My Computer 12 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Crackberry status

Talked to our local telcomm person — a very nice young lady that I actually hired long ago when I was doing the IT site management gig. Formally, the company only…

Talked to our local telcomm person — a very nice young lady that I actually hired long ago when I was doing the IT site management gig.

Formally, the company only buys the 8700. The telcomm group only supports the 8700 if there are problems.

That said, there are plenty of “caveat emptor” exceptions made. They can enable the service, and I can go to a local ~~AT&T~~/~~Cingular~~/at&t store and buy the 8300 (Curve) myself (expensing the cost back), then move the SIM chip from my existing Treo to it, and all should be well, and all should be well.

On the one hand, there’s a bit of a risk involved — if the phone goes all flooey, I’m on my own. On the other hand, that’s been my assumption with my Treo, etc., and as long as the phone supports the Exchange services (it does), there’s nothing else I should need to worry about from the company telcomm folks.

Famous last words.

So … approvals being circulated for e-sig, and then …

Crackberry

Continued poking at the whole Crackberry thing. Learned the “standard” model we get (the 8700 — most likely I’d be getting the 8700c to minimize disruption in service). Pretty much…

Continued poking at the whole Crackberry thing. Learned the “standard” model we get (the 8700 — most likely I’d be getting the 8700c to minimize disruption in service).

Pretty much most of the stuff I have on my Treo is available on this guy, and the stuff that isn’t isn’t all that important. Except …

… no camera.

It seems odd that, having once pooh-poohed having a cell phone camera and not having had one until I got the Treo, I find that prospect so daunting. But it is so freaking convenient to be able to snap some sort of picture nearly anywhere I go that the thought of losing that capability is … really, deeply irksome.

I need to find out how rock-solid the “standard” is — either the Blackberry 8100 Pearl or 8300 Curve have cameras, and I’m willing to live with a bit of other inconvenience if they’ll support my Exchange stuff (which it appears they do).

I may be dragged into the Cult …

… of the Crackberry. While I don’t expect to be a 24×7 office e-mail junkie (I trust Margie to whomp me over the head with a mallet if I do),…

… of the Crackberry.

While I don’t expect to be a 24×7 office e-mail junkie (I trust Margie to whomp me over the head with a mallet if I do), there are enough times when I should be in touch when I’m not that it’s beginning to irk.

Biggest concern at the moment is what I’ll lose from my Treo 650 — and from my decade-long (or close to it) symbiosis with the Palm platform. I’ve already charted out the software I really use on my Treo and will be comparing to the feature set on Crackberry models the company supports.

Meanwhile — aside from that whole “e-mail addict” thing — anyone have some contemporary experience with Blackberries such as could offer some advice? (I used one several years ago and found it the Worst PIM Ever, but I suspect it’s improved some since then.)

Potpourri for $517, Alex!

I’m struggling a bit with the Potpourri entry names (no kidding, Dave). I realize that if I’m doing them on a regular basis, I don’t want to just say “for…

I’m struggling a bit with the Potpourri entry names (no kidding, Dave). I realize that if I’m doing them on a regular basis, I don’t want to just say “for Tuesday” or something. Giving the date in the name seems redundant (unless done “cleverly” like the above), and will still potentially end up with dupes. And my other idea (church feast day names) is … well, maybe a bit more religion than even I’d think of putting up here.

Ideas are welcome.

Meanwhile …

I’ve joked about the Olden Days use of Lysol as a feminine hygiene product. Here’s an interesting article that puts it into perspective within the history of birth control in the US (“feminine hygiene” evidently being something of a code phrase in those days of federal and industry restrictions on interstate commerce in contraception).
Design and typeface — Choosing the right typeface for the right job — and how you go about doing it. “Then, after a decade, I left my first job. Suddenly I could use any typeface I wanted, and I went nuts. On one of my first projects, I used 37 different fonts on 16 pages. My wife, who had attended Catholic school herself, found this all too familiar. She remembered classmates who had switched to public school after eight years under the nuns: freed at last from demure plaid uniforms, they wore the shortest skirts they could find. ‘Jesus,’ she said, looking at one of my multiple font demolition derbies. ‘You’ve become a real slut, haven’t you?'”
I feel so much better about airport security requiring photo IDs, now that I know you can just make your own and nobody will apparently be the wiser.
What happens when ask some designers to identify pieces of technology that influenced them? You get some very cool, classic items that were both attractive and had a lot of popularity. I’m proud to say I was a Palm V user, and I did indeed love it.
For the obsessive web designer — making form buttons look the same in IE, Firefox, and Safari.
Ah, the Daily Show … integrating news as disparate as Iraqi press crackdowns, Milblog restrictions, and the latest YouTube nuttiness — “Ottoman-humping gigolos! You’re ruining troop morale!”
Samples (with a UK flair) of website disclaimers, T&Cs, and privacy policies. On my list of things to do.
Kottke points to a YouTube collection of the last ten seconds of every Season 1 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Why? Why not?
Negotiating a salary. Nothing earth-shattering — just solid advice. “My single most important piece of advice about negotiating is to know what you want and be happy if you get it. The biggest mistake I know of is worrying that you might have been able to get more.”
How to view Wikipedia on a PDA. This came up for me the other day. Wapedia looks to be the way to go.
Larry Flynt on Jerry Falwell. Falwell sued him in 1983; the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that public figures couldn’t sue over satire. “My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling.”

Potpourri for Sunday

So I can close some of these browser tabs … “Chistians and Atheists, living together … mass hysteria …” You can find an address for a secondary calendar in…

So I can close some of these browser tabs …

“Chistians and Atheists, living together … mass hysteria …”
You can find an address for a secondary calendar in your Google Calendar — but it’s only accessible from within Google (for invites from another Google calendar), not from outside (e.g., for invites from someone’s Outlook). Lame. On the bright side, you can now get notifications from secondary calendars, which is spiffy.
Bringing back the near-dead. Interestingly, it’s often not oxygen-death that immediately kills you, it’s the resuscitation effort.
Uncertainty, dogs, and Many Worlds.
The Freeways of Tomorrow, according to Yesterday.
Picking unusual baby names so that they’re Googleable. (N.B. There are three folks with Kitten’s first/last name who show up in IMDB, so she’ll never be “unique” in that way … though if you toss in the the middle name, only a couple of things from my site come up.
Two books I loved as a child.

And for Episcopotpourri …

The Diocese of Colorado has formally filed suit to establish its ownership of Grace & St Stephens. The suit includes all sorts of interesting further allegations about the shenanigans down there (including paper shredding … lots and lots of paper shredding …).
Amidst all the angst, remembering to laugh is important.

My Firefox extensions

Got an IM from Amanda last evening asking about an updated Extensions list for my FF installation. It has been a while. Here’s the list — the must haves are…

Got an IM from Amanda last evening asking about an updated Extensions list for my FF installation. It has been a while. Here’s the list — the must haves are in bold.

Adblock Plus 0.7.5.1: Faboo tool for blocking banner ads and other ad images and spaces on web pages. I get wildly spoiled by this, and it’s often a shock when I go onto the web on IE and see how many ads there are on pages I visit all the time.
Add Bookmark Here 0.5.5: Makes it easy to add bookmarks within the bookmark menu.
AI Roboform Toolbar for Firefox 6.9.2: Roboform stores passwords and form info (e.g. on credit card or shipping forms online). Saves me hours every week. Works with IE by default, with FF with a plug-in.
Bookmarks Synchronizer 1.03: Backs up my bookmarks online, on the off chance my machine crashes. Not sure if I’m going to keep this — what I really need to do is take a couple of days and clean out my oversized bookmark file.
BugMeNot 1.3: Public helper application to fill in dummy login/passwords for “free registration required” sites.
ChromEdit Plus 2.6.2: Makes it easier to update FF config files.
Clippings 2.6: Create a library of cut-and-paste blocks for use in Web forms. A handy way to help if you blog just through the online blog client.
DownThemAll! 0.9.9.8: A nice tool for doing mass download of files (esp. by type — graphics vs videos vs music, etc.)
Extended Copy Menu 1.3: Nice tool that will let you, in context, copy a block of text from a web page with or without HTML formatting.
FireFTP 0.96.4: Free FTP client that works through FF. Not the most spectacular FTP client out there, but it works pretty well.
Flashblock 1.5.3: Any Flash that gets opened from a web page needs a click on it before it can play. Great way to avoid Flash ads. You can also whitelist regularly visited sites that use Flash for menus (bleah).
Forecastfox 0.9.5.2: Put an Accuweather forecast at the bottom of the window.
Google Pagerank Status 0.9.7: Put a little PR bar at the bottom of the window for each page you visit.
IE View Lite 1.3: Want to see how a site looks in IE? Got sites that you need to automatically open in IE only? Here’s the tool to do it.
ListZilla 0.8: Export a list of all your FF add-ons/extensions to a text or HTML file. Made preparing this list a lot easier, I’ll tell you.
Print Preview Toolbar Button 0.1: Not the greatest toolbar button, but it fills in an annoying FF gap.
Resizeable Form Fields 0.2.1: Stretch a form field larger (or smaller) for easier entry. Faboo!
SnagIt Firefox Extension 1.0.1: I use SnagIt for image captures (actual image files, or screen caps).
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.5.2: Extends FF’s tab controls and behaviors. Excellent tool.
Talkback 2.0.0.3: Comes with FF; lets you feedback to Mozilla when things break.

And there you have it. Anyone have any FF extensions they find invaluable?

WiFi at LAX

Mirabile dictu, the UAL terminals (7, at least) at LAX now have Tmobile WiFi. I spotted the access point on top of the gate counter, and checked it out while…

Mirabile dictu, the UAL terminals (7, at least) at LAX now have Tmobile WiFi. I spotted the access point on top of the gate counter, and checked it out while waiting for my plane last night. Previously, WiFi was only available via leakage from the United Red Carpet room.

Booting up, I quickly spotted the Tmobile access point. I did hesitate a minute — recalling security warnings past and current, even tricksier hacks, But I went ahead with it via a VPN client, since the one on my laptop for company access includes Tmobile access. That made me feel quite a bit more secure, it worked like a champ, and the charges were automagically routed to the company rather than requiring a credit card of my own.

Wasn’t there long (fortunately), since I got on stand-by, but it was nice I could get on at all. Did some office work, a bit of writing, and then headed home.

Games past

I’m now doing archiving off my old Thunderbird files (what didn’t get loaded into GMail), including all the e-mail correspondence around various games past. My IDC Spycraft/FATE campaign ……

I’m now doing archiving off my old Thunderbird files (what didn’t get loaded into GMail), including all the e-mail correspondence around various games past.

My IDC Spycraft/FATE campaign …

Firefly …

Margie’s Voyage into Discovery D&D campaign …

Dogs in the Vineyard …

Necropolis …

The Justice Squad …

Oriental Adventures …

Nobilis …

Pulp Adventures …

Star Wars …

… and more.

*sigh*

Lots of good times there. And no matter how things have changed, damn, I still want to get back into the regular gaming (and GMing) swing of things. Yeah, you’ve heard it all before. Still … if I can get a bit of a jump-start from my muse …

A new week

I’m actually feeling quite refreshed this week, after a long, but enjoyable, weekend. Things on my list: Figure out with Margie what Kitten’s summer schedule is going to look like….

I’m actually feeling quite refreshed this week, after a long, but enjoyable, weekend.

Things on my list:

Figure out with Margie what Kitten’s summer schedule is going to look like. There’s Girl Scout Camp stuff, there’s Extended Grandparents Visit stuff, there’s Vacation Bible School, there’s Franklin Friends, there’s a plethora of bits. Need to map it out and start getting orders in.
Now that I’m done with archiving everything out of Outlook, I need to do the same out of Thunderbird (still).
I’d really like to finish work on the WIST blog/site. I got stalled with some weird archive listing issues, and I need to just dedicate an evening to working on that.
After a weekend of comfort food, luau/Easter, and Anniversary grub, I am seriously back on the Geek Diet.
Catching up on my blogroll/Google Reader list. Paring out some of same (no point in keeping stuff I’m not reading).

Lent is over, but my “thing” for that period — cleaning the dishes and pots and pans from the sink and counter every night — continues. A comfortable and pleasant good habit, pleasant in terms of liking having an empty sink and clean counter from it, as well as the sense of domestic virtue it conveys.

All in all, it looks like a busy, but good, week.

I believe my eyeballs will stop bleeding soon

After many, many hours (many more than anticipated, and many more late at night this week post-homecoming), I’ve finished doing the last e-mail extracts from thirteen years of PST archives….

After many, many hours (many more than anticipated, and many more late at night this week post-homecoming), I’ve finished doing the last e-mail extracts from thirteen years of PST archives. Which means I can actually be in the office today and not worry that the new automated policies will prevent me from accessing them.

(Though I note that … um … still able to do so with the one test PST file I left online. Nice.)

Ye gods — that was probably a 8-10 gigabytes of data filtered through, mostly in the last couple of weeks. I now have refreshed memory of pretty much my entire Denver career (well, as refreshed as sifting through subject lines can be). And I have a new respect for suggestions that subject lines be made informative, rather than witty (cf. this blog post title).

On the bright side, those extracts are now on my hard drive, being indexed by Google Desktop, which means that, to the extent that they are at all of value, they will be accessible, rather than locked away on multiple archive CDs.

That means that, once I catch up with a bit of, oh, real work, I should be able to resume normal activities hither and thither, which will be nice (for me, at least).

WDW07 – Keeping in touch

So, after an offhand comment from Doyce the weekend before, I discovered a new way to “stay in touch” with the office. The biggest problem I have while on vacation…

So, after an offhand comment from Doyce the weekend before, I discovered a new way to “stay in touch” with the office.

The biggest problem I have while on vacation is knowing what phonecons I need to attend regardless. I try to keep the whole work-life balance in balance, but there was some big stuff going on Thursday-Friday that I knew I’d need to dial into.

I’m not all hooked up with a Crackberry, and though the Treo is a “smart” phone, doing IMAP mail with it from the office has always been a bit problematic. Besides which, I don’t need to access everything. Most of what I need is to know about important meetings, both that they are coming and a reminder when they are happening.

Aha.

I already have an Outlook rule to shunt meeting invitations into their own folder (so that they are highly visible for responding to). I simply extended that last week to (a) send a copy to my cell phone (so that I got an immediate notification that something was scheduled), and to (b) send a copy to my Gmail account. Gmail then automagically made it a tentative appointment in my Google Calendar, complete with time zone-adjusted notification alarm before hit happened.

I immediately knew, then, when a meeting was scheduled. I also got a reminder message before it was actually supposed to start (keeping track of the Real World is tough enough in Disney World) and could act accordingly (which, in a couple of cases, meant getting on the phone whilst the family was lounging at the pool).

Good stuff.

It’s also been suggested that I do something similar on the other end — forward invites to Gmail events to my office e-mail, so that they can be sucked in (not quite as automagically) into my Outlook calendar, and thus synced onto my Treo. Also a good idea that I will (selectively) pursue.

Y’know, pretty soon all this computer stuff is going to actually make our lives easier. Imagine!

(As a parenthetical note, the WDW Coronado Springs resort had wired Ethernet access in each room — $10/day. It also had WiFi in the Conference Center, I heard. And there was a Business Center where Net access could be had for $10/15 min (!), plus $1/page to print things … except (a very nice touch) any sort of travel arrangements/documents. I.e., I could go in there yesterday morning, and check in Margie via the Internet and print a “B” boarding pass for her, for free. That was, in point of fact, the only online stuff I did for the weekend, except some very rare Gmail checking by phone.)

Google Reader

About a month or so back, I shifted over from my beloved Blogmatrix Jaeger RSS reader to Google Reader. At the time, I was bugged by some unreliability in Jaeger…

About a month or so back, I shifted over from my beloved Blogmatrix Jaeger RSS reader to Google Reader. At the time, I was bugged by some unreliability in Jaeger (e.g., if the system was shut down while Jaeger was updating a feed, it might lose even the entry for that feed), and I’ve been on sort of a Google kick of late.

Good decision on my part.

Jaeger is still, IMO, a fine product (albeit shamefully abandoned, woefully under-supported, and now nearly vanished from Blogmatrix’s site). It’s second biggest strength, to me, was not integrating a crappy browser into an RSS reader, meaning things would load directly into Firefox (and meaning its footprint was light). More important than that, it was brutally powerful in detecting updates — looking for RSS feeds on the site, looking for other aggregation sites that might have feeds, and, if all
else failed, allowing you to detect link and content changes on a page so that you could effectively keep up to date on non-RSSed sites. It also had a nice export tool to help me create my blog’s blogroll. I’d used it effectively for four or five years.

But Google Reader — is really nice.

The page organization is solid.
The ability to see reads I’ve already read is nice.
The in-reader browser is … okay, I’ve learned to like the convenience (and security) of that.
It’s okay at finding feeds — not as good as Jaeger, but I only found two or three sites on my blogroll that it didn’t work on (way down from the last time I tried another reader).
I like it that Google is visiting each site, not my browser — that hurts their being able to see me as a statistic, but it also keeps the company security folks happy.
And, of course, it’s available from any net-connected computer, not just from my own PC.

It’s just a nice, useful tool. Highly recommended as a way of keeping up on the sites you visit.

An unfamiliar absence

I don’t know which is the worst thing about leaving my cell phone at home … … being cut off and unable to talk with anyone while away from my…

I don’t know which is the worst thing about leaving my cell phone at home …

… being cut off and unable to talk with anyone while away from my desk?

… or, every time I get up, feeling some niggling sense of wrong, patting my hip, and discovering (for the umpteenth time already today) that my cell phone isn’t there?

Your helpful MS Word tip for today

I had a period of about three months where it took for-evah to open up Word on my machine. Like, very slowly. Like, on the order of a minute or…

I had a period of about three months where it took for-evah to open up Word on my machine. Like, very slowly. Like, on the order of a minute or so. Like, to the point where I was using WordPad and text editors rather than Word.

I did a number of stabs at researching the problem. Most things pointed to Word looking for files online, but that didn’t apply to me. Others simply says, “uninstall it and reinstall it and see if it works” (hate those kind of answers).

Finally had the problem solve itself, and in a way that called to mind a solution I’d read and either disregarded or forgotten to follow up on. It had suggested deleting the NORMAL.DOT style master file. One day I got an odd message saying that my saving a document was going to overwrite NORMAL .DOT and is that what I wanted? I answered “Yes” and, hey-presto, Word now loads up in 5-10 seconds. Woot!

So, as an ongoing reminder to myself (and suggestion to anyone else in the same boat) … try deleting NORMAL.DOT. “I hear that works sometimes (whistles innocently).”

Non-recommended

Okay, I appreciate my computer being sensitive to my desire, when planning on leaving the office, to shut down swiftly. Throwing up a Blue Screen of Death, though — that’s…

Okay, I appreciate my computer being sensitive to my desire, when planning on leaving the office, to shut down swiftly.

Throwing up a Blue Screen of Death, though — that’s maybe a bit overly-zealous.

Gmail for all

Google Mail was originally (three years ago) just a “by invitation” service, which let Google scale it appropriately and also lent it a certain cachet of rarity. That’s been expanded…

Google Mail was originally (three years ago) just a “by invitation” service, which let Google scale it appropriately and also lent it a certain cachet of rarity. That’s been expanded over time (first 5 invites per current user, then 100 invites, then anyone with a cell phone), and now the service is open to everyone.

E-mail is a personal choice, and no solution is the best solution for everyone, but I’ve been pretty happy with going with Gmail since last year, having converted from a Thunderbird client on my PC. I recommend folks take a look at it.

(via Les)

The free Wi-fi trap

I’m sure in a year or two this will be as obvious as “don’t hand your credit cards to strangers (except, y’know, at restaurants),” but for now, it’s good info….

I’m sure in a year or two this will be as obvious as “don’t hand your credit cards to strangers (except, y’know, at restaurants),” but for now, it’s good info.

The next time you’re at an airport looking for a wireless hot spot, and you see one called “Free Wi-Fi” or a similar name, beware — you may end up being victimized by the latest hot-spot scam hitting airports across the country.
You could end up being the target of a “man in the middle” attack, in which a hacker is able to steal the information you send over the Internet, including usernames and passwords. And you could also have your files and identity stolen, end up with a spyware-infested PC and have your PC turned into a spam-spewing zombie. The attack could even leave your laptop open to hackers every time you turn it on, by allowing anyone to connect to it without your knowledge.
[…] First, let’s take a look at how the attack works. You go to an airport or other hot spot and fire up your PC, hoping to find a free hot spot. You see one that calls itself “Free Wi-Fi” or a similar name. You connect. Bingo — you’ve been had!
The problem is that it’s not really a hot spot. Instead, it’s an ad hoc, peer-to-peer network, possibly set up as a trap by someone with a laptop nearby. You can use the Internet, because the attacker has set up his PC to let you browse the Internet via his connection. But because you’re using his connection, all your traffic goes through his PC, so he can see everything you do online, including all the usernames and passwords you enter for financial and other Web sites.
In addition, because you’ve directly connected to the attack PC on a peer-to-peer basis, if you’ve set up your PC to allow file sharing, the attacker can have complete run of your PC, stealing files and data and planting malware on it.

The underlying theme is “Don’t connect to anything you’re not sure of, and make sure your autoconnecting is either turned off or tightly controlled.”

I do a fair amount of business travel, and have had multiple occasions to connect into WiFi access points at airports (and other locations). While I’ve tried to be careful, this article will have me being even moreso.

Um … no thanks … I’ll just use this nice clean pay phone over here …

Cell phones are, um, a scosh filthy. Mobile phone retailer Dial-a-Phone conducted the study taking swabs from everyday objects and analyzing the bacteria found on them. The shocking results found…

Cell phones are, um, a scosh filthy.

Mobile phone retailer Dial-a-Phone conducted the study taking swabs from everyday objects and analyzing the bacteria found on them. The shocking results found that there’s more muck on our mobiles than the average door handle, keyboard, and bottom of a shoe or even a toilet seat.
[…] The research confirmed the presence of skin bacteria including staphylococcus aureus on the phone, keyboard, toilet seat and door handle. The shoe in contrast had bacteria from the soil and air.
Joanne Verran, Professor of Microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University comments: “Mobile phones, like many everyday objects such a telephones and computer keyboards, harbor bacteria. However, being ‘mobile’, they are stored in bags or pockets, are handled frequently, and held close to the face. In other words, they come into contact with more parts of our body and a wider range of bacteria than toilet seats!”
“The phones contained more skin bacteria than the any other object; this could be due to the fact that this type of bacteria increases in high temperatures and our phones are perfect for breeding these germs as they’re kept warm and cozy in our pockets, handbags and brief cases. These bacteria are toxic to humans, and can cause infections if they have the opportunity to enter the body.”

Um … eww.

Of course, now I expect to see anti-septic wipes for folks to carry around to wipe off their cell phones …

(via Terry)

Trust yet verify

Sunday: Cable internet outage. Margie calls. After being told there’s a 110 minute wait time on hold, someone immediately gets on the line with her (which, I guess, is the…

Sunday: Cable internet outage. Margie calls. After being told there’s a 110 minute wait time on hold, someone immediately gets on the line with her (which, I guess, is the better way to err). They note there’s a problem in the neighborhood that’s under repair. Internet comes back later.

Monday. Margie works from home. Hilarity ensues as the internet connection bobs up and down like Don Knotts’ adams apple. Calls to Comcast yield a similar explanation. Everything is copacetic by end of day.

Tuesday: I work from home. About 8:30a the connection goes down. I call Comcast. Very nice lady tells me there’s no outage showing in the area. I schedule a house call. I am told that if the problem turns out to be Comcast’s, the house call is free. If it turns out to be ours (bad cable, user error (PEBCAK), whatever), we’ll have to pay a $40 service charge. Fine. First available tech is Wednesday, when nobody will be home. I opt for early Thursday,
when I will be. Connection comes back up shortly before 10a.

Wednesday: Margie and I both in the office, so no observation of whether the connection goes down. Margie notes to me that she saw a lot of Comcast activity at the top of the street when she left, so maybe there was a problem there. In the afternoon, I go ahead and call to cancel the service trip — and am told that the appointment had already been automagically canceled from their end because a problem had been found and corrected.

Nobody, however, had bothered to tell us this. There was no message on our phone when I got home. There was no e-mail in my Comcast e-mail account. I might have done some serious rearrangement to my life to have made sure I could be home this morning. I might have had additional things I needed them to look at …

And I would have been sitting at home until 8 a.m. or longer before I called up to find out that the appointment was canceled. If I had “canceled” the appointment without saying anything, do not doubt for a moment that I would have been invoiced for a service call. Comcast gets no penalty accrued to it except a nastygram from me and an uncomplimentary blog entry, letting folks know how Comcast sucks.

Which, of course, is hardly a news flash.

Lesson Learned: Verify the appointment is still on (or canceled) yourself. It’s a PitA, but Comcast isn’t going to do it for you.

Disco is not dead!

So Margie’s telecommute from home yesterday turned out to be matter of frustration as our cable data connection bobbed up and down during the day. We’d had a connection problem…

So Margie’s telecommute from home yesterday turned out to be matter of frustration as our cable data connection bobbed up and down during the day. We’d had a connection problem on Sunday morning, too, a “known service outage.”

Never gave a thought about it as I worked from home today, but …

… well, about 8:30 or so, it went down. And, hey presto!, at about 10 it came back up.

Have a Comcast service call set up for Thursday morning (when I’ll also be up). We’ll see.

It would be intersting to determine if the timing is the same every day …