André Vrignaud

[tthurman]

One odd thing that comes from the user projects forum is the things you discover that you had no intention of. Today has been one of those such days for me while working the Developer Logo Database.

I came across a name in the data base, "André", which in itself is different as it's not EA, Hudsonsoft, Sierra, or the like, because this one is just "André". By this time I've accumulated a good bit of resources to track down some of the lower profile devs, and André was no different. It turned out to be an individual, André Vrignaud, and I must say I found André's blog to be particularly interesting. When you have a few minutes I would suggest you read it!

Oh yeah and for the record André.............

Andre Vrignaud has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for over 20 years at companies such as Intel, Microsoft Xbox, and Amazon. He currently works as an independent game industry consultant doing game, platform strategy, and media/PR consulting for a variety of firms.

[hansolo77]

The blog post you linked is interesting. I've heard about Comcast's monthly cap, and it's one of the many reasons I'm glad I don't use them. I can't believe they never told him it included upload bandwith as well, and that his backing up (LEGALLY) of his pictures and music to the cloud is what caused his perma-ban. That's rediculous. Comcast can go shove their cap up whatever they hole they think it'll fit in. Luckily for me, my only problem with my ISP is that we pay for 10mb down but only get like 2.2, and our upload rate is like 56k baud style. Nothing can be done about it either. Because of the community we live in, Time Warner is the only cable company allowed to provide service. TW has said the speed problem can be easily fixed with a fiber-optic upgrade to our undergound cables, but it would require the approval of the community. The problem with that, our community is full of senior citizens who don't see the need to upgrade a service they don't use. Those that would consider it however shoot it down because it would mean an increase in their service bills/mortgage on the condo/condo association fees/etc. So we're stuck.

Anyway, nice that you found the record of Andre!

[Krakerman]

Time Warner upgraded all our area several years ago and I can't complain here as I am getting d/l speeds @ 56.86Mbps and upload speeds @5.67Mpbs

[hansolo77]

shut it

[rockyrocket]

shut it

Have no clue as to what you guys pay stateside, but I think we do fairly well here in the UK.

My ISP just increased my speeds for free and we have no caps - that came over as gloating did it not? .

Another £9.00 will get me 152mmb down.

[hansolo77]

I don't know what mine is exactly. We have a bundled service (supposed to be cheaper that way ). Last months bill was $169. Includes Digital Cable, Digital Phone, and Internet. I suppose if you divide that by 3, you would get ~ $57. That's a lot more than your 39. But the way they divide it, we're probably paying 70% on the internet. And the worst part.. we PAY for the lowest speed (10mb) and only get 2.2mb. We're not even getting what we pay for. And recently, our modem has been "hanging up" with the server, causing everything to shut down while it attempts to reconnect. Our phone goes through the modem, so when it's down, we can't even call Time Warner to complain.

[Adultery]

Isn't that like $70 USD roughly?

[rockyrocket]

Isn't that like $70 USD roughly?

$56.76 google says, that is with our smufing VAT of course, high or low you think?.

As an ISP virgin media have been fine for me apart from a bit of traffic shaping.

[hansolo77]

I read that somewhere in Texas they just launched Gigabit internet...

[rockyrocket]

I know speedtest is not that reliable a measure over all but this aint bad...

[hansolo77]

hate you

Our modem has been cutting out lately.. we got online with tech support chat and the guy was like "your modem was given to you in 2009.. you should just exchange it for a new one, should solve your problems". So dad took it back today, we plugged it in, and wouldn't you know? NO CHANGE. In fact, speedtest.net is now reporting speeds a tiny bit slower than before. But hopefully the modem will stay connected longer now than rebooting itself like 2-3 times an hour. So far so good anyway (knock on wood).

[tthurman]

hate you

Our modem has been cutting out lately.. we got online with tech support chat and the guy was like "your modem was given to you in 2009.. you should just exchange it for a new one, should solve your problems". So dad took it back today, we plugged it in, and wouldn't you know? NO CHANGE. In fact, speedtest.net is now reporting speeds a tiny bit slower than before. But hopefully the modem will stay connected longer now than rebooting itself like 2-3 times an hour. So far so good anyway (knock on wood).

I heard that for years until I bought a SB6120, and still had the same problems. Finally after a ale induced rant, a manger called and admitted the node we were on had been terribly oversubscribed for years. He knocked $15 a month off for 6 months, which was about how far from completion the new node was. Once this came online things improved, but I still had drop outs, until finally it never came back. I got lucky, and they dispatched a very competent technician who quickly identified the feeder cable from the curb as the problem. He strung out a new line on the ground until a crew came and put in a permanent direct burial cable. Speeds are greatly improved and stability is like never before. Our line was probably installed in 1991 when our house was built. If they are running loss tests from your service feeder at the house and seeing hot signals, beware if they try and tell you otherwise. I've seen them install signal boosters inside houses to unused ports to draw the the hot signal to them in order to get your modem signal down. They are very creative at band-aid's for sure!

[hansolo77]

Well, aside from the FIRE causing everything in-house to be built brand new, everything around us is 1960's era cabling. Nothing has been upgraded, and we are in a very busy neighborhood. It's not downtown (capital of the state) and it's not quite suburbs either. We're still in the county, and the city takes up 80-90% of it. Everybody is more concerned about cable tv than they are about internet. And it's actually gotten to the point where you see MORE dishes on houses than you do anwhere else around here. Why? Because we're only offered ONE cable tv provider due to licensing and contracts with the commnity, and TIme Warner just sucks balls. At least they haven't introduced a bandwith cap (rumors were being spread they were going to limit to 200gb a month) which would kill online gaming and streaming. They already cut out USENET completely, and I have to get my goods through that via a 3rd party subscription. The new modem they gave us is nice and light though, and the lights aren't as bright so they won't be as obtrusive when I try to sleep. That's about it. Luckily, I'm still online without the modem dropping the connection and rebooting, which is a plus.

[DazzleHP]

It's a shame you only have the one supplier in your area Han. I was in a similar situation for years as i come from a small town too. There also was only one supplier - NTL. They were the only providers in our area for around 5 years and they basically did the same - charged maximum rate for minimal, if not outright insulting service. They had no competition, they got away with it - we as consumers had no choice. Then BT landed in our area, NTL went bust (good riddance), got taken over by Virgin and now we have competitive pricing and service.

It would do your whole community a justice to let other providers in, it'll benefit everyone in the end including cheaper TV/phone services. I know you know that but someone in your town/province should speak up and tell 'em why!

If you need a potato, and only one guy sells potatoes, where you gonna get your potatoes?

[rockyrocket]

hate you

Yep, been hearing that a lot lately in my personal life too .

When I first bought that service is was 2mb and the fast plans were something like 20mb - then as fiber was laid everywhere speeds just went up for free each year - so don`t give up hope!.

On a side note yesterday I noticed that the upgrade somehow reset the router, so I had the default passwords, and ssid ect back .

[Draco1962]

Not too shabby in my neck of the woods...

The only real competition to Comcast around here is AT&T Uverse and DSL can't touch these speeds.