Think how many fewer calls we'd have if instructions on properly powercycling a modem/router/PC setup were given instead of muzak. I worked for one company that let customers send basic refresh hits to their boxes through the IVR instead of having to talk to someone.
Because I've never worked for Time Warner, yet I work in a market now that has recently been acquired from Time Warner by Comcast, I can say that there are a lot of things that are offered, such as hits to boxes and powercycling instructions for modems and MTAs via the IVR. These are things that Comcast has always offered. Some people do in fact use this information and that reduces call volume. However, most twits that end up on the phones are women that can't unplug an iron without having a man there to do it for them and then giggle and laugh on the phone "hee hee, I'm so stupid, let me get a man to unplug the power cord." I'm a woman and it infuriates me every single time. The other type we get is some lazy bum that is sitting there looking dead at the problem and will call a child or someone else into the room to do it for them instead of getting up off their asses and doing it themselves. Those are the ones who suck up valuable call handling time and take away from the people who genuinely need assistance with real issues. One other thing to note: I don't know about Time Warner, but I do know that Comcast doesn't provide any troubleshooting support whatsoever to customer-owned routers. Their phone techs are instructed to troubleshoot the connectivity to the modem/MTA only and stop. Any router support has to go to the router manufacturer. The only exception to this is the gateways used for their home networking service, which has its own support team.
Everything is not going to be perfect at every cable company. Do I wish we supported routers? Certainly -- it would save me a lot of headache on one hand, yet create another set of headaches because nerds always think they know more than the tech on the phone. Do I wish I could educate every customer that calls in like I have spent the last 18 hours educating everyone that is reading this thread? Hell yeah -- it's a great way to vent, and I'll go to work today feeling a whole lot better about my job because I reached SOMEONE. But hey, everyone's not perfect -- not me, you, or any cable company.
Think about where you live for a moment -- an apartment building. How many units does that building hold? And then think about how many cable hookups are in that building, both legal and ILLEGAL?? For an 8-unit building with an average of 3 outlets in each unit, that's 24 hookups coming off one or two taps that service an entire building. So then you introduce the splitter to divide the signal coming off the tap. For every two-way splitter, you lose 3 amps on one side and 4 amps on another. With a 3-way splitter, the loss is even greater -- up to 7 amps on one side alone. The more splitters you have, the weaker your signal becomes -- and THEN you see the after-effects: ghosting, ingression, egression, tiling on digital services, slow internet speeds, latency, packet loss, etc. For every open splitter outlet that is not occupied by a device, that signal just leaks into the air, further weakening your signal. Some of these issues are easily corrected, but hard to detect without physically having a tech come to see what the symptoms are. It becomes even more difficult if it is an intermittent issue.
Also, if your apartment was pre-wired for cable, then it's interesting to note whether or not the right type of coax was installed. If the apartment is older than 10 years old, chances are likely that you aren't using a strong enough coax to handle the signal strength coming off the main lines, which leads to the aforementioned problems -- particularly egression, where the return signal is leaking off the line itself. That is a more dangerous issue, because the return signal can damage your headend and knock out an entire neighborhood if not detected. Most homes now should have RG-11 or stronger coax transmitting signals.
Also check to make sure you don't have any pets or critters hanging around your coax cables -- the reason is simple: A cable signal emits a very high frequency (think dog whistle) that only animals hear and is extremely painful to them. Once found, a pet or critter will chew through the line to eliminate the source of the sound. Also, because that plastic coating on a coax cable is actually soy based, it's a tasty treat for squirrels and other animals. Tiny breaks in the coax and teeth marks from critters will cause your signal to leak from the outside, causing the ghosting too. Remember, all ghosting is is your TV attempting to decode two signals, one from the coax and one from over the air.
You say that you are the one person we hear from once a year -- that may be true, but note that you are the exception and not the rule. The vast majority of callers that call into the call centers are repeat callers calling for the exact same issues, issues that could be prevented if the caller would take the customer education to heart that is provided.
Maybe in some of the markets you deal with, but those types of standards don't exist in many places. I know of providers that run 80-100 callers in queue in the evenings, over an hour of hold time for some people. If there are service level standards, they would be averages over the day/month anyway. So they could make it up in the overnight hours.
CORRECTION: Those standards exist in EVERY franchised market in the country. You are speaking of a common occurrence that amounts to telephony "rush hour" -- everyone gets home at the same time, and either has an issue with their bill, has an issue with their service, wants to set up new service, or cancel/transfer existing service. It happens in EVERY possible service industry, from cable to satellite to wireless to landline phone to insurance to anything else that has a call center operation as its front line of service. As much as we would like, a low service level during the day cannot always be made up during the overnight hours. Because the day is measured from 12:00:01 am to 11:59:59 pm daily, if there are calls in queue when the day changes over, then service level starts off low to begin with. Add to it the occasional unplanned outage, promotion launch, or maintenance issue, and you can see how those calls add up.
P.S. Get ready to go digital -- the FCC-mandated change is scheduled to take place in January 2009. And if you are using a TV tuner card, you do realize that the coax you are using to connect that card comes from -- gasp! -- the CABLE company?? Signal issues at that level are 99% of the time due to USER ERROR....
Again, you are the one who is incorrect -- AT&T Broadband is still in business; however, their market share is so minuscule that it's not a branded service. AT&T Broadband operates behind the scenes, and is mostly an Internet Service Provider. Because they buy up companies and then sell them right back off, usually within 6-12 months (typically a clean room period of total media and branding blackout according to USDOJ regulations), the average consumer doesn't even know that they were at one point AT&T customers. They just see two big brand names (as was the case when Intermedia became Comcast about 7 or 8 years ago -- during the transition period, the customer never saw the AT&T name -- the brand just switched from Intermedia to Comcast.)
Cable customers ALWAYS have the power of choice -- you can always say no to cable and go with satellite, or you can just put a digital antenna up on your house and pull your local channels OTA -- and use either dial-up, satellite, or DSL internet service. You are NEVER bound by a contract to do anything with a cable company like you are with satellite, so you can upgrade, downgrade, sidegrade, or cancel any or all of your services at any time. I WISH I had that luxury with satellite or even FIOS TV services.
Once again, you have made my point when it comes to infrastructure repairs. Because consumers whine so much about how they can't live without their cable the cable companies are caught between a rock and a hard place when trying to make necessary repairs to the overall infrastructure. I have worked for Comcast in 3 different cities, and one thing I will say about them and defend vigorously is that Comcast is not afraid to spend money to improve its infrastructure. Because Comcast is acutely aware that maintaining a healthy network is vital to sustaining its customer base, it is taking the step of going street by street, house by house, in all of its markets from Nashville to Atlanta to Memphis to San Francisco to New England and every town and nook and cranny in between to strengthen and repair that network. Customer satisfaction has dramatically increased in those areas, and service calls have decreased as well.
Unfortunately, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either you as a consumer want to have a company that is committed to fixing the mistakes the previous companies that held the franchise made -- which involves some interruption of service while the new lines are being laid and put on the network as the old lines are removed -- or you don't. There is logistically no possible way to eliminate interruption of services while a cable network is being rebuilt. Just ask the people of Northern Georgia, who have had to endure the entire network being rebuilt by Comcast to fix the mistakes of Adelphia due to its horrifically poor network design. Those areas that are complete are seeing a resurgence of cable subscribers so strong that the demand for new installations far outpaces the number of technicians available to install the service.
I feel that you are one of my consumer nightmares -- a customer that can never be satisfied with what is being offered; a consumer with unrealistic expectations and just enough industry know-how to be dangerous. If you don't believe any of what you read here, the next time you have a cable service call, ask the technician that comes to your house to back up what I said -- I guarantee you that not only will he back it up, but he'll even show you how the network works at your own house.
Furthermore, I challenge everyone that has something evil to say about the cable company to spend a month working there -- you'll have a new appreciation for what your cable company actually does for your community afterward. Don't believe me? Ask someone who works for any utility.
The franchise agreement in Ohio is the same as it's always been -- 10 years, with an option to renew or rescind at the end of that time by either party. Of course, the government, if given enough complaints, can hold a series of public hearings and put the cable company on notice to improve or a)face stiff fines, b)have the franchise agreement terminated, and/or c)both.
As far as the never-ending paragraph is concerned, I do apologize for that; it seems that/. doesn't allow for natural spacing; you have to use HTML to make it look pretty in your browser. That royally sucks, but it's something I have to deal with. BTW, kindergarteners don't understand the concept of a paragraph; it was just a figure of speech!
Finally, in case you didn't know this about your friendly neighborhood cable company, cable companies are very heavily regulated. There are strict guidelines in place from municipality to municipality about everything from how fast employees answer the phone to how well the service is actually working. It's a little thing called service level, and most service levels are set at 80% or higher and MUST be met in order to maintain the franchise agreement. When service levels fall below a set threshold, you better believe that your local cable company is losing a ton of money, because they get fined VERY heavily until that service level is brought back to an acceptable level.
Also, franchise agreements are part of the public record -- all you have to do is go to your local city hall or court clerk's office and ask to see the agreement and you are given access to it (gee, did we forget about SUNSHINE LAWS too?)
P.S. I don't have all the answers, I just work for a cable company and I stand by my earlier statement that I am just as sick of everyone complaining about how awful their cable company is rather than actually do something about it. Just as the cable companies are guilty of misdeeds and could do a lot of things to improve their reputations among the general populace, so too are consumers guilty of not holding the cable companies accountable enough in addition to this gross misconception that cable TV is something they are entitled to, not a luxury item or a privilege.
If you are so fed up with cable, why haven't you switched to satellite yet or given TV up altogether??
Finally!!!! Someone who either works in cable or satellite that understands what is going on so that we can explain it properly to all the little people who want to whine and complain even more about their service!!!
Franchise agreements are not monopolies, they are just contractual agreements that cable and satellite companies use to pay for the privilege of providing you with your entertainment services!!!
OMG, you really don't read industry papers and the fine print of bills that are passed, do you? The general language of statewide franchise agreements is worded so that local franchise agreements are not affected by the new law UNTIL their franchise agreements expire; at that time, then the local companies are subject to the new rules.
Before continuing this discussion, would you please read the bill itself so that others don't have to break it down into kindergarten-level English for you and point out the common sense elements???
Sorry to correct you on this obviously erroneous piece of information, but AT&T IS a cable company. In many markets, before they were acquired by either Comcast, CableVision, or Time Warner, AT&T's cable division (which by the way is called AT&T Broadband) acquired markets that were controlled by financially struggling companies like Intermedia, MediaOne, etc. and fixed what was wrong financially and then sold them off to larger companies at a profit. FYI, Comcast used to be in Ohio, but gave up its market share in the Time Warner/Comcast joint venture to acquire Adelphia after its crooks got locked up.
Speaking as a cable employee (I work for Comcast), let me make something very clear to everyone reading this statement. I am going to issue a preemptive caveat and say that no, not everything the cable industry does I agree with -- I will assign blame to the cable industry just as fast as I will defend it, because fair is fair:
When someone calls to complain about how awful their cable service is, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. First, the large companies, like Comcast and Time Warner, expand through acquisition -- in other words, they buy the franchise agreements from smaller companies that either can't or won't fix the areas that they are in. What everyone here that is bitching about their cable company fails to realize is that if a cable plant is designed poorly to begin with, then you will always have shitty service, even if you have all new lines in your house and at your drop. The only way to fix it is to go street by street, house by house, and lay all new lines and all new equipment. Because there are actually some morons that have forgotten how to read a book and use their common sense and allow the cable companies the opportunity to address those problems, this task in and of itself is almost impossible to accomplish. In addition, if you happen to have cable service in a market where your cable company offers phone service as well, the law prohibits the cable companies from taking an entire area off-network to make repairs, because everyone has to have the ability to call 911.
It never ceases to amaze me to get calls in my line of work from customers who complain constantly about the poor quality of their services, yet they continue to pay their bills faithfully every month, year in and year out, and never call in to report that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, and uses forums like this to vent. My answer to this has two parts: One, if you have a problem, I'm not a mind reader, and neither are the techs in the field who work hard every day to make sure your cable service works. If it doesn't work, call us. If the tech tries to leave and the repair or installation job is not done to your satisfaction, don't let the tech leave -- at some point you as a consumer should take SOME responsibility for what goes on in your house!!! Two, if the service really is that bad, why are you still paying the bill? If you have a year's worth of bad tv, internet, or phone service, why would you pay the bill month after month? Why wouldn't you find some other provider? You wouldn't put up with this kind of service from your cell phone company, or your utility company, or any other industry, so why put up with it from us?
We live in a society of whiners -- yes, I said it. A society of whiners. We whine when our service is good, we whine when our service is bad. We whine when a law is passed that gives smaller markets a bigger voice over their entertainment choices, and whines even louder when anything is turned into a level playing field. What everyone fails to realize is that not everyone can be pleased all the time with what goes on in the world. I personally would rather have the state tell the Bells and the phone companies that we will not allow FIOS tv service to be installed and keep cable in because quite frankly, the Bells are back in the monopoly business, and they are back stronger than ever thanks to deregulation. And BTW, just so you know, just be
Well if you read and watch the news and not depend on Slashdot for everything, then you would be aware that just because it may have been posted yesterday doesn't mean that there hasn't been any updates.
Besides, I don't read Slashdot enough to know that it had already been posted. Sorry if a little redundancy offends your geeky sensibilities.
Did NOBODY read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban?
James became an illegal Animagus and took the form of a stag to control Lupin when he changed to a werewolf every month -- remember, this is before the Wolfsbane Potion was invented, and Lupin would not have been able to hurt him the way he could have had James remained in his human form. James's stag was a symbol of the friendship between the Marauders -- Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs -- a wolf, a rat, a dog, and a stag.
I would be willing to bet anything that the animal forms that Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew took also were the animals they became.
Anyone care to disagree with me on that one?
Voldemort's dislike was not so much for academia as it was the respectability that it represented. All Voldemort cared about was power; acquiring unlimited amounts of it and stopping at nothing to get it. Academia had its purpose -- it provided him with the knowledge he needed to get as far as he had.
Please remember what Krum said at Bill and Fleur's wedding and the book of Fairy Tales that Hermione received from Dumbledore -- the Deathly Hallows were only referred to as such by someone who believed that the FAIRY TALE was real, and certainly not by that name. If you didn't believe the fairy tale was really true, why would you connect it to anyone's wand? Also, the symbol was thought to be evil, Grindenwald's Mark -- kind of like a Dark Mark -- if you weren't a Dark wizard, why would you try to connect it?
As to the sword -- Considering that Hogwarts was its home and it belonged to one of the founders of the school, more importantly the founder of the House that Harry and Neville both belonged to, it would stand to reason that there would be enchantments of some kind that would be beyond understanding wouldn't it?
As a part of the house-elf's enslavement, jewelry would NOT count as clothing, because it would not cover its nakedness as a general rule. That much is made specifically clear in TCOS. The only way to free a house-elf would be to present it with real clothes, which is why a sock was able to set Dobby free. Notice that Kreacher only kept items that belonged to the members of the Black family that were kind to him; to receive that locket was a symbol that Kreacher had been forgiven for exhausing every means that he knew how to carry out his favorite master's final request.
Ok, it seems like someone needs to be schooled in the obvious answers to these questions -- at least, they would be obvious to someone who read all seven novels beginning to end.
Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix Lestrange: Think about it -- Molly is also in the Order of the Phoenix. Just because she chose to be a housewife and mother does not mean that she was an unqualified witch. In addition, at the hands of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, look at what she lost and what was threatened: Her son Percy becomes estranged from the family because of his ambitions and his denial of what is in front of him; her son Bill is mauled by a werewolf, her son George is also maimed, and when Bellatrix's killing curse just barely misses Ginny, that makes the second time that Voldemort or someone close to him nearly kills her (remember, Ginny was possessed by Voldemort in the second novel and almost dies.) In nature, there is no creature more ferocious than a mother protecting its young; as Bellatrix tells Harry when he tries to use an Unforgivable Curse, "You have to mean it for it to work!" Faced with losing her children well before their time, it is her rage and need to protect her children that enables her to deliver the blow that kills Bellatrix.
Snape's Patronus is a doe: If you paid attention to OOTP and really examined what these novels were all about, you would see that love is the driving force behind many of the things that happen in Potterverse. James loved Lily enough to die to protect her and Harry; Lily's love for Harry enables him to survive the Killing Curse. It doesn't matter why Lily's Patronus was a doe, and it certainly doesn't matter why James Potter's was a stag (although we know why; it was told in TPOA.) In OOTP, Tonks's Patronus changed when she was heartbroken over Lupin, so we know that Patronuses can change. Because Snape had such an unhappy life as a youngster and even as a man, it makes perfect sense that the only way for him to express his unrequited love for Lily was to take her Patronus as his own. It also shows us that deep down, Snape really did care somewhat for Harry; not because of what he was destined to do, but because he is the last physical link that Snape has to Lily.
Gryffindor's sword in the Sorting Hat: Remember, the sword of Godric Gryffindor is only to be used or given when the need exists -- Harry obtained the sword in TCOS in order to defeat the basilisk, and Griphook is a goblin; goblins only acquire objects out of greed and personal gain. This is also a quality of the goblin steel that the sword is made of. Therfore, Griphook would never have been able to keep the sword; because it was willed to Harry by Dumbledore (making him the rightful owner of the sword), and because of the enchantments placed upon it no doubt by Griffyndor himself, the sword will only present itself in circumstances in which it can be used.
The Deathly Hallows: (Invisibility Cloak) -- It probably never occurred to Hermione to read up on the cloak; some things are always missed by even the most detailed of observers. (The Resurrection Stone) -- I doubt the Gaunt family themselves ever knew what exactly it was they were holding; a memento reminding themselves of their link to the Peverell family and the Slytherin line certainly, but remember, that also implies a love of family, two things which Voldemort despised, and we all saw that if he despised it he had no use for it other than to destroy it. (The Elder Wand) -- the wand itself is not a super-weapon -- certainly it could be if wielded properly, but again, notice what happens when wizards try to use the wands of other wizards -- they simply do not work as well. Just like Ollivander said, "The wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around." The wand never chose Voldemort as its master, just like none of the other wands chose Voldemort as its master, which is why none of his spells were really binding and did not have the effect that the spells cast by his own wand did. The concept of a wand changing owners is
Ok, let's see what all these things have in common: Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, The Iraq war, underfunded and undertrained soldiers replaying the disaster in Vietnam, Real ID, the Patriot Act.
All these things were initiated by a special-ed reject that used Daddy's money and connections to steal the White House from the candidate that was legitimately elected by the people through popular vote. My grandmother used to say there's no honor amongst thieves. It's nice to see that Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida and anyone else that's supposed to be an "enemy of freedom" don't have to do shit to take that freedom away from us. Bush and the Republican party have been quietly eating away at our civil liberties and personal freedoms in the name of "national security" from the moment they took office.
How I wish the good old days were back when Clinton was in office and I had money in my pocket, gas prices were reasonable, and we had a good economy. If I remember correctly, I also was never accused of being "unpatriotic" or an "enemy combatant" for speaking my mind because freedom of speech is not only guaranteed by the First Amendment, it's also my divine right.
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those that are willing to trade liberty for security deserve neither." The most patriotic thing that anyone can do is stand up for what's right and what is in the best interest of the people. The State of Montana (all Unabomber jokes aside) has done just that by outlawing Real ID. They will be further acting in the best interests of the people of Montana by taking any funds that they pay to the feds and funding their respective state angencies, thereby removing any leverage that the Federal government has to force them to accept it. Any roundabout red tape or paper shuffling that comes about as a result that prevents the people of Montana from doing anything (working for the government, getting a passport, getting a SSN, etc.) should be seen as nothing but retaliation and Montana can sue the Federal Government in the US Supreme Court seeking remedy.
I will keep my eye on this; I would really love to see how this turns out.
It's not surprising that the retailer was shocked that you asked for a legit copy of Windows; my surprise is that you actually went to a retailer in China to get a legit copy of Windows instead of going to the Internet and getting one sent to you. I bet you would have gotten it faster!
I guess the retailers there are so used to software being pirated that they don't try to sell the legit copies anymore unless someone fed up with breaches and shutdowns asks for it. Until the money-hungry US cracks down and makes the Chinese understand that we will NOT tolerate them illegally copying what we work hard to legitimately accomplish, then piracy will continue and Microsoft will get smaller and smaller sales from China.
I can't wait until Bill Gates turns on all the Vista features that will make it impossible for anyone running a pirated copy of Windows Vista to use a computer. Maybe then they'll start paying for what they steal...
I know, I know, wishful thinking.
I think a class action lawsuit is exactly the remedy that needs to happen. Being in law school currently, I see case after case after case of Big Business trampling over the rights of someone who, whether through unintentional ignorance or deliberate flaunting of the laws, either download music or share files or whatever. Think of what would have happened if the RIAA had sued everyone and forced everyone to pay fines for copying cassette tapes and recording songs off the radio (a practice I still do from time to time just to create my own personal mixes). They would still be in the same boat, but they would be paying more money to settle all the lawsuits that would have been filed in the 1980's for the same thing. There are some bigger questions that still remain that the law has yet to answer: If I rip all my CDs to my laptop so I don't have to carry a huge case around, am I still guilty of copyright infringement if I decide to transfer those files to a new computer? What if I took the same computer and gave it as a gift (hereby invoking contract law) to my mother who happens to be less computer-literate than I am? If she then sends a song via email to her mother, who can't even comprehend the term file-sharing, much less particpate in it, is she then guilty of the same thing? In all these cases, the RIAA seems to think so. At the end of the day, the RIAA is just mad because they didn't plan far enough ahead to see the coming storm and make their money off it to begin with. Had the RIAA jumped on the Napster, iTunes, Grokster, Morpheus, et al. bandwagon from jump, we would not be seeing any of this in the news.
A major class action lawsuit for slander, libel, and defamation of character against the RIAA by every person that has been sued by them would go a long way toward making the RIAA think twice before pursuing another lawsuit against someone's grandmother or someone's 6th grader and holding the parents responsible. Maybe a mass exoneration (aka amnesty) would be just what we need to get the RIAA off our backs. Go deal with all the folks in China pirating the music and REALLY ripping you off instead of someone playing with a computer -- that would have bigger economic impact for all the recording artists here and anyone else associated with the industry!!
I would agree with you totally regarding this because I have Yahoo Mail and Gmail too, and I use Gmail for a good majority of my email communication, but you can't send certain Microsoft Office attachments on Gmail (like Access files is a PRIME example!!!) Until Google gets that little snafu straight, for schoolwork and stuff I'll stick with Yahoo!
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Think how many fewer calls we'd have if instructions on properly powercycling a modem/router/PC setup were given instead of muzak. I worked for one company that let customers send basic refresh hits to their boxes through the IVR instead of having to talk to someone.
Because I've never worked for Time Warner, yet I work in a market now that has recently been acquired from Time Warner by Comcast, I can say that there are a lot of things that are offered, such as hits to boxes and powercycling instructions for modems and MTAs via the IVR. These are things that Comcast has always offered. Some people do in fact use this information and that reduces call volume. However, most twits that end up on the phones are women that can't unplug an iron without having a man there to do it for them and then giggle and laugh on the phone "hee hee, I'm so stupid, let me get a man to unplug the power cord." I'm a woman and it infuriates me every single time. The other type we get is some lazy bum that is sitting there looking dead at the problem and will call a child or someone else into the room to do it for them instead of getting up off their asses and doing it themselves. Those are the ones who suck up valuable call handling time and take away from the people who genuinely need assistance with real issues. One other thing to note: I don't know about Time Warner, but I do know that Comcast doesn't provide any troubleshooting support whatsoever to customer-owned routers. Their phone techs are instructed to troubleshoot the connectivity to the modem/MTA only and stop. Any router support has to go to the router manufacturer. The only exception to this is the gateways used for their home networking service, which has its own support team.
Everything is not going to be perfect at every cable company. Do I wish we supported routers? Certainly -- it would save me a lot of headache on one hand, yet create another set of headaches because nerds always think they know more than the tech on the phone. Do I wish I could educate every customer that calls in like I have spent the last 18 hours educating everyone that is reading this thread? Hell yeah -- it's a great way to vent, and I'll go to work today feeling a whole lot better about my job because I reached SOMEONE. But hey, everyone's not perfect -- not me, you, or any cable company.
It's just wishful thinking all around, I guess.
Think about where you live for a moment -- an apartment building. How many units does that building hold? And then think about how many cable hookups are in that building, both legal and ILLEGAL?? For an 8-unit building with an average of 3 outlets in each unit, that's 24 hookups coming off one or two taps that service an entire building. So then you introduce the splitter to divide the signal coming off the tap. For every two-way splitter, you lose 3 amps on one side and 4 amps on another. With a 3-way splitter, the loss is even greater -- up to 7 amps on one side alone. The more splitters you have, the weaker your signal becomes -- and THEN you see the after-effects: ghosting, ingression, egression, tiling on digital services, slow internet speeds, latency, packet loss, etc. For every open splitter outlet that is not occupied by a device, that signal just leaks into the air, further weakening your signal. Some of these issues are easily corrected, but hard to detect without physically having a tech come to see what the symptoms are. It becomes even more difficult if it is an intermittent issue.
Also, if your apartment was pre-wired for cable, then it's interesting to note whether or not the right type of coax was installed. If the apartment is older than 10 years old, chances are likely that you aren't using a strong enough coax to handle the signal strength coming off the main lines, which leads to the aforementioned problems -- particularly egression, where the return signal is leaking off the line itself. That is a more dangerous issue, because the return signal can damage your headend and knock out an entire neighborhood if not detected. Most homes now should have RG-11 or stronger coax transmitting signals.
Also check to make sure you don't have any pets or critters hanging around your coax cables -- the reason is simple: A cable signal emits a very high frequency (think dog whistle) that only animals hear and is extremely painful to them. Once found, a pet or critter will chew through the line to eliminate the source of the sound. Also, because that plastic coating on a coax cable is actually soy based, it's a tasty treat for squirrels and other animals. Tiny breaks in the coax and teeth marks from critters will cause your signal to leak from the outside, causing the ghosting too. Remember, all ghosting is is your TV attempting to decode two signals, one from the coax and one from over the air.
You say that you are the one person we hear from once a year -- that may be true, but note that you are the exception and not the rule. The vast majority of callers that call into the call centers are repeat callers calling for the exact same issues, issues that could be prevented if the caller would take the customer education to heart that is provided.
Maybe in some of the markets you deal with, but those types of standards don't exist in many places. I know of providers that run 80-100 callers in queue in the evenings, over an hour of hold time for some people. If there are service level standards, they would be averages over the day/month anyway. So they could make it up in the overnight hours.
CORRECTION: Those standards exist in EVERY franchised market in the country. You are speaking of a common occurrence that amounts to telephony "rush hour" -- everyone gets home at the same time, and either has an issue with their bill, has an issue with their service, wants to set up new service, or cancel/transfer existing service. It happens in EVERY possible service industry, from cable to satellite to wireless to landline phone to insurance to anything else that has a call center operation as its front line of service. As much as we would like, a low service level during the day cannot always be made up during the overnight hours. Because the day is measured from 12:00:01 am to 11:59:59 pm daily, if there are calls in queue when the day changes over, then service level starts off low to begin with. Add to it the occasional unplanned outage, promotion launch, or maintenance issue, and you can see how those calls add up.
P.S. Get ready to go digital -- the FCC-mandated change is scheduled to take place in January 2009. And if you are using a TV tuner card, you do realize that the coax you are using to connect that card comes from -- gasp! -- the CABLE company?? Signal issues at that level are 99% of the time due to USER ERROR....
Again, you are the one who is incorrect -- AT&T Broadband is still in business; however, their market share is so minuscule that it's not a branded service. AT&T Broadband operates behind the scenes, and is mostly an Internet Service Provider. Because they buy up companies and then sell them right back off, usually within 6-12 months (typically a clean room period of total media and branding blackout according to USDOJ regulations), the average consumer doesn't even know that they were at one point AT&T customers. They just see two big brand names (as was the case when Intermedia became Comcast about 7 or 8 years ago -- during the transition period, the customer never saw the AT&T name -- the brand just switched from Intermedia to Comcast.)
Cable customers ALWAYS have the power of choice -- you can always say no to cable and go with satellite, or you can just put a digital antenna up on your house and pull your local channels OTA -- and use either dial-up, satellite, or DSL internet service. You are NEVER bound by a contract to do anything with a cable company like you are with satellite, so you can upgrade, downgrade, sidegrade, or cancel any or all of your services at any time. I WISH I had that luxury with satellite or even FIOS TV services.
Once again, you have made my point when it comes to infrastructure repairs. Because consumers whine so much about how they can't live without their cable the cable companies are caught between a rock and a hard place when trying to make necessary repairs to the overall infrastructure. I have worked for Comcast in 3 different cities, and one thing I will say about them and defend vigorously is that Comcast is not afraid to spend money to improve its infrastructure. Because Comcast is acutely aware that maintaining a healthy network is vital to sustaining its customer base, it is taking the step of going street by street, house by house, in all of its markets from Nashville to Atlanta to Memphis to San Francisco to New England and every town and nook and cranny in between to strengthen and repair that network. Customer satisfaction has dramatically increased in those areas, and service calls have decreased as well.
Unfortunately, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either you as a consumer want to have a company that is committed to fixing the mistakes the previous companies that held the franchise made -- which involves some interruption of service while the new lines are being laid and put on the network as the old lines are removed -- or you don't. There is logistically no possible way to eliminate interruption of services while a cable network is being rebuilt. Just ask the people of Northern Georgia, who have had to endure the entire network being rebuilt by Comcast to fix the mistakes of Adelphia due to its horrifically poor network design. Those areas that are complete are seeing a resurgence of cable subscribers so strong that the demand for new installations far outpaces the number of technicians available to install the service.
I feel that you are one of my consumer nightmares -- a customer that can never be satisfied with what is being offered; a consumer with unrealistic expectations and just enough industry know-how to be dangerous. If you don't believe any of what you read here, the next time you have a cable service call, ask the technician that comes to your house to back up what I said -- I guarantee you that not only will he back it up, but he'll even show you how the network works at your own house.
Furthermore, I challenge everyone that has something evil to say about the cable company to spend a month working there -- you'll have a new appreciation for what your cable company actually does for your community afterward. Don't believe me? Ask someone who works for any utility.
The franchise agreement in Ohio is the same as it's always been -- 10 years, with an option to renew or rescind at the end of that time by either party. Of course, the government, if given enough complaints, can hold a series of public hearings and put the cable company on notice to improve or a)face stiff fines, b)have the franchise agreement terminated, and/or c)both.
/. doesn't allow for natural spacing; you have to use HTML to make it look pretty in your browser. That royally sucks, but it's something I have to deal with. BTW, kindergarteners don't understand the concept of a paragraph; it was just a figure of speech!
As far as the never-ending paragraph is concerned, I do apologize for that; it seems that
Finally, in case you didn't know this about your friendly neighborhood cable company, cable companies are very heavily regulated. There are strict guidelines in place from municipality to municipality about everything from how fast employees answer the phone to how well the service is actually working. It's a little thing called service level, and most service levels are set at 80% or higher and MUST be met in order to maintain the franchise agreement. When service levels fall below a set threshold, you better believe that your local cable company is losing a ton of money, because they get fined VERY heavily until that service level is brought back to an acceptable level.
Also, franchise agreements are part of the public record -- all you have to do is go to your local city hall or court clerk's office and ask to see the agreement and you are given access to it (gee, did we forget about SUNSHINE LAWS too?)
P.S. I don't have all the answers, I just work for a cable company and I stand by my earlier statement that I am just as sick of everyone complaining about how awful their cable company is rather than actually do something about it. Just as the cable companies are guilty of misdeeds and could do a lot of things to improve their reputations among the general populace, so too are consumers guilty of not holding the cable companies accountable enough in addition to this gross misconception that cable TV is something they are entitled to, not a luxury item or a privilege.
If you are so fed up with cable, why haven't you switched to satellite yet or given TV up altogether??
Finally!!!! Someone who either works in cable or satellite that understands what is going on so that we can explain it properly to all the little people who want to whine and complain even more about their service!!! Franchise agreements are not monopolies, they are just contractual agreements that cable and satellite companies use to pay for the privilege of providing you with your entertainment services!!!
OMG, you really don't read industry papers and the fine print of bills that are passed, do you? The general language of statewide franchise agreements is worded so that local franchise agreements are not affected by the new law UNTIL their franchise agreements expire; at that time, then the local companies are subject to the new rules.
Before continuing this discussion, would you please read the bill itself so that others don't have to break it down into kindergarten-level English for you and point out the common sense elements???
Sorry to correct you on this obviously erroneous piece of information, but AT&T IS a cable company. In many markets, before they were acquired by either Comcast, CableVision, or Time Warner, AT&T's cable division (which by the way is called AT&T Broadband) acquired markets that were controlled by financially struggling companies like Intermedia, MediaOne, etc. and fixed what was wrong financially and then sold them off to larger companies at a profit. FYI, Comcast used to be in Ohio, but gave up its market share in the Time Warner/Comcast joint venture to acquire Adelphia after its crooks got locked up. Speaking as a cable employee (I work for Comcast), let me make something very clear to everyone reading this statement. I am going to issue a preemptive caveat and say that no, not everything the cable industry does I agree with -- I will assign blame to the cable industry just as fast as I will defend it, because fair is fair: When someone calls to complain about how awful their cable service is, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. First, the large companies, like Comcast and Time Warner, expand through acquisition -- in other words, they buy the franchise agreements from smaller companies that either can't or won't fix the areas that they are in. What everyone here that is bitching about their cable company fails to realize is that if a cable plant is designed poorly to begin with, then you will always have shitty service, even if you have all new lines in your house and at your drop. The only way to fix it is to go street by street, house by house, and lay all new lines and all new equipment. Because there are actually some morons that have forgotten how to read a book and use their common sense and allow the cable companies the opportunity to address those problems, this task in and of itself is almost impossible to accomplish. In addition, if you happen to have cable service in a market where your cable company offers phone service as well, the law prohibits the cable companies from taking an entire area off-network to make repairs, because everyone has to have the ability to call 911. It never ceases to amaze me to get calls in my line of work from customers who complain constantly about the poor quality of their services, yet they continue to pay their bills faithfully every month, year in and year out, and never call in to report that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, and uses forums like this to vent. My answer to this has two parts: One, if you have a problem, I'm not a mind reader, and neither are the techs in the field who work hard every day to make sure your cable service works. If it doesn't work, call us. If the tech tries to leave and the repair or installation job is not done to your satisfaction, don't let the tech leave -- at some point you as a consumer should take SOME responsibility for what goes on in your house!!! Two, if the service really is that bad, why are you still paying the bill? If you have a year's worth of bad tv, internet, or phone service, why would you pay the bill month after month? Why wouldn't you find some other provider? You wouldn't put up with this kind of service from your cell phone company, or your utility company, or any other industry, so why put up with it from us? We live in a society of whiners -- yes, I said it. A society of whiners. We whine when our service is good, we whine when our service is bad. We whine when a law is passed that gives smaller markets a bigger voice over their entertainment choices, and whines even louder when anything is turned into a level playing field. What everyone fails to realize is that not everyone can be pleased all the time with what goes on in the world. I personally would rather have the state tell the Bells and the phone companies that we will not allow FIOS tv service to be installed and keep cable in because quite frankly, the Bells are back in the monopoly business, and they are back stronger than ever thanks to deregulation. And BTW, just so you know, just be
Well if you read and watch the news and not depend on Slashdot for everything, then you would be aware that just because it may have been posted yesterday doesn't mean that there hasn't been any updates. Besides, I don't read Slashdot enough to know that it had already been posted. Sorry if a little redundancy offends your geeky sensibilities.
I was more of the mindset that it was John Belushi in the toga from Animal House, myself!
Did NOBODY read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? James became an illegal Animagus and took the form of a stag to control Lupin when he changed to a werewolf every month -- remember, this is before the Wolfsbane Potion was invented, and Lupin would not have been able to hurt him the way he could have had James remained in his human form. James's stag was a symbol of the friendship between the Marauders -- Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs -- a wolf, a rat, a dog, and a stag. I would be willing to bet anything that the animal forms that Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew took also were the animals they became. Anyone care to disagree with me on that one? Voldemort's dislike was not so much for academia as it was the respectability that it represented. All Voldemort cared about was power; acquiring unlimited amounts of it and stopping at nothing to get it. Academia had its purpose -- it provided him with the knowledge he needed to get as far as he had. Please remember what Krum said at Bill and Fleur's wedding and the book of Fairy Tales that Hermione received from Dumbledore -- the Deathly Hallows were only referred to as such by someone who believed that the FAIRY TALE was real, and certainly not by that name. If you didn't believe the fairy tale was really true, why would you connect it to anyone's wand? Also, the symbol was thought to be evil, Grindenwald's Mark -- kind of like a Dark Mark -- if you weren't a Dark wizard, why would you try to connect it? As to the sword -- Considering that Hogwarts was its home and it belonged to one of the founders of the school, more importantly the founder of the House that Harry and Neville both belonged to, it would stand to reason that there would be enchantments of some kind that would be beyond understanding wouldn't it? As a part of the house-elf's enslavement, jewelry would NOT count as clothing, because it would not cover its nakedness as a general rule. That much is made specifically clear in TCOS. The only way to free a house-elf would be to present it with real clothes, which is why a sock was able to set Dobby free. Notice that Kreacher only kept items that belonged to the members of the Black family that were kind to him; to receive that locket was a symbol that Kreacher had been forgiven for exhausing every means that he knew how to carry out his favorite master's final request.
Ok, it seems like someone needs to be schooled in the obvious answers to these questions -- at least, they would be obvious to someone who read all seven novels beginning to end.
Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix Lestrange: Think about it -- Molly is also in the Order of the Phoenix. Just because she chose to be a housewife and mother does not mean that she was an unqualified witch. In addition, at the hands of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, look at what she lost and what was threatened: Her son Percy becomes estranged from the family because of his ambitions and his denial of what is in front of him; her son Bill is mauled by a werewolf, her son George is also maimed, and when Bellatrix's killing curse just barely misses Ginny, that makes the second time that Voldemort or someone close to him nearly kills her (remember, Ginny was possessed by Voldemort in the second novel and almost dies.) In nature, there is no creature more ferocious than a mother protecting its young; as Bellatrix tells Harry when he tries to use an Unforgivable Curse, "You have to mean it for it to work!" Faced with losing her children well before their time, it is her rage and need to protect her children that enables her to deliver the blow that kills Bellatrix.
Snape's Patronus is a doe: If you paid attention to OOTP and really examined what these novels were all about, you would see that love is the driving force behind many of the things that happen in Potterverse. James loved Lily enough to die to protect her and Harry; Lily's love for Harry enables him to survive the Killing Curse. It doesn't matter why Lily's Patronus was a doe, and it certainly doesn't matter why James Potter's was a stag (although we know why; it was told in TPOA.) In OOTP, Tonks's Patronus changed when she was heartbroken over Lupin, so we know that Patronuses can change. Because Snape had such an unhappy life as a youngster and even as a man, it makes perfect sense that the only way for him to express his unrequited love for Lily was to take her Patronus as his own. It also shows us that deep down, Snape really did care somewhat for Harry; not because of what he was destined to do, but because he is the last physical link that Snape has to Lily.
Gryffindor's sword in the Sorting Hat: Remember, the sword of Godric Gryffindor is only to be used or given when the need exists -- Harry obtained the sword in TCOS in order to defeat the basilisk, and Griphook is a goblin; goblins only acquire objects out of greed and personal gain. This is also a quality of the goblin steel that the sword is made of. Therfore, Griphook would never have been able to keep the sword; because it was willed to Harry by Dumbledore (making him the rightful owner of the sword), and because of the enchantments placed upon it no doubt by Griffyndor himself, the sword will only present itself in circumstances in which it can be used.
The Deathly Hallows: (Invisibility Cloak) -- It probably never occurred to Hermione to read up on the cloak; some things are always missed by even the most detailed of observers. (The Resurrection Stone) -- I doubt the Gaunt family themselves ever knew what exactly it was they were holding; a memento reminding themselves of their link to the Peverell family and the Slytherin line certainly, but remember, that also implies a love of family, two things which Voldemort despised, and we all saw that if he despised it he had no use for it other than to destroy it. (The Elder Wand) -- the wand itself is not a super-weapon -- certainly it could be if wielded properly, but again, notice what happens when wizards try to use the wands of other wizards -- they simply do not work as well. Just like Ollivander said, "The wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around." The wand never chose Voldemort as its master, just like none of the other wands chose Voldemort as its master, which is why none of his spells were really binding and did not have the effect that the spells cast by his own wand did. The concept of a wand changing owners is
Ok, let's see what all these things have in common: Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, The Iraq war, underfunded and undertrained soldiers replaying the disaster in Vietnam, Real ID, the Patriot Act.
All these things were initiated by a special-ed reject that used Daddy's money and connections to steal the White House from the candidate that was legitimately elected by the people through popular vote. My grandmother used to say there's no honor amongst thieves. It's nice to see that Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida and anyone else that's supposed to be an "enemy of freedom" don't have to do shit to take that freedom away from us. Bush and the Republican party have been quietly eating away at our civil liberties and personal freedoms in the name of "national security" from the moment they took office.
How I wish the good old days were back when Clinton was in office and I had money in my pocket, gas prices were reasonable, and we had a good economy. If I remember correctly, I also was never accused of being "unpatriotic" or an "enemy combatant" for speaking my mind because freedom of speech is not only guaranteed by the First Amendment, it's also my divine right.
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those that are willing to trade liberty for security deserve neither." The most patriotic thing that anyone can do is stand up for what's right and what is in the best interest of the people. The State of Montana (all Unabomber jokes aside) has done just that by outlawing Real ID. They will be further acting in the best interests of the people of Montana by taking any funds that they pay to the feds and funding their respective state angencies, thereby removing any leverage that the Federal government has to force them to accept it. Any roundabout red tape or paper shuffling that comes about as a result that prevents the people of Montana from doing anything (working for the government, getting a passport, getting a SSN, etc.) should be seen as nothing but retaliation and Montana can sue the Federal Government in the US Supreme Court seeking remedy.
I will keep my eye on this; I would really love to see how this turns out.
It's not surprising that the retailer was shocked that you asked for a legit copy of Windows; my surprise is that you actually went to a retailer in China to get a legit copy of Windows instead of going to the Internet and getting one sent to you. I bet you would have gotten it faster! I guess the retailers there are so used to software being pirated that they don't try to sell the legit copies anymore unless someone fed up with breaches and shutdowns asks for it. Until the money-hungry US cracks down and makes the Chinese understand that we will NOT tolerate them illegally copying what we work hard to legitimately accomplish, then piracy will continue and Microsoft will get smaller and smaller sales from China. I can't wait until Bill Gates turns on all the Vista features that will make it impossible for anyone running a pirated copy of Windows Vista to use a computer. Maybe then they'll start paying for what they steal... I know, I know, wishful thinking.
I think a class action lawsuit is exactly the remedy that needs to happen. Being in law school currently, I see case after case after case of Big Business trampling over the rights of someone who, whether through unintentional ignorance or deliberate flaunting of the laws, either download music or share files or whatever. Think of what would have happened if the RIAA had sued everyone and forced everyone to pay fines for copying cassette tapes and recording songs off the radio (a practice I still do from time to time just to create my own personal mixes). They would still be in the same boat, but they would be paying more money to settle all the lawsuits that would have been filed in the 1980's for the same thing. There are some bigger questions that still remain that the law has yet to answer: If I rip all my CDs to my laptop so I don't have to carry a huge case around, am I still guilty of copyright infringement if I decide to transfer those files to a new computer? What if I took the same computer and gave it as a gift (hereby invoking contract law) to my mother who happens to be less computer-literate than I am? If she then sends a song via email to her mother, who can't even comprehend the term file-sharing, much less particpate in it, is she then guilty of the same thing? In all these cases, the RIAA seems to think so. At the end of the day, the RIAA is just mad because they didn't plan far enough ahead to see the coming storm and make their money off it to begin with. Had the RIAA jumped on the Napster, iTunes, Grokster, Morpheus, et al. bandwagon from jump, we would not be seeing any of this in the news. A major class action lawsuit for slander, libel, and defamation of character against the RIAA by every person that has been sued by them would go a long way toward making the RIAA think twice before pursuing another lawsuit against someone's grandmother or someone's 6th grader and holding the parents responsible. Maybe a mass exoneration (aka amnesty) would be just what we need to get the RIAA off our backs. Go deal with all the folks in China pirating the music and REALLY ripping you off instead of someone playing with a computer -- that would have bigger economic impact for all the recording artists here and anyone else associated with the industry!!
I would agree with you totally regarding this because I have Yahoo Mail and Gmail too, and I use Gmail for a good majority of my email communication, but you can't send certain Microsoft Office attachments on Gmail (like Access files is a PRIME example!!!) Until Google gets that little snafu straight, for schoolwork and stuff I'll stick with Yahoo!