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Title: Random thoughts about Broadband
Date: 2021-04-22
Tags: broadband internet, bills, random thoguhts

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 A thought crossed my mind while listening to a talk about VIM's history[0].
Imagine if broadband internet connections were charged by the minute, just as
dailup internet was for the longest time. I'm not talking about mobile data,
but home internet. Can you imagine how much quieter the internet would be if
that were the case?

 People wouldn't be spending long periods of time downloading massive games or
videos. Those calls over Zoom would be far more costly. And sites like YouTube
and Facebook would operate on /far/ different designs compared to today.

 Now, imagine if broadband had never taken off... We'd still be watching tiny
compressed videos instead of 1080p or 4K movies, and listening to compressed
music instead of easily getting FLAC or ALAC music files. And far more of what
we do today would be done either offline and locally, or in much smaller bursts
on the much slower internet.

 We're lucky to have broadband that supports so much of what we do today. Just
something to think about.

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[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayc_qpB-93o

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