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Without power or water your basic standard of living drops significantly. Without high speed internet you....don't get netflix? I don't really see why lumping

by harryh 12y ago

Without power or water your basic standard of living drops significantly. Without high speed internet you....don't get netflix? I don't really see why lumping all these things together in the same category makes sense.

jedberg 12y ago
I can make a living with my water off. I can't with my internet off.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- harryh 12y ago
  How fast does your internet have to be for you to do your job?
  - nitrogen 12y ago
    Naturally, at least as fast as the other guy or gal competing for the same job.
    - harryh 12y ago
      If all you're doing is moving text around then faster internet isn't going to help any. Unless you're streaming video or doing a few other high bandwidth activities then even really shitty broadband is going to service your needs just fine.
      - raarts 12y ago
        Nobody is only moving text around, occasionally (how often depends on the type of work) you need to move a lot of data. In that case a low speed connection stops you in your tracks.
      - nitrogen 12y ago
        But who just moves text around? Work frequently requires the use of Hangouts, Skype, GoToMeeting, Dropbox, etc. If you have to work through a VPN, the latency added by poor service is a serious drain on productivity.
        wallflower 12y ago
        Total aside: If you experience poor Google Hangouts video quality - use wired connections on both ends of the connection.
      - Roboprog 12y ago
        So you've not had to do a big code pull from source control or something like Maven or the "Go-lang" builder? Being done in a few seconds is much more fun (and productive) than being done in a few minutes.
tehwalrus 12y ago
Without the internet you cannot function well in the economy - many many deals (including those for utility companies as well as retailers) are only available either online, or if you found them online and then mentioned them in the shop/on the phone. The internet is an information network that gives consumers nearly perfect information about price; which translates to a much more ideal market (in economic jargon,) which is much more efficient. It is essentially a utility, if people without it are at a significant economic disadvantage like that.
- harryh 12y ago
  You conveniently left out the words "high speed." Everything you talk about can be done just fine even on the mediocre broadband speeds that people in this thread are complaining about.
  - scrollaway 12y ago
    "high speed" can be swapped out for "high quality" in this context. Spotty connectivity, packet loss, frequent disconnects - all things that come with shoddy internet infrastructure. High speed generally means higher quality. And let's not forget that even just for work the internet is not only used to send plaintext emails. We video chat, we work with crappy bandwidth-hungry web apps, and those are just the smaller of the hungrier things we can do. At my work I have to download tens of gigabytes of foreign data every few days. And as someone who works at home and manages a work-entertainment schedule to keep sane, it's pretty pathetic to see people try to squeeze out an "Admit it! You just want a faster netflix!" from others. So what if they do? If you compare internet access to access to drinking water, then high speed internet access is drinking water that doesn't taste like piss. Just because you can live off it doesn't mean it's pleasant.

by harryh 12y ago

jedberg 12y ago

I can make a living with my water off. I can't with my internet off.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
harryh 12y ago
How fast does your internet have to be for you to do your job?
- nitrogen 12y ago
  Naturally, at least as fast as the other guy or gal competing for the same job.
  - harryh 12y ago
    If all you're doing is moving text around then faster internet isn't going to help any. Unless you're streaming video or doing a few other high bandwidth activities then even really shitty broadband is going to service your needs just fine.
    - raarts 12y ago
      Nobody is only moving text around, occasionally (how often depends on the type of work) you need to move a lot of data. In that case a low speed connection stops you in your tracks.
    - nitrogen 12y ago
      But who just moves text around? Work frequently requires the use of Hangouts, Skype, GoToMeeting, Dropbox, etc. If you have to work through a VPN, the latency added by poor service is a serious drain on productivity.
      - wallflower 12y ago
        Total aside: If you experience poor Google Hangouts video quality - use wired connections on both ends of the connection.
    - Roboprog 12y ago
      So you've not had to do a big code pull from source control or something like Maven or the "Go-lang" builder? Being done in a few seconds is much more fun (and productive) than being done in a few minutes.

tehwalrus 12y ago

Without the internet you cannot function well in the economy - many many deals (including those for utility companies as well as retailers) are only available either online, or if you found them online and then mentioned them in the shop/on the phone. The internet is an information network that gives consumers nearly perfect information about price; which translates to a much more ideal market (in economic jargon,) which is much more efficient. It is essentially a utility, if people without it are at a significant economic disadvantage like that.

harryh 12y ago
You conveniently left out the words "high speed." Everything you talk about can be done just fine even on the mediocre broadband speeds that people in this thread are complaining about.
- scrollaway 12y ago
  "high speed" can be swapped out for "high quality" in this context. Spotty connectivity, packet loss, frequent disconnects - all things that come with shoddy internet infrastructure. High speed generally means higher quality. And let's not forget that even just for work the internet is not only used to send plaintext emails. We video chat, we work with crappy bandwidth-hungry web apps, and those are just the smaller of the hungrier things we can do. At my work I have to download tens of gigabytes of foreign data every few days. And as someone who works at home and manages a work-entertainment schedule to keep sane, it's pretty pathetic to see people try to squeeze out an "Admit it! You just want a faster netflix!" from others. So what if they do? If you compare internet access to access to drinking water, then high speed internet access is drinking water that doesn't taste like piss. Just because you can live off it doesn't mean it's pleasant.