Sunday, September 21, 2008
Comcast's new Acceptable Use Policy

Straight from the mouths of those who provide our service and act like God while also behaving as though they are head of a monarchy and demand over $100 in gold every month or they'll shut you down.

Argh!
On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this threshold over the course of a month.
I don't know I think it's all foolish. I mean it essentially is putting a vice on everything INCLUDING legal activity. Because there are now more and more internet based downloads which you pay as you download and they are legal.

I suppose it will shut down some spammers though which is the only good thing coming from the new policy.

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  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 9:24 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Friday, September 12, 2008
    Bah to Google Chrome

    Alas the Google grid is growing. You all know about Google Chrome yet, and I should have posted earlier than now, but let's just say I'm not happy about Google Chrome.

    I love Firefox. I don't want to worry about yet another possible browser; especially in terms of a web developer. There are already enough browser discrepancies to deal with, grrr!

    However, I do like the idea of how the history cache works while the browser is open. Click and hold (or right-click) the Back or Forward button to go directly to a page far behind or forward in your browsing history.

    I also like that you can zoom in and out of pages just by holding down the control key and the mouse wheel.

    Yes, it has the keyboard shortcuts I enjoy on my Mac and I can use them easily across plaforms now..yada yada yada.

    But this is where the bugs come in. Google Chrome is not Mac friendly. In fact, it is very buggy.

    I also don't like that Google search can be made more private and secure only for those who decide to use Google Chrome.

    I suppose one thing can be said...the bar has been risen for all other browsers and that is a good thing.

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  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 8:29 PM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Thursday, September 4, 2008
    Web Hosting Geeks

    It's a pain in the arse to find a web host you can rely on for good service while also being inexpensive. Trust me, I know.

    Fortunately you can compare notes using sites like WebHostingGeeks.com which gives independent reviews of the top 10 web hosting providers in addition to the hosts on a budget. If only I had known that a year ago I could have been saving money AND have unlimited space. My current host is not in the top 10. Argh!

    Especially interesting is the box which gives links and a review to the best eco-friendly hosting environments. This piqued my interest and so I wanted to know just what would make a host "green."

    HostPapa claims their clients are part of their family. Select energy sources supply HostPapa's entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as wind and solar-powered energy.

    I am really surprised by all the different ways you can search for webhosting on this site. The different options and break downs are helpful, plus it's organized intuitively which is always a plus! The only thing missing is a generic search button, perhaps they will think of that for the future.

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  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 9:59 AM | 0 comment(s)! |