Remember When This Was Normal?
posted on february 4, 2003, tag: tech
Well, the first thing I forgot about was how long it actually takes to connect. It was at least 25 seconds before I finally saw the timer begin. Then I forgot how slow dial-up actually is. That hit me the moment I opened Mail and Proteus. I had 28 unread email messages—none bigger than 4k—and it took about 1 full minute to get them all. Proteus (an OS X AIM Client) took about 15 seconds of adding chunks of people to my buddy list before it was ready to go.
And then there was the real test: I opened Chimera and loaded my "weblogs" bookmark—which opens 10 sites I read at least twice daily—and waited as the tabs slowly loaded. The nice thing is, a majority of the sites I visit use really simple designs, light on graphics and heavy on CSS, so it wasn't too bad. I actually had them all loaded in about 20 seconds. Still, normally it's only about 2 (on a cable modem).
I don't know how anyone can live like this. I know I wouldn't be able to. Here in our area of Brooklyn, we can't get cable Internet service (boo), but we can get DSL. It's just annoying that Verizon takes over a week and a half to set it up. So, until the end of next week, I'll be using good ol' Earthlink dial-up on my iBook. It's not the end of the world, but it's definitely not great.
Comments
There are 7 comments, comments are closed
n3verm0re on 02/04/2003:
First Post!
Garrett on 02/05/2003:
Yeah, well, luckily I get email notification of all the comments that includes the comment body, so I didn't have to waste a minute to see that. But I appreciate the joke, I remember the days when I would have spent the 2 minute download just to see a message like that.
John Barker on 02/06/2003:
I hope you're stuck on dial-up, so you can suffer with me!
Nathan Williams on 05/04/2003:
I am "lucky" enough to have Verizon.. is luck the word? I don't think it is.. it is such a bullshit company! More people play games, or host servers rather than check email and stare at porn all day, and it takes me around a minute and a half to load up any webpage and I have a 300+ ping on ANY server for any game. Everytime I call I have to wait and I don't want to deal with that bullshit. Also I've had so many problems with lines going down I'm considering on going back to dial-up because of my firery hatred for Verizon.
Bob on 06/15/2003:
Well at least you can get some kind of faster connection. I can't get Broadband here in britty land until BT are kind enough to upgrade the phone exchange
jason hoova on 10/02/2003:
you know what? you people have legitimate gripes w/ verizon..we know that service sucks, however, we at level 1 tech suppt can just flip a switch. people it just doesnt work like that!! get over it! stop whining and bitchin at us...we do what we can..if we cant help either deal with it or cancel!!!
jason
Verizon Hater on 12/04/2003:
All those looking for a cell phone company to sign up with — DON'T USE VERIZON. Reasons:
1) I spent 45 minutes waiting at the Verizon store for assistance because they are too cheap to hire enough associates to help their customers
2) The "can you hear me now?" commercials are pure BULL. My calls drop constantly, it takes at least 3-4 minutes for my calls to connect on average.
3) VERIZON WORKERS ARE INCOMPETENT, RUDE, AND DISCOURTEOUS. I HOPE THAT THIS SAVES SOMEONE FROM HAVING TO GO THROUGH THE NIGHTMARE OF PAYING FOR SUBSTANDARD PRODUCT AND SERVICE.