Yep but many use

unlimited*


with a very small * somewhere that leads to all sorts of restrictions etc.

To continue on Lorentzia's lighter note, it's interesting to return to the analogy with an "eat-all-you-want" restaurant.

I have good friends who run something like this in Spain, they describe it as:
"un restaurante que ofrece un buffet libre"*, i.e. a "free buffet" but no one would be idiot enough to take this as a literal meaning, in terms of price, nor assume you can load up a lorry and remove all the stock; however it does genuinely mean all you can eat. The quality is unique and the fixed price is reasonably low.
It also tends to mean all the time you want, for a meal - on any one night there's a very low turnaround, as people come in groups on the whole and make an evening of it, often spinning things out until well into the early hours, and no one dreams of booting them out. It's been like this for years and is very popular locally (not on a tourist route) - so the "churn rate" is low.

Only open part-time, as they have a farm to run, and makes a good living - incredibly hard work mind you

In this context no one misinterprets the word 'libre', nor insists on a literal meaning ... but could we now advertise a 'free buffet' here, in a similar context, and expect a sensible response? 'Unlimited' doesn't work either - there is a definite limit on the dishes on offer, but "all-you-can-eat" is an amazingly clumsy term. In some ways it seems English - or rather the American - language, has got into a deep hole around the terms "freedom" and "free", I would guess because in no small part it has suited influential marketing gurus to encourage this confusion for years; not just in selling goods, but obviously politics too.

Which puts many thoughtful people in a dilemma: on the one hand opposed to pedantic idiocies, where clearly the context contradicts a literal interpretation, and on the other being anxious to "reclaim the streets" as it were: to insist on precise meanings for some Very Important Words, in this or any other language.

Language will always evolve but should hopefully become richer, not poorer.

I'm not a Plusnet customer (ex-Metronet) - but I've also learned a lot from some of the stroppier threads on Adslguide, over several years ...


*Quienes Somos

Edited by s_h (Sun 03-Sep-06 14:51:11)

A very well written post, I'm not sure though that an "all-you-can-eat" ISP would work though, there are those that use far too much and the internet version of the obese eaters who would make a field day of one of those virtual buffets. I remember a film once with a very large man in it who kept eating until he could eat no more, I can't remember if he had to eat a roast person or if he was cooked, but it just sprang to mind when thinking of the "obese" internet users. H'mm could we change these people into extra bandwidth me wonders??

so there is a limit then

dont quote me cos i don't do maths, if my connection was unlimited downloading and i left it on for a month and downloaded 1tb fo data, without any throttling.

On the other hand, if my connection is unlimited and throttled, then i would only download 500mb. Therefore it is not unlimited, it is a controlled Unlimited connection.

My figures are hypothetical but my end result is the same - my interpretation of unlimited and an ISP interpretation

over 50 years of life, gives you that clarity

>>>>>>>dont quote me cos i don't do maths, if my connection was unlimited downloading and i left it on for a month and downloaded 1tb fo data, without any throttling.

I don't do difficult sums neither, but why stick at 1TB why not 100TB, or a 1000TB if you are talking unlimited. You don't because there are limits, it can only be genuinely unlimited in defined terms, and those terms define the limits of what is unlimited. That is why the term can often be useless.

Strewth! ....met myself coming back there, that's what age does.

In reply to:

---

I don't do difficult sums neither, but why stick at 1TB why not 100TB, or a 1000TB if you are talking unlimited. You don't because there are limits, it can only be genuinely unlimited in defined terms, and those terms define the limits of what is unlimited. That is why the term can often be useless

---

And the answer is According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, researchers from a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings constructed the second greatest computer in all of time and space, Deep Thought, to calculate the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two." The reaction:

"Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.

I am 54. Worrying I think!

>>>>>I am 54.

That's the thing with this site.......full of darned kids!!

ummm edited - double post

Edited by soundsystem (Mon 04-Sep-06 12:36:11)