vanlandw.com

Recently Google thought it was a good idea to migrate social tools directly to users email with a new feature called Google Buzz.

Go beyond status messages

Share updates, photos, videos, and more.
Start conversations about the things you find interesting.

This is absolutely the LAST feature I would want tied to my personal email. Clearly I’m not a “status update” kind of guy. Nobody cares what I’m doing anyway.

I opted out. I made sure I was sharing nothing then on the bottom of your gmail there is a link “turn off buzz”. It took so much work to migrate towards one personal email account years ago. I came close to switching today after Buzz. It bugged me in one day I could have something “social” being tied to my “personal” email. Sadly I believe I can’t “stop” anybody from following me. I fully understand that many google services are tied to your google profile but still this one is a pill I didn’t want to swallow.

I would say this is required reading for anybody using Buzz.

There is already a lot of insanity on the web it’s impossible to catch up, keep track of everything and be apart of every conversation. Right now I’m swimming in Google Reader items as I have been for months.

1000+

I’m drowning in web projects I can’t even find the time to start or even clean up abandoned ideas. Google Buzz is just another hopeless distraction I can’t be apart of.

Really I would love to know how everybody deals with this problem I can’t imagine I’m the only one. Honestly it frustrates me and could use any tips, rules, or methods anybody employs.

Update: Looks like things are getting better at least I can block people I don’t want following me. Time to go back and make sure to block everybody.

Update 2: I love this story. Well it’s serious in nature but still it’s the truth. Seriously Buzz is just a nightmare. Buzz assumes that everybody lives these glorious lives where ones entire social circle  integrated and loves one another.

Update 3: Yeah just hitting the “turn off buzz” icon is not enough. Quote from Google Help documents…

Disabling Buzz

If Buzz isn’t for you, you can turn it off it by clicking the turn off buzz link at the bottom of your Gmail (it’s near the basic HTML link). Please note that this will only remove the Buzz label from your Gmail account.

To completely stop using Google Buzz, you also need to block all followers and delete your Google profile (which will delete all of your posts and connected sites) before clicking the turn off buzz link.

Abysmal…

Update 4: New York Times puts everything together here. Hopefully more people read this and hopefully massive changes are done to Buzz. A single click “opt out” would be nice. Also I’m unsure if “blocking all followers” means I lose everybody on Google Reader? I might need to get a hotmail account.

Never have I been an overly opinionated person. More times then not I’ll seek out the opinions of others on many decisions and hold that key. I’m also not a person that will push my opinions on someone and more likely then not have a hard time recommending almost anything to anybody. Something I don’t take lightly is recommending either a game, book, movie, restaurant or even a website if I truly don’t believe a person will enjoy it.

I have these thoughts because recently I’ve been playing a game called “Lost Odyssey“.

I don’t think I know a single person I could possibly recommend this game to.

I beat it and put at least 50+ hours into it.

The game is a plays like a traditional JRPG with all the pros and cons that come along with it’s given genre. Bulleted list time.

• The FMV’s are in beautiful 720p HD.
• The incessant loading screens are borderline unbearable.
• The main storyline, the idea of immortality, is truly interesting till the end.
• Inconsistent boss checkpoints standard/ save point system blows.
• Voice acting is above standard.
• For average RPG players grinding will occur to be able to complete the game.
• A Thousand Years of Dreams sequences are a strong mechanic and have interesting, emotional stories.
• Battle pace is very slow.
• For Turn Based Combat there are some interesting twists Final Fantasy old schoolers will appreciate.
• I hate having children (Cooke/Mack) in my Party (See Palom and Porom).
• As expected the soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu is fantastic.
• Having to watch the entire ending sequence plus credits to unlock the final achievement sucks.

This could go on for ages.

I originally got into this game in a  lonely mans hunger of a more traditional RPG experience after playing Mass Effect 1 last April. Only recently have I gotten back into the game after originally losing interest and recently working hard on finishing previously purchased games rather then continually buying new ones.

A few weeks ago I actually attempted to battle the final boss. This includes fighting two bosses  that during many unexpected scripted elements  on top of requiring a large amount of time to work though my first attempt ended when the final form does “Stone” on my entire party and I die. This is very late into the fight and I lost at least over an hour of time including watching cut scenes. One skill I didn’t equip my team was a block to Stone and I lose unable to fight anymore. This is 3am in the morning and I was utterly demoralized. I felt I deserved to win I put in more then enough time into this game and I screwed up one thing and I had to try again. My brain hurt I was furious. And I wanted my 125g.

Yesterday I plotted a plan to tackle Gongora one more time.

Leveled my characters, went to the auction house, learned new skills and equipped the right ones.

Though this frustration I understood why JRPG’s  still attracts me. Even though the combat isn’t as exhilarating as so called “Modern Combat” these games never attempt to give the fake gamey feeling of ‘balance’.  Lost Odyssey absolutely requires you to understand the game mechanics to excel. It’s not trial and error, it’s not the game cheating you. At times things are hard for a reason and mostly it’s your own damn fault.

There has been discussion on the internet (recommended – nobody is going to listen/read ect Part 1 Part 2) of why the popularity of JPRG’s has diminished. Honestly I feel the same way to a degree mostly saddled by my memories of previous titles I’ve enjoyed a lot more then recent offerings. Also I don’t know a single person I would even come close to recommended a JRPG to anymore where as in High School I had a series of friends that shared a similar zest for this type of entertainment. Tastes change I see mostly around time constraints and that is understandable.

It’s sad to a degree. Recently I’ve been playing in small doses for over six months Final Fantasy XII and it’s very well put together. Action oriented and built for smaller one hour dose play times. I would love to see people play it and be able to discuss it but knowing so many people turned off after Final Fantasy X I don’t blame them.

Thankfully nobody was around last night when I beat the game. Seriously I did a David Draiman fist pump and overall my mood is lightened.

Come home from work today actually thinking about how furious I was that another Netflix movie has gone “missing”. It’s been three disks I’ve had to report in the last few months. Today I come home to a crap load of mail containing…

Gifto’s from great people and the thoughts are much appreciated. After being so frustrated on my drive home oddly enough it was the mail that brought me back to planet earth. GG’s all around…

Back in 2007 I did the Biometric Screening offered though work. Last year I skipped it but this year I was able to partake.

Results f/ 2007

This year I just was unable to do the 12 hour fast that you are suppose to do prior to getting your results. Last night I had a gigantic dinner and this morning I had a coffee/bread/english muffin/orange juice/banana breakfast slightly over an hour before getting scanned. Really the results don’t matter to me too much as I know I’m in a much better place health wise then I was a few years ago. Regardless here are my inaccurate results so I have them available online so I can find them quickly

Height: 5′7 @ 3/4ths apparently
Weight: Sadly didn’t get a reading according to the woman apparently the risen floors at work don’t give an accurate reading. I would say I’m between 133-138 right now.

Total Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: 3.6 (Less than 4 ideal)
Cholesterol: 143 mg/dl (Less than 200 desirable)
HDL Good Cholesterol: 40 mg/dl (Greater than 40 goal)
LDL Bad Cholesterol: 89 mg/dl (Less than 100 ideal)

Triglycerides: 70mg/dl (Less than 150 goal)
Blood Glucose: 88 mg/dl (Less than 100 goal)
Blood Pressure: 118/78 mm/Hg (Less than 120/80 ideal)

Body Mass Index (BMI): 20.7 (Less than 25 normal)

Yeah I wish I did the fast because the readings were a little different this time around. I know personally I’m more healthy now then I was two years ago but an accurate reading would have been the best way to go. Yesterday I had a soft taco from Taco Bell and two donuts and crap loads of food plus my huge breakfast today. If I fasted correctly I bet these readings would have been better but overall I’m happy with my health other then I could stand to loose a few pounds on my “midsection” brb.

This was a post I really didn’t want to write and almost talked myself out of but really more of these posts need to be made. Here I am at my home for the EIGHTH straight day not having service pathetically stealing internet from my neighbors to write about my frustrations with my AT&T DSL Service. If you are new to vanlandw.com or need a refresher here is my three week plus saga of getting my service setup though AT&T from February/March 2009.

This post is going to be different then the last one. Fully expecting my setup to take ages I wanted to have a full account chronically of the experience. After going about three months with no issues at all my rage subsided and was “OK” with my service. From when I finally got my service setup I had no problems other then not hitting the advertised speeds I’m paying for. Running bandwidth tests I was never able to reach even 3MBPS even though I was paying a premium for 6MBPS.

..and it begins..

Everything started last Monday June 29th. After some “mild” weather I came home from work and noticed my internet was down. Not thinking much of it at the time I didn’t bother calling support thinking it could have been due to the weather. Tuesday June 30th my service was not returned in the  morning and again I didn’t think much of it. Driving to work I saw three AT&T trucks within an eighth of a mile from my home. Drove to work assuming my problems would be all fixed by the time I got home.

Clearly everybody has to know where this story is going, got home no service. At this point I decided to contact support and get the ball rolling. Called the “general” support number at about 7:50pm. After about a 15min wait time I got on the line with a CST. When he got on the line I told him exactly what I’ve tried (everything anybody with any sort of tech knowledge would try before calling) and I also informed him of my previous issues (I would assume their first level would have access to my entire call history) ON TOP of telling him about the trucks in my area. I gave him EVERYTHING he should need to get my problem fixed and to the right support team. This turned into about a 30 min + conversation of typical tech support. Ran me though modem reboots and actually had the audacity to have me “blow into the phone jack” while I was on the phone with him. Flat out I said “I’m not going to do that” proceeded to use compressed air just to keep things moving. After doing everything he asked me to do (and yes I understand this is their job and I did not give this tech any exorbitant amounts of crap) he finally put in a trouble ticket to the “line support” team. Mostly I believe this is transferring me from foreign support to american support.

About 15 mins after getting off the line with “support one” I got transfered to “support two”. Actually an automated call was placed to my phone that I missed then had to call customer care and wait on hold for another 15 mins. The first guy couldn’t give a shit about my frustration but the second guy was very sympathetic (actually all the AT&T people non first level I’ve interacted with are very very good more on this later) and worked with me to setup a time to have a tech come to my place. Most of the time I’ve been thinking my problems were outside the house or in the lines and was positive it wasn’t a problem in my place. Support two said I would need to be home for the tech appointment and they had no times after 4:45p. Sadly I was working all week early morning late afternoon so I would need to make an appointment for Saturday 4th of July. AKA your not going to have service for four days. Overall my first support interaction took me an 1.5 hours of hold’s and tech talk time.

Four Days Later: Saturday Fourth of July. The tech called me after morning breakfast said he was on his way. He was VERY good at his job and again very sympathetic of my situation. Before calling me to  check the house he did his job outside and needed to check the basement. Looking at my line he said that “I wasn’t getting a signal from central”. Now this is where I got pist not at the tech but just at AT&T in general. How in the FUCK don’t they know they have a hardware failure like this? I’m not a server room tech I don’t know how ISP’s work but seriously give me a break. The guy said he was going to go down to “central” and see if somebody can fix the issue. Understanding this is a holiday I assumed nothing would be done but he would call me with an update. An hour later he said he submitted a ticket with “roving support” to fix the issue at “central” and more or less I would be down till Monday. I was ok with that as I was leaving the house for the holiday and left it at that. The tech was great he gave me the number to his manager confirmed my ticket would stay open and again was very helpful.

Monday July 6th. Came home after work at 4:45p and found my service was STILL not restored. Did the typical (modem reboots reconnects blinking red DSL light). First called the managers number and left a very detailed and respectful message including  names ticket numbers and my overall issue. Next I called “customer” care. 10min wait and got a hold of a lady that couldn’t care less about seven days of service outage. She told me my ticket was closed on Sunday and I received no follow up. I told her explicitly my issue and that I was disappointed with lack of follow up and asked if I would receive follow up on my second ticket. She told me that everything was “automated’ could give me no reassurances. She told me a bunch of BS about having my issue looked at right away and I totally called her out on it (again I wasn’t a dick) asking if I would receive a callback tonight and pretty much she said to call back after 2pm tomorrow if the problem wasn’t fixed. So pretty much another incident was opened thrown in the back of the queue to rot while I get over charged on service that hasn’t worked for a week that from the start I’ve been told is an issue at “central” they cannot fix for me. UGH

Tuesday July 7th 2009: Ok well here I am posting my frustration with my service still not fixed. I believe I’m at my final straw with AT&T. After posting this I’m going to call my FINAL time to get status on my issue. My DSL light is still blinking red and I’ve recently tried a power cycle to no differences. I’m going to call customer care to check the status. I’m not going to give them till 2pm because I understand how support works that just affords them another day to fix your issue it’s not like things are magically fixed that customers need to wait till 2pm. Also 16 hours later this “Manager” has not called me back but I just assume he’s on PTO or something not shocking. OK here we go…calling customer care for status then asking to be transfered to the billing department to make sure I’m not getting charged for this outage and if I don’t like how this call goes I’m going to ask to be transfered to the “cancel your service” department.

UPDATE  1: July 7th 2009: About 20 mins after posting this I received a call back from “Chris” the “manager” I called previously to find an update on my service. Had him on the phone for about two minutes. He was pretty much a cut the chase guy. Asked me for my ticket number and that he would check into it and get back with me. That was about 11a and he called me back after 3p. I got back in return pretty much what I expected knowing how segmented AT&T support is. He said the problem is on the “DSL Provisioning side” and that “the central office is not providing a DSL signal” to my house. Knowing he works with the techs that come to people’s houses it makes sense his guys couldn’t fix it and I understood.

As I said earlier the weirdest thing was just how SEGMENTED their support is. He kept saying there was nothing he could do and nobody else he could get me in contact with other then the Customer Care number for a status update. Telling a paying customer who hasn’t had service for eight days “it maybe an internal thing they are working on” is pretty much bullshit. For the most part this was a dead end and to be honest I received more then I expected in a callback.

Immediately after getting off the phone with “Chris” I decided to call back the Customer Care number again to check the status of my WO. Waited on hold 10 mins (keep in mind I’m doing this during work time on the SILM hopes of having this taken care of today as nothing will come close to getting done after 5p) and got what sounded like a helpful and competent gentleman. Again explained my situation and my downtime and gave him my current WO number. I was put on hold twice and he apparently made some calls. After it was all said and done he said “it should be a couple of hours and you should be all set”. I also specifically requested a call back multiple times provided my callback number requesting knowledge of the resolution. It’s been almost three hours and have not heard back (not that I was expecting to but I figured it would make something interesting to write here).

For some reason I believe I relish in the pain of all this. Tonight I should be home late and right now I’m at my last straw. For the most part I’m not going to deal with this issue tomorrow and Thursday so for the most part they have a free pass till Friday morning mostly because it’s taking to much time to deal with them and I won’t have that time the next few days. Tonight I will post another update with my findings and I will make sure to post the thrilling Finale on Friday. Seriously this is pathetic AT&T should be ashamed of themselves.

Update 2 August 6th: Yeah I regret not posting the finale to my AT&T Nightmare. Mostly I got fed up of the time sink thinking, writing, and dealing with AT&T was becoming. Ultimately I was able to get my service restored. Rather then account everything it took about 10 days and two tech visits to decide it was an issue at the “central office”. A few weeks after that I had another single day of downtime that only required three phone calls and one tech visit to get repaired. If I had more time to deal with this and if I could find a good deal on another provider I would switch without reservation. AT&T had done nothing to earn my business and in the month of July I had over 10 days of downtime that I was fully charged for. Honestly it’s not worth the effort to do anything about this anymore.

The only thing I’m curious oabout anymore is if anybody has any “inside knowledge” about how AT&T’s internal support structure works or if anybody can provide me firm knowledge of what the “central office” is. Mostly I’m just worried about ongoing issues at this location and would like to know as much as possible. If anybody reading can give me any information I would find it very interesting. Also if any random readers have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me I would be more then happy to share my full experience and help if requested. brb

Words cannot express my ordeal with setting up internet service though AT&T. Of course I’m going to give it a shot though.

When I was comparing service providers I wanted something that would be easy to setup and offer just the services that I needed. Comcast has given me the run around in the past and I was looking to try something new, also for a decent internet package you pretty much need to get television service so that kicks your monthly bill over 60. AT&T offers just a DSL install and that is all I was looking for so the decision pretty much made itself.  This was the easy part.

Contacting AT&T’s customer service is the hard part. Trust me this saga is going to be long winded but after my last interaction this morning I must put this down somewhere so I can have a recount of how truely frustrating this has been.  I also believe some form of this account is going to be sent to AT&T. Seconds ago I seriously packed up my DSL modem, repulsed by the sight of the mocking red blinking light.

OK here is where it begins.

Feb 23: My first call clearly did not go well. Looking around my new place I did notice that there are SBC and Ameritech equipment outside of the house and in the basement. Calling on a Monday I hoped to have everything setup by the end of the week.  The service rep that I spoke with after giving my address said they needed to send a tech out to survey the location. Even though I told them about the equipment outside and in the basement, I believe mostly as my apartment number did not come up in their computer system (my apartment didn’t come up on the online form but other units in the building did) she would not process my order. I agreed to that give her my phone number and left it at that. She said it would take a week to have somebody check out the place and determine of I would be elegible for service.

Feb 25: Frustrated I ended up calling again to place an order. This woman was actually quite helpful. She took all my information and I believe handeled taking my order correctly. Though the next week I was fine I received my DSL modem and my order confirmation to the correct address and was fine waiting a week for service from this call for service.

March 4: Today was the day that my service was supposed to be turned on. I had my DSL modem installed correctly but though the morning all I received was a blinking red light.  Today I ended up calling twice to AT&T to figure out why I was not receiving service. Each time I was informed to call back at a later time. To be honest my order confirmation letter did say to wait till after 8pm but it was impossible to find out if anybody did any work or really what the status of my order was. One woman said it was active and one said it was “pending”. I called at 5pm and was told to call at 8pm andat 8pm I was said to call at midnight.

March 5: I fell asleep the night before and did not call back at midnight. Today I only spoke with one woman that actually at least got something done.  She said I should recieve a call back within eight business hours with somebody that might be able to help me. Left my DSL modem installed though the day only received blinking red of death.

March 6: This morning I received a call at about 8:45am. APPARENTLY for reasons I will never understand according to the lady on the phone service was installed in apartment one rather then apartment five. This I do not understand. My DSL modem was sent to the correct address, and my order confirmation letter was sent to the right address. I made this very known on the phone and never recieved an answer how this got changed. The woman ran me though pretty much a new order assigning me a new account number. She also said it will take another six days to receive service. I said multiple times that I’ve been already waiting two days for service and she said she will put a “rush” on it but cannot make a guarantee. Pretty much I know what that means I’ll be waiting another week to recieve service.  Oddly enough when running my new order though she asked me where I work and I declined to tell her. After apparently placing a new order for me I get transferred to cancel my old account number.

See at this point I would have been fine if they said it was their mistake and would do something about it. I made no mistakes on this but because of a screw up I get thrown back in the back of some install queue. Never did I ever say I lived in apartment one. This was their mistake and they will not make any effort to rectify it.

I went with AT&T in an attempt to avoid this type of frustration. Seriously I don’t even know what to do. There is no way they put a “rush” on getting anything taken care of for me so this means another week of no internet service. I also have no idea how they got apartment one on my account even though my DSL modem and my order confirmation got sent to the right address. Right now I’m very much regretting my choice choosing AT&T.

March 13: My service was not turned on again. I had my DSL modem hooked up correctly though the last week and still no connection. Ended up calling AT&T CS and got passed around to three different departments and three different hold queues and asked three different times to relay my account number. At this point my call has been sent to the “escalation team” to find out why I don’t have service. At this point I’m expecting to hear that apartment one has my service again. Also my account is still “pending” not that I understand what that means.

I called March 13th at about 9am and as I update this it’s 6:12pm and have not heard anything. This means that nothing will be done about anything though the weekend and really I do not know what to do at this point. Really I’m making due minus internet service and mostly just want to ride this out to see if I can go a month since initial contact before getting service setup and to see if they make any effort to compensate me for my time and my understanding. This post will be updated with the outcome please keep tuned.

UPDATE March 13 6:40pm: Just got a call from AT&T and got my call pulled up on escalation. They said it was a technical error and apparently several other GR residents with new setups have run into a similar issue as I have. The guy said I should be setup by Monday. I asked if there was a better number to call just in case I have any problems and I was told to call the toll free number if I have any problems or questions. So my new install date is March 16 and I will make sure to keep everybody posted with what happens. This is the last straw if service is not installed Monday I go with another service provider.

UPDATE 2 March 16: Well another install date has come and past. Though the entire day I had my modem hooked to the line and tried both connections in my place after 8pm. Still no service. Not shocking at all. Blinking red till I die.

UPDATE 3 March 17: Got up early and placed another call to CS. After the customary pass around I did end up speaking with a very pleasant woman. She told me that stand alone DSL is not guaranteed in every area. I knew this from reading their website but nobody I’ve spoke with on the line ever said this so I appreciated her candor. She said she would make a call and get back with me within the half an hour. She did what she promised and confirmed to me over the phone that my place should be eligible for “Elite” service. She told me that my service should be active by 8pm today if not earlier. Tonight I work till 7:30 and will rush home to check the line. Again I will keep everybody posted and also post a reminder that my first call to AT&T was Feb 23rd.

UPDATE 4 March 17: Came home today AGAIN to no service. Checked both lines in my place and tried all lines with the filter and doing power cycles multiple times. Just to make my life worse I decided to call tonight rather then tomorrow morning. I was unable to get though to “Check the Status of my DSL Order” as they are closed. Called the general number and just said “agent” 15 times until I got somebody on the line. Told the lady my situation and got tech supported (power cycles, line checks ect). Went though that with no avail. I did ask the lady to check the status of my order and apparently I should be active according to her.
Ended up putting a trouble ticket in to the “line check” department and should get a call back by 2pm tomorrow.  One day closer to a month till my first initial call.

UPDATE 5 March 18: While at the dentist today I got an automated call saying my line was tested and they need to speak with me. Called back and waited in queue for 15 mins. Again I spoke with a very kind CS representative. He looked up my ticket and said the line checked fine. Recieved a new ticket number and apparently a tech is coming to my place before 11am tomorrow to check the place out. Apparently my service is “active” and my line checked out fine so it must be an issue with the house and honestly that is not shocking at all it just sucks that it took this long to get to this point. Again I will make sure to post everything ASAP with how this all turns out. I could have internet tomorrow but clearly my hopes are not very high at this point.

SIDE UPDATE March 18: Just to put this saga into perspective. My friend recently moved to a new location and called Comcast Monday morning for a new service installation and had service confirmed and installed Wednesday morning. Somebody came to his place day one to make sure everything is taken care of were it’s taken me 23 days to get to a point where I was able to have AT&T decide to have somebody come to my place (and at this point I’m really not expecting to get a call tomorrow morning to be honest).  Comcast installed new service for him with a one day turnaround. With AT&T I’m on a 23 day turnaround.

UPDATE 6 March 19: This is just insanity. Ok here we go. Got a call this morning at about 9:30am from the tech. He came up to my apartment and ran the tests on the line, and checked the basement a few times and the line outside. He said he got everything to go. When I asked him what was wrong he said “the line wasn’t hooked up”. Not a shocker there. After he setup the line he came back up stairs and the DSL light was solid green. Stupid me figured we were good to go. He left and I started running the setup wizard.

Failed.

I end up getting to a point where the DSL line is solid green but is unable to connect to the internet. Goes blinking green, to solid red, to nothing. Tried the normal stuff (power cycle, diagnostics on the modem) and apparently I’m failing the ATM and the PPPoE tests. Of course I don’t have any internet to look up what these things mean so I call the tech back on the number he called me on. Said he did what he could and got me connected to DSL and I would need to call tech support. Called tech support, started talking to the woman explaining everything after a 10 min hold and of course get disconnected. My cell has full service downtown.

Call again. I get a kinda snippy rep that doesn’t really listen to what i say. Right when she asked what my problem is I run down half her job as I know the drill.

1) Tech came to my place, ticket was placed that she should be able to look up if they have any modern incident tracking system in seconds.
2) Explained lights situation as stated above
3) Stated I’ve power cycled multiple times
4) Read off the failure points on the “Technician Readout” screen off the modem.

This should be enough information for them to know I know what I’m doing and get me where I need to go. I end up getting tech supported for 10 mins. Power cycles, line checks, and put on hold for about five minutes while a “ticket” is created for the “line check” team. I seriously cannot wait to post this.

End up getting transferred to the “line check” team. Call time 19 mins at this point. I have heard “please wait” one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen….

…while I’m waiting for this I walk over to my DSL modem and I’m getting a red blinking light on the modem  and trying to connect on the modem using the test account provided gives me the following message in bold red text.

DSL connection is down. Please check the following:
Phone line is securely connected to your Device.
DSL Sync light on front of your Modem is green and not blinking
Filters have been installed on all phone jacks that have telephone devices connected to them.
Please try again to connect.
If problem persists, please contact the help desk.

….fifteen, sixteen times by a very “firm” sounding computer voice. After waiting for about 10 mins on this perma-hold the lady I was talking to earlier said “they are checking your line in the street” and to call back in an hour I shit you not. I was just on the phone for 30 mins for absolutely nothing.

As a very trustworthy person and not one to embellish I cannot make this up. What a fucking disaster. Tonight after work I’m 100% positive I’m going to have to call again. I cannot believe I’m putting up with this. The ONLY reason I’m riding this out is because it’s fascinating how poorly this has gone and I would honestly like to see if I can go a month with dealing with this. As I leave to go to work I try the test login account on the router again…

Cannot connect to target service. Please contact the help desk.

UPDATE 7 March 19: On my way to work I get an automated call from AT&T customer care due to my tech visit from this morning. Waited on hold for about five minuets after pressing “0” and talked to another gentleman. Explained to him my situation and my connection issues as I’ve stated above. He looked at my technician ticket resolution and ran a test of my line. Asked the normal questions about power cycle of the modem ect. What he was able to come up with was that the “line wasn’t tied down” and I’m not sure exactly what that means. He said the fault here was with the tech that came to my place and he should have done another step for full connectivity. He also said the next morning appointment he could give me was Monday. At this point was the first time I’ve been firm with the CS and explained how long I’ve been waiting and that this is their fault this wasn’t taken care of today. He told me he could get a Friday morning tech visit approved. As we stand I’m now at least I now have a  solid green DSL light but no connectivity to the internet. This has taken over three weeks to get to this point.

SIDE UPDATE March 19: Chatting with Tom about this ordeal he had the following to contribute.

w. vanlandw [5:02 PM]: are you broc’ing?
farquja [5:02 PM]: i just ead ur deal thats such BS u sending that shit to them ight?
farquja [5:02 PM]: R

UPDATE 8 March 20: Got a call bright and early at around 8:45am from a very pleasant sounding lady saying she is here shortly and based off the trouble ticket believes she knows what the issue is. She is outside my place now and will call me when she needs to get inside. Power cycled my modem still “Searching for ATM PVC”. Modem lights still doing the same behavior. Power, Ethernet, DSL all solid green. Internet goes from blinking green, to solid red, to nothing.

At about 9:33am apparently I’m no longer failing the ATM test. Still failing PPPoE and getting a solid red light on the modem for “Internet”

One min later I’ve passed the PPPoE test and now just failing authentication.

Three mins later I’m failing the PPPoE test.

The tech gives me a call and says she got everything taken care of. I go to the door and let her in she comes up uses my PC for a few mins and I’m FINALLY solid green connected to the internet. She says and waits for me to complete the registration process and confirms I’m able to connect. Before she left asks I asked her what the problem was. Apparently there are two switches or something in the house and I was connected to the other one then what I was suppose to be. Find out the tech’s name is Lori. She offers me three contact numbers and says to let her know if I have any problems in the next few weeks she will help me where she can. After such a long voyage this was it was nice to see somebody go at least a quarter mile out of their way to help me out.

After she left I messed around on the internet and ran into some problems hooking up my router to the modem (ended up having to have my router do PPPoE authentication) but I left my house for work today with my iMac on wireless and everything looking to be working. Will test out the consoles tonight.

Oddly enough I’m still having one problem. Looks like I’m not getting the ‘elite’ speeds I’m paying a premium on. Doing a bandwidth test shows I’m really not getting the speeds I should be. My download speed is about half of what I’m paying for at this point. I will monitor the situation and post here of course.

SIDE UPDATE March 20: This came though gchat before leaving work today and sums up this ENTIRE situation….

gunbunnie: Dude, you are the most patient person I know.
me: LOL yeah it’s a fault trust me
gunbunnie: Although I can understand you carrying this out of morbid curiosity.

Chouse stated this yesterday and again really is the dead truth…

chouse: your at&t saga is completely fascinating

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2559 kbps (319.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 642 kbps (80.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

UPDATE 9 April 21: Ran a bandwidth test today still not getting anywhere close to the “6 MBPS” I’m suppose to be getting for $45 dollars a month.

Download Speed: 2583 kbps (322.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 655 kbps (81.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Just recieved my first bill this past weekend. AT&T did not charge me for my DSL modem but I will need to make a call soon regarding my transfer speeds. Either I want them to take me down to the “Direct Pro” pricing or check to see why my  transfer rate is so slow. Also on my bill they started charging me on March 13th when I did not get service till March 20th. UGH

Today I made the fabled travel down Lake Michigan Drive to meet up with some of my former co-workers from GVSU CTS. Our gathering this time was at Main Street Pub and I had a pretty standard pizza catching up with friends and genually just shooting the shiz.  After the meetup I decided to take a walk though the old stomping grounds that is the GVSU Allendale campus.  

This was the first visit I’ve taken since April 2006.  At the time I was taking masters courses to fill my time and thinking where I  was personaly  since the last steps I’ve taken on those grounds and where I’m at now is just staggering.  Even just looking at the lay of the land is enough to shock a grad even from 2003. So much is different where so much has stayed exactly the same.

My walk started in Laker Village. When it came time to park I realized I didn’t have any money to pay a meter so using my dutch skills I figured my least past of resistance to getting a ticket would be in housing parking. The first thing I noticed walking around LV is how much hardly anything has changed. Around some of the back yards there are pillars blocking the back yards  but the buildings are exactly the same, the community centers are unchanged, and the buildings still clash with all other structures on campus. I ended up passing 17-C, 17-D, and 28-E. Three of my favorite apartments still appear to be standing and not burnt to the ground.  So many amazing memories and times happened in those locations and revisiting was odd.

After walking around Laker Village I made my way to the new Lake Ontario Hall. When I was a student this building didn’t exist. It’s also wierd how this building clashes with eveything surrounding it. I took a walk inside and instantly found this wonderful computer lab filled with thin white intel imac’s.  Instantly I was furious because that is the Mac I should have purchased if I wasn’t a total idiot.  I was also furious because a lab like this didn’t exist while I was a student.  Lucky asses….

After that I took the loop over the bridge (cechg rocks), though the commons and over to Mackinac Hall. Apparently they added a new addtion and how they ended up building it is again wierd. If i could find any pictures I would post them but if you look at the two forks they totally clash.  The best part was going in the middle of the forks and they put up this nice little vista and there is seating and is inclosed. I ended up sitting down and relaxing taking in all the oddness and changes that surround me at a place that used to feel so familar. 

After checking out a few places it was time to go. For grads or former students that haven’t walked around campus in awhile I can highly recommend it. It was fun to revisit places that were so unchanged and some that are unrecognizable. Now I wish I brought a camera because it’s tough to find pictures of what I saw.  If time permits take a drive out to Allendale..