I wrote my last post on June 18th. Since then, it's been a roller coaster ride full of great experience. First thing that you miss when you come out of your university campus is "internet".
With virtually no access to internet for 2 weeks, the longest dry span ever since 1998, when I got my first dedicated dialup modem.
In singapore, getting an boradband connection is a little tricky. For international folks, you need a student pass or a valid employment pass (EP) or a Permanent residentship (PR).
I have..none, and am living on a temp EP till my PRship gets approved. Anyways my housemate returned in 2 weeks and applied for the connection with his valid pass.
In Singapore, the 2 major ISPs are Starhub and Singtel. Singtel gives you a dedicated ADSL connection via the landline whereas Starhub provides you a cable modem. Golden words of wisdom, don't ever get Starhub. A 8Mbps line gives me less that 1 Mbps, that too when I am the only one using the service.
Cable modems share bandwidth among residents living in the same block. So if you have more starhub users living nearby, expect really really bad speeds. Anyways, will have to live with it for the next 2 years.
Our wireless router will take 9 days to reach us (another bummer), so till then my trusty ubuntu acts as a wireless router so that my 3 other housemates can enjoy the internet experience and stay connected. Feels great when the small things you do comes back and helps you later in life.
So what did we learn today, south park style ;)
Contrary to what people believe, that once you get hooked on to the social network bandwagon, there is no turning back; the 2 weeks were the most productive ever. Played the guitar, read a real newspaper, watched the tv (that's a surprise right!) and met new people offline ;) .
Surprisingly, 2 weeks later when I checked my facebook, twitter, orkut, gmail, linkedin and blog accounts, I saw no new posts or messages.
So do people forget you once you become inactive for a while.. maybe so, and it's not really a bad thing. Life without internet ain't that bad as there is a whole new "real" world out there for us to enjoy and cherish.
Lol, did you really buy into that..gtg.. got a couple of posts to write, change my facebook status.. and yeah twitter is back online... happy surfing
3 comments:
Quit being a cheapo and use Singtel.
Apparently Starhub plan is more expensive than Singtel, if you haven't noticed already. Anyways no offence taken ;)
if u want u can hog all the bandwidth... u can modify the code implementing the networking protocols... its in the kernel... u can make it not listen for other people on the network and just blast away with your packets... dat way the odr ppls packets will collide and nevr go thro... urs will... buts dats too low level... dont expect you to do it unless ur a total geek... and its kinda nasty too. probably wont work if switching is implemented.
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