I'm getting quite tired of the "this but that" videos that just won't go away on reddit. I'm talking about those videos where they take one concept but replace something...like "Rick Roll but in japanese anime style" or "Die Hard but with Mario characters"..I've taken to reflexively hitting the down vote button as soon as I see "but with" or "but in" a title without even reading what the subject is any longer.
Man, i remember back when i no longer had unlimited (well, technically i still did, but they limited it to like 2kbs after a few GB usage) on my phone... those where some horrible few years whenever the land line internet failed.
I don't know how you guys can live like that...
And to think the small cuts on my dominant hand weren't bad enough, when bending down to open a cooler my head went SMACK dab on the edge of a metal chair! Full on Pro-wrestler cut, not that big, but a lot of blood.
Dave
Staff member
Just got a message from CenturyLink. Now they are saying fucking TUESDAY. There hasn’t been any weather events and they are giving no fucking direction other than an estimated fix time that has changed 5 or 6 times getting later and later. Calling them does nothing. They basically say we’re working on it. *click*
Contact the Nebraska Public Services Commission. Even if they don’t “fix” it by going after CenturyLink for you, it may put them on the state’s radar for future action and hold them accountable.
If my internet provider was leaving me internetless for a week, they would not get a cent from me for that month - and local courts here would agree. If they had reasonable force majeure they'd say what the problem was. "sorry we don't have the necessary equipment/staff" is not a valid reason not to offer a service you're being paid to provide.
GasBandit
Staff member
There's many a story in my area where people have called Optimum (formerly Suddenlink) and tried to cancel their account, only to be wooed back by promises of a lessened bill and a credit for that month... only to never have either of those things happen after the phone call ends.
This is why I'm so psyched for MetroNet and Frontier to be trenching fiber through BCS as I type - nothing does so much for consumers as competition. There was even talk of there being municipality-provided open wifi for a while, but I don't think that has materialized yet. Suddenlink pulled out all the stops to try to torpedo it, from legal challenges to massive ad campaigns to turn the locals against the "waste of taxpayer money."
Basically, cable companies are the worst, and internet access needs to be regulated the same way telephone access has been.
This is why I'm so psyched for MetroNet and Frontier to be trenching fiber through BCS as I type - nothing does so much for consumers as competition. There was even talk of there being municipality-provided open wifi for a while, but I don't think that has materialized yet. Suddenlink pulled out all the stops to try to torpedo it, from legal challenges to massive ad campaigns to turn the locals against the "waste of taxpayer money."
Basically, cable companies are the worst, and internet access needs to be regulated the same way telephone access has been.
Record it, go to small claims court, ask for additional damages etc
GasBandit
Staff member
That'd be great if people knew to do it ahead of time. Unfortunately your average layperson doesn't usually have that kind of foresight.
Also the cable company is now kind of running scared and having to actually deliver on some of its promises as competition looms. I've noticed all of a sudden my cable modem speeds have been improving noticeably. But maybe that's just because people are bailing on it for Fiber and taking up less bandwidth
figmentPez
Staff member
I would love to have any sort of choice in internet provider. I have one option for cable internet. I get terrible cell reception, despite being 1,000 feet from a major highway. I cannot install a satellite dish. If Comcast decides to screw me over, I can't do shit about it.
So, I bought this house in mid-july, fully moved in by Sept, and a week or two ago, found 2 wifi extenders plugged in inside the HVAC closet with cat 6 running into the attic.
"WTF?" I says to myself. Nothing in the house is wired for cat 6. I'm running everything off of wifi. So, I unplug them, but the cables are dangling loosely to the floor of the closet, and that bugs me, so I snip them off near the ceiling where I don't have to look at them. But I'm puzzled as to why this 86 year old dude would even know what wifi extenders are, and why he'd have two of them.
Well, evidently they run my external security cameras—I literally did that thing where the crooks cut the wires to the cameras. But I did it to myself. The Vivint guys didn't tell me that they ran wifi extenders somewhere to get them connected to the hub, and I just assumed they had wifi built into the camera. I was working during installation, so I didn't follow them around and watch them run cat6 into the HVAC closet. I noticed the issue a couple of days later when I went to review my security hub and I had two cameras offline...after a few moments pondering, realization dawned.
Many decades ago, I used to do hardware tech support, so I pulled out my near-30-year-old crimping tool. The plan was to add new heads to the cut cables, which are now much too short, plug that head into a coupler, and run 6 foot patch cables the rest of the way. The RJ45 heads came today, so today is the day to fix the problem. This is a pain in the ass on the stepladder I have to stand on, but I get one done (and I remember the RJ45 T-568B standard from memory). Take a peek at my security hub and the camera is back on line. Success!
If this is where the story ended, then I'd have put this in the tech rant, for the security guys not telling me they ran cat 6 and wifi extenders. But that's not where it ends...
Shimmy up to do the 2nd one, get it done, and as I'm coming down, I discover the stepladder has shifted and there's now open space where I expect to be stepping (there's a two-step step-down into the living room right where the HVAC closet is)...down I come down hard onto my ass, and bust my elbow on the bottom of the HVAC closet. No broken skin, though.
Elbow and back are sore. I'm sure they'll be worse tomorrow. Anyway, I'm sure it looked hilarious. Shame I didn't get video lol
"WTF?" I says to myself. Nothing in the house is wired for cat 6. I'm running everything off of wifi. So, I unplug them, but the cables are dangling loosely to the floor of the closet, and that bugs me, so I snip them off near the ceiling where I don't have to look at them. But I'm puzzled as to why this 86 year old dude would even know what wifi extenders are, and why he'd have two of them.
Well, evidently they run my external security cameras—I literally did that thing where the crooks cut the wires to the cameras. But I did it to myself. The Vivint guys didn't tell me that they ran wifi extenders somewhere to get them connected to the hub, and I just assumed they had wifi built into the camera. I was working during installation, so I didn't follow them around and watch them run cat6 into the HVAC closet. I noticed the issue a couple of days later when I went to review my security hub and I had two cameras offline...after a few moments pondering, realization dawned.
Many decades ago, I used to do hardware tech support, so I pulled out my near-30-year-old crimping tool. The plan was to add new heads to the cut cables, which are now much too short, plug that head into a coupler, and run 6 foot patch cables the rest of the way. The RJ45 heads came today, so today is the day to fix the problem. This is a pain in the ass on the stepladder I have to stand on, but I get one done (and I remember the RJ45 T-568B standard from memory). Take a peek at my security hub and the camera is back on line. Success!
If this is where the story ended, then I'd have put this in the tech rant, for the security guys not telling me they ran cat 6 and wifi extenders. But that's not where it ends...
Shimmy up to do the 2nd one, get it done, and as I'm coming down, I discover the stepladder has shifted and there's now open space where I expect to be stepping (there's a two-step step-down into the living room right where the HVAC closet is)...down I come down hard onto my ass, and bust my elbow on the bottom of the HVAC closet. No broken skin, though.
Elbow and back are sore. I'm sure they'll be worse tomorrow. Anyway, I'm sure it looked hilarious. Shame I didn't get video lol
This is what happens when you encounter cables in a space you're new to and decide "oh obviously I should just cut these"
At the time, I had the fleeting thought "Maybe I should just unplug them for a while and see if anything goes amiss..." I didn't heed my own advice.This is what happens when you encounter cables in a space you're new to and decide "oh obviously I should just cut these"
There is a mystery wire/plug in our basement. It looks older than me. Less than a year ago, I realized I have no idea what it's attached to. Its just plugged i to a random basement socket. I tried to follow it to it's source, but it disappears into the wood panels. So I took a chance and unplugged it.
Nothing has happened yet, but I still can't figure out what it's supposed to be a part of. Now @Tinwhistler 's story is making me antsy about it again.
Nothing has happened yet, but I still can't figure out what it's supposed to be a part of. Now @Tinwhistler 's story is making me antsy about it again.
Oh god that freezer of body parts I hid in the walls of that house, I totally forgot
Have you guys ever watched Hell's Kitchen? In seasons 17 and 18 of Hell's Kitchen, they invited back previous contestants for another go at the competition ("All Stars" in S17, "Rookies vs Veterans" in S18), and several previously-strong competitors shocked audiences with how badly they performed. The explanation was that it'd been so long since some of them had been in the kitchen that they either no longer had the drive to succeed in a cooking competition, or their skills had outright withered.
Something like that is happening here at my company. A former coworker of mine, who had worked here as a translation editor, left the company a few years ago to get married and have a kid. Now that her child's started school, she's started taking translation cases from us again. And where previously she was an awesome translator and editor, she's now making basic mistakes and delivering work that more or less screams "I don't care about the quality of this translation". So previously we could just send her cases directly to the client and not worry about angry feedback, but now I have to check her cases for her before they're sent out, and I always have to make a bunch of edits to bring the translations up to par.
I mean, I do try to be sympathetic, because maybe she's trying to do these translations while her child is bugging her or something like that. But our clients won't care about that, they just want a good translation, so it becomes my job to clean up after her.
She's still really hot though.
Something like that is happening here at my company. A former coworker of mine, who had worked here as a translation editor, left the company a few years ago to get married and have a kid. Now that her child's started school, she's started taking translation cases from us again. And where previously she was an awesome translator and editor, she's now making basic mistakes and delivering work that more or less screams "I don't care about the quality of this translation". So previously we could just send her cases directly to the client and not worry about angry feedback, but now I have to check her cases for her before they're sent out, and I always have to make a bunch of edits to bring the translations up to par.
I mean, I do try to be sympathetic, because maybe she's trying to do these translations while her child is bugging her or something like that. But our clients won't care about that, they just want a good translation, so it becomes my job to clean up after her.
She's still really hot though.
GasBandit
Staff member
Isn't it wonderful how the people who decide schedules never seem to grasp that tasks take time to perform, and that those tasks require a given skill set? If the person with the skill set is already scheduled, you can't just send somebody else who doesn't have that skill set, and give him half the time to do it.
At least they're trying something else other than double-booking me now, I guess. But the end result is the same - I have to put one of my projects on hold to go rescue another project from a train wreck.
At least they're trying something else other than double-booking me now, I guess. But the end result is the same - I have to put one of my projects on hold to go rescue another project from a train wreck.
I am in Chicago for a history conference this weekend. My wife wanted to come along too because she wanted to visit that city again and enjoy a luxury hotel (conference rates are heavily discounted). She had been looking forward to it since July and had a ton of non-refundable activities planned out for when I wasn’t working.
She also teaches for a Title 1 elementary school. Most of the parents are low-income and working two or three jobs each. When their kids get sick, they just shove the little plague babies into the school. That means the teachers are practically swimming in a toxic stew of COVID, RSV, flu, strep, and regular colds. Since the school year started, the wife has been sick more than she has been healthy.
She woke up with another terrible cold yesterday. She still insisted on going with me and we got to Chicago without incident, but she is just exhausted.
She also teaches for a Title 1 elementary school. Most of the parents are low-income and working two or three jobs each. When their kids get sick, they just shove the little plague babies into the school. That means the teachers are practically swimming in a toxic stew of COVID, RSV, flu, strep, and regular colds. Since the school year started, the wife has been sick more than she has been healthy.
She woke up with another terrible cold yesterday. She still insisted on going with me and we got to Chicago without incident, but she is just exhausted.
Speaking of that:
Here's hoping the room service is also heavily discounted.
--Patrick
The wife did her best to go through with all the activities she'd planned. I would have been fine with her just resting up in the hotel room but she insisted on going out. We did the Willis Tower and 360 Observation Deck. She also got a glimpse of life in academia. Still, it involved quite a bit of walking in biting cold winds. Her cold pretty much stayed the same and it might actually be another sinus infection. She said her head felt like it was going to implode when we descended into Houston.
She sounds awful right now. She needs two or three solid days of bed rest but her district is stingy with sick days. I am never taking my job for granted again. When I feel under the weather, I just inform my students that we'll be having a class via Zoom that day.
She sounds awful right now. She needs two or three solid days of bed rest but her district is stingy with sick days. I am never taking my job for granted again. When I feel under the weather, I just inform my students that we'll be having a class via Zoom that day.
Conference trips were how my wife and I got to go to so many cool cities. We wouldn't have been able to afford without being in Graf school.
My students are hitting me with sob stories again. The Dead Grandma excuse doesn't work anymore because they can't provide the necessary documentation to the Dean of Students. Instead it's Mildred, their second cousin twice-removed who "had an episode" and the whole family has to fly cross-country to the ER. Riiiiiiight.
I have had students come up to me in the middle of the semester and ask for help because they just couldn't manage their time. They visit me during my office hours and we work together so they eventually get caught up. They are honest about it and willing to put in the extra effort. It takes a measure of courage to admit that they need help. I love working with those students. And then you have the slacker who sends an email the week before finals reading, "totally my bad but I didn't do any work and didn't attend classes. Can I make it all up by tomorrow? I really need this basketball scholarship."
@drawn_inward - This was her first academic conference with me. She's enjoying the ability to pick and choose which conferences to accompany me on.
Lewiston, Maine? "Nah, I'll stay home. You go have fun."
Pittsburgh? "Meh."
Chicago? "Sounds fun and... wait, does that hotel have a heated indoor pool? We can make it a getaway weekend!"
I have had students come up to me in the middle of the semester and ask for help because they just couldn't manage their time. They visit me during my office hours and we work together so they eventually get caught up. They are honest about it and willing to put in the extra effort. It takes a measure of courage to admit that they need help. I love working with those students. And then you have the slacker who sends an email the week before finals reading, "totally my bad but I didn't do any work and didn't attend classes. Can I make it all up by tomorrow? I really need this basketball scholarship."
@drawn_inward - This was her first academic conference with me. She's enjoying the ability to pick and choose which conferences to accompany me on.
Lewiston, Maine? "Nah, I'll stay home. You go have fun."
Pittsburgh? "Meh."
Chicago? "Sounds fun and... wait, does that hotel have a heated indoor pool? We can make it a getaway weekend!"
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If you're cold, they're cold. Let them in.