This goes out to a wide range of Dopers who are eager to hype their fellow Dopers to something great and new that they’ve run into on the Internet:
Give me some fucking clue as to what your link is connecting to.
You may find immensely amusing that 578-megabyte MPEG parody on “All About Eve” that somebody placed on their website, and your T-googleplex DSL connection can download it in 3.18 microseconds. But some of us are on dial-up and have connections that downoad at about 1.2 bytes per megacentury. And we don’t plan to sit up until 5:43 AM next November 15 to finish downloading your link.
It’s OK to link to such things, for those who have fast connections or who are adequately interested to take the time to download them. But is it too freaking much to ask that you flag the fact that you’re connecting to a Flash site or a MPEG clip, or something that takes Windows 2010 and an Ultragigaflash Megapixel Doppler 5000 program (which only occupies 18 gigabytes, and can be downloaded here if you don’t already have it) to run successfully, and takes an average of six months to download at phone-modem speeds?
I feel ya, Poly. I’m used to a 15-20 minute wait for a 3-4MB download and Opera’s tabbed browsing helps, but a little warning would be nice.
And sturmhauke? Fuck you (and I mean that in the nicest possible way). High speed net access in my area is nearly two months rent. If you want to pick up my tab I won’t say no, but assuming everyone online can afford a $720 yearly bill is hubris.
[ul][li]Your horse and buggy has GPS.[/li][li]When you dress up in your Sunday-go-to-meeting black, you feel like a Goth.[/li][li]You have “24 Greatest Hymns” on CD.[/li][*]Your CPU and monitor are painted flat black.[/ul]
I hear you brother! I was living with my partner in his father’s old mobile home in a wonderful park at the northwest end of the San Fernando Valley in the LA area. But while th view was gorgeous, the distance to the nearest central phone station was several miles. As a result, the best dialup speed I could get was about 26.6 K! On a good day maybe 28.8 K. You could forget about DSL service. And while satellite Internet service was possible, it was also very expensive, along with the necessary equipment sigh Hopefully, cheap, universal DSL will be possible in the near future. crosses fingers I pay about $40/month right now for dedicated IP service. BUt I’m also living in an area where it’s possible, too.
[ul][li]Your horse and buggy has GPS.[/li][li]When you dress up in your Sunday-go-to-meeting black, you feel like a Goth.[/li][li]You have “24 Greatest Hymns” on CD.[/li][li]Your CPU and monitor are painted flat black.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
A few additions from the gentleman massaging my neck:
[ul][li]You have an SUH – Sport Utility Horse (a Clydesdale, perhaps?)[/li][li]You send out an invitation to your barn-raising by IMing people.[/li][li]You have a computer-controlled milking machine.[/li][*}You have an engine-warmer for your horse.
[li]You only post in black on the SDMB because using colored type is too worldly![/ul][/li](OK, 2 of those were mine. You guess which two.)
And while we’re on the subject, I really do appreciate knowing if the link goes to some sort of video or sound file. My cranky old computer can’t handle those without crashing anymore.
I can see your point Polycarp, I disagree with you.
I am on (fairly pedestrian) broadband now after years and years on 56k. I’ve been on both sides of this (and some links I download on broadband still take forever and turn out to be boring in the end).
But, the thing is this:
As a doper, I have to mind the “two click rule” if there is a doubt my link could be adult. I am expected to give warnings if there is embedded MIDI or other sounds. I am expected to give warnings if the content is not “work safe”. I am expected to give warnings if the content contains spoilers. And now I’m supposed to give a detailed run-down of how many bytes the data in the link is?
I look at a link a Doper has put up on the SDMB. I see if it’s from donkey-buggerers.org or from amish.com and I make up my mind accordingly. I have the sense to turn my speakers down or indeed to not click on unknown links if it might get me in trouble with my spouse/boss/etc. If I do click on it and I get a message saying “Downloading. Estimated time left 46 minutes”, I will click outta there if it was just some passingly humourous link that isn’t worth the effort. I can make up my own mind, and I don’t need my hand held.
Having been trained by Microsoft and Adobe to think that an 18 gigabyte file viewer might be not just possible but somehow desirable, I also tried to click. I’m such a bitch to Big Software. I expect my copy of Firefox to be confiscated by the open software police any moment now.
