Back online

So just as I was about to get really frustrated with Qwest, UPS showed up with their “welcome letter” and login details about 5 PM Tuesday. It was easy enough to set up the DSL modem; they’ve actually streamlined their install process quite a bit in the last couple of years. Good deal.

Then I went to hook up my existing wireless router to it. No luck. Hooked it back up hardware, did some Googling, and found out that yeah, it’s potentially possible, but not simple, to get my D-Link router to work with their ActionTec DSL modem. :-( Rather than fight with it for hours that I don’t have, I went back to Best Buy, returned the DSL modem, and bought the DSL modem that is wireless-equipped. So, I’m out $50, but I can probably sell the D-Link to recoup part of that cost.

Back home with the right piece of hardware, it took mere minutes to have my wireless network back up and running. I’ll have to relocate the DSL modem this weekend; I really want it in the basement by the PC down there, but I can’t find the phone line. I stowed it up somewhere during the cleanup effort after the Great New Year’s Eve Flood of Aught-Six, and now it doesn’t want to be found. Still, it’s good to be back online. I’m also happy with the DSL speed - cable sure wasn’t supporting 100 Kbps uploads!

Playing the Waiting Game

I hate waiting. I really do. I’m impatient. It’s not a quality I’m proud of; it’s a fault that needs corrected. (“Lord, give me patience… and please hurry!”)

It’s worse when I have things I’m waiting for and impatient to get. In my current case, I’m waiting for two things. First, the Qwest DSL hookup information, which I had been anticipating last week Thursday. They promise it will get here today. It better. Second, my (second) refurbished iPod. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the guy at Best Buy remembered to put it into the system promptly; some time this week UPS should deliver another refurb; hopefully it has less problems than the last one did.

So for now I sit and wait, knowing that patience is a virtue that should be cultivated. I’m trying to learn.

Bullet Points from the Weekend

  • We got 3 tons of sand dumped on our driveway Friday afternoon; my back is now sore from moving two of those tons back to the girls’ sandbox in the backyard with a wheelbarrow. The third ton was apparently unnecessary; sounds like the garden center gave us a bad number on how much sand was required. Still trying to decide what to do with the sand in the driveway. Anybody need a ton of sand?
  • Satellite TV: so far, so good. The picture is crystal clear. Had one short (a few seconds) signal drop-out when a big storm came over, but in my book that’s acceptable.
  • Satellite DVR: sure as heck isn’t TiVo. It’s nice to have a dual tuner so you can record one show while watching another one. However, I’m still trying to figure out how to get the darn thing to let me explicitly pick which tuner I want to record which show. Might have found it on the internet if not for…
  • No internet all weekend. Note to Qwest: if you’re gonna promise hookup in three business days, make it happen. I signed up for DSL on Monday evening and got a confirmation email from them that night. I figured I was in good shape to have the DSL hooked up by the time the Dish guy came on Friday to install. On Saturday, still nothing from Qwest. As I was about to call them, they called me to confirm a service order to hook it up by… next Tuesday. So three business days ends up being more like five or six. Grrrr. But we survived.
  • Busy Sunday. Led music. But we’re consolidating to one service for the summer, so that makes it easier. Amazingly easier. Also taught my first week of a Sunday School class on Christian Basics. Should be fun.

iPod Replacement: A for Effort, D for Results

My refurbished iPod showed up via UPS late yesterday afternoon. I have to give Best Buy full marks for sending a quick replacement; they said 3 - 5 business days, and it ended up being only two. They sent an iPod identical to the one I had before (20 GB 4G, white), though they had obviously cleaned this one up, buffed out the scratches, etc. It looked good.

So last night I hooked it up to the laptop to reload the 4100 songs that belong on my iPod. The first time I tried a sync I got a weird Windows delayed write error. Strange, I thought; maybe I just jiggled the cord at the wrong time or something. So I tried again. The second time, it managed to sync about 2 GB worth of music, then stopped syncing. When I disconnected it and tried to play the music from the iPod, uh oh. The iPod didn’t show any music on it at all. When I reconnected it to the PC, it gave me a nasty error and told me that I would need to re-download the iPod firmware and reset it.

At least running iPod firmware updates isn’t so tough these days; it did make me dig up my wall power charger, but I found that and completed the reset. Then I set it up to sync again. As I watched it gallantly attempt to copy the music, I started listning to the iPod - not to the music, but to the device itself, and discovered that the hard drive in it sounds sick. It’s clicking too much, spinning up and then quickly spinning down; I think I found the source of the problem. Again the sync died after 2 GB of transfer; this time it shows that the songs are there, but it locks up if I actually try to play any of them.

So after work this afternoon I will be heading back to BestBuy with my refurbished iPod (still in box) and my service plan paperwork (still conveniently accessible - hadn’t refiled it yet). I am sure they will have me send it in and get yet another refurbished one. I can only hope it goes better than this one did. I think I have to have three replacements die before they’ll actually just give me store credit. :-( I’d be happy enough just to have one that works.

Taking the Plunge to Dish

It’s been a couple of months since I did the math and realized that Mediacom was no longer a good deal for our household. Let’s review. Mediacom provides us digital cable and high-speed internet. They have repeatedly raised prices over the last two years (including a $10/month upper over the past 3 months). They had a real pain-in-the-backside dispute with Sinclair that caused us to lose one of our local channels for a month. We chose to go to Mediacom two years ago now when we dropped our home landline and went to cell phones-only; at that point, Qwest didn’t have the option of getting DSL without having a land line, which priced their service out of our range.

Fast forward to today. Qwest now has the option of getting DSL even if you don’t have regular phone service. Dish Network has an option that will give me pretty much all the same channels I have now. I’ll get a few added benefits from Dish like a dual-DVR system. (The one downer about Dish? I don’t get Versus in the top-200 channel pack, which means I won’t get to see much NHL next year. But heck, for what I’m saving per month, I could order NHL Center Ice next season and still save money.) When all is said and done, we’ll save $35/month for the first year, then when the Dish discount expires, we’ll be saving $25/month. That is, as Bullwinkle J. Moose says, antihistimine money. (“Antihistimine money?” “Not to be sneezed at.”)

So for Qwest DSL, you can either buy the DSL modem for $50, or you can lease it for $5/month ad infinitum, or you can get one from Best Buy. Normally I’d assume Best Buy would be the worst deal of them all. But Best Buy has this deal where if you sign up for Qwest DSL while you’re at the store, you get the DSL modem for free. That’s right, free. No mail-in rebate; they just walk you through the online signup, then they take the modem, throw it in a bag, and hand it to you. I was amazed. The signup went smoothly, appears to have made it to Qwest OK (I got a confirmation email last night), and it’s definitely the same DSL package I would’ve signed up for if I signed up directly from Qwest. So good on you, Best Buy. Now if I get my refurbished iPod yet this week and it’s satisfactory, Best Buy will be on my “very good” list for the week.

Tonight I’ll stop by the satellite TV place on the way home and put in my order for Dish. When I checked with them a few weeks back, the lead time on installs was only a couple of days. I’m guessing I’ll get an install Friday afternoon or Saturday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly.

Fun with Family

We had the whole clan over this weekend - well, almost the whole clan. Ryan came in from Chicago, Aaron and the folks from Wisconsin, Andrew from his job in Illinois. Becky’s folks were already here visiting. We were only missing Rebecca, who is finishing up her six-month DTS in Panama. She’ll be home in about 10 days - sure looking forward to seeing her.

We took a whole ton of pictures over the weekend and I’m in the process of uploading some of them to a Memorial Day Weekend set on Flickr. Here’s a couple samples. Enjoy!

It’s Becky’s birthday, but Laura enjoys blowing out candles.

Two Serious - One Goofball

iPod: the continuing saga

Took my iPod with the bad battery and service plan back to Best Buy today.  They have to send it in for service, and gave me the option of either having my iPod serviced in about 2 weeks, or in the quick replacement plan where they send me a similar iPod, refurbished, right away - i.e. 3 - 5 business days.  I opted for the latter option - the quicker the better, and I’m not tied to my particular piece of hardware - I just want something that works.

I’m hoping it ends up being more like 3 business days instead of 5, but then, I’m just awfully impatient sometimes.  We’ll see how it goes.

iPod Blues

I’ve had my 3G 20GB iPod for two and a half years now, so it’s no surprise that the battery was about due to go.  Well, it pretty well happened last week; I could charge it overnight and still not get more than about 30 minutes worth of play out of it.  :-(

When I bought the iPod, I shelled out an extra $50 for the 3-year service plan, since the Best Buy associate assured me that it would cover replacing the battery, and I knew that batteries were the iPod’s weakness.  So when I get a chance this weekend I will be heading to Best Buy to see what they’ll offer me for service options.  I think it’s unlikely that they’d just offer me a replacement, though if they wanted to offer me $300 towards a new iPod I certainly wouldn’t complain.  More likely they’ll tell me I have to send it in for service and be without it for a month.  Ugh.  I guess I’ll see.  A month would be a long time to go without my iPod.

How quickly we get attached to these electronic gizmos.

Heading home from DC

Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home.  Our meetings have been useful but are winding down, and my flight leaves Washington Reagan at 2:30.  I’ll head out of here, find some lunch, and make my way down to the airport.   I heard a rumor that our next quarterly meeting might be in Seattle instead of DC, which would be nice for an August meeting.  If not, I’ve got a couple hotels scoped out that would be nice to stay at when we meet back here in August.

It will be good to get home.

...leaving on a jet plane...

I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in Washington, DC by mid-evening. I’ll be attending two and a half days of RTCA committee meetings. Such fun! I should be home on Thursday night.

Happily, my in-laws are arriving this afternoon to visit. They will be good company for Becky and the girls while I’m gone, and since they’re staying for two weeks, I’ll get to see them too when I get home.