On Jul 2, 10:12*am, wrote:
On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:55:01 -0400, Bill wrote:

[snip]





BTW, Comcast's strategy (of going to 90v) appears to me to be an
interesting example of what I call "angle shooting". *I don't know
enough to say whether it is in the spirit of the law or not. *Isn't 90v
equipment just about as potentially harmful to life and property as 120v
equipment?

BTW2, I asked a Comcast technician (I had 3 out last week) why they just
threw my cable-splitter on the ground under my house when they installed
my service. He said that's just the way they install them. I said, "What
about *craftsmanship*, I said if I installed it I would have mounted it
somwhere...". * That word is very powerful. *Before I contract people to
work on my home I may talk to them about craftsmanship--that way I may
be able to get things finished to my level of expectation rather than,
in some cases, the minimum level that gets the contractor out the door.
*I only mention this to help empower anyone else who may prefer more
control over the way his or her work is performed by a contractor. *It
seems that if the contractor agrees to perform at a certain level of
craftsmanship then the customer is empowered compared to if the
contractor merely agrees to get the job "done". *I haven't actually
tried this technique yet, but it occurred to me after my conversation
with the technician about the cable-splitter.

Bill

I take anything a Comcast technician says with a large block of salt.

The overhead cable from the distribution box to our previous house was
20+ years old and did not provide adequate signal. *The Cable tech put
in an amplifier instead of replacing the cable. *That works for a
while, but eventually the cable will be too lossy to work, even with
amplifiers. *The problem was solved shortly after we moved from that
house - a limb fell on the cable line and took it down - the tech
couldn't be bothered to get a tree trimming crew out either.

Few utilities do any PM on trees, either.

Remember the ads with "Comcastic" in them? *It almost sounded like the
real description: "Comcraptic".

Yeah, Comcast is crap, at least until you experience any others. I
had Adlephia, which after their run in with the feds was bought by
Comcast. They were alright, at least in my experience. Great TV and
Internet connections and decent service, at least as long as I had
them. I then moved and went to TW, which other than being a PITA who
didn't think much of service, was alright too.

Since having some tress taken down (now the sky is visible in the
right place), I'm seriously looking at satellite TV (dish/directv) as
an alternative. *

Don't! We moved again and now have no cable service so use Dish.
What crap! The thing is constantly freezing, skipping, and out-of-
sync and occasionally it's out totally for the local thunderboomer.
The set-top-box sucks too. It'll hang, requiring a five-minute power
cycle (think: crappy PC and WinBlows).

The cable service here is underground, but even with an amplifier the
signal has deteriorated to at best semi-decent. *There are lots of
audio/video glitches - the server farm providing digital cable service
just doesn't have the capacity to handle the number of subscribers
they are trying to serve.

Server farm? ...and you're thinking of going to satellite? I hope
you don't like local TV, either. We did get CBS, NBC, and Fox (no
ABC), but each is another $3/mo and none are "local". Two are from
NYC and the other SF, all a lot further than 1000 miles from being
"local".