Blatant Internet Rant

Subheading
Wildblue, er, stinks! 


So, I'm on the internet trying to do a quick blog because I've been blogging over at Blame it on the Muse with our other bloggers away at Nationals and have been ignoring my many fans here at the Marley Delarose blog. It takes so long to load the page I nearly fall asleep which reminds me that I never installed the little diagnostic program the representative told me about.

I'd called because as usual I went to a speedtest site to see why it was taking 30 seconds or more to load pages. It reported my download speed as 700 kbps and upload at DRUMROLLLLLL please, .03 kbps. Yes, you're reading that correctly. Now, according to them everything looks just peachy.  .03 is standard but I'm not using a recognized diagnostic.

In her very sweet, very trained - have I handled everything to your satisfaction today (obviously not) - kind of voice, she says, "What you need is the Wildblue Pulse diagnostic tool. Along with the optimizer."

Me: I have the optimizer on my Macs.

Her: And we recommend the latest version of Firefox as a browser.

Me: Okay, I can do that, it's already installed, just to see if it makes any difference (I say with my best I don't believe this for a second sarcasm.) Is Pulse available for Mac?

Her: Oh, of course. (NOT, I got to the site with her on the other end of the line and we see together that it is only available for Windows.

Me: No problem. I'll install it on my PC and run the diagnostic on the internet.

So today, I boot up the stupid PC and:
Make sure I have the Optimizer installed on the computer - check.
I have the latest version of Firefox - check.
I open Firefox and go to the Wildblue site and look for the Pulse program which I'd previously installed.

It won't run. So I look at the installation instructions.
"You must run FFClickonce for Firefox to use Pulse."
So, I download FFClickonce but the message next to the download button says, "This program is not updated to run with the newest version of Firefox." Click here to see a workaround which just tells me to make IE the default, install Pulse and then make Firefox the default.

This done, I run the Pulse program with my PC on wireless internet. After the program tests ten sites and the diagnostics report comes up I notice it says there is no internet service - uh-huh. Then there's a page where there are green check marks next to items no one including WB can identify. So I click on recommendations. 


Now, this is entertaining. First of all it tells me I'm not using an approved OS. 'click' here to see approved ones. Windows 7 is listed. Then it says my system isn't optimized. Right. Then it says no virus scan is installed. Un-freakin' believable. I teach computers in a world where no computer should be without virus software.

This is the service we get for $70 a month. They should just have a telephone dialog when you call tech support that says, you're screwed. There is no other internet available so either pay or go away.

What's the opposite of Joie de vive?  This is driving me to drink?

Satellite Seriously Sucks!

It was no surprise that as I hit the bookmark to go to my dashboard to post this blog, I got that 'your computer isn't connected to the server' message. *&^($#*@&&&$#@! Satellite is a very very small step above dial-up. At least dial-up is cheap.

We're in the process of setting up a new yahoo group and blog. Here's what happens:

I click on Visit your group on the web. Thirty-five seconds later I arrive at the group page. For someone with as many focus problems as I, that's an eternity. But I sit here, patiently, okay I lied, not so patiently, waiting. Finally, it's up.

I click on the Database. ENGHH! (That game show buzzer sound should go off.) My first of many messages indicating that something has interrupted the satellite's view of the dish. I look outside, the sun is shining but there is a little white cloud over to the south. I glance at my modem. Sure enough the little download signal is missing. I click the back arrow and my browser reloads the previous page.

Again, I click on Database. This time, I'm rewarded with the link to the database. So I hit 'Our Bloggers'. ENGHH! (Grrrrrh!) By this time, I have Wild Blue internet rage. SO I go off to type an email about why I'm delayed. Then I think of the floor in the kitchen needing a mop, the wip I was re-reading, the other computer waiting to install QuickBooks and I'm off!

Ooops, ten minutes later I remember I was trying to correct something in the database so I return to the computer. I can't call tech support because the phone is being ported and isn't working. But I've been through this so many times before...

Tech Support: "How is the weather in your area?"

Me: "Sunny with a couple pesky white clouds."

Tech Support: "I show rain and lightning in your area."

Me: "Really. That would be good, things have been really dry here. But I haven't seen any chance of rain in the forecast?"

Tech Support: "You are in Duluth, correct?"

Me: "Duluth, Minnesota?! Er, no, I'm in central Louisiana. Have I got the right tech support?"

Tech Support: "The portal for your internet is in Duluth, so when they get weather, it can affect your reception."

So in addition to the cost of the friggin' equipment, short warranty, slow bandwidth, high monthly cost and limited usage allowances, I have to worry about weather 1500 miles away! And to top that off, the government is pushing for high speed internet country wide and they consider satellite 'high speed'. There's no hope unless I move.

The positive in all this - I'm learning patience, persistence, gaining fortitude (making plans to blow up the dish) no, not really.

Heading Home

TRAVELERS AT DFW AIRPORT

My trip is over. It was fun but very uncreative. I'm sitting at BWI in the Southwest terminal waiting to board. One nice trend in airport travel I've noticed since last year is more free wireless. Makes sense. If you can occupy someone's time while they wait, they'll be happy campers. I know I am.

I'm so so so spoiled after being connected on high speed internet all week. It's unbelievable what one can accomplish when you don't have to wait on every page to load, reload, validate, revalidate, update, etc. I feel an internet rant coming on... after I catch up. I'm going to be so far behind. Ooops, they're calling my number. Hope you've had a great week!

Sunshine and bandwidth

Okay, I've ranted enough about this that everyone knows when there's rain, it means little or no satellite internet. Emails will eventually go through but surfing or building a blog post and uploading - forget it.

Sounds like another rant, huh? Well, if it looks like a duck...

So finally today we get sunshine and cool weather. (It's going to be 45 in the morning. WOOHOO! I pulled out the sweat pants for work tomorrow, cranked up the butane heater this morning, and sat down to catch up on a few internet tasks. A week puts me SO far behind though and my weekly trip to the bookstore/highspeed cafe yesterday was cut short.

So I got my computer updates done, major mac update, downloaded my audibles, went through changes for my website, and now I'm posting my little blog promise.

I had promised earlier in the month to blog about the four writing software programs and the one I've settled on. I'll do that next week in four parts. I get very little done on Sundays during football season so I'll do my blogs then and upload them on a nice day.

Monday BIAW begins. For those of you who don't know about BIAW, it's a Book in a Week loop which repeats each month for our GIAM goals loop. The goal - write as much as you can in 7 days. Looks like I may not be working but one day next week so I should get a good start on RCPN.

Last week, after cleaning up the scenes I had originally the manuscript decreased to around 20k from 30 but amazingly, I'm not shook up over it.

I toyed with first person for the main character, writing the new first scene. I liked it and I listened to some advice from some published authors on the RWA cds about POV. One editor said use the pov that best suits you. But avoid it if you always sound like the same person, i.e., yourself. Another said, only do one POV per chapter. A third, don't write in first AND third. And a multi published author said, "Phooey on that. I've done it all and it hasn't stopped me from getting published yet." The bottom line seems to be if you write it well enough, the plot and world are interesting enough and the characters stick with the reader, anything can be forgiven.

So I'll write the main character in first, everyone else in third. Then if it pulls the reader out of the story, I'll go back and put the main character in third. Writing in first and switching back to third might help create a deeper third pov in the end.

See you Monday! (unless I find something I just have to share before then.)

Wild Blue internet rant

I live in a third world country. It's called rural Louisiana. That's why I haven't been able to upload my blog.

10 nights ago I tried to get online to do a minute amount of research on OTHR - no luck! I rebooted the router, rebooted the modem, then again, the router. Restarted the computer, rebooted the router. Okay, so it wasn't the router. There were some heavy grey clouds which is all it takes for Wild Blue to go down, not even grey clouds.

So I called Wild Blue to find out if our satellite was out.


Two months ago, I went through a similar situation. I was at my maximum downloads for the month, was told I was in violation of FAP, the Fair Access Policy. So I raised my package to the Pro version which got me out of FAP purgatory immediately.

Well, it happened AGAIN! The representative said in her condescending voice, "you have a violation error, that's why you can't get on. You are allowed 17000 MB and you've gone over 109%." (19Gs)

I said, how can that happen?

She said, "I don't know," still patronizing, "but these modem reports are accurate. Do you download a lot of music or play games online?"

That's what I don't understand. I don't download a lot of files, don't spend a lot of time on YouTube, though I'd like to. No, so how is this happening?"

Tech Support girl: All I can tell you is that your modem records the history of your acitivity.

Me: I realize that, but when did it happen. Where's the detail? Can you tell me where the overage is coming? What type of activity?

Tech Support: I don't know. But in about 7 days you should be down below the limit.

Me: Is that all you can tell me?

Tech support: I really can't tell you any more.

Me: When is my contract up?

Tech Support girl: Oh, let me check, but we don't want you to leave Wild Blue.

Me: Then you better get someone who can answer my questions. I mostly do email, blogs, chat, download computer updates to the tune of about 1000MB a month, a couple Audible downloads, another 200 MB, where is the rest of it going?

After several minutes she comes back and gives me a few dates to look at my history and gives me the bad news. My contract doesn't end til Dec. 09.

Yesterday, I spent almost 45 minutes with a tech support person trying to determine where the overage is coming from. I had a thought - I've been trying to network more, visiting more blogs.

Her first question: What is Google reader? What is an rss feed? Sheesh.

After I explained, we determined that there are some surprising bandwidth suckers.

Chat - big bogger
Yahoo Mail - Most of the time I couldn't even get yahoo open and then all I could do was compose a message not view any - the ads, chat, calendar, etc bogg it down.
Google reader - BIG time drain and other blogs that have heavy video or high res content.
You Tube, not so surprising.
News channels, anything streaming.
Automatic updates to operating systems, virus scans, Powerpoint email attachments, and software downloads behind the scenes.
Doesn't take much to go over 70% of 19 gigs every 30 days.

This on top of the information Google Meister, Leah, sent me the other day on google reader, themed email, importing your mail into an actual software email program like outlook or in the mac's case Entourage. This can be done with gmail but costs extra with yahoo. Google mail is surprisingly less draining so I guess I'll be swapping all my groups etc. to gmail addresses.

Aren't you glad you have real high speed internet? My aunt in D.C. just swapped over to Verizon, a complete package with home phone, cell phone and internet for $69. I'm paying almost $300 for that and don't even have unlimited internet or cell phone minutes. Where's the equity in this? We already drive farther and live in poorer communities.

$80 a month; it's a crime to pay that much and get this kind of service. I may have to spend a day a week at the library downloading updates and checking on fellow writer's blogs.

I'm at the conf in Shreveport so I hope my bandwidth is back to normal when I get home. Of course, my speed will be back but I won't be able to go anywhere. Yesterday it was finally down to 74% - 70 being the magic number.

And I'll bet when they say high speed in the stimulus package they mean satellite. Get ready, rural American for a step above dialup. No speed and plenty of limits.


UPDATE - STILL at 74% 24 hours later. I'm getting a lawyer.

Baad Weather again

I know - it's that time of year but it seems to be happening early in 2009. Although, scratching my head, I remember when I first moved to Mississippi from D.C. in 1973, the tornados were walking the interstate in February. One of the worst years ever. I used to sit up at night in the dark and look out the window thinking, Is that a train? or is that tornado?

Of course, today I'm having the same old internet weather rant. It totally messes with my satellite.

Giving in

I live in internet H**L. For the last week my internet has been so slow, I'm talking sometimes several minutes for one page to come up. I thought it was the weather. But when I called Wild Blue Satellite tech support I was informed in a condescending tone by the tech support person, that I had exceeded my 'threshold'. I still don't believe it but the point is that we live in a rural community where there are two options, either slow satellite or slower dialup. Of course you can get dialup for $5.00 a month with your AT&T package but you will go insane...IN SANE waiting on the pages to load.


So, I was told I'd have to wait until my time gradually built up and no one wanted to venture a guess as to how long that would be. I thought about upgrading but it's $20 more per month and it's already too much. But I realized that part of the reason I don't get to blog or visit sites is because of the slow connection. I pay $60 a month for the mid range package, which apparently isn't enough for the average person.

I was going to be proud and resist the upgrade but I could not deal with it. I had a contract waiting, quotes to order, leads and books to download, bills to pay, and email to tend to. So, NOW, I'll be paying $80 a month, in addition to the $86 a month for phone service, and $88 a month cell phone for only 750 minutes. It makes me want to wake the Governor out of a sound sleep and beg him to bring Louisiana into the age of technology.

Just try to do without internet for two days and you'll find out how dependent we are on it these days. There should be an amendment to the Bill of Rights, everyone should be able to get fast internet and cell phone communication for resonable prices no matter where they live. At this point, I'd almost give up the TV or long distance and the extra cell phone before downgrading again.

People in rural communities are penalized for living away from the city. We pay more for phone and tv, more for internet, more for gas to get back and forth to work. More for groceries because there isn't as much competition. We have six grocery stores in the three cities near us and they belong to the same chain.

Okay, so this has turned into a rant. I guess I need to call Governor Jindal and some of these politicians who promised high speed internet to all citizens no matter where they live..

Tell me about your internet, is it cable, satellite, or dsl? Go ahead make me just want to puke. How much do you pay? Or are you in the same boat I'm in.

High Speed Access

Welcome to my world. For the last six years or so the phone company has been giving us the same old line. "I'm sorry. DSL is not yet available in your area but it may be in six months. Which leaves us with only two options, dialup (one dialup server handles all the small ISPs in the area - the standard connection is 19,000bps) or satellite.

Satellite is like fast dialup only with interruptions for storms in our area (Central Louisiana) and our gateway (Duluth - you got it, Minnesota)

Imagine you sit down to your browser and click a bookmark from your list, then you count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleve.. okay it's up. Instead of nearly immediate access to pages like real high speed internet, satellite users wait for 8-25 seconds for pages to load.

There are a few issues with that: First, I don't have the time to wait on page after page to load, to follow other links, to input, to update. True high speed would save me a couple of hours a day.

The service is only 'good' in perfect weather. If a thick white cloud shows up to the south, the speed slows down to a crawl.

And the cost of satellite, the medium plan is $70 a month! This is a prime source of irritation to me when the bulk of satellite users are in rural areas without other options and yet the government has yet to do what they've promised for years - make fast access to internet available for everyone.

The problem is not technology or distance from the local station because in Mississippi my friend who lives 30 miles from the closest station has received high speed access a year ago through fiber-optics.

So, give me a little feedback. I know I'll just be even more irritated but I'd like to know what's the average length of time it takes for your pages to load.

A New World

A lot is made these days of the bad things that happen on the internet and obvious criminal activities come to mind. In all areas of our lives - there's good and bad. But let's talk about some facets that have changed us for the better, forever, the far reaching opportunities of hooking up to the World Wide Web.

My husband, who is a very physical person, loves the outdoors, fishing, hunting, working in the yard, has been laid up this week due to a strained back with nothing to do but watch TV. He is completely, irrevocably and happily computer illiterate. And disinclined to change. He literally would not touch one to save his life, or mine.

Today, he said, almost wistfully after I'd been online a good while, "A person who knows how to use a computer can stay busy all the time." Like most people who know zip about computer technology he's unaware of the significance of that statement. I thought about it.

I began this morning by checking my online bank statement and transferring funds from one account to another in order to set up payments on credit cards. Then, I checked for refunds on my cell phone bill, posted a message to an online writing class that just completed, ordered a blouse, researched out of state hunting in Nebraska, found the best site to buy shrinkgrip (whatever that is) for his hunting stand and emailed customer service with his questions. Then I arranged for the return of a defective keyboard and ordered stamps from the postal service.

I purchased an ebook, tried to write forward in my current project, found synonyms from Thesaurus.com, and looked up a new recipe on Food Network for lunch. Well, lunch was another story. Then I downloaded pictures from my favorite Navy guy, emailed friends and family, and checked in with my supervisor from work.

But besides how the internet provides for work, research, budgeting, communication with family, and updating software there's a wondrous global advantage.

Last month, I left the bayou in central Louisiana to connect with Lesley, my new editing partner in Canada. An online writing group made us partners, and online chat allowed us to work as if we were neighbors. Thanks, Leah, for technical help, great critiques and for introducing me to your corner of the world.

I got a great partner, but with this global technology, I could have easily wound up with someone from Australia, England, South America or Dubai.

So where are you today and whose life in a distant land have you touched or been touched by?