A blog about life, the web, and drupal
After writing my last article it seems the dcist has reported that Metro will be supporting all carriers by October 2010. This is excellent news! But as with all WMATA improvements, it’s probably going to be a long process and apparently not all the tunnels are going to be supported right away. At least it’s better than nothing.
I find it extremely annoying that AT&T hasn’t implemented cell phone service on the metro
this day and age. I have a feeling it has something to do with an exclusive agreement between Verizon and WMATA. Whether or not that agreement exist is up for debate, but it makes sense because I’m sure AT&T stands to lose potential customers without having the underground metro service.
There have been quite a few times where if been sitting I. The metro and seen someone happily checking their email on their Verizon Blackberry. I want that!! Come on AT&T! Throw me a bone here.
As I type this I’m on the orange line waiting to emerge into the daylight so I can post this. Maybe one day I’ll have the luxury of posting while on the subway.
So I just installed Drupal on one of my domains and I found out the hard way that Dreamhost only gives php 8mb of memory. This is causing obvious problems while trying to run Drupal with around 15 modules installed. I’ve written Dreamhost but it seems I’m going to have to install my own copy of PHP to run an efficient Drupal site. The other option is to get a new hosting provider.
On a side note, logging into my WordPress admin panel was rather slow too. Hopefully my whole server isn’t getting bogged down. I guess I need to go check the logs.
Although this site is run on WordPress, I’m starting to get into using Drupal in a really big way. I’ve used it before in the past but I really have started to get familiar with it recently. There’s a lot of power behind it. I think I’m going to redo www.dangautsch.com and insert it into a Drupal theme. I’ve also got to get www.numello.com running on Drupal too. Lots of work to do.
I found this note sitting by the coffee pot at work. I only use one packet of grounds usually but I guess someone like’s strong coffee. I thought the note was appropriately passive-agressive. It’s a good chuckle.
Maybe i like strong coffee.
I’ve been working as a Designer for about 4 years now. I’m still pretty young and new to everything but I have gathered a few tid bits of knowledge over these years.
If you’re not familiar with the webcomic XKCD it probably means you’re not one of the following:
If you are one of those people and still haven’t heard of XKCD, let me give you a little exposition. Randall Munroe used to work for NASA and in his spare time decided to make a comic about life, the universe, and nerd stuff. Mainly the jokes revolve around scientific principles, computers, and sometimes pop culture. They also poke fun at the internet culture that has sprung up in the last decade. You can read more about it on the wiki.
So I was sitting around today and was perusing Reddit when this little gem popped up and it hit pretty close to home. Sure enough I am the guy at work now and then who will send out funny webcomics to people when I’m short on things to do. David and Gary know what I’m talking about.
Signs Your Coders Don't Have Enough Work to Do
Believe me I’m also guilty of scouring the company web pages for crappy code and making the XHTML strict. But then I realized 90% of my company uses IE6 and that raises a million other problems. That’s when I switched to reddit, digg, and webcomics. By the way Reddit is far superior to Digg.
Going to be getting outside and visiting Old Town tonight with Yvonne. It’s really nice out and I hope this weather sticks around. I’ll update this when I have more time.
UPDATE: I never realized how nice Old Town Alexandria is. The history, small shops, the waterfront, the excellent restaurants, all make Old Town an exciting and enlightening experience. We worked our way down to the waterfront first and saw a few street vendors and people idling around. The weather was really nice on sunday, probably a balmy 70 degrees. Very unusual for this time of year in Virginia.
Three weeks ago I moved to a new apartment in the same apartment complex that I’ve been living in for over a year now. The new place is really great. It has vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, more space, and it overlooks the pool. So with this move I felt it would be prudent to switch my existing Verizon FIOs service from my old place to my new place. I called them up and had them switch my video and data service over to my new address. Everything went smoothly on the phone and I was even able to secure a free DVR for the next year due to some previous complications.
Moving day came and I was very happy with myself that I had enough foresight to have my internet switched over early. The technician arrives and tells us, as were moving furniture up three flights of stairs that he’s hooked up our TV. “That’s great!” I tell the technician, “But what about our internet? Is that hooked up to?” The technician gives me a blank stare and says, “You don’t have a data order I can’t hook up your internet. I assure that there must be a mistake and explain the situation. I tell him to call up his supervisor to confirm. He does that and tells me he’s hooked up the internet. Unable to verify this because my computer is disconnected, I take his word for it.
After finally getting everything moved in I decided to setup my computer and check a few emails and do some freelance work. Sure enough there is no internet. I can connect to the router and ping websites but Verizon obviously has blocked my ports and limited me from using the net. This was Sunday.
On Monday I call Verizon, thinking this is a minor issue, and tell them the internet isn’t working. I do the standard reboot your modem and router business and it still isn’t working. Verizon tech support tells me, “We don’t see a data order on your account you’re going to have to go talk to billing.” So I get transferred to billing and they tell me, “Sorry sir but it shows that we have internet running at your place maybe your computer isn’t hooked up correctly.” That last bit about my computer makes me upset because I’m probably one of their more computer literate customers.
So I explain to billing that there is an obvious problem with my account because tech support can’t see the data order. So begins my three week merry-go-round with Verizon phone support. I’ll spare you the details and summarize what happened for the next three weeks. Verizon deletes my data order, thinking it’s corrupted, and creates a new one. They tell me this takes 24 hours and to call back to setup a new data order. I do this and I still don’t have internet. Once again I encounter the “we don’t see a data order, talk to billing.” This goes on for THREE WEEKS.
Finally, today I tell them that if this isn’t resolved (I’m refraining from using vulgarities) that I’m going to switch to Comcast and live with slower internet because this whole situation is just ridiculous. A competent worker at Verizon finally realizes what the issue is today. Now mind you I originally put this change of service order on February 10th. It is now March 6th. He tells me that whoever originally switched my service sent my video (TV) order to my new place but kept the internet at the old place. So whoever is living in my old apartment has been getting free internet, whether they knew it or not. He tells me he has to cancel everything on my account and put a new order in.
I finally get this little gem in my mailbox:
Irony at its best.
Daniel,
YOUR JAW WILL DROP. YOUR PULSE WILL RACE. You know what Verizon, fuck you! My pulse and my jaw have been dropping for fucking three weeks at your complete incompetency and lack of customer service. (Ok, I had to vent)
I think the real kicker here is that in order for this new order to go through they have to disconnect my TV and I also have to wait til MARCH 12th to get it all back. Oh and I’m still paying for everything.
Screw you verizon, I hope your jaw drops and then some stray dog takes a smelly dump on it before you have time to pick it up again.
This is why Verizon SUCKS!
I took this test recently, at this link.
It starts by picking colors you feel most at harmony with. Now you can tell the site is trying to sell you something because no matter what combination you choose it gives you some sad story about how you’re not happy with your life and something’s missing. For all it’s short comings it seems to have some good insight though. Below is my result.
You are a very sensitive person and you try hard (perhaps a little too hard) to make favourable impressions and to be recognised by your peers. But you have that inherent need to feel appreciated and admired and you are easily hurt if all of your endeavours go by unappreciated or not acknowledged. Stop trying so hard.
The way things are you are under considerable stress and you feel that there is little hope of matters righting themselves. Everyone about you seems to aggravate the problem even more. You feel that at this time you need to be alone and you are right – move back and give yourself a chance to breathe.
You have a high opinion of yourself. It is perhaps because of this self-centredness that you become exasperated when you feel that your needs are misinterpreted by those around you. When this happens – and it does quite often – you feel that there is no-one that can understand the way you feel and it is because of this egocentric self that you are quick to take offence.
You pretend that you are a carefree individual and that nothing really bothers you – that you are so self-sufficient that whatever problems beset you they simply flow off you as water flows off a ducks back. You are experiencing considerable stress, trying to conceal yourself from the rest of the world. In actual fact – deep down, you are not at all happy. You feel lonely and you need someone with whom you can ‘Let your hair down’ and share your hopes, dreams and high standards. You are imposing unnecessary self restraint on yourself. You would like to demonstrate the unique quality of your character to all and sundry.
You are presently worried about your future and you feel that whatever you do will go wrong. At this time you are your own worst enemy. All the disappointment that you have experienced, coupled with the fear that there is no point in formulating fresh goals, have led to anxiety. You would like recognition and a position of trust but you are concerned that these hopes and dreams may not be realised. You are very argumentative and insistent that you are right – maybe you are – but you are pushing too hard. Take it easy, let go, and smile. Smiling and agreeing with people works wonders – try it and see.
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