The Train Rant Continues

This is where the train rant begins.

Surprise, I’m still on the train with zero things to do. I have not been able to come up with a brilliant solution to my small problem of not being able to watch the movies I copied from my desktop. Not awesome.
So I have established that it’s Microsoft’s and the computer companies’ fault in general. However, that is not the end of it. There may be nobody else to blame for causing my predicament, but I sure as hell can rant down a list of parties responsible for making sure I have no way to solve my problem from where I am right now.
I’ll start with the Deutsche Bahn. Why can’t they just get with the times and provide WiFi connectivity on trains? If it were free, that would be great. If I had to pay for it, at this point, I wouldn’t care. However, since Germany seems to want to be stuck in the dark ages there isn’t even a pay-for-it-but-only-in-first-class option.
Mobile Internet is awesome, and would have been the most useful thing in the world to me right now. Infact, if I had that I wouldn’t even be in this mess, because I would be surfing around and probably looking for the end of the Internet. On the other hand, had I been so inclined, I could have downloaded the codecs I’m missing, or VLC Media Player, or simply just watched stuff on YouTube. As mentioned, though, Germany seems content with the dark ages. There is mobile Internet here in Germany, sort of, but I haven’t gotten it yet because I don’t see the point.
No, not true. I will rephrase: I didn’t use to see the point. I was blind, but now I see.
So why don’t I see a point in getting mobile Internet in Germany. Well, fact of the matter is, it’s pretty simple. Too expensive, too slow, bad coverage and above all it’s limited. If you go for one of the nice cheap packages (designed for idiots using pre-droid phones) you pay around €10/month. Which is very reasonable, until you look at what that gets you. Top connection speed of around 80Kb/s and an embarrassing 1GB worth of data traffic. Well, let’s face it. With a speed of 80Kb/s you would be hard pressed to actually reach the 1GB/moth allotment. The best part is, that if you do reach the 1GB marker, you end up paying €0.25 for every additional MB of data downloaded. In the interest of fairness, they do limit the cost to €19.99 per 300MB of data traffic. A real bargain.
There are more exclusive alternatives where you pay between €25-€50 a month, but the deal is still the same. Limited traffic to 5GB and around 300Kb/s. That I could work with, but I just on principle won’t get it because of the restrictions.
I am regretting my choice right now though… since I have absolutely nothing to do on the train, but then again; at least I still have my principles.

The train rant comes to an end.

Advertisement