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A Raspberry Pi Tweetbot that complains to your ISP every time you have a slow connection

Internet service providers (ISPs) not really providing customers with the internet speeds they paid for isn’t anything new.

Neither are Tweetbots – programmes or machines (sometimes based on Raspberry Pi and other boards) that will create tweets according to specific conditions. What is new, however, is using them both.

Created by a Reddit user in the /r/technology subreddit, this set-up will Tweet to American ISP Comcast every time the customer’s 150mbps down/ 10mbps up falls bellow a third of the down speed (50mbps). The Twitter account, @A_Comcast_User then shoots off a Tweet asking what exactly is going on.

This little creation is actually pretty simple: the Raspberry Pi runs a speed test on the connection every hour and stores the data. That data is used to decide whether or not to send out a Tweet, as well as turning it into a library of graphs so the creator can check up on the speeds.

Raspberry-Pi--Twitter

The creator sought to build this bot after noticeable resolution drops while watching Netflix (480p or lower) as well as high latency in Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

Now, for the problems: the Raspberry Pi can’t capture speeds higher than 90mbps, so when it reaches the cap the data isn’t exactly reliable. Also; as pointed out by another Reddit user: when the account Tweets to Comcast, an automated reply will deal with it. The creator has stated that they do not follow these messages up, so the whole project becomes a loop of robots speaking to each other over the internet.

That being said, the ploy seems to have worked, as the service provided as been better since the incessant Tweeting.

[Source – Reddit, Image – Hubon CampusTom Szpytman]

 

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