every word of it.

It’s true. They know they have the best product available. And they know that they will really, really, really, really have to piss me off before I switch to another service.

My Residential Gateway has been resetting sporadically for the past 2 months. Note the word sporadically.

sporadic |spəˈradik|adjectiveoccurring at irregular intervals or only in a few places; scattered or isolated

UVerse phone support seem to have trouble with this word.

I’ve called UVerse an innumerable amount of times complaining about this problem. And the tech on the line will rattle off the same steps – have you checked the power cable/have you reset the residential gateway/is the problem occurring now. And I indulge them. After all, I did the same job. And I know they’re just referring to a knowledge base. Sometimes this will result in an offer for a call back. This is when I have to explain to them the meaning of the word sporadic – “Yes, you can call back tomorrow. But it might be fine tomorrow and the next day, and the next, but then it’ll reset. Anyways yes, you can call me back.” Because really, it’s a very rare occurrence if they do follow up.

Twice now I’ve had a technician make a house call. The first time was a few weeks ago. That guy said it was a problem with the line and he’d schedule a line tech. I don’t know if that happened. But I do know that after his visit, I was fine for some time.

Yesterday, I had another visit. This visit was primarily to replace my DVR. Last week it deleted all my recordings and refused to record anything afterwards. I mentioned the RG problem to this guy, and he said it was a problem with the “bridge tap on my line”. And he would schedule a line tech to remove that. I don’t know if that happened. But a half hour ago, my RG reset.

UVerse is now up to “really, really, really”. I’ve started logging everything now. I know I should’ve started keeping track weeks ago.

UVerse, don’t make me switch to Road Runner or Dish or DirecTV – I love the guide too much.

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles Dear Raishad, You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you. -Your friends at Netflix

Yep, my blog is powerful. So far it’s saved 30 Rock, Pushing Daisies, and now Netflix Profiles.

Sadly, I just couldn’t save Arrested Development, or Speed Racer. But I’m ahead though, and that’s what matters.

Speaking of Speed Racer – not one person asked for a ticket refund. This either means that no one reads this OR that everyone who felt compelled to see Speed Racer after my post, loved it. I think it’s the latter.

Sadly, it looks like Speed Racer is out of theatres. Until I’ve seen Hancock and The Dark Knight, Speed Racer remains the Summer Movie of the Summer.

Important News Regarding Netflix Profiles

Dear Raishad,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Netflix Team

I will miss the Profiles. They were a great way of making sure I got my movie, and my mom got her crappy Indian movies every week. No need to manage the queue manually.

Netflix is a customer friendly company. So it’s kind of disappointing they’re removing features (that I use).

When someone asks for your password, don’t give it to them.

Simple.

But apparently not simple enough for some.

That’s right. My brother gave his Steam password to someone posing as Steam Customer Support. Unbelievable.

You know, they should teach a class in school – Internet Smarts. I think it’ll be beneficial. Like stick it with Keyboarding. That was a required class right? And honestly, Internet Smarts is a lot more useful.

Anyways, I’m now going through the process of restoring his account. I think it happens a lot, since there is a nice well laid out procedure for it. And there should be – considering I’ve spent at least $100 on that account.

I talked to the guy who stole it. Pretty bold.

Seeqpod is a pretty neat site. I’ve been using the iPhone version for a few months now. It’s a very easy way to find a song and play it on your iPhone. All that time though, I never tried visiting Seeqpod from a regular desktop browser. Turns out I was missing something great.

Before, when I wanted to sample a band, I had a couple of options: Google, MySpace, or the band’s website. Google worked, but you had to sift through reviews and fansites. You still had to hunt for a song, but you could find one. MySpace is a little better, but who wants to go to MySpace. MySpace is an awful, awful place. The band’s website would either refer you to MySpace, have a track up in a horrible embedded player, or have no sample tracks at all.

Enter Seeqpod. It combines a very amazing crawler with a very nice flash interface. So essentially what you get is a search engined tuned to finding mp3 files. You don’t have to fart around with inurl: or other operators. And it has the very convenient ability to share playlists

To celebrate, here is some Ned’s Atomic Dustbin

Google spies on me?

Google knows too much.

Exhibit A: Here is an email to Long

In it, I’m essentially stating that I’m like Charlie Brooker. In his latest article in the Guardian, he essentially points out that you can’t go on vacation if you’re single. It’s true. It’s just the way things are. So in the article, Charlie Brooker complains a bit and says his vacation is staying home and playing Half-Life 2. Replace Half-Life 2 with Mario Strikers and that’s me.

And Google, being omniscient as they are, place a link to a website renting villas in Tobago – Tobago being the Tobago in The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. Sure I mentioned the word “Vacation” in the email, I get that. But Tobago? I didn’t mention Trinidad or Tobago. So either it’s a lucky coincidence (maybe, hopefully?) or their algorithms are too smart.

Anyways, if you visit that site, you can rent islands. The cheapest island is $2300/night near Belize. If I ever get filthy rich, I’m renting an island. But probably not near Belize.

Doing some cleaning, and I found this on my desktop

That’s right, The Bible is the most popular book in DFW. I figured Harry Potter would be up there. But The Bible? Who are these people trying to fool/impress? #3 and #5 prove that most of Facebook’s users have at least a high school education. #4, I had to google – apparently it’s the sequel to the Da Vinci Code. Seriously?

I got a message on ebay from another user, kiki3681 from France. They wanted to know about the Airport Express I purchased.

bonjour,

j’ai vu sur ebay que tu avais acheté une borne air tunes en provenance de hong kong pour un prix de 50 euros environ…

je pense faire le meme achat, mais j’ai un doute sur la compatibilité de le borne avec les prises éléctriques françaises… utilises tu un adaptateur?

merci par avance de ta réponse.

Etienne

I don’t speak French, so I hoped on over to Google Translate

Hello,

I saw on ebay that you had purchased an air terminal in tunes From hong kong for a price of about 50 euros …

I think making the same purchase, but I doubt on the The terminal is compatible with electric outlets French … You use an adapter?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

Etienne

So simple question – they wanted to know what adapter the Airport Express came with. So I wrote my response and sent it in English along with the French Google Translated version. Brilliant.

Turns out the Airport Express is like Apple notebook and iPod chargers – you can remove the plug and switch in the correct one to match your outlets. Brilliant.

Also, isn’t Etienne a great name?

My response

Hi,

Sorry I do not speak French so I used Google’s Translate feature

The Airport Express I purchased came with a plug for American outlets. The plug is removable, like with the Apple notebook >chargers. I imagine that there are French adapters that would fit the Airport Express available from Apple

Hope that helps

Raishad

Bonjour,

Désolé je ne parle pas français alors j’ai utilisé fonctionnalité Google Translate

L’Airport Express j’ai acheté livrée avec un plug-in pour American points de vente. Le plug-in est amovible, comme avec le >bloc-notes Apple chargeurs. J’imagine qu’il existe des adaptateurs français qui puisse convenir à l’Airport Express d’Apple disponible

Espoir qui aide

Raishad

People on the internet can be jerks. Take a look at this review for the Monoprice iPhone Headphone Adapter. You can see that “Raishad” writes

This does not fit the iPhone. Not at all

Hey it’s valid criticism, since the iPhone adapter that “Raishad” got, didn’t fit his iPhone

But then that jerk Austin from Provo, UT (proving that nothing good ever comes out of Utah, once again), had to go and call “Raishad” crazy. What a jerk! Why would “Raishad” make up a lie like this. “Raishad” likes Monoprice. He buys cable from them all the time. He is obviously disappointed that the headphone adapter doesn’t fit, and just wanted to warn everyone.

But what’s really strange is that there is another review saying that the adapter does fit. I hope “Raishad” writes Monoprice and asks “What’s up, Monoprice?”. Maybe he just got the wrong adapter? Who knows.

Yesterday, my blog broke. I don’t know what happened – the main page wasn’t loading, but the admin pages were. All my posts were there. Everything was there, except some of the images I uploaded. It was strange.

I went to a backup, updated, and here we are.

To make up for it, here is Outtasite (Outta Mind) from Wilco. It’s when they used to be alt-country, and in my opinion – much better.