Preaching to the choir…
By deza | August 19, 2008
Here’s a great article from Jack Cafferty from CNN. He’s basically calling McCain an idiot. It’s a great commentary nonetheless…
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/18/cafferty.mccain/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Topics: politics | No Comments »
Please do not let cats inside!
By ross | August 10, 2008
Took a few minutes this morning to upgrade my cat warning sign:
Topics: get a load of this, home, humor | 3 Comments »
Ross vs the Torn Lateral Meniscus
By ross | July 17, 2008
Topics: bits, health | No Comments »
July 4th at the J’ville Landings
By ross | July 5, 2008
Topics: family, travel | No Comments »
A new generation of spam
By ross | June 5, 2008
I have an email account that is protected by what I assume is an older version of SpamAssassin, meaning that a lot of spam gets through. So lately I’ve noticed the subject lines moving away from standard spam fare and towards things like, “Check out this video of you naked, Ross.” And then just now I saw this:
You look really stupid ross
For some reason I laughed out loud at that. Apparently to see how stupid I look I need to download and run an executable.
Topics: get a load of this | 1 Comment »
Cell phone change hassles (amusing/annoying)
By chris | June 4, 2008
So, H and I decided to move from AT&T to Sprint and get new phones (Palm Centro for those interested). Getting our old phone numbers changed over has been a huge hassle. The cell companies refer to this as “porting a number”. I would think this must be done thousands of times a day. Yet they still haven’t made this process very reliable or streamlined. Here is my timeline so far:
A week ago: H orders phones/plan from Sprint, fills out included form specifying that yes, we do want to keep our current phone numbers and lists the numbers correctly. (I assume, because really, given all the people I’ve talked to, I think she is the least likely to have screwed this up).
Monday ~8pm: Receive phones, unpack, start charging.
Monday ~8:30pm: Call to activate phones, try to call our correct/old/existing numbers but our old phones ring
Monday ~8:35pm: Call sprint to ask about this and verify the number porting is underway/scheduled/etc. Get an idiot and get disconnected after ~3m.
Monday ~8:40pm: Call Sprint support back, this time the person says that H’s phone number is being ported but there is no record of a port request for my number. I ask that he start one. He informs me he will start it but my phone will be disconnected for 24-72 hours. I find this odd and question it a few times, he says it is true. I try to clarify by stating clearly (paraphrased) “So you are saying my new sprint phone, the one that can call out fine now and I am talking to you on now, and whose only issue is not receiving calls on my desired number, will be unable to make calls until the number porting is done which could be 24-72 hours”. He pauses for a bit and gives me an unconvincing (and accented) “yes.” Idiot. I ask to speak to someone else and eventually end up getting disconnected.
Monday ~9pm: I call back and get someone extremely helpful who I talk to for 40m. She understands what I want to have happen, we get transferred around, she calls back on various numbers, etc. I go to bed thinking the porting is underway and everything will work in the morning.
Tuesday ~7:30am: I try dialing H’s number from my sprint phone. Her old att phone rings instead.
**Tuesday ~9:00am: I get a call asking for Greg. Wrong number. She calls back, tells me she is trying to phone Greg on a totally different number that is off by one digit (my desired/old phone # ends in 5808, she called me on 5803).
Tuesday ~9:40am: I get repeated wrong number calls from the same woman looking for Greg while I’m in a meeting. At one point I give the phone to someone to keep hitting cancel while I finish talking. I then take the next call and tell her it is still me, etc.
Tuesday ~10:20am: AT&T support calls. I call Sprint. Many calls from both companies to me and a few calls to Sprint. Finally Sprint tells me I should be good in a few hours (which I’ve heard before). AT&T says the issue is that Sprint requested the 5803 (Greg’s #) to be ported rather than my number. This disrupted Greg’s service as well as mine. AT&T may be calling me back to give my Sprint account number so Sprint can release the number back to AT&T.
During this call I also get a text message that my request to transfer 5803 has been completed. Sigh.
So, how often does porting a number become such a hassle? How many hours of how many peoples’ time are wasted every day? Have any other mokeys had good or bad experiences transferring cell numbers?
Topics: gadgetry, rant, tech | 3 Comments »
prepping for Portland
By ryan | June 1, 2008
I leave for Portland, OR today, to attend an EPA conference for work, and I’m pretty anxious about it. This could be a great opporunity, and if things go very well, it could be a turning point for my work life (and most of my co-workers). So, I’m stressing over it, been waking up around 6-6:30 every morning and tossing/turning until the alarm goes off. This morning I said “fuck it” and just got up at 7am and started working through my vacation prep list. Now I’m down to four:
- Groom (beard + hair)
- Pack clothes
- top off the fish tank
- copy media on the eeepc for airplane watching
I got about 3 hours until I want to start driving to JAX, I think I’ll make it ok.
Also, finding great solace in a song off the I Heart Huckabees soundtrack:
So what you never understand? Big deal you’re doomed to die, ohh ohh.
Nothing ever lasts; It all just turns to shreds.
If something’s ever lasts,it’s over our heads.
It’s over our heads.
Think your troubles are so serious? One day you’ll be so long gone.
Cause nothing ever lasts; it all just turns to shreds.
If something’s ever-lasting,it’s over our heads.
It’s over our heads.
Back to it.
Topics: human behaviour, work | 1 Comment »
Totally Tubular
By ross | May 22, 2008
This is step one of the expensive bathtub replacement saga. The drain on the old tub was rusted out, the thing was leaking onto the tile floor, and it was generally nasty. The problem I then had to deal with was that “they” no longer sell tile in the sort of mottled blue-white that is currently there. My options were to pay an extra $1000 to retile the whole thing, or go with a different color. Fortunately I found something that matches the current colors and will hopefully look presentable. I have to wait about a week for the new tile to come in so I’ll post an updated picture with the finished job.
Topics: home | No Comments »
busy
By ryan | May 13, 2008
It’s been a long time since I made an actual entry, the last was back in February. So, in the past 3 months I’ve been fucking busy. Right now I’m at a positive moment, where the challenges feel mostly under control, and I feel prepared for everything that’s next. It’s a rare moment.
Heather graduates this next weekend, and then in a few weeks she gets her final grades to see if she graduated, and then it’s wedding-planning time. We’re sticking with out 12/31 date, despite the realization that new year’s is on a Wednesday.
The tricky bits are coming up. I think a wedding is a crucible, a final test of a couple’s cooperative abilities.
This summer is going to be travel-crazy. At the beginning of June, Heather and I are going to Portland for an EPA conference, where I’ll be talking / networking with people about some work stuff. Next, at the end of July, Heather and I are going up to Vancouver for her work, and I’m tagging along. I’m tentatively giving a presentation the Vancouver lisp group (lispvan) about the same work stuff as the EPA conference. I’m going to try to work out some videoconferencing thing so Nathan and Russ could kinda be there too, and can correct me when I get something wrong. Lastly, at the end of August, we’ll be going up to Atlanta for another Dragon Con, which should be extra fun cause we’re staying in one of the right hotels, so we won’t need to taxi / subway anywhere.
And somewhere in there we need to plan a wedding.
This is going to be a busy year.
Topics: travel, wedding, work | No Comments »
LOLbama
By ryan | May 12, 2008
Made using roflbot.
Topics: get a load of this, humor | No Comments »