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Broadband guilt

Started by Adrian Brezhnev, February 07, 2005, 07:50:00 PM

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Adrian Brezhnev

David McCandless, a made up name if ever I heard one, has told the media world, in particular BBC Online, that he was one of the first adopters of Broadband in the UK, and he's now giving it up. He claims that he's had broadband since the last century- initially through a so called "phat pipe".
QuoteGradually, though, the novelty of a fast connection has worn off. Disillusion has set in. I've slowly come to a terrible realisation: there isn't really that much I can do with broadband.

I have no far-off relatives to wave at down a video conferencing connection. Threats of divorce stopped me playing online games a few years ago. Sure, I enjoy streaming clips of the news but I can also just turn my head slightly and watch it on my TV. There used to be some joy for me feeling secure downloading hefty Microsoft security patches, but now I've given up on Windows and got a Mac instead.
I wonder if he works for Apple, and whether his "phat pipe" is nothing more than his fudge tunnel.

mook

Why did you need to tell me this?

Solid Snail

The BBC consider this news?

Baxter

I'm big enough of a man to admit when I don't know what the fuck is going on, perhaps I'm developing some sort of chemical psychosis but this is seems to be the most irrelevant thread this week, am I missing something?

Adrian Brezhnev

Quote from: "mook"Why did you need to tell me this?
I didn't need to tell you. Sorry, I had no idea that you were going to read the post, mook. I hope I haven't ruined your evening.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Damn it, I have got far off relatives but no broadband. This McCandless' whining makes me jealous.

Rev

Quote from: "Adrian Brezhnev"David McCandless, a made up name if ever I heard one

Pffft.  He used to write for 'Your Sinclair', which means that you should lay the hell off.  Y'hear?  The article itself is pretty pointless, though.

imitationleather

Apparently the first person to domesticate cats concluded that they were a waste of time.

Oh, I should've started a different thread. Sorry.

Bernard

I think I know what you really mean when you say 'broadband guilt'. Rest assured it's nothing to be ashamed of if you don't go overboard, okay.

untitled_london

sounds like a typical case of "all dressed up and no where to go" if you ask me.

if he had a decent "broadband party" (for want of a beeter euphamism) to go to (i.e. a clue what was going on) he'd have kept the hell quiet.

Adrian Brezhnev

Quote from: "Rev"
Quote from: "Adrian Brezhnev"David McCandless, a made up name if ever I heard one

Pffft.  He used to write for 'Your Sinclair', which means that you should lay the hell off.  Y'hear?  The article itself is pretty pointless, though.
I knew I'd heard that name somewhere before. I used to love Your Sinclair, although I did prefer Sinclair User- that's the first ever magazine that I bought on a monthly basis.

The Duck Man

I've just recognised that name.

He used to write for PCZone, but before I read it. However, there's a few anecdotes in their 10th birthday edition about he would patrnoise people about "still using a mouse in this day and age" in 1996.

Bit of a turn around...

Pinball

Broadband guilt: the attempt by ISPs to manipulate users into minimising their bandwidth consumption, despite said users paying a premium for "uncapped" bandwidth. Hence all the stories about the small number of "greedy" users who have uncapped access and, dash it all, dare to use it!

How any technically minded person can say broadband is unnecessary is quite bizarre. I had to fix my mother's PC recently, including all the windows updates, AVG, ZoneAlarm, AdAware - the usual suspects. This was impossible to do via dial-up, as it would take a month. So I borrowed the PC and connected it to my home network, and did it in one evening.

The other reason for having always on access is wireless access, and all the equipment that's appearing which runs wifi, the PSP being a recent example, but don't forget PDAs, network cams, hifi streamers, upcoming VOIP phones etc. etc.

Again, for anyone to say broadband is unnecessary has never used a P2P package. Maybe he should return to his ZX Spectrum? ;-)

10 PRINT "I am an idiot"
20 GOTO 10
30 REM I really am an idiot

PyramidHead

Quote from: "Pinball"For anyone to say broadband is unnecessary has never used a P2P package.
Ah, but...
Quote from: "That bloke"The only thing I've discovered that really gives my ADSL a workout is, sadly, illegal. I'd rather not go into it here. Let's just say it's the not-so-well-kept secret of what everyone is using broadband for.

To be fair I can relate to some things that he says, particularly about information addiction. But that hardly seems like a reason to cut yourself off.

The comments at the bottom are even more amusing:
QuoteComputers in the home serve no other purpose than to soak up what valuable free time we have
Spoken like the kind of person who'd have bought their kid a Spectrum for christmas instead of a real computer ;)

Pinball

P2P isn't illegal. Sharing copyrighted material is. I use P2P to share comedy recorded from DAB radio, most of which isn't commercially available. The BBC wants to use P2P to enable it to share archive material without breaking their bandwidth bank. Is that illegal?

And what about Internet radio and TV. And online gaming. Are they illegal too?

It sounds like he's being controversial for the sake of it. And whilst I respect that :-)  it doesn't necessarily produce a valid argument.

Broadband guilt - I have that, but for far different reasons...

morgs

Exactly... you can download porn far quicker on Broadband.  AND you don't block the phoneline either, so no guilt need be felt.  Bizarre.

Purple Tentacle

Quote from: "PyramidHead"... the kind of person who'd have bought their kid a Spectrum for christmas instead of a real computer ;)

Watch your back at night, sunshine.

slim

Spectrum: Better than a briefcase.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Tee hee -My mum has been given a laptop by her work and it has wi-fi. Now we can steal broadband from next door and they're none the wiser. I've been using it to watch film trailers on the lav.

Krang

I only got broadband last week. First thing I did was get 2gig of gear to install World of Warcraft beta. All Ive done since then, is play the game. Whilst I sleep, I download as much Malcolm In The Middle/Scrubs as I can.

I fucking love it.

As a side note. Video calls, like on 3G mobile phones. Does anyone use them on a regular basis? Seems like a bit of a waste of time to me.

untitled_london

Quote from: "Claude the Lion Tamer"Tee hee -My mum has been given a laptop by her work and it has wi-fi. Now we can steal broadband from next door and they're none the wiser. I've been using it to watch film trailers on the lav.

hah - quality stuff.

whilst i completely agree that you should exploit this for as much fun as you can manage, i'd be aware that the connection works both ways and potentially you could find yourself with a whole bunch of donkey porn and a lot of explaining to do.

imitationleather

Is there any way to find out if someone is stealing broadband from you? I got bitches coming at me from all angles (I live in a tower block so have people living on every side of me, for those of you not up to date on the languague of the streets)!

Pinball

Just ensure you have WEP encryption enabled. It's amazing how many people leave their connection open. While commuting to work I took my Dell Axim x50, and was checking out all the wifi spots. Incredible! Sadly, PDAs can't yet handle 801.11g speeds, only b, although often both network speeds are accessible on most people's default wifi setups. I have yet to connect to the web while in a traffic jam, but that would be cool!

GPS is a fackin' lafffff too. I wanted to find a bakery yesterday in an area I've never been to before and don't know from adam, so entered the address and then homed in like a big, metal pigeon on wheels. And if you drive into a housing estate, you can make sure you don't get stuck in a cul de sac and have to turn around. Man I love technology!!

On the downside, with all the equipment in my briefcase I look like a travelling salesman.

MojoJojo

How are you sharing your wireless? It probably has log somewhere, which will give you MAC addresses connected. Check what the mac address is on your laptop, which ipconfig can tell you.
Your best bet is probably setting up WEP etc... It's rubbish protection, takes only a couple of hours to break. but doubt anyone's near you will be able to work that out.

imitationleather

Ah, I can set it so that it only lets my laptop connect to the router. I'll do that.

I have tried the encryption before, but I found it made my connection really unstable and my laptop would keep on not recognising the router. Is there any reason that might happen? When it did, I'd have to connect my laptop to the router with a LAN cable before it recognised it again.

Oops, this is turning into a bit of [Techy] thread...