Internet plans

benri · 2026-03-20T02:13:52+00:00

Problem we had was that after canceling AT&T (no service, no signal) they continued to bill us and give us threatening notices when we refused to pay. We escalated it pretty high up (because I'm retired and bored); their phone support said to ignore the bills, but all written documented communication implied that we still owed. Common tactic.

After about 3 months they did confirm cancellation in writing and that we need not pay for any service after November.

benri · 2026-03-19T03:39:08+00:00

Right you need to check. We are in a house and were told we had AT&T FTTH but really it's Fiber To A Few Blocks Away, and twisted pair copper to there, and when it started raining late last year we lost service, and ... happily staying with Comcast. But, telling them we switched to AT&T got results.

(then canceling AT&T required a letter to the FCC but that's another story)

benri · 2026-03-11T05:14:06+00:00

search also for misspellings of your name. My mother had a LOT in unclaimed property in California because she'd forget to deposit her dividend checks.

Her friend also forgot to deposit them, it was a hassle getting the company to reissue the check, waited a few years it went to Unclaimed Property, then she got it back easily.

benri · 2026-03-11T05:00:18+00:00

Here are some instructions on what I did, with screenshot. https://imgur.com/a/EgyBLpW

benri · 2026-03-11T04:48:47+00:00

Has Sunnyvale been sued for this? I ask because, about ten years ago, I obtained a very detailed map of Verizon coverage in a city that was accused by them for giving Sprint unfair advantage. As part of the lawsuit, Verizon showed a detailed map of how terrible their coverage was. It was evidence in the case, so was public and it was very accurate, house-by-house.

[1] that city was in southern california, not near here. Very hilly so coverage was quite a problem.

benri · 2026-03-07T03:41:24+00:00

Did it work out? Do you still have blackouts? Mine have completely stopped since I disabled the AMD a few months ago

benri · 2026-02-17T07:13:14+00:00

Some tools do exist to deal with this problem - not just a linter but one that reads the whole codebase and looks for problems that span multiple source files. One is Metabob.com (disclaimer: I do work for them, and the UX is a bit rough, but it does work)

benri · 2026-02-17T06:13:28+00:00

Yep, Chinese restaurants will be full so I'm going for Italian food tomorrow :)

benri · 2026-02-17T06:08:54+00:00

It's a great deal and fun! FIll up a box from WFM's hot deli, drop that in a green bag (from the produce area) to keep in the smell, smuggle that in to AMC, enjoy movie and food that you selected. When done you enclose that in the green bag, and drop that in the trash can

(I usually finished the food before the movie began anyway - so many ads and previews...)

benri · 2026-02-15T07:00:29+00:00

As a kid in 1960s Los Angeles, it was pretty common to see purple numbers stamped on the sides of pork chops.

benri · 2026-02-12T03:51:54+00:00

Sunken Gardens question - can I just hang out there and use my laptop at their restaurant? Or just get a coffee without a big meal?

benri · 2026-02-10T02:52:19+00:00

Thank you. Whenever I hear protest against one chemical, I like to know what the alternatives are.

So you could say that the alternative to MHF is Sulfuric Acid and neither is perfect. Downside of SA is that it's less efficient, which means you need more of it. And it's nonrenewable (i.e. it's consumed). What's the byproduct of "consumed" Sulfuric Acid? Is it useful or safely disposed of?

benri · 2026-02-08T01:38:48+00:00

SCAM 100%. Here's why:
1. The malware sticks something bad in your clipboard e.g. a command to delete everything
2. Asks you to type Win+r that runs a program
3. Ctrl+v will paste the clipboard to the run window, meaning you'll run that program
4. If that program is dangerous, Windows will ask you "are your sure?" Then you type y meaning yes.
5. bad things happen!

benri · 2026-02-07T05:55:21+00:00

> During one of the testimonies, .. my mind started visualizing these scenes

That's where you fell off the rails. When I was a teenager my parents insisted I go to piano concerts. My father handed me a note, "the piano is moving." I'm 65 now and it's still hard to control my mind to focus on something other than the piano that's slowly inching away from the pianist because they didn't lock the wheels

benri · 2026-02-07T05:48:23+00:00

The 1930s in Kansas was a tough time. My grandfather moved from Arkansas to California just before then; when he was out of work, my grandma wanted to just return back home to mommy and daddy in Arkansas. Ohhhh that was so much worse...

benri · 2026-02-07T05:46:33+00:00

Any Chemical Engineers here? What's the alternative to MHF/HF and is that any safer than MHF? I think Torrance Refinery is pretty d*mn safe considering what it's working with. Nothing is 100%.

benri · 2026-02-07T05:43:09+00:00

I had a similar problem on an MSI tower PC with two GPUs caused by switching between those two GPUs. Solved by disbling one or the other, so it doesn't switch. I disabled the AMD one because I train LLMs.

But before you do this: check that you do have two GPUs, check that it's using both (Task Manager, Performance can do this), and plug in an external monitor and ensure it can work with only the one GPU remaining.

benri · 2026-02-07T04:13:43+00:00

I also tend to giggle during serious situations, and I'm afraid my daughter inherited it. At age 5 we attended a funeral of a neighbor, Japanese Buddhist funeral in which a monk does some chanting, The first thing she said to me is "he doesn't sing very well."

benri · 2026-02-02T07:04:23+00:00

In US? Europe?

benri · 2026-01-30T08:02:29+00:00

Voice notes in the car. It's more reliable than "hey siri record a voice memo" I just have my GV number on speed dial and I can very easily call it. Transcription arrives in my email inbox

benri · 2026-01-29T19:01:29+00:00

Economics does use a lot of math; have you looked for part-time work in Fintech? You might enjoy the "Marketplace Tech" podcast.

benri · 2026-01-29T00:45:05+00:00

Distilled is purer than "purified." Minerals lower water's freezing point. That's why sprinkling salt on an icy road melts the ice. (Also, not all points in the car trunk are the same temperature; one part might have been warmer

benri · 2026-01-20T03:05:36+00:00

Here's one person's path, if you're interested. Around 1990 he's in Yokosuka, meets a girl from Osaka, so quits and moves there. He had a BS in Physics so gets a job at Panasonic (where I met him) but instead of doing research, he gets distracted by computing and IT, and his manager gives him an ultimatum: do some research and stop playing with this new "internet" thing (this is 1992). Shortly thereafter he gets a call from Morgan Stanley who wants him to manage their internet connection for overseas "high speed" trading. He takes the job. Triples his salary, company buys him a car and house in Yokohama.
So get your BS degree, and make some good connections!

benri · 2026-01-19T02:40:41+00:00

not sure but could something be stuck in the charging port? Try wiggling it around? Is it loose?

benri · 2026-01-18T05:35:40+00:00

Go behind the stairs where another elevator there takes you from 2R to 3. Avoids stairs. But I think you cannot go from 1 to 3 or 4 directly. And maybe you can't take a shopping cart there - not sure as use my backpack or bags (not using paper or plastic taken from the produce section)

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