Sunday, August 31, 2008
How to Place Your Country in a Time Capsule Labeled “2001”
Cap their internet.
Australia does this quite well by selling internet plans with caps of 1GB of bandwidth and no safety slow downs. This may not sound that bad, but think about it quite carefully.
My goal was to stay within a 1GB limit for an entire week. The rules were to only check email, use a browser when needed, and commit code via Git. It only took me 2 and a half days of carefully strategized usages to hit 999MB.
It got worse when I tried to find that thing that we Americans take for granted. Free WIFI. It seemed that every network was locked, every house used ethernet, and every coffee shop's inviting WIFI sign was monopolized by some huge corporation.
For now, I guess the Australian public doesn't quite understand this unparalleled tool called the internet. And for now, they will forever have unsure frustrations.