Payton Place

Connecting to the internet while on an airplane is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. Although Virgin America Airlines has provided this service since they began flying in the United States, I don’t live near any of the cities to which they fly! But today, after a “parked on the runway for 2 1/2 hours at O’Hare International delay,” due to inclement weather, I had the opportunity to give an in-flight internet offering called Gogo, a service of AirCell, a test run.

The service costs $9.95 for the duration of the flight. Considering today’s flight segment is just from Chicago to Boston, that’s a very expensive network connection for a 2 1/2 hour flight. But you only live once, right?

The second thought I had after paying for the service was, “How fast is this connection going to be? So before using the service for anything that I “needed” to do, I browsed to DSLReports.Com to run my favorite flash-based speed test. Wow, it is much faster than I expected. In fact, it is nearly as fast as my office DSL service by AT&T. As you can see from the speed report, download speed was greater than 2 megabits per second and upload speed was over 400 kilobits per second. Not too shabby, eh?

Wired’s How-To Wiki runs down how to optimize your web connection using tools like OpenDNS, a regular old router, and add-ons that block bandwidth-hogging content you don’t care about. If you’re stuck on dial-up or a cellphone data modem, see also our guide on how to survive a slow internet connection.

The one DIY skill most of you don’t have (according to last weekend’s poll) is the ability to tie a bowline (knot, that is). Unless you’re a sailor or a Girl or Boy Scout, you’ve probably never heard of a bowline (pronounced “boh-lin”). But this super-useful knot creates a loop that’s strong enough to put around someone’s waist and pull them out of the water, or hold down heavy objects, and it’s very easily undone. Hit the play button above to learn how to tie a bowline using an easy-to-remember bunny metaphor. Just recently I hung a hammock using a bowline. Any knot nerds out there put the bowline to good use in regular everyday life? Any other knots you know and love? ‘Fess up in the comments.