Road Runner Light? Yeah, right.

I realize Road Runner Light is cheap, relatively slow (768Kpbs), but is it supposed to suck? Downloads stop in the middle, and if you're lucky, they MIGHT resume. I waited 40 minutes for the last 600K of Google Earth to download, which it NEVER did. Trying to watch videos on Youtube - the downloads STOP in the middle and DO NOT Resume. I realize it's a shared connection, but jeez, this sucks. It's no better than dialup which does the same damn thing. I know the cable connections in the area aren't the greatest. They really need better signal amplifiers on these lines. The downloads unless they're really short, never finish. They should be somewhat slow, but not stop and then go dormant. It's been a fight all afternoon. We called technical support, but they were of no help. Apparently they don't understand that we're telling them. It starts, it stops, and it's a fight to keep the connection active. It should plod along slowly, I expect that, but not stop. At All. This is unacceptable!!! If you're even lucky, you might get to see an entire video. I wonder why the first thing I grabbed - Firefox 2.0 install - and the small install update for Weatherbug - actually made it through. Heck, Weatherbug downloaded darn fast. The speed test I found showed varying speeds - 20, 200, 40, 200 kbps on different tests.

We're NOT even considering the next highest and more expensive Road Runner if the slowest speed can't even keep up.

Comment to send to Dish Network

What I want to know is: Why when I was at a previous address in Minerva,
ZIP code 44657, I was able to get Cleveland Local Channels, but when I
moved just over 1 mile away to the east, I was suddenly forced to accept
Youngstown local channels? When I do a search for local channels based
on my zip code alone, I get results that say Cleveland is my local
market. If I plug in my address, while still in the same ZIP code, I get
told something different. Your local market calculator is in serious
error - all addresses in one ZIP code should be treated as the same
market. We get our local news from Cleveland stations - Youngstown
stations do not care about our area AT ALL. Weather reports are too
late. Local cable service, I'm told, provides BOTH markets as local
channels. What I want to know is why Dish Network is forced to screw
their customers while DirecTV is not affected by that stupid court
decision a few years ago. Maybe I should switch to DirecTV because I
would still be able to get Cleveland local stations through it and not
force to accept a smaller local station lineup that I should not have to
put up with.

Fighting with mom's computer

I don't know what the hell happened, but Saturday afternoon, early
evening, Mom's on her computer, and AVG asked for an update. But instead
of paying attention to things, and I don't know what the hell happened,
but for some reason the update didn't take, like there was an error in
the install for some reason. So instead of not doing anything, Mom went
ahead and just used her computer, getting email and checking out
webpages with AVG in error state.

Then I get back from helping a friend and as she gets done tells me
there's a problem with AVG, in that she tried to update it but something
went wrong. I was annoyed that she went ahead and used it with AVG not
working. Something crept onto her system that changed her administrative
settings - I couldn't get into the options for Norton Internet Security
which really ticked me off. I got told I didn't have the right
permission level to get into that. HmpH!! I'll show you.

Fortunately, I was able to do a system restore back to a date about a
week earlier when a couple Microsoft updates came through. Still AVG
gave me problems. I tried to repair the install, and it did some stuff,
but in the end, I couldn't run the Test Center, and I noticed some
corruption. Whatever bombed the system, it was really messing with
things. Even after several hours last night fretting over the problem,
including downloading the latest install from AVG Free, having to use it
to repair the installation, but the updates still require restarting the
system. Something really messed with things. I had problems getting my
Yahoo! mail - the little window at the top of the messages instead of
displaying some flash animation ad would come up some box of text, and I
couldn't download my attachments. I'd get told Document Contains No
Data. WHAT???

Eventually, I got AVG repaired, grabbed an update. But instead of the
smaller files I notice it grabbing, it grabs the entire file at once,
then tries to update, then requires a restart. What the hell happened? I
didn't change ANYTHING. Anywho, I eventually get it to scan the system.
Nothing comes up. Ad Aware has relatively recent definitions (75 days
old) and I scan with it, only tracking cookies come up. Run Spybot S&D,
it's relatively updated, and 2 more tracking cookies come up.

The one bootup before I managed to do a system restore, I noticed the
system taking forever to come up. The system restore I had it do took a
lot longer than I've seen, so she really got something bad on there
while she got her email when AVG was in error state.

I told her never to do that again, and I think I can figure out the
update settings or like other people have done - uninstall and
reinstall.

I should put Comodo personal firewall on there. It can prevent system
tampering like I saw, and we're only on dialup!

I managed to get my email off Yahoo!, but noticed Genvid wasn't coming
up. I hope it just ran out of bandwidth for the month.

More on that Dr.

When I tried to explain to her the problems of people at the store and
how I'd rather avoid dealing with certain people, she couldn't see it my
way and told me I was refusing to do my job. That's the only way I could
see it. I was not refusing to do it, I would avoid having to deal with
certain people in my way. If I was cashiering, there was no problem.
Interaction with customers was limited. I didn't have to 'help out' lazy
idiots I didn't want to help out because I didn't like them. I shouldn't
have to be in a position to deal with people that I don't like because
it will show on my face that I don't like them. Usually, I've been told,
it looks like I'm angry.

It's not that I would refuse - I just wouldn't bag for certain customers
I didn't like or would find some reason not to be around. It got pretty
bad. One lady even freaking _waited_ for me to come back in from getting
carts. There were other baggers!! ARGH!

At least while I've been unemployed, I've had the chance to examine
things that have happened in the past and say, yes, that's definitely
Asperger's. Explains a lot, now how do I get help? Why are disability
benefits needed now that I have a work history? Because I'll have
problems getting or keeping a job unless I get specific help that
addresses the social problems I have. It's a disability, and with the
right help I should be able to find personal success somehow. It keeps
me from the opportunities I could be taking advantage of.

The Dr. the disability people wanted me to see

Had an appointment to see one doctor the Disability people wanted me to
see. I think this one will screw me over. An older lady. My mom saw her
and thought "when the hell did she get her degree?"

We had problems on some questions and she got pissed. The main one was
over drinking. Like when did I begin and how much was I drinking at the
peak of my drinking, and I did not understand the question, so at some
point when there was repeated confusion over the answer of frequency,
she just gave up and yelled at me and went on to the next question. I
don't think she understood when I told her I was already 18 when the
state raised the drinking age to 21, and I was "grandfathered" in.

She did some of the same damn tests like I got in 3rd grade when the
school psychologist did them and told mom there was nothing wrong. Like
repeating a list of numbers, apparently, I can do up to 8 forward, but I
had problems doing them backward like more than 4 or so. It was early in
the morning so I wasn't quite awake anyway.

I got a chance to explain what the other doctors have discussed with me
in that I should seek BVR help in finding work in which I can work alone
or with few people, same days and same hours, a job not exposed to the
general public, and one in which I won't get into trouble.

I lost 2 jobs in the past 5 years, one of which I had for 10.5 years.
The one counselor said there's got to be a problem and they've nailed it
as far as I'm concerned. Now that we know what it is, we can go forward
from there.

The old lady was not nice, antagonistic, and generally an unqualified
and the wrong person for me to see. The way she asked some questions
instead of the way they were on the paper (I believe) might have
resulted in some differing answers.

I'll have 2 people saying the same thing, then this lady screwing me
over. The form I filled out will agree with the other 2, and not this
lady.

Hopefully her getting pissed at me illustrates the kind of problem I
have getting along with other people. I did tell her I have a problem
trusting people in authority, and that because of things I may do
innocently enough has the potential to result in other people getting me
in trouble. I didn't want to explain the problem with the head shaped
lollipops and the one girl thinking I was sexually harrassing her.
That's embarassing enough. I've told that joke to others who got it and
thought it was hilarious.

She's going to end up saying there's nothing wrong with me, I'm sure. I
told mom as we got back in the car after this that I felt she was going
to screw me over on this whole thing. The fact she got mad at me
illustrates my problem of getting along with other people, which is part
of my Asperger's. It affects relationships and employment. I do not
funtion well in a social setting with other adults. It will be a
lifelong condition and will make immediately finding paid work
difficult.

This lady, Ruth H., is also the type of old person I had the unfortunate
chance to encounter at Giant Siegal, and the same type of people that
pissed me off a lot. Not good for them to send me to her.

Is your computer a spam-bot? Signs to look for

Your computer may be sending out spam and you don't even know it.
Judging from recent experience with a friend's computer, I have a few
signs to look for to see if your computer has become a spam bot and you
may not even know it!

- Obvious Symptom #1 - Constant "random" rebooting, especially on a high
speed connection: Constant unwarranted rebooting is also a symptom of
your hard drive about to go bad, so install a SMART monitor for your
hard drive to make sure it's not going bad. There are shareware ones,
trialware ones, and Sourceforge has some that are completely free. See
if it has settings that will cause it to sound off an alarm of impending
failure or the possible hiccup before it happens. If it doesn't alert
you before a reboot, then it's possible that your hard drive is OK or
the software doesn't know what it's looking for.

- Symptom #2 - Your friends get less spam when your system is off and
not connected to the net: This happened with a friend's Windows 98
Second Edition desktop. It was really coincidental, but what a
coincidence. We took his "old" system offline, and it was replaced with
Windows XP Home edition. Then we screwed the lid on tight with Spybot
S&D, Comodo Personal Firewall, Ad Aware 2007, and AVG Free. The result
was me getting much less spam than previously, so much less it's not
funny. So if your system is running Win98SE or just "randomly"
rebooting, take it off the net for a few days if you can. Take the drive
out and have someone else look at it with whatever tools they may have.
If your system doesn't reboot while off the net, backup your personal
files, locate all the installs you put on there, and reformat and
reinstall. It's drastic, but it's better than being a spambot.

The rebooting may be the spambot running as a rootkit, so your software
to protect the system may think it's supposed to do that. It's either
downloading new instructions or updating info it will send out, and well
we know Windows 98 needs to restart to recognize the changes. If you
can't find the problem lurking in the hardware, then it's software.

I don't know of any firewall software for Win98SE, but if I do find it,
I will definitely use it. I have a feeling my friend put something on
there without knowing he did (a trojan horse install) so he can't be
blamed at all, but we're still investigating the problem - after all,
the computer still works, we might as well make it work the way it's
supposed to!

I would recommend anyone running Windows 98 SE that's constantly
rebooting without warning to try my suggestions and ask their friends if
they get less spam when their own system is offline. The system file
checker may not see the problem either. This problem is probably not
limited to any one version of Windows either. What I think is happening
is this stuff sits in your computer looking over the data on your hard
drive scanning for email addresses, then spams anything it finds.
Sneaky, ne? Check your running processes and if you find anything that
shouldn't be there, try to find it on your drive, and then end it, but
if you can't find it that way, it's deeply hidden - might as well
reinstall everything.

Check out the Maganvox MWR10D6!

Nice comparison page for before and after shots of video recorded by my new DVD recorder.