Article:		Failing Miserably, If Not Inventively
Subject:		??
Date:		2004-02-06 21:07:06
From:		morbus
Response to: ??
Completely irrelevant comment to the topic at hand. I could write three times as much text on why I prefer dialup over broadband (or generically, faster speeds). Regardless, speed ignorance or lack of experience isn't an issue: I'm on a T1 nine hours out of every weekday, and I still prefer dialup.

Showing messages 1 through 11 of 11.

• ??
  2004-02-07 09:08:55  chrismear [View]
  
  
  No, seriously, what are your reasons for preferring dial-up? I can think of only one: it makes using the internet for procrastination much harder. Why does a self-professed power-user not desire faster internet?
• ??
  2004-02-09 19:24:21  fofer [View]
  
  
  "I can think of only one: it makes using the internet for procrastination much harder."
  
  Turns out that's exactly the reason. The author is afraid that broadband would make it too easy for him to download a lot of content (ie: procrastinate.)
  
  In other news, I was afraid I'd overeat, so I sewed my mouth shut. Problem solved!
• ??
  2004-02-07 11:03:23  Kevin Hemenway | [View]
  
  
  I'll consider writing a blog entry on it, but as mentioned it *will* be long, and it doesn't really relate to any of the article-based topics that O'Reilly publishes. I've no time now to expound on the opinion.
• ??
  2004-02-07 15:06:33  fofer [View]
  
  
  Maybe if you had broadband, you'd have more time to expound?
• ??
  2004-02-07 16:07:33  Kevin Hemenway | [View]
  
  
  Actually, no, it'd give me less. I'm a rabid collector: books, archived websites, pdfs, music, mp3s, mpegs, if it's a file format, I collect it. Broadband would give me access to those faster, which means I'd get less work done, not more.
• ??
  2004-02-07 20:32:47  seraglio [View]
  
  
  With your rabid automation skills your robot computer could be collecting for you at exponential rates via broadband even when you're not around, right? You could be saving immense amounts of time, which as I am told is also money.
  
  Your religious devotion to dialup is, therefore, heresy. Dialup is dead.
• ??
  2004-02-07 20:44:02  Kevin Hemenway | [View]
  
  
  Your suggestion is idiotic. Collecting is not about amassing files for the sake of amassing files. Collecting is about enjoying what you're collecting. Having more of what I like means less time to enjoy each individual piece. I'm already behind roughly 200 albums, all leeched through dialup (my listened-to collection is available at http://disobey.com/d/lists/albums, where I don't consider an album "listened to" unless it's gone through the player twice, from start to finish, sans interruption). Likewise, only 20% of my mpeg collection has been watched, cataloged, and enjoyed (that 20% is at http://disobey.com/d/lists/video_files). Increasing the amount I download merely decreases the amount I enjoy. The current line of reasoning is that I'm losing "time" because dialup is "slow"; it shows an incredible lack of understanding about what I do with my machine, how I do it, and what type of time I wish I had more of. As predicted, you hold your sides in contempt, yet I merely chuckle at your ignorance.
• ??
  2004-02-08 10:57:16  seraglio [View]
  
  
  I am truly sorry to hear that you do not have enough time to enjoy the files which took you over 500% longer to download compared to a broadband connection. Also, the suggestion to automate a collection was, obviously, said in jest.
  
  In all seriousness, though, I am quite disappointed with the tone and direction of your article. O'Reilly does such an incredible job of introducing people to new and emerging subjects in an intelligent manner. It is then a surprise to find your prose on troubles with and childish defense of a waning technology. However, it now looks as though my piece on "How I Just Can't Seem to Get My Apple ][ Connected to the ARPANET Anymore" has a much better chance of being published than ever before...
• ??
  2004-02-08 08:06:47  fofer [View]
  
  
  You're not the only one chuckling, morbus.
  
  The question is asked, how anyone can be "religiously devoted" to an inferior technology, with the hopes of gleaning insight that may apply to the audience. (After all, your article was intended for mass consumption, no?) And yet your justification and defense rests solely on your own personality handicap -- an obsessive compulsiveness to which most of us cannot relate.
  
  There's no reason for the replies your audience to be insulting and curt.
  
  You begin your article by confessing, "When something hits me, I'll drop everything I'm behind deadline on and spend 20 hours automating a task that takes five manual minutes; I know I'll eventually recoup the benefits months down the road." You realize that this payoff (in time saved) won't kick in for about eight months, right? Yet in the meantime, you've neglected your current deadlines and refused to explore any alternative solutions.
  
  The more I see your overly defensive responses, the more I realize this article was not intended for an audience's feedback, but rather as yet another way for you to "catalog" your personal experiences. And that your quest for life automation is less about efficiency, than it is about personal empowerment over insecurity.
  
  
  Your workflow would be much more efficient if you focused on the one piece of software that was *really* slowing you down... your mind.
• ??
  2004-02-08 08:22:18  Kevin Hemenway | [View]
  
  
  The question asked has little to do with the article at hand. We've all been on zillions of tech support lists, and a major problem that anyone question-asker will face is the answerer's desire to reinvent the environment from which the question was raised. This whole thread's line of reasoning is that my problem is NOT autoconnecting, but instead, dialup in general. If I wanted to entertain that line of reasoning, 90% of the article needn't have been written: why would I have bothered with the Applescripts, "scselect", pppd /etc/ scripts, etc., etc., etc.
  
  Again, your assumptionary state is showing, and I really do try to not fault you for it, since indeed, you can't "relate". Regardless, I've "explored alternative solutions" to dialup previously, and I've not been satisfied with any of them, either in regard to the evils of usage policies, the repetitive downtime of the service, or the ever increasing price hikes under the guise of value-added service. Irregardless for how you feel concerning broadband or dialup, the fact remains that *I* am satisified with dialup. Challenging the basic assertion of an article ("oh, well, his problem is dialup, not autoconnects") is not a solution, it's merely a 10 message thread that has gotten out of hand.
• ??
  2004-02-14 08:20:58  mozart11 [View]
  
  
  In on of your replies here you state " Regardless, speed ignorance or lack of experience isn't an issue: I'm on a T1 nine hours out of every weekday, and I still prefer dialup".
  
  Then in this reply you state " Regardless, I've "explored alternative solutions" to dialup previously, and I've not been satisfied with any of them, either in regard to the evils of usage policies, the repetitive downtime of the service, or the ever increasing price hikes under the guise of value-added service. Irregardless for how you feel concerning broadband or dialup, the fact remains that *I* am satisified with dialup".
  
  My question - why do you use T1 nine hours a day? Why don't you switch where you use the T1 to dial-up if broadband is so unsatisfying to you? And by the way this whole thread I imagine gives you great joy. Because it sure is a waste of my time.
  
  I think I'll skip including MacDevCenter as part of my daily reading. It used to be informative, so I bought the two O'Reilly books "Mac OS X Unwired" and "Mac OS X Panther". I'll stick to the other Mac sites for solutions. Leave the horse & buggy crowd here.
  
  Bye