excuse me, windows defender just interrupted my conversation with a friend and other computer usage for no apparent reason... it did not scan, perhaps because i was typing as it popped up... i never even used it, it was disabled when i installed my anti-virus software because it is not compatible... but recently when firefox crashed one time too many i opened internet explorer and suddenly windows defender is scheduled to run daily... it doesn't matter what i am doing, it interrupts... another unnecessary annoyance from the idiots at microsoft who can't seem to understand that my use of my computer should be the priority and microsoft software should not usurp control over my computer (unless they'd like to pay for it)... dang proprietary software codes, when will they ever learn they will never have satisfied customers unless they start respecting customers...
and they wonder why so many say microsoft sucks... like they care with their billions...
Showing posts with label wrong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrong. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
quibids is a scam
it works like a casino depending on the majority of people losing their money so a few can appear to win big... each "bid" costs 60 cents and each "bid" is counted as 1 cent when used, so when something is sold for $10 the quibid company actually makes $610 plus shipping and handling for the item... those $10 worth of bids actually cost customers $600... in other words, a $200 item appears to be sold for $10, but actually the company racked in over $600... the stories of iPads selling for $40 sound great, but the quibid company sold those 4000 bids (that they equate to $40) for $2400, add the $40 that the "winner" pays and shipping and handling and quibid makes almost $2000 profit on a $500 iPad... the "winner" might have used at least 500 "bids" to win (often a "winner" uses a lot more than 12% of the "bids" to "win" a product) that iPad and the "winner" had to buy those bids at 60 cents each so the very lucky winner actually paid close to $400 for that iPad - and if they used more than 600 bids they paid list price for that iPad...
they there is the bait and switch... two of the items i "won" on the site were "no longer available" and they offered a gift card to walmart or another store for what i spent - so i wasted my time to break even?... and they never sent the gift card so they flat out ripped me off on the "wins"...
additionally, the site also collects valuable information about your purchasing interests and your consumer weaknesses among other personal information... for instance, a tech support rep was not only able to tell me what computer, operating system, and browser i was using, but that my other browser (chrome) would work better with the site...
worse yet, though harder to prove, is that the quibid computers are rigged (which consumer regulatory agency has checked them?)... you don't win unless you invest a lot of time and money in the company... repeatedly i watched very suspicious timers lagging at just the right second to prevent me and others from "winning" while robot bidding was allowed to continue to bid the price of the item up... at least a few times i watched the same bids appear on two or even three different products at the same time, which means someone clicked two or three buttons simultaneous;y at the precise second needed which is impossible unless the quibid computers are making the bids for the alleged customers...
but like the rest of the gambling industry, people become addicted to the pretense of winning and the idea of getting something for nothing... casinos are packed and people know the games heavily favor the house... believing they are actually buying stuff at substantial discount is an even bigger draw for a culture addicted to consumerism and gambling... it took me $30 to learn the scam... hopefully you won't be ripped off for more...
they there is the bait and switch... two of the items i "won" on the site were "no longer available" and they offered a gift card to walmart or another store for what i spent - so i wasted my time to break even?... and they never sent the gift card so they flat out ripped me off on the "wins"...
additionally, the site also collects valuable information about your purchasing interests and your consumer weaknesses among other personal information... for instance, a tech support rep was not only able to tell me what computer, operating system, and browser i was using, but that my other browser (chrome) would work better with the site...
worse yet, though harder to prove, is that the quibid computers are rigged (which consumer regulatory agency has checked them?)... you don't win unless you invest a lot of time and money in the company... repeatedly i watched very suspicious timers lagging at just the right second to prevent me and others from "winning" while robot bidding was allowed to continue to bid the price of the item up... at least a few times i watched the same bids appear on two or even three different products at the same time, which means someone clicked two or three buttons simultaneous;y at the precise second needed which is impossible unless the quibid computers are making the bids for the alleged customers...
but like the rest of the gambling industry, people become addicted to the pretense of winning and the idea of getting something for nothing... casinos are packed and people know the games heavily favor the house... believing they are actually buying stuff at substantial discount is an even bigger draw for a culture addicted to consumerism and gambling... it took me $30 to learn the scam... hopefully you won't be ripped off for more...
Thursday, February 14, 2013
brighthouse shut me down again
and once again i am in the middle of working on internet research and in the middle of watching something on tv and the crappy brighthouse service that i pay $130 a month for decides i can not do what i want to do and will i be compensated for my time?... the reboot started automatically about ten minutes ago and it continues... does brighthouse really care?... is brighthouse really a friend?... don't believe the bullshit commercials, they do not care and are not your friend... they continue to tell me that this should not be happening and continue to ask me for my time and my services without compensation - and they continue to provide a mediocre product with ineffective service...
and during the last service call, just two weeks ago, i told the tech what was going on and he suggested getting the new box... in other words, call for service again... and talking to two csrs on the phone to set up the service call (the first one was "disconnected" somehow), i explained all the issues and what happened?... nothing... the service tech had no clue...
so now this latest brighthouse-initiated reboot that interrupted my service took fifteen minutes and turned off my tv twice and now my tv will not go on... whatever signal was sent to the tv apparently rebooted my tv as well... and of course it turned off the cable box so the channel was reset... so now, twenty minutes later the tv is trying to connect to the but and on comes what?... not the channel i was watching (not that i want to watch a show after brighthouse forced me to miss 20 minutes of it), but the first-on channel and, of course, without sound... worst of all, the internet service has gone downhill since the move and it was the internet that was keeping me... the neighbor's dishes are looking more attractive once again...
and during the last service call, just two weeks ago, i told the tech what was going on and he suggested getting the new box... in other words, call for service again... and talking to two csrs on the phone to set up the service call (the first one was "disconnected" somehow), i explained all the issues and what happened?... nothing... the service tech had no clue...
so now this latest brighthouse-initiated reboot that interrupted my service took fifteen minutes and turned off my tv twice and now my tv will not go on... whatever signal was sent to the tv apparently rebooted my tv as well... and of course it turned off the cable box so the channel was reset... so now, twenty minutes later the tv is trying to connect to the but and on comes what?... not the channel i was watching (not that i want to watch a show after brighthouse forced me to miss 20 minutes of it), but the first-on channel and, of course, without sound... worst of all, the internet service has gone downhill since the move and it was the internet that was keeping me... the neighbor's dishes are looking more attractive once again...
Monday, February 4, 2013
the nfl fails again
they started the season with ridiculous referees making ridiculous calls that decided the outcome of games... and they finished the season with questionable referees (how do they choose the officials - and was it done fairly and by the rules?... really?... how much was front office politics involved?... evidence suggests too much) influencing the outcome of the superbowl... if professional sports is to have any integrity at all, it is serious enough to repeat - questionable management of games should not decide games, no less directly influence the outcome of the superbowl... it is sad that an organization that earns billions a year cannot get it right...
Bias? Maybe. Inconsistency that influenced the outcome? Yes. Further loss of integrity and enjoyment of the game? Yes. Did the refs call the same fouls differently at different times? Yes. Did the 49ers coach make some poor calls that ultimately gave away opportunities to win? Yes. Did the refs ignore an offensive pass interference penalty that prevented an easy interception by SF? Yes. Did the referee leniency allow more interference with the offenses than it should have? Yes. Did that effect the ball possession? Yes. Did that effect the score? Probably. Did a Baltimore player push a referee during the game and have no penalty called? Yes.
Here's a question I will leave for further video review (and you) to answer... Was there a missed Baltimore facemask penalty before the first 49er fumble? I think so, but the CBS avoidance of controversy made sure that was not looked at. Media wimpiness and bias is just as sad as league of referee bias.
The fact is that poor play calling inside the 20 yard line cost the 49ers the superbowl - the bad calls would have made it easier to win, but SF blew it by calling the wrong plays at the wrong times... on at least two scoring series in the red zone during the game, the 49er coach made the wrong calls... ignoring the 49er strengths and wanting their inexperienced quarterback to suddenly make plays that veterans find challenging was the wrong call... fades to the same wide receiver over and over (is crabtree their only receiver?... no) when they did not have a dominant wide receiver who could make a spectacular catch and when their quarterback was only playing his seventh start was the wrong call... not going with a formation (pistol) and play set that was averaging 8 yards per play was the wrong call... the 49ers inexperience showed throughout the game but they could have overcome it with the right play calls...
on the other hand, the refs seemed baltimore biased most of the game... the most obvious example is that the same grabbing of a receiver called pass interference on the 49ers that lead to a ravens touchdown earlier in the game was overlooked when baltimore did it and the fact that one of those overlooks was a potential winning touchdown for the 49ers showed the bias of referees decided the game than the talent of the players... the fact is, the 49ers coach called the wrong plays and probably did not deserve to win based on the poor play calls in critical situations, especially then, and the poor execution in that situation (the pass was not well thrown, but it was a holding penalty that was not called... so the ravens win is tainted, the integrity of officials is tainted, the integrity of the nfl is tainted, and the integrity of the superbowl is tainted... and cbs is a joke when it comes to sports... the announcers defending the refs are wimps, but it's cbs, the worst sports broadcasters in the business (though nbc and fox are not far behind) and they typically do everything they can to spin the facts to avoid controversy and support the nfl even when the officials or nfl are/is obviously wrong...
once again, very disappointed by the supposedly professional sports...
on yet another hand, i won my fantasy survival football league because i picked baltimore to win the superbowl... so if you think my perspective is sour grapes, think again... the bad play calls by the 49er coach and the bias calls by the refs actually helped me win my game... my disappointment is not because i was rooting for the 49ers or against baltimore... my disappointment is because the referees showed bias at key moments in the game and their bias helped decide the game... san francisco might not have deserved to win based on mistakes and key bad play calls, but they did deserve a fair shake from the referees and they did not get that...
I would like to take the NFL more seriously and believe the best team always wins, but I don't. From my perspective it's a crap shoot with refs and politics influencing the outcomes of games as much as the players on the field.
Defensive holding was called inconsistently and it effected the outcome of the game. On the last series of the game specifically: Was it a bad play call by the coach? Yes. Was it a poorly executed play by the offense? Yes. But was it also a violation of the rules? Yes. Was it called? No. It was selective penalty calling.
Overall, I think SF play calling in the red zone (more than once) cost them the win but fair calling by the refs and they might have won in spite of the coaching. The sad aspect of of the politics choosing referees and inconsistent calls is that it diminishes the integrity of the game and the respect for the winner.
For the record, I picked Baltimore to win and won my Survival Football league because Baltimore won the Superbowl. So this is not a SF fan's sour grapes. This is a football fan's disappointment with the loss of respect for the league and the loss of integrity of a win.
Bias? Maybe. Inconsistency that influenced the outcome? Yes. Further loss of integrity and enjoyment of the game? Yes. Did the refs call the same fouls differently at different times? Yes. Did the 49ers coach make some poor calls that ultimately gave away opportunities to win? Yes. Did the refs ignore an offensive pass interference penalty that prevented an easy interception by SF? Yes. Did the referee leniency allow more interference with the offenses than it should have? Yes. Did that effect the ball possession? Yes. Did that effect the score? Probably. Did a Baltimore player push a referee during the game and have no penalty called? Yes.
Here's a question I will leave for further video review (and you) to answer... Was there a missed Baltimore facemask penalty before the first 49er fumble? I think so, but the CBS avoidance of controversy made sure that was not looked at. Media wimpiness and bias is just as sad as league of referee bias.
The fact is that poor play calling inside the 20 yard line cost the 49ers the superbowl - the bad calls would have made it easier to win, but SF blew it by calling the wrong plays at the wrong times... on at least two scoring series in the red zone during the game, the 49er coach made the wrong calls... ignoring the 49er strengths and wanting their inexperienced quarterback to suddenly make plays that veterans find challenging was the wrong call... fades to the same wide receiver over and over (is crabtree their only receiver?... no) when they did not have a dominant wide receiver who could make a spectacular catch and when their quarterback was only playing his seventh start was the wrong call... not going with a formation (pistol) and play set that was averaging 8 yards per play was the wrong call... the 49ers inexperience showed throughout the game but they could have overcome it with the right play calls...
on the other hand, the refs seemed baltimore biased most of the game... the most obvious example is that the same grabbing of a receiver called pass interference on the 49ers that lead to a ravens touchdown earlier in the game was overlooked when baltimore did it and the fact that one of those overlooks was a potential winning touchdown for the 49ers showed the bias of referees decided the game than the talent of the players... the fact is, the 49ers coach called the wrong plays and probably did not deserve to win based on the poor play calls in critical situations, especially then, and the poor execution in that situation (the pass was not well thrown, but it was a holding penalty that was not called... so the ravens win is tainted, the integrity of officials is tainted, the integrity of the nfl is tainted, and the integrity of the superbowl is tainted... and cbs is a joke when it comes to sports... the announcers defending the refs are wimps, but it's cbs, the worst sports broadcasters in the business (though nbc and fox are not far behind) and they typically do everything they can to spin the facts to avoid controversy and support the nfl even when the officials or nfl are/is obviously wrong...
once again, very disappointed by the supposedly professional sports...
on yet another hand, i won my fantasy survival football league because i picked baltimore to win the superbowl... so if you think my perspective is sour grapes, think again... the bad play calls by the 49er coach and the bias calls by the refs actually helped me win my game... my disappointment is not because i was rooting for the 49ers or against baltimore... my disappointment is because the referees showed bias at key moments in the game and their bias helped decide the game... san francisco might not have deserved to win based on mistakes and key bad play calls, but they did deserve a fair shake from the referees and they did not get that...
I would like to take the NFL more seriously and believe the best team always wins, but I don't. From my perspective it's a crap shoot with refs and politics influencing the outcomes of games as much as the players on the field.
Defensive holding was called inconsistently and it effected the outcome of the game. On the last series of the game specifically: Was it a bad play call by the coach? Yes. Was it a poorly executed play by the offense? Yes. But was it also a violation of the rules? Yes. Was it called? No. It was selective penalty calling.
Overall, I think SF play calling in the red zone (more than once) cost them the win but fair calling by the refs and they might have won in spite of the coaching. The sad aspect of of the politics choosing referees and inconsistent calls is that it diminishes the integrity of the game and the respect for the winner.
For the record, I picked Baltimore to win and won my Survival Football league because Baltimore won the Superbowl. So this is not a SF fan's sour grapes. This is a football fan's disappointment with the loss of respect for the league and the loss of integrity of a win.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
waiting for the brighthouse connection
i occasionally get a message here or by phone from brighthouse sales or technicians that appear to be efforts to resolve the on-going service interruptions i frequently experience, a few of which have been chronicled in this blog... today i am brought here due to continued poor service preventing me from enjoying cable programming... in this entry, i will also address why i have stopped responding to the brighthouse calls... the bottom line is this - if the solution brighthouse is offering does not start with a monthly discount for my time, energy, and interrupted service, i am not interested in wasting more of my time trying to fix the continuing brighthouse problems...
now to today's issue...
first, should it take 3-5 minutes to use the remote to use the search feature to find a specific show you want?... when you press your remote, does nothing happen for ten seconds or longer?... when scrolling through channels, does the scrolling freeze and take sixty seconds to get through the first 100 channels?...
when you want to find out when specific shows are on, for instance, which football games are being broadcast on which channels at what time, can you do that in less than 5 minutes without loosing your feed to the game you are currently watching?...
if you can do these things with brighthouse, then you are getting better service than i am... i do not know if it is the converter box or the line conditions or something at the brighthouse connections or bandwidth or something else, but the delays in receiving signals simply switching stations or scrolling through the stations is unacceptably long...
let's look at the solutions and customer satisfaction...
the first solution is change the batteries in the remote... i do that monthly, even more often at times... i do not use the remote daily... the batteries i remove from the remote are still very effective in any other electronic product and testing shows they are still good batteries... i have changed the remote several times... the remote does not seem to be the primary problem...
the next solution is reboot the box (again, a weekly activity which is ridiculous inconvenience and lowers my customer satisfaction a lot)... i do not work for brighthouse... i pay brighthouse for service...
it is as simple as this...
i should not have to provide service for brighthouse equipment unless brighthouse pays me to provide service... to resolve this customer dissatisfaction, i should be paid for each service i provide for brighthouse equipment... my time and energy has value... a $5 discount for each required reboot would be appropriate...
as i manually reboot on average weekly due to lagging service or other issues, a $20 discount monthly is required for customer satisfaction as much as the reboot is required just to use the service i pay for...
this does not include the auto-reboots that the box does when i am in the middle of watching a show - that is an intrusion that is not acceptable and a dollar amount will not provide satisfaction, however a punitive dollar amount might encourage brighthouse to not randomly interrupt the service i am paying for... $50 would be fair, considering the level of customer dissatisfaction and the profit margin brighthouse currently provides... the risk of a $50 refund should be incentive enough for brighthouse technicians to stop randomly interrupting the service i pay for... might as well have satellite...
the next solution to any issue is to call brighthouse... that averages more than 30 minutes and takes me away from work or life activities that of my choosing... essentially, it puts me in the position of working for brighthouse... i should be compensated at $15 an hour for my time when i am required to call brighthouse just to use the service i am paying for...
the next solution is a home service call... that requires a change in my schedule and anywhere 2-4 hours of down time waiting for the service technician... i have experienced at least two no-shows and may have forgotten more... again, a minimum of $15 per hour for the time i give to brighthouse required to use the service i pay for... since the best they do is a 2-hour window, a minimum $30 refund of my money is fair for each service call...
these are very fair wage compensations for my time as i could be earning much more per hour if i chose not to give brighthouse my time... this is also an excellent performance improvement incentive for brighthouse to improve their product and customer service as the responsibility for not paying me would be set directly on brighthouse - provide the service i pay for without glitches and interruptions and you refund me nothing, you get more than $1,000 a year from me...
so, to the brighthouse techs and csrs and managers who may read this, if your proposed resolutions to the issues i have been reporting for the last few years does not include monetary compensation for my time, energy, troubleshooting, and inconvenience... then please do not offer the appearance of a blank check "let me help you" in my comments here or on the phone... your "help" costs me time and money... and the dozens of calls and home service calls i've given you over the years has has not resolved the issues...
keep in mind that what brings me here today is the same thing that has brought me to write every blog entry about brighthouse service, dissatisfaction with the brighthouse product... if there was not an issue preventing me from using the product today, i would not be writing this... i am not looking for money, i am looking for the service in pay for... at this point however; i have given enough time and energy to brighthouse without fair compensation and propose the refund plan in this entry as a last effort to keep me as a brighthouse customer...
as a quality manager myself, understanding the customer's dissatisfaction and needs is an essential aspect of customer satisfaction... hopefully this writing has provided you with the specific information you need to satisfy this customer...
i am likely not the only customer who would approve of this plan...
UPDATE: why should today have only one issue, it's brighthouse service, after all...
I get home and find the show guide is suddenly changed to ridiculously huge letters so the stations can't be read and only the first word for any show name is visible... why am i not surprised that the box reset itself again and now does not provide a useable guide to what is on...
it's not like we have only one issue each day... we have several on-going issues every day... like the cable box still turns on and switches to mute for some reason and we have to change channels a certain way with the remote to get sound... if we actually watched tv daily we'd have a different service...
what baffles me most is how people who actually watch tv daily put up with brighthouse... i know what keeps me is the internet, not the best but the fastest around here... and also the fact that i get a discount some months i spend time trying to get the service fixed... but the fix has not worked in the past few years since i've had the service... we plan on moving early next year and moving with brighthouse does not look likely...
Saturday, December 1, 2012
caution: music plays here - blogger dumb, google?
CLICK PAUSE ON THE PLAYER BELOW
IF YOU DO NOT WANT MUSIC TO PLAY
APOLOGIES,
GOOGLE CHROME DOES NOT ALLOW MUSIC TO
NOT
AUTOMATICALLY PLAY
DUMB MOVE, GOOGLE
if you did not click pause, perhaps you see, or rather hear what i mean?
this one is supposed to work in chrome - it does not in mine... you tell me, does it?
the point here is that Google is supposed to be one of the most technologically advanced companies in the world, right?... so why does Google FAIL at creating a browser that can do the simple task of reading a code accepted in other browsers, a code that simple respects readers and sets music inserted into a blog post to NOT play automatically... music automatically playing can be intrusive to any reader attempting to read a page without sound... so does that mean the creativity of music or sound is to be ignored when writing a blog post or creating a web page?... Google apparently thinks so... dumb move Google... I've been using Chrome for a while, but realizing this flaw, I am switching back to Internet Explorer and/or Firefox... you need to get your act together Google... I like chrome, but it's lacking an essential audio ability... and sadly, it's been that way for years according to the research i've done...
let me know when you get it fixed...
Monday, November 12, 2012
brighthouse continues to suck
so after a wonderful day out playing softball with friends and a wonderful evening home enjoying dinner with friends i decide to give up sleep tonight to watch something i was looking forward to for weeks, a 10 year reunion show for firefly and five minutes into the show for reasons only the intrusive people and computers at brighthouse know, the cable box turns off and goes into some sort of countdown followed by another countdown followed by a reboot and twenty minutes later i am still wondering why i don't just cancel this crap brighthouse service because the show will not go on...
so i will not get back the time or sleep i gave up tonight and i still do not get to watch the show i wanted to watch and brigthouse still charges more than they charged last year for service that gets worse every month... yes, besides exploring alternbative tv services and in spite of offers to help which do nothing to stop the deteriorating service and continuing service interruptions... in fact just it continues to get worse... i started keeping track and the current stats are:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 12/14/12, still trending downward):
so i will not get back the time or sleep i gave up tonight and i still do not get to watch the show i wanted to watch and brigthouse still charges more than they charged last year for service that gets worse every month... yes, besides exploring alternbative tv services and in spite of offers to help which do nothing to stop the deteriorating service and continuing service interruptions... in fact just it continues to get worse... i started keeping track and the current stats are:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 12/14/12, still trending downward):
| working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 0% of the time 0% of the time 90% of the time 10% 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, box resets/blinks every 60 seconds, aspect ratio and picture size are off box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit |
Saturday, October 27, 2012
weather idiots
also know as weathermen (and not weatherwomen, but that's a prejudice so inherent in our language and culture it deserves complaints of it's own so we won't let this one get too distracted for now) and meteorologists... giving the people in this particular field of study some benefit of doubt, i will not propose to assume that all those who study meteorology are idiots... this complaint is primarily about tv meteorologists anyway... even there i will not propose to assume that all tv weather-people are idiots either... what i will state as this complaint is that almost all tv meteorologists appear to be idiots in the way they are scripted, presented, and possibly manipulated... business as usual, the media is selling product and not reporting the news accurately without bias and ulterior motives...
what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...
today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...
today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...
earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...
the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...
beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...
what i mean is... just like the news, the weather sells product... the news (and sports and weather) programming is big business and made way more dramatic, scary, shocking, and stupid than it needs to be to do what it is supposed to do, present an accurate report on real events outside of our homes and immediate daily experience... we want to know there are traffic delays on our routes to work or wherever we go, we don't need to know how many people died or are injured and what agony their family is going through "how do you feel about the critical condition your son is in?" type reporting... we want to know it is going to rain or snow or storm, but we do not need to know live coverage of idiots hanging on to street light polls in hurricanes telling us not to leave our homes...
today, i refer to an even more serious stupidity... a dangerous stupidity... i refer to the vultures picking at the carcass of potential news, specifically the over-excited alarmists trying to make much more out of the weather than is necessary or responsible... the problem with meteorologists who pander to the news media and actively represent themselves as prophets of doom on television is that goes beyond the irresponsible scare tactics that manipulate viewers... the serious issue is that people are conditioned to worry, stress, and even panic over storms that never appear and then are complacent when a real threat arises...
today's tv meteorologists are boys (and girls) who cry wolf and much like the story about the boy who cried wolf, they reduce their value to the public to side show annoyances... they find the one power line that is down and present it as widespread damage... they find the one branch that fell on one car and interview the owner as if he is one of many who were devastated by the storm... they "predict" worse case scenarios as if there is no doubt that we are all in serious danger...
earlier this year they did this with a storm that never actually became a hurricane but was still presented as a potentially catastrophic event... Hurricane Sandy that is heading up the east coast of the USA this week is the latest storm to be the fuel for irresponsible and dangerous reporting... if the world (God, Mother Nature, or whatever you believe might control the world) had a Risk Management department would identify the irresponsible cry wolf reporting by television meteorologists as a potential risk reducing actual preparedness for an actual serious weather event...
the culpability of the news media for false reporting and actively pre-determining heightened threats could be called into question in court by a savvy lawyer who demonstrates that repeated exposure to over-zealous television meteorological reports could desensitize and therein give credible cause for inadequate preparation that leads to serious injury by the public the news organizations are commissioned to serve...
beyond litigation, people can be hurt and killed because they do not take weather dangers seriously because they have repeatedly been exposed to television weather idiots who manipulate news to over-state dangers only to be repeatedly proven to be wrong...
Monday, September 17, 2012
NFL Fail
the nfl really sucks this year mostly due to the inexperienced officials losing control of games and making very bad calls that effect the momentum and the outcome of games... no amount of spin is going to convince me that this season's first two weeks would have had different outcomes of some games if the regular refs were out there...
it is apparent now that the nfl commissioner and bosses were lying over the last few years when they stated they were imposing fines and changing rules to protect players... they obviously do not care about players... say it again - the decision to let players play under these poorly officiated out of control conditions is proof the bosses do not care about player safety...
the commissioner is certainly a gambler... gambling fans will watch crap and gambling nobody will get hurt enough to permanently scar nfl football... i hope a superstar's career is not ended because the nfl is allowing this fiasco to continue because that would be a permanent scar and legacy for this current commissioner...
it is apparent now that the nfl commissioner and bosses were lying over the last few years when they stated they were imposing fines and changing rules to protect players... they obviously do not care about players... say it again - the decision to let players play under these poorly officiated out of control conditions is proof the bosses do not care about player safety...
the commissioner is certainly a gambler... gambling fans will watch crap and gambling nobody will get hurt enough to permanently scar nfl football... i hope a superstar's career is not ended because the nfl is allowing this fiasco to continue because that would be a permanent scar and legacy for this current commissioner...
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
not brighthouse
so once again i sit here with a lost internet connection and a lost tv cable connection in the middle of working and right at the beginning of a show so watching brighthouse cable tv is pointless and the job search i was in the middle of is not just pointless, but possibly a waste of the last hour or more since websites might not let me continue filling out their pages when the connection finally returns... how many ways can brighthouse suck...
and what will wasting more time on the phone with the tech department or wasting even more time rearranging my schedule for home visits really do that has not been done in the dozens of hours i've already wasted, really... as i said in a previous entry
there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
i have probably never been more ready for a sales pitch from dish or direct or u-verse or anyone but brighthouse...
... 18 MINUTES LATER... and now that the box FINALLY reset, i turn it back on (because it does not reset to the channel and show it interrupted, of course) and i return to the show i was watching and the box is blinking on and off, resetting every ten seconds or so... brighthouse decided i should not watch this show, obviously...
what kind of CRAP SERVICE is this - BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS...
.... and now a few minutes later after turning off the box and tv and waiting and turning both on again, there is no sound... this happens at least 80% of the time we turn on the box and tv and the solution is switching stations, sometimes a few times, sometimes using the FAV button on the remote... this usually bring sound on most of the time...
i don't even mention the no sound and don't come here to record every box reset or glitch in service because this is just the kind of crap service brighthouse provides, but at least i found a fix for the no-sound problem... perhaps brighhouse sucks needs a blog all it's own because brighthouse is definitely spoiling the tongue-in-cheek tone this blog was intended to maintain because BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS too much to laugh about it...
at least not all the time (though i should laugh at myself for capitalizations when i finally stop being angry at this latest brighthouse service failure...
sheesh...
and what will wasting more time on the phone with the tech department or wasting even more time rearranging my schedule for home visits really do that has not been done in the dozens of hours i've already wasted, really... as i said in a previous entry
there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
i have probably never been more ready for a sales pitch from dish or direct or u-verse or anyone but brighthouse...
... 18 MINUTES LATER... and now that the box FINALLY reset, i turn it back on (because it does not reset to the channel and show it interrupted, of course) and i return to the show i was watching and the box is blinking on and off, resetting every ten seconds or so... brighthouse decided i should not watch this show, obviously...
what kind of CRAP SERVICE is this - BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS...
.... and now a few minutes later after turning off the box and tv and waiting and turning both on again, there is no sound... this happens at least 80% of the time we turn on the box and tv and the solution is switching stations, sometimes a few times, sometimes using the FAV button on the remote... this usually bring sound on most of the time...
i don't even mention the no sound and don't come here to record every box reset or glitch in service because this is just the kind of crap service brighthouse provides, but at least i found a fix for the no-sound problem... perhaps brighhouse sucks needs a blog all it's own because brighthouse is definitely spoiling the tongue-in-cheek tone this blog was intended to maintain because BRIGHTHOUSE SUCKS too much to laugh about it...
at least not all the time (though i should laugh at myself for capitalizations when i finally stop being angry at this latest brighthouse service failure...
sheesh...
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
news and weather
i am beginning to feel enough dislike (i really hate the word hate ya know) the news and weather media in the usa... it is madness and so very unhealthy, which is why i stay away from watching or reading it quite often... the fear-driven culture we live in has produced a society of adrenaline junkies afraid of everything and worse, unable to think for themselves... a clear sign of a failing culture...
what brings this meaningless complaint out today is the tropical storm isaac reports that have been pounding into millions of people's heads over the past week, especially the last few days as the news people are begging for the national weather service to call this storm a hurricane (in fact, the weather people have mistakenly called it a hurricane more than a few times, on the weather channel no less, where they are supposed to know what they are doing - and don't they?... they know scaring people gets more people to watch and rating and selling products is their first priority, not protecting people or providing fair and accurate reporting of the news... journalism is such a dead profession these days in the usa)...
and after hours of telling us that the 11am national weather service report should upgrade the storm to a hurricane (note, that's an upgrade - sick) again and again and the disappointment was obvious in the reporters voices and words, even questioning the national weather service making statements like "it would have been better if they upgraded to a hurricane"...
how shameful greed is so acceptable...
how irresponsible fear-mongering is so acceptable...
everybody be afraid, stop thinking, just be afraid and above all else - keep watching the news because we have very important commercial messages you need to see between all the fear-mongering reports we repeat over and over...
how ignorant will this culture get before it collapses?...
did i just fear-monger?
what brings this meaningless complaint out today is the tropical storm isaac reports that have been pounding into millions of people's heads over the past week, especially the last few days as the news people are begging for the national weather service to call this storm a hurricane (in fact, the weather people have mistakenly called it a hurricane more than a few times, on the weather channel no less, where they are supposed to know what they are doing - and don't they?... they know scaring people gets more people to watch and rating and selling products is their first priority, not protecting people or providing fair and accurate reporting of the news... journalism is such a dead profession these days in the usa)...
and after hours of telling us that the 11am national weather service report should upgrade the storm to a hurricane (note, that's an upgrade - sick) again and again and the disappointment was obvious in the reporters voices and words, even questioning the national weather service making statements like "it would have been better if they upgraded to a hurricane"...
how shameful greed is so acceptable...
how irresponsible fear-mongering is so acceptable...
everybody be afraid, stop thinking, just be afraid and above all else - keep watching the news because we have very important commercial messages you need to see between all the fear-mongering reports we repeat over and over...
how ignorant will this culture get before it collapses?...
did i just fear-monger?
Saturday, August 25, 2012
brighthouse service, not
once again the cable box brighthouse provides is resetting itself every ten seconds... turns off, turns on, just for whatever reasons...
so fed up with this crap brighthouse sucks service i don't even feel like a proper venting...
and they want to talk about it?
so fed up with this crap brighthouse sucks service i don't even feel like a proper venting...
and they want to talk about it?
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
brighthouse sucks, again
once again, in the middle of a program i am watching, the cable box is resetting on it's own... so i will miss ten or more minutes of the program i wanted to watch thanks to brighthouse sucks... they should just add the suck to their name... or put fail in their smiley face logo... i really do not want the horrible brighthouse service statistics i started keeping while waiting for service repairs to dominate this blog, in fact, i really don't want to be inspired to come to this blog in the first place, but i find that coming here and venting my immediate complaint, however meaningless, helps me deal with the frustration and anger i feel when my life and entertainment is interrupted or stopped by a corporate decision like right now... and it passes the time while i am waiting for the brighthouse service to return... i suppose it is just way too difficult (or simply a level of customer service that brighthouse does not wish to provide) to have a pop up on the screen ask me if this would be a good time to reboot the box or upgrade the software... especially since it also messes with my expensive plasma tv and the remote synch that is yet another frequent complaint... remotes could be so much more functional...
so the cable box is rebooting and the tv lost it's signal and is confused and thinks there was a power outage or hack attempt or virus or something as it went into emergency shut down mode... a smart tv knows when an unexpected shut down and signal change occurs, just like a computer does... but based on the poor service and products, it does not seem that the brighthouse people or software are up to speed with the latest tech... so the box is stuck on L-8 and has been since i started writing this comment... i mean, if the reboot reset upgrade or whatever is happening only took a minute, it would not be such a frustrating forget watching what you wanted to watch experience and probably wouldn't bring me to seek the distraction and venting of this complaint, but the box takes forever to do whatever it is doing without my consent... pathetic customer service...
almost any decent reliable software has a setting to "ask me before uploading updates" and "ask me before rebooting"... even microsoft in their all-powerful we-can-do-anything mindset finally understood that customer service... but not brighthouse...
not very bright, these people who make the big decisions at brighthouse...
and then of course when the box finally is rebooted, it defaults to off so i must turn it on which turns off the tv so i must get the tv remote to turn on the tv and of course the box returns to the start-up channel which comes on without sound as usual, just one more brighthouse fail i am ridiculously learning to live with... how much longer is getting shorter with each meaningless complaint (so maybe they are not as meaningless as they appear, aye?)...
and now i press the remote button to go to the next channel and i get a black screen partially burning into my plasma screen because it is a partial black screen and the box wants me to "please wait"... as if i have not waited enough...
no, i am not ready to spend a few hours and set up more appointments to try to fix things again... brighthouse wasted a lot of my time this year (and tonight( and giving them even more time just seems like getting screwed further... maybe next month...
UPDATE 3am = no, once was not enough tonight, another brighthouse interruption of service long enough to bring me here happens to ruin yet another hour of my viewing, that's three hours tonight of wasting my time paying for brighouse crappy service that is not providing what my contract says it will provide... and now the box decided to reboot yet again after another upgrade of some sort... so this is ridiculous... so yet another call to tech support to find out why my cable box is repeatingly rebooting tonight... one reboot ruining my viewing experience over two hours is not enough, another ruining a third show had to be done...
no warning, no prompt asking if this is a good time to shut down my tv enjoyment... just interrupt the shows and shut off the box after rebooting forcing me to deal with the crappy remote and the resetting of the sound because the box doesn't work right when it is turned on and resetting my tv and re-finding the channel i was watching... rub my nose in how crappy the brighthouse service really is...
it's ok, i can miss the first or last fifteen minutes of shows and still enjoy them... and adding insult to injury, the first thing i see is that bullshit brighthouse tv commercial... days are numbered for brighthouse getting my money if this keeps up...
so the cable box is rebooting and the tv lost it's signal and is confused and thinks there was a power outage or hack attempt or virus or something as it went into emergency shut down mode... a smart tv knows when an unexpected shut down and signal change occurs, just like a computer does... but based on the poor service and products, it does not seem that the brighthouse people or software are up to speed with the latest tech... so the box is stuck on L-8 and has been since i started writing this comment... i mean, if the reboot reset upgrade or whatever is happening only took a minute, it would not be such a frustrating forget watching what you wanted to watch experience and probably wouldn't bring me to seek the distraction and venting of this complaint, but the box takes forever to do whatever it is doing without my consent... pathetic customer service...
almost any decent reliable software has a setting to "ask me before uploading updates" and "ask me before rebooting"... even microsoft in their all-powerful we-can-do-anything mindset finally understood that customer service... but not brighthouse...
not very bright, these people who make the big decisions at brighthouse...
and then of course when the box finally is rebooted, it defaults to off so i must turn it on which turns off the tv so i must get the tv remote to turn on the tv and of course the box returns to the start-up channel which comes on without sound as usual, just one more brighthouse fail i am ridiculously learning to live with... how much longer is getting shorter with each meaningless complaint (so maybe they are not as meaningless as they appear, aye?)...
and now i press the remote button to go to the next channel and i get a black screen partially burning into my plasma screen because it is a partial black screen and the box wants me to "please wait"... as if i have not waited enough...
no, i am not ready to spend a few hours and set up more appointments to try to fix things again... brighthouse wasted a lot of my time this year (and tonight( and giving them even more time just seems like getting screwed further... maybe next month...
UPDATE 3am = no, once was not enough tonight, another brighthouse interruption of service long enough to bring me here happens to ruin yet another hour of my viewing, that's three hours tonight of wasting my time paying for brighouse crappy service that is not providing what my contract says it will provide... and now the box decided to reboot yet again after another upgrade of some sort... so this is ridiculous... so yet another call to tech support to find out why my cable box is repeatingly rebooting tonight... one reboot ruining my viewing experience over two hours is not enough, another ruining a third show had to be done...
no warning, no prompt asking if this is a good time to shut down my tv enjoyment... just interrupt the shows and shut off the box after rebooting forcing me to deal with the crappy remote and the resetting of the sound because the box doesn't work right when it is turned on and resetting my tv and re-finding the channel i was watching... rub my nose in how crappy the brighthouse service really is...
it's ok, i can miss the first or last fifteen minutes of shows and still enjoy them... and adding insult to injury, the first thing i see is that bullshit brighthouse tv commercial... days are numbered for brighthouse getting my money if this keeps up...
Thursday, August 16, 2012
brighthouse sucks, chapter whatever
yes, brighthouse brings me here again... let's do a quick status check:
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 11/12/12, still trending downward):
brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 9/5/12, trending upward):
and the vent as it was happening...
another hour and a half of my time working for brighthouse and i am paying them to work for them... i was working for myself on the net juggling a lot of tabs searching for tires and blogging and the modem decided to stop, blink, just stop... i rebooted four times and nothing... next came shutting down the computer and it took a half hour to save all the work i was in the middle of, but i saved everything and shut down the computer... turned it on, no change... local service only... we've been here before a few times and it ended up with blaming my computer and then service calls and then changing out the modem... i hope this isn't the start of yet another time consuming no-service cycle as i need to stay connected to continue job hunting...
i called brighthouse and was on hold a half hour listening to how easy it is to resolve modem issues by rebooting the modem... reboot, no change... reboot the modem again... no change... again, no change... reboot the computer again, no change...
after about an hour of rebooting the modem and the computer, suddenly there is a connection again... i was still on hold with brighthouse listening to the repetitive messages, so i hung up... thanks for the crappy service once again, brighthouse...
yeah, i know a brighthouse representative left a message here last month offering to help, but there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
the tv cable box still sucks too, but at least it's been working adequately most nights... sometimes it just starts blanking out every fifteen seconds or so and sometimes it works ok... sometimes the sound works when the box and tv go on, sometimes it doesn't... the channel needs to be changed to get the sound to work and that works about 75% of the time... the box needs rebooting at least once a week... it's a shame that i've gotten used to such poor service...
and the long term damage that i am going to have to remedy is that the box is definitely the wrong box for a plasma tv because the box does not resize the images like the other box does (a difference in software i am told, but can i believe the techs?) so some burning in of the images on the plasma screen has started... i just have not had the patience to call and set up yet another service call to change boxes again because this box at least works about 60-70% of the time and the last few boxes have not been nearly as mediocre ( in other words, they worked worse)...
one of these days i will just have to make the time to research the alternatives, direct tv, dish, u-verse, century link... friends have those others services and most seem to like them... there are drawbacks to all of them, but brighthouse is just becoming intolerable and they are the highest price service of them all...
i am so tired of wasting my time with them...
UPDATE 3:15AM... and about ten minutes later... this entry was uploaded and the brighthouse service went out again so i called brighthouse back... good news, this time i was actually connected to a tech support rep after about five minutes... this time the modem reset itself, all lights blinking off and then back on just before the rep came on the line... i shut down the computer again and when i turned it back on, it was connected again... the rep put me on hold and returned a few minutes later informing me that the tests he ran showed the modem was shutting down on it's own... well at least they see that on their end... now i am waiting for a level 1 support tech troubleshoot the problem... i hold we don't have to go to yet another visit from brighthouse to exchange modems again...
oh crap, i am listening to the annoying modem reset message again... i hope this does not mean i was reset in the queue and have an hour wait like last time... the more i listen to that stupid unplug your modem message, the more i want to hang up and unplug from brighthouse for good... i will be back later with an update...
UPDATE 3:34AM: waiting for the level 1 tech... they finally came on after 20 minutes and gave me the there is an outage in your area and technicians are working on it line... i had to wait 20 more minutes and give my telephone number and identification information and explain the problem again just to get that standard line... the previous tech could not say that... this tech chould not just say that without my repeating the ID info and problem again... they just wasted another half hour of my time... what is wrong with that picture?...
brighthouse - still poor equipment, poor technical service, and poor customer service... at least they are consistent...
brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 11/12/12, still trending downward):
| working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 4% of the time 8% of the time 68% of the time 20% 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, box resets/blinks every 60 seconds, aspect ratio and picture size are off box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit |
brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 9/5/12, trending upward):
| working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all | 55% of the time 30% of the time 10% of the time 5% of the time | no problems slow downs modem requires a reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit |
and the vent as it was happening...
another hour and a half of my time working for brighthouse and i am paying them to work for them... i was working for myself on the net juggling a lot of tabs searching for tires and blogging and the modem decided to stop, blink, just stop... i rebooted four times and nothing... next came shutting down the computer and it took a half hour to save all the work i was in the middle of, but i saved everything and shut down the computer... turned it on, no change... local service only... we've been here before a few times and it ended up with blaming my computer and then service calls and then changing out the modem... i hope this isn't the start of yet another time consuming no-service cycle as i need to stay connected to continue job hunting...
i called brighthouse and was on hold a half hour listening to how easy it is to resolve modem issues by rebooting the modem... reboot, no change... reboot the modem again... no change... again, no change... reboot the computer again, no change...
after about an hour of rebooting the modem and the computer, suddenly there is a connection again... i was still on hold with brighthouse listening to the repetitive messages, so i hung up... thanks for the crappy service once again, brighthouse...
yeah, i know a brighthouse representative left a message here last month offering to help, but there comes a time after speaking with a dozen different representatives and having a half dozen house calls over a couple of months that i run out of patience and more, i run out of belief that the brighthouse reps can fix the problem and need to take a break...
the tv cable box still sucks too, but at least it's been working adequately most nights... sometimes it just starts blanking out every fifteen seconds or so and sometimes it works ok... sometimes the sound works when the box and tv go on, sometimes it doesn't... the channel needs to be changed to get the sound to work and that works about 75% of the time... the box needs rebooting at least once a week... it's a shame that i've gotten used to such poor service...
and the long term damage that i am going to have to remedy is that the box is definitely the wrong box for a plasma tv because the box does not resize the images like the other box does (a difference in software i am told, but can i believe the techs?) so some burning in of the images on the plasma screen has started... i just have not had the patience to call and set up yet another service call to change boxes again because this box at least works about 60-70% of the time and the last few boxes have not been nearly as mediocre ( in other words, they worked worse)...
one of these days i will just have to make the time to research the alternatives, direct tv, dish, u-verse, century link... friends have those others services and most seem to like them... there are drawbacks to all of them, but brighthouse is just becoming intolerable and they are the highest price service of them all...
i am so tired of wasting my time with them...
UPDATE 3:15AM... and about ten minutes later... this entry was uploaded and the brighthouse service went out again so i called brighthouse back... good news, this time i was actually connected to a tech support rep after about five minutes... this time the modem reset itself, all lights blinking off and then back on just before the rep came on the line... i shut down the computer again and when i turned it back on, it was connected again... the rep put me on hold and returned a few minutes later informing me that the tests he ran showed the modem was shutting down on it's own... well at least they see that on their end... now i am waiting for a level 1 support tech troubleshoot the problem... i hold we don't have to go to yet another visit from brighthouse to exchange modems again...
oh crap, i am listening to the annoying modem reset message again... i hope this does not mean i was reset in the queue and have an hour wait like last time... the more i listen to that stupid unplug your modem message, the more i want to hang up and unplug from brighthouse for good... i will be back later with an update...
UPDATE 3:34AM: waiting for the level 1 tech... they finally came on after 20 minutes and gave me the there is an outage in your area and technicians are working on it line... i had to wait 20 more minutes and give my telephone number and identification information and explain the problem again just to get that standard line... the previous tech could not say that... this tech chould not just say that without my repeating the ID info and problem again... they just wasted another half hour of my time... what is wrong with that picture?...
brighthouse - still poor equipment, poor technical service, and poor customer service... at least they are consistent...
Thursday, June 21, 2012
so glad the nba is over
i watched less than a quarter of game 4 and about 6 minutes of game 5 before the obvious bias had me changing channels to the ncaa college world series... it is pathetic that such unprofessional officiating could be see at the supposedly highest level of the sport... you could see it in the faces before and during the game... phantom fouls when lebron, wade, or most heat get the ball... no fouls when the thunder get obviously hit... why bother playing... people with money must think most people are just stupid... i miss what professional basketball used to be and won't go out of my way to watch again...
the heat might have won this series without the refs, but we will never know...
the heat might have won this series without the refs, but we will never know...
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