Charter could be worse

Say what you like about Charter's borderline hostile customer service, price gouging, etc, but if there's one thing that can make a man overlook a few personality flaws, it's raw speed.

Yes, I hate Charter's secret $10/month punishment fee on broadband for non-cable-subscribers, but where we live (the foothill north of LA it's going to be a long time before we see fiber reaching us) there's been nothing that can come close to coaxial broadband, and Charter is the only game in town.

But as luck would have it, Charter is not content to be the hands down winner in the speed department. They recently started promoting significantly faster packages at lower prices to their existing customers (me).

Last month I upgraded to their "Max" offering (nominal 20Mbps Down/2Mbps Up) which turns out to be cheaper than what I was paying for the previous 10Mpbs offering, and double the nominal speed. Okay, well as we all know from the School of Hard Knocks, nominal speed is bullshit, and you're normally happy if you get close to it. Oh, really?

This afternoon I received my new DOCSIS 3.0 router from Newegg (a Moto Surfboard 6120). It sure makes the surcharge easier to swallow when you're getting 20% more than the nominal speed. Nice!




Comments

Unknown said…
Jeremiah-

I tweaked on your AddDollarFormat() for FMP over at briandunning.com - wasn't sure if I should upload it as a new function or send it to you. Here it is.

-Eric Ridgley


formatNumber() FileMaker Pro Function

//theNumber can be any num
//prefix can be any text string
//round_to can be any integer
Let ( [
round_to = Int(round_to);
Amount = Round ( Abs ( theNumber ) ; round_to ) ;
A = Int ( Amount ) ;
L = Length ( A ) ;
R = If ( Amount ≠ A ; Left ( amount - A & "000000000" ; round_to + 1 ) ; Left(".000000000";round_to+1 ))
] ;
Case ( theNumber < 0 ; "-" ) &
prefix &
Case (
L=15 ; Left(A;3) &","& Middle(A;4;3) &","& Middle(A;7;3) &","& Middle(A;10;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=14 ; Left(A;2) &","& Middle(A;3;3) &","& Middle(A;6;3) &","& Middle(A;9;3) &","&Right(A;3) ;
L=13 ; Left(A;1) &","& Middle(A;2;3) &","& Middle(A;5;3) &","& Middle(A;8;3) &","&Right(A;3) ;
L=12 ; Left(A;3) &","& Middle(A;4;3) &","& Middle(A;7;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=11 ; Left(A;2) &","& Middle(A;3;3) &","& Middle(A;6;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=10 ; Left(A;1) &","& Middle(A;2;3) &","& Middle(A;5;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=9 ; Left(A;3) &","& Middle(A;4;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=8 ; Left(A;2) &","& Middle(A;3;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=7 ; Left(A;1) &","& Middle(A;2;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=6 ; Left(A;3) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=5 ; Left(A;2) &","& Right(A;3) ;
L=4 ; Left(A;1) &","& Right(A;3) ;
A
) //end Case
& If(round_to=0;"";R)
) //end Let

//http://www.briandunning.com/cf/196
//modifid by Eric Ridgley, 11JAN2010
12:35 PM
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