Bandwidth

I've been hearing about "Bandwidth" for ... eons. Since computer chips were made out of dirt, because Man hadn't yet discovered Sand.

I use to get a lot of crap (another possible base material for computer chips? I have heard that Apple was going to start using Intel ... naw ... never mind) from The Unofficial IPSC List, complaining that I was using precious "bandwidth" with my Geek-Length Posts. Bandwidth, on a mailing list? Perhaps I'm not the only one unclear on the concept. Funny thing, after I started writing a Blog, I received a couple of posts from IPSC-list members suggesting that I should write the comments directly to The List rather than to write it on my Blog and provide links to The List.

Can't please everyone. I'm liking the private blog, even if nobody reads it. Well, not "nobody", exactly. I just topped the 8,000 hits milepost in the seven months since I started my hit-counter. (I've been blogging for a bit over 8 months now, but it took me a while to get the statscounter going.)

Anyway, one of the things I've discovered is that a blog is useful for a lot of things besides writing my opinions for people to read or ignore. One thing I can do here is present the results of a LOT of research. Some of my posts are the results of 5 or 6 hours research, finding different references and choosing those which are worthy of being linked.

The trouble is, it takes FOREVER for my AOL-based (56 Baud modem) to return the results of a search, and then I have to look at all of those hits to find a website containing quotable content. This takes time, and I'm getting tired of playing Hearts and MineSweeper while I'm waiting for the websites to load. Besides which, modem-accessed AOL has this cute little trick of dropping the landline right in the middle of something interesting.

I know, I've mentioned this more than once. I've been looking at Comcast, but you have to subscribe to Cable TV FIRST, and then you have to buy the broadband connection on top of that. I haven't had Cable TV for 8 or 9 years, because it's a time-waster and I can't sit still through an entire movie ... let alone the insipid dreck that passes for Network TV. (Not everybody loves whatshisname; I cut off Cable TV when Grace Under Fire was dropped by the networks.)

I also looked at telephone-based broadband. Specifically, I looked at QWEST, which is my landline provider. It just happens that I detest talking on the telephone, as my family and my Sweetie will attest, so I have an ingrained disinclination to throw more money their way. Actually, the only reason I continue with my QWEST subscription is that I can access the internet via the modem, via AOL, which is an entirely different grumpy monologue.

I'm now looking at WiFi, which (I'm told) stands for Wireless Fidelity. There's a local WiFi provider called Alyrica which has been advertising on the radio lately, and I wrote them to ask what's the deal-io. They claim they can sell me the receiver for $345, and charge me access fees of $45 a month.



I'm already paying about $30 a month for AOL, and $50 a month for QWEST even though I never call on that line except for the AOL thingie. So I've got $80 a month to get on the Internet anyway. I can cut my monthly 'connection' bills nearly in half, and pay for the receiver in about a year. I have a Verizon cell-phone that I already use for all of my personal calls, so this is looking pretty good.

I emailed Alyrica yesterday, and they replied with the above numbers today. They're going to come out to my house and check the signal strength, but they already have a customer on my street and I'm in a two-story townhouse so chances are good they can put up a receiver on top of the house and give me reliable reception.

The installation ... including making sure that all of the connections between the receiver and my desktop work ... is free. I'm liking that.

Here's the good part, which makes it worthwhile for me to move to WiFi.

Fast data access.

I may forget how to win bit at Hearts, how to find all those stinky Mines in Minesweeper, because I have more interesting things to do with my time of an evening.

Better yet, they have webhosting for another $10 a month, which includes 1GB of data hosting. That means I will have a place to put my more interesting MPG files, which are usually stages at IPSC matches to share. I've been looking for THAT since I bought my digital camera as my birthday present to me in February.

If this all works out, my email addresses may change in the months to come. I can get rid of the QWEST landline (no loss!), and my AOL connection & email addresses on an unreliable, slow landline (net gain!), and do the computer things I really want to do at a lower cost to me by this time next year.

And I'll still be here next year, posting interesting RKBA and IPSC-related topics as well as this kind of really boring personal crap. But then I'll be able to offer digital MPG files of movies taken at IPSC matches, which includes Candid Camera moments that are worth the price of the ticket all by themselves.

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!