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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Mister D Nomms on 16 Apr 2012, 01:44

Title: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Mister D Nomms on 16 Apr 2012, 01:44
What do you do during your one hour?
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 16 Apr 2012, 02:02
When I first connected to the Internet 19 years ago, I suppose I dialled up for an hour or so a week, which was used for exchanging emails with my then fiancée, and reading mailing lists concerned with operating system support; the reading time was more than the dial-up time, of course.  I connected overnight on one occasion to download an OS/2 service pack (three whole floppy images) by FTP.  Web browsing was not yet available.

Now?  I suppose the domestic email would be similar, but the information updates would be about organs and sound recording, not operating systems.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: TinPenguin on 16 Apr 2012, 02:28
What do you do during your one hour?

Say goodbye to everyone I love, and jump.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Carl-E on 16 Apr 2012, 02:30
Well, I'd have to cut back on my webcomic reading... 

But I spend a couple of hours a day just dealing with job crap every day.  Oline homework assignments, online gradebooks, emails with students...
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Omega Entity on 16 Apr 2012, 06:47
One hour of internet a week is a life not worth thinking about.

That said, forums and such. Fuck email (which is important to note is a major part of my job right now).
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: jwhouk on 16 Apr 2012, 06:53
E-mail. Get bills paid ASAP. Sneak a look at a comic or two. Might not be able to fit it into an hour, though.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: LTK on 16 Apr 2012, 07:48
What I normally do, except with a much stricter content filter and with my browsing speed turned up to eleven. And then type some hurried e-mails.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 16 Apr 2012, 11:28
Definitely emails, because during term my entire life is organised through email (including almost all of my work being sent electronically). But of course I wouldn't be able to do my degree anyway, because I have to read cases on the internet.

If I were able to just do what I want to do, I guess I'd have to skim down my blog reading list to a managable number and spend my hour a week reading and commenting on the blogs I follow, and posting on my own.

Incidentally, I have just set up Leechblock to stop my access to the internet after a certain number of hours. I'm dithering over how many hours - I can quite easily spend the entire day on the internet perfectly legitimately, if I'm reading cases etc, but I don't want to be able to spend the whole day wasting time. Hmm.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Bachi-Atari on 16 Apr 2012, 11:29
Set torrents to light speed, and check my tumblr & webcomics. No need to go to social networks/emails, if they want me, they know where to find me, or call.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Papersatan on 16 Apr 2012, 12:13
Does everyone only have one hour, or am I being grounded or something?   This makes a difference, because expectations of electronic communication would change if everyone knew that everyone else only had one hour a week. 

If everyone had only one hour, I would download my emails, read them, compose a reply and then upload and send the next time.  But if everyone were doing this then there would be no expectation of an e-mail being read or replied to quickly.  It really would be like the mail, but electronic.  Other than email, I think that a one hour limit would revert the internet to its infant state.  That is, I would not use it for social networking, or entertainment at all.  I would, through out the week, compile a prioritized list of things I want to find, and the queries which I wanted to use to find them.  Then during my hour I would make them, downloading the relevant results to read offline.  For example: I need recipes for apple pies, I am curious about mathematical hill climbing, I want to know the lyrics to that song I keep hearing and I would like the headlines from an international newspaper.

I think it is actually an interesting question, how would the structure of the internet change if we were limited in our access.  The internet is an economy of attention.  Money is made through page views, and clicks, and the value of that attention would shift drastically if we, as users, couldn't afford to get distracted. 

On the other hand, if it were just me with the limit, I would just move somewhere pretty with no access at all. 
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Mister D Nomms on 16 Apr 2012, 12:42
Originally, I had a vision of a man on top of a snowy mountain with a little satelite and a laptop, so it's just you.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: J on 19 Apr 2012, 20:59
so it's one hour of connection time then? or one hour at the computer total?

because with sufficient bandwidth i could probably download at least a week's worth of collected entertainment in the from of podcasts, streamripped videos, pirated ebooks, website archives, etc. during one hour of connection time.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Asterus on 20 Apr 2012, 12:51
Well, the easiest way to conceptualize this may be to take this example:
When my family goes to Thailand every 3-4 years, we basically end up completely cut off from the internet and phone services. However, there are businesses there where you basically rent a computer for a short period of time. Pay the cashier, and they log into a computer for you while a timer for an hour starts. After that hour, the computer kicks you and shuts down. Basically, you buy a timeslot to use a computer that's connected to the internet.
From experience, what I end up doing is quickly checking my mail, checking whether I need to respond to maintain any vacation settings so people know what's going on, check anything I'm actively watching, then dick around a bit with youtube or forums.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Carl-E on 22 Apr 2012, 00:37
After that hour, the computer kicks you and shuts down.


Must be Windows,   :evil: :-D :roll:
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: DrPhibes on 22 Apr 2012, 04:24
Windows update would start AND IT WOULD BE CRAPPY
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Welu on 22 Apr 2012, 07:50
Forums, maybe one or two videos, don't think I'd do email much...
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Asterus on 25 Apr 2012, 20:13
After that hour, the computer kicks you and shuts down.


Must be Windows,   :evil: :-D :roll:
Or my laptop. The problem with my computer is that I am a intuitive do-it-yourself kind of person. I'm good with computers because I have personally f'ed up mine in almost any way imaginable. This laptop is a typical HP Pavilion 5400, mostly used for casual everyday use. I used it like a gaming PC, going as far as trying to play Aion, then wondered why the battery and fan began acting up. I then took it upon myself to inspect the fan, which seems to have done something to the internal time clock. Now I have a 40-min battery, overactive fan, senile laptop that can't tell time and has a very irritating habit of overheating after video renders and flash games .  :angel:
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 25 Apr 2012, 23:29
Laptop battery life typically decreases very quickly; this is not you.  Laptop overheating is normally caused by domestic fluff in the very tight air passages around the heat sink; using a powerful air duster to blow them clear can be very effective.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 26 Apr 2012, 00:26
I expect there's a way to reset the clock too. Mine went a bit silly once but somehow my dad fixed it. Don't know what he did, I'm afraid.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: bainidhe_dub on 26 Apr 2012, 05:52
You mean besides doubleclicking the time display and fixing the clock and calendar? How many other ways can it get messed up, unless your computer suddenly decides it prefers a 55-minute hour or something?
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 26 Apr 2012, 06:02
It may be worth setting it from the BIOS; it may be worth checking if there is a BIOS update that fixes a clock problem (or anything else).  On a desktop, I'd say change the motherboard battery, but laptops rely on the main battery for the clock.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Redball on 26 Apr 2012, 06:22
Mac laptops have a pram battery, and I think the clock's screwed if it runs down.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 26 Apr 2012, 06:23
Ah, OK.  Then presumably that can be replaced.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: bainidhe_dub on 26 Apr 2012, 07:11
Hunh. Why do computers have to be so complicated...
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 26 Apr 2012, 07:47
Because if they weren't, an entire industry of computer repair engineers would go out of business.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Omega Entity on 26 Apr 2012, 20:15
It may be worth setting it from the BIOS; it may be worth checking if there is a BIOS update that fixes a clock problem (or anything else).  On a desktop, I'd say change the motherboard battery, but laptops rely on the main battery for the clock.
Seconded. The BIOS is usually accessed from the mobo screen at the very start of bootup, usually F2, though it may be looking up the proper key for your system online.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Asterus on 27 Apr 2012, 16:09
Oh, that doesn't seem to be the problem. It's some sort of odd computer-amnesia, where the clock resets to some strange time every time it shuts down. Sometimes it goes back a few hours, sometimes it goes forward a few days. Even after syncing it online, it'll run slow or stop when in use. It really doesn't affect me much, besides telling me all of my gmail messages arrive 0 minutes ago.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Omega Entity on 27 Apr 2012, 18:54
Is the CMOS backed up by the laptop battery, or is it done with a watch battery like on a standard desktop?
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Asterus on 28 Apr 2012, 05:03
Well, the solution appears to be unambiguous. Basically, reset BIOS every restart until the CMOS battery is changed.
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http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph03560&lc=en&product=3376908
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Toba on 29 Apr 2012, 02:13
Because if they weren't, an entire industry of computer repair engineers would go out of business.

Because all you people keep demanding they go faster and be better and making things simpler is way harder than making them get more complicated as they get more featureful, that's why.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 29 Apr 2012, 02:31
My laptop is is eight years old, fourth hand and incredibly slow by today's standards. It struggles to play The Sims 2 and I think Skyrim would make it die. I've never taken it to a repair shop in my life. Don't include me in that statement!
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: dr. nervioso on 29 Apr 2012, 06:36
My laptop is good for browsing and just using the internet for stuff, but one of its drivers is broken and I cannot play any sort of graphically intense game.

I have another laptop which has a broken screen, so I have to do a lot of annoying things to connect to a monitor and prevent it from over heating on a desk

You know what? Fuck laptops. Once I get a house and a stable living situation (i.e. years from now when I finish up getting my phd) I will go ahead and buy a kickass desktop.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 29 Apr 2012, 08:04
Same, my laptop is basically a desktop anyway since it only has an hour or two of battery life, it's quite heavy and I don't really want to carry it round with me even if I could. The only thing preventing me from getting a desktop already is that I have to keep packing my life into storage every eight months.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Toba on 29 Apr 2012, 11:35
They both have their place. I have a sort of newish desktop that can really churn out torrents and internets like nobody's business and I don't even notice that time goes by when I do things, and a pretty old laptop as well.  The laptop can go places with me and stuff, and the desktop can't. I can't choose, so I keep both.

That said, if I only had one hour to Internet a week I would build another Internet. Fuck your constraints, hypothetical world!
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Mister D Nomms on 29 Apr 2012, 12:23
I've been talking about making a new internet for years. Way back when the government first started trying to regulate it. It would be slow as hell and probably would rely on the old style dial-up modems at first.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Carl-E on 29 Apr 2012, 13:56
So you want to evolve a new internet, then?
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Mister D Nomms on 29 Apr 2012, 20:25
Yeah. The only thing that worries me is that instead of just being another internet, it will be a Usenet/TOR sort of dark and stinky. Then one day everybody who uses it will be arrested and sent to a military prison for odd and unspecific charges. Once there, we'll divide into factions and all murder eachother...
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Papersatan on 29 Apr 2012, 21:04
You think that starting today, dial-up would be where you would start?  I'm not sure most people who would participate have land lines, also would it require sharing phone numbers which would make it hard to be anonymous.

I would start a network of Pirate Boxes or a similar wireless technology.  I'm not sure how it would work globally, but I think they would be a good start for local movements.  I think their potential is particularly good for areas of conflict as they are portable and decentralized.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 29 Apr 2012, 23:50
There may be some mileage in that for getting round restrictions on ISP access in local areas, but that's about it, I think.  This can also be done (with more trouble and less secrecy, but the means is there) using satellite access. 

As for a new Internet - it's taken decades of investment by governments and the largest telecoms companies to build the current infrastructure, and it's a pure pipe-dream to imagine setting up an independent parallel - especially against the resistance and probable legislation that would be mobilised to prevent it.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Mister D Nomms on 30 Apr 2012, 00:11
If the new internet used phone lines to connect to small servers, can anything really be done to stop that?
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Barmymoo on 30 Apr 2012, 00:14
Yes. You don't have a legal right to a phone line. Or at least, not to use one to set up an illicit internet.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 30 Apr 2012, 00:26
If the new internet used phone lines to connect to small servers, can anything really be done to stop that?

I remember what the Internet was like in 1992, when I got my first personal modem connection - and there was already a substantial international infrastructure in place supporting it.  You really, really don't want to think about returning to that with anything remotely similar to today's expectations.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Cie on 30 Apr 2012, 14:41
Waste it procrastinating and then slap myself for wasting my allotted internet time. Internet and productive don't tend to go hand in hand for me.

I think if we went back to phone lines we'd probably set them on fire by all the extra traffic (what do you mean, physics doesn't work like that? :roll:).
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Toba on 04 May 2012, 08:10
I remember what the Internet was like in 1992, when I got my first personal modem connection - and there was already a substantial international infrastructure in place supporting it.  You really, really don't want to think about returning to that with anything remotely similar to today's expectations.

Who said we were trying to make another Internet as good as the Internet we have now?  This is a "well, they won't even let me talk to my friends anymore" scenario (and frankly, the scenario is silly).  Internet just means a network of networks, so I've already made several Internets in my time.  Sure, they weren't "The Internet" level, but if I wanted to communicate with my local friends I could hook something up.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: pwhodges on 04 May 2012, 08:20
Reducing your aspirations to those you can achieve is rather begging the question though, isn't it?  Of course, it's a good start when there's no alternative, but I didn't think that was what we were considering.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: Toba on 11 May 2012, 09:00
Reducing your aspirations to those you can achieve is rather begging the question though, isn't it?  Of course, it's a good start when there's no alternative, but I didn't think that was what we were considering.

Sure, I changed the premise a bit there.  There's a reason to not aspire to unachievable things, though: your potential can do a LOT if you aim it in the right places.  Castles in the sky never get built.  To me, the "one hour to internet" really just says "do the important stuff".  With that in mind, I may find that just doing the important stuff, but whenever I want, wouldn't take as much bandwidth as what I do now.
Title: Re: You Have One Hour To Internet a Week
Post by: jmucchiello on 11 May 2012, 09:39
I remember what the Internet was like in 1992, when I got my first personal modem connection - and there was already a substantial international infrastructure in place supporting it.  You really, really don't want to think about returning to that with anything remotely similar to today's expectations.
I had a hard time keeping to under 1 hours a day in 1987 (my university grades are testament to this). Today it is infeasible.