The Genius of AT&T

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Thank you for contacting AT&T Internet Services, my name is Aeon Willows. One moment while I review your information.

Aeon Willows: Hello there James Lamb !

James Lamb: Hello Aeon Willows. Last month I cancelled my service via phone. I asked them if I needed to do something separate for DSL / internet and they said no. Yet I get a bill for internet services. WHY?

Aeon Willows: I see.

Aeon Willows: AS I understand it, you are asking as to why your request for a service cancellation has not been approved and processed. Am I right?

James Lamb: No. I am asking you why I was told the cancellation was good for both phone and internet, and yet it wasn't.

Aeon Willows: I see.

James Lamb: I am asking you for a credit of the internet fees, and I am also asking you to cancel the service. I am asking you for some proof that this will be done and I will not receive another bill for service that was cancelled.

Aeon Willows: Mr. Lamb, you have reached the High Speed Internet Technical Support group. For assistance with your billing question we have help available at 1-877-722-3755 between 8am to 6pm Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5pm on Saturday.

Aeon Willows: Will there be anything that I can assist you with today?

James Lamb: Yes, this is exactly the problem You call one place, they say no problem, taken care of. You try somewhere else, and they say, "oh, that's another department."

James Lamb: Yes, you can assist me by getting a job with a company that is capable of communicating within departments to achieve customer satisfaction.

James Lamb: You are wasting your valuable talent working for a company that only frustrates people who are paying for service.

Aeon Willows: Okay, I really do apologize for this hassle.

James Lamb: It's not your fault. Will you try to get a job with a company that doesn't do this to its customers?

Aeon Willows: I really do understand where you are coming from.
Aeon Willows: It must be really frustrating being charged for something that you have not availed.

James Lamb: So what are your objectives for improving your own life and those of your customers?

Aeon Willows: Mr. Lamb, I'm pretty sure, this is just a discrepancy between your request and the records.
Aeon Willows: I really do hope that you can call the billing department to clarify the case that we have.

James Lamb: Yes, but your company is notorious for this. Of course, I'm probably wrong here, because you are probably just an independent contractor who doesn't directly work for AT&T. That's the problem -- the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

Aeon Willows: I really do apologize for this, I know that this is really frustrating. And believe it or not, I would really like to do more at my end to help you with this.
Aeon Willows: However, only you can make that call to the billing department, so that the issue can be settled.

James Lamb: I have heard there are countries where bureaucracy is horrendous and people's daily lives are spent trying to track down the appropriate department... waiting in lines and waiting on hold and being sent to another department. Paying bribes, and still getting nothing accomplished. This is no way to run a company or a country.

Aeon Willows: Yes, I definitely agree.

James Lamb: You have no way to contact this department directly?

Aeon Willows: I can feel how frustrated you are about this.

James Lamb: Can you contact the department for me?

Aeon Willows: I'll be sending a form where you can express your opinions regarding AT&T ensuring that AT&T will hear it from you.
The agent is sending you to http://helpme.att.net/productfeedback.php.

James Lamb: Can I receive a copy of this discussion?

Bike Hut

Years ago, someone recommended Victor at the Bike Hut on Pier 40 as a place to go for bike repairs and related used items. I liked going there, because the money you spend goes towards mentoring kids (it's a nonprofit), and Victor was an interesting fellow.

Unfortunately, Victor moved on, and another "activist" is running the joint. What an irritating fellow. I was just trying to have a conversation with the guy. The city built him a new building, and he complained about that (they took so long; I wish they had just given me the money; they had the crappy lowest bidder do it...) He complained about the guy running the pier where it's located. He complained about the people who VISIT him "They all want to know where the restroom is. OPEN YOUR EYES, I say, LOOK..." points in direction.

It wasn't just the complaining, it was also that if you tried to use any gap in his complaining to say something, he would immediate launch into some other diatribe, not giving you any chance to speak, inform, rebut, or discuss. What a miserable crank. It's easy to see why he's pissed off at the world, because he lacks the basic social skills to participate in a simple conversation. These are the kind of people who give Critical Mass a bad name. Is this someone appropriate for mentoring youth?

Festival of Sail

The Festival of Sail seems quite a large, amorphous blob with tentacles all over the waterfront and Justin Herman Plaza... Tour a ship, get your picture taken in a pirate costume, or pay $5 to climb a plastic coconut tree?

Rode my bike from home to the Bay Bridge, then back around Embarcadero. Many booths in front of the ferry building; the ships are parked down south of the Bay Bridge, with many booths in front of them, and many more booths set up down by Aquatic Park. Of course, at least half the booths are selling trinkets; others are educational or representing aquatic organizations.

Bicycling to the Golden Gate Bridge

The bicycle rental tourist maps point everyone to the Golden Gate Bridge by riding along the waterfront. Nice, until you get to the Warming Hut, and then, unless you're a cycling maniac, you probably end up walking up the huge hill instead of riding.

Might I suggest... riding through the Presidio enroute to the bridge, which is a more gradual incline, and then coming back down that giant hill behind the Warming Hut. Note: click images for larger view; also, my altitude scale is slightly off.


Though I must warn you, it's easy to get lost in the Presidio. Below is an old map of the route, from when the Presidio still belonged to the Army. I suggest viewing and printing out one of the park maps on this clickable link.

iTunes glitchies

iTunes has this function "do you want to consolidate library?" which duplicates all of your sound files, wherever they might reside into one folder called iTunes music (with artist folders inside). Doing that was the mistake, though it seemed reasonable before I knew much about the program. The program does help clean up folders by creating artist-specific ones, but it also has some glitches via computer database that, for example, labels Disc1 of Bob Dylan's greatest hits as an "album" but Disc2 as a "compilation" which goes into a generic folder without artist title. It also sometimes splits an album because songs were recorded earlier on a different album, and doesn't recognize the new album.

But subsequent to "consolidating library", all changes made in iTunes are not reflected in original folders (i.e. you didn't have the album name, but found it and added it via iTunes). Using a standard back-up program doesn't work with the iTunes folder, because it seems the program adds something to each file with data on how many times you've played it or if you've "rated it." So you end up with multiple copies, unless you use the iTunes program to back it up, in which case you can only do it to disks, not hard drive.

So I've got pre-iTunes folders, which probably contain incomplete song info, and I've got post-iTunes folders, which contain many duplicates.

I'm sorting through, and copying anything out of iTunes back into the original folders that was added after iTunes so I can do automated back-ups to hard drive.

NOLA hurricane

Saw "When the Levees Broke." OK, first, I was in N.O. back in 1993. Just a regular summer thundershower puts 2 feet of water in some parts of the city until the pumps can remove it. A REGULAR summer shower. Everybody knew that if the pumps failed, guess what? That's even if no levees fail. So to pretend that you don't know the city's going to be under water, or to not be smart enough to see that -- well, that's like living in San Francisco, and pretending a big earthquake isn't going to hit.

Now, of course, the government screwed up, and the insurance companies screwed people, and the Army Corps of Engineers didn't build the levees strong enough. BUT, you gotta know that all those things are bound to happen in a disaster (dang, I gotta get my earthquake kit more organized!).

Great documentary - I shed a few tears, but maybe just one too many people not willing to take personal responsibility for their own life and safety. (I say, as I live on landfill in earthquake country).

They'll steal everything

Yep, they'll even steal your garbage in this town !

link Chronicle article on recyclables theft