At wordle.net, you can create “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
I ran wordle on my blog and here is the result. It seems that only newer posts were included, but none the less…
Cox just upgraded my bandwidth. Wow..
(the following quote is regarding politics, not religion or world view)
The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.
- Ron Paul
In the last week, my site has received more hits from:
Following the Verizon fiasco, I ordered service from Cox Communications, again opting for a bundle of TV, Internet and Phone. I signed up online and received a confirmation which informed me I would soon be receiving an email confirming the installation date. After 3 days of waiting, I called them up and was told that online orders take 3 weeks to process (hu??) and it would be much faster to sign up over the phone. Ok fine. To my pleasant surprise, the representative was able to give me a couple of discounts.
On the date of installation, the tech showed up 10 minutes after the 2 hour window I was given but he was in and out within 40 minutes, so I was happy. When he left, amazingly enough, all the services were working! Here’s the rundown:
TV
I ordered a pretty basic package of TV service. Bassically, it includes the local broadcast channels (including HD versions), the standard cables channels (ESPN, CNN and the like) and about 20-25 HD cable channels. They gave me a Scientific Atlanta HD-DVR (a bit of a bummer after having the great Motorola box for 3 weeks) which gets the job done while steering clear of all eye candy, both in the menu/guide system and in physically.
The SD channels look pretty good, but I think the Motorola box did a better job of upscaling. The HD channels look amazing! Noticeably better than FiOS.
Internet
The plan I selected is 5 Mbps down / 2 Mbps up. That downstream speed is 1/3 what I had with FiOS (although a 15/2 plan was available from Cox). The service includes a technology called “Power Boost” which kickstarts large downloads with about 15 seconds of the full available network bandwidth. I’ve seen this peak as high as 25 Mbps, but it’s typically around 14. Overall, the service “feels” quit a bit snappier than FiOS. Not sure why that is… but pages just seem to load faster.
Phone
Unlimited calling. And it works. I don’t ask for much more that that. One really cool feature is having voice mail accessible from the cox.net website. Pretty cool. Also, the cable modem/phone interface box includes an onboard battery to keep the phone service up when the power goes out. Nifty.
Bill
They got it right!! Imagine that!!
Consider me a satisfied customer.
I was very excited to discover that Verizon FiOS was available at my new apartment. The highest speed Internet access available, high definition television service, and a land line with unlimited calling - sounds great! All for 1 low price! I signed up online, agreeing to a 1 year contract for the bundled services.
When the date of installation came, the tech arrived promptly with bag-o-goods in hand and good/proper/understandable English-in-mouth. I showed him the points of connection (the living room for TV and the office for Internet and phone) and he informed me of his first objective: go down to the buildings wiring closet and get things connected.
Aside: I think I was the first person in the building to get FiOS. It had only been available for a week in this location and… well i’ll get to that later.
After about 30 minutes the tech returned, slightly chagrined, and informed me that the cable lines to my apartment run to one wiring closet, while the phone lines run to another… Therefore, the order has to be modified so that account can be routed correctly. He called the central office to get the process started, set up the set-top-box, modem and router, and said he’d be back in a couple hours.
2.5 hours later, he returned. The central office still hadn’t gotten the changes made. He went back to the closet to do some additional work, and returned an hour later. Everything was working. He showed me how the TV stuff works, and made sure my computer could hit the interwebs, asked me to sign something, and left. In total, the install took about 8 hours.
Shortly thereafter, I was browsing the channels and realized that I didn’t have MOST of the HD channels which were included in the Premiere Package. I called tech support, who instructed me to call the billing department between 9-5 M-F.
Monday morning at work, I called the billing department which informed me they had made the necessary change, and I should have all the channels when I got home. Guess what… Nope.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
2 weeks and 8 calls later, I FINALLY got the HD channels. They looked stunning - nearly Blu-Ray quality. Most in 1080i some in 720p. (however fewer in quantity that most cable providers and FAR fewer than DirecTV)
Next day, I got a bill. $293. Ummm, lets see… TV service and Internet service are FREE for the 1st month… Installation/activation is $30… So I’m paying $263 for phone service??? Upon further investigation, I discovered that I did not receive a free month of TV service, and further, I was charged $140 for an “additional wireless router” which I neither received nor wanted.
(Ok, let me speed this up) Call billing. Get transfered. Hold for an hour. Get transfered. Get disconnected.
Call billing. Get transfered. Hold for an hour. Explain the situation. Get promised 3 credits on my account.
The following Saturday there was a thunderstorm. TV/Internet/Phone all went down. The set-top-box no longer turned on. The modem smelled like burning electronics. The router kinda turned on but not really.
I called tech support and they said the earliest someone could come out was Monday afternoon. 3 days without service and another 1/2 day off work????? No one else in the building has the service??? (This further solidified my understanding that I was the first in the building to get FiOS)
Monday morning I called to cancel my service. What followed was the best Verizon customer support experience ever. Quick, easy, no transfers. They told me there would be a $179 fee for breaking the contract. I said “Nu-uh! You did it first!” and they said “Ok, never mind.”
They instructed me to box up all the gear and take it to a UPS store and they would take care of everything. I did. They did.
Now I’m just waiting for the final bill from Verizon and the first bill from Cox Communications… but those will probably be 2 other stories…
Ever ask yourself that? Well, if you are using Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) just point to the word and hit Cmd + Ctrl + D and you will find out.
Apparently AT&T thinks of me in very generic terms:
Fortunately, this blunder doesn’t typify their services.
I have a fast internet connection at home…
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 1.60Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 13.61Mb/s
The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 10 Mbps Ethernet
But that doesn’t compare to my connection at work…
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 164.12Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 143.10Mb/s
The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 10 Gbps 10 Gigabit Ethernet/OC-192 subnet
I’m quite excited to be moving out of Comcast’s kingdom and into an area where Verizon FiOS is available. I’ve been doing my research to insure that FiOS isn’t some kind of too-good-to-be-true fiasco. All reviews I’ve read speak very highly of all areas of the service- even installation! Here is the most exhaustive FiOS review I’ve found. It includes all the details that geeks like me are interested in.