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...