it was the best of times, it was...

It was an absolutely lousy week. For those who think that I am calm, cool and collected in the face of life's little ups and downs... think again.

No, not sick. Just a lousy week.

Less than a year ago we changed to the nbn, the latest in Internet technology. Except that the nbn uses -- I have been reliably informed -- the same connections as our previous network. And -- like the previous network -- it died.

Still... Telstra -- our network provider -- did send a text. Your network is stuffed, they said, Phone this number. So I phoned that number.

Turns out that the number is the standard Telstra "support" line. I spent ten minutes working my way through voice recognition software. Followed by another fifteen minutes on hold. On the bright side, there was no recorded suggestion that, Your call is important to us.

Finally, a human.

His English was okay, his accent made him incomprehensible. Half of our conversation was me asking him to repeat himself, slowly and clearly.

Remember that we had a text telling us to phone this number? Pointless, really. (a) this English as an optional language operator had no record that we had been sent a text. So he could not give me more details of the why behind the text. And (b) he had no information on the outage to our Internet.

Hint to Telstra: If you send a text to a customer -- give details to your support staff.

Pre-nbn I had phoned Telstra, several times. Once, the operator told me, There are no reports of an outage in your area. I told him, Yes there in at least one report, that's what I'm telling you now. This nbn operator seemed to be working from the same rule-book.

So we spent a long time with the untrained idiot stepping through his list of pointless questions. Are all the wires connected? Is there any damage to cables? Have you restarted the pc? the modem?

His final answer was, Phone back in two hours. He may have said, While we work on your problem... but I doubt it. If I were kind I would give him the benefit of the doubt... by this stage he could have been saying anything, his accent was getting worse and I had given up asking him to repeat.

A couple of hours later, the network came back. Just... came back.

I started to phone the support number. Reached the voice recognition... and couldn't be bothered going through all that again.

Since then, the internet seems to be working okay. Except...

Except that World of Warcraft no longer works. A related problem? Who knows.

All I know is that WoW seems to be "supported" by people who failed the test to work for Telstra.

I think I've written about Telstra lack of support without swearing (I'll check before I post). Later, I may be able to do the same about WoW.

It's been a lousy week.

On the bright side... another step forward coding my app:-)

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
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"Are you one of those people who think wallowing in unhappiness and bad luck is the same as toughing it out?" … Ononoki (an anime character)
  

Subjects of offence

First we have a grovelling apology by the editor. It was someone else's fault, he sobs. This on the same front page which tells us that a school is going to give students p money for better results.

Yes, "p money". A professional Editor would have prevented that typo. Just as a real Editor would have noticed and removed offensive words from Modesty Blaise.

So what were the offensive words? We are never told.

Was it when we read that the thugs are newcomers to Australia? Real Australians, we were told, would not bash a woman. But these men are newcomers. Did this cartoon comment offend all New Australians? Probably not.

A few days later we have the man who would be mayor adding to the chorus of denials. None of my coworkers think like that, he writes, adding a few easily offended voters to his support group. Robert Drewe must not be a coworker.

"Mrs Fawcett even had the classic physical features cruelly known as 'tuckshop arms', thick and pendulous upper arms that wobbled threateningly as she stamped around the tuckshop..." Can you pretend that that is not offensive?

Offensive to  the real Mrs Fawcett -- we are told that this is not her real name -- and to anyone else who volunteers to help in the tuckshop. Thanks for all your unpaid help, you fat and ugly women with tuckshop arms.

Amongst all this pretended contrition is a letter from the Ginger Meggs cartoonist. Well done, he writes, we must be so careful to not offend anyone.

This from the cartoonist who recently introduced the Chinese girl -- intelligent and hardworking, of course. And the Indian or Pakistani boy who is a great cricket player. Are racial stereotypes okay as long as they are from other countries?

Plus the long-running stupid boy, the stupid violent bully and the lovesick girl. Objects of fun for us to laugh at. But that's okay. Is it?

The quality of our daily paper is embarrassing. That's okay, there are plenty of other sources of "news", each with their own standards and bias.

Now we are expected to accept the fake apologies -- and direct passing of blame -- for one offensive word. While the rest of the paper is littered with equally offensive articles. On behalf of all of us ignorant and accepting readers -- I am embarrassed.

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===
"Are you one of those people who think wallowing in unhappiness and bad luck is the same as toughing it out?" … Ononoki