I like the Numion speed test. It measure the actual data delivery speed by downloading from numerous web sites. That real speed is very different from the speed Comcast advertises.

Unfortunately, Numion requires Java.

I've had good luck with the Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 modem. (The SB6121 is apparently an obsolete model.) Eventually DOCSIS 3.1 modems will be available.

It took me an estimated 9 hours of communicating with Comcast representatives to get Comcast to bill at the advertised rate, instead of far more than Comcast advertises. This is what works: Call the Comcast executive offices at 215-640-8960. Be very polite and logical, but insistent.

Don't check your internet access speed with Speedtest.net. Apparently that web site always reports the advertised rate, the connection rate, not the data delivery rate. DSLReports Speed Test shows that I get one-seventh the speed Comcast advertises.

Comcast was the 2014 Worst Company In America.

Comcast has apparently found that most people don't spend the many hours Comcast makes it necessary to protest over-billing.

It's interesting to me that Comcast apparently expects employees to abuse customers, and Comcast employees hear that as permission to abuse Comcast, also.

Apparently the U.S. government no longer protects the people, but just allows any abuse that will make the rich richer, or allow the violent to be more violent.

That's one of the problems with Slashdot commenters writing comments that are so off-topic. One person said, "Let's give New mexico back to Mexico." The response was "Right after Mexico gives Mexico back to the Incas."

I intended to say that there were no more Incas, because the Incas contracted European diseases.

"On /. We strive for excellence."

Well, excellence in being stupid and wasting everyone's time is, in fact, excellence, I'm sure you'll agree.

There is a nuclear disaster area in the United States, the Hanford nuclear site. I've heard about the some of the problems over many years from a manager of one of the departments of the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Wikipedia article mentions some of the problems. Here is one quote:

"Citing the 2014 Hanford Lifecycle Scope Schedule and Cost report, the 2014 estimated cost of the remaining Hanford clean up is $113.6 billion..." [my emphasis] Retrieved Dec. 3, 2014.

Here is another quote from the Hanford Wikipedia article: "From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river and, after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned it to the river. Before being released back into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basin for up to six hours. Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several terabecquerels entered the river every day. These releases were kept secret by the federal government."

What is called cleaning Hanford has now taken more than 50 years. The Wikipedia article is not, at present, completely clear about that fact, apparently because, as the quote above says, the U.S. government managed the information so that it did not get into the news, although much of the information was not actually a secret, but was known to people living in the area.