If you are a creative individual (and most everyone bothering to read this blog is) then you need to know about the Creative Commons.The Creative Commons is the creation of Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford School of Law, Harvard Law School, and many others, that allows people to license their works in ways that actually make sense. You can create something, be it text, music, video, images, etc. and then pick out a Creative Commons license that makes sense for you; options for licensing include granting all rights, granting all non-commercial rights, or combinations thereof. It’s sort of the creative equivalent of the GPL/Open Source thing software developers have been using for their projects, and I think much good can come of it. Check it out.
Treo 600
Well, I got my Treo 600 a little over a week ago, so I’ve been using it and getting to know all the features. I have to say that this is hands down, the best phone/PDA combo I’ve ever used. It is a triumph of industrial design.
I thought the loss of the cover would bother me, but have screen protector, will travel. And I certainly don’t miss the rocker on the side of the unit, which has been replaced with the awesome “four way” rocker, that allows you to just about everything short of typing with only one hand. Menu navigation, quick dialing, it’s all a snap.
The keyboard is smaller than the 300, but honestly, it’s still very usable for a chiclet keyboard. I can thumb almost 30 wpm. 🙂
There are some drawbacks, which are actually a little silly:
The camera has no flash
The screen isn’t high-res
Considering how much obvious thought and effort went into this design, to leave those two things out seems really stupid, actually. The are the only things stopping this from being a perfect combo for me. I’m not sure what they were thinking.
But overall, I love the thing, and would recommend upgrading to anyone with a 180/270/300… and if you are considering a cell phone/PDA combo, the Treo 600 is definitely one to take a very close look at.
I’m Married!
Well, it’s finally done! Actually, it was done on Sunday, and I’m just getting around to writing about it, but that’s a good thing, believe me!
The wedding was a huge success… nearly everyone we’ve spoken with has agreed that the ceremony was the right length, the food was delicious, and the cake was one of the best they’d ever had. There were a few snafus, which is to be expected, I suppose. We had some family issues that were hard to deal with… a crisis here, some hurt feelings there… none of which were intentional, but I suppose that is the way it goes. You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people… I’d say overall we were pretty successful.
I slept the best I’d slept in months on Sunday night… the relief of having all the wedding planning pressure over was incredible. Then we took a few days off to just be with each other, which was very nice. We’re going to shoot for our honeymoon over the holidays… it’s hard to get away when you’re both starting small businesses! But we’re both as happy as you can be!!
One Day!
24 Hours from now, I will be in the middle of my wedding ceremony. And yes, I am nervous as hell! However, I’m not nervous about the actual marriage part. I’m worried that I’ll be late to the boat (we’re getting married on a yacht on Lake Michigan) or that the cake will be messed up, or that the flowers won’t be there… and about standing up in front of 120 people!
It’s been so much work planning this wedding, and dealing with all the problems that crop up along the way. My friend Kate said, “A wedding is a terrible way to start a marriage” and now I know what he meant! If we could go back to March when all this was set in motion, I think now we’d elope.
But I guess tomorrow it will all be over, and that will be a big relief, and I will be very happy!!
Apple Can Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Okay, I love my Mac. It’s actually not even my primary machine, my laptop (PC) is due to some software issues for client compatibility. However, ever since I bought a Mac two years ago, I’ve been singing the praises of the Mac to anyone who’ll listen. OS X is a fantastic operating system, no doubt about it. Final Cut Pro is simply amazing, and I hope it gives Avid the slow and painful death they deserve. DVD Studio Pro 2 is an amazing piece of software too. I think Apple is back, baybee…
However, when I bought my Mac, it came with OS X 10.0, which was useless and buggy as all get out. With 10.1 we saw major improvements, and I was satisfied. But then Jaguar came out. I’d owned 10.1 less then a year, and now I was forced to pay $130 for the “ugrade”. I was pissed then, and I’m pissed now.
Yes, Jaguar was full of great features, and I love it as an OS. But not having an upgrade price for users who’ve owned the software less than a year is just plain insulting. I suppose it’s not surprising, coming from a Steve Jobs Apple, but Microsoft has more respect for users at this point! Here we are, another year later, and another $130 full price OS upgrade. For a .1 release. I read the reviews, I know Panther offers some cool new features, but once again, Apple is telling me “As a loyal Apple Customer, who purchases upgrades for our advanced software, like FCP and DVDSP, we think you should bend over and take it on our OS.” This is getting ridiculous. So I’m not upgrading. Apple can bite my shiny metal ass.
iTunes Store
Okay, I have both a PC and a Mac, and I use both a lot, however for very different work. Generally, I use the PC for writing, bloggin’ and technical work, and I use the Mac for video editing…
Well, today I had a client in who was trying to tell me about a song… they said “1000 Miles” by “Melissa Carlton”. On a lark, I said, I wonder what’s on the iTunes store? So I downloaded iTunes (never installed before) and in less than five minutes I was previewing “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton. Wow. It was quick and simple, and the preview allowed the client to let me hear the song without having to buy it. Then we moved on in the edit… but later, I came back, and I ended up buying a bunch of singles… it was super easy, and then I burned them to a CD, no sweat.
Amazing, Apple gets it. The RIAA doesn’t.
Autotuners
I don’t think you can use one of these Autotuners to correct your vocals and in any way, shape or form, call yourself a “punk” band.
The Boss
Last night I went to see Bruce Springsteen play at US Cellular Field (that’s Comisky Park to most of you out there). I have to say that I never would have called myself a Springsteen fan, even though he’s a decent songwriters. I mean, have you really listened to Born in the USA? It’s hardly the patriotic anthem some dumbass jingoistic republicans* make it out to be… it’s actually a very critical song of America. Come to think of it, have you ever read the lyrics to Dancin’ in the Dark? Most people probably remember it from the silly video where Courtney Cox is pulled up on stage. But check out the lyrics… it’s a bitter song about lonliness and desparation.
But I digress…
Springsteen played for over three hours, with no opening act. He came out and did a half a dozen songs without stopping… which is pretty impressive. But what really got me was the sheer level of emotional (if not physical) intensity that the entire band, and especially Springsteen, put into their performance. They just plain rocked. And in a world where fans are now suing performers for lousy shows with overpriced tickets, it’s pretty refreshing to come away from a concert not only feeling that you go your money’s worth, but that the performer cared about their music deeply, and wanted to share that passion with you.
*Ronald Reagan invoked Springsteen and his song “Born in the U.S.A.” while campaigning in 1984. But Springsteen didn’t like being quoted by Reagan, saying that instead of it being “morning in America,” as Reagan claimed in his TV ad, he’d seen places where “It’s midnight, and like, there’s a bad moon risin’.”
Insert Bad Shaving Pussy Pun Here
Moving in with your partner often means duplicate things: CDs, books, kitchen gadgets, and even living creatures. But unlike having an extra toaster, you can’t just give your extra feline friends to the Salvation Army. And so it came to pass that Kristyna and I shared our living space with not one, not two, but four, count ’em, four long haired cats.
Not only do we have four long haired cats, combined, they pretty much cover the entire visible spectrum of fur. Alex is black and white, Simon is “shaded” silver. Stella is a tortie, and Emily is a calico. Black, white, grey, silver, brown, red. There is no surface in our house nor clothes in our closet which do not bear visible cat hair of some kind.
Last summer, we had heard of a technique which could not only help eliminated stray hair, but also those hairballs that are so pleasant to step on in the wee hours of the morning on a bathroom run. As a bonus, it would also help the cats cool down. That technique is the “Lion Cut”. Now, if you haven’t seen a formerly long haired cat who has been “Lion Cut” let me assure you, it will inspire fits of laughter. The poor cat is shaved pretty much to the skin all over, but with some hair left on the lower portion of their legs, a tuft of hair at the end of their tail, and of course, their “mane”. Needless to say, three of our cats hated their new do, and one (Stella) loved it.
Well, humor aside, the other benefits of a shaved pussy quickly became apparent; we did indeed see fewer hairballs, and magically, only some of the surfaces in our house still showed cat hair! Clearly, the Lion Cut was worth the $50 per cat we had spent.
Summer past and winter came. We let the cats keep their natural hair during the colder months, but then spring came, and in Chicago, lasted about 3 days before we plunged into summer heat. It was time: shave the cats.
This time, however, the economy wasn’t do well (it still isn’t, as the time of this writing, may your reading find you in better times). So money was tight, and the cats needed to be shaved again… so I announced to my fiancĂ©Â “You know, $50 per cat seems awfully steep. How hard can it be to shave a cat? I have some good clippers, and it would save us a ton of money.”
My fiancĂ©Â looked up from her computer and said, “What?”
“I’m going to shave the cats myself. It’ll save us $200!”
She responded with hysterical laughter.
A little miffed by her lack of confidence, to the bathroom I went and set up my little cutting station in the bathtub. I had my clippers, my kitty shampoo, my towels, etc. all ready to go. Now for the cats.
The first cat was our oldest, and our grumpiest. Surely, I thought, she will be the worst. So I started with her. She growled and whined, but overall, was a pretty copacetic kitty. I was able to do her underside, and even the dreaded “potty cut” without too much trouble. When I was done, I washed her, dried her, and sent her on her way.
Thinking the worst was over, I grabbed my little angel, Alex. Okay, he’s hardly a little angel. He’s a co-dependent, jealous beast who pees on my bed if I come home smelling of another cat. But he also likes to play in the shower when I get out and takes a bath okay, so I figured he would be easier.
Ha.
I got Alex when he was a kitten and, because I don’t believe in it, I had never had him de-clawed. Normally, I put Soft Paws on him, but he had a few missing as I started to shave. Big mistake. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Alex was going to be trouble. It might have been the growling, but I suspect it was the blood coming from my arms that really clued me in. I tried to reason with him, “It will be over sooner if you cooperate. It doesn’t hurt, see? When we’re done, I’ll give you a treat.” But Alex was having none of it. What took me half an hour with Emily was taking well over an hour with Alex. But I persevered. Soon he was shaved and we moved on to the bath. By this time, I was about as wet as he was, drenched in sweat from all the kitty wrasslin’
I though the worst was surely over. After all, Simon and Stella were both much smaller than Emily or Alex, and they were pretty good natured cats. I think the heat was making me delirious, because it slipped my mind that one of our nicknames for Stella is “Squirmy Girl”.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Hell Hounds? The beasts that guard the gates of Hades? Well, let me introduce you to one in disguise, she takes the earthly form of a cat, and her name is Stella.
She growled, she hissed, and worse, she bit. And she did this all while writhing and squirming. Greased pigs are easier to hold than this cat. She would alternate between trying to bite me and bite the clippers. After an *hour* of wrestling and clipping, wrestling and clipping, I had her one-half shaved… trying to hold her was like trying to hold a ten-pound water snake… she’s lucky I didn’t have a bench clamp handy. And I was extremely lucky that she had been de-clawed. Had she not come into my life minus claws, she would have surely eviscerated me there in the bathroom.
I was more determined than ever to complete the job. I was soaking in sweat in our hot little bathroom, I was bleeding from many scratches, hair was *everywhere* and she was only 3/4 shaved. She was howling, twisting, and snapping. Beware the Jabberwocky? With jaws that bite and claws that catch? Fuck the Jabberwocky. Beware Stella. It was a standoff. She finally escaped my grasp and stood at the door, staring me down with the fires of hell illuminating her eyes.
Well, she’s still only 3/4 shaved. I just had to give up. She was the last. Our youngest kitty escaped the ordeal altogether. I had not the strength to go on. And I still had to give her a bath.
Licking my wounds, I managed to give her a bath. Or at least to wet her hair down and get rid of the clippings. When she was done, she shot out the door and I collapsed on the bathroom floor.
Never, never, never ever again will I bitch about paying someone else to groom the cats.
AT&T Broadband: Shareholders, listen up.
Listen up AT&T and AT&T shareholders. Apparently, this is AT&T’s idea of customer service. Well, this is one AT&T customer who will be leaving AT&T as soon as I have a choice: bring on the deregulation and competition is what I say.
I have cable television, but it is mostly a bonus; what I really depend on is my cable modem, because I make my living developing for the web. Yes, I have an office, but projects sometimes require extra work at home. Okay, they almost always require extra work at home.
I am also moving at the end of August. This is an important bit of information, because…
In my typical, over-prepared manner, I called AT&T Broadband last week, to schedule the transfer of service for my move on 8/31. No problems there, I got an appointment right away and all was well with the world.
Then, on Monday (8/12) I returned home to find I had no connectivity, and my cable box was displaying an “E5” error. Odd. So I called AT&T Customer Service, and after some file checking, the rep discovered that they had messed up the transfer of service date, and I’d been cut off about three weeks too early. Of course, since it was too late in the day to send someone out then, I would have to wait until morning for my service to be turned back on. I grumbled a bit, but the rep assured me that come Tuesday morning, at 8am, my service would be restored.
Tuesday came… and Tuesday went. When I got home from work on Tuesday (8/13) my service was still not restored. I called AT&T once again, and this time the Customer Support rep informed me that the window for service was 8am- 8pm, and since it was only 6pm, my service would be restored within the next two hours. I was skeptical, but I relented. 8pm came and went. My service was not restored.
I called the Customer Support line once more, again, since it was now past 8pm, I was told, “There is nothing we can do until tomorrow.” The Customer Service people were friendly and professional, although not terribly helpful. But they assured me in their calm soothing voices that they would make a note in my file, and that Wednesday, definitely Wednesday, my service would be restored properly. Sometime between the hours of 8am and 8pm.
Let me digress for a moment to explain here, that when they disconnected me, they did not need access to my house. They disconnected me at the “outside drop” according to one rep, so fortunately, I did not have to miss work.
However, another rep informed me that there was a note on the work order for Tuesday. Apparently, when the line tech came out to restore my service, they found that the “outside drop” was located in a locked box. A locked box owned by AT&T mind you, but apparently a locked box the line tech didn’t have a key for. Now common sense and good CRM would dictate that the line tech would return to the CO, find said key, and then correct the problem, making the customer happy and fixing what was a company error in the first place. Not AT&T. Their CRM manual apparently reads “If the Outside Drop Box should be locked and require a key, fuck that customer and move on to the next.”
So now it was (is) Wednesday. I arrived home from work at 5:45pm, and sure enough, I still had no service. I knew this was not a good sign, so I immediately called Customer Support. They were oh-so polite, and oh-so professional, and oh-so completely unable to do a single damn productive thing. The work order ticket was still open they said. The service should be restored by 8pm.
“Can you have the local service center contact me to verify that?” I naively asked.
“Um, no. Well, I can send them an e-mail and tell them to call you, but I don’t even have a contact number for the local dispatch,” replied the hog-tied Customer Service rep.
Yes, page two from the AT&T CRM manual apparently reads, “Do not, at any time, empower employees to properly escalate problems, or even give them access to simple internal company contact information.” It would have been easier to find Osama Bin Laden than to find the goddamn local tech service dispatch.
Between the hours of 6pm and 8pm, on Wednesday, August 14, 2002, I called AT&T Customer Service every 15minutes on the dot. I experienced no long hold times. The customer service representatives were all polite, sympathetic, and professional. They all took my information, yet again. They all sent an “electronic notice to local dispatch” telling them to call me, ASAP. They were all completely an utterly powerless to offer me any real solution to my problem, or actually get my service restored.
So 8pm came and went another day. And as of now, I have been without cable television and cable modem service for more than 48+ hours, all from a mistake the company made in the first place. I guess I just don’t “get it” because I would have expected AT&T to make fixing my outage a priority, since they caused it in the first place! But apparently, AT&T doesn’t give a rat’s ass about me, my (large) payments to them monthly, or retaining customers who always pay their bills on time.
Well, I can only say this to AT&T: competition is coming. And when it does, I will be the first to jump ship. I will be a loud, loud voice, advocating anyone over AT&T to my friends, family, business colleagues, and anyone else within earshot on the train to work. And I’m gonna post this to my weblog. Just not from the comfort of my own home.
An AT&T Update
When I awoke this morning (8/15) of course my service was still not restored. I waited until around 9am (I am a dreamer, aren’t I?) and then placed a call to AT&T. The phone representative was once again polite and utterly useless. They assured me that the work order was in, and just to make certain, they also promised to have a supervisor call me back at my cell number. They lied.
AT&T Update Two
Having not been contacted by anyone by noon, I decided to call again. I don’t think the front line phone reps at AT&T could be any nicer, and how they manage to pull that off when they are, apparently, completely and utterly unable to actually help customers in any real way at all. I was once again escalated to a supervisor, Christy, who assured me that she would call the local dispatch herself, and call me back personally, at my cell number in the hour. Let’s not all hold our breath…
AT&T Update Three
Well, true to her word, Christy returned my call, and informed me that she had spoken directly with the local dispatch, and that my service would be restored today. The proof is in the pudding. Will I post my next update from home? Again, I’d like to say yes, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
AT&T Update Four
Well, Christy may have called dispatch, but apparently, dispatch doesn’t like her anymore than they like me. I arrived home at 5:30pm, still no connectivity. So I dialed up AT&T yet again (I have the number memorized now). Just to give you an example of how much I have been on the phone with AT&T in the past four days, the operator knew who I was. Yes, the operator at the AT&T customer service call center remembered me.
Again, she assured me it was no problem. I was in the system. By 8pm I would be channel surfing and web surfing. Ha! Six thirty rolled around. No service. I’m nervous. I call back, and this time I speak with Jason. Jason is a very helpful guy, and he escalates me to another supervisor, Mia. He assures me they will call back as soon as they have once again spoken to dispatch. I wait.
No call.
It’s now 7:30pm and we are once again perilously close to the dreaded 8pm daily cut-off. So I call back. The operator puts me back in touch with Jason, who indicates that Mia is on the phone with the local dispatch right now. Holy smokes! Could the end be in sight? There is a light at the end of the tunnel… and it’s the AT&T train, barreling down on your ass!
Jason comes back on the phone, and, guess what? AT&T will not be able to make it out to my place tonight! You have got to be kidding me. I explain to Jason, amazingly without using any profanity, that 1) this is AT&T’s mistake for disconnecting me erroneously on 8/12. 2) They missed their appointment to restore my service on Tuesday, 8/13. 3) They missed their second appointment to fix the problem on Wednesday, 8/14. And finally, that it was now Thursday, 8/15, and he was informing me that they were about to miss their third appointment in a row.
Needless to say, I was very, very angry. I asked Jason what he thought AT&T should do to compensate me for my lost time and the complete nightmare this has been in dealing with them. I’d been told before by reps that it’s AT&T’s policy to give a $20 credit for missed appointments. You know what, and listen closely AT&T: twenty dollars doesn’t mean shit to me. What means something are the four evenings I have now lost while being on the phone with AT&T all night. Four evenings I could have been productive on some of the projects I’m working on. Four evenings I could have spend with loved ones. So here’s the deal, AT&T, roll the twenty into a real tight little roll, and shove it up your corporate ass!
I explained to Jason that my time is very valuable, especially my free time after work. He sympathized and promised 1) that the problem would be solved tomorrow, Friday 8/16, and that 2) he would personally monitor my account, and call me at 10:30am tomorrow to discuss how AT&T might compensate me. Well, once again, I’m being asked to take the word of a company that has outright lied to me on multiple occasions. How they think they are going to compensate me I cannot even begin to imagine.
Now, do you want to hear the ironic part??? So, I have to get on-line to do a little work before I leave town this weekend. I get in my car to drive over to my girlfriend’s house… as I pull onto the expressway, what do I see? You guessed it! An AT&T truck! Well, actually an AT&T mini-van, but one with a ladder and a man at the wheel who looks suspiciously like a line technician.
*sigh*
AT&T Update Five
Friday. 10:45am. Still awaiting Jason’s promised call. Still no service.
AT&T Update Six
Friday. Noon. Still awaiting Jason’s promised call. Still no service. But, on the bright side, I just signed up for Direct TV. I will be cancelling my AT&T cable very shortly.
AT&T Update Seven
Fortunately, I was out of town most of Friday and all day Saturday. That helped me from going insane in dealing with AT&T. However, when I returned on Sunday, my service was still not working. I called, and fortunately, the line people had been to my outside drop and re-connected me; all that was needed now was to reactivate my account. The customer support representative did so in about 10 minutes, and behold: I was once again watching bad television. Not that it mattered, with the Tivo, I really hadn’t missed the television part much, it is the cable modem outage that is really hurting, and get this: continues to hurt! That’s right… I still do not have cable modem service.
The phone rep explains to me that they “only do the tv part” and that I will need to dial a different number for the broadband portion of my fiasco. So I dial, and after the Tier One support person is unable to help me, I am escalated to Tier Two. Doug, the very friendly and helpful Tier Two technician explains to me that, yes, my cable is back on, but unfortunately, because my modem has been off-line so long, it has been de-registered. I about crap my pants on this one… I mean, really. Now I am faced with waiting for them to re-register my cable modem, because it was out for so long, because they erroneously disconnected me in the first place. I’m going mad.
Doug explains that if this were a weekday, he could get on-line to the database people and have me fixed in a jif… maybe a half-hour. But since it is Sunday, the best he can do is send off an e-mail (of course, they can’t even give me a trouble ticket number, because, I have to be in the database for that. Idiots.
Who built this CRM system for AT&T? Anderson Consulting???!) So I am now going to be without cable modem service for one week.
AT&T Update Eight
So, first thing today I call the friendly folks at AT&T Broadband. Since the rep yesterday explained this was an easy fix (just re-adding me to the database so I can once again register my cable modem) I’m in a cheerful mood. I should know better, I really should.
Again, I go through the script with the Tier One support in order to get escalated to Tier Two (this is perhaps the stupidest customer service model I’ve ever encountered). But this time I’m greeted with some shocking news. This time, the Tier Two representative explains that the best she can do is send another e-mail, but that it might take 3-5 business days for them to get around to adding me to the db, because of their backlog. Holy fuck. That’s all I can say. I explain that I’ve already been down a week… and that it was AT&T’s fault in the first place. Well, she says, they can send someone out to my house, since the line technicians can call the database people directly. But that option will probably take a week, and I would have to be home during the appointment.
Ahem. Allow me to reiterate my rant to AT&T here: You mean to tell me that all that needs to happen to fix my problem is to re-enter my account information in a database, and that while a line-technician can call the database people directly and make it a priority, the customer support organization has no way of contacting those same database people in order to get my problem fixed????? Yes. That is how fucked up AT&T is. Is it any wonder we have service at all?
Of course, I’m livid, and so I demand to speak with a supervisor. He confirms, that indeed, AT&T’s organization is fucked up beyond belief, to the point where the customer support people are basically powerless to do anything be send off e-mails asking for these things to be done, but with no power to ensure that they actually get done, or that anyone there gives a rats ass at all.
So here I am, still without cable modem service, which is what I really cared about in the first place, waiting for some random DBA to add my information to the database, and hoping that she or he finds the e-mail that customer support sent him as being compelling enough to bump me up in the queue.
Can you believe this shit? AT&T stockholders, are you listening? I hope you aren’t counting on this company going anywhere. I am canceling my cable television service, I’ve already ordered DirecTV. And the only reason I haven’t dropped the cable modem is that there is no other provider in the area… rest assured, as soon as there is, AT&T will no longer get my business.
The Rest of the Story
Well, AT&Amp;T finally got my cable modem back up and running, and then a mere week later, I moved into my new place. The DSS people were Johnny-on-the-spot when it came to their installation appointment, and I’m now an incredibly happy DirecTV subscriber. The picture quality is astonishing compared to the crap-ass (that is the technical term) image I got from AT&T. I couldn’t be happier.
On the cable modem front, since there is no other provider in my area, I had to go with AT&T for my broadband, even though it caused me great pain. A few days after my modem service was restored at the old place, I got a call from a very apologetic corporate representative. They basically fell over themselves trying to make it up to me, and they got me an early appoinment for the install at my new place.
Now, if you’ve read this far, then this should come as no surprise to you: AT&T missed their installation appointment at my new residence! Yep. Amazing, isn’t it?
However, this time since I was dealing with a corporate rep, they rescheduled right away, came out and got it working in no time. Squeaky wheel, I guess. So I do now have working cable modem broadband access from AT&T. And they credited me for the outages and missed appointments. But I can tell you this, there is such an opportunity for competition in this market it’s scarey. And I’ll be one of the first to jump ship from AT&T as soon as there is a choice.