Internets – Regular Guy

A Day Late and Many Dollars Short

brian — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:38:20 +0000

I made a private promise that I would blog every day in March. I didn’t share this with anyone because I know myself and had low expectations. But here is my first post of March explaining why I didn’t post on the 1st of March.

The problems started a while back. We randomly lost Internet one day. I went through rigamarole with Comcast online and eventually got the service restored. At the end of the call, I agreed that a tech did not need to come out because everything was working.

Plus, I might have to pay for that service call. Mind you, I can afford to do that. The idea just didn’t appeal to me if everything was fixed.

Fast forward a few weeks and we start having random dropouts. The only solution is to turn off both the modem and router and turn them back on. High-level stuff.

Then it starts happening more. Like, every 30-60 minutes sometimes. So I contact Comcast again, this time on Feb. 28. They immediately tell me I need a new modem – which is not untrue because I have increased the speed of our package, but that shouldn’t be causing the problem. I tell them we need someone to come look at the line into the house.

So they schedule that. Then they try to move up our appointment for a time I told them we were not available. So I get snippy in the Twitter DM thread and they schedule us for the afternoon of March 1.

The first thing the guy does is say we need a new modem. Then he spends a while working on the outside lines, which had been damaged by squirrels. That gets repaired, and he tells us that everything is working fine.

Then it dies again. Reset. Dies again. So I do what any smart person should do – grudgingly admit they may have been right and head out to Target to get a new modem.

Setup is easy, peasy. We climb into bed. Maria turns on our Fire Stick.

And it dies again. At this point, I’m gutted. It can’t be our router. It just can’t. I don’t know why I refuse to accept this, but I do. So I do a factory reset of the router. Then another when it won’t connect. Then a third. At some point in there, I order a new mesh router package on Amazon.

My router finally connects. Then is not connected when I wake up in the middle of the night. I resign myself to us having to just use the hard-wired connection to the modem and the data on our phones until the new router shows up. Until …

Target has pretty much the same router for the same price. So I got it this morning. And it’s easy to set up. Now we have Internet again, hopefully for good.

So that’s why I will write a blog post every day in March except one.

No Turning Back

brian — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 16:08:03 +0000

I have spent years with one philosophy – cable TV is not the devil. Some people I knew would brag about how few channels they had, and I would point out all that they had missed. I defended cable prices by saying that we got value for what we paid.

But over the past couple of years, I started to see things in a different light. First of all, my daughter, like a lot of teens, found her entertainment in places other than the cable box. Secondly, streams of shows on network sites or places like Hulu made the DVR almost obsolete for me. Lastly, some companies started to find new ways to offer cable channels.

That’s how we found ourselves downgrading our cable package to the lowest possible level – a level I used to mock – recently. We only get local channels and a few shopping networks. I had kind of wanted to go even further and ditch cable altogether, but my wife’s PBS habit and the knowledge that Comcast would jack up our Internet rate killed that idea.

So we now get our cable through Playstation Vue, which costs just half of the money we have saved by downgrading our cable (and getting rid of the DVR and the sports package). I can only think of one or two channels we don’t get that I wished we still had, but we will survive.

The experience has been great so far. I have had a couple of instances where the network cut out or the Roku box we use reset, but the disruptions have been minimal. I can use my PS Vue credentials to sign into a number of TV apps, including Watch ESPN so I get the full experience.

I do miss having a TV guide (we use the Roku, which doesn’t have that feature) or being able to channel surf easily, but those are small disruptions. I have had no problem watching sports via the Roku, which provides a solid stream.

We chose Vue because of the price and selection of channels. Sling TV just didn’t have enough and limited each subscription to one stream at a time, which just wasn’t going to cut it. But I am eager to see what other options come available. Being able to cancel one and start another without delay or penalty could be interesting in the next year or so.

I have already inspired at least one friend to do the same. Even if you love your cable service, check out Vue or Sling or keep an eye on the service Hulu plans to roll out next year. You might save some money without missing a beat in your viewing habits.

Bragging About Nothing

brian — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 13:04:29 +0000

I have to admit, I used to do this. I still might do it on occasion, but I try to avoid this particular annoyance as much as possible these days. Partially because I realize it doesn’t matter, but mostly because I have realized how stupid it sounds.

People have to stop bragging about not doing things.

I’m not talking about the not doing things that I admire, like spending a whole day on your couch in sweats watching TV for no good reason. That is admirable and should be shared with the world. I’m talking about the kind of not doing things that annoying sports business writer Darren Rovell tweeted about over the weekend.

Realize it’s not what majority want to do, but it’s my 8th year of not filling out a bracket. Don’t think I will ever go back.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 15, 2015

This one got me for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love March Madness and fill out brackets like they are going out of style. I have done this forever so the fact that not filling out a bracket is some sort of badge of honor just makes me roll my eyes. Second, it was from Rovell, who is a twit.

But this isn’t just about March Madness brackets. We see it with any cultural phenomenon. People like to brag that they don’t care about the Super Bowl or Super Bowl commercials or the Oscars (I have been guilty of that) or pretty much any sports or pop culture event that brings people together.

I like some of those things and don’t like others, but why should I or anyone else feel compelled to puff our chest out when we aren’t interested in something a lot of other people like? Twitter and Facebook, that’s why.

I love social networks like those, but that’s pretty much the whole reason for this. People who love these events talk about them a lot, and those who are not included feel like they need to join the conversation if only to say they don’t want to join the conversation. It’s the ultimate “look at me move.”

Which is why the ultimate “look at me” guy Darren Rovell was the one that kind of set me over the edge. As I said, I am sure I have done this, usually with the Oscars and Grammys. I think I have learned my lesson. If you want credit for not doing something, you’re probably the kind of guy people don’t want joining them while they enjoy their favorite things. So just shut up.

How I Pulled One Over on Lands End

brian — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:24:55 +0000

Well, not really, but I made out nicely. Some of the details will be scarce since it involves Christmas gifts for my wife, but the gist will be clear.

I went online the other day to order some things my wife had expressed an interest in. After I added them to the shopping cart, I poked around the site a little to see if I could find any other goodies to put under the tree. She really likes Lands End clothing so it was worth a shot.

Something caught my eye and, while she may have ended up returning it, I figured it was worth a shot because of the good price so I added it to my cart. Then I decided to check out.

While going through that process, I noticed the total of my order – $49.98. Lands End has a habit of kicking in discounts and special deals at the $50 level. This time it involved free shipping. I had a moment of pause.

The regular shipping would get the items to me by Christmas. That cost $8. If I wanted to realistically add something to my cart to get over $50, I would probably spend at least $8 so chasing the free shipping made absolutely no sense. I just had to suck it up and place the order.

As I looked at the e-mail confirmation, I noticed an e-mail address for any feedback on the transaction. So I sent them a quick note telling them I am a loyal customer and wondered if I could get the free shipping since I came so close to the $50 target.

They got back to me within a few hours with a fairly canned response (note to retailers who do this sort of thing – make sure the font style and size of the message that the customer service people paste into the e-mail matches the rest of what they type) that pretty much shot down my idea of cutting me a break. But I figured it was worth one more shot.

I sent a very simple message: “So no love for being two cents off?”

Just a little over two hours yet, I got the message I wanted to see. They had decided to manually override the shipping charge because I came so close to $50. I really appreciated it since this kind of service really breeds customer loyalty.

But that isn’t really how I pulled one over on them. I mentioned that the item I went out on a limb to purchase came at a good price, right? In fact, the color I wanted was no longer available in the size I needed because it was on sale. I liked the color I picked, but knew that this was an item either in demand or at the end of its life.

The shipping notice came just a little while ago. That item was no longer available, and that part of my order had been cancelled. But I still got the free shipping even though my order was less than half of $50.

I never would have been close to the $50 threshold without the cancelled item so I ended up catching a huge break. Remember, it never hurts to nicely ask these companies for some special service. Sometimes, it works out more in your favor than you could ever imagine.

Ain’t She Tweet

brian — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:41:22 +0000

Will Leitch, normally known for his snarkiness at the great sports blog Deadspin, has a great article about Twitter at New York Magazine, where he serves as a contributing editor.

The piece really comes to no conclusions, but features some interesting observations about the site. I have had a Twitter account for a few months now and have mixed feelings about the service. It’s kind of cool to follow updates from some people and organizations, but it also seems silly a lot of times, especially since some people – and I am guilty of this – use Twitter to update their Facebook status. I follow some of the same people on both sites so it’s kind of redundant.

As Leitch compares and contrasts Twitter with the late 1990s tech companies that imploded, he also also looks at how the sharing of information has changed.

Are we really becoming a nation of people who reflexively share information with everyone the minute we have it? We might be. Twitter has no choice but to hope so. They might be right.

Leitch goes to examine how the plane crash in the Hudson proved this as eyewitnesses provided “tweets” with information and photos almost right away. The article then goes on to examine the difficulty of that turning into a money-making venture.

My one complaint about the article is that Leitch has, at his fingertips, an example of why Twitter faces an uphill climb. Sure, a guy used Twitter to circulate a pretty powerful photo of passengers waiting to get rescued from the Hudson River. The picture got lots of publicity, but no one made any money.

Just a few weeks later, a guy (or woman, not sure) sold a photo of Michael Phelps taking bong hit in South Carolina. Again, lots of publicity, but also a financial transaction. While a bunch of us might be sharing info virtually, there is still something to be said about good old-fashioned newspapers, even those who sleazily pay for photos to stir some controversy.

Like Leitch, I have rambled (although not as eloquently) and don’t have much of a point except that Twitter really does have an uphill climb, but it is completely out of their hands. They can try and develop a revenue model to make money, but there are existing technologies, some of them really old, which already have that going for them.