Month: January 2007

[previous entries]

Fry’s did deliver the new TV as scheduled and of course it made absolutely no difference in the problem (of having to power cycle the Comcast box or unplug/plug the HDMI cable). What a fracking waste of their money and time, and a bit of my time, but that’s the stupid low level thinking Fry’s always seems to show. No doubt they are a very profitable business, so it must work for them, but I’ve yet to meet a customer or floor worker who likes it.

In fact now that the 30 day wait period is expired I may call again and this time they will have to send a repair person out. Doubtful that this will have any chance of a real solution, but not my problem.

Comcast gave me a new HD DVR and, with help from an online support rep, I got the two missing channels. Actually the Universal HD channel turns out to be quite useful since I’m catching up on the two Law & Order spinoffs, Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, which I’d never watched before, plus it has a bunch of SciFi channel shows that are cool to watch in high def.

There was a bit of panty twisting with the cable company before this pleasant resolution. In order to try and force the set top box to show UHD and MTVhd the rep sent it a reset signal but afterwards I no longer got FoxSoccer Channel or Starz. The rep claimed these were simply not part of my package, despite having received them for years and through any number of reset signals, and restoring them would cost an additional $15 a month.

Ha! You readers surely now by now my sense of entitlement would not let that stand and I pushed back. The rep went off to confer with the supervisor, for more than ten minutes, long enough that I thought he just blew me off, but the rep (whose name I wasn’t really given) turned out to be a good advocate for my request and a very good public face for Comcast.

He said that the Starz would just be turned back on, which I could see had already happened, though to get FSC I’d need the sports add-on at $4.95 a month. However, Comcast would waive the $6.95 a month box rental fee! Very nice, eh? I get a few additional channels–GolTV being by far the most interesting, with lots of Spanish, German and other international league football coverage, albeit in Spanish–and save $2 a month.

The new report card:

• Fry’s: F, no change, though I’d make it lower if the American school system had it
• Olevia: B-, up from C, because I’m really loving the HD
• Comcast: A-, up from C+, thanks to some great customer service–and will go higher if the promised TiVo service is $5 a month or less

As part of straightening out my issues with Comcast and HD, I ended up getting the Spanish language channel football network GolTV and watched an entire match today, with La Liga leading (and reigning Europe champion) Barcelona FC visiting bottom dwelling Real Betis.

Barca is missing a bunch of players through injury, including strikers Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi, but given their lineup I still expected them to dominate the game. Real Betis was the bright team this day, scoring first and holding on for the 1-1 draw. The hosts were much more aggressive and their midfielder Assuncao took some blistering wicked free kicks that came very close to sneaking just inside Victor Valdes’ post.

Frankly, if this is the team that shows up against Liverpool in four weeks for the Champions League round then I think our club has a much better chance to go through than before I watched the game. Ronaldinho still has not regained his rampant form of the last two seasons and Deco was rarely able to connect with Saviola and Giuly upfront; however Eto’o and Messi may both be back by then so I doubt the Reds will have an easy time as Real Betis did today.

I’ve been remiss the last few weeks in putting down my writeups in Bill’s Movie Reviews so I added seven new entries this weekend, the last twice due to a server-side hiccup:

• Firewall – moderately watchable
• Deep Impact – very good
• Havoc – bad, really bad
• Last Action Hero – funny and watchable
• Four Brothers – very good
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – twisted good, better than the Gene Wilder version by far
• Everything is Illuminated – spike in forehead bad

Yes, I watch a lot of movies. I also watched and was disappointed by Arsenal’s win at the death over Manchester United this morning and the Bears’ easy win over the Saints in the NFC championship this afternoon. Glad to see the Patriots score first, at least, and while I don’t wish injuries to any athlete, the timing of in-form Gunners striker Robin van Persie’s broken metatarsal is a bit of good news for my Reds.

Related: My five year old blog post Rex Grossman is not Jewish is apparently a destination of choice for web surfers wondering if the Bears’ quarterback is, in fact, Jewish bringing in 77 of the last 100 page views recorded by SiteMeter.

In a crucial Barclays English Premier League home match today the Reds took cruel advantage of Chelsea’s injury troubles and squad disarray to score twice in the opening 18 minutes. The first goal came from Dirk Kuyt, off Peter Crouch’s foot, and soon after Jermaine Pennant got his first goal for the club with a dipping blast from the right side of the penalty area.

Peter Cech made an early return from his fractured skull, wearing an ungainly head protector, but Jose Mourinho had to start Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira in central defense as Khalid Boulahrouz has a knee injury, Ricardo Carvalho took ill over night and John Terry’s back has still not recovered while left back Wayne Bridge also has a knee problem and Claude Makele was suspended from cards, and the Reds came out blasting against the improvised defensive core. Winger Arjen Robben had to leave after 20 minutes after twisting an ankle.

Today was Rafa Benitez’s 100th EPL game so he knew the opening minutes were critical and had the team prepared. The precious three points pulls the ‘Pool within five points of the Blues in the standings, only one behind in the goal difference tiebreaker, and leave a visit from hated Gunners at the end of March and a trip to Old Trafford two weeks later as the only remaining Big Four matchups.

The next three games, before the boys travel to Spain for the first leg of their Champions League tussle with Ronaldinho’s Barcelona, are West Ham, a derby with Everton and Newcastle could yield 7-9 points if current form holds. Defeating the Spanish champions could give the team a real boost towards a second European trophy in three seasons!

After reading the excerpt Karl posted from Dr. King’s speech Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution and Dan’s brief rumination I feel very sad. To go back 40 years and see that so little has changed, in fact the change there’s been has gone in the wrong direction, is truly disheartening.

I can only imagine that the cost per dead terrorist is far higher, even adjusted for inflation, than the $500k King cites from the Vietnam era though I suppose the political achievements are and will be similar. That is, nothing good will come of this adventure, not security nor better lives for the vast majority of Iraqis, Afghanis or Americans.

A friend emailed this link to Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech, if you want to feel the passion and promise he offered in depth.

To promote top-rated CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for the month that Gil Grissom (William Peterson) is off doing a play in Chicago, the show is bringing in a mysterious cop character and to go along with the storyline CBS has put together a nice website called Who is Keppler? The site has user-contributed video mashups, tagging, rating, friend lists, Google Map of registered user locations and mobile content and is built with Palo Alto-based Ning.

We’ve had the Olevia 37″ LCD TV and Comcast HD DVR settop box for nearly three weeks now and I think its time to put down my thoughts. Short story: Love the sharper HD channels (plus the bigger picture on the rest) and the settop box’s dual tuners, hate with a passion the Comcast onscreen guide and am fairly unhappy with the pair losing the HDCP authorization handshake.

Once again I find myself quite unhappy at purchasing a big ticket item from Fry’s due to their completely crappy customer service. On January 2 I had another reason to stop by the store so I also tried to get an answer on whether this HDCP issue is just “the way it is” or if there’s something incorrectly setup or configured. No one in the TV or service departments had a clue and said my only option was a service call, which I did; their ancient software required that I fill out a form with information they already have in the computer and then wait 15 minutes for it to be input.

The service counter rep said I would get a call by the next day to schedule the visit since Fry’s uses a third party provider but when no call came by Thursday I called back and was told no, the scheduling call isn’t due for three days and, in fact, the ticket hadn’t even been assigned to a service company yet. Monday lunchtime arrived with no call so I called Fry’s again and was told that the ticket still wasn’t assigned.

The service counter rep, same one who took my report six days before, called me back after speaking with the central office to investigate. Fry’s, he said, does not actually have a company in this area to service this TV but since less than 30 days have passed from my purchase my only options are to return the set or live with the problem.

The $50 two year extended warranty I purchase includes in-home service so I asked that someone bring the new set here and retrieve the old one. Not surprisingly the rep claimed that product exchanges within the 30 days do not qualify for in-home service and the charge for home delivery is $40.

After I pointed out several times that Fry’s had sold me a service contract the company could not honor (smells illegal to me, which I explained would have me calling the Better Business Bureau and the Santa Clara County Consumer Protection Unit, eh?) he conferred with his manager and they agreed to make the delivery the next morning at no cost. Of course the new set has exactly the same issue. What a huge pain when all I wanted was to speak with a qualified tech to see if I could make a change to correct this or not. But that’s Fry’s for you and something I really need to keep in mind for future non-trivial purchases.

There’s also a problem on the Comcast side: two HD channels, Universal HD and MTV HD, won’t show because the box thinks I’m not authorized. Phone support couldn’t fix it and a visit from a service tech was no better; I don’t quite understand how this can be a box-level issue but that’s the explanation. I have to bring the box in for an exchange since the tech didn’t have the right one in his truck–the second gen DVRs only have DVI and component output but I need to use HDMI since the DVD player occupies the TV’s component jacks.

Replacing the box would cost me the already-recorded shows so I still haven’t turned it in. It will also mean all my series subscriptions and other scheduled recordings, plus my channel favorites list got blown away when phone support tried to fix the problem. Another pain in the backside.

Given that the settop box, like my beloved old TiVo, is a computer I have to wonder why neither Comcast nor TiVo offers a backup feature. Not for recorded shows but just for all the settings. How much space and bandwidth could it use? After all, we’re just talking about a few K of highly compressible text per box and the customer convenience factor would be huge. Even better would be to send a delta update after each change or newly scheduled recording.

On the bright side, at the Consumer Electronics Show this week Comcast and TiVo demonstrated the fruits of the partership they touted last year to bring TiVo’s software to Comcast DVR boxes. This will go a long way to making me happy because the current Comcast onscreen guide/DVR software really bites. Neither the phone support rep, the tech who visited me nor the press releases from either company offer any date when I can get this, and I hope the fee won’t be more than $4-5/month since the DVR already costs $10/month, but you can be sure I’m chomping at the bit.

Also good was the FCC’s decision turning down a request by Comcast to continue to require its subscribers use its own television set-top boxes rather than meet a July 1 deadline for cable operators and consumer electronics companies to use compatible technology for television delivery when building such boxes. This means that when a customer subscribes to a particular service, they may request an external cable card which can be inserted into the box to receive service. For once some support for consumers.

Scorecard

• Fry’s: F
• Comcast: C+, possibly moving up to a B+/A- if the TiVo service comes soon
• Olevia: C

• FA Cup: Liverpool 1-3 Arsenal, the title defense ends on the first outing.
• Carling Cup: Liverpool 1-3 Arsenal, third worst home defeat ever, though I will note that the starting squad only included three of our first choice XI, Hyypia, Gerrard and Bellamy, while Arsenal used four or five of theirs
• Injuries: Luis Garcia and his magic lost for the season (torn ACL) after coming on in the 11th minute for Mark Gonzalez (often on the field when Luis Garcia is not), out for three weeks, who left with a shin injury.

Silver linings

• Better rested players for Premiership (next up, at Watford on Saturday and home to Chelsea–NOT on FSC, dammit–a week later) and Champions League matches (Next up, home and away with Barcelona in late February and early March).
• Injuries: We ought to get Zenden back at the weekend and Sissoko for the first match in February, a derby with Everton. While StevieG may not like it I expect he will be moved back to the right so Sissoko can play hard man in the center.
• Transfers: First deal in the window nets a young Italian keeper called Daniele Padelli on loan from Serie A Sampdoria, though I’m not clear why since he hasn’t pushed his way into the starting lineup while on loan at Serie B club Crotone. Rumors are rampant that serious bids have been made to buy Blackburn/Australia defender Lucas Neill and Hamilton Academical teenage midfielder Jamie Macarthy, the Reds are targeting young Watford star striker Ashley Young and that Argentine star (but so far no big deal at West Ham) midfielder Javier Mascherano has rejected the renewed interest of Juventus to hold out for a move to Anfield. Meanwhile, Aston Villa want to steal Craig Bellamy, who only arrived in the summer, and Newcastle think Peter Crouch can be the solution to their striker woes. Only 20 trading days left!

Let’s not forget that the team is still third in the Premier League and Manchester United and (especially) Chelsea have faltered just a wee bit in recent weeks, with the Reds just eight points back of the Blues and a crucial three points that can be made up on January 20.

Walter Mosley writes about a world completely outside my experience, even though his settings are (generally) America in the years just before and after my own birth. But I’ve never been black nor lived deep in the urban neighborhoods of his stories and so the emotions and attitudes expressed are as alien as the far-future humans of Iain Banks. Here’s an example, from Easy Rawlins’ narrative (p. 106):

“I had reached out for the white man’s brass ring and got caught up short, that’s all. They taught me when I was a boy to stay in my place. I was a fool for forgetting that lesson, and now all I was doing was paying for that foolishness.“

(Previous Mosley writeups: White Butterfly, The Wave, Fortunate Son)

Black Betty covers an episode in 1961 in which Easy is hired to track down Elizabeth Eady, the title character, after she goes missing from a wealthy woman’s estate where Eady’d worked for 25 years. There are, of course, complications: from the color of his skin, the police (corrupt and otherwise), lies and misdirections and even the threat of danger to his informally adopted children.

Further troubling him are the release of best friend Mouse from prison after five years, because Mouse is going to kill somebody for turning him in–maybe even Easy, if no other candidate is found–and an attempt to swindle him out of his modest but meaningful real estate holdings (leading to the quote cited above). And above all, the man is simply weary, tired to the bone from life’s battering.

While this is not the best Mosley I’ve read, Black Betty is still very good, entertaining and educational and thought provoking.

recommended

We’ve been taking care of Dinger Dog, our friends’ black lab this weekend, and having fun. He’s nine years old and very well-behaved, although the parade of dachsunds we encountered while walking him in downtown Los Altos yesterday morning generated a bit of growling. Dinger’s going home tonight but not before we take him the dog park at Shoreline Park this afternoon. TS1, of course, is thrilled but even more anxious for us to get (two of) our own.

Dinger says he was just as disappointed as me at Liverpool’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal, dropping us from defending our FA Cup title at the first confrontation. Here’s a photo of us commiserating at the dog park:

After a few years I was inspired once again to make a tracking page for the NFL head coaching changes, probably because of the quick trigger firing of Denny Green and the liar liar pants on fire behavior of Nick Saban. Page will be updated as more changes, departures and hirings, come down the tubes:

2006-07 CoachingGoRound

(Previous CoachingGoRounds: 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04)

Note that the Matt Millen watch is on, once again, despite his apparent retention of the Lions presidency as Detroit have, by far, the worst record in the league over his entire seven year tenure.

Wired Mag has a brief look back at the highlights of Luc Besson’s directorial career in response to Besson’s announcement that Arthur and the Invisibles will be the last time he sits in the director’s chair.

While its true that this big budget animation is based on the series of bestselling children’s books Besson himself wrote, I’m truly disappointed that he won’t bring his magic to one last action flick. Here are my almost uniformly positive writeups on two Besson-directed movies:Leon (aka The Professional) and The Fifth Element.

While I have’t written a review, since I watched it many times prior to starting this blog, his 1990 movie La Femme Nikita is one of my all time favorites. He nearly singlehandedly created the female ass-kicking heroine drama with it, all due ackowledgement to Sigourney Weaver and Alien. Good enough to be remade by Hollywood as Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda in the Anne Parillaud title role and then expanded into the made for syndication/cable TV series of the same name, LFN inspired many movies, video games and TV shows (think Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 24—from the creative team behind the LFN TV version— would have been made if not for this?).

So I really would love to see one more head-pounding, leg-breaking, big boom flick with Luc Besson in complete control.

This 2002 novel probably doesn’t belong on the science fiction shelf, where I found it in the MV Public Library, but fortunately for me it was. Barely falling within the alternate history/multiverse genres, The Separation by Christopher Priest is really more of a (successful) literary experiment set in England before and during World War II. The Daily Telegraph agreed in its review, writing: “It becomes clear that Priest is attempting something far more intellectually ambitious than a mere alternative history. In a story entitled The Garden of Forking Paths, Borges imagined a book encompassing all possible outcomes, an image of a universe that is a “growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times.” The Separation very nearly is that book.”

The story is simple enough, concerning idential twin brothers who make the British team for the 1936 Olymics in Berlin and win the bronze in coxless pairs. There was no residential village in those years and the boys stayed at the apartment of the family who were close friend’s with their parents; their mother is German and has been close friends since childhood with the wife. The twins each fall in love with the 17 year old daughter, silently, neither willing to speak of it.

The family, though, is Jewish and realize they must get out of Germany and the boys become involved with the plan. Also while in Berlin, one of the twins–who both have the initials JL, one called JL and the other Joe–meets Nazi leader Rudolph Hess at a post-race British Embassy reception.

On their return home JL resumes undergrad life at Oxford, learning to fly planes in the university’s air club, while Joe drops out to work. When the war breaks out JL becomes an office in the RAF but Joe registers as a consciencious objector and drives a Red Cross ambulence helping survivors of the nightly German bombing runs.

These factors form the basis for Priest’s experimentation. His work is subtle, fracturing and reversing the sense of time, leaving outcomes unresolved and even confusing his own characters’ sens of reality. The Separation is sophisticated and imaginative and I enjoyed it so much that I spent all day last Thursday and half of Friday reading it.

recommended

I’m pretty crap with predictions, except in gest, so I won’t trouble you with a batch that are as likely as an elephant knocking on my second story door tomorrow morning.

Instead, to all my friends, loved ones and readers, I will send my traditional wish:

May this coming year be the best of your life so far, and yet the least of all the many yet to come.

Thank you for your friendship, love or simple interest, all important and appreciated by me.