life hereafter

random musings from a wannabe economist

A few months back Clear, the WiMax 4G Joint-Venture between Sprint, Comcast and a host of other companies launched in the Philadelphia area claiming broadband speeds up to 4X faster than the cell phone companies. Given that neither Comcast High-speed, nor Verizon FiOS was available in my Center City condo, I decided to give it a try.

Ordering:

I signed up for the “Pick-2″ promotion with both Mobile and Home Internet. Sign-up was easy and the order without a 2-year contract was completed in less than five minutes.

The next-business day I had two packages waiting for me. The packages arrived covered in “hazardous materials” stickers. This completely threw me off from the fact that this was the order I had placed the day before. I’m not sure if the goal here was to scare would be criminals from stealing my order, or if I am now in-fact slowly dying of radiation poisoning.

The “Home” package contained a shark-fin Motorola WiMax modem, Ethernet cable, power cable and installation manual. The “Mobile” package contained a Motorola WiMax USB modem, USB flash drive containing installation software and a USB adapter allowing you to rotate the modem perpendicularly.

Installation and use:

Installation was about as simple as could be. For the Home modem all I did was plug it into the wall and my WiFi router. In about 30 seconds it found a signal and obtained an IP-address. After loading up my computer I was redirected to the Clear registration page where I could sign up for Clear email and set up the remainder of my billing information. The hardest part of the whole set-up was trying to find the best signal in my home. The top of the modem has five bars, much like a cell phone. You obviously want as many bars as possible to light up. Unfortunately I could only achieve three bars. This means speeds in the home were anything but “super-fast.” In my informal tests during peak hours (9pm) I was able to achieve between 1 – 1.5mbps downstream.

Mobile installation required me to install the software contained on the USB flash drive first. After that was installed a little green and white icon was placed on my desktop. Once you load the Clear software and plug in the USB modem, Clear attempts to find a signal and offers to connect to the network for you. Instead of five bars, the Clear Connection Manager has ten which show you your current signal strength. Once connected and stationary I was able to achieve roughly 3.2mbps down with bursts to 4mbps and 82kbps up. (These speeds were obtained just outside of Center City, near Overbrook Station.) Consistently, within my home, the speeds obtained by my mobile USB device were faster than the speeds obtained by the larger device. Even moving the position of my in-home device did not help.

I mainly signed up for the mobile package so that I could use my computer on my commute to and from work. I ride the R5-Throndale train which is well-within Clear’s mobile coverage area. Unfortunately the signal on that line is not exactly consistent. Frequently as the train gets up to speed my connection is dropped. Once you get to stations further down the mainline, Villanova, Radnor, etc, it becomes impossible to connect. Perhaps they should take down their ads in the train cars which only serve to frustrate and taunt me as I wait for a reconnection.

Major cons:

- The IP Address assigned by clear is in the 192.168.x.x range which is not publicly addressable. If you run dyndns or some other dynamic DNS service for reaching your home network, you will be out of luck with Clear.
- This thing does not work on fast(er) moving vehicles (defying the laws of physics.) Be sure to take Clear for a test drive on your normal route if you plan to rely on it for a connection while moving. (Clear does have another option for 3G/4G connections. This option has a high $250 up-front cost, but can serve to smooth out dead-spots within the 4G coverage area.)

Bottom line:

Clear isn’t exactly the “super-fast” mobile Internet they claim to be. Especially in areas outside of Center City and along the main-line. If Clear or DSL are your only options in the home, Clear is definitely better than DSL or dial-up. If you can get FiOS or Cable, stick with those. For the mobile option, the speeds are definitely faster than 4G, but only if you are in a fixed location. Travel around the coverage area and you are likely to get spotty speeds.

Earlier today I had the lovely experience of being hit by a man on a mountain bike as I walked to work. Now, I would understand if this happened while I was in a cross-walk and an aggressive messenger trying to beat the light blew on through. However, this happened on the sidewalk.

As I crossed 8th street walking south I began to turn around to walk east on Race. At that point I was struck by a man on a mountain bike riding on the sidewalk. I then watched as the man fumbled around without saying anything and then proceeded to ride half way down the block and cross the street in the middle against traffic and into a parking lot. Thankfully I was not hurt, just disoriented, and a little sore.

I honestly cannot understand people who ride bikes on the side walk. I see this all the time, and it really makes me angry. Don’t these people understand that it is both illegal and dangerous to ride their bikes on the sidewalk in cities? Both Pennsylvania law (Section 3508.a) and Philadelphia Code (12-808.1) state:

“No person shall ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk within a business district, as such district is defined in The Vehicle Code.”

Additionally, Philadelphia Code (12-808.2) states:

“No person 12 years of age or more shall ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk in any district.”

This man was clearly over the age of 12.

People, there are bike lanes for a reason. Use them, and remember that you are classified as a vehicle and the same laws apply.

Article: Union leaders turn down “sensational” deal

Imagine my surprise when earlier today I wander down to the bus stop at 8th and Arch and wait patiently for a bus that was never going to come. Apparently, at 3am SEPTA’s largest union went on strike impacting service on all subways, buses and trollys in the city. You know… the service that over one million people rely upon every day to get to work and school.

Last I had heard was the union agreed to take a strike off the table during the World Series as long as Governor Rendell and Mayor Nutter were involved in negotiations. Not even four hours after the last pitch was thrown did the union decide to reject the offer on the table causing Rendell pull out of negotiations saying, “They just didn’t know when to declare victory.”

Let the conspiracy theories start: “Rendell and the city were just trying to avoid national embarassment during the World Series. Now that the game has moved back to the Bronx, screw ‘em.”

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Don’t these unions ever learn that the only people impacted during a transit workers strike are the indivdiuals who are just trying to get to around. These individuals aren’t going to get mad at management for the strike, they are going to get mad at the employees who walked out.

Let’s just hope it dosn’t take them too long to figure this out…

I trekked out to Northern Liberties last night to try out the Royal with Cheese from PYT (Pick Your Topping.) I had trouble getting a cab so I ended up walking, which wasn’t bad. It only took about 25 minutes from my place to the Piazza.

Honestly, I have to say that this is the best burger I have had in Philly so far. Its got just the right amount of “juicy”, American cheese, and Martin’s Potato roll. Not to mention the fact that their “special sauce” is nice and unique. There are some nice little chopped up sautéed red onions. Oh man, I could go for another one right now. I’m pretty sure if you ate that burger five times a week you would be making a nice trip to the cardiologist in short order.

Another interesting tid-bit about PYT is that if you go to the back of the unisex bathroom and enter the unassuming, “looks like a storage closet” door, you’ll enter the back-room club with a live DJ. Pretty unique for a burger joint.

While there, I was convinced that I had to try their Pickle Shot. This particular concoction is basically a shot of whiskey chased by a shot of pickle juice. Personally, I hate pickles and I was also pretty sure I hate pickle juice. Everyone at the table and the waitress managed to convince me that it would be the best thing I ever had. So I tried it, and as predicted I almost gagged on the pickle juice. Although everyone else said that it covered up the burn of the whiskey quite nicely. The shot was only $3, so if you just want some cheap whiskey, you might as well order that.

All in all, even though the pictures on the wall of people eating overly gooey burgers are incredibly disgusting and the pickle shot was the worst idea in the world, they make a pretty damn good burger which in the end is what I was looking for. I will definitely be back.

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Between Shake Shack, PYT, Square Burger and Cavanaugh’s I think I am developing a new found love for the cheeseburger. I’m not saying I want to be one of those people who wants to try every burger in every state in the union, but I really do enjoy a good one

Moving into my new apartment earlier this month presented the opportunity to perform a social experiment. I have an old 27” CRT TV from my college days which due to some strange reasons has continued to follow me.

When I moved in I left this TV outside of my apartment for about six days. Half on purpose hoping that someone would take it, and half out of sheer laziness.

No one stole the damn TV. This means one of two things is true, either everyone in my new building is super honest, or even thieves have become snobs and would never be seen with anything less than a shiny flat LCD.

I learned something new today, even if you a) live in the city where Comcast is based, and b) Comcast has a franchise in the city where you live, you might still not be able to get cable in your new building. Condos can negotiate with, for lack of a better term, what I am going to call TV management companies. These companies control the type of service offered in the condos and basically add overhead.

My options are limited to Verizon FiOS for Internet (not a bad choice), and severely crippled 12 or 24 month contract encumbered packages of Dish Network or DirecTV re-sold by Hotwire Communications. Stupid MDUs.

Of course, I don’ really care about pay-for TV. I’m just as happy streaming Hulu to my TV or watching whatever I happen to have in my Blockbuster Queue. Although, TrueBlood has been awesome this season.

I’m still holding out hope that Comcast will offer to run a line just to my unit… I promise I’ll sign up for all of the packages which make you the most money!

Last night a few friends and I went out for drinks in center city to celebrate a friends last night in Philly. When we arrived at the establishment of her choosing I am the first in line. Since it was after 9pm they were checking IDs at the door. I hand my official PA Drivers License over to him expecting a cursory glance and him to hand it back. No. He keep staring at it and looking at me, staring at it and looking at me. Then he asks if I have another form of ID since the picture on the license doesn’t look like me.

No, I reply. I do not have another form of ID on me. (I decided about a month ago to no longer carry around my Delaware ID as I have been done for three years. Besides the picture on there is seven years old and would not help in situations like this.) He starts to say how he can’t let me in without some other form of ID because he dosn’t believe that my official state license is mine. After showing him every single credit card, health insurance card, blockbuster card in my wallet he finally relents and let’s me into the establishment.

I’m still dumbfounded. I guess I should go and get a new picture taken if this happens again…