9.10.2007

Slow Like Dial-Up

I'm not sure if everyone has this problem, or it's just us... when it rains, or has recently rained, our DSL is sloooow. This happened back in our wireless days, as well--but it's apparently as much a problem for SBC Yahoo as it was for the small-ish company dividing up a T1 among my neighbors. I'm online right now trying to access my SLIS course materials... and it feels just like early 2005, just before that February when our semi-rural area finally got one highspeed option. I used to spend two hours just posting discussions to one course, every night--and then magically highspeed cut 120 minutes to 10. No kidding.

And here I am on molasses-like internet again. (Or, as the people who used to provide wifi spelled it on their sign, i-net-re-net, which sticks in my brain as singularly hilarious.) As if homework isn't un-fun enough--I have to be dragged through it, slowly, while someone scritches their fingernails across a chalkboard.

And I'm not even a true millennial--how soon we forget those days of internet-less yore, eh?

5 comments:

Amanda said...

SBC huh? You'd think that would be faster than a cable provider as you shouldn't have to share the bandwidth as much - and I bet more people are online when the weather is bad.

What SLIS classes are you taking? Are you going for the Ph.D.? Do you get a tuition break as an employee?

Starrlett said...

Yeah... the least-fun thing about SBC Yahoo DSL is that it is *noticeably* slower to search on Google than on Yahoo. I think Yahoo does that, evilly, on purpose--because it's not the case anywhere but on my home computer.

I'm taking Advanced Management of Information Agencies (very informative! but lots of reading!) and I'm doing a one-hour project in UNT Archives, cataloging glass slides of the UNT Campus from the 1920's. YES, we get a *fantastic* tuition break as full-time employees. It's all fees paid--which in SLIS so far has meant I've paid about 60% less than I would have.

Amanda said...

That would be 5302, correct? I had it with Carroll.

I would love to take some more SLIS courses but have the same problems you mentioned in the other blog - too much to do at work, barely enough time with my better half - PLUS I'd have to pay full price and the courses are NOT eligible for staff development grants. With a freshman in college (about $5K spent so far this SEMESTER on room, board, books, etc., about half of what it cost me to get the entire MSLS), I don't think I will be taking any courses until 2011 at the earliest. Now if they were nearly free...

Anonymous said...

I have SBC DSL, and Google seems pretty spry to me. Of course, I haven't used Yahoo search since Google launched, but even if they favor their own, performance is adequate with Google.

I think you're more or less just paying the price for living in the boondocks, relatively speaking.

Starrlett said...

okay, "grand admiral," i read your name and almost spit coffee all over my monitor. :)

well, it's just odd. when we were on the wireless service, google/gmail didn't seem sluggish at all. now, yahoo mail and yahoo search are still fine, but any google-related page is sloooow. i favor the conspiracy theory, myself.