Sense of Adventure » The Heartbreak of Dialup

In which the Heartbreak ends

Victor — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:20:22 +0000

Yes! We have achieved broadband.

Of course I know that title tempts fate. I now expect flames to erupt from my DSL modem at any moment.

Wow. My New Post page loaded in seconds and saves in seconds. Amazing!

If you’re wondering what the LOLcat has to do with my at last achieving broadband, the answer is: nothing! It reflects my happy mood. Plus I wanted an excuse to post that one.

Also, of course, I’ve achieved YouTube capacity. Which means all hope of productivity has officially ended.

Just kidding.

I hope.

A Great Leap Forward

Victor — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:48:58 +0000

No, not this one:

Hope this one works out better than that one.

My personal Great Leap Forward: I finally sucked it up and signed up for DSL from SWCP. Yay!

The Heartbreak of Dialup shall soon be healed!

Of course it’ll bring with it sundry attendant hassles. Sigh. I look forward to much arduousness getting email addresses switched. And of course I’ll overlook one or too vital ones, causing unending wrangles.

One upshot of that is that I’m looking to mostly go to addresses unlikely to change. Such as, belatedly, switching my correspondence to my domain. (My first name plus my domain name will definitely be in play, for those with wisdom to read what is written. Which hopefully excludes spambots.)

I’m also thinking of using gmail. Specifically for business. I have a couple reservations about that. First, what to put on my business card? It’d make sense to use the address above for that, yes? Also, given Google‘s recent propensity to identify the entire Web as a Mutant Enemy (which name links two of my obsessions in one!) I’m leery of trusting them. In general I’m highly dubious of putting all my eggs in any cloud-tenuous Web 2.0 baskets.

Also, they spy on you. There’s that.

So recommendations are solicited, with thanks in advance.

And anyway: yay! Broadband soon!

Eating carrots

Victor — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:18:24 +0000

No, seriously. How does anyone eat a whole raw carrot? It takes me an hour to chew my way through half a carrot. At the end of which my face needs a nap.

It also just took 10 minutes for the “Add New Post” page to load.

That’s it. I’m going DSL. Tomorrow it’s off to Southwest Cyberport (and, yes, the nerds. The good, nice, and hopefully not-at-all-vengeful nerds.)

Revenge of the nerds

Victor — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:17:56 +0000

I’m looking to make the long-deferred move to broadband, simply because the Heartbreak of Dialup™ has become too, well, heartbreaking. Plus on those occasions I actually need to use the Net in the course of my occupation (it happens) it’s no more rewarding or useful to spend minutes waiting for a page to load than when I’m screwing off as usual.

Nerds! Nerds! And I'm glad to see 'em!

My all-wise (on matters telephonic and web-related, anyway; he’s mostly wise, otherwise) pal Larry uttered to me the dictum: “No matter what, you’re gonna wind up getting Internet from someone you hate.” Given that my choices are Comcast and The Phone Company, that’s a pretty good guess. Therefore what remains is that key cost/hatred coefficient.

So far TPC is coming out ahead. With a twist: while I can get the whole package, DSL + ISP, from them, what I’m looking at is Southwest Cyberport as my ISP. It comes highly recommended by various friends I regard highly, including both Larry and Joe.

Some of my other friends, who will remain nameless, expressed reservations. SWCP doesn’t appear to offer 24/7 tech support (neither, in my experience, does TPC, but let it go.) So am I sure I want to go with SWCP?

Following a visit to them today, I say Hell, yes! Here’s why.

I walk in the door, and what do I see? Nerds.

Walk into The Phone Company office, what do you see? Peppy preppies and suits, right?*

What would you rather see at your ISP? Dapper corporate types? Or dudes with weird beards and clothes that looked as if they happened to be within arm’s reach when they got up to go to work, and women wearing sweaters that look as if they were knitted by blind aunts from unraveled Army blankets?

No contest, right? Give me the latter. Every time.

Important Addendum: no offense, SWCP guys, gals. I mean, seriously? Just having a little joke, here. This is pretty clearly a pro-nerd post, yes? I’m pro-nerd. Totally. I mean, some of my best friends … including all the ones alluded to above. So don’t go channeling my confidential personal data to Abkhazia if I sign up with you, pretty please?

… I realize I’m coming perilously close to violating my own dictum here: never get crosswise of people who are going to be out of your line of sight with your food.

The fact is, they were nice nerds I encountered at SWCP (though gods know what they’ve got chained next to the servers. Then again, that’s industry standard.) Believe it or not, that’s not an oxymoron, either. I even knew a drop-dead gorgeous female nerd, once upon a time.

(I ran into her unexpectedly at NASFiC last year. Even though she’s got to be in her fifties, let’s just say that, no matter how discriminating your taste, if you happened upon a picture of her naked, you wouldn’t look away any too quickly. The same, sadly, cannot be said for me. Then again, it never could. So there’s that.)

There are some financial ramifications to be worked out. I’m trying to save money at the same time as I get, y’know, usable Internet service. So I’ve got to roll those around in my head a while. But I need to make some moves pretty quickly, and the broadband break has got to be one of them.

The picture, by the way, is the immortal Donald Gibb in his definitive role as Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds (hit the title or the pic to buy!) I liked him in Bloodsport too. And whaddaya know? He went to the University of New Mexico. Also he’s one day younger than I am. Poor bastard.

*Full disclosure: I have no actual idea if that’s really what I’d see at a TPC office; I’m guessing. I don’t go into offices unless I have no goddam choice. For example, I resist going to the doctor unless 1) there’s broken bone sticking out somewhere; 2) there’re things visibly crawling around beneath my skin; 3) my temperature exceeds 100°. Centigrade.