The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • Blog Outage

    Hi everyone, sorry for the blog outage that started around 11am today.   The Comcast borg decided I didn’t need an internet connection and unprovisioned my cable modem.  But that was just the start of things.

    As you regulars know, I’ve been very annoyed with Comcast of late – from the flakey internet connection to the more recent unavailability of NBC HD for the Olympics, I’ve lost my patience with their terrible service.   As I mentioned, I had a long chat with their tech support online the other night lodging my complaints.  That resulted in a scheduled appointment for Wednesday morning.

    Fast foward to today around 11:15, coincidentally 15 minutes after my internet died, I receive a phone call from someone at “Comcast corporate” inquiring about the case.  She called back shortly thereafter and told me that someone was going to be at the house by 4pm.    In the mean time, I get on the phone with tech support to figure out why my internet dropped and they couldn’t figure it out.

    Long story short, the tech shows up and can’t figure out why the HD doesn’t work and ends up calling in two reinforcements.  They end up finding water in the cable box out in the yard and they replace a bad component. Tada, NBC HD!

    The first tech tries to leave but I make sure he gets the internet back up and he ends up sitting on the phone for 30 minutes getting things straightened out with the main office so I could get back online.  Whew.

    Finally, I’m back online and we’re watching the Olympics in HD glory.

    P.S. I took David’s 8 month photos tonight but haven’t gone through them yet.  Hoping to get to that before the night is through.

  • Day at the Fair

    Today we had such great weather that we decided to head to the 2008 Illinois State Fair with David.  I figured he would only last a short time before getting tired, but instead he had a blast and we were there for nearly 4 hours.

    Click here for a photo tour of his trip!.

  • ER – Final Season!

    We just heard on TV that the upcoming season of ER is the final one!  It’s about time!

  • Yard work

    I did some yardwork this morning and made a little platform for the newly completed garden utility box to sit on – level even. Here is it, painted and in its final resting place. Some paint touch-ups are needed for areas not touched during the initial paint spraying.

    I like it, and Ana has starting filling it with her garden tools!

  • COMCAST, I AM MAD

    I’m sitting on the phone right now trying to get through to Comcast cable to ask them why my HD channels will be “available in a moment” but are all blank.  Ana scheduled the Olympic opening ceremony to record and now it hasn’t and we’ve missed half of it.  And I guess we have to watch the other half in Comcastic-shit non-HD glory.

    Comcast, you are a terrible cable company and I am FURIOUS  at you.  This is completely unacceptable.

    OOoh i have you on the phone right now…..

  • Response From Fellowes

    I received the following response to my request for a replacement gear for my broken shredder

    Hi Eric,

    Unfortunately The OD700C has been discontinued. All stock of this item, including all replacement parts, has been phased out of our warehouses and is no longer available. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please advise if we can be of any further assistance.

    Damn.

  • Supercomputers vs. Humans

    Yesterday, an 800-core supercomputer beat a human player in the game of Go.  First Chess, now Go.

    How about some CandyLand or Chutes and Ladders next?

  • Shredder Woes

    Tonight I was shredding a stack of old papers when my shredder started making a clunking noise every few seconds.  Curious, I just let it go and it got louder and louder until the grinders stopped spinning.  The motor was still going, faster than ever actually, but the grinders sat still.

    Unable to accept that I broke it, I decided to take it apart and have a look.  After a few minutes I had the cover off and nothing jumped out as being disconnected or busted.   So I dug further, this time taking the gear box housing apart.  It didn’t take long to see the problem – a busted gear tooth 😦

    The missing gear tooth was found lodged in another gear.  I ran to the store to get some Krazy Glue and reattached the broken piece.  After putting it all back together, it worked!  For about 3 minutes.  The glue and already-mangled tooth couldn’t handle the pressure.  I suspect it didn’t help that they have a metal gear turning a plastic one.

    I looked it up and found that it’s out of warranty by a couple years, so I instead emailed their support begging for a replacement gear (and attached a nice photo showing the gear I need).  I honestly doubt that I’ll be able to get one, but it’s worth a shot.  It wasn’t a cheapie.

    If you’re curious, it’s a Fellowes OD700C personal shredder.

    Anyone from Fellowes out there? 😉

  • Storm

    We had a thunderstorm roll through the area this evening, taking our power with it for a couple of hours.  As the sun was starting to come back out, it began pouring, making way for this:

  • Alan Greenspan, please shut up

    Yesterday an article ran in the Financial Times by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.  Nevermind that much of the blame for our current housing situation may rest upon his shoulders, his recent articles (he piped up again a couple weeks ago) have bugged me a bit.   Is it right for the former chairman to be throwing his opinion out there so publicly?  It seems he’s essentially undermining the efforts of the current chairman, Ben Bernanke, every time he opens his mouth.  And since he is the former golden boy, the markets and everyone listens.

    Mr. Greenspan – you’re retired. How about being quiet, and showing some respect for the efforts being put forth by Mr. Bernanke?  We don’t see the previous President of the United States playing armchair quarterback, and I don’t think you should either.