A planet where apes evolved from MAN?!?

I heart SarahK

SarahK of Mountaineermusings (and no, my site colors are coincidence.  I am an earthtones person), and Frank J.'s better half, announced last night she had a few gmail invitations.  I promised I would heart her if she sent me one.  She did.  I do.

IR happy.  Yesterday was a crappy day of avalanche assingments at work, and I was forced to use my PDA at the end of the day, since the central IT group was playing games.  And it is gauling, to have a chimp touching your PC, trying to explain something he doesn't understand, all the while thinking that you don't understand.

Like engineers questioning an auditors ability to add up and divide a tab... this always ticks me off.  It's like being a mechanic, and being told you can't maintain the company car... instead you must hand it over the the barely trained primate that makes 1/4 what you do, and listen to him tell you the problem is in your distributor, and looking at you funny when you point out that the engine is fuel injected.  And that the problem is just a loose belt.  $5 at the Pepboys, an apron, gloves and the socket wrench set in the back seat... have it done in 15 minutes.  But the company monkey  will have your car in the bay for a day, then you'll spend a week figuring out what he broke/changed while trying to find the first fix.

Yeah, that pisses me off.  And the local news... leading off with T.O.'s leg and Michael Jackson all week, and either never getting to, or getting to halfway through, the news about the Pope and Iraqi elections.
I know, I know, Philly is in the bowl.  It's big to us here.  But this is also a very Catholic region.  And we love our Pope (don't ask us about our Cardinals and Archbishops).  And Iraqi elections?  That's just frickin huge.

Anway, back to hearting SarahK.  Danke schon, liebschen.  If I didn't have a 6 foot redheaded lawyer with a temper, and you didn't have a gun toting Catholic....
Well, you'd still be in Texas, and I'd still be in joisey looking for a way to get a pistol permit.  Or considering turning a boomstick into a leopard.  Oh well.

TiVO, DVRs and the Networks

Robin, over at One Stack Mind, is questioning the joy of the DVR...

I've had my TiVo Series 2 for a few years now... and I still love it.  Pausing live TV is always great, for when the dogs are getting needy, or the GF, or the phone, etc.  And being able to hit rewind on something when you can't believe your eyes or ears.  Or when an asshat like my neighbor revs up her big block engine before laying down rubber on a residential street when I have the windows open.

Luckily Robin, there are plenty of DVR options out there.  You can build one your self with a PC and an inexpensive tuner card.  The software needed to make it work can be found with little work for both Windows and Linux.  This market is big enough now, that Microsoft's latests version of XP, Media Center, is built around this.

These home-made DVRs and the Tivo will work just fine without satelite or cable.  And they will also work with them.  But if you have a seperate tuner to make your TV work, you can run into problems.  But there are solutions out there on the web, on how you can program your set top box and the DVR to change channels together.

Also, subscription wise, I bought the TiVo lifetime package, that for what worked out to be 21 months worth of the regular subsription fees, I get the programming and updates for the life of the box.  It's been 'paid off' for better than a year now, and still no complaints.

I was going to hack it (still will, to put in a bigger drive), but now TiVo is going to allow legal transfer of programs from the TiVo to your PC, and to a DVD burner.  To me, this is good news, since there are some things that I keep on the hard drive because of requests for viewing all the time.  Like the Venture Bros Christmas Special

Anyway, as for the networks playing games to discourage DVRs... I only see that with NBC.  They screwed with their Thursday night lineup, so that the 8pm hour runs into the 9pm, and the 10PM starts 1 minute early to cut into the 9/9:30 slots.

Why?  To cut into CSI, is the only answer I can think of.  Sometime, in my old age, 10PM is too late to start watching an hour long ER, that quite often, sucks.  So I had the TiVo set to catch it.  I also had it set for CSI, in case I was busy doing something, or something cool was on the History Channel.  Then one Saturday morning, when I sat down to watch my recorded shows (CSI, ER, Family Guy, Deadwood) I found I had no CSI.

Now, since I like CSI much more than ER, and I find it is more consistently watchable (I've never turned it off because they were preaching, or yelled at the characters), guess which program got demoted, so that it wouldn't take precedence over the other?

Anyway. I would have commented at Robin's blog, but this felt like a long one, and, I hate registering (and then having to remember the passwords)

Micrsoft Money 2005 Sucks

Ok, let me lay out the basics for you.  Back in the day, when computer based checkbooks were new (as opposed the home built Quatro spread sheet I used before), I was a Quicken user.

But I had some problems when I upgraded to new versions, which made me dread upgrading... were the new features worth the inevetible pain?  I know, noting new in the computer world.  We all have a story or 3 like this about some program or OS.

So, when Money came out and had some good reviews, I made the move.  There was a short rough patch moving my data from one program to the other, but to be honest, it was still easier than my last Quicken to Quicken upgrade.

Now, each year, I have upgraded to the new version of Money.  And I had no problems worth complaining about.  Until now.

I upgraded to 2005 Deluxe, from 2004.  And nothing works.  My checking account won't sync up right witht he eletronic bill pay service (MSN's, another Microsoft subsid), it won't talk with my credit card companies correctly, and it scrambled my account information.

So I call Microsoft, and the 800 # shifts me to an 888 #, saying this is really MSNs problem.  MSN send me back to the 800 # for Bill Pay, and also to a 425 # (a toll call from my home) for Money 2005.

Now, when I call the 425 #, I get transfered to India, where a nice but clueless young man takes my information, and routes me to the 2005 queue.  Where I sit, on hold (with no indication about wait times) for an HOUR before I get disconected.  I call back, and demand I talk with a supervisor.  We back and for a bit, and she agrees to connect me dirrectly to the Money group, bypassing the queue.

The woman I spoke with at the Money 2005 group was clueless, rude, and unitelligble.  I had to ask her to enunciate and repeat herself, no exageration, roughtly every third sentence or response.  After talking to her for over an hour (still a toll call), my problem is still not resolved (she reguarly asked me what pressing a given button on a screen would do!), and she want's to get off the line since she has spent so much time on one call, and that the help desk closes soon (yes, it was nearly midnight!).  I asked what I should do, since I still cannot connect to my bank, billpay and credit cards properly.  Her response, clean up the duplicate entries by hand(!) and hope that the network connections sort themselves out tomorrow.  If not, she say, call back.

Needless to say, I was not pleased.  I explained again, how this was a toll call, and that I was not going to spend an hour plus sitting in a queue, paying all the while.  I asked for a call back, instead.  She said she would not do that.  I asked her to repeat.  She said would again.  So I pressed, and said can you, or won't you.  She then admitted that she could arrange a call back, but didn't think it would help.  I then got her to commit to a call, the next day, before noon EST.  She kept saying "ok, we will call you before 4pm"  I asked if 4pm was the best they could commit to, and she said "no, that is what you asked for."  And of course, I stressed NOON twice more, untill she agreed that noon is 12pm.  I explained that I cannot stay tied to my computer all day in hopes of a call back.  Iasked for a complaints line, and was given an email, MSwish@microsoft.com

I also called the MSN #.  Thay couldn't help me either, with the same kind of dumbassery (aksing me "what does this button do, sir?").  After two calls (they also hoped the problem on the network would resolve itself ina  few hours), the woman I spoke with (same person each time) admitted it was beyond her skills (after wasting over 2 hours of my time, though) and would send it to 2nd level support.  They would call me in the next biz day.  It has now been 5 biz. days, no call back....

So, the next day, a Saturday, I stay in the house all morning, with the PC on a ready, in case they call.  No call.  I got on with my chores and tasks.
I call again Monday.  On hold for over an hour, disconnected.  Call again, but this suppervisor says he cannot expedite my call.  But good news, the average wait in teh Money queue is only 52 minutes!
So I wait in the queue again.  I finally get someone, and I demand a supervisor.  Wouldn;t get me one, until I refused to go into my issue any further with the man who answered (India, again, btw).  Supervisor gets on, and I tell him what is up.  We discuss how this is byond his peoples skills, and how the ticket indeed said I should have gotten a call on Saturday.  He says they will escalate it to the 2nd level support desk, and that they will call me.  It is Friday now, no calls.

I am going to call them this afternoon, from work, and then again tonight from home.  I cannot return the software, but I am going to get satisfaction somehow.  The next step, is mail bombing (not with explosives, just form letters) every MS email and snail mail addy I can find...

Why am I writing this here?  Aside from the off chance that someone who reads this cares, or will not buy Money as a result, is that I need to vent.  I know my girlfriend has heard enough of it by now (she was on the couch watching The Venture Bros. on my TiVo during the first night of calls).  This way, it is out of my system, and not poisioning any of my relationships. :)