blog
Various topics
12/08/2007
Well it's been snowing for about two weeks straight up here. I'd say this is probably the most snow we've received this early in the season since I've been up here. Mont Ripley opened yesterday, but I went out with some people from the department to a bar so I didn't end up going skiing. It was free yesterday, so it was probably really crowded anyway. I'm hoping they'll get all of the hill open next week so I can try out the new lift before the holiday break.
I know that I haven't posted in a while, but it will probably be like that for another few weeks unless I get sick of doing homework. I've got a bunch of stuff to do for the last week of school and obviously it's all due soon since the semester is almost over. In fact, I should be doing it right now but I decided I'd distract myself by posting something first.
I've been on a streak of watching terrible movies lately. Mr. Bean's Holiday was pretty terrible. Mr. Bean is hilarious, but two-thirds of this movie was horrible. Shrek the Third is a complete disgrace to the series. Very little actually happens in the movie and it's full of really bad humor, relative to the previous two in the series. Finally, last night I saw Good Luck Chuck with Scott and Angela and it was also pretty horrible. I'll admit I had a few good laughs throughout the movie but it was way too predictable and cheesy for me.
Charter decided they'd give me a reason to hate them more yesterday. I was trying to pay my bill online using their quick pay page, which I like because I don't have to create a login. Well they've decided that you can't do that anymore and you have to create a login now. That's fine with me, I kind of expected to have to make one anyway, but now in order to create a login you have to have your account number and a unique security code, which is supposed to be on your latest bill. Unfortunately, my bill does not have the security code/PIN on it. I saw a page on their site that mentions you can have it sent to you in the mail if you request it in their chat room. Here is the start of the chat room conversation I had with them:
---
Me: I'm trying to pay my bill online and I don't have the PIN number I need. It is not listed on my bill.
Charter rep: For identity and verification purposes, may I please have the phone number starting with the area code, the name on the account, the service address, the Charter Account number, and your account PIN code?
Me: I don't have an account PIN code, that's what I need to find. It is not listed on my bill.
---
Who do they hire to work at this company?!?! Eventually he told me if I "still didn't have the PIN" to visit my local Charter office to obtain it. I quoted the website and asked for it to be mailed to me and he said he'd process that, finally.
Things like this really make me want cable deregulation. Companies should be able to compete for your cable business instead of allowing a sub-par company (i.e. Charter) to be the sole provider. I don't know the main arguments behind the website I linked to above or those opposed to it, I just know I'm sick of over paying for cable service when they aren't providing people with reasonable content. Why cable companies don't carry NFL Network is a different debate, but why can't cable companies provide anywhere near the amount of HD stations that satellite does? Is it bandwidth restrictions? People shouldn't be paying the same price or more than satellite when they are receiving a lesser amount of content.
When I move back to Rochester, I'm going to do everything in my power to get satellite instead of cable as well as trying to get DSL instead of cable Internet.
I know that I haven't posted in a while, but it will probably be like that for another few weeks unless I get sick of doing homework. I've got a bunch of stuff to do for the last week of school and obviously it's all due soon since the semester is almost over. In fact, I should be doing it right now but I decided I'd distract myself by posting something first.
I've been on a streak of watching terrible movies lately. Mr. Bean's Holiday was pretty terrible. Mr. Bean is hilarious, but two-thirds of this movie was horrible. Shrek the Third is a complete disgrace to the series. Very little actually happens in the movie and it's full of really bad humor, relative to the previous two in the series. Finally, last night I saw Good Luck Chuck with Scott and Angela and it was also pretty horrible. I'll admit I had a few good laughs throughout the movie but it was way too predictable and cheesy for me.
Charter decided they'd give me a reason to hate them more yesterday. I was trying to pay my bill online using their quick pay page, which I like because I don't have to create a login. Well they've decided that you can't do that anymore and you have to create a login now. That's fine with me, I kind of expected to have to make one anyway, but now in order to create a login you have to have your account number and a unique security code, which is supposed to be on your latest bill. Unfortunately, my bill does not have the security code/PIN on it. I saw a page on their site that mentions you can have it sent to you in the mail if you request it in their chat room. Here is the start of the chat room conversation I had with them:
---
Me: I'm trying to pay my bill online and I don't have the PIN number I need. It is not listed on my bill.
Charter rep: For identity and verification purposes, may I please have the phone number starting with the area code, the name on the account, the service address, the Charter Account number, and your account PIN code?
Me: I don't have an account PIN code, that's what I need to find. It is not listed on my bill.
---
Who do they hire to work at this company?!?! Eventually he told me if I "still didn't have the PIN" to visit my local Charter office to obtain it. I quoted the website and asked for it to be mailed to me and he said he'd process that, finally.
Things like this really make me want cable deregulation. Companies should be able to compete for your cable business instead of allowing a sub-par company (i.e. Charter) to be the sole provider. I don't know the main arguments behind the website I linked to above or those opposed to it, I just know I'm sick of over paying for cable service when they aren't providing people with reasonable content. Why cable companies don't carry NFL Network is a different debate, but why can't cable companies provide anywhere near the amount of HD stations that satellite does? Is it bandwidth restrictions? People shouldn't be paying the same price or more than satellite when they are receiving a lesser amount of content.
When I move back to Rochester, I'm going to do everything in my power to get satellite instead of cable as well as trying to get DSL instead of cable Internet.
Labels: cable deregulation, charter, movies, school, skiing, snow
Snow
10/26/2007
It's finally been getting colder out. A few days ago we had some light periods of snow in Houghton, which was nice to see. I'd like it to snow early and often so that the skiing is good this year. Some of my friends who ski/snowboard are also going to get a season pass and go with me sometimes but they haven't decided if they are going to get one from MTU's Mont Ripley or Mount Bohemia which is apparently much better skiing but is 45 min - 1 hour away. Bohemia is also cheaper, as long as you buy the season pass on the $99 pass day.
Gmail has added IMAP support. Most people probably don't care but I'm really happy about it because it will allow me to upload all the e-mails I have stored on my computer so that everything is in one place. I'm almost done uploading them all. It's kind of funny reading e-mails that I had from as early as 2001. As of now Gmail says I have 12,579 e-mails on their server. That's a little ridiculous.
I don't remember if I mentioned that my "nicer" camera broke about a month ago. It all of a sudden would only take pictures with a bunch of horizontal white lines in them. After searching some website, I found out that Canon is saying it is a faulty piece of hardware causing the problem and has been replacing the part for free for customers. I sent it in and without about a week or two they sent me... a NEW camera. My old camera was probably about 4 years old so they must not have had the parts in stock anymore to fix it. I had a Powershot S1 1S and they sent me a refurbished Powershot S3 1S. It seems a lot nicer than my old one so I'm pretty happy about it. It's like getting a brand new camera for free. I went out geocaching the weekend after I got it and tested out some of the color modes and other various things. I'll eventually post the pictures on here, but until then you can find them here. And yes, some of those are in graveyards. Some of the geocaches I found that day were in abandon cemeteries from the 1800s (most were about 1850 or newer).
I've been considering getting one of the XBox 360 HD-DVD players. Some places have deals where you get a free copy of Heroes season 1 ($70), King Kong (comes with the HD-DVD player), and 5 other free movies. That offer should be enough to make anyone want to buy it, but I'm still a little bit nervous about buying into a format that might be dead in two years. Blu-ray seems to be winning the high definition format war, at least right now. I guess if I do buy it then I'd still be able to rip the movies and burn them as Blu-ray once all the technology is out. I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle to get it right now, but it would sure look awesome.
Gmail has added IMAP support. Most people probably don't care but I'm really happy about it because it will allow me to upload all the e-mails I have stored on my computer so that everything is in one place. I'm almost done uploading them all. It's kind of funny reading e-mails that I had from as early as 2001. As of now Gmail says I have 12,579 e-mails on their server. That's a little ridiculous.
I don't remember if I mentioned that my "nicer" camera broke about a month ago. It all of a sudden would only take pictures with a bunch of horizontal white lines in them. After searching some website, I found out that Canon is saying it is a faulty piece of hardware causing the problem and has been replacing the part for free for customers. I sent it in and without about a week or two they sent me... a NEW camera. My old camera was probably about 4 years old so they must not have had the parts in stock anymore to fix it. I had a Powershot S1 1S and they sent me a refurbished Powershot S3 1S. It seems a lot nicer than my old one so I'm pretty happy about it. It's like getting a brand new camera for free. I went out geocaching the weekend after I got it and tested out some of the color modes and other various things. I'll eventually post the pictures on here, but until then you can find them here. And yes, some of those are in graveyards. Some of the geocaches I found that day were in abandon cemeteries from the 1800s (most were about 1850 or newer).
I've been considering getting one of the XBox 360 HD-DVD players. Some places have deals where you get a free copy of Heroes season 1 ($70), King Kong (comes with the HD-DVD player), and 5 other free movies. That offer should be enough to make anyone want to buy it, but I'm still a little bit nervous about buying into a format that might be dead in two years. Blu-ray seems to be winning the high definition format war, at least right now. I guess if I do buy it then I'd still be able to rip the movies and burn them as Blu-ray once all the technology is out. I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle to get it right now, but it would sure look awesome.
Hardee's is good
3/04/2007
I always forget how good Hardee's is now until I go there and get a Thickburger. I love that place.
This week has been really busy and this next week will be even more busy. I have a computer networks project due tomorrow which I struggled through for 4 or 5 days. I need to re-educated myself on how to program in C++ before I try and use it again. There is also another programming assignment in another class due at the end of this upcoming week and some other assignments for my remaining classes.
Michigan Tech had a snow day last Friday! Apparently it's the first snow day in a long time. I don't know how long, but I've heard numbers from 8-20 years since the last one. I think they closed school because of the huge snow drifts. We had a ton of snow that day and then Saturday too. We're running out of places to put the snow when we shovel. We have this cool trench going to our cars from our door though. It's getting pretty tall.
I'm excited for Spring Break, which starts next Friday. We're going Skiing on the weekend, which should be fun. Then I'll also be working my normal hours and going to Rochester to find an apartment for the summer. It will be nice to have a break.
Baseball's Spring games have started and the Cubs haven't won a game yet, but they don't really play their starters the whole time anyway. The starting pitchers have done a pretty decent job thus far. I need to figure out how to get the right codecs on the computer at school so I can watch games when I'm sitting in the labs. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop.
Anyway, back to work.
This week has been really busy and this next week will be even more busy. I have a computer networks project due tomorrow which I struggled through for 4 or 5 days. I need to re-educated myself on how to program in C++ before I try and use it again. There is also another programming assignment in another class due at the end of this upcoming week and some other assignments for my remaining classes.
Michigan Tech had a snow day last Friday! Apparently it's the first snow day in a long time. I don't know how long, but I've heard numbers from 8-20 years since the last one. I think they closed school because of the huge snow drifts. We had a ton of snow that day and then Saturday too. We're running out of places to put the snow when we shovel. We have this cool trench going to our cars from our door though. It's getting pretty tall.
I'm excited for Spring Break, which starts next Friday. We're going Skiing on the weekend, which should be fun. Then I'll also be working my normal hours and going to Rochester to find an apartment for the summer. It will be nice to have a break.
Baseball's Spring games have started and the Cubs haven't won a game yet, but they don't really play their starters the whole time anyway. The starting pitchers have done a pretty decent job thus far. I need to figure out how to get the right codecs on the computer at school so I can watch games when I'm sitting in the labs. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop.
Anyway, back to work.
Over and over
10/11/2006
It's been a while since my last post. You'd think I'd have a lot to post about but I don't really. I went home to Green Bay this past weekend so I could pick up a few things and got to see Jackie, Chad, and Ryan who were all home for the weekend as well. That was pretty nice, since I never get to see anyone anymore.
Yahoo is making a digital time capsule that they are planning to beam into space in about a month. It's an interesting idea. If you want to be floating around in space, you can contribute items to it on that website.
It's supposed to snow in Houghton tomorrow and Thursday. The weather service even says it will accumlate. Pretty crazy, I wish I was there. Rochester is only going to get flurries on Thursday, according to ForecastFox. The weather is strange here, it will be perfect out and then all of a sudden start pouring out or hailing. So we'll see what happens.
I bought a book on AJAX programming yesterday so I could learn how to do all these fancy tricks that modern websites are using. I'm actually trying to read the book from cover to cover, since I really don't know anything about the technologies that AJAX uses (Javascript, CSS, DOM). It's actually a decent read, even if it is 600 pages. Maybe I'll make some improvements on this site after I read it. I have some ideas of stuff to make with AJAX too, so hopefully this book helps me out with that.
Yahoo is making a digital time capsule that they are planning to beam into space in about a month. It's an interesting idea. If you want to be floating around in space, you can contribute items to it on that website.
It's supposed to snow in Houghton tomorrow and Thursday. The weather service even says it will accumlate. Pretty crazy, I wish I was there. Rochester is only going to get flurries on Thursday, according to ForecastFox. The weather is strange here, it will be perfect out and then all of a sudden start pouring out or hailing. So we'll see what happens.
I bought a book on AJAX programming yesterday so I could learn how to do all these fancy tricks that modern websites are using. I'm actually trying to read the book from cover to cover, since I really don't know anything about the technologies that AJAX uses (Javascript, CSS, DOM). It's actually a decent read, even if it is 600 pages. Maybe I'll make some improvements on this site after I read it. I have some ideas of stuff to make with AJAX too, so hopefully this book helps me out with that.
Labels: AJAX, friends, green bay, programming, snow