Okay, I read this press

Okay, I read this press release: AT&T Broadband Begins Migrating Broadband Internet Customers to New High-Speed Network. In it, it says In cases where the temporary outage is a bit longer, customers will receive free dial-up service from AT&T Broadband until they are restored to a high-speed network.

My attitude: We've been down for 11 hours, which imo, counts as a long outage. They're talking about up to ten days altogether, but I think that 11 hours is enough. I want my free dial-up service now, thank you.

So, I call them up. The first person doesn't know what I'm talking about, and sends me off to another number that hangs up on me. So, I call back, talk to another woman who doesn't know anything, and ask to talk to her supervisor. I wait on hold awhile (good music, btw) and get the supervisor, who says that a policy just came down, and yes the service is available. I need to call this number and talk to someone named Andrew. Okay, so I write down the number and call it.

So, while I'm dialing the number and getting the automated response, I realize that the person I'm dialing isn't a flunky in charge of signing me up for dial-up service. He's the guy mentioned in the "Press, if you need more information, please contact..." section of the press release I've just been quoting to the Broadband folks. Turns out that he's the VP of External Communications. Heh.

Well, I left my message on his answering machine. And although I did mention that I am a journalist, I wouldn't bet on him calling me back right away.

We've been affected by the

We've been affected by the shutdown of Excite@Home. AT&T Broadband, our cable modem provider, got their network connectivity through Excite, which has now gone bankrupt and apparently pulled the plug on some of their cable partners. We've been forced to downshift to dialup, which means that we won't be picking up email nearly as often, probably no more than a few times per day. AT&T Broadband claims that they will be switching to a new network provider, and that it could take up to a week. Expect posts to be less frequent. More annoyingly, our mailing list server is down.

As promised, here's the definitive

As promised, here's the definitive words from Dori's surgery: No Cancer. She's still down for the count, we think because she isn't tolerating the Vicodin well. We switched to something else, which will hopefully cure the nausea. No doubt she'll be back posting soon; in the meantime, she's lying on the couch watching old Buffy episodes on FX. Thanks again for the emails (and for many of you, for the posts on your blogs).

Useful French Phrases. Oddly, "To

Useful French Phrases. Oddly, "To whom would you like to surrender?" isn't among them.

I'll let Dori do the

I'll let Dori do the full write up when she's feeling better, but I wanted to let you know that we're back from surgery and Dori's in bed with Mr. Vicodin keeping her feeling warm and fuzzy. We won't get the definitive word until tomorrow, but her doctor said that what he took out didn't look like a Bad Thing. The procedure went according to plan, and was quick; maybe 45 minutes in the OR. More when we know more. Thanks for the emails of support!

For those of you following

For those of you following the saga, I'd appreciate being in your thoughts tomorrow when I'm having surgery. For those of you who haven't been following along, here's part 1 and part 2. I'm really hoping to be able to avoid having to write a part 3.

If, like me, you're a

If, like me, you're a fan of The Daily Howler, the excellent site that dissects media bias, you're already familiar with the dishonest treatment that Al Gore got last year from many media outlets. Actually, if you even have a pulse, you should know about that. But I digress. This RollingStone article, The Press vs. Al Gore, is a good compendium of last year's press mugging of a major Presidential candidate. I disagree with the article in one respect: it says that the press coverage helped in Gore's defeat. But as we've learned since, Gore didn't lose. He's just not president.

So this is what the

So this is what the Internet is for. Get to know a diverse group of people. Contact far-flung correspondents. And then insult them in their own tongue.

It's not unusual for fools

It's not unusual for fools to want to stop science and technological progress. But the particular mix of fools that want to criminalize science by halting research on therapeutic cloning is unique. It includes neoLuddites from the left and right-wing religious zealots. They're getting help from Dubya and the House GOP, who apparently think that shutting down biological research will somehow make the US stronger.

As you know, Republicans don't believe in intrusions by Big Government in citizen's lives. So they want to make it illegal (to the tune of 10 years in federal prison) for Americans to get medical treatments abroad based on cloning technology, once they manage to outlaw it here. So the GOP vision is one where in the future, Americans must suffer and die from treatable diseases that could be cured by manipulating their own cells. I am not exaggerating for effect. When the bill with the cloning ban was voted upon in the House, it was overwhelmingly supported by Republicans, and overwhelmingly opposed by Democrats. So far, the Senate has not brought the matter up, and I hope it dies for at least this term. Next year, we'll have a chance to get rid of at least some of the fools in Congress who voted for the bill.

Dori pointed me at Watson,

Dori pointed me at Watson, an extendable Mac OS X search tool that is actually useful (for some reason, I've never been a big fan of Sherlock). It's shareware; right now it comes with 9 search tools, including the best movie times search tool I've seen. There's also tools for searches of eBay, images, Yahoo, stock prices, recipes, and more. Definitely worth checking out.

Dave claims to have discovered

Dave claims to have discovered passive-aggressive behavior. I'm claiming prior art on this one. Bitchiness, too.

Yesterday, Doc blogged The Real

Yesterday, Doc blogged The Real War, a piece in the New York Times about how WW II was about fighting secular totalitarianism, but WW III will be about fighting religious totalitarianism. Today, Kristie blogged a Washington Post article on Patrick Henry College. There's a war coming, and it's going to be us against these clean-cut kids.

Here's an excellent editorial cartoon

Here's an excellent editorial cartoon by Pat Oliphant.

Reading a book in the

Reading a book in the terminal? Not allowed to fly.

Firing a rifle in the terminal? No problem.

This opinion piece by Paul

This opinion piece by Paul Krugman in the NYT is well worth reading. It's about the reality behind most of the Happy War News that we get from the likes of CNN, the networks, and Faux News. If you didn't know that politicians (mostly, but by no means all Republican) and businessmen are using the war to rip off the rest of us, the story is here.