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prog ([personal profile] prog) wrote2005-10-20 01:50 pm
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Any of my fellow Somervudlians use Comcast for broadband? D'ya like it? Do you know what TCP ports they block?

They've got a $20/month special going on now for new subscribers. Of course that's only good for six months, and they do a good job of not noting on their website what it reverts to after that. Still quite tempting, since I just learned that downgrading my RCN will still cost me $60/month for broadband alone. It's better than the $90 I pay now, but...



Ordered a copy of Alton Brown's classic I'm Just Here for the Food yesterday. When I scratched out a budget a couple of days ago, I concluded that food was the slippiest variable, and the one I can carve the most out of. Currently I spend -- ulp -- probably around $600 a month on everything I eat and drink, because I buy no groceries and do no cooking. (Sometimes I brew my own coffee, or shamefully browse the "a la carte" thing of colorless microwavable nuggetoids at Shaw's with the other pathetic bachelors, but that's it.)

So, yes, I'm gonna turn this around. I think $400 is a good target number to shoot for, and conversations I've had in the last couple of days suggest that I can make it a lot lower than that if I start getting good.

[identity profile] prog.livejournal.com 2005-10-20 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Anything's gotta be cheaper than what I'm doing now, and I've been meaning to get this book for a long time, ever since Slashdork raved about its initial publication in 2002.

[identity profile] ruthling.livejournal.com 2005-10-20 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Fair enough. I'd like to read it. Will you lend it to me for couple weeks if I make you dinner once?

As for Comcast, we have it in Medford because DSL isn't available (never mind that my friend who lives up on a mountain in VT can get it, we, being 50' too far from an office, can't) and it works ok. Speed is eh, but I've been remarkably lucky on customer service. We pay about $60 for basic cable and standard internet.

[identity profile] misuba.livejournal.com 2005-10-20 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Where Alton Brown can get you into trouble is on the hardware. He'll make you want a stand mixer, for example. (On the other hand, he advocates $0.99 quarry tiles over $30 pizza stones.)