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Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

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Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like satire to me. Could that save it like "Dumb Starbucks"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_Starbucks

I don't think Dumb Starbucks was saved. They just didn't ride it out long enough to find out. Who knows what would have really happened though

The problem is that fair use and satire are defenses that must be argued. They don't automatically stop you from being sued. It can results in a lot of upfront costs and hoops to jump through before you are actually granted your fair use exception. You have to be pretty committed to your joke to actually fight something like this to the end.

Although if I were Comcast, I would ignore this entirely. I wouldn't want to risk the Streisand Effect bringing attention to this type of thing.

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#33
post #16

Nice. It'd be neat to include options to simulate other pathological conditions often encountered in the field like: - Multiple layers of NAT - overlapping un-synchronized timeouts are one thing ... but the REAL fun comes in when intermediate layers have the same IP ranges as IPs you are trying to reach on the "outside" of the NAT sandwich. All kinds of "interesting" things can happen, like the "software laser": http…

I take it you've seen core switches on fire off the Jupiter gate?

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#34
post #20

People talk about "fuck you money," meaning the amount of money you need to make before you can never work again. Personally, my "fuck you money" isn't money per se , but the fall of Comcast. When I build enough value in the world to displace Comcast, I will retire. We need to see more work in the areas of mesh networking, layer-3 routing, and consumer networking in general. This tool is a good step. Personally I'm h…

You know your company sucks when its name has become synonymous with high latency, dropped packets and a all round shitty network. Unfortunately i suspect they will just send a trademark claim to Github to get it removed.

I hate comcast customer service with a passion, and their pricing models are super hostile to existing customers.

But their internet service has been very reliable and very fast for several years for me. I rarely have internet outages.

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#36
Google Chrome's device mode has a subset of this functionality where you can make Chrome throttle the connection simulating different conditions (GPRS, DSL, offline, etc.).

Access device mode by clicking the smartphone icon on the top left of the Developer Tools (F12) right next to the Elements tab.

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#37
You really shouldn't do something like this without at the very least mentioning Kyle Kingsbery and the Jepesen test suite he wrote to validate how distributed datastores actually follow CAP or not.

For any devops / sysadmin / systems engineer: I highly suggest reading this if not only to understand failure conditions better:

https://aphyr.com/tags/jepsen

The entire "Call Me Maybe" blog series is because that is Carly Rae Jepsen's stupid pop song, for which he named his test suite after. That and Kyle's posts are absolutely hilarious to read. Seriously, read them.

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#39
post #16

Nice. It'd be neat to include options to simulate other pathological conditions often encountered in the field like: - Multiple layers of NAT - overlapping un-synchronized timeouts are one thing ... but the REAL fun comes in when intermediate layers have the same IP ranges as IPs you are trying to reach on the "outside" of the NAT sandwich. All kinds of "interesting" things can happen, like the "software laser": http…

Don't forget jitter, and simulating an ISP that will shut off your DNS traffic at random (literally anything DNS, not just their own servers).

I forgot about DNS munging shenanigans. Not only do some people selectively block DNS, but there are also cases where middle boxes and proxies pretend to be remote DNS servers but really aren't... or rewrite DNS traffic, insert fields, etc.

Re: Comcast: Simulating shitty network connections so you can build better systems

#40
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know your company sucks when its name has become synonymous with high latency, dropped packets and a all round shitty network. Unfortunately i suspect they will just send a trademark claim to Github to get it removed.

I hate comcast customer service with a passion, and their pricing models are super hostile to existing customers. But their internet service has been very reliable and very fast for several years for me. I rarely have internet outages.

Just yesterday I noticed my bill had gone up to $147. I called and did the yearly "I'll cancel if you don't give me a discount" nonsense. An hour out of my day.

Btw, they had raised the price of my 5 static IPs to $24.95 (from $9.95). I have to lease their modem ($12.95) because of the static IPs. I did research and found out that my registrar (namecheap.com) has free dynamic dns, so I'm going to switch to that and give up my static IPs.

So, after the $40 discount I got yesterday, plus the extra $38 for the modem/IPs, I should be down to a reasonable rate again.

I fucking hate Comcast.

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