it didn't really fail. You were up after it was all over with. Fast, cheap or good - pick two.
Destined To Fail
91–100 of 110 posts
Re: Destined To Fail
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a 30 year old movie. Alien is nearly 35 years old. There have been a bunch of movies made since then that OP may have thought he needed to watch - thus not having time to watch the actually good movies. I'm about to watch both of these in the next month, so it'll be interesting to see the clunky bits. Visions of the future from the past are fascinating. (See also the Gibson story "The Gernsback Continuum".)
There are very few clunky bits in Alien or Blade Runner. It is amazing how well they hold up.
I dunno. I love Alien as much as the next guy, but there are a few times when you see the alien and think "that's just a thin person in an elaborate suit".
Re: Destined To Fail
#93Of all the government created monopolies, the cable monopolies are some of the worst. If cable companies had to compete to keep business, they'd offer better service and treat their employees better. Southwest airlines is a good example of a company that has to keep costs low, but does this in part by treating their employees very well. Notice that they charge ever higher and higher fees, in part because the municipa…
How many times are you willing to let a startup tear up your yard? Or are you referring to the proposals that government should force private companies to share the critical infrastructure they created at their own expense? I can't imagine that sitting very well with libertarians or people vehemently opposed to government monopolies.
The only way last mile utilities are going to be fair is if government steps in (correctly). To my mind, that means municipally laid and maintained last-mile fiber patched to the commercial provider of my choosing, but I expect that will remain a dream for a few decades, at least.
Re: Destined To Fail
#94I hope this doesn't backfire on Bill.
It puts me in mind of a story I heard this past weekend (for the second or third time -- hint, hint as to the experience's effect on the customer, to any cable co. "image" people happening to read this).
The person I spoke with ("the customer") told me how, transitioning from an outside antenna to cable TV, he had been very careful to tell the Comcast order taker that his installation should be classified as a "new" installation and not as a simple hook-up (the latter implying a pre-existing cable line to the property). The order taker seemed to have enough technical understanding to understand this and indicate they were recording the order for service installation as such.
When the technician arrived, he seemed quite competent, quickly assessed and understood the situation, and began executing a new installation including a new line from the pole.
However, he quickly started receiving calls from his supervisor, who was nasty and who started shouting at him so loudly -- including foul language -- that the customer could hear the supervisor's side of the conversation bleeding out of the technician's cell phone.
Apparently, despite this customer's care in placing the order and the order taker's reassurance that they understood what was needed, the order ended up in the order tracking system as a simple "hook-up".
There was nothing the technician could do about this, and he remained courteous with the customer and efficient in his work. But he was totally, abusively berated and dumped on by his supervisor.
The customer felt bad enough about this that he actually apologized, saying he was sorry the technician had to go through that.
In retrospect, he told me he wished he'd followed up with Comcast support until he hopefully might get through to a manager with sufficient authority to reprimand -- fire, preferably -- that supervisor. Someone who should not be managing anyone.
And yes, the technician was a contractor. Personally, I see so much of this, I think Congress should be made to pass a law forbidding these (Federally regulated, quasi-monopolies, after all) companies from using any contract workers. These companies have obviously abused their positions, including in their labor relations. Make all their employees full time, with benefits, and put the companies directly on the hook for such abuses.
When they need to make up the differences in expense, take it out of those companies' managements' hide. If you want an argument for that, what premium do -- or rather, don't -- they have to offer and pay to get management capable of managing a fucking monopoly (or the next thing to same)?
Re: Destined To Fail
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can always count on nirvana to come up with the maximal libertarian argument. What proof is there that this is a government created monopoly? What exactly is the "violence" that Austin would do to competitors? Do libertarians not believe in the concept of natural monopolies?
The monopoly is not entirely created by the government. It would be more accurate to say, "the major cable companies have divided the country amongst themselves and agreed not to step on each other's turf." The FCC and the local governments have various levels of complicity in this arrangement. A municipality would not likely visit any violence upon a competitor, but that's largely because the only way to become a co…
And where municipalities have not received sufficient -- or any (i.e. high speed) -- service from existing providers and have therefore, finally, attempted to deploy their own local service (an action with much established precendent, e.g. rural electrification cooperatives, water service, etc. -- even telephone exchanges), in many of those cases the incumbent telecommunications providers have lobbied and coerced state governments to outlaw such actions.
They don't want to offer service. But they're damned sure not going to let anyone else do so -- not even let the community do so for themselves.
I'd hardly call that healthy competition.
Re: Destined To Fail
#96it didn't really fail. You were up after it was all over with. Fast, cheap or good - pick two.
Except cable setup is neither fast, nor very good. At best they picked one.
Re: Destined To Fail
#97Isn't anyone else simply flabbergasted that the OP has never seen Blade Runner?? I'm not sure how being "too young" can be a valid excuse unless you are under 15 years old.
I've seen what appears to be the Director's Cut, which is missing narration and a scene or two. My 'too young' comment was in reply to seeing the original version of Blade Runner in the theater.
Alright, here's your geek card back. Be more careful with it next time.
Re: Destined To Fail
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are very few clunky bits in Alien or Blade Runner. It is amazing how well they hold up.
I dunno. I love Alien as much as the next guy, but there are a few times when you see the alien and think "that's just a thin person in an elaborate suit".
Interesting that's what you notice, and not the CRTs or the incandescent bulbs in switches.
Re: Destined To Fail
#99Wait. He first "hacks" the order form to make the "supply my own modem" checkbox available, and then complains that "Time Warner should have known, based on the options selected during my purchase, that I would supply my own modem and asked me personally to supply the MAC address and relevant information". Can't have it both ways, man. Time Warner can be blamed for many things, but expecting them to seamlessly suppor…
You basically have to hack / debug every website from Time Warner in order to use it. I swear I've whipped out chrome inspector / firebug attempting to use TWC websites at least twice.
There could be an equally long blog post about the maddening information architecture and odd lapses in QA on critical features. For nearly 4 months their online recurring billing was sending me confirmation and then one day I get a shutoff notice with audacious late payment fees - why? Because the system failed at making the transaction but there was no error handling, so instead of throwing an error it instead just marked me as having missed a payment on the backend.
Re: Destined To Fail
#100PS: If you are in the Austin area and need a master carpenter, I know a guy who needs you just as much. This line made me happy.
Same here. Here's to hoping that some contact info gets shared.