h a l f b a k e r yI think this would be a great thing to not do.
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Lots of people don't seem to use house phones anymore, I sure don't. Yet my apartment has phone wall jacks in multiple rooms, including the kitchen which is short on shelving.
Take those little boxes out of the wall and insert one of equal size/shape. But instead of a useless phone plug-in on the
outside, it has a small decorative shelf. You could place a myriad of things on such a shelf, from salt and pepper shakers to a nicely scented candle (or for a low lying Phone Jack Shelf maybe a saucer of milk for a pet cat).
Future models may include a double shelf, or a protruding rod for hanging things.
Look! no cable!
http://www.three.ie...roadband/router.htm
[pocmloc, Jan 29 2011]
[link]
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You could put a tiny phone in it. |
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//gotta have a jack for cable or DSL internet// have I read this wrongly? this laptop is not using a jack. |
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yes but I only need the one. |
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still here? the phone jack upstairs. |
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Wouldn't using a cellular radio network dongle all the time for the internet be really dear? |
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So in other words it's complete crap? Thank God i haven't got a mobile. |
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I've a cellphone modem for my home computer. It costs me about $60 a month. I had some troubles with the landline, and would have had to revamp the computer and pay about $40 a month to get DSL working again. I pay a bit more, but I only have the trouble of paying one bill. And I can take the modem with me when I dig out the laptop. I think the plan has wandered off the 5 GB limit, though--I need to check that. |
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[21], this is 3.ie, which is the 'official' broadband provider for Ireland (for what that's worth - perhaps they get bungs according to what % of the population they cover?). They are 100% mobile-phone-network. Prices and service in Ireland are comparable to wired broadband in the UK. |
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A lot of the people in my area use cable internet, which goes through the same cable outlets you get cable TV from, not from phone jacks. |
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//primary in- home internet service seems counterintuitive// |
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It's not as cut-and-dried as you might think. Typical 'broadband' contracts are on a per month basis, rather than per byte - this goes for mobile and wired. So it is natural to then compare the technologies by the available bandwidth at any time and by any monthly limit on the total traffic. |
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This is not the whole story. This is where we have to apply some marketing (not as in 'promotion', but as in 'product'). Most users don't really care what their available bandwidth is - they care that they get their Web pages in decent time or video on demand or gaming or whatever. |
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It turns out that a 3G dongle, with a 3Gb monthly limit, and a throughput of about 100kbps (otherwise known as a 384kbps connection!) does a really good job of providing a months worth of web-pages. Another factor is that 3G dongles tend to be offered with individual monthly pay-as-you-go (you pay up front for the 31 days and total limit), rather than an 18 month contract. |
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Now, if you have ambitions of heavier Internet usage then the chances are the the 3G dongle will not be econimical... at least these days. There were times when 3G downlaoding was easily the cheapest method available: previous deals did have unmetered/unlimited access plans (when "3" first offered dongles in the UK they offered a flat rate of about £15 month with no limit). This effect has meant that canny users could download *massive* ammounts of data over a month for little cost. The only issue would be speed - but speed isn't necessarily important. Even today, most 3G data traffic is due to a small number of super-greedy users on these old contract types - not the people checking their email on the train home. |
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Oh - and nice quirky idea! (+) |
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// Most users don't really care what their available bandwidth is - they care that they get their Web pages in decent time or video on demand or gaming or whatever // |
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That reminds me of an interaction in a shop i underwent once, when i asked the assistant if a particular kind of battery had the memory effect, and he replied, "no it doesn't, but if you recharge it before it's gone flat you'll reduce the capacity." How does your first statement differ from your other? |
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As it happens, i have friends who use only a mobile dongle but the reason for that is that they're poor and have no bank account, so it's along the lines of having a card meter for electricity. Not a desirable option, just the only one available if you can't afford anything else and, as usual, an example of a poverty trap. Not actually a good thing. |
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//How does your first statement differ from your other?// |
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The first involves a numerical metric that can be compared, while the second is the perceived quality of service delivery. Remember that the ISPs offer "up to X Meg broadband" - yet they don't get anywhere near their promises. |
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In other words, if you are getting your web pages in about 2 seconds - does it matter what 'bandwidth' you're getting? A typical "up to 20" Meg ADSL broadband deal is more likely to give you around 4Mbps download capacity. That's dependent on your distance from the exchange and how many other users are connected. How fast can you download a typical web-page? 1-2 seconds...? |
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Now consider a 3G dongle. Recent speeds attainable with HSDPA are apparently 7.2Mbps... No chance you'll get anything like that. A more reasonable guesstimate is something more like 1Mbps (and that is being kind), and after overheads the actual data that you download will be more like 700kbps. Now, how fast can you download a typical web-page? Probably about 2 seconds. |
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To be fair, we've only considered perceived data throughput as a steady number when it will tend to fluctuate - more so with cellular than fixed line. Web-pages are also not particularly time-critical whereas video/audio streaming (live TV/Skype) and progressive video download (Youtube etc.) are a lot more demanding from moment-to-moment. This is where cellular (and even WiFi) can fall down. |
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OK, i see what you mean. The answer to that
would once again seem to be to use Lynx. I've
perceived no increase in bandwidth since i started
using it in the 'nineties on dial-up, even using a
V.32bis modem compared to BT Home Hub's
current speed, whatever that is. No perceptible
increase in bandwidth on text or HTML documents
without images, though obviously other benefits
exist. You could even argue that people who use
graphical browsers without turning off the images
(and to be honest i'm using one right now) are
stealing other people's bandwidth unless they
really and truly need all the crud that comes
through with the text. |
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