[ NNSquad ] Re: Effects of bandwidth restrictions (from IP)

["Craig A. Finseth" <fin@finseth.com>]

	...
   This is starting to get really silly.  We're looking at about 40 MBs for
   Windows update per month which is 1000 smaller than Time Warner's 40GB cap. 
	...

You're missing the human psychology aspect of the point: if a resource
is "free", people tend to overuse it.  If it costs per item, people
tend to avoid using items, _even_if_their_normal_usage_is_way_
_below_the_cap_.[*]

So yes, I would expect people to avoid doing anything non-essential in
this case (essential=watch movie, non-essential=updates).

Having an effective feedback mechanism about usage would offset this effect,
but not necessarily all that much.[****]

This is all pretty standard human psychology and has been known for
decades if not longer.

Craig

[*] Example: I still find myself being overly conscious of cell phone
use, even though I've NEVER come even close to using my monthly
minutes in over 15 years.  Most months I'm (well, we're as it's a
family plan) using only 1/4 - 1/3 of the total and often less.[**]

[**] Yes, we're at the smallest number of minutes that makes
sense.[***]

[***] Now, if my kids weren't on unlimited texting, I'd really panic!

[****] I can press a couple of buttons on my cell phone and get the
number of minutes used this month, but I never bother.