Richard's Animorphs Forum
RAF Section => Introductions & Departures => Topic started by: Whammy on March 29, 2009, 07:19:22 PM
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Well, today my stepmom mentioned that she is thinking about cutting our cable due to the cost, and in the conversation that followed she mentioned the same thing about internet. Now, when she said that it sounded more like a joke, and I really doubt she would end up doing that.
But, just in case, I am warning you now that should that happen, my time here would basically be over as I have no other consistent way to get here. I would also like to say that I have really enjoyed my time here on this site, and I will miss it greatly should our internet be cut. I have had many good times here, from the roleplay in RAF Classic, debating in the General Boards, the randomness in just about everything. About the only thing I am glad about is that I downloaded all the Animorph E-Books, so at least I'll still have those. Still, for me those were a miniscule part of the RAF Experience (and yes, I still have not gotten far in re-reading the series).
And I would really like to apologize to Tocade for having her RAF boyfriend possibly just disappearing into thin air :-[
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Is there like a RAF leaving plague going around?!
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Hey,unlike the others, I don't want to leave. It's just that there is a possible outside event that would basically force me to for at least a year or so. By then I'd be in college so I wouldn't care if my family here had internet or not. But by then, RAF would have probably changed so much I wouldn't be sure if I'd want to come back.
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Thanks for the heads up!
Hopefully it will be an extraneous warning, though.
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Helpfully it was a joke but just in case, we will miss you.
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I hope so to. Like I said, the way my stepmom said it I doubt it would happen. Basically, my little sister was arguing and fighting over the cable being cut, and my stepmom said something to the effect of "Watch it, cause the internet may be next"
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I really hope you don't have to leave, but if so, you will be missed.
May your days without internet be short, and may your computer be prosperous.
I hope so to. Like I said, the way my stepmom said it I doubt it would happen. Basically, my little sister was arguing and fighting over the cable being cut, and my stepmom said something to the effect of "Watch it, cause the internet may be next"
That sounds like a good sign. I'd behave extra good for the next few weeks, if I were you.
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Well, today my stepmom mentioned that she is thinking about cutting our cable due to the cost, and in the conversation that followed she mentioned the same thing about internet. Now, when she said that it sounded more like a joke, and I really doubt she would end up doing that.
But, just in case, I am warning you now that should that happen, my time here would basically be over as I have no other consistent way to get here. I would also like to say that I have really enjoyed my time here on this site, and I will miss it greatly should our internet be cut. I have had many good times here, from the roleplay in RAF Classic, debating in the General Boards, the randomness in just about everything. About the only thing I am glad about is that I downloaded all the Animorph E-Books, so at least I'll still have those. Still, for me those were a miniscule part of the RAF Experience (and yes, I still have not gotten far in re-reading the series).
And I would really like to apologize to Tocade for having her RAF boyfriend possibly just disappearing into thin air :-[
Why would your internet be cut???
:o
Oh noooooooo :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
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Economy going down the tube, so money is kind of tight. So my step-mom has kind of gone on a cost-cutting spree to save money.
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Ok, I've just read the whole thread....
(I was so shocked at first that I did not want to read the rest before replying ^^)
How is it possible to live without the internet??
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Economy going down the tube, so money is kind of tight. So my step-mom has kind of gone on a cost-cutting spree to save money.
:-\ :-\ :-\
Phew, my mum is a civil servant... at least she can't be fired and the crisis doesn't touch our family a lot for now...
But I read it was terrible in the US.
:s
Is it ?
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Should she start to seriously considering it, that is going to be my argument. That, and probably about time I tell them about this and all the other sites I'm on. Considering that they are the main source of not only entertainment but social contact and a creative outlet (fanfiction, roleplay, etc.), I would hope to convince her otherwise. There is also my dad who I can turn to, and should I fail to convince her the first time, I could hopefully convince him and he would convince her.
But again, I currently don't think she would because she does use the internet. Besides, with my sister and I still in school, we need it for research unless she wants to drag us to the library everday to do it, especially since the 'just use books' argument wouldn't work well when you consider that the library is pretty small. Add in that we already have problems with scheduling due to my sister's tennis and my volunteer work, a research project would be a great way to convince her we need to have the internet.
But again, she probably won't get rid of it.
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Economy going down the tube, so money is kind of tight. So my step-mom has kind of gone on a cost-cutting spree to save money.
:-\ :-\ :-\
Phew, my mum is a civil servant... at least she can't be fired and the crisis doesn't touch our family a lot for now...
But I read it was terrible in the US.
:s
Is it ?
Well, my dad hasn't lost his job, but my stepmom had been working part time and she was let go. That was before things got bad though. Now she is looking for one, and I hope she gets one because that would mean she would relax on the cost-cutting a bit and I really think it would be good for her.
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Good luck, man!
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Yes...
She is probably a bit panicked by the situation?
How is your country going to go out the crisis if everybody stops consuming as your mother does?
;D
Jeez talk to her about Keynes !
"Mum, i spent all our money buying various things yesterday so that we can restart our economy"
(She might not understand and kick your bottom instead^^)
But yes, the internet is "essential" you can reach the world with it ^^
(see me :p I'm learning English right now !)
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Plus, TV? Radio? Newspapers? Dictionary?.... It's on the internet !
Time is money^^
Plus, she would be forced to spend more gas if she was to bring you to the library everyday...
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Well, the thing about libraries is that our school has a nice library, and I spend my mornings there. However, she would know it blocks a lot of things, so I can claim that is why I need to use the public libraries.
As for spending being needed to encourage the economy, we got into this mess because of too much spending and easy credit. And even before the crash things got a little tight occassionally, hence her looking for a job of some sorts. I think we can be forgiven for not spending.
And since I have macroeconomics right now, at least my dad knows about Keynes. I talked to him about it a lot the other day ;D
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As for spending being needed to encourage the economy, we got into this mess because of too much spending and easy credit.
Yes....
And... apparently according to my macroeconomics lecturer... americans are really in debt.
Not only the State but also the people. And most of your debt is own by China?
Here, in France, our state is in deficit as well, but apparently French people like to save their money to compensate...
Actually, this semester 2 I have "macroeconomics 2" but... it's not really macroeconomics...
We spend much more time talking about the banking system and the stock exchange... I hate both >_<
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OOOh and your avatar is cute!
His ears look like two little donuts^^
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As for spending being needed to encourage the economy, we got into this mess because of too much spending and easy credit.
Yes....
And... apparently according to my macroeconomics lecturer... americans are really in debt.
Not only the State but also the people. And most of your debt is own by China?
Here, in France, our state is in deficit as well, but apparently French people like to save their money to compensate...
Actually, this semester 2 I have "macroeconomics 2" but... it's not really macroeconomics...
We spend much more time talking about the banking system and the stock exchange... I hate both >_<
Last time I checked our debt was about 10 Trillion. But not even half our debt is owned by China. Actually, my homework over spring break was to read some chapters, and one of them was on debt. According to it, a quarter of our debt is foreign owned while the rest is internal, and that eventually Social Security would own about half of it. XD
And get used to it. Most of our macroeconomics class has been fiscal and monetary policy.
OOOh and your avatar is cute!
His ears look like two little donuts^^
If you saw the show he was from...okay, he's still cute. But one of the characters turned the suit into a cutting-edge military battlesuit, though it can only say "Fumoffu" (probably spelled that wrong). Sadly, the guy only sold a few to the CIA and the Miami police XD.
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As for spending being needed to encourage the economy, we got into this mess because of too much spending and easy credit.
Yes....
And... apparently according to my macroeconomics lecturer... americans are really in debt.
Not only the State but also the people. And most of your debt is own by China?
Here, in France, our state is in deficit as well, but apparently French people like to save their money to compensate...
Actually, this semester 2 I have "macroeconomics 2" but... it's not really macroeconomics...
We spend much more time talking about the banking system and the stock exchange... I hate both >_<
Last time I checked our debt was about 10 Trillion. But not even half our debt is owned by China. Actually, my homework over spring break was to read some chapters, and one of them was on debt. According to it, a quarter of our debt is foreign owned while the rest is internal, and that eventually Social Security would own about half of it. XD
Yeah fiscal and monetary policy...
In France we can't really match both as we have the "BCE" (ECB?) which decides about the monetary policy for the whole "euro zone" (BCE= European FED)
And then each country decides about the fiscal policy and that's why we can't have a proper economic policy...
Oh, and as for your debt.... I'm shocked ><
Really I don't know what happened to our teachers but they keep repeating that China holds the american debt....
Hmmm
I should check this out by myself^^
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If you saw the show he was from...okay, he's still cute. But one of the characters turned the suit into a cutting-edge military battlesuit, though it can only say "Fumoffu" (probably spelled that wrong). Sadly, the guy only sold a few to the CIA and the Miami police XD.
Oh I don't mind where he does come from...
I'd still like to taste his ears... with some sugar and jam ... :P
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Whammy, that sucks. If it's any consolation, I heard something similar a few months ago. Yet, here I am.
If my parents ever stop paying for Internet, I'll start paying for it myself. (And bill anyone in the family who wants to share, mwaahaha.) But, I'm guessing that's not an option for you.
$10T is the approximate amount owed by the Federal government to other organizations.
Household debt is about $11T in total.
And businesses owe about $25T.
The savings rate is about 0.7%, which is to say that Americans on average spend everything they earn. This is probably quite different from France, but I'm too lazy to look up the numbers right now.
The really interesting numbers though, are debt service ratios, how much is spent on interest payments. For US consumers, that's about 13% to 14% of household income.
Now I have to apologize. I'm about to go on a huge rant. These are ideas I've been mulling over for about a year but haven't really organized yet.
Welcome to America, Tocade. Internet access above dial-up is very, very expensive. Actually, it's a pretty interesting case study.
Feel free to skip the first rant. The core idea is the greatest barrier to entry in the ISP (Internet service provider) market is the connection between ISP and customer; this creates a natural monopoly. Fortunately, due only to historical accident, we actually have a natural duopoly (the duplication of infrastructure made economic sense before Internet technology). Our government refuses to regulate this duopoly, and customers keep getting shanked.
<rant #1>
There are six common methods to connect a subscriber to an ISP
[spoiler]
Dial-up: Audio-frequency signal sent through telephone call. Pros: Phone companies prohibited from disrupting calls to competing dial-up ISPs; this is a very competitive market. Cons: technical limitations: it's sssssllllooowww. Slow like you wouldn't believe. Slow like 8 seconds loading time per avatar slow. Slow like 10 pages of text per second slow. Plus, it ties up a phone line whenever connected. Speed is 0.056 Mbps combined up and down, or slower.
Digital subscriber line: Low-frequency radio signal sent over telephone wires. Pros: phone companies are usually required to allow competitors to use their wires. Phone line can be used for voice calls at the same time. Loophole: if a phone company includes fiber-optics between the central office and customer, they don't have to share anymore. Cons: phone companies are racing to install fiber to keep their competitors from using their lines. Prices are high on locked in lines.
Digital cable: High-frequency radio over coaxial cable. Pros: extremely fast speeds are technically possible. Cons: no competition. Whichever company owns the lines, owns your soul. Capacity is shared: more subscribers = slower possible speed per customer. Cable companies have little to no incentive to fully use their network; speeds are significantly slower than possible.
This is what I have. Speed is 7.55 Mbps downstream / 0.47 Mbps upstream. For that, my family pays about $90 per month. This is the cable company's least expensive offering, but people take it because dial-up is unlivable and DSL (without competition) just became available in our area.
Cellular radio: Digital radio to a network of radio towers. Pros: mobility: can be used in portable device. Cons: extremely limited overall capacity leads to extremely limited service. Bandwidth is about 0.6 Mbps maximum up or down, which is not terrible, but is either metered (charge per data transfered) or capped (after a certain data transfer in a billing period Bad Things happen). Expensive, too, about $80 per month.
Satellite radio: Digital radio to a satellite. Pros: excellent coverage, though not mobile. May be only Internet access available in a few areas--like the Painted Desert. Cons: even more severe technical limitations than cellular. Extremely limiting caps. Very long delay makes voice-chat difficult and most multi-player games impossible.
Fiber-optic: infra-red signal in glass fiber. Pros: blindingly fast, a bundle the size of a garden hose can carry over 10000Mbps. Quite possibly fast enough that customers cannot fill it. Cons: expensive to build. Very rare. The FCC is encouraging build-out by guaranteeing monopolies. Which of course, leads to underutilization as the monopolies seek to maximize profits. Most fiber installations are used as back-haul for DSL and cable systems, not available direct to consumer.
[/spoiler]
So that's it. We have dial-up, which is cheap if you only connect for a short amount of time, and excruciatingly slow. Cell and satellite are decently fast, but it doesn't take long to hit the cap, and then you're sunk with overage charges or reduced speed or both. This leaves fiber, DSL, and cable. Fiber and DSL are always run by the same company. Thus you have the duopoly: fiber/DSL or cable.
American Internet access is available at the following levels:
Dial-up: ~$10 per month, 0.056 Mbit/s, crazy-slow.
Consumer Internet: ~$80 / mo, 5-10Mbit/s download, 0.2 - 0.5 Mbit/s upload.
Neither of these options include any guarantees. You get what you get, and you like it.
<rant, and idea #2>
The prices don't get good until you start buying in bulk, around $5000 per month for an OC-3. Now, the smart thing to do would be to get 100-200 people together and one of these a monster lines (133 Mbit/s up / 133 Mbit/s down). If you divide the raw capacity out, that doesn't sound like a lot--but real ISPs get away with selling 5-20 times as much bandwidth as they buy (similar to how banks work, actually), so we're actually looking at costs that are 50% of retail or less (for transit and the big cable, we still need to include the cost of getting data from customers to the OC-3, which should be minimal if we use WiFi radio).
Another possibility is for the community to own a fiber network, either through a private-sector organization or government intervention. Then, it's easy for ISPs to enter: they just plug into the community fiber, paying the appropriate fee--which actually goes back to the community. A good example of this is UTOPIA in Utah: there are five competing ISPs (technically, it's Ethernet: radio signals on copper cable, but same idea). Unfortunately, such networks are extremely rare.
/me is exhausted from incoherent ranting.
I may pull together a more-coherent version of this. Anyone interested in how to create inexpensive, censorship-resistant, community owned, and lightning fast internetworking through grassroots action?
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:-\
Mmmmm
Ok hmmmmm
Ok....
Well I don't understand anything ^^
I can just tell you that here with 30 euros (about 35 dollars?) every month I have "free" access on the internet (I can choose the connexion: either by wifi either by ethernet and i chose ethernet cause my flat is very small^^) and "free" phone (i can call for "free" in about 90 countries as long as i don't call a "cell" phone) oh and I even have some TV channels and all and a better quality for TV...
But I never watch TV >_<
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No, not jealous at all.
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No, not jealous at all.
Really? :-[
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As for spending being needed to encourage the economy, we got into this mess because of too much spending and easy credit.
Yes....
And... apparently according to my macroeconomics lecturer... americans are really in debt.
blame the creit card compaines trying to ensare people in debt in their early 20s and spend the rest of their life to pay it off.
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Whammy, that sucks. If it's any consolation, I heard something similar a few months ago. Yet, here I am.
If my parents ever stop paying for Internet, I'll start paying for it myself. (And bill anyone in the family who wants to share, mwaahaha.) But, I'm guessing that's not an option for you.
Well, I have enough money saved up/expected-to-come-in to pay for access for about 4 months or so. Hopefully my stepmom would get a job by then.
At this point we aren't going to do it, but should the situation worsen it's a possibility. I asked about it today, and that was basically what she said. So it was, sadly, not a joke. :'(
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Whammy, that sucks. If it's any consolation, I heard something similar a few months ago. Yet, here I am.
If my parents ever stop paying for Internet, I'll start paying for it myself. (And bill anyone in the family who wants to share, mwaahaha.) But, I'm guessing that's not an option for you.
Well, I have enough money saved up/expected-to-come-in to pay for access for about 4 months or so. Hopefully my stepmom would get a job by then.
At this point we aren't going to do it, but should the situation worsen it's a possibility. I asked about it today, and that was basically what she said. So it was, sadly, not a joke. :'(
:-\
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It's sad you have to leave, Whammy. I hope you'll come back later. We'll think about you, you'll miss us!
And Tocade, I heard it was terrible in France... ^^'
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Good News. My stepmom got a job today, so the Internet should be safe ;D
Unless it breaks down again like it has the last few days :P
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yay! where is she wrkng?
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*Happy*
I keep my RAFboyfriend and his great avatar^^
MMmm Donuts^^
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Ooh, coolies!
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yay! where is she wrkng?
A secretary or something for chiropractor's office.
*Happy*
I keep my RAFboyfriend and his great avatar^^
MMmm Donuts^^
I must make a note somewhere you really like donuts. Just to ask, what kind? I like Boston Creme (chocolate covered with creme filling).
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Oh no, I've never tasted a real Donut but they look so good when I see them on TV or pictures that it's worse^^
I just imagine the greatness ^^
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Oh no, I've never tasted a real Donut but they look so good when I see them on TV or pictures that it's worse^^
I just imagine the greatness ^^
You've never had a donut? But...your French? You guys are supposed to be great at pastries ;D
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Oh no, I've never tasted a real Donut but they look so good when I see them on TV or pictures that it's worse^^
I just imagine the greatness ^^
u havent ever had a donut? :wow:
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No... Never.
Actually, I remember that when I was in junior high school, once a year we had an american meal at the high school "restaurant" (i can't find the right word ^^) .
It consisted in:
_French fries (which are not French, whatever the french bashers might have said to call them freedom fries instead ::)).
_Hamburger (a yucky one with orange cheese that looked like plastic but anyway I don't like that kind of cheese (too artificial) and i'm picky when it comes to hamburgers, the only one I really love is the one in the happy meals^^)
_ Donut !
But we didn't really eat it as it was hardly eatable... Too much fat and sugar but without any taste :'(
And jeeez, I love sugar and fat though ! ( I've just eaten spinach and cream and it's mmmm good^^)
_ Coke. I've nothing to say against coke, it was the normal coke cans and I'm addicted to coke so...
In conclusion, no I've never really eaten a donut ;D
Whammy, maybe we are good at making pastries but pancakes and donuts are American pastries so... we don't really make them veyr well, or we just don't really make a lot of them^^
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you poor poor french! u NEED to get thee a donut ASAP! :P
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The gum rejoices! Yays! THe internet is safe!
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Good News. My stepmom got a job today, so the Internet should be safe ;D
Unless it breaks down again like it has the last few days :P
glad to hear that. :)
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About donuts, we don't really have any in France. But in Japan, my friends and me really enjoy the Mister Donuts we can find everywhere ^^ Their donuts are very good!