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Woman Claims Ubuntu Kept Her From Online Classes
stonedcat writes "A Wisconsin woman has claimed that Dell computers and Ubuntu have kept her from going back to school via online classes. She says she has called Dell to request Windows instead however was talked out of it. Her current claim is that she was unaware that she couldn't install her Verizon online disk to access the Internet, nor could she use Microsoft Word to type up her papers."
Well, I was going to go into a tirade about how stupid the girl is, but the reality is that she called to explain the mixup and Dell somehow convinced her to keep Ubuntu. Dell, if someone calls and says they got a Ubuntu computer by mistake, just have them ship it back. It isn't worth it.
Actually, this story did cause some criticism, which resulted in a followup story (even calling it "Ubunto" once - nice). So more angry (or informative) letters from Linux-advocates aren't going to set the record straight at this point.
But it does raise a larger question about the adoption of Linux. How can the perception that Microsoft Windows and its trappings are effectively mandatory be overcome? Her computer can handle all of her needs: email, web browsing via Firefox, Microsoft Office-compatible documents via OpenOffice.org, and no need to "install" any Windows-only "Verizon High Speed Internet CD" to use Verizon DSL.
But since many Linux-advocates presumably want to see things like Ubuntu go mainstream, the answer can't be "this woman is a moron and the TV station is worse for covering it". Her problems, even if they seem ridiculous, were real enough to her. So how do you counter this kind of problem? (Some might say decent journalism could have helped here, but that's part and parcel of the perception problem.)
Because it is major egg on Verizon's face.
The larger the linux market segment gets, the less windows benefits from it's network effect.
As far as the word processor goes- she just needs a clue about Openoffice or some of the other fine WP's available.
Hopefully she isn't going into a technical degree area with this little knowledge of computers at that age.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
why are the cute ones always dumb?
Take comfort in Judge Judy's quote: Beauty fades, but dumb is forever.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk.
MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert's papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.
So what's the fucking problem ?!?
At the end of the article is a link to a follow-up by the assistant news director. It's not quite an apology, but it demonstrates that someone in the Ubuntu community got through to someone at the news station: http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/
...a guy couldn't finish his work because a virus killed his Windows HP computer... and blames HP for it...
A Wisconsin woman has claimed that General Motors has kept her from going back to school. She says she has called GM to request a bike instead however was talked out of it. Her current claim is that she was unaware that she couldn't drive.
This woman is beyond stupid, though. She dropped out of school because she couldn't figure out how to make her computer work. And then, apparently, her solution to this life crisis wasn't to ask someone knowledgeable about computers - it was to call the local news!
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
She's enrolling at the Madison Area Technical College, and couldn't be bothered to read the specs on a laptop she ordered? Sorry, made me chuckle. It's not as though Dell hides what OS comes with each laptop!
Kidding aside, Dell should have just allowed her to return it for a Windows model if that's what she wanted. She clearly did not have the technical prowess to figure out how to configure her internet access without the walkthrough software.
Her lack of computer finesse isn't the funny thing here for me. I saw the newscast on this. She had two problems: She didn't have MS Office, and her Verizon internet disc tried to run it's startup.exe. She just has to save her papers in .doc format, and have a Verizon tech crew come out and fix her internet. It took the news anchorman two (2) phone calls to fix this for her.. so what attempt is there to mock? She probably just slacked off for her classes and used Dell as as excuse.
Or Forrest Gump's line: Lieutenant Dannnn! Ice Cream!
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
Newsflash: Online student discovers that basic brain functions are required to run and operate a computer. Film at eleven.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
We geeks tend to live in a bit of an echo chamber and so we can lose perspective on just how ignorant and computer illiterate the average citizen is. Just the response "A few google searches by her would have revealed..." is just one example. There are a LOT of people (probably the *majority* of people) out there who have no idea what a "google search" is. Most of the people that I work with (and these are college-educated people, mind you), don't know what a browser is (they refer to Internet Explorer as "the internet"). And no, I'm not joking (I wish I was).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Believe it or not, our linux enthusiasts here are as enthusiastic as many slashdot posters.
That she needs and deserves Windows probably escaped the rep...
And yet here is a normal person, trying to use it, and finding it frustrating and causing her problems, and people mock her attempt.
According to the story she somehow accidentally ordered the laptop with Ubuntu. I am not sure how she managed that because I have to *search* Dell's site to find their Linux offerings, but I digress and that is irrelevant anyway.
What is relevant is that she received a laptop configured in a manner she was unfamiliar with. She should have just returned the laptop if it was sent this way in error. My point is, she didn't attempt to use it (Ubuntu) in any sort of meaningful way. She *assumed* the laptop had Windows installed. She is familiar with Windows. She attempted running a disk that requires Windows and then looked for the MS Office icons and couldn't find them and then she gave up. Again, if what she ordered was a Windows machine, the blame falls squarely on Dell and Dell should make it right. If she did order the laptop with Ubuntu and ignored all of the warnings about how this order does not have Windows and Windows software will not run on Linux etc.... then the blame is fully hers.
This has nothing to do with Windows vs. Linux as she never made a conscious choice to use Linux. She also didn't make much effort in using Ubuntu. In fact, if she has to miss *two* semesters of school because of this, it screams to me that she was looking for a reason to not go to school and this is the perfect excuse in her mind.
"Dell, if someone calls and says they got a Ubuntu computer by mistake, just have them ship it back. "
We'll get right on that.
Sincerely,
All of Dell (we all read Slashdot, but just share this one account)
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
I just posted a witty reply to this story. Reading TFA again it occured to me that this is most likely MS fake news and/or astroturfing. It requires quite a few clicks to actually customize a Laptop at Dell and have it come with Ubuntu rather than some MS Windows variant.
I'd say this might very well be fake news.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
[quote] Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too. [/quote]
Yeah, send the morons out to operate heavy equipment and then wonder why your underground fiber got cut...
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Thank you. Rather than arguing about saying "Linux isn't for everyone" can we all just agree that in this case "college isn't for everyone?"
Thanks.
My blog
While she may have a valid concern based on ignorance - she had problems using Ubuntu because she just didn't know how and that's something slashdotters should probably take seriously if they want people to adopt Ubuntu (or some other distro) - I do find her blaming Dell to be idiotic. It's one of the big problems we have with today's society-at-large. Rather than admit something might be one's own shortcoming ("I don't know what I'm doing with Ubuntu...") people try to find someone else to blame. It's all about where can I point the finger that isn't at me? So stupid.
I don't agree. Literally anyone who had even a slight clue about her predicament would have been able to load windows on the system. contrary to the article this doesn't void your dell guarantee. This person chose to leave school instead of getting her problem fixed, which, in my opinion is simply an excuse for her mental shortcomings, then again if she were intelligent in the least she could have gotten her internet connection to work in the first place.
maybe we just can't expect everyone to finish college, some people are just not bright. serioulsy, do you want this person to be a doctor or manage your finances if she can't be bothered to click on the "network" icon in the top right corner of the screen? what kind of problem solving skills does she have.
IMHO, knowing enough about computers to set up a network (even with OS guidance) is not strongly correlated with medical or financial advisory skills.
For all I care, the doctor/financial advisor can be a luddite, using pen and paper for all his/her records, as long as they do the job well.
1) You can't "accidentally" find an Ubuntu Dell.
2) Dell support would NEVER say "you don't want windows, Ubuntu works better for you".
3) She took FIVE MONTHS to complain
It's a fake.
You've obviously never used Verizon DSL. Their system requires a login/password which is generated via their Windows-only software when you're setting things up. Once you have that you no longer need Windows to connect to the internet, but you do need to that once to get the system & modem set up.
Seriously. No joke.
I presume you can set that stuff up over the phone if you have a Mac or something, but that's probably non-obvious for someone who accidentally orders a Linux laptop.
And, also, Firefox cannot necessarily handle all of her "browsing needs". It's not always Firefox's fault, but there's a reason I have IE Tab set up for a handful of sites and it's not because I'm a web developer.
She dropped out of school because she couldn't figure out how to make her computer work.
Dude, it's even better than that. She dropped out of technical college because she couldn't figure out how to make her computer work.
Although it's much better than it was even a few years ago, it's still not an idiot-friendly OS where things 'just work'
Judging by the number of support calls I get from friends, nor is Windows.
I'm sick of the linux communities' attitude that she should have known linux was "internet capable" right out of the box; or that she could have opened up a document in OpenOffice. I think the community forgets that for the majority of internet users, they started out by getting a CD in the mail (AOL/Compuserve/Prodigy/Earthlink/Mindspring whatever) and that launched an application which had an integrated browser/email/news/stocks client. So she treated her internet access like a black box; big deal. Most people treat their cars like black boxes as well.
Someone handed her a Microsoft Word document; why should we blame her if she looked on her computer and *GASP* didn't see Microsoft Word. Is it possible that just maybe, he classes said as a requirement you needed MSWord for the class materials? Maybe there are spreadsheets that are handed out that have tons of formulas and macros in them; is the instructor going to worry about OO macro compatibility. No, and neither should she.
Dell should be ashamed for not allowing her computer to be returned, but the linux community should be ashamed as well. For assuming that all computer users are part IT Staff. Maybe we should expect the average /. user to be able to sit down at a 3270 terminal and configure the IOCDS or perform a datamigration with DFSMS on my zSeries. I mean, it's just a computer right, it must run rsync....
Just like with cars, some people are mechanics, some people just change oil and filters and others just drive the car. It's a shame the linux community can't understand the same thing about computers.
The problem is, as I've been flamed for before, Linux is still nowhere near the point where a non-techie will consider adopting it. Although it's much better than it was even a few years ago, it's still not an idiot-friendly OS where things 'just work', compared to what people are used to.
My 8 year old uses it just fine.
The woman is an airhead. Airheads regularly fail to critically examine what they're doing, then blame others for their lack of success. It's a personality flaw, and nothing anyone does is going to provide anything more than a very temporary fix. So, attempting to solve the problems of people like this woman by changing the operating system are doomed to failure.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I have used Verizon wireless usb adapters on my Mac without VZaccess. I just plugged it in and it worked. My understanding is Linux has similar drivers available and it just works on there as well. VZaccess is not required.
Um, no. Nothing here suggests that she ordered a Windows machine and got Ubuntu instead. She either didn't pay close enough attention, or did not understand enough about computers to know the difference. That's not a swindle. That's user error.
And yet here is a normal person, trying to use it, and finding it frustrating and causing her problems, and people mock her attempt.
"Normal" is a very flexible definition depending on whoever sets the boundaries between normal and stupid. In my opinion a very stupid woman spoke to a very stupid Dell rep who wasn't able to tell her how to start OpenOffice (for fucks sake Applications/Office/Writer -how hard is that?) and relied on very stupid Verizon that can't produce an Ubuntu Linux installer for their silly software package.
... section 2 would have said "Set up without disc like this:"
... they want to be so stupid that they simply won't be able to. Anyone should be able to read, it's your responsibility as owner of the fucking machine to understand at least a bit of how it works. It's this "I don't get the first page in the book so I stop reading" attitude. If you don't WANT to do gain that knowledge you will have these kinds of silly idiot problems all the way. So "I am stupid" and "I don't want to know" are two different things and significant ones indeed. Sometimes a book starts making sense only after you've read it even without knowing what the first couple pages meant.
I had a similar problem with my sister-in-law. Gave them a Ubuntu machine and she kept trying to install some ISPs network setup disc. Eventually I went over to their house and got the network running with half a dozen clicks by reading the (incredibly stupid) manual section that was about half a page long with pictures. She didn't even bother to read beyond section 1. Install software
THAT is the problem, not that people can't use Linux
Without access to the Internet, how are you supposed to know how to do this?
Well, obviously on her other computers. The average user has at least 3 working computers and another two they are working on, right?
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
I was just remembering yesterday how I used to hear my clients say that they needed new computers because their old ones were full. This woman is in this category.
There are people out there who have no idea how computers work and they are prey to all sorts of disingenuous marketing and out and out disinformation.
Instead of running a news story on this, they would have done her more good by just telling her she was ignorant and pointing her in the right direction to get information so she can stop being a victim. The skills she would gain in learning about the computer and sorting the BS from the truth might even translate to other aspects of her life, like car and house buying, or job hunting.
But there is no reason for a normal person to find some ad-hoc work around to the software not working on an OS they have no special love for.
Response the first: So would that Verizon CD have worked if she'd put it in a Mac? Really, this is an open question to anyone who's dealt with it, I don't know.
Response the second: Guess what everybody? You can't put Playstation games in a Wii! Holy shit!
In most people's minds, Office = MS. They aren't going to go looking for random alternatives just because they are out there. That isn't the way people work.
Yeah, Applications > Office > Word Processor is just so random. I mean, who would expect it? And that interface! Why, it's just so radically different from Office 2000, of course we can't expect this poor person to possibly understand it! This is obviously the geeks' fault.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
Ok, no factual disagreement on the basic point, that a service that requires a particular OS sucks. But I wonder how many people are grasping the real issue here...
You, and many others, when faced with a reason why this situation didn't work for a common user, focus on reasons why those issues shouldn't be issues.
Well, that's why 2009 won't be the year of Linux on the desktop. "Linux to conquer the world" is much more ambitious a goal than "Linux to conquer a made-up world in which only problems that 'should' exist do exist".
Some people go as far as to attack the user for not knowing enough, or for not handling the situation the way the poster thinks he/she would've handled it even if they didn't know what they know. Well, again, "Linux for the common user" is far more ambitious than "Linux for the common user where common user is defined to be like me".
Linux will be hindered in the consumer market as long as the typical approach is to think that the market should change to accept Linux, and not the other way around. And that's fine if that's what Linux wants to be -- but just don't act confused about why other OS's still dominate the desktop.
I have to call you, and many, many others on this statement. Sure, OpenOffice does handle standard word documents without too much trouble. But time and again I have encountered heavily customised word documents with tick boxes, mixed colum formatting, etc, etc, which Openoffice simply cannot display with fidelity. And by fidelity, I mean make sure the danm funding form fits on one page and not bleed it over onto the second.
Sure, you may think these documents are obscure. Trouble is they aren't. They are typically, ancient Word 97 produced affairs, devised by a "self educated" whiz somewhere in the accounting department with too much time on their hands . Universities are saturated with these documents, as is any small or medium sized company that has ever had such a "whiz" in their employ. They're sort of like one of those custom Access programs written by a non-programmer that slowly grow and mutate. It suffices to say that Open Office, while it does not choke, simply cannot cope under the strain of displaying them.
The essential problem here is that people feel they NEED to use MS Word or an equivalent program for absolutely everything. I have been sent emails containing nothing but an MS Word attachment in which is contained... the "letter" I was being sent. It's crazy. If I am ever in a position where I am accepting or grading papers, or summaries, or memos, or whatever, each and every single submission will be required to be a simple TXT file. They're perfectly adequate for just about everything except diagrams, and if they need to use those they can be submitted as attachments.
One word. Flash. This is not a settled issue on any Linux system to this day. Sure it can work, but not on every system. The situtation with flash in Linux closely resembles that of video drivers about five years ago, when it was still necessary in many instances to edit xfree86 conf files or the like. With the ever growing domination of youtube, a browser without guaranteed out of the box flash is seriously deficient. Not even Ubuntu has this.
May the Maths Be with you!
Considering that this woman ostensibly had to cancel two semesters worth of enrollment, this sounds like it should be a good deal higher on her priority list than what you suggest.
Which leaves two likely scenarios -- either it's a fake, or she's a certifiable moron. I certainly hope it's a fake -- if not, I truly fear for the future of humanity. This would be one individual that would not have been smart enough to survive back in the day. If she really is this dumb (I don't mean dumb about Linux, I mean dumb enough to cancel out of two semesters of a *technical* college rather than bother to find someone with half a clue to help her -- this would apply to *any* OS, or *any* technical snafu of any sort), such extra stupidity wandering around the gene pool can't be a good thing.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I'm not a conspiracy hound, but maybe you are right... how does one "accidentally" order Ubuntu? It's not an option in their customizer... you have to somehow navigate through to their open source page, which then links you to their open source computers. And the picture shows an Inspiron, which to get to $1100, you literally have to max out... also seems fishy. I mean, if she really knows so little about computers, how did she know to max out everything? And if she was going to drop $1100 on a notebook, why didn't she click on the $1000 XPS instead of the $500 Inspiron?
Probably still not a conspiracy, though.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Fair comment, actually.
The worst thing you can do for someone is give them a new computer. I've worked in very large shops (~2500-3000 desktop deployments per year), and fielded questions from small ones as well as from individual users. People get used to the methods their computer presents them (their files are *here*, their Word program is *there*, they get on the internet *this way*). Give them a new computer, any computer, even if it's the same OS, and they're hosed.
Where are their shortcuts? How do they get to the "H:" drive? What about the TPR form (that was sitting in a message, in Outlook, that they kept opening whenever they needed a new copy). I don't think IT people can really appreciate how the secretaries, order takers and commerce students of the world function. It's not necessarily a Linux thing (though Linux raises the barrier height more than a little). After working with some of these people for a while, I have no idea how they cope when they rent a car that's different from their own, get a new toaster, or buy a new light switch: the least little difference completely flummoxes them. Stupid might be a harsh, if not an entirely inaccurate term
This woman is probably in this category: given a difference---any difference---and she promptly "shuts down" and goes into silent panic mode. The opportune question is why it took so long for her to admit to the problem. I've taken calls from managers screaming because some order-desk flunkie hasn't been able to work since her PC was replaced three weeks ago, and now she can't find her RMA form shortcut and everything's "all different" (for the record: XP to XP, Office 2003 to Office 2003, no changes save the hardware and a new profile upon login, all documents saved to Sharepoint and/or fileservers, mailbox in Exchange). Why she didn't call three weeks ago was the point I raised, and the one I never got an answer for.
There's a certain willfull stupidity in the general populace. They don't know computers, they can't know them, it's an evil black box and they'll find anything possible to complain about. They can be young, old, male, female, of any race, creed to culture: they're bound together by their raw, unadulterated pigheadedness.
At some point, the paradigm is going to have to change. I don't know how it will change: Terminal Server-like remote desktops with a Time Machine like backup strategy available through an always-on internet connection? Web desktops? Special-purpose devices in lieu of general-purpose PCs?
--srj/mmv
No, what is relevant is her story doesn't pass the smell test. It's an astroturf campaign. Go to Dell.com and TRY to recreate her story. The only Linux you can easily find is the little mini and that ain't what she bought. You have to search on linux in the search bar to find any of their other Ubuntu offerings and the page you get dropped on says this:
Assume she somehow managed to get there, which is improbable enough. If she bought after reading that she is not college material. And this ignores the fact she was buying a computer for college and didn't a) inquire as to their requirements before purchase and b) didn't get in on the discounts most colleges have on both the laptop itself and she could have probably picked up Windows+Office at a massive student discount. Colleges are full of nerds who would have been happy to help her either install Windows or learn to use Ubuntu for the price of pizza and her company. The town has a LUG for crying out loud, help was at hand.
Democrat delenda est
I have a Verizon FiOS network, with 128 IP's, that we're running a small hosting business on. There's a small problem on the line, so I asked for a field tech to come out and replace their outside box. No big deal, just come, swap out your slightly defective unit for a good one, so it doesn't become a bigger problem in the near future. We're getting the occasional CRC error on the uplink, and have already swapped the equipment on our side.
They asked what OS I was running. "Well, about a dozen Linux machines, and a half dozen Win2k/S2k3 machines."
They asked "So are you running XP or Vista"
I had to start over. "This is a business FiOS line. We're using it for a small hosting business. We have many machines. We have 128 IP's from you because of that. "
Then they asked me which of their routers we are using. {sigh} Their routers are crap. They provide us with a Cat5 ethernet cable from their demarc outside. That goes directly into a Cisco Catalyst 2924XL-EN.
"Oh, if you're not using our router, we can't help you. Maybe you can call Cisco."
I blew up inside, but very politely told them that I am a Cisco Certified Network Administrator, and I have worked as a higher level Cisco Engineer for the past 12 years. I'll be more than happy to help you with this matter. By evaluating the errors, there appears to be a failure on your side of the link, which would be your demarc on the wall. If you could be kind enough to have a field technician come out and swap the demarc, I would be very happy.
That got me put on hold. He came back, apparently with one of their "network engineers" on chat with him. He'd type what I said, wait for a response, and then read it back to me. Over the next half hour, the engineer finally told me that it was obviously a routing issue somewhere on the Internet, and I should run traceroutes to see where it is, but it's definitely outside of Verizon's control. I told the CSR that was still on the phone with me echoing the "network engineer" responses, that the "network engineer" was a complete blithering idiot, who wouldn't be able to diagnose a network problem to save his life. There's no way in hell that a CRC errror comes from anywhere but either the two endpoints of a cable, one of which is my switch, and the other their demarc, or the cable in between. They made it clear that the cable is property of Verizon, or I'd swap that too.
Ahhh, now I'm worked up. I'm going to start calling them again. It's been several weeks of trying to get them to address this. I'm tempted to hit it with a stun gun, just so it'll be completely down, and they can come out and fix it. Too bad I don't own a stun gun. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I also have a friend that wasn't too computer savy and she used to call me all the time trying to fix windows problems she had until finally she decided to buy a Dell with Ubuntu on it. What made it work for her is that she didn't try to force everything to work how she was used to things working. She knew it would be a learning curve and took the time to relearn how to use her computer.
She now NEVER calls me asking for help and frequently talks about how happy she is not having to use windows anymore and how many fewer problems she has. Ubuntu can be used by the computer illiterate. It just can't be used by stupid windows users that think if it doesn't work like windows it is broken.
This really sounds like one of those "Joe the Plumber" stories where it could very well be motivated by some other process. After all, it's impressive that she found a system which had Ubuntu on it by default. She sounds really naive about computers, as does the article author, but yet she found her way to a $1,100 Dell laptop which came preloaded with Ubuntu and not Microsoft's Windows Vista.
What she did was really tough to do while being so naive. And let's not even get into how she claimed she needed it to have Microsoft Word but she could not have ordered that computer with Microsoft Office. I don't think Dell ships Ubuntu preloaded with WINE or even CrossOver Office. Could she really be so dumb as to decide she "needs" a computer to register for classes, not see what that registration system or the school requires and find her way through Dell's site and doesn't get a low cost laptop but a $1,100 model which has Ubuntu on it? This just sounds too convenient as in the "Joe the Plumber" situation.
She's one heck of a confused computer user or a mediocre publicity stunt by Waggener Edstrom or Microsft's current PR firm. And has her high school not taught her anything about computers? Maybe someone should research her high school to see if one child was left behind.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Here's the part about dealing with telcos that your CNA trainer must have skipped:
You: a squirrel has chewed through the FioS line, please send a tech.
Telco Support: Please repeatedly perform dozens of nearly random acts that demonstrate your social inferiority to my status as High Priest of Telco.
You: Sure thing!
Telco Support: What kind of computer are you running?
You: I have a desktop and a laptop. What do you recommend for best service?
Telco Support: Arcane and expensive mass-market product with obsolete features, bad support, firewall turned off and never patched, version the vendor no longer ships.
You: By amazing co-incidence, that is exactly the version I am running right here! What luck!
Telco Support: Twiddle many knobs and break lots of working stuff as I tell you to do things that cannot possibly fix a physically damaged line.
You: Sure thing! I like being helped! (be careful, here, you need to pause for appropriate amounts of time after each nonsensical suggestion is tendered so the Telco Rep will not figure out that you are watching TV and eating nachos instead of wasting your time actually doing the things he tells you to do).
You: Well, gee, it still doesn't work, even though I've reinstalled Windows three times now and stuck tender portions of my anatomy in the lightbulb socket as you instructed. What should we do now?
Telco Support: We'll have to send a truck out. It will be there sometime between 2 AM Friday a week from now and 3:15 PM Christmas next year. You will have to stay in the house between those times to let the technician into the house.
You: Sure thing, I love waiting in line! Thanks! You know, it's been such a great pleasure working with you an' all, I'd like to send you some cookies, how can I do that?
Telco Rep: We know that one. Wait for the truck.
You: OK, I'm off to my dentist appointment, I love all the drilling!
Now you wait for the truck to show up. DO NOT LEAVE THE PHONE UNATTENDED UNTIL THE TRUCK SHOWS UP. The truck will not come during the period the telco says it will come. The technician (who is not your enemy, incidentally) will receive a call from the dispatcher that goes like this:
Dispatcher: Some toad in Blooker street says his line's out. Most likely stuffed cheese and salami into his CDROM, but you better go check it out. Here's the number. If nobody answers just forget about it, his problem will most likely go away or he'll forget about it, I'm going to close the ticket now.
Tech: (Calls number)
You: Hello?
Tech: This is Jim from Telco, I got a call about a line being out?
You: Yeah, a squirrel chewed through the line. I can see it out my window.
Tech: Oh, is it FioS? We told purchasing to stop buying the kind insulated with molasses and peanut butter, but they won't listen, they say it is more cost-effective.
You: Yeah, FioS. It's the black jacket kind.
Tech: I'll be right over.
The Comcast CD that came with my Internet self-install officially supported Windows and OSX, so I could install it on my laptop at least -- or so I thought until I tried. It also specifically required Internet Explorer 5 for Mac, a product not available even through the MS website anymore.
Of course, the whole situation was moot. Those install CD-ROMs aren't required to use the modem. I just called Comcast and told them to activate my modem, and I was online in minutes.
Verizon DSL is similarly not limited to Windows. The article actually says that Verizon supports Ubuntu, and that they are going to send over tech support.
This really shouldn't have made news anywhere, it basically amounts to "Woman has trouble setting up her Internet connection, complains to the press before receiving support from her ISP."