Corporate bug fixes

I am ready to start the update on my iPhone from iOS 7.0.2 to iOS 7.0.3.  The explanatory text is

"This update contains improvement and bug fixes."

Wasn't iOS 7 supposed to be this wonderful update?  Frankly, I long for iOS 6 because a lot of things that used to work don't work as well with iOS 7.

BYOD and corporate efficiency

"Call it a movement of sorts, but employees are increasingly ditching their company issued computers and smartphones in favor of using their own devices to get work done. One big reason: Their company's tech is, well, terrible."
- "BYOD or bust: How bad tech hurts companies", Cadie Thompson, CNBC, 2013-10-24.

However, read the full article about all the complexities companies face when employees use their own devices.

Dreaming of sleeping

I had a colonoscopy yesterday and am still a bit sleepy, partly from the anesthesia and partly from the liquid diet for a day and a half.  I slept until 8:30 this morning and had my usual breakfast.  I had intended to go to the fitness center, but I was just too tired.

I went back to bed and fell into a deep sleep.  I dreamed I was outside our cabin and getting sleepier and sleepier.  I couldn't get inside fast enough to lie down on the couch.  It seemed almost as soon as I was comfortable on the couch I woke up to the reality of lying in our bed in Duluth.

In the cellphone WiFi desert

I was hoping "to cut the cord" and go completely cellular with telephone and internet.

With some false assumptions, I thought we could get equivalent service by getting another Consumer Cellular Home Phone Base to replace our Duluth telephone line and a wireless hot spot to replace the DSL service.  My back of the envelope calculation showed the monthly cost would be about equivalent.

Another Home Phone Base would cost us about $10/month and all calls would be charged to my wife's cell phone account.  Since we rarely use all our minutes, we wouldn't have any other extra costs.

A quick search of the web for wifi hot spots came up with the AT&T Unite which would cost about $50 per month.  Since we pay about $60 per month for our phone and DSL service, this looked like a break-even deal.  Since the hot spot was portable, we would have the bonus of using it at our cabin.  The deal-maker was that one commenter said he often got 19Mbps with his Unite.  Hot diggedy dog!  Greased lightning.  A lot better than zero Mbps at our cabin and around 6Mbps at our house.

So, on Tuesday off I went to the local AT&T store to buy one.  A friendly representative met me at the door and answered all my questions.  He showed my the Unite which is about the size of a cell phone.  When I told him that I had read that it was capable of 19Mbps he replied that some people even got 25Mbps.

I went through all the rigamarole of filling out a contract, but then got ticker shock.  With all the taxes and fees the monthly cost for 5 gigabytes would be $63!!  Oh, well, maybe it will be worth it to have access at the cabin and having three times the speed I now have.

The contract did include a 14-day return policy.

I brought the hot spot home, unpacked it, read the instructions, assembled it (insert battery and put on back cover), and turned it on.  I set my laptop to access it and was surprised that it seemed slow.  I ran an Ookla speed test on my MacBook and found it was doing less than 4Mbps compared to over 4Mbps with the DSL modem.  I ran similar tests with my iPhone and my wife's iMac.  I moved the Unite close to windows and received even slower speeds.  The only upside was that upload speeds with the Unite were faster than with DSL.

I also found that the megabytes were also adding up, even when I did nothing.  After a half-afternoon of use, I had used over 220 megabytes.  With both of us online we would easily exceed 5 gigabytes in a month; that could add $10-20/month to our bill.

I reluctantly repacked the unit and took it back to the AT&T store yesterday.  Surprise, the same friendly representative met me at the door again.

He was sympathetic to my problem, but he wanted to double-check.  When he used the hotspot with his iPhone, he was getting around 20Mbps!  He checked the coverage map and found a tower within three blocks of our house.  Oops!  It won't become active until December.  So, he took our unit back and waived the restocking fee.

We said we would periodically check with my wife's Consumer Cellular phone (AT&T network).

When we got home, I downloaded Ookla to my wife's cellphone.  Test runs gave less than 3Mpbs!  Even when I pointed the phone at the nearby tower!  Oops!  I was still using our DSL modem!  I turned WiFi off on my wife's cell phone and tried again.  The ping was slower than through DSL, but the download never even began!  It stayed on 0.00 until I got a message about connection error.  We are in the desert compared to up on the hill in the mall area.

We'll keep checking the local tower.  If and when service improves to about 20Mps, we'll reconsider cutting the cord.

Note: This article was corrected 2013-10-24 to state that the first speed test with my wife's cellphone was using our DSL modem and that the test failed on the AT&T network.

How not to write spam

I received the following message from "Amazon";

Important For Your Online Account Access . Action Suspended

this email send by Amazon

Dear Customer

During our usual security enhancement protocol, we observed multiple login attempt error while login in to your online amazon account. We have believed that someone other than you is trying to access your account for security reasons, we have temporarily suspend your account and your access to online amazon and will be restricted if you fail to update

Your first clue to an official-looking email being a spam is how bad is the English.  We all maik misteaks and other tipos, but the above is ridiculous.

Your second clue is where do the included links really go.  I find these by just putting the cursor over the links or dragging the message to a text editor program.  In Microsoft Outlook the first shows the link as a drop down.  In Apple's TextEdit the second shows the source code of the message.  You don't really need to know that much about HTML, but you can scan it for suspicious looking items.

Speaking of spam, this blog has a lull in reverse spam from Russia.  These reverse spammers may have moved to Ukraine.  In any case, the number of pageviews from the United States has gone up but not to the level I was receiving Russian "pageviews".  I hope the US pageviews are real human readers who enjoy what I have written.

Efficiency is not dependent on organizational form

I emailed the following to the Reader Weekly 2013-10-10.  They published it on 2013-10-17 as "People make mistakes!  All the time.  Everyday."  It is also available at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/10/17/2270_party_of_one-1.

Some people are using the glitches in the Affordable Care Act exchanges as proof that government is inefficient.  Duh, how often have you updated software on your devices with version x.0 and then within a week or two received a notice of the release of version x.0.1?

Government is run by people.  Corporations are run by people.  People make mistakes!  All the time.  Everyday.  In every way.  Government screws up.  Corporations screw up.

For examples of corporate screw-ups and non-response to customer complaints, take a look at the customer “support” message boards.  All the support comes from other customers who spent hours trying to figure out how a product really worked.  If they are lucky, other users mark their responses as helpful and they get “points”, whatever those are worth.

I’ve seen some issues go on for two or more years.

Let me give you a short summary of some customer service issues I’ve had this year.

I think it was late spring when we had several days of windy, rainy weather.  Our DSL service was erratic.  It would be slow then normal then nothing at all.  The DSL light on our modem would go out.  I called CenturyLink and spoke with a tech in Idaho.  She said that our service had been throttled back from the nominal 7Mbps to 3Mbps.  She did some resetting and things were better.

The bad weather continued and our DSL service became erratic again.  I made a call and sent some emails, but this time I was told that it was my modem and that I should buy a new modem.  I checked online for the current CenturyLink modem, and guess what!  One customer had left a message that he bought that new modem and was having the exact same problems as we were!  Two months before my search!

I didn’t buy a modem and a few weeks later our modem was doing just fine.  Our service now runs about 6Mbps.  Could it be that CenturyLink had some line problems that customer support was not told about?

I bought a solar light for the outhouse at our cabin.  It worked fine and then it would not turn on until it had been off for about an hour.  I sent email to the customer support and received back a request for my address, phone number, date of purchase, and a scanned copy of the receipt.  I said “Phooey” and figured out that I had drained the batteries by leaving the light on.  Replacing the batteries improved the performance.  It looks like the first line of customer support is only screeners who have no access to problems and solutions.  Now this dumb customer left the light on again and it wouldn’t turn on again.

We replaced our cabin landline with a wireless home phone base.  The answering machine now gave a time an hour later than the time of call.  Consumer Cellular replied it was my answering machine.  With a bit of web searching, I found out that the wireless home phone base is passing the wrong information and that a firmware upgrade fixes the problem.  The upgrade is available only from the original manufacturer and only can be installed with Windows software.  When I relayed this information back to Consumer Cellular, they replied they could not help me and implied it wasn’t even their responsibility!  This from a company that is rated highly in customer service.

The keyboard and keypad on my laptop would not respond.  I tried the various reset tricks from Apple support boards but none worked for long.  I took my laptop back to Best Buy where I bought it, but everything worked fine for the Geek Squad.  It worked fine for a while at home and then… “Dead” again.  I figured out that it was Microsoft Outlook that I always have on that was the problem.  The techs had closed all my apps before their tests.  I reorganized Outlook's database and the keyboard has been working fine since.  If only I could make the fingers hitting the keys work as well!

But we should also look on the bright side.  Corporations have done a great job of making our cars more reliable and comfortable.  If we take some reasonable precautions they start every time and get us where we want to go safely.  We have all kinds of extras that weren’t on my first car, a 1940 Chevy.  Turn signals, windshield washers, side view mirrors, power steering, power brakes, anti-skid, ABS, air-conditioning, and accurate speedometers.

Ah! Accurate speedometers!  I had a 1969 Fiat that said I was going 70mph when I was actually going 63.  I had a Ford Escort that said I was going 55mph when I was actually going 47 mph!  The Ford dealer blamed it on the tires and wouldn’t do anything about it.  I found it was a wide-spread problem; when I compensated for the error I passed many Ford Escorts driving well under the speed limit.

If the dealer was right about the problem, the tires would have to be about 15 percent smaller than “standard” to have that speed disparity.  For a tire that was about two feet in diameter, that would work out to over an inch of tread wear.  The grooves on a auto tire are not even that deep!  What was it that Adam Smith said?  “Those who live by profit deceive and oppress the public.”

In the favor of those who live by profit, our latest cars do much better on speedometer accuracy – 30 mph on the speedometer at 30 mph and 71 mph at 70 mph! Oh, and we have one domestic car and one foreign car.

Insurgencies, outside forces, and good government

Why is it that those seeking to overthrow a government can often do it without outside help other than weapons, but that government forces need outside advisers?

We saw it in Viet Nam where the Viet Cong kept fighting and fighting against both the South Vietnamese government and their U.S. advisers.  It got to the point where the "advisors" were doing more of the fighting than the government forces.

We saw it in Iraq where a large variety of "insurgents" fought against the foreign invaders and then against the Iraqi government as well as each other.  The outside invaders stayed to advise the new government, but that government seems ineffectual against the "insurgents".

We see it in Afghanistan where the Taliban keeps striking at the foreign invaders/advisers and the Afghan government, including local governors as well as the Afghan army and police.

Could the common thread be that all these governments were not only corrupt but not fully supported by the general populations?  Could it be that the only way to put down anti-government forces is to have a strong, dictatorial government or to have wide-spread popular support of a freely elected government?

And a freely elected government cannot really be imposed from outside.

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir

The following was published in the October 10 edition of the Reader Weekly of Duluth.  It is also available at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/10/10/2216_party_of_one.

Almost every time Bob Boone sees me, he asks me to write again for the Reader.  When I saw him last week he twisted my arm so hard that I yelled “Uncle!”  Unfortunately, my arm is so sore that I’ll have to do a lot of cutting and pasting from my notes and blog postings.  I must admit I gave in partly because so many people ask if I’m still writing for the Reader but few visit my blog (it has more Russian reverse-spammers than American readers).

By the time this is published will the government be open again?  Regardless, consider what the uproar would be if the Democrats in the Senate would not approve a spending bill unless certain provisions were removed from the PATRIOT Act.

Many are promoting Hilary Clinton for President in 2016.  My own view is that we have had enough of Presidential dynasties.  If you think a woman should be President, consider Kathleen Sebelius and Elizabeth Warren.  Sebelius has governed and with some bi-partisan success.  Warren really is good at exposing contradictions in the positions of the powers that be.

Once again it is that tiresome time of year in the Northland.  Off in the distance, bang!  Too close for comfort, bang!  Bird season has started and then next month is deer season with a few other hunting seasons thrown in.

Last time I checked, landowners in Minnesota are supposed to post their property with "No Trespassing" signs every 300-500 feet.  In other words, hunters are free to trespass on private land that is not posted.

Even if posted, some hunters ignore the signs or even evidence that they were shooting into private property.  One fall a bird hunter shot down our driveway with our red pickup plainly visible.  My wife happened to be nearby and yelled at him.  He grabbed his bird, ran to his truck, and drove off as quickly as he could.

What if my wife had a gun in her hand?  If Minnesota had a "Stand Your Ground" law, would she be in the right to shoot the trespassing hunter?

Last season some bird hunters shot into our land where there was no brush under the power line.  There were "No Trespassing" signs within 300 feet of where they shot.  What if I had been walking on a trail that paralleled the road and had a gun with me.  Would I have been "standing my ground" to shoot back?  They were also shooting within 200 feet of an occupied dwelling on the other side of the road.

Given that a GPS unit costs less than most rifles and that St. Louis County, Minnesota, publishes plat maps, available free online, listing all the properties and owners, should landowners even be required to post their property?
Responsible hunters know where they hunt and respect property rights.  They would be safe.  But the few irresponsible hunters give the impression that all hunters do not respect property rights.  These irresponsible hunters should be very glad that Minnesota doesn't have a "Stand Your Ground" law.
How often have we heard the following before:

"Notwithstanding the NRA’s win in Colorado in knocking off two gun control Democratic State Senators for supporting more stringent ‘gun control’, if Liberals vote they will win. In fact if one analyzes the Colorado race, Liberals were disinterested and stayed home, something that must be worked on going forward. Voters must learn that it is their civic duty to vote every time. Political engagement must be a requirement for effective citizenship."
 - Egberto Willies, "America Is A Liberal Nation.  A Liberal Wins On a Liberal Message."

Maybe I’m preaching to the choir.  Reader Weekly readers always vote, don’t they?  Remember city council and school board elections are on November 5th as well as a school levy.

Ah, a school levy!  How often have you heard people complain about taxes for schools because they don’t have any kids in school?  Conversely, how many younger people complain about paying into Social Security and it goes almost directly into the pockets of seniors?

Well, we have many cross-generational transfers and we always will.  Who paid for seniors’ schooling?  People long dead.  Who paid the Social Security for those long dead?  The seniors now collecting Social Security.  Who paid for the highways and public buildings?  People long dead.  Who is paying for new roads and public buildings?  People who will use them only a few years of the lifetime of those roads and public buildings.

Schools, roads, and public buildings are considered public goods.  That is, things that benefit all people regardless of their ability to pay.  Would you have been able to go to school if your parents were poor?  Would you want to pay a toll for every section of road you drove on?  We all get to use these public goods independent of how much we paid for them.  It is these public goods that help make a civil society.  Those countries that let the rich pay few or no taxes and make the poor pay lots of taxes are not pleasant places to live.

A Bible for all seasons

The Bible is an amazing collection of history, fables, rules, and wisdom.  Almost anybody can find something somewhere to support their beliefs.  Some believe because the New Testament does not mention instrumental music then there should be no instrumental music in church services.  On the other hand there are many who take the Old Testament to heart to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord" with all kinds of instruments.  Thank you, Bach, Handel, Verdi, and many others.

Unfortunately much evil has been done by some interpretations, from the burning of "heretics" to the following:

"John’s visions, throughout the centuries, have been applicable to almost every conflict or fit of us-against-the-world madness. Charles Manson read the Book of Revelation before his followers’ rampages; Hitler, encouraged by Joseph Goebbels, apparently read himself into the narrative as a holy redeemer, while the rest of the civilized world saw him as the book’s beast."

"Into the Apocalypse With an Unruffled Tour Guide: 'Revelations', by Elaine Pagels", Dwight Garner, New York Times, 2012-03-20.

Distortions in family history

If you are working on your family history, be careful of what you are told.  What you are told could be made up or it could be misinterpreted.  Document everything and then crosscheck it with other documents.

The most blatant tale that I can think of is what my mother told me around a St. Patrick's Day.  She said, "We are Orange Irish."  One, her ancestors were from England and Germany, not Ireland.  Two, she didn't know any of her in-laws besides her U.S. born father-in-law and German-born mother-in-law.

So far, I have found only one Magree ancestor going back four generations that was not born in the United States.  My great grandfather, John James Richard Magree, was born in Liverpool, England of an American father and an English mother.  Given that her maiden name was Pope, she may or may not have had Irish ancestors.  Many Irish immigrated to Liverpool.  However, all of the other records that I have for him say he was born in the U.S. and more specifically in Brooklyn.

I do know that the name Magree is centered in Kilkenny, Ireland and some of those Magrees are buried in a Catholic Church cemetery.  If my Magree ancestors were from there, they most likely would have been Catholic.

I was told that my grandfather was born in Poughkeepsie, New York.  But his death certificate gives Brooklyn, his parents were in a Brooklyn city directory at the time of his birth, and one of his sister's birth certificates gives that same address.  But somebody else on ancestry.com has that sister born in Poughkeepsie!

I read the death certificate of my paternal grandmother's father as his birthplace being "Schlossing"; the information was provided by one of his sons.  Knowing my grandmother was born in Germany I kept looking for a town with that name.  Then it dawned on me that it should be "Schlesien", German for Silesia.  Silesia is now mostly in Poland.  Somebody else on ancestry.com had his birth as "Schlassing".  As part of checking if my grandmother may have been Catholic, I looked up Silesia.  I learned that there is a Silesian German and the speakers call themselves Schlässinger.  I have since found out that my grandmother's town of leaving was called Osseg; it is now Osiek in Polish.

I have learned so much family history in the last thirty years, but I will need another thirty years to even fill in details about the people whose names I know.

But, regardless of where my ancestors came from, I do not consider myself Orange Irish or Green Irish or German or Polish or even Brooklynite:)  My nationality is American!
See also What nationality are you?  An irrelevant question!

Quote of the day: Negotiating

"You cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." - John F. Kennedy

I cannot verify this with an original source.  The only find I made in the John F. Kennedy Library is in 1960 press releases.  However, it is very difficult to read.  I couldn't find the quote but the title is "The fight on crime".  See http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-1036-012.aspx#

Whoever wrote it came up with a good observation.  My variant is:

A: "You owe me a hundred dollars."
B: "I owe you nothing."
A: "OK, let's compromise.  You owe me fifty dollars."

One of best defenses of government

Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave an excellent speech defending the importance and effectiveness of the American government recently.  Watch her speech at

http://www.upworthy.com/a-senator-gets-mad-about-the-shutdown-and-starts-naming-names-about-time

Post-modern times are not now

Ross Douthat wrote another interesting column, "The Promise and Peril of Pope Francis",  New York Times, 2013-10-06. It is about the juggling act that Pope Francis has to perform to attract more fallen-away Catholics and keep the faithful but conservative Catholics.

One commenter used the term "post-modern world".  "Excellent article. In terms of reclaiming the so called absent middle for Catholics, Jews and members of all faiths confronting a post-modern world the question needs to be asked: Does attendance at religious services really matter anymore? The vast numbers of adherents who identify only culturally to their religious tradition need to be reached in creative new ways and respected for their lack of participation in what are perceived to be archaic institutions."

How can we be living in "post-modern" times or a "post-modern world"?  These terms are often used to denote the here and now as coming after a time that was modern then.  But "post-modern" times, like tomorrow, never come.  We are always living in modern times.

Paradox of the day – IQ and high-level physics

"Richard Feynman’s I.Q. was a less-than-remarkable 125."

"Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?", Eileen Pollack, New York Times Magazine, 2013-10-03.

Richard Feynman was a Noble laureate in physics.

For more on Richard Feynman, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman.

Apropos women in science, he encouraged his younger sister to be a scientist.  She has a Ph.D. in physics and has made major contributions to the study of solar wind.  Take your pick of thousands of entries on her with a search of "Joan Feynman physicist".

What if Senate demands compromise on PATRIOT Act?

What if the U.S. Senate demands that the House of Representatives compromises on the spending bill by removing certain aspects of the PATRIOT Act?

Quote of the day: Popularity of Affordable Care Act

"When Apple’s Web site crashes because of demand for a new version of the iPhone, it is not because people hate iPhones." - Anne Steinmann, retired physician, letter to the New York Times on the difficulty some people have had accessing the health insurance exchanges, 2013-10-02.

Hunters should oppose "Stand Your Ground" laws

Once again it is that tiresome time of year in the Northland.  Off in the distance, bang!  Too close for comfort, bang!  Bird season has started and then next month is deer season with a few other hunting seasons thrown in.

Last time I checked, landowners in Minnesota are supposed to post their property with "No Trespassing" signs every 300-500 feet.  In other words, hunters were free to trespass on private land that was not posted.

Even if posted, some hunters ignore the signs or even evidence that they were shooting into private property.  One fall a bird hunter shot down our driveway with our red pickup plainly visible.  My wife happened to be nearby and yelled at him.  He grabbed his bird, ran to his truck, and drove off as quickly as he could.

What if my wife had a gun in her hand?  If Minnesota had a "Stand Your Ground" law, would she be in the right to shoot the trespassing hunter?

Last season some bird hunters shot into our land where there was no brush under the power line.  There were "No Trespassing" signs within 300 feet of where they shot.  What if I had been walking on a trail that paralleled the road and had a gun with me.  Would I have been "standing my ground" to shoot back?  They were also shooting within 200 feet of an occupied dwelling on the other side of the road.

Given that a GPS unit costs less than most rifles and that St. Louis County, Minnesota, publishes plat maps, available free online, listing all the properties and owners, should landowners even be required to post their property?

Responsible hunters know where they hunt and respect property rights.  They would be safe.  But the few irresponsible hunters give the impression that all hunters do not respect property rights.  These irresponsible hunters should be very glad that Minnesota doesn't have a "Stand Your Ground" law.

Let's compromise!

I'll compromise with the House Republicans.  They increase my Social Security by 50% and cut their salaries by 50%.

Appropriate punishment for Islamic and other terrorists

Many terrorists of any ilk act in the name of an ideology, whether it be religious or political.  They think they are doing their cause a favor by killing as many people as possible who don't believe in their cause or just happen to be in the way as they kill their targets.

Many think these terrorists should be executed if caught, with or without a trial, fair or otherwise.  But this is just what some of them want – to be martyrs to their cause.  An example is former Major Nidal Hassan who has been sentenced to death for shooting and killing thirteen people at Fort Hood.  This probably won't happen and really shouldn't happen.

He probably won't be executed because the military hasn't executed any active military personnel for some time and the appeal process can take decades.  He shouldn't be executed because this is just what he claimed to want – to be a martyr to his cause.

I don't think terrorists should be subjected to forced watching of similar crimes like that in Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange".  I do think they should be subjected to repeated recitations of the non-violent portions of their beliefs.  For example,

“O People of the Book! [Jews, Christians, Muslims] Come to what is common between us and you: That we worship none but God, that we associate no partners with Him, that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords other than Allah. If then they turn back, say: 'Bear witness that we are bowing to Allah’s will.'" From "The Qur'an and Tolerance of Christianity and Judaism", Islam Online.

The same kind of tolerance can be found in the Talmud and the Bible.

Narrow interpretations or even misinterpretations are found over and over again down through the centuries.  Catholics killed Protestants and Jews.  Protestants killed Catholics and Jews.  Jews killed the worshippers of Ba'al.  Christians killed Christians and Muslims in the Crusades.  Muslims killed Christians and Muslims in the Crusades.  Muslims seem to be killing more Muslims in these times than they are killing Christians.  All this despite the fact that the text they hold in common states unequivocally "Thou shalt not kill"!  It does not state "That shalt not kill any who believe as you do but thou mayest kill those who believe even slightly differently."

So, if terrorists are jailed and subjected to similar recitations, videos of their listening to these should be made widely available.  If the terrorists wish to make any statements recanting their previous beliefs, then these statements should be widely circulated.

I know this is wishful thinking and probably won't happen.  But those of us who believe that these three faiths (and others) have many tenets of generosity can avoid general statements of hate and counter those who do spew hate.

Helpless help desks revisited

Well, for the fourth time this year I've asked for help from a major corporation and for the fourth time I've given them a solution.

The first time was when our DSL from CenturyLink was squirrelly.  It would go on and off.  The first person I spoke with diddled with some settings from her computer and our speed was up again.  The problem returned.  On the next few calls, the help desk insisted that I should get a new modem.  I did not because I was sure the problem was storm related and in CenturyLink's lines.  We still have the old modem and we are getting around 6Mbps on our nominal 7Mbps service.  See "Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply".  CenturyLink apparently repaired the lines that I insisted were the problem.  Or we haven't had many really windy storms since then.

The second time was when the keyboard locked up on my MacBook Pro.  It was still on warranty from Best Buy and so I took it to the Geek Squad.  They kept if for a day or two and could find nothing wrong.  It wasn't until I had it at home for a day or two that I discovered that it was Microsoft Outlook, which Geek Squad had closed, causing the problem.  My database probably had gotten too big and Outlook had an error that was writing outside its area.  I compacted the database and the problem went away.  See "Computer withdrawal symptoms".

The third time was when the Westinghouse solar shed light would not turn on again after I turned it off.  See "Simple questions don't get simple answers from corporate bureaucracies".  The light is working fine after I put in newer batteries.

The fourth time was when I found out that our improper time on our cabin answering machine was because I needed a firmware update.  None of the friendly folks at Consumer Cellular seemed to understand that the AT&T network was resetting the time.  I found this out when I read the answering machine instructions and learned that telephone networks send the time with caller-ID information.  When we used a land-line we didn't have caller-ID.  Caller-ID is standard with cell phone service.  I found that I needed a firmware update from a search of AT&Ts support forums.  One user responded to another last month with the solution.  I sent email back to Consumer Cellular about this.  I wrote that I was tempted to send them an invoice for two hours of Level 2 support work.

I don't expect to have a response from Consumer Cellular until Monday.  Meanwhile, I searched the AT&T website for instructions on getting the firmware update.  Nada!  First, it gave me over 3,000 hits where the first two pages didn't have anything relevant.  I searched on the web for the model number and found that the original manufacturer has instructions for upgrading the firmware to the latest level, for those with a Windows computer!  I did another peek at the AT&T site and found a page for the "Wireless Home Phone".  It had no information at all on updating the firmware!

There are some economists (and many non-economists) who say that the only objective of a corporation should be to provide shareholder value.  But to provide shareholder value doesn't a corporation need to provide customer value?  At some point a captive customer base may burst their shackles and go elsewhere.