Geek Talk

I'm on DSL day 4 now, so I'm getting used to it but there is still some, well, I guess it's culture shock. In all my years on dial-up, I adapted to its limitations in certain ways. Automatic image loading and browser plugins (think Flash) were always turned off until specifically needed. When reading bulletin boards I'd open threads on different tabs so they'd be downloaded by the time I got to them. Whenever I paused to read e-mail, write a blog entry, or go to the kitchen for a snack, I made sure to have something downloading in the background - whether it be usenet headers or a bunch of graphics-heavy knitting blogs...

<takes a big breath>

It feels so incredibly odd not to have to act that way any more.

So, I had to call Bellsouth AT&T DSL support this morning - something I very rarely do. I hate telephones so much that I'd usually rather slog through on my own until I figure it out, no help needed thankyouverymuch, but I was desperate today. Shockingly, it went well. The guy knew his stuff, and I could understand his accent well enough. However, that doesn't change the fact that it was a simple problem that shouldn't have required a support call to fix. I had changed my account password away from the default via web (as they instruct you to do in the intro packet) but didn't have a clue* how to update it on my end. The solution was super simple and would have definitely been covered in the modem manual, but of course Bellsouth AT&T didn't provide one of those, just an shiny welcome guide full of nice fonts and pictures of smiling DSL users**. Personally, I'd rather take a solid, if dull, ink and paper user manual over online databases (rather useless if your DSL isn't working!) or overseas call center workers, but I suppose I'm in the minority..

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*Usually I also prefer to install stuff on my own instead of using handy guided CD-ROMs, but this was one computer topic that I will own to complete ignorance of. At Christmas I tried to 'help' my uncle fix his wireless network and made a complete mess of it.

**One photo shows a family of three - one of which is a child - all gathered in the living room, each working at their own laptop. The family that computes together stays together, I suppose.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Download Speed: 1325 kbps (165.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 215 kbps (26.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Eee... We have DSL, baby!!! I no longer have to fear graphics-heavy sites, Flash, or big downloads!

Next up will be getting a hub or switch so I can network the TiVo for Unbox. Hehe.

If you need to reach me, I'll be at YouTube or Netflix's Watch Now for at least the next few days. ;-)

It looks like a fingerprint smudge (there’s another on the opposite edge), but it’s actually a disc defect that goes all the way through the second layer. It’ll play up to the scene in Tia Dalma's shack, then the DVD player freaks out. Bah! Hopefully I’ll finally get to see it Friday.

On the bright side, tomorrow's Doctor Who episode has Shirley Henderson (AKA Moaning Myrtle) and Peter Kay! After such a crackin' start, I’ve been mostly disappointed with the second series. The Cybermen were a bore. Mark Gatiss’s Idiot's Lantern had a good premise, but the ending felt slapped on. Ditto for the Impossible Planet. "The show's running short - just have David Tennant make faces at the Devil for ten minutes. That’ll fill the gaps!"

Other than complaining about TV and DVDs, not a lot has been happened around here. I still haven’t gotten the new computer fitted so I can abandon the old. Part of the difficulty is that I’ll trying to start on the right foot with a firewall, anti-virus software, and Windows Update up-to-date. Now I remember why I gave up on all that - it takes hours and hours to download all the new updates on dial-up. The anti-virus updates alone were 30 MB (~3 hours) and it wanted to download even more last night. Windows Update had 48 critical updates - another 35+ MB. If I don’t get DSL soon, I shall pull my hair out.

But all that extra ROM is super nice. I’ve started toying around with copying backing up DVDs. My first attempt at ripping to mpeg2 (for eventual SVCD) looked beautiful but sadly came out soundless. I need to do some more tinkering. :)