Worst Web Host in the World: HostDepartment.com

How bad is this Web host, the host I have eight sites on? Trouble started on October 16th, when my Web sites and e-mail were down for the entire afternoon. Starting 10/21, service has been absolutely abysmal. E-mail down for days at a time. Web sites went down then, and are still down. E-mail up and down, but mostly down, every day since the 21st.

Do yourself a favor: always search for comments about any product or service you are considering buying before you put your money down. If you do that, you’ll see HostDepartment.com has an enormous number of negative comments. Add this one to the list.

You want broken technology? HostDepartment.com is the most broken technology since cassette drives as data storage devices on personal computers.

Pussy Cat Blamed for Child Porn

Just when you thought the summer heat had already revved up all the crazies, here comes Keith Griffin, who blames his cat for child porn found on his computer. Thank goodness Griffin and his porn-mongering cat live in Florida and not Texas. We have enough colorful characters who made strange news headlines.

Time Warner Cable Turns Back the VoIP Clock

I use Time Warner Cable for my cable Internet access because I have no better high speed option. For testing purposes, I also have basic DSL broadband from AT&T, which is all I can get because I’m too far from their powered connection points. Thus I get pitches from both companies to add new services at least once a week.

Cable companies love to sell Voice Over Internet Protocol phone service, but they have always priced it far too high. While Vonage advertises $25 per month, cable companies jack it up to $40 per month even though they own the connections to each home. Why? Greed, I guess, but I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from a cable executive.

Recently, a flyer came from Time Warner Cable offering residential VoIP service for $20 per month, for 12 months. At first I was thrilled about the price reduction, figuring it would be tough on Vonage but good for consumers. But the fine print said the price was only good on a service plan that offered unlimited calling only in Texas.

This is a disgusting trend, and Time Warner Cable executives should be ashamed of themselves. The Internet eliminates distance for domestic calls, and to charge long distance rates outside an artificial barrier like a state line makes no technical sense whatsoever. This is the type of stupid phone pricing I expect from AT&T as they struggle to keep their landline business profitable. To see a cable company use this type of pricing only shows their contempt for customers and a perversion of the values of using the Internet for telephone calls.

Time Warner Cable officially sucks.

I Am NOT a Content Creator, I Am A Writer

Let me explain this as politely as I can: I do not “create content.” I take knowledge and wisdom from one source and translate, explain, clarify, and humanize that information for better understanding by readers.

Hello Screaming Weasel in Pittsburgh

What a surprise to see this blog listed in the blogroll for Screaming Weasel, a “partly cloudy Pittsburgh rant n stuff.” Check out the news from the Northeast with a funny and political viewpoint.

Thank you, Google Alerts. And, of course, Screaming Weasel.

I’m attracted to weasel names, and have the domain SlackerWeasel.com. My daughter was playing with it, but lost interest immediately. What should I do with SlackerWeasel?

Another “Linux Beats Vista” Story

Today the time changed. Powers That Be moved the dates that have been used for decades to make the time changes a couple of years ago, making the switch to and from Daylight Savings Time dicier than usual.

To my surprise, or maybe not, Microsoft Vista SP1 on a five month old HP computer did NOT handle the time change.

Yes, Bailout the Porn Industry

You have to admire someone with balls, especially when they’ll show them to you for $2.99 per minute. Larry Flynt, taking over the mantle of Old Porn Guy Spokesman from Hugh Hefner, made plenty of headlines recently when he said the government should bail out the porn business. I say yes.

Blagojevitch Screws Authorities, Senate Screwing Burris

This so belongs in the “Broken Process” category, even if it’s not directly technology. The entire mess, as Illinois authorities were too slow to push Governor “Gimme Mine” Blagojevitch out of office before he appointed Roland Burris to fill the rest of Obama’s Senate term, just gets funnier and funnier.

Microsoft Disses Vista Once Again by Extending XP

This is starting to look like one of the soap operas where a guy marries one girl but keeps dating his old girlfriend. Microsoft said Vista is their new true love, but they just can’t give up XP yet.

Can Your iPod Kill You?

According to the Reuters story “MP3 Player Headphones May Hinder Pacemakers” your iPod won’t kill you, but the headphones might. Why? The strong magnets in the headphones can, when held on your chest near your pacemaker or implantable defibrillator, interfere with your life-saving heart machine.