q-bids

so what do i know about q-bids?... i know enough not to want to go back and not to link it here because i recommend you don't go there... maybe my experience was not the norm, but i won one of my first bids for less than a dollar as the tv commercial says, but i never received it... and then i won something else the second time i went there and never received that either... and i went back to use up the bids i bought and never came close to winning anything that time, but came close just as i was running out of bids when the site started the hard sell to buy more bids...

felt like a set up, especially when no "winnings" arrived...

i will not be back...

people of the small minds

people can be so disappointing... people who hide their fears and prejudices and judgments until they suddenly pounce as if you knew all along they had very narrow views of life and all that goes into life... take sex, for instance... so many live without it, misunderstand it, use and abuse it, and judge others harshly based on their immaturity and fears of their own bodies... sometimes i wonder why i let people come near me at all... politics and religion is not much different... thoughts, opinions, beliefs, they are so illusionary, transitory, meaningless in the big picture... but who truly sees the big picture... the religious claim they cannot understand the mind of god to avoid even trying to see beyond their fears... rational discussion is blasphemous... the political spectrum is divided by cliffs and crevices so convoluted and falsified there is almost as little rational conversation allowed there either... economics?... people use money (and resources) as a weapon and irrational greed and power rule out any real honesty, compassion, or consideration for much beyond the immediate portfolios...

of course i stay alone inside... the people of small minds block my view of the big picture...

censorship

is it paranoia that leads one to believe that censorship is rampant in the usa?... maybe... but does it not exist?... no, it does exist... and most people do it without even thinking about it... people get "offended" all the time by whatever they do not like and by being "offended" they mean to censor that which "offends" them... mostly stupid control freaks with small minds afraid of whatever they want to repress or silence or hide from their eyes or mind... it is all around us, every day...

but what gets press are the paranoid few screaming about government oppression and conspiracies, which makes the everyday censorship by the offended seem minor in comparison, but actually the everyday censorship dictates your life choices much more than the any government or corporate conspiracies... i mean, do you shout fuck god in church?... sure, it is an extreme example, but you don't do you... even if you feel like shouting it, you don't... do you wear clothing when you leave your house?... of course, because it is so socially acceptable to be offended by the human body in it's natural state... socially accepted censorship is our way of life...

organized censorship attacks music (music and tv (tv) and movies (movies) and books (books) and all sorts of media (media) and yes, the internet (internet)...

i get sick thinking about it, so i am going to walk away and maybe come back after a while with more links that make me sick... i think... cuz censorship deserves a complaint...

nfl inconsistency

there is little more frustrating to me than unfairness as in inconsistency in enforcing rules or simply not following rules in a game or sporting event... is stopped watching the nba because of this inconsistency that gets so bad it appears like bias for one team or player sometimes... the nfl has become second only to the nba in frustrating inconsistencies... tonight, for instance, there are many in the indy houston game... two completely blown calls in favor of houston were ridiculous and called out by the announcing crew, both calls lead to points for houston... then there is this new helmet to helmet rule... in some cases, it's called when it's obviously not happening... in some cases, it's not called when it clearly happened... so what's the point of having a rule when it's called so inconsistently that one team (in this case houston) benefits and the other team loses?...

or almost loses, in this case... this is a pattern, not just tonight's game... i have no state in the game other than indirect fantasy football interests (none that affect my fantasy game tonight)... tonight just brings me to the point of wanting to record this meaningless complaint about the nfl... the referees may be confused or overwhelmed, but they are getting worse every year... the rules might be challenging, but it is becoming obviously that they not only need better training and testing for nfl referees, but they need more referees on the field to fairly call the rules, old and new...

i'd like to say it is not getting worse, but... it is...

cbs screwing up

just when you wondered if this blog really lived up to it's name, here is a complaint about the programming goofs at cbs and, of course, the continued screw ups at brighthouse... simply, i am setting the million dollar piece of crap equipment brighthouse calls their digital cable box and dvr to record a show and for whatever reason, sports special, presidential speech, special report, whatever, the show apparently started twenty minutes late and the smart software technology brighthouse uses apparently could not identify that change of programming so instead of watching a whole episode of the mentalist as planned, i was left frustrated without an ending... and the following week, the same stupid brighhouse-cbs miscommunication... and i pay extra for this frustration, right...

so i don't know if jane lives or dies after he married the happy mismatched couple and is taken hostage in the church and whatever happened in the episode before that and worst of all (for the moment, at least), i am missing all the subtle clues to the magnificent obsession with red john, so tell me, seriously, how can i sleep at night?...

yeah, so thanks brighthouse, again, for consistently disappointment and frustration... and cbs, all i can say is if you screwed up my recordings of any other shows, well, you are gonna be on my shit list for a long time... especially since this might be the last season ziva is on ncis...

yeah, meaningless complaint, but righteous, ya know?...

UPDATE... ah, so paying a bit of attention to the night the mentalist is on, i discover it is on sunday nights which means football probably pushed the start time back so i am not enjoying the mentalist on CBS at all because the dvr is only recording half of the show and i am missing the endings so i am not following the continuing storylines and the writers and producers and sponsors are wasting their time and energy and money cuz i am turned off to any products associated with the show thanks to cbs and brighthouse...

in case they care...

blogger bust

the blogger (aka google) servers are sucking more than ever these days... maybe brighthouse is not helping and maybe kaspersky is complicating things and whatever whatever, but blogger sucks lately, really big sucks... have they tagged my account as using too much blogger space or maybe that is just toying with paranoia... the fact is, of my eighty some odd blogs here at blogger, yes, eighty some odd, not a one, not the newest that have merely a few dozen entries nor the daily that has more than five thousand entries, yes, five thousand, are easily managed or navigated or added to these days and it's been going on all year, even before we moved here back in late january or so where the brighthouse cable internet service sucks even more than it did where we used to live...

and come to think of it, google's gmail has become unusable for me on my main account because it will not download mail to me client (Windows Mail) on my laptop and i don't have time to navigate thousands of emails a week without filters on the gmail website... so maybe it is time to find an alternative to gmail, google, blogger, and the crap they and microsoft put out...

so i am blogging less, which might be what blogger wants, and they just might get me to invest wordpress or some other blog software and move to my own domain, but for the moment i shall wait and see cuz i don't have desire, time, or patience to learn how to do more than i already do with my own domain and besides, i'd have to pay more for more space there because i've used up the space i pay for at the moment... my own server with a t3 line?... maybe some other time, for now, i'll just meaninglessly complain some more...

what's up blogger, how's things google?... your service sucks this year, ya know?...

brighthouse, surprise! (sarcasm)

wel, just when you think the service at Brighthouse hit a new low (you can read all about my last service experience here, i have another bone to pick with the geniuses in their programming department in this meaningless complaint)... all summer they've been sucking me in to watch the entire four or five seasons of Heroes and just as they are scheduled to show the last six episodes of the final season last week and the dvr was all set to save them, i checked tonight and found they were not recorded... my first thought was... another equipment failure...

but nooooooo... they simply decided to stop carrying the network that was showing heroes... no warning as i was watching that network for the last three months, just poof, and it's gone...

it took me a half hour of internet searching to find this out, more time wasted on brighthouse... and on tv in general... and once again brighthouse leaves me dissatisfied with their product...

how have they failed me, let me count the ways...

brighthouse, not
brighthouse disrespect
brighthouse
the continuing saga of brighthouse suckage
cable services
brighthouse sucks, chapter whatever
brighthouse sucks again
brighthouse service, not
not brighthouse
cable and internet search
brighthouse continues to suck
waiting for a brighthouse connection
brighthouse is amazing
brighthouse shut me down again
brighthouse does it again
brighthouse is ridiculous
brighthouse, wow
brighthouse "service"
another brighthouse folly
brighthouse issues, yet again
brighthouse equipment
still poor products from brighthouse

still poor products from brighthouse

Here is part of a chat session I just had with seven different Brighthouse support people in over twenty-five separate online chat sessions... the connection kept dropping during the session, which is the best proof i could have given them of their poor product and we shall see if that changes anything...

I started a new chat session. During the previous chat session I started in the last hour, there were 25 disconnects so far, four support people. Adrienna, Kathleen, Chris, and a name I do not recall. I was on the phone before I started these ridiculous online chat sessions. I was disconnected.

Brighthouse needs to start paying me for my time or I will reluctantly move to another cable and internet provider.

Here is my account information, again: ******************

Two issues:

1. I cannot access ESPN3 again. The error message on ESPN is Bright House Networks is unable to match your Account Number with a current Bright House Networks customer. Please try logging in again and if you continue to receive this message please visit Bright House Networks at httpwww.brighthouse.comcorporatesupportcontact I am logged into Brighouse now so my login works. I have accessed ESPN3 with this account in the past.

2. My Turbo30 internet service remains intermittent. Streaming is not a pleasurable experience as there are more lags than before when I had Turbo20 at another location. Even when not streaming the internet is dropped several times a day at least during normal browsing. This is consistent across multiple computers and browsers. This was not happening with Turbo20 at our previous location.

[NOTE: the above was the issue that initiated the chat... the connection was dropped more than 25 times during these chats... below is the final chat i had with them today]

Ric: Seven support people in this attempt to resolve this issue.
Joyce: Welcome back, Ric! I'm sorry that your connection keeps dropping, and for the problems you're having. I have your account up, and checking the diagnostics right now. I would recommend a technician for your connection though for sure.
Joyce: If it drops again, is there a best day and time for a technician to visit?
Ric: Monday or Tuesday after 5pm. I can try to be there. I am starting a new job and do not have much flexibility.
Joyce: Your My Services account must still be attached to your old address. You don't currently have one showing on your current address, but I can transfer that. You'll be able to sue ESPN3 once I do.
Joyce: Thank you very much! I hope your new job goes well! I understand though for sure. I'll see if we have any 6-8pm appointments on Monday or Tuesday.
Ric: Resolving ESPN3 would be good, but with the disconnects I doubt I will even attempt streaming video.
Joyce: That is very true. It may take 24 hours after transferring it anyways, so with the technician visit, and the My Services on your current address, it should all be set for sure. :) I'll credit you as well for the problems you've been having.
Joyce: Oh good! We do have a 6-8pm on Monday. Is there a best phone number the technician can contact you at?
Ric: Another tech told me I need to re-register again. I've registered four different times with Brighthouse online and that is very annoying. I appreciate you having another solution.
Ric: [phone number]
Joyce: Oh no, that's okay. We have the ability to transfer it to the new address, so the log in information can stay the same. I'm happy that i can help with this! Thank you for the phone number too!
Ric: Thank you very much Joyce.
Unable to connect to the application server. This may be due to a firewall or network connectivity issue. Please try reconnecting later.

I didn't attempt to reconnect... seems like i got as much done as i could... so the people coming over to watch college football tonight will likely not get to see the game they would want to see most which is only being shown on ESPN3 as Joyce said it can take 24 hours for the account correction/transfer to the next address to be completed... why they do not simply do that automatically when someone moves is baffling to me... and since i did not sleep last night and did not get the nap i intended to get today thanks the the hours i've spent trying to resolve this, i will likely not go out after the football dinner party here o i will miss night two of the bachelor party for a friend... i must get sleep tonight as i have three softball games to play tomorrow... so Brighthouse, friend, upsets yet another weekend for me and my actual friends... we shall see if the credit to the account satisfies me enough to stay with Brighthouse...

brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 7/8/13, back down again):

working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

5% of the time 20% of the time 70% of the time 5% of the time

no problems slow downs intermittent connection, reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit

brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 7/8/13, a bit better):

working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

0% of the time 20% of the time 75% of the time 5% of the time

no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start (this is 80% of the time), picture doesn't come on until channel is changed box/channel resets randomly or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit

meanwhile, Brighthouse has it's own history in this meaningless complaint blog... obviously because they are my friend, right?... without a sense of humor, i'd have tossed the cable and internet equipment into the lake years ago... feel free to browse our history...
brighthouse, not
brighthouse disrespect
brighthouse
the continuing saga of brighthouse suckage
cable services
brighthouse sucks, chapter whatever
brighthouse sucks again
brighthouse service, not
not brighthouse
cable and internet search
brighthouse continues to suck
waiting for a brighthouse connection
brighthouse is amazing
brighthouse shut me down again
brighthouse does it again
brighthouse is ridiculous
brighthouse, wow
brighthouse service
another brighthouse folly
brighthouse issues, yet again
brighthouse equipment

UPDATE 7:00PM: So they gave me a $25 credit which comes to about minimum wage for the time i put in trying to resolve today's issue and about ten cents an hour adding in the previous time they did not give me credit for... and then, this happened...

despite the listing of the game i specifically paid $10 to watch in the brighthouse guide, that game is not on... so with guests here hoping to watch that game, i call brighthouse back... after transfers and discussion and checking into it, i am told it was espn that chose to put the miami game on two stations and not put the florida state game on as scheduled and they had no explanation for that illogical choice... they gave me a $10 credit for the sports pass since they could not provide the service i was paying for and let me keep sportspass for the month...

so my guests and i shall not watch the game they game over to watch...

meanwhile, they don't tell you, however, that when you order sportspass (or any premium) for a month, you have to actually call and cancel it if you don't want it for the following month and future months... deceptive advertising, since the screen says it's for one month and there is no fine print saying it will automatically be renewed each month unless it is cancelled... sadly, i should have expected this from brighthouse...


UPDATE: Monday, 8:30PM... the continuing brighthouse saga... The service call was scheduled between 6-8PM and I received three calls since last night reminding me that it was scheduled today between 6-8PM... unfortunately, the live call (the other two were automated) resulted in this unpleasant information...

the live person told me my appointment was scheduled for tomorrow between 6-8PM... I corrected her and she apologized and said she was calling people about Tuesday appointments and sounded flustered... i don't think this is brighthouse coming out tonight, i think it is a subcontractor and rarely do subcontractors have trained people, just people like me who can plug in wires and read instructions... She asked me what the problem was. She said she had no access to the service chats we had on Saturday that prompted the service call. She said my signal looks perfect. It seems ridiculous that the tech coming to the home does not know why he or she is coming. A big waste of time and poor communication with techs in the field equals very poor service.

if my signal is perfect to the router, then I hope he has a new router to switch out or we've wasted our time again. They get paid for this time, I do not.

so he finally arrived about 7:45 and he did have a new router, and after explaining the issue, he installed the new router... the router WiFi was turned off even though I have WiFi with Home Networking so he called to turn it on... there was no confirmation that Home Networking was turned on though.... I am concerned about too many WiFi signals in too small an area as my shared-wall neighbors all seem to have Wifi... but if Brighthouse has an issue providing the service I pay for, that should not be an unresolvable problem... they can charge less or get better equipment....

it was sad that the guy had no training, but he was a really nice guy and way too honest... he told me he has to use google and youtube to find solutions to issues he finds when he gets to homes because they send techs for no training... he could not answer most of my technical questions about the router and modem settings and did not know about cable boxes... he worked for a subcontractor and apologized for his lack of training... this is the sad truth about brighthouse, they are nobody's "friend" and provide untrained service technicians and defective products...


UPDATE: Tuesday, 2:30AM... i visited the support chat again and sought to find out why the promised fix of the ESPN connection was not done... i spent three hours and the intermmitent disconnects returned, though not as often so there was improvement with this newer new modem that had two antennae (the last one had none), but still i was disconnected a dozen times, at least... the first tech support agent went home during one of the disconnects and another agent spent twenty minutes reviewing the chat history... both reset the brighthouse myservices account and sent emails with new passwords and and neither worked, so now i've had at least six brighthouse online accounts and you think that might be confusing the server?... for a while i could log into brighthouse but neither worked to get ESPN to work and for a while i could not sign into brighthouse... after hours, they said they were having server problems (the catch-all excuse i have heard too many times from brighthouse) so they could not provide me with the service i pay for...

the disconnects lead me to a third agent and he was ignorant and rude wanting to start at the beginning (disregarding more than two hours of chat logs and trouble shooting efforts and i asked him for a copy of my service logs and he said he couldn't do that, he repeatedly said i could copy the chat when i clicked on the "done" button and refused to understand (or acknowledge) that the disconnects prevented me from seeing 98% of the history... i asked for a review by management and a way to contact a manager and he gave me a telephone number... he was giving me the hard core brush off and that was totally wrong after i patiently worked with the previous agents on hours of failed fixes, totally typical of brighthouse when they cannot find a solution to their problems...

i called the number and danced through the automated recordings and ten minutes later asked for a supervisor... the tech gave me the typical runaround asking to start at the beginning and i said check my support chat logs for tonight and for saturday and it was apparent she could not... i finally asked if she was refusing to connect me to her supervisor and she connected me...

i asked the supervisor, rob, for a way to contact brighthouse corporate quality control and he played dumb at first asking a lot of questions... i asked him if he was refusing to give me the information i was requesting and he said he will look it up and put me on hold... twenty minutes later he returned still hedging and i told him i want a review of the customer service experience i received the past three days by the quality management department and asked for his name and id number... he gave that to me and i explained, briefly, the nine hours i spent working with brighthouse to resolve issues that are still not resolved... i explained that i have a second service call tomorrow and i want someone who knows more than i do about computers and networking and he advised me to call back tomorrow and talk to a tier three tech who would make sure i had a well trained service tech come to the service call... the tier three techs are gone at this hour... i told him it was 2am here and wished him a good whatever time of day it was there and he said it was afternoon... he said he is creating a case for the local district manager to review and gave me a reference number...

we shall see if i find time to call tomorrow...

UPDATE: Tuesday, 5:00PM... so the service tech arrived... he didn't identify himself (which would be a good idea for Brighthouse to institute), but he was in a Brighthouse truck with a Brighthouse shirt on and more important, he seemed to know more than i did... he checked just about everything, including the outside box, all of the internal boxes, the router/modem, and my computer... hopefully the settings he changed will not affect other computers in the house that are not here at the moment... lots of setting changes...

the ping test was shaky at first but he seemed to find a fix... the speed test was as usual, very variable, but one did reach 28Mbps... the signal was dropped while he was working on the laptop... and the moment he left and i clicked on a browser link, the signal was dropped again... he did suggest i use an ethernet cable or get a better modem and i appreciated his honesty as he said Brighthouse does not provide the best quality of equipment and i had one of the best they provide, but there are much better router/modems available for purchase... i might go that route next if the connection continues to drop often...

at least a knowledgeable senior tech was sent and he spent an hour here working through all the physical products that bring internet to this computer... it is likely an inferior router/modem with a weak signal that drops out from time to time, especially when accessing a new site or refreshing a current site... or when more than one device is accessing the internet simultaneously... so much for paying for home networking and a wireless connection...

so now when will the online services errors be fixed?... stay tuned, the brighthouse saga continues...

kaspersky and microsoft

yeah, well, for years kaspersky was reliable and i never thought i'd be putting kaspersky and microsoft in the same complaint, but i've been without the laptop most of this afternoon and it started when kaspersky suddenly voided my license... i was able to find a number to call, which was great because the last time kaspersky screwed up i searched and tried fixing it for hours... sadly, the tech was condescending and rude (and yes, it is possible to be both)... anyway, i the tech sent me an email with the license key, only it never arrived... i asked him why the license would suddenly go unvalid and whether there could be a problem and he disregarded my question and said just follow his instructions... after ten minutes i asked him to send it again and he insisted he got the email right, but i ignored his you are an idiot tone insisted... and it arrived instantly... i entered the key and the license was revalidated... then i asked if they fixed the problem with the scans scheduling and he said he'd send me an email and i should follow the instructions in the email to fix it... i explained that i set all the scans to manual but the scans still started automatically and slowed the laptop, sometimes crashing it... he repeated rudely just follow my instructions and follow the email... i decided he would be of no further help so i said thanks and we hung up...

the email was just a link and i clicked on the link and the instructions were half in russian or some other language... kaspersky reached a new low of poor service and no-support...

i decided to forget it for now and restarted my computer and it would not restart, rather it suggested "restart repair"... i ran restart repair, accepted rolling back to a previous restore point, and had to re-license kaspersky again...

the next thirty minutes were spent waiting for microsoft to update... at least when i finally restarted, nothing went wrong... but it would have been nice to have a computer i could actually use this afternoon...

johnny football

i heard somebody say in passing what do you expect from texas a&m?... and the allusion seemed to refer to the current level of education, awareness, and mindset prevalent in texas these days where you have grown men, professional politicians, doing everything they can to return social conditions to pre-1950s levels... another related comment, "the cancer of the narrow religious mindset seems to be firmly ensconced in texas", relates to the quotes and comments attributed to leaders in that lone star state over the last few years... freedom and constitutional rights seem to be the last thing texans are ready to fight for... attacking anyone who is not conforming to a very small mindset seems to be the way of texas leadership today, but then, texas is the state that gave power to one of the most inept and manipulated presidents of all time, after all, so the path the state has been on can be seen for decades... it is clear that any person of good sense and open mind does not want to be a woman, a minority, or a logical, rational human being in texas these days... they just seem to love to tear people down as is the way with the insecure ego that feeds paranoids and power-mad cultures...

but texas is just the best representative of what is worst about the usa these days, the fear-based mentality that is eating away at the greatness of the greatest experiment in human freedom and equality the world has ever known... so it is no surprise that a college kid who excelled earlier in his youth than most was ripe for attack no matter what he did in texas... as if going to parties, drinking alcohol, and having fun acting out in rebellious ways is not something george bush junior or most college kids did... as if conformity and sitting in the dark at home at a computer screen or watching tv was the only way to be viewed as a good person... conform, make no waves, kiss the right asses, and follow the fear-driven rules of religious social behavior or be hounded by media as a pariah... like a bloody car accident, the people will gather to gawk at the buzzards that pick at your bones...

human nature?... if it is, then humans are the cancer destroying itself and the planet as many suggest... the only hope for humanity is if the narrow-minded fear-based paranoid and attraction to decay and tragedy that dominates the culture today is not the core of human nature... and the love of neighbor, good samaritan, and universal brotherhood concepts so obscured and ignored by most humans today actually forms the real human nature someday...

be real, johnny, be yourself... enjoy your life...

brighthouse equipment

sitting here minding my own business watching something i recorded on the brighthouse dvr and the picture froze... and the remote froze... and the digital box froze... and now it is rebooting... excuse me for wanting to use the products and services i pay #130 bucks a month for, why should i be a satisfied customer after all, brighthouse is my friend, right?... so how long will i be without service this time?...

overall, the service has stabilized to fair-mediocre with the same glitches... five to ten second blackouts when changing channels on a regular basis... no sound when turning the box on just as often, though not constant anymore... overall though, the service and equipment has not improved enough to change the last review and ratings... pathetic, really, that there is supposed to be a choice, no monopolies in this country... and companies are supposed to not lie in advertising... and service used to be something to be proud of, or maybe that was always a lie... but the corporations continue to take in billions in profits while you and i, average consumers, choose between better food, health care, phone, entertainment, or other life activities because they cost so much we can't have it all, even on a modest level...

and brighthouse is as bad as any of the corporations... they charge so much for the crappiest equipment because they need to keep paying service people to fix the equipment and sales people to sell the service that leaves customers so frustrated and dissatisfied...

ten minutes and the pictures comes back on, but it is stretched off the screen... the ticket on the left side of espn cannot be be read... so i need to trouble shoot the settings again... and i cannot enjoy the service i pay $130 a month for... i cannot go a single month without issues and interruptions of service that are so frustrating i turn off the tv and come here to document the crappy service and defective equipment...

do they wonder how long they can continue this way before the average people have had enough?...

national do not call list

the national do not call list is in place to stop unwanted telephone solicitations and annoying calls and has worked great for me for years, but the last could of days i've gotten a few calls from just outside of atlanta (athens, ga) that left no message and so i filed the following complaint with the do not call list so they can add the numbers to their database.

Caller ID: 7068051470 July 24, 2013 at 12:06 PM. The caller left no message. Another call came from this exchange (7068051481) the following day (July 25 at 11:23 AM) and left no message. A third call came from an 866 number (8665935477) at 8:24 that evening (July 25). I know no one in the area of the exchange (Athens, GA). I called the first number back and listened to a recording that said if I wanted to be taken off their call list I should press 1. I pressed 1. The calls continued. I know Brighthouse and ATT both have call centers in the neighboring 404 area code and I use their services, but I've never experienced hang-up calls from either of them. Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

We shall see if the calls stop. It might be ATT or Brighthouse or even some other company I contract with that has regional offices near Atlanta, but not leaving a message is annoying and they should know better if they are supposed to be providing me with courteous service.

If you get unwanted calls and have not registered your number with the the national do not call list, i suggest you do.

myspace no more

If it is true, that myspace simply destroyed years of blogging by dedicated myspace users, then myspace has no clue how to run an online community and no business trying. A business model that betrays the trust of those who use the site is bound to fail.

yes, as if the same mistakes just have to be made by every new web entrepreneur, myspace did it again... apparently without any warning to users (but after spending $20 million dollars to publicize the change somewhere somehow that most users apparently missed), myspace completely revamped their site and in doing so, wiped out years of lives that millions of myspace users put on the old site... people and families who trusted myspace with photos albums and memories and communications and writings and art on myspace were blown away to find everything simply gone and a message, if they asked for help, that said much will not be back... after weeks of complaints they realized that wiping out years of people's lives was not a good business move and they posted a message that the complaints were solved, but not solved was my reply... and this guy is pissed...

then, in my continuing effort to help save the world, i wrote this to the person who wrote, more than two weeks ago, that they are "working on it"...

The question becomes - so what are you working on?

A content export feature, I hope. An online community that invites people to set up a web home and upload much personal information, creativity, and communication earns a trust from users. Suddenly barring access to all that personal history is a betrayal of that trust.

For an online community to have any chance of success, user trust must be a fundamental component of your business model. Lost trust is very challenging for any company to get back. Every day you wait, you lose more community trust and online credibility.

If you don't want blogs or personal user storage space on your site, fine. Just give users who spent years uploading their lives in blogs, photos, videos, and other media the opportunity to save those blogs and data on their personal computers.

Then do your best to earn back the trust you lost.

so far, they have not replied...

brighthouse issues, yet again

ever since i was upgraded to the 30mb turbo and new router, i experience intermittent internet more often that i did with the old router... especially when i am uploading blog entries to blogger... and i wondered if it was blogger because new non-specific error messages started popping up on blogger, but i am now wondering it is is yet another brighthouse equipment or service issue because it is also effecting email and streaming video... what makes that more certain is the connection itself intermittently loses internet and goes local and a minute or so later it finds the internet again...

the last time i got new equipment from brighthouse, i had to have service people out here to change equipment three or four times before they got it right... and ultimately they had to boost their signal so it would not be as intermittent as it was, so my guess is they don't give good equipment or signal unless a customer complains enough... at least that's been my experience with brighthouse... i guess that's what brighthouse calls being a friend...

right...

we know that complaining about a corporation is futile, after all, just look at the name of this blog... but in case you have some time to waste or are just curious about how bad brighthouse serive gets, here are some of the meaningless complaints inspired by brighthouse...

brighthouse, not
brighthouse disrespect
brighthouse
the continuing saga of brighthouse suckage
cable services
brighthouse sucks, chapter whatever
brighthouse sucks again
brighthouse service, not
not brighthouse
cable and internet search
brighthouse continues to suck
waiting for a brighthouse connection
brighthouse is amazing
brighthouse shut me down again
brighthouse does it again
brighthouse is ridiculous
brighthouse, wow
brighthouse "service"
another brighthouse folly

brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 7/8/13, back down again):

working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

5% of the time 25% of the time 65% of the time 5% of the time

no problems slow downs intermittent connection, reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit

brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 7/8/13, a bit better):

working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

0% of the time 20% of the time 75% of the time 5% of the time

no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start (this is 80% of the time), picture doesn't come on until channel is changed box/channel resets randomly or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit

run tracker software

each time i run (or walk) i cover the same six laps... and each time the gps guided run tracking software tells me i've covered a different distance... the total distance is somewhere between 3 and 3.5 miles... and the software has a 0.7 mile margin of error... at least a 20% margin of error?... it's useless... and that's frustrating...

i've tried five different pace tracking apps and they are all the same on this point... they cannot accurately or consistently measure distance, which makes all the other calculations they provide invalid... one day the tracker software says 3.55 miles and the next is said 3.07 miles for the same six laps... so either the gps has way too large a margin of error to be useful or the laws of physics do not apply to me when i am running...

today, for each lap (in miles) it recorded: .49, .54, .65, .58, .61, .67... the distance per lap discrepancy, as expected, is similar to miles but even more telling... .79, .89, 1.04, .93, .98, and 1.09... same laps, measured up to .3 km apart... so how does this software measure the same lap with such drastic inaccuracy?... i am sure the manufacturer would have some pseudo-scientific response, but as they say on sports center, come on man...

looking at the map the software provides may show the problem... the flaw that appears to be causing the discrepancies in distance and that is the tracker seems to be over-reading (for lack of a better term) one or two step variations along the same path and adding considerable distance to the lap distance because of that... the path track has me crossing streets and going through buildings (impossible) way off the path i walk/jog on some laps so the gps sensitivity and accuracy is way off... i suppose this sort of tracker might be more helpful on a trail run, but it shows serious flaws and inaccuracies on a lap run which would lead me to question the accuracy of distance (and all other stats except the actual time) on any run tracked with a gps... unfortunately the other software i've tried is no different and shows the same gps variations, flaws, and inaccuracies...

so the app i chose because it provided the most numbers (mile times, average speeds, maximum speed, calories burned, and a lot more in miles and in kilometers) because the stats are fun for me and they are motivation to continue improving... but the numbers are pointless because the app cannot accurately measure distance...

so in the end, don't trust a run tracking app for any stats that any stopwatch can give you... the advantage of the app is that it will save the workouts for you, but better chronograph watches will do the same... the phone apps are cheap or even free, but they require carrying the phone with you and pressing the screen (after pulling the phone our of sleep mode) with every lap... a good chronograph watch makes much more sense... so we live with what we've got and the bottom line for runners looking for numbers to help motivate improvement is the uncalculated lap times, the overall time, and the physical assessment by your own senses/feelings...

att still sucks

stolen by att, yes att still sucks and att stole another few hours of this life... i was able to get two more att email addresses working, but there is still one address that will not update even though it is listed as one of my att email addresses... the website just keeps returning to the error message:

We apologize for the inconvenience but we are experiencing a temporary system error that prevents us from updating your sub account profile.

For further assistance, please contact:
Wireless support at 1-800-331-0500 (or 611 from your wireless phone),
U-verse support at 1-800-288-2020,
Home Phone/Internet support.

and in spite of their listing the numbers and link and stating quite clearly For further assistance, please contact:, calling the numbers wasted even more time because the left hands at att still do not speak to the right hands and all the people on the other end of the phone say is "we cannot help you"... and when i ask, then why are you listed quite clearly under the apologetic message that i am reading to you now "For further assistance, please contact:", all they say is "we cannot help you" wtf att?...

so i am still unable to access an email address i've had for more than a decade... random loss of time and internet identity and time and labor seems to be the att way... thousands of web pages containing my original website, many hundreds of hours of my time and energy building those pages, creating the content - gone, poof... because att decided to upgrade and discontinue web pages for customers... and now, because att is upgrading again, email addresses which are online identities, are erased... poof, you are gone...

once again, att sucks, yahoo too

and once again, ATT took an afternoon out of my life... a whole afternoon... almost eight full hours... searching the web, waiting on the phone for support that refused to help because just as they deleted websites i worked on for years without warning, they shut down their internet service and emails i had for years became free emails with no phone tech support... but they just merged with yahoo once again and that screwed up all of the free email addresses so they need to provide some support for the change-over... and after searching the websites and following instructions for old problems, i found a chat link and a support rep walked me through the website to the ways to fix the accounts... it required a whole lot of jumping through hoops and repetitive logging in and out and in and out and providing way more information that i want to give (so i make it up... i mean, do you give your real birth dates and other information in online profiles?... hope not), but i finally got the two addresses to work... the other two did not fail, yet... they will probably be migrated over to yahoo and take another few hours to fix some other day...

and then i had to create new accounts in my email client, twice, and finally... i think it's working... we shall see if something doesn't go wrong later or somewhere down the road...

would it have been so impossible to have updated the help pages and support pages before the migration... the last time this happened, i could not log into my yahoo accounts because the att accounts overruled them... had to drop out of the fantasy sports i enjoyed for many years... no support, no help... somehow, a year later i was able to log back into my yahoo account, which is not my original yahoo account because that was corrupted by yahoo and they "could not fix it so just open a new account" and lose all contacts, history, games, and so on and start over from scratch...

not a good customer experience from either of them, and now they work together... figures...

barf...

NBA fails again

No team should be allowed to win by fouling to prevent the winning score in any sport.

Both teams in game six played well at times and played poorly at times... San Antonio made a huge mistake in the 4th quarter by getting away from the inside game... when a player is having a horrible game, turning the ball over eight times, he should not be the player trying to control the ball in the last few minutes... sitting the best player and rebounder for the last plays of the game was very foolish and gave Miami the opportunity to tie the game in regulation... Miami showed they were not kings or god as the media likes to portray them... every one of them showed nerves and lack of discipline... comparing them to any great team or any great player is way too premature... they backed into the win...

Worst of all... with 1.8 seconds to play in overtime an obvious foul prevented San Antonio from scoring what would have been the winning basket... that foul was obvious to the announcers and very obvious on the replay... allowing a team to win by breaking the rules makes the win and the game meaningless...

San Antonio gave the game away and may not have deserved the win, but Miami did not win the game... the referees gave the win to Miami by allowing Miami to physically and illegally prevent the winning shot... that is not how a championship should be decided... just when i thought the nba could not fail any worse, it did tonight...

If the NBA does not own up to this referee error that decided the game, the NBA fails... if the media ignores this referee error that decided the game, the media fails...

There are bad calls and fouls missed throughout any game... there are fouls called when they shouldn't be during any game... no one can expect referees to be perfect... but this bottom line is simple...

No team should be allowed to win a championship by fouling, by breaking the rules of the game, in the last moments of the game...

another brighthouse folly

bottom line, two and a half hours of my labor with no compensation is stealing from me... even if the law is weak, it is still theft morally and ethically, so brighthouse is an immoral, unethical corporation... hello friend?... until brighthouse pays me for my labor fixing the crap equipment they provide, brighthouse will not be my "friend" and it insulting to see brighthouse commercials claiming to be a friend... friends don't steal from friends...

2:50... a little lightning and the lights flicker... no problem anywhere with any electronic equipment... clocks are all still telling the time, computers are all running along without a hitch, everything is great, no resets anywhere, except the brighthouse cable box... the cable box can't handle that the way the computer can (which is technologically stupid since all it would take is a back up battery and some circuitry, but that would reduce the number of service calls and increase the life span of the cable boxes which would reduce the planned obsolescence factor and make less money for yet another greedy u.s. corporations, to hell with good service and quality products in the good old u.s.a...

3:15... the box is still in reboot mode... it seems stuck at E-7... E-7 is not a usual screen icon, so i am suspecting trouble... so once again i shudder and call brighthouse again... and a helpful canadian woman who is also a nurse (i didn't ask why a nurse is answering repair calls for brighthouse in the middle of the night) listens to all of my complaints about internet and cable and searches for a better package and finds all the same services i have now with upgrades to full turbo (30mbps) and digital dvr for $2 less than i am paying now...yeah, i know, the rate goes up next year, but it sounded good right now...

4:09... still on the phone with brighthouse... we finally finalized the new package... yeah, so i decided to go with (fall for?) the upgrades and $2 savings rather than the same services with a $10 savings (both monthly)... so while the customer service person was good at sales, she did not do tech support well and the box is still not working... she sent several signals, boosted the signal, and whatever other tricks she knew, but to no avail... i have a tech scheduled out to replace the box and install the new modem and dvr for wednesday morning... unfortunately, that will mean having to take the box in myself tomorrow if i want to watch the stanley cup and nba finals... meanwhile, i say thank you to the sales girl - she was professional, patient, polite, and helpful from a sales standpoint... and i try troubleshooting the tech issues myself some more...

4:30... after unplugging everything and rebooting three times, the box made it down to L-3... no E-7... hope?... yeah, well, the equipment brighthouse provides is the only thing about brighthouse worse than the tech support and service, but we let the box continue to reboot... it hung there, so i rebooted yet again... going on two hours paying brighthouse to take my time and energy and labor... and they wonder why i resent the unfairness of that?... a $50 discount this month would be reasonable for my labor would be fair...

4:45... the box made it back to the time, so?... for some reason it is not showing anything on the tv... no signal... so i unplug the tv and replug it in several times and still no signal... the box says it's on... i check the tv and the tv is working... i press the guide button and the guide comes up with the correct time so the cable box is sending some signal to the tv and the tv is recieving it and working fine, so...

5:05... i called brighthouse back again... and we tried sending another signal to the box and waiting for a reboot... and waiting for a reboot... and waiting for a reboot... i could probably type that a hundred times and still have time to go to the bathroom before the box reboots... just one more reason a simple lights flickering power surge should not cause a complete time-consuming reboot that prevents a viewer from finishing a movie or show, but profits must be maximized so screw the customer experience, right "friend?"...

5:20... finally have tv again... and i mention the fact that there is no sound and it's been that way since i first got the box (which was the third box tried back then) and the tech tries to trouble shoot and nothing... i tell him i am going to see what the new box and tech can do on wednesday and thank him and we are done... cable tv and internet service is still way a overpriced rip-off as is most products and services people need more than other products and services... supply and demand... greed and corruption... the american way... yeah, it's not fair or right, but it is the reality of the culture we live in... so two and a half hours of my labor and $50 off my bill would be getting my labor cheap... without the discount, brighthouse service and equipment and pricing continues to suck and what makes it suck most is the free labor they get from me to fix their crap equipment... still appreciate the sale customer service woman for improving the cost-benefit for me...

brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 6/17/13, improved):

working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

5% of the time 80% of the time 10% of the time 5% of the time

no problems slow downs intermittent connection, reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit

brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 6/17/13, still trending downward):

working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

0% of the time 0% of the time 85% of the time 15% of the time

no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start (this is 100% of the time) box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit

nba fails again

first few minutes the announcers are already talking about inconsistent referees because they called a foul on the spus and changed the call from a non-shooting to a shooting foul because it was lebron... the bias and script is so obvious it is sad... just before the eight minute mark another cheap found calls on the spurs, of course someone touched james... pathetic... spurs players (and some miami players) get touchd a lot harder during the act of shooting and no fouls are called... the cheap offensive fouls called already is what is keeping miami in the game... letting lebron throw elbows at chest and neck and even face level and making contact and calling no foul (no less a flagrant foul, which the rules say that is) is keeping them in the game... and we come back from commercial with the spurs leading and red hot and the announcers and video clips are all about lebron and wade... the script is way too obvious, nba... i don't watch wrestling, i don't watch reality tv, i don't watch soap operas, and every year, more and more, i am losing interest in the nba...

and the second quarter is even worse... the announcers are wondering where the fouls are... a foul on duncan and the announcers are asking where was it... the announcers are laughing at the refs for being fooled by multiple miami flops... one announcer said "write your check to the league office for that flop" after bosh did what he is best known for doing... the refs actually tried to defend their call immediately following the play, knowing they were outed for their bias... it is so obvious the refs are doing everything in their power to get lebron and miami started and give this game to miami... the game is dominated by phantom fouls on the spurs and no calls on miami when they make contact...

and what happens by the time the third quarter comes around is the bias is ignored by the announcers, the team that was given the bias is running on all cylinders, the team the refs were literally holding down is not in synch... if you understand the game and watch each play closely, you'd see it too... they can give "king james' his championships and history will be written without the flat out nba cheating, but they will never give him nor the miami heat respect from a knowledgeable basketball fan this way...

#nbafail

PS... here's a rant with some links and other opinions... meanwhile, just like last year, nba finals once again disappoint immensely (because of cheating (as a former referee has stated in court which was whitewashed by the nba... summary here)... solutions?...

and i am coming to the realization that the main reason i don't like the miami heat is because both lebron and wade are dirty players - they are street players, not professional basketball players... they need the refs to not call fouls on them for them to win... their favorite mo dirty cheat is to slap players across the eyes... they also, like street players, travel a lot and it is not called... and three second violations are not called on them... and let's not get into bosh the flopper because he and others like him (battier, for another) make a mockery of the nba... all in all, the nba bias has become too obvious for an educated fan to ignore...

brighthouse "service"

just when i was accepting the mediocre service provided by brighthouse as the best they can do, it gets worse... the internet went out tonight suddenly and i rebooted the modem three times to no avail, so i called brighthouse from the phone associated with my account and the automated screening program asked if i was calling from the phone number associated with my account and i said yes and was asked why i am calling and said "internet tech support" and was told i was being connected to road runner tech support and waited for a representative... after coming on the voice said "welcome to brighthouse" and i was asked for the phone number associated with my account, again... i gave the csr my number, repeated it, and explained that i am calling for internet tech support because the internet connection went down about an hour ago and i rebooted the modem properly three times before calling and there was still no connection and the ready lights were blinking...

after a few minutes i was asked for the address and my name... after a few more minutes i was asked for the mac number on the back of the modem and i told the csr tech support representative i could not read it... after a few more minutes i was asked for the account number, which i did not have with me because i pay electronically automatically each month and do not look at paper bills or go online to their site... after a few minutes i was asked for my phone number again as if i was never asked in the first place... the csr then told me to look on the back of the modem and find the coaxial cable "which is a thick round black cable that screws into...." and i cut her off reminding her that i already told her that i already tried rebooting the modem three times before calling and informed her that i know how to reboot a modem as i do it at least weekly... a few more minutes went by and i was asked for my name and address again as if i was never asked in the first place... a few more minutes and i was asked for my account number again, which i again said i did not have... a few more minutes and i was asked for the mac number on the back of the modem once again, and i responded that i could not read it, once again... after a few more minutes i was asked for the telephone number associated with the account for the third time as if i never gave it...

it was then i asked to speak to the csr's supervisor...

after almost ten minutes the same csr comes on the phone as if she was someone else and asks me to give her the mac number on the back of the modem... i told her that i asked to speak with her supervisor and she said "ok"...

about five minutes later someone identifying herself as a supervisor came on the line and i explained why i asked for her, especially the ten minute wait and attempt to fool me, and she said she would look up my account... about five minutes later brighthouse hung up on me... i looked up at the modem and it was working... apparently the "supervisor" was able to locate my account and send a signal boost within five minutes after the csr gave me a runaround for more than a half hour...

i don't call that "friend"... i don't call that "service"... i call that being lied to, manipulated, and disrespected by an incompetent csr who should not be working customer service or tech support and disrespected by a supervisor with poor customer service skills... just what i've come to expect from brighthouse...

hello friend, right...

out of control blogger stats

why does goggle/blogger continue to reset the settings feature "don't track your own page views" when i do not want to track my page views... ever time i re-check that feature i find it is reset to counting my page views which fools me into thinking there are more people visiting my blogs - when in some cases i am the only one visiting some of my more obscure blogs... it is very annoying to find that feature reset on a regular basis...

bad form, blogger... another google fail... fix it please...

htc inspire

i don't know what the problem is with the htc inspire but i know what bugs me about it and why i won't be buying another htc unless the same issues are definitely not in the next models... bugs or flaws or whatever, the htc inspire has them... the battery life is short... some apps came pre-installed and they cannot be removed... these apps always seem to be on... i installed advanced app killer and every time i open it, i find more than a dozen apps running and worst of all, these are apps i've never used... i can kill them all, turn off the screen, wait two seconds, turn on the screen and open app killer again and there they are... draining the battery... turning on the gps and/or other apps when i am not using any apps... and i watch the battery life go down...

there's no tick tock on your electric clock, but still your life runs down...

i don't get it... maybe it's not all the inspire's fault... maybe the apps themselves refuse to turn off or turn on automatically... or maybe the android os does it.... and maybe my carrier (att) forces some apps on me (why can't i delete apps that came with the phone that i do not use, especially when they turn themselves on without my permission and drain my battery?... can i sue them if the phone is out of juice during an emergency?)...

anyway, and if that's not enough, some apps and features will not work if i am connected to a wireless network... voice texting, for instance... or some web connections,,, weather... it's ridiculous...

the nba reality tv show

wrote this last week and posted much of it in the tv blog, but the venting needed to continue checking in on nba games just had to come here... last season the miami heat did not deserve to win it all, boston would have beaten them if not for a few key calls be referees at critical moments in a few games... indiana had a chance too, and referees giving lebron james carte blanche skewed that outcome... but boston was cheated last yet, no doubt about it...

i'd rather watch women's softball (and give me college sports over professional almost any day)... the nba game is so reflective of the american culture, scripted drama, reality tv, and arrogant overpaid kids with little or no education, sportsmanship, or class trying to show off... the usa may be the most egocentric culture in the history of mankind, but if it isn't, it is up there with any others... and like the others, the fall is coming... but back to the nba...

not every team is made up of over-dramatic macho egos, some do have exemplary class (san antonio lead by tim duncan, for one)... we might as well watch boxing or hockey (and there is less theatrics in both)... since the beginning of the playoffs (i seldom watch the game before the playoffs), the knicks are a perfect example (as are miami and the lakers), egos inflated by their urban home venue... they play like selfish thugs and act like punk kids who have no clue that basketball is a team sport and at times, appear to have no clue as to what the game of basketball is about...

too many teams are like them these days, with one mega-star having amazing individual games now and then, but that does not work against a team playing together in a seven game series... what gives miami an edge (besides the refs who consistently call plays in their favor... lebron, of course, is the best example of the nba reality tv show) is they have two of the best players in the game who've learned to play two on two ball pretty well, sometimes... it's still not what the five on five basketball game was meant to be and teams that played like teams (like boston from the 60s and the knicks and lakers from the 70s... watch tapes and learn if you are really interested in the game)...

one reason i like charles barkley is, through instinct, intelligence, or naivety, he says what a lot of people are thinking but most if not all are afraid to so... he is not politically correct... he does not go along the company line... and many times, he speaks truth no one wants to hear or believe... not in the scripted nba... for years people swore wrestling wasn't scripted, foolish fans... the nba is obviously scripted to some extent, maybe a lot... and espn plays right into the soap opera... ridiculously overblown drama on reality tv is the american way these days... what is obvious is the same physical interaction between players can happen a hundred times during a game and a few times it's called a foul, purely at the referee's discretion... and too often those specific foul calls come at points in a game that turn momentum toward one team or another... too often those specific foul calls determine who wins a game or a series, as with miami over boston last year... so thank you charles barkley...

"i know the nba wants miami in the final, but come on man" ~ charles barkley

it's pretty simple... small market teams do not bring in the tv viewers (and therein revenues) that big market teams do... so at least one team in the finals needs to be a big market with controversy... just look at the big city teams, they are soap operas... and the good teams from smaller markets?... seldom is there major drama or controversy... they play to their markets, they play to their scripts...

so thank you tnt for putting him on the air... the talking heads on the others stations are so bending over backwards to please the corporate network execs and corporate nba, they take the joy out of the game... sir charles (and shaq and kenny on tnn, were remarking about the ridiculous referee calls between commercial breaks and this particular statement was made supporting shaq and kenny's similar statements during a review of the biased calls by the refs during game the first half of game two of the conference finals... ridiculous technical fouls on indiana, while miami is allowed to argue and provoke much more than indiana does and nothing is called... i am waiting for them to notice how many 3-second violations are called against indiana just as someone is going in for an easy layup... besides the ridiculous disparity in foul calls, 3-second violations taking away point opportunities from indiana and giving more point opportunities to miami is the rule the refs follow...

as long as street ball is played and the obvious scripting continues, reality tv fans can have the nba... as long as individual stats and double doubles and triple doubles are more important than team play or even winning, i'll just tune in now and then to check the score...

htc inspires this one

the phone, HTC Inspire, continues to be annoying by having a very short battery life (compared to others with other brand phones) and it seems to be in part due to the fact that there are more than a dozen apps (most i do not use ever and have not even activated) constantly turning themselves on... i have Advanced Task Killer and every time i open is it shows apps running... i can kill all the apps and close the phone and open it fifteen seconds later and there are a half dozen or more apps running... within two minutes more than a dozen are running again... this not only reduces battery life but makes it a longer charging process... the most annoying thing is i not only have not activated most of the apps, but i cannot delete the apps from the phone... so whether through deliberate corporate decisions to SPAM other corporate apps (like facebook, youtube, blockbuster, and various news and social media apps {adobe, asphalt 5, blockbuster, facebook, gmail, live tv, mail, news, news & weather, stocks, teeter, youtube - i never use on the phone and many others i rarely use and never show up on the "frequent" screen and are not apps i downloaded and have a greyed out delete button, so why should they be running and draining battery if i am not using them?)

wtf facebook?

after midnight i hear my phone and wonder who is texting me after midnight... few friends stay up this late and they are welcome to call or text anytime and any meaningful messages are almost always welcome, but facebook corporate SPAMMING is not... it's a text from facebook corporate, a PUSH message (corporate-speak for SPAM), an automatic text from facebook telling me my friends have updated their statuses something like 1600 times this week and urging me to update my status by responding to the text... what the fuck, facebook?... i have text messages turned off after midnight, did facebook change my preferences without asking me?... facebook has my password so it can control my account, but as with every site, i trust facebook not to manipulate my account for any purposes... not being on facebook for a week or two and not posting a status for a few weeks appears to give facebook the gall to SPAM me after midnight... that better not continue... so i posted a status update basically telling them this is the text message status update you requested: fuck off facebook... i reset my notification times again and changed my password and found out that i need to install the facebook app on my phone... i don't want the facebook app on my phone... so i caught up on my notifications in fifteen minutes and that'll be enough facebook for me for today... dang commercial corporations spoil everything in this consumer addicted culture...

espn, the sports soap opera station

espn dropped the ball... the concept and even the content was great for a while and some of it is still good, but sports center has turned into sports soap opera and maybe, as they claim, "that's what fans want" but not me and not anyone with a true love of the games... maybe wrestling fans want scripted drama, soap opera and reality tv fans apparently do... but sports fans, real sports fans?... i don't think so... maybe couch potato fans who never played a competitive sport want the hyped-up drama or something other than a well played game (and those are few and far between in recent years, but that's another story as much about players as the media)... sports fans are watching, first and foremost, for the love of the skill and art of the sport... espn has become as ridiculously distracted by fake drama as fox and the rest of the media... they've gone the way of mtv, who puts fake drama (reality tv) ahead of music for a long time now... mtv lost their primary audience, music lovers... espn is on the way toward the same end...

kaspersky yet again

this time after updated windows (because windows has to fix it's flaws once a week or so and it's come to be expected from microsoft which is of course ridiculous, but whatever, for now), kaspersky has a pop up saying the application did not start properly and wants to collect information from my computer... so i click ok and send... and wait... again...

kaspersky itself is acting very much live a phishing trojan or virus and kaspersky support will not respond to my requests for reassurance that the latest version of Pure (3.0) was not infiltrated by some malicious software... so for five minutes so far kaspersky has been collecting files and now it is "packing" files to be sent to kaspersky... at least i hope it is being sent to kaspersky... meanwhile, i opened a notepad and there was a pop-up that there was not enough resources to complete the action and advised me to close other programs... nothing else is open except the kaspersky box that it opened automatically... and after packing for five more minutes, the support box asked me to send the data and i clicked send and it's collecting and packing again... no thank you for sending, just the same warning box asking me to send the data... and we wonder why i don't feel protected by my kaspersky security program...

now what was it i came to my computer to do again?...

kaspersky again

yes, again, it is a daily thing, but today it is a ten minutes and counting thing... coming out of hibernation this time and the kaspersky console won't even open... it is running every scan it can and the update of the databases simultaneously (no wonder it is freezing up) and it is preventing me from opening browsers or doing anything else with this computer other than typing into a notepad... the kaspersky console would not come up and the kaspersky program shut down on it's own then reopened and is running crazy on it's own... once the console finally did open, the scan would not stop... kaspersky is losing a customer this month since they will not respond to the support request and their product has prevented me from doing things with my computer when i want to do things with my computer for several weeks now... i can't even get on their website or check email when i want to...

do not use kaspersky products... as a long time user i am done with kaspersky...

NBA follies

you may remember all the meaningless complaints i vented about last year when the nba referees decided to play for miami... yeah, well, i almost forgot i wrote a bit about it last year, but it didn't take long for the nbc to remind me... the bias is so obvious it is unavoidable and i didn't even watch the game... protect miami at all costs, that's the name of the game... miami must win, period... how many technicals?... how many players ejected?... and we let miami grab chicago around the neck but that's a no call... make sure you call all the light stuff chicago does to miami... announcers were biting their tongues as the edited video was showed...

obviously the nba got scared when miami was embarrassed by chicago in game one and the referees got the message that their prime product, currently miami, must be protected and must win... obviously the referees do not know the meaning of the word subtle and the chicago players were provoked into reacting to the imbalance in the calls...

as far as i am concerned, miami won last year with the referee's help and miami may be the best team money can buy, but until they win the big games without biased calls from the refs, they don't earn any real respect from anyone who knows the real court experience of the any highly competitive game... professional basketball has turned into a very sad show of biased refs, overpaid prima donna stars, high paid thugs and and bad actors...

brighthouse... wow

watching the double overtime game as the san antonio spurs make an amazing comeback to win was not interrupted by brighthouse, thankfully, but the post game show, just as the san antonio coach was about to speak, brighthouse decides i cannot watch it... no, brighthouse decides that is the moment to shut down my enjoyment of the nba playoffs and send a firmware upgrade to my box... they don't ask like any user-friendly considerate software would ask if it is a good time... they don't give any options at all... just go away, it is not your tv or cable box, you are a sucker for paying us $130 a month, we own you and your tv viewing pleasure so bug off customer, we are brighthouse and we don't give a fuck...

bullshit commercials about being a friend?... somebody give me a better option than brighthouse - please... but before you call with sales calls - match the internet speed...

damn brighthouse, hire some quality control and costumer service professionals...

UPDATE: the firmware update somehow removed ESPN and ESPN2 from my channel lineup... ESPN and ESPN2 are just blank screens... so i will have to call and waste my time fixing they screw up once again...

UPDATE: the only solution brighthouse offered is to waste more of my time without compensation by sending yet another technician out to pretend to fix the problem like that last dozen technicians did over the last few years...

the brighthouse service has never worked properly and the brighthouse service techs have never been able to fix it in dozens of attempts... i've spend dozens of hours a year working for brighthouse on my time... it is always reboot the box and/or we will send out a technician to fix it, which has been a lie more than a dozen times...

don't trust brighthouse, they lie constantly...

i will just turn off the service, unplug the box, disconnect everything and reconnect tomorrow and see if that changes anything... that is the most i will give brighthouse now... i will pay $10 less this month and see if they cancel my service or allow that compensation for my time..

UPDATE THE NEXT DAY: it worked sort of... so i lose a day of service and put in a half hour of my time to service brighthouse equipment and we are back to the unsatisfactory service we had before the rude interruption of service caused by their firmware update...

i thought there were laws against monopolies...

dang Kaspersky

the Pure 3.0 protection program is trying to take over my computer (first complaint here) and it is becoming more than a nuisance as it is preventing me from using the computer when and as i want to... the triple scan plus database update happens simultaneously any time i come out of sleep mode or turn on the computer even when i turned the settings to OFF... the scans happen automatically and slow the computer almost to a freeze the computer until i can finally get the console open to stop it... the console is slow to open, then shuts down, the systray icon disappears, and then returns a couple of minutes later... and it seems to be getting worse, not better, as the Pure 3.0 is running more often and therefore interrupting my computer usage more often...

I think they know they have a problem with Pure 3.0, but i've received no response from the email to support... tomorrow i will call and see what they can do for me... they either need to fix it or walk me through returning to Pure 2.0 without putting my computer at risk because software preventing me from using my computer has got to go...

brighthouse is ridiculous

you can find too many complaints in this blog about brighthouse and it is only laziness, lack of use, and the knowledge that most other services are equally problematic and in terms of internet speed, a lot slower so i feel stuck with the crap brighthouse offers... the ridiculousness is that they actually made an unsolicited sales call to me today... i am on the national no-call list and have repeatedly told brighthouse directly that i am dissatisfied with their service and do not want their SPAM phone calls but they did it again... why would i pay more money for the crap they offer?...

the internet service remains about the same, it works but has intermittent lapses and is much slower than it was at the previous location (same service, same cost, just no boost in signal like they finally did at the other location after a half dozen service calls... i told them i do not want to waste my time with starting over troubleshooting here and requested they simply review my record and provide the solution of boosting the signal and they apparently don't get it - it being how to satisfy a costumer)...

the cable is about the same, the box needs rebooting weekly to keep it from locking up and the rest of the issues are listed in previous entries... there would have been no complaint if their sales department didn't annoy me today with an insulting disregard for my previous requests and documented issues, but here we are... brighthouse is ridiculous and if there was an alternative with equivalent speed/bandwidth i'd jump at it...

so how is your day?...

kaspersky pure 3.0

not so pure, since 3.0 was released... i've used kaspersky computer protection products for a long time and mostly, i am satisfied... they do drain a lot of resources but if they run on schedule, like when i am not using the computer - and when they do not start major scanning operations while i am using the computer, then they don't interfere with my using my computer... but since upgrading to Pure 3.0 recently, the scans occur simultaneously when i am using the computer, the scheduling resets to several days a week no matter what i set it for, and the multiple scans while i am already using the computer freezes the computer... the scans slow the computer to a crawl and freeze software, especially mail, and stop browsing, especially facebook and any graphic and scan intensive sites... i've had to switch to scanning manually and hope the scheduled scans don't keep resetting... i let kaspersky support know and hopefully they will get 3.0 fixed soon, but until then, anybody have any recommendations for a more reliable full scale protection software, send them to me...

virus protection should not act like a virus, ya know?...

UPDATE 5/2/13 1:30 PM...

The help ticket i put in yesterday did not appear on the Kaspersky site today so i put in another one that did appear...

the settings are set to manual scans and yet, Kaspersky Pure 3.0 automatically started all three scans (Full, Critical, and Vulnerability) and a download of updates simultaneously which is preventing the cpu from taking on any other tasks and slowing Kaspersky itself to a crawl... i ended up shutting down everything i was doing which took 20 minutes due to the non-responsiveness of the cpu... i do not appreciate a software that takes over my computer for hours (estimated time 3+ hours and that did not changed for an hour) especially when the software itself is not following it's own controls... so turning off automatic scans is not a viable solution...

i checked the website and there is no record of the support request i sent in... there's no email response from Kaspersky... so I sent another request and this time am recording the request number: 314695632... it instantly appeared on the list of "my requests" so apparently yesterday's did not go through... perhaps because the computer had to be shut down due to the Pure 3.0 locking it up... hopefully they come back with a solution quickly...

UPDATE 5/2/13 still going on...

UPDATE 5/9/13 still locking up, no response from tech support...

UPDATE 8/14/13 unsatisfied customer... unless serious fixes are released soon, I will not be renewing my 3-year contract with Kaspersky (I've been a customer for more than 8 years)... i never did get a satisfactory response to the issues and the scans still start occasionally on their own at which time i cannot use the computer and must wait while Pure 3.0 slowly allows me to stop the scans... i can no longer download email or stream music/videos without delays or time-outs and connection interruptions have increased to more than one an hour which may partly be due to the poor broadband (Brighthouse) service but it coincides with upgrading to Pure 3.0 as well...

google stats

ok, they are free, the google-blogger blogs and the stats they provide, so this is only a semi-complaint because, after all, we get a whole lot for free from google-blogger and if a feature is not working, well, many free features are... i just want to record my semi-complaint about the google stats on blogger, specifically, the "Don't count my own page views" feature... this is the feedback i sent to google:

The "Don't track your own page views" seems to have a very short term cookie and it is very annoying to have to reset this feature regularly. Even more annoying when it must be done blog by blog for multiple blogs. I know this is free, but the stats lose their meaning if they are constantly reset to count my page views when I do not want my page views counted. Why have the feature at all if it isn't going to stay "on"? So two feature requests:

No expiration date for the cookie that controls "Don't track your own page views"

and

an "all blogs" feature where a change in settings can be done across all blogs with one change.

Thanks for the free blogs, I hope these suggestions will be considered in your next update.

there are a whole lot of other ways they can improve their stats, like list more than the top ten of everything, but for as much as i use the stats (and as much as they mean to me), this is the one feature i wish they would get right... anyone who makes use of the stats on blogs here, feel free to enlighten me as to how you use them because other than amusement, i don't find much use... thanks and may all our complaints be this light :)