[GRLUG] comcast tiers (tears actually)

[Bob Kline]

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Adam Tauno Williams <
awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:

>
>
> > I know someone on the Hudsonville-Jenison
> > line that has U-verse and really likes the
>
> My neighbor who has U-verse is happy.
>
> > package.  My impression is that the Internet
> > bandwidth is not all that high, but that the
> > package of TV, Internet, phone, etc., works
> > very well.
>
> I think the base speed is 3MBps (twice what I have now).  But, IMO, if
> you aren't running services [which is forbidden anyway] speeds upwards
> of 3MBps are pretty pointless.  At home I'm on a T1 speed business-class
> DSL right now and don't have any complaints at all.  At work we have a
> fiber connection to our ISP and just about every upstream site throttles
> [on purpose or not] big transfers to something around ~3MBps anyway.
> The only time it goes faster is when pulling an ISO from a big mirror.
> Web surfing is much faster [fiber vs. DSL] if I look at the numbers but
> I honestly can't feel the difference.
>
> I suppose it depends on what you do,  I just don't see the need for
> sky-high link speeds.
>
>
>
It probably is true that server congestion
is a bigger issue in general, and can often
negate any advantages one might hope to
get high speed.

But if things like downloading and/or watching
movies or TV online are ever to become much
of a reality,  the bandwidth will be necessary.

Much like 1TB hard drives,  people seem to
find a way to use the bandwidth, and if they're
will to pay, well, that's a business.

One can quibble about the net good of it all,
but the world seems to run on a 20/80 rule.
( I'll go with 10/90 too. )  20% of employees
do 80% of the real work.  20% of cell phone
use, at best, is probably for anything useful.
80% of Internet use is probably for looking
at porno.  Etc.  But the 20% in all these things
are what keep things going.  And the 80% pays
for development of bigger, faster, better, and
cheaper things.

   -- Bob
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20090820/59bd51ba/attachment.htm