Hello Comcast, I'd like to upgrade.
July 20, 2007 10:35 AM   Subscribe

Swedish Woman Gets Superfast Internet. She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed. Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said. She's already received one offer of marriage.
posted by three blind mice (28 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This thread is useless without pictures.
posted by tommasz at 10:41 AM on July 20, 2007 [2 favorites]


Burhanistan: "Of course, they don't say that there isn't a network card available to handle that speed."

Or a single hard drive or memory chip that could store data that quickly. But so what? One computer will waste too much time context-switching anyhow. The only way to fill that pipe (pun not intended) is with a thousand-square-foot data center.
posted by Plutor at 10:47 AM on July 20, 2007


The really cool thing about that being so much faster than any of the internal buses in a computer is that it brings the possibility of using it as a bus in a computer. When your internet connection is faster than your harddrive, why store anything locally? What happens when Google (or someone) can host an entire OS remotely? Now if only Verizon would hurry its ass up with FiOS, we could get started.
posted by Skorgu at 10:50 AM on July 20, 2007


>>She's already received one offer of marriage

Light speed 'Net porn access being the "dowry", lol.
posted by SaintCynr at 10:52 AM on July 20, 2007


That kind of speed in Sweden....imagine the porn.
posted by rhymer at 10:53 AM on July 20, 2007


tommasz: Here you go.
posted by Skorgu at 10:55 AM on July 20, 2007


Damn, SaintCynr, you got in there quicker and funnier.
posted by rhymer at 10:57 AM on July 20, 2007


Saying that her son is a "networking expert" is a bit misleading. See e.g. this quote: "Cisco, for instance, says it designed its GSR12000 backbone router with his requirements in mind. And Sprint, we hear, has based much of its Internet infrastructure strategy on what Lothberg says."

He's quite legendary in the Internet circles in Sweden (and the world), and many older people I've met in when doing research in Sweden had stories about him and his Internet connection at home (there are rumors that he himself had a 40Gb connection to either his bathroom or basement for a few years already.)
posted by rpn at 10:58 AM on July 20, 2007


Now I just need to get her to seed the torrents I'm trying to download.

I wonder if she likes bad Sci-fi movies?
posted by quin at 10:59 AM on July 20, 2007


rpn writes "Cisco, for instance, says it designed its GSR12000 backbone router with his requirements in mind"

Christ , that's a demigod.
posted by elpapacito at 11:00 AM on July 20, 2007


tommasz: here are the pictures you asked for.
posted by rpn at 11:05 AM on July 20, 2007


My favorite part would have to be the fact that it's sitting on a piece of laminated plywood in the corner of their garage.
posted by prostyle at 11:13 AM on July 20, 2007


We're going to have to build a bigger Internet.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:31 AM on July 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Swedish Woman Gets Superfast Internet

'She didn't even have a computer before.'.....(she) isn't exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

teh internets god is a cruel god
posted by HyperBlue at 11:40 AM on July 20, 2007


Because of slow download speeds I have been subconsciously conditioned to become overly aroused to the Quicktime logo.
posted by tkchrist at 11:57 AM on July 20, 2007 [4 favorites]


So is that like a trillion baud?
posted by brain_drain at 12:20 PM on July 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


OK, if I'm paying 44 bucks a month for 3g/256k cable, then . . . [doing mental math] . . . fuck ME.
posted by FelliniBlank at 12:26 PM on July 20, 2007


Thanks Skorgu and rpn. Now I just have to talk my wife into bandwidth-based polygamy and I've got it made!
posted by tommasz at 12:35 PM on July 20, 2007


Imagine a 40gbit connection that tastes like bacon!
posted by darkripper at 12:36 PM on July 20, 2007 [1 favorite]


Did you actually call Comcast? Did you get the rep who will assure you that it is your fault when the service is down? Reboot your computer, your router and your cable connection. Ignore the fact that Verizon is in the neighborhood digging trenches and your field techs are shadowing them. Of course, it is possible that no one told the phone answerers what is happening.
posted by Cranberry at 1:05 PM on July 20, 2007


At that speed, why download porn when you can download a whole porn star?
posted by psmealey at 1:10 PM on July 20, 2007


Now if only Verizon would hurry its ass up with FiOS, we could get started.

Verizon being slow isn't the only problem. Here in Portland, Verizon has rolled out fibre to many (all?) suburban zipcodes around here, but not anywhere within the city itself because Qwest won't let them. I'd imagine it's similar situations preventing a lot of us from getting modern internet connections around the country.
posted by cmonkey at 2:08 PM on July 20, 2007


Biggest. Tube. Ever.
posted by Tube at 4:22 PM on July 20, 2007


1. She's blocking the front (rear) vent holes by putting it up against that wall.

2. She's put it right next to a double door inches away from outside, where there poor machine will get to enjoy itermittent doses or rain, snow, dust, and who knows what else (insects and rodents come to mind).

3. It only has a half inch clearance off the ground, flood proof!
posted by furtive at 4:22 PM on July 20, 2007


Your view of this story intrigues me furtive. I see it as involving this woman popping down to PC World and being ruthlessly upsold due to her kindly nature and the partial separation of the left and right hemispheres of her brain. If only it were true. And just imagine the warranty the fuckers would have sold her.
posted by howfar at 5:17 PM on July 20, 2007


She looks pretty good for 75. I wonder if she's married.
posted by stavrogin at 11:23 PM on July 20, 2007


*moves Sweden to the top of "Best Places to Live" list*
posted by Many bubbles at 2:31 AM on July 21, 2007


I want one.
posted by DonJohnson at 4:17 AM on July 21, 2007


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