SFTROOCFTBOTDB Success!

When I was but a young lad, I enjoyed reading a short-lived publication by Marvel Comics called Pizzazz Magazine. No, it wasn't a comic, it was more akin to Mad or Cracked. Stan Lee really wanted to get in on more action than just comics.

It was funny stuff. This issue, for example, had an article about the Society for the Removal of Old Cars from the Backs of Ten-Dollar Bills. In the article, they reproduced the back of one of the offending bills and detailed the locations of the old cars. Here are the old and new bills, with the offending bill on the bottom.:

Unfortunately, though I tried and tried, I could not locate a good enough image to use. Sorry! But, the bill had about 10-12 old cars on the back. The new bill has no cars - old or new - on the back!

Congratulations to the Society for the Removal of Old Cars from the Backs of Ten-Dollar Bills! Their lobbying effort has been a true success!

Dishwasher works.

Cool. I ran the dishwasher for a while and kept opening the door every cycle. At one point, it was full of bubbles. Well, Samurai Appliance Repair Man say "Impeller cannot pump bubbles!" Somehow, some Dawn made its way into my precious dishwasher. I ran a cycle with about a tablespoon of Wesson Oil (advice from Samurai Appliance Repair Man) and my dishwasher is running quite nicely. I ran two loads last night.

Domo!, Samurai Appliance Repair Man! You have again saved the day!

Dishwasher no clean. Clay's wife not happy.

But there is hope. I've found an incredibly well-written and easy-to-understand site to get appliance repair (Appliantology) information. The Samurai Appliance Repair Man's website is chock-full of great knowledge from hands-on experience. Written with a sense of humor and the "Samurai User-friendly Difficulty Scale" - measuring difficulty in the number of beers consumed to make the repair.

My dishwasher is not cleaning. I have discovered the problem, thanks to the Samurai. The problem is that it was not draining properly. I have fixed the problem, thanks to the Samurai.

Samurai, if you are reading this, I am saving up $40 for your beer fund. I want the book. In the meantime, please accept this plug as an "earnest deposit" in your beer fund.

Thanks for reading.

100th post!

Woohoo!

Sorry - just had to do it.

VOIP - Who would I recommend?

I've been using Voice Over Internet Protocol (internet telephone) since October, 2003. Initially, it was a way that I could afford high-speed internet. We were paying $72 for our unlimited long distance, but with cable-internet for $28 and VOIP for $40, we'd actually be paying less and getting more! Yes, I worked up the Excel charts and showed them to my wife. She approved.

So, we signed up with AT&T CallVantage. They were one of the first VOIP services available. We were very happy with AT&T land-line, and we figured that AT&T VOIP would be just as good. In all honesty, I never had to call AT&T's technical support line in the entire time I had their service. The only downtime I encountered was when the lights or cable went out. AT&T's service was flawless.

But, with an income that wasn't keeping pace with the rising cost of living, we began to consider cancelling the VOIP and cable and going with a limited long-distance land line. Most folks we knew had either cell phones or an unlimited plan of their own, so we could call them on our dime, then ask them to call us back. Yeah, they'd call us cheapskates, but it'd work out fine.

Then I saw an advertisement for Vonage VOIP - $25/mo. Hey, that'd save us $15/mo, and we could keep the cable internet! Cool! We switched from AT&T to Vonage in January, signing a year-long contract with a 60-day back-out.

Of course, the first real test came five days after the back-out period expired. On the afternoons of April 5, 6 and 7, Vonage experienced some problems with their servers. The problem was documented on their website, and their engineers were working to resolve it. With my on-going job search and the death of a close friend, I needed my phone to work without interruption. I asked friends and family who were familiar with Vonage if this was a regular thing, and they said it wasn't. After a brief discussion, I received the requested credit for the downtime.

Not only did they admit that the problem was on their end, when it came down to it, Vonage was there to support their customers. They don't want to force a customer to pay for service they are not getting. Customers will only do that for so long before they decide to go elsewhere. Vonage stands behind their customers.

Who would I recommend for VOIP? I'd highly recommend Vonage. Ask me for a referral!

This is just plain weird!

OK. I'm a weather junkie. And weird weather really gets my attention, if I can relate to it. Hence my fascination with hurricanes but not with snow - except when it snows in SouthEast Texas. And, that's what it's doing tonight. April 7, 2007. Well, not here in Houston, but up the road a bit (where my wife and kids are trying to come home from Arkansas!) it's snowing. And there's sleet in the forecast for my area. Sleet. In April. In Houston.

My friend Adam, who lives in Chicago, blogged the same thing about a couple days ago. Let me tell you what April means in Houston. It means putting away all the winter gear that you've only used since December. It means that on April 4, the TV weather people predict a high on April 7 of 68, with the disclaimer that it may be cooler than that. It means camping in 80°F (30°C) weather. It means rain, possibly thunderstorms and tornadoes (which we had last Saturday). It definitely doesn't mean freezing precipitation.

For those of you who are fans of AlGore, here's proof that he's wrong about global warming. This is an anomalous cold weather season. But the anomalies should be warmer, not colder.

Nyah! Nyah!

Oh - forgot to mention. Tuesday will be back close to 80...

No more computers, PLEASE!!!!

Christmas, 1979, my folks bought me the most wonderful present in the world - a computer. Yes, it was wonderful. It had 4 kilobytes of memory, and 1013 bytes were reserved for system function, leaving 3,583 bytes of accessible memory. It did not have a disk drive - that was an extra $150 for a 5¼" floppy - but accessed everything from cassette tape. To load a program that fit in 3,583 bytes took nearly 3 minutes.

That Christmas present changed my life. I went on to get a BS in Computer Science, and pursued a career in networking and field support. I trained my daughter to build a computer from scratch and load an operating system. I filled my home with technology (notice I didn't say "latest" - I can only afford other people's trash!), including a home network with wire and wireless capabilities.

For those of you who aren't too good with math (CS students have to be good in math! :P ), that's nearly 30 years of working on computers. Most people retire from a career after 25-30 years. I'm about ready to retire from this one.

Now, I realize that computers are the modern-day equivalent of television, typewriters, telephone, etc. I also realize they are here to stay. And, I enjoy gaming and surfing the 'net. But I'm tired of being the go-to guy when someone's computer dies.

• "Clay, my computer isn't reading CDs. Why?"
  "Is the CD you're trying a good CD?"
• "Clay, my computer monitor doesn't work. Why?"
  "Is it plugged in?"

I CAN'T TROUBLESHOOT EVERYTHING OVER THE PHONE!

I am officially tendering my resignation as the official phone support guy for your broken computer. If you don't bring it to me, I can't fix it. No, I'm not going to drive to Dallas to spend a weekend with you just so I can fix your broken computer.

End rant.

If you want to call me with your computer problem, go ahead. I'll do my best to work on it. I feel bad that I even wrote this. I'll likely delete this entry within the next week...

A New Look!

Hey - that guy's bald!!

OK - My wife went out of town, and I decided to take a razor to my head. It probably won't stay this way, 'cuz she wants me to have hair. (That's why I waited until she went out of town.) Comments! Let me know what you think! I need ammo for when she comes back! 'Course, her opinion is the only one that matters...