Greetings,
   I want to update you on what is going on with jESSE.  I have not had 
ComCast service (tv or internet) since Sat am past.  I called their 
service number on Sat, and after a long menu of pushing buttons, the call 
to a service rep simply failed into a dial tone.  On Sunday, after the 
same menu options, the call to a service rep disintegrated into a "we'll 
call you back in two hours, to preserve your place in line."  I hung up. 
On Monday about 8 am I actually did reach Della (in some Asian country) 
who had me unhook this and hook up that, and said she'd call me back in an 
hour after I sat there with the tv off and the cable box on.  After two 
hours, she hadn't called me back so I turned everything on again and 
discovered that she'd made the problem worse:  the clock from the cable 
box had stalled at midnight.  I don't really want to pay over US100 for a 
clock, but now I didn't even have that.  On Monday pm after the usual menu 
again I connected with someone called "ella" or "illa" again Asian of 
language, who I had to prompt to review what had transpired that morning - 
she had no earthly idea that such an exchange had happened.  Apparently 
Della had taken good notes, and she (illa) took some time to review them. 
While I was on hold. She (illa) decided that an on-site call by a service 
rep was needed after all of the shooting of electrons down the wire/cable 
didn't do anything.  She set the appointment for Weds the 25th (today) at 
1:00. He discovered that the physical cable betweeen the light pole across 
the street and my house had been broken (well yeah, there was cable lying 
all over the ground, enticing my neighbor's 6 and 8 year old boys to mess 
with it) which I reported on Sunday was an issue, the customer support 
didn't think that this was an issue for several days, and he repaired it.
   Someone (Utilities?  Competitors?) had clipped the cable itself on the 
telephone pole.  No explation for why the houses down the street have the 
same problem.

   I have several msgs regarding why their msgs didn't get through. I'll 
try to get to them tomorrow.

   I realize that this msg is way off topic.  But you all should know that 
I don't ignore you - sometimes information technologies just physically 
fall apart.

   --gw


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Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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