3g/dialup usability

[Bill Crawford]

On Tuesday 17 February 2009 23:33:29 Dan Williams wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-02-17 at 17:51 -0500, Carlos Romero wrote:
> > I might be interested.
> > Thinking of a billing period reset and overage warnings too.
> > NMize modemlights by removing the connect button or connecting it to
> > NM and change the preferences to something simpler.
> > any thoughts?
>
> Yeah, maybe a "Usage" button in the 3G page of the connection editor
> which opens a new dialog, with a button that would force-reset the
> usage, and a calendar picker which you could set to a date + time to
> automatically reset usage when your billing cycle resets.  And a "max
> usage" spinner which, if you get within say 10% of which the applet
> would warn you in yellow, 5% it would warn you in red, etc :)  Thinking
> further, if you get within 1%, the applet could actually deny you the
> ability to activate that 3G connection and nicely explain why, using a
> picture of your mobile provider stealing a fat wad of cash out of a
> small crying child's hands.

Amusingly enough, I remember modifying pppd to do impulse-based connection 
timeouts for similar reasons back in *counts* about 1988? But actually this 
would be useful for other than 3G; most broadband operators have download caps 
(at least here in the UK) and being able to curb one's usage, even where the 
cap isn't enforced too drastically, might be good for people's peace of mind.