May
17
Sunday Morning Music – Brian Eno
ByAn excerpt from one of my favorite pieces of music ever – “1/1″, from 1978′s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
(Greetings from Bruegger’s, where I’m trying to catch up on e-mails and stuff. Yes, for the low, low price of $35 a month, you too will have to go to a local business and mooch their free wi-fi at least three days a week because MAIN’s signal keeps going out for days at a time whenever a homeless person sneezes 300 feet away from their tower or a cloud passes by. They suck.)
13 Comments
May 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I have blazing fast, uninterrupted service from Charter for just a bit more than that…
…if you can stomach Charter, that is…
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May 17th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
We switched over to DirecTV so we could escape Charter’s clutches. Looks like our only real choice is BellSouth DSL (which I’m not really looking forward to, but when your ISP is too busy posting Twitter updates to fix the problem, at this point I’d rather go with BellSouth. So what if they let the government see my datastream – like they couldn’t tap into Wally’s tubes if they wanted to…)
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May 17th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
As long as you assert your authority over those bastards, Charter is manageable… of course, it took me a LONG time before I got to that point. We ONLY have internet service from them now.
I wouldn’t use DSL if I was paid…
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May 17th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Good choice of music. I remember a long day waiting for a flight at the New Orleans’ airport listening to that album. All the glass and metal made for a lovely couple hours looking up at the ceiling.
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May 18th, 2009 at 6:37 am
I too dumped Charter (yech!) in favor of satellite TV, but with the phone company not bothering to provide DSL to my dead-end street in West Asheville, I’ve been stuck with Charter internet. And they raised my rate $10 when I stopped getting TV from them!
BUT. According to a NY Times article last week, Verizon is coming up with a portable wi-fi receiver one can share with any 5 users who might be around, reportedly the size of a wallet, that will get 3G service wherever there is cellphone coverage. The cost is supposed to be around $40 a month, plus $100 for the “MI FI.” Verizon doesn’t have public info yet, but it will come out maybe this week. Maybe I’ll be finally able to escort Charter from my home!
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May 18th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Charter is actually pretty good when you know how to handle them.
First of all you have to know what you’re talking about when you call for an issue. If you don’t know your cable modem from your cable box, they’ll walk you through every mundane fix in the world to prove it’s not their fault, but if you’re halfway hardware literate you’ll be able to check all that before you call. Then you demand a tech visit.
Second, make sure you get the promotional rates for one year. They’ll do it. After the year is up and they raise your monthly bill, call back and tell them you want the promo rate again or you’re switching. They’ll do it with no complaint.
Aside from some obvious complaints having to deal with a huge provider like them (which is more than made up for by the blazing fast internet) I’m pretty happy with their service.
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May 18th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Thanks for the feedback/suggestions, folks. After discussing it w/the missus, we decided to hold our noses, bite the bullet and go with Charter.
Sorry, Wally – your grassroots progressive whatever isn’t worth the change in my couch, and if you want to keep your customers, the best way to do it is to provide a valuable product. Arrogantly expecting your customers to put up with mediocrity and unreliability just because you’re “local” is not a good business model, even for a “progressive” non-profit.
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May 18th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Wally, you do keep up with local blogs, right?
Right?
Wally?
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May 18th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Beep… beep… beep…
Just a friendly reminder that Gordon Smith needs your help to get elected to Asheville’s city council. Please make a generous donation here:
http://gordonforasheville.com/donate/
Thank you.
beep… beep… beep.
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May 19th, 2009 at 10:43 am
we had MAIN years ago and never could get on the net. The few times we did we got booted off after about 15 minutes. We got Direct TV and it rocks! Asheville (MAIN, etc.) needs to get over itself and embrace reality!
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May 19th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I thought that DirecTV shut down it’s ISP division shortly after News Corp. bought them out due to unprofitability. Did they bring it back, or are you just hallucinating?
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May 19th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Doug – unless we’re directly in his myopic view of what “progressive” means, Wally Bowen could give two shits about us.
(On an unrelated subject, am I the only one who finds Grovelbot to be annoying as hell?)
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May 19th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
We have a bundle package with DirecTV and AT&T for TV, phone and internet. We tried the go local approach, but unless its for beer or produce, your S.O.L. The ATT/Directv is the best service I’ve ever had – for TV, phone and internet!
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