In my spare time I’m playing Eve Online, Warhammer Online and working.. mostly working..

I have always tried to keep a balance off of it, but there have been a couple  years where just due to the times I couldn’t help but carry a small balance..

Well the other day I went to pay off my card and I noticed that they bumped my APR to 29.998%…   Are you fucking kidding me?  30% APR is highway robbery..

I called them up and asked them to lower my rate and they refused..  The operator I got ahold of (once I navigated their automated system) told me that “.. they were unable to lower my rate at this time. Thanks for calling.. *click*”

I immediately called them back and told the new operator (that I got after navigating their automated system.. again) that I wanted to cancel my account and that it was due to their recent rate hike.. I have zero intention of paying 30% and that’s ludicrous..   He said, “but wait.. what if we lowered your APR would that make you stay?”

I explained that the previous operator told me there was no way to lower my rate.. So I want to cancel the account.. (2)..  He came back explaining that he could lower my rate to 26% for 6 months.. (after which it would spring back to 30%)..  I said that this was a bunch of crap, that if this was such a deal why didn’t the last guy offer it and that 26% is still robbery..  No thank you, I’d like to cancel my account.. (3)..

“But wouldn’t you like to lower your rate?” ..   I explained that if he could lower my rate to 0% I’d stick around, otherwise, I’d like to cancel my account.. (4)..  “No you want to lower your rate, so that the remaining balance doesn’t take that 30% rate, but instead gets this much lower rate… “  (26% is “much lower”)..  I told him that I just paid the account off, online.. that there is no remaining balance and that I’d like to cancel my account.. (5)..

But.. blah blah.. and blahdiddy blah..   I’d like to cancel my account.. (6).. if you keep pestering me to lower my rate I will ask to speak to your manager..

“Id be more than happy to let you speak to my manager..  but golly we need to lower this rate.. blah blah bullshit bullshit I’m a douche blah blah blah”..   I’d like to cancel my fucking account please.. (7).. and now I want to speak to your manager..

I honestly was getting really pissed.. this asshat wouldn’t let me just cancel the damn account..  I don’t want it any more.. you’re trying to screw me, and I refuse to do business with you..  Take your “amazing low rate of 26%” and shove it up your ass..  cancel my account.. I shouldn’t have to ask for this 7+ times.. (I’m sure it was more than 7.. this is very much the short version.. )

Eventually he asks me to hold (I fully expected him to just hang up the phone..)  A minute or so later someone got on the line claiming to be his manager and I told him that I wanted to cancel the account and that I shouldn’t have to ask so many times, and that I shouldn’t be pressured to do something I don’t want to do.. I want to cancel the account.. Period.. I’m done working with you..

He said, “Fine it’s canceled, do you want confirmation of the cancelation?”  — “You’re damn skippy.. “  –  “It will be sent to your billing address.. *click*”

The manager was rude as hell..  I should never have had to deal with him.. The initial call taker should be fired to be honest.. Or retrained at best..

As to Citibank..  I’m done with you..  Jack my rate to 30% which should be criminal, and then as of April 1st 2010, charge a $60 annual fee just to have the card?!   That’s $60 a year, just to have that card empty in your wallet.  Are you kidding me?  This is some kind of joke right?

It’s clear to me that Citibank doesn’t give a rats ass about their members if this is the way they plan to treat us..   So fine.. Bye.. I’m done with Citibank forever.. I wont do business with you ever again.. period.

More over I plan to tell as many people as possible not to do business with Citibank as they are clearly a bunch of crooks..

Tron Lightcycle

I want one..

So I have gone above and beyond out of my way to avoid learning any details about Tron 2.. (Tron Legacy is it’s officially called.) ..but it’s hard not to see the lightcycle.. And man does it look cool..

It’s very reminiscent of the Dodge Tomahawk concept bike but for some reason, just looks cooler.. The dodge just looks like raw power, and as such dangerous.. I’m pretty sure the lightcycle looks cooler to me because its tapping directly into my childhood fantasies..  I loved Tron as a kid.  I loved the universe, I loved the movie, I loved the games.. and I loved Cindy Morgan but that’s another story.. Most of all I just liked the concepts, core of which was the whole lightcycle fight..   The lightcycles really made the universe feel real..  And to this day I have to wonder how many people ride around on their “crotch-rocket” with the Tron theme running through their head..

Well apparently, the lightcycles in the new movie are real working motorcycles.. (or so is the rumor.. )  That appeals to every childhood fantasy I ever had regarding the Tron lore.. I so want one!  I’m pretty sure everyone else wants one too..  I am willing to bet if they sold them, they would go like hotcakes..  I’d get one if I could..   Dream on…

BN.com Nook

So I have been in the market for an e-reader for a while.  I do a lot of reading and thought it would be darn handy to have a single device that could carry multiple books, and have the ability to order new books at any time, anywhere.  I like real paper books, but the ability to carry many books in one small device is appealing.  And despite what my sister in law says, I think they are generally a good idea and can only encourage reading..

Everyone I know swears by the Amazon Kindle, and while the device works just fine I just didn’t much like it.  I got my paws on a friends and it felt cheap to me, plus I really didn’t like that keyboard down there.. The Kindle DX looked really nice, but it’s big and really expensive.. I could have purchased an Apple IPad for the cost..

Which brings me to my I didn’t want an IPad..  Asside from fanboy snobbery turning me off of Apple, I didn’t want an IPad because I wanted a dedicated device for reading that was of a size as to not be unwieldy..   The IPad and the Kindle DX are, for me, too big for comfortable reading.  And the IPad with all its other features would distract me from what I want the device primarily for; reading..  yes I’m actually implying the IPad has too many features.. heh  For an e-reader anyway.. Plus the $500+ price tag is a tad steep..  And the other huge issue is that Apple doesn’t give us any sort of window into what books they offer to non-ipad owners..

And let’s be honest here.. You’re buying into a back end — the hardware really is immaterial..  I have always liked Barns and Nobles and generally go there first when I want a book, so when they announced the Nook I was interested from the start.. BN.com and the BN brick and mortar stores most likely aren’t going to go anywhere..  They are the largest chain of bookstores in the United States, and the BN store here in Austin is huge and is always crammed with people buying stuff — I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to go anywhere any time soon..

So they seem like a good company to offer an e-reader with a solid back end..  Plus their technology seems very solid and well glued together.. I like that I can purchase a book online through their website and it magically appears in my Nook ready to read with in a minute or two..

I also like that if I drop my Nook off the planet, I can simple buy a new one and have all my books still..  yay!  This really is a one stop shop for books in that I will never have to buy the same book ever again..  Plus, I like that I can attach another Nook to the same account so my wife can have access to my library..  Damn handy that..

The Nook hardware is extremely nice.  It has a good weight to it (being roughly twice the weight of the kindle) and is well built.  I have seen some people complain about cracked plastic around the outside but I have yet to see anything like that in mine and I don’t see how its possible without dropping it or throwing it at something..

And the best part is that it’s built on Android!!  So new updates come all the time..  More over apparently it’s extremely easy to root, which I have no intention of ever doing.. this e-reader is always going to be just my e-reader.. nothing more..

Complaints:

I do have a few complaints about the device that are really very minor..

1.  No internal backlight — In the interest of battery conservation they didn’t put a light in the Nook.  Their reasoning was that if it had a light it would chew up the battery very quickly and for some reason people think that if an e-reader can’t go a month without charging its not worth owning..  I say F to that.. It’s my device if I want to chew up the battery reading a book late at night using the internal back light so I don’t wake my wife, then I should be able to..  Give the users the option to use their device how they want to use it..

2.  Slow page turns — I think this is just the nature of the e-ink screens but they pages are slow to turn.  Now, when I say slow to turn I mean it takes all of a second, maybe a second and a half, once you click “next page” for it to actually show up.  This is a minor minor gripe at best, and may be due to some Android programming issue and as such is fixable.. But more likely its due to the e-ink screen just taking that long and I should get over it..

3.  The touch screen kinda sucks — the little LCD touch screen seems like a good idea but its very unresponsive.. Again I don’t know if this is an Android issue that will get resolved or if its a hardware issue but sometimes it just wont respond to input.. Or is very slow to respond..  I’m going to chalk this up to an Android issue that will get ironed out as updates are released..

And that’s it.. those are my complaints.. All really minor to be sure.. the thing works great.. I’m very happy with the purchase and at this point I have 7 books in there waiting to be read..

I think the problem now will be the growing line of books in my queue waiting to be enjoyed.. Ah what a problem to have..

Net Neutrality

Most gamers typically play games online, download expansions or other forms of DLC, watch hulu, stream music..etc.. generally speaking, use more bandwidth than your average user who just browses the occasional website or checks email.  As such, Comcast feels they can charge those users more or block / throttle  them.   This led to the whole “Net Neutrality” fight.  For those of you know up on what that means, it’s basically the fight to keep the price of bandwidth static and common for all users.

You see, back in 2007 Comcast actually did start blocking and throttling certain types of traffic, and targeting gamers because they did use more bandwidth..   Well the FCC have been fighting it, but yesterday three federal judges sided with Comcast saying that the FCC “lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks”.. This means Net Neutrality is dead and really soon you can expect all broadband providers to raise their fees.

Read more about it here:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/FCC-loses-key-ruling-on-apf-78990100.html?x=0

This sucks for everyone.. Frankly it’s a greedy ploy by all the companies involved and ultimately as with anything else, we pay the price.   If Time Warner raises their rates I will leave.  Vote with your wallet people..

Reloading Press

I really enjoy shooting..  I always have..  In the military I would go to the range every weekend and throw some rounds down range just for the pure joy of it..  And while I would sometimes shoot my pistols, I prefer rifles..  I dunno what it is, but there is something very peaceful about the focus and presence of mind you need to effectively shoot a rifle..

I liked it because when shooting, all the cares of the day seemed to kinda slip away..  You had to focus on what you’re doing and not be distracted by anything in order to hit your target, especially at range..  I have missed it..

The main reason I have missed it was due to cost, and distance..  Simply put there aren’t any ranges near where I live, and since my primary round is 7.92x57mm Mauser it can get a tad pricey..  Enter reloading..

I have wanted to get back into shooting something fearce and have been trolling several shooter forums trying to find a new inexpensive round that I can shoot that would afford me the accuracy I require in a cost effective manner..   A lot of people have suggested .223, .308 or even 6br.. But that would require a whole new rifle, not exactly a cheap solution..

So instead, I have started to reload my old used 8mm brass..  It’s so easy too!!  I have to admit I’m shocked at the simplicity of the process.. Plus the saves are about 50% a round..

Previously the el’cheapo stock ammo purchased off the intertubes went for about $1 a round or as much as $2.50 a round at the range — reloading my old brass comes in at $0.53 a round.. Yay!!    And the nice thing is I don’t have to buy a new rifle..

Having said that I would love to get a new rifle..hehe  For now I’m going to just keep reloading the 8mm stuff and shoot the guns I have, but I still like the idea of getting something else.. Plus I spent a good deal of time pouring over the Savage Arms website, and I must admit some of those guns made me drool a little..

But they are a tad pricey..  Plus I’m back to facing the chambering issue.. what should I get?  I’m sort of leaning towards a bench rest gun since the range I go to doesn’t allow for freestanding or prone shooting.. (They say its for insurance reasons..)

My friends suggest .223 and .308 because they are common rounds.. Of the two I’d be more likely to go .308 over .223 because its a traditional round that can be used for anything where as the .223 is more of a varmant round..  But the 6br (.243 basically) has a lot going for it too.. I dunno..

Right now it’s a moot point because of cost..  A good rifle to fire any of those rounds would cost $1500 new.. And that’s only half the cost.. without good optics you might as well be throwing rocks..   It’s insane how much a good scope can run you..

Oh well.. I’ll keep reloading my mauser and dream..

I weighed all the numbers and researched all the sites and came to the conclusion that the only thing the X10 had over the Nexus One was the price tag.   From what one site was guessing the SE offering was going to be pretty pricey.  Plus, SE has done a lot to customize their interface but I think they are over doing it a tad.  It looks cool, sure but every video I watched showed the interface to be laggy and/or buggy.  And while I’m sure it was still very early in their development cycle it still put me off.

The Nexus One had all the features I wanted in a modern package, using a new modern OS with all the amenities at what I figure is a reasonable price.  Plus, it’s built by Google who employ developers and engineers who are just as geeky as I am, so I was pretty sure it would be good.  I wasn’t disappointed.

I can honestly say this is the best device I have ever had.   I love it.   I ordered the phone the day it was released, and had it in my hands 2 days later thanks to Google’s free over night FedEx shipping, complete with my custom engraving on the back..   Engraving meant that I wouldn’t be able to return it if I didn’t like it, so that was a bit of a concern while I was ordering it but if I knew then what I know now it would have been an easy choice.   At the time I was thinking that getting one without a way to return it was risky..

The price was good.  I decided to get the $179 version instead of buying the unlocked one.  I may regret that later as typically I always get unlocked.. but the more I looked at it there was no point to getting it unlocked as it only really supported the 3G frequencies of one network.  So.. $179 it was..   Not a bad price at all when you consider isuppli estimates the phone cost google roughly $174.15 to make it in the first place.

Honestly, in all this I think Google’s biggest mistake is not having some place where people can put their hands on a device.   I’m told customer support is pretty lacking too unfortunately..  I’m pretty sure that google simple wasn’t prepared for the demand..  But really they need to go ahead and get this device into the hands of stores.. Let people pick it up!   Most likely you’ve gotten all the early adopters you’re going to get, now is the time to shuffle it out to the stores so the masses can get a hold of it.

I think if the hold outs just got the device in their hands they’d see that the device itself is rock solid.  I love how everything just works.  Little things that were an issue with the iphone (granted it’s a gen one iphone) this phone doesn’t have.   Everything just works.

Streaming Music from a site of my choosing ( http://di.fm highly recommended ) ?  Yeah that works..  Streaming music that requires an authentication?  Yeah that works..  Straight to your A2DP stereo bluetooth headset?  yeah that works..  Put the phone down and leave it for 2 hours while you’re doing something else.. come back and just poke play on your headset to resume?  Yeah.. that works too..   Been listening to some vocal trance the whole time I wrote this, and I’ve been wandering around the house a bit too..

None of that worked on my iphone.   And the bluetooth antenna rocks btw.. my iphone to headset pairing was weak and kinda crappy.. Not here — the pairing is good and I have yet to have static or noise creep in unlike on the iphone.

Just more examples of how good the hardware is.  I think google really was trying to build the cadillac of phones.    When ordering, I was concerned about the make of the product — I was worried it would be flimsy or weak in some ways but its not at all.  The hardware feels solid though it does suffer the same “greasy screen” issues that all modern phones suffer.  I will say this for the iphone, it felt solid.  This phone feels the same way.  It’s a teeny-tiny bit larger than the iphone so it doesn’t fit in the belt case I like.. damn it.. heh but the weight is about the same.

The new OLED screen is amazing.  Sitting next to my iPhone at with the N1 at half brightness, its much brighter than the iphone.  In fact it makes the iphones screen look dull by comparison.

I think android 2.1 works great, I have yet to run into any problems..  I have read that some people have found bugs but I haven’t seen any..  Maybe I don’t know what to look for.. I dunno.

The call quality is good and more importantly the audio levels are high enough I can hear in a noisy room.  One of my main complaints with my iphone was that if there was ANY ambient noise I simply couldn’t hear someone on the phone, and the speaker phone was a joke.  The speaker phone on the Nexus still isn’t as loud as I would like, but its far better than the iphone.    My Nokia Communicator had a GREAT speakerphone.. clearly phone makers need to contact the nokia folks and find out how its done..

Like I keep saying.. it just works.. yay!

Issues as I see them so far;

Googles grand plan is to change the face of the cell phone industry by offering a device that can doesn’t limit you to a carrier.  Amen Brother.   But then they tether it to T-Mobile?  I can’t help but think that this was a mistake.   In my opinion the number 1 killer of the iPhone was AT&T.  Here in the Austin area the network is so saturated that it doesn’t work.  AT&T simply wasn’t ready to handle the influx of customers that the iPhone generated.  T-Mobile (formerly VoiceStream) will suffer the same problem if the Nexus is even remotely as popular as the iphone was when it hit the market.

I know they are releasing other versions of the phone to other carriers, but how does that change what we have today?  You’re still locked to a network.   More over, even if you purchased the unlocked version of the phone you’re still tied to one network due to 3G frequencies ..etc..  For example;  Right now this phone won’t work with AT&T’s 3G network. Period.

We shall see..

It’s still a new offering and I was a day one adopter so I don’t know if this is a fair criticism on my part, but there are ZERO accessories for this sucker.  I know give it a month.. but still.  I want a stand.. some carrying case options.. some screen protection options..etc..

What the hell is the point of the track ball?   I’m worried about the track ball popping out or in some way breaking.. It’s the only part of the phone that concerns me because it kinda sticks out.    And it really seems to serve no purpose..   Again it’s something that folks can use so we will likely see games that use it soon.

I just had another complaint pop into and out of my head before I could write it down and now I can’t remember what it was.. damn it..

It’s not perfect.. but it’s a wonderful device.

I hate the question “Is it the iphone killer”.. that’s just a retarded question.. It’s a damn good device, hows that?  I think for googles first try, its awesome and worth every penny.

As of this writing the price of gold is at $1120 an ounce which is an all time high.  That alone should be your first indication that;  Now is not the time to buy gold!

The price of Gold is where it’s at right now because of the economy and because gold sellers are driving the cost up through fear.  They want you to go buy their gold so that they make money.  Period.  They don’t give a crap about the economy, your we being or future or any of the other BS they try to sling on the commercials.  Stated simply, they are in the business of making money and they are trying to do so at your expense.

The only “winner” when you buy gold at these prices are the companies selling the gold as they will make out like bandits having sold gold to you at over a thousand dollars an ounce. You wont be saving money, instead you’ll be giving your money to these unscrupulous companies who are doing their best through fear to drive the price as high as it can go before it crashes.  And it will crash.  Let me explain why;

See.. Gold is a commodity and a standard.  As such, it’s value never really changes.  What changes is the dollars value in relation to the gold.. So when you see golds value go up, what you’re actually seeing is the dollar go down.  When you have say 10 ounces of gold worth $3000, and suddenly that prices shoots to $10000 what you’re actually seeing is the value of the dollar shoot down.  10 ounces of gold is still just 10 ounces of gold.

When the dollar strengthens again (as it always does) you’ll see the price of gold go back down to something more reasonable.  This is why I say gold WILL crash..  that means that the folks who purchased gold at $1120 an ounce will take it on the chin..

I’m not saying that you should never buy gold.. Actually I think gold can be a good thing to buy, but only when the dollar is very strong (and thus the price of gold is lower).

Electric Violin

So I had said previously that my musical talent ended pretty much at the ability to play the radio, and that I hated that..  I wrote that entry back in July of ’08 and I still hate it..

I have been looking around for ideas of what to play and am still undecided.. I have a nice piano so my investment there at this point would be only time, but I am not interested in it — it still doesn’t inspire me..  I still like the idea of the Chapman stick but the cost is just unreasonable and frankly the alternative is not as pretty (yes that matters) not to mention they have horrible business tactics which I don’t appreciate..

I thought about getting a guitar and may still do that as there’s a ton of info out there for free as well as an awesome assortment of equipment.. So baring anything else.. I’ll do that.. I can get a guitar on the cheap and I have 4 or 5 friends that have offered to loan me an instrument..

Having said that, of late a coworker of mine has gotten me interested in learning the violin or viola..   Plus I have done a lot of looking online and I have to admit they look fun..  The concept of an electric violin appeals to me.. hehe

I think I like the sound of the viola more than that of the violin but it seems to me that everything out there is aimed more at teaching you the violin, and then you convert that knowledge to the viola or the cello..  As I understand it the knowledge transfers quit easily and I wouldn’t be surprised if way back in history “Violin” translates to “small Viola”.. heh

What’s really funny is I like the idea of an electric violin the most.. Primarily because I know its something that I could build..  I know.. whacky.. but I’m a damn good carpenter and frankly they don’t look hard to build..  I have watched quite a few videos of them being made and to be honest, the only thing I need is the measurements..

Not sure how the sound is picked up though — it appears to be a crystal in the bridge which makes sense, since unlike an electric guitar there are no metal strings.. Beyond that making sure strings are correctly isolated and that the measurements are sound it seems easy..

I’m not going to rush out of build one of course.. I mean if you can’t play it what’s the point..

I have purchased several books and am reading up on the violin though as I think it’s something I’d like to start doing.. I have wasted enough of my life sans music, it’s time to start picking something up..  I found a place here in town that rents very nice violins for as low as $20-$30 a month and they have a looong list of instructors..

I have told the wife of the plans and she seemed opened to it..  Good thing too as I’m sure for a while its going to sound like I’m torturing a cat to death..  I also have looked into various forms of “muffles” for violins so that I don’t drive her completely insane..

More reading and video watching though to try to make sure it’s what I want to do..

On a side note;  I have watched a lot of YouTube video’s recently of people playing all manner of instruments and I’m just stunned and amazed at the varitey of talent there is out in the world..

Some of you are fantastic!  Some.. not so much.. heh..  Gotta take the good with the bad I suppose..

But it just amazes me the number of people who record themselves performing their art for others to watch and even critique.. (though to be honest you’re better off just closing the “text comments” and never ever reading them again.. It’s also stunning how completely rude people are considering folks are opening themselves up to constructive comments, not unhelpful bad-mouthing by someone who couldn’t even perform to the level they are bashing.)

Kelly Iverson (“The Lady”) and Mark Allen (“Doc Parsons”) are a fantastic example of people who love what they do and do it for our enjoyment.. they also show nicely that a well played guitar sounds wonderful with a well played violin.. Thanks guys, well done..

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Some of the instruments are .. uh.. odd.. to say the least.. For example, the following is a nyckelharpa and a hurdy gurdy duo — Stick around for the whole thing:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Wasn’t that great?!  I mean two instruments that absolutely fill the space with sound.. I’m not sure another instrument would fit in there.. heh

I had never heard of a Nyckelharpa before but apparently it’s a traditional Swedish instrument from the 14th century.. Very cool.. There are a lot of youtube videos of people playing them and they are neat..  The hurdy gurdy is I have heard before in person and you really can’t appreciate it until you feel the buzz.. It’s a wildly expressive instrument.. It’s very cool that people not only still play these but are darn good at it..

There are a lot more examples too of folks willing to put themselves out there.. Kudos to you all.. Aint the internet cool.. =)

dead to me

I have used 1and1.com as my web service provider for a good long time now..  They have treated me well  enough and I am pretty happy with them with regards to their hardware.. Their servers are rock solid, you get exactly what you pay for and they don’t price gouge you..  I have had one of their linux root boxes now for going on 3 years and have always been fairly happy with it..

Recently I have wanted to do some stuff that required a windows server, and now what with the closure of the Fan Films Forum I no longer have to worry about 100% up time.. So I’m decided to go ahead and take this opportunity to convert my server over from the fedoracore 6 linux box to a windows 2008 server box..  Yay..  Good times..

The other nice thing is that by making this change I’ll be reducing my monthly cost by about $40.. Yay for money saving..

I’ll let you know how this goes.. There may be some down time but likely not very much..

Update #1:

Okay I have the windows server up and running..  I’m using IIS instead of Apache (cause its windows) and it’s a little slower, BUT I think its likely due to the machines network infrastructure and not the difference between IIS and Apache.  This website loads in 1.5 seconds under my new server as opposed to 0.8 seconds under the old one.    Pings to this server hit at 50ms were as pings to the old one hit at 30ms.   Frankly, it’s a minor difference and I’m not worried about it..  If it becomes an issue I’ll complain to my host..

I’m still in the process of moving things over.. so for the time being everything lives in two places..

With this change I think I’m going to be focusing on “randomstringofwords.com” again.. Meaning, that will be the primary URL not “rsow.com”.. Both will work of course, but no one but me knows what RSOW stands for so it sorta loses something..

I’m also going to ditch the INFO part.. Previously I had planned to have all manner of different URLS.

Update #2:

So I have to admit I’m extremely disappointed with 1and1..  I have had some questions about the windows server package they sold me that they basically told me they wouldn’t answer.. “It’s not our job” was the response I got more often than not..

This sort of thing exemplified the issues I have always had with 1and1.. if you had a support issue you were boned..  Their hardware was good but I can get iron anywhere.. its the support of that iron that should be what they are selling..

It took me a long time to sort out my issues and get everything working, only to find out the machine they gave me only had 1 gig of memory..  (not enough for what ANYONE would need)..   I asked for another stick of memory to be put in the box and the answer was “No.” ..  Not “We’re sorry but.. “,  Not “So sorry for the inconvenience but.. “.. but NO..

I asked them to help me open SSH to the box and they were boggled.  They couldn’t understand why I would want SSH open to a windows box, but once I explained it and got htem to realize i twas worth doing they explained that it wasn’t their place to help me administer my box.   Wow..  really?   He also told me that SSH was insecure and that’s the reason it wasn’t open by default after I pointed out that FTP and Telnet by default was open..

Wait.. what?!  SSH isn’t secure?  It stands for “Secure Shell”..  Hell passwords are sent in the clear in FTP and Telnet..  Unreal..

I also pointed out that the windows box was twice as slow as my linux box and that the subnet really seemed flooded as my ping to the box was twice as high as it was to my linux box..  No comment from them on that.. in fact he kind of ignored that comment..

Ultimately I had to just cancel the new windows box.  It just couldn’t perform anywhere near where I would have needed it or where i tshould have considering the price..

Here’s the best part;

I was trying to cancel my account while heading to lunch with some coworkers..  I called them up and had a conversation with the billing department that amazed everyone in the car, and caused them to burst out laughing at a couple points.

I gave them my user ID, and then my contract ID after which he asked for my admin password.  Uh.. you want the password I type in?  That’s an automatically generated password that yall gave me.. I can’t change it.. You should know it..  But fine.. I gave it to him 3 or 4 times and it just wasnt going through..   He said well I can send it to you again..  wait. .what?  You are going to email me the password and then I’m to read it back to you?  What the fuck is the point of that?

I told him that hey why don’t we just go by the credit card you have on file.. since that’s in my pocket and all..  He said, no no that’s not secure..  That could be phished for.. What the fuck dude.. I have given you my customer ID a unique 10 digit number, my contract ID a unique 12 digit number, my name and what not.. etc.. and you’re going to email me the password I have to give you to continue..

It stands to reason that if I have the two ID’s I got them from the email account in the first damn place.. how is that more secure?!   unreal..

So yeah.. I eventually go that one closed and started looking for a new host..

My co-worker chad suggested hostgator.com as a replacement host..  So far I’m extremely impressed.. I got the reseller account so I could have control over giving friends and family accounts and websites too..  So far everything is great..  The best part is the speed.. it’s easily more than double the speed of my linux box..

At the very bottom of this page you should see something that says ## of queries in ### seconds.   Well on my old linux box it was usually 0.8 seconds, on my windows box it was 1.6 seconds..   That’s just the time it took to generate the data.. The actual load time from my linux box could be as much as 7 seconds..

Look at it now.. what is it?   That’s how much faster it is..  For me it says 0.38 seconds which translates to roughly 2.3 seconds of load time..  For the exact same page..

That’s nice.. speed is good.. I dunno what their hardware or pipe is but hostgator has good stuff..  Far better than 1and1..   Also hostgator uses Cpanel which in my mind beats the hell out of Plesk..

Either way.. Gonna keep working with it and will let you know how much better it is as I figure it out..  Right now I’m happier and will be moving all my old stuff off 1and1 completely in short order..