Transparency

[Edwin van der Vaart]

Blinky the Shark wrote:

[snip]

Someone else will have that information or product. If
a site would rather show me Flash than give me the information I want
or sell me the product I want, I'll find someone else.

Flash?? You mean Flesh.

Nah. For flesh, I'll wait.

In that case.
http://www.evandervaart.nl/news/flesh.jpg [67.1k]

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Blinky the Shark wrote:

Okay, so...

So, the $10 plan is for 100 minutes of connection to the ISP - which
Yes.

means the phone line is not included, cause that's paid on the
phonebill. Or am I misunderstanding again? :S

Yes it is; no you're not.

That is really expensive! 10 cent per minute? I find dial-up in

That's why nearly everyone has an unlimited account. I mentioned
that one friend as an example of how NOT to connect, not because
it's the usual way.

Holland expensive already! Using a free (no monthly fee) ISP for
dial-up costs almost Euro 0.05 per minute. (half price after
19.00hrs). Paying a monthly fee of Euro 1.95 will lower the price per
minute to the rate for local phone calls, which is Euro 0.0289 per
minute. (half after 19.00hrs).
There's a free minutes package too btw - 10 hours for 8 Euro.

I'm doing what's the norm here: unlimited $20/month connection.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Blinky the Shark wrote:
[snip]
Someone else will have that information or product. If
a site would rather show me Flash than give me the information I want
or sell me the product I want, I'll find someone else.
Flash?? You mean Flesh.

Nah. For flesh, I'll wait.

In that case.
http://www.evandervaart.nl/news/flesh.jpg [67.1k]

Mmmmm. Just in time for our July national holiday.

More patriotic flesh: http://blinkynet.net/stuff/flesh.jpg

 

[Els]

Yes it is; no you're not.

I'm doing what's the norm here: unlimited $20/month connection.

Which sounds a whole lot better than what your friend does - I guess
he really only needs 100 minutes per month, in which case he's right
about paying $10 instead of $20
(my dad used to think he was one of those people, but within 2 weeks
he applied for ADSL too )

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Blinky the Shark wrote:

Which sounds a whole lot better than what your friend does - I guess

That's why it's the norm.

he really only needs 100 minutes per month, in which case he's right
about paying $10 instead of $20

If "I should wait until tomorrow to download email - I was on for
several minutes already today" is how one wants to live.

 

[Els]

If "I should wait until tomorrow to download email - I was on for
several minutes already today" is how one wants to live.

It's how the poor live... ;-)

 

[Edwin van der Vaart]

Edwin van der Vaart wrote:
Blinky the Shark wrote:
[snip]
Someone else will have that information or product. If
a site would rather show me Flash than give me the information I want
or sell me the product I want, I'll find someone else.
Flash?? You mean Flesh.
Nah. For flesh, I'll wait.

In that case.
http://www.evandervaart.nl/news/flesh.jpg [67.1k]

Mmmmm. Just in time for our July national holiday.

I did saw the movie "The Independance day".

More patriotic flesh: http://blinkynet.net/stuff/flesh.jpg

This's over done.

 

[Adrienne]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Blinky the Shark

Blinky's origin explained in second paragraph, here:

http://blinkynet.net/

Oh, I know that. "For those who don't know" was referring to those who
had not been there and were unaware that sharks do not blink. Not
everyone watches Nature on PBS or has Animal Planet on cable (heck I just
_got_ cable).

 

[Mark Parnell]

Here in Sydney

you can get good and reliable dialup for $20 Australian a
month, and you can be on all day and generally not be kicked off.

We were paying I think about $15/month for 100 hours. Could have paid a
bit more for unlimited.

You can
pay less and more with varying results... What is a tempting budget
conscious strategy is some ADSL for about $29 with 200 MB download limits
and you get slowed down to 56 or even 64 after limit is reached.

Yep, this is what we went for initially, though ours gets slowed down to
28k. :-( We changed our minds and are on a 1GB plan now.

You get the
huge advantage of being able to use your line again as a phone and are not
otherwise worse off.

Yay! This is one of the best parts (besides the quicker downloads). And
we got rid of our voicemail too, which also saves money.

There are just some up-front costs of about $100 to get
the thing established (often they will throw in a suitable modem).

Don't think we had to pay much at all for setup - can't remember even
though it was only a month or so ago!

 

[Mark Parnell]

And that's what they call civilized? What good is a 200MB download
limit?

Not much. :-(

I have unlimited data transfer, 576 kbps up/3392 kbps down, including
a telephone line (VoIP) that lets me phone for free 24/7 to all
landlines. Costs me 35 Euro per month, and that's one of the more
expensive ones.

That's about $55AU - just a little more than we are paying for
1GB/month.

 

[Mark Parnell]

No. We are talking about 200MB per *month*.

Yup, that's the one.

http://www.bigpond.com/internet-plans/broadband/adsl/

After your 200MB it's 15 cents per additional MB. Plus, you can not save up
any unused MB to carry over to the next month.

Most companies offer it where you are limited to dialup speeds once you
reach your limit, rather than charging you extra. BigPond are one of the
worst ISPs besides that, too. But their prices are pretty much on par
with others.

Of course here in .au we have one of the most expensive
broadband/dialup/satelite/whatever costs in the world.

Indeed. :-(

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Blinky the Shark wrote:
Edwin van der Vaart wrote:
Blinky the Shark wrote:
[snip]
Someone else will have that information or product. If
a site would rather show me Flash than give me the information I want
or sell me the product I want, I'll find someone else.
Flash?? You mean Flesh.
Nah. For flesh, I'll wait.
In that case.
http://www.evandervaart.nl/news/flesh.jpg [67.1k]

Mmmmm. Just in time for our July national holiday.

I did saw the movie "The Independance day".

More patriotic flesh: http://blinkynet.net/stuff/flesh.jpg

This's over done.

Meant for its humor value.

It's a shame -- she's got a cute face.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Blinky the Shark
<[email protected]> writing in

Oh, I know that. "For those who don't know" was referring to those who
had not been there and were unaware that sharks do not blink. Not
everyone watches Nature on PBS or has Animal Planet on cable (heck I just
_got_ cable).

<blink>

 

[dorayme]

You do have to figure in the hidden costs though.

If you don't want to tie up your only land line you need an extra one. If
you do tie up your only land line you will be tempted to use the cell phone
to call out for the required pizza etc. Expensive.

If you don't tie up your land line then remember that it's 20c or so for
each phone call to reconnect.

I convinced the bloke next door to move from the AU$20 a month dial up plan
to AU$45 a month (then) cable, basically by asking him how many phone calls
his daughters were making to connect. Turned out to be AU$40 per month in
phone calls.

Yes, I understand what you are saying. Depends on the case. In my case it is
convenient to be on dial up all day, have the mobile for incoming and use
email and text messaging online and the occasional call by leaving dialup
(at 22c a pop and 100 free calls, it is very little). And I don't eat
take-away - I like living on this earth and want to be around.

Hey, about neighbours: may I share with you the intense irritation at the
fellow opposite me. He was not happy with even his 1.5 MB ADSL. When he was
away I had to help his dad do something and I downloaded Firefox in a
minute or two or three (imagine that after being on dialup). O No! This
connection was not goddamn good enough for the son, he announced to me he
had a new connection now, something slightly more fancy than adsl (still on
copper tho) and now has 5 or 10 times faster without the former pesky 10GB
download limit. Yeah well! I have thought of two possibilities to deal with
this situation, both probably illegal. (1) Buying him a wireless router and
taking some of his bandwidth. (2) Killing him outright and suddenly. I
really would hate to do latter as he is quite a nice chap.

dorayme

 

[dorayme]

And after he got cable, his daughters used the phone any less?

BTW I worked out that his daughters would need to connect to internet about
7 times a day to use up $40 Australian. This he would be saving. But your
point is good Els, maybe the phone now is free and so a bigger temptation
than ever to use to chat. When estimating the cost of children one needs to
be sober about including the cost of phone calls if it is a daughter.
believe me, I know. Come to think of it, maybe Richard should advise his
neighbour to go back on dial up...

dorayme

 

[Mark Parnell]

When estimating the cost of children one needs to
be sober about including the cost of phone calls if it is a daughter.

My daughter likes talking on the phone, but she doesn't make any phone
calls herself. Luckily both our families live close, so it's only a
local call.

BTW: My daughter is nearly 2. ;-)

 

[dorayme]

No. We are talking about 200MB per *month*.

Indeed! I was worried that I would have to admit this to Lauri!

After your 200MB it's 15 cents per additional MB. Plus, you can not save up
any unused MB to carry over to the next month.

No, there is much better than this. Where one is slowed down instead. Horses
for courses I guess: for me, going to broadband with this slowdown after the
limits are reached I would still be better off. Inertia stops me. I don't do
a lot of surfing, I like being online though and research things, low
bandwidth stuff mainly.

Of course here in .au we have one of the most expensive
broadband/dialup/satelite/whatever costs in the world.

Perhaps this is so?

dorayme

 

[dorayme]

Using a pointed stick and pebbles, Richard scraped:


Wow! I thought that my 2GB limit plus £2 per additional GB was a bit
restrictive!

No, hang on. These limits are only for the cheapest of deals here. And there
are slow downs (throttling) for some rather than extra charges. There are
many other not too unreasonable packages for $39 and $49 with quite
different limits if any (10 GB or bigger limit). And there are many
unlimited packages for under $70 per month. Honest, we are a very advanced
country, a first world one, honest, it's not all kangaroos and Crocodile
Dundees charging about the place bumping into cartons of Fosters... Honest
it isn't...

dorayme

 

[dorayme]

Me too! <waves> Hello neighbour!


Hello!


We were paying I think about $15/month for 100 hours. Could have paid a
bit more for unlimited.


Yep, this is what we went for initially, though ours gets slowed down to
28k. :-( We changed our minds and are on a 1GB plan now.

I know Optus did this, I have never heard whether it was truly slower than
usual dial up in practice. Can you recall? I saw an ADSL deal of slow down
to 64 which is better than my dialup. Is your 1G plan good? Same slow down
after limit reached?

dorayme

 

[Mark Parnell]

I know Optus did this,

That's who we're with.

I have never heard whether it was truly slower than
usual dial up in practice. Can you recall?

We haven't ever reached our limit, so can't say.