Plaidophile

At first I thought I might get basic cable with Internet service, but then I found out that basic cable costs around $50/month here. So the Time Warner Cable deal of $30/month for the first six months then $45/month thereafter seemed kinda crap.

So I looked into DSL. Verizon allows you to get just a minimal phoneline ($8/month) so the total cost of DSL service without phone service (at least, without anything worth mention) is $38/month plus taxes (so around $40something). That seemed like a pretty good deal, but then I found out that the bandwidth is only 768/128. Still, not horrible, but then I realized that the $45/month cable Internet would have around 3000/384.

So then I looked at cable again, but then in the fine print for the Internet service, the $45/month rate is only for cable TV subscribers — without cable TV it costs $60/month, and they don't let you self-install (i.e. they charge $30 for "installation"), and they don't even give the first six months at a discount.

For now the free hidden all-you-can-eat GPRS I get through T-Mobile seems to be good enough for my needs, but I have no idea how long that'll last. Also, it's pretty annoying to not be able to keep my laptop online when I'm not at home, i.e. no downloads while I'm off at the store. The connection is also kind of unreliable, and data gets suspended while you're on a voice call so there's no way I can look something up for someone while talking to them, for example. It also makes it that much more annoying whenever my mom calls.

If I had cable TV I'd also need some way of watching it. I plan on getting a great little multitasker, though it doesn't have a built-in tuner, and I'm not going to buy a VCR (too retro and single-purpose) or TiVo ($10/month for program listings is a ripoff, and doesn't it still require a phone line?). The EyeTV looks promising, but it (and all other computer-based recording methods) requires me to either get another TV or not use my laptop as a laptop while recording a show. Also, I rather like not having the crutch of manufactured programming to occupy my brain while not doing anything else, because that tends to invade the non-doing-nothing parts of my life as well. So cable TV is not a great idea. (And anyway, all the good shows are available via Suprnova or as DVD boxed sets.)

I have an odd relationship with TV. If it's available, I watch a few shows (Iron Chef, Good Eats, Emeril Live, and Stargate SG-1) with almost religious devotion and also enjoy a lot of other shows which I happen to catch randomly (Futurama, Family Guy), but if it's not available I don't really miss it at all.

One nice thing about working for a video game company is that the random office chit-chat isn't about what happened on Friends or Sex in the City or whatever other shows I haven't watched. Instead it's about the various video games which I haven't played. :D

In the meantime, I do need something better to do than weblogging at 20kbps, so maybe I'll check Craigslist.

7/25 4:01AM Before I left to see a rather underwhelming show, I finally found the TWC price list (they really should organize their site better). Digital cable is only $5 more than analog, and it leads to a $5 discount on broadband. So it's basically $53/month for cable (blah) and $40/month for Internet (woo), and I don't have to buy any sort of TV tuner (since the DTV receiver will handle that).

Of course, I won't make a final decision until I'm actually ready to. It's not like I urgently need any of this. :)