I may seem a bit quiet for a while...

[toprob]

...but I'm still around, I just won't be on the net much.
I've been getting by with my 40GB/month plan, but I knew at some stage I'd have to update it, especially with the rise of streaming TV services like Netflix. However I was making do, except that March caught me out with the Lightbox trial, which just ate through most of my allowance in a couple of days, so I gave up on that. I did go over my 40GB, and had to pay an extra $14, so I just just thought I had to be more careful. In April I monitored everything, and planned to get through the month under the 40GB, but on the second to last day of the month I suddenly went over by 5GB. I contacted TelstraclearVodafone in the hope that they could figure out what had happened, but no joy.

Since then I've been monitoring my usage very closely, and a couple of days ago I noticed that over two hours I'd used 20GB! Turns out my Nvidia updater was just going crazy now and then, and from a check on the web, a lot of people are having this problem.

So now I'm giving up the net for a couple of weeks. Well, as much as I can, I still need to upload Issue 9, but no streaming, no youtube, definitely no Skype, just checking email occasionally.

I will be keeping an eye on NZFF via Tapatalk, so I shouldn't miss anything on the Godzone forum, but if anything does crop up which I could help with, maybe a PM would be a good idea.

See you all in a couple of weeks.

[Ian Warren]

Only finding out I'm up to a 80GB within the next week .. from last week .. cheeky buggers scoring moneys .. but OH WELL least I'm in the Groove for the next few years.

[toprob]

Well, I've been trying to keep off the net for the last week, it's been an education. Some of the things I've learnt:

• I really needed to work hard to remember what we did before the net.
• One thing I used to do was read -- it was really difficult to get back into, a book seems rather awkward now, and I couldn't keep enough concentration to actually enjoy it to start with -- I kept on having to re-read entire chapters just to understand what was going on. Now, though, I'm back to normal, being able to read for hours, and enjoy it.
• Reading is still a lot more immersive than any other form of entertainment -- to the extent that coupled with my medication, the processing which goes on in my dreams is kinda overpowering. Beta blockers = vivid dreams; beta blockers plus reading scifi before bed = way-out, crazy, vivid dreams.
• I only made it a couple of days before going onto a rationed web -- no streaming TV, no Spotify, no Youtube -- but low-bandwidth things are ok.
• Uploading the Subscription was the biggest single use of bandwidth, can't be helped
• Yesterday I spent a couple of hours on Skype talking to my daughter, that's 1GB apparently..,
• There's nothing worthwhile on NZ television now, I've been too spoilt by Netflix. Weekend movies are all done-to-death repeats.

[Ian Warren]

.I really needed to work hard to remember what we did before the net.

I was simply told I had to much time to spend.

.One thing I used to do was read -- it was really difficult to get back into, a book seems rather awkward now, and I couldn't keep enough concentration to actually enjoy it to start with -- I kept on having to re-read entire chapters just to understand what was going on. Now, though, I'm back to normal, being able to read for hours, and enjoy it.
. Reading is still a lot more immersive than any other form of entertainment -- to the extent that coupled with my medication, the processing which goes on in my dreams is kinda overpowering. Beta blockers = vivid dreams; beta blockers plus reading scifi before bed = way-out, crazy, vivid dreams.

I would in this section every day or another or another, something would miss really badly. I specifically if your crock you can just sit in the sun simply perusing.