Today is the day. I shall be getting up around 4:30-5am and heading out to Detroit for the MWKF tournament! The tournament actually starts tomorrow but Kendo club is needs to be out there early as we have some member's testing for new ranks. Hopefully, the tournament will go well and Detroit will be a lot of fun.
The drive will suck though.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Ahn'Qiraj
Well the gates of AQ are opening tonight on our server. It turns out that our server has died under the load of people. Someone at Blizzard put little thought into the whole event as so far on every server that opened the gates has crashed repeatedly. Well if the one person who could open the gates hadn't decided to do it at 1am our time I might actually have been able to participate. Well I have class so I'll be heading to bed. I think I'll set my alarm early to catch the tail end.
Plus I need practice getting up at 4am for kendo.
Plus I need practice getting up at 4am for kendo.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Kendo Hurts
Well after a long 2 month break I've finally started Kendo again. One thing I've learned from this is NEVER stop any form of intensive exercise 'cause when you start again your muscles hate you. The funny thing is the only way to make my arms and legs stop hurting is to do more Kendo, which makes it worse. WTF!
Of course someone who shall remain nameless hit me about 50 times in the right arm by my elbow today and a nice bruise is forming. Right elbow != Kendo target.
Of course someone who shall remain nameless hit me about 50 times in the right arm by my elbow today and a nice bruise is forming. Right elbow != Kendo target.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Back in Madtown
Well I'm back in Madison. I manged to get 99% of my stuff packed yesterday (a first), before I headed on the 5 hour drive all the way out here today. My Dad and Brother came with me so they got stuck with a 10 hour round trip drive (I really appreciate the ride, 10 hours sucks).
On top of packing yesterday I ran another MC run (that thing I ranted about before). I managed to pick up my classes Tier 1 epic robe the Arcanist Robe for a measly 5 DKPs (Dragon Kill Point), the minimum bid for an item during a run (this is good, don't worry about what DKP are).
Other than a trip my weekend has been pretty quite so far. Turns out one of my roomates was happy to see me.... I mean happy to see my Xbox return so he could once again watch movies on the TV. I need to practice getting to sleep early, and waking up early for my wonderful 9:55am class.
On top of packing yesterday I ran another MC run (that thing I ranted about before). I managed to pick up my classes Tier 1 epic robe the Arcanist Robe for a measly 5 DKPs (Dragon Kill Point), the minimum bid for an item during a run (this is good, don't worry about what DKP are).
Other than a trip my weekend has been pretty quite so far. Turns out one of my roomates was happy to see me.... I mean happy to see my Xbox return so he could once again watch movies on the TV. I need to practice getting to sleep early, and waking up early for my wonderful 9:55am class.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
A Very WoW Break
Well I haven't posted in awhile because not much has been happening. I've been using my break to play World of Warcraft before I head back to school. In the last couple weeks I got my PVP rank up to the first level of "officer" Knight, while also finding a guild to run Molten Core with (for those of you who don't know MC is the first of the two 40 man end game instances).
Molten Core while "small" in size compared to some instances, MC is filled with monsters that take 40 of the max level characters to take down. There are 10 main bosses in the dungeon:
Lastly there is the main boss at the end, the Firelord Ragnaros.
MC is large enough that they actually save your progress through the dungeon and give you one week to complete it. Our first night we stomped our way to Shazzrah who crushed us a couple times. As it was getting really late, like hour 4 of the run, we stopped for the night.
Run two was a couple days later. During run two we finally managed to nuke Shazzrah after we adjusted our tactics. We crushed Golemagg, and Sulfurion with little loss of life, but Majordomo Executus was another matter. It took us 4 tries and 3 raid wipes (a wipe is when all 40 people die) to defeat the Majordomo. As this was the first time the group had taken down Majordomo we were pretty excited about the whole thing. The only boss left to us was Ragnaros the Firelord who we didn't stand a chance of defeating. Despite the fact we couldn't kill him we decided to spawn him and say "Hi".
Of course in our excitement over the defeat of Executus we tried to go to fast, on the first set of "trash" monsters we ran into the entire raid wiped, twice. We went back to the start of the dungeon and decided to visit Rag through the front door as the monsters over there are much, much easier.
After spawning Rag by talking to the defeated Majordomo, Rag appears and kills Executus for his incompetence. Of course after the scripted sequence ended someone decided to attack him which ended up getting a chunk of the raid killed by Rag and his big hammer. Luckily a bunch of us jumped through a portal and escaped to Ironforge and safety. Screenshots of the end room are below, click for a high-res image (300k).
Ragnaros
Molten Core while "small" in size compared to some instances, MC is filled with monsters that take 40 of the max level characters to take down. There are 10 main bosses in the dungeon:
- Lucifron
- Magmader
- Gehennas
- Garr
- Baron Geddon
- Shazzrah
- Golemagg The Incinerator
- Sulfurion Harbringer
- Majordomo Executus
Lastly there is the main boss at the end, the Firelord Ragnaros.
MC is large enough that they actually save your progress through the dungeon and give you one week to complete it. Our first night we stomped our way to Shazzrah who crushed us a couple times. As it was getting really late, like hour 4 of the run, we stopped for the night.
Run two was a couple days later. During run two we finally managed to nuke Shazzrah after we adjusted our tactics. We crushed Golemagg, and Sulfurion with little loss of life, but Majordomo Executus was another matter. It took us 4 tries and 3 raid wipes (a wipe is when all 40 people die) to defeat the Majordomo. As this was the first time the group had taken down Majordomo we were pretty excited about the whole thing. The only boss left to us was Ragnaros the Firelord who we didn't stand a chance of defeating. Despite the fact we couldn't kill him we decided to spawn him and say "Hi".
Of course in our excitement over the defeat of Executus we tried to go to fast, on the first set of "trash" monsters we ran into the entire raid wiped, twice. We went back to the start of the dungeon and decided to visit Rag through the front door as the monsters over there are much, much easier.
After spawning Rag by talking to the defeated Majordomo, Rag appears and kills Executus for his incompetence. Of course after the scripted sequence ended someone decided to attack him which ended up getting a chunk of the raid killed by Rag and his big hammer. Luckily a bunch of us jumped through a portal and escaped to Ironforge and safety. Screenshots of the end room are below, click for a high-res image (300k).
Majordomo Executus
Ragnaros
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
DONE!! I think....
Well I think I'm done with class. I got my project compiling and working as of 11:30 pm. All that's left is to finish the report and I'll let my partners whip up the rest of the first draft (I already wrote a page or two of stuff).
For now I'm taking a break and fleeing ASAP from coding.
Jon
For now I'm taking a break and fleeing ASAP from coding.
Jon
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Paper Down , more to go
As of 8:45pm last night my CS 838 final paper is done and handed in. It only took a marathon eight hours in the lab combining my half, my partner's half, and editing the whole thing. The report was around 16 pages of text and reading it straight though takes around 20 minutes (assuming you want to follow our work). Eight hours doesn't seem so bad considering we needed to meticulously go over every single sentence to edit it. Then we needed to mark everything up in LaTeX (this wasn't to bad), and import our figures.
After finishing the paper I tried to grab something to eat but Cousin's Subs closed about 20 minutes early last night. So I headed over to CAE to work for another three hours on my 556 project.
All I have left is a final today at 2:45 and that project which is due thursday.
After finishing the paper I tried to grab something to eat but Cousin's Subs closed about 20 minutes early last night. So I headed over to CAE to work for another three hours on my 556 project.
All I have left is a final today at 2:45 and that project which is due thursday.
Monday, December 19, 2005
You know you're a geek when...
I've been rather busy these last few days as I've been busy working on a final paper for cs838, and project for my CAD Tool Design class. Anyways, as I was working on my paper this morning I was staring out my window while thinking deeply about my paper.
While looking out my window, I noticed the branches on the tree outside my window didn't look smooth like on most trees but they had a horrible set of jaggies. My first thought was that the tree outside needed some anti-aliasing, but then I realized the screen in my window was causing the effect.
While looking out my window, I noticed the branches on the tree outside my window didn't look smooth like on most trees but they had a horrible set of jaggies. My first thought was that the tree outside needed some anti-aliasing, but then I realized the screen in my window was causing the effect.
Friday, December 16, 2005
School Over! Sort Of
Well yesterday class officially ended, and in celebration I hosted end of the year party/get together. We had about 15 people over for the party, and played pictionary. My team managed to come back from being almost and entire board behind for the win. After that most of the guests headed home, missing the desert I had made in the process. (French Silk Pie yummm.)
Those who hung around played some 5 player Halo with linked Xboxes. Of all the players Colin made imporved the most going from 0 kills his first game, to holding first for a short time during a later round. Halo wrapped up around 11:20 and we broke out the French Silk and an Apple Pie.
Finally, I wrapped up the day with the last Midnight Bowling league game of the semester. Our team was playing the team in first for the league win. To pull off the win we had to win both games and the series (total pinfall over two games) to get enough points to make first. Unfortuneatly for us we bowled a decent game while the other team bowled the game of their lives for the win. Since we were guaranteed to come in second at this point our bowling changed to try some creative throws. Bowling left handed, behind the back, between the legs, or kicking the ball didn't work out well for any of my teammates and our scores for the second game were rather poor. In any case we had a lot of fun during the last game of the year.
During the next week I have a paper to write, a programming project to work on, and a final to study for. Time to get back to my CS 838 paper.
Those who hung around played some 5 player Halo with linked Xboxes. Of all the players Colin made imporved the most going from 0 kills his first game, to holding first for a short time during a later round. Halo wrapped up around 11:20 and we broke out the French Silk and an Apple Pie.
Finally, I wrapped up the day with the last Midnight Bowling league game of the semester. Our team was playing the team in first for the league win. To pull off the win we had to win both games and the series (total pinfall over two games) to get enough points to make first. Unfortuneatly for us we bowled a decent game while the other team bowled the game of their lives for the win. Since we were guaranteed to come in second at this point our bowling changed to try some creative throws. Bowling left handed, behind the back, between the legs, or kicking the ball didn't work out well for any of my teammates and our scores for the second game were rather poor. In any case we had a lot of fun during the last game of the year.
During the next week I have a paper to write, a programming project to work on, and a final to study for. Time to get back to my CS 838 paper.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
I HATE SPAMBOTS
Well my blog was defaced by its first spambot about 5 minutes ago. Now I need to turn on that annoying word verification function for all posts. Half the time I don't get the stupid thing correct on my first try.
Also while doing some searches online I found a cool applet that lets you play around with Quantum Wells. Basically, it lets you plot the Schrödinger equation (this gives you the probablility of quantum tunneling among other things.)
Also while doing some searches online I found a cool applet that lets you play around with Quantum Wells. Basically, it lets you plot the Schrödinger equation (this gives you the probablility of quantum tunneling among other things.)
Super Stringtastic
Well I just got back a bit ago from a lecture by Dr. Brian Greene author of "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos". He's one of the most well known Super String Theory proponents, and has a very good PBS special you can watch online here. For his talk he mostly covered some of the basics from his Nova special which includes General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics 101. (I prefer his explanation to the one I learned in a course on those topics as there was much less crazy math, Britney might be able to help you.)
Overall, it was an enjoyable talk and he did a great job. One thing I had forgotten was how small these strings are. The strings are around 10^-35 meters in size, this is a billion billion times smaller than an atom. He gave the following analogy to explain just how small this is:
"Expand an atom to the size of the Universe, a string would be about the size of a tree."
That's really small. He also mentioned in passing that his Nova special had a small error where an Atom the size of New York was compared to string the size of a tree. Apparently, he told Nova they were wrong but they didn't fix it. Not many people get to say Nova was wrong and actually be correct.
After the lecture there was a Q/A period. He did a great job answering all the questions right on the spot, while keeping everything at level one could follow based entirely on the lecture he had just given. One person asked the dumbest question I've ever heard, he wanted to know "If Martians were to look at us with a giant telescope, they would see us moving about randomly like in quantum mechanics. Do you agree this is true?".
Dr. Greene's answer was basically "What???". I really want to know what went through Dr. Greene's mind when faced with this genius question. The worst part was this was the second from last question asked, we missed an opportunity to actually learn something useful rather than someone's dumb theory of quantum people movement.
Overall, it was an enjoyable talk and he did a great job. One thing I had forgotten was how small these strings are. The strings are around 10^-35 meters in size, this is a billion billion times smaller than an atom. He gave the following analogy to explain just how small this is:
"Expand an atom to the size of the Universe, a string would be about the size of a tree."
That's really small. He also mentioned in passing that his Nova special had a small error where an Atom the size of New York was compared to string the size of a tree. Apparently, he told Nova they were wrong but they didn't fix it. Not many people get to say Nova was wrong and actually be correct.
After the lecture there was a Q/A period. He did a great job answering all the questions right on the spot, while keeping everything at level one could follow based entirely on the lecture he had just given. One person asked the dumbest question I've ever heard, he wanted to know "If Martians were to look at us with a giant telescope, they would see us moving about randomly like in quantum mechanics. Do you agree this is true?".
Dr. Greene's answer was basically "What???". I really want to know what went through Dr. Greene's mind when faced with this genius question. The worst part was this was the second from last question asked, we missed an opportunity to actually learn something useful rather than someone's dumb theory of quantum people movement.
Good Start?
Well my day is off to a good start, in an effort to meet a project partner this morning I ended up leaving the house without shaving. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal except I have a presentation tonight around 5:45pm, with no time between now (9am) and then to stop at home and shave (or even grab a razor). Looking unshaven is in now, right??
Despite the presentation I'm really looking forward to tonight. Instead of our regular Enlight meeting most of us are meeting down in the Union, in an attempt to get into a sold out lecture by Brian Greene Author of "The Elegant Universe". Right now there are no tickets left but they seat people without tickets about 10 minutes before the lecture starts, assuming there are open seats. If the seats are full they actually simulcast the presentation in another room so we should be set. Either way it should be an interesting talk (ok I hope it will but Dr. Greene is very interesting, and was one of the few guest who didn't look silly on the Colbert Report.)
Despite the presentation I'm really looking forward to tonight. Instead of our regular Enlight meeting most of us are meeting down in the Union, in an attempt to get into a sold out lecture by Brian Greene Author of "The Elegant Universe". Right now there are no tickets left but they seat people without tickets about 10 minutes before the lecture starts, assuming there are open seats. If the seats are full they actually simulcast the presentation in another room so we should be set. Either way it should be an interesting talk (ok I hope it will but Dr. Greene is very interesting, and was one of the few guest who didn't look silly on the Colbert Report.)
Saturday, December 10, 2005
CS GRE and Narnia
This morning I woke up at 7am to make it to the psychology building by 8:30 for the CS GRE. For those of you who don't know me well 8:30am is very, very early for me. In fact I haven't been up before 8:30 since May, except for today that is. In any case taking a test at 8:30 isn't my idea of a fun wakeup. Personally, I hate standardized tests despite my doing well on them, I think they are biased towards people who like to get up before the crack of dawn. It's not fair to those of us who achieve peak mental acuity around Noon.
Well after taking the over long (170 minute) test, I went home, grabbed some food, and then went to the 3:00pm showing of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I have to say the movie was enjoyable. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, as it was a bit slow in the middle (I almost fell asleep). Narnia was a good adaptation of the books and I don't have any complaints about them leaving stuff out. It's at least as good as the old PBS/Hallmark/BBC (I know it was on PBS) adaptation of the books. Overall, I'd say it is one of the better book to movie adaptations I've seen in a long time. Much better than Howl's Moving Castle (another children's book favorite of mine, don't get me started.)
Well after taking the over long (170 minute) test, I went home, grabbed some food, and then went to the 3:00pm showing of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I have to say the movie was enjoyable. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, as it was a bit slow in the middle (I almost fell asleep). Narnia was a good adaptation of the books and I don't have any complaints about them leaving stuff out. It's at least as good as the old PBS/Hallmark/BBC (I know it was on PBS) adaptation of the books. Overall, I'd say it is one of the better book to movie adaptations I've seen in a long time. Much better than Howl's Moving Castle (another children's book favorite of mine, don't get me started.)
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Fountain pictures
I've been working with a group to develop a control interface for the Engineering College's fountain for the last few years. Today I took a couple pictures of to show off the ice we've managed to generate on the north end (we are trying to make it into an ice sculpture.)
I also happened to be walking by it and night and snapped a shot since I thought it looked cool. My camera's batteries were basically dead so I only got one picture. Click on both for a closeup.
The fountain at night
I also happened to be walking by it and night and snapped a shot since I thought it looked cool. My camera's batteries were basically dead so I only got one picture. Click on both for a closeup.
The north end starting to ice up.
The fountain at nightPicture Update
As you can see I posted the only picture I have of myself on my computer. It's a couple of of years old but I mostly look the same (minus the facial hair). In any case as it's the only picture I have so it goes up.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A View To Kill (For)
A couple weeks back Dell had their 2405FPW on sale for 40% off so I picked one up. I've enjoyed computing and playing WoW on this wonderful screen which sports a 1920x1200 resolution. Even so I find I probably spend more computer time each day working on my 17" laptop then I do looking at my new 24" monitor. To give you an idea how big this thing is I've included a picture of this thing on my desk (click for a high res shot).
Good Deals
Well I have a couple of cool deals I've come across first is a computer from Monarch Computers. This computer is pretty decent for its $850 asking price but that's not the deal. It has a free copy of Halflife 2 and several other programs. Add Windows for $80 and get two free plan tickets from Microsoft! (I'm not kidding they have a free trip if you buy a PC, I think you can go to Hawaii.) If Hawaii is a valid destination like I believe based on the site buying that computer is a terrific deal.
Another cool deal to be found is Acclaim IP. That's right do to the bankruptcy of the gaming company you can buy publishing rights to many of their old games? Want Mortal Kombat I&II? The Bust a Move series? Or the classic Ecco the Dolphin? Then go make a bid on some of the great IP available at the previously mentioned site. (I would buy Mortal Kombat/Ecco except for that $5k initial bid thing.)
Another cool deal to be found is Acclaim IP. That's right do to the bankruptcy of the gaming company you can buy publishing rights to many of their old games? Want Mortal Kombat I&II? The Bust a Move series? Or the classic Ecco the Dolphin? Then go make a bid on some of the great IP available at the previously mentioned site. (I would buy Mortal Kombat/Ecco except for that $5k initial bid thing.)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Kendo in LaCrosse?
So its been awhile. I've been extremely busy since school started. I'm spending most of my time with schoolwork, and Kendo which basically limits my free time. I've even given up World of Warcraft as of last week as it was starting to have an adverse affect.
In any case I spent last weekend at a Kendo tournament held just north of LaCrosse, WI. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't score any points in my matches. I probably should have scored something in my first match against another Mudansha but wasn't able to get a clean hit in. I had one hit which a judge called as a hit but the main judged waved it off.
My second fight was against a 5-dan who is the Sensei at MSU (btw 5-dan is basically the Kendo equivalent to a 5th degree blackbelt). Knowing my chances were slim I tried a go for broke attack as Kiyota Sensei would put it. Unfortunately, this tactic failed as my Zanshin wasn't good enough. Upon turning around Fox Sensei struck a blow to my men (head) for the 1 point win. Next tournament I plan to last longer than 20 seconds against the other teams Sensei.
On Sunday morning it was my time to test for the rank if ikkyu (1-kyu). Ikkyu is the rank before shodan (1-dan) which is basically the first recognized rank in Kendo (the MWKF does have 2-6 kyu as lower ranks but typically these are only held by children). For the test I needed to demonstrate basic strikes (kote, men, do), do two three minute Ji-Geiko's, Kirikaeshi, and Katas 1-3. In the end I did well and passed. Now I need to get to work on my written essay as the last step of achieving my rank.
In any case I spent last weekend at a Kendo tournament held just north of LaCrosse, WI. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't score any points in my matches. I probably should have scored something in my first match against another Mudansha but wasn't able to get a clean hit in. I had one hit which a judge called as a hit but the main judged waved it off.
My second fight was against a 5-dan who is the Sensei at MSU (btw 5-dan is basically the Kendo equivalent to a 5th degree blackbelt). Knowing my chances were slim I tried a go for broke attack as Kiyota Sensei would put it. Unfortunately, this tactic failed as my Zanshin wasn't good enough. Upon turning around Fox Sensei struck a blow to my men (head) for the 1 point win. Next tournament I plan to last longer than 20 seconds against the other teams Sensei.
On Sunday morning it was my time to test for the rank if ikkyu (1-kyu). Ikkyu is the rank before shodan (1-dan) which is basically the first recognized rank in Kendo (the MWKF does have 2-6 kyu as lower ranks but typically these are only held by children). For the test I needed to demonstrate basic strikes (kote, men, do), do two three minute Ji-Geiko's, Kirikaeshi, and Katas 1-3. In the end I did well and passed. Now I need to get to work on my written essay as the last step of achieving my rank.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Summer Over
Well the summer is basically over. I about 2 days I head back to school and start my graduate student career.
My summer Internship at NVIDIA is over. Finally I won't be spending 50-60 hours a week doing work. While it was interesting and all the hours ended up being killer :(. Anyways, I picked up some video cards for my family and got myself a 7800 GTX. I had to upgrade the rest of my computer to use this so I now have an Athlon 64 3000+ Nforce 4 system in my case.
Well that's it for now. I need to scan in some rebate offers on my computer equipment and get to packing for my trip to school. I'll post some more soon since school is back on.
My summer Internship at NVIDIA is over. Finally I won't be spending 50-60 hours a week doing work. While it was interesting and all the hours ended up being killer :(. Anyways, I picked up some video cards for my family and got myself a 7800 GTX. I had to upgrade the rest of my computer to use this so I now have an Athlon 64 3000+ Nforce 4 system in my case.
Well that's it for now. I need to scan in some rebate offers on my computer equipment and get to packing for my trip to school. I'll post some more soon since school is back on.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Comcast Sux
Well I'm in CA. I'm actually going on my second week but haven't had time to post. So far I don't have any official internet access except from work. Comcast was supposed to be out May 31st to install our digtal cable and cable modem, but of course that didn't happen. The guy showed up over two hours late and didn't get anything done. He basically said sorry can't find a signal someone will call you who can do work and setup a time to come out later.
So I wait. And wait. And wait...
After two days I give up and call Comcast and get an appointment setup with someone on Thursday. By now I've started work so I can't be there for the installer. Luckily my Dad was in town until that Saturday so he stuck around. The guy managed to narrow the problem down to a disconnected cable in an apartment below me. He can't get a good signal for 'net though since its an old cable someone tacked. He said he would call back and setup a time to have people come out and rewire this.
And so I wait... And Wait... And Wait...
Eventually I call Comcast back, its now Monday 1 week after I was supposed to get cable. I manage to get a hold of someone who says the tech and manager is out and that I need to call back tomorrow.
So I call back tomorrow, the call center person finally gets a hold of the tech or supervisor and they schedule an all day appointment with my landlord for Wednesday. So Wed after a long day of work I head on home expecting my internet and cable to be setup. Boy was I wrong. I walk into a house with neither! So I immediately call Comcast (I'm sick of waiting and don't have time at work), I get a hold of someone who apolgizes for the problem (apparently he still sees the work order as incomplete), and promises me someone will be out the following morning to setup the cable.
I check in with my landlord around noon and find no one has shown up. So once again I give Comcast a call. The automated system mentions I had a service appointment scheduled for 8am the previous morning (the one no one showed up for). I finally get a hold of a person who denies I have any appointment setup at all. At this point I'm so fed up with playing games I ask for an appointment the same day or I will just cancel service. My exact words were along the lines of "Why won't you let me get your service? I'm trying to pay you guys money, do you want me to go somewhere else?" This manages to convice them to send someone out and they do.
Luckily I got out of work early to go to Kendo since the cable guy was still working at 6:00pm. Turns out he couldn't get it to work AND that they scheduled me for a premium internet install which costs $99 (I asked for self before, and the previous guy had that). Premium install means the guy runs a CD for you and royally screws up your computer. I refused to pay for the premium install if he does it since I didn't order it. The tech guy starts to unhook the stuff he did get installed since he doesn't have a self install kit and even if he did he can only do what the work order says. While he's unhooking the Digital Box I call the Comcast customer service center where it takes 10 minutes to explain the situation (the person thought I wanted them to extend their three month trial pricing offer). Finally, I get everything explained and the customer service rep waives the installation fee and has the tech finish the install. Well the tech finishes the install only to find the cable signal is weaker than ever the digital cable doesn't work, the modem STILL won't work, and now the basic cable is all fuzzy. The guy leaves me with the stuff and promises that his supervisor and him will take care of it tomorrow. (BTW this guy doesn't work for Comcast, more on that later).
The next day dawns. I'm so close to my final goal of cable TV and 'net. I have the receiver and modem but the signal is just bad. The previous evening I realized the tech took the install CD and the USB cable for the modem so I can't get online even if everything worked. Comcast requires you to go through some special server to actually get authenticated. I call the tech around 9:30am. Now the story has changed. Apparetly Comcast is not "responsible" for the wiring in the apartment and it will cost me or the apartment $170 to do the wiring. He can have his "crew" out to my apartment by the next day. I call my apartment manager and explain the information. Turns out this guy lied to me, and was just trying to make money by charging for a cable install on the side. The manager gets a hold of Comcast and schedules an apointment to have them come out and actually run the cable they were supposed to about a week ago (and didn't). Now I can only hope they show up, and don't leave because the apartment manager goes to the restroom. See the cable people don't know HOW TO CALL THE APARTMENT MANAGER WHEN I'M NOT HOME EVEN THOUGH THAT'S THE INSTRUCTION ON ALL THE WORK ORDERS!
Comcast needs to get their act together and maybe actually HIRE employees instead of "Independant Contractors". Then maybe they might have a consistend scheduling system. I don't really hold it against the installers since Comcast scheduling seems to give everyone some fucked up schedule with conflicting instructions. I'd go with another company but no one else is available since Cable companies are an monopoly.
So I wait. And wait. And wait...
After two days I give up and call Comcast and get an appointment setup with someone on Thursday. By now I've started work so I can't be there for the installer. Luckily my Dad was in town until that Saturday so he stuck around. The guy managed to narrow the problem down to a disconnected cable in an apartment below me. He can't get a good signal for 'net though since its an old cable someone tacked. He said he would call back and setup a time to have people come out and rewire this.
And so I wait... And Wait... And Wait...
Eventually I call Comcast back, its now Monday 1 week after I was supposed to get cable. I manage to get a hold of someone who says the tech and manager is out and that I need to call back tomorrow.
So I call back tomorrow, the call center person finally gets a hold of the tech or supervisor and they schedule an all day appointment with my landlord for Wednesday. So Wed after a long day of work I head on home expecting my internet and cable to be setup. Boy was I wrong. I walk into a house with neither! So I immediately call Comcast (I'm sick of waiting and don't have time at work), I get a hold of someone who apolgizes for the problem (apparently he still sees the work order as incomplete), and promises me someone will be out the following morning to setup the cable.
I check in with my landlord around noon and find no one has shown up. So once again I give Comcast a call. The automated system mentions I had a service appointment scheduled for 8am the previous morning (the one no one showed up for). I finally get a hold of a person who denies I have any appointment setup at all. At this point I'm so fed up with playing games I ask for an appointment the same day or I will just cancel service. My exact words were along the lines of "Why won't you let me get your service? I'm trying to pay you guys money, do you want me to go somewhere else?" This manages to convice them to send someone out and they do.
Luckily I got out of work early to go to Kendo since the cable guy was still working at 6:00pm. Turns out he couldn't get it to work AND that they scheduled me for a premium internet install which costs $99 (I asked for self before, and the previous guy had that). Premium install means the guy runs a CD for you and royally screws up your computer. I refused to pay for the premium install if he does it since I didn't order it. The tech guy starts to unhook the stuff he did get installed since he doesn't have a self install kit and even if he did he can only do what the work order says. While he's unhooking the Digital Box I call the Comcast customer service center where it takes 10 minutes to explain the situation (the person thought I wanted them to extend their three month trial pricing offer). Finally, I get everything explained and the customer service rep waives the installation fee and has the tech finish the install. Well the tech finishes the install only to find the cable signal is weaker than ever the digital cable doesn't work, the modem STILL won't work, and now the basic cable is all fuzzy. The guy leaves me with the stuff and promises that his supervisor and him will take care of it tomorrow. (BTW this guy doesn't work for Comcast, more on that later).
The next day dawns. I'm so close to my final goal of cable TV and 'net. I have the receiver and modem but the signal is just bad. The previous evening I realized the tech took the install CD and the USB cable for the modem so I can't get online even if everything worked. Comcast requires you to go through some special server to actually get authenticated. I call the tech around 9:30am. Now the story has changed. Apparetly Comcast is not "responsible" for the wiring in the apartment and it will cost me or the apartment $170 to do the wiring. He can have his "crew" out to my apartment by the next day. I call my apartment manager and explain the information. Turns out this guy lied to me, and was just trying to make money by charging for a cable install on the side. The manager gets a hold of Comcast and schedules an apointment to have them come out and actually run the cable they were supposed to about a week ago (and didn't). Now I can only hope they show up, and don't leave because the apartment manager goes to the restroom. See the cable people don't know HOW TO CALL THE APARTMENT MANAGER WHEN I'M NOT HOME EVEN THOUGH THAT'S THE INSTRUCTION ON ALL THE WORK ORDERS!
Comcast needs to get their act together and maybe actually HIRE employees instead of "Independant Contractors". Then maybe they might have a consistend scheduling system. I don't really hold it against the installers since Comcast scheduling seems to give everyone some fucked up schedule with conflicting instructions. I'd go with another company but no one else is available since Cable companies are an monopoly.
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