Heading rapidly towards obsolescence…

Posted on by Archturiat in blog, rants 4 Comments

As a lot of you know, I’ve been playing with the phone since I was a child.. and that’s now multiple lifetimes in Internet time. I remember the cutting of crossbar offices to electronic, and the cutting of electronic switches to digital. I’ve seen “mobile phones” go from clunky two-way radio style devices to (now) 4G data handsets.

I would have never thought it would have come to the point it is at now.

As part of an upcoming move, I’ve been pricing my options. Where I’m moving, it looks like I have three choices: the incumbent phone company, the cable company, and the WiMax provider. So, I go to the web sites of the three companies to shop.

First, we’ll talk to the WiMax provider. The website shows me a coverage map, and it looks like I’m in good coverage, but I have some concerns because I’m not in GREAT coverage. However, I’m able to get the pricing and coverage information quickly and efficiently. A big A+ here. Of course, it’s just Internet and phone only (no TV), but the price looks right.

Then I go to the cable company’s website. It’s a little messy at first, because I already have service with them at my present address, and they don’t seem to want to price out my options for the new address. I load up Chrome’s “Incognito” mode, and it all works great. Boy, there’s a lot of packages, and the packages with Internet included area little vague at first what the available speed options are. But, with a little bit of bouncing between the individual unbundled service information page and the bundles, I’m able to figure out that a 15 down 3 up package with TV and an unlimited phone is around $100 on a promo, and the cost after the promo is clearly spelled out and easy to understand. An “A” here, and that’s only because it would have been nice if the bundles made it clearer what tier of Internet service was included without having to bounce between screens.

Then, I tried to check with the incumbent telephone company.

For starters, the website wouldn’t even load. Okay, I think, maybe Comcast is messing with the website (hehehe, “net neutrality” anyone?). So, I fire up the wireless modem and try that. Still no dice. I can get the basic information screens, but they don’t have any pricing and availability for the specific area I’m interested in. This is concerning for me, because where I’m considering moving to (Oregon City) there’s no guarantee that anything will be available. When typing in the address of the apartment, the website just returns a blank screen, an error, or just returns me to the screen with vague pricing and no specifics.

Okay, maybe their website was down when I tried. And sure enough, this afternoon the website SEEMS to load.. but there’s nowhere near the clarity of information present that the cable company and the WiMax provider offers. I want a package with Internet and phone service, no TV really needed, preferably something in the 8-15 Mb/s down range. The best I can figure out is that unlimited phone is $35/mo and that there is some kind of $14.95/month promotional price on high speed Internet, up to 7 Mb/s down. But I’m still not sure what the price on the high-speed is after the end of the promotion, nor am I clear if there’s any higher speed options available (and it’s worth noting that they DO advertise 20 Mb/s speeds in this market generically). They’d love to have me talk to an agent to give me more information!

I wanted to root for the phone company. I gave them a fighting chance to give me the information I needed in the format their competitors do, and in a way that saves me time. This is information services we’re talking about here, folks. If there ever was a product that you should be able to sell over the web it’s.. well, the web, dammit. Your competitors websites all would have let me order the services right then and there: just a credit card entry away.

The capper is when same phone company tried to engage me on Twitter after I posted a one-liner about the site not working. If I had time to “talk to an agent” about my needs, if I wanted to, they were merely a phone call away. That’s not what I wanted. I wanted the information on the web in a clear, concise format like both your competitors do.

After all, you’re an Internet provider now, right?

The Importance of Community (and Ownership)…

Posted on by Archturiat in blog, current events 3 Comments

As a lot of you know, I spend a pretty reasonable amount of time on Second Life. As I’m fond of saying… “because I don’t have a first one.”

As of late, there’s been a bit of an Exodus from Second Life by many of the extremely creative people that made Second Life unique. This post is only marginally related to their direct complaints, so I won’t address them individually. But there is a common thrend amongst the complaints.

That common thread can be best called “ownership issues.”

Communities are funny things. People feel like they need to belong to a community, but they also feel entitled to “ownership” of that same community. Doubly so if they’ve had to invest any kind of personal effort into joining and maintaining “community resources”.

People have complained profusely about Facebook’s constant moving target called their “privacy policies”, but you really don’t see much in the way of people leaving Facebook. There might be a few cranky people who leave (and those are mostly techie types anyway), but the average member of Facebook doesn’t have that much invested into the site. It’s an interesting tradeoff: the less you have invested in a particular place, the less likely you are to leave when things start to piss you off.

A few of you have noticed over the years that I don’t tend to use a lot of the “social media” sites. I almost without exception prefer to host my own versions of the tools: I use my own URL shortener, my own picture gallery site, and even LiveJournal has largely been replaced by a WordPress installation on a webhosting service. I use Twitter and Facebook, but largely for “throwaway” things: if Twitter died tomorrow, yeah my Tweets would be gone, big deal.

People become attached to places that they’ve helped to build. Many of the wonderful areas that have disappeared have had a serious impact upon the “playability” of Second Life. Two of the areas I specifically frequented (and are now gone) were beautifully and lovingly crafted, and I got a great amount of enjoyment from these areas.

In both of these cases, the places aren’t gone. They are both trying to migrate to the Open Simulator Grid (OSGrid), a variation of Second Life that is built from the open source components of the SL codebase that one can run on independent servers. OSGrid is not for the feint of heart: even getting the code working requires fairly advanced system administration skills, and a fairly powerful and well-connected host if you’re going to run a site with any popularity. I myself have experimented with the software, and the best way to describe the difficulty for me was “interesting.”

Even with all the faults of OSGrid, the reason people left Second Life is this lack of “ownership.” In both cases, people spent hundreds of hours trying to create and develop something special, and in both cases they were screwed over by some recent Linden Labs policy change that made them feel marginalized. They felt that it was better for them to go their own way, tread into unsupported territory rather than have to deal with everything they’ve built and designed get hosed because somebody changed some middling policy without asking for input.

And who can blame them? People spend a lot in resources to try to make something cool in Second Life, only to have their work devalued because of some change in policy.

The lesson here? You can’t trust anybody, the best you can do is to be as self-reliant as possible.

Maybe we’ll see you on OpenSimGrid.

Healthcare is this bad in the US.

Posted on by Archturiat in blog 1 Comment

So, I understand that “drug stores” have a long and varied history here in the US, and that many of our major drug store chains grew out of a more “general merchandise” view of the establishment. Heck, my favorite hangout in Southern California was a drug store soda fountain, the oldest continually operating business in the area. And trust me, nothing on the menu there would ever be confused as “health food”.

All that said, as of late the big drug store chains are trying to position themselves as one-stop health care centers. Rite Aid has, for a long time, had a co-branding arrangement with GNC. Walgreens will not only give me a flu shot, but apparently other vaccines as well. In some markets (where state regulations allow) some chains are experimenting with on-site urgent care.

I could see this as a big step forward, if only for one big problem. “Drug stores” carry so many things that are unhealthy that it is really hard for me to even walk in the place and keep a straight face.

Case study: I walk up to the counter today at a Walgreens, with a filled prescription for diabetes medication, a sugar-free Red Bull, a package of sugar-free diabetic candy, a bottle of water, and some batteries. “Would you like a brownie for $1?”

Wait, what? I actually did a double-take for a minute. Here I am, a borderline morbidly obese man, with an armload of diabetic supplies, and you’re offering me a 400 calorie brownie?

It’s bad enough that they sell tobacco products right there at the counter. Add to that the checkout lane is a veritable cornucopia of unhealthy snack choices: cookies, sugared gum, chocolate bars, and Life Savers. There are a few “healthier” options: Altoids aren’t too bad, and infrequently there’s a Power Bar or something similar.

And I get to thinking. If I wanted a healthy snack here at this drug store, what are my options? And I realize that I don’t recall seeing a piece of fruit in the entire establishment. Now, it could very well be there’s a well-stocked produce department hiding somewhere behind the Pampers on aisle 3 that I missed. However, the fact that in my journey through the entire store I can’t recall ever seeing one product that I would consider ‘health food’ tells me something.

If major drug store chains really want to be “partners in my health”, they need to become that, and not be my 7-11 that sells amphetamine, sulfa drugs, and test strips. Start by dropping all the unhealthy things on your aisle: tobacco products, fortified wines (not here in OR, that would be illegal mind you, but I remember buying Thunderbird at a Rite Aid once in CA just for laughs), and junk food.

Heck, offer me a banana instead of a brownie, or a Tiger’s Milk bar instead of a cookie. It’s a start.

Website changes…

Posted on by Archturiat in updates No Comments

Okay, I’ve made some website changes. That can only mean one thing: yes, I’ve gotten a wild hair up my butt again, and I’m working on probably cutting from LiveJournal back to running my own website..

Weapons of war

Posted on by Archturiat in Stupid Questions 1 Comment

Okay, so we watched the Canadian documentary movie “Stupidity” here at the house today, and we were all gobsmacked by a little snippet of what looked like an old propaganda film, that appeared to contain this line:

"... each new scientific development in the weapons of war presents a new challenge. But the people of Portland, through working together, are ready."

Am I hearing this quote right? And does anybody have any idea what film this is from? File is here:

[audio:http://www.feedle.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/weaponsofwar.mp3]

Posted on by Archturiat in Uncategorized No Comments

I finally updated the “About… Where” page to use Google Latitude rather than the old service I was using.

Basically, the Boost Mobile phone that was driving the “Otto finder” died (the #(%*# battery just stopped charging for no reason).  This left me with no real way of keeping it updated, short of leaving my Android phone in the car.. and we know THAT wasn’t going to happen.

So have fun stalking me and looking at all the “fun” places I go in a typical day.