Category: Internet

The Charter Communications CSR who spoke with Dustin has some pretty astounding news about what’s on the horizon for all of us. It looks like starting May 1st, cable companies will have total, FCC-sanctioned control over streaming video and will take down all competing services.

Here’s what happened when Dustin called to cancel his cable TV with Charter:

Just wanted to let you guys in on the absurd story I was told today by someone named “Guy” when I called Charter to see what I could do about the cost of my cable tv and internet, since it had recently changed from the promo price to a ridiculous regular price.

After making a payment over the phone, I told Guy that I wanted to go ahead and turn off tv service since I don’t watch it enough to justify the cost, unless he could get me a deal on my cable tv w/ cable box and extended basic service and 10mbps internet.

Guy proceeded to ask the expected question of why I wanted to get rid of tv, to which I responded that I can stream pretty much anything I like to watch over the internet.

At this point, he said he would see what the cost of internet alone was, and said there would be a $10 “no cable TV” fee (sounds like b.s. to me), which would make it $49.95 a month for internet alone. Then he went on to say that he strongly suggested that I keep the tv service because come May 1, all of the online streaming services would be shut down because the cable TV providers are taking over, and that the FCC regulations are changing so that the cable companies will have total control over streaming video.

Here is a screenshot of the chat (click to enlarge)

Knowing that he was giving me a completely false story, I considered stopping him there and letting him know that I knew it was a lie, but I let him go on. He went on to say that after May 1, the only thing that would be available similar to Hulu is video on demand through a cable provider, which meant that I would have to have the cable box to receive this, so he “really suggested” keeping my box and TV service so that I could have that available to me.

After I let him finish his “suggestions” I just played dumb and said I would consider it, then asked what was the best price he could give me on a bundle of TV and internet. The price he gave me for the bundle was (conveniently) cheaper than me going to just internet at $45/month for basic cable w/ box and internet. I was short on time, so I told him to just put it at that rate for now, but the experience today with him really left a bad taste in my mouth about Charter and how the employees will make up completely false statements to deceive customers in hopes that they can make them order more expensive services. Now that I’m home for the day, I’m going to be researching my options in this area and look at completely getting away from Charter entirely.

Dustin! Agggh! Dustin! Why would you reward Guy for lying like that? You should have pointed out that you knew he was lying and that you were going to report him. You should still report him to Charter management, and while you’re at it file a complaint with the FCC and your state’s attorney general. Just because you caught the lie doesn’t mean every customer who calls in will know better, which means Guy may be deliberately misleading Charter customers in order to sell services.

Financial blogger Felix Salmon wants to know why there isn’t regulatory oversight of Mint and other financial management websites, especially if they’re going to sell data created from their users’ transaction histories.

Mint’s CEO Aaron Patzer spoke at SXSW on Saturday and said that the company is sitting on a gold mine of customer data that it may or may not sell. Here’s how Salmon paraphrases it in his blog post:

[Patzer] started talking about the rich value of all the store-level data he was sitting on. For instance, he said, he can see pretty much in real time how much money his huge database of customers is, in aggregate, spending at Blockbuster vs Netflix vs Redbox, or any other set of retailers — and that kind of information would surely be extremely valuable to hedge funds. It was clearly something he’s talked a lot about, and he never said that he wasn’t already selling that data to the highest bidder. If that kind of activity is going on, especially if Mint is using data retrieved using the username and password to my own personal bank accounts, then I would certainly want some kind of regulatory oversight.

That was enough to convince consumer lawyer Sam Glover over at caveat emptor to close his Mint account, explaining:

If I am to do my banking online, I need to be confident that my financial information is being kept secure. This is not like Google, where I can stomach giving up a bit of anonymized usage data in exchange for great software. No, when it comes to my financial information, I do not want my data sold to the highest bidder.

Mint’s Terms of Service point out that in order to provide a service to you, it must access your accounts, but that it does so as your agent and not as an agent of any financial institutions. I couldn’t find any mention of aggregate data or of how Mint would use such data with outside partners or customers, though.

What do you think? If Mint or a similar website tracked every Netflix fee you paid and bundled it anonymously with other users’ transactions, then sold it, would you feel it violated your privacy? And should financial websites be regulated even if they’re not providing actual bank-related financial services?

“Personal finance online” [Reuters]
“Mint.com Wants to Sell Your Shopping Habits” [Cavet Emptor]

One day, you’re going to die. And when you do, you online presence—like your social network profiles, your blog comments, and your web services—will serve as your very first memorial. Here’s how it’ll play out. More »

Today, an internet milestone is reached with the 25th anniversary of the day the first dotcom website was registered. Back in March 1985, Symbolics computers in Cambridge, Massachusetts made history with an internet address ending in dotcom. Later that year, another five companies followed suit, effectively setting the very slow trend moving. It wasn’t until 1997 that the one millionth dotcom was registered.

Mark Mclaughlin, chief executive officer of Verisign- the company that is responsible for looking after the dotcom domain- was quoted as saying, “Who would have guessed 25 years ago where the internet would be today. This really was a groundbreaking event.” It’s even more surprising because of the fact that for most of the late 1980s and early 1990s, very few people even knew what a dotcom was. The exact genesis of the dotcom name is unknown, but it certainly arrived at a time when there was a need for some sort of organising principles, as more bodies connected to the fledgling internet.

The early internet was not at all seen as a place for commerce as it is now, but was mainly used as a means for governmental and educational bodies to trade ideas. There’s general agreement that a turning point occured with the introduction of the Mosaic web browser by Netscape. This allowed mainstream consumers on to the web. And now, with 668,000 dotcom sites registered every month, they have become part of the fabric of our lives.

25 years after their creation, people go to dotcom sites for shopping, entertainment, vacation planning, connecting with friends, learning new things and exchanging ideas. The dotcoms have enjoyed an impressive growth rate that would have been very difficult to predict 25 years ago, when a small computer firm took the first steps towards connecting the world. Courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

Human skin is apparently a very energy-efficient conduit for transmitting data. A recent experiment achieved a rate of 10Mbps, which may put my Internet connection to shame. The experiment used small, flexible electrodes and took place at Korea University. More »

From The Economist, “The many voices of the web – The internet: New combinations of human and computer translation are making web pages available in foreign languages“. The following is an excerpt (emphasis added),

“This fantasy is still just that, but bits of it are starting to look plausible. Start with the translation part. Thanks to the internet, this is now a relatively flexible and cheap process. At the base of the translation hierarchy are free services offered by Google and others. Such services “learn” by analysing collections of documents that have been translated by humans, such as the records of the European Parliament, which are translated into 11 different languages. These collections are so big, and the machines that analyse them so powerful, that automatic translation (known in the jargon as “machine translation”) can usually convey the gist of a text, albeit it in a slightly garbled manner. Google and its rivals focus on widely spoken tongues, but academics are working on machine-translation services for more obscure languages.

An army of volunteer translators occupies the next level up in the hierarchy. Several prominent English-language publications, including this newspaper, are regularly translated into Mandarin by groups of unpaid volunteers for the benefit of other readers (see ecocn.org/bbs). More formal projects also exist. At Global Voices, a kind of polyglot bloggers’ collective, around 200 volunteers select and translate their colleagues’ posts. Items on Meedan, a social network dedicated to the discussion of Middle East news, are translated into English or Arabic by machine and can then be tidied up by readers.

Paid human translators, unsurprisingly, still produce the best results. But even here costs are coming down, as the translation industry is shifting from project-based to piecemeal working. […]

So how much closer is the dream of a unified web? Volunteer translators only cluster around popular sites, so the vast majority of blogs will remain untranslated, or only machine-translated. Most content producers are unable to pay for human translation, even at today’s prices. That leaves them reliant on machine translation, too. It is getting better, but it still struggles with colloquialisms and idioms. As Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of Global Voices and a researcher at Harvard University, puts it: “If you sound like an EU parliamentarian, we can translate you quite well.” Until computers learn how to cope just as proficiently with the outbursts of self-absorbed teenage bloggers or snarky gossip columnists, machine-translated articles will struggle to attract readers. Clever technology can help lower the web’s linguistic barriers, but cannot yet eliminate them.“

Filed under: Internet, people, World

On this day, back in 1985, the first ever dotcom URL was created, Symbolics.com. There were just six dotcoms registered that year, compared to the 100,000 that are created every day now. More »

Though the last we heard, Google was nearing a compromise that would allow them to stop censoring their Google.cn results, the Financial Times is reporting that they are almost certainly going to close their Chinese search engine. Since their initial ultimatum in January, Google and China have traded vague statements about reaching a compromise, but, unsurprisingly, talks haven’t produced a mutually agreeable solution. [Financial Times] More »

As the intertubes overtake boob tubes and telephone tubes as our primary mode of communication, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that access is available and affordable for all Americans. The FCC’s ambitious new plan looks to do just that. More »

Feel like your broadband’s not living up to how it’s advertised? Here’s your chance to prove it: the FCC’s introduced a Consumer Broadband Test that’ll let you know exactly how good a connection you’ve got. More »

Google and China’s dirty laundry has been airing in public since mid-January when Google refused to continue censoring search results in the country. A resolution could be nearing though, with Google rumored to be pulling censorship this month. More »

Why waste another sick day waiting for a tech to never show up when you can troubleshoot it yourself? Tossed over the transom by some anonymous insider, here’s a how to on solving many problems with your Comcast internet, TV, or digital voice, like a big boy.

“Troubleshooting Comcast Products from the Home

Cable TV:
Tiling: Picture Distortion (Breaking Up) of any sort
90 % of the time results in a technicians visit (Signal Related)

From The Home:
Unplug power cord from wall for 2 Minute During the 2 Minutes , un-twist coax cable from cable box If possible remove co ax cable from splitters in the home
If Issue Persists – Call Comcast Avoid Troubleshooting with Rep -Schedule Service Call (A Signal sent to the box rarely fixes this issue)
Not Authorized:
Message appears on when you are not paying for a channel or if you are paying for a channel and the channel is not being delivered to all cable boxes in the home. If account is temporary disconnected, this message will also appear.

FIX: Call Customer Service to make sure the channel s is being delivered to all boxes in the home or pay for requested channel

One Moment Please:
Attempts troubleshooting steps as listed above.
If Issue Persists: Call Comcast and have them reinitialize and send signal to box. Also check to see if your apart of an outage area. 65 % of the time this issue will result in a ticket or technicians visit.

VIDEO ON DEMAND:
Video On Demand is a great service when it works. When it does not work, the service can be very hit or miss. There are almost a hundred different video on demand errors. Some of the main suspects are

ERR 4/CL-7/S0A00 – 70 % of the time are RF (Signal) Related

Troubleshooting From The Home:
Unplug power cord from wall for 2 Minute During the 2 Minutes , un-twist coax cable from cable box If possible remove co ax cable from splitters in the home
If Issue Persists – Call Comcast have the representative open a ticket & schedule the appointment. When Errors like this occur, On Demand can be very hit or miss IE:
2:12PM : You go to On Demand “Your Order Can Not Be Processed Call Customer Service” 2:13PM : You Go To On Demand Again “Were sorry An Error has Occurred please Call Customer Service and report that CL-7 occurred”
If you are lucky at 2:17PM you keep trying, On Demand may possibly come in. It’s better to call and have the ticket opened and schedule the appointment. If not, the next day you’ll find yourself doing the same thing almost guaranteed.

SRM 9002: Almost always occurs when digital boxes become “Inhibited”.
– Anytime the account goes over $150.00 over the monthly rate this message will appear. It will prevent you from ordering any on demand title or pay per view title with a price next to it.

REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAMMING
http://www.urcsupport.com/index.php?mso_id=65

DTA: DIGITAL TRANSPORT ADAPTER

In some areas of the country you will be required to have this box for any TV in the home that just has a cable connected to it. If Comcast is planning to launch this in your area than you will be required to have this box or you will begin to lose channels. In some areas, the first 2 boxes are free.

Some Error Messages Include:
‘Your service has been temporarily interrupted” or “One Moment Please”
Troubleshooting: You can follow same steps as listed above.
FIX: 55% of time a sending of signal/reinitializing adapter box will restore picture. 45% of time there will have to a technician visit.

DIGITAL VOICE:

EMTA: There are several different models of this modem and the above are just 3 of them. If you have Comcast Digital Voice in the home than you have an EMTA. This box controls your telephone and in some cases your internet if you do not have a separate modem for the internet.

Majority of Quality Issues will have to result in you placing a call into Comcast and having them open a ticket or scheduling a technician. Quality Issues can consist of:
Call Drops Phone cuts in & out You can hear other party but other party cannot hear you Other party can hear you but you cannot hear other party

No Dial tone
If you have 1 or multiple phones in the home, cord less or plug-ins and there is no dial tone on any of the phones. Comcast could tell you that this could be a wiring issue.

Troubleshooting For No Dial Tone:

Behind the EMTA there is a reset button, grab something thin and hold the button and release. When you release make sure the lights on the box all jump and go off and slowly come back on. In order for the dial tone/internet to come back you will need at least 6 lights solid on the box.
If that doesn’t work:
Remove Black/Gray Electric Power Plug from the back of the modem
After you removed the Power plug, look at the front of the modem and if lights remain on than there is a battery inside the EMTA
Remove Battery from EMTA (Battery is Inside) – Compartment can be found on bottom or back of EMTA
Once all lights are off Plug battery back in and then power cord.

2 PART HERE

1A. If you received 6 Lights Good:
Check for Dial tone on all phones & if present than you solved the issue. If not take 1 phone (cordless or plug in) and take the phone directly to the back of the EMTA and locate slot labeled “ ½” and stick the phone cord in. If you are doing this with a cordless phone remember to take base of phone with you and plug it into closest power outlet. If you receive dial tone you still need to call Comcast and schedule appointment in which they will classify as wiring. Only the plugged in phone will receive dial tone until a technician visits. If you do not have the 1.99/3.95 protection plan which is highly recommended with their products than there is possibility of a service charge.

B. but if you receive 2-3 after reset

Call Comcast:
1) If Outsourcer picks up – asked to be transferred to your local call center Have your local call center check for outages and also ask if next day appointments are available in your area. There is no troubleshooting left to do since you covered it all.

If a Different Name appears on CallerID when you call other parties:

Call Comcast:
Have them open a ticket & check their registry. Comcast may tell you that their system shows your name should appear when you are calling other land lines. You may call another land line and clearly see that is untrue. Have them escalate the ticket so they can reach to other providers and check their registry’s & databases. You have to be consistent with follow up for an issue like this. With hundreds of thousands of customers this could easily fall through the cracks and you may find yourself calling back a week later and having them open another ticket. 24-72 hours is the quoted estimated time for a ticket. I do find it a bit odd that once a company issues you a number that the name could still be registered on to another phone provider’s database.

HIGH SPEED INTERNET:
There is numerous trouble shooting steps with High Speed Internet. For now the basics for a consumer will be covered. Most modems will only have 4-5 lights on. If you find yourself with anything less than that:
Check for Standby button on top of the modem and on the front of the modem. Hit button and if that does not solve
Remove Power Plug & un twist co ax from behind modem (1 Minute)
Most modems that deliver less than 4 lights after doing the above steps 95 % of the time will result in a technicians visit unless it’s an intermittent issue(may pop back in on its own). However, if the lights did return and “Page Can Not Be Displayed” message remains than

1. Call Comcast 2. Have them check for neighborhood outages.
3. An associate will walk you through steps on the computer so have that turned on.

COMCAST HOME – NETWORKING
As of this entry if you have a wireless router (Netgear/Linksys) mailed to you or installed to you by Comcast support for this product will be handled by specific support teams. A representative who covers internet support or telephone will no longer trouble shoot the routers with you. Meaning when you call Comcast be prepared to be transferred to a “Comcast Netgear Support” or “Comcast Linksys Support” outsources team.
192.168.1.1 admin password

COMCAST GATEWAY
A Gateway is a modem and a router and if you still have this in your home than Comcast will still provide support for these modems. If you need to find WEP or WPA with these Comcast Gateway’s, on a computer directly connected to the modem or a computer with internet access on the network go to:
192.168.0.1 username: Comcast password: 1234″

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

This week has been surprisingly quiet for Seattle-area gaming companies, even though the annual Game Developers Conference is going on in San Francisco. Well, OK, Kelly Ripa plugged PopCap’s flagship game, Bejeweled, on “Live with Regis and Kelly”—but does that really count?

Here’s some more substantial news. Redmond, WA-based WildTangent, one of the elder statesmen of the local gaming scene, announced today its new advertising platform, called BrandBoost, is being used by Playdom in its popular Facebook game, Tiki Farm. Playdom, a social game developer based in Mountain View, CA, has other Seattle-area connections as well. Last week, the company acquired Bellevue, WA-based Offbeat Creations for an undisclosed price and is merging the startup with Playdom’s existing Seattle studio.

The deal provides some validation for WildTangent’s advertising model, which it has been pursuing for a couple of years now. The model essentially gives gamers the option of playing for free if they view a 30-second ad—similar to the Hulu advertising model for TV. WildTangent gets a cut of the ad revenues from the game developer; advertising makes up about half of WildTangent’s total revenue. The Playdom deal is the company’s first big placement of its advertising platform in a social game.

Last year, WildTangent’s founder and former CEO Alex St. John gave me a rundown of the company’s efforts in ad-sponsored play. But it sounds like it has progressed quite a bit since then. Sean Sundwall, WildTangent’s director of corporate communications, says revenues for 2009 grew by 40 percent over the previous year, and the company is profitable. He says that other game portals use banner ads, but that most companies haven’t gotten as far as WildTangent in offering ad-sponsored play.

That’s in part because it takes a lot of time and money to make this kind of advertising work in the gaming world. To that end, WildTangent has a sales force of more than 30 people based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. They have the experience and credibility to compete for the attention of major brands, Sundwall says.

Looking back over the history of WildTangent, it’s been interesting to watch how it has shifted from developing and publishing games to distributing them and selling ads, and from PC and downloadable games to online games. “We’ve evolved to be where the eyeballs are going,” Sundwall says. Today, that means casual games on Facebook, MySpace, and other social websites.

WildTangent is led by CEO Mike Peronto, a company veteran who has been at the helm for about 18 months. The firm started in 1998 and has raised more than $50 million in venture financing from Madrona Venture Group, Advanced Technology Ventures, Greylock Partners, IDG Ventures, and others.

No one knows exactly how much Google plans to invest in its ISP business, but its reputation as cash giant alone has cities from Anchorage, Alaska, to Sarasota, Florida battling to become the search giant’s new test market. More »