Byte By Bite

Mailbag still filling with tales of slow-speed woe

by Marv Dealy

Published Jan 20, 2006

I’m amazed. The last two columns about slow Internet connections continue to produce e-mail. Strangely, the e-mails come from folks who can’t get a good connection, not from anyone who can fix the problem. Apparently we don’t have their attention yet.

Let’s start with Ed Svoboda who writes: “I think that it is grossly unfair for SBC/AT&T to not be providing DSL to the Phoenix Lake and other outlying areas you mentioned because we pay the same rate as other customers who have that service.”

“If we cannot have this service, we should have our payment reduced. This should come under the heading of discrimination which I think is illegal in this country.”

Mike Lamasney of Twain Harte sums it all up with: “People should realize you can get only so much speed out of barbed wire.”

This got me to thinking – since we have so much time on our hands waiting for a slow connection to download just one more graphic to complete a web page, s/he with the slowest connection hereabouts ought to at least have some kind of trophy to stare at to while away the time.

I’m thinking something using Mike’s visual of barbed wire connecting two computers straining to “speak” to each other. Anyone out there with a better idea, please stand up.

We could call the award the “Barbie” and give the perpetual trophy to whoever can prove they have the slowest connection. May as well get your fifteen minutes in return for waiting for fifteen minutes for a page to load, says I.

If, on the other hand, you can provide a story of the fastest connection you’ve found in the most remote place, I’d appreciate it if you’d pass that along, too. Maybe we could shame Whoever It Is Whose Attention We Need who hangs out in the big striped tent flying the flag of the Powers That Be.

If you’re not sure whether or not you’re a Power That Be, here’s a couple of clues: you were elected to office; you get quoted in the newspaper as the “blah blah” of the “blah blah blah;” or, you’re with a company who could help out here and in a position to influence that company’s actions.

Back to the e-mail bag. Writes Lainen from Cedar Ridge: “Your Jan 6 article on the lack of high speed internet was a good reflection of the opinions of many of us who find that lack of such service not only robs us of valuable time but affects property values as well.”

“How many times have I heard ‘I liked the home, but I have to have DLS hi speed

. . etc. for my business.’ Yes, I am in Cedar Ridge.”

“Since when do service providers have to ‘hear from the area that they want such services?’ It's like telling a customer who doesn't have a telephone, you have to let us know if you want telephones in your area! Never been in such a regressive area, everything from an open ditch as the water source to rotary dial phone service. Keep 'em coming, Marv. Let's hope S-BS gets the message.”

Writes reader Dick Chimenti: “I'd like to participate in any meeting that might come up. I'm retired from IBM where I spent about 10 years as an IT specialist, so I might be able to add some insight.”

“P.S. I had an ISDN connection up here that the company paid for which allowed me to do some work from home; however, the best rate I was able to get was 128 Kbps.”

You’re on the list, Dick.

From Jack L. Absetz: “Two words, three if you separate them -- satellite broadband. Worth every dollar.”

And thanks to all of you, and a word about satellites and latency. If you’re a serious on-line gamer, latency will kill you, figuratively speaking. It takes longer for the signal to travel through a satellite than through “wired” connections, meaning that while you get one shot off with your tank the guy with a DSL will have shot you four or five times already.

Enhanced Maps on the Web – OK, how about some goodies for you 22 faithful readers who’ve actually managed to get some broadband: maps.

Not your grandfather’s maps, used to navigate the Great Big Area between where you started and where you were going.

We’re talking the latest online maps from behemoths like Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

From the last, first. Amazon’s www.A9.com boasts their unique twist toward making maps more understandable. They have added pictures of some neighborhoods – mostly big cities, natch’ – taken from trucks apparently driven up and down streets in the ‘hood.

Whatever was going on at that moment becomes that street’s Zeitgeist. If there was a UPS truck partially blocking the view of that house, so be it. Check it out at http://maps.a9.com

Google’s map enhancer, called Google Earth, doesn’t use a browser approach, but rather is a separate application that, once loaded, accesses various databases via the Internet, pulling the results together with amazing results.

The good stuff is again reserved for big cities, and includes the ability to view the buildings in downtown San Francisco (for example) in GPS-based 3D drawings, superimposed over the topography and street maps.

You can vary the view, i.e., fly like a bird, dropping from a multi-thousand foot view down to just above sidewalk level in a flash, then fly from one end of Market Street to the other. Amazing. And again, because of photographs being involved, you’ll see the actual vehicles that were on Market Street at the moment that photo was snapped. Get Google Earth at www.earth.google.com

Microsoft has upped the ante, in my humble opinion, with Windows Live Local (http://local.live.com). The difference here is the quality of the photos, again concentrating on major urban areas. I was able to find a flat I lived in for some 9 years; there was the neighbor’s Redwood tree in their backyard, which partially shaded the sunroom on the back which was at times an office. Rotating the view I could see the front of the building, and because of my angle of vision, the backs of the houses that had been across the street from me for all those years. I had no idea of the incredible gardens behind some of these buildings.

Pick your favorite urban destination and visit via these incredible tools.

Last, but not least, weather junkies (I’ll lead the line) will enjoy enhanced weather radar for our area from NOAA at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge/dax_NCR_lp.shtml

The radar now includes topographic levels, as well as the ability to turn on and off things like major highways, cities and the like.

Yes, you can visit all these web sites and see all this stuff on a slower Internet connection, but you’ll have plenty of time to spend staring at your Barbie award if you’re on a slow dial-up connection.