Comcast XFINITY → The dreaded call from Comcast

said by nerdburg:

The Feds could drop a few hundred billion, get the country wired up with fiber..and we could steal share files all day long!

said by JohnInSJ:So, you want to use 15.4495239 terabytes a month, for $100.

Yeah. That's realistic.

said by nerdburg:

I feel like I just lost a few IQ points reading that. Of course you can use statistical analysis for predictive reasoning. Business and industry do it everyday - from NASA to Wal-Mart.

said by r81984:

I am speaking the facts. Comcast is lying about their speeds if they can only let you download 250gb a month. Their network cannot sustain anything faster than 768kbps.

said by NormanS:Speed is the rate at which you download data. 250GB isn't a "speed", but a volume. You can download data at 1 mb/s, or 1,000 mb/s, without affecting the quantity of data you can download. The difference between different speeds isn't how much data you can download, but how long it will take to download a given amount of data.

Comcast is selling their Internet service base on speed of the connection; but they want to limit the volume of data you can download. Once you comprehend that "speed" != "volume", you will be on the road to understanding.

said by r81984:

I guess you have not read anything in this thread.

I am fully aware how they relate, but limiting volume by a montly rate does limit your speed for the month.

Comcast is selling 768kbps service with speedboost up to 50mbps as long as you do not use your connection 24/7.

Once you understand that speed and volume are related then you will be on the road to understanding.

said by r81984:

Why would it not be realistic???

said by r81984:

Once you understand that speed and volume are related then you will be on the road to understanding.

said by r81984:

You see that kind of BS predicting used every year in business reports where they estimate quarterly earnings. Sometimes you get lucky by guessing and many times you just guess wrong because you can't predict the future. You also see it in retail where they try to forecast christmas sales and then you hear in the news sales where expected to match last year, but they actually when down 10% due to the crappy economy. Just because you use fancy math does not mean you can predict the future with an uncontrolled process.

said by JohnInSJ:

Because... uh, you cannot buy 15.4TB of data volume from any internet provider for $100.

Predictive reasoning??? Did you just create your own form of statistics based on opinions?

said by beachintech:

I think this thread is nearing the end of it's useful life :/

said by NormanS:I have read enough to know that the post you are quoting is in line with what other posters have posted.It surely does not. If I equate volume with distance, and put two drivers on two different roads, with driver A on the road with a ten mile "volume", and a brick wall at the end, and driver B on the road with a hundred mile "volume", and a brick wall at the end, both drivers can reach a speed of 120 mph very easily. But what happens when they use up their "volumes", and come to the brick walls? Exactly. They are selling speed, not volume. And if you try to use that speed 25/7, you will hit the brick wall! But that is so wrong as to be absurd that anybody could actually believe it.

P.S. Let me add another example. I have a 5 gallon bucket. I can set the speed of the pump to 1 gpm flow rate (speed), or 5 gmp flow rate (speed). The question is, whether I choose 1 gpm, or 5 gpm, what happens when I reach the 5 gallon limit of the bucket?

said by JohnInSJ:I completely understand your confusion over how these two are related.

Volume is fixed by Comcast Terms Of Service across all consumer products, at 250GB maximum per calendar month.

Speed is variable across all consumer products.

Once you exceed the TOS, you are no longer operating the service within the agreed upon terms, and are in breach of contract. This is true for exceeding the volume, using the service to break the law, or anything else outlined in the TOS. You are bound to the usage you agreed to when you agreed to the TOS. If you do not agree with the TOS, you should not purchase the service.

The service provider can disconnect you once you are in breach of the TOS.

End of story. Still. This is the product they are selling. You might wish they were selling a different product, but you could also wish you had billions of dollars. Wishing something doesn't make it true. Or right. Or fair.

For example, I wish you would understand my point. I am prepared to be disappointed.

said by EG:Yes but can't bona fide patterns be established by the long term use of these methods ?

said by nerdburg:I'm sorry you don't understand. When someone like Wal-Mart is data mining, they use predictive modeling which is a from of AI. The models get their AI from predictive analytic algorithms, which is rule-based predictive reasoning.

If you would like to learn more, I highly recommend Zhengxin Chen's Computational Intelligence for Decision Support and his Data Mining and Uncertain Reasoning: An Integrated Approach. He has some really good stuff about machine learning and association rules and algorithms.

(»www.amazon.com/Data-Mini ··· 71388785)

said by CajunTek:

Hmm. I have a little physics, and in all my studies I can find no place where speed and volume are related.... Oh well.

said by r81984:

No, because the process is not in control. People have too many variables to predict. You might be close several years and you might be completely wrong for several years.

So civilized society on the whole may as well pack it in concerning this..

If you understood statistic you would laugh when people try to forecast sales, usage, etc based only on past trends.

So now you know (or don't know) what "I" understand huh...

said by r81984:

What happens if you paid for a 5 gallon bucket and comcast caps you at 2 gallons?

said by r81984:

If you understood statistic you would laugh when people try to forecast sales, usage, etc based only on past trends.

said by r81984:

I will give credit to Comcast marketing. They are doing a great job.