Observations Along the Road

Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway

Oh Joy. A Move Is In My Future.

Written By: cahwyguy - Wed Mar 06, 2013 @ 11:01 am PDT
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userpic=stressedI just found out there was a reason there was a person walking around our bay at work from facilities yesterday. They were scouting space. I just found out that sometime before the end of the month I’ll need to move my office to the southern end of the building. They don’t know which office yet. Gee, I hope they tell me :-) .

I don’t like moving. I moved into my present office (A3/2023A) shortly before A1 was torn down, back in 2009. Before that, I had 3 different offices in the lifespan of our department in A1 (we moved to A1 in 1990). Had only one office when our department was in A8.

Oh well. Time to start ordering boxes, packing books, and deciding what to throw away…

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I Hate Plumbing

Written By: cahwyguy - Mon Dec 31, 2012 @ 10:01 pm PDT
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userpic=plumbingGrowing up, I have a vivid memory of a plumbing break at my parent’s old house in Kenter Canyon. It was under the slab, and involved ripping up the carpet and padding, and jack hammering out the pipe. A royal mess.

At our previous house in North Hills, we had continual water problems. It was either leaks in the roof due to bad flashing under the air conditioning plenum, or clogged sewer lines due to tree roots.

At our current house in Northridge, the sewer line problems have continued. Again, we have the city tree in the parkway creating root problems in 40 year old clay piping, which has collapsed in places (and is equally problematic under the street, which is our responsibility, evidently). About every 6 months to a year, we’ve had to root out some line. The last major rooting was in October just after Thanksgiving, on the line from the bedroom side of the house.

Lately, we’ve been having loads of problem on the guest side of the house. The kitchen sink backed up the day after Christmas. My wife had me check the trap, which ended up not solving the problem and exacerbating cracks in the under-sink piping. We had a plumber out to fix; he fixed the under-sink piping, and rooted from the kitchen cleanout to the guest bathroom. This morning, the sink backed up again. We had the plumber out (under warranty), and it turned out to be cloggage in the line from the sink to the cleanout. This is all muck built up in the brass lines in the slab or walls.

This evening, with a load of guests in the house, guess what happened? Yup. The guest bathroom toilet backed up, overflowing into the shower (meaning that the clog is somewhere downstream of the shower, but likely before the Y to the bedroom wing, as the cleanout cap hasn’t popped). The plumber has been called; hopefully we can get him out tomorrow.

What a way to start the year. Plumbing problems. Grrrrrrrr.

ETA: The plumber was here on time, as promised. The clog was roots about 1 foot before the Y junction under the driveway. Total cost for this rooting (as it wasn’t connected to the earlier problem): $135. His estimate to replace the main sewer line from the 3″ clean-out until the property line with ABS plastic pipe, including the Y-line and up to the guest bathroom side, with a 25-year warranty, is $3,000. That’s a possibility, in the future. Inlining the 6″ clay sewer line from the property line to the city connection under the street would add about $1,500. to that amount.

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An Insidious Plot – A DirecTivo Update

Written By: cahwyguy - Tue Nov 13, 2012 @ 12:28 pm PDT
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A quick lunchtime update on the DirecTivo situation: Just heard back from my wife, who spoke to Weaknees. They ran diagnostics on our DirecTivo Samsung DVR, and there are no disk problems, no tuner problems, and presumably no power problems. So what is causing the system to reboot? Seems they have been getting lots of calls from original DirecTivo owners complaining of these reboots. I just took a look at the DBSTalk forums, and there are lots of folks having the same problem. It is also being reported in the Tivo Community Forums and in the DirecTV forums on the DirecTV website. I just wish I had discovered this before I paid the diagnosis fee, but at least we are ending up with a larger disk, programming and such transferred, and knowledge that the tuners are good. ETA 11/15: Weaknees has also posted a blog entry on the problem (h/t Carl K.).

What is the answer to the problem? That’s harder. I’ve seen one comment that it might be a problem in the Guide Data stream. Someone else noted that there was a very similar problem about 2 years ago, starting in late September/October and lasting about a month. That time, the problem was with the software and a patch was required. Yet another person surmised that they are removing advanced EPG stream by end of year, and they could testing for that, resulting in the reboots. A number of people think it is a plot by DirecTV to force people to the new HD Tivos. In general, the notion appears to be to call DirecTV and complain, complain, complain.

One person on the forums called DirecTV and got more information. They learned from DirecTV corporate that there is a software issue with the older TiVo’s and that they were waiting on enough complaints to institute a software upgrade.  As of 11/11, DirecTV was supposedly working on the software update; supposedly, if it does not work, they will replace those DVR’s with the software problem at no charge based upon what type of DVR you have (same for same). [Of course, that is useless for those with loads of saved programming and larger disks.] According to DirecTV, “If enough people with these TiVo’s complain about the reboots, a faster update will occur”

I hope DirecTV figures out the software fix. I’m annoyed enough that they forced me into a repair I didn’t need to make. I don’t want to lose the saved programs or have the upgraded disk capacity be for naught.

(ETA 11/14/12: I’ve submitted an email to DirecTV regarding this problem. Given I just paid almost $200 to repair/upgrade the Samsung, about the only offer I would accept would be a current DirecTivo, with no changes in fees (i.e., even if it is an HD Tivo, no HD fees as we don’t have an HDTV), and I would want to be able to keep the old Tivo until we watched all the programming stored on it.)

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Transition Planning … Fail

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Oct 18, 2012 @ 5:51 pm PDT
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<RANT> For the last month or so, my credit union has been sending me mail about the transition of their eBanking system. The new system went live yesterday. We all had to reregister our accounts; they’ve gone to a new system that not only uses a security image and password, but sends a verification code to your email or cell phone if you are on a non-trusted computer. A pain, but being involved with security, I understand why they are doing it.

However, what I don’t understand is why they didn’t sufficiently test the system before the transition.

Last night, I create my new account, and attempt to set up Quicken to download from the new service. Doesn’t work. It seems Quicken doesn’t yet know how to log into the new service. So I sign into the service to attempt to download into Quicken. There is no option to download Quicken files, only CSV. I contact their support team, and learn they are still working on Quicken download… perhaps the end of the week.

From work at lunch I login to the system. Still no Quicken download.

This evening I attempt to log in. Username, fine. Security picture, fine. It won’t take my password. I attempt to have it reset my password, only to get a system error. Call in… and they are dealing with a server crash.

One rule of transitioning to a new system is that you test it. You then test it again, under load. You bring in a bunch of school children, and let them pound on it to test it. You try it with all applications you think your users will use. When you are done doing this…. you test it again.

I’m getting the impression that the credit union failed to adequately test their system or prepare for the transition. Bad form, folks.

</RANT>

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Dishwasher Woes

Written By: cahwyguy - Sun Sep 02, 2012 @ 10:00 am PDT
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At the end of 2009, we replaced the incredibly old and noisy dishwasher that was in our house when we moved in with a new technically advanced model from Lowes, a Samsung DMR78. At the time, it had gotten good reviews. It was expensive (around $930), but we hoped for the best.

I would not buy a Samsung dishwasher again.

Since that purchase, I recall that we had at least one warranty repair, as well as a flow sensor failure and water valve failure in August 2011 (that cost almost $300 to repair!). The water values and processor board failed again last month, prompting another almost $200 repair. Last night, after we got home from the theatre, we discovered the unit hadn’t fully drained. So I tried to do a cancel/drain to drain the bottom. There was absolutely no response from the front panel. None. I checked the circuit breaker, and nothing had tripped.

We’ve put a call into the service-critters, but I can seem them still attempting to charge a service charge, blaming something else, and finding new broken parts. At this point, I don’t think it is worth getting it fixed. Based on the product reviews, this product has turned out to be a design lemon.

We’ve looked at Consumers Reports, and the “Best Buys” are a tossup between the Bosch Ascentia (which is on sale at Lowes this weekend for $539.10) and the Whirlpool Gold. A Whirlpool Gold got good reviews in CR, but it was a GU23/24 model, and all I can see at Lowes are a WDT710PAYM model (on sale for $494.10) and a WDF750PAYM model (on sale for $629.10). We still need to look into the differences between the models. One additional impetus is that Lowes is doing their regular financing sale, meaning we can do 0% for 18 months, as we would be spending more than $299). Usually Lowes does free delivery and installation.

My gut is leaning towards the Whirlpool, simply because of the impression of reliability (both Bosch and Whirlpool are reportedly reliable per CR; Samsung isn’t even on their list). On the Lowes website, the Whirlpool gets slightly higher ratings (4½ ★) than the Bosch (4 ★). But the trick is finding the right model.

[I'll note that Sears is also an option: They are also doing 0% for purchases over $499. They have the WDF Whirlpool for $569.99, but charge for delivery, and a Bosch (unclear if it is the Ascentia) for $629.99, again with a delivery charge.]

[Additional data point: Best Buy has the Bosch Ascentia for $594.99, supposedly with free delivery and 0% financing. With respect to Whirlpool Gold, Best Buy only has the various WDT and WDF models.]

[I'll also note there is the question of what to do with the old Dishwasher. The service critters are scheduled to come out Wednesday, supposedly for no charge... but I'm expecting they'll find something else is wrong and need to order parts ($$). My wife thinks we should fix the Samsung if we can do it for free on their nickel and then sell it; my thought is just to write off the Samsung. I guess it depends on when Lowes can schedule installation vs. whether the service critters need to order parts.]

[ETA: We ended up going with the Bosch Ascentia, based primarily on the recommendation of Ray M., Consumers, and the fact that the Whirlpool models at Lowes were significantly lower rates (below the Samsung, even). We get free delivery, get to take advantage of the sale and 18 month 0% financing, and get a Visa rebate card for the basic installation. We did have to buy new hoses, pay for the city permit, and we bought the 4 year extended warranty (just given our experiences -- we normally don't -- but a single repair will likely offset the $108 price). It should be delivered late next week; if they fix the old one for free before that, we'll sell it on Craigslist.]

 

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Protected: Four for Four

Written By: cahwyguy - Tue Apr 19, 2011 @ 9:44 pm PDT
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At Last My Arm Is Complete Again… For Now

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Dec 02, 2010 @ 8:25 pm PDT
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The internet will never be a commodity service until it has the reliability of the wired telephone service, broadcast television, or electrical power.

This statement brought to you by the Time Warner Internet Outage.

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Doesn’t Bode Well

Written By: cahwyguy - Wed Nov 17, 2010 @ 4:46 am PDT
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I hate it when days don’t start well: You wake up at 3:30 am with a bit of a headache, and your alarm normally goes off at 4:45 am (meaning you won’t get back to sleep)… and the drivers are such on the van that you have to drive longer in the morning (only other driver gets on at the 2nd vs. 1st stop) and don’t have a backup in the afternoon (meaning if that headache blossoms, you’re stuck)… plus it looks like the first telecon of the morning may be a bit contentious… plus it looks like there is loads to do today and not enough time…

About the only good thing is that it is my daughter’s 16th birthday (I did the song on FB this year, for that’s where she’s hangin’). We’ll do her birthday dinner tomorrow night, and her party after finals in December, and go shopping for her present (laptop computer) when she has the time.

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