First World Problems

[JoeP]

lizard brain ... lisarea'd brain ... it's starting to make more sense

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

[Limoncello]

Currently fasting (just today to detox) - and dieting, trying to lose 10 pounds by the time I have to wear a swim suit in Bora Bora. Poor me.

[BrotherMan]

Earlier this week I noticed that some posts from one of our esteemed members were showing up blank. Our prolific twitter sharer's poasts were blinking away right before my very eyes. At first I wasn't terribly worried. It's twitter. I have a twitter but I don't use it. But then I realized I was missing some high comedy, among other things. Turns out one of my Firefox extensions is blocking it. Presently I am browsing the whole of the internet completely exposed just so I can read these posts. At least until I can figure out a work-through.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

uBlock Origin is pretty hands off and takes care of a great deal of crud.

[BrotherMan]

I've already fixed it. Google and whoever already knows I waste half my life here and I'm okay with that.

[JoeP]

Between here, Facebort, Instabort, and real-world visits to see pibbles your life must be manic.

[lisarea]

Our internet has gotten really spotty over the past week or so. It goes out periodically for no apparent reason, then comes back on. Matlock said he thought it was when someone was on wifi, but I don't get how that could even happen.

Called a guy out who checked it, and he fixed a minor problem PLUS told me to go check because it looked like there was a phone plugged into a jack somewhere sucking up a bit of our data, AND THERE WAS. Linemen are wizards, I tell you.

It went out slightly less after that, but it turns out that it's going out whenever we use the Roku. Which is how I watch all my movies, and I have been hard jonesing to watch a couple specific movies in my queue right now, but I can't. I called another tech out, but apparently they don't work on weekends, so they're coming out as ass o' clock tomorrow, but I WANT TO WATCH A MOVIE NOW.

One thing the guy said is that there was some kind of 'account change' right around when the problems started. I didn't make any change. So I called tech support later and asked what the change was, and he was pretty vague and said it was just a 'programming thing,' like there is another type of change possible. He wouldn't/couldn't tell me what it was, but THAT'S FISHY.

Also, I've been getting pretty sketched by the Roku these days anyway, but this is amplifying that. It's not wireless itself. I've got tons of stuff working fine on wireless. It's Roku specifically. Is it maybe just that bad a data hog that it's kicking everything off when it tries to run? That's my best guess so far. Matlock can still watch Netflix on his Xbox, so it's not just the media. But that's hardwired, also.

I need to maybe go find something else that's going to work. I had trouble getting Kodi to work with the subscriptions, so probably not that. And I really would like to avoid Google and Amazon.

I'm maybe going to go see if it'd work hardwired. I cannot reasonably do that on a permanent basis, because the living room is too far from the router to get ethernet there. But maybe it'd narrow it down, so I'd know if it's just Roku or Roku on wireless or what.

UGH. I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS. It's snowing again, and I wanted to watch a movie and make some food and stuff. I didn't want to think about this shit right now.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I've been using an AirPort Express as an antenna paired to an AirPort Extreme router for few years and it's fantastic.

[lisarea]

The wifi thing is a red herring. It does show that it's a problem with the outside line, and it's not exclusively happening when we're using the Roku, but it does happen every time we do. I've got other stuff on wifi that has no apparent effect at all. I did just turn it off entirely to see if that keeps the wired connections stable, but I can't think of a way that wifi itself could have any effect on internet connectivity. I'm reasonably sure it's the load somehow. And whatever "programming thing" they did.

[Sock Puppet]

Somebody brought in some home-baked chocolate chip cookies, for general consumption. They're really friggin' hard.

[lisarea]

Hey, so the second and third CenturyLink techs came out today and resolved the problem. See, what has happened is that the modem AND two different model Rokus all failed right around the time that they did that mysterious account update.

So the third guy, see, he figured out that my modem was broken and it wouldn't reboot, despite it having rebooted like an hour before, and ten times at least over the past week. Broken! (And it actually wasn't booting unless he was doing some crafty sleight of hand.)

So he got a newer model rental modem out of his truck and hooked that up and said ALL FIXED, so I checked the Roku, and it couldn't log in. So he said, yeah, no, this is working perfectly, so your Rokus are broken just like your modem.

And he left it here, and within a half an hour, the new modem stopped recognizing my computer, and the Rokus still couldn't log in.

So now I am back on my broken modem, logged in on my computer. And the Rokus can log in, they just can't, like, play stuff is all. Maybe I need to get more broken stuff to get this all working. Hire some rats to chew through the lines or something so that I could watch the movies I've been trying to watch for like a week now.

Thank heck that got resolved. It was all so puzzling before we figured it out.

[Limoncello]

Only cold water today in our building, had the briefest of showers - will have highbeams for days.

[JoeP]

>buy drink
Regrettably impossible; you left both your purse and your wallet in the car. You’re loving this town more every minute.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

>buy drink
Regrettably impossible; you left both your purse and your wallet in the car. You’re loving this town more every minute.

Joke's on you. Some ned just stole your car.

[JoeP]

Least of our problems.

You are in a small, enclosed cupola situated, by the look of the view through the dingy skylight over your head, on top of the roof of the house. The walls are covered with astrological and astronomical charts with equations and diagrams scribbled across them in crabbed, stilted handwriting. The only exit seems to be an oddly-angled corridor to the southeast.

Dominating the center of the room is a large mounted telescope, pointed almost straight up through the skylight.

Most of the charts seem to be plotting the trajectory of some comet you've never heard of, as it gradually approaches the solar system over the course of several centuries.

According to this, the comet is due to arrive...

Well, that's interesting. According to this, the comet is coming tomorrow.

[Miisa]

I am working from home today, which I don't do often any more, and now I know why. Without a docking station I am restricted to the laptop screen a a single external display, making it 1½ screens instead of the usual 3 full displays.

This is what hell will be like.

[Stormlight]

Just so you: we're all here for you in these difficult times!

[JoeP]

I was looking at my one-and-two-halves screens at home and contemplating my 1½ screens at work and thinking thoughts.

But then I remembered that Britain isn't first world any more so I should be happy for what I've got.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

you had four years to escape

[JoeP]

THANKS FOR RUBBING IT IN

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

DON'T THEY HAVE FISH AND CHIPS IN FINLAND

[JoeP]

Hard as it may be to believe, that has not been the main obstacle.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Hard as it may be to believe, that has not been the main obstacle.

Perkele?

Also it don't get much more British than this: Bookshop burglary foiled after prosecco distracts raiders | Books | The Guardian

[lisarea]

A fourth CenturyLink tech came out today and still couldn't find or understand the problem, so we have to switch to Comcast. I hate Comcast even more than I do CenturyLink somehow, but those are the only options.

Still, though. How the hell did this happen? The signal is fine coming in, supposedly, and it should be able to handle everything we use it for. And was able to handle it until a couple weeks ago. I tried the new modem/router they left here, which didn't fix it. It's not just the wifi, because the stupid XBox is hardwired and it's not connecting either.

So this is all academic now, but it's still bugging me. When I told the last tech that it happened right at the same time they did an account change, he said maybe they'd switched from ADSL to VDSL, which is wrong but an intriguing clue. It's always been VDSL2, but it indicates that they would do shit like that without telling people. And I'm going a little crazy wondering what they did to me, and why it's affecting us like this.

Other puzzle: I already have equipment for Comcast, but they just mailed me a "self install kit" that I'm supposed to wait for before I set up our new service. What the hell are they sending me?

Oh yeah, and LOL when I called the account number at CenturyLink to check on the last bill, she tried pretty hard to sell me TV and phone service. I told her I was checking on it because we're cancelling, but wow. I can't believe they make them try to upsell you even then.