This item is for system announcements (new computer equipment on Grex, 
system upgrades, Grex meetings, etc.).  Personal announcements should go 
back in item 2; Grex system *problems* belong in the next item (#4). 

94 responses total.

After more than two hours on the phone with various Ameritech employees, I
have managed to have the ISDN lines and two dialin lines dropped.  Whew!

Wow, that's a long time on the phone.  Thanks Greg!

Well, I don't think it would have taken as long had I been able to find the
phone numbers of the ISDN lines in the records.  Getting that information
proved much more difficult than having the things actually dropped.  One guy
even went so far as to claim that our account showed that we didn't have any
ISDN lines.  Go figure.  
  I requested that a detailed list of charges be mailed to us, more to 
satisfy my own curiosity than anything else.  

  re #1, 2, 3:  Actually, based on prior experience with Ameritech
  customer "service", I was surprised that you spent so little time
  on the phone!  Only two hours to talk to multiple Ameritech employees
  is doing pretty well..

Heh.  I was careful to speak clearly.  And loudly.  For some reason, several
of them had a lot of trouble hearing what I was saying.  I could hear them
just fine, but had to shout to get them to hear me.  My throat was not happy
with me by the end of it all.  

I saw a truck from Bell South pull into the lot the other day, and asked the
driver what he was doing here.  He said Ameritch had hired them to help out
with the backlog.  He was from missouri.

        just heard on the news, more about Ameritech complaints.
        records from neighboring states are being compared
        is see if the customer service is really different here.
y

I spent a total of about 14 hours (no joke) getting DSL installed by
Ameritech, having them shit and avoid doing a tech service call, and finally
cancelling DSL from Ameritech without ever having a moment of DSL working.

The most ludicrous parts:
(1) Made a phone call to arrange a service call. Was told I'd hear something
within 72 hours. Called back a week later. Was told the service call was
cancelled because they issue could be fixed over the phone. Asked why I wasn't
called back. Was told they have no way of knowing when their own service calls
are cancelled internally until the client calls to complain.

(2) Requested service to get the software issue with my DSL modem resolved.
Got a service tech to come out... to fix the hardward problem with my router
(which didn't exist)

(3) It's been a week and a half since I cancelled, but nobody's bothered to
contact me yet about getting their modem back

        They shat *and* avoided a tech service call?  At the same time?

(my roomie often takes the portable phone with him into the bathroom.
I can only guess what he does with it.)

They might have been shitting in order to avoid a tech service call.

<14 hours later>  "I'm sorry, sir, he's _still_ in the bathroom....can I take
a message?"

A few pictures from the ACLU/Grexpedition to Cincinnati to hear oral 
arguments in front of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in the 
Cyberspace vs. Engler lawsuit are available at the following link:
        http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ebassey/grex/

courthouse.jpg is of the attendees (except Michael Bamberger, who took 
the photo) in front of the courthouse.

friends.jpg is of STeve André and a new friend he found in Cincinnati

kiosk.jpg is of an email/internet kiosk we found at a rest break we took 
on the way home, with STeve eagerly investigating...

mixed.jpg is a picture of some potentially confusing signage on the 
building where we found the kiosk.  Enjoy.

Thanks.  I thought these pictures were hilarious.  I liked Marcus's suit in
the first picture.

Yup, Marcus sure knows how to dress for court. ;)

I think I showed up for the original court hearing in jeans and a Grex tee
shirt.  I was just sitting in the audience, not testifying.  Nobody seemed
to mind.

Did y'all partake of some Cincinnati Chili for lunch while you
were there?  Yum!

        Is the GREX clock a little fast, or is the Prevue Channel slow?

Grex clock looks about right to me.  Agrees with my watch anyway,
which I set via the telephone time lady.

Grex is about two minutes faster than the box on my desk, which uses NTP to
keep within a couple of thousandths of a second from various time servers,
mostly on the UM campus.  Reminds me, though, that it's been a while since
I reset my watch.  :)

I'd call the time lady in Ann Arbor but she seems to be offline again.

She appeared to have gone off line sometime yesterday.

www.time.gov has disabled their continuous time display because of
the high demand at this time, but you can get an "on demand" time
within ca. 5 secs.

We turned off ntp on Grex several years ago because it wasn't working very
well over Grex's incredibly overloaded 28.8 modem connection to the Net.  It's
probably time to turn it on again.

  I'm mildly amused by the name of the courthouse, but only because I once
  read a book where the author, presumably to make a point about censorship,
  replaced all of the obscene verbs with the names of either contemporary
  (at the time) Supreme Court justices or well-known feminists and for some
  reason that's still the context that springs to mind when I hear the name
  "Potter Stewart"..

  Anyway, given the occasion, I hope that Grex was able to make its own
  point about censorship..

Hey!  whats with the three geeky guys on the left of the picture!

Those are the ones who couldn't manage to conform to the "IT Professional's
Dress Code" for this particular photo-op.

        You're in a suit, Eric.  *They're* dressed like IT professionals. :)

That's what he said.  Actually, I have my doubts.

about?

I'm inclined to think that when attending a court is actually "a good thing"
to dress up a bit.  I actually have a lot of respect for the courts and think
it is nice to show it the only way a person in the audience can show it.  Not
that I think it is "necessary", just "good".

When I was in college my roomate and I ate at every restaurant within
walking distance of MIT. We put pins in a map showing each, with a color
coding that indicated *how we thought we should dress* to eat there. It
is one of society's forms of showing respect. 

I often find it is easier to be regarded as someone of authority when I 
am more nicely dressed.

jfskjgfskgfksjg

I like putting on a suit and tie once in a while. Reminds me that I really am a
professional--or at least semi-professional. :)

Yesterday, I was on jury duty. The case which my group was called in to be the
jury on was brought by a guy who claimed he was injured at a bar because of the
bar's negligence. 

I wasn't selected to be on the jury, but in my mind, the guy already had one
strike against him because he showed up wearing a red shirt and white or
beigish corduroy pants. I was dressed better than he was!

  I'm glad you weren't selected for the jury.

Today, Thursday November 15, is the LAST DAY to place names in
nomination for the Grex Board of Directors.  There are three open
slots, for two-year terms beginning January 1.  Any Grex member
who's paid at least three months dues and who can attend the
monthly board meetings in Ann Arbor is eligible to server.
If you'd like to nominate someone (including yourself), see
Item 207 in the Coop conference (item:coop,207).

So far, four people have accepted nominations.

Umm...John?  It's wednesday

Oops, sorry.  Should've said Wednesday, Nov. 15.  But nominations
end today in any case.

I nominate Mike Smallwood and Kevin Nicholls.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss