feeling gleeful

About a year and a half ago I moved from an area with lots of high speed internet choices to an area with far fewer choices. Originally I had Speakeasy DSL which was awesome and amazing and recommended by me to everyone. After the move, I was stuck with Comcast cable internet, which made me very unhappy, because I hate Comcast with a passion. Not only do they have horrible and clueless phone support, they charge $50 every time a technician comes to visit, they have sketchy bait-and-switch pricing schemes, and one time when the Comcast guy came to "fix" our internet service he "accidentally" broke our satellite TV connection. Yeah, right.

Sometime last December, we received a letter from Comcast saying that the rate on our internet service ($42/month) was a "mistake" and that it would be changed to the "correct" price of $58/month, effective in January. The letter was printed, with color graphics. I sincerely doubt that we were the only customers to receive it. Anyway, it went on to say that we could elect to add cable TV service, and if we did so, instead of being charged $58/month for just internet, we would pay $52/month for both internet and TV. Of course, the catch was that the $52/month rate would only apply for a year.

That was motivation enough for me to start researching ISP alternatives again, and I was surprised and happy to find that AT&T DSL was available in our area. I promptly ordered AT&T service, and the technician enabled our line, but my old Speakeasy/Covad DSL modem unfortunately didn't work with AT&T's service, so I had to wait another few days until AT&T could send me a new modem (which, incidentally, was free with a 1-year contract).

The modem arrived yesterday afternoon, and after dinner and games with some friends, I started configuring the new connection around midnight. After going through the installation process (which unfortunately required a Windows machine and Internet Explorer, so I had to dig up a laptop), and debugging the PPPoE settings for a bit, I finally got everything working around 1am. This made me ridiculously happy. I felt like I was finally free! I didn't get to bed until 2am because I was aimlessly surfing the web, just reveling in our new faster, Comcast-less internet. Yeah, I'm a huge geek.

We got Comcast cancelled the next morning. Yay!! Take that, stupid Comcast policies!

being cheap

I don't mind spending money when I feel that it's justified (e.g. Tivo, premium orange juice, nice sheets and towels, trying out new restaurants) but I hate discovering that I've paid more than necessary for a particular item/service. So, I research purchases online ad nauseum, check prices on eBay for weeks, and track cash rebate credit cards and savings account rates.

Recently, my Nokia 8265 started to run out of power at an alarming rate. The battery gauge would go from four bars to one during a 15 minute call. Since I've had the same phone for at least three years now, and it's a TDMA model, I thought I'd look into getting a new phone; maybe a quad-band GSM.

I called up Cingular, and asked for deals on new phones, and was told that I qualified for a new phone, but as an old AT&T Wireless customer, I would have to "upgrade" my rate plan in order to get one. By "upgrade", they meant, switch from my current $34.99/month plan (with unlimited incoming text messages) to a new $39.99/month plan (with no text messaging). Apparently, even if I bought a phone from a retailer, in order to activate it, I'd have to "upgrade" my rate plan. I declined, of course.

A week later I bought a new battery off of eBay for $6.96, including shipping and handling.

Speakeasy rocks

Wow, look what just landed in my inbox...

Speakeasy is kicking off its customer upgrade program, affectionately called Turbo Shot: Upgrading your need for speed! As part of our network and service upgrades, we're increasing your circuit's speed at absolutely NO COST to you.

Your upgrade will occur during the month of February, 2004, and we'll notify you via email 7 days in advance of your scheduled upgrade.

We will upgrade your service from 608/128 to 1.5/384 - all the same great services complemented by an increased speed for the same base monthly fee you pay now!

I've had Speakeasy DSL ($49.95/month) for six months now. My favorite features:
- no port blocking and/or server restrictions
- policies that explicitly allow wireless and other internal networks
- static IP, woohoo!
- support for non-Windows operating systems
- customer service people who understand traceroute results and tell me to run ifconfig

Me like. Why anyone would voluntarily continue to use Comcast for high-speed internet is beyond me, especially at $56.95/month ($42.95 if you subscribe to their crappy cable TV).