Some Work - Some Don't

January 2, 2002

At times, things go right, then again, other things cascade into "wrongness", if there is such a word.

Such has been the weekend. Daughter's car would not start, and after an unsuccessful attempt at a jump, I feared the $400 repair bill would have to be repeated - for it was, after all, 6 weeks ago that this same problem appeared.

So I stayed home, got the car towed and raced to the office to meet the Ameritech folks who were going to try and troubleshoot the new DSL service I had just installed the day after Christmas. 21k is not my idea of 'Blazing' along the internet.

In the middle of the DSL test, the service station called, and said the car was repaired, no charge, not even for the tow. I offered to pay the $20 bucks difference for the new computer chip and asked them to go ahead and install a new battery.

One down - and I was excited, for I do not enjoy transportation problems.

After 2 hours of work, the technician told me to go ahead and fire up the new modem and test it out. Whoa, 512k, now that's cruising.

Two Down, and I was really getting excited. Thoughts of buying lottery tickets began to run through my head.


And then there is Comcast Cable

Do you ever sit and wonder just what goes on inside the conference rooms of large corporations? Ever wonder just who made the decisions for example to "go ahead, send out the CD for the server conversion. It's been tested."

Tested?

I'd love to have that person's job, for it is a sure thing that he/she is not being paid for any kind of rational employment.

Take it from me, I'm the employer, and it you were that kind of employee, you never would have risen to a decision making position in the company.

You see, just after midnight on Friday night, all service for my local Comcast Cable franchise was transferred from Media One and Road Runner, to whatever they call the current state of being.

Which in a word, sucks.

They killed my router connection, then they killed the net connection, and after spending all day Saturday, and I mean all day, the service barely limped along.

I tried to fix it on Sunday, no luck.

On Monday, I looked at the computer screen and saw that the menu bar said Internet Explorer Comcast Edition. Immediately I set out to remove the offensive thing from my computer and reinstalled IE back to it's original state.

Bill Gates may be the anti-Christ, but generally his junk will work after a crash or two, or three.

Partial success, in that the house was now connected to our "limited" internet service.

Seems that somehow in the caverns of Comcast, their central computers have totally screwed up the addressing or routing of links to the internet. That means that some sites work, some don't. Yahoo for example, works, but not Yahoo mail.

Five days this has gone on.

Tonight I called tech support and asked, when are you going to fix this? No idea was the response.

I told the tech. Pass it on buddy, I have an Idea, and that idea is that Comcast is toast in my house. Have a nice day.

A few minutes ago I got the following E-mail confirmation:

DSL Product selected
Selected Provider:
ISP: EarthLink
Service: Residential ADSL 1500/384
Monthly rate: 49
Line type: RESIDENTIAL LINE

That's a T-1 line folks, the kind of thing you get from a direct university connection.

Sweet.

Now, if my web site server would revive itself, I could continue with my entries about the year in pictures.

Technology, do you ever wonder what we are going to thing about all this in 20 years?

Are we going to have antenna embedded in our skulls for our internet connection?

Now there's a thought for another entry.