Another chapter in the Media Center saga. Windows Media Center part 4: Time for an upgrade

Dealing with sluggish performance and preparing for a Blu future.

October 10, 2008

A new article in "Technical": Windows Media Center part 3: Missing center channel

What to do if you're using the SPDIF fiber or coax out from your Windows Media Center and sound only comes out of 2 speakers in your surround system.

August 26, 2008

The company iPhone

A week ago, my team received their new company iPhones. For the first few days, lots of playing, exploring, downloading of apps, taking pictures, putting funny faces on them, showing off various discoveries.

Today was the first team meeting since the iPhones were delivered. It wasn't pretty.

One team member has already decided to trade his in for a Razr because "it will receive calls". Another says she keeps hers in Edge mode normally, so the phone will work, switching to G3 only when she needs to be on the internet. Another guy forwarded his iPhone to his private cell. The recently released firmware update made no noticeably difference to the reception issues. Our program manager described trying to make a call as "hello? I'd like to... damn" (redial) "Hello? I'd like... damn" (redial) "Hello? damn" (redial).

Other gripes -- Rapid battery death in GPS mode. The camera isn't as good as the one in the company-issued Blackberry. (2.0 Mp vs 3.0 Mp). No photo flash. No video capabilities. No MMS. Awkward file management. No flash or java in the browser. One person said "Once you get past the flashy interface, you realize the guts are five or six years old".

Early adopters. Don't you love 'em.

But seriously, I'm glad there are people out there who will put up with teething issues as the necessary price of being the first to have something shiny and new. I think the concept has merit, and will be glad to "drink the Kool-Aid" as the detractors put it, when the time is right. Which isn't now. My phone, is, like, my phone. First and foremost, it has to work as a phone. The rest is cake.

August 14, 2008

Bandwidth increases to 20/5

I really think Verizon is starting to get a handle on this customer service thing.

Today a Verizon rep came by the house to warn me that copper telephony was going away. My response is and has always been that they can have my copper lines when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers. Retaining a working copper telephone line is my insurance that Verizon won't jack up the price, do packet shaping or something else that would want me to migrate to a different ISP. So, until Verizon opens up FIOS to competing ISPs, I must retain my copper phone line.

In the course of the conversation, the rep revealed that Verizon was now offering 20Mbps down 5Mbps up as a free upgrade to people who currently have 15/2. The hitch is that I have to call and request this free upgrade.

Readers of this blog may understand how much I really did not want to call Verizon customer service. But attracted by the increased upload (20 megs down means nothing to me -- there still isn't legitimate use for that much bandwidth) I girded my loins and called the Verizon business number.

...And, as usual, got immediately routed to the consumer FIOS rep because my phone line is considered a consumer number. But this time I was prepared. I immediately said "I am a business FIOS customer. I have had a very hard time getting in contact with the right people in the past." The rep did not dump me back in the queue, but brought a business rep on the line and made sure I was talking to the right person before hanging up.

This was a complete surprise. Instead of wasting an hour or two on hold, I was able to conclude business in mere minutes.

Congratulations Verizon, that was a pleasant transaction. You appear to have customer service under control.

July 30, 2008

Musings on computer obsolescence and breaking out of the cycle of continuous upgrades in The welcome slump.

July 12, 2008

Adieu, Sony

I've given up on getting the Sony KDF-42WE655 fixed. I can not find the receipt. It's been over 18 months, and I am just not the kind of person who saves receipts. Sony won't budge, the TV is clearly ruined (huge blotches in the picture probably 3 to 5 inches across), and the repair cost (quoted at $1,250) is about the same as the cost of a better tv. I guess I have to consider this a Lesson Learned. And my main learning is that Sony is not the company they used to be, either in the quality of their consumer goods or in their commitment to customer support.

This makes me sad. I was a proponent of Beta in the eighties, an early adopter of the Sony Discman and the 8mm video cartridge. Our first electronic still camera was a Sony. We still have it and it still works. My Sony XBR television, purchased in the early eighties, lasted just over 20 years. It's sad to see a once-great company fail like this.

I've been doing some reading on this issue, and it appears that this is a problem with all Sony rear projection LCD televisions. The cause is inadequate filtering (none, really) of the air blown into the image block, causing a gradual accumulation of dust which results in a splotchy screen.

There was a class action lawsuit for some models of this TV, but my model was not included in the settlement. If your TV is having this problem, and Sony refuses to fix it, it may be possible to fix it yourself.

Note that I have not yet tried this procedure, but at this point don't have much to lose.

However, it's a complicated procedure, and even if it works, the problem is guaranteed to return due to the design of the optical block, so I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble.

June 11, 2008

A day wasted with Sony technical support

My Sony KDF-42WE655 rear projection tv developed a problem with the image block recently. As far as we can remember (still looking for the receipt) the TV is 5 to 6 months out of it's warranty. The story is still in progress. I'm documenting it in the hdtv group on groups.google.com, but the thread can also be found here.

April 12, 2008

I finally get my coffee

Taking care of a few things before I pack for a business trip. Some time ago, I related problems with a painfully hip, regular customer who routinely held up the line at a local starbucks. As a result of this, and because my cafeteria at work has changed ownership, I decide to try the cafe again and to my surprise find that service has improved tremendously.

To reiterate my previous experience at this particular cafeteria, the two employees who worked mornings considered their lunch prep work to be their highest priority, and only reluctantly took care of breakfast customers when they could squeeze a few moments in between tasks. This created a huge backup at the counter in the morning when everyone was trying to get to work, and created bad will with the customers that were expected to return for lunch. It didn't help that the employee who had to run the register in the morning was surly and openly exasperated that we were taking her away from her real work.

All that has changed. Under the new management, no prep work occurs when I'm in there between 8:00 and 9:00, and there is only one employee, who sticks by the register and quickly processes breakfast orders. Lines are seldom and everyone gets their morning pre-work caloric intake.

Although I don't have the figures, I suspect that this improved breakfast service is also pulling in more lunch revenue. Given a choice, people tend to frequent businesses where they had a positive experience. Businesses who wish to stay in business usually take this into account.

The exceptions, of course are monopolies or other situations where the customer has no choice. In these cases the employees don't have to care, and so they don't. This includes government monopolies (cable TV service, national health care, the post office), financial monopolies (companies completely dominating a niche) or situations where the customer is "locked in" -- for instance, enticed by low hardware prices into a punishing service contract.

These things change over time, so I'm sure the ebb and flow of business will eventually cause me to seek a different breakfast option, but at least for now, I can avoid the annoyance at Starbucks and get my coffee and scone at the company cafeteria in a reasonable amount of time.

February 27, 2008

Compact Fluorescents, Light Emitting Diodes and traffic lights that suck

Before we start, I should say that I've got CFLs installed everywhere in the house except the socket that's on a dimmer, and the antique fixture where a CFL won't fit. But I don't have any illusions about them.

Click here for more

Feb 20, 2008

Printers that suck

I've gotten rid of my Epson C80 color printer. It works fine, but I can't be bothered screwing with it anymore. Every time I try to use it, one or more of the cartridges has dried out, or the heads need to be cleaned, using massive amounts of ink, and I end up having to buy cartridges for the thing and muck around with it before I can complete the current project.

More here

January 30, 2008

Since I stopped doing business with the company cafeteria in the morning (they're too busy setting up for lunch to bother with the long line of customers seeking breakfast) I've become a regular at the Starbucks close to where I drop my daughter off in the morning. Usually it goes well. This morning it did not. Find out what happened in "Standing in line at Starbucks" under "Thoughts".

January 3, 2008

This is why I take blood pressure medicine. So I got my first FIOS bill, and they had not waived the installation and router charges as the salescreature said they would. So I called the last number I had arrived at (see entry for Dec 29 below) 888 553 1555 and after a long time got routed to 800 483 5000, and then after an equally long wait to 800 483 4000, and then after another long wait, 888 244 4440, and after a very long wait, the person directed me back to 888 553 1555.

Isn't that precious.

So I told the last person that (a) she was the tenth person I had talked to far this morning, and (b) I'm caught in a lengthy, endless loop. She said she'd call 888 553 1555 (the number I started with) and go through the menu herself.

After five minutes or so, she came back on the line and said that she was routed to residential, confirming the beginning of my experience. She said she'd find out how to get to the business rep and call me back when she had that person on the line.

It actually required talking to two more people, but I finally got a business supervisor by the name of Charity somewhere in the midwest that corrected the billing problem in short order. So thanks very much, Charity, it was a genuine pleasure speaking with you.

As far as I can tell, the issue is that I have business FIOS with a residential phone number. So when I call the correct number (888 553 1555) and input my phone number as asked by the voice menu system, the system recognizes my number as residential and routes me to a residential rep, and I'm in an infinite loop.

I'm told that the proper sequence is to call the 1555 number and make no input until the menu system asks for my address as alternate identification. Apparently my FIOS account is tied to my address, so giving that instead of my phone number should route me to the right place.

But I haven't tested this, yet. Hopefully I won't have to.

December 31, 2007

Some musing on the high def DVD format wars in the article "Are HighDef DVDs worth the trouble?" in "Thoughts".

December 29, 2007

More on connecting to FIOS

Last time, we got FIOS working in it's default mode -- DHCP on the LAN side -- and through great pain and long hold times, managed to get various critical information from the Verizon tech -- SMTP server, News server, login and password into start.verizon.com.

A very critical part of the setup is to bring up the servers as static IP addresses. I could connect fine on the LAN side of the Verizon-provided router, but lost connectivity when I switched to one of the static IPs I had been allocated.

I was wondering how this was going to work. The installer said that I could run NAT and bridging from the same router, which runs counter to my own experience, but hey, it's been a year since I bought a router, maybe they're more sophisticated now.

Apparently not. It looked like the router could be in NAT mode or bridge mode but not both at the same time. My D-link and Zoom both work this way so it was hardly a surprise.

The next step, then, was to put the router in bridge mode and put another router behind it for NAT, so I could have static servers but still run DHCP for the home office network.

So, one Monday after the family went to bed, I headed out to the garage to do the cut-over.

Tip: If you ever have to do this in the middle of the night in winter, don't assume it'll only take a few minutes. I was in the garage for nearly three hours in my bare feet. I would periodically go into the house and stand by the fire when Verizon put me on hold again.

To recap, although I have a business FIOS connection with static IPs, (and the installer knew this -- he even said "I've never done a business connection before; I'll have to call in to see how to configure the equipment") they set up a static IP on the WAN side, NAT on the LAN side, and called it good. I fought with their router for a half hour trying to put it in bridge mode, and was only able to completely stop any access to the internet or put it back in NAT mode. So I gave up and called Verizon technical support.

From my first call at 11:00 PM, total time on hold before I got to talk to the right person was just under 1 hour. For some reason their voice system routed me first into the DSL queue. After a half hour on hold a person told me they couldn't help me and dumped me into the FIOS queue.

After 25 minutes or so I got a woman who actually knew what FIOS was, but had no idea what I was supposed to do with a business connection. She kept saying "you can get to the Internet, right? It works, then." After laboriously explaining to her that I was paying an extra $50 a month for the privilege of having a static IP on the LAN side, she finally kicked me up to second level support, probably out of sheer frustration, as she seemed to think it was working as advertised.

After some time on hold, (trying to warm my frozen feet by the fire) I finally got second level support and had to go back to the garage. It's after midnight at this point. He knew what I was trying to do, and had me make some changes to the router. These were the same changes I had made, but I did it anyway for completeness.

He couldn't figure out why I couldn't get out, and suspected my laptop (which was configured to use a static at that point). But I could plug the laptop into the fiber modem and get out just fine. After many side conversations (while I shivered on hold) and some other experiments, he finally admitted defeat and said he'd have to kick it up even higher, but third level support works 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM, so I'd have to call back at 7:00.

At that point, it was about 1:30 AM. Frozen and tired, I had an epiphany: So, the router, in bridge mode, is basically acting like a switch, right? Except it needs one of my IP addresses on the WAN side. He admitted it was so. Well, I said, why don't I replace the router with a switch? I have one right here. He said, because I can't get support unless I'm using their router. (But if this is typical of Verizon support, what am I missing?)

So currently, the router is mounted on the garage with it's cables hanging in empty air, and I have a switch plugged into the fiber modem, with my servers and home-office router plugged into the switch. Works fine. If I ever have problems with the fiber, I'll plug their router back in so I can call technical support.

I still don't know if the router was broken, inadequate for the job, or the combined power of my experience and Verizon second level support couldn't figure out the proper settings, and at this point I don't really care. I like the way the network is configured now, and I especially like that I'm not wasting one of my IP addresses unnecessarily.

December 19, 2007

I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this... I signed up for FIOS, data only, so I can keep my phone line and revert to DSL if I have to. It is a business account, 5 static IP addresses, 15,000 Kbps down, 2,000 Kbps up.

The tech showed up on time and most of the installation went quickly. He was a little stuck on configuration, as they don't do many business accounts.

I got most of the information from the tech, but needed some basic setup information like SMTP server, News server, billing and config login/password, and URL for business website. I had negotiated the maze of twisty little passages that is http://www.verizon.com without success. Anyone knowledgeable in tech support could give me this information in short order, so I decided to call and talk to a Real Person [TM].

So I navigated to verizon.com, clicked on "contact us" and located the general sales number 800-483-4000. I called, waited through ten minutes or so of Interactive Voice Response voice menu including a forced commercial, and the catchy tune they play over and over while on hold, finally got a human, and said I needed some basic information about my new FIOS business service. I figured it was probably the wrong number, but was sure they could direct me to the right one.

I was directed to 888 244 4440. Same IVR, same tune repeated endlessly. Finally got a human, and was directed to 800 483 5000. Called that number, same voice menu purgatory, same grating tune, and finally got a human, who directed me to 877 483 2522.

Same grinding IVR hell, same spikes-in-the-ears tune, and finally got a human who directed me to 888 553 1555.

As soon as the sickeningly sweet voice menu started again, I started punching zero hoping to get transferred to a human without having to listen to that grating tune again. No such luck. Eventually the robot voice got through the menu items and I hit zero again for an attendant. More customer-aware systems let you interrupt the spiel if you know your choice, but this system seems intent on discouraging you enough to give up. The robot voice then gave me a 90 second commercial on how I could do most things from the Verizon website and didn't really need to call. Finally I was allowed to ask for an attendant.

This dumped me into another voice menu that *again* told me in excruciating detail that I could do pretty much anything on the website, and suggested I hang up and go there.

I again chose to speak to an attendant, and got a *third* repetition of the above.

I don't know if I just wore them down, but my next request appeared to dump me into the call queue. Same horrible tune, repeated over and over and over... finally a human voice came on.

At this point, I was dreadfully afraid he'd give me another number to call. But no, at long last I was in the right place. He gave me the information I needed in short order, and set up my account on start.verizon.net.

So for now, I'm good. But this reminds me of the reason I originally quit Verizon DSL. They seem to think it's a good idea to put layers and layers of bureaucracy between the customer and anyone who could actually render help.

Speakeasy, my last ISP, was a huge contrast. I could call their tech support number at any time, 24 hours a day, and get right into the queue. After a short wait, I could talk to a real person who could actually fix my problem. If the problem is long term (as with a recent outage after a windstorm) a single tech is assigned to the case, works it through to completion, and then calls you to make sure you're satisfied.

For DSL service, Speakeasy competes on two fronts: (1) by generally offering higher speeds over longer distances from the CO than does Verizon, and (2) offering fast, unencumbered access to tech support and fast turnaround on problems.

So, why did I switch to FIOS? The difference between 3 Mbps and 15 Mbps download is basically nothing. So a web page refreshes in 1/16 of a second instead of 1/4 of a second -- big deal. With (still) no legal download services needing that kind of bandwidth, there's nothing one can legitimately do with it, with the possible exception of porn.

Moreover, in most cases the upload speed of the website you're browsing will be the limiting factor.

15 megabits down could be useful for torrents, assuming your ISP doesn't do packet shaping, but again, besides new versions of ubuntu or fedora, or a very small collection of torrent-aware commercial vendors, what legitimate torrents are there?

The issue with me was upload speed. I host ten websites on this connection, and the difference between 768 Kbps upload and 2 Mbps upload is significant, especially if one is serving video. This is currently the one and only reason to switch. If I could buy 15 up and 2 down, I would.

Anyway, back to the original point. I hope that eventually these bigger pipes to the "last mile" will be open to competition, and I can choose the provider that gives me the best service for my money. In the meantime, I'm reluctantly putting up with Verizon's maze of twisty little passages, in order to provide a better experience for my own customers. It's a trade-off.

I just really hope I don't have to call tech support again.

December 10, 2007

Merry Christmas.

My business DSL line is going up and down like a crazy monkey. Speakeasy says it's the line itself, which is Verizon's responsibility. Verizon is investigating. Am considering cut-over to business FIOS.

November 6, 2007

My daughter is an artist -- she'll tell you that if you ask -- she paints in acrylics, draws in charcoal and on the computer, has published a calendar of her photography, writes short stories, and has acted in a short film. This morning we talked about the writer's strike, and why the writers believe pay structures need to change as methods of delivering content change, and I could tell she really wasn't interested.

Then, I commented that Joss Whedon was honoring the strike, putting his writing projects on hold rather than cross the picket line, and suddenly she was interested. Whedon has a lot of credibility with my daughter, and she decided that if he was going to honor the strike, she would also. So Shannon will do no more writing until the strike is over. Mind you, nobody is paying her to write right now, but it's the principle of the thing.

November 3, 2007

I document fixes to a menu plugin for Geeklog in "The PigStye menu plugin for Geeklog" in "Technical".

November 1, 2007

AmEx wants to send my mom a birthday card

I just got off the phone with American Express. I had called their voice menu to activate my new corporate credit card.

After establishing that I was calling from the correct phone number and had punched in the required 15 numbers, the recorded voice said (from memory) "You now have to establish a password. We suggest you use your mother's birthday as a password. Please use your keypad to enter the month and day of your mother's birthday" followed by an excruciating explanation of how to type month/day as four digits on a keypad.

Now, I only use random strings as passwords on critical accounts. The very last thing I want to use for a password, especially for a credit card with no spending limit, is a datum easily discovered through public records, especially when everyone else is required to use the same piece of information.

So, I punched in a random 4 digit string. No problem, right? But the voice menu is programmed to only accept four digits that represents a valid month/day. Not only are they suggesting that everyone use the same insecure datum, the menu rules enforce this insecurity.

We went around and around a few times, and finally the menu dumped me on a human operator. After establishing my identity, the operator immediately asked me for the date of my mom's birthday. I said I decline to give that information. That seemed to stump him for a few moments. Finally he said they have suggestions for alternate passwords, suggesting several possibilities, all common information easily discovered through a little data mining.

I declined to use any of those, saying I wanted to use a random string. There was a long pause on the other end. Perhaps he had to consult with a superior. Eventually he accepted the password I wanted to use and activated my card. All well and good.

But I have to wonder what prompted such lax security practices. Does the decreased support costs really justify the increase in losses?

October 19, 2007

A friend of mine does phone support for Comcast, and as I listen to his horror stories, it suddenly occurred to me that of all the service industries I have delt with, cable service stands out as being the absolute worst. I wonder why that is? More musings in the article "The worst in the industry" under "thoughts".

September 13, 2007

I tend to stay out of the RIAA debate, because the prices on Amazon and the local used CD store are sufficiently low that I'm not motivated to download music. (I stopped using iTunes when the DRM changed and I lost the ability to burn my purchases on a CD that would play in the car.)

But something occurred to me recently -- that the profits from every CD that I purchased legitimately was being used by the RIAA to sue single mothers and children, at least sometimes with no probable cause. In the spirit of Google's "do no evil", how can I morally justify purchasing a product when the funds are so obviously used to commit evil acts? I'll have to think about this more.

September 3, 2007

Musings on the Pioneer AVIC D3 in-dash navigation system and a bit of whining about the state of potato chips.

May 17, 2007

Why would you buy a phone that doesn't reliably receive calls?

I traded my Treo 650 in for a brand new 750 running Windows Mobile 5. Read about my experiences, and why I ultimately returned the phone, in the article "My new Treo" under "PDA".