Speed history

GHz-Man · 2026-04-07T17:07:42+00:00

I found this speed chart on an old Comcast press release: Amazing to see how much bandwidth they’ve been able to squeeze out of the same cable over the decades, with even more to come. What was everyone’s original speed over cable? We lived in one of the early launch markets for Comcast in Maryland. At the time it was part of “@Home” still. We signed up in 1998 around the same time we got the original iMac, so we never actually even used dial-up. That was our first internet connection and first home desktop. My dad had a Windows 95 laptop for work, but that had no internet on it and he only used it for spreadsheets and Word documents. I think it was around 1Mbps download / 128kbps upload with whatever D1.0 modem Comcast was using at the time.

Mosaic

lesmikesell One of the services I use is 17 years old, another is 15 years old, and another is a whopping 32 years old so clearly lots of people have been enjoying having a middle man in their piracy downloads.

computerman2

Over the years i used My Microsoft Reward GIft Cards to buy a ton of TV Show episodes and Movies with Movies Anywhere to watch on any device connected to my account

With Microsoft Movies & TV bought for a long time Third Watch Episodes (Season 1 and 2) only ones available, 99.9 percent of the CHiPS episodes, Tons of $4.99 Movies over the years, one movie collection with real life gift card and Microsoft Reward Points.

if someday i lose the streaming rights to those, won’t be a huge deal to me as do have DVDs of some of the movies i bought over the years.

I never messed with Torrenting when i was younger

Even Music when it was for sale thru MS Store back in Windows 8 days, i bought as much as i could with my saved Reward Points, plus grabbed all 30 free albums that was available as long as had a Windows Phone at the time which i did.

i preferred using my internet legally even before i was on Comcast internet

Mosaic

computerman2 The reality is not everyone can afford to do things legally. I’m extremely low income due to being disabled. I’m not going to be made to feel bad for piracy. It’s one thing to steal a physical good where you’re depriving them of actual tangible property but a copy of digital files? Nah. They lost nothing from me, not even the bandwidth to host the file, as I wouldn’t have paid for it anyway.

lesmikesell

Mosaic The reality is not everyone can afford to do things legally.

Queue up Les Miserables…. But is getting free entertainment really a human right?

Mosaic

lesmikesell I don’t care if it’s a human right or not. I just don’t feel bad about it is all. I’m not one of those people walking into Walmart and walking out with hundreds of dollars of physical goods so these companies aren’t actually losing money from me pirating something I wouldn’t have bought anyway.

lesmikesell

Mosaic I just don’t feel bad about it is all.

I suppose it is too much of a stretch to even imagine this, but if you created something original wouldn’t you want to get paid for it? ‘Not losing money’ isn’t much incentive to create, is it?

Mosaic

lesmikesell There is hardly anything original these days. Every idea came from an idea someone else had and was repackaged. We aren’t talking about indie video games here (which I do pay for on the rare occasion that I actually like any of them), we are talking about me occasionally watching a movie where the actors were paid millions of dollars or watching a show that’s been off the air for years or is already available on a streaming service we pay for (which at that point I don’t even consider that piracy, make more reliable apps and services).

But seriously, if you’re asking me to think of the poor millionaires and billionaires, spare me.

lesmikesell

Mosaic But seriously, if you’re asking me to think of the poor millionaires and billionaires, spare me.

Do you think those are the only people who make their living creating those movies? The wages for the people holding the cameras or building sets are all part of the math too.

And didn’t you mention a Mac Studio somewhere? My computer didn’t cost that much…

Mosaic

lesmikesell What part of “I wouldn’t have bought anyway” are you not understanding? It hurts absolutely nobody because if I couldn’t pirate it, I wouldn’t watch it. The lack of a pirate option would not suddenly get me to open my wallet, I’d just watch something else.

The Mac Studio was a splurge. A rare $1800 splurge for me. Probably wasn’t the best decision but I like it way more than Windows and I plan to keep it for years.

Donawalt What an absurd take. Nobody would even know I pirate if I didn’t tell them I did. Watching shows and movies without paying won’t bring the downfall of society. 🙄 Also, NOBODY respects every law. Everybody does at least one thing in their day to day lives that there is a law against no matter how minor it might be. Me streaming things without paying for them doesn’t cause any harm unlike people who speed, jaywalk, cut people off in traffic, drink and drive, or all manner of other things that can cause actual harms.

The REAL downfall of society and outspiraling of anarchy will be from the fact that an ever increasing chunk of us struggle to afford to live without major sacrifices.

Donawalt

And you wonder why the country is in the mess it is in, when people consider it their own inalienable right to make/interpret the laws as appropriate for them. It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out a society that lives that way will eventually dissolve into pure anarchy. It will be rough when someone else’s determination of the law as it applies to them, impacts you in a seriously detrimental way. Any justifications or interpretations of what is valid law for you affirms others to make their own judgments - in ways that will get worse and worse, of greater magnitude, until it horrifies you. You either follow the law for the good of society, or you don’t - it’s really that simple.

lesmikesell

Donawalt You either follow the law for the good of society, or you don’t - it’s really that simple.

I wouldn’t say it is ‘quite’ that simple, especially in a democracy where you are also responsible for ensuring that the laws always are in fact for the good of society, but it’s a good starting point.

geek

I’m neutral on the piracy issue but I will ask.

If I let someone borrow a Blu-Ray I purchased or rented and they didn’t pay for it, is that stealing?

lesmikesell

geek If I let someone borrow a Blu-Ray I purchased or rented and they didn’t pay for it, is that stealing?

Per copyright law, the specific copy you bought is yours to use any way you want which is why rentals and libraries are possible. But you still can’t use the content in a money making context like charging for showings or playing at a business/sales meeting without extra licensing.

lesmikesell

Mosaic The REAL downfall of society and outspiraling of anarchy will be from the fact that an ever increasing chunk of us struggle to afford to live without major sacrifices.

I guess if you don’t already understand why the people who work to produce things deserve to be paid I probably can’t explain it here. And you probably don’t see the irony in what I quoted.

Donawalt

Mosaic It’s absurd only because you disagree - you are into “me” only. Talk about absurd takes, are you saying the definition of “morally correct” is if anyone knows about it? What an illogical premise.

And because nobody does it, that makes it morally correct? Again, THAT’s an absurd take. If everyone starts murdering people you presume it’s ok then. Totally illogical. The only way your argument makes sense is if all that matters is “me”.

And how presumptive for you to conclude who gets hurt and who doesn’t by your actions. Selfish and self-centered.

You have a very warped outlook on life and your life.

smilingbob

The DMCA pisses me off only because it makes it “illegal” for anyone to backup/copy their purchased media if encryption must be broken. And of course, all of the movies you “buy” are encrypted. I won’t defend piracy, but to say someone can’t make backups of their legally obtained Blueray/DVD discs is BS. Encryption never stopped anyone from pirating the content, you can go online and torrent just about anything you care to look for. There should be a backup provision just like there is for just about every other type of media that has ever been contested in the courts.

Mosaic

Donawalt And how presumptive for you to conclude who gets hurt and who doesn’t by your actions.

There’s nothing presumptive about facts. If my money wasn’t going to be spent on it anyway, there is no harm done by me streaming something that someone else already made available online. This is a fact. I’m not sharing it with others, I’m not even storing it after I watch it.

Donawalt You have a very warped outlook on life and your life.

My generation has yours to thank for the way we are now. You guys siphoned up all the wealth and pulled the ladder up behind you while destroying the planet in the process. We have nothing to look forward to and are really just waking up waiting for it all to collapse (again, for the third time in our lives, we will all lose what little we have managed to build). Thankfully, I’m not Gen-Z, because they’re well and truly screwed with how you all have left the world and I at least got to have an outdoor childhood.

Don’t bother responding, I’m done with this thread and the judgment. If you guys can’t see the difference between actual crime and pirating streaming video from billion dollar corpos, you’re well and truly lost in the propaganda of capitalism and there’s no point debating it any further.

lesmikesell

Mosaic If you guys can’t see the difference between actual crime and pirating streaming video

You are consuming something a lot of people worked to create - without paying anything to them or to provide the incentive for future production. And all the while complaining about how someone else has wrecked the economy and somehow someone owes you something? How is it you think the economy is supposed to work when people consume without producing?

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