User blog:JERealize/Fed Up With Tinychat

Let's see, where do I begin...?

I wasn't really Internet-oriented while living within the 20th Century. In fact, I first received a computer back in the early 2000s decade. It had Windows 95 installed, and it had a wide variety of games. I didn't get an Internet-oriented computer until approximately the mid-decade; this was a Windows Millenium Edition (or ME; sometimes nicknamed the Mistake Edition due to the processing errors) computer powered by Sun Microsystems. That began the long and frantic put-up with dial-up, and that period of time (2004?-2010) made the Internet feel like a little-used luxury.

There were many times when we had dial-up, and many where we didn't. I didn't often use the Internet on dial-up, and when I did, I mostly looked at sites referenced by television. Soon enough, the home telephone wires had deteriorated, so that ended that. However, I found much potential in the Internet, and I sought for a batter and faster Internet solution to keep up with the new additions to the Internet, like YouTube.

On November 2010, I looked through Verizon's retailer store to find a data solution. By that time (and in fact since November 2008), I had a Compaq Presario SR2633WM desktop with Windows Vista installed, and since dial-up was split from reality by a broken phone port, I found a USB stick capable of accessing the 3G network. However, I had learned too late that the data plan can screw somebody over quickly and easily, especially to someone immediately immersing themselves in HTML language. The bill for the next month came at almost $1000, and though my father haggled his way into cutting the bill by half, I never forgot how reality can elbow you in the back.

(The data plan consisted of 5GB of monthly data, plus an overage charge of $0.05 per MB, or over $50 per GB. My total was over 18 GB. It was quite a lesson I learned.)

I started using the Internet with a few more restrictions while on that plan, mainly by not looking at too many videos, but I did have some good times even in that time. For example, on March 2011, by playing a bit of FarmVille (popular at its time, I learned about FarmVille by watching Million Dollar Money Drop on FOX), I got to listen to Lady Gaga's entire Born This Way album just days before it came out. (It's perfectly legitimate; just look it up.) I also came into the Hunger Games Wiki with a few unfinished story ideas. (JER's Tournament and The Multiversal Games, if finished, would surely have broken records.) I even became a mod on Yotan's Earth Server on Minecraft (which I bought while it was in Alpha).

About April 2011, though, I looked for alternate solutions, and I found satellite internet. HughesNet alone was heavily advertised on TV, so I looked up all my options, and talked with my parents about switching. Considering how overage fees have screwed all of us over, they decided to pay the early termination fee for our 3G Internet service and switch to HughesNet.

HughesNet had a different way of playing the Internet game. They allow you a set amount of data per day instead of per month, and if you go over, instead of inflicting overage fees, HughesNet throttles your speed down for a while. That wasn't even the best part; from 2 to 7 AM Eastern Time (11 PM-4 AM where I live), they initiate a Download Zone where any amount of data you use does not affect your download allowance. It may have given me drowsy mornings, but it gave me the time to download the big files for my computer.

However, it's now 2013, and my two-year contract with HughesNet will expire within a matter of months. I'm looking for a new Internet solution, since I feel like there should be some advancing done. 3G data solutions seem more appetizing than ever, with unlimited data plans looming on the horizon. However, I've had it rough looking for a data solution. Sprint's and T-Mobile's "unlimited" data plans only apply to smartphones, CLEAR was not available in my area, and Virgin Mobile's unlimited plans serviced 4G, but not 3G.

That's the thing I'm trying to get to, now. People on this wiki are using Tinychat more than ever, and it frustrates me that I can't go along for the ride due to high-latency issues provided by satellite internet. I may have a laptop now, but I'm far from a free wi-fi hotspot. I don't know how I'm going to enter Tinychat without going to someone else's house. And now, with this kiki happening now, it frustrates me now more than ever. Unless I find something faster, less latent, and truly unlimited, I shall not be pleased by Tinychat redirects. Sorry. This kiki is not going to please me.