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OK, the stats from April came in a while ago, and we somehow transferred 90.7 gigabytes of information last month, just slightly exceeding our allotment of 10 GB.  But here’s the really cool part.  pMachine was going to charge us $3 per excess gigabyte, and they did, but first, they automatically upgraded our plan to allow 80 GB per month, and then they charged us for the upgrade and the excess 10.7 gigs.  This basically cut our overage bill in half, and then some.

So what I want to know is, how cool is that? And what other corporate entity can you imagine behaving in this way?  Can you see Verizon or T-Mobile getting in touch with you and saying, “hey, you were $300 over your plan last month, so we just went ahead and modified the plan for you to accommodate your higher level of usage”?  Can you imagine your gas or electric company saying, “look, last month was a little weird, weather-wise, so we trimmed our rates to make sure you wouldn’t get hit with a monster bill out of nowhere”?

Thanks, pMachine people.  And thanks to all the readers who wrote in with bandwidth-saving suggestions back when this bandwidth-devouring blog was reduced to citing other bloggers’ nasty remarks about us in order to try to drive readers away.

In other news, Jamie and I are off this afternoon to Waterloo, Ontario for the 2005 conference of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society.  No, we’re not thinking of emigrating just yet—I’m serving as tomorrow morning’s keynote speaker, and Jamie is joining the 13-17-year-old group for fun and games.  He is so excited about that.  He also likes the fact that the Waterloo Inn has a pool.  I’ll post tomorrow’s Arbitrary but Fun Value Judgment whenever I get a chance.

Posted by on 05/12 at 11:24 AM

  1. Well, come on up to Potsdam since you’re in the neighborhood. Best of luck at the conference. Hope the room service is good.

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  01:00 PM

  2. What bandwidth-saving suggestions have you implemented, besides joining the cast of South Park?

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  02:42 PM

  3. We limited the number of posts on the home page, made sure that all photos were optimized, and went to the lightweight cartoon for the masthead. All of a sudden things got much more energy-efficient around here..

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  03:28 PM

  4. How cool is that?
    That is very cool.
    I got a similar deal with Media Temple as far as upgrade goes, but with code I have not yet been able to program, so may I will drop BlueSparx Kurt a line.  Or give him a buzz.  Or a holler. For the 411. Or the info. Or the skinny.

    Oh, I see I have again become a bandwith whore. Or ho. Or hooker.  Must go.  So long. See you later. By.  Until next we meet.  Hasta.  Enough.

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  03:39 PM

  5. Blessings on your house, your trip, your family, and your band width.  Thanks to pMachine and Kurt too. 

    “Can you imagine your gas or electric company saying, “look, last month was a little weird, weather-wise, so we trimmed our rates to make sure you wouldn’t get hit with a monster bill out of nowhere”?"”

    Actually in the Sierras and surrounding communities, they intentionally do the opposite.  During snowy months, and especially if the reading days fall during snow storms, they guesstimate a huge increase in use(on the supposition that at some point the power will fail, and that when it comes back on it will be used excessively etc.).  Then the bill is triple the norm.  They then prorate the difference based on the next official meter reading and allow that to be charged off during the summer months, when the bills are usually lower.  This year it was particularly bad.  I suspect this behavior is not isolated to the western part of the country.

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  04:33 PM

  6. I once bought a leather jacket I could not afford at Nordstrom.  When I came to my senses and took it back a few weeks later, they asked how much I could afford to pay for it, and let me have it at about half price, just for asking.  Does that count?

    Posted by DK  on  05/12  at  04:44 PM

  7. Michael, pMachine has done similar things for me at catch.com.  They’re truly great people. By far and away, best hosting company I’ve ever dealt with.  Actually, maybe the best company I’ve ever dealt with.

    Posted by Kevin K.  on  05/12  at  09:27 PM

  8. It’s a cinch to get hold of the necessary paperwork to begin the immigration process and there are groups that are very helpful. You might want to run off a bunch of copies for friends back home. Despite all the talk at the time, the expected spike in movement north hasn’t occurred, but maybe the Bolton nomination and the filibuster breakdown will put the spurs to folks.

    Posted by  on  05/12  at  10:41 PM

  9. Crap, you mean my totally random and nonsensical comments are costing you money?  That’s not cool.  I thought this was a harmless endeavor writing whatever bizarre thoughts crossed my mind after coming to this site and reading what you have to say.  It’s mighty nice of you not to implement some sort of billing system for comments that are either off-topic, verbatim rants from right-wing books/radio, or bitching about how we’d be just starting up the second round of NHL playoffs right now.

    Posted by thehim  on  05/13  at  01:56 AM

  10. Bandwidth trouble?  I be terse in future.  Hard me do. Sorry long comment last post.

    Posted by  on  05/13  at  09:48 AM

  11. So I can make more useless comments like this?

    Posted by DocMara  on  05/13  at  10:08 AM

  12. Cool!

    Posted by DocMara  on  05/13  at  10:09 AM

  13. music source, scroll down to a very good, huge, listing of mp3’s

    http://tofuhut.blogspot.com/2005/05/even-when-you-dont-find-music-here-you.html

    Posted by  on  05/13  at  12:16 PM

  14. Actually, the only experience I have with a company acting in a similar manner is with Vonage—the IP phone company. My rates were them were low to begin with—I think I started off paying less than $30/month for basically unlimited service—but I keep getting notices from them saying that they’re cutting rates. Never seen it before, especially from a phone company.

    Posted by  on  05/13  at  02:44 PM

  15. "bandwidth-saving suggestions back when this bandwidth-devouring blog was reduced to citing other bloggers’ nasty remarks about us in order to try to drive readers away.”
    Damn-it!  I knew something was up when David sent me here, again and again.  I hate being the hapless prawn.  It just eats me up.

    Posted by  on  05/13  at  09:41 PM

  16. I <butt> the pMachine folks.

    Posted by mythago  on  05/14  at  01:51 PM

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