Cable Guy

The Jets are 3-0, I'm a new Pappa and I haven't been to work in almost 2 weeks..life is very good obviously. I've also gone about a month without much booze (except for one celebratory glass with the Baby Mamma), so my liver and body also feels a lot better and with the Yankees clinching home-field through the playoffs, my NY Times delivered every day while I've been home and my new Netbook's arrival last week, things are A-OK... That is except the fact that we in Brooklyn are probably stuck with the worst possible internet provider on the planet. Time Warner which you could expect to be a decent supplier of internet access since the 'service' costs about $40 a month, is utterly incompetent in delivering internet access to it's customers.
Not a week goes by when I don't have to do a hard-reset on my modem by unplugging it from the back which has a real "whack the television with your shoe" to try to get the signal to come in feel to it. Somehow the signal gets lost for a minute and the IP address changes and I'm left staring at the old screen about not being able to reach the source. What I can't understand is why this dance happens so often, why TW wouldn't want to do everything in their power to service their customers as it's reputation is getting battered.. What I do understand is that TW doesn't care because they know I have no other option. FIOS is not available in our neighborhood and our building won't allow a rooftop dish, so I'm left suffering with this crap and Time Warner knows it.. I am sure when FIOS does show up, Time Warner will begin to be more concerned about their service but what is beyond me is this UN-American concept of not having any choice in cable-companies. Time Warner is expensive and inadequate but I cannot cancel it as it would leave me completely unconnected so you are left to the mercy of the very people who are ripping you off day to day.
What really gets me though is this concept of sending a signal through the line, this booster signal is something one of their technical reps is able to send through the system which usually gets the service back up when the unplug thing doesn't work. This is the magic bullet and almost always resolves the issue, although when you call at 1AM the reps claim to have never heard of this concept. While the booster signal has got a real MATRIX feel to it by sending a signal through cyberspace and all of a sudden connectivity is back and I often think there is just some kind if placebo effect because why can't they send that boosted signal through the system whenever they notice that services are down or were temporarily interrupted.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry