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Penny Arcade - Comic - Xfinitesimal

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited August 2021 in The Penny Arcade Hub
imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Xfinitesimal

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

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Posts

  • OctoberRavenOctoberRaven Plays fighting games for the story Skyeline Hotel Apartment 4ARegistered User regular
    "Can't you switch to another provider"
    "No, they're a monopoly in my area."
    "Oh man, you're terminal. I'm so sorry. Here... buy yourself some dinner tonight. This is all I have on me."

    Currently Most Hype For: VTMB2, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Alan Wake 2 (Wake Harder)Currently Playin: Guilty Gear XX AC+R, Gat Out Of Hell
  • MarcinMNMarcinMN Registered User regular
    I guess my Comcast is in remission. I've had it for many years and almost never have a flare up.

    "It's just as I've always said. We are being digested by an amoral universe."

    -Tycho Brahe
  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    I had a bad case of Xfinity, but I found a FIOS transplant that matched my neighborhood.

  • Johnny17Johnny17 Registered User regular
    I wonder if asking for his ping would be like making fun of handicapped people.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    My area is still under the thrall of that foul god as well. One day... one day... maybe there's hope.

    (Though, oddly enough, it is stable. Expensive as hell, but stable. I don't do a lot of online gaming but I do know that I can work for 8+ hours a day from home with a Teams window up the whole time with 5 other people on it, and it's fine. Well, the connection is fine. Teams has all sorts of "episodes.")

  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    Yeah. I've had Comcast in this house for 16 years. And it's expensive, but generally very stable. When it rains the connection gets much slower a day later, but otherwise it's ok. And I live in a desert, so it doesn't rain too much.

  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    I wonder if that's ziply fiber? I keep seeing their ads, but I swear they are just what frontier changed their name to.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    I thought it was telling when Comcast rebranded their internet service as Xfinity and then tried to remove as much mention of it being Comcast in their ads and marketing material that I saw.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • palidine40palidine40 Registered User regular
    World renown support, that Comcast... though infamy is a type of renown. I'm so jelly... I only folded to get comcast because our other providers hadn't updated their throughputs in over a decade. I really wish fiber would make it to my state capitol city's suburbs...

  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    palidine40 wrote: »
    World renown support, that Comcast... though infamy is a type of renown. I'm so jelly... I only folded to get comcast because our other providers hadn't updated their throughputs in over a decade. I really wish fiber would make it to my state capitol city's suburbs...

    The only thing thats weird about this comic is that in the Seattle area Comcast is still sadly the fastest internet for most people. So that mailman would like also have comcast...

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    I thought it was telling when Comcast rebranded their internet service as Xfinity and then tried to remove as much mention of it being Comcast in their ads and marketing material that I saw.

    Well, Comcast was pretty widely determined to have the worst customer service in the country. Possibly the universe. But Xfinity? Hardly any complaints at all!

    Wait, you say there's a ton of complains for them now? Well, how about this new service Netravesty*?

    * A wholly owned subsidiary of the Comcast corporation

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    palidine40 wrote: »
    World renown support, that Comcast... though infamy is a type of renown. I'm so jelly... I only folded to get comcast because our other providers hadn't updated their throughputs in over a decade. I really wish fiber would make it to my state capitol city's suburbs...

    The only thing thats weird about this comic is that in the Seattle area Comcast is still sadly the fastest internet for most people. So that mailman would like also have comcast...

    It may not be just a raw speed thing. When I switched from Comcast to FIOS as soon as I learned it had rolled out to my area the main driver was due to the number of times my service went out under Comcast. It happened once every few months back then, sometimes more often. In the years I've been using Verizon, I've had an average of less than one outage every 2 years. In one case the outage wasn't due to anything on their end but due to landscapers cutting through a cable.

    A friend experienced that going the other way. She was renting out her aunt's basement and during some snow storms that knocked out power there had been an issue with autopay for her aunt's Verizon bill that she was unable to check up on. She canceled her service with Verizon out of annoyance and swapped to Comcast and their internet and cable reliability saw issues really quickly, within the first few months. Her aunt quickly regretted the switch but she'd signed a 2 year contract and was stuck.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    My area must have just had shitty verizon/frontier service. I had more problems with them than I have comcast. I mean comcast is not a dream by any margin, but their service was faster and more reliable than verizon/frontier.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    My area must have just had shitty verizon/frontier service. I had more problems with them than I have comcast. I mean comcast is not a dream by any margin, but their service was faster and more reliable than verizon/frontier.

    Well given that Frontier doesn't offer services in my area but I still hear about them a lot due to lawsuits, big outages, and generally crappy business practices I can see why you might have had issues.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • OctoberRavenOctoberRaven Plays fighting games for the story Skyeline Hotel Apartment 4ARegistered User regular
    As an aside, I used to work at a call center that had Xfinity as a client.

    Currently Most Hype For: VTMB2, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Alan Wake 2 (Wake Harder)Currently Playin: Guilty Gear XX AC+R, Gat Out Of Hell
  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    As an aside, I used to work at a call center that had Xfinity as a client.

    KEIRAN YOU SON OF A BITCH!

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • JusticeforPlutoJusticeforPluto Registered User regular
    Comcast is the best service we have around here sadly.

  • MercadeMercade Registered User regular
    I'm stuck with Comcast, and in 4 months of having them I've had 2-3 service interruptions of some appreciable length, which I guess isn't terrible, but should really not be happening in this Year of our Lord 2021. Previously I had Spectrum, which in 5 years I had a total of maybe one hour of an outage in that span. I work from home and game a bunch, so reliability is much more important than speed. All said, when my Comcast is working, $55/mo for 100GB internet is an acceptable deal. I believe I paid more than that in the '90s for 14.4 kbps...

    Hopefully I someday get that sweet, sweet municipal fiber.

    Switch: SW-1909-0466-9585
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    I'm thinking hard about putting an offer down on a place atm that's really great; checks most of my boxes, the price isn't bad, etc... but for some goddamn stupid reason they've got comcast paid under HOA

    siiiiigh

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    I'm thinking hard about putting an offer down on a place atm that's really great; checks most of my boxes, the price isn't bad, etc... but for some goddamn stupid reason they've got comcast paid under HOA

    siiiiigh

    Ugh, that's the one thing that's worse than paying for Comcast yourself. Then they really know they got you where they want you.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Comcast’s product is fine, getting a setup time (and they won’t let you self install even though they have the kit) is annoying. But after that it’s ok, until there is a problem. And then it’s shit. 40 minute wait to get a person to run you through basic things you already did, followed by a 40 minute wait on hold to get “higher level support” who goes through the exact same script as the first fucking person. And then says they’ll send a person but doesn’t tell you when, and you have to call again, and wait 40 minutes just to be told they didn’t put in the ticket.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    zepherin wrote: »
    Comcast’s product is fine, getting a setup time (and they won’t let you self install even though they have the kit) is annoying. But after that it’s ok, until there is a problem. And then it’s shit. 40 minute wait to get a person to run you through basic things you already did, followed by a 40 minute wait on hold to get “higher level support” who goes through the exact same script as the first fucking person. And then says they’ll send a person but doesn’t tell you when, and you have to call again, and wait 40 minutes just to be told they didn’t put in the ticket.

    I still miss Speakeasy support, where the first person to answer my call knew what a traceroute was.

    dennis on
  • NemuriBakuNemuriBaku Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Oops, double posted. And I don't see how to delete it?
    *nervously begins tap dancing*

    NemuriBaku on
  • NemuriBakuNemuriBaku Registered User regular
    Tycho wrote:
    I don't have a lot of experience with Ziply other than I guess I thought we were done naming companies like adverbs, but okay.

    new company name idea: My iZiplyrfy.com On The Web

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.

    Commander Zoom on
  • Anon von ZilchAnon von Zilch Registered User regular
    Can someone explain to me how ISPs having regional monopolies is legal?

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.
    It’s great as long as your not having any issues.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Can someone explain to me how ISPs having regional monopolies is legal?

    Regulatory capture.

    steam_sig.png
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.

    Yeah, that's why I had to reluctantly switch from Speakeasy (DSL) to Comcastxfinity. Speakeasy's just couldn't compete on speed and on prices (they had to pay the telephone company for their equipment, for one thing).
    Can someone explain to me how ISPs having regional monopolies is legal?

    Regulatory capture.

    I think it's that, plus building out a network to reach each house. It's a lot more lucrative to be the first company to build out the network than it is the subsequent ones. Especially when you're offering basically the same product. You'd have to have government ownership over a lot of the network to avoid that.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Can someone explain to me how ISPs having regional monopolies is legal?
    There isn’t a law against monopolies, but normally they are regulated. Oftentimes the power co, water co and waste removal are monopolies. You don’t get a choice. Sometimes the city/county/state runs it sometimes it’s a private company that the city/county/state regulates.

  • BropocalypseBropocalypse Registered User regular
    Legality aside, they mostly agree to have territories. Basically by choosing not to compete over the same areas, they each get a monopoly on those areas.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Legality aside, they mostly agree to have territories. Basically by choosing not to compete over the same areas, they each get a monopoly on those areas.
    In dense areas you get duopolys generally it’s between a cable provider and a fiber optics provider. Sometimes 2 cable providers. It’s a shame DSL in the United States shit the bed, because the technology is there for really fast DSL service, nobody invested in it In the United States.

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.

    Yeah, that's why I had to reluctantly switch from Speakeasy (DSL) to Comcastxfinity. Speakeasy's just couldn't compete on speed and on prices (they had to pay the telephone company for their equipment, for one thing).
    Can someone explain to me how ISPs having regional monopolies is legal?

    Regulatory capture.

    I think it's that, plus building out a network to reach each house. It's a lot more lucrative to be the first company to build out the network than it is the subsequent ones. Especially when you're offering basically the same product. You'd have to have government ownership over a lot of the network to avoid that.

    It's one of those industries that feels like it's almost a natural monopoly. The costs to add another network of wires isn't as high as something like a second set of sewer lines or power lines, but it's still a lot of money and work to put more cables into the ground while avoiding all the other cables in the ground from other companies with no guarantee that enough customers of the previous company will be willing to switch over to make it worth the investment. We do have regions where multiple companies have deployed different types of broadband so it's not quite a natural monopoly in my mind but it is in many areas given that things happen like Verizon deciding it's not worth deploying FIOS to more areas that are now stuck with cable as the only viable option.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.
    It’s great as long as your not having any issues.

    and how often is that? :(

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.
    It’s great as long as your not having any issues.

    and how often is that? :(

    Honestly, about 99% of the time for me. We get a short outage (<30 mins) maybe every few months. Maybe an extended on (>1 hour) once every few years when a storm damages something, or they have to replace some equipment. But I don't discount other areas being a horrorshow. I just say that to show that it can work fine.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    dennis wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.
    It’s great as long as your not having any issues.

    and how often is that? :(

    Honestly, about 99% of the time for me. We get a short outage (<30 mins) maybe every few months. Maybe an extended on (>1 hour) once every few years when a storm damages something, or they have to replace some equipment. But I don't discount other areas being a horrorshow. I just say that to show that it can work fine.
    That lines up with our experience in Maryland as well. I would also add that about once a month I was unplugging the cable box, unplugging the router or having their automated system send a reset signal (which you can usually do online). Quarterly it was an outage of some sort, most of the time when you called they were like we have received notice of outages in your area. But once a year I needed a real person...and it was rough.

    zepherin on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    as with any utility building the infrastructure is expensive, and left to its own devices capital would never build it at all in most places. So governments subsidized its construction and/or granted companies monopolies in order that their communities might have high speed internet.

    of course the industry has deftly avoided being regulated as a public utility and the various improvements they've promised over time have hardly materialized, which leaves us in our current 'shitty service with no options' position.

    Fiber rolling out has alleviated the problem in places lucky enough to have it, but that may wind up being a temporary fix as cable steadily dies off.

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    dennis wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    I'm actually looking at switching over to Comcast/Xfinity... because I'm currently paying Qwest CenturyLink what it would cost for 100 Mbps, plus another $100 a month, for 10 Mbps down, .67 up, and a landline that only ever gets robocalls these days. (Getting DSL made sense once, I swear... but that was years ago.) And I'm not out in the country; just a few blocks outside the downtown fiber zone that we didn't get until 2018.

    Gotta say, though, threads like this are not exactly filling me with confidence about making the move. It's really great hearing that what would be a 10x upgrade for me, and the best option I've been able to find for this area and price point, is total shit.
    It’s great as long as your not having any issues.

    and how often is that? :(

    Honestly, about 99% of the time for me. We get a short outage (<30 mins) maybe every few months. Maybe an extended on (>1 hour) once every few years when a storm damages something, or they have to replace some equipment. But I don't discount other areas being a horrorshow. I just say that to show that it can work fine.
    That lines up with our experience in Maryland as well. I would also add that about once a month I was unplugging the cable box, unplugging the router or having their automated system send a reset signal (which you can usually do online). Quarterly it was an outage of some sort, most of the time when you called they were like we have received notice of outages in your area. But once a year I needed a real person...and it was rough.

    That actually reminds me of another fun discovery about how Comcast did things in Maryland. When I had Fios installed, we discovered that the Comcast tech that had set up their service decided to just slash through existing wiring that was in the way to hook up his own stuff. Some of that wiring had to be replaced in the process of getting setup for FIOS.
    as with any utility building the infrastructure is expensive, and left to its own devices capital would never build it at all in most places. So governments subsidized its construction and/or granted companies monopolies in order that their communities might have high speed internet.

    of course the industry has deftly avoided being regulated as a public utility and the various improvements they've promised over time have hardly materialized, which leaves us in our current 'shitty service with no options' position.

    Fiber rolling out has alleviated the problem in places lucky enough to have it, but that may wind up being a temporary fix as cable steadily dies off.

    Possibly a pathwork fix too. Comcast loves to describe Xfinity as the largest fiber network in their ads around here. While there is some fiber in their network, cable is still a big part in connecting homes to Comcast hubs.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    One other thing. I've heard that a lot of problems with comcast can be resolved by replacing the combo router modem with just a modem and provide your own router, or provide your own router and modem. I don't know for sure, I never did it.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    hm, good to know. my brother suggested going with their default modem as a way to try to break myself out of my current inertia/indecision loop (can't switch over until I've gotten my own hardware, which requires deciding exactly what I want, ordering it and waiting for it to arrive ... which I never get around to), but maybe...?

    Commander Zoom on
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