July 18, 2007
Dear Everyone:
In other news…
Last month I started thinking seriously about changing my Internet Service Provider (ISP). For about ten years I’ve used America Online (AOL), using the modem in my PC to dial into a local server. Yes, it’s slow; but I only got on the Internet once or twice a week, usually to send out the Weekly Letter and check on email. And there was the advantage of being able to use it downstairs as well as upstairs, provided I had a 40-foot phone line that could reach from the kitchen to the living room. And I do.
But lately, I’d been thinking it might be time to upgrade to broadband. I could get a wireless router and then I’d be able to use the laptop wherever in the house I wanted (with suitable security in place, of course.) And it made sense to go with the cable company since I already had the cable in the second bedroom that I use as a home office.
I checked my household budget and decided that I could afford the additional cost on my cable bill, including the inevitable increase in six months.
So, a few weeks ago, I went to the cable company’s website and ordered a modem and a self-installation kit. I found myself in a “live chat” with someone claiming to be named “Derek”, who processed my order and assured me that there would be no need for me to be at home when the technician “dropped off” the modem and kit. That was on a Friday.
The following Monday, when I got home, there was a message on the phone machine informing me that my “Installation Window” was the very next day from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. The recording went on to state that they would call me at 10:00 am and, if no one answered, the technician would not show up at all.
Fortunately, I had no meetings scheduled between 10:00 and noon that day, a rather unusual turn of events. So I was home when the phone rang and about 20 minutes later, the technician arrived with the modem, etc., in a ziploc bag. He tested the cable signal, then went outside to upgrade the equipment which probably hadn’t seen the light of day since it was installed in 1971. Then, as long as he was there, he went ahead and hooked up the modem for me. All I had to do was install the software.
As it happens, I decided to do this the following Wednesday, which happened to be Independence Day. I got only so far as the beginning of the installation when I hit a snag that resulted in a call to the Help Desk. It took us a while to figure out that the problem was not at their end, but at mine. Somehow the Internet Connection on my computer had gotten the configuration all messed up. With the technician’s help, I was able to reconfigure it and voila! I was able to see their website.
So I now have a new email address, xxx@comcast.net. I’ll keep the AOL account until I can get some automatic things, like Turbo Tax and Club Pure Beauty, redirected to the new address. Then I’ll shut down the AOL account.
Meanwhile, “Jeannie” and I did finally go to see a
movie,
Live Free or
Die Hard. 19 years
ago, Bruce Willis
burst onto the action movie scene as John McClane, a
Nearly 20 years later, John McClane is still a
The movie is filled with wild action sequences that turn their noses up at computer graphics and concentrate instead on a real Bruce Willis (or his stunt double) dodging real machine gun bullets and helicopters. And the geek comes in handy when a little cyber-expertise is in order. And there’s always that John McClane sense of humor.
For all the great action, including a fight to the death in an elevator shaft, the movie saves the most emblematic moment for the ending. In true McClane style, he takes “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” up a few notches. Definitely worth the matinee price. And air conditioning, too.
Love, as always,
Pete
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