Xfinity mobile - worst phone setup ever!

 So I wake up Wednesday morning to a house with no internet.  For over a week now I've been receiving texts from xfinity about work in my area knocking out my service.  No heads up or warning.  And each time it implies a one time thing.  But after a few days of this, this got annoying.  Some days a text and no outage.  Some days a text the day before warning me.  Some days, a text 15 minutes after the internet is knocked out.

Great...how in the fuck am I going to get any work done now?

Of course, I always have a backup plan.  But that does nothing to quell my outrage at a company I pay money to for a service I rely on when they strip me of my paid service so arbitrarily with poor planning.  Not to mention, I'm paying nearly $160 a month for this service at this point, which is a sore point that goes back years.

It was years ago back in 2008 when I moved into our first apartment that I called up Comcast, as they were called then, and signed up for service.  Being a new first time customer, of course they hooked me up with a "deal".  An introductory promo rate.  Also known as a bait and switch.  But at some point during the sale, I was told to check back in when the deal runs out, and they can "hook me up".  Sure enough, when the day came that the deal ran out and the bill surprisingly jumped up, I called them up, and with a simple conversation they offered me a new deal that was close to my previous deal.  

I see - this is the game they play.  "Promotional" rates for the diligent, overcharge the complacent.  

But then at some point, it turned into a game and a dance.  Which I resented.  I just wanted to keep my bill at the relatively same price consistently, and they wanted to pump every last dime they can out of me.  I recall one bad round of negotiations where I got a rep that really didn't want to give up anything.  I don't know what goes on internally, but it seemed like they kept trying to tighten things up with these free promos being distributed.  I kept pushing back that I was fed up with this game and wanted a fair deal, and they kept pushing back "but this is what the service costs".  Which was not a line I was happy with after years of a precedence set of perpetual deals being offered.  At some point, they talked me into a deluxe package - around the same price as they jacked me up to, but with more channels and a landline phone service.  Ha!  But - given the option of paying an inflated price for the same service I had, or an inflated price for more channels, I took the more channels.

Except then I ran into the 2nd long time game of Comcast/Xfinity - figuring out the actual price.  I think they've gotten better at this in recent years, but it used to be impossible to get an accurate number out of anyone.  They like to advertise their rates without fees and taxes, to make their rates look better than they actually are.  One could fairly debate whether it would be fair for a company to have to include taxes in their advertised rates - but a lot of the fees they set.  And the bottom line is, IT'S DECEPTIVE TO ADVERTISE A NUMBER THAT ISN'T WHAT YOUR ACTUAL BILL WILL BE!!!!!!  IT'S NOT LIKE THEY DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO THIS DATA!!!!

But, I digress - as I did say before I got off on this rant, they have gotten better about that. 

But back to our story - so at this time they weren't quite good at that.  And so I get a bill, and it's more than we agreed upon on my phone call, even when discussing fees and taxes.  And I call them back.  And I get some bullshit about - oh - that's because of the transition between the two deals, it'll go down on the next bill.  I've heard that line multiple times.  It's rarely true.

After about 2 or 3 billing cycles of this bullshit, I called them up again, and again went off on a rant about how all I wanted was to keep my service I had before, and a bill below a fucking $100! 

That seemed to be the tipping point - I feel like during those years I was always fighting to keep the bill under $100, and they were always fighting to get it over.

Eventually in that round, I was so fed up I asked to be transferred to the cancellations department.  With my package I previously had hijacked to an inflated rate, and my current package I didn't want being misrepresented in price, I was ready to grab some clippers and cut the cord my damn self.  And wouldn't you know it - the cancellations guy had the ability to put me back in a  promotional rate with my old package that got me under $100.

Ugh...

The same game - but more challenging as I get to higher levels year after year.

Time after time I found myself saying - why can't they just give me the fucking rate that they offer if you fight for it, without making me get all worked up and angry every year or few years?

But, alas, we live in America, home of the free - for corporations to rape and pillage.

Anyways, as the years went on, and the fight got more challenging, and my income increased, I became complacent, and gave up.  Shelling over my $120, $130, $140, as it inched up year after year.  Sure, sometimes I'd get pissy and call, and get some deal, but never much, nothing huge.  Sometimes I'd drop TV service.  Sometimes I'd get put in a dual package with basic TV.  Eventually I lost track of this so much, that this time around when I called, I could have sworn I had no TV package, but found I was with a TV package.  

But....where was I?

Oh yes.  Wednesday.  Internet out.  With my years of baggage that came to mind anytime I was reminded I'm paying $160 a month for this fucking service.  And so I asked AI, co-pilot this time, what options I had.  Asking co-pilot has become my new first step for "googling" things these days.  And it suggested checking out Verizon high speed.

So I did.

And they do offer service in my area.

But not to me!

So I called them, and they confirmed, we do have service in your zip code, but not to your address.

Turns out - the only wired high speed option I have at my address is Xfinity.

Smells like a monopoly to me.  I don't know what backroom deals Xfinity and Verizon have going on, but it sure seems shady as fuck!  Pissed about this, I submitted a complaint to the FCC - which did nothing, as all it does is take a complaint against a company and treat it as a consumer complaint relating to their service or account.  Which wasn't the case - I was asking for an investigation into whatever is going on that Verizon is in my town, but barely available - only to 20% of my town according to sources.

But whatever.

So I thought back to the game.  Is it time for another round?

So I opened a incognito browser, and went into the Xfinity site, pretending to be a new customer.  And what do you know - way lower rates!  High speed internet at my level for $85 a month!  Wow - under $100 - the aughties are here again!  So I called them up, ready to play ball, and get pushy about what they'd offer a new customer, but won't offer a loyal customer.

But - I didn't have to do that.  I stated my reason for the call was my increased bill that keeps going up, my dissatisfaction with this, and wanting to know what they could do for me - and immediately I was offered the $85 deal without asking for it.

Woah!  Shit - I should have done this long ago!

But then Mr. sales guy asks me about my cell phone, and starts singing the wonders of their Xfinity mobile service.  Highest speeds.  Higher than anyone else can offer.  And I automatically get 1 free line for the first year with this service I just signed up for.

Eventually, after cautiously reviewing everything and checking the details, I agree to proceed with this.  And to bring both our phones onto the new plan.  And to take them up on their new phone offer - we were getting to be due for an upgrade.  Two new Samsung Galaxy phones, just have to pay tax, first line free the first year, 2nd line $40/mo, after the first year goes up to $85/mo - same rate I'm currently paying for the current phones.  Eh.....why not.

Why not indeed.

I ask about the setup process - "oh, that's easy, it comes with instructions to make sure our technically challenged customers can set it up, you'll have no problem"

Oh really?

So what arrives today is a box with 2 new phones new in box, no distinguishing labels on either phone, 1 invoice that lists the contents, and 2 identical cards with a QR code to scan for setup.

No indication of which phone is which, or if that's important.

No sim cards, or explanation as to whether or not that is needed.

No quick start guide.

And so I open one of the boxes, and take out the phone, and power it up.  And with my current phone, I scan the QR code on the card, and it takes me to a process to setup the phone service.  But while I"m doing this, the old phone detects a new phone nearby, and prompts me to start the migration.  So I start it, and next thing I know, my gmail accounts are associated with the phone, my pin code is brought over, and it's walking me through the setup.  And the new phone gets to a point where it wants to setup phone service.  Except.....no sim card!  And it basically is stuck there - only option is to proceed without phone service and set it up in settings later.

I'm concerned now, because I don't know what the intended path to set these up are.  It seems like 2 processes have kicked off simultaneously, and I have no quick start guide to steer me how to navigate these 2 processes, that seem to be clashing!

So, I go back to the window that was opened on the existing phone from the QR code, and it walks me through transferring my old phone service, and getting a pin from the provider, to release that.  And I do that.  And it finishes that process.  But I'm still left with a new phone with no phone service, that barks about there being no sim card if I try to do anything.

Ugh....what the fuck?  This is fucked up!

So I call the number on the QR code card, and just as I'm being transferred to a rep, the call drops, because MY PHONE SERVICE HAS BEEN CANCELLED ON THAT PHONE!!!!!!!

Predictable, yes.  But - this process was all set in motion by following the paths laid out to me by the package and equipment sent to me, and the instructions, or lack thereof, that I had.

So I had to call with an alternate method, which meant identifying and verifying since I'm now calling from a phone that isn't recognized by them, and of course I'm calling a call center that is quite obviously not in this country, dealing with language barriers and accents to add to our glorious moments of communication!

The first rep I got was a clueless idiot that knew nothing of customer support, phone etiquette, or listening.  I pointed out I didn't even know if I had the right phone, and if the syncing that had already taken place may have put my account settings on the wrong device.  So he asks me to look up the IMEI number.  With no instruction or context as to how.  Now, I very well could have figured this out - but Mr. know it all here kept interrupting me anytime I tried to explain this backstory or context here for him to understand where we were with this process.  So, ok Mr. helper.  Help me.  Where is this IMEI number.  And he tells me it's on the back of the box.  Nope - back of the box is bare.  He tells me to look on the back of the phone.  There's a sticker, with very tiny numbers I can't read.  Ok, go into settings on the phone.  As I've tried to tell you several times, I cannot get to settings on the phone, as it's prompting me to complete a setup process I'm not sure I want to complete as I don't even know if this is the right phone.  And the numbers on that label on the back of the phone don't say they're IMEI or not anyways.  At least 3 times he tried to tell me to go to settings on the phone, offering no path out of the setup process I was locked into.  And then multiple times he plays a game of "are you there?  I can't hear you!"

I'm almost certain he was fucking with me at that point.

He starts suggesting taking it to a store for assistance.  I told him the only store I'd be taking it to would be to return it.

At this point, between the rudeness, the "sound" issues, the interruptions, I had it with this guy - this guy will not be helping me.  So I asked for a supervisor.  Not only do I want to get away from this asshole, but I have my own wisdom I wish to impart onto someone of authority of this whole process in general.  If a seasoned Senior Tech Support pro with over 20 years of experience can't figure out how to get this process working, I shudder at the thought of what others out there are facing that are goaded into switching to this service for their free first year, and free phone.  

But this asshole turned it into an argument.  I asked for a supervisor, and he argues that he's trying to help me, and I"m not letting him help me.  I shouldn't have to explain myself at this point, if I want a supervisor, I should be forwarded to a supervisor.  But he wouldn't budge, kept arguing against it, that if I want help I need to stay with him.  I laid it out to him that quite simply, I had decided I will not be pursuing any further help with him, and there's nothing he can do about it, my options at this point are to speak to a supervisor, or hang up and call back for a different rep to get a supervisor.  I then asked, so will you forward me to a supervisor, or are you refusing to do that?  He responds that he will forward me to a supervisor because he is not allowed to refuse to do so.  

AND THE ASSHOLE TRANSFERRED MY CALL TO SAMSUNG!!!!!!

Furious, now confirming this guy is a legendary asshole of incompetent support, I called back.  Thinking back to my times of help from the "retention" department when ready to cancel.  And so I select the cancellation option from the menu.  Which brings me to another menu that doesn't have a cancellation option.  And which acts like it can't understand me when I say I want cancellation.  Which eventually just forwarded me to yet another Xfinity mobile customer support rep.

But this guy was more helpful.

While on hold, I did finally decide to sort out the IMEI stuff myself, and confirmed that I had indeed started this process on the wrong phone - but now when trying to factory reset it, it was warning that if a gmail account is tied to it, I may be prompted for my information.

UGH....I just want to set this up and give this to Kristen, I don't want it tied up with all that.  Just fucking reset it!  Sick and tired of these "anti-theft" bullshit penalties that the criminals have ways around, and just make functionality a pain in the fucking ass!

But, whatever - wipe it.

And the new rep walked me through getting the right phone out of the box, and somehow getting my number in limbo registered on that phone, and again the migration kicked off and migrated everything over.

And then he activated Kristen's number on the new phone - and I think that phone setup alright, it didn't prompt for any google stuff, but also Kristen doesn't use gmail, so she didn't try to set anything up.

At this point, it was way past 3, and I had somehow managed to forget about a concept called lunch that I was going to grab after doing this "quick and easy setup".

So....ok.....lets hope the service was worth that.  Because that was the worst phone setup experience I have ever had the misfortune of going through.  And that includes all the phone setups I've done assisting my end users over the years of working in support!

Xfinity - you need to do better!  If this is your idea of a quick and easy setup, you're going to get slaughtered with the anger from your new customer base!

The other guy eventually gets in

 

In recent days, I find myself thinking a lot about 2008.  Barack Obama, the first black man elected President of the United States, had led the Democrats to an impressive victory.  I’m sure there can be much discussion over the factors that played in his favor, but at the time to those of us that backed him and voted for him, it felt like a huge victory, and looked like a mandate from the American people.  He won 52.9percent of the popular vote, 7.2% more than McCain’s 45.7%.  The Democrats in the House gained 21 seats, giving them a comfortable majority of 257 to 178.  For a brief moment, the Democrats held a supermajority in the Senate, a feat that looks unattainable these days for any party.  When people today suggest that Trump’s victory is a mandate of the American people, I think back to this time, and think – if ever in my lifetime was the outcome of an election a mandate of the American people, this would have been it. 

It was a bad time to be a Republican.

In my younger, naïve, delusional days, I was full of hope.  I wanted to see an outstretched hand from the Democrats to the Republicans to join them, to join this mandate of the American people.  There was talk of Obama having a Republican in his cabinet, and we were excited about that.  Perhaps after 8 years of a failed war mongering dubya administration that divided the country, finally we could come together behind a new chapter in American history.

What would unfold would be unprecedented division that has yet to slow.  And there are very different views on how that unfolded.  To some – Obama was foolish, and traded in all his favors too soon to ram through a poorly crafted Health care bill, which cost him and the Democrats dearly in the midterms.  To me, I saw the Democrats emboldened by their victory, roll up their sleeves and get to work.  A big part of their campaigning for years had been for health care reforms.  It was their time to deliver.  And throughout the process, the Republicans did nothing but bitch and moan.  Carrying out publicity stunts of carrying reams of paper to demonstrate how “long and complicated” the Health care legislation was.  Nevermind the legislation was largely based on previous proposals from the Republicans themselves.  But heaven forbid this new administration have a success.  Bitch McConnell made it very clear what his goal was, and it wasn’t to serve the American people.  It was to make this new President a one term President.  And working with the Democrats to carry out their mandate from the American people wasn’t going to accomplish that.  And so unfolded 8 years of Republican obstruction, preventing anything we voted the Democrats in to do from getting done.  In my mind, the Republicans denied us our victory, and worked against the will of the American people.

Anyways, that’s my highly biased view of how it unfolded.  Do I really believe all of that?  *shrugs*  Does it matter?  Perhaps it’s an angry oversimplification of how I see it.  But it’s certainly how I felt about how things unfolded.  We voted for change, we got obstruction. 

But another memory stands out in my mind from the time of Obama’s Presidency.  And that’s a youtube video posted by Penn Jillette.  I forget if there was a specific event or action that he was responding to, but the gist of it was talking about the problems of a President grabbing more power.  The build up speaking to, even if you believe he’s doing it for the right reasons, even if you think he can be trusted with that power….THE OTHER GUY EVENTUALLY GETS IN!!!!  And what unfolded was an amount of time of energetic jumping up and down and screaming about EVENTUALLY THE OTHER GUY GETS IN!!!!  The point being – when a President makes an unprecedented grab for power, and we’re just ok with that, that becomes precedence, and then any future President gets that power.

And that brings us to today.  Where what the Trump administration aided by Musk are doing can undeniably be called an unprecedented grabbing of power.  Applauded by the right as a necessary uncovering and cutting of excessive government waste.  Backed up with lists put out by the administration of what sounds like ridiculous wastes of money no rational person would agree to.  Many of which were misleading statements, or flat out lies.  When pressed on the misinformation, Musk basically stated sometimes he gets it wrong, but trust me, bro.  Not a very satisfying answer at all.  When pressed on issues like this, some responses are to the effect of that tired old saying, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelets.  And for some reason, comparing omelets with sex somehow got into the answer in one odd case.  But that hardly seems like a satisfying response to a case of millionaires and billionaires carrying out a plan to cut things they see as waste without doing the proper research, which inevitably results in necessary aid being denied to the poorest and most in need in this world.  It really comes across much like this:

It seems rather hypocritical for Musk to be shutting down aid to the poor, when his own SpaceX Company has received 38.8 million in federal funding.  You want to cut government waste?  How about we stop handing out our funds to the billionaire class that doesn’t need them!

I also find it rather odd to see a section of the country that is usually so mistrustful of the government with power, cheering on this power grab – are these people really so short sighted?  Have these billionaires really earned your trust?

But, even if we put this aside, and chalk it up to liberal exaggeration.  Even if you truly believe that this is all ridiculous waste that is finally being cleaned up.  This is still the part of the story where we need a fired up Penn Jillette jumping up and down frantically screaming “EVENTUALLY THE OTHER GUY GETS IN”

Liberals have now lived through 8 years of their mandate being plowed over by a disgruntled GOP that was only interested in clawing back their power, 4 years of Trump’s first term despite losing the popular vote in the election, and an unsatisfying 4 years of Biden with just more anger and division.  In 2016, the rally of the Democrats was “when they go low, we go high”.  I’m not hearing that anymore. 

Despite how big of a fucking moron I think George Dubya Bush is, at least his rallying cry was “I’m a uniter, not a divider.”  And he failed at that miserably, but at least he took that tone.  Trump, however, basically brands half the country as his mortal enemy to be defeated.  That is not how to be a good leader – he’s supposed to be the President for everyone, not only the ass kissers that submit to his will!  His leadership style only further drives a wedge in the country, and further escalates the anger and division that exists in this country, and I think we need unity more than ever in this time.  But Trump is not leading us to a path to unity.  The Democrats and liberals are tired of losing to this bullshit, and they’re angry.  The liberals in this country aren’t ready to rally behind and elect a rational leader that will bring the country together, they want revenge against this revenge.  They want the anti-Trump.  And the right and GOP’s embracement of anger and revenge is going to bring them more anger and revenge with what will likely rise out of the current broken Democratic party.

THE OTHER GUY EVENTUALLY GETS IN!!!!

And when he does, HE’S GOING TO BE PISSED, ANGRY, AND EMBOLDENED WITH THE SAME POWER THAT TRUMP FOUGHT FOR AND GRABBED AWAY FROM CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!!

This is not a good road to be on, and there’s lots of reasons for the sane and rational on all sides of the isle to be very concerned about what this all means for the short and long term future of this country.

 

You are here to actually do something, right?

Another Friday, just gotta get through some hours, and then freedom for a few days.

Of course, this Friday I have the duty of monitoring the helpdesk ticket queue and phone line, which is guaranteed to keep me busy.  But, it gives me a good excuse to close myself off from civilization in the "bunker" (storage closet filled with crap, that has a desk setup with docking station, and a stereo receiver with bluetooth adapter).  So, I have my tunes running, working the tickets, when suddenly, the door opens.  In comes another co-worker on the team, a co-worker from another department, and a guy I had never met before.

And they start right in the middle of something that I have no idea what in the fuck is going on, without so much as briefing me on what this is all about, or who in the fuck this stranger is.  They indicate they are looking for a server that has to do with the light system in the building.  Yes.....such a box exists, and it is in here, there's a screen, keyboard, and mouse all hooked up to it.  I figure, that should be the extent of my involvement, I've only ever touched this machine once to install a windows patch, I know nothing about maintaining it, have no access to this system.....this stranger, he's here to support it, right?  That's what it seemed to me, he's support for the system, our end user is having problems using it, so he needs to fix it. 

And yet, he's bumbling like some kind of idiot that walked in off the street, indicating he doesn't know why it isn't working, looking at me like I have some knowledge about it, and hands me a piece of paper with an ip address on it, suggesting it may be significant.

I tell him I don't know, but we can try to reset the server.  That doesn't fix it.


At this point, I feel like saying something to the effect of, look, I got a job to do here, you're the support person for this system, right?  Get to it, I have nothing to do with it.  But....I can't seem to find a diplomatic way to do that.  I was a bit snippy, kind of hinting at the whole him being the person that should be doing something....but he seemed to continue to stammer and struggle to even come up with anything he needed to do or needed from us. 


Ugh....fine......lets see what I can do, about a system I've never touched, have no access to, and know nothing about....


.....ok, so you installed something on her computer, and it isn't working?  Here....here's a test machine, install it here, then we'll know if it's a problem with her machine, or a system problem.


Surprise, surprise, it doesn't work on my test machine either.  Ok then.....what do we do next?


I look at the guy expecting him to have something, anything, that a support person for this system should do in the event the system isn't working. 


The end user is starting to be like "well, if it works from the server, at least I have a way to get into it, we don't need to deal with this now."


Which I know means, this idiot will leave having fixed nothing, he will never follow up on this since he doesn't know what in the fuck to do, and anytime something needs to be done with the lights, I'm going to have people storming into our closet to play with the server. 


No, man, you need to stay right here, and DO YOUR FUCKING JOB!!!!!!!


I'm not kidding, this guy was an absolute idiot.  How he got this job, I'll never know.  I was actually wondering, am I misreading the situation, is he not a tech for this system?  I actually ask at some point, you're here as support to this system?  And he's like, yes, we're a 3rd party, but yes.  Ok....seems we have a contract with a 3rd party that setup and maintain this system.  So, I get to the point where once again our end user is trying to wrap this up suggesting this is good enough, but I'm not having this, this is bullshit.  So I go, well no, we need to have some sort of plan of attack here, lets not wrap this up until we at least know what needs to happen next, or nothing is going to happen.  So I look at the tech....what's our next step?  Blank look back.  Continue staring at him with my own blank like.  This is all you, buddy, you were called out here to fix this.  Now, fix it.


......uhh.....well......we could call support.......



Ok, yes, you do that.


He calls up the manufacturer's support number, and the guy there starts walking him through some troubleshooting steps, which takes them out of the room, to which I say, ok, I have work to do here so you have fun, but if you need to get back into the server just knock on the door.


Never heard back. 




But, seriously, what was up with that guy?  Who works as a tech for a system, and then acts like he has no clue how to do basic troubleshooting for said system, and continues to stare at basically the customers, expecting them to somehow come up with a plan to fix it?



Ugh......fucking idiot.  Maybe I need to find another closet to setup a stereo in.

Keep NHB great!

Those of you that watch twitter, may have noticed some discussion break out as a result of Damon and Liam's suggestion to make NHB great again.  Their comment was an obvious reference to Trump's whole make America great again slogan.  This immediately brought to mind the idea to parody the call for unity in this country by calling for unity among the stations.  And then the shit hit the fan.

See, I think its pretty damned stupid that there exists 2 NHB streams.  There's really no reason that we need 2 streams with the same name.  But, it's due to stupid circumstance that we ended up here, and further stupidity that no one really wants to do anything to try and remedy it.  After years of drama between Damon and the staff of NHB Radio, Damon walked and abandoned his station.  In my opinion, when he walked away from it, he abandoned the name as well, leaving it with the station.  So I was quite offended when he decided to bring his show back, he decided to do it in a manner that brought up a competing stream up against us, using the name we had all been using for years along with him, and were still using, that he had abandoned.  Yes, it is true that he had been using the name for his show for years, and still felt ownership and claim to that name.  But that doesn't make it right to reuse a name you left behind with someone else.  Once could say he made a mistake leaving the name, and that he regretted it, but that was his mistake he made.  And instead of dealing with it in a mature manner and discussing the matter with those of us still using that name, he came after us, and even went right up against my time slot.  Something which may have been unintentional, but the whole thing came off like a total dick move.

But, I digress.

At the end of the day, despite the huge disagreements that exist between Damon and I on how NHB should have been run, how the name should be treated, and how we should deal with the ridiculous existence of 2 NHB streams, we're good friends and get along great.  So at the end of the day, I really don't care all that much.  I'd like to see this division/redundancy end one way or another, but whatever.  So the streams continue to co-exist, and we've been allowed to stream on their NHB show stream.  And perhaps all is well enough.  But the thing is, I still believe in the things Damon once believed in.  Damon and Liam are doing great things with their show, and I enjoy calling in from time to time, or hearing from them, and we exist on the same stream because we're connected in some way, because we are friends.  And so it seems we've started on a path to be a part of a whole.  They may try to describe it as letting us use their show stream to piggy back off of their listeners.  But that's not how I see it at all.  I see it as joining forces with them in a way.  Kind of like the start of the NHB Network, before things got messy.  But Damon and Liam seem to be too fixated on where the network got to eventually, instead of where it got to before things got a little out of control. 

Anyways, at this point, where are we?  The NHB network consist of myself, Dune, Vamp, and another show called outlaw radio, using a server run by Rico that runs rarely updated automation.  Pointing to automation as an example of whats wrong with our network is a common topic.  But that is something I have no control over.  I have nothing against Rico, he's been keeping NHB running for years as a free service.  But the way it's been maintained is a big part of the problem.  Since it's free, it means things get done when Rico has time for it.  And access to these things are very limited.  Over the years, I typically had many ideas to try and fix automation, freshen it up a bit, and make something new out of it.  Every time I brought up any of these ideas, it turned into a fucking battle with no one backing me up.  This is a maddening situation to be in, especially when you have a bitchy owner like Damon that's always running his mouth about how awful things are, how no one never does anything, despite him having no idea or direction himself on how the network should be run.  I can't tell you how many times Damon would pull this crap, usually very publicly, making us look rather bad and dysfunctional, and I responded by trying to help with whatever it was he was dissatisfied by, only to have him not back me at all, or help me with any of this.  This ultimately resulted in a situation where I told off everyone, and basically stated I was having no more of this and wouldn't be doing a damn thing for the station, including connecting to their stream for my show, unless they took some action towards the things I had been screaming for for all these years.  This resulted in Rico firing me from the station, and Damon not backing me up at all. 

Given the years of drama any attempt to make the network great again, I basically decided right then and there that any return to the network would be about my show only, and I'd have no more thoughts or attempts on contributing any to the network as a whole as far as automation or management goes.  And I've been much happier for that.

Now, to be fair, Damon wasn't exactly in a position to do much.  But, he was responsible for the position he got himself into in the network.  He relied too much on other people to maintain things, and allowed it to get to a point where it was an impossible thing to maintain without those people, and refused to do anything to get himself out of that situation.  He never went to Rico to talk of desires to be able to be more involved in station maintenance, or to move in a direction of having more staff be able to do more things.  He basically resigned himself to being owned by Rico.  Nothing against Rico, he was offering a free service.  But it got us in a situation where we had very little control, and Damon would bitch about it, blame everyone about it, and then do nothing to help others help him.

This is the history and feelings that lives with me when it comes to the network.

But the thing you have to see is, I endured through all this drama, and even came back to NHB every time after some separation, because NHB, the network, does mean something to me.  It's become a part of me.  I've put a lot of time and work into creating shows that were a part of the network, being a part of the staff of the network, and trying to make some great things come of all of that.  So, we might have an outdated automation.  We might have an idle talklist.  We might have a smaller staff.  We might have less shows, and lower listener numbers.  But listener counts and automation bits were never the stuff that made NHB great to me in the first place.  It was the people and friendships that made NHB great.  That to me is the real NHB.  Damon, Liam, Dune, me, Vamp, Rye, Andrew, Bob Stein, that other Bob that Dune's show is named for, Sloan, Zane, Producer Bill, Lisa, no, not that Lisa, Trey Dogg, Neighbor Dyke, the Rite Aid Hippy Chick....ok, maybe I went too far......people have come and gone, some onto other things and are still around on the internet, others you don't hear from as often.  Point is, NHB isn't a stream, NHB isn't a network, NHB isn't a show, it's far more than that, it's people.  And maybe Damon wants to take his show name, and treat it like that's all it is, just a show name.  But it came to be something much bigger than that.  NHB is more than a show.  Heck, for me, I could even say NHB is a way of life. 

So yes, our automation is stale and our counts are low.  But NHB is something I live for, and bust my ass for.  So, when Damon and his disciples speak words to the effect that the network is dead, or on life support, or needs to be put out of it's misery, you're putting down a huge part of me.  You're putting down what I've put a good chunk of my life into, what I live for, what I am.  And when you say to someone, you can't do that, you shouldn't do that, you should just give up and quit, what do you say in response to that?  Oh, ok, and roll over and die?  No, that's when you say, fuck you, NHB lives, and NHB will live forever, and you can't have it from my cold, dead hands. 

So, the point is, to Damon, to the long time followers of Damon, and/or the other shows that have been a part of the great internet radio experiment that is No Holds Barred, next time before you think of a stale automation system with low listener counts and come up with words of a dismissive nature about that, think about what you're really talking about.  You're talking about something many of us poured our lives into, and live, and breath.  You're talking about our blood, sweat and tears.  So I don't want to hear any more about this NHB should die bullshit!  You're talking about something that is a way of life for some of us.  Maybe some changes should be made.  I'd love to see a situation in which we have a relevant automation that represents all of NHB, the current show, and the continuing network shows, and a unified force of all that is the real NHB. 

But, whatever will be, one thing is for sure.  NHB is going nowhere, not as long as I have anything to say about it.  So take your naysaying, and stuff it, because LONG LIVE NHB!!!!!!!!

What in the fuck have they done to our computers?

I pride myself in taking lots of measures to backup my data on my systems.  I have storage drives setup with mirrored pairs or with backups taken to external drives, and every morning a disk image backup runs on my laptop and main machine.  Every time I test the system image backup by restoring the image to a spare hard drive, it runs no problem.  So, in a worst case scenario of my hard drive dying, a restore should be as simple as a new windows install, setup a few drivers, install my backup software, and restore to a hard drive.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  Anytime I actually need a backup, my system fights me every fucking step of the way.


So, this morning, I wake up, turn on my computer, check a few things on facebook, and poof.....computer shuts off.


WHAT!  THE!  FUCK!!!!!!!!


No warning?  No reason?  Nothing?


This is rather annoying due to the nature of solid state drives.  It seems that a major design flaw of the solid state drive is that, if your system is powered off improperly, the drive gets stuck in a state of not being recognizable until it power cycles, which requires booting into the bios for a fucking half hour, restarting, and then setting it as the boot device again.


So I do this, and I keep getting fucking errors about there being no boot device.  What in the hell, computer, it's right fucking there, I see it, you see it, the bios sees it, JUST FUCKING BOOT TO IT!!!!!

So, ok, I grab one of my many spare 500GB laptop hard drives off the shelf, take it out of the foil pack, throw it into my S-ATA dock, and boot to my windows 7 install disk and do a new install to it.

Now then, I recently did a new install to my old broadcast machine to make an audio capture machine temporarily, and that motherboard by Asus just fucking works.  New windows install, plug and play network card, it works. 

Gigabyte, on the other hand, is one of these neanderfucks that can't be bothered to fucking put a FUCKING PLUG AND PLAY NETWORK ADAPTER ON THE MOTHERBOARD!!!!

WHAT THE FUCK?????


Ok, ok, no biggie.....just need to reformat my solid state drive (after taking a look at the data and grabbing an extra backup of profile info), and restore the image from my external USB drive.

Except....the externals don't show up.....because it FUCKING NEEDS FUCKING USB DRIVERS AS FUCKING WELL!!!!!

COME ON, GIGABYTE, GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!!!!!!

WHATEVER FUCKING HAPPENED TO THE FUCKING CONCEPT OF FUCKING PLUG AND PLAY?????  IT'S FUCKING 2015 ALREADY, WHY AM I STILL SEARCHING ONLINE FOR FUCKING DRIVERS EVERY FUCKING TIME I NEED TO FUCKING DO A FUCKING BACKUP RESTORATION?!?!?!?!?!?!?


Ok, ok....that's why I have a laptop, so I find my network driver, get my new install on the network, do a quick firefox install, grab my usb drivers, and have my external drives.


But, I notice....what the hell, that doesn't look right?  When looking at my drives, I see the new windows install is only one partition on the new drive I setup.  It didn't setup a system partition.  Why now of all times would windows 7 install differently from every other fucking time I've ever installed it?  You point the windows 7 install to a blank unpartitioned unformatted drive, and every time, EVERY TIME I've ever done this, it creates a 100MB system partition, and then a partition on the rest of the drive for the windows install.  But not this time.  Which worries me a little.....

....but, ok, lets try this, so I backup my profile data on the solid state drive, WHICH IS FUCKING SHOWING UP PERFECTLY FINE, WITH ALL DATA INTACT, AND PERFECTLY BROWSABLE, BUT WON'T FUCKING BOOT UP FOR NO FUCKING REASON, AND WINDOWS 7 REPAIR CAN'T SEEM TO FUCKING FIX A FUCKING FINE INSTALLATION, but whatever, I have my backup....so, I go to delete my partitions off the solid state drive to give myself a clean slate to restore yesterday morning's backup to, and.....IT FUCKING WON'T LET ME DELETE THE SYSTEM PARTITION FROM THE DRIVE!!!!

WHAT!!!!!
THE!!!!!
FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!


YOU MEAN WHEN I TOLD YOU TO DO A FUCKING CLEAN FUCKING INSTALL TO THE FUCKING NEW FUCKING HARD DRIVE, YOU FUCKING ACTUALLY TIED IN THE SOLID STATE DRIVE, THAT YOU DON'T FUCKING WANT TO FUCKING BOOT TO, INTO THE FUCKING SETUP OF THIS NEW FUCKING WINDOWS 7 FUCKING INSTALL????? THUS MAKING IT COMPLETELY USELESS WITHOUT THE FUCKING DRIVE THAT'S GIVING ME FUCKING PROBLEMS THAT I FUCKING WANT TO INSTALL TO?????


WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD YOU FUCKING DO THAT????

WHY?????

WHY, IN WHAT UNIVERSE, DOES IT FUCKING MAKE SENSE TO FUCKING INVOLVE A DRIVE I DIDN'T INDICATE IN THE SLIGHTEST BIT TO USE, IN A FUCKING NEW WINDOWS 7 INSTALL??????


WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THIS NEW FANGLED BIOS BULLSHIT TRYING TO PULL WITH FUCKING BULLSHIT TACTICS LIKE THIS????????



So, now, I have to actually fucking remove the fucking drive from the tower, just to ensure the computer does use the drive THAT I DIDN'T TELL IT TO USE AT ALL IN THE FUCKING FIRST PLACE!!!!!


And of course, the new windows 7 install?  Fucking useless without that drive attached, even though the installation partition is right there, windows 7 repair won't even fucking look at that partition to fix it to startup to it, so now i have to, yet again, do another fucking brand new windows 7 install, new drivers install, just to fucking run a fucking restore.



WHAT IN THE HELL DID I GAIN WITH WHATEVER FUCKING NEW FANGLED BIOS BULLSHIT THIS THING USES, THAT MAKES IT WORTH THE FUCKING TROUBLE THAT COMES FROM IT NOT JUST FUCKING DOING A NEW INSTALL ON THE NEW DRIVE, AND LEAVING EVERY THING ELSE THE FUCK ALONE??????


God, every time they change something in technology, it creates more trouble than it's worth.  Fucking bullshit.....can't even do a fucking simple hard drive restore without the system fighting me every fucking step of the way.

FUCK YOU GIGABYTE, FUCK YOU MICROSOFT, FUCK YOU FYNDIR (JUST BECAUSE), FUCK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gators rants hits the quad world - My review of the new 5.1 mix / Super Deluxe Edition of ELP - Brain Salad Surgery, done by some guy named Jakko

Is it fair to compare a mix to a previous mix? I dunno, but there's no way not to, we do not live in a vacuum. I don't know how I'd feel if the previous 5.1 mix didn't exist. But, I do know that listening to this mix didn't give me the same feeling as listening to the previous one. My 2000 dvd-a has gotten many plays over the years, most drives from Maine to Jersey involved throwing that disc in the car dvd player for a spin...always an enjoyable listen while flying down I-495. Always a great disc to pull out when demonstrating my system. One of my first dvd-audio purchases, and probably the best. I was quite sad at how underwhelming the ELP and Tarkus 5.1 mixes were for me, and now this.....we didn't need another 5.1 mix of it, and it is just not as good. But the real question is, what was he thinking mixing the bass that high in Karn Evil 9 3rd impression? It just sounds wrong. And it's all that more puzzling when finding it wasn't mixed that high in the new stereo mix. I don't get it. I am certainly familiar with focusing on a certain part and being blind to it sticking out too much when in the process of mixing.....but that's why you step away and come back, that's why you play it for other people for feedback, that's why there are so many opportunities in the process for someone to notice, hey, this is wrong, you need to fix that. Anyone and everyone that listened to this mix before it was released has failed us all miserably by not doing their duty to point out the obvious, that the bass is too loud and sticks out like a sore thumb. The best way I can describe it is that it has been transformed into a bass solo (with band and vocal accompaniment). It might not bury everything else, it may not hide everything else, and it may be a great bass sound. But it sticks out, and sounds obviously wrong.

With the underwhelming mix, with it standing in the shadow of a great mix, and with the obvious inexcusable mixing error that went unfixed, I see no way I can rate this any higher than a 4. The sonics and content may be good....but the bad mix drags it down that much.

Also....secondary stuff I normally don't care about, but, I guess I had a more critical eye on this package with the disappointment in the way it was marketed, and the content after listening. For the price, the package was....well....cheap. Grab an original vinyl copy, put it next to this.....wow, they look completely different. They completely missed it when reproducing the artwork. I've never cared that much or paid that much attention to artwork reproduction, but, I think when putting together a deluxe package at a premium price, the details ought to be paid attention to. In this case, they were overlooked. The cover doesn't recreate the same cut to open, the color is off, the reproduction is mediocre at best, the discs are in cheap cardboard sleeves kept in slots in the cover, disc 5 is just carelessly thrown into the album cover, and the poster isn't even folded properly so the faces appear through the opening. Why in the hell couldn't they even fold the poster properly? Is that really that difficult to do?

It's a super deluxe cluster fuck.

A mechanic you can trust is so hard to find

The motorhead gene must skip generations.  My dad was always one to work on the car, change his own oil, do something that involved me pressing on the break when he told me to....and such.  Me, on the other hand....well, I know that gas means go, break means stop, and where to put gas into the car.  So, when I press gas, and something other than normally going happens, that means I'm going to need someone else to look at the car.

So, some time ago, probably a month or so by now, one morning as I parked the car, and turned off the engine, smoke started pouring out from under the hood.  Hmmm....that's not good....I think they only put so much smoke in there, and you don't want to lose all of it.  So, I popped the hood, walked around to the front, and confirmed it....yes, that is definitely smoke.  I don't know why I bothered to do this, as always I had no idea what I was looking at. So, it was time once again to bring it to a mechanic.

Now, just down the road from where I work, is an auto repair shop.  Which is very convenient.  However, I had a problem with them in the past.  I had some work done there...they did a tune up once, changed the starter a few times, which was all fine and dandy.  But, some time ago, I had a problem where the car didn't want to start when it had been sitting, and the check engine light came on.  I took it to them, and they dicked around a few days unable to find a problem.  The best they could tell me was the code said it was running lean.  So, after a few days of back and forth, they decided changing the o2 sensors was the way to go.  This was a few hundred bucks.  So, after they change the sensors, I picked up the car, and they mentioned "oh, by the way, this connector here was wearing out and leaking, so we taped it."  I asked about getting a replacement, and they suggested yes, I should definitely do that.  They were unable to find the part.  So, I asked, what would this part leaking cause?  Oh....it would make it run lean, and difficult to cold start. 

"YOU MEAN EXACTLY THE THINGS I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU ALL WEEK MY CAR HAS BEEN DOING?!?!?!"

That's right, a $15 piece of rubber was all I needed, and here they took a guess, and changed out a few hundred dollars worth of sensors.

Fuck that!

I had decided, I'm never going to these jerkwads again.

But, then a year goes by, and here I am, staring at smoke, and....they're just down the road.  Hey, sometimes someone just misses something the first time.  Maybe I should give them another chance, after all, they've changed my starter twice now, have given me a tune up...and I had no problem with those jobs. 

So, I called, and as luck would have it, they're closed on Mondays.  So, I found someone else nearby.  Not as near, but near enough.  He determined I was leaking coolant from a difficult to get to spot, plus noticed that the belt was squeaking so that needed to be changed, and also was able to fix the rubber part that was taped and was starting to wear which turned my check engine light back on that same day, as luck would have it.

Ok, cool....I should come back here. 


So fast forward to now.  Smoke started coming out of the hood again, this time smelling of burning oil.  So, after doing my part of confirming that, yes, that's smoke, it was time once again to bring it in to someone that is better at decoding smoke signals.  But, where to go?  Well, that guy I brought it to last time did a good job....but....the other guy is just down the road.  And, I mean, I was going to give him another chance.  And it is Tuesday, so they're open.  It's just more convenient.  Ok, since I'm a fucking dumbass, and can't be bothered to drive an extra mile or so while making sure my co-worker doesn't get lost following behind, I will go to the mechanic I had issues with in the past, instead of the guy that provided superior service last time.

And so, for this choice, I paid dearly.

Later that day, while heading out to lunch with a visiting Brian Blues, and co-worker "Neil" (who's real name is Nik), I saw the car was up on the lift.  Oh good, they have time to look at it, it'll get tended to.  Over a half hour later, on our way back, it was still on the lift.  Oh good, surely they've found the leak and are working on it.

So, 4:15 rolls around, 15 minutes after my normal quitting time, and finally the amway song starts coming from my pants.  I take the call, and it's the auto repair shop.  They were unable to find the leak, they need to clean the engine and transmission, because with all the leaky oil they can't find where it's coming from.  Uh...ok....do that.  Well, it's raining, we can't do this in bad weather.  Ok....tomorrow?  Yeah, if the weather is good tomorrow bring it in.  Ok...I'll come pick it up then.

And so I get a ride with Neil, and pick up my car.  He's all like...we do not have time to fix the leak tomorrow, but we can find it tomorrow, and you can bring it back next week.

Uh....I need it fixed this week.

We are still working on cars from last week.

So, we talk, and decide I'll bring it in tomorrow for them to work on, and see how far they get, it all depends on where it's leaking from.

Ok, fine.  I get in my car, start it up, and....it doesn't feel right.  Has it had that slight shake before?  Hmmm....ok, lets get it on the road and see what it does.

And on the road, it's rough, and shaky.  And then I notice an orange blinking coming from the check engine light.  Oh dear....what did they do to my car?

So, I brought it back to them, since I recall reading that a blinking check engine light means don't drive it.  And, they're like....ugh, ok, we'll look at it.  And look at it they did.  They pretty much did what I had done previously, except without the smoke.  Yeah....that's a shaking engine alright.  Then they connected the computer to it and determined it is misfiring.  Well, I'll say it is.  They blew some compressed air on it, and said give that a try.  I started it up to a shaky engine and said, nope.  Is the light blinking?  No, but this isn't right.  Try shifting it into drive.  Yep, there's the blinking light now.

So, then they're like, you'll have to bring it back in next week.  Next week?  Look, I can drive with the oil leak, I need this fixed.  Ok, bring it back in tomorrow, and we'll fix that, and we'll deal with the leak another time.  Maybe we'll try changing the spark plugs and wires.

Ugh....I want to just get everything taken care of here.  Can I even drive it home like this?

Oh yeah, sure.  This one here we're working on is misfiring worse than yours, and he drove it here from (insert place further than where I live here).

They were like, laughing it off....oh silly non motor head, scared of driving with a blinking check engine light.

I'm not going to do any further damage, will I?

No, no, you'll be fine.  If you want to leave it overnight, that's fine, but you'll be fine.


Of course, one google search later once I get home tells me that I could damage the catalytic converter driving it in this state, and that is far more expensive than a tow.  Ugh....was not happy, at all!

So, today, I decided, fuck those guys!  I'm going back to the other place further down the road, that gave great service.  Besides, these guys are too busy, they don't want to work on my car today.  Well, fine, I can help them out by taking my business elsewhere, and lighten their load.

A few hours later, I get a call, they found the cause of the misfires is the ignition coil (not the spark plugs or wires like the asshats were going to try changing today), and they found the leak, and will have it all ready at 5:30 today.

All right!  This is my kinda place.  Do some diagnostics, find the problem, and fix it that day.


Well, I know what I'm doing next time I have car trouble.  Take it to the mechanic that does a good job.  Those guys down the road?  I'm done with them.  Fucking idiots.