Comcast service - some things never change

A number of years ago I had Comcast for my cable TV and internet, and after numerous outages, bad experiences with repair folks who took 3 visits to fix a problem, and hours (literally) on hold with their customer support, I swore never again to do business with them.

But now they have a pretty good price on a package of HD cable, broadband, and VOIP phone service--saving me about $25 a month over the combination of Qwest, DirecTV, Tivo, and DSL NW. So I figured hey, it's been 10 years, they've probably got their act together--and gave them another chance.

My first clue should have been when I tried to sign up for the service on their website, and it crashed on what was probably the last page....every time.

My second clue should have been when I called customer service, and after spending about 10 minutes having them get everything typed in on their side, the phone call got cut off.

Third time was a charm, and when I called back I got us scheduled for an install--all is happy warm and fuzzy, right...

...until the installer showed up.

Late, of course.

After we picked up all of the clipped bits of wire and cable staples he'd dropped in our yard (presumably for our 10-month old son to pick up and put in his mouth), I discovered that in fact we weren't getting a high-def picture. And the HD portion of the onscreen guide didn't work.

Checking the wiring, I found that the installer had not hooked up the new Comcast box to the high-def connection on the back of the TV. Luckily, everything on the Comcast DVR and the TV was well-labelled, so that an amateur like me could connect it easily, and I didn't have to call in a professional like the Comcast installer.

Something tells me we're just getting started. Some people never learn (i.e., ME).

UPDATE: our ADT alarm system is beeping....why? Because the Comcast installer didn't hook it up to the new phone system like it said to in the work order. So they're sending out another installer to finish the job.

It's not Comcastic...it's Comcatastrophic.

Motorcycle trip to BC, Idaho, Montana...

This picture is looking down on Osoyoos, B.C....after a fabulous twisty climbing road on the bikes!

Rotary Club of Portland Road Rally 2007

Click the photo, then click the Slideshow button.

How the British build motorcycles

This is damn funny!




Watch carefully, and you can see them pouring in the traditional oil leaks. Thanks to Sports Car Market magazine's e-newsletter for finding this.

Giant Pink Bunny on Italian Hillside

You can't make this fluff up!

A 200-foot long pink bunny rabbit has been built on the 5000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy's Piedmont region.

A Very Manly Wedding Cake

Fellow BBQers, all those who believe vegetables are something you FEED TO things you eventually want to eat, have I got a cake for you:


Yes, it's the Meat Cake! And with mashed potato frosting too!

Yapta - getting money back when airfare goes down

There's a new startup out of Seattle called Yapta--they're jumping into the fare-comparison pool along with FareCast, Kayak, etc. You visit websites such as Expedia, Orbitz, or the airlines' sites and "tag" fares you want to watch. OK, not too much new yet...

Here's their twist: they continue to watch the fares for you AFTER you buy the ticket. There's a rule in the airline industry called the guaranteed airfare rule--if you buy the ticket directly from the airline and the fare drops, you can get a refund.

Read more at the blog of Business 2.0 Magazine's Erick Schonfeld.

Great customer service from Advanced Data Solutions

I contacted a company called Advanced Data Solutions today for some consulting assistance regarding some RAID 5 drives in one of our servers, and I have to say, I was very impressed with their service. Turns out, their business consists of data recovery procedures, where they work to extract data from your troubled drives--not consulting services (which is what I needed). But rather than just saying "we don't do that sir" and ending it there, the person I talked to transferred me to one of their experts (Joe), who took the time to walk me through some of the considerations and give me some excellent advice. For free. For someone who wasn't a customer.

That made an impression on me (as did Joe's advice)--great job ADS, and thank you!

Chief Beer Officer???

OK, I've heard of CTOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs, and C3PO...but this one's new to me:

Four Points by Sheraton has recently appointed Scott Kerkmans as their CBO. Yep, Chief Beer Officer. He's 27, from Colorado, started his own magazine called Draft, and is a certified beer judge.

Fire dancers, Le Meridien, Papeete, Tahiti

Tahitian dancers at Le Meridien, Papeete, Tahiti

The Kegulator

So you're planning a party...maybe Super Bowl, maybe 4th of July, or maybe it's the May 2-4 weekend (Canadians will understand), and now it's time to go fill the fridge. You're stuck with that terrifying question of how much beer to get--too little and your friends will call you a cheap bastard and never show up again, too much and you're stuck with a whole bunch of beer your friends like but you'd never drink yourself.

Now, there's a magical solution: The Kegulator!



Just tell it how many people are coming, and use the sliders to size up your friends' character...and there's your answer!

Canadians please note: you'll need to use your miles-to-kilometres converter (X 8/5) to get the correct numbers for your latitude & attitude).

A few photos from my Tahiti trip

Click the photo, then click the Slideshow button.

I'm on Tahitian TV!

Yeah, that's what everyone calls the glass coffeetables in the overwater bungalows, where you look down and see the fish. Or a honeymoon registry guy clowning around.

In other news, David & Rodney & I did have lunch next to the president of Tahiti, at Hotel Bora Bora. And we got a better table in the restaurant...guess it's all in who you know :-)

Well, that's one way to save weight

After several jugs of Chianti, the MV Agusta engineers may have come up with a winner...or not!

There's no business like Snow Business

Portland is really beautiful in the snow. The down side is that Portlanders FREAK OUT when we get 1/2" of it! Everybody stays home, the MAX commuter trains get delayed by 30 minutes (how can THAT happen? are they stopping the trains to PUT ON CHAINS????), and the city grinds to a halt.

Canadians would be laughing at us...if they weren't so polite.

Pictured: the view today looking over the Park Blocks, 1 block south of TheBigDay.

Wanna buy a hat? Only $75 million and it's yours

Hat Island, that is...also known as Vatu Vara Island, in Fiji.

Boy, if only I hadn't spent so much this year on Christmas lights... :-)

Thanks to Aruna, our resident Fiji native and honeymoon expert, for spotting this.

More details in this story from Forbes.com. There's a slide show there too, but be warned: the Forbes.com site is HORRIBLY slow--and put your safety goggles on, cause they're going to hammer you with an avalanche of ads.

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

My friend Cliff turned me on to compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs--they save a substantial amount of energy (see Seth Godin's blog posting entitled How many bloggers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?). I'm using them in a few places in my house--places where the lights tend to stay on a lot, like the driveway light that stays on all night...some hallways...etc.

I tried using them in the lights outside our front door (which are controlled automatically by an X10 home automation system), but somehow that's like Crossing the Streams, and the bulbs just fry in a day or two. So I gave up on using them for the X10-controlled lights.

Click the photo for a slideshow.

This is Guoliang Tunnel, in the Taihang mountains in China. Pics are zooming around the internet claiming it's the Road of Death in Bolivia...but it's not. Here's the story:

"We chose the tunnel. Sitting by the elderly driver I was lucky to hear the story about the tunnel. Before 1972, the path chiseled into the rock used to be the only access linking the village with the outside world. Then the villagers decided to dig a tunnel through the rocky cliff.

Led by Shen Mingxin, head of the village, they sold goats and herbs to buy hammers and steel tools. Thirteen strong villagers began the project. It took them five years to finish the 1,200-metre-long tunnel which is about 5 meters high and 4 meters wide. Some of the villagers even gave their lives to it. On May 1, 1977, the tunnel was opened to traffic.

When I was mulling over what the tunnel looked like, the van started a very steep ascent. I looked up and could not move my eyes away - it was so beautiful! All of us were excited. We found ourselves in extremely gorgeous surroundings - against the blue sky, with a path frighteningly narrow, and the cliffs piercing the sky.

All of my fellow "donkeys" stopped talking; some were busy taking photos, some were just dumbfounded. The golden sun shone upon the ground and through the air vents in the rocky wall of the tunnel. We were sometimes in the dark and sometimes in the light. I was deeply moved and even wanted to cry, for the sacred Guoliang Tunnel and for what the villagers have done - to triumph over nature.

In about an hour, the small van slowly took us to the unsophisticated village surrounded by the towering mountains. The village, more than 1,200 meters above the sea level, seemed as if it had retreated from the world. Everything there was made of stone: the village gate, roads, bridges, houses, tables, stools, bowls and chop sticks. It is said the village originated from Guo Liang, a peasant army leader who used to fight there in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).

There are currently about 83 households in the village with 329 people."

(from Tom's Jokes Collection)

Happy Hallowe'en!

Pumpkins carved by my two-week-old son, Benjamin. OK, so he didn't really carve them, but the faces he's made over the past two weeks inspired the creations you see here :-)