) providers, some providing limited-time free service, some providing rock-bottom prices, and we are now ready to make a recommendation. We started this overview in 2020 and finished it in 2022.

After having a look at the more specific driver issues related to installing the latest version of Ubuntu linux on my Toshiba Tablets , it’s time to have a more general – and, hopefully, useful to more readers – look at what’s new and what needs to be changed in this new install. Obviously, I’m building upon my previous install notes ( 10.10 ).

For a long time I’ve been toying with the idea of running a TOR relay for my own privacy reasons and to give back to the community as well. Though my router and NAS (and possibly even my WD Live box) have enough chutzpah to run it, I prefer to use a very old computer instead for reasons of separation (security). For a while, I even considered buying a Raspberry Pi or some other similar cheap gizmo, then I remember I have a bunch of old computers I've never used..

I have decided a couple of years ago that owning a car is stoopid. So even though I live mid-town, I am now relying on TTC & rentals only. There are many reasons for my decision.

  The Beijing Olympics are in the center of the world's attention, exemplifying what the Chinese leadership has deemed the "peaceful rise". We take a quick look at smaller consumerist happenings in and from China.

Now that we recovered passwords and we're in, it's time to do a little clean up of this older Win XP / BT5r1 box.

You're traveling to a new country and either because you have a prepaid in your home country without roaming privileges, or because roaming is too expensive, you want to get a local SIM card to send and receive text messages (SMS), check your email and use Google Maps for directions. Where do you go and what do you get? In this series, we’ll have an answer (or more) for you for the countries we are travelling to most often. Today, Canada.

I have a laptop that allows me to swap my DVD drive (which I don't use much) for a second hard drive in RAID. I'm looking at buying a drive in the $100-200 range to complement my existing SATA drive.

I was recently going through Facebook's recommended friends sending friendship requests, then I got this..

After successfully formatting my 2 new Western Digital 2TB discs properly, with the "advanced 4k option" , the time has come to move all the data from my existing 2TB array (1 TB + 1 TB in RAID 0) to one of the new drives. The quickest way to do this is to connect the drive via the NAS unit USB port.

After wasting time and intense frustration, I have decided that waiting for videos of photos to upload to online services is not something I want to do from my laptop. I shall thus explore alternatives..

I recently stumbled upon yet another remake of that awesome Daft Punk tune that just won't get old. As you can see in this College Humour clip , this one is done with college girls bodies. Judging by the way they move, they're not PhysEd majors, but that doesn't matter, the idea is interesting.