Isidore of Seville, I Beg You to Help Me
This time not posting to my blog was not caused by procrastination, but rather by the St. Internet not being on my side. Yes, Sweden is one of the most wired societies in the world where practically every citizen takes the access for granted. Also, it is a place where you get even the unfathomable 28MBit/s link for peanuts for the even more inscrutable 16€ per month–yeah, it is a turn-on for the geekier readers, believe me. And you get it within a few days. A dream come true for anyone like me, and much geekier people. All that until I you wake up and smell the coffee, fired onions actually.
Not so fast my friends. All things mentioned in the previous paragraph are true, including the smell of fried onions. Unfortunately difficulties do arise when you move to Sweden and want the Internet at the same time. Because before Swedish ISPs will allow you to send your mom an email from the comfort of your new home, you need nothing less then a Swedish social security number. Ta-dah. Until then, surfing equals to surfing on an artificial lake where you, naturally, have to pay someone big bucks to make those waves and surf for you.
And it is expensive. Just as everything else, but the at-home-Internet, costs more then you would expect, paying for sunny and windy weather is no exception. Approximately 5€ per hour, or if you use such commodities the way I do, then it’ll cost you 3,720€ per month. Not exactly peanuts anymore. Of course, there’s always an option of sponging on your neighbors’ links. It might be mildly unethical, but it falls out of the question when all of the 38 connections are encrypted and you don’t want to be more than mildly unethical. For once I wished my neighbors were a bit dumber.
I wanted to abstain myself from any direct comparisons, but really, I can’t. When I first moved to Finland it was a Saturday night. By Monday afternoon I was connected to a pretty fat pipe–much earlier than any of the withdrawal symptoms kicked in.
Mladen
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Culture, Random, Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Well, with some effort (and considerably less ethics), you could sponge one of those 38 connections anyway ;)
But I feel your pain right now — I’m waiting for the “series of tubes” myself.
January 17th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Well, at least now we know that you’re still alive:)) and what is happening to you. I hope the moving experience wasn’t too traumatic, if you don’d count the internet and that you are all settled in. Isn’t moving fun?? So tell us how Sweden is treating you and of course how you treat Sweden, at least a lot of new stuff is happening to you all the time….difference from here and now.
Have a great stay and don’t be a stranger!
January 19th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Ziga, basically you’re right, with some effort I could have done something about it. Nevertheless, I did not grow anxious enough to cross that ethical boundary, instead I talked a kind soul into handing me over their user/pass. Social hacking goes a long way, and I didn’t even use brute force :)
I am quite aware with the situation of fat pipes plumbers’ availability in Slovenia. I send Seville’s Isidor your way now.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Ondina! Alive and kickin’ I am. More than ever, in fact, as this society does not let one sleep tight with their stupendously developed bureaucratic system.
The moving experience was not too traumatic, it was actually even a bit therapeutic. But those therapeutic moments did not last too long, as you can imagine. All in all moving is fun. However, I wish I could stick with a simple rule: don’t do it more than once a year. If it’s done more than once a year, then you can forget about the fun part.
How I treat Sweden, I like this. Ruthlessly. You bet, a lot is going on right now, I mean a lot. All those new perks and peculiarities. I wouldn’t even dare to imagine how things could and will turn out; a new surprise every single day.
I’ll be in touch. Hopefully soon and often.