What frustrates me the most is the crappy Motorola HDTV cable box they have.  The piece of crap works fine at first, then slowly degrades.  Usually after a storm or a few months of trouble free operation, the cable box goes on the fritz.  It seems that every two months I have to call and have Comcast reset the piece of crap.  I have trouble tuning stations with a bunch of digital blocks on the analog/digital stations and a "Just a moment please, this channel will appear shortly."  Comcast’s solution is to have me unplug the box for an hour.  That NEVER works.  So I call Comcast and sit on hold for a good twenty or thirty minutes (don’t try using chat – they NEVER come online even after two or three hours of having the blasted chat window open).  So when they come online I ask them to send a reset signal.  They never want to.  First, they tell you to unplug it for thirty minutes (I do it for at least an hour before I call).  Next, they tell you that it is because I have it plugged into a surge protector.  Then they’ll tell you that you need a service technician to come out.  No, just send the signal I say.  The associate then goes a signal should never be needed.  Right, it shouldn’t but it fixes it.  I don’t want to take a whole day off to deal with the technician who, believe it our not, probably will not fix it and only make things worse (previous experience). 

Now, if only Comcast would offer an option to call and 800 number to send a box reset, that would be great.  Oh well, what can you expect.

The last time a technician came over here was when we were having the Internet go out periodically (every day or two) for several hours.  The first technician checked the signals, redid the equipment wiring, and then said it was fixed.  The second technician swapped out the cable modem and tested the signal strength and said it was working.  The third technician tested the signal strength said that the house needed to be rewired (new construction) and that it wasn’t Comcast’s problem.  The fourth technician determined it was a wiring problem in the drop between Comcast’s box in the back yard and the panel on the house.  So he took a cable from the van and connected it up.  Well, worked now.  He cut the cable from both ends and strung a cable over the back yard on top of the grass.  Someone would be over in a day or two to bury it.  (Oh, and Comcast wanted to charge for the service call).  After a month of missed appointments a call to the City’s Cable Franchise Liaison got somebody out to bury it.  Of course, in the meantime the Internet still didn’t work.  So yet a couple more technicians came over to do the same thing until finally we got a tech who tested the signal from Comcast’s box.  Lo and behold there was low signal strength from Comcast’s own equipment.  They finally, after nearly three months, traced the signal back up their line to determine that it was a faulty piece of equipment in their local switching office. 

Well, then again this is the company that put a box in the back yard on one end of the building and another box on the other end of the building.  There are five units in our building.  Three units were connected to the box on the west end two to the box on the east end.  We had cable, the other end didn’t.  Of course, their problem says Comcast.  Well, the idiots who installed the cable companies box didn’t connect it to the comcast network.  Plus, out of all of the utilities (Phone, cable, and electric) they are the only ones who installed a box in the back yard with random cables sticking out of the ground (they go nowhere).

I wish the City of Joliet would revoke the franchise agreement and switch to a provider who actually cares about their customers.  The choices in Joliet are dish (which get blocked by clouds sometimes), AT&T (which believe it or not is more incompetent that Comcast) though I have not tried u-Verse, and Comcast which, well, needs a lesson in customer service.

P.S.  I love the speed of the Internet and the support from their Internet division, which is based in Canada.  It’s their cable and physical plant divisions that, well, need to be revamped.

UPDATE 9/2/08 7:48 PM

Comcast was supposed to come from 10-1 today.  With the phone call received at 12:20, apparently Comcast is having issues with the whole neigborhood.  So the repair man did not come out.  Supposedly the cable will be back on this afternoon.  After a soft reset of the cable box, still no picture.  Gosh, I’m sure they will charge for the box rental for the whole month.

Anyway, is it possible to encounter boredom when you have a few hundred webpages to work on?  I’ve avoided this one website (BikeIllinois) I created in ’96 and last updated in ’04 cuz it used FrontPage (which is by far the worst website software I have ever encountered).  I always wanted to convert it over and toyed with writing the software for it (which I never could decide on how I wanted the database to be organized).  Anyway, my plan was to move it over to Dreamweaver but I discovered Drupal, which my gosh, makes the stie so much easier to design.  Drupal is an entirely web-based, database driven website that is fantastically flexible and easy to use (i.e. very well documented).  I like it so much better than Joomla or Mambo (which seem to be perpetually under development and with old, outdated, and skimpy documentation).   The only problem is that in updating the trail maps, I am opening so many PDF’s (verifying the links) that my Firefox is balooning to over 200k as a process – which makes it slow as a snail.  I thought version 3 was supposed to correct the memory leaks…

Well, since I am so bad at posting recently, I should let you know where you can preview my yet unfinished website (I’ve kinda got Cook and Will done).  Check it out at http://www.livin4jc.net/bikeil.  I still have things to do.  I’m going to finish moving and updating the pages from Chicago and the Lou before tackling the theme.  Then I’ll backfill the other regions in the state.  Finally, I’m going to geocode my database so that I can have google maps (provided I can drupalize it ok!)

Check it out and please let me know what you think.  I never was satisfied with the whole Frontpage incarnation and being a hobby site, I never had the time to really devote to it.

Later,

Andy

I do not have a link to the blog in general yet, but am working on it.  Anyway, to go directly to the links visit: http://www.livin4jc.net/blog/directory/

Also, I am open to new blogs to review – so many that I used to follow are dead (or pretty close to it), please let me know your favorite blogs!

So, last month I purchased a new Toshiba Laptop from Office Depot.  They are not only a top notch store, so is their staff.  They not only had the best price, they have always had good service.  And you can always return anything without a service charge.  Finally, they always stand behind their products and rebates. 

Anyway, it has been quite busy.  Seems I am running from one thing to the next.  I ordered a few easter gifts for my nieces from Build a Bear.  I like them, they have nice stuffed animals.  And they ship right away.

So i have been busy working on how to use Vista.  It’s different.  Somethings I like – such as the Aero interface.  However, there are other things that I don’t – like the fact they assume you are computer illiterate.  I have to confirm every “major” change.

I have been working a lot recently.  That is good.  One of my co-workers was out for a while.  That was exciting as I spent nearly two months straight in classes.  I enjoyed that a lot!  I had a Teller Class last week and, though I haven’t graded their work, I believe they all did well.  They worked hard and were a lot of fun – good for the first teller class in six months.

Next month Numb3rs returns and I’ll be visiting Fort Wayne for seeing the Vicars.

Later,

Andy

I purchased my current PC in 2004.  I have lost three internal and two external hard drives.  Three were due to heat-issues.  All three were replaced by Western Digital without question in less than a week.   (I added the second hard  drive to the PC but didn’t spend the money to upgrade the fan – shouldn’t the PC hold what it was designed for?)  The other two were due to power spikes – they were old (5 & 7 years respectively) – and were not plugged into my UPS but only an old surge protector.

Did I lose any information?  A very small amount from between backup rotations.  Here is how I have my PC’s hooked up to avoid any catastophic events:

I have three APC Uninterruptable Power Supplies.  They have line regulators and keep the PC constantly at a healthy power level.  No surges and no sags (sags will destroy HD’s more often then you’d think and a surge protector doesn’t help that at all!).  When lightening struck in my backyard there was no damage whatsoever to any of my electronics that were connected to the UPS devices.  Furthermore, at my church the APC UPS’s there have similarly protected the church computers from damage.

Second, I use backup software to do two things – a weekly intermediate backup to my network drive and a monthly backup to DVD media.  Don’t worry about the software – keep your files in My Documents and backup the entire directory.  Review your Program Files to insure there isn’t program files you want to backup – however it is easier to start fresh with a PC crash and just restore the documents.  I use Migo’s Backup software and have been using their software since 1992.  They are top notch.  (Make sure you have a fast DVD – I can complete a 10 GB backup onto 2 DVD’s with verify in less than an hour)

Finally, get an external hard drive and use it for storage of your most important files.    You can turn it off and on as you need it – and can easily use it on another PC in the event of a system failure.

I have used both Seagate and Western Digital.  Both have failed.  Both companies stand behind their product.  Buy with the longest warranty (Seagate now has 5 years, WD has 3 years max).  Both companies will replace the HD if it fails.  And with the money you save, buy the backup software.   If you backup to another HD – make sure it is external.  DVD’s are great because you can lock them up in a safe or safe deposit box in the event of a burglary or fire.  Remember, the data is far more valuable than the medium.

I guess that Pastor Fisk wasn’t up on the latest technology. In November of 2005, I had a brand new, Hewlett Packard Pentium 75 that, well wasn’t the best on the market (I remember they had 133′s since my buddy at Best Buy had one!). It was in 1996 I threw that piece of junk away and acquired a Pentium MMX 200 from Sony. It served me well until in 2001 when it was, well retired.

Second, Pastor Fisk mustn’t have used the Internet at college. (I’ve been on the Internet since about 1994 when the High School got it.) America Online is not, nor ever has been the Internet. America Online has done more to illiterate and rip-off the American public than has it helped. Anyway, in 1996, the World Wide Web revolution was just beginning to take off. Netscape was in the lead, Mosaic was an innovation, and Internet Explorer hadn’t corrupted the W3 standards. Gopher was plumb full of information, Archie and Veronica had homes on the Internet, and UseNet actually had useful information on it. The Internet was in 1996 a pieceful dominion where you could actually get work done. (I don’t remember porn ads coming into my email back then, but, unfortunately, there was porn back then too) But then again, does this matter? Is there an Internet in heaven? Does God send emails to his angels (could you see Clarence checking his blackberry before saving George Bailey?)? Do the angels run around using Push-to-Talk to coordinate efforts and communicate with the big man himself? Does your Pastor preach primarily about Nextel, America Online (wait – he does peach on Hell now and then, doesn’t he??), Google, Pop-Tarts, and Mozilla? Well, maybe, but I doubt it… While the occasional reference to Christian Porn Stars, America Online, and Pop Tarts might get a chuckle from me while I drive on Cheese Road, it isn’t why I plug Pastor Fouts and Pastor Fisk into my CD player as I drive to work (they are really skinny – time for another potluck!) – it is because of what they (and all true shepherds) preach…

…preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And, for this reason, I commend faithful pastors like Pastors Fisk and Fouts to my prayers each and every night. It doesn’t matter that Pastor Fisk uses some interesting imagery while the only loafs that Pastor Fouts talks about are of the sugar variety interspersed through quotes dead theologians. When you finish with their sermons you are left with one thing – the Word, the Truth and the Light. Isn’t that what it is all about?

Now I wish I knew how to keep my hard drives in tip top shape. I only have problems with the internal hard drives and I know the voltage to the drive is ok, it’s been tested by Sony’s lab and two independent shops…

On top of this hassle, I have to "fix" the church’s computers.  Pastor’s sonset up the network, but I don’t believe he knew what he was doing…he locked out the ability to update Windows – even from the administrator account!  Needless to say, it doesn’t help that Pastor is computer illiterate.

Andy