Hawk's Babble-Log

iPic Gold Class Theaters in Pasadena are amazing, rich, posh, and fun. Also very expensive, but if you’ve got the coin, and if it’s for a special occasion, it’s well worth it.

What was the special occasion? My roomie’s birthday. He loved it!

It’s underground. Enter from Miller Alley, get your tix and go down two escalators. Once underground, you show them your ticket and either take a seat in the Salt lounge or go right in to your theater. You can order up a drink, or go for a full meal. Yup, Salt is a full restaurant and bar. The food is excellent! My roomie reported that the drink he got was outstanding.

We got there early so we ate in the lounge while we waited for our theater to empty out. Because my roomie got a drink I became the designated driver. I’m always the designated driver.

These theaters are small, only holding about 40 people. The seats are huge cushy recliners (look for the buttons on the inside-side of the chair) with huge armrests, blanks, pillows, and a storage compartment under one armrest. All seats are paired up, and there is a small cocktail table between and in front, with a green-lit button which changes to red when you push it to get their attention.

Inside the theaters you can order food or drinks or desert or whatever and they bring it to you. The service is excellent!

http://www.ipictheaters.com/

I did not take any pictures when inside. Why? 1) It’s pretty dark. I would have had to bring my regular camera with the flash built-in and I didn’t. 2) All pictures on the website are accurate. Check it out.

You’ve probably heard about the fuss. A company called Carrier IQ developed some spyware for cellphones which reports everything you do, text, surf, etc, on your phone. It started when an Android developer, Trevor Eckhart, noticed the traffic and reported it. Carrier IQ tried to silence him. He brought in some big guns with the EFF. Check it out:

Software maker sorry for trying to silence security researcher:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/24/carrier_iq_about_face/

Assange: ‘iPhone, BlackBerry, Gmail users – you’re all screwed’:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/01/julian_assange_surveillance/

Does your smartphone run Carrier IQ? Find out here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/01/apple_sprint_carrier_iq/

http://betanews.com/2011/12/07/android-users-can-detect-carrier-iq-everyone-else-is-out-of-luck/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/finding-and-cleaning-out-your-smartphones-carrier-iq-poison/1697?tag=mantle_skin;content

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559&postcount=110

I have five words:

Class Action Lawsuit!

… and …

Criminal Prosecution.

As I’m on a rooted Android system, Cyanogenmod, I don’t have Carrier IQ installed and never have. I do recommend you get an Android smartphone, root it, and install Cyanogenmod. It’s totally free and well worth the trouble. In fact, you can get a fully unlocked and rooted phone with Cyanogenmod already on it from people on Ebay. That saves you from even doing the work.

On a related note, I do recommend you get the app Lookout from Lookout Labs. For a free app, it’s pretty darn impressive! They also have an app which can detect the Carrier IQ rootkit/spyware called Carrier IQ Detector.

Ever seen a Violinist rock out? This is the first video I saw Lindsey Sterling in (she can dance while she’s playing her violin!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2APZN9FJNY

She makes me smile just by her enthusiasm alone! Check this out (she’s playing all three parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCaOS3TAjbI

And she can dance while playing her violin on stage live!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwqDDFkOaCc

I love this song. Here’s the official video for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxIOUJ7by6U

She did a half-time show at a basketball game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF7MgtIT3PQ

Search YouTube for “Lindsey Sterling” for more. She’s got her own channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp

Yayyy! I got my Kindle Fire and it’s pretty darn awesome. You get tremendous value for your money.

Well done, Amazon! It looks like someone at Amazon read my open letter to Jeff Bezos.

It has a nice, solid feel. The back is a soft, slightly rubbery material which makes it not slide around the desk when you’re sliding your finger across the touchscreen.

Speaking of the touchscreen, it is very sensitive and very responsive. I like it a lot.

The screen is very bright, clear, and sharp. The colors are rich; the lights are light and the darks are dark. Very nice. I could watch a movie on this.

Speaking of movies, you’ve got instant access to everything Amazon has to offer, which is impressive. That’s nice. Also YouTube vids work very well, even the hi-def ones.

The system is fast and responsive with very few delays.

Reading books is nice. Reminds me of reading on my phone, but with a much bigger screen.

Now the bad stuff:

No Google Marketplace!

What app store do you get? Amazon’s app store. Most of my favorite apps are not on Amazon’s app store:

• You want the Gmail app? You’re screwed. But you can get your Gmail via their web interface.
• You want a different browser such as Opera? You’re screwed.
• You want Google Maps? You’re screwed.
• You want Catch so you can take notes? You’re screwed.
• You want Google Translate (which speaks!)? You’re screwed.
• You want the Google Talk app? You’re screwed, though you can get there via a their web interface.
• You want the Google Calendar app? You’re screwed, though you can get there via their web interface.
• You want an ssh client like Connectbot? You’re screwed.
• You want a VNC client like AndroidVNC? You’re screwed, though they do have some other VNC clients which I didn’t bother with because I can’t pipe them over a secure SSH connection via Connectbot.

Shipping an Android device without the Google Marketplace is like selling you a car without any tires, wheels, or axles. The engine will run, but you won’t be able to go anywhere. It seems that Amazon is trying to make the device closed, when they should be trying to make it as open as possible. Once the device is open, then all the geeks will jump in and customize it. Once that happens, and people see what can be done with it, it will sell even more.

This first item, no Google Marketplace, is the most annoying; it cripples the device.

No card slot(s)

It’s got about 6.5 Gigs available out of the box. This is not enough to store all my media, but it’s a good start. If the device had a card slot (or two!), then I could buy lots of storage, load up those cards with all my crap, and put them into the device. Then I’d have my library (or a good portion of it) with me when I’m out of network range. Amazon may have made it too dependent on the network.

If you’re only going to use it for reading Kindle books, then there is no problem. But if you’re only going to use it for that, then get one of the e-paper versions. It will be cheaper and the battery will last longer.

Other Annoyances

No GPS, but I can live without that.

If they are not going to allow me to install Google Maps, it doesn’t much matter that the device doesn’t have a GPS receiver built in.

No cellphone network, but I can live without that, too.

I can get the Kindle Fire online when I’m on the road and away from wi-fi networks by turning on wireless tethering on my phone. Then my phone becomes a bridge between the cellphone networks and wi-fi for the Kindle Fire. It works, but it’s not fast enough to watch videos.

No camera, but I can live without that, too.

It’s an appealing idea to take pics on a device with such a large screen.

In Summary

I really like the device, but it could be so much more. Perhaps someone at Amazon will read this and make the Kindle Fire v2.0 even better?

I still think my cell phone is the best “tablet” available, but without the big screen. It’s Android, has Kindle for Android, B&N Nook for Android, and Google Books for reading, YouTube videos, a video player I found on Google Marketplace (Mobo Player) to play virtually any video I put on the micro SD card (yes, it has a card slot!), three music players I found on Google Marketplace (XiiaLive Lite, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn Radio) for my music (and for streaming music), a GPS receiver (Google Maps/directions!), digital compass, a camera dictionary + Google Translate (which speaks!), VoIP clients such as Sipdroid, Barcode scanner (it has a camera), Ustream (for both broadcasting and receiving), ShowMee, games such as NetHack and OpenCacheing for GeoCaching… I could go on and on.

So, it seems my Android phone (which is several years old now) is much more advanced than the latest slate from Amazon. I’m keeping my hopes up that the Amazon Fire v2.0 will be a truly outstanding dream device with Google’s Marketplace.

After watching the video, I decided to get more info so I read the book. After that, I was sold. So I tried the RAVE Diet.

After having been (mostly) on the RAVE Diet for well over half a year, I can highly recommend it.

Go here and get the video plus the book:

http://ravediet.com/

The video is called “Eating”, and the book is called “The RAVE Diet”. You can order the DVD+book combo here: http://ravediet.com/order.html

I’m not making any money off this recommendation. The only affiliate program I belong to is the Amazon Associates program. But I’m not linking to the book on Amazon, I’m linking straight to the author’s site. Go there, get the video and the book. Watch the video first, it’s only 90 mins. If it seems to make sense to ya, read the book.

Note that you only need to read the first half of the book; the second half is nothing but recipes. If you’re really in to cooking, well then you’ll want to read the second half. I’m not so much in to cooking, so I skipped it.

I know so much more after reading the book. I feel like I know a big secret. Well, I guess that’s true. When I travel around and see what people are eating (and their sizes) I feel like I’m in on a really big secret. Actually, it kinda is a secret. Watch the video and read the book to see what I mean. I bet you’ll look at society differently.

I forgot to post this update on what happened.

My monthly “re-up” date rolled around and, of course, Simple Mobile would not charge my card (because they don’t want my money) so they turned off my service. I tried, fruitlessly, many times, to re-up using their website. Their website constantly declined my card. My card worked fine with Amazon.com (they do want my money), PayPal (they do want my money as well), and other miscellaneous stores such as ThinkGeek (they also want my money).

But it seemed Simple Mobile didn’t want my money. I fear they’re going to be canceling a lot of people when their re-up dates roll around and they can’t charge any cards. I hope Simple Mobile stays in business because the phone I got works on the T-mobile network and I don’t really want to sign up with T-mobile.

Anyway, after several days of complete website re-up failure, and calling Simple Mobile (they could not help me either), I decided to swing through a local Simple Mobile store and see what they could do for me. Turns out, if you have cash, they can re-up right then and there. I didn’t have enough cash, so I couldn’t do it right then. But it’s nice to at least be able to pay for the service.

I went back again a few days later and paid with cash and was able to re-up via the store. The store called a special number, put in a special code, entered my phone number, then waited about 3 minutes (of silence), then it was done and my phone worked.

Here’s the best part:

The plan I was on was $60 / month. This was their “unlimited talk, text, and web” plan. I don’t know when it happened, but now their “unlimited talk, text, and web” plan is only $40 / month. I logged in to my account on their website (yes, that part worked), and switched my account from the $60 / month plan to the $40 / month plan and now I’m working again.

So because of all this trouble, I’m saving $20 / month. I’m really kinda happy that they didn’t automatically re-up me at the $60 / month level. Hopefully, they will have their website fixed next month so that I don’t have to go back to an actual store to re-up.

Very strange. I’ve been trying to pay Simple Mobile for my cell service for about a week now. They refuse to accept payment. When I call, they tell me to go to a store and pay with cash there; they don’t take payments over the phone.

Otherwise, I’ve been pretty happy with the company and the service. Not too much to complain about.

But when they actively refuse may payments, makes me wonder… Does this sound like a company that wants to succeed? Maybe they just have sooo many customers that they don’t need me?

Very strange. I don’t know what to do except hunt down a store and pay with cash.

O M G! This book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, is the greatest book of all time in any universe! And I’m not just saying that ’cause I like it. Well… okay, maybe I’m saying that ’cause I like it. Watch the video.

I rreeeaaaaaally like it! I just got done reading it. I don’t think I’ve ever read any book that fast in my entire life!

It’s about a gigantic contest for one billionaire’s fortune. But this one billionaire did NOT make it easy. Also, some well-funded asswipes are trying to cheat their way through the contest. They are trying to sort-of brute-force the contest via dishonorable means.

Where does all this take place? Inside the greatest “virtual reality” system ever not-yet developed called OASIS. Weeeelll… not ALL of the battle takes place inside the OASIS. There is actual, physical danger also. But mooostly it takes place inside the OASIS.

Ernest Cline: you are Tha Man! You are sooo goddamned Airwolf! I get almost every one of your 80s cultural references. Keep up the good work! MTFBWYA.

And one more thing…

I sooooo wanna play!!!

http://www.readyplayerone.com/
http://ernestcline.com/

I’ve had an email account with Ebay for a while. I nearly always register my username as ‘jedihawk’, if I can. Usually, it’s available. So I got ‘jedihawk’ as my Ebay username. That makes sense. I also have registered many email adresses over the years. I always go with jedihawk@whatever.net.

So I’m now trying to update my email address in the Ebay system and it won’t let me change it. Why? Because my Ebay username is the same as the first part of my email address.

This means I’m stuck. I can’t change my Ebay email address to any of my other email addresses. They all (or nearly all) start with ‘jedihawk’!

Ebay’s email policies suck!!! Ebay is trying to take my security out of my hands. They are trying to prevent me from “hurting myself”. Well, I’m a big boy now. I’ve been online for decades. I can spot a spoof email a mile away. I have never been fooled by a spoof email. Ebay doesn’t need to protect me. I can handle it all by my self. I’m all growed up ‘n stuff.

I called Ebay support and talked to a nice lady who tried to help, but was completely unable to. I explained how I was a “net veteran”, and how I was in no danger by having my email address the same as my username (like it already is!). She understood, but still could not update my email with Ebay.

So it looks like I’ll be missing out on Ebay emails soon, as my old email address is going away. Oh well, at least they have an internal email system I can access.

Ebay, if you’re listing: Your email “security” policies SUCK!! Grow a brain and stop trying to protect me. I can handle it myself. Put the responsibility where it belongs: with me! Rather than prevent me from updating my email address, put up a warning, then let them me the change!

I heard an ad for Santrex internet hosting services on di.fm, so I thought I’d give ‘em a try. Basically, here’s what I think:

Santrex sucks ass!

Why? Because they told me that my order was flagged as fraudulent and asked me to scan my credit card (both sides), AND scan my ID card (both sides), plus my billing address (which I already gave them), plus my phone (which I already gave them) and send it to them to prove I am not fraudulent!

Can you believe that? I told ‘em, ummm, like no ‘n stuff; cancel my account and issue me a refund.

They asked my why I was “afraid to submit this information”. I told ‘em, I’m sticking with ServerBeach, where they don’t flag me as fraud.

I was going to start with just one server with Santrex. If it worked out well, and the bandwidth was good, and the power stayed on and so forth, I would have increased the number of servers, plus I would have rented more expensive servers for some of my clients (with more bandwidth, more storage, etc.) But now, Santrex will not be getting any of my business.

I’m not saying Santrex is collecting ID’s and credit cards for fraudulent purposes. I’m not saying that at all. I’m only saying Santrex is not recommended. Go with ServerBeach.com instead.

http://www.hjsplit.org/

I can recommend HJ-Split.

I have used HJ-Split in Windows, to split up a huge file, and send it to a friend of mine on a Mac. There’s no way he is ever going to install it into his Mac, so I’m not sure if that version works, but HJ-Split works great in Windows.

I also used it to break up a large file and get it home and into my Linux system. I used the software to break up a 31G file into 1.5G pieces, put the pieces on my 32G USB drive, took it home, copied all the pieces into my Linux machine at home, and then pieced it back together again using the ‘cat‘ command. Worked perfectly.

It seems to me, networks (in general) are getting worse.

My network here at home, AT&T U-verse, sucks in general. It works enough of the time that I don’t bother looking for another. But it’s not good.

Example: I was downloading a radio show from one of my favorite DJ’s, S.A.M.E. Radio (Steve Anderson Music), and the file gets to about 60% or so and then just stalls out. My downloader (wget in this case) eventually times out and then automatically re-tries with resume, and gets the rest of the file. This happens every week.

Example: I help a local non-profit down the street with their networking needs. Almost every day, their network fails completely, for no apparent reason. We’ve tried changing routers, other networking equipment, testing for zombie machines hogging network, etc. We’ve called the guys out there to check the line; they say all is well. But I don’t think so. No one seems to be able to find out the cause and fix the issue. It’s an ongoing issue.

Example: Recently, I needed to transfer a huge file (about 30G) from a remote server to my own machine or one of the servers that I control. It was basically a backup. It took me about a week to finally get this friggin’ file. I tried transferring with gFTP (Linux) but that timed-out. I tried transferring with scp from the command-line, but that timed-out too. I tried using wget/browser via Apache, but that also timed-out. I tried initiating the transfer from the server to me, and from me to the server. Nothing worked; the transfer started off great and fast, but then just fell to nothing and eventually timed out. The only thing that finally worked was this: I sent the file to another linux server I control (which happened relatively quickly but still took all night), then transfered the file to my work computer, then broke it up in to 1.5G pieces so that it would fit in a FAT32 filesystem, then put it on my 32G USB drive, then brought it home and copied all that into my home linux machine, then cat’ed it all back together again. All because of crappy networks.

Example: I was downloading some software from SourceForge with wget on the command-line (of course). It got 80% done, then just timed out. I let it sit there for a while and it finally re-started, resumed, and finished the file.

Failures like this didn’t used to happen. Seems like they are happening a lot more these days. What’s the world comin’ to?!?

I’ve been shopping around for cell phones lately. It’s quite a research project to compare all these various cell phone plans, what they include, what they don’t include… very confusing.

Some plans include unlimited network. Some plans include “unlimited” network which include 2000M of network (notice the quotes). I guess that’s good; I wouldn’t want the “unlimited” plan which didn’t include 2000M of net.

Some give you x number of minutes plus x number of other kinds of minutes plus x number of weekend minutes plus x number of evening minutes… screw that!

It’s like charging someone more for a “long-distance” call. The equipment is distance-insensitive. It always has been. Charging more for a call to a switching station more miles away is just evil (and profitable, apparently).

I want an unlimited plan which has no quotes around it. And I want unlimited voice, unlimited text, and unlimited net. And I want to pay the price on the ad. With AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc., you’re going to pay the price on the ad, plus taxes, plus fees, plus some more taxes, plus some more fees, and then your bill will be much bigger than you thought it would be.

I also don’t want to pay a “phone tax”. With Sprint, you do get a truly unlimited plan (I think), but you pay a “phone tax” if you have what they consider a “smart phone”. It’s $10 / month extra. I just can’t support a company that does that. Plus they have a mandatory 2-year contract when you sign up; there is no option to not get a new 2-year contract. Screw that! I’m never going to be under another contract again. Ever!

I might have tried Boost Mobile, because it sounds cheaper, but their phones don’t take SIM cards, so I’d have to buy new phones for use on their network.

So I ended up going with Simple Mobile. http://mysimplemobile.com

Simple Mobile has a no-contract plan which is unlimited everything for $60 / month. And it’s really just $60 / month. Not $60 plus taxes plus fees, etc. I’ve also signed up my dad on their $40 / month plan (unlimited voice/text). Both of these plans together is less than what I was paying AT&T for their “Family Plan”.

Additionally, Simple Mobile can use any phone that takes a SIM card. A cell phone network which locks their phones sucks! Simple Mobile has no “smartphone tax”, no day/night restrictions, no limits on text messages, no limits on how much bandwidth I use… and so on. So for me, it’s all good!

I tried, on several occasions, to buy a phone from people on craigslist.org. The first time I tried this, it worked wonderfully. The guy showed up with the phone, I tried my sim card in it. Everything worked so I paid cash and it was a done deal. That was years ago and I was still using that phone up until recently.

It seems things have changed. I’ve sent about a dozen emails to various ads, never had one single response.

I’ve set up two meets, no one showed up.

I’m afraid to set up another meet, and I have no desire to email another ad. I’ve spent much time on this (days) and have no desire to continue. Does Craigslist now only have ads from people with no honor?

In contrast, I bought my phone on Ebay. It was easy, quick, and it arrived in no time at all. As an added bonus, I ended up paying less than I would have meeting the first two guys (with free shipping)! So it turned out better in all ways!

Craigslist: not recommended. The sellers don’t respond to you if you email, and if you text those who post their phone number, they don’t follow through on their agreements (no honor).

Ebay: recommended. The sellers want your good feedback, and ebay guarantees the transaction anyway.

I arranged to meet with Kevin, 818-306-0306, to buy a new cell phone, but he never showed. He did, however, text me and get me to wait around another hour. For nothing. Boo, Kevin! You suuck!

I arranged to meet with Joe, 818-612-7370, to buy a new cell phone, but he never showed. Boo, Joe! You stood me up!

If you are in the LA area and are looking to buy a phone off one of these guys, you’re going to be disappointed. You will set up an appointment and a meeting place, but they will not show up. You’ll find you have wasted a great deal of time.

Apparently, they do not want your money. They just want to waste your time (and your gas).

I’d like to make you a business offer.

Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can’t turn me down, as you’ll come to understand in a moment…

Here’s the deal. You’re going to start a business or expand the one you’ve got now. It doesn’t really matter what you do or what you’re going to do. I’ll partner with you no matter what business you’re in – as long as it’s legal.

But I can’t give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won’t give you any labor – that’s definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you’re allowed to operate your business. That’s my role in the affair – to tell you what to do.

Now in return for my rules, I’m going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn’t it? I think so. Of course, that’s half of your profits.

You’re also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you’ve got to cover my expenses for promulgating all the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you’re my partner. It’s only “fair.”

Now… after you’ve put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you’ve worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you’d like to cash out – to finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is “fair” – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As your partner, I’m happy for you to sell whenever you’d like… because our agreement says if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.

I know… I know… you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all the labor. That’s all true. But I’ve done my part, too. I’ve collected 50% of the profits each year. And I’ve always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business.

Oh… and one more thing…

Even after you’ve sold the business and paid all my fees… I’d recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you’ve been retired for years, when you die, you’ll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth.

After all, I’ve got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don’t think it’s “fair” for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you’re a very successful entrepreneur… if you’re one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public… you’ll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much.

I’m sure you’ll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me… But it doesn’t really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules – I’ll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.

That’s how civil society is supposed to work, right? This is Amerika, isn’t it?

That’s the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs…

Regards,

Porter Stansberry
http://www.stansberryresearch.com/

Look at this ad:

What’s the message here? To me, it seems like they are trying to tell me something about their network. Something like how much bandwidth I can use on their network. The word “UNLIMITED”, for example, tells me that I might be able to use their network as much as I want.

Now let’s look at the fine print:

Oh, look! The “UNLIMITED” plan includes 2000 Megs / month!

Wait a second here… it’s an “UNLIMITED” plan… and it includes 2000 Megs / month? How, exactly, does that make sense?

Seems like it’s an “UNLIMITED” plan with limits. But if it’s an “UNLIMITED” plan with limits, then it’s not UNLIMITED! I call false advertising!

It all started when I decided to shop around for other DSL providers.

Was I dissatisfied with my current DSL provider? Yes, I was. My DSL provider at the time was DSL Extreme. They had been ripping me off for some time, charging me more than the advertised price on their homepage. They will rip you off if they get the chance, and don’t even bother calling them up to talk about it as you won’t be able to talk to anyone at the office. Instead, your call will go to India or somewhere else. If you decide to cancel, you can’t just call ‘em up and cancel. There is no “Cancel my Account” link on their website, either. No, you have to write a letter and mail it to the head office (the one without a phone number). DSL Extreme is the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with.

Anyway, AT&T decided to cut off my current provider. Why did they do this? That’s a long story. Let me see if I can sum it up briefly:
1) Called up AT&T to ask about static IPs on their DSLs, spoke with a guy who said he could add a static IP on my account for $15 extra / month. I decided to go with that. He had to hang up and said he would call me back. He never called me back.
2) Next day, spoke to someone else who said that no, I could not have static IPs on my account unless I switch my order to a business DSL for over double the cost. I canceled the order. The next day I verified that the order had been canceled and that no one was going to cut off my existing DSL.
3) AT&T cut off my existing DSL anyway (on the “activation date”).
4) I tried to get DSL Extreme to turn me back on, but they wouldn’t talk to me. This is documented in my blog. It’s actually about twice as bad as what is currently documented in my blog as I decided to not write up every call. I burned through most of my 1,100 rollover minutes with DSL Extreme and got nowhere.
5) I realized DSL Extreme wasn’t going to do anything, so I signed up on the original account with AT&T, called U-verse Internet (no static IPs).
6) Had to wait another week for a new “activation date” before service was turned on. This is a silly arbitrary. They could have turned me on way before that. And I was ready way before that, too. But they wouldn’t do it. Even when I called and asked.
7) When the activation date finally rolled around, it still didn’t work. Had to call a tech to go out there and “check the line” and all that stuff. He installed another terminal outlet (said I was sharing my line with another apartment) and gave me a new DSL modem.
Now I’m online, but with a really crappy connection.

From day one with AT&T U-verse Internet, the connection was crappy. Sometimes, pages loaded. Sometimes, the site was not found at all (DNS failure). Sometimes, half the page would load. Sometimes, the page HTML would load, but then the CSS would not load. Sometimes, the images wouldn’t load. Sometimes the javascript wouldn’t load. In short, a really crappy network connection.

And this crappy network was 24/7. For weeks!

I thought maybe it was my new gigabit switch, so I swapped it out with an older switch, but that didn’t help. I swapped out cables in the hope it was a bad cable, but that didn’t help either. I swapped out AT&T’s shiny new Linksys with my old one, but that didn’t help either. I called AT&T support, but they had no clue what to do about it, so they sent a tech out to fix it.

The tech thought it was because I was on a different internal IP set, 10.x.x.x instead of 192.168.x.x. No, that wasn’t it. But the guy wouldn’t help me if I didn’t do it his way, so I re-set all my internal IPs to 192.168.1.x with DHCP. Still a crappy connection. We tried plugging my laptop directly in to the DSL modem, but it was still crappy. It worked well for a while, but then it reverted back to the same degraded performance.

Finally, he gets some help from someone who knows more than he does and we go in to the DSL modem’s advanced config screen and change one setting from the default “Yes” to “No”. Or was it “No” to “Yes”? Anyway…

BAM! Perfect internet access! When I say “perfect”, I mean solid, no errors, and good response times. Websites load fully, all CSS, all javascript, all images, etc. It’s still not as fast as the advertised speed, but at least I’m back online!!! Yayyy!

I put all my internal IPs back to 10.x.x.x. Next will be to plug in all the cables and connections like they were.

Now if only I could get my static IP back. Then I could get back in through the firewall at work.

Boo! AT&T, you suuuck!

It seems that, starting this month, AT&T will start imposing limits on bandwidth usage:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/04/att-broadband-caps/

But to make matters worse, AT&T can’t even keep track! They’ve been caught red-handed over-billing! Check out this report:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/113442

Now that I have AT&T U-verse Internet, I’ll be watching this like a hawk! (pun intended)

I LOVE this movie!

Teleportation is so cool. I love the idea of traveling anywhere, instantly, just with a decision.

If some people have that kind of power, then of course there would exist a group who only wants to destroy them. And of course they would have advanced technology with unlimited funding.

I loved the fast-paced teleporting fight sequences. I loved the love story. I even loved the ending!

I’ve already got this one on Blu-Ray. Highly recommended.