Just need to vent...

Centurylink didn't shut down my ADSL line anything like that, just degraded it by slowing it down, and adding an hourly temporary loss of signal. But in their push to encourage customers to move to Gigabit fiber, somebody forget to wait until they actually had such fiber on my street ... I moved to cable, a neighbor moved to Starlink.

Ads and sales reps claimed (not verified) that fiber (under a new name) finally did arrive within reach of my address last summer. 30 months too late.

 

If ANYONE reading this is on copper and is offered a fiber upgrade, don't cancel the one to get the other unless you KNOW that there are actually working fibers available at your address.
I've seen people ditch their '12-meg' ADSL or equivalent copper based service for the 'new stuff' only to have the new service be cancelled for unavailability with no option to return to copper.

Similarly the 'Pro-move' if you're offered cable internet from a competing provider would be to keep the DSL for a month to see of the cable is going to work out.
Speaking from experience as a person with two properties, one cable and one fiber.

Several years ago in my primary residence my DSL connection was getting shakier and shakier, and my CFO and I decided to switch to cable internet - which has been working at our 'other place' for over 10 years and has been rock solid.
We ALSO decided to keep the DSL for a transition month because once I disconnected it I had no return option.

The DSL fell through because the buried coax was compromised by an oak tree and there would have been an unacceptably long waiting period for them to install a new buried line, and quite frankly I didn't trust their diggers and fillers.
I kept the DSL for another few months until I knew that fiber internet was available and then switched.

@ Starlink: If I didn't get a significant discount for my gigabit service I would get Starlink TODAY.
It's only going to get better and better and it solves ALL of the terrestrial 'last mile' issues.....(unless that space-based nuclear threat pans out!)

Don't get me wrong.
Gigabit fiber is a fantastic service!
I myself put the light in the glass that serves my area and buck-for-buck, it's superior in every way to anything else - except in a post-hurricane (or fire)environment or if you want or need to be mobile.

 

Now, if the dog had mobility issues, you might have to schlepp the dog, on this walk.

 

I would rather be kicked in the nads then have to wait 40 minutes on hold get a human to help from microsoft .... which often results in no help at all ... requiring another 40 minute torture session. This human 'help' section is only after mastering which voice prompts to say - so that you don't get thrown back into an online solution of reading through useless help documentation ... & this is only after PREVIOUSLY/already reading through the pages & pages of "solutions" from others suffering from the same problems. God bless these understaffed / poor / WAY-underpaid slobs on the other side of the world who technically have mastered the language they are dealing with, but their accents are so heavy you'd swear it's not your language. Sometimes my goal in life (temporarily) after going through this ..... it becomes out-living Bill Gates so my 11-month-old lab puppy can leave him a special surprise on his grave.
.

 

I'm surprised Microsoft doesn't already offer that alternative.

 

Don't worry about this. Any month now they will replace the humans with a ChatGPT-x version that won't have the accent and will give you authoritative hallucinations for answers that will make you want human support.

Mike

 

'drop'.

It has an old familiar meaning, to discontinue some old thing.

It has a slangy up-to-date tech-bro meaning, to publicly release some new thing.

So does the headline writer who came up with "[candidate] drops campaign ad addressing his age" mean the candidate has started, or stopped, running such an ad?

(Headline writers for other outlets, not trying so hard to sound like up-to-date tech bros, wrote 'releases' instead.)

 

Be careful about AI - you may get what you wish for

How Microsoft’s AI is making a mess of the news | CNN Business
"Microsoft’s decision to increasingly rely on the use of automation and artificial intelligence over human editors to curate its homepage appears to be behind the site’s recent amplification of false and bizarre stories"

This particular story is presented and generated by none other than- CNN - the alleged "king" of fake news.

 

The King of fake news is a person.

 

I suspect Google's news aggregator is using something like AI to choose images to put next to the headlines it shows.

The connection between the headline and image is sometimes ... inventive ....

 

I saw fake news a month ago that said the actor And car enthusiast Tim Allen died in a car accident. Several disreputable so-called news sources all posted the same thing. It all started from tick tock. So is this where so-called news gets their news from now? Tick tock? I see millennials reading Facebook for news. Insert picture of me shaking my head

Feel free to correct me if you know otherwise, but I don't know of any specific credential required to be called a newscaster or journalist... At a very young age, I learned that I wanted to be somebody with professional credentials, certifications and licensure

 

I missed that so I checked with: Tim Allen - Wikipedia

Political views

Allen is a supporter of the Republican Party, describing himself as "fiscally conservative and emotionally liberal".[43] In 2021, he condemned then-president Donald Trump and those taking part in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, calling the incident "horrible, embarrassing, and shameful" and opining that the rioters must have had inside help. He also said the riot had caused people to be embarrassed to be known as conservative.[5]

Allen is also involved in philanthropic efforts to help reduce homelessness.[44]​

Does that match your understanding too?

Bob Wilson

 

I'm struggling to see the connection between Tim Allen's political views and whether or not it's true he was killed in a crash

 

This is a positive vent:
Went to the big city yesterday to visit and sit with my elderly dad.

On the way home I decided to eat at the Chick - fil-A near my fathers house.

I get the grilled chicken nuggets as they are a healthy alternative to typical fast food.
Much to my surprise the young person who took my order said they would be paying for my order as a blessing to me and as thanks for them having a job and as a witness to their faith. I wanted to give them something but they would have no part of it.
God bless them - they couldn't have been much over 21 years old if that old.
Chick-Fil-A - great food - great service - great employees.

 

The last time that this happened to me I bought a gift card and gave it to an inside employee asking them to apply it to the next customer's order.
I had to really scoot to get out of there unobserved.
Even with the crazy high prices for food lately, that place is ALWAYS PACKED!

 

After four years in the Marine Corps, I don't find this attractive:


In 1971-75, we didn't have cameo utilities. Like the Drill Instructor said, "You are not white, brown, or black. You are green."

Bob Wilson

 

Does it come infused with chipped beef?

.

 

Outstanding ideas - thank you for posting them - I will be better prepared to return an act of kindness next time it happens thanks to your posts.