It’s pretty bad when I have to look up my login and password here. What’s it been, six months? More?
Anyway, Comcast came by today to swap out my modem because my area had been upgraded to Docsis 3.0, meaning I could enjoy 50/10 mbps internet (at $139/mo? No thanks) or 22/5 mbps internet at $10 more than I’m paying now (yeah, ok). Which is pretty hard to figure out anyway, since with their digital voice phone and HDTV, I get so many discounts that figuring out the monthly bill is pretty much impossible.
So, that would make it time for the obligatory “Yawn, ho hum” post about a speed upgrade. I guess, since it wasn’t all that long ago that my connection crawled along at 9600 baud and the upgrade to 56 kb was so exciting, that “Yawn, ho hum” for the various megabit variations had some possible meaning.
!http://www.elburro.net/images/ComcastUltra.jpg!
Not that long ago? I guess I’m not counting the 8 years of George Bush that I’d like to pretend never happened, so in that sense, yeah, I was grinning from head to toe over 56kb not all that long ago.
But someone must have moved me to the Old Fart side of town when I wasn’t looking, because this time, it truly is “Yawn, ho hum”.
I’ve finally gotten to the point of having way more bandwidth than I have any possible use for. I didn’t think that would ever happen.
Checklist:
*VOIP?* it worked fine at 8/2
*Videos?* Once a month from Amazon? I’d usually rather read a book. Tv? Premium channels? In reality I’m starting to feel like Tony Soprano because all I seem to watch is World War II and Civil War docs on the History Channel.
*Music?* ditto
*Software downloads?* Aha!! Every geek’s dream, But what is the reality? Uh, every six months I download the new Ubuntu. And if it took all day rather than 10 minutes it makes no difference to me.
*Website uploads?* 5 megs up is great, but 2 megs is pretty good also.
*Web server?* Yeah, 5 megs up would be nice, but it’s against my TOS. Besides the point, having to pore over the access attempt logs whenever I’ve opened up a server is more stress than normal people like to handle who live on the Old Fart Side of Town.
*Plenty of bandwidth for 5 computers and 2 Tivos?* Yeah, but 8 megs had plenty too.
So I hate to say it, but I’m asking myself, “how the hell did I get here?”. All I can remember is seeing all this excitement over the web these past few months about Docsis 3.0 coming to a Comcast near you. And thinking, “hell, I prob’ly need that.”.
And when I went to their site to pay a bill the other day and decided to check on any specials in my area I see the Ultra (22 megs) and whatever the 50 meg plan is. “Hmmmm, mebbe I should give-em a call?” And next thing you know they have an installer coming over to bring my bright shiny Docsis 3.0 modem.
And I looked at it. And it is indeed bright and shiny. And I downloaded 3.5 gigs of Windows 7 to try it out and it took a few minutes…..
And I made lunch, and worked on some crap, and…..
Suddenly it’s night and I think there’s some kind of WWI thing on the History Channel.
I hate to admit it, but I’m thinking I need a new hobby.