bid chronicles

Ah the internet then and now. Firstly let me admit to you that my life doesn’t work without a network. I need the internet. I’m probably addicted to it. But it’s not that I’m surfing everywhere and stuff. I’m just addicted to information, and there’s plenty of that online!

That aside, what I really wanted to tell you today was the changes in network technology in Bangladesh. What amazes me, is that WiFi hasn’t still hit mainstream in Bangladesh. Neither is LAN a big part of the culture. As you start looking deep into it, you realize that it doesn’t really make sense.

Besides spoilt brats like me, most people have only a computer at home. Prices of computers though cheap it isn’t cheap compared to other things. Most cases people cannot justify having more than 1 computer at home. What’s the point of a LAN at that moment? There’s one desktop with everything. What’s the point of having another power sucker running somewhere just to dish out a few files on the LAN.

As for Wireless is concerned, it’s pretty straight forward. Laptops cost a bundle to buy and tons more to maintain. On the other hand, desktops are pretty straight forward and tends to be a much cheaper for repairs. Swipe the bad card and wala! Simple, cheap and easy.

As for the internet itself, a lot has changed. Even though last time I was here cable internet was the big thing, what was actually happening was that the cost reduction was happening the same was as roommates would share internet. One guy gets the actual cable internet. He feeds it to his lovely router who dishes out 192.168.1.x IP address to all the people that guy sells the internet to. So what would happen is when everyone get online at the same time, the network would start to crawl. Not to mention the insane amount of firewall problems caused by the friendly router.

Nowadays, however, the playing field is very different. Shared cable internet has become dirt cheap while Wireless WAN has become the next big thing. EDGE modems are cheaper here than they are back in the USA and not to mention that you don’t have to sign your life away on a 2 year contract. Once you get past that hurdle, you can get 1Gb/month at a very reasonable price.

Granted it’s not HSDPA (3G) but hey we’re going WiMAX in a few month, baby! This is something I predicted 3 years back when I visited. It feels good to be right. Though it feels bad that I couldn’t be a big part of it. But hell. I still have time. May be I’ll bring LTE to Bangladesh at a later date

With the latest innovations that helps you get more and more information from the net faster, the net has finally become a boring place for me. It almost feels like the net was more lively a few years back. I’m not denying that the net is still filled with information. Specially living in USA, where I have Google Maps giving me all the things I need to know about a neighborhood, and other sites like that. But it doesn’t change the fact that on a day to day basis, the ‘wasting time’ use of the net have been declining for me.

Sure there are still tons of options to waste time online, but they aren’t as appealing as they once were. I keep up with about a dozen non-personal blogs about another half a dozen personal ones, but with the help of RSS feeds, they all wait for be patiently in one place. And in an hour or two I’m done with that. Then what?

Chatting? It has its peak hours too. I’ll get bombarded for 25 minutes and then everyone will go away all at once. I’m telling you, the net has become boring. But hey, at least the two hours of reading blogs and Penny Arcade is entertaining