Post Race!

[Niya]

My only two options are AT&T (30down/5up) or Hughs Net (25down).

Whoa.....That is extremely surprising. I live in a place many would consider a 3rd world country yet my cheap internet connection is 100up/100down. I thought in first world countries like America you guys have like gigabit internet in your homes on the lower end. 30down/5up is like.......like I'd never expect that kind of thing in a 1st world country.

[Delaney]

We have another hurricane

I am sorry for you, that's too bad. You should really think about getting a house in the north to have a drop-off point if you have too move every few weeks.

[wossy]

I'd never expect that kind of thing in a 1st world country.

This is particularly true in the UK, where the only widespread infrastructure available (until recently, with the growing proliferation of FttC) is the PSTN phone network, which is now so incredibly old that the copper wires are simply failing a lot of the time. The PSTN cable to my house it at least 60 years old and used to go flaky when it rained. Before I swapped to FttC the old up down was something like 5 up, 0.2 down!

The UK may be small enough to seem easy to fit with lots of lovely optic fibre, but the wobbly terrain and centuries old street layouts make this a nightmare for contractors.

[dday9]

I am sorry for you, that's too bad. You should really think about getting a house in the north to have a drop-off point if you have too move every few weeks.

We bought a camper a few months back, it was something my wife and I always wanted. Since I sold the business and paid off my house and truck, I figured what the hell and went ahead with the purchase.

Part of the reason we went with a travel trailer instead of a class C was that in the event of a hurricane we can take both my truck and the camper. My wife doesn't drive (never has had her license), so we had to take that into consideration.

I would take it for this hurricane, but this one was so fast forming that I really didn't have time. We found out about it yesterday, they were saying it would be a strong tropical storm, maybe a category 1, and so we decided not to leave. Now they're saying it is probably going to be a 2 and a we'll be taking a direct hit.

Its too late to leave now. I'm just going to weather this thing out.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, that was a sneaky storm. I had one of those narrowly miss us when I was living in the Keys. It's better when you get a bit of warning.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Whoa.....That is extremely surprising. I live in a place many would consider a 3rd world country yet my cheap internet connection is 100up/100down. I thought in first world countries like America you guys have like gigabit internet in your homes on the lower end. 30down/5up is like.......like I'd never expect that kind of thing in a 1st world country.

The US has notoriously slow and patchy internet service. We're getting better, but only slowly. Cities are getting better and better service, while rural areas are generally being left behind...with strange exceptions. We have a fish trap that has awesome internet, despite being at the end of the road in one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. The local phone company must have put a relay station out there, for some reason.

I keep hearing ads about fiber coming to...well, to places that don't include where I live, though I'm pretty much in a small city. It does mean that we'll get it at some point in the future, but if it is through my current ISP....I probably won't get it, because I LOATHE that company. They'd find a way to stick it to me over that.

[dday9]

The town I live outside of is a town of 2,200 people. There really isn't any incentive to run fiber optic here.

[Niya]

The US has notoriously slow and patchy internet service. We're getting better, but only slowly. Cities are getting better and better service, while rural areas are generally being left behind...with strange exceptions. We have a fish trap that has awesome internet, despite being at the end of the road in one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. The local phone company must have put a relay station out there, for some reason.

I keep hearing ads about fiber coming to...well, to places that don't include where I live, though I'm pretty much in a small city. It does mean that we'll get it at some point in the future, but if it is through my current ISP....I probably won't get it, because I LOATHE that company. They'd find a way to stick it to me over that.

This has me rethinking whether the US should be classified as a 1st world country. I find this very surprising and strangely fascinating. I mean where I'm from, it's pretty normal to expect places like the US to have much better versions and all the things we have. I'd never expect something as common and as essential as internet to be so poorly implemented and in the country that invented it no less. This is really shocking to me that so many US citizens have such garbage internet. I never would have guessed.

[Niya]

The town I live outside of is a town of 2,200 people. There really isn't any incentive to run fiber optic here.

I live in a village that most likely has a lot less people than that and as I suggested earlier, our entire country could be considered 3rd world. Yet, even in this village we have like 3 or 4 different choices of ISP and every single one of them offer packages that far exceed what you have. They have lower end packages but a couple of these ISPs offer very decent bandwidth for prices we would consider quite reasonable.

I'm wondering if it's simply that you are using lower end packages. I'm curious, what do you pay for your 30down/5up. I want to compare it to similar packages offered here to see if you really have it that bad or if it's just the package you chose. Our 100up/100down connection is about $400/month in our local currency which translates to about $58 a month in US currency. The current exchange rate is $1 US to $6.80 of our local currency.

For all I know, we might be vastly over paying for our internet which could be a possible explanation for this disparity in quality between my country and the US.

[dday9]

I'm paying about $60 a month after their fees and theft (aka - taxes).

[Niya]

I'm paying about $60 a month after their fees and theft (aka - taxes).

Wow, you guys are being ripped off. You're paying more money than we do for less bandwidth. This is truly sad. I just looked up pricing on a couple of packages offered by our local ISPs and the cheapest one I found closest to your package is one for $275/month or around $40 US/month and it's for 75down/10up. You're paying way too much for that internet connection you have there.

I really hope the situation improves over there for you guys. A first world country like the US really shouldn't be offering it's citizens such ****** deals on internet bandwidth.

[dday9]

Well I just called because I looked on AT&T's website and apparently they offer a 75down with 20 up for the same price.

They told me I didn't qualify for it so I cancelled it. I then called them right back and got it setup under my wife's name. So now we'll get 75/20 for about $60/mo.

[Niya]

Well I just called because I looked on AT&T's website and apparently they offer a 75down with 20 up for the same price.

They told me I didn't qualify for it so I cancelled it. I then called them right back and got it setup under my wife's name. So now we'll get 75/20 for about $60/mo.

I'm curious. Why didn't you qualify?

[Niya]

I've been giving it a bit more thought and I think I figured why deals on bandwidth seem less reasonable in the US. It may not even be the deliberate on the part of US based ISPs. I imagine that ISPs pay a fixed amount of money for a specific amount of bandwidth which they then divide between their customers. My country is very small and very rural. We have only 2 major cities and they are not even close to comparable to even the smallest US cities. It might just be that on account of our relatively small population and more rural disposition, local ISPs can be more generous with how they share bandwidth. The US on the other hand has cities everywhere and I'm sure most are far larger and far more densely populated than anything we call a city over here. That's a lot of people that have to share bandwidth.

[dday9]

I'm curious. Why didn't you qualify?

No idea and I pushed back because I've been an AT&T for my internet for about 8 years.

[FunkyDexter]

Why didn't you qualify?

I'll give odds of twenty to one that it was because he was already a customer...

[Shaggy Hiker]

So would I. The company that I do reluctant business with sent me an advertisement stating that I could get about 10x the speed I'm currently getting for about $5-10 more per month. I knew they were lying a bit about that, but it wasn't really a bad deal. Better yet, it was a "price for life", which I currently have, which would keep them from changing rates whenever they felt like it.

When I went to the web site, I found out that new customers were the only ones who could get that rate. If you were an existing customer, the rate was about %50 higher (not 50% of the 5-10 dollars, of course). Basically, they penalize you HEAVILY for loyalty. That's just one of the reasons I loathe them.

[Shaggy Hiker]

@Niya: I don't think you have it quite right, but also not quite wrong.

The US has multiple tiers of service. If you are really rural, you're probably completely out of luck. Keep in mind that the US is enormous. The providers don't want to be running cable dozens of miles to some little Podunk hamlet with half a dozen people, one cow, and an inebriated dog. It costs more than they can get back.

Electrification had the same issue, so the federal government created the rural electrification program to make it cost effective to get electricity, then phone service, all over the place. The same has not happened with internet, so whether you can get much of anything in some places is based more on whim than anything else. Hence the fish trap with crazy good internet service. So, the first tier is rural: Good luck, you have no idea what will be available until you ask.

The second tier is places like where I am: There are two providers, both of them among the most detested companies in the country for their business practices. You will either get service via cable or your phone company. There is ZERO competition for either one, so you choose one or the other and they are both free to do whatever they please. The price you pay is roughly what the other guy is charging, cause that's their only competition, and even that isn't very serious competition. You probably choose cable or phone for some reason, so you may not be able to freely switch from one to the other. Therefore, they don't have to be competitive with much of anybody, but when they do, it will be with a company that competes with them for rapacious business practices.

The third tier is bigger cities, in which case there can be multiple providers, competition, and all that comes with it. That's slowly spreading out from Boise, but hasn't reached my area. If it does, I'll be jumping off my current provider immediately...unless the new provider has proven to live down to the competition, by then.

The US is notorious for lagging in infrastructure in a variety of areas (roads, internet, public transportation, etc). A part of that has to do with the way some things are funded, and a big part has to do with the vast spaces that have to be crossed. The center of this country has a whole lot of...corn, cows, and not many people.

[dday9]

This hurricane is actually much worse that we had anticipated. Apparently its a few MPH lower than a category 3.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Growing fast, from the sound of it.

Quite the year. Florida has been missed by all of them, but the smaller target of Louisiana hasn't been missed by anything.

[dday9]

We’re losing bits of our roof and we have water being pushed in. This is much worse than we expected.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, this sounds like an unusually strong category 2.

At least you still have a bit of power. Hopefully it moves past fast.

[dday9]

Mais I posted that from my phone, me.

We’ve been without power since about 4.

[dday9]

We just got power. Right when it kicked on, I heard an explosion. I think someone overloaded their power supply using a generator and it blew up a transformer.

[FunkyDexter]

Hope you're OK, DD. That sounds pretty full on.

My recycling bag blew away. We sure have it tough in the UK.

[wossy]

Hope you're OK, DD. That sounds pretty full on.

My recycling bag blew away. We sure have it tough in the UK.

One of my patio chairs tipped over* this morning. I feel your struggle brother. UK Strong!


*EDIT: sorry, turns out it was nextdoor's cat that did it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

There are still a few weeks left to go in the normal hurricane season, but this is not a normal hurricane season. Normally, it is over by mid-November. However, this was the strongest storm this late in the season, which may well indicate that the season will last into December.

All I want for Christmas....

[dday9]

I was able to assess the damage and it isn't too bad.

I can probably get away with just patching the roof. The water damage was manageable and we got it cleaned up pretty quickly.

There's widespread damage throughout the neighborhood. We are much luckier than most of my neighbors.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Do you still have power?

[Delaney]

Happy to know that's you are safe with little damage to the house.

Mais I posted that from my phone, me.

it is not the fist time that I catch that : sometime you are using some french words : "mais"
Some other day it was "adieu" and "Parrain".
some remnants of Cajun ?

[dday9]

Do you still have power?

Yep, it never went back out. Our internet did for a little while, but it was back after a few hours.

[dday9]

it is not the fist time that I catch that : sometime you are using some french words : "mais"
Some other day it was "adieu" and "Parrain".
some remnants of Cajun ?

Un peu

I can understand a lot of French when the old folks talk to each other or when I'm listening to music (Nathan Abshire, DL Menard, and Wayne Toups are my favorites), but I can't really speak it.

French was my paternal grandmother's first language, but she refused to teach my dad and she died when my dad was 18 or 19. It's also my wife's grandparent's first language too. They can't read or write in French, but they'll use some French words with me and my kids or help me say them right (I was saying mange in "allon mange" wrong for a while).

There were some words and phrases that I didn't realize were french until I was older, like coullion, fais (or let's make) do do, or pauvre t' bebe (not sure if they're spelled right).

There were also some that I found out more recently don't really translate into proper french nicely. Like "katin" here is like a term of endearment for a woman (kind of doll or pretty little thing) but means prostitute in France. Or like how negresse or neg here is how we refer to black people and in fact negresse in the right context is like katin only specific to black women, but apparently in France its an outdated phrase like "colored" in America.

I would love to speak it fluently, but I've been so busy that I really haven't had time to sit down and learn.

[FunkyDexter]

I would love to speak it fluently

Us Brits are all fluent in French. It's just like English but slower and louder. Sometimes we have to repeat ourselves several times because the French don't understand French very well.

(It's no wonder we spent a hundred years fighting each other)

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's a very American approach. Of course, I find I have to turn on captioning when watching some British movies, cause you English don't speak English all that well, either.

[dday9]

Apparently modern day British accent has evolved to what it is after the establishment of the United States. In 1776, the British would've sounded more like Virginians do today.

[Delaney]

Us Brits are all fluent in French. It's just like English but slower and louder. Sometimes we have to repeat ourselves several times because the French don't understand French very well.

(It's no wonder we spent a hundred years fighting each other)

Well, you speak french with a strong British accent so... and you speak too fast. that's why we don't understand you

[wossy]

Ein bagette, pour favor, chop chop.

However despite my notable linguistic prowess, on my myriad travels around this fair continent it has become apparent on several occasions that Parisian restaurants seem to take umbrage when I attempt to accompany my meal with a bottle of Blue Nun.

The receptionist with the fancy mustachio clutched at his pearls and used their heathen lingo to charge me an extra "corkage fee" which was more than the entire price of the wine and the Bangers & Mash for two combined!

Needless to say, I gave them a 3-star review (the cheesecake was lovely to be fair).

[Shaggy Hiker]

Ou est le chat de votre grandmere?

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's mostly what I remember from taking French for several years.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have no idea why I remember that.