It hasn't been a good few months for me, technology-wise. First, in deciding to reformat my laptop to clean it up (first reformat in almost 3 years!), I saved all my pictures, documents, and music to a USB drive, then wiped the laptop and started clean. I copied back all the stuff I'd saved, and then it dawned on me: I had neglected to preserve my outlook.pst file. Yes, the file with all my email contacts, all the emails I'd saved over about the last 10 years (including all the ones from Barb) and all my passwords was gone. I was devastated.
A series of meltdowns at work - including our entire phone system being down for three days - kept me hopiing like a one-legged-man at an asskicking contest.
And then, on September 26th, my cable went out. No TV, no internet. I called. "Yes, there are outages in your area. We're working on it." I called back two more times in the next two days, with the same canned reply. I could not get an ETA. The third day, I called back, got the same response, and told them that if they couldn't get my service back I would drop them and go with Bellsouth DSL and DirecTV. The guy's response? "I'll make a note of that in your records, sir." WTF?! That was it, they'd lost me as a customer. The next day, my TV finally came back, but no internet. I fumed. Financially, I had to wait a couple of weeks before I could get the dough to pay all the connection and equipment fees, but as soon as I could swing it, I called Bellsouth.
They were more than happy to hook me up with a DSL/DirecTV package that includes TiVo, for almost the exact same price I have been paying Comcrap. I happened to have a DSL modem that a buddy gave me, so I saved $75 in initial outlay (the money would have come back as a rebate, but less out-of-pocket is key). So they sent me the self-install kit, which I got last Monday. I tried my nerdy best, but couldn't get it to work. Man, I hate calling tech support, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I called, and after troubleshooting, it became apparent that the modem was bad. Bummed. But the nice lady said there was a free modem upgrade promo going on, and although I technically didn't qualify, she would check with her supervisor and see if she could get me the hookup. Score! Free modem coming my way.
It got here yesterday. At about 6:30 last night, I got internet back at my apartment. Three days shy of a month with no internet at home.
And this morning, I am posting from home, because I'm here waiting on my DirecTV installer to come out and get me connected. Once that's done, I get to make the much-awaited call to Comcast and tell them what they can do with their crap service and crappier customer service.
anthony [email] said at 12:05 PM 10-24-2006: Sorry to hear about your mail and stuff. Backing things up is one of those things that I need to be better about, especially pictures. You might see if the server you use for mail has the mail still stored on it. There's a setting for mail clients to keep a copy on the server.
I hate waiting on cable/phone/whatever companies to come out and hook up service.
ed [email] said at 12:29 PM 10-24-2006: Thanks, man. Yeah, my mail is toast. It's from several accounts (my cable company has been Continental, which was bought out by MediaOne, which was bought out by AT&T, which was bought out by Comcast). My address changed many times over the years, as did the servers. And even if that weren't the case, I'd still be screwed, because back in the day, it was a 10MB limit on mail, so I didn't keep it on the server.
And yeah, I just found out they switched my install from 8AM-noon to 1-5PM... and tried to call me but couldn't. That's because they were calling my new landline, which doesn't have a phone attached to it. So I get to wait all afternoon, too. Ugh.
On the upside, I will have 155 channels to choose from soon, instead of the 60 or so I get with Comcast.
loren [email] said at 2:06 PM 10-24-2006: Ugh, sorry to hear about your mail. I'm burning a CD right now to back mine up. I keep backups on external drives, but will randomly do the same to DVD and CD and mail them to my folks so they'll have offsite copies in case my apt goes up in flames or earthquake.
I had TWO hard drives die in one day, day before yesterday. My Tivo and my main PC drive. If I wouldn't have had backups on my main drive i'd be hosored.
BACKUP PEOPLE! DO IT! NOW! you can get a 400 GB drive for $100!
josh [email] said at 3:06 PM 10-24-2006: as soon as i get my modded xbox from brians friend (hint hint brian) i am going to set up a network storage box in my apt and do backups to that every so often.
of course, if there is a fire i am fucked... i need to consider an offsite storage solution for really important shizz. i might just put a box on our network cabinet and do an rysnc from the backups directory of my network storage box once a week.
josh [email] said at 3:36 PM 10-24-2006: small fireproof safes aren't really fireproof enough to protect data, i don't think. at least according to an article i read once. discs warp a bit, etc, from teh heat even though they don't burn
neilbert said at 2:17 AM 10-25-2006: Ed, did they actually hookup a dish for the directv? I have heard conflicting reports that it all comes through fiber optic cable now in certain markets, where others have the sat. dish/dsl setup.
ed [email] said at 6:13 AM 10-25-2006: Epilogue: I called at 5:10 because no one had showed up. I was told the installer was running late, but would be here soon. 5:20, dude calls me and tells me he's been trying to get ahold of me on the landline. Grr! I give him directions from where he is, about 8 miles away. 30 minutes later, at 10 til 6, he shows. He is onfounded by the 20-year-old wiring in my apartment, and declares he has to run new wires. Hey, whatever, man. Proceeds to do the most ghetto wiring job in the history of mankind. I will take pictures later (my camera's at work). Takes him 20 minutes to drill a hole through the exterior wall (instead of using the EXISTING one!), but eventually he breaks through, finishes the wiring, and hooks up the receivers. He bids me a good night at 8:15.
Of course during the call to activate the receivers, the nice lady tries to upsell me on my channel package. I'm a sucker for the upsell, so for $59, I get four months' worth of *all* the channels plus the NFL Sunday ticket package. After that, I go back to my regular plan, and it's $10 a month less for two months. So for 40 bucks, I get 30 movie channels and all the NFL games I can eat for four months. I can deal with that...
anthony [email] said at 10:08 AM 10-25-2006: Those dudes are late the majority of the time. I would have been pissed about him putting a new hole in the wall.
