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BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow

14 Sep 11 - 12:19 PM (#3223122)
Subject: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Desert Dancer

For Idaho and the Internet, Life in the Slow Lane - NY Times 9/14/2011

"And, according to a new study, they are among the problems that have earned Idaho an unfortunate distinction: it had the slowest Internet speeds in the country earlier this year for residential customers who were downloading things like games — a "dismal" average of 318 kilobytes per second.

"Translation: In Idaho, it would take you 9.42 seconds to download a standard music file compared with 3.36 seconds in Rhode Island, the state with the fastest average speeds, at 894 kilobytes per second.

"The slowest city, by the way, was also in Idaho: In Pocatello, it would take nearly 12 seconds to download that music file, according to the study by Pando Networks, a company that helps consumers accelerate downloads. In the nation's fastest city, Andover, Mass., a Boston suburb, it would take just over one second."

Do (certain) Pocatellans compensate with their blade speed, instead?

~ Becky in Long Beach


14 Sep 11 - 12:27 PM (#3223131)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: gnu

12 seconds? Whaddya gonna do to occupy that kinda time?


14 Sep 11 - 12:29 PM (#3223132)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: dick greenhaus

Pocatello, Idaho.....Slowly I turned...(for those old enough to recall burlesque skits)


14 Sep 11 - 01:22 PM (#3223168)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Amos

Raparee substitutes muzzle velocity, and it seems to satisfy him all right.


A


14 Sep 11 - 03:17 PM (#3223233)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Bill D

Why, it's so s-l-o-w they call the town Po-tel just to enter it in email. They never even discuss Schenectady, which can't BE abbreviated.


14 Sep 11 - 06:46 PM (#3223325)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: dick greenhaus

Can't even, in many cases, be spelled out


14 Sep 11 - 09:20 PM (#3223356)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Janie

I knew there was some logical explanation for that fellow's rich fantasy life.


14 Sep 11 - 10:31 PM (#3223381)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Rapparee

I did a test from home (cable TV connection). Outgoing was 3.29 mbps, uploading was 302 kbps. Check your speed here.

Of course, it's faster at the Legion Hovel. They've got their own dedicated satellite in geosynchronous orbit, including the necessary uplink/downlink equipment, and all they do there is play games and look at porn dachshund sites.


14 Sep 11 - 10:47 PM (#3223390)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Desert Dancer

On my DSL in Arizona, it took too long for the speed test page to load... LOL! (Download speed is 557 kbps, upload 556 kbps this evening.)

~ Becky in Tucson


14 Sep 11 - 10:49 PM (#3223392)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Amos

Mine were 28.31 megabits per second DL and 974 kilobits/sec UL. So Pocatello is kinda slow. WOnder where the nearest backbone segment is?


A


14 Sep 11 - 11:42 PM (#3223405)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: ChanteyLass

Wow, Rhode Island made out well in this comparison. We residents are used to having our state compared to bad things, as in "An oil slick the size of Rhode Island."


15 Sep 11 - 10:26 AM (#3223580)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Rapparee

Well, the county I live in is bigger than Rhode Island, but so is everything else.

Let's see -- Idaho State University and Idaho National Laboratory and the Accelerator Labs have Internet. It's 15 hops from my house to the Mudcat servers, and 20 hops in 165 microseconds to the servers of BBC World News.

The nearest backbone seems to be the Class A 15.0.0.0-15.0.0.255 (at least for one trace route), which is a direct assignment to Hewlett Packard, and that, of course, means simply that a node with one of the octets is out there. I have heard that a second-level backbone passed right through town because of INL and ISU, etc.


15 Sep 11 - 11:36 AM (#3223618)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Amos

Being retired means having enough time to dick around looking things up on the Internet!! :D Don't I sound just a little jealous?? :D


15 Sep 11 - 12:17 PM (#3223632)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Bill D

6.63mbs
3.42mbs
The 1st internet connection I had was 14,400 baud...16 years ago. I have all the speed I 'need'. I can watch YouTube or hear streaming music,,etc.

I'm not sure my brain is wired for any faster.


15 Sep 11 - 02:30 PM (#3223711)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Rapparee

MY first Internet connection, over 26 years ago, was a tight string with tin cans for modems. You had to enter things into the computer using a manual typewriter, in binary format. And we didn't have ones and zeroes; we had to us lower case ell's and upper case oh's. We made our own electricity by walking as fast as we could on a treadmill sort of thing.


15 Sep 11 - 08:59 PM (#3223881)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Rapparee

And it all was input in binary ASCII. The word "the", for instance, would have been like this (I'm using lower case oh's so you can see them more clearly):

ollloloo ollolooo olloolol

Which if you sing it is really kinda musical, so this thread can now move above the salt.


15 Sep 11 - 09:19 PM (#3223897)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Bill D

Yeah... and some here remember MY Win 3 machine, run by gerbils...


16 Sep 11 - 09:40 AM (#3224174)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: MGM·Lion

===Pocatello, Idaho.....Slowly I turned...(for those old enough to recall burlesque skits)===

Don't recall that one, Dick. But I remember it was where Judy Garland's supposed character was "born in a trunk in the Princes theater"!!!

~Michael~


16 Sep 11 - 09:43 AM (#3224178)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: MGM·Lion

Ref above, for the young in years as well as in ♥, is to "A ❂ Is Born"!


16 Sep 11 - 10:01 AM (#3224186)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: Rapparee

And it's "Princess Theater" -- burned down years back.

Judy, however, was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 1922. Her family called her Ethel, and she changed her name for professional reasons, just as Marion Morrison and Lester Franklin Sly did.


16 Sep 11 - 10:10 AM (#3224196)
Subject: RE: BS: Pocatello is slowest of the slow
From: MGM·Lion

Yes, thanks, Rap. & for the info re the theatre's name, about which I have often wondered. Google the song "Born in a Trunk", and you will find both versions indexed: the videos all seem to go with 'Princes', but the lyric sheets and wiki entry with 'Princess'. I am happy that it really was the name of a theatre in Pocatello Id!

I knew about Ethel Gumm. Nowadays they would probably think it smarter to go with original name ~~ think of Carrie Snodgress and Jo Rowbotham! I also know who Marion Morrison was, with his True Grit.

A bit of drift, btw: Robin is always a man's name here in UK [till recent US influence, anyhow], Marion a woman's. Your variants on this don't half mess up the Robin Hood legend!.

~Michael~