Sacrificial Broadband? 78
BitGuy asks: "SBC's VP of Network Engineering reckons that 78% of broadband users would give up their daily newspaper instead of living without their broadband connection (hmm, being a broadband user, I don't need a newspaper), and 63% said they'd give up their morning coffee (the freaks!). Personally I'd rather give up watching TV - what would the rest of Slashdot give up to keep your real sweet net access?"
What do I have to give up? (Score:2)
My ocean view ... whoops.
My crime-free neighborhood ... whoops.
Well, I might give up TV for broadband. But not coffee.
Re:What do I have to give up? (Score:2)
Re:What do I have to give up? (Score:1)
Re:What do I have to give up? (Score:1)
My girlfriend ... whoops.
The "whoops" is my overly-subtle way of saying that I don't have a girlfriend. Or an ocean view, or a crime-free neighborhood.
Re:What do I have to give up? -Never the Coffee!! (Score:1)
Got speed? (Score:1)
Don't need to give up anything... In Portland, Oregon, DSL by Hevanet is wonderful.
Sex! (Score:1)
I'd give up...my computer! (Score:1)
My TV is the closet. (Score:4, Insightful)
Splurge and get the extra 256k download and you'll still be money a head.
I have a lot of friends that say "Yeah, but there are great shows on." True, but for every 1 good show I watch 3 horrible ones. It's too damn easy to come home and hit the power button. You just sit and watch and suddenly 2 hours is wasted out of an already short day. After 3 months, I'm over $100 richer and I've read more than I have in the past year. I go to my friends place on Monday for the important shows on Fox. It's amazing how annoying commercials are after not seeing them.
Try it for a few months! If you need an entertainment fix, listen to radio streaming off the net.
Re:My TV is the closet. (Score:1)
True, but for every 1 good show I watch 3 horrible ones.
Then you are the problem, not television. You see, that remote control is for changing the channel when the show sucks. Better yet, record what you like, and watch it at your leisure. I never have to worry about watching commercials on a premiere night for a show I like when I can just start 15 minutes late and skip the commercials.
Re:My TV is the closet. (Score:2)
If a person cannot adapt to the communications possibilities provided by this network, then perhaps television is their vice.
Me Too (Score:3, Insightful)
I still get current news and the like, but when people are complaining about getting inundated with stuff (christmas ads, particular news stories) I'm perfectly happy.
Try this just for a month and you'll see what I mean.
ReplayTV/TiVo (Score:2)
Re:My TV is the closet. (Score:2, Interesting)
Before the special started, I was telling my wife I'd like to get cable at the new house, just for TLC, Discovery, and the other "edutainment" channels, but after that barrage of primetime pablum, I'd changed my mind.
Sure, one can always turn the channel, but why? Why force yourself to find something else to
I still miss classic movies on AMC and TMC, but beyond that, I can get all the entertainment I need from broadband and DVD.
Oh, and the wife, of course.
Re:My TV is the closet. (Score:2)
What I would sacrifice. (Score:1)
10 Euros (Score:2)
That's actually what I'm paying now.
Ok, maybe I'd pay 15 euros.
Re:10 Euros (Score:2)
Re:10 Euros (Score:1)
I know someone who has a setup like that, I verified the speed and its good.
Ofcourse you arent having the 100 mbit all to yourself there
Re:10 Euros (Score:1)
Plus, as you say, that's shared...and if it's in a dorm, it's heavily shared...100 rooms on a 1.5Mbit T-1 is going to quickly saturate the line...I'ld be impressed if you were getting a sustained 128k at night under those conditions.
Re:10 Euros (Score:1)
The housing is not really like a campus, since it's independent from the university. So you can keep on living there after you finish you education.
Since Wageningen Univerisity can offer such a good connection to the internet, I don't see why the commercial providers can't. It must be due to their monopoly position on the last mile.
Re:10 Euros (Score:1)
And for the Dutch readers: yes this is the place Volkert vd G used to live. I didn't know him, and he left long before the fast network came, so its is not bad for your mental health.
Re:10 Euros (Score:1)
In Wageningen all people who rent at the social housing receive this network connectivity. I live in a small house with 6 people. We actually have a glass fibre running into our house.
Newspapers aren't much... (Score:3, Insightful)
For TV...I'ld give it a few years and we'll probably be getting all of our TV over a broadband connection. For those that don't know, there are already services that deliver pre-recorded international television (Japan, India, UK, etc) over the internet. All of the major US TV shows (i.e. Enterprise) are already being posted to usenet the same day they are shown.
You can also get phone service online. And for many with Cell Phone service, they have already dropped their land line.
I think there are quite a few things that you can give up to keep a broadband connection if you think about it.
A kidney (Score:1)
nzelnick(tm)
I just bought the original painting
"Andalusian Dogs Playing Poker" on e-bay
Look upon my works and despair
metamods: i plead self-defense! (Score:2)
I also hope you get your wick trimmed in meta-mod.
conventional media (Score:3, Insightful)
I read the newspapers - usually, all of them. I stare blindly at Connie Chung as she goes on another heart-felt tirade against x with a sorry, pathetic half-smile on her face.
But that's really just to kill time while smoking a cigarette and downing a Dew during a union break. Given the choice, I'd rather be reading Salon [salon.com].
I never feel like I learn anything from the AP stories carried in the paper. They're continually filled with strange, misleading errors and missing information, or (perhaps worse) dumbed-down numbers.
I never feel like I get anything from CNN these days, as they nowseem to carry everything but news. I find myself squinting at the ticker at the bottom of the screen, trying to decipher from their broken half-sentance synopsis whether or not anything important is happening in the world, and usually failing.
At home, the only thing I ever watch is the History Channel, TLC, and Discovery. The latter two have seen better days, much as CNN and MTV (I do remember, long ago, that MTV did play music), while the history channel remains largely OK with the exception of their exceptionally inane game shows.
I do like auto racing, but I can't get Speed from Time Warner without paying a king's ransom on top of the already high bill for a digital box and a new service tier.
Of course, these somewhat desirous networks all kick over to informercials during my prime viewing hours, which greatly inhibits my ability to watch them.
That all said, were it not for my 2-year-old's healthy addiction to Spongebob, I'd have dropped cable TV a long time ago. I still may - I've been considering programming the TiVo at my parents' house to keep a few fresh episodes of her favorite shows, and dumping them to VHS on an as-needed asis.
As far as the newspaper, I don't care much about it. The local news rag carries all of their own stories on-line for free, in a much easier-to-follow format. For other stuff, there's Salon[1].
1: Slashdot omitted due to lack of news, and a dearth of stuff that matters.
Spongebob (Score:1)
I've chosen to live without ANY connection. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm still connected to the internet from the university or from my workplaces - but after work/study hours, I'm free.
I've actually started reading books again! Yay! I've started walking in the the woods again! Even started watching a tiny little bit of TV (Less than 3 hours a week I would guess). I've started working out again. I've started to hack on my laptop again, instead of wasting time on IRC. I've started watching movies with friends again.
Hell I enjoy beeing disconnected at home. I'm NOT planning on getting an Internet connection at home any time soon. _Maybe_ I'll set up a radio network with friends - but there is just NO WAY i'm gonna get connected 24/7 again. Or have any way of using dialup.
So, what would I give up to keep my broadband connection? Nothing! I've given it up without having to. I don't miss it. I don't want it back.
Ive given thought to this. (Score:2)
Re:Ive given thought to this. (Score:1)
Even the Internet can't tell you that...
Re:Ive given thought to this. (Score:2)
Re:I've chosen to live without ANY connection. (Score:1)
Two roommates, who are not geeks. This, has greatly improved my social life and happiness. And we don't even have cable.
Admittedly, I drink much more, but that's probably a topic best left for another day.
Re:I've chosen to live without ANY connection. (Score:2)
I've twice taken breaks from home connectivity, about 6-9 months each time, roughly same time frame as the above poster (net since around 94, BBSes before that). I didn't do any excersizing or woods-walking, but I do get a lot more productive on my home computers. I would work on real code a lot more often, instead of getting sucked into mindless browsing and slashdotting. If I needed some faqs, manuals, source code, etc from the web, I'd just sneaker-net home whatever I needed on an LS-120 floppy from work, or from the free net access at the community college down the street from my apartment.
My daily newspaper is free ! (Score:1)
I wish I'd pay the same for my internet connection !
What I have given up... (Score:1)
-Female company
-Contact to the world
-Discussions that can go on for more than 2 minutes without differential equations being drawn in.
That's life at engineering school, but I have access to that sweet, sweet 100mbit university network and 24 way Sun E10K's.
Bo
my girlfriend? (Score:1)
Re:my girlfriend? (Score:1)
What to Sacrifice (Score:1, Troll)
Maybe if we take all the worthless people (McDonalds Managers, all the Democrats, every Republican over the age of twenty-five, pedophiles and those guys who host religous programming on public access) and commit ritual human sacrifice for ping times.
As proof of concept that Human Sacrifice works I would like to point out that the world hasn't ended yet.
Paperwaste and modems (Score:1)
Now I read the same articles on quiets moments from work, where I also do my bigger downloads and burn them out on a CDRW and bring them home. At home I have a 56k modem which is good enough for mail and
As for giving up TV, yes, it is a good idea. I think that I will miss the local news though, as they are difficult to find on the net.
Have broadband, but it's cable... (Score:2)
I stick by the spirit of my original TOS, and run a few highly restricted services for my own use, only. The speed is nice, but if they ever started cracking down and *really* enforcing the rules, I'd probably have to go back to dialup. I just wish I were close enough for DSL.
Gave up TV and a funny story (Score:4, Funny)
On a related note, someone I know went to get cable internet but not cable TV. So the cable TV people sent a salesperson over (who, ironically arrived a day before the internet installer) who tried to push cable and premium channels, about how they had a great deal going for $50 bucks a month and how you got some nice premium channels with that as well.
This guy told her, "Why should I spend and extra $50 bucks a month, when I can download most of those movies over *your* cable internet connection"
one word (Score:1)
oh wait... I am married
Re:one word (Score:2, Funny)
I would give up... (Score:2)
Re:I would give up... (Score:4, Funny)
On giving up TV... (Score:2)
I would probably pick broadband over TV, but consider this: If someone asked me to choose between the TiVo on a 2" black and white TV or the 42" color TV without a TiVo, I'd choose the 2" black and white TV. Yep, it makes *that* much of a difference.
~GoRK
Re:On giving up TV... (Score:1)
What would I do? (Score:1)
Jack up the rates. (Score:2, Insightful)
give up... (Score:1)
Should have been (Score:1)
What would you give up to keep your broadband connection:
- coffee
- chocolate
- David Letterman
- baseball
- foosball
- Cowboy Neil's kidney
slashdot (Score:2)
Since I just made that choice last night.... (Score:2)
I would do with out:
1. Repairing a non-performance affecting electrical problem with my car.
2. Pay channels on my cable
3. ST:TNG Season 4 DVD's
4. Warcraft 3
5. 2 magazine subscriptions
6. cut the cost of lunch from $7+ to $5.00
That's an easy one (Score:2)
Keep? (Score:1)
DUH!! (Score:1)
Man, google would've given you this answer in a second!! God I'm sick of these obvious ask slashdot questions...
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+would+dave+ give+up+to+keep+his+broadband%22 [google.com]
Re:DUH!! (Score:1)
My computer (Score:1)
hmmm I know.. (Score:2)
I'd giv up th lttr 'e' (Score:3, Funny)
I don't watch TV (Score:2)
I only watch live TV when there's important news (and as I live in Israel, it's more often than most places).