Is the internet working for you?
 

Got to the house a little while ago and the Internet is not working for the TV or iphone. I have 5 bar signal, with AT&T, just no Internet. Turned my phone off and on twice and cleared the history. Fired up my Verizon Jetpack and synced it to my iphone and I have 2 bars. It takes FOREVER to go back-and-forth on a webpage.

This is in Charleston, SC.

What about you?

Been working fine all day in Houston and the middle of (nowhere) Texas.

It sucks when it's slow. In some ways, it's better if it just doesn't work at all.

If it doesn't work at all, I'm old enough to be able to find something else to do that doesn't require bandwidth. I suspect you are too.

But when it's slow, it's too easy to keep trying in the hopes that it comes back.

At first blush, yes, the internet is working for me. The university of YouTube is a revelation, for example, as is the ability to access and read all the information in the world, from a discussion of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Webb Telescope, and draw as much knowledge as I want from these and an endless number of interesting topics. Plus, instant access to any sports and racing teams or series that I like to follow, or to listen to seemingly every piece of recorded music with a few keystrokes? Genius!

But if I examine the quality of my internet use on a granular level, the algorithms are getting scary-smart, and true to form, my attention span is diminishing and more and more I use the internet as filler during my downtime, with the result being that my 'downtime' expands and the tangible projects that need doing or could be making real improvements to my life aren't getting attention as they need, so in that regard, no. It becomes a substitute for life.

Everything in moderation, as the old saying goes, but the internet is diabolical and knows how to draw me in and take too much of my time when I should be 'gettin 'er done" now that I'm retired and my time is my time.

AT&T had a system failure today

Yes.

I have been having a lot of fond memories of the 80s myself.

The Internet is not really working for me. I mean, technically it works great; however, compared to the nineties its become corporate pablum. Providers are few and demand stupid money each month for access. Social apps, like Facebook, have lost their charm. Search engines seem to provide less pertinent results and more ads. Worst of all, in every photo of me, some 60-something woman shows up in my place. :)

I remember the days before a real internet, and using Fido-net to send and receive e-mail. All run by BBS providers. I even ran a BBS for PCA until the internet finally took over. The days of $20 to $25 per month for a dial up internet connection and charged by the minutes was about the same cost as modern high speed internet if one stayed on-line long.

I remember in the early 80s. using CompuServe as my first ISP at 300 baud. I ordered a pair of Levi jeans and they arrived as advertised and were way cheaper than a brick and mortar store. Then I got my CompuServe bill, and almost choked as they charged by the minute. At 300 baud I could read the text as it came down. No graphics at all, just text. I canceled CompuServe immediately.

Now with the fast internet I have I upload and download files far bigger than the first dozen hard drives I had. 30 gigabyte files are no issue, and done in short order. We have one client that has their own FTP site run by Amazon Web service. It is smoking fast. We can send or receive huge multi gigabyte files in minutes.

My internet is not 100% reliable.
Drive's me nuts when I wife thinks she needs to start changing settings when it's slow or down.
Then it's a ### mess to fix after the changes are made!

Well said, Herr Oberst and echoes much of my sentiment, as well.

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Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope:

“Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?"

And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot of people. And see some great looking babies. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And I'll ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know.

The moral of the story is - we're here on Earth to fart around.

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And it's like we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.

Let's all get up and move around a bit right now... or at least dance.

^^ Well said Gents.

I personally believe the best thing the Internet ever brought about was discount brokerage.