gonium.net

I’m on the road again, towards Athens for GGF 16. Two scandals so far:

1. Lufthansa has stopped giving you metal cutlery. I can’t believe it.
2. Global Grid Forum and Enterprise Grid Alliance will merge.

Lufthansa now gives you those stupid plastic spoons etc. that tend to break during your meal. This sucks.

I don’t yet know what to think about the GGF-EGA merger: On one hand, it may be a good thing to join the forces of the two organizations in order to move to standardization. On the other hand, there will be more industry people arround and I am concerned that scientists will not be able to allocate the same amount of resources for their contribution to the standardization process.

I am also wondering why the news are not on the websites so far. I received a public email, so I think it is safe to write about it.

Status quo:

• A mobile phone with O2′s Genion contract



• A WLAN-based internet access, provided by Transkom. I have to bridge approximately 500m and a railroad line, so I need a big antenna:
  
  OK, this setup has definitely a very low WAF.

Problem

Since WLAN has never been designed as a backbone technology, the uplink’s reliability is poor. Bandwidth is fine, but since I frequently use SSH, this is not enough. VOIP? No way… Check out my smokeping stats for the last year:

Alternatives

• Ask for DSL. The guy at the local T-Punkt needed 5 Minutes to figure out that I have fiber glass lines – but there’s a 95 percent chance they will manage to provide DSL for me. What I need to determine whether it’s feasible? An analog telephone line! So please pay 60 + 15 Euro so that we can tell you we can’t do it. Next provider please.
• Arcor has started a WiMAX testbed in Kaiserslautern. When I applied for it, I received an email stating “Sorry, you’re not in range. [...] If you move to Kaiserslautern in the close future, please notify us.” Hello? I am living there, at least that’s what I call this town for several years now.
• Kabel Deutschland provides cable broadband access, with very nice conditions. But they ask me to get something installed in the basement, and they do not allow me to have satellite dish in parallel – which I already have. Rumors are around that the reliability is not that good anyway.
• I even tried to get an offer for a glass fiber to rent, but the local company didn’t even manage to send me the offer.

Alternatives?!?

Lacking additional alternatives, I am now going for the DSL solution. I actually don’t want a telephone line, but there’s no way around. Welcome to Kaiserslautern, home of future-oriented research institutes.