From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 02/01/2026 |a 09:57, Bertel Lund Hansen a |-crit :

The puzzle now is why we're being peddled speeds that hardly any of us
need. They're sold as making downloads faster - but if the connection
is reliable, one doesn't need to muck about with downloading; one can
just stream.

I need to download once in a while - a Linux distro for example. I also sometimes need to upload many images. I find my 1 Gbit connection
suitable, but I'm not going to pay extra for 3 Gbit.

Yes, I was thinking of films, which are the way speeds are advertised
here-|; but you're right, there are other downloads. Not very often,
though, and 1 GB, say, is only ~100s at 100 Mb/s. It will probably take
longer than that to install after it's downloaded. 1 GB/s would save
only a minute and a half.


-|If my sums are right, a 1 Gb/s connection could download Hollywood's
entire annual output at 4K resolution in about a day and a half.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 03/01/2026 |a 00:01, Snidely a |-crit :

On Thursday or thereabouts, Hibou asked ...

It's just one sample, but we haven't had any problems with our current
provider. The line is running 3% faster than the advertised speed, and
big uploads and downloads go at that speed. (Fingers crossed for
Monday, when we shall be moved from FTTC to FTTP. If you never hear
from me again, then it's not gone well.)

I'm guessing that they are only replacing a short segment of copper, the "last mile" or less.

FTTC "fibre to the neighborhood" (paraphrasing my guess for the "C") vs
FTTP "fibre to the premises" ?

FTTC is fibre to the (street) cabinet, and FTTP is to the premises, as
you say (also known as FTTH, fibre to the home).

Our router says the cabinet is 170 m from us. The exchange was about a kilometre away, and so our ADSL was quite good too.

Here's an Openreach cabinet: <https://live.staticflickr.com/3704/13738280403_4d9d6aa58a_b.jpg>

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 03/01/2026 |a 08:27, Hibou a |-crit :

Le 02/01/2026 |a 09:57, Bertel Lund Hansen a |-crit :

The puzzle now is why we're being peddled speeds that hardly any of
us need. They're sold as making downloads faster - but if the
connection is reliable, one doesn't need to muck about with
downloading; one can just stream.

I need to download once in a while - a Linux distro for example. I
also sometimes need to upload many images. I find my 1 Gbit connection
suitable, but I'm not going to pay extra for 3 Gbit.

Yes, I was thinking of films, which are the way speeds are advertised here-|; but you're right, there are other downloads. Not very often,
though, and 1 GB, say, is only ~100s at 100 Mb/s. It will probably take longer than that to install after it's downloaded. 1 GB/s would save
only a minute and a half.

Correction: 1 Gb/s.

-|If my sums are right, a 1 Gb/s connection could download Hollywood's entire annual output at 4K resolution in about a day and a half.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Den 03.01.2026 kl. 09.27 skrev Hibou:

I need to download once in a while - a Linux distro for example. I
also sometimes need to upload many images. I find my 1 Gbit connection
suitable, but I'm not going to pay extra for 3 Gbit.

Yes, I was thinking of films, which are the way speeds are advertised here-|; but you're right, there are other downloads. Not very often,
though, and 1 GB, say, is only ~100s at 100 Mb/s. It will probably take longer than that to install after it's downloaded. 1 GB/s would save
only a minute and a half.

The distro I use is 3 Gbyte.
--
Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 03/01/2026 |a 09:39, Bertel Lund Hansen a |-crit :

Den 03.01.2026 kl. 09.27 skrev Hibou:
[...]

I need to download once in a while - a Linux distro for example. I
also sometimes need to upload many images. I find my 1 Gbit
connection suitable, but I'm not going to pay extra for 3 Gbit.

Yes, I was thinking of films, which are the way speeds are advertised
here-|; but you're right, there are other downloads. Not very often,
though, and 1 GB, say, is only ~100s at 100 Mb/s. It will probably
take longer than that to install after it's downloaded. 1 GB/s would
save only a minute and a half.

The distro I use is 3 Gbyte.

OK. To hold out while that downloaded at 100 Mb/s, and then installed,
you'd need a biscuit with your cup of tea.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:

Le 02/01/2026 a 09:57, Bertel Lund Hansen a ocrit :

The puzzle now is why we're being peddled speeds that hardly any of us
need. They're sold as making downloads faster - but if the connection
is reliable, one doesn't need to muck about with downloading; one can
just stream.

I need to download once in a while - a Linux distro for example. I also sometimes need to upload many images. I find my 1 Gbit connection suitable, but I'm not going to pay extra for 3 Gbit.

Yes, I was thinking of films, which are the way speeds are advertised
here?; but you're right, there are other downloads. Not very often,
though, and 1 GB, say, is only ~100s at 100 Mb/s. It will probably take longer than that to install after it's downloaded. 1 GB/s would save
only a minute and a half.

?If my sums are right, a 1 Gb/s connection could download Hollywood's
entire annual output at 4K resolution in about a day and a half.

Do you also worry that your power connection could bankrupt you,
if you were to use its capacity to the full?

Jan
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 03/01/2026 |a 10:11, J. J. Lodder a |-crit :

Hibou wrote:

?If my sums are right, a 1 Gb/s connection could download Hollywood's
entire annual output at 4K resolution in about a day and a half.

Do you also worry that your power connection could bankrupt you,
if you were to use its capacity to the full?

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our
provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

On our mobiles, we use the devices' built-in data warnings and limits -
and they're prepaid anyway, so the worst that could happen is they'd
exhaust their credit.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

on 1/3/2026, Hibou supposed :

Le 03/01/2026 a 00:01, Snidely a ocrit :

On Thursday or thereabouts, Hibou asked ...

It's just one sample, but we haven't had any problems with our current
provider. The line is running 3% faster than the advertised speed, and big >>> uploads and downloads go at that speed. (Fingers crossed for Monday, when >>> we shall be moved from FTTC to FTTP. If you never hear from me again, then >>> it's not gone well.)

I'm guessing that they are only replacing a short segment of copper, the
"last mile" or less.

FTTC "fibre to the neighborhood" (paraphrasing my guess for the "C") vs
FTTP "fibre to the premises" ?

FTTC is fibre to the (street) cabinet, and FTTP is to the premises, as you say (also known as FTTH, fibre to the home).

Our router says the cabinet is 170 m from us. The exchange was about a kilometre away, and so our ADSL was quite good too.

Here's an Openreach cabinet: <https://live.staticflickr.com/3704/13738280403_4d9d6aa58a_b.jpg>

Much as I'd expect it to look.

Around here, FTTC is a often case of recycling cabinets from an earlier
era, but probably not from before electronic switching.

/dps
--
"Give a lawyer a meal and she eats for minutes; Giver her a client and
she bills hourly for years"
-- Mei Li, Kevin and Kell July 27, 2018
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Den 03.01.2026 kl. 11.47 skrev Hibou:

On our mobiles, we use the devices' built-in data warnings and limits -
and they're prepaid anyway, so the worst that could happen is they'd
exhaust their credit.

My phone company just turnes down the speed to a snail's crawl if I use
more than allotted amount of Gbyte - which is many times more than I need.
--
Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

In article <mn.146f7ea1684b0b55.127094@snitoo>,
Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:

And in a residential area, the cabinet is roughly a neighborhood, or at >least a street with a group of neighbors? That's a common approach
here.

Around here (Edinburgh) they seem to generally cover several streets -
maybe a few hundred addresses - within a radius of about 300 metres.
In rural areas they must cover much larger areas.

-- Richard
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:

Le 03/01/2026 a 10:11, J. J. Lodder a ocrit :

Hibou wrote:

?If my sums are right, a 1 Gb/s connection could download Hollywood's
entire annual output at 4K resolution in about a day and a half.

Do you also worry that your power connection could bankrupt you,
if you were to use its capacity to the full?

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

On our mobiles, we use the devices' built-in data warnings and limits -
and they're prepaid anyway, so the worst that could happen is they'd
exhaust their credit.

I don't understand all this complaining about to much bandwith.
Finally, from the 120 baud modems onwards, we have enough,
like we already had for water, gas, and power.

What does it matter if we don't use all we can get?
(we'll pay anyway)

Jan
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Richard Tobin <richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

In article <mn.146f7ea1684b0b55.127094@snitoo>,
Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:

And in a residential area, the cabinet is roughly a neighborhood, or at >least a street with a group of neighbors? That's a common approach
here.

Around here (Edinburgh) they seem to generally cover several streets -
maybe a few hundred addresses - within a radius of about 300 metres.
In rural areas they must cover much larger areas.

Maybe that explains why some farmers in remote areas
already had fibre long ago while some city centres were still waiting,
(in these parts)

Jan


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 2026-01-03 08:03, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

Den 03.01.2026 kl. 11.47 skrev Hibou:

On our mobiles, we use the devices' built-in data warnings and limits
- and they're prepaid anyway, so the worst that could happen is they'd
exhaust their credit.

My phone company just turnes down the speed to a snail's crawl if I use
more than allotted amount of Gbyte - which is many times more than I need.

That's what I have on my phone. They call it "Talk, text and data 15"
For $15 CAD I get:
Unlimited Canada-wide data at speeds up to 10 Mbps
(after 250 MB, speed reduced to 256 Kbps)
100 Canada-wide airtime minutes
Unlimited text messaging in Canada & the U.S.
Pay-per-use picture/video messaging

SWMBO and I are on the same plan, and our combined bill (sinceis usually between $41 and $43. The larges bill so far, since April 2022 was about $47.

I love it when Telus (our security system is from Telus) calls and tries
to sell me a low cost phone service. I usually say,"Let me stop you
right there.", and tell them to look up my plan, and if they can beat
that, and if switching increases any of the other, bundled services I
have, I would be happy to consider it.

Shuts them up pretty quick.
--
When I speak to Spanish people, I like to use the word "mucho",
because it means a lot to them.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

In article <1rod18t.12uonk01am8xe3N%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl>,
J. J. Lodder <jjlxa32@xs4all.nl> wrote:

Finally, from the 120 baud modems onwards, we have enough,

I've never seen a 120 baud modem. 110 was common (e.g. for Model 33 Teletypes), with two stop bits, resulting in 10 characters per second.

-- Richard
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

In article <mn.19177ea117c2850e.127094@snitoo>,
Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> wrote:

Around here, FTTC is a often case of recycling cabinets from an earlier
era, but probably not from before electronic switching.

In the UK the usual procedure was to add a new cabinet next to, and
connected to, the existing analague phone line one. Switching a
customer to FTTC involved connecting their line to a link from the old
cabinet to a DSLAM ("digital subscriber line access multiplexer") in
the new one.

Getting a new FTTC connection is rare now unless FTTP is unavailable
for some reason, and I doubt new cabinets are being installed.

-- Richard
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

In article <ju6elk5kir0i2t2p4f3aom7ppiht7i3n44@4ax.com>,
Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> wrote:

"...the ratio of the potential maximum demand to the actual bandwidth"
has to be defined in some fuzzy way, or it seems ridiculous. That is, >"potential maximum" might be described as, "EVERY user attempts
to download a movie at the same time." It would be a huge number,
but it is not going to happen.

What should they report? Average speed by time of day? (matched
against total usage?)

Back in the days of the circuit-switched telephone network, one of the statistics regulators tracked was the probability of a subscriber
getting a dial tone and being able to reach a public-safety
dispatcher, measured over 5-minute intervals for each year. Obviously
this is impractical to measure directly, but the limiting resource was
known for each type of telephone switch in the network and the
utilization of that resource could be measured and a probability
estimated based on a statistical model of new-call arrivals. (This
obviously fails in the case of something like a natural disaster where
everyone picks up the phone at the same time and tries to call 9-1-1.)

Regulated utilities were generally discouraged from overprovisioning:
the regulator wanted to see the utility come as close to full
utilization as possible for a given level of capital investment,
subject to the reliability requirement, because overprovisioning
implies overinvestment, which in an environment of classical utility
regulation means overcharging customers. (Similarly for electric
utilities, which is why we don't have underground distribution lines
in places where the law does not outright require them.)

There are results from queueing theory which suggest (based on certain assumptions about arrival distributions, whether of phone calls or
TCP/IP packets) that the average capacity utilization of a bottleneck
resource in a communications network should not exceed about 80%. It
is possible to safely exceed that number with advance scheduling, but
in an environment of multiple, uncoordinated users with random arrival
times, maximum queue length goes to infinity when average utilization
exceeds this figure. This was the cause of a huge amount of argument
and research in the 1980s and 1990s, with many people believing that
without some means of scheduling transmissions all the way from one
user to another across the entire network, it would be impossible to
have reliable voice or video over a packet-switched network like the
Internet. (My first job was working for people who were trying to
solve this problem.)

A whole lot of securities fraud later, the dot-com bubble burst and
left us with a huge installed base of high-speed routers and
underutilized optical fiber, and the problem basically disappeared
from consciousness: it turned out that "the market" was more than
willing to grossly overprovision Internet services, in the context of
having installed too much fiber and extinguished all that debt in
bankruptcy, in order to avoid having to solve the coordination
problem.

-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015) --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Richard Tobin <richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

In article <1rod18t.12uonk01am8xe3N%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl>,
J. J. Lodder <jjlxa32@xs4all.nl> wrote:

Finally, from the 120 baud modems onwards, we have enough,

I've never seen a 120 baud modem. 110 was common (e.g. for Model 33 Teletypes), with two stop bits, resulting in 10 characters per second.

You are probably right. I may have misremembered a 1200 baud one.

I'll look for it if I ever come to that computer museum again,

Jan


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 03/01/2026 |a 19:48, J. J. Lodder a |-crit :

I don't understand all this complaining about to much bandwith.
Finally, from the 120 baud modems onwards, we have enough,
like we already had for water, gas, and power.

What does it matter if we don't use all we can get?
(we'll pay anyway)

I think my primary complaint was about the way it's being peddled, by
the providers and the government; but I think there's environmental
damage too.

The extra data that is transferred - for downloads, streaming, AI, the
Cloud, etc. - must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is data centres.

'In focus: Data centres rCo an energy-hungry challenge' - <https://energy.ec.europa.eu/news/focus-data-centres-energy-hungry-challenge-2025-11-17_en>
:

"Data centres are a vital infrastructure supporting our ever-growing use
of cloud storage, social media, AI, streaming services and more. / ...
data centres are responsible for about 1.5%, or 415 Terawatt-Hours
(TWh), of the world's total yearly electricity consumption. This has
grown by 12% per year over the last 5 years and projections indicate
that it is on course to more than double towards 945 TWh by 2030...."

'StreamingrCOs dirty secret: how viewing Netflix top 10 creates vast
quantity of CO2' - <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty-secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2>
:

"The carbon footprint produced by fans watching a month of NetflixrCOs top
10 global TV hits is equivalent to driving a car a hefty distance beyond Saturn. / The worldrCOs largest video-sharing site, YouTube, is
responsible for emitting enough carbon dioxide annually to far surpass
the equivalent greenhouse gas output of Glasgow, the Scottish city where
world leaders will be gathering from Sunday at the Cop26 climate summit. [...]"

That article is from 2021, and it's true that as technology develops it handles data more efficiently. Nevertheless, handling and transmitting
more data takes more energy:

<https://softwareg.com.au/cdn/shop/articles/daciI_80b3e3c9-b00d-4f2b-8a88-db840891dee0.png?v=1707787649&width=360>

Eh, ben, voil|a. That's why I've set the ethernet link from this PC to
the router down to 100 Mb/s and why I've turned off 2.4 GHz wi-fi. It's
not much, but it's something.

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


Ar an tri|| l|i de m|! Eanair, scr|!obh Garrett Wollman:

[...] A whole lot of securities fraud later, the dot-com bubble burst and left us with a huge installed base of high-speed routers and underutilized optical fiber, and the problem basically disappeared from consciousness: it turned out that "the market" was more than willing to grossly overprovision Internet services, in the context of having installed too much fiber and extinguished all that debt in bankruptcy, in order to avoid having to solve the coordination problem.

A few tens of billions over a decade can save a few years of paying
researchers salary in the lab, eh?
--
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Den 03.01.2026 kl. 21.45 skrev lar3ryca:

My phone company just turnes down the speed to a snail's crawl if I
use more than allotted amount of Gbyte - which is many times more than
I need.

That's what I have on my phone. They call it "Talk, text and data 15"
For $15 CAD I get:
Unlimited Canada-wide data at speeds up to 10 Mbps
-a-a (after 250 MB, speed reduced to 256 Kbps)
100 Canada-wide airtime minutes
Unlimited text messaging in Canada & the U.S.
Pay-per-use picture/video messaging

I pay 99 kr. (Can. $20.72) for 30 Gbyte data (20 Gbyte in EU), unlimited calls, texts and mms (picture/video).

I live in an area with poor coverage, so the speed is nothing to write
home about. Therefore I now keep my router on all through the day.

I love it when Telus (our security system is from Telus) calls and tries
to sell me a low cost phone service.

Such calls are illegal in Denmark. They don't happen. There are a few exceptions, so I have been called by newspapers a couple of times.
--
Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Den 04.01.2026 kl. 08.02 skrev Hibou:

"Data centres are a vital infrastructure supporting our ever-growing use
of cloud storage, social media, AI, streaming services and more. / ...

Not to mention crypto-coin mining. That is extreme.
--
Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 04/01/26 18:02, Hibou wrote:

'StreamingrCOs dirty secret: how viewing Netflix top 10 creates vast
quantity of CO2' - <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty-secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2>

"The carbon footprint produced by fans watching a month of NetflixrCOs top
10 global TV hits is equivalent to driving a car a hefty distance beyond Saturn. / The worldrCOs largest video-sharing site, YouTube, is
responsible for emitting enough carbon dioxide annually to far surpass
the equivalent greenhouse gas output of Glasgow, the Scottish city where world leaders will be gathering from Sunday at the Cop26 climate summit. [...]"

That article is from 2021, and it's true that as technology develops it handles data more efficiently. Nevertheless, handling and transmitting
more data takes more energy:

<https://softwareg.com.au/cdn/shop/articles/daciI_80b3e3c9-b00d-4f2b-8a88-db840891dee0.png?v=1707787649&width=360>

Good points. I think our governments need to commit to net zero data
centres by 2030.

Eh, ben, voil|a. That's why I've set the ethernet link from this PC to
the router down to 100 Mb/s and why I've turned off 2.4 GHz wi-fi.
It's not much, but it's something.

Every little helps, as the little boy said while pissing into a river.

The world is now facing another nasty climate problem. Because of
excessive logging, the world's biggest rainforests are now net producers
of CO2; we've lost their valuable function. This reversal could mean
that slowing the rate of climate change is now an unattainable goal.

Is there any chance of convincing Trump to go in and kidnap the loggers?
But it's probably too late; the trees are already gone.
--
Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Den 04.01.2026 kl. 10.39 skrev Peter Moylan:

That article is from 2021, and it's true that as technology develops it
handles data more efficiently. Nevertheless, handling and transmitting
more data takes more energy:

<https://softwareg.com.au/cdn/shop/articles/daciI_80b3e3c9-b00d-4f2b-8a88-db840891dee0.png?v=1707787649&width=360>

Good points. I think our governments need to commit to net zero data
centres by 2030.

I'm sorry to say that my government is happy to accept data centres who exploit our high level of socalled green power.

This webpage says that we have 81:

https://www.datacentermap.com/denmark/

Among them Apple, Google and Facebook.
--
Bertel, Kolt, Danmark

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 04/01/2026 07:02, Hibou wrote:

Le 03/01/2026 |a 19:48, J. J. Lodder a |-crit :

I don't understand all this complaining about to much bandwith.
Finally, from the 120 baud modems onwards, we have enough,
like we already had for water, gas, and power.

What does it matter if we don't use all we can get?
(we'll pay anyway)

I think my primary complaint was about the way it's being peddled, by
the providers and the government; but I think there's environmental
damage too.

The extra data that is transferred - for downloads, streaming, AI, the Cloud, etc. - must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is data centres.

'In focus: Data centres rCo an energy-hungry challenge' - <https://energy.ec.europa.eu/news/focus-data-centres-energy-hungry- challenge-2025-11-17_en> :

"Data centres are a vital infrastructure supporting our ever-growing use
of cloud storage, social media, AI, streaming services and more. / ...
data centres are responsible for about 1.5%, or 415 Terawatt-Hours
(TWh), of the world's total yearly electricity consumption. This has
grown by 12% per year over the last 5 years and projections indicate
that it is on course to more than double towards 945 TWh by 2030...."

'StreamingrCOs dirty secret: how viewing Netflix top 10 creates vast quantity of CO2' - <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty- secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2> :

"The carbon footprint produced by fans watching a month of NetflixrCOs top 10 global TV hits is equivalent to driving a car a hefty distance beyond Saturn. / The worldrCOs largest video-sharing site, YouTube, is
responsible for emitting enough carbon dioxide annually to far surpass
the equivalent greenhouse gas output of Glasgow, the Scottish city where world leaders will be gathering from Sunday at the Cop26 climate summit. [...]"

That article is from 2021, and it's true that as technology develops it handles data more efficiently. Nevertheless, handling and transmitting
more data takes more energy:

<https://softwareg.com.au/cdn/shop/articles/daciI_80b3e3c9- b00d-4f2b-8a88-db840891dee0.png?v=1707787649&width=360>

Eh, ben, voil|a. That's why I've set the ethernet link from this PC to
the router down to 100 Mb/s and why I've turned off 2.4 GHz wi-fi. It's
not much, but it's something.

On that last point.
If I was to switch off either of the WiFi bands, it would be the higher
5GHz one.
When I am close to the router, my phone seems to select the 5Ghz band no
doubt due to its higher possible data transfer rate.
I subsequently move to the opposite end of the building[1] where signal strength on that band is marginal at best - but the phone doesn't have
the wit to shift to the 2.4Ghz band where a decent signal can be had.

[1] A small building, but the walls are very thick.
--
Sam Plusnet
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 04/01/2026 |a 21:36, Sam Plusnet a |-crit :

On 04/01/2026 07:02, Hibou wrote:

Eh, ben, voil|a. That's why I've set the ethernet link from this PC to
the router down to 100 Mb/s and why I've turned off 2.4 GHz wi-fi.
It's not much, but it's something.

On that last point.
If I was to switch off either of the WiFi bands, it would be the higher
5GHz one.
When I am close to the router, my phone seems to select the 5Ghz band no doubt due to its higher possible data transfer rate.
I subsequently move to the opposite end of the building[1] where signal strength on that band is marginal at best - but the phone doesn't have
the wit to shift to the 2.4Ghz band where a decent signal can be had.

[1] A small building, but the walls are very thick.

Well yes, horses for courses, and I was simplifying. Since we live in a
flat with a number of adjacent flats, the 2.4 GHz band is congested. 5
GHz isn't, and gives good coverage, so we switch off 2.4 GHz. It saves a little power, I suppose, reduces RF pollution, and reduces our 'attack surface'.

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On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

In Germany, ISPs cancelled the contract of the customers that
intensively used their flatrate contract.

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On 04.01.2026 10:29 Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

Den 04.01.2026 kl. 08.02 skrev Hibou:

"Data centres are a vital infrastructure supporting our
ever-growing use of cloud storage, social media, AI, streaming
services and more. / ...

Not to mention crypto-coin mining. That is extreme.

And it is great.

Certain hosting companies denied mining on their VPS offers and told
those people to rent dedicated servers.

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Le 08/01/2026 |a 09:42, Marco Moock a |-crit :

On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our
provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

A 'blower' is a telephone. I thought the word was rather old-fashioned,
but perhaps not:

<https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=on+the+blower+to+him&year_start=1900&year_end=2022&corpus=en-GB&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false>

It appears to be peculiar to BrE, and can also refer to a speaking tube
(down which one blows to activate a whistle and attract attention).

Actually, I think our provider would more likely send an e-mail.

In Germany, ISPs cancelled the contract of the customers that
intensively used their flatrate contract.

All depends on the contract. There is usually a 'faire-usage' clause. Interestingly - to me - there doesn't appear to be one in our FTTP
contract. (The provider applies a 1 TB limit to "unlimited" mobile
broadband.)

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On 08/01/26 20:42, Marco Moock wrote:

On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that
our provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning
if we abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

In Germany, ISPs cancelled the contract of the customers that
intensively used their flatrate contract.

My ISP contract allows unlimited broadband data and unlimited phone
data. I don't really need these features, but the price difference
between that and "limited data" plans is so low that I might as well pay
for the simplest option.
--
Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote:

On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

In Germany, ISPs cancelled the contract of the customers that
intensively used their flatrate contract.

That should be impossible.
(for those who stay in the limits of their contract)

Perhaps for customers who run an over-visited website
on the servers of their provider?

Jan
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Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> wrote:

Le 08/01/2026 a 09:42, Marco Moock a ocrit :

On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that our
provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a warning if we
abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

A 'blower' is a telephone. I thought the word was rather old-fashioned,
but perhaps not:

<https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=on+the+blower+to+him&year_start

=1900&year_end=2022&corpus=en-GB&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false>

It appears to be peculiar to BrE, and can also refer to a speaking tube
(down which one blows to activate a whistle and attract attention).

A whistle at the other end, even,

Jan
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 08.01.2026 12:32 J. J. Lodder wrote:

Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de> wrote:

On 03.01.2026 10:47 Hibou Hibou wrote:

The broadband is "unlimited". I think in practice this means that
our provider would be on the blower with a complaint and a
warning if we abused it.

Please explain the phrase with the blower.

In Germany, ISPs cancelled the contract of the customers that
intensively used their flatrate contract.

That should be impossible.
(for those who stay in the limits of their contract)

Both sides can always cancel the contract wile adhering the
cancellation period.
There is no need for a reason or a special behavior.

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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

* (Richard Tobin) <10jc1n8$1lmgi$2@artemis.inf.ed.ac.uk> :
Wrote on Sat, 3 Jan 2026 21:29:12 -0000 (UTC):

In the UK the usual procedure was to add a new cabinet next to, and
connected to, the existing analague phone line one. Switching a
customer to FTTC involved connecting their line to a link from the old cabinet to a DSLAM ("digital subscriber line access multiplexer") in
the new one.

Getting a new FTTC connection is rare now unless FTTP is unavailable
for some reason, and I doubt new cabinets are being installed.

In India at least with FTTH we get a single chinese buggy modem, which
does VOIP and the analog phone line plugs into it. (TR069_INTERNET)

The last week of december the linesmen brought a cable over some trees
and took away all the copper wire, leaving our land line and adsl
internet dead for a few days. This was temporarily restored on the 30th
but the lines went dead on Jan 1. We didn't get the scam modem[1] until
Jan 7.

"What happens if the cable breaks when if the tree falls"
"Just call us, we'll fix it"

You can't switch the modem off, when the power goes off (as it often
does in India, backup notwithstanding) we can't call to complain
anymore. It is basically a (buggY) locked down surveillance device. I
can't set WPA2/PSK CCMP (it defaults to WPA/TKIP) , even if I set it the
next time it reboots it loses all its settings. There is no choice this
is the only modem being pushed on us, there is no choice in vendor. The
vendor cannot give control of the router even if he wants to, The modem
may be chinese but I believe both the surveillance knowhow and the
vendors who are being and set up to force the adoption are from Israel.
To ensure a plausibe deniabilty for controlling the "residential botnets"
you hear about in the news


Despite India's posturing against CHina and ban on chinese equipment
what all the 50 lakh customers get is this:

"ERROR: Bad password!"


"ERROR: You have logined error 3 consecutive times, please relogin 1 minute later!"

"ERROR: You have logined! please logout at first and then login!"

"You can upload and down load config file"
"Save current as default"

"Cancel custome default"
"You can cancel the self custome default config file."

SSIDs default to ChinaNet

"Upload: Upload custom config file. Configuration will be covered by
reseting to default."

"Upload As Default: Upload custom config file as default setting."
"Device will auto reboot after upload success. If not, reboot Device to
take effect."

"Click "End MainTain, System Will Automatically Upload New Data to Server."
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