Survey: Internet Connection

[Nate Perkins]

"Jeff P." wrote in news:nYaLd.253173$ [e-mail]:

D ... i ... a ... l ... u ... p.

[Charlie Self]

Rob Mitchell responds:

Yes. Flash sucks, and not as if it is a gloat. I forgot to hook up my speakers for nearly three months after we moved. I then decided I wanted to listen to some Bill Haley and the Comets, so hooked them up, but when music isn't on (it isn't on often, because I don't like to try to work with it in the background), the sound is turned almost off.

Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,

2000

[Charlie Self]

Silvan notes:

It's on the way, or will be in a few minutes. But, hey, the roads are clear. Take a two hour break and make the round trip...but don't try to get a semi down my drive. Getting down is OK. Getting out is a bitch. No turnaround, steep

90 deg. turn about 20 feet from the top with a 7' deep ditch on one side.

Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,

2000

[Robert Bonomi]

Bah! You're a newbie.

I go back to the days when 1200 baud was considered _very_ high speed.

The guys with money could afford 300-baud capable terminals -- us poor bastards suffered with stuff that maxed out at 110 baud,

[Robert Bonomi]

A few pieces of advice:

1) Make sure any 'home'-type page(s) load _fast_. i.e., about 25Kbyte *max*. 'Instant gratification' _is_ important for retaining the first- time visitor. 2) Anything 'big' (i.e., over 25-50k) put a parenthetical after the link that gives the approx. 'size' (in kbytes) of the page data. This is called 'managing expectations' -- when people _know_ 'in advance' how long they'll have to wait they tend to be much more tolerant of delays. *AND*, those who know that they don't have the patience won't even _try_ the page. 3) consider putting up 'parallel' pages for low-speed, and high-speed, access. If you're careful to make all the links on the page 'relative', you can accomplish this by changing _only_ the 'base' tag at the top of the page. 4) You can get amazing savings by reducing the number of 'colors' used in an image. and JPGs are not always smaller than GIFs -- especially where "thumbnails" are concerned. A *sixteen* color GIF may be entirely adequate for a 'preview' shot. 5) consider using "frames". to allow _selective_re-drawing_ of *partial* page content.

One other consideration is the _outbound_ bandwidth from your web-server. If you're running it at the end of a DSL/cable connection, the 'upload' speed limits of that connection can become a real problem. Especially if multiple people hit the site at 'more-or-less' the same time.

i.e., if you've got a link with a 384K 'upload' speed, then *six* simultaneous requests for a circa 150kbyte ("20 seconds at 56k") page will result in at least 20-second 'load' times for _all_ the viewers. EVEN those with _multi- megabit_ 'download' capabilities.

[Lawrence L'Hote]

My first was one of those clickity, clackety teletype machines with an acoustic coupler. You'd dial up a remote bulletin board, listen for the beeeeeeeeep and jam the phone handset onto the modem. Mine even had a paper punch to store some of my machine code programs. I'm glad those good ole days are gone.

Larry

[Robert Bonomi]

If FAX, at 14,400 (possibly even only 9600) will connect, *NO* public-utility commission in the U.S. will take your complaint. Some won't take a complaint if you can get a 1200 baud data connection.

Over POTS (analog) phone lines, _ALL_ speeds above 14,400 require end-to-end circuit connections that are 'higher quality' (higher bandwidth, less distort- ion, lower noise) than voice circuit specifications require. Even 14.4k is running 'right at the limits' of the specifications.

Some limits are _inherent_physical_characteristics_ of the length of wire between the customer premises and the telephone company switching equipment. Needless to say, you _cannot_ legislate around the laws of physics.

(BTW, this is also the reason that you *cannot* get DSL 'out in the country'.)

Other -legal-restrictions- arise from the need not to interfere with 'adjacent' phone circuits. This is why you -cannot_ get a true '56k' connection (only

54k max.) *anywhere* in the U.S., today. the actual 56k rate signalling puts "too much" energy on the wire pair; over the limit established to prevent interference (e.g. 'cross-talk') with adjacent circuits in the multi-pair cable.

THEN you get into the situation, on "longer" phone lines, where there are things that are needed to make voice work 'well', which are detrimental to high-speed data. If the phone line is _tariffed_ as a "voice circuit", guess which kind of things are *required* to be done to that line?

Alternatively, you can pay the -higher- tariff for a dedicated "data circuit", and the telco _will_ 'remove" those 'things' from that wire-pair. One of the things that you, the 'data circuit' customer _pay_extra_ for, however, is the cost for a technician to _physically_ go out to the various points on the line where those 'things' are installed, and disconnect them, *AND* the cost of his time for the 'return trip' _after_ you're through with the circuit, to

*RE-CONNECT* them -- so the line can be used for "normal" voice service again.

Any change in the 'technical requirements' for phone service would simply _have_ to "grandfather" in any _pre-existing_ 'physical plant'. If it wasn't, considering that the ILEC _is_ a 'regulated' service, with rates set by the government -- at a level that *guarantees* that the company can/will make a 'reasonable' profit -- then the ILEC would immediately file for a tariff increase to 'pay for' those required upgrades. Base phone rates would probably climb somewhere between 500% and 5000% percent.

Oddly enough, _voice_ customer's aren't willing to pay *that* kind of money for an 'upgrade' that *they* don't need.

[Norman D. Crow]

Currently dialup 56K, switching to DSL this week. Tried RR a year or so back, loved it, but couldn't afford it. Right now I've got DSL through my local ISP for $29.90/mo. for 1 yr. with option to renew for 2nd yr. @ same price.

9600 memories; mid 80's, data entry system running entry terminals @ 9600 on a big MX'er, they were complaining of losing data. Watched the girls, they were faster than the connection, over-running the buffers. They just had to slow down a tiny bit.

[Larry Bud]

Jeff, I looked at your website, and thought I'd give you some pointers as someone who has done design for nearly 10 years now.

On your home page, you're using the browser to resize your "pens" picture. The quality on that particular graphic stinks, and you're using up bandwidth because the entire pic has to d/l anyway. You should resize it in your graphics software. In PS, I got that file to be 9K in size (from 15k). The pic of the kid I got to 17K (from

23k).

IMO, I'd lose all the drop shadows. I find them annoying, and you're going against convention and placing the light source in the upper right instead of the upper left. It's somewhat disconcerting, and it would save you time and bandwidth if you dropped them. Just use a nice 1 px border with style sheets.

That's about it. Mostly in picture size. Your banners under Links I got to under 8K each, that's half size.

If your hosting provider provides for some scripting, I would get rid of your email address and make a form that people fill out. This will eliminate any spam bots from gathering your email address.

[Maverick]

We are on Direcway 6000 and could not be happier. It's a bit pricey for the first 15 months but the 1100 bps or so is sure nice.

[Larry Bud]

slower

DPI is meaningless when it comes to on display graphics. DPI is ONLY used when printing images. Pixel quantity is the only measurement that means anything on screen.

[Wes Stewart]

Thanks for asking!

While I have a second line just for the computer, it's POTS and I'm out in the country. I have two computers with 56K modems, desktop and laptop. Desktop now has external hardware modem. Connects at 28.8K. Same for the laptop.

To damn many website designers figure that everyone has a personal T1 line and design their site accordingly. They also assume that everyone uses IE too. (I also have friends who like to forward "funny" email with 2-megabyte file attachments. Mailwasher takes care of those for me.)

For example, I wanted to shop Ford trucks. Ford's website wants me to have Flash installed. (After hearing about the recent recall of Ford trucks, I think that they installed "flash" under the hoods of their trucks too.)

I emailed Ford and informed them that the percentage of the population that is still on dialup was a lot higher than the percentage of the population who drive Fords and if they wanted to improve that, they had best fire their web designers and start over. I got an email back, thanking me for my *email* and asking me to take a customer survey about my experience. I said, what the hell and opened the survey. The questions all related to my *telephone* call to customer service. I'm sticking with my '98 Chevy.

Another example: I have an IRA at Schwab. They are constantly bugging me to turn off paper statements and get them via the web. But if I want a transaction history, I have to wait for an HTML table to be generated. Then I can't get the underlying data so I have to print it and this requires another wait while that is formatted. And I still have a piece of paper, only it cost me to print it. I don't have any money on deposit at Yahoo finance, but they give lots of info in downloadable spreadsheet format for free. I use Firefox for a browser. Some "features" at Schwab don't work correctly. When I call their tech support they say, "Oh, you need to use IE." The customer is always wrong.

From my perspective, give me your thoughts in text. If you need pictures or graphics to make your case, put 'em in thumbnail form and I'll look at them if necessary. My wife keeps my cookie jar full, I don't need any from you, thanks anyway. I like to install my own software as needed and I make my own coffee. Keep your Java to yourself. Photographs need to be framed sometimes, but I don't need them on my CRT. If you have numbers for me, give 'em to me in a downloadable .csv file. If your document requires precise formatting, better do it in .pdf that will survive different browser idiosyncrasies.

Just my humble opinion.

[Phisherman]

A good web designer will allow you to skip heavy graphic AVIs and test the site using Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla. Even better yet, the designer can detect the connection speed, browser, and O/S and take you to the page that will properly load in a reasonable time. The Toyota web site sucked when all I wanted to get were dimensions and towing capacity of their vehicles. The truth is that Americans buy vehicles based on appearance more than anything else. And those web site that play songs are irritating.

[mac davis]

I try to design both commercial and personal sites for the "lowest common denominator"... We tend to build stuff the way WE want to look at it.... high res, lots of flash and graphics, etc.... and the average guy can't or won't wait to get there before hitting the BACK button..

Apart from having a mirror site and diverting the broadband folks there, the best bet might be to build it "lean & mean" with a lot of links to graphics and stuff labeled "suggested for broadband only" or something like that..

If you've been on a dialup and had to wait for the graphics and flash opening page of a complex site, you know what I man.. *g*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Robert Bonomi]

That is what a *mediocre* web designer will do. Admittedly, that *is* a step above what a "M$ brainwashed" one does.

A _good_ designer *knows* that there are _standards_ -- which describe a base set of capabilities that =all= web-browsers support; writes _to_ those standards, *and* employs a 'validator' to TEST FOR COMPLIANCE with those aforementioned standards.

A good designer also checks site functionality using a browser like "LYNX", which runs on text-only dumb terminals, doesn't attempt graphics in any form, and doesn't do Java, Javascript, Flash, or any of the rest of that cr*p.

A good designer may _use_ those 'flash & sizzle' whiz-bang gadgets, but he will also ensure that the site is 100% functional _without_ any of them.

*GOOD* web designers are _very_ scarce!

Make that very, Very, *V*E*R*Y* scarce.

Unfortunately.

FALSE! Utterly, and totally.

1) Connection speed is _not_ available. Even if it were, it wouldn't mean diddly-squat -- except in the case of a dial-up connection. The 'limiting' factor in Internet transmissions is the 'smallest pipe' _anywhere_ between source and destination. Even for home users -- and especially those with a broadband connection -- the connection out of the "PC" is at _Ethernet_ (or 'fast Ethernet) speeds, i.e. 10mbit/sec (or 100mbit/sec). *BUT* this poor victim is connected via an ISDL circuit, configured for PPPOE, and he's got a maximum _effective_ throughput of only about 115kbit/sec. *GUESS*WHAT*HAPPENS* if the server-side "assumes" he's on a fat pipe, and throws the 'graphics intensive' version at him. *EXCEPT* in the case of a direct dial-up connection, the connection speed out of the desktop machine is _rarely_ (*VERY* rarely) the 'limiting factor' on data transfer rates. 2) 'browser' and 'O/S' are: (a) _optional_ data, not necessarily supplied (b) *when* supplied, the data are 'whatever the requestor _chooses_ to report', which may, or may *not* have any relationship to reality. (c) *MEANINGLESS*, if the page "designer" is not aware of the 'oddities' of _that_ particular browser implementation. Or has not taken the time/effort to code up handling for that _specific_ set of weirdness. There are more browsers, *and* operating systems, out there than anyone can be reasonably expected to: [i] keep track of, [ii] keep current on the vagaries of, or [iii] program for. So *what* do you do, when the 'claimed' browser does _not_ match one you 'know about'? Tell the user to 'go away', and come back only if he has a 'compatible' browser? Put up a 'standard' page that works with _any_ browser? (H*ll, if you have _that_, why bother with the 'browser specific' variants?)

Again, this is the "M$-brainwashed" approach to the issue. Write it the first time, using the vendor-specific (aka 'proprietary') extensions. Then, to make it work for 'most' of the "rest of the world", try to figure out if it is the MS browser, or 'something else', and for each _recognized_ "something else", code up "yet another" set of vendor-specific (aka 'proprietary') garbage that works only for _that_ browser. And if you _don't_ recognize what the potential customer is using for a web browser, tell them to 'go away' -- after all, you don't need that 'fringe' business.

Alternatively, you write _to_the_standards_, *verify* standards compliance, double-check with several commonly available browsers (because they _are_ known to ignore the standards in some cases), and have something that *everybody* can use.

[Swingman]

You forgot 5a. Drop deck and spill cards on floor ... start over.

[Larry Blanchard]

And the BBS's only downloaded new messages once a day. so your effective turnaround was 24 hours :-).

Of course, some of us remember before networks and even terminals:

1. Write program on coding sheets.
2. Give to keypuncher.
3. Wait - usually at least 24 hours
4. Check deck for obvious errors (after running cards through interpreter).
5. Hand deck to computer operator.

6 Wait - depending on your priority level.

1. Check results.
2. Find bug - start over.

I could go back to tabulating machines, but most of you wouldn't even know what those were :-).

[Wes Stewart]

I only did this stuff once, when I took an in-house Fortran course. I modified the steps slightly:

2a. Started dating Keypunch operator.

3a. No waiting.

5a. Set up date for later.

6a. Batch processing overnight. Take keypunch operator to dinner, etc.

7a. Morning coffee with keypunch operator.

Yes.

[Jon Endres, PE]

Which plan are you on, and how much is it after the first 15 months? I will be moving to a non-cable area later this year, and in order to keep my business running smoothly, I need to put in a satellite dish for internet. I have looked at DirecWay but not found a lot of third-party comments on it.

Jon E

[Jeff P.]

I appreciate the comments Larry. I missed the fact that that pic was resized. Not intentional. I resized it just to see what size I wanted it and then forgot to go back into PS and do it for real. It's too big now even when resized in browser. I'm still in the process of optimizing all the graphics and the links page was one that I've yet to tackle.

I really like the drop shadow but I guess you can't please everyone. I wanted a look as though it was all laying on a table in front of you. While convention may dictate that the light comes from the other way(I didn't know that), I can't see that it matters much at all. I like em so I'll keep em in (at least until version 3.0) but I thank you for your comments.

That's an awesome idea. I haven't had any problem as of yet with spam on that add but time will tell it's been up for over a year now). Might be that a form would make it easier for people to leave feedback or drop a line.

One question. I added a layer centering behavior because I just think it looks better centered but what do you think? Just did it this morning so if you didn't visit today (Monday) check back.

Thanks again