As you already read, I started my week without The Tubes. If you ever get the chance to do this while you are at home, I would almost recommend it. I was too busy otherwise to even notice and I was able to leech little bits of internet here and there to check email and upload an episode of THCS.
The reason my internet was turned off was for non-payment. No pay, no play. Totally understandable. It was the getting it turned back on that was difficult.
I’ve been a Verizon FIOS customer for almost 2 years now. I switched to them the day they were available in my neighborhood primarily because of the internet speed they offered. Back then, it was 15k down, 2k up. Cable was close, but not on the upload speed (which I need to Skype and other things). As it turns out, fiber makes everything better. TV is better, especially High Def. I get 1080p with full surround on the network channels, 1080i for on demand. Cable can’t touch that.
One thing that I didn’t know about FIOS is that the entire operation, while being part of the enormous Verizon Network, is run out of a run down rental trailer on an empty dirt lot somewhere on the East Coast. And they have a billing system that I can only describe as being on par with an overly complex system requiring multi-part forms and many #2 pencils.
So, non-payment and my service was disconnected. Was I notified in anyway? A little reminder perhaps via email or phone? A note in my mailbox? Nope, none of that. That’s fine, it’s their business and they can do with it want. The tricky part came when I tried to get service back.
First call lands in Everett, Washington where I get a very nice girl on the line that is very helpful in getting me the information I needed to get my account current and service resumed. Except once my account was turned off, it was removed from the system so I had to start a new account. Odd, but ok.
I then called the pay by phone service which is run by a third party, probably renting a cubicle in the offices on the east coast. I think I pressed every key on my phone twice to get a payment made only to find out that it would take 3 days to credit my account.
3 days?
Payment made, confirmation number in hand, I call back to my girl in WA. She returned my call but I wasn’t available and she didn’t leave a message. Not a problem as I was busy that day too.
The short version.
- Internet got turned off.
- I spent the day in Hollywood. Got to meet George Barris.
- Worked more on an offshoot of my Film Transfer Project. Let’s call it family archiving
- Had a job interview
- Followed the lad around at school
- Got Internet turned back on.
I wasn’t completely without Internet. I was able to ‘borrow’ a few cups from a neighbor to check emails and other important things. Now I have a ton of emails to go through, logs to check and I’m very afraid to open Net News Wire.
Oh yea, a little bit of speed boost too. Gotta love the FIoS
While you wait for more, if you haven’t already, check out my Flickr for some old pictures of yours truly.
No Sunday post today. Instead, a reply to a post by Nathaniel Salzman concerning the new Microsoft ads and Microsoft in general. I would follow that link first before reading on.
Interesting. I haven’t seen the new ad yet, but at least it says Microsoft more than the quirky Seinfeld ads.
A terrible product and user experience: Their products are the Achilles heal Apple is shooting arrows through left and right
Sure it’s bad, but if you’ve been using Windows only since Win98/WinNT4 it’s really not. It’s what you know. When I switched to Apple, I was going crazy trying to figure out the things I did on Windows with a few keystrokes and still have a hard time with the crazy symbols.
Convoluted systems: The user must constantly adapt and relearn, rather than having a system built and adapted to them and what they’re trying to do.
I’ve been using Windows since 3.11 and I don’t remember constantly relearning or adapting to anything. If anything, the way applications act on Windows is way more consistent than on the Mac in some respects. And Windows has, essentially, worked exactly the same since Win95. Vista I’m sure is different, but not too much from what I have seen.
I will say the primary reason for my switching is I got tired of fiddling. I’m a fan of “It Just Works”.
Corporate inertia: When was the last time Microsoft did something truly new?
There is the Surface thing, which is promising. Too bad nobody is really pushing it or coming up with a cool use for it.
I’m in no way a Microsoft/Windows fan boy, but I have been using it for almost 20 years (and DOS before that). I haven’t used Vista yet, but I can say that Windows XP for 99% of it’s users is a great OS, very stable and (as long as they are running IE7), fairly secure.
One thing everyone seems to forget is that while Microsoft was booming with Windows 95/98, Apple had System 7/OS9. While I have heard System 7 was ok, I know from a little experience (and what I have heard) that OS9 was horrible. Microsoft had ME, but as long as your hardware supported it, it was as good as 98. Apple didn’t start getting praise until they released OS X on a wide scale. Before that, they were relegated to hobbyists, print shops and (I wish this would come back) education.
Windows has been around for a while. Crappy ads or not. People will continue to use it as long as that’s what they have in the office. Offices will continue to use it as long as they have software developers that can’t/won’t ditch DOS, IE6 or INI/batch files. And, as long as one can go to Best Buy/Walmart/[enter local electronics store here] and pick up a Windows PC for less than $500, it’s going to be here to stay.
To be honest, I almost didn’t switch. The community surrounding the Apple and it’s products (including the iPod) are a little to enthusiastic for my liking. But I was able to get past that and see the quality of the product, which then justified the price.
I prefer the Mac by a longshot and try to get others to switch every chance I get. You just can’t discount Microsoft because they don’t know how to sell themselves or do anything revolutionary.
For your consideration.
Links:
Boy we are right in the thick of it, aren’t we? Surrounded by so many people that would rather spend their time and energy blaming someone for problems instead of hiking up their skirts and doing something about it.
I understand there are those among us that feel strongly about certain things. Quite strongly in fact. And, when their ‘thing’ isn’t the way they like it watch out! They hit the ‘piss and vinegar’ fill line in short order and start going crazy. On blogs. On YouTube. Everywhere they can get someone to even pretend they are listening. Even, as I saw today, in church.
Folks, if you are so foaming at the mouth riled up against something, then why not focus on doing something about it? Why not focus that energy on affecting change? You recall last week when I was having problems with negativity surrounding me, especially in the MINI Community. Well, I said something to about 3K people about it and this week I’m seeing the change. I did something about it.
It’s not my place to tell a preacher that he shouldn’t be talking about politics on the pulpit. But, and this is only my opinion, it’s not his place to bring politics to his pulpit. If you think the system is that broken, if you think both of the candidates are that bad and are going to do that much damage to this fine country of ours, then why are still standing behind the pulpit? Why do you get out there are show the rest of us why you are so much better than the rest of them.
Then there is the Democrats blaming the Republicans blaming the Democrats blaming the Republicans about the current financial nightmare that is happening on Wall Street. Why doesn’t someone just just right in the middle of all of it, stand on the table and tell them to quit bickering and FIX THEM PROBLEM!
So much wasted energy. And I’ve wasted enough of my own on this topic already. Let us know what you think below.
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