Westell Versalink 327W problems

So, it turns out that the Westell Versalink 327W, the modem/wireless router combo that I use to connect to the Internet(s) via Verizon aDSL, is a known piece-of-shit.

I've been having occasional problems with dropped wireless connections since I got the thing, but in the last few weeks it's become really, really bad. Previously, I could power-cycle the Versalink, or switch wireless networking on and off via the Versalink's web interface, and get signal back, but now even that's not working.

So I call Verizon's help line - 1 800 567 6789, for those of you playing along at home.

(Parenthetically, I should explain that I've been a Verizon DSL customer since the week after it became available in my Manhattan neighborhood, and I have generally been quite pleased with the quality of service and the technical support that I have received the few times that I've needed to call.)

I get a very nice technician on the phone. I explain to him the problems that I've been having, and to forestall the ritual first-level tech support script run-through, explain that I have already power-cycled the Westell Versalink 327W as well as all connected PCs, be they wired or wireless, have run internal troubleshooting, and for good measure also sacrificed a chicken and waved it vaguely over the box.

We run through a little additional question-and-answer, and there is a strained silence on the other end of the line.

Uh-oh, I thinks to myself. Here it comes.

"Well," the tech begins tentatively, "you're having hardware problems, all right. Frankly, this is a known problem with the 327W, and in fact we haven't been shipping these units to customers for the last several weeks..."

Fine, I say. Ship me whatever you've got that's decent as a replacement. I hear that Linksys makes a pretty good wireless router these days.

(In the background, on the computer with the working, hardwired connection, I am Googling "Westell 327W problem," which I should have already done, in retrospect. Ah, hell... 4,000 hits.)

It turns out that he can't do that. Doesn't have the authority. If he orders a replacement for me, and they have any of these defective beasts in stock, guess what I'm gonna get?

"But I don't WANT another 327W," I whine.

"Neither would I," he agreed.

He tells me that my best bet is to call Verizon Billing, open Monday-Friday from 8am to 8pm, and tell them that my modem is defective and insist on a non-Westell replacement device.

Because, you know, everybody in Verizon Support knows that the device I have is a piece of shit, but nobody has the authority, not even his supervisor, to authorize the shipment of a non-piece-of-shit replacement.

Here's a hint, guys: When your Customer Support is bright, polite, knowledgeable, and UTTERLY INEFFECTUAL, it's not very good Customer Support, is it? You've got a known problem and a system that isn't set up to deal with it -- in fact, is reinforcing the problem by shipping known-bad equipment as a replacement for known-bad equipment.

So I'll talk to the Billing Weasels on Monday. I wonder how they're set up to deal with disgruntled, technically knowledgeable customers?

In the meantime, the laptop (which I'm typing on now) is tethered to the router by a length of Cat 5 cable that, mercifully, I still had lying around the house. I, my wife, and both dogs have already tripped over the damn thing... only the cat, so far, is successfully avoiding the Cat 5.

Is anybody using Road Runner cable modem service in Manhattan who likes it? (shudder)

Carnival of the Cats #68

Carnival of the Cats #68 is up at That's Another Fine Mess.

Guest kitty Tufter (and, of course, resident kitty Mister Gato) are prominently featured.

Charles Darwin has a posse

Biology professor Colin Purrington at Swarthmore (we've blogged about him before - he's the "warning stickers for geology and physics textbooks" guy) is making with the stickers again...

CHARLES DARWIN HAS A POSSE --
stickers in support of evolution

Excerpt:

Without more public displays of affection for the theories of natural selection and evolution, it is likely that more and more schools will allow or even promote the teaching of evolution "alternatives" that invoke dabbling by supernatural entities. To provide some of the needed visible support for science and reason, please consider stickering something with his image. Sure, these efforts are probably completely futile, but wouldn't you sleep better tonight knowing that you've done your part to delay our slip into Dark Ages II?

(more)

The project is, of course, an homage to the famous "Andre The Giant Has A Posse" street art campaign.

For those of you who'd like to cut to the chase and start stickering right away, download your Sheet o' Darwins right here (PDF format.)

Okay, two thoughts.

(1) We love this guy, and wish we'd had him for a professor in college... although, since he got his bachelor's degree the same year we did, I guess we just wish we had gone out drinking with him in college, or something.

(2) We are so totally going to name our next cat "Purrington," with or without the "Colin."

(Hat tip: Boing Boing.)

Guest kitty from England on birdwatching duty

Tufter, who lives with English friends in, um, England, contemplates an Actual Small Bird in the back garden whilst flanked by small Artistic Representations of Birds:

Guest kitty Tufter on birdwatching duty

EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a very useful collection of legal resources for bloggers.

My kind of night out in NYC

Beef and Guns.

It's been a tough week. NASDAQ's down, systolic pressure's up. What you need is a nice pedicure, a hug, and some cranberry tummy-tingler herbal tea, right?

Wrong.

What you need is an hour and a half of semi-automatic, muscle-wrenching, ear-splitting, acetone-tasting gunfire, room to yell, and enough ammo to turn your target into confetti. Immediately followed by rare red meat. Who knew you could shoot in Manhattan (legally)? Once again, Site59 has you hooked up. We've got you booked into the West Side Rifle Range (no permit needed), and arranged a post-shoot meal at Frank's, the Meat-Packing District's old-school ode to beef.

Hat tip: Thrillist.

The horror in London this morning

As I write this, the authorities are still sorting out what happened, but what's clear is that a coordinated terrorist attack against public transportation in London (buses and Underground stations) has taken place and that scores of people are injured or dead.

Carrie and I have dear friends living in London, and we were very relieved to get almost immediate replies to our frantic e-mails this morning; everyone we checked in with is okay. (One of our friends notes that the phones in London are all screwed up today, but the Internet is working fine, which parallels our experience in NYC in the immediate wake of 9/11.)

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of London today.

I'm sure that as soon as the shock wears off, the fury will set in.

Note: for updates throughout the day, bookmark The Command Post's Global War on Terror page.

One last Independence Day post

Okay, one final Independence Day post.

We call this picture "Chow Bella reacting to the fireworks":

Go out there and make it stop, please.

(In case it's not clear, the blue blob that she is cowering behind/pushing off against is my t-shirt clad back.)

Blue jay way

For the last few mornings, we haven't needed our alarm clock.

A pair of birds--I'm going to go out on a limb here, risking retroactive withdrawal of my Bird Identification merit badge, and say that it's a male and a female blue jay--have been perching on the fire escape outside our bedroom window and serenading us just after daybreak.

It is a minor annoyance, but all in all not such an unpleasant way to wake up.

However, it drives Mister Gato clinically insane:

There is some kind of hard, clear substance
preventing me from reaching them!

No still photograph can do justice to this display, as you are missing the twitching tail, the muscles rippling up and down his back, his overall level of quivering indignation, and the anxious vocalizations that he makes as he watches the birds shamelessly hop around and sing, mere inches from his nose.

(And, by the way, non-New Yorkers -- yes, it's perfectly acceptable, even expected, to have such an advanced level of galloping dry rot in your window frame. It adds character.)

Congratulations, London

And thank God it won't be NYC.

It was the longest of long shots anyway, but we are all breathing a sigh of relief at our house this morning:

New York City has been eliminated from contention for hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. That "honor" goes to the city of London, England.

Update: Laurence Simon has a funny take on this.

Fireworks in space

A nice twist on the "fireworks on July 4th story," on what's ordinarily a very slow news day in the US--

NASA's Deep Impact cometary probe, despite having a name that sounds like a bad Jerry Bruckheimer movie, worked as designed today, launching a module headlong into the path of an oncoming comet, hitting it hard, making a big flash of light and throwing up a geyser of debris.

Take it to the bridge, NASA Public Relations:

The hyper-speed demise of NASA's Deep Impact probe generated an immense flash of light, which provided an excellent light source for the two cameras on the Deep Impact mothership. Deep Impact scientists theorize the 820-pound impactor vaporized deep below the comet's surface when the two collided at 1:52 am July 4, at a speed of about 10 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second or 23,000 miles per hour).

"You can not help but get a big flash when objects meet at 23,000 miles per hour," said Deep Impact co-investigator Dr. Pete Schultz of Brown University, Providence, R.I. "The heat produced by impact was at least several thousand degrees Kelvin and at that extreme temperature just about any material begins to glow. Essentially, we generated our own incandescent photo flash for less than a second."

Man. Writing their press releases must be one of the best gigs in the world. And you've got to love the sense of theater on the part of the mission planners, who timed this thing to the second to occur in the wee hours of July 4th.

Lots of nifty photos at NASA's Deep Impact site.

Update: Okay, okay, so it wasn't a Bruckheimer movie. It should've been, though.

Greenwich Village Idiot for July 4, 2005

Happy Fourth of July, everybody!

The Greenwich Village Idiot podcast returns from hiatus with the Independence Day Edition (50:35, 35MB)

It's mighty warm in the studio.

Direct download: July_4_2005_Greenwich_Village_Idiot.mp3 (or subscribe to the podcast feed)

Music includes:

• "4th Of July" by Aimee Mann
• "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" by Bruce Springsteen
• "All the Way from America" by Joan Armatrading
• "America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles
• "American Tune" by Willie Nelson
• "O Superman (For Massenet)" by Laurie Anderson
• "Rednecks, White Socks And Blue Ribbon Beer" by Johnny Russell
• "Revolution 1" by The Beatles
  
• "Star Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix
• ...and spoken word performances by Richard Pryor and the late Bill Hicks

Are we podcasting stars yet?

Also: Barry discovers a way to podcast and catblog simultaneously (special subvocalizations and sound engineering courtesy of Mister Gato.)

Blogger problems

If it seems like I've posted the two new picture posts (here and here) about half a dozen times, well, you're not imagining things. Blogger had some kind of database fibrillations last night, and the posts disappeared into the ether. Repeatedly. (One of them stayed around long enough for me to post a trackback... sorry for any broken links out there in the blogosphere.)

Considering that it's a long holiday weekend, and that I'm paying exactly nothing for blog hosting, it seems churlish to complain about not getting a response from technical support. So I won't.

But I will make a general request - those of you who have successfully moved your blogs from Blogger to another platform, drop me a line. I'd like to talk with you about your experiences. I'm getting exactly what I'm paying for here, and I'm not liking it much any more.

The return of Mister Gato

Now that the broken camera has been replaced, catblogging will resume its normal pace and operational tempo.

I find this mildly amusing. Thank you.

Speaking of catblogging, the 67th Carnival of the Cats is now up over at Watermark.

A lovely Sunday

Gorgeous day out yesterday. Bought a new camera, had a long lunch with an old and dear friend, and then walked across town to meet Carrie and the Chows in Abingdon Square Park, in roughly that order.

Go on, click and zoom in.

Note the fashionable blue iPod mini and the knitting project, two things Carrie is rarely seen without these days.

That's Chow Fun in the foreground and the sunlight; Chow Bella is in background and shadow.

That little camera takes a pretty decent picture, wouldn't you say?

STC India Salary Survey

The India Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication has released their 2005 Salary Survey (42 page PDF.)

First, kudos to our Indian brethren: their report is much more detailed, attractive, and interesting than the US salary survey... which, incidentally, I can't link to because it's considered "premium, member-only" content, and is password-protected at the US STC website.

(So, further thanks to STC-India for making their report publically available to non-dues-paying members like myself... as a long-time member of STC-US, I have read and downloaded the US report, of course.)

If you take the time to read the entire Indian Salary Survey, you will get a very clear picture of the emerging technical writing industry on the subcontinent. I am going to cherry-pick some statistics that are personally interesting to me and apply a little further analysis to them.

Outsourcing

Survey question: Was your current work done by a Technical Communicator outside India earlier?

Here's a little added information (I've shaded the cells I added to make them obvious):

Notes:
(1) Rupee-to-dollar conversion performed at 7/4/2005 conversion rate of 1 USD = 43.5202 INR
(2) 2004 US Mean salary for technical communicators, per STC 2004 salary survey: $65,200

A.S.F.A.S. Warning

The Andrew Sullivan Freakout Advisory System is now officially at Code Red:

Ace has the details.

From LEGOs to Logos

The Brick Testament - selected Bible stories, illustrated with LEGOs.

Some personal favorites:

• The Tower of Babel and especially this shot (Genesis, chapter 11)
• God tests Abraham (Genesis, chapter 22)
• The Golden Calf (Exodus, chapter 24)

...and we've barely made a dent in the Pentateuch, y'all! This is a zany and wonderful labor of love...

The Tower of Babel - in LEGOs.

(Hat tip: Der Commissar.)

NYT: Cutting losses from outsourcing

The Armchair M.B.A. interviews Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs. Excerpt:

Q. How well do retraining efforts work?

A. Most people think retraining doesn't work very well. We need to start experimenting with free training programs right away because there is a new class of workers who are being displaced. They are no longer blue-collar workers. These workers have degrees, sometimes advanced degrees, in computer science or engineering.

Over the longer term, we need basic things like gathering some data. The Department of Commerce spent $335,000 to do one outsourcing study, and that hasn't been released yet. When the government spends almost $1 trillion a year, it's pretty surprising they can't come up with more money to study this problem.

Q. Should companies face penalties for eliminating jobs?

A. There's a reasonable case to be made to extend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to these situations. The idea is to give some advance notification to workers that they're going to be laid off. That gives those workers enough time to begin the adjustment process. Companies don't like this. It's in their self-interest to keep it secret until the end. Companies would look at extending the WARN Act as a penalty. I would look at that as smart economics.

[emphasis and links added - bc]

Since we don't have reliable numbers from the government about the extent of offshoring's economic impact, we must for the time being rely on tools like TechsUnite.org's Offshore Tracker.

Kids, [do] try this at home

John deVille, the Mountain Philosopher, is just back from a week spent teaching computer literacy classes to "mostly minority, mostly low-income" middle-school boys at UNC-Asheville.

John, a history teacher, has been doing this for a while now; he teaches a unit on the history of Western North Carolina, using curriculum materials he has developed, and gives the students work assignments to complete with their computers.

In years past, students have completed their assignments using PowerPoint--thus helping to ensure society of a steady future stream of PowerPoint Rangers to keep us all safe and prosperous.

But this year he taught them how to use Blogger. (And for "dessert," Audioblogger.) Samples of the kids' audio posts can be heard here: 1, 2, 3 (all MP3 files.)

It's a pretty amazing time to be alive. They're giving away printing presses and radio stations, free for the asking.

And I am sure that there is no truth to early reports that, once they started commenting on each others' blogs, the kids started calling each other extremists, simpletons, and Nazis.

Or, you know, dumbasses.