internet | Piss and Moan

Internet spies

Posted on March 9, 2022 by backuphill

Have you noticed that the internet is spying on you? We joke about it, but have you been met with ads on social media shortly after you were talking about something, something that you haven’t ever looked at or shopped for previously?

Have you noticed that your electronic devices seem to be listening even when you aren’t using them? We’ve seen or heard examples where the “assistant” we willingly allowed in our homes have responded without prompting.

Freak you out a little?

How do airlines know to send me an email reminder about booking a flight I have looked at on their webiste but didn’t actually log into the website? I was just browsing for curiousity sake. Dreaming. But not 30 minutes after looking I receive an email asking or reminding me about booking the flight. Weird?

The fact is, any sense of privacy we have these days is an illusion. We like to assume we have privacy but in reality we don’t. We are beind spied on everywhere we go. Our phones track us. Our apps track us. Our computers track us. Our watches track us. Our tvs, appliances, gaming systems, streaming services, security cameras, cars, etc etc etc track us. Our spending is tracked. Our health is tracked. Our eating is tracked. Our exercise (or lack thereof, in my case) is tracked.

Can you name something that isn’t tracked? I bet you have a difficult coming up with a list of things that are free of tracking these days.

Sure, we allow it. We invite it onto our bodies, into our homes. We have asked for it to a degree. But at what point do we look at all of it and say enough is enough?

We trade privacy for convenience. Plain and simple.

Our assumption is that we have privacy and we have to blindly trust that it won’t be violated by the things we allow into our lives. We all know it is being violated though. We all know they’re lying to us.

So why do we keep doing it?

When it don’t

Posted on March 10, 2021 by backuphill

Yesterday. Yesterday was a challenge. Well, not the whole day, but a part of the day that mattered more than the rest, if that makes sense.

Like most people who are working from home these days, Zoom or Teams or whatever video conferencing platform you use is kind of an essential part of your job. Meeting with clients, meeting with your supervisors/teammates/co-workers, or meeting with potential clients is something that typically needs to be done several times throughout the day.

Yesterday, I was co-hosting a meeting (a training) with clients and the challenges of the day started shortly after the meeting began.

First, the video started to freeze and the sound was choppy. Then the internet just dropped altogether.

Gone. Kicked outta the meeting.

I frantically tried to reconnect, and within a minute or two I am back in the meeting. Apologies to my co-worker and clients.

15 minutes later I am dropped again.

This time, after waiting for over 5 minutes to get a signal back, I find there just is no internet at all. Damn. Wait several minutes, still no internet. Wait several more minutes, look to see if there is internet by staring at the router. It says there is WiFi, but of course that just means it is broadcasting not that there is data being transferred.

I tell my phone to stop using WiFi and then log into the Xfinity app. Sure enough, internet is down for maintenance in the area. Affected customers is between 51-500. “Expected restoration of services…” is an hour and a half. Seriously?

How about a little warning? Or, better yet, if this was an unexpected outage, how about a text message with info letting me know this info without me having to become a detective for the internet signal?

Thankfully the outage didn’t last as long as they estimated. The internet came back and I logged back into the meeting after 30 minutes. It appeared that I might get kicked from the meeting again after 20 minutes, but apparently they figured out something and I was able to co-host as expected.

The internet is obviously a necessity these days, especially when it comes to work.

But, when it don’t work, it don’t work. And neither do you.

Resolved

Posted on November 12, 2020 by backuphill

Final episode of the whole Comcast/xFinity saga (at least until the next issue comes up…). If you are curious as the to what led up to this, you will have to take a look at Thieving and Ongoing Saga. Those will get you caught up.

So, yesterday, I was back on the phone with Comcast for over 45 minutes, again. I called and after running through the whole saga with yet another customer service representative, and him reading over all the previous notes left by all the various other people I have talked to throughout this ordeal, he finally messaged the payment services division.

He has to use use their internal messaging service to make contact so it took about 20 minutes to get a response back from this division. Once they responded back, they had to do their research based on the reference number I had been given. They finally sent a message back that the person who had been assigned the case wasn’t in the office but would get back to me in the next 24-48 hours.

So, after all of that, I am left with, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

$#%@&!

My skepticism was at an all time high.

Lo and behold, 10 minutes after I get off the phone, I get a phone call from the guy supposedly researching the issue. He apologized three times for not getting back to me sooner since he had indeed received everything he needed last Friday when I emailed the documents in. BUT, they still couldn’t locate the payment as yet and he was still doing research. He would call me back when he knew more. I also asked if I could get a credit applied to my account because of all the time and trouble this has caused and it was an error on their part since it has been paid the same way for years. He said, no, he couldn’t do that and they weren’t sure why it had happened.

If I could have reached through the phone, I likely would have punched him. But, I was trying to be nice, not really expecting a response, so I thanked him and asked if there was a number I could reach him directly at. He actually gave me a number and extension. I was surprised, but hung up thinking I wouldn’t hear from him for another week.

15 minutes later, he calls back and said they had located the payment and that it got applied in a different division (whatever the F to the uck that means) and that it would be transferred and applied to my account within the next 24-48 hours.

20 minutes later he called back and left a message that it was now applied to my account and that would resolve the issue. No “Thanks for your patience” or “We’re sorry, here’s some credit…” or anything.

Honestly, I want groveling. I want profuse and profound sucking up to keep my business.

But we all know, especially them, that they have us over a barrel.

Anyway, I logged in this morning and the payment has been applied to my account. Case closed. I hope.

We’ll see how the payment goes this month, with I just schedule yesterday.

Take down

Posted on July 2, 2020 by backuphill

woman in black long sleeve shirt and black pants sitting on brown wooden armchair

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

I did something yesterday I thought I would never do, and I don’t know how I feel about it. It seemed necessary but I still question whether it was the right thing to do. I suppose it can be undone, but I am not sure how to do it so the same thing doesn’t happen.

I took down (as in deleted) a post I wrote on my other blog.

It was a pretty good post, at least I thought it was.

Apparently, other people thought so too, except for the wrong reasons.

It got some traffic after I wrote it two years ago, but not much. But I started noticing a lot of traffic to this particular post late last year. It was getting between 15-30 hits per month. I thought maybe it was because of the image. I could have been. I thought maybe it was because people were starting to make some logical sense of the topic, or maybe they just appreciated my take on the topic.

The last two months have had over a 100 and over 150 respectively. Hmmmm….

So, I Googled the title. It was third on the list of search results. Usually this would be a great thing and most of the time we would be flattered to be ranked so highly in a Google search because it means our writing is getting exposure. But…

That’s when I discovered that maybe the increase in traffic was because it had suddenly become the flash point, rallying cry, support, ammunition, (whatever you want to call it) for a group I have no association with, nor do I want to have. I don’t want to have something I have written be co-opted and used as propaganda to their “cause.”

I debated what I should do. How do I get it to NOT show up as part of the search for this group? Do I change the title? Would that help? Do I rewrite it so the phraseology changes the search algorithm? Do I remove the image or change it? Do I just put a disclaimer on it saying that I am in no way associated with or want to be associated with the group in the search results?

I finally decided to change the title first, but couldn’t come up with an equally good title. But, I did it anyway. I then updated and published it. Yeah, that didn’t/doesn’t seem to make a difference. It still shows up in the search results with the old title. It’s just when you click on the link that it takes you to the newly edited post. Doesn’t appear as though that would work.

So, I deleted it.

I searched again. Still there in the search results. Only now when you click on the title, it gives you a 404 error message…but if you click on the cached link, it still takes you to the post. UGH. Now what? I am not sure how long it will be there (or if it will ever go away).

I hate censoring myself in this manner, but I also don’t want something I wrote about historical matters to be used in the wrong way or by a group I don’t want to be associated with. Know what I mean?

Anyone have advice on this?

500+

Posted on May 19, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by Padli Pradana on Pexels.com

Milestone or millstone?

Seems last week I surpassed 500 posts on this here little blog.

Never thought I would enjoy Piss and Moan so much. Actually, enjoy might be the wrong word. Maybe it should be more of, I didn’t realize how much therapy it would be to just get stuff off my chest.

Vent. Complain. Express frustration and irritation. Whine. Grumble. Contemplate. Argue. Lament. Bitterness. Pessimism. Negative. Irrational. Insensitive. Etc., etc., etc.

I think I have done it all and, as it turns out, I had more to say than I thought I did. LOL

Milestone? Yes. 500 means that I have posted nearly every week day for about a year and a half.

Millstone? Yes. It means I feel responsible to post every week day for the foreseeable future.

Do I have more to say? Of course.

But do you have anything to say? I am willing to take guest posts, if you’re so inclined. I know I am not the only one who has something to Piss and Moan about. Weird thing is, no one has even approached me yet about sharing their grumbles. C’mon people! Take a dive off the deep end with me and let stuff go!

Anyway, thanks to those of you who are regular readers of my thoughts. Thanks to those of you who have shared your thoughts on my thoughts. I appreciate you checking in on me, even when we don’t agree. I wish I could say I have higher aspirations for the blog, but I don’t. It’ll continue to be my little corner of the internet where I can say whatever the hell I want. That’s all.

For all of those others out there who aren’t really readers but just spam followers hoping to get a “follow” back, you suck. Go ahead and just click the “unfollow” button anytime.

The mission of Pissing and Moaning continues. Feel enlightened, or at least feel like you got something ponder. Ether way, it’s all good.

Disconnect

Posted on October 23, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by P C on Pexels.com

Well, it’s been a trying 24 hours.

Roof leak – still dealing with that issue.

Yesterday, after working fine the day before, the internet decided it didn’t want send any data to our devices. It just plain pooped out, even though it was showing there was a WiFi signal. After more than an hour on the phone with a tech, I was going to have to go and exchange the modem and router for a new one.

Hard to work from home (telecommute) when the internet isn’t working.

Exchange is done and now I am back up and running.

Irritated. To say the least. But, at least it is getting better.

Guest WiFi – exercise in frustration

Posted on July 2, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

This is a love-hate type relationship.

Have you ever been in a store and unable to get a cell signal? Yeah, it happens more than you think. Have you been in such a store only to find there is no “Guest Wifi” available to you? Irritating. I find this most irritating while shopping at Costco. I mean, come on, it’s a warehouse for crying out-loud. It wouldn’t be that hard to put wifi in the place.

On the other hand, there are those places that have “Guest WiFi” available but it doesn’t work or is slower than molasses (here’s one for you…electronics store Best Buy has spotty guest wifi). I was traveling recently and learned that there was a place nearby (a government agency, actually) that had guest wifi. So, I went to check it out. FULL signal, this is promising! However, no data transferred at all. It was basically the same as when you’re at home and you know the wifi is on and you get a signal but it has to be rebooted so it will allow the transfer of data. So, what was promising became just an exercise in frustration.

So, we are left with the love-hate relationship again. I love stores that make it available, but I hate places that have it and it doesn’t work.