Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 193
November 30, 2011
Technician Fail
So today we had the sixth and seventh Comcast technicians come to restore my broadband Internet. The sixth dug a trench in my side yard. The seventh climbed a pole to install some kind of booster.
They really are trying, folks.
In neither case did the fix last more than a few minutes.
My amusement grows ever more wry.
November 29, 2011
Nebula Awards
You know, every writer— and I imagine most everyone else— has an inner Veruca Salt. Not the band, though you could have one of those in your brain too probably, but the girl in the red dress from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its various film adaptations, the one who begins every sentence with "I want— !" She's sort of like the Creature from the Id, only musical.Controlling one's inner Veruca can be trying, especially during— y'know— award season.So when a writer notes that, for e...
November 26, 2011
Clotted Cream
(Internet service still spotty. Will try to keep this short.)I was at a friend's birthday party this afternoon, and noticed there was clotted cream. (The real stuff, too, came from England in a bottle. Not the American kind which is just whipped cream with some kind of emulsifier in it.)"Look!" I told Kathy. "There's clotted cream!""Is it good on scones?" she asked. "I've just got a scone.""It's good on everything," I said. "It's just . . . like . . . bacon!"So what else is just like...
November 23, 2011
Where's Leonardo?
Off crowdsourcing in Milan, of course.Via boingboing, it's an actual translated to-do list from Leonardo da Vinci.It's interesting that six of the ten items involving asking other people how to do stuff. Leonardo was interested in inventions, not re-inventions. If someone else had the answer, he went to that person.Think of what he could have done if he'd been able to crowdsource properly, with the Internet.As for me, what's on my to-do list for this Thanksgiving holiday?Eating a lot of...
Internal Monologue
The fifth visit from a Comcast tech has failed to solve the problem, though so far as I can tell Internet connectivity did increase somewhat. So the trend, at least, is positive.Meanwhile, here's an idea of what it's like to have been in my head the last ten days:Oh look the cable light is green on my modem maybe I can upload that photo OH GOD THE LIGHT'S GONE OFF RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE UPLOAD AND THE PROGRAM IS JUST STUCK THERE TRYING TO RE-ESTABLISH THE CONNECTION AND MY CPU USAGE HAS ...
November 21, 2011
A Little Less Vacation Now, Please . . .
Despite at least four visits by Comcast's highly-trained technicians, the Internet connection remains mostly down. I can get email (over time), and respond to it (over time), but anything more serious than that is pretty much impossible.I'm growing a little bored with my vacation.This afternoon I went to the local library to grab some wireless and upload some things that needed uploading. Unfortunately the library, too, employs Comcast, and Comcast was down.I suspect the problem is not...
November 19, 2011
A Week Without the Internet
Well, not literally a week. About five days without, and another three with a spotty connection that seems to work fine until I actually try to send some data back and forth, at which point it usually crashes in a fairly comprehensive manner.Comcast has, I'm surprised to report, been quite good re customer support. Perhaps it has dawned on America's Cable Monopoly that they do, in fact, have competition. (As for why I chose Comcast to begin with, it's because out here in the sticks...
November 14, 2011
The Big Silence
Internet connections very spotty now . . . haven't been able get online all day. Replaced the cable modem but that wasn't the problem. I am promised an actual cable guy sometime wednesday.
My only option is to use my phone, as I am now.
Kindly have patience while I smash furniture in frustration.
November 11, 2011
Veterans Day
It's Veterans Day. So let's offer a big thank-you to those who have helped to keep us safe.
November 10, 2011
Weed Zapper
As I mentioned in an recent post, European scientists are about to use huge megalasers to create a rip in spacetime.The U.S. Air Force has something a little more modest in mind. They've just published a wish list of technologies they'd like to see developed, and one of them is a "Directed Energy Weed Abatement and Prevention Tool."Yes, the USAF is looking to kill weeds with ray guns."Develop a device that uses directed energy technology to prevent and abate unwanted plants (weeds) in...
