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Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

seattle.gov

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Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#141

Post by marshray »

pash wrote: post #121
marshray wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, good to hear it. Alas, we'll probably land in the burbs for all the usual uninteresting reasons. But it won't hurt to have the right people seeing Gb internet across the lake.

For what usual uninteresting reasons? All the reasons that people move to the 'burbs are (a) sociologically interesting and (b) irrelevant on an acquihire salary.

Is "I want good schools for my kids without spending more than an hour stuck in traffic each day" uninteresting enough for you? This may be somewhat particular to the Redmond/Bellevue/Seattle, but these same things are considerations for everyone I've talked to out there.

You know, it just occurred to me that my dad got his PhD in urban planning and I remember him presenting 3-D graphic computer models of commuting back in the 70's. Perhaps that's why I think this should be an uninteresting and solved problem by now. :-)

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#142

Post by marshray »

bradleyland wrote: post #77
snitko wrote: post #74

Question: why would a private person (as opposed to a business) need a Gigabit internet access?

Why would you need a terabyte hard drive? Why would you need 8 GB of RAM? Why would you need a Core i7 processor capable of over 80,000 MIPS? Step back and think about what you do with a computer or mobile device today. Most of what we do involves the Internet. We don't "need" Gigabit internet access any more than we "need" the things above, but when they're present, we're free to find innovative new ways to use them…

It's still a fair question though.

How many streams of retina-quality video do you need to watch (or feed) simultaneously?

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#143

Post by marshray »

specialist wrote: post #117
meej wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. Seattle has some of the best summers anywhere; it's one of the city's best-kept secrets. July and August are gorgeous. The relentless gray of which you speak is true of months like December and January.

cpeterso is likely a member of Lesser Seattle. Started by curmudgeon Emmett Watson as a way to discourage Californians from moving to Seattle. When I travel, I always emphasize the rain, the cloud cover, the risk of death by volcano, the very real likelihood very overdue The Big One earthquake, how traffic sucks, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Watson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Seattle

Whatever you do, don't tell them about the statue of Lenin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Lenin,_Seattle

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#144

Post by driverdan »

snitko wrote: post #74

Question: why would a private person (as opposed to a business) need a Gigabit internet access?

Need is a strong word so I'll assume you mean want.

1. Households with more than a couple residents who are bandwidth hungry. Ever live in a place where people are trying to use VoIP, stream 1080p videos, download Windows updates, and play online games at the same time? Having experienced this it's the best use case I can think of.

2. Productivity. The faster you can download the 2GB Xcode update the faster you can get back to work.

3. Lower latency is better for gaming. A better connection can give you an advantage over other players.

4. Because people want it.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#145

Post by codex »

elteto wrote: post #28
hoka wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fix that whole rain thing and I'll be there tomorrow.

Better start packing up then! See this: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2012/12/does-it-really-rain-al...

The problem with Seattle isn't as much the rain, as it is the cloud cover and lack of sunlight in Seattle. In the wintertime, those two combine for a fairly negative effect.

That said, sometimes it does rain a lot in Seattle. Some years ago there was a stretch of 35 consecutive days of rain.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#146

Post by codex »

zacs wrote: post #22
phinnaeus wrote: post #3

I'm moving to Seattle in January and was already planning to sign up with CondoInternet. Seeing as my to-be neighborhood is one of those they say this will be offered in, I'm now wondering when this will be rolled out. Awesome news though. Edit: "Gigabit Squared will be aggressively building, with eyes towards beginning services in the Fall of 2013."

Just a friendly mention that if your would-be neighborhood is Belltown or SLU, you may want to investigate some other options (unless of course you already have, in which case please ignore me!). Belltown has become worse and worse for crime (unless Phoenix Jones happens by to save you from being mugged). SLU, while nice and pristine and new, is now very overpriced due to Amazon's recent relocation there. Both neighb…

The problem with Belltown isn't so much with crime as its antiseptic feel. Endless highrises with nothing interesting for retail underneath. No supermarket. The coffee shops have no character. On a Sunday morning the streets are barren of people, and even the lone park is cold and uninviting. It's just a classless hunk of neighborhood where bridge and tunnelers drink, and boring people live. I would far prefer to live in Capitol Hill or even Ballard.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#147

Post by kpennell5 »

jimray wrote: post #56
irollboozers wrote: post #45

I am seriously debating why I recently moved from Seattle to SF/Bay... I can't go a week without seeing or hearing something that just rubs it in.

I lived in Seattle for 7.5 years, moved to San Francisco September 2011. My only regret is not doing so sooner. Seattle is a wonderful town (and it really is a big town more than a city) full of wonderful, if slightly insular, people. It's beautiful, there's great food, you can hike and kayak if that's your thing. If you're a developer that doesn't work for Microsoft or Amazon, though, the geek community is definitel…

You're not alone. I left Seattle for SF because the insular unfriendly people literally made me feel depressed so much of the time. I just visited for Thanksgiving and I was amazed how much unhappier Seattlites seem compared to SF people. It felt so good to come back to the bay. I'm from Bellingham and Seattle is the pretty much the only place in Washington that is that unfriendly. Everett, Bham, Olympia, you name it, they're friendlier.

I still cringe a bit at how unhappy I was there.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#148

Post by rozap »

MartinCron wrote: post #82
amckenna wrote: post #5

it is just getting better and better to live here in Seattle. Legalization of weed, same-sex marriage, and now high-speed internet

Putting high speed Internet (and weed, really) on the same level as marriage equality feels a little...cheap. But, I agree with your sentiment. I love living in Seattle.

The war on drugs is perhaps the biggest civil rights fiasco currently. Unnecessary and unjust incarcerations are absolutely inexcusable, and they fall almost exclusively on the minorities. i502 is not a bill about getting high, there is so much more to it.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#149

Post by dmishe »

rdl wrote: post #38
dmishe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private health insurance sucks ass in WA, but other than that it does look good :)

WA doesn't seem worse than anywhere else -- $118 for a 33yo male for HSA compatible. All the quotes I've seen for individual health insurance in WA are good, and they have a lot of the "good" features of ObamaCare already.

118 with what? In IL I could find a 0 coinsurance plan at least, starting at around 300 depending on deductible. You can't do that in WA, they all have 30-35% coinsurance, they have deductibles of 10+ and out-of-pocket maximums at twice of that.

It looks like agents are able to find a much better option, presumably inside group plans, but still.

Re: Seattle to deploy Gigabit fiber network

#150

Post by cpeterso »

philwelch wrote: post #128
cpeterso wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't rain all the time in Seattle, but it rains almost every day most of the year. When I lived in Seattle, I remember some months when the sky was gray 24/7. Crushing, relentless gray. It felt like living inside a concrete dome. :\

No, we used to have a concrete dome, and it didn't actually feel the same. It was much nicer inside the actual dome.

Good point! And I remember when they blew it up. :)
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