We had a bit of snow recently, but tonight we got the first snow that has stayed for more than an hour or so. It’s just a dusting, but it’s enough to make everything all quiet and pretty outside. As long as it’s going to be cold, we might as well have some snow.
The country band is doing some recording now. The bass player and I laid down our parts today, which was fun. I love recording music. Until earlier this month, I had done very little this year, but by the year’s end I should have several sessions under my belt. The jazz project is still to be mixed — I started, but there’s more to do yet.
We spent a very happy and cozy Thanksgiving yesterday in the company of friends. At first I was thinking it was our first one away from our families, but there was at least one time in California — the infamous Fried Rice Thanksgiving where we had upset stomachs following delicious, but really oily, fried rice. There were no such incidents this year, just good food and good conversation with friends new and newer. There are lot of things that are not right in the world, and I’m thankful that I’m in a position where I can have times like these. I don’t deserve them anymore than anyone else, but I’m grateful that I have them.
This Friday I’ll be going to a recording studio with In Transition to record some tunes. I can’t wait to do it; it’s the first studio jazz recording I’ve made since moving to the midwest. I’ll be putting up a mini-site for the band here shortly thereafter with the results.
DSL broadband installations finish up much quicker now than in days of yore. They also tend to be a lot easier, even if you’re contrary and go with a company that’s not a phone company. I am contrary, and I use Speakeasy — I’ve been using them for the past five years. They’ve never let me down, with good speed and reliability of service, really liberal terms of service, and probably most importantly, really good customer service. I just had a fantastic experience, and I have to write about it.
Our installation was completed yesterday, but when I tried using the connection, the performance was really funky. I could get to some websites, not others, and lots of things about the connection just weren’t working. Afraid I had something configured wrong here, I went through a whole bunch of troubleshooting (installing mtr and dnstracer among other things), tried resetting, reconnecting, and reconfiguring the DSL modem, and my own router, every way I could think of.
I submitted a big report on everything I did to Speakeasy’s support site. They have a trouble ticket system that involves filling out a form with your problem, which you can report back to when you want to make updates. Their responses show up there, and are also sent to you by email. It’s a pretty standard support system, but the difference is they actually respond in a timely manner. You don’t wait two to three business days or longer — it’s usually just a matter of hours.
To make a long story a little shorter, I ended up calling today, and the person I spoke with (I didn’t have to wait on hold) actually read my notes. Instead of telling me to reset my modem or something (I had already tried that), he cut right to the chase. He told me the IP address I had been given was broken, wasn’t routing correctly for some reason, and gave me a new one. Lo and behold, he was right — the connection worked beautifully as soon as I changed the configuration, all of 10 seconds of work.
I really can’t say enough good things about these guys. They are slightly more expensive than the phone companies, although the difference is negligible once your first year promotion is up and you start paying normal prices. In addition, you can get “naked DSL” like we have — Speakeasy calls it OneLink — which allows you to have DSL without needing a landline with dial tone. If you already have a cell phone as your primary phone, that will save at least $25 a month, which might make Speakeasy your cheapest broadband internet option. Since we don’t have cable, but we do have cell phones, the choice is pretty easy.
Also with Speakeasy, you can do whatever you want with your connection, including running a server or sharing your connection with whomever you want. If your connection starts acting funny for some reason, you can see if it’s a transient network problem without having to call anyone and wait on hold, and if it isn’t, you can submit a trouble ticket or place a phone call, and speak to someone who will talk to you like the intelligent human you are. If you’re a nerd like me, they’ll talk to you like one; if you’re a novice who is sure you know nothing, they’ll walk you through whatever you need to do to get your connection working without making you feel stupid.
If you’re looking for a fast internet connection, Speakeasy is definitely worth looking into. I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job. I was so impressed by my phone call today that I had to write this right away.
If you don’t care a lick about high-speed internet, I beg your pardon. Please continue on to other things on this site that are more interesting. Perhaps some music or some photographs?