I promise not to get all techie on here, this rant is about customer service - more specifically the lack thereof - when it comes to technical issues such as my new ISfuckinP. It never fails that when you have a good arrangement working, somebody has to come along and fuck things up. For a number of years I was happier than a pack of black squirrels in a dog pound until SuddenPlink took over operations.
Now I hate phones almost as much as Angry Ferret, so initially I made my request via email for them to please look into their configuration and see if they can determine why on earth that last packet of my DCC Sends are getting lost. The response was a form letter assuring me that nothing has changed.
Nothing has Changed? If nothing has changed why do I have a new IP address and my domain name resolves to suddenlink instead of the previous ISP?
So last night I finally made the dreaded call. After wading through 4 levels of phone menu options, I reached a live person - live = had a pulse. I don't remember what this 1st guy's name was, so let's call him Darryl. After 10 minutes with Darryl, I was able to convince him that I didn't need help setting up my email or virus protection. Darryl passed me off to Estelle. Estelle was also very friendly and I was quickly able to convince her that I was not having problems with my browser. Estelle passed me off to Jay. Jay was a piece of work. I suspect Jay bluffed his way into the job and spends his days playing Doom online. No offense Jay, I'm sure you're quite proficient at whatever it is you do, but do you think you could forward me to somebody higher up the tech chain?
I never caught the name of this 4th guy, I don't think he likes talking on the phone and I suspect he was annoyed at my interrupting his efforts to hack into CIA headquarters. His response was that I need to configure my router to block port 40 and if I don't know how to do that myself I should contact the router manufacturer.
I was skeptical of this solution, but god damn at least somebody knows what the fuck a router port is, so what the hell, i'll give it a try.
And of course, it didn't do a damn bit of good. Fuckers.

'Tis The Season...to screw the gullible.

If you have noticed a recent surge in email spam, you're not mistaken. A recent news article Spam is back with a vengeance as filters lose effectiveness reported that:

"...unwanted messages now account for 91 percent of all e-mail, and over the past 12 months the daily volume of spam rose by 120 percent"

I've often asked myself, "Why do they do it? Do people really make money of this spam crap?". Sadly the answer is yes. Here are 3 recent stories:
Fraud Alert Friday: Social Security email scam (12/8/06)
Holiday Email Scams (12/8/06)
Manawatu mum, son lose $200k to Nigerian scam (12/7/06)

people are still falling for the Nigerian scam?!

I think it's time for some new laws. We have gun control, we have seatbelt laws (you don't even want to get me started on this issue), it might just be time to require people to get 'computer safety certified' before they're allowed to have a computer. Consider this, not only would it protect idiots from screwing themselves over, but it could also reduce the number of sickos/pedophiles/assorted stalkers from trolling the net. If we made people understand that the Prince of Nigeria is not really that generous, that your dick can not grow 2" by wearing a magic patch, and that Microsoft does not pay you money for every email you send, then maybe, just maybe, we could make make spamming an unprofitable venture.