Isn't it just like a poloist (1) to return from peregrination (2) and begin handing out homework assignments, immediately.
Unfortunately, I'm monopolizing the only "viable" telephone line out of four (not counting cell/pcs) in the house right now and can't hang around here too long, due to a multiline-, probably a cable-, failure somewhere here in the hood. No, I'm not out there trying to fix them, I'm trying to get the telephone company to do that. I don't know which is harder, though: Reporting the problems to the telco, or finding a ladder and putting on a tool pouch?
I've been arm-wrestling with several telco repair service attendants throughout the day, trying to convince them that if I hear cross talk and crossed dialing along with supervisory signaling from other peoples phones on the line (we're talking copper lines here, not analog cellular), then the problem isn't - it can't be - inside my home. (I was tempted to use onr of those exclamation points, just then.)
I get the warning anyway about "I must advise you that if the problem is in your equipment we will need to bill you...", for each number that I report, and they refuse to give me a blanket trouble ticket number for all at once. Oi..
Here we are talking 10Gb-TTH within a couple of years, whilst I struggle with a batting average of .250 over the survivability of four POTS lines.
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I'm glad to see you return and back up to your usual form. I'll return at bit later (and at a less p.o.'ed time) to see what I can do with the future, and the other issues that you brought up.
For now let me just say that a part of the future, unfortunately, has just passed before my eyes while I've been arguing with "my" telco. In light of that particular situation, in fact, I feel like I've just stepped back in time a couple of legitimate decades.
And as I've been typing this memo the future has probably accelerated a bit without my noticing, or at least with little if any consequences, that I can discern.
Anything beyond 18 months is a total craps shoot. Before 18 months and over 9 months, I give it a maybe. We live in tactical times now, not strategic times. Or at least not as strategic as we'd all like to think, in any event.
Regards, Frank
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Note 1.
Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254. His father Nicolo Polo was a merchant. When he was 17, he went to China with his father and uncle.
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Note 2.
per·e·gri·nate
Pronunciation: 'per-&-gr&-"nAt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -nat·ed; -nat·ing
Date: 1593
intransitive senses : to travel especially on foot : WALK
transitive senses : to walk or travel over : TRAVERSE
- per·e·gri·na·tion /"per-&-gr&-'nA-sh&n/ noun |
